Chapter 594: God of the Underground and the Unprecedented Chrysalis
Author's Preface
I'm back in ShanFro... slipping right in.
Ctarrnid of the Abyss was, well, if I had to use a metaphor, like a set of locked drawers where only the very first one was open. If you peek inside, you can see what it holds, but you can't grasp the entire picture......... I thought the Orchestra of the Reverberating Nether was the same type as Wethermon the Tombguard, where the only thing presented to you from the start was to defeat Wethermon, but in reality, it was the exact same type as Ctarrnid.
Unless you opened every drawer, you wouldn't reach a complete clear; you had to find the keys and open the locked second drawer and beyond.
"It's a simple fact. A very, far too simple fact, Emul."
"Y-Yes sir?"
"Whatever the truth of Orchestra might be, its true identity is a music player. The fact that it holds songs naturally means someone used it; it means it had an owner."
The fundamental rule of Unique Scenarios is to uncover the very roots of the monsters themselves. For Wethermon, it was listening to the prayers of Setsuna of Distant Days; for Ctarrnid, it was reading the memoirs left behind by the queen of a ruined kingdom; for Siegwurm, it was hearing the cries of the involved parties.
Then what about Orchestra? The Conquista Dolls are a bluff. What could people who merely picked up a lost item possibly know? At best, they could only explain its outer appearance and the songs contained within.
"So what do you think we should do, Intelligence?"
"Inference: ...Accessing a database boasting an information accumulation capacity exceeding that of this unit and its peers."
"Nice Intelligence! I'll give you 10 points. If you collect 100 points, you have my permission to call yourself the Perfect Jeanist."
"Verbal Commitment: Recorded."
I'll just play dumb if it becomes inconvenient, so it's all good! I'll just be like, 'Isn't your memory capacity bugged?!'
The lightning-like flash of inspiration unleashed by my brain apparently affects the cyber avatar operated by that very brain. After announcing the "Festival" to 【Library】, shaking off a storm of questions with a brisk pace as if stopping for even a single second would be a waste, I set out to fill the ten-day blank I'd neglected before taking action—first heading straight to the utterly cowardly Unique Monster I've been hiding in the safehouse built smack in the middle of a battlefield.
"Yo, Wimp! You alive? You didn't starve to death, did you?"
"You're fiiiiinaaaaallllyyyy hereeeeeeeee!!!"
"Whoa!"
A lump of dirt just charged at me!? No, that's wrong. It's as dirty as a lump of dirt, but if you look closely, a lump of dirt doesn't well up with such pathetic tears. It was Wimp, completely caked in dirt.
"Wait, what happened? Where's Sammy-chan-san?"
"Sammy-chan is over there! But more importantly, something terrible happened!"
To reduce Wimp—who, despite being a coward, had gotten pretty cocky after being power-leveled—into such a weeping mess... What exactly happened? Don't tell me those scorpions couldn't stand their cramped sub-1LDK housing anymore and tunneled underground?
However, my prediction was about half right and half wrong. Simply put, I was right about the underground tunneling, but the culprit doing the digging was Wimp, and the one that was discovered wasn't Wimp.
"T-This... For me, it's like, I really, really don't want to get involved with it."
"Yeah, I really don't want to get involved with it either."
"S-Sunraku-san, i-i-is this..."
"Analysis: Genesis-natured matter compressed to an ultra-high density. The chaotic nature of its composition, distinct from Kin species... is likely Origin."
That's a Super Galactic Split End isn't it... No, I heard the lore from Vash, and since this is the dead center of the continent, it means this is the dead center of its back. It's not strange that we found it, but...
"...Saina, hypothetically speaking, if I were to snap this off, what are the chances Erebos wakes up?"
"...That is a statement that makes me question my Contractor's sanity, but there would likely be no issue. If it were to awaken from this level of damage, the next-generation primitive humanity wouldn't have established themselves to this current stage to begin with."
I see.
"Then let's dig."
Wimp and Emul stare at me like I've lost my mind as I whip out my pickaxe and hoist it over my head, but I'm completely dead serious. I'm going to make up for failing to investigate it properly due to all the chaos back when I fought the Devouring Great Crimson Clad! Heeeere's Miiining!!
Gziiiiing!!
"...Gwoooooh."
It's hard... ridiculously hard...! Are you kidding me, the materials I used for the Sturdy Digging Pickaxe are top-tier, you know? And it still gets repelled?
"But I won't give up! I won't be discouraged! I simply cannot stop digging!!!"
Barrage! Barrage!! I smash it right to the very brink of my pickaxe's durability completely breaking!!
But it won't chip; not a single item drops. The moment I strike my final swing durability-wise in a state of sheer resignation, thinking it's hopeless───
"Oh."
"Ah."
"Nnh?"
Pop. Having experienced its hardness firsthand with my own body, the fragment of the split end tumbled off so terrifyingly easily that it stole the gazes of everyone present.
"O-Ooh... The drop rate is completely rotten to only get one drop after digging that much, but looking at it the other way, I did manage to get one..."
"I-It's already regenerating..."
A dead skin cell on this level doesn't even count as damage, huh? Guess it doesn't boast a Game-Over-class size just for show. But I gladly accept this Game-Over-class monster's item. Now then, let's take a look at the flavor text...
・Genesis Black Fragment Erebocell
Black, black, the darkness encompasses all creation.
Fear not the darkness; surrender yourself to chaos.
White preaches subjugation, but Black preaches unification. The great vortex of darkness is the ultimate destination of tranquility.
The cells of the black god elevate the nature of the Genesis Kin, and the five colors deepening in turbidity serve as proof of drawing ever closer to the god.
A full flavor text with an overwhelming presence, you bastard. It's written with nothing but ominous drivel, yet the fact that it doesn't seem completely useless makes it all the more troublesome.
"W-What are you going to do with that desu wa..."
"Guess I'll pretend I didn't see it."
"You're just carelessly tossing it aside desu wa!?"
If I start sticking my neck into Genesis-related matters right now, I might genuinely not make it in time for the "Festival." I only scraped off a bit of cuticle from a split end, so leaving it alone should be fine. Either way, my pickaxe is at its limit, so appreciating it any further would be difficult.
"Well then, the best way to deal with dangerous material is to bury it. Cover it in dirt and pretend none of this ever happened..."
"There's still something else that's super bad!"
...Eh?
I'm supposed to be heading out for a raid right now, so why am I stuck doing a deep clean of my safehouse... I can't help but think that, but I can't exactly ignore it either. More importantly, why the hell is she digging up the ground so seriously in the first place?
"Because I was bored."
That single phrase was almost refreshing. Cooking is the only form of entertainment down here... When you're way too bored, you really do get the urge to dig holes in the ground... You know, picking up a stick and just grinding it into the dirt. Wait, don't open up a massive crater on par with a fossil excavation site just because of that!
"What could possibly be a dangerous material on par with this..."
Crack.
"...Crack?"
"Saina, did your face crack?"
"Comprehension: Severe damage to the brain."
If it's not Saina, then what in the...
"Sunraku-san! Over there-desu wa!!"
"What is... Nnh!?"
Wimp had likely stopped excavating halfway through.
About half of its total shape was exposed, and a portion of it had cracked like ceramics and fallen to the ground.
"You idiot, what did you dig up!?"
"That's why I said it was bad! That thing is alive!!"
At the end of her screeching gaze, a massive "chrysalis"—likely measuring a full five meters if you included the buried portion—was about to undergo eclosion...!!
Author's Afterword
This chrysalis actually exists on the Old Continent as well.
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