Part 30

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Running my hand along the brick wall, I felt a faint tingling sensation. This material has a strange property of impeding the flow of mana. It's not a full-blown dispelling or blocking of magic, but let's just say it would take a lot more power to destroy these walls with magic than with almost any other material. But, that's not a problem if you use the principle of simulating natural effects. That is, if you affect the material with magic not directly, but indirectly, through natural mechanisms. However, this option in this case is not suitable for me, as it lacks precision and control. Manipulating natural reactions, I affect them as if from the outside, and I can not be completely sure of the effect. The direct effects of magic are much more controlled.

This time I spent an insane amount of mana, by the standards of ordinary wizards. Although, for me, it was just a drop in the ocean. The effect was marvellous. Blue lightning sparks travelled along the brick wall. And then part of that wall just fell apart.

Then I should improve and, so to speak, polish this spell. Essentially, I broke the bond of electrons embedded in the matter of the wall, and it partially disintegrated in front of me. But this action requires a surprisingly large amount of energy, the spell clearly needs some serious optimisation.

- What...

As I walked through the rising stone dust, I met Lilia's gaze.

The woman was sitting on a straw cot, cradling her little girl. They were kept in the same cell, which I had no trouble finding by using the markings on the map. Then I just made a hole in the wall. Behind the bars, inside the castle, the guard is standing there, his eyes bulging and his mouth hanging open. But now he came to his senses and was about to shout, raising the alarm, and at that moment he was interrupted by a discharge of electricity that licked his body with an ominous crackling sound as branches of plasma burned through his armour and flesh.

The man simply dropped dead. For a couple of moments the human body could withstand even the most powerful discharges, but even a few seconds could be fatal. The target's insides were fried under the high voltage, his nervous system and brain burned out from the inside.

- Mister..." the maid exhaled.

And she was still in her maid's dress.

- Lilya, Aisha. - I sighed in relief as I approached them.

And, giving in to the moment, hugged both of them. Or rather, sitting down, I hugged Lilya, and Aisha came between us.

- Brother... - The girl looked up at me with a pitiful look.

- It's okay, I'm here. And I'll come and get you.

Aisha lowered her head, buried her face in my stomach and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

At the same moment, hurried footsteps and the clanking of metal parts of armour and weapons were heard somewhere inside the prison corridor. Several armed men were clearly running this way. And as much as I wanted to just tear the place apart, I had certain priorities. First, saving my loved ones.

- There's no need to be afraid, I found you, and now everything will be fine.

Saying that, I just lifted Lilia and Aisha up with the help of gravity spirit, taking off like some superman with a girl and a child in my arms. In doing so, I hardly felt their weight at all. In fact, I didn't even need to hold them. It just made it easier for me to cover them with the electromagnetic shield.

Soon enough, I brought the girls to my hiding place.

- Rudy.

- Leela, there's no time, I still have to rescue the others. While I get you to safety, take care of Aisha.

- Yes, master. - The girl sighed.

- And, you're about to see something interesting, but it's best not to tell outsiders about it.

Still, I used the teleporter to quickly send the girls to the hiding place near Ars. And, my maid was indeed quite a bit so surprised, but not as much as I could have expected. After the transfer, she quickly accepted what was happening and nodded meekly with the words that since it was Rudy, it was quite possible. Sometimes I think she thinks too highly of me.

Afterwards, I took them to my room that I had been assigned in the royal palace. As I did so, I noted that Lilia was looking around with a certain nostalgia.

- I used to work here. - She explained.

- Was that when you suffered from the poison?

- Yes...

- I'm sorry, this probably isn't the best place. When I'm done with the others, we'll find a place somewhere else.

Before I left, I also left my daughter and mistress some of my supplies so they could eat in peace. I headed back to Shiron. But before I did, I went to the royal kitchen and asked the local servants for some treats. For a fee, of course. I returned by teleport and wasn't even surprised to find a demoness near my hiding place. He had asked her to wait for him in a different place. But it seems that thanks to her eyes, she easily found the stash.

- Wow! That's teleportation magic! And you're no ordinary boy, you've impressed us, the great empress herself!

- Yes... please keep this a secret.

- Of course, of course. - She waved her hand.

