I took a nap at the Blue Island Inn and set off again before dawn. Moving to the dock of the 12th ship, I planned to go out to sea with a lifeboat, then transfer to a U-boat. The sea fog was getting thicker, and as usual I could only see a few meters ahead. But on the contrary, this sea fog will hide my figure and the light as I summon the U-boat.
As I was walking along the dock while checking the map to see if there were any dots floating nearby, I saw three sitting on the quay.
Are they the hooded men I saw in the rental warehouse area?
In order to go out to sea discreetly, it is convenient in various ways to know where people are. Many unloaded large wooden boxes were placed on the pier, hiding my figure even if anyone looked down from the ship.
Well, fine I guess…
I should just ignore them even if they notice me. With that in mind, I proceeded along the quay and headed to the pier. As the dots approached, three silhouettes came into view beyond the sea fog.One large silhouette, one round and one thin――hmm? It’s not the three hooded men. These guys――
The moment I saw those three, I stopped walking towards the pier.
Sitting on the quay, staring at the sea blocked by sea fog――was the trio who got involved in the fortified city of Barga――the trio who joined in the escort of Marida Company’s merchant fleet――at a dinner party in Veneer. It was a trio that had the same face as all of the three people who were present, but who were different people.
However, the big cat-eared man, the slender mouse face, and the chubby raccoon face――all three had hollow eyes and were drooling from the corners of their open mouths. It’s hard to believe that the three of them were laughing so loudly, they were completely soulless――no, they were sitting there like living dolls without a soul from the beginning.
“….Oi, what are you guys doing here?”
I couldn’t help calling out to them since they looked strange. Perhaps hearing my call, the cat-eared giant slightly turned his face my way.
“Aa――…”
That was the only reply――the cat-eared giant once again turned his gaze to the sea mist, and stared fixedly ahead.
All three of them must’ve gone insane… one could say that.
I stopped and hesitated for a while. Should I help them? Or maybe call someone else to help? Or――just ignore it?
In the end, my decision was to leave a small amount of food and one gold coin and head for the pier. If they have normal intentions, they should be able to make a stopgap. Even if I protect them, I won’t be able to take care of them. Even if I give them a lot of money, in this state they will only attract malice.
For now, I just gave alms if only to satisfy the slight pity, sympathy, and warmth I felt, and moved on.
Boarding a U-boat on the sea, it took two days to reach the abandoned labyrinth island. The target island came into view. First, I shifted the U-boat from underwater navigation to sea navigation, climbed up to the conning tower, and confirmed it with my own eyes.
“It’s huge…”
The coastline is likely to be three to four kilometers long. It is surrounded by rock walls, but perhaps because it is covered with shrubs, at least it’s not entirely barren. Activating TSS with my thoughts, I took out the RQ-11 Raven, a small unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, from my inventory.
Let’s begin with recon first.
With the information I received from Sierra, I’ve roughly grasped the overall view of the labyrinth island. The part surrounded by rock walls is a caldera that was created by past volcanic activity. According to the information, volcanic activity had stopped before the labyrinth was born, and it had become a dormant volcano.
A forest of shrubs spreads to the south of the caldera, and there is a gentle slope from there to the coastline. Beyond that is the hunting ground, the place I assume as the landing point. Raven flew high in the sky, at an altitude of over 300 meters, and I checked the current status and information on the screen monitor floating in my field of vision.
There was no need to operate Raven directly. I could fly it with my will, gradually lowering the altitude and showing the state of the labyrinth island.
“This one is big too…”
What Raven’s camera showed was a large monster――a wild boar monster I hunted in the Devil’s Mountains, Eryman Boar――but with different colors. The one I fought in the Demon Mountains had black fur, but the one captured in Raven’s camera was red.
I also compared the list of the monsters with the one I saw through the recon camera――
“Flame Boar huh… this one seems to be a fairly high-ranking species――hmm?”
While checking the terrain while chasing the Flame Boar, I discovered a place that seemed to be the traces of a brand new battle.
Is it a trace of monsters’ battle?
In addition to the large monsters, I also discovered a group of burning dog-type monsters――Hellgaze, which is also a high-ranking species that can manipulate flames. Although it is a dormant volcano, there are many fire-attribute monsters that are closely related to volcanoes. Does the information mention this…?
The moment I felt that the accuracy of the information was at a certain level, I saw a red glow in the shadow of the shrubs――the live footage of Raven stopped. Apparently, it was shot down by a monster’s attack.
I originally wanted to check the center of the caldera, where the entrance to the labyrinth should be, but now I’ll have to go inside and check it out myself. The landing site was already in sight. I made landfall and secured a base while knowing that there are no monsters around.
I prepped the main weapons that will be my partner in this labyrinth island exploration from the inventory. What I wanted was the power to contend with the higher-ranked species, the ability to continue fighting no matter how many opponents I had at once, and the portability to fight while moving around the island.
The weapon I ended up picking was――ARX-160.
A modular ARF assault rifle manufactured by the Italian company Beretta. By rearranging optional parts, it can be fitted with an under-rail grenade launcher, or, by attaching a heavy barrel, bipod, and a large drum magazine, it can be used as a squad support weapon――a machine gun so to speak.
Its configuration can be changed to load multiple type ammunition, but I chose a 5.45 x 39mm bullet with a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. The capacity rises to 100 rounds when using a drum magazine. With this ARX-160, I can deal with large monsters and more. In addition, even with the folding stock deployed, it is about 400mm in length, making it easy to carry and highly portable.
I changed from the U-boat to a lifeboat, approached the labyrinth island while keeping vigilance, including in the sea, and landed on the sandy beach that was set as the landing point.
As soon as the lifeboat ran aground, I started running, kneeling on the beach and readying the ARX-160. Originally, a scope sight could be mounted on the barrel, but it was a matter of personal preference, so I left it as it is with an iron sight――watching the surroundings while sliding the crosshair floating at the tip of the front sight.
Clear――
Judging it so, I tried to rush into the bush forest in front of me, but the moment I moved a step or two further, a dot appeared on the map. However, there is nothing at the position indicated by the dot on the radar. It was still a sandy beach, and even when I looked up, I didn’t see anything flying. The number of dots increased――there were five now, and they fanned out around me as I began to hear the sound of bristling sand.
“It’s underground!”
I aimed at the sandy beach and aligned the crosshair on the spot where something was clearly about to crawl out of the sand. Pushing through the sand, a hermit crab-like monster with a large conch on its back――Pugroider. With a body of about one meter in total length, and carrying a similarly large conch on its back, it looks larger than I thought now that I’m facing it from the front.
Red eyeballs protruding like tentacles glared at me, and sharp fangs were lined up in the mouth below them. The reason why there’s no visible monster around this coast is probably…. I assessed the situation immediately, and before the five bodies could crawl out of the sand――I started firing ARX-160. The magic stone hunt on the labyrinth island began.
Burning Feathers 