Chapter 467

Having finished observing the rather intriguing magical tool, Tatsuro and the others, following Tatsuro's suggestion of "Let's take a bit as a sample," borrowed about a bathtub's worth of the magical liquid.

Generally speaking, that wasn't a small amount... but since it was a fairly large reservoir, it should still fall within the range of "a bit."

After that, they feigned ignorance and stepped into the passage in the opposite direction from the way they came, proceeding deeper inside.

From there, it seemed they would be going even further down, with a spiral staircase about twenty meters high stretching toward the underground.

"Just how massive is this facility anyway?"

"If they built this from scratch, it must have been quite the ordeal."

Tatsuro and Ai chatted about such things while descending briskly, trying not to make footsteps but without slowing their pace.

At the bottom was another single passage, this one sloping slightly downward.

As they walked along it, they heard the clanking sounds of multiple heavy things moving about.

Without raising their voices, everyone exchanged glances and nodded, then slowly peeked into the next room.

'It looks like fields, a water area, and multiple warehouse-like boxes. This might be a place for generating and storing food.'

'And it seems like golems are handling all the management.'

In the direction Tatsuro and Ai sent their gazes while conversing via Telepathy, there was a large field illuminated by multiple lights emitting pseudo-sunlight.

And over here, a reservoir connected to a magical tool that produced real water.

Golems about two meters tall were scooping water from the reservoir, carefully watering the plants, and using Tree Magic tools to nourish the soil.

Furthermore, perhaps replenishing fuel, there was a golem inserting something like a gas pump from a gas station, connected to pipes running along the wall through which magical liquid flowed.

"It seems the energy here is all supplied by that magical liquid generation tool upstairs."

"Probably. Maintaining all this around the clock would cost a fortune by our common sense and end up inefficient. Seeing the benefits of that device up close like this makes me want one for my country too."

Ishtar spoke in a tone that had gone beyond admiration and even carried a hint of astonishment.

Leah gave a wry smile at that, and Athena pushed the conversation forward.

"So, what do we do? Should we destroy those too and move on?"

"Their combat ability is roughly level 20 to 30 per unit-not much to worry about, but just in case, it might be better to neutralize them."

They still didn't know what lay ahead, so they wanted to do everything they could.

With that in mind, they immediately took action, disabling all the golems and extracting their cores.

"As expected, these too... But the craftsmanship is rough, and the energy circulation in the cores is still immature... These are probably prototypes or made by repurposing old-type cores."

"So, that means these are definitely cores using human brains too, right?"

"Yes. No doubt about it."

Just like with the golems before, Leah lined up the old-type cores and smashed them with a hammer.

Sure enough, a viscous red liquid oozed out from inside these as well.

After that, they quickly looked around the surrounding facilities.

"This is a refrigerated warehouse. Seems like they store harvested vegetables and such here."

"This one has monster meat stored in it."

"This looks like a freezer."

As Tatsuro, Nana, and Ishtar rummaged through the large warehouse-like boxes, they found preserved food items as expected.

Just in case, they took a few samples of the foodstuffs, restored everything else except the golems to how it was, and proceeded to the next passage.

The next passage was also a gentle downward slope.

They walked along, suppressing their presence as much as possible, when they came upon a room brightly illuminated, unlike before.

But there was one more thing-the members with Spirit Eye who had been on alert, along with Leah, stopped in their tracks.

"What's wrong?"

"The entrance to that room. It might look like nothing to the naked eye, but there's a powerful barrier set up."

"Can we break it?"

"For us, breaking it would be easy, but I think it would completely give away our intrusion. Plus, if there's any contact with the barrier, the golems inside there will start moving immediately."

Ai used Far Sight to carefully observe the entities further inside from the entrance.

First, closest to them, was a golem about 130 centimeters tall, with artificially created exposed muscles like a mannequin.

On its back, it had small wings made of what looked like bone and skin, holding a rapier in its right hand and a small round shield in its left.

From its appearance and equipment, it was judged to be a close-range speed-focused type.

Next was a single metal puppet about three meters tall.

Truly golem-like in presence, it held a huge cleaver-like sword in its right hand and a massive conical spear in its left.

From that information, it was judged to be a close-range power type.

Further back, there were five golems shaped like one-meter pyramids-triangular pyramids-with something like a camera lens attached in the center.

Their appearance alone didn't reveal much, but according to Leah, they were long-range high-power magic types.

And finally, there was a single two-meter spherical golem.

This one also had something like a camera lens in the center, like an eyeball.

"That round one seems to be the one maintaining the barrier."

"Yeah. It looks like a golem focused on defense rather than attack. If we can destroy that one first, we could significantly reduce their defensive options."

"Then we just take out that Round-Go first."

"Round-Go? Short for round golem, huh. Then what about those triangular ones?"

"Pointy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And the small one can be Shorty, the big one Biggie, right?"

"Well, that'll do. How about it, Leah? Their specs."

Tatsuro asked Leah, who was gathering information with her Far-Seeing Glasses, and after a moment, she turned back.

"Shorty and Biggie, Round-Go-they're all equivalent to levels 180 to 190. And those Pointies lined up in a row at the back will launch magic attacks at the full power of a level 120 human."

"Quite high-level golems. In that case, it's safe to assume those are the final defense line of this facility."

"It's not certain, but the possibility is high."

Ishtar said so while observing, hand on chin.

"But for me, they're not tasty enemies. Can't use Level Eater on them either."

"Oh, right. Since they're a type of magical tool, they don't have levels."

"And no matter how many we destroy, our levels won't go up, so in that sense, they're unappetizing prey."

Destroying them would just be breaking tools, after all.

It wouldn't connect to any real benefit for Tatsuro and the others.

