Is this really just an RPG? !

There are many kinds of monsters. For example, the group of magic wolves that can release ice magic that I encountered in the north of Alexandria, or the slime that is huge but has no lethality and is stupid to death.

The common characteristics of monsters are creatures, possessing magic power, possessing a certain command... ah! Of course, the slime can barely be called a monster purely because of its unique structure, strong resilience, and experience for the brave.

Although, as a brave man, I have only fought one king slime so far, I also got a slime's summoned beast.

Later, because it was inconvenient to carry into Yvette City, I canceled the summoning and sent it back to the summoning space, and I haven't called it out until now.

Because there is no need.

This slime probably has no more use than guiding the way, right?

Only weirdos like Qiuqiu would think of eating slime cores!

"Neil, this way."

"clear."

I answered in response, speeding up and following Emily who was in front of me. Even though she is a spellcaster, she moves so quickly. She doesn't look like someone who entered the forest for the first time. It seems that she "likes to explore the ruins" is not just talking about it, but she is really well prepared.

As I learned in advance, a few weeks later the college issued a notice that "all incoming freshmen will take a semester test", and only gave "you need to go outside the college to find something, and then come back and give it to your professor" tips. As for the results, it is related to the items handed in and the time of completion.

But ah!

If this senior really plans to delay returning to the academy until the end of the exam, will I really not be ordered to drop out of school?

"Okay, let's rest here."

"Huh... Senior sister is really strong."

I leaned against the tree trunk with my hands on my knees and sighed. Obviously, she ran all the way, but Emily was only slightly out of breath, and there was no trace of fatigue on her face.

After announcing the start of the academic test, Emily came to me in a hurry, and said something like "I have collected clues about the goal", and threw me a series of instructions for me to understand slowly on the way. I didn’t understand what my mission was until the day before departure—leaving the academy, going to Catherine Forest, looking for an abandoned magic item in a ruin inside, trying to conduct a series of research on it, and finally combining this magic item with Submit the relevant research report, and you can get an S-level evaluation.

What a simple and clear task!

"Is this really from the school, not from you, senior?"

After sorting out all the materials, I wrote all the main information in a notebook, but no matter how many times I read it, I felt that there must be a big inside story. Why can Emily find all the clues before me, and why the mission information is just about the ruins.

Coincidences are normal, but coincidences of coincidences must have ulterior reasons.

"No, it's nothing, there is still a little way left, let's use magic to speed up."

"Hmm... is it okay to use magic here?"

It's a poor way to change the subject, but it's really useful.

Rather than why it is such a task, I want to know more about this forest. If Qiuqiu stayed by my side like before, I would be able to get quite detailed answers just by asking her, unlike now, I only know that this forest is named after Catherine, the god of changing roles, but I don’t know that he has What features need attention.

Route change?

Terrain changes?

Or is it more likely to be a changing phenomenon?

I don't know about these. Generally speaking, in order to prevent special situations, we will take as inconspicuous actions as possible. The most important thing is to reduce the number of times we use magic. Not to mention that many monsters are very sensitive to the flow of magic power. Most of the spells have spectacular sound and light effects, which leads to those who are not sensitive to follow the sound and light.

However, Emily is not worried about this kind of thing at all, as if she is sure that no one will be attracted.

Could it be that she has been to this forest many times?

Holding the metal staff with both hands, chanting a spell to gather the magic power on the staff, Emily inserted the end of the staff into the ground, using the staff as a conductor, the magic power gradually radiated, and a magic circle emerged on the ground. Then, the speed of the spell chanting suddenly increased, and the surrounding Mana became irritable.

Like instilling active thoughts in unconscious mana.

"Reactive thrust acceleration! [Reactive thrust acceleration]!"

The ground was blasted, and I used the momentum generated by the explosion to accelerate. It was an outrageous and unreasonable way of advancing. When I heard the loud explosion, I almost activated [Teleportation] to leave the range of the magic circle.

