For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.
Chapter 137: One-Day Dungeon (5)

“I knew it was about resonance!”

I still don’t quite get that!

“Of course, you, as the Master, would have no problem mastering it… but you’ve only been learning magic for less than half a year, right? Maybe that’s why it’s taking some time.”

“Well…”

I doubt I’d be able to do it even a few years later.

As I was tilting my head in confusion, Carla smiled brightly, as if to reassure me.

“But don’t worry! This time, I’ve prepared a method that might be a little helpful for you! Let’s try it as soon as we return to the dormitory!”

“……”

Carla exuded anticipation with her whole body. Unable to voice my doubts, I awkwardly nodded.

“Okay… I’ll give it a try.”

At the end of the left path, we finally arrived at the Core Room.

The places we’ve been calling rooms were actually just expanded drainage areas with no doors and empty spaces.

But this place was an exception.

The Core Room was originally a kind of staff room controlling the sewage treatment facilities of Atlantis.

This place was a proper room, through and through.

Moreover, due to the spatial distortions centered here, the Core Room has preserved its original form from 300 years ago.

Yes, 300 years ago. The scene from the midst of the War of the Gods remained as it was.

The walls of the square room were all covered in blood, and mermaid corpses were strewn about over unidentifiable devices.

However, all the corpses were disfigured beyond recognition.

A corpse with its eyeballs gouged out and stones inserted in their place, another stripped naked with one side of its chest cut open and stuffed into its mouth, and another with its facial skin peeled off, among others.

Everyone frowned at the sudden, horrific scene.

“This is…”

“Ugh!”

“An unpleasant memory comes to mind.”

“A ritual… perhaps?”

“No, Senior Faye. It’s not a ritual but a game. Fishermen are narrow-minded predatory monsters. You know their traits, right?”

“…Discord. And cruelty towards the losers.”

The attribute of narrow-minded predators was jealousy.

The cultists and monsters following the creature couldn’t tolerate anyone being better than themselves.

Even if they bow their heads for now, they were filled with thoughts of bringing down the opponent someday.

Were there exceptions? Perhaps only the narrow-minded predators themselves and the high-ranking officers directly appointed by them?

Beyond these, they probably never even truly followed the other Evil Gods.

Thus, the followers of the narrow-minded predators caused discord wherever they went and were excessively cruel to those they defeated.

“Have you seen the appearance of the Fishermen? They are part fish, part human, just like mermaids. But Fishermen are treated as monsters, while mermaids are considered sentient beings.”

“That’s because the Fishermen behave like monsters, isn’t it?”

I patted the puzzled Iris on the head.

“Right. Fishermen possess their own intelligence and civilization… but they are too barbaric and violent.”

If their behavior were moderately violent, they might have been considered sea barbarians. After all, the Eurelia Continent was home to a diverse array of races.

But Fishermen were too extreme. They were a nuisance in the sea even before they became narrow-minded predators.

Unlike barbarians, who would respond to a request for dialogue without drawing weapons first, these creatures were filled with intentions to kill and enslave at any attempt.

There had been more than one or two instances where they struck from behind those who thought they had successfully negotiated. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Goblins and orcs, regardless of their intelligence, were classified as monsters for the same reason.

Coexistence was simply impossible.

“But Fishermen themselves believe there’s no difference between them and mermaids, except in their appearances.”

“…In terms of technology, character, strength, and many other aspects, they are different.”

“They don’t care to see those minor details. That’s why they are considered narrow-minded.”

“I see.”

Iris nodded as if she finally understood.

They had to be outright jealous of others.

That was the only condition the narrow-minded predators required from their followers.

Anyway, the Fishermen had been jealous of mermaids for a long time, and the massacres that ensued in their quest to usurp the rulership of the sea were quite brutal.

Despite being extinct for a long time, mermaids, known for their beauty regardless of gender, showed no trace of such beauty among the corpses here.

Any part that looked even slightly pretty was mercilessly mutilated.

“That’s why I hate both the Evil Gods and their followers.”

This was the aftermath of the cultists’ uprising. That is, if one played through the latter half of H&A, they would encounter scenes even more gruesome than this.

