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“Which path should we take?” Ruin asked.

At the end of one of those paths, treasure… or a hidden room would be waiting for sure.

“True… we might take either side…” Myuri mused, “shall we go with right for the time being?”
“Right it is, then.” Orgo agreed.

The right side had been chosen arbitrarily, so the eight of us followed that path. After walking for several seconds, an Iron Golem came into view. At least at first glance, but there was something off about it.

Part of its eyes, which normally were yellow, shone red¹, and about one third of its body was overgrown with moss.

“What’s that…?” Ruin wondered.
“It’s likely an Iron Golem subspecies,” I explained. “It should be somewhere between two to five times as strong as a normal C-Rank monster. It looks like it still hasn’t noticed us.”

Truly, one good point of this dungeon was that enemies wouldn’t react even if you observed them from a distance with bated breath. They would attack if someone entered the radius from which normal people could launch their magic, but said magic could be invoked fast enough to get one sure hit in.

“Lilo… can you do it?” Ruin asked her.
“I can, probably! You can count on me.”

After giving us a thumbs-up, Lilo got close enough for her magic. The golem noticed her and slowly started moving. At the same time, a magic circle appeared at its feet and, not a moment later, assaulted the enemy with a fire bombardment.

“Ah, that wasn’t enough, after all~. In that case… time to cut loose!”

Lilo launched a sequence of Fire Cannons. While slowly retreating, matching the golem’s steps. When she had invoked around 13 spells and reached us, her feet got tangled up – possible because of MP overuse – and she was about to collapse. The younger prince caught her in a very gentlemanly fashion.

“Looks… looks like this is my limit…”
“Thank you, you worked hard,” he consoled her.
“What… what about the… golem?”

Everyone looked at our foe. It had ceased functioning while still standing.
Huh, as long as she’s been buffed, she can already defeat a C-Rank subspecies on her own… Then, we should get even further from the next rounds on.

“I… I managed… a C-Rank subspecies… by myself…!! Eh-heh-heh, incredible.”

Indeed, magic was incredible! Put differently, magic offered ready fire power, while weapons² were more like late bloomers. At a certain level of power, weapons became better to do rounds, but at the current point, magic more easily defeated the stronger foes. Come to think of it, I did rely a ton on Water Emission in the beginning.

“Lilo… you have gotten so strong!” Myuri commented in awe.

“The four of them are at the same level, aren’t they? How can there be such a difference in power?” Tuhl asked me.
“As a matter of fact, magic is stronger. Against magic beasts, that is. Part of that is due to it being restricted by MP. That said, weapons aren’t weak, per se. You just haven’t reached that point, yet.”
“In that case, we can only rely on Myuri and Lilo at the current point. At least for strong foes like this one.”
“Indeed. But as you continue your rounds, you can be assured that there will come a time when you’ll have the power to defeat even S-Rank magic beasts on your own.”

Lilo had been held up by Ruin’s arms for some time, but likely since she got some strength back from the healing magic Myuri cast on her, she could stand on her own again.

“Should we go further, then?” I proposed.

With Ruin at the vanguard, we started moving again. Still, we immediately saw a wall. In other words, we hit a dead-end. Only, next to said wall stood a treasure chest-

“Woah! Treasure!” Lilo exclaimed.
“Oh~… it’s a treasure chest…!!” Orgo joined in.
“To think we’d find a treasure chest… now we’re talking!” Ruin also got excited.

Finding treasure certainly was an auspicious occasion. Even though they should’ve been exhausted from all those fights, everyone rushed towards the potential bounty, completely ignoring the three C-Rank magic cores the golem had dropped.

“…Who should open it?” Lilo asked.
“Shouldn’t it be you, Lilo?” Orgo replied.
“It should.” Myuri agreed.
“I concur.” Ruin joined in.
“Huh… me, but…?”

I also thought Lilo should open it. When I pondered that, she suddenly seemed to have an idea… and turned to Karua.

“Wouldn’t Princess Karua be better?”
“Eh… what!? Me? Why should I open it…?”
“You have incredible luck, after all. Usually.”

She’s right, that’s a fact. Karua is abnormally lucky! If you played rock-paper-scissors with her, she’d win ten out of ten times… that’s how crazy her luck is!

“I see… if you think so…”
“I certainly do.”
“Y-You really do not mind if I open it, Dear Sister Lilo?”
“Not at all, go ahead!”

Urged on by everyone, Karua opened the chest. We all peered at the contents. Inside was… an S-Rank magic core.

As expected of Karua… she hit the jackpot.

1. It’s “yellow” twice in the original, which seems like an error since it’s supposed to be a difference. I just used red for it to make sense, but it could be any color other than yellow.
2. In the original, they are only talking about swords, but that seems more like a general comparison between weapons and magic.

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