The protective runes on both sides light up one by one, forming an air wall that cannot be discerned by the naked eye, blocking the air pressure formed by high-speed movement... At first I thought it was a preparation to avoid collision, but it was not the case.

Emily's operation was very precise, just breaking a few branches.

"Recycled magic! 【Magic power secondary formula】!"

Grab the staff and spin it in the air, this time pointing your head at the magic circle under your feet.

The previous flow of magic power stopped instantly, and then began to flow in the opposite direction, and the erupted mana regrouped at the top of the staff.

I subconsciously bit my lip.

With such an obvious action, of course Emily did this to repeatedly use the magic power for a second burst.

This theory was only mentioned by other senior students by accident. It is a technique that has not been thoroughly researched, but from the perspective of Emily's movements, she has definitely used it many times and has fully understood the key to this technique. That's right... the academy's genius magical girl is really not just casually speaking.

"Reactive thrust acceleration·Quadratic explosion! [Reactive thrust acceleration·Secondary explosion]!"

An explosion not weaker than before was generated under the feet, and the slightly reduced speed returned to the initial state. Obviously, she and I just entered the forest not long ago, and now we can see the entrance of the ruins. Just ahead, there are strange buildings made of white stone. There are several arches alone, like some kind of very sacred place, and there are huge stones that can barely see the human shape beside each arch.

It was a doll, but because it lacked magic power, it was completely turned into waste.

"Reactive thrust acceleration·Cadence!【Reactive thrust acceleration·termination】!"

Waving the staff, Emily generated a small buffer magic not far ahead, announcing the complete end of the journey.

"call!"

It feels so good to have your feet on the ground!

This is my first feeling on the ground.

"You didn't spit it out in embarrassment. It seems that you have good adaptability."

Emily teased, I can only shrug to her helplessly, there is nothing to answer.

"This is here, Catherine's ruins, probably the buildings that survived from the previous era."

"Catherine's ruins? That is to say, the name of the forest comes from this ruins?"

I looked at Emily in astonishment.

"Almost, you can perceive the location of this ruin."

"Even if you say that..."

I don't know all kinds of probing magic, which is really a pity.

"Okay... I forgot that you are a special case among this class of students."

Emily turned her head away, but I still saw that "that's sad but I can't help but laugh" look on her face. Feeling an arrow being shot deep in my knee, I calculated the difference in combat power between myself and the opponent in my mind, and decided to keep silent as if I hadn't seen anything.

Because she was directly dragged out by this impatient senior, she didn't prepare enough magic items at all.

"Catherine's ruins are located in the center of the entire forest, plus the strange giant trees growing in four directions of the forest, you should be able to guess it!"

Emily reminded me so.

I subconsciously pulled out the map beside me.

"The center is the ruins, the giant tree in the north is the withered white wood, the south is the lush, and the east and west directions are the new buds and withered yellow... So Catherine's real role is not change, but reincarnation? Change is only a small part of the subsidiary attributes ?”

"It's better to say that the real change has another god."

Listening to Emily's explanation, I couldn't help but nodded.

Having said that, the name that guy gave these trees can be understood by those in the north, south, and west, because the three trees are really too huge, and there is a clear gap with the surrounding ones, but the one in the east is because it is a new bud. The reason is that it will be as big as the other three trees after it grows up, and because it represents the state of "sprout", it has actually stopped growing.

Could it be that someone used a predictive spell on a young sprout, and had a premonition that this young sprout would grow into a towering tree?

Tsk tsk, what an extravagant gesture.

"In short, our goal is inside this ruin."

"real?"

Looking at the deserted ruins, I became a little uncertain.

According to the information I have learned, although the tasks given to everyone in this academic test are almost different, there are still some things in common. The places and people to obtain information are fixed, and the guardians of the task goals are also the same. But at the entrance of the "Catherine Ruins" in front of me, I didn't see any magic dolls that could be used as actual combat tests, only a pile of messy rubble.

Like what's left after something has been broken.

There was a strange manna in the air, such as I had never encountered before.

