Chapter 87: Arc Lab ⑨

They told me I’d have to wait four days.

Oh, and the price—service included—was one hundred and forty million Ouro.

…Wow.

The inflation in prices lately was so ridiculous I could barely keep up. And then a thought struck me.

“Hey, Witch. What if you quietly sold some Elixirs on the side?”

“Fufu, fufu, mm-hm, I see, I see… Wof boy, you sure like throwing water into boiling oil, don’t you? Kon likes it too.”

“Ah—never mind, forget I said anything.”

Yeah… clearly not something you should do.

Even Haiyaan, the original owner, crossed his arms in a big ✕ and looked thoroughly displeased.
Then again, he had actually done something like that before—using three eggs, no less.

Two days later, I got another message.

They needed to delay a bit—three extra days. In exchange, the price dropped by three million Ouro.

Down to one hundred and thirty-seven million.

At that point, it was basically a rounding error.

During that time, the Hydrangea Adventurer’s Guild remained closed.
Instead, they’d set up a temporary branch in another location.

The reason? An urgent response to a new dungeon anomaly.

This anomaly had appeared on one of the shallower floors.

A massive horde was heading for the surface.

The Guild staff had mobilized in full force to hold them back, but even then, manpower was running short—especially combat power.

Right now the situation was dire.
They’d set up their main base on the 7th floor and were somehow holding the line on the 8th.

Because of that, the Guild had announced a mass recruitment.
Eligibility: 4th-class through 2nd-class adventurers.

1st-class was reserved for final defense—only to be deployed if all else failed.

According to the Witch, all 1st-class adventurers without exception belonged to the Grand Guild.
Handing over full authority to them meant exactly that—Grand Guild control.

I didn’t really know the full implications of “full transfer”…
But to prevent that outcome, Aranz and the others had shut the Guild down and were pouring all their efforts into the crisis.

Hydrangea felt wrapped in a thin, uneasy mist.

Then came the night of the operation.

Dungeon, 1st floor. Garbage dump.

The empty dump had an odd atmosphere.
It was new to me, yet the feeling was hard to describe.

I stood looking down at the small portable teleportation circle that had been set up.
It glowed faint green—identical in appearance to any other teleportation circle—just… a little smaller.

Haiyaan, perched on my shoulder, spoke.

“Wof. I am sorry.”
“That’s sudden. For what?”
“I never imagined it would come to this. This is my fault.”
“I also bear responsibility for waking you up.”
“Not us, Wof… About Mineha-san and the others—”
“Yes. I haven’t told them. I can’t drag them into this.”

I could lose my adventurer’s license and be fine. I’d never wanted it that badly to begin with.

But Mineha and the others were different.
They had real dreams and hopes tied to being adventurers.

If someone had to lose something, it should be me—
Even if it destroyed our relationship.

“…Let’s hurry. If what you said is true, we have to stop it immediately.”
“Yes. The Minos Unit’s infinite spawning can be stopped at the Lab.”

Infinite spawning.

I’d only learned about it the night before. The sudden revelation had nearly left me breathless.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t truly infinite—they spawned by consuming dungeon resources.

They were originally a prototype weapon designed to fight dungeons,
but it turned out they couldn’t be controlled—technologically impossible.

Development was frozen two steps before mass deployment. That should have been the end of it.

So, once the dungeon’s resources ran out, the spawning would stop.
But that would also cause the dungeon itself to collapse.

And long before that happened, Hydrangea—no, the entire frontier and the kingdom—would fall.
It might not even end there.

With the Witch around, the damage in Hydrangea might be limited… but it was still a war. People were already dying.

It was no joke. It made me want to cry.

We had to stop it. No matter what.

From the 1st floor, we teleported to the 4th.

Inside a cave, the next teleportation circle was right before us.
I pressed the portable teleport scroll against it.

“Alright!”

Jump.

Next stop: 6th floor—a small hut. Same procedure. Jump again.

8th floor—inside what looked like a storage room.

This was the front line. In the distance, something rumbled—constant, violent, like an endless thunderstorm.

Haiyaan grimaced.

“Let’s go, Wof.”

12th floor.

We arrived in a small space surrounded by slanted stone pillars.
Slipping out, we moved quietly, avoiding detection.

We climbed the pillars carefully until we reached a vantage point.

“This is the Arc Ruins.”

An endless plain of massive stones and pillars stretched to the horizon, with occasional shafts of light piercing down.

Far away, I saw it—the “Arc.” I understood the name now.

A colossal, ship-like stone buried on its side, like an upturned hull.

One part of the floor was completely clear of pillars, forming a wide, straight path.

