At the Dungeon’s Behest, Howl, Elf*5
So, if we’re going to spin a super-giant ball, what do we use as the power source?
That would be water flow.
You blast water from one direction, whooosh and let that spin it... Or rather, since this thing was cut out of the maze as-is, it’s a ball with uneven weight distribution, so if you work with that instead of against it, it’ll surprisingly go whirr and start moving.
We weren’t trying to move it in any specific direction, just “as long as it moves, anything goes!” so this was good enough.
… As expected, the elves, Mishisia-san, and Lisas-san were all thrown into total confusion. Of course they were! The ground suddenly tilted, whirr, and the place that had been the floor a moment ago turned into a wall.
“W-What… what is this!?”
“The ground… moved!?”
In the middle of the elves’ total chaos, Mishisia-san and Lisas-san were, naturally, also extremely confused.
But those two were fine.
“Go! Generic-kun! Do it! Do it now!”
That’s right. Here we had the source of the disco hall, the plump and springy Generic-kun!
Generic-kun was incredibly smart. With his squishy, bouncy body, he sploosh stuck himself to the wall that had been the floor just moments ago… and then, on top of that, enclosed Mishisia-san and Lisas-san inside his body to rescue them! Thanks to that, Mishisia-san and Lisas-san were able to cling safely to the wall without falling!
“Well done, Generic-kun!”
When I shouted excitedly, I could feel the slime and Mewmya on my lap each looking a little pleased. Good, good. You guys must be proud of your coworker’s performance too. I’m proud of you as well, Generic-kun!
… Meanwhile, the group of five elves who didn’t get saved by Generic-kun’s helping hand barely managed to avoid getting slammed into what had just been the wall and was now the floor. They probably used some kind of magic. They were floating. What are these guys!? They can fly!? Seriously impressive!
But this was the moment I’d been waiting for!
The elves’ attention was completely consumed by their own situation! They no longer had the spare capacity to keep deploying their interference magic, and the range they were aware of shrank all at once!
… Which means, what happens next?
“Liquid nitrogen & dry ice loading complete! Fire!”
… This happens!
One of the many busted things about dungeon power is that you can manipulate the energy state of matter pretty much however you like.
That means you can freely mess with the temperature of reconstructed water, and you can even produce nitrogen as a liquid instead of a gas.
Naturally, if you dump liquid nitrogen into a room-temperature environment, it instantly vaporizes. And when that liquid nitrogen rapidly increases in volume, it violently boils, boom!
And if you do that inside a container structured so the nitrogen has only one exit… in other words, if you “seal off a dead end at the end of a corridor with a wall, leave just one small hole in that wall, and then suddenly fill the space beyond it with liquid nitrogen and dry ice”… the liquid nitrogen gets blasted out!
Of course, I was careful not to freeze Generic-kun. Or rather, I went in assuming it wouldn’t get that dangerous.
After all, the opponents were elves.
“It’s ice magic! It’s getting cold all at once!”
“Prepare fire! I’ll need support!”
Seeing the air inside the corridor suddenly chill, the capable elves immediately began deploying flames.
Well, yeah. To them, cold equals ice, and ice is solid water, that’s as far as their understanding goes.
They don’t even know the extremely simple fact that if you cool air far enough, it becomes solid. That’s why they instinctively brought out fire.
… Because they don’t know there’s something far more dangerous than freezing.
The elves’ flames were impressive. Completely ignoring the laws of science, the corridor instantly heated up and brightened.
The dry ice rapidly melted in those flames, letting out a sizzle. Among the elves, two of them, the leader-looking one and the quiet archer—seemed to realize that “something’s wrong.” Well, it doesn’t behave quite like frozen water, after all.
But noticing now was already too late.
“This is nothing to worry ab—”
The elf using fire magic, apparently convinced of victory, smirked… and then immediately staggered.
And right after that, all five elves noticed something was wrong.
“… Huh? W-What… is this…?”
They couldn’t breathe. They must have realized that immediately.
After just a small breath, they began losing consciousness. But they had no idea why. Naturally so, neither “ice that melts into gas” nor “water that boils at room temperature” existed in their knowledge!
… However.
“What… is… happen…ing…?”
… Amazingly, impossibly, the leader elf was still alive! He was dazed, but conscious! What!? How!? What kind of trick is this!?
This was bad. My plan was to restrain them immediately once all the elves lost consciousness, adjust the air, and restore everything, but if even one of them stayed conscious, I couldn’t do that!
