I'm Not an Earthworm, I'm an Earth Dragon

Altera it was.

The doubts that had been whispering in my head until just now melted away. Indeed, it was Altera. That made sense.

She would be able to find out where I was even from afar, and she had the ability to reach me by the shortest route. As for not answering… well, it could happen.

It didn’t matter since she had joined. Happy to see her, I called out her name, and she chuckled, telling me to get rid of that first, poking my brush with her greatsword.

“It’s good that you tried to fight like a man, but if you’re going to fight, I think a sword is better than a brush. You can use the brush after you’ve knocked them down, right?”

Ah, I was still pointing it. I put the brush back on my back and made my case.

“Well… if it’s a creature strong enough to break through walls, I didn’t think my sword skills would make much of a difference. I was just trying to use what might work, even if it was a low probability.”

“So you squeezed out courage, not recklessness… There’s a fine line between being manly and being stupid. But I don’t dislike that kind of courage.”

…Hmm, should I take that as a compliment…? I was a little embarrassed by the unexpected praise. By the way, she’s really hung up on being manly. I didn’t know why, so I just kept it to myself.

“Um… thanks?”

“That’s when you just act like it’s natural. If you react to everything, it looks a little frivolous. But… well, it’s a compliment from me, not just anyone. You can be as happy as you want.”

Is that so? It’s hard. I scratched my neck awkwardly, and unable to stand the awkwardness, I asked her if she could sense the presence of other party members.

“The others? Well, one is faaar away. I don’t know about the other one. Probably the heavy one is Yuna.”

Then where did Akash go? I put the question aside for a moment and decided to head towards Yuna’s location. But…

“Altera, I don’t know much, but this place… isn’t it a bit like a labyrinth? Like, it was made with the intention of having to use your head to solve it.”

“Huh? Why does that matter? Using your head is for the weak. Mother always said that if your head is bad, your body suffers… but if you think about it the other way, only those with bad bodies use their heads.”

We’ve been smashing everything up to this point, and nothing much has happened… so I didn’t think anything special would happen if we smashed more.

“Yeah… then let’s go to where Yuna is. Um, wait a minute. Before we break it, are you sure it won’t collapse if we just smash the walls like that…?”

“Yeah. I can’t even tell if there’s an end above or below. It’s not going to collapse just from breaking a few walls. So, let’s go!”

Altera thrust her greatsword into the wall and injected magic into it. Then, a golden crack appeared on the wall where the blade was stuck, and it collapsed.

I don’t think the ancient dwarves made this huge labyrinth to be broken through like this…

Does it matter? We’re stealing something that was made not to be stolen in the first place. There’s no need to obediently fall for the security devices. I decided not to think about it anymore as I followed the path of golden fragments that Altera was creating.

By the way, I don’t know how big the labyrinth was, but even though Altera was constantly breaking down walls, there was no sign of an end or anything like that.

It was so vast that if we tried to conquer it the normal way, we’d probably collapse from exhaustion first, and Altera was destroying such a vast place without a care.

Just when I thought there couldn’t be anything more than this, there was always something more in this world. It wasn’t that I disliked it, but rather I enjoyed it.

It might seem funny for someone who was trying to kill or be killed just a while ago to think this way, but thoughts are free, aren’t they?

“What on earth are they trying to protect by making something like this? Ugh, those nasty, short ancestors are so insidious.”

Even Altera was getting tired of constantly breaking down walls, so she stopped for a moment, cursed the ancient dwarves, and caught her breath.

“It must be something important… for them to go this far to protect it. Well, I can’t even guess what it is. Maybe Akash would know something…”

When I mentioned Akash, Altera blatantly changed the subject and refused to pay attention. Well, she doesn’t seem to like Akashes very much, so I guess it’s natural.

If I had to say… I don’t think very highly of them either. But the information and magic that Akash possesses are so valuable that I can’t put a price on them, so I put up with his awful personality and keep him around.

Altera assumed her usual ‘sensing posture’, lying on the floor with her upper body, and then started breaking down walls again, apparently having found where Yuna was.

I still thought it was a bit much, but I decided to throw common sense out the window. It’s actually a loss to move according to the creator’s intentions in this kind of structure.