And there—filling that path—was a vast army of pale blue, metallic minotaurs.

They weren’t like the ones we’d fought before.

No four eyes or four arms—these had three eyes and normal minotaur builds.
They carried weapons.

“Soldiers… maybe?”

“You fought a Minos Guardian—a special individual. The Minos Units are modeled after the average strength of a standard minotaur.”

“…Which is still a big problem.”

Minotaurs were strong—bronze-rank upper tier to silver-rank mid tier, depending on the type.
They usually appeared in mid-level dungeon floors, serving as gatekeepers of sorts.

And now there was an army of them. The sight made me shiver.

“There. The Lab. Looks the same.”
“Where?”

Haiyaan pointed to a small dome tucked against the rightmost stone wall.

Just as we were about to move—

『BUOHHHH!』

A Minos Unit had spotted us. Just one, but enough.

I dodged its axe strike, leapt to a small pillar, and used [Vanish] to slice its torso clean off.

“Hoh. Nicely done.”
“Emergency situation.”

From then on, I used [Vanish] repeatedly.

Knives only for defense—the Units fell to [Vanish] alone.
In a crisis like this, there was no room to cling to fighting style preferences.

“Wait a minute—how is that relic that strong? And no cooldown?”
“No cooldown.”

Come to think of it, no, there isn’t. I just realized that now. Haiyaan gave a wry smile.

“…You really are completely out of the ordinary… though I’m not one to talk.”

Not exactly a compliment I enjoy hearing.

After that, we made detours, hid to avoid encounters, and when unavoidable, fought our way through.

At last, we arrived at the stone dome that housed the lab.

A dome made of large stones.

It looked like it could be either artificial or natural — but that was all.

I had thought its surface was smooth, but it turned out to be surprisingly rough and uneven.

“Um… the lab is…”

“…It’s here.”

Haiyaan pointed to the very front of the dome.

“?”

“If you look closely, you’ll see an egg-shaped hollow.”

“This? Don’t tell me—”

I took the Holy Egg of Elixir from my pouch and fit it into the hollow.

Part of the stone dome opened with a low rumble.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“…This is the lab?”

Inside the dome was—oddly refined.

Actually, there was nothing in it at all. Just a single gate in the center, with a pedestal in front of it.

When Haiyaan touched the pedestal, the gate began to glow green.

“…Looks like gate access still works.”

Beyond the gate, the view warped, showing another scene entirely.

A gate… so beyond this is the lab?

Following Haiyaan, I stepped through the gate, tense.

On the other side stretched a corridor.

It was a sterile, grey corridor, with small floating spheres hovering in the air.

Several rooms lined the passage, but all the doors were closed.

Somehow, the corridor had no sense of metallic texture.

No… this was probably metal, but… even my memories from my past life couldn’t quite place it.

“Amazing. Did you build this?”

“No. The only thing I could make was that gate.”

“Then this place is…”

The far end of the corridor had double doors.

They opened automatically.

“…Ah… finally. Finally.”

Haiyaan stepped in with deep emotion.

I too entered the lab.

And… could something like this really exist in this world?

Should it even be allowed to?

It was a simple room, with the same sterile feel as the corridor.

Rounded, mouse-grey walls surrounded us, and the front wall was entirely glass.

There were four white, square table-like structures.

Against one wall sat shelves and a desk that were clearly brought in later.

Lights hung from the ceiling, turning on the instant we entered.

“……”

In the glass wall ahead, there was some kind of control panel — not buttons, but a touch screen. Beyond the glass… what was that?

A silver disc, with a tank attached, and in the center a massive sphere.

Floating around it were various shapes — squares, triangles, circles. What on earth was this?

Haiyaan gazed around with a nostalgic look. There was so much to comment on, I didn’t even know where to start.

“Haiyaan. We’re short on time.”

“Right.”

Haiyaan stepped up to the touch panel and began operating it.

Windows appeared in midair, streams of text flowing across them.

Searching for something, maybe?

“Na?”

“You’re awake?”

I’d brought Dagaa along in knife form so I wouldn’t have to leave them behind.

But at this time of day, they usually slept.

“…Not here. The Minos Unit’s Infinite Spawn Core System isn’t in the lab… and neither is my body.”

Don’t start looking for your own body in the middle of this.

“Then where is it?”

“…Wait. It’s hard to operate like this as a rabbit… Ah! There it is. Found it! The Minos Unit’s Infinite Spawn Core System! I’ll put it on the map now.”

A 3D map of this floor appeared in midair.

A blue light point was marked on it. I immediately understood.

“Is it here?”

“Yes. At this point.”

“…Wait, that’s…”

Smack in the middle of a massive horde of Minos Units.

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