… But hey, I’ve got reliable comrades.
“… I’m sorry! But if you stay conscious, everyone will die!”
Mishisia-san, sticking just one arm out from inside Generic-kun, instantly loosed an arrow that pierced the surviving elf straight through the throat!
Yes. The moment the leader elf lost consciousness, right before he died, I splashed the elves with World Tree potions while restraining them. Then I restored the dungeon’s air to normal conditions. That took care of it.
“Asuma-sama! Can you hear me!? This isn’t enough to restrain elves!”
And then, amid all that, Mishisia-san came out of Generic-kun and said that, so I panicked, “Huh, it’s not!?” and hurriedly added more cages. But Mishisia-san shook her head thoughtfully.
“Without a mechanism to drain mana, you can’t neutralize elves!”
I see. I see, I see. So, in other words…
“Let’s put them inside slimes and give them a bath!”
And so…
“A-Asuma-sama, welcome back!”
“I’m back! Sorry about suddenly turning the floor into a wall.”
“Yeah! It surprised me, but Generic-kun was there, so it was okay!”
I regrouped safely with Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and Generic-kun. Generic-kun was the MVP this time, so I gave him a good pat. Squish, bounce, Generic-kun looked proud. He deserves a medal. Maybe I’ll give him a special hot-spring towel sometime…
“So, um… is this really okay…? Really…?”
“Yeah! I think it’s fine!”
… And as for the elves…
“Hey, Mishisia-san!? It looks pretty ridiculous, but is this really okay!?”
“Yeah! We took off all their magic stone accessories, removed all their clothes woven with mana… and in this state, if we put them inside slimes and let them soak in the bath, the slimes will absorb the elves’ mana, right!”
… Uh.
This looks… pretty questionable.
Right now, the elves were trapped inside a gigantic slime in nothing but their underwear. And on top of that, they were soaking in a bath. The gigantic slimes looked like they were thinking, “Well, we’re getting a bath too, so I guess this is fine.” Is it really fine? Are you guys sure it’s fine? I’m starting to lose confidence here.
While looking at the group of five elves who still hadn’t regained consciousness…
“Well then… what do we do with these people?”
That was the discussion we ended up having. I mean, they’d eventually wake up. We’d prepared plenty of measures to knock them out again immediately if that happened, but we couldn’t just keep putting it off forever.
Right. We had to deal with them somehow.
“In the worst case, we might have to take them prisoner and negotiate with the elves,” Lisas-san said.
I nodded. “… That makes sense.”
The elves probably weren’t limited to just these five. There were likely many more, and we’d have to consider communicating with them sooner or later. Using these five as bargaining chips, that was a valid option.
“If it comes to that… well, let’s hope they’re reasonable.”
“Yeah…”
Mishisia-san looked conflicted. After all, she’d been mocked relentlessly by people from her homeland, and now those same people were in a ridiculous state. She must have had complicated feelings. And on top of that, there was the World Tree issue.
“Either way, we should probably talk to them properly at least once. I’m curious about their objective… and we should probably make them spill whatever connection they have to the former Grand Cathedral.”
“Yeah… talking, huh. I wonder… if they’ll talk…”
… Yeah. That’s the problem.
“…S ince we’re at it.”
I made a declaration to the worried Mishisia-san and the thoughtful-looking Lisas-san.
“Let’s make them acknowledge Mishisia-san and the World Tree here! And make them bow their heads, at least!”
“Whaaat!?”
Mishisia-san was shocked, but for me, this was non-negotiable.
… Listen.
I’ve known Mishisia-san for quite a while now.
She’s not particularly good at brainy stuff, but her archery is top-notch, she can talk to trees, she’s incredibly good at drawing, and she’s a terrifyingly strong drinker. I’ve seen plenty of her.
I know she likes having fun. She dances with me, so she probably likes dancing too. And more than anything, she deeply cares about Panis Village.
… Because she’s that kind of person, I want to treasure her too.
As a comrade working together to protect this dungeon, the World Tree, Panis Village… all of it.
… and you see, I’m not the kind of guy who can just stay quiet when my comrades are insulted. I think Mishisia-san knows that about me too.
“So, Mishisia-san. Tell me everything the elves would hate having done to them.”
“Huh?”
And that’s how this happens. That’s how it goes.
Even if Mishisia-san forgives them, I won’t.
… Prepare yourself, elves!
What do you think about this chapter?
