Returning from defeating the Prime Doppelganger, I found myself at the bottom of the moat.
After making all the necessary preparations and setting my resolve, I entered, but since it ended too easily, I decided to go deeper.
As I wandered around the bottom of the moat, smashing monsters and gradually getting accustomed to greatswordsmanship…
I still didn’t understand any of Benny’s magic, but it came in handy when multiple monsters appeared.
After hunting easily for a while, a surge of greed crept in.
Wouldn’t I be able to enter the castle now without much trouble?
As usual, things were pretty much the same.
Corrosion-resistant Gear Soldiers started appearing, but I’d lure them one by one, call for Lydia’s help if surrounded, or flee immediately if a superior being like a Gear Knight showed up.
After an eventful sneak attack that felt like a thin paperback book, roughly twenty chapters of web fiction, I finally stumbled upon an artificial arm.
This was the prototype that served as the origin of all Gear Soldiers’ artificial bodies, crafted by the God of Mechanical Devices specifically for their followers.
Even in the absence of the God of Mechanical Devices, it was made with technology that mortals could barely imitate.
Thus, its performance as a divine item was somewhat lacking, but still, a divine item is a divine item, right?
If I had this radiant chrome-colored artificial arm, I could give Ellie her arm back…
Crunch!
“What the hell! How could you eat that!”
The gray sphere I’d picked up after defeating the Prime Doppelganger. I didn’t know what it was, but since it was a drop from the calamity, I thought it must be good, yet it turned out to pull a fast one on me.
“Spit it out! Spit it out, you little jerk!”
Thud! Thud!
I kept pounding the gray sphere with my fist. I knew it had some kind of dependency when I first picked it up, and just now when it had devoured the artificial arm.
Hoping it would spit it out, I twisted it like wringing out a rag… but the gray sphere just squirmed as if trying to escape from me, with no sign of the lost arm returning.
“Ah… what do I do? I miss Ellie…”
Ultimately, after acknowledging that my arm wasn’t coming back, I let out a big sigh and slumped down.
Of course, even at that moment, I was still poking the gray sphere with my fingernails out of spite.
Did I look that pathetic? Lydia crouched down beside me and patted my shoulder.
“It’s okay, Jonah. There must be another way to get Ellie’s arm back. The labyrinth is vast, and there are untapped areas out there.”
“Well, I guess so.”
On the fourth floor, there’s a divine item that allows one to come back to life once. With that, the body regenerates perfectly, so I could use it to put Ellie’s arm back.
However, the side effects would be the agonizing pain of rotting away and a terrible stench of decay.
The actual body is fine, but it leaves only pain and stench behind.
On the seventh floor, where eternal war repeats, there’s a similar item. However, it doesn’t give you a real arm; instead, it equips you with a long sword that you can control freely.
And this one has a side effect that forces you to keep fighting until death, which is pretty insane.
There are plenty of methods in the labyrinth to either regenerate or substitute completely lost bodies.
They’re all problematic due to their crazy side effects.
The only somewhat better option is the artificial arm of the God of Mechanical Devices that prevents the use of magical powers like mana or aura.
Since Ellie didn’t have any magical powers to begin with, it’s essentially a no-penalty situation.
It really feels like customized equipment for Ellie, and it was actually designed with that in mind… although it’s gone now.
“Haah, life really…”
“What kind of life talk is that from someone who hasn’t lived long at all?”
Even while saying that, Benny subtly stood by my side, trying to show a dependable front, but honestly, I was only thinking about how skinny his thighs looked.
I started to roll around on the ground, feeling utterly deflated.
Showing such an unguarded appearance in a labyrinth is incredibly dangerous, but… here, it’s okay.
Looking around, I only saw various parts and unfinished artificial bodies.
This place is where all kinds of machinery for modifying the bodies of monsters from the third floor are created.
Developing new things is mostly done by the God of Mechanical Devices, so the craftsmen here just mass-produce according to the given recipes.
Blacksmiths, alchemists, and mages have probably all holed up here, madly churning out devices.
Because of that, the outside is heavily guarded, while the workshop is well hidden, and once you get inside, you’re safe.
