Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?

Chapter 112: To a Distant Land (6)

I raised my light to get a better look. While I waited for the floating debris to settle, the nest-like structure became more visible.

It was purple, with crimson, veinlike protrusions and a somewhat smooth texture.

It looked like an egg perfectly cut in half, but it seemed much thicker and had these prominent veins.

While it didn’t look particularly gross, like organs on display, it wasn’t exactly pleasant to look at, either.

Feeling a tingle in my right arm, I decided to cut away the weeds surrounding me again.

To examine the nest more closely, I had to clear these remaining weeds. Also, I wasn’t too sure how the pill would affect this nest.

But after planting the pill, the weeds withered away while the nest showed no reaction. Stabbing it with my sword yielded the same results.

Gathering all my courage, I touched it. It felt lukewarm… and somewhat unpleasant. The texture was like that of a tree trunk, layered and hardened.

I stared at it for a moment before coming to a decision.

Yeah, everything made sense now. Even though I hadn’t actively sought out this Quest, it still landed in my lap. Given that some games led to saving the whole world after receiving some necklace, this wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Crack!

Getting some samples of this thing was crucial.

I decided to take a small piece of this nest with me, just in case. If I took the entire thing, it might complicate any future investigations, so I planned to give the wizards only a part of it.

Although they might need the entire thing in the end… One could never know. The wizards might also need to see the nest’s original state.

It was better just to make two trips than regret it later. With that in mind, I tore off a fragment and held it in my hand.

The Quest Log had been a great help in giving me direction in situations like this in the past. I felt slightly nostalgic when I started thinking about that.

“Aah! He’s back up!””

“S-Sorry! I forgot to give you this stone!”

But I still made it through the river water anyway.

I noticed a group of wizards who seemed ready to send someone else into the water. I had no idea what stone they were talking about, though.

“Check this.”

Ignoring their nonsense, I tossed them the piece of the nest I’d cut off. The wizards, flustered and rather disorganized, caught the fragment and stared at it, puzzlement evident on their faces.

Splash.

Uuurgh, climbing up the edge of the bridge was pretty exhausting.

Trying to maintain some semblance of composure, I hauled myself up using nothing but my arm strength, then shook my head to clear my hair of debris and weeds. I felt extremely grimy and uncomfortable.

I really wanted to clean up. I also wanted to wash my clothes with lots of fabric softener to ensure they smelled nice, despite knowing they would just clean themselves if I waited.

A brief desire to clean myself from head to toe swept over me.

“…Sir Adventurer, where exactly did you get this?”

The wizards asked me with serious expressions while I shook the dirt out of my hair with my fingers. My eyes narrowed into straight lines.

“I’m sure you aren’t asking me that because you have no clue, right?”

“…!!”

They probably hoped they could simply deny reality, but yeah, I brought this from the bottom of the lake.

I approached the remaining parts of the railing and plopped down, not because I was tired, but because I sensed I might have to go back in soon.

I mean, they couldn’t do anything about this without my help, whether it was guiding them to it or bringing up the whole thing.

“R-Report this immediately!”

I wasn’t sure why the wizards looked so serious. Just what exactly—

“A Demon’s nest has appeared!”

Oh.

* * *

“Well, this is quite the unexpected problem.”

White Wind, who had rushed here immediately, whispered in a very solemn tone. His previously bright face was now entirely devoid of emotion, as if it had been wiped off. It reminded me of that marionette he’d manipulated in the lounge.

“Set up a barrier.”

“Yes.”

At White Wind’s command, the wizards began creating a barrier. It was enormous, covering part of the Tower and the lake, but thanks to the large number of wizards present, it didn’t take too long to complete.

“Has the Hero returned to the Temple?”

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, that guy probably knows more about this than I do. Can we somehow sneak him out without the Hero noticing?”

White Wind spoke as he approached me.

“Sorry, but can you take me back to where you found this? For your information, I’m not a good swimmer, so I’ll need to bind myself to you with rope.”

It was something I’d expected. Having taken a brief rest, I stood up and moved toward the water.

“I hate getting wet, though.”

“S-Sir Great Sage!”

“We can go instead!”

“Yeah, no. I’ll go. What do you even know about this? Just get that guy instead. Make sure the Temple’s people don’t notice and absolutely don’t let the Hero follow you. Got it?”

White Wind removed most of his clothes and handed them to those around him. I thought he might create something like an air bubble to go down, but it seemed even a wizard of his caliber couldn’t do that.

