Beyond its empty sockets, ghost fire blazed and blazed, glaring at me unmistakably.
Being glared at that way by an opponent I'd never so much as met is disconcerting, though on the other hand it's nothing new.
As if it knew that too, it opened that enormous maw and began condensing energy.
'This is insane.'
What the thing was, and why it was blocking this pit, I had no idea.
But I could tell what the energy massing in its mouth meant.
'Breath.'
Or the degraded version of it, rather.
ZZZZRRRM—
KABOOOOOOM!!!
[Blink]
A mass of energy slammed down instantly onto the spot where I'd just been standing.
Looking closely at the struck ground, it hadn't simply been destroyed; it was melting.
'Acid breath, seriously?'
A sight that called up the Bone Dragon's breath I'd faced before the regression.
Though its force didn't come to even half of that…….
'How long is this bastard going to keep spewing?'
The acid beam kept tracking along my trail.
Take that head-on and there'd be no answer for it.
I hurriedly shifted position with [Blink] again, but it chased after me with no sign of letting up.
'Is it charging magic power from down there?'
The huge pit that had been drawing Existence Analysis's attention all along.
From the pit beneath the turtle's belly, an enormous quantity of magic power was being converted into the thing's energy.
"Tch."
I changed position with Blink once more.
Closer to the turtle than before.
The best place to dodge that would be under its belly shell.
But the ominous churning of magic power beneath it made using Blink difficult.
Blink used carelessly in a place that unstable could twist every organ in my body.
'Not something Grade E Blink can solve, at any rate.'
So what could I do?
Run there on my own feet.
Bending the attack's path with Blink moment by moment and releasing magic power beneath my feet several times over, I finally reached the underside of its gut.
And there was something glittering above my head.
Something shining and sparkling on its belly caught my eye.
"What is that, a dragon heart?"
The turtle's core, connected to the pit that was spewing that enormous level of magic power.
'It might as well be advertising itself as the weak point.'
But smashing it didn't look easy.
A translucent curtain of magic power completely filled every gap beyond its belly shell.
'Let's hit it once anyway.'
There was an application of Magic Arts I'd been practicing whenever I had a spare moment lately.
An idea I'd gained while copying the explosive fruit of Warmark's plant-type beast with Existence Analysis.
VWOOOOM.
I assembled the "explosion" of the explosive fruit itself into a spell formula.
With force far weaker than the original.
But I left it enough of its role as a detonator.
What the detonator would fire were the six magic power bullets wrapped around my fist.
[Magic Arts Subcategory: Non-Attribute]
[Shadow Bullet]
The basic spell formula that forms the bullets began from the black mages' "Shadow Arrow," but it is magic newly created out of the knowledge and experience I hold.
Just as I devised it to be more efficient than simply releasing raw magic power.
This magic specializes in "penetration."
BLAM—!
But all that appeared at the point of impact was a fine crack.
It hadn't fully penetrated.
And even that was quickly repaired with magic power absorbed from the pit.
'No wonder there wasn't a single demonic beast anywhere around.'
With a monster like this settled here, it was only natural.
――――.
The turtle, apparently recognizing that it had been attacked, began absorbing the magic power of the whole area.
No sooner had I sensed the danger and escaped from beneath its belly.
KABOOOOOM—!!
"Gah."
The curtain guarding its body transformed in an instant into sharp spikes and impaled everything beneath it.
Had I stayed under there, I'd have become a skewer without managing even a scream.
"Well. This is awkward."
Pain registered in my shoulder.
The price of blocking a spike that flew this far despite the distance I'd opened.
'This is exactly why you don't solo a raid mob.'
The faces of my companions from before the regression came to mind.
We weren't always together, but they were the ones who broke through hardship alongside me.
I'd probably never see those faces again now.
But it was true that I missed the reassurance I felt back then, a little.
"Whew."
I shook off the useless feeling and turned to what the exchange had won me.
'Only briefly, but the curtain vanished when the spikes burst out.'
I could aim for that moment and slip inside.
'The question is whether I have a way to take that attack whole.'
Fortunately, it wasn't as though there was no way at all.
Unlike the breath, that spike-like discharge was an area attack, so the force concentrated on any one point was weak.
'If I time it right…….'
It repeated the same pattern as before.
When I opened distance, the acid beam began condensing in the turtle's snout.
Dodging it with Blink and weaving back beneath it as though dancing, I charged.
And once more I arrived under its belly.
BLAM—!
When I provoked it again with the shadow bullets.
―――!!
It began massing magic power once more.
'Fortunately, maybe because there's no caster, the movements themselves are simple.'
Then the magic power burst out just as before.
Matching it, I released all at once the magic power I'd been circulating through my body from the start.
Magic power concentrated forward only, leaving my back out of it.
The quantity and quality of magic power I'd built up over sixteen years lose out to nothing anywhere.
Not enough to overwhelm that monster, of course.
But enough for a single moment's "repulsion."
'Now!'
Within the exploding magic power, my repelling magic power carved out an extremely fine gap.
With Magic Arts still at Grade E, fine control was impossible, but my eye for discerning energy itself hadn't regressed one bit compared to before the regression.
Because that eye was built out of experience.
And through that minute gap, I thrust out my arm as though I'd been waiting for it.