- Then, now, would you help me? Before I go to Milis' land, can you drown out the whereabouts of a few more creatures for me? Gilen Dedorudia. Cyrus Boreas-G Greyrat. Phillip Boreas-G Greyrat. And probably Paul Greyrat.

Not that I'm particularly worried about my father, but still, he's family too. In a way.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes, of course I'll help you, boy. - Nodded the demoness.

And she used her astounding search powers again. One of her eyes transformed and, head raised, she began squinting into the heavens.

- Hnn, Gilen Dedorudia? It's a cat... it's much closer than the others. There's some disputed land north of here, right now there's a war going on there and this Gilen of yours is looking for someone.

- The main thing is, she's fine. - I sighed.

- Cyrus... is he an Asura nobleman too? I see, I see him! He's in the central continent too, not far from the crash site.

- He seems to have returned to Fittoa on his own. - I nod to the demoness.

- Hmm... Philip Greyrat... oh... I'm sorry.

- Have you found him, your majesty?

- Yes, he's somewhere in the disputed lands, where Gilen is.

- And what of him?

- He seems to be a little dead. Isn't it fatal for people to hang you with a noose round your neck?

- Hmm. Yes, I suppose it is fatal.

I guess he was unlucky.

- Right, next up we've got... oh, Paul Greyrat. He's on his way to the Asura capital. And he's got some kid with him, a boy.

- Right. Oh, right, sorry, you've already found so many people for me, but, um.

- Get on with it already. - The empress grinned.

- Rawls Dragonroad.

- Yeah... hmm... no, I don't see him... at all.

- Is he dead? - I gloomed.

- No... - The demoness shook her head. - And he's not hidden like your mother. I don't quite understand what's wrong with him, it's like he doesn't exist... I can see a trace of him, but he's gone, completely....

It was the same with his wife, I mean, Sylphie's mother.

- Anyway, thank you for your support, Madam. Please accept these treats as a thank you.

And I took out a cake borrowed from the royal palace.

- Oh! This is a worthy offering! Ho-ho-ho-ho! We accept it, boy! - The demoness rejoiced.

- And... I don't know if you can return to the demonic continent yourself? If you want I can get you there using flight magic.

- Ah... hnnnn... no, you know, you better leave us here. We'll figure it out.

- Okay. Again, thank you for your help....

- Ho-ho... but when you're done, call on me again!

- What?

- The great Demon Empress has a little gift for you.

- А...

- I'm the master of the magic eyes! As a reward for your treats, you'll get one of them!

- Oh.

This little girl is even more generous than I thought. Admittedly, I'm not quite sure how exactly she's going to gift this magic eye. And, I'm not sure I'm going to like it. So, I'd better hold off on calling on her again. But still, I was grateful to this little girl.

And, parting with her on that note, I flew upwards.

Opening the map and navigating by Hilda's marker, I headed towards Milis' land right across the ocean world, aka the central sea separating the continents. Perhaps I should have tackled Zenith first, since she was inside the dungeon. But, she's an experienced adventurer, albeit a healer. Hilda, on the other hand, is an ordinary woman, she can manage a manor, command servants, do some bookkeeping, but battles are definitely not for her. And she was the one who was in the most danger right now. I hope I don't regret this choice of priority.

In the meantime, after breaking the sound barrier, my defences started to consume a lot more mana, but that wasn't even close to being a problem for my reserve. By my calculations, the flight to the neighbouring continent should have taken about an hour at this speed. Especially since I was flying directly, not through archipelagos. Hopefully, nothing terrible would happen to Hilda during that time. In the meantime, I had time to try out some of my own spells.

Not that I had made any particular progress in that hour, but I had created a few battle spirits, with a raillgun spell embedded in them. If I had that kind of support when I faced Ruijed, the Supard wouldn't stand a chance. And all it takes is a little time to prepare. And it's not that these spirits are particularly costly to me. It's just not very convenient to have ball lightning bolts flying around. Perhaps I should think about their shape to make them more convenient to use.

Yeah, that flight magic completely turned the tide of the quest, though. As did the help of the all-seeing demoness.

Before, I was severely limited in both my movement speed and the search itself. But now I know exactly where I should look for the lost ones. And I have a way to get to them quickly. And teleports.

All in all, finding my relatives is no longer such an acute problem.

Although, just the quickening of the pace has added to my excitement.