Splash!

Soon, White Wind and I dove into the lake.

“How troublesome.”

Although he couldn’t envelop his whole body in a bubble, he could create one around his nose and mouth to replace the device I had.

After examining the nest for a while, White Wind did just that so he could speak.

He even did the same for me, which was unexpectedly kind. Not that I had much to say, though.

“Old Arcane Power turned into Demonic Energy, which created this Demon nest. How truly troublesome.”

“…What did you just say?”

I stood corrected. This guy ended up saying something that made me want to speak up, too.

“Why are you so surprised about this? You are the living proof of that process.”

Me? Why was I the living proof of that?

I furrowed my brows in confusion, but then it dawned on me.

The current situation appeared to stem from Arcane Power transforming into Demonic Power… And I was a prime example of the opposite: I regularly converted Demonic Power into Arcane Power as if it were nothing.

Which meant…?

“If Demonic Power can become Arcane Power, there’s no reason it can’t work the other way around. Although we’ve always assumed that it was impossible.”

Oh god. So that was what this was.

“Moreover, I have no idea what will happen now. If word gets out that Arcane Power can be turned into Demonic Power and even give birth to Demons, some wizards will definitely try to cross that line. And if that were to happen, could the Magic Tower ever coexist with the Temple?”

White Wind tried to sweep aside his floating hair as he spoke, though it was of little use.

“…Well, it’s pointless to talk to you about this. You’re not a wizard, and if it weren’t for that troublesome being inside your body, you wouldn’t even be involved in all this to begin with.”

It was more like he was complaining to himself. As White Wind said, I… didn’t really know much about this matter. Even less than White Wind might have expected, actually.

So, even if I wanted to ask him about this issue, I couldn’t think of anything to ask. I kept my mouth shut and just tried to look as if I were lost in thought.

“First, let’s deal with this. Since this thing is right on top of the main building’s roof… We should first reinforce that wall before removing this entire section.”

However, that was that and this was this.

Worrying about future problems didn’t mean we should ignore the issue at hand. We determined what we could do right now and got straight to work.

* * *

* * *

The process of cutting out the nest involved thoroughly ensuring that water could now leak inside the building before tearing it off.

Perhaps because it was such an urgent matter, all the related work was done within an hour. During that time, I had to enter and exit the lake twice more, but it really wasn’t that big a deal.

“White Wind, I’ve heard the gist. Just what is this…?”

Around that time, the Archmage hurriedly arrived. He seemed to have had quite a hard time getting down here from up top in the middle of the night, going by his disheveled appearance.

“…This.”

The Archmage, pushing past all the high-ranking mages, fixed his gaze on the nest. As if he immediately recognized what it was, his face hardened.

“You somehow managed to come here alone?”

“Ah, when I mentioned it had something to do with my research, the Temple was somewhat understanding, but that’s not important right now.”

“No. It’s important. If the Temple finds out about this, what do you think they’ll do? You knew that and abandoned your lifelong research, didn’t you?”

“…”

Huh, abandoned his lifelong research? So, something like that happened in the Archmage’s past…?

I recalled the Wizard’s character story. The Wizard’s side stories… didn’t really show anything particularly special besides giving the character a bit more depth. The job one could change into differed depending on whether one chose to focus on the character’s pursuit of knowledge or their morality.

“…Let’s save that story for later. This isn’t the right place for it.”

“Right. What’s important right now isn’t what will happen after the incident is resolved, but how we should resolve it.”

I felt my head spinning with the sudden onslaught of new revelations.

A Quest that had seemed insignificant was now tied to this world's larger plot and character backstories. Uwaaargh.

“First, we need to learn what has spawned from this nest. Then, we need to either kill the being or capture it. Only then can we decide whether to cover this up or report it.”

And as such, it seemed I would be taking on the role of the hunter again.

Even with my head still spinning with all that new information, I accurately caught the details of the upcoming Quest.

It was just common gamer intuition. Years of gaming experience had honed my mind to the point where losing a single Quest Marker wouldn’t stop me from figuring out things like this.

“Judging by the lingering arcane traces, it hasn’t been long since it spawned. But you should know, right? I specialize in research, not actual combat. Most of our members who can use tracking magic aren’t particularly good in combat, either…”

“…Alright. I’ll handle it.”

“Great. I’m counting on you, okay?”