"Neil?"

"...Wait a minute, I want to do a test."

I answered Emily who was investigating the arch like this.

"Activate magic power."

Recite the mantra, use it as a medium to activate the mana in my body, and then use my own mana to drive the peaceful mana around me, and activate the mana in the entire area. The action that can be completed smoothly usually, but today there is an unspeakable situation.

As a brave man who is close to mana, even if I can't use all kinds of spells, I can still easily mobilize the mana around me. But it doesn't work now. It feels like knocking on the door of a stranger's house, and there is no response from the door.

so bad.

I thought so, and frowned anxiously.

"It doesn't look right."

"Hmm... eh?! Senior, what are you doing!"

"Oh, as you can see, parsing stones."

When I came back to my senses, Emily was lying solemnly in front of the gate of the ruins, doing some research. The object of her research was not the brand new gate with a different style from the surrounding ones, but the scattered stones. First, inject magic power into the stone, then throw a series of magic over it, and finally through the sense of smell and taste... Speaking of which, you can really chew and eat the stone that has been abandoned for so long!

Senior, your surname is Grylls!

Actually you are Emily Grylls!

"Sister, you..."

"Tastes bad."

After Emily stood up, with a disgusted expression on her face, she kept clutching her throat and retching.

"I don't think it's possible to come up with this answer without trying."

After all, it is a stone discarded outside, who knows how much time has passed.

Just eating ashes is bad.

"No, no, you probably misunderstood what I meant."

After drinking the whole pot of magic spring, Emily took a breath, picked up a small piece of stone that she gnawed off, and threw it at me. After catching the stone in a panic, I realized what Emily meant. What she was talking about was not the smell of the stone, but the smell of mana on the stone.

It's a little hard to understand.

These ubiquitous mana actually have a variety of flavors, even people who learn magic can hardly detect it, unless they are naturally sensitive to mana. By the way, fire-type mana is not very spicy, but if you eat too much at one bite, you will get angry, and water-type mana has a fishy smell, which is really inexplicable.

The mana on the stone in front of him showed a bitter taste.

"Dark elements, summoning engraving... the guy from hell?"

"The stone is just a summoning medium. It's a pity that this guy has been sent back."

Emily had regret written all over her face.

I really don't know what she thinks, is it possible that she still wants to fight this summoned guy?

"Sister, did you really make a mistake?"

I looked towards the gate of the ruins.

No matter how much the school pursues actual combat, it will not come up with such a thing.

"It seems that there is a small deviation."

"Small deviation?"

"For the sake of convenience, I'm just throwing you information about a ruin I planned to visit before, and it wasn't arranged by the school."

"..."

Well, I should have guessed this was the case.

"But since you found such an interesting thing, why don't you go down and have a look?"

Emily suppressed her excitement, turned around and looked at me seriously.

In this regard, I can only sigh helplessly.

"No matter how interesting it is, you have to find a way to get in. The gate is locked."

Even though I didn't go up and touch it, I could still feel it. The magic lock was applied on the door, and the magic lock was the entire forest. It has something to do with a special tree, but there are not enough manpower, so it should be done with four people.

"It's not that troublesome."

The senior held the staff in both hands and was facing the gate.

I suddenly had a bad premonition.

"That, senpai..."

"Qendation shoot! [Honkai shooting]!"

A huge ice cone was formed on the top of the staff, and at the same time, violent lightning was poured into the ice cone. When the lightning was overloaded to the point that it would leak out and bomb the surroundings, Emily swung the staff and shot the ice cone towards the gate. Without any accident, the ice cone pierced the gate, and the lightning stored inside also gushed out.

"boom!"

There was a blast, and when the dust settled, I saw a big hole in the gate of the ruins.

Even if three or four people walk in side by side, there is no problem.

"Okay, let's go in."

"yes……"

There is no room for rejection.

I can only follow Emily into the ruins.

…………

Having said that, is it really okay to use such loud magic in the depths of the forest?