But there was no other path, and they had no intention of turning back, so they had no choice but to fight.

"Then I'll start by blasting Round-Go with a transfer laser, and the moment the barrier drops, everyone charges in. We can split our forces between the Pointies in the back and Shorty-Biggie?"

"Um... that might be a bit difficult, Bro?"

"Why's that?"

"From what I see, inside that barrier, there are multiple magical tools embedded in the floor, ceiling, and walls that interfere with transfer-type skills. They can't completely stop activation, but they could at least randomly shift the transfer position."

"What a pain. In that case, it might be faster to smash through the barrier head-on and charge in boldly.

According to Cardina, there aren't many rooms left anyway."

"Peewee"

Cardina nodded affirmatively to Tatsuro's words.

From the information traced from outside, including this room, there were maybe three more at most.

"But if they possess transfer magic tools, the mastermind might sense the danger and escape."

"That would leave a bad aftertaste, but oh well. As long as we can at least deal with the possible World Force reservoir in this facility, and destroy the whole place afterward, they won't be able to recover easily, right?"

"Yeah, building a facility this massive would require enormous time, resources, and funds."

Ishtar made a bitter face while mentally calculating the rough estimate for rebuilding such an elaborate facility underground in another city.

"A World Force reservoir isn't something portable anyway, so worst case, we just destroy the facility without a trace. So, head-on breakthrough it is?"

Tatsuro looked around at everyone, but there were no objections.

"Then Aika and Aito, I need you on support. Don't come too far forward, okay?"

""Okay""

He patted the heads of the two who replied obediently, and when Ai stuck her head out seeing that, he patted hers too. Then Tatsuro aimed the tip of his Rifle Staff containing Amaterasu at Round-Go.

As if declaring the end of stealth operations, he poured a massive amount of magical power into the staff and fired an ultra-high-power laser that seemed to say it would erase Round-Go along with the barrier.

Of course, with that much magical reaction, the other side noticed, but before they could act, the entrance barrier vanished.

The scorching laser beam then flew straight toward Round-Go.

"""""------"""""

""------""

"Tch, dodged, huh. Everyone, charge!"

Before hitting Round-Go, the laser's power was reduced by the Pointy squad's fire, lightning, water, earth, and ice magic, and Round-Go itself deployed multiple overlapping barriers.

While the power and speed were thus diminished, it rolled across the floor like sliding and evaded the line of fire.

But if that's how it was, fine-Tatsuro and the others charged into the room all at once.

By then, Shorty and Biggie had closed in near the entrance; Shorty thrust sharply with its rapier, and Biggie, slightly delayed, swung its cleaver-like greatsword in a horizontal sweep.

"Hah!"

"Terya!"

But Shorty's rapier was deflected by a thin spear extending from the tip of Ishtar's short staff, and Biggie's horizontal sword sweep was shattered into smithereens by Ai's Dragon Armor kick.

As the two tried to follow up, multiple barriers from Round-Go were deployed, causing a delay.

The Shorty-Biggie combo used that instant gap to backstep and gain distance.

"Leaving those to you!"

"Aye aye!"

"Leave it to us."

"Neigh!"

"Yes sir-!"

Entrusting the Shorty-Biggie pair to Ai and Ishtar, along with Jeanne and Athena, Tatsuro headed toward the most troublesome defense-specialized Round-Go with Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi.

The remaining five Pointies were handled by Cardina, Nana, Leah on her tiger-type machine, and Leela, so all incoming magic attacks would be defended by those four.

Glancing sideways at that, Tatsuro strongly activated the Oni Warrior Ghost-Musashi's Instant Movement in his eyes.

Further, he floated his body with magnetism, increased his own weight, and changed the direction of gravity forward.

While surging ahead as if falling, his held Rifle Staff was enveloped in a massive flaming crystal spear from Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi.

"Haaa!"

"------!!"

Round-Go moved left and right while deploying multiple barriers, desperately trying to escape Tatsuro's path.

But the barriers were pierced like paper by the great crystal flame spear on the Rifle Staff, and Tatsuro adjusted gravity's direction while countering Round-Go's movement with Instant Movement eyes.

Gosun. With such a dull metallic sound, the flaming crystal great spear plunged deeply into the center of Round-Go's body-the sphere.

Having its core completely pierced, a blood-like reddish-black liquid overflowed from the large hole, and Round-Go completely ceased functioning.

And with Round-Go gone, that meant no more opponent to deploy barriers.

"Ryaah!"

"Neigh!"

Since Biggie's greatsword had been pulverized by Ai, it had been managing somehow against Ai and Jeanne with just its great spear, supported by the barriers, but now without that, it was cleaved in half horizontally by Ai's Gem Sword and smashed from above by Jeanne's Halberd, splattering the reddish-black liquid from its core.

"This one's done too!"

"Break already!"

Shorty had been evading with its mobility, deflecting attacks with its round shield, and avoiding fatal wounds thanks to Round-Go's barrier support, but likewise, the moment support vanished, the match was decided.

It was pierced through head, chest, and abdomen by Ishtar's silver sand spear transformed into a fork-like shape, and in the instant its movements stopped, Athena's Great Scythe circled around and scooped up from crotch to head, slashing it open and staining the remains with reddish-black liquid.

The other five magic-specialized Pointies met similar fates, trampled by Cardina and the others, dyeing the floor with reddish-black liquid.

"That seems to be it. We'll collect the remains later-head to the depths right away! We might still catch the mastermind now!"

Having rampaged so flashily, whatever was likely on the other side of the passage ahead must have noticed them.

But if they hurried, even if there was a transfer magical tool, they might capture them before they could escape from here.

Leaving the golem remains on the floor for now, Tatsuro and the others rushed toward the deepest part.