The Crystal Village's Baptism

The Crystal Village looked mysterious from the outside, but inside was an even more surreal landscape.

Everything was white from crystal. Light reflections created prism-like effects here and there.

Staying here too long would probably do strange things to your eyes.

That must be another reason why it wasn't popular.

I wondered if it might be possible to just excavate the crystal, but apparently anything obtained that way would disappear upon leaving the labyrinth.

The only ways to obtain crystal here were to open treasure chests or defeat monsters.

Finn, who was in the lead, stopped and turned toward us.

"So, what's the plan? You're the leader, aren't you?"

"Y-yes. Well, first of all, I don't really understand what crystallized monsters are like, so I'd like to find a straggler and experiment a bit."

"Hmm. Fine by me. So I just need to lure one in?"

"Please. Alexia-san can sense their positions."

Azu explained to Finn, looking a bit deferential.

Perhaps because Finn was serious when it came to work, she confirmed without teasing.

"Magic really is convenient, isn't it?"

"So, how does it look right now?"

"There's a small monster nearby. Just ahead from here."

Just as Alexia indicated, a single monster was wandering about a little way ahead.

It had the shape of a small dog, but its body was crystallized.

The magic stone part was black.

That might make its weak point easier to target.

It didn't seem to have noticed us yet.

Finn picked up a crystal fragment lying nearby and threw it at the Crystal Dog.

The fragment traced an arc and struck it, and the Crystal Dog came running toward them.

Finn didn't dodge the charging Crystal Dog. Instead she stomped on it and slammed it into the ground.

The Crystal Dog struggled to escape but couldn't shake off Finn's foot.

"It's as hard as it looks. I put in enough force to crush a living thing."

She drew a dagger from her right boot as she spoke.

Then she crouched down and swung the dagger at the Crystal Dog.

A hard sound like striking rock echoed around them.

The Crystal Dog's ear shattered and scattered across the ground.

Finn clicked her tongue and examined the blade she had swung down.

The forged steel dagger wasn't chipped, but there were visible scratches on the surface.

This wasn't meant to be used against hard objects.

If she kept forcing it, the blade would chip.

"I see, my weapons aren't suited for this. I have stakes, but driving them in one by one is a hassle."

"Let me try my sword next."

Azu said this and lifted her sword slightly, then swung it down at the Crystal Dog.

There was a heavier sound than before, crystal fragments scattered, and the sword was repelled.

"Slashing is no good. But if I channel magic power… it works."

She swung down again, and this time, unlike before, she severed part of it.

"How does that thing work?"

"Hmm? I don't know."

"Ah, okay…"

After that, they tried Alexia's magic, but wind magic was ineffective since the crystal resisted cutting.

Fire magic wasn't just ineffective, the high thermal conductivity meant it could cause damage to their own side.

Finn's boots nearly caught fire. When her hold loosened, Elza delivered the finishing blow with her mace.

"Yah!"

Despite the light battle cry, the Crystal Dog was effortlessly pulverized.

What remained was a small magic stone and some crystal.

When Azu touched them, they were hot enough to almost cause burns.

"Ow, it's too hot to touch. Water, please."

When Alexia cooled them with water as Azu asked, steam rose from the crystal with a sizzling sound.

Then it split in two.

"Does heat transfer easily to them?"

"Fire is off-limits. If we do use it, we'd need to cool things down at the same time, or your magic will take out all of us."

"And then the steam would probably block our vision."

Elza gathered the magic stone and crystal fragments into a bag.

"Fire magic is off-limits for you, Alexia-chan. Unfortunately."

"I understand. I don't want to self-destruct either."

Alexia shrugged.

It was trickier than expected.

After that, they experimented on a few more stray monsters and determined their roles.

Finn had almost no means of attack, so her main job would be drawing attention and acting as a decoy.

With Elza's blessing, she could deal damage, but then her weapons wouldn't hold up.

Azu could fight, but her total magic power was still limited, so she would quickly run out if she kept channeling magic into her sword.

Alexia would fight with her battle-axe and earth magic.

The battle-axe was made of thick steel. No matter how hard the crystal was, bashing it with Alexia's raw strength would smash it through sheer mass.

They also considered water magic, but the crystallized monsters didn't need to breathe and getting them wet barely did anything.

And when it came to hitting something, a rock was more effective than a mass of water.

Against crystal, you needed either the Sealed Sword Grungaus's special ability or enough mass and hardness to simply smash through.

In that sense, the Crystal Village was a perfect fit for Elza.

Each swing of her mace shattered crystal, and monsters were culled one after another.

The other three found it most efficient to support Elza so she could move freely.

"At this point, couldn't that priestess just do this alone?"

"I suppose we have to accept that our job right now is to enable her to fight like that."

"Elza-san is amazing…"

"This feels great!"

Thanks to Elza's triumphant advance, they progressed through the floors at an astonishing pace.

They moved upward and upward.

The monsters grew larger with each floor, and the magic stones and crystals they dropped grew proportionally.

At one point, a giant Bear Monster appeared in a plaza, about three times Azu's size.

Finn drew its attention from below, Azu and Alexia interfered whenever it tried to move, and Elza whittled it down.

Each blow tore away a limb, and Azu found the sight indescribable.

After defeating the Bear Monster, they took a break.

Elza set up a monster-repelling barrier, and they sat on the ground to hydrate.

"Having a scout really makes things easier."

"I'm more surprised you were doing this without one…"

While Alexia's magic could detect rough positions, some monsters could evade that detection.

Finn had prevented every ambush from such monsters.

She also positioned them to avoid getting flanked, preventing crises before they could happen.

She unlocked treasure chests too, saying it wasn't her specialty, but still disarmed traps and secured the contents.

Thanks to that, they had already collected a decent amount of items.

"It helps having someone cover the areas I can't reach."

"Well, that's what a party is for. I know your habits by now."

Finn spoke quickly, perhaps a bit embarrassed.

The Crystal Village had seven floors, and they had already reached the fourth.

They still had energy to spare. Even Elza, who was doing most of the work, didn't seem fatigued.

Azu was thinking they should try going a bit further.

Just then, something fell from above.

She grabbed it and looked. It was a crystal fragment.

More fragments pattered down intermittently.

"Wait, this…"

The moment Finn tried to say something, part of the ceiling collapsed.

Alexia instinctively leaped away.

What had fallen was a massive crystal.

No, that wasn't right. It was a crystallized monster.

A black magic stone glowed dully inside.

The giant crystal slowly extended its limbs.

It had the shape of a lion.