The Greatest Genius Alchemist Of All Time Wants To Retire - Chapter 21 - Entry to the Sixth Labyrinth
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- Chapter 21 - Entry to the Sixth Labyrinth - A Brief Rest and Disaster –
Chapter 21 – Entry To The Sixth Labyrinth –
Translator: Xean
Editor: SevenTails
“Fuwaa~!”
It was now morning. I looked at the clock and saw that it was past five o’clock. I woke up early, but Fii and Monica were already awake before me and were having breakfast.
“Good morning, you two.”
“Good morning, Elle.”
“Good morning, Elle-san.”
We said our greetings and had breakfast. As I thought, it was delicious. When it comes to civilization level, the kingdom was ahead, but that was only a one-sided belief. I’m sure there was no superiority between the two. They both had their advantages and disadvantages.
“Umm… Can I come with you?”
“To the labyrinth?”
“… Yes.”
She lowered her head as she asked that, but it wasn’t safe. I wasn’t going to be able to protect her, but it wasn’t a good idea to turn her down completely. Let’s ask Fii.
“Hey, Fii. What do you think?”
“It’s okay.”
“… Seriously?”
“Because this girl can use alchemy on a Platinum level.”
“Ehh… Really?”
“What… seriously?”
‘’Really. She can do it without an alchemy formation. From what I heard, she read Elle’s article and has worked hard to learn it, though she’s still not very good at it. But until now, hasn’t Monica been the one mostly fighting Giant Spiders just by herself?”
“Are you sure about this, Monica?”
“Y-yes. I’m not very good at it yet, but I can fight a Giant Spider.”
Hmm. I never thought we’d be able to get more help here. I honestly didn’t think Fii and I would be able to get to the bottom level on our own, so Monica coming was going to be very helpful. I guess it’s all right. As long as Fii and I are there, I guess that’s okay.
“Nice working with you, Monica.”
“Leave it to me! I’ll do my best!”
We then got ready to leave. Backpacks were quite heavy, so we packed in small pouches. Portable food and water, minimal armor and weapons. We didn’t need weapons because of alchemy, but it was just to be careful. What’s more, this weapon that looked like just a sword had a secret. Fufufu.
“Alright, let’s go then!”
“”Ou!””
Then me, Fii and Monica left for the Sixth Labyrinth.
“… The weather’s nice.”
It was a beautiful day. It was going to get hotter soon, so I wanted to get to the labyrinth’s entrance before that. Fortunately, Monica knew the way, so it was easy to get there.
After half an hour, we found our way to the entrance of the Sixth Labyrinth, also known as the Spider’s Labyrinth. The entrance was wide, and Giant Spiders could certainly go through.
I decided to check the entrance.
“What are you doing? Elle-san.”
“I’m looking for signs of alchemy, but there are none. I suspected third party intervention, but so far there are none. This is no more than an entrance to the labyrinth.”
“… I can’t see any signs of alchemy either. Now let’s enter… I’m in the middle, right? … right?”
“Yeah. I’ll take the front, Fii. Monica please cover our backs. Fii, you’re in charge of the mapping.”
“Leave it to me. My spatial detection is as good as Elle’s.”
Fii, in fact, had excellent spatial detection and that’s why she was chosen this time. It’s not bad to map out the labyrinth for future retries. Although we could use transfer, we needed mapping for the information.
So we walked down the stairs by the entrance.
“… It’s dark, but it’s a mystery as to why the lights are on.”
“Yeah. They say the labyrinth is permanently lit.”
“I’m impressed with lost technology.”
“It’s really amazing…”
We went down the stairs and arrived at the first floor.
The Sixth Labyrinth, first floor.
It was a wide area, reaching as far as the eye could see. The tricky part about it was that the trail was split into four parts. There was got to be a staircase leading down to the second floor somewhere, and there were still no signs of Giant Spiders, but it was full of silk everywhere. It was one of the most difficult labyrinths of the world’s seven. It was not due to the structure, but rather, the swarms of Giant Spiders. It was impossible for an ordinary human to escape once trapped by the spiders’ threads. Then they would be eaten alive.
“S-scary!!! What’s with this? Spider silk everywhere! I’m scared… A-are you okay Monica?”
“I don’t mind bugs and spiders that much. There are a lot of them in the village. Though, the Giant Spiders are a bit creepy.”
“Honestly, I think it’s the most evil thing in the world. “
The two of them were casually chatting as I burned the spider’s threads. With a swipe of my right hand, I activated alchemy to ignite them. It burned, but the fire spread slowly.
I see, it can be neutralized in an instant.
Then I cranked up the power. Now it’s no ordinary flame, but a hotter, blu one. It was going to use more magic, but it was unavoidable.
And then it instantly burned. I understood.
“Fii, Monica. The silk can be burned instantly with a blue flame. The temperature must be at 1,000 degrees in order for it to be neutralized.” (EN: Japan commonly uses Celsius)
“A thousand degrees. That’s not very efficient. I think we should stick with the ice.”
“I agree.”
