Bzzzzzt.
At last, the final ant monster collapsed.
Every monster that had come running at the sound had fallen.
“Huff, huff. I didn’t think it would be this hard...”
I had killed six soldier ants, when even one was difficult to deal with.
But I hadn’t known it would be this overwhelming.
The hit-and-run plan hadn’t been wrong.
When an ant monster approached, I would electrocute it in succession, and once it died, I would immediately run.
The plan succeeded splendidly.
Of course, there had been one that didn’t die after two lightning strikes, and one that dodged the lightning.
But things like that were just variables that always happened during an operation. I could handle that much well enough.
If one didn’t die in two hits, I just had to electrocute it one more time, and if one dodged the lightning, I simply had to target it again.
‘I get why targeting is important now.’
The problem was the last monsters that charged me at the same time.
Since they rushed in together, there was no timing to kill one and run.
In the end, I had to scrape up my energy down to the very bottom and use magic.
The world literally looked yellow.
All the power I had felt inside my body disappeared.
I couldn’t feel my senses either, and my strength seemed to have returned to how it had been before.
Lying on the floor, I complained to the mage.
“Is it always this hard when you run out of energy?”
[...]
There was no answer.
I called him again.
“Sof? Sir Mage? Hey!”
[...You try to speak to me as an equal every chance you get.]
“That’s because you weren’t answering. Are you all right?”
[The energy flowing into the staff was cut off, so I briefly lost consciousness.]
I had wondered what he meant when he said he would stop if there was no energy, and it seemed he had meant it literally.
I let out a sigh of relief.
Whatever his personality was like, I couldn’t afford to lose a mage who was useful to me.
[Of course it is hard. Even when your stamina runs low, it becomes difficult to move; how much worse would it be when your energy runs dry?]
The mage seemed to regard dark energy as more important than stamina.
Considering the monsters I had taken down with magic, he wasn’t wrong.
Still, it was a relief. Sof had been so angry that he had not said a word except about magic.
Whether because time had passed, or because he had lost consciousness, his anger seemed to have subsided.
[Now you must feel like properly learning magic, yes? If you learn magic, you will be able to increase that insufficient energy of yours.]
His anger had stopped, but it seemed his desire to teach me magic had not diminished.
“You said it would be hard for me to learn magic because I’m stupid.”
[There is a method of education suited to an idiot. It will take far... far longer than expected, but I shall make you into a proper mage before you die of old age.]
It was an extremely unpleasant offer.
I felt like I knew what that method of education was.
It was surely Korea’s world-famous method of education: cramming.
“No. Absolutely not.”
I answered with all sincerity.
The aftereffects of energy depletion were severe.
The depleted energy filled back up slowly, and until it did, I had to endure the feeling of having hit rock bottom.
After barely pulling myself together, I picked up the thoroughly roasted ant monsters and put them into the box.
One, two, three... seven in total.
The box was gradually filling up.
They were ant monsters that would be hard to use as food, but even these monsters had to be useful somewhere.
I was smiling at that thought when I heard a voice that shattered my good mood.
[To think you are collecting such garbage. Are you planning to clean up the ruins?]
It was the mage nitpicking.
“What do you mean, garbage?”
[They are ant monsters, are they not? They are useless creatures, and thus garbage.
They are not edible, their shells are difficult to recycle, and with ant creatures, you only take out the star jewels—ah, you called them black stones, did you?—and throw the rest away.]
His words drained the strength from me, but I quickly recovered my spirits.
“I’m not throwing them away.”
Contrary to what he said, Earth’s modern science would surely find a use for these monsters.
[Even after losing so many memories, I am certain of this. They are garbage.]
“Even if they are garbage, I’m not throwing them away.”
It didn’t matter if no use was found for them.
“Because the only one who knows these monsters are garbage is you, Sof.”
The advance party didn’t know these monsters were useless.
They would not be as valuable as other monsters that served as food, but if I brought these monster corpses to them, they would be pleased.
Since I had collected plenty, they would be perfect to stack in the box and toss out whenever needed.
After hearing me, Sof lamented.
[If only the rest of your mind were even one-tenth as sharp as that cunning of yours...]
‘That’s a compliment, right?’
Whatever the truth was, I decided to take it as praise.
After putting the box into my backpack, I asked Sof.
“The capacity of the box differs from person to person. Do you know why?”
[It is only natural. Relics use the energy of the person they are bound to, so a person with a greater total amount of energy is bound to make better use of a relic.
That box is like that, and so is the staff.]
As expected of a mage.
One of my many questions had finally been answered.
It seemed relics had to be bound in order to utilize all their energy.
“So that’s why there was no difference with the translation relic...”
[That has nothing to do with binding! It is simply because that relic’s limits are low.]
It seemed I had touched a nerve again.
Without asking any more, I began walking toward the surface.
After taking care of the ants that had been out searching, the march became easy.
The passage was quiet, and there were no monsters caught by my senses.
The same was true of the fork where the ants had poured out.
As I stood in front of the stone chamber, looking at the passage the ants had come from, Sof spoke.