If you can just smash it, then smash it.

If you looked closely, it was so twisted that even voices would get lost in the labyrinth and turn into meaningless sounds.

Altera pushed on relentlessly, then stopped abruptly in front of a wall. When I asked her why, she said she stopped because Yuna was beyond it.

“…If that woman is thinking the same way as you… steel arrows might fly as soon as the wall is broken, right? I don’t want a hole in my chest either. At this distance, she can hear us even through the wall. Tell her we’re here.”

Ah, I see. She just smashed through because I’m weak, but she wants to be careful because Yuna is strong.

It’s reasonable… but what’s this strange feeling of defeat? I didn’t know if she could hear me through the wall, but I put my heart and soul into it and shouted, sticking close to the wall.

“Yuna!!! It’s us!!! If you’re aiming a weapon, please put it away!!!”

No answer came back, but Altera seemed to think it was enough, and she slowly created a crack in the wall by pouring magic into it.

The crack, which had been growing at the speed of a crawling ant, soon brought down the wall, and beyond it was Yuna, drawing her bowstring.

“Yuna! It’s really us! So could you put that away for a moment?!”

“…It really is you. And Altera too… Phew, I thought a monster was approaching because it kept shaking.”

Fortunately, without creating holes in either of us, Yuna put away her weapon.

“Phew… well, then everyone except Akash is here! Yuna, have you seen Akash? Altera said she doesn’t know where he is either.”

“If Altera doesn’t know, how would I know? Let him wander the labyrinth until he collapses from exhaustion. It’s not like there’s only one Akash in the world. Didn’t you say you met a small, young Akash in Corvo?”

That’s harsh. It’s partly his fault, but I still thought she was being too harsh.

…Maybe not?

“Then let’s put Akash aside for a moment… shall we look for the treasure here?”

We should look for Akash too, but I thought they’d be displeased if I suggested that, so I decided to look for the treasure first.

– – – –

“I feel like I’m the only one working hard.”

“What can we do? You’re the only one who can break through walls like paper. We’d help if we could… but we can’t. Sorry.”

Hmm, so it’s just me, huh? I was a little proud, but the fact remained that I was the only one working.

I know that those two can’t do anything. But I’m working hard, and they’re just staring blankly, so I’m a little annoyed.

I was the one who found the source of the suspicious vibrations, and I was the one who opened the way. I could let it slide with Myungho, who at least talked to me to keep me from getting bored, but Yuna wasn’t doing anything.

Even I thought I was forcing it, so I kept quiet, but I still didn’t like it.

She should at least take out her weapon and pretend to be on guard, shouldn’t she?

Complaining aside, I started breaking through the wall again towards the source of the suspicious vibrations. As I was breaking through towards the place where a regular and periodic vibration was felt, like some kind of machine was running, I wondered what it could be.

It couldn’t be nothing. In this vast and expansive place, it was the only place where a periodic vibration was being generated. There must be something there.

Maybe an escape route. The black hole also vibrated with a humming sound. But… if it’s an escape route, where is the original object that was stored?

I put aside complicated thoughts and continued to break down walls. It wouldn’t change anything to think about it now, so I could do it later.

Now, I just had to break through. As I was diligently digging, I got hungry and wanted to eat something, but Myungho said that all the food was with Akash, which was a problem.

Ah, that damn wizard. I know he’s capable, but I don’t like him. His attitude as if he’s superior, and his laugh as if he’s looking down on the whole world.

The fact that he was really capable made him even more of a nuisance. If he was just a good-for-nothing putting on airs, I could just ignore him as a weirdo, but when someone who actually has the ability to be that arrogant acts that way…

Ugh.

As I kept listening to the sound of walls breaking, I finally managed to get close to the source of the vibration. Unlike before, it was surrounded by an incredibly thick wall, so it wasn’t something I could just pass through easily.

But that wouldn’t stop me. It wasn’t like my abilities didn’t work.

Ignoring the fact that my scales were growing, I continued to break down the wall, and soon I came to a place.

In the center of the room was a sort of incubation tank containing a mysterious girl. That was the source of the vibration.

And… in a corner of the room, Akash was sitting and dozing.

“…Hmm? What, you’re already here? You could have wandered around a bit more.”