“Ah… let’s go further in. So, where should we go from here…”
Two roads, one going left and another going right. I’m not sure which one was the correct one. Then Monica pointed to a path diagonally to the right.
“There is a faint air current coming through there. It’s circulating.”
“Wow, how did you know that?”
“It’s because I’m an elf that I’m able to do this.”
“I’m glad Monica’s here.”
“No, no, I’m glad I could help!”
So we went to the right road. Along the way I found a piece of string. A bait? But it was a little unravelled. This looks like a Giant Spider’s meal.
“I see, this is…”
“”Ahhh!!!””
Both Fii and Monica screamed. It was understandable. It was a dead human. Next to it was a dead elf, dead dog and dead wolves all around. This is where they were all attacked and killed. Their bodies were still here, but they were more like mummies. Giant Spiders seem to feed on bodily fluids.
“… You two, set up a perimeter. I’ll take a closer look at the bodies.”
“U-un… I’ll leave it to you, Elle.”
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t be of help.”
“I’m just the right person for the job, don’t worry about it.”
I hate digging through dead bodies too, but it couldn’t be helped. I checked every body around us. There were no weapons of any kind, and no clothes on the humans and elves. Just the bodies.
“That’s strange. Why are there no weapons? It’s already a mystery they don’t have any weapons, but even the clothes were stripped off…”
“Maybe Giant Spiders have a habit of collecting them?”
Me and Fii made that hypothesis for now and moved on. Then we heard a dripping sound.
“Water?”
After walking for a bit, we found ourselves in a field. And then we found it. A staircase right in front of us. We found the way leading to the second underground floor, but I couldn’t seem to sway this strange feeling. It was as if someone was observing us.
Then suddenly I looked up. There were Giant Spiders as far as the eye could see. Counting them, there were like 50 of them? The dripping sound was probably their saliva. They seem to have responded to us coming in.
“… Monica, Fii. Look up.”
“Ehh?”
I quietly whispered to them.They haven’t attacked us yet, so I started building an alchemy formation. I just needed a little more time.
“U-uwaa…”
Monica’s response was only at that level, but the problem was Fii.
“Kyaaaahhh.. Mugu!!!”
I covered Fii’s mouth and suppressed her voice until she calmed down, but the scream was still a bit too much and some leaked out. An instant later, a series of bobbing sounds were heard. I stared at the Giant Spiders screeching “Kiiiiiii!”
“Prepare for battle! You two, cover me! I’ll eliminate them all at once!”
“Understood!”
Leaving Fii and Monica at the front, I continued building the alchemy. It was a large-scale alchemy called Singular Alchemy (Special). Normally, it takes several hours to build up layers of it, but since I don’t need alchemy formations, I could do it in seconds.
“All right, construction is complete! Fii, Monica! Get behind me!”
“Hii-, they’re coming after us!”
Monica was running with firm footing while Fii seemed to be running for her life. As soon as they were behind me, I activated the Singular Alchemy (Special).
“… Absolute Zero.”
The Giant Spiders were attacked by a -273 °C cold air. Temperature is determined by the vibration of matter. The greater the vibration, the hotter the air is, and the lower the vibration, the lower the temperature. There was theoretically no upper limit to how high temperature can bet, but there was a lower limit. It was the state of no vibration, and that state was called absolute zero. I was able to alchemize that state. 1EN: I couldn’t resist, so here it goes. Okay so, some explanation on temperature. Temperature is measured as the average kinetic energy of matter (energy possessed from motion). There is a lower limit, -273.15 °C or -459.67 °F, from which the Kelvin scale starts. The Kelvin scale is equal to the Celsius, only that it starts at absolute 0. The closest temperature we have reached to absolute 0, if I remember, is 0.015 K, which is the temperature at which quantum computers work. A comparison is that hydrogen solidifies at 14 K or that the coldest place on Earth, the East Antarctic Plateau, is at 184 K. As for the upper limit, it is actually postulated that there exists one at 1.4168×10³² Kelvin, also known as the Planck Temperature, but it is technically unreachable. The big bang reached 10⁹ Kelvin in comparison.
An icy realm spread out around us. It froze all the spiders’ brains and I finished them with an ice spike. They screamed “Kwek” as I killed them mercilessly. We finally breathed a sigh of relief after they were all dead.
“Phew… It’s over at last.”
‘’Amazing… The Singularity Alchemy (Special) that is. It’s a dream come true to be able to do it without an alchemy formation and in just a matter of seconds.”
“I can’t do it either, but that’s Elle for you. He may be a crop idiot, but his alchemy skills really do live up to the name of the Blue Stellar Alchemist.”
“Enough with the praises, let’s move on. The path is clear. Let’s go.”
We were about to move down the stairs ahead, but we heard the sound of dripping again.
“Well, that’s…”
“Hmm?”
“Eh?”
I looked up and found an egg. A huge egg. There was fluid pouring out of it, flooding down from the ceiling and onto us. I quickly covered us with an ice wall to prevent it from touching us. Then more bobbing Giant Spiders appeared. It was almost the same number as before.
“No, no more!!!!!!Let me go home!!!”
With Fii’s cry, we started fighting again.
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