- WHOOOO!

About halfway through, a huge snake carcass popped out of the sea. During the flight, I seemed to have dropped too much, and the sea monster thought I was prey.

- Ahem...

That's a bit of an abrupt manoeuvre.

I slightly miscalculated my strength when I made a leap to the side. It felt as if I had collided with a lorry, everything inside felt like it had turned to mush. But, the cover of the electric spirits didn't remain indifferent. Three powerful shots of magic railguns pierced through the monster's body in several places. And the dead creature plunged back into the water.

I had to heal my own body, dropping speed and gradually gaining altitude.

But, as it turned out, the overload was not so terrible. There was no special damage, only my senses were a little bad. Nevertheless, this incident also helped me improve the gravity spirit responsible for my flight. Not now, but a little later, I should reconfigure the interaction of the gravitational influence on me and its connection with the life support barrier. Then I can easily perform any, even completely crazy manoeuvres in flight.

And just like that, I soon reached the land of Milis, not even an hour later.

The next thing to do was to keep flying, orientated on Hilda's mark, which led me to a certain mountainous area.

Actually, I probably shouldn't have been in such a hurry. Yes, when Kishirika found Hilda, she was in trouble. She was being protected by adventurers, and they were attacked by a monster. But, even in the time it took me to reach Milis' land, it should be over by now. Either the adventurers won or lost. And judging from the fact that Hilda is alive, it's more likely that they won. Still, anything's possible, so I didn't hesitate.

As it turns out.

I wasn't in such a hurry after all.

- Oooooh.

Between the rocks, a real dragon came flying at me. One of the strongest creatures in the Six-Faced World. Not every swordsman of divine rank can handle such an opponent. And in this case, the sky lord clearly thought that I was trampling on his power over the heavens by daring to fly in this area.

- Ahem...

Albeit not as abruptly, the manoeuvre is still extremely unpleasant.

At the same time, electro-spirits discharge new shots of magic railguns.

The dragon clearly did not expect such an attack and simply does not have time to react. He probably has even more speed and manoeuvrability in the air than Ruijed on the ground. The other thing is that the dragon is less intelligent. Until the very last moment, he simply didn't understand how and what I would attack him with, or if I would attack him at all. And dodging the already aimed and activated charges of the relsotron was simply unrealistic even for a dragon.

Surprisingly, the dragon's body was incredibly strong, so much so that my shots didn't penetrate it, but only inflicted monstrous wounds, which made the dragon's flight stall and the monster began to fall until it crashed into the ground at full speed. My attack was so overwhelming that the already wounded dragon couldn't even slow down and regroup, so it collapsed at full speed, breaking many bones.

It would have been an excellent prey...

But I just left the half-dead dragon, who seemed to be still breathing, and flew on. And not far from here, in the same mountains, I found traces of a recent battle. Chipped stones, traces of sword blows and the use of destructive magic. There were also the bodies of adventurers who had apparently encountered the dragon I had just slain.

Slowing down, I flew on, looking around carefully.

And finally...

- Mistress Hilda... are you here?

A familiar woman in a hiking outfit peeked out from between the rocks.

- R-rudy?

- Looks like you're still alive. And I found you. - Sigh of relief.

- Rudy! No, there's a dragon.

- Oh, I've dealt with it. You don't have to worry about that.

- W-what?

- Please, we should go somewhere safe.

I reached out and helped the woman out of her hiding place.

- How... how did you find me?

- The demon empress helped me. She has magic eyes.

- А...

Hilda seems to be a bit surprised by that answer.

- But, let's make this quick. I still need to find my mother.....

- Yes... can we go back to the city? Gods... I wanted to return to Asura on my own, I sold all my jewellery and hired adventurers to escort me... but that dragon....

It was coming out that the adventurers had actually protected her, at the cost of their lives. At least, although they had failed to deal with the dragon, they had given Hilda enough time to escape. And the monster didn't pursue her. Even without my help, she had a chance of getting back to the city on her own. Although she didn't have the means to get home. In fact, she no longer had a home.

- Please keep this a secret. - I sighed.

Creating a new secret teleporter wasn't a problem. I'd already got the hang of it, so to speak, and using the template from the grimoire, I quickly created a new slab, setting its own sign as the teleport address.

