Chapter 13: The Truth

After clearing the final floor, I used my new skill <Refresh > to relieve their physical and mental exhaustion.

We were headed for the liberator's resting place, and the whole time, Hajime was staring a hole through my head.

It was very uncomfortable, when one of your close friends looked at you like that, well, I have an idea, what he wanted to ask.

So, I asked him directly, "What do you want to know"

"…"

Hajime asked, "What's up with your magic and agility stats"

[As expected, he went straight for the jugular.] "Well, you see I have a skill unidentified by status plate. It's most likely that skills effect."

"..."

"..."

"I see," saying that Hajime fell silent pondering.

Then I looked at Yue who had the same look as Hajime," Do you also have a question."

Yue observed me for a minute and then asked, "How could you solidify mana into a sword". Hearing Yue's question Hajime also listens in.

"I have a skill called Mana conjuration, I can use mana to create physical objects like this." To show them I used a large amount of crimson mana and formed it into a small crimson dagger. Looking at my demonstration Yue had stars in her eyes, observing this phenomenon she was intrigued. I handed it to Yue, but the dagger didn't last more than a few minutes, it started to disperse.

[<Mana conjuration> is a skill I acquired when I was trying to create an Elixir stone artificially, but failed at it. I did not have enough knowledge to create an elixir stone.]

"It's gone," Yue muttered in sadness. noticeing her sadness Hajime glared at me.

[Damn bro, we are best friends are we not, then why are you looking at me like that, you are changing sides too quickly. What about our bro codes.]

Just to shift the mood I spoke out "Oh look we are here," and just as I thought it did the trick.

In front of us behind these doors lay the place where one of the 7 liberators lived.

Before opening the door, I looked at Hajime and Yue. They both ready themselves for a fight. Without hesitation, I opened the door.

Inside there is a straight corridor, on each side, there were about 5 doors. I made eye contact with Hajime, and seeing my look he nodded. We spread out and started to check each door, there were bedrooms, a kitchen, a warehouse, a bathroom and 2 locked rooms. Hajime tried to use his transmute magic on the locks, but it was ineffective.

So, I asked Hajime to let me check. I used my archmage to analyse it. [This is sealing magic,] then I checked the other locked door as well. "These 2 doors are sealed through a sealing magic. We need a key to open them. Let's check the other rooms we might find it there."

We went toward the last door at the very end of the corridor. Behind it, there was a large hall or a throne room and, on that throne, there was a skeleton sitting on it wearing robes. In the middle of the room, there was a large magic circle.

"Quite the bizarre room. A throne with a skeleton wearing old noble clothes and a big magic circle. What do you guys think", I asked the duo.

Seeing this magic circle and skeleton Hajime has a scowl on his face, probably because he had a bad experience with a magic circle. It was obvious he would be cautious now.

"So wanna hop in~", I asked jokingly.

Hajime looked at me with a scowl, "Are you crazy. What will you do if it teleports you to some dangerous place or what if that skeleton starts attacking us".

"Don't worry I have already analysed this magic circle, I can guarantee it is not a trap of any kind". As I informed him, I was stepping towards the magic circle.

The moment I reached the centre of the magic circle. The magic circle activated on its own. It started to glow red.

The skeleton also started to glow. Hajime pulled out his gun and pointed it towards the skeleton.

The glow formed into a young man who was standing in front of me, and if they looked closely the man was wearing the same robes as the skeleton on the chair.

"You have arrived here after overcoming the trials. My name is Oscar Orcus. The person who created this dungeon. If I said one of the Traitors, would you understand?"

Seems like the person speaking was Oscar Orcus. The creator of the "Orcus Dungeon." Well, I was not surprised already knowing the truth, but I kept listening.

"Ah, please don't ask questions. This is just a recording, unfortunately, it wouldn't be able to answer your questions. For the person to reach this place, I will impart the truth of the world and what we fought for…this is the leftover message, I left before my death. Please I want you to listen…We are traitors but we are also not."

Then Orcus started his story. This story was very different from the known history that the church taught.

A tale of the battle between the Mad God and his descendants.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Orcus smiles gently after he finishes that long story.

"I don't know who you are or what reason you arrived here for. I will not coerce you into killing God. However, I wanted you to know. What we stood for.

After saying that the projection disappears.

Then it suddenly happened "Ugh… a painful sensation like someone was writing something on my head with a needle. The sensation lasted for a few seconds."