It seemed that the Archmage would also be accompanying me on this Quest.

However, since the inquisitor couldn’t find out about this, she was obviously excluded from the party. It would be incredibly strange if everyone but the Inquisitor were away, so I probably couldn’t take Deb or Bers with me, either.

Bers aside, who typically acted independently from the group since joining, it was pretty odd for me to be paired with the Archmage alone. This was a fairly new combination.

The story seemed to be giving the Archmage more screen time now, given their lack of presence in the previous Quests.

“Let’s take care of this quickly, Demon Knight. I’ll also write up another contract.”

Well, it didn’t really matter who accompanied me. I signed the contract, which promised 400 thousand Gal as compensation, and immediately set off to make the hunt more efficient.

Neither I nor the Archmage were in great physical condition, but we had no other choice. If we delayed this any further, the arcane traces would disappear completely, so we couldn’t afford to rest.

“This direction leads to the Great Forest…”

And once again, I found myself submerged in water. As I’d previously done with White Wind, I bound the Archmage to me with a rope and began scanning the lake floor, trying to track the Demon’s trail.

It had been a while since I’d last seen the vivid glow of the {Tracking} spell.

“There’s a cave over there. If it really leads to the Great Forest… it might have gone there. Let’s hope it hasn’t entered the forest dwellers’ territory.”

As a result, we came upon a cave I hadn’t noticed while clearing the weeds. Rocks were placed around the entrance, obscuring it.

“Is it that way?”

“Did you go blind just because I turned off the lights?”

“What can I say? At my age, one’s eyesight gets weaker and weaker.”

“…Tsk.”

“Thanks for turning on the light.”

We moved into the cave, equipped with specially made underwater breathing devices that allowed us to talk.

Being a bit larger than me and unable to swim well, the Archmage was a burden to me, but this was surprisingly better than if we were out in open water.

In the open, I had to pull him along, but inside the cave, he could grip onto the stony walls to help us progress.

“The water’s really cold. I should have brought more stones.”

After we’d gone quite a distance, the Archmage started complaining about the cold. His inability to cast something like a waterproofing spell and the removal of his temperature-regulating robe seemed to be taking a toll on him.

“Weakling.”

Was it really that cold? To me, the water just felt lukewarm.

Or maybe I had been submerged in the lake for so long that I’d already gotten used to it? Although I couldn’t really recall ever feeling particularly cold even when I first entered.

Anyway, taking care of my precious party members was important. If the Archmage were to fall ill, that would spell disaster. I handed him a hot pack in the form of a stone.

As a wizard, he was ultimately much more likely to catch a cold than I, a fighter. He was also a lot older than me and always supported us in any way he could.

Though his recent nagging had been a bit much, I knew he did it out of concern.

Even if it was pretty tiresome, I understood the sentiment behind his words, so I wouldn’t shy away from small gestures like giving him a hot pack.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“If we lose the Demon, you’ll know what it really means to feel cold.”

Ah, just take it already, old man.

I muttered something nonsensical as I swam further in. The tunnel that had been growing narrower finally started to widen again after we passed through the tightest section. It even began leading upward.

Splash.

We finally managed to reach an area with air.

I was glad I’d decided to keep my combat boots on. I ignored the water sloshing inside them as I scanned the inside of the cave.

I felt a slight breeze, indicating that this place was connected to the outside.

“So, this place connects to the outside.”

The Archmage climbed out of the water behind me, his clothes dripping. Despite him carrying the hot pack, I could see him shivering slightly.

“Wait, give me a moment to wring out my clothes.”

Sure, sure.

While the Archmage was busy wringing out his clothes and fur, I examined the tracks more closely.

The glowing marks left behind by the spell continued in a long, unbroken trail. It looked like something had been dragged along the way, or a massive serpent had slithered through this place.

“…A snake, huh.”

It couldn't have been a sack or something, so it had to be the latter. Judging by the trail’s width, it had to be a huge one… Wow. I felt like I could understand why those snakes had gathered here. Ahaha.

“Hmm? Ah. I see. That explains how it managed to get out of the water. The Demon must have taken the form of a snake.”

No, it wasn’t funny. That thing was enormous! How did it make sense that this thing was as wide as my waist?!

This wasn’t just a big water snake; it was an enormous, colossal one!

Barely hiding my shock, I untied the rope around my waist and pulled my coat out of the inventory. It was time to start the chase properly.