Knowing it was a game did little to mitigate the discomfort, but how much more disturbing must it be now that it has become reality?

I clicked my tongue unknowingly for a moment. Suddenly, my gaze was drawn to a corpse in the center.

The only corpse with an intact face.

But as if to compensate for that, there wasn’t a single intact spot from its neck down to the end of its tail fin.

Lying on a desk, it almost looked like a sacrificial offering for human consumption.

Which, in fact, it was.

“This mermaid’s corpse is the core of this dungeon.”

The last manager of the drainage route that became the invasion path. The 3rd Princess of the Atlantis Kingdom. And a sacrificial offering to praise the achievements of the Evil God, the narrow-minded predator.

Wasn’t this a perfect candidate for the dungeon’s core?

“…Wasn’t the core supposed to be an object, Master?”

“A corpse isn’t a living thing.”

“……”

Though we were a bit distant now, approaching closer would reveal the core emitting a unique, brilliant, multicolored light.

The other women wore expressions of dismay, while Iris simply smiled bitterly.

The atmosphere, buoyant in anticipation of the dungeon’s imminent clearance, quickly dampened.

To lighten the mood a bit, I clapped my hands lightly and continued.

Clap, clap.

“Come on. It’s all something that happened 300 years ago. Let’s focus on what we need to gather.”

“Ah, right. You said you needed my alchemy, Junior? What do we do here?”

“It’s simple. This was the place controlling all of Atlantis’s drainage. Such an important facility was always managed by a member of the royal family…”

“High-ranking people always have a habit of hiding important things somewhere. We just need to find that, right?”

“We already know the location. The lock magic must have been broken when the narrow-minded predators forcibly lifted Atlantis. We just need Senior Faye’s alchemy to open the box inside.”

I tapped the floor near the desk with the corpse of the mermaid princess a few times with my foot, feeling a spot that sounded a bit different.

“Invisible force, become my hand. Force Grab.”

One of the strongest psychokinesis spells I could use. Pouring a generous amount of magic power into it, even thin metal should easily bend.

Crack.

The floor was forcibly torn open with the sound of something breaking.

Inside, there was a small box and a letter.

I opened the letter to find it matched exactly with what I had read in H&A.

Roughly, it talked about her being the 3rd Princess of Atlantis, and how she came to take charge of the drainage area to somehow stop the incoming Fishermen.

And then, her unfulfilled wishes were listed one after another.

A will with somewhat solemn and regrettable content.

But the important thing was the last line written.

‘If only we had a little more time, if this potion had been completed, would anything have changed?’

Obviously, the potion she referred to was in the box.

I handed the box made of unknown metal to Faye.

“There should be an unfinished potion inside. Please complete it, Senior Faye.”

“Is there a recipe?”

“No. If there had been a recipe, it wouldn’t have just listed the ingredients unfinished like this. However, I do know what the final result is supposed to be.”

The legacy of Atlantis that granted permanent underwater breathing and, to a lesser extent, the ability to control water.

The Blessing of the Sea.

It was originally intended to be crafted to bring Sword Masters or Arch Mages of other races.

Had masters capable of exerting their full strength underwater after consuming the Blessing of the Sea come to their aid?

The destruction of Atlantis might have been inevitable with the intervention of an Evil God, but perhaps the extinction of the mermaids could have been prevented.

Well, that was all hypothetical.

“I’m certain you can create something by combining the potions here. But the method has to be figured out by Senior Faye.”

“A multi-combination potion? It seems like it will take some time… Can’t we just take it and make it elsewhere?”

“One of the ingredients is a potion called the Essence of Atlantis, which loses its effect the moment it leaves this place.”

“Then there’s no choice. Give me a moment to try.”

Mixing several potions to create complex and new effects was known as multi-combination.

300 years ago, this was a theory just coming into prominence, and they couldn’t produce it in time…

But now, it’s possible.

The long war and 300 years had dramatically advanced various technologies, including alchemy.

And since high-ranking alchemists had started to share their knowledge, any competent alchemist could find the combination by now.

Sᴇarch the NʘvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.