※ ※ ※ ※

Catherine is the god of reincarnation.

Without Qiuqiu's introduction, I had no way of knowing about Catherine, and I could only read some of it when I was flipping through an old book in the library of the college.

Catherine likes to live in seclusion, and has a good personality and popularity, but she rarely interacts with other gods. Later, she even gave up her priesthood and came to Lindsay Continent to live in a certain forest.

Therefore, Catherine Forest is actually the forest where Catherine, the god of reincarnation, lived, and the ruins in front of me are the place where Catherine lived.

There should be no problem with this guess, but there is an insurmountable gap between reality and imagination... Well, at least I can't agree that such a dilapidated place is actually the former residence of a certain god?

The corridor leading to the underground is full of dust and cobwebs. Some of the steps will shatter as soon as you step on it. Water droplets seep from the wall above. The most important thing is that I can't feel any mana here.

"Forbidden land."

Emily stopped, took out a torch and illuminated the surroundings.

"I can't feel the mana, not at all."

"The residence of the gods is often a place where magic is forbidden, because they don't need mana to support them to release their spells, they only need their own strength."

"Belief?"

"Almost... After all, the power of the gods is related to the belief they have obtained."

"It's really Catherine's address!"

No one could have imagined that such a place that no one wants to approach would be the address of the legendary god.

"If no one approaches, it can be considered understandable."

Emily suddenly looked back at me.

As if seeing through my thoughts, he explained my thoughts in one sentence.

"Understand?"

"Fuck Away [idle people avoid approaching] is not a high-end magic. If you go to church and find a priest or nun, they can use it. It can be said to be the most basic magic."

"..."

I seem to hear some simple and rough pronunciation?

"Listen to my pronunciation clearly, Fuck Away [idle people avoid approaching], to put it bluntly, it means 'unrelated people are not allowed to approach'." Emily explained to me while drawing an "X" in the air with her free left hand , and then drew another "○", "Generally speaking, the users of divine arts are mostly themselves 'do not want other people to approach', but the words of divine arts forcibly stipulate the actions of others."

"But the language used by divine arts and spells is the same language."

"You have to understand that Anthony is also a god."

"It makes sense."

I couldn't help but nodded, agreeing with Emily's answer.

As Anthony, the god of knowledge and magic, when sending magic to Lindsay's world, he also sent a language at the same time. The language used to praise the gods, so it can only be considered that both are the languages ​​of the gods.

The gods are really too lazy to engage in a second language.

Although it is quite convenient.

"By the way!" Because of the mention of language, I suddenly remembered something, and stretched out my hand to hold Emily who was walking in front, "If this is the case, then the words engraved on the wall should be the ones we usually use." runes'."

"wall?"

Emily looked at me in surprise, as if she hadn't noticed it at all.

When I came in, I didn’t notice it because it was too dark. It wasn’t until the torches illuminated it that I vaguely noticed that some words appeared on the walls on both sides from time to time.

It dawned on me after talking to Emily. These crooked and ugly-looking characters are actually runes.

It's just that the writing style is a bit weird.

"Words, words... because they will be connected with the gaps in the bricks, so you can't find them if you don't look carefully. In addition, such a dilapidated corridor doesn't seem like a place with anything, so it's easy to be ignored. Really, How did you find out?"

"Feel it."

I answered with some uncertainty.

It may be just an illusion, these words still have a little magic power, in such an environment, that little bit of mana is as conspicuous as the starlight in the dark night, that's why I noticed the situation on the wall, and found that these are connected with the gaps. words together. What is even more astonishing is that these characters were not engraved with some kind of sharp tool, but formed naturally.

Maybe it's magic?

Reincarnation and time have a certain close relationship, so it's no surprise that Catherine can do this!

"The walls are badly damaged."

Emily stood by the wall, brought the torch closer, and frowned.

"Can't identify it?"

"If magic can be used here, I can still do it."

"what a pity."