"Rih...Rihito are you alright," I heard Hajime's voice.

I heard Hajime's worried voice asking if I was all right, "I am all right."

After calming my ragged breath I replied, "It's just that the liberators have left strong magic to inherit, and it is a kind most suited for you."

At first, Hajime was alert, but after confirming Rihito was ok Hajime was curious about a magic suited for him.

Rihito then stepped out of magic and urged both of them to get into the circle "You will get the magic and all the related information."

"..."

I watch them also going through the painful process of getting the magic. It is just like the saying goes no pain no gain.

After both of them got the magic, they looked at me with annoyance. "You wanted us to suffer the pain didn't you."

I looked at them with the most pitiful look that I mustered and said, "How could you think something like that of me."

"Tsk bastard," Hajime went close to Oscar's corpse and started to strip all the valuable-looking things.

"..."

"..."

"..."

We gave Orcus a proper burial outside in his garden.

"Hajime did you get the ring on his hand right," I asked. He showed me the ring with the Orcus symbol.

"All right, let's go check out those locked rooms. We got the key now."

While I was walking ahead. I heard Hajime grumblingly following, while Yue comforted him.

Hajime then used the ring to open the locked door. The first door we opened was a library. "Wooh!… so many books," I exclaimed. We then rummaged around to find information to get out of this labyrinth.

Hajime found Orcus's Diary it was locked as well. He opened it with the ring. Then we finally got the information we were looking for. There were blueprint plans for the whole labyrinth.

According to the plan, the magic formation on the third floor was also connected somehow to a formation on the surface. The magic would not activate without Orcus' ring.

"Stea…Accepting that ring was a good idea." Hajime almost slipped, which was amusing for me.

We examined further and found out there was an independent golem in the lab that maintained this dwelling periodically. The light from the globes on the ceiling had the same properties as natural sunlight. This meant that crops and other things that rely on sunlight could be grown. It seems the reason this place felt so clean, even when no life was here, was because of the golem.

The lab acted as a storage for all the artefacts and materials Orcus had made during his lifetime. These items were stolen…transferred to them. There were quite a lot of devices.

Then we finally found the thing I was looking for. Within the passages, one of them was related to the Dungeons the other 7 made.

"…In other words, it's that? If we conquer the other dungeons, we would obtain the creator's Ancient magic?"

"…Maybe," Yue muttered.

According to the memoirs, just like Orcus, the other 7 'Liberators' were prepared to teach their Ancient Magic to those who conquered their dungeon and reached the final floor. Unfortunately, the types of magic were not written…

"…Maybe we found a way home," Hajime said with excitement

Just as he said, there was a possibility. The transition magic that summoned beings from other worlds was an Ancient Magic.

"Looks like we have a guideline from now on. To conquer the 7 Great Dungeons when we return to the surface," I said.

"Yeah." Hajime Agreed.

Hajime loosened his cheeks as he got the guideline. He instinctively patted Yue's head, and her eyes squinted joyfully.

Seeing them flirting so openly I voiced out my discontentment. "Could you 2 not flirt so openly in front of me." But both of them ignored me.

Hajime said, "These are the locations of other Ages of God magic, The Mountain of Great Flames: around the Guruyuen Desert, The Hartzena: Sea of Trees, The rumoured dungeons were: Raisen Great Canyon, and Schnee Snowfield." They had no choice but to investigate all of them.

Satisfied with their search for the library, we moved to the locked room which was the lab.

There were a lot of small rooms in the lab and they could open them all with Orcus' ring. Inside them were various never-before-seen ores and work tools. Theory books crowded the area and it could be mistaken as a paradise for Transmutation Masters.

Hajime folded his arms and pondered as he looked over the lab. When Yue saw him in that state, she looked puzzled and voiced it.

"…What's up?"

After being lost in thought for a while, Hajime spoke out.

Hajime said, "I want to quickly get to the surface but…there are many things to learn and this is the best base. When thinking about conquering the other Dungeon, I want to prepare as much as possible here. How about it?"

"I agree with you. The way currently are, we need to grow much stronger, we need weapons, and this place is perfect to create them, with our new magic it should be easy," Hajime nodded.

He then looked at Yue for her confirmation, "…Anywhere is fine if Hajime is there." Yue said. Suddenly a pink atmosphere formed between them. They went to their own world, "Damit STOP flirting in front of me." They didn't even listen.

I sighed and went to the library to study ancient magic.

...

"Chapter End"