CH 109

[The Door of Yuggoth Is Open]

“—Haa~ none of them works…”

Pinko slumped down to the ground.

It had been a few minutes since we found the door. Pinko had since shown the door piles of ‘Ancient’ items and even rubbed them against it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Seemed like his theory was wrong. The door wasn’t looking for ‘Ancient’ items.

“It took so much time to gather them, too. I even borrowed Yuri-chan’s ‘Ancient Super Civilization Remnant Machines’, thinking the amount is lacking. Or rather, how did you get so many of them, Yuri-chan?”

“My Luck is extremely high, so I almost always get rare drops. So, what’s the plan now?”

“None…”

Pinko hung his head in a baritone voice. He was quite depressed it seemed.

Looked like it was time for me to step up. As a matter of fact, I’d almost instantly figured out the answer the moment the ‘Ancient’ items proved to be incorrect.

…I thought he’d also figure it out, considering he was an informant, but it seemed my expectations had been too high. Well, whatever.

“Cheer up, Pinko. Your efforts aren’t completely fruitless. I figured the real answer.”

“Huh, no kidding?!”

I nodded to the surprised Pinko as I activated the ‘King of All Things’ skill.

It was a skill that allowed you to freely take in and out items from your guild warehouse.

A dimensional rift opened in front of me, and I thrust my hand into it and pulled something out.

“Eww, it’s twitching. Wait, wha-?! It twined around my arm?! Get off, dammit!”

“Uhh… Yuri-chan, what’s that?”

“Well, it’s a tentacle of a monster named ‘Cthulhu Replica’.”

Yup. What I took out was ‘Forbidden Evil Dragon Tentacle’, the item I’d got after defeating Ku-chan.

Replica he might be, he still got ‘Cthulhu’ in his name. The door would react to it, I bet.

It shouldn’t be a surprise for such an important door to ask for hidden boss items.

“That makes sense—please, present it to the door, Yuri-chan!”

“…Okay.”

I tried to hold out my arm the tentacle was entwining.

Then, the door’s bluish-white light turned red and it began to tremble…!

Further, a black and red message window appeared in front of me…

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

・Cell compatibility rate – 97%. Standard Cleared.

The subject has been determined to be a relative of ‘Cthulhu’, Great General of the Demon King Army, hopefully.

Soul Name: Yuri. Thou art hereby granted the power of Demon Steel. The heretical door of Yuggoth is now open to thee–!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

And so, the door to the unknown opened.

It split left and right as it leveled the ground, revealing… a massive ancient machine manufacturing facility, ‘Machine Factory’.

Of course, it wasn’t like your regular factory. Lines of lights ran all over the place, and complex magic formations were carved into the ground and walls.

“Whoa~… this is amazing…! The message mentioned ‘Demon Steel’. Can I acquire it here?!”

I began to step into the factory with eyes shining with amazement.

“Wow~, I can’t wait to explore this place!”

After several steps in…

“—Indeed, it’s exactly as she expected!”

…Pinko tried to stab my defenseless back with a greatsword–!

Though, well…

“I knew you would.”

“Wha–?!”

As such, I could easily counterattack.

Just before the greatsword pierced me, my spinning back kick reached him first!

“Gugi?!””

The sole of my feet burrowed into Pinko’s face. Moreover, the impact-amplifying skill ‘Demon King Surge’ activated, sending him flying, and he slammed into the wall–!

“Gaha…?! Y-you, you deliberately showed me your back…?!”

“I did. Figured you’d try to kill me then.”

I had wished he didn’t, though.

I mean, he got a lot of interesting info, so it’d be a shame to kill him.

“You must be kidding… since when did you start to doubt me…?”

“From the start. But to be exact, from the moment I grabbed your arm.”

“Huh?!”

Yup. I was talking about when I dropkicked Pinko, mistaking him for an assassin player.

After he said he wasn’t an assassin player, I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.

It was then I activated a certain art.

“Manushya Realm Cursed Art ‘Hand of Desires’. It’s a special art that can be activated without speaking the name and it lets you see the name and the status of the person you touched. With it, I learned your name—‘Merlin’.”

“…?!” Pinko’s, or rather, Merlin’s eyes widened in shock.

Even someone unfamiliar with mythologies like me had heard it. Merlin, companion of ‘Arthur Pendragon’ in the legend of King Arthur.

“Bad, Yuri-chan! Peeping on others’ private information is a no-no, you know~…!”

“I didn’t do it because I have some weird hobby, okay? It’s just to see if you really are a normal player. I mean, assassin players have special names, right? ‘Kirika of the Asura Realm’, for one.”

I’d figured I’d be able to distinguish them that way.

Another way was the message displayed when you encountered an assassin player, but it was unreliable.

It wouldn’t show up under certain circumstances, one of which was inside the city, a safety area, like when I’d met Kirika.

There was also the possibility that the assassin players could turn it on and off, although unlikely.

“At first, I was just a little curious, y’know? I mean, there’re tons of players who take their names from myths and folklore.

“But… the moment you gave me a fake name, Pinko, my curiosity instantly turned into suspicion. There’s no way anyone would hide their name for no reason, right?”

“Ugh…?!” Merlin groaned at my words.

Moments later, “Okay, okay, you got me…” he heaved a deep sigh and hung his head, “Haa~~~. I used an alias to hide my connection with Pendragon-chan…

“You’re so oblivious, yet so sharp, Yuri-chan. No, ‘good at finding holes’, might be a better way to put it. I should have expected no less from a child soldier…”

“I’m not a child soldier. Anyway, although some things still don’t add up, you are my enemy, aren’t you? What were you trying to gain by deceiving me?”

“Oh, curious…? In that case…”

Merlin stood up with his greatsword as support.

At that moment, a purple magic formation appeared under his feet–!

“In that case, let’s fight, Yuri-chan…! If you’re so curious why I deceived you, beat the answer out of me!”

“Hah, now you’re speaking my language. Bring it on!”

I deployed multiple weapons around me…!

And so, in front of the new area, my duel with the spy began…!