- What are you doing, Rudy?

- This is quite rare magic... you are my family, and I trust you, Hilda, so I can tell you about it. But I also ask you to keep it a secret that I have such powers.

- It's--

- Teleportation magic!

And so, in one day, Lily, Aisha, and Hilda had already been saved. But I wasn't going to stop there. After all, I also knew where to find Zenith. For now, I left Hilda in the castle, the same place where Lilia and Aisha were. My daughter was by now sleeping sweetly in my bed, along with Norn. The sisters seemed to be happy to be together again, though they had not quarrelled before, but were not particularly friendly.

Well, what came next was a new flight.

Only getting to the teleportation dungeon was easier. First, I used the furthest teleporter set along Roxy's path, after which I met up with the sorceress herself. Still, I had read something about Begaritto, and the help of the loli enchantress might not be unreasonable.

- Rudy, it's amazing! The magic of flight.

- I'll make you an artefact to fly, too, but later. Now I know where we're going.

- Did you find your family?

- Yes, I've already found Lily and Aisha and Hilda. Now it's time to get Zenith.

- How... what kind of magic did you use?

- Heh... well, it's probably not exactly what you imagined.

I couldn't help but put my arm around my lovely sorceress.

- I used summoning magic and was able to summon Kishirika Kishirisa. You've heard of her?

- The Empress of Magic Eyes?

- Yes, she used her eyes to find some people for me. It made our search much easier. And now I know where to find Zenith. Will you come with me?

- Of course!

Honestly, I even enjoyed flying with the sorceress in my arms. At other times, I wouldn't have been able to resist having a little fun with her in some secluded place. But, now we had a goal that required some haste. However, along the way, I asked Roxy herself about the teleportation dungeon. And it turns out that it's one of the most dangerous dungeons in the world. In addition, it's not particularly well researched, which can also cause a lot of problems. And finally, it's still Begaritto. The peculiarity of this continent is that it is home to succubi. I wasn't sure if I could resist their charms. That's why I used a local tactic, namely, appropriate female support. Among the local adventurer teams, there are always some women who are not affected by the succubus' power.

- Hnn, this might take longer than I thought.

Finally, we reached the desired dungeon, but we weren't in a hurry to rush inside right away.

After visiting the nearest town, I asked around the local adventurers. But, no one had seen Zenith recently. Although, she would probably check in with the guild and try to find out some information about the missing. But it was as if Mum had never left the dungeon. I immediately thought that she might have been teleported into the dungeon itself. And given her speciality, maybe she just didn't have the skills to get out of there. But thanks to her experience, she was able to survive so far.

When we entered the dungeon itself, however....

The achievement "Adventurer's First Step" has been obtained.

You have entered your first dungeon

Reward: "Teleportation Labyrinth"

And, out of the particles of light, a book appeared, falling right into my hands.

- This is..." Roxy marvelled.

- Ohhh... system, you're a miracle!

It turned out to be a volume dedicated to one particular dungeon. Yes, it wasn't a magical book about teleportation magic, but a description of the dungeon we had entered. There were diagrams of corridors and traps, descriptions of monsters, and even the labels of working teleporters.

Actually, the structure of this dungeon was a multidimensional labyrinth, consisting of many levels with their own corridors that were connected by teleportation circles. But, also, some of the teleporters were traps.

I wish I could find out exactly where Zenith was in this maze....

- I have an idea. - It dawned on me.

- What are you up to, Rudy? Roxy's interested.

- The dungeon is quite large... it would take us weeks to explore it completely. No, I can't take that kind of time. We'll do something else. I have enough money, so why not enlist the help of adventurers?

- But, we're the only ones with a map...

I grinned.

- Yeah, but... we can make some more maps now, right?

Practically the rest of the night I worked on the new plan.

Using magic, copies of the teleportation dungeon map with trap markings were created. Even if it wasn't all the information on the teleportation labyrinth, but it was the most basic. Well, in the morning, I had already given the adventurer guild the task to search for Zenith, providing the adventurers with maps. Also some of these maps have been sold to local merchants. Other adventurers may be interested in the dungeon not even for my quest, but for the treasures hidden there. And by visiting the guild, they can also take the appropriate quest.

Finally, Roxy and I headed to the dungeon for our own quest.