You can recognize it if you can use magic, but there are no conditions for using magic here. In this corridor where mana cannot be felt, it is impossible to even use the simplest [Illumination Spell], let alone cast some more esoteric spells. But, sorry about that, neither Emily nor I were depressed for long and moved on.

Because there is no magic power, there is no need to worry about any defensive spells. Of course, there is no way to confirm the current location without magic power. The only good thing is that there is no fork in this corridor, as long as you keep going. The walls along the way are the same as before, with some words engraved at intervals. I tried to use the method of sensing mana to decipher these words, but failed.

The remaining mana is too weak, and it is impossible to read any information from it.

"How much longer?"

It is easy to lose the perception of time in a closed environment, and I can only vaguely feel that it should have been walking for a long time.

I decided to ask Emily, hoping that she, who often explores the ruins, would have a solution to these situations, but the reply I got was just shaking my head. After a brief silence, Emily seemed to remember something, slowed down, and brought the torch closer to me.

"First confirm, Neil, do you still have any means of self-protection?"

"Hmm... In such an environment, there is no way to use magic potions."

"If you're talking about something that explodes when you throw it, sure."

"Okay, okay." I narrowed my eyes and raised my hands, "All I carry are magic scrolls and explosive potions, which means that my current combat power is basically zero... Oh yes! I also have a short Sword, the hardness is not bad."

A dagger named "Heirloom" given by a blacksmith at that time.

It was also identified by the system as a series of question marks, which belonged to weightless props, not weapons.

Very special thing!

"Let's count it as combat power 1?"

"I would rather you ignore my combat power. In comparison, my ability to escape is quite good."

"like water off a duck's back."

"Thank you for the compliment, each other."

I feel more and more that this genius girl in front of me is compatible with my personality.

The lighting flame suddenly went out, and the surrounding darkness made it difficult for me to adapt for a while. I didn't quite understand the reason why Emily did this, but when I raised my head and looked forward, I realized why she turned off the torch. Because there is a faint light in front, it is probably the location of the exit.

This long corridor is finally coming to an end.

"Take your steps lightly and pass slowly, just in case."

Emily reminded me so.

In the dim environment, I can only see the outline of her face, but I can still feel the seriousness.

"clear."

I nod.

"We shouldn't be the first to arrive."

"Eh?"

"I mean, for some reason, someone came here earlier, as to whether they're still in there, I don't know."

"How did you know."

"It's on your right." Emily stretched out her hand and forcibly turned my head to the side, and then pointed to a position roughly on the ground, "Although the light is not enough, you can probably tell from the outline that this is a dead body, there is no way Confirm the time of death, but at least one thing can be said, that is, we are quite lucky."

As she said, after getting used to such an environment, she can barely discern what is in front of her eyes. The silhouette should be that of an adult male. He maintained a kneeling posture with his upper body leaning back. The cause of death was that his chest was pierced by a sharp object. I wanted to find something to illuminate and get a good look at this man's death, but Emily stopped me.

"It's meaningless to investigate him, he is nothing more than an ordinary explorer."

"How are you sure?"

Could it be that her vision is not affected in such an environment?

"No, I just looked at it from a distance before I extinguished the torch, and probably guessed it after memorizing the characteristics."

"I see, I thought you were a special case of intermingling among humans."

"Actually, my night vision ability is not bad!"

"That's not important." I couldn't grasp the point more and more, I sighed, turned my eyes away from the dead body, and looked towards the exit, "Is the front really safe? Senior sister."

"I probably haven't said anything about safety."

"Then what about the defensive measures?!"

"Your short sword, I believe in your skill."

"The problem is that I don't believe it!"

So did this guy take me to this kind of place without any preparation at all? Anyway, I can be sure that this is definitely not a place set up by the school to test students, but a genuine relic. In other words, there might be something beyond imagination inside.

For example, giant dolls?

…………

Well, I can only think of dolls, who made this thing easy to use from ancient times to the present.

"Well, Neil, let me tell you one thing first."

"Um?"

"Actually, this ruin is just a place I plan to explore, not your test task."

