Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Tch, this thing's persistent...go around behind it and slow it down while I keep its attention on me! Give me an opening to finish it off!" Exclaimed Lexia, before racing across as a blast of wind came shooting towards her, narrowly evading it.

The attack slammed onto the ground where she'd been standing, a cloud of dust bursting out upon impact as bits of dirt flew out in every direction.

"Sure, leave it to me!" Colt responded, as Lexia fired a barrage of bone projectiles at the airborne Monster they'd encountered.

The pair had ended up on the fifty-third level of the ruins, and like the others, they came to the conclusion that their best option would be to continue making their way down the ruins.

They were currently at the fifty-fifth level, not far from the end of the level, and they had just encountered a Roc, a large Bird-Type Monster that could generate its own wind, a High Level Threat.

As Lexia continued firing out her bone projectiles to keep the Monster's focus on her, while sprinting across the space to evade its attacks, Colt ran across the area before coming to a stop behind the Monster.

The Monster let out a sharp screech as it began to charge up a wind blast in its mouth, before Colt swiftly extended out several blood tendrils from his palms, sending them shooting up towards the Monster from behind and wrapping them around its wings, neck and talons, constricting the tendrils to restrain the Monster, as Lexia planted her feet and took aim.

The Monster screeched and thrashed around, trying to break free of its restraints, Colt swiftly extending out more blood tendrils to bind the creature more thoroughly.

"Now, die...[Bone Spear]!" She chanted, firing out a large, rapid bone projectile straight up towards the Monster, the spear zipping through the air and hitting its chest as it desperately thrashed around to try and break free of the grasp of Colt's blood tendrils, screeching in pain as the bone spear pierced through its feathers and skin, before lodging into its chest.

Lexia narrowed her gaze as the Monster continued to screech in agony while writhing and thrashing against its restraints, before she carefully took aim and fired out another bony spear, the projectile shooting through the air and hitting the end of the first one, pushing it deeper into the Monster's chest.

Blood poured out of its beak as a violent shudder erupted across its body, a weak squawk ringing out before it slumped and plummeted as Colt dissipated his blood tendrils, a crash echoing out as the Monster's corpse slammed onto the ground, clouds of dust bursting out around it.

"Hey, nicely done," Grinned Colt, as he walked over.

"Tch...this sucks, Assassins aren't suited to direct combat like this, and big Monsters like this one are especially bad match ups for us. Why'd I have to end up stuck with you?" Grumbled Lexia as she let out a strained sigh.

"On the bright side, it looks like we're on a level that's a multiple of five. And the doors are unopened, so I bet there's a Relic Armament in there...which means we're definitely past the fortieth level, we're at least at the forty-fifth level, but if I had to bet, I'd guess that we're a few levels lower than that, based on how long we were falling for," Surmised Colt, as the two of them began to head for the doorway.

"By the way...how are we supposed to open those doors? As far as I know, you don't have any Blood Spells that are strong enough to cut through something like that."

"Yeah, I've been working on creating a Spell that can do that, but based on how difficult it's been, it seems like a Spell of that intensity requires Level 3 casting. It sucks that we have to create our Spells from scratch, it's not like Grimmoires for Irregular Magic exist, after all," Replied Colt, as they came to a stop in front of the doorway, before adding, "I guess we'll just have to blast them with our Spells until-..."

"No, we can't afford to waste our Mana. Hm...oh, that's it! I just got a great idea!" Suddenly exclaimed Lexia with a gleam in her eyes, before turning to Colt and continuing, "Follow my lead...take out your Teleport Spell, we're going to teleport straight back."

"Huh? Ohh, I get it. Nice thinking," He responded with a nod of approval, before the two of them teleported a kilometer straight backwards.

"And now, we take a few steps forward...yeah, that should be enough. And now, we just teleport forward again, aaaand...bingo," Smirked Lexia triumphantly, as the pair pointed their Cards forward and ran their Mana through them, before finding themselves inside the room beyond the large doorway.

"And look, the stone coffin in this room is closed, that almost definitely means no one's been down here before us...come on, let's open it," Replied Colt, a look of intrigue and anticipation in his eyes as he walked over to the middle of the room, placing his hands on the side of the large stone lid and giving it a push, before grunting, "D-damn, this thing's really heavy! Mind giving me a hand?"

"Hm...how about this? If you manage to push it open yourself, I'll slap you," She offered, after wracking her brain to think of a way to avoid overexerting herself.

"Heh, now there's some motivation I can get behind!" Grinned Colt, before gritting his teeth and mustering all the strength he could, pushing on the stone lid with as much force as he was able to generate.

A slight grating sound echoing out as he managed to shift it a few centimeters, before he slowly but surely began to push it open further and further.

"Ugh, I hate that sound," Muttered Lexia with an uncomfortable shudder, a sharp grating sound ringing out as Colt got the lid about halfway off the stone coffin.

"O-okay, it's...it's not all the way off, but...it's wide enough to reach in," He panted as he stopped pushing, his arms trembling as sweat poured down his face.

"You okay? Not that I care or anything, but you'll be a burden if you hurt yourself or someth-..."

