Crystal Tower Capturing ②

We head for an elevator that will take us up to the sixth floor.

 

“You may have noticed this, but the location of this elevator is the same as on the first floor. You can use this to return to the first floor.”

 

The old man explains.

 

“There is also a place that records your biometric data. If you register, you become able to go anywhere from the first floor to the sixth floor.”

 

It seems safe to recognize that the 10th floor will have the same structure, and that shortcuts will appear every 5 layers.

 

I register my data, and move on.

Then, the same enemies as from the first floor become visible.

 

“What? Has the pattern been broken already?”

“Eh? No, that’s not it.”

 

Serena hurriedly denies me.

 

“Or rather, how many enemies do you see?”

“About 40, I guess.”

 

I make a strange face.

 

“I can only see 5. The others must be invisible or something.”

 

At Serena’s words, I look at the old man and the others.

 

“So you can’t see them.”

“It was like this 400 years ago too. Human’s eyes are really inconvenient.”

 

Jeko shrugs his shoulders.

Our Evil Eyes work on invisible things.

The gimmick has misfired.

 

“By the way, about the method to make release their invisibility—-”

“I don’t need to hear it.”

“I knew it.”

 

Did she predict my response? Serena replied immediately.

 

Like that, we cleared up to the 10th floor.

The 10th floor’s gimmick was that if you don’t beat the boss within a certain time limit, the devices in the room would explode, and blow up.

When we were listening to the explanation, the boss had already died.

 

“There don’t seem to be any problems. Well, it’s been here for a few thousand years, so things won’t change that suddenly I guess.”

 

The old man concluded so.

The checking of the tower is over.

 

“What should we do now? Go home?”

 

Asked by Adrigori, I think for a bit.

 

“Since this is a place where I can rampage without holding back, I’ll play around here for a while. You guys can go home though.”

“In that case, I’ll go with you. Well, I’ll mainly just be watching though.”

 

In terms of time, it’d be a pain to go home now too.

Let’s go up to the 16th floor.

 

If we bring Adrigori or Jeko, we can take a shortcut up to floors 11~15.

 

“I understand, I’ll go with you up to the 16th floor.”

 

Adrigori replies.

 

“I can’t do it.”

 

Jeko says nonchalantly.

 

“Didn’t you clear up to the 15th floor too?”

“I thought I’d never come here again, and didn’t register.”

 

Jeko isn’t shy about it at all.

Well, it’d be a mistake to expect that from him anyways.

 

When Adrigori operated the equipment, the elevator took us up.

 

The 16th floor had the same enemies as the 1st floor, 4 of them.

There was also one close combat type with a sword.

However, I felt an aura I’ve never felt from an enemy before.

 

“Mu, what’s this aura?”

“It’s the type of ki released by armor species. I guess we should call it kiki.”

 

The old man arbitrarily named it.

Well, since no one else knows of this aura, the one who wins is the one who names it first.

 

“Even though they’re not alive, machines can still release ki?”

“The ancient empire’s magic science made even that possible. It can’t be anything else.”

 

It doesn’t change what I’m going to do.

The enemy’s level rose, and the kiki it was releasing became stronger.

How much will it rise?

 

First, I’ll try to scout it out.

I approach the enemy’s range, lower the power of my barrier, and receive a magic bullet.

 

The magic bullet was stronger than I thought, and it split my barrier and grazed my arm.

 

“Chi, that’s pretty powerful.”

 

I look at my injured arm.

It was bleeding.

 

Of course, it immediately healed though.

 

“If you clear the 15th floor, then you have enough power to slay the Maou of a demonic calamity. This is more than that.”

 

The old man moves Serena behind him.

 

“Not only that, since we got on the 16th floor, the enemy’s strength has immediately risen.”

 

Jeko makes a conjecture.

 

There’s a possibility that there’s a gimmick too.

However, there’s nobody who has ever cleared this, so unfortunately it’s impossible to get any information on it.

 

“I’m going to take Serena-jou with me to a place a little far off from here.”

 

The old man said that, and took some distance.

This isn’t even a place where humans should be anymore.

 

It might have been better if we had her go home before us.

Although, she was the one who said she wanted to come along.

 

 

 

I take a katana from Jeko, and run towards the enemy.

 

The armor species separate into all directions, and fire in all directions.

To run, I’d have to go up or down.

I have to choose to fly or bend over.

 

The armored species with the sword is waiting for my movement.

 

In that case—-

 

I slide, and head for the armored species with the sword.

 

*Zashutu*

I don’t know if my movements were unexpected or not, but the armored species’ movement was a bit delayed, and I cut it in half.

The remaining 4 try to surround me again, but I expected that.

 

I turn to the side of my opponents, and cut them down one by one.

 

“Oh, brilliant.”

 

Adrigori again applauds with a serious face.

 

“These ones are probably small fries too, so this strength is terrifying.”

“This was one of the most important facilities, even in the ancient empire. That’s why the guards are so strong.”

“Let’s go seriously from now on. Apparently this is that kind of place.”

 

I take off the ring suppressing my jaki.

 

Although they’ve gotten somewhat stronger, they’re not an enemy of me now that I’ve released my jaki.

The 17~19th floors had no gimmicks, and we passed through them without any problems.

When we entered the 20th floor, an aura I’ve never felt before came.

 

“What’s this aura?”

 

I knit my eyebrows.

 

“We don’t know. It’s an aura even we’ve never felt before.”

 

Since the old man doesn’t know about it, it must be something substantial.

We moved towards the aura.

 

What came into sight was a huge flying dragon

In a horribly wide space, there was a dragon.

 

“Is it one……but this isn’t the aura of the dragon race. What is it?”

“No way……”

 

The old man makes a surprised expression.

 

“Do you have an idea of what it is?”

“The ancient empire had an army of armored species. If that’s the case, then what did they fight? Wouldn’t that be this dragon?”

 

Long ago. A long time before I reincarnated.

The age in which the gods were said to have existed.

 

Under the protection of the gods, humanity prospered.

 

During that era, there was a single country.

The ancient Ulugu Empire.

 

This Crystal Tower was one of that ancient Ulugu Empire’s facilities.

The armored species were the soldiers of the ancient Ulugu Empire.

 

If so, what did the ancient Ulugu Empire fight against?

Even that hasn’t been transmitted to the present.

 

The war of that era. The war that ended that era.

It was much too intense.

 

However, if it’s this dragon, which even the evil gods have never met, it could be the case.

 

“That’s a weird hypothesis. Why would the enemy who fought the ancient Ulugu Empire be in one of their most important facilities?”

“They must have captured and used it for something. Look over there.”

 

When I asked him, the old man pointed to the dragon.

There were restraints on the dragon’s head and legs.

 

“It was probably caught by the ancient empire, and forced to be this place’s guardian.”

“Would that mean that the ancient Ulugu Empire was victorious in the ancient war?”

“Now, I don’t know about that.”

 

The old man shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know. (TLN: Sounds stupid, but it’s the actual translation.)

Whether they won or lost, they’d still have to deal with prisoners of war.

 

“This is just by feeling, but that dragon’s aura feels close to those of demons.”

“I thought so too.”

 

Adrigori agrees with him.

 

“In that case……lets call it a demon, no, a demonic dragon.”

 

The old man named it as soon as he could.

 

“What should we do?”

 

Jeko asks for my decision.

 

I don’t feel any intelligence from it.

It’d probably be pointless to talk to it.

In the first place, it was somehow placed under the control of the ancient Ulugu Empire.

 

“For now, we can only try it.”

 

I responded like that, and entered a combat stance.

 

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