"I can probably guess it, but where did you get the clues from?"

"College."

"ah?"

Can this kind of clue be obtained in the academy?

If it wasn't because the environment was too dark, I really want to see the expression on my face, it must be wonderful.

"Actually, it's similar to your semester test. There is a hidden rule in the college, 'just go to the tavern in the college' to get some information, and you might get more things if you give a little gold coins."

"Why is this rule so inexplicably familiar?"

It's just the norm for RPG games.

"Actually, I planned to help you finish the semester test first, so I went to help you find information in advance, but got news about this ruin."

"when?"

"Two weeks ago."

"It's too early!"

No matter how you think about it, you will not start releasing news so early.

I complained in my heart, and followed Emily out of the corridor to a spacious place.

This should be the main part of the ruins.

"At least it's meaningful for us to come here." Emily's tone suddenly calmed down, and she lowered her voice. She pointed to the stones emitting blue light above, "I finally understand why I can't feel Mana here. For the manna of the whole chamber is gathered on these stones."

"It really is……"

Unspeakable scene.

I probably understand the joy of exploring the ruins, that is, I will encounter things that I can't imagine, such as what I see in front of my eyes. Because of the light from the milkstone hanging from the ceiling, the whole room is filled with blue light, which makes people feel like they are underwater, and the light also has a cold feeling... wait, cold?

"Catherine, does it have something to do with water?"

"Judging from the current situation, it's probably the case."

Emily found a rock from nowhere and started to chew on it. Even though I was used to her behavior and knew her purpose, the words "pica really don't know how to complain" still appeared in my mind. idea.

I didn't stop Emily, I just looked up at the milkstones silently, feeling what answer I could get from these stones... Ah, my intuition is like this, because when I came to this empty room, the most noticeable thing was These are the stones.

I don't know what method was used to condense the mana in the entire room into the milkstone, and without exception, it is water mana related to cold and damp.

After all, he is also the god of reincarnation, shouldn't it be something more high-end and majestic?

Sure enough, I just thought too much.

"The water mana is very pure, and it is still in a static state. I tried to activate them several times, but there was no response."

"That's it... By the way, senior, what are these milkstones on the ground?"

"Naturally formed."

"Sure enough—do you think I will believe it?!"

This guy actually intends to be perfunctory in a serious way!

No matter how much attention is drawn to the ceiling, it is not difficult to notice these strangely arranged milkstones on the ground. They seem to be piecing together some kind of graphic, but unfortunately, this graphic is not complete, and there is an inexplicable missing in one place, which is really a situation that kills obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Could this be some kind of mechanism?

"Try it and you'll know?"

"what are you doing!"

"Practice is the most direct way to test the truth."

"... Does that make sense?"

"So I did it!"

Emily smashed the mana-filled stone into a milkstone on the ground, and then something unexpected happened. The thrown gravel did not fall directly on the ground, but was tightly attached to the milkstone, and the azure light gradually transferred from the gravel to the milkstone, and then lit up the milkstone on the entire ground.

"Patter."

The gravel completely turned into a pool of soft soil and fell to the ground.

"Whaaaaaaa!"

As if something had been turned on, weird screams echoed throughout the ruins.

If you find a more direct word to describe it, it would probably be "crying ghosts and howling wolves"?

"It looks like I triggered something incredible."

Even in such a situation, Emily still teased calmly. I really don't know whether it is better for her to be calm or calm. All in all, there was no time to think about what kind of person Emily was, and the situation seemed too bad.

I drew out the dagger I carried with me and held it tightly in both hands.

"Senior sister, if you fight these guys without being able to cast spells, what are the chances that you can protect yourself?"

"Even if I drag a staff, I can smash several of them into the air, but I can't stand this amount."

Emily's tone sounded a bit embarrassed.

"So it's better to resign yourself to fate?"

"It's not bad to give up treatment!"

This man is enough!

Although I can understand why she would say that.

Because in front of us is a large wave of... Zombies?

They should not be aimed at the brain!