Domination

Wearing white gloves, Ramiza-san flipped the frog onto its back and sliced open its belly with a small knife.

She seemed to know exactly where everything was inside a monster's body. The butchering was swift and unhesitating.

"Here, the magic stone. Don't touch it with your bare hands."

"Thank you…"

She handed me a magic stone dripping with blood and bodily fluids.

I couldn't exactly refuse, so I took it gingerly.

I glanced over at Elza-san and Alexia-san, but they just shook their heads.

How sad.

I shook the stone lightly to flick off the excess liquid and dropped it into a spare bag.

There was no way I was putting it straight into my equipment pouch.

That bag was going in the trash for sure.

As long as I put it in a separate bag first, the equipment pouch would stay clean.

The inside of the frog was, well… grotesque.

Despite having died from an explosion, there was surprisingly little damage to the body.

Ramiza-san excised several organs, sealed them in clear bags, and stored them in the backpack she was carrying.

Those must have been the rare materials she'd mentioned wanting beforehand.

"Leave corpses alone in a labyrinth and the labyrinth deals with them on its own, so that's nice. Out in the field, if you leave monster remains lying around, other monsters come to feed on them. Pain in the neck. Well, sometimes you can use them as bait."

"I know what you mean. When we were out clearing a mass outbreak outside the labyrinth, the whole area turned into a pool of blood and… ugh."

Perhaps compounded by the air inside the labyrinth, a memory of a past extermination came back to me and I felt sick.

Elza-san rubbed my back, which helped.

Normally, the sight of blood didn't bother me this much, but the environment was probably making it worse.

"You just have to get used to it. Do it long enough and you stop feeling anything."

She made equally quick work of the newt, extracting the useful parts and the magic stone before leaving the carcass behind.

She pulled the needle free, wiped it with a disposable paper, and returned it to the belt strapped around her thigh.

So that was where she'd drawn it from.

We watched as the monster corpses slowly sank into the labyrinth floor, as if being swallowed.

An active labyrinth really did feel like a giant living organism.

"So, what exactly did you do? I understand keeping alchemy secret, but since we're fighting together, I'd like to know the basics at least."

"There's no poison or harm as long as you're not right next to the explosion. Well, to reveal the trick, what was inside them was spores."

"Spores?"

That was an unfamiliar word.

"Right. Harvested from mushrooms, mold, moss… things like that. Then I modify them in various ways. That's why there's no gunpowder smell. No sulfur, no saltpeter, so naturally there wouldn't be."

"Do spores just… explode?"

She burst out laughing at my question.

Had I said something strange?

"Sorry, sorry. I'm not making fun of you, it was just so earnestly asked. No, spores don't explode on their own. You can trigger a dust explosion under the right conditions in a sealed space, but that's not unique to spores. As for how I make them explode… I'll tell you if you ever decide you want to learn alchemy. There's way too much to explain for someone who isn't interested."

"Could they go off from impact?"

"That's safe too. They stay docile unless I do the final step."

"Then that's fine… What about the needles?"

"Are you going to keep grilling me like this? This isn't exactly the best place for a long chat, you know."

Alexia-san shrugged at that.

"Come on, standing around means we'll be late getting back. This labyrinth has a fair number of floors, so let's keep moving."

"Fine. But I expect answers on anything that affects our safety."

"Of course."

The atmosphere was still a bit stiff, but we pressed onward with Ramiza-san in the lead.

"Labyrinths change shape over time, and their floors increase as they grow… but the strange thing is, there's always a certain regularity to it."

"Really? That's news to me."

"Map makers probably know. Not that they'd share, since it's their livelihood. But for some reason, labyrinths never change in ways that make them impossible for humans to clear. It's almost like they want us to come deeper."

"…"

Now that she mentioned it, every labyrinth we'd conquered had tough monsters and strange gimmicks, but none had ever been truly impossible to clear.

"Every now and then they'll set out a tempting treasure chest like it's a gift. Almost like they're luring humans in."

"I've wondered about that…"

"Hehe. The world is full of mysteries. When you can't stop thinking about them, that's when you become an alchemist. Because normal people don't dig that deep as long as nothing inconveniences them. Nobody understands how magic stones actually work, but as long as they know it's a useful energy source, that's good enough."

Something occurred to me, and I said it aloud.

"Ramiza-san, do you maybe not have many people to talk to normally?"

"… What makes you say that?"

"You seem to be really enjoying this conversation."

"Yeah, you're right. Yohane-kun just tunes me out at this point, so I don't get many chances to talk like this. Curious people love to chat, but there's nobody who'll put up with it."

So it seemed we were going to be her captive audience for the entire labyrinth run.

Alexia-san stopped.

"Three monsters up ahead."

"Past that bend? Then this'll do."

Ramiza-san tossed a pouch just short of where the monsters presumably were.

A boom echoed through the passage, followed by the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

We checked and found three bats lying dead.

She was one-shotting every fodder monster we encountered.

I could probably take them out quickly too if I hit their weak points, but being able to kill them just by lobbing a pouch from a distance was…

"Think it's unfair?"

"No, not at all… If it gets the job done, that's what matters."

"Not very adventurer-like though, right? This is just what happened when I tried to find the most fun and efficient way to clear things. Besides, even though I've killed tons of monsters and my physical abilities are high because of it, I can't actually use them well. In a one-on-one fight without my tools, I'd lose to any of you."

I couldn't bring myself to ask what would happen with her tools.

We found the staircase down without much trouble and descended.

True to her word about regularity, finding it hadn't been difficult.

Finn would have found it the same way, but Ramiza-san was predicting its location through a different set of knowledge and experience.

Was it really okay for labyrinth exploration to be this easy?

We fought occasionally, but it felt like we'd barely done anything.

After several more battles and floor descents, the toxic fumes only grew thicker.

Visibility was getting worse too.

"Let's take a break. The rings are near the end of their effective time, too. Can you put up a barrier?"

"I'll do it."

Elza-san generated a barrier.

Its purifying power pushed the poison out of the enclosed space, and for the first time in a while, we could breathe clean air.

It felt like even my spirit had been refreshed.

"It's so nice having a priestess around. Can't get this going solo."

That was clearly heartfelt.

Ramiza-san set down her backpack, promptly pulled out a blanket, and settled in.