[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
The fight with the leopard ended more easily than I expected.
And much faster than the wolf, too.
Which made sense. If the wolf was a brawler type that jumped people with clones, the leopard was more of a debuffer that weakened opponents with mental attacks and hypnosis.
Since I had [Dragon Strength], a trait that resisted status effects, you could say I was its natural enemy.
And unlike the leopard, I had been more focused on subduing the wolf than killing it, so maybe this result was only natural.
Dante came running over looking dumbfounded and shouted right into my ear.
<q>"Ian, are you insane?! You can’t just charge out there without thinking!"
Dante’s scolding continued.
There was worry mixed into his rebuke, but maybe because we were inside a cave, his voice echoed.
<q>"If it suddenly ends up standing right in front of you, that counts as an ambush."
<q>"How is that an ambush... haah."
Dante let out a deep sigh at my answer.
<q>"This is the spirit of chivalry."
<q>"Even so! Waking up a sleeping demon beast wasn’t enough, so you waited until it was fully awake? What kind of lunatic does that?!"
One is standing right here.
<q>"If it wakes up only to find itself in the afterlife, that’d be unfair. It should at least know who killed it, so it doesn’t die resentful."
<q>"You really can’t let a single word go, can you..."
<q>"Um, sorry to interrupt, but may I say something?"
The one who cut in between Dante and me was Dolnesia.
And right now, Dolnesia was staring at the wolf.
Did something happen with the wolf while I wasn’t looking?
Judging by the fact that no danger rating was appearing, it didn’t seem to have done anything treacherous or threatening.
Though if that nakedness from earlier counted as danger, then sure, that was dangerous.
It had practically tried to socially annihilate me.
<q>"Ian, what exactly did you bring back?"
<q>"What do you mean what? It’s a huge damn wolf."
And I didn’t bring it back.
<q>"Then why do I feel a spirit’s power from that wolf?"
What?
What came out of Dolnesia’s mouth was pretty shocking.
A spirit?
That thing was obviously just a giant wolf, no matter how you looked at it.
Even if it could turn into a person.
Turning into a person was definitely strange, but since it was called an experiment...
I figured it was some kind of chimera made with a wolf as the base.
Maybe it was a beastperson.
Its human form had looked exactly like one.
<q>"No, that wolf is a spirit. I didn’t realize it at first, but once I summoned Sancho, I could see it. And it’s not just the wolf. The leopard was the same."
The wolf and leopard were spirits...
Were they originally spirits?
This was the first I’d heard of it...
The she-wolf, the leopard, the lion.
Those three had never had much lore revealed about them, either in the game or in the setting book.
All we knew was that they were experimental subjects created by one of the executives of the villain organization that would appear soon, a bastard named Dotore.
So I had assumed he’d just grabbed whatever random wolf he could find and used it as a test subject.
But a spirit?
<q>"I think I’m going to need an explanation."
When I looked at the wolf, it nodded as if it were no big deal.
<q>"As she said, the leopard, the lion, and I are indeed spirits."
Then after a brief pause, it let out a small sigh and continued.
<q>"More precisely, I should say that only half of me is."
<q>"Half?"
<q>"Because I was originally human. I was mixed with a spirit and became like this."
That got heavy out of nowhere.
...You really seem to keep getting the genre wrong.
This is a romance fantasy.
Not dark fantasy.
#
<q>"That man they called the doctor, the one who made me like this, was conducting a certain experiment."
As we headed toward the boss room, the wolf told us its hidden backstory.
<q>"I don’t remember clearly, but roughly speaking, it was an experiment to forcibly mix spirits with other things. I just happened to be the human used for it."
Urk!
A sudden retching sound rang out.
The one who made it was Iris.
Human and spirit.
To Iris, the idea of kidnapping two beings that could be called natural opposites and forcibly fusing them together must have sounded horrifying.
<q>"I’m sorry."
<q>"It’s fine."
The wolf answered flatly, as if it didn’t matter.