[Shadow Bullet]
[Six-Stack Cylinder Reload]
[Single Action Fanning]
Six magic power bullets rose around my fist.
It was a single punch that would travel barely a meter, but the destructive force packed into it could pierce steel like tofu.
BA-BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM—!!
Through the gap bared for an instant, all six bullets fired at once and struck without mercy.
And that made an opening.
A hole connecting me to its core.
BOOM—!
Releasing magic power beneath my feet, I shot inside its belly shell like a cannon shell.
"It's over."
And drove a single punch into the core.
SHATTER—!
"Whew."
Its core broke into pieces like porcelain.
And the tension in my body eased a little.
One small mistake and I'd have melted to death in that beam, or left no trace at all between the exploding surges of magic power.
Truly an amazing day I was having.
After a short wait, I felt the turtle, robbed of its core, collapsing.
"Why the hell was something like this in the dungeon?"
Who could ever have imagined an undead this size squatting in a corner of the dungeon?
This damned dungeon really does keep turning up something new, however much you peel it.
And so, one crisis passed.
I checked the shattered core of the turtle.
"……What is this?"
The core was none other than a jar.
And it held another, smaller jar inside it.
"Another core inside the core……? Wait……."
The jar looked familiar somehow.
Before the regression, I had definitely smashed one of these.
"No……."
That was the Lich King's Life Vessel.
***
The Lich King.
As the name suggests, a monster that appeared even in the game as a truly vicious boss.
And naturally, one the pre-regression me had defeated.
"This was sealed in Enoch's dungeon?"
A Life Vessel trapped in the turtle's core for reasons unknown.
The soul was inside it as well, and the issue was that it had been sealed.
"Hmm……."
What should I do with this?
Destroying it right away might be one option.
The Lich King I faced before the regression was a monster without a shred of reason in it.
It's a bit odd for me, a student of black magic, to say this.
But the hardest battlefield before the regression was none other than that city overrun with undead.
That's how much I hate undead.
Because the mental damage was severe in all sorts of ways.
But…….
"So the Lich King was sleeping at the exact spot where the magic power twisted. Is that really a coincidence?"
Had someone moved it here?
My paranoia crept up and raised its head again.
Those goddamn Heavenly Realm bastards.
The paranoia they gave me shows no sign of ever going away.
"Ugh."
Still, caution beats acting rashly.
What became of me when I pushed the game's scenario before the regression?
I mustn't make the same mistake.
So for now I took the Lich King's Life Vessel with me.
Its soul did seem to be sealed inside.
'The rest I can have Blackie look into.'
Being a dream spirit, it should be able to communicate with souls.
And since it's the mansion where Enoch stays, the chance of serious trouble is small.
"So now……."
My rest was roughly over, so it was time to handle the reason I'd come out here.
WHOOOOSH…….
Before the pit where a whirlpool of magic power raged.
The pit the giant skeletal turtle had been blocking was my original purpose here: the site where the twisting of magic power occurred.
"Hm. There's no answer for this."
The problem was that the density of the magic power raging inside the pit was heavy, and far too heavy at that.
Throwing myself in recklessly would be the same as swimming bare-bodied a thousand meters down.
Yes, let's admit what needs admitting.
This was not something I could solve on my own.
So I would have to get someone else's help.
I'd been reborn in a child's body, so it was time to ask an adult.
***
I returned to the mansion and explained the day's events to Enoch and Zigwell.
And handed the Lich King's Life Vessel over to Blackie while I was at it.
"Hm."
Having heard all of it, Enoch seemed to think for a moment, then nodded.
"I have a memory of that."
"The period in which the dungeon's desolation progressed overlaps with the twisting of magic power. If we resolve this problem, the dungeon's situation should improve on what it is now."
"Is it something that must be done?"
"It is better done. Because a dungeon is fluidly connected to its master, if the dungeon's growth is blocked, there is a high chance Your Majesty's growth is blocked as well."
As the dungeon grows so does the Demon King, and as the Demon King grows so does the dungeon.
And when that happens, what occurs for Enoch?
Zigwell continued.
"Most likely, once this matter is resolved, the purity of your magic power will rise above what it is now."
Indeed. This was one of the methods I'd planned with Enoch from the beginning. Grow the dungeon, improve Enoch's condition.
Though I never expected to grab the thread of it right at the start.
But then Zigwell looked at me with a strange expression and said.
"This is not something to speak of as another man's business. You are affected by it as well, young master."
"Ah."
He had a point.
I too had been granted part of the dungeon's authority by Enoch. With Enoch's rampage taking all my attention lately, I'd forgotten.
Is this what they mean by good for the sister and good for the brother-in-law?
"Anyway, it does need solving. The twisting of magic power. I'll have to see for myself what happened at the center of it."
"I agree, but is there a way to get through there?"
At Zigwell's entirely reasonable question, my gaze went to Enoch.
And Enoch turned his gaze to me and asked.
"Do you wish for help?"
Come on, old man.
This isn't my dungeon.
It's yours!
"Very well."
But before I could say a word, Enoch's hand came down on my shoulder.
"Gah."
I closed my eyes and opened them to find we'd arrived in the middle of the plain.
The man truly lives his life without ever backing up.