Combatants have no business entering the production area, and those without combat power would be engulfed by insanity and turned into monsters, so there’s no need to bring them into the labyrinth.
The labyrinth is a place where the incapable and the gods are buried together. Anyone who still has weak combat power after going insane gets killed outright.
“…But still, if we dig around here, wouldn’t we find something valuable?”
“Hmmm. Assuming something is left, we might find something quite expensive. The most valuable loot from the third floor is knowledge, and this is where that knowledge flows together in a workshop. Even better, it’s undiscovered.”
Although much of the technology of the third floor has been revealed and some can even be reproduced using Pangrave’s power…
The overall technological level is still lower than that of the third floor.
If I could take a recipe or something undiscovered, it would definitely fetch a high price at the guild.
…Suddenly, I felt invigorated.
“Alright!”
I squeezed the gray sphere tightly and stood up. Some parts of the gray sphere protruded between the joints of my fingers, trembling slightly.
I barely turned my gaze away from the pitiful sight that kept weakening my spirit and began searching the workshop.
Before long, I found the workshop owner’s notebook.
*
“Excuse me? How much is it?”
“321 gold, Adventurer.”
From across the desk at the guild’s purchasing office, the clerk, who had been examining the workshop owner’s notebook for a while, said.
“321 gold?”
“I’m sorry. While this notebook is precious, most of the recipes are based on information uncovered during hundreds of years of exploration on the third floor, so the price isn’t that high.”
“No, I’m surprised that it’s higher than I expected.”
When I combined the prices of the other loot and added them up, it came to a whopping 323 gold.
Of course, I can’t pocket this money for myself.
While it’s true that I did most of the fighting against the monsters, Lydia and Benny were the ones who saved me in dangerous situations and took down the Gear Knight guarding the entrance of the workshop.
Karen agreed to give me her share when I asked her, but…
I can’t exactly do the same for Lydia and Benny.
Calculating their contributions, I’d be taking about 150 gold from the total sales of approximately 320 gold.
I shared my thought process with Lydia and Benny and asked.
“Let’s distribute it this way. Is that okay?”
“Huh? Is that how it works?”
“Sounds about right. …By the way, if it seems useless, can I examine that gray sphere?”
Lydia nodded lazily, and Benny seemed more interested in research than money.
Thanks to them, we wrapped up the settlement without any fuss, and as we were heading back to Fairy and Silver Coin, I momentarily got distracted by the atmosphere, using the events of the day as a snack for thought.
I unknowingly relaxed the grip on the gray sphere in my hand. Suddenly.
Gloop.
With an unpleasant sensation, the gray sphere melted down and transformed into the shape of the artificial arm it had devoured.
“…Huh?”
As I halted in my tracks, the reactions of my companions behind me mirrored my own surprise.
“Jonah. Is that…?”
“No need to check, Lydia. That’s definitely the artificial arm.”
“…For a moment, I felt embarrassed for thinking too harshly of the Goddess.”
Receiving the gaze of the four of us, the gray sphere—no, the artificial arm trembled and melted again, beginning to transform into various shapes.
The Unicorn Dagger I’d poked it with, the unfinished parts scattered around the workshop… and even my arm that was in contact with it at that moment.
It looked like the gray sphere could only change into shapes similar to or smaller than the artificial arm it had swallowed.
Realizing this, something suddenly came to mind.
The form the Prime Doppelganger initially took. Before mimicking a god, it had consumed the components of a god.
The gray sphere left behind by the Prime Doppelganger likely carried such power.
Abilities that transform into items lower in rank than the consumed arm, don’t exceed their size, and can only change into things that have had contact with it.
“This is!”
Normally, it could be an artificial arm that becomes a part of Ellie, and when needed, it could transform into another shape, right?
For reasons unknown, the gray sphere both feared and blindly followed me.
If so…
Grabbing the wobbling shape of my arm tightly, I dashed out.
As soon as I reached Fairy and Silver Coin, I shoved it straight in front of Ellie.
“Ellie! It’s a present!”
“…”
Ellie looked at me as if she had just found a cockroach brought in by a cat.
How mean.
