The Unaware Harem Adventure Tale of the Strongest Enchanter ~~I Don’t Know My Companions’ Faces or Identities, but I’m Pretty Sure They’re All Guys~~ - 11. Backflow Ruins (3)

11. 11. Backflow Ruins (3)

Early morning――.

We came to the ruins again and resumed our search.

Among the fifty teleportation magic circles installed in the great hall, six footprints could be confirmed.

It seems they were investigating in three groups of two. And each used a different teleportation magic circle to move.

“Where shall we start?”

“Before that, this.”

From the small pouch-type magic storage on my waist, I took out a “folded cloth”.

When I unfolded the cloth and placed it on the floor, a drawn magic circle was revealed.

This is a “simple teleportation magic circle”.

The cloth itself is a magical tool and can be used just by chanting the activation incantation.

This teleportation magic circle has a paired circle. The other one is stored in my magic storage. Though it’s a disposable emergency escape magical tool, it’s so expensive that it doesn’t feel disposable. It’s due to it being impossible to mass produce.

Because of the nature of teleportation gimmicks, there are often cases where one gets transported to a place that’s hard to escape.

That’s why this is prepared in advance as a precaution.

Of course, it can be used not only for teleportation gimmicks but also in crisis situations. But you need to set one side beforehand. And due to output limitations, you can’t teleport too far. When diving into deep dungeons, it’s common knowledge among seasoned adventurers to set it in the mid-layers.

“Setup complete. Shall we go from that magic circle?”

“Understood. Same formation as always?”

“Felice takes the front, I’ll support from the rear. I’ll handle the light and mapping.”

“Hehe, I’m counting on you.”

We both stepped into the teleportation magic circle where the footprints ended.

In the next moment, the scenery changed. And we arrived in a dim and cold corridor.

“No magic circle underfoot. Looks like we can’t go back unless we find the next one.”

“Enemies.”

From ahead in the corridor, countless snakes appeared.

They are venomous monsters called Poison Snakes.

“Enchantments?”

“Not needed.”

With his sword clad in flames, Felice incinerated the monsters.

As expected of the magic sword forged by a master craftsman. Roasted snakes in an instant.

“Lux, there seems to be another teleportation magic circle ahead.”

“Just pushing forward, huh. Doesn’t feel good.”

Felice and I stepped onto the next teleportation magic circle.

◇

We teleported again.

We’ve already gone through twenty circles.

There’s no doubt we’re following the same path as the investigators. The footprints continued without interruption.

Here, there were not just teleportation circles, but countless traps.

Luckily, almost all of them were disarmed by the investigators who went ahead. And for those that couldn’t be disarmed, I discovered and bypassed them without issue.

We also found several treasure chests.

But, they were all filled with junk-like items.

“――Looks like we’ve finally reached the main part.”

“Seems like the welcoming party is lively too.”

Where we arrived was a great hall lined with pillars.

White threads stretched all over the room.

Crawling on the floors and walls were swarms of spiders.

There was only one exit, at the back of the hall. However, a swarm of spiders was blocking the path.

“Dark Spiders, huh.”

“Those have paralyzing poison. Just in case, I’ll grant poison resistance.”

“Thank you very much.”

I drew magical scripts in the air.

Two enchantments.

‘Poison Resistance’ and ‘Night Vision’.

Immediately, my field of vision brightened. And I could see the spiders more clearly.

“I’ll leave the attack to you. I’ll cast debuffs.”

“Leave it to me.”

Flames erupted from Felice’s sword.

With just one swing, he burned away the threads and the spiders.

However, new spiders crawled from the back. They were climbing over the corpses.

“‘Speed Down’!”

I cast a debuff on all the spiders in sight.

For fast-moving monsters, this is the first step.

I also added ‘Confusion’.

The confused spiders were no longer able to distinguish friend from foe. They began attacking each other.

Now keep at it, fight each other. Kill, kill.

“You’re making such an evil face. You look like a villain.”

“A righteous hero wouldn’t use such underhanded tricks, after all. Casting annoying debuffs from the rear, that’s the essence and the peak of an enchanter.”

“Are all enchanters as nasty as you, Lux?”

“I’ve been screamed at by fellow enchanters saying ‘I’ll kill you!’ more than a few times.”

“It seems our leader is the most ruthless of them all.”

The flames burned all the spiders.

Only the smell of burning and the charred corpses of the monsters remained.

I lightly kicked one of the corpses with the tip of my boot.

“We’ll collect the materials later. More importantly, the investigators. These things keep their prey alive for a while. The team members should still be alive.”

“However, they don’t seem to be here.”

“Then it must be deeper in.”

Proceeding with utmost caution, Felice and I entered the corridor ahead.

Beyond the corridor was a space even wider than before. The stone-covered walls and floors had turned into bare rock surfaces. The walls had countless holes, and spider threads stretched everywhere.

We stopped and focused our awareness on our surroundings.

“Quite a spacious place.”

“Could be the center of the ruins. Look at that, isn’t that a magical tool?”

In the center of the wide room was a pedestal-like structure. Upon which was a golden cup-like object was placed.

My sensor picked something up.

Something big was approaching.

Sensing the intent to attack, we instantly leapt back.

The spot we had just stood on melted away from strong acid.

Descending along the wall from the ceiling was a spider so large it made us look up.

Its head had the upper half of a woman, with lips curled into a sharp sneer.

“They’re here again. Prey has come again. Prey has come to nourish my children.”

*Zaza―*, from the holes, a horde of spiders emerged.

Forming a black wave, they instantly surrounded us.

“No one said there’d be an Arachne here.”

