episode_0161

161. 2nd layer (7)

“Spirit? Out of the blue?”

“Yeah.”

Julie pauses at Lauren’s words.

“Lauren. Really?”

“I don’t know. But… I feel it faintly. I’m not mistaken.”

Julie’s expression becomes strange at Lauren’s continued assurance.

Because Julie knows who made this potion.

“Could it be that the flame or ice contained here is so pure that spirits can sense it?”

“Hmm… That could be possible.”

Lauren nods at my question.

“Ms. Jury didn’t feel any difference?”

“Ah… That’s right.”

Lauren scratches her head as she looks at Julie.

Julie looked at Lauren’s bewildered expression for a moment, then chuckled and nodded.

“Not all elves can communicate with spirits.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course, it’s true that you’re basically good at archery or have a high ability to communicate with animals, but…”

Lauren’s explanation continues.

Not all elves can control spirits. By population, it’s around 30-40%.

That’s what they say divides the elves into classes.

It is said that various problems that arise according to class, such as the fucking gang, do not occur.

I just think that each person was given a role to play according to the arrangement of the World Tree.

Lauren is the next heir to House Sarsil, one of the six most noble families among those who can control such spirit powers.

It is said that Julie is a vassal family that supports Lauren’s family.

“You just trained ignorantly because you wanted to use swordsmanship on that topic.”

“Ah…I still have a lot of lessons left to learn!”

Lauren blushed at Julie’s further explanation.

As for magicians, Lauren has spirit sensitivity similar to mana sensitivity, but Juri doesn’t.

That’s why their reactions were different when they first saw the potion.

“Lauren, do you know how to use spirit magic?”

“Um… Basic? Only the level that elves instinctively use.”

Lauren answered with her ears down, thinking that her spirit magic might not live up to her expectations.

“How much of it do you use instinctively?”

“That’s… not to the extent of summoning spirits through a contract, but to the extent of being able to control the surrounding environment by responding to it..?”

“Isn’t that great?”

Elves are almost a fantasy.

It feels like a unicorn from a previous life? The concept exists, but it’s to the point where it’s treated as a fantasy.

Elves themselves are a race that has nothing to do with warfare, and elves who use elemental magic with excellent combat power are powerless in the labyrinth.

What Lauren said when she first entered the labyrinth.

I can’t feel the spirit.

It’s a fatal flaw for elves.

And while humans flock to cities dreaming of money or success, elves don’t value such things, so you won’t see them in cities even more.

They have recently started trading and are exchanging supplies with the Labyrinth City, but from the elf’s perspective, it has only been a short period of 200 years(?).

The location of the World Tree and where the elves are are kept strictly secret.

Even though Julie had become notorious and left town, that was the reason Lauren was always the center of attention.

“Um….”

“Cain, did you get any good ideas?”

“Yes. Let me think about it a little more.”

If we do it right, we can easily destroy the fountain.

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Clank~

“Okay. Lauren.”

“Yeah.”

First, I gave Lauren a freezing potion to confirm whether what she felt from the potion was really the spirit’s energy.

Lauren, who received the potion from me, closes her eyes and licks her lips.

A strange language, not a common language of the continent, flowed from her mouth, and a soft light began to flow from Lauren’s body.

“Oh…”

“Wow, Sister Lauren!”

The appearance was mysterious, not like that of a world-class merchant or elf.

Lauren finally opened her eyes.

Lauren blushes as she feels the gazes of the three of us, excluding Julie.

“All done.. All done!”

“How is it?”

“Yeah, I can definitely feel the spirit’s energy.”

“Hmm. What exactly is spirit energy?”

“Uh…”

Lauren looks puzzled by my question.

He wanted to explain something, but he couldn’t remember very well, so he just waved his arms around and couldn’t continue speaking.

“It means that the environment has been prepared to the extent that a contract can be made with the spirits.”

Julie answers in place of Lauren.

“Ah… Is that the concept?”

“Well. I don’t know much about spirit magic either, but that’s about right, right, Lauren?”

“Uh…yeah, that’s right.”

Hearing Julie’s words, Lauren belatedly exclaimed, “Ah…!” and nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Lauren. So you said you could control that energy?”

“Yeah.”

“Then. Can you control the energy inside this potion bottle without opening it?”

“Just a moment.”

Lauren closes her eyes again.

Swoosh-

“Huh?

Light emanates from the contents of the potion Lauren was holding.

And after a while the light slowly faded.

“I think it will work!”

“Okay then…”

There are 4 types of potions. What if you throw the freezing potion first, then condense the energy of the explosion potion as much as possible and throw it with Lauren or Juri’s power to hit the flesh?

“Is that okay?”

Julie responded positively to my plan.