[They came from that passage, you say?]
“Yes. It’s quiet now, but...”
There was nothing in the passage that extended beyond the range of my senses.
I could feel neither the ants that had come out to search nor the ants that had dug the trap in this stone chamber.
[When the gorge was formed, did it connect to another cave...?]
“I have no intention of checking.”
I shook my head at Sof’s words.
I had no intention of inviting hardship upon myself.
This was not because I had heard that the ant monsters were useless.
[It does not matter. In any case, these ruins had reached the end of their lifespan long ago.]
Sof seemed to think the same as me.
Leaving the ant nest behind, I continued heading toward the surface.
I passed through the storage room and arrived at the stone chamber where I had slept with the advance party.
A great deal of time had passed.
I hadn’t run into any monsters, and my senses were quiet, so I tried to sleep there.
[I can stand watch in your place, but... this time, I think it would be better to keep going without sleeping.]
However, at Sof’s objection, I had to keep moving.
I did wonder about his urging, but I followed his words.
In any case, sleeping alone in a place like this was dangerous.
And while I continued walking without even being able to sleep, I saw ant corpses.
Ant corpses lay here and there in the passage.
All of them were soldier ants that had chased after the party who fled.
[They were weakened from being struck by the lightning trap, so it seems they could have been dealt with easily... but it appears they kept running.]
Unlike Sof, who clicked his tongue, I was relieved that I saw no human corpses.
Weakened or not, there had been dozens of soldier ant monsters.
The fact that they had escaped safely without leaving behind any bodies was impressive enough.
[The soldier ants would not have gone outside, so in a little while, you should encounter the living ones.]
Unlike ordinary ants, soldier ants seemed not to go up to the surface.
That meant once I made it outside, I could shake off the ant monsters’ pursuit.
At the thought of fighting the monsters again, strength entered the hand gripping my spear.
Perhaps sensing the tension, Sof spoke.
[If they are ones weakened by the lightning trap, there is no need to worry. They will die from a single electric spell.]
I was curious what would happen if there were so many that even killing them in one hit was too much to handle,
but I did not ask.
I was too tired to ask.
My body had become stronger than before. My stamina had improved too.
But fighting for days without sleep and continuing to walk was still extremely difficult.
How much time passed after that?
It was when I had dragged my exhausted body to a place not far from the surface.
I could see living ant monsters.
[Are they loitering at the entrance? If so, that means the other humans made it out safely. Congratulations.]
“They’re near the entrance too, but...”
Just as Sof said, ants were gathered not far from the entrance.
[You mean there are more besides those?]
I turned my head and looked back the way I had come.
I could see nothing, but I knew.
“They’re coming up from underground too.”
It wasn’t just my senses. I could hear them now as well.
Dududududu.
It was not the sound of one or two ants, but of what seemed like an entire army surging toward me.
“It’s not just one or two. Dozens—my God! Hundreds of them are coming.”
The ant army filled the passage as it pushed in from the edge of my senses.
“Why all of a sudden?”
I was bewildered by the absurd situation, but I immediately came to my senses.
“Magic, please! We have to break through.”
In front of me, ant monsters were blocking the way; behind me, an ant army was surging in.
It was the most dangerous moment that could happen inside the ruins, the one we had talked about since days ago.
To think this would happen when I had almost reached the entrance.
Ever since I came to this planet, I must have been cursed with bad luck.
Just as I gripped my spear and prepared to run,
I heard Sof let out an exclamation of realization.
[Ah, I see. I understand why I was in such a hurry.]
“Did you remember something? Even so, let’s talk about it later.”
It seemed an important memory had returned, but now was not the time to listen to it.
[Ah, this is a little different from my memories returning... In any case, you must hear it now.]
“Later. Right now, we have to survive them!”
[That is what I am trying to talk about!]
The moment Sof’s words ended,
Rrrrrrrumble.
The entire passage began to shake.
I was running forward when I tumbled onto the floor, and in that state, I heard Sof’s words.
[The reason these ruins have been maintained for all these long years is entirely because of me. I continuously used magic to support the ruins as they deteriorated with time.]
“That means...”
[After you pulled out the staff, these ruins immediately had to bear the accumulated force of the years. From that moment, places here and there began to break, and in the end, the entire ruins started to collapse.]
I raised my shaking body and forced myself to run.
Even as I ran, I vented my resentment at Sof.
“You should have told me that beforehand!”
[Well, the leakage of my memories was severe. Merely sensing the danger without the memories is impressive enough. As expected of a great mage’s intuition.]
Listening to the absurd self-praise of a senile old man, I continued sprinting forward.
I ran as hard as I could, but the wildly shaking floor made it difficult to gain speed.
In the end, the ant monsters chasing behind me caught up.
There was no fight.
I also encountered the ants that had been blocking the way ahead, but it was the same.
The ant monsters and I simply ran side by side, as hard as we could, toward the outside of the ruins.
Rumble, rumble.
Stones fell, the floor split, and the path twisted.
The entrance to the ruins began to come into view in the distance.
Outside the entrance was no different.
The gorge was collapsing.