<q>"Even if it’s not a memory you’d want to recall, aren’t you speaking of it a little too calmly?"
<q>"Too much time has passed for me to care about each and every part of it anymore."
At its calm answer, my eyes narrowed on their own.
Only after seeing that reaction did I feel like I finally understood how it could show up naked and react as if it were nothing.
Not because a wolf had become a person.
But because a person had become a wolf.
Its heart was already broken.
Broken into very tiny pieces.
This was rough.
Was that why it showed no reaction at all?
Because it had simply... let go of everything.
It continued speaking in that same detached tone.
I answered just as calmly, as if it were nothing.
<q>"The leopard was mixed with a spirit and a demon beast."
<q>"Then what’s the lion?"
<q>"Undead."
Undead?
<q>"The lion is a fusion of spirit and undead."
<q>"That combination doesn’t suit each other at all."
A spirit, the embodiment of nature, and undead, something returned from death.
You couldn’t ask for a more cursed family tree than that.
<q>"To begin with, if they were going to use spirits, why bother forcing them to mix with anything else?"
Dante, who had been quietly listening until now, voiced his curiosity.
<q>"Do mad scientists need a reason?"
Even if there was one, it was probably something stupid.
Some grand-sounding excuse like, "surpassing humanity," or "transcending something-or-other."
When a lunatic does something insane, there’s no need to search for a reason.
After walking for quite a while like that, we arrived at the boss room door.
<q>"Whatever happens, be careful. The strongest beast among us is the lion."
<q>"Really? If they’re natural opposites, shouldn’t it be weaker instead?"
Dolnesia asked back in a tone that said she couldn’t understand it.
But the wolf only nodded at that reaction.
<q>"I’ve forgotten the details, but according to the doctor, he put considerable care into making the lion. He said he used the corpse of a famous hero. I don’t remember clearly, though."
It was a vague answer, but the wolf wasn’t wrong.
Out of the three beasts, the lion had the highest level, and it was also this dungeon’s boss.
Then.
<q>"Let’s finish this quickly and be done with it."
I opened the boss room door.
As it creaked open, what came into view was a cavern so vast it couldn’t even be compared to the place where the leopard had been.
And in the middle of that cavern sat something enormous.
[Dotore’s Experimental Subject, Lion]
◈ Level: 44
◈ Danger: A
A lion far larger than even the clone the wolf had shown us.
■■■■■■———!!!!
With a single roar from the beast, the cave shook and a wave of mana crashed over us.
It was a roar worthy of a final boss.
In response, I drew my sword and shield.
Dolnesia began wielding spirit power, Dante formed a sword of frost, and the moment I drew my blade, each member of the party took up a battle stance.
<q>"All right, then..."
Just as I was about to charge forward boldly, as always—
Ding!
A notification window suddenly appeared before my eyes.
[The Lionheart Knight is enraged at the sight of his own body.]
What?
What kind of bullshit is this?
Why are you showing up here?
A sudden outburst from one of those voyeuristic freaks.
I couldn’t make sense of it.
After all, the [Stars of Knights] had never once been mentioned in the game, the artbook, or anywhere else.
And yet.
That lion was connected to one of the knight stars?
[The body of the Lionheart Knight has noticed the existence of its star.]
[The body of the Lionheart Knight recalls the memories engraved into it.]
Ah, fuck.
That was one deeply ominous notification.
At a glance, it was obvious what it meant.
This thing was about to get even harder.
And with that notification—
■■■■■■■■■——!!!!!
The lion began to howl.
Suddenly, it started smashing its head into the ground.
Again, and again, and again.
More precisely, it was closer to it being unable to support itself and repeatedly dropping its head under its own weight.
Either way, after slamming down over and over—
the lion’s head split into two, and something burst out from inside it.
A black figure walking on two legs.
Looking closer, I could see that thing also had a lion’s head.
[The Body of the Lionheart Knight]
◈ Level: 54
◈ Danger: S
The first S-rank danger level I had ever seen.