“Seems those Dark Spiders were actually her children.”

Felice and I stood back-to-back, intimidating in all directions.

Investigators wrapped tightly in thread were hanging from the ceiling.

It seemed they were still alive.

However, the Arachne was about two sizes larger than normal.

It must be a very long-lived individual.

“I’ll cast debuffs. You take care of the ones around us first.”

“Looks like there’s no other choice. This reminds me… of the time when we just made ‘Unknown’. Back then too, we had adventures like this and got into danger.”

“Don’t start reminiscing at a time like this. I don’t plan to die yet.”

“Me neither. Let’s make it back alive.”

I cast ‘Speed Down’ debuff on the baby spiders.

To prevent interference, I cast ‘Paralysis’ on the Arachne.

“Can’t move!? What is this!?”

“She got hit, but she’ll probably move soon. Do it, Felice!”

“Blazing Flame Dance!”

Red-hot flames burst upward. It was burning the spiders.

The heat of his slash burned through thread and monsters, expanding the air.

The previously dark room was lit by the flames on the floor.

Thud… thud-thud.

“How dare you, how dare you harm my children! I won’t forgive you!”

Unaffected by the flames, the Arachne finally moved.

As a high-level intelligent monster, she had strong resistance to debuffs.

In that case, the answer is not debuffs, but buffs.

“Let’s do it, Felice.”

“Ready anytime, Lux.”

‘Speed Up’

‘Magic Shield’

‘Protect Shield’

‘Attack Up’

‘Element Boost’

I wrote directly on Felice’s back.

This is my trump card.

By writing directly, I can apply a more powerful enchantment than usual.

Five buffs activated, and he accelerated as if vanishing.

However, the Arachne still followed his movement. She created a black sphere with dark magic, launching a ranged attack.

Felice continued high-speed movement. He dodged the magical attacks while closing the distance.

“You, mere food, dare fight me on equal terms!? Against me, an Arachne, who has lived for hundreds of years!”

“We’ll win. Lux and I make the strongest combo.”

The Arachne condensed darkness. She created a long spear and blocked Felice’s approaching blade.

Just barely avoiding the thrust from her inhuman strength, Felice slashed once. A silver flash severed the Arachne’s leg.

Blue bl00d splattered and the severed leg danced in the air.

The Arachne’s scream echoed through the room.

“My leg, my leg!! I’ll rip your flesh apart right now!!”

Darkness gathered around the Arachne again.

What was born was countless spear-shaped shadows.

“This is bad, dodge it, Felice!”

“Tsk!!”

Darkness rained down on Felice with tremendous force.

He reflexively took a defensive stance. However, with such a powerful magic attack at close range, even with high magic defense, damage couldn’t be avoided.

The spears of darkness shattered Felice’s mask and even destroyed his armor.

“You endured that? Insolent human.”

“Ugh, grgh……”

Bleeding, Felice was down on one knee.

Barely supporting himself with his sword, he looked like he might fall at any moment.

“Felice!”

“Don’t come. I… can still fight.”

“You’re saying that with those wounds?”

“Believe in me. I’ll definitely defeat her.”

With trembling legs, Felice stood up.

Illuminated by the flames, the face that had been hidden was now revealed.

A well-formed, beautiful face. Even the bl00d flowing from the head looked like part of a painting.

His long blond hair swayed. It was stirred by the hot wind.

Tch, once he says something, he won’t back down.

“Trust me”? I always trust you—because we’re comrades.

I held up my short staff.

“I’m going to apply debuffs now. Once her movements slow down, you cut her down.”

“But the Arachne has high resistance to debuffs—wait, I see, you’re going to use direct writing debuffs.”

“Why are you mumbling nonsense? Don’t ignore me!”

The queen is angry.

Turning her back and showing her behind, she shot a large amount of threads.

I jumped to the side, rolled along the floor, and dodged it.

“Don’t space out. You’re always like this—letting your guard down just because you’re in the rear.”

“That hurts to hear. I’ll stay sharp.”

Felice scolded me angrily. He was completely right, so I couldn’t make any excuses.

Even after the fight ends, I’ll be hearing about this for a while.

I accelerated at once. I held my short staff and ran full speed.

“So the coward finally comes forward, huh? Then I’ll kill you first.”

She thrust the long spear in her hand at high speed.

But I dodged everything while running.

“How about this, then!?”

With her dark magic, she created countless spears.

I cast ‘Speed Up’ on myself.

Accelerating further, I left the raining attacks behind and closed in on the Arachne.

“W-What is with this man!? He got so close to me so easily!?”

“Direct writing debuff—”

Normally, debuffs don’t work well against resistant opponents.

For high-ranked monsters, you have to cast them many times just to get one effect. That’s why enchanters support their allies by choosing enhancements that might slip past the resistance.

But direct writing debuffs don’t have that flaw.

They take effect by bypassing resistance altogether.

‘Speed Down’

“My movements!? What did you do to me!?”

A foot came swinging down.

I lightly dodged it just in time. And I continued writing with the short staff.

‘Speed Down’

‘Speed Down’

‘Speed Down’

The Arachne’s movements became visibly slower.

Stacking effects is a special trait of direct writing. By the time I had written the maximum—ten in total—the Arachne had slowed down to the point it looked like she could yawn.

“Felice!”

“I’m ready. Flying Flame Slash!!“

Felice leapt and sliced the Arachne’s body clean in half.

I rushed over to him.

“You okay!?”

“Somehow.”

“Wait, huh?”

“Huh?”

“You’re… a girl!?”

Beneath Felice’s broken armor, a well-shaped chest wrapped in underwear was clearly visible.