"What, are you kidding me? I'm totally fine...no, better than fine! My palms are all scratched up, my arms are numb, my back is kinda sore...it all feels so good! And now, for the cherry on top...time for my slap!" He grinned as he turned to her with a look of anticipation and excitement.

"Shit...I could say that he didn't meet the condition I set, since he failed to fully push the lid off. But if I say that, he might try to finish the job and actually end up hurting himself. Fine, guess I have no choice," Lexia thought to herself as she let out a quiet, exasperated sigh, before walking over towards Colt and swinging her right arm in towards him, her palm slamming against his left cheek and jerking his head across to the right, "There, happy now?"

"Ohh, yeah...that was great! Mm, it stings so good!" He sighed contently, a clear hand-imprint across his cheek.

"Let's see what we've got here...hm? A whip?" Frowned Lexia, as she peered into the partially-open stone box.

"Hey, there's something else in there...huh, it's a stone tablet, there's some text inscribed on it. It says...'Flagell, this whip can extend upto twenty meters by running Mana into it'. And there's something at the bottom of the tablet...not sure what it means though, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, but it says; NaruGokLuffIchiGuts," Colt read the text out loud, as Lexia took the whip out and inspected it.

"It's probably the name of the summoned hero who made these weapons. As for the description of the weapon itself, that's pretty incredible if true, but it's kinda useless to us...we don't have a Thrasher in our group, so none of us can properly use this thing," Pointed out Lexia, running her Mana into the weapon out of curiosity.

"Woah, it really is growing longer. How do you make it shorter?" He inquired in fascination.

"How should I know? It didn't-...ah, I see. It extends up to twenty meters, and if you keep running Mana into it, it'll then start to shrink," Noticed Lexia, before cutting off the flow of Mana into the weapon as it reverted to its original length.

"Cool...but like you said, none of us can use it. What should we do with it?"

"No clue...I'll let Aster decide that. For now, might as well put it in a Storage Ring. While it's not of much use to us, we can at least ensure that it doesn't fall into the hands of our enemies," Reasoned Lexia, before storing the weapon into her Storage Ring.

"Yeah, good point. We're going to need to find him and the others first though...let's hurry, I'm getting a bit worried about Celia. I hope she landed somewhere above us," Frowned Colt with a look of concern.

"Let's take a short break first. We're probably going to run into stronger Monsters the deeper we go, so we should conserve as much of our energy as possible," Reasoned Lexia, as she walked over to the side of the room and took a seat against the wall, after first cautiously poking at the bricks to make sure she wouldn't trigger a trap, as Colt joined her.

Meanwhile, on the surface, outside the Quartz Ruins...

"How long have they been like this?"

"I'm not sure, Commander. They were already fast asleep when the two of us came to relieve them and change shifts."

"Hm, I see...and you're sure they aren't just slacking off?" Responded the Commander, staring at the pair of snoozing Knights with a frown.

"Yes, I'm sure. They're sleeping too soundly out here, and that aside, when we tried to wake them, we noticed some burns on the backs of their necks, they've definitely been knocked out by someone."

"Well, this isn't good...it means they were attacked. Were they sedated? Or maybe they were put to sleep with a Recovery Magic Spell, either Drowse or Tranquilize. Regardless, the fact remains that someone knocked them out intentionally. And the only reason to do that would be if the culprit intended on entering the ruins," Surmised the Commander with a grimace.

"Wait, that means they're after the remaining Relic Armaments!"

"Who could it be? It isn't public knowledge, not many people know about them, even within the Knight Order."

"We need to hurry up and go after them!"

"Yeah, there's no time to waste, we-..."

"No, that's unnecessary," Spoke up the Commander, before continuing, "Whoever did this, whether it's a single person or a group of people, there's no point in going after them, for multiple reasons. First, they'll need to venture quite deep down into the underground ruins to find the remaining Relic Armaments, there's every chance that they'll end up dead down there anyway, in which case we'd just be wasting our time and energy. Second, they have a significant head start, even if we do go after them, it'll be tough to catch up to them. And third, assuming they do recover all the remaining weapons and make it back out...they're sure to be exhausted by then, and therefore much easier to deal with, as in contrast, we'll be in top shape."

"Wow, I didn't even think of that."

"As expected of the Commander."

"Now, then, let's set up camp here and wait for them to return. Summon the Vice-Commander and the First-Class Knights in the Capital...if whoever's down there does manage to make it out, they're bound to be powerful, so we should ensure that we're adequately prepared to deal with them," Instructed the Commander, before thinking to herself as the Knights responded to her commands, "I have a bad feeling about this...I still don't know why father forbade us from venturing further into the ruins after we obtained the eighth Relic Armament, but it can't be anything good. Knowing him and how avaricious he can he, he normally wouldn't overlook an opportunity to gain such valuable items.

Looking back, he seemed rather alarmed and panicked...he must have found something about the ruins in the archives, something dangerous enough that it outweighed the benefits of claiming the remaining Relic Armaments. These intruders may end up coming across whatever it was that scared him so much, and if that does turn out to be the case, then..."