God damn it.
Ding!
Then—
[The Lionheart Knight forcibly terminates the [Oath of Chivalry].]
The chivalry gauge I had worked so hard to build vanished.
[Multiple [Stars of Knights] object to the Lionheart Knight’s actions.]
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
As if raising the difficulty wasn’t enough.
Now it was just ending the trial whenever it pleased.
While I was cursing out this so-called Lionheart Knight—
another notification popped up.
[The Lionheart Knight’s influence decreases.]
[Quest: Repose]
Destroy the body of the Lionheart Knight.
◈ Reward: A knight’s star.
This was the first quest I had received since falling into this world.
And that quest was asking for the destruction of a corpse.
I had no idea what the hell this bastard actually wanted.
If a notice said its influence had decreased, then that meant it had given up some part of itself in order to create this quest.
If it could cast that aside as if it were nothing, did that mean destroying that body mattered even more?
Either way, I had to stop thinking about it here.
■■■■■———!!!!
Because the lion-headed thing was already charging at us with a howl.
Its level was 54.
Even Dante, the highest-level one here, probably couldn’t take that lion-head head-on.
Then.
I’d do it.
Holding the sealed Prydwen, I used [Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method] to drive strength into my legs—
and received its attack.
And its attack never reached me.
Prydwen’s effect.
A skill that nullified any attack without fail, so long as it was only once.
Its fist failed to touch me and struck nothing but empty air.
I didn’t miss that opening.
[Logres Quick Sword Form].
A keen blue blade slashed the creature and left a wound.
The cut wasn’t very deep, but the cold spreading from the sword left behind a slight frostbite.
That was all.
But then it planted its foot against me, used me as a brace to open distance—
and the recoil sent me flying.
I had blocked its foot with my shield, and it hadn’t even been trying to kick me,
yet somehow a man over two meters tall had just been launched through the air by that alone.
<q>"Ian!"
Thankfully I didn’t slam into a wall and managed to land properly.
But the thing’s monstrous strength was absurd.
Tch.
I clicked my tongue without thinking.
If I’d known things would turn into this kind of clusterfuck, I should’ve forced Iris and Haede back to the dorms.
Dolnesia and Dante were strong, but Iris still hadn’t awakened yet, and Haede was basically an extra.
This was a huge headache.
If it had just been the lion, this would have been easy, since I had memorized its patterns from the game.
But the thing in front of me now was some mess one of those voyeuristic freaks had taken a shit all over.
I had no idea what kind of patterns it might have.
Fuck.
This seriously sucked.
Those goddamn voyeur freak bastards.
They kept shoving me into a pit of fire, and now that wasn’t enough, so they decided to burn me themselves?
At that moment, a cold presence surged up behind me.
Dante had begun using mana to create frost.
He spread frost all around us, and as it condensed, it was reborn as small walls and pillars.
As expected of the DLC protagonist.
I never thought he’d be able to create terrain features on this level with frost.
<q>"Ian! You can’t break through this head-on!"
Even after pulling off that kind of performance, Dante shouted without showing a trace of fatigue.
<q>"Use the walls and terrain I made to fight. I’ll cover you."
Dante said it with a grin.
He’d watch my back.
And then—
<q>"There really is never a normal way with you, is there?!"
At Dolnesia’s grumbling, a jack-o’-lantern appeared to my left, and four colors were summoned as well.
Darkness gathered from the jack-o’-lantern and became a single reaper.
And the four colors became a horse.
A brainless scarecrow that moved at the princess’s command, and a cowardly horse.
And a knight who knew nothing but charging.
Right.
Then.
Shouldn’t I display some chivalric spirit from my side too?
<q>"Use the walls, you say."
<q>"What?"
I raised my sword and pointed it at the lion-headed monster.
As a knight, I would not use a petty trick like fighting with the aid of walls.
Why?
<q>"If I’m not the wall, then what am I?"
Because I was the wall.
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