“Right?”

“Yeah. Fire and ice are opposing properties, but considering the destructive power, I think it would be better to use an explosion potion.”

“Oh… As expected, Cain.!”

“Wow!”

Claude and Sia looked at me with shining eyes at Julie’s reaction as if they were amazed.

Julie snickered at our appearance.

Feeling a little embarrassed, I talked to Lauren in detail about how to deal with the energy.

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“Ouch..! There’s water in the fountain.”

Gulp gulp gulp-!

As I explained the concept to Lauren and Lauren practiced manipulating the energy while holding the potion bottle, the water started flowing again in the fountain.

It hasn’t even been 30 minutes and already?

“Ms. Jury, what about the body?”

“That’s it.”

“Will it recover after a certain amount of time?”

According to Juri’s explanation, in the case of the Red Tide’s nest, even the blood flowing from the corpses of the Red Tide is absorbed and summoned again, but there was no particular change in their corpses.

“For now. It’s time to retreat.”

“Yep.”

So I made my way back to the passage before the fountain could spit them out again.

“Lauren, it’s been a while since we’ve done this, so it’ll take some time to get used to it, so let’s stop here for today and rest early.”

“Yes.”

Following Juri’s advice, everyone decided to rest to recover from the battle fatigue and attack again the next day.

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“How about Lauren?”

“Enough!”

Bang bang-!

The next day, Lauren answered my question with a confident expression, tapping her shield.

“First of all. Back to battle.”

“Heeeek… Sirear…”

Sia is grumbling.

“Jury. It’s a battle to see who catches more!”

“Ugh. You won. I lost.”

“What!!”

Lauren, who cheerfully suggested to Julie that they catch as many monsters as possible, gets rejected.

“Hoo…”

“Are you okay?”

“Okay. No problem.”

Even Claude, who looks slightly tired.

Everyone prepared for battle and headed back to the open space to start hunting the guys.

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“Hoo… Hoo…”

“Recovery!”

Woohoo-

Sia uses her protection on Claude and me. Then she runs towards Lauren and Juri, her waist flailing.

“Sister! Here’s the water!”

“Thank you Sia.”

Sia gives water to those who don’t have any major injuries.

“Except for the Lauren shield, here.”

“Ah. Yeah.”

Of the two potions I took out from my bosom, I gave the freezing potion to Juri and the explosion potion to Lauren.

Dalgrak-

We moved to the entrance with the flesh, and Juri threw the potion bottle in one hand up and looked forward.

“Ms. Jury. Is it possible?”

“Yeah, this is also done by hand. It’s a bit far though.”

“Lauren.”

“Yeah..!”

Juri prepares to throw the potion while measuring the distance to the flesh, and Lauren closes her eyes and focuses on the explosion potion.

Woof-

Soon, the orange liquid begins to swirl and then gradually shrinks. No, it feels like it’s being compressed.

Julie saw Lauren’s eyes wide open right after.

“Throw?”

Nod-

Lauren nodded instead of answering, perhaps because she was concentrating. Julie took a stance and threw the potion with all her might.

WHEEK-!

Kwajik!!!

Damn it!!!!

“Ugh…!”

Even though it’s a distance of about 20 to 30 meters, the cold air reaches here.

We were surprised that the effects of the freezing potion were stronger than we thought, so we made our colleagues step aside and spoke to Lauren.

“Throw Lauren and dodge right to the side, got it?”

“Yeah..”

Lauren looked at the frozen entrance with a serious expression. Then, she threw the potion bottle with its contents compressed to the limit and now the size of a soybean, and flew towards us.

And in just a few seconds.

—-!!!!!

KWAAAHH …

Urrr!!!!!

As if an earthquake had occurred, the fountain and the ground we were standing on shook wildly and a loud noise erupted.

Damn it-!!

“Everyone…! The fountain is about to collapse, so run!”

As huge cracks began to form in the fountain in real time and it began to show signs of collapsing, I shouted to my colleagues and ran with Sia.

Lauren, Julie, and Claude quickly leave the area and run towards the passageway, where the fountain soon begins to collapse.

“Hehe.”

“Like it?”

“Yeah.”

Gurrr-!!!

In the meantime, Sia was smiling brightly, as if she was happy to be held in my arms like a princess, and soon the fountain completely collapsed.

“Colok. Wow, this is no joke.”

As the dust cleared, I looked up and saw pieces of exploded organs among the debris of the fountain.

“Oh? Cain over there.”

“Huh?”

When I looked at the place that Julie pointed to with her hand, her eyes sparkling, there was a magic stone.

“….Intermediate?”

The intermediate magic stone that could only be seen from the 4th level onwards was shining alone and proudly.