Chapter 14. Into the Tainted Land

I foolishly decided to go into the Tainted Land without waiting for the demon to come back. Passing through the darkness-covered red veil didn’t feel too different from just stepping into another room. There was no resistance, and no force pushing me or pulling me away from the Tainted Land. However, once inside, the light from the hallway I was standing wouldn’t pierce the darkness that crept in every direction of the cave.

I would need to use a torch, or something like that in most circumstances, but I wouldn’t risk using fire inside a cave, so with a flick of my finger, I threw a Light Spell that covered the darkness in a bright white light, emitted by an orb that steadily flew in the air like a wisp.

The bracelet rumbled soon after I used that spell—likely the same message about a new skill—but while inside a Tainted Land, I couldn’t distract myself with a useless message, so I decided to ignore it for now on.

There was nothing to take note of the cave, only that it was wide and tall enough to comfortably walk with a small group of people without having to push each other, and that its walls had a few marks of people that tried to widen it. How well that works for the whole of the Tainted Land, however, I couldn’t really tell, since the deeper one went, the fiercer the creatures and the tainted beings would be.

And sure enough, a few minutes later after walking inside the cave, one of those creatures showed itself. It looked like a shadow with a humanoid shape, long limbs that stretched to the ground and a thin frame that would make anyone wonder how such a thing could keep itself standing. Its head snapped to look in the direction of the light, and me just behind it. I looked straight at its glowing red eyes for a moment, and soon after, it screeched with painful high pitch before rushing my way.

I didn’t panic and simply summoned a rock spike, gripping it with my right hand and launching it with as much strength as my current body would allow it. The Dark Beast didn’t have time to react, as the spike cleanly pierced it, creating an explosion of darkness that soon dissipated by the light of my Light Spell.

From the light of my spell, I took notice of a glinting small marble that was left on the ground by the Dark Beast. I approached it to have a closer look at it. It was red with a few dark marks surrounding it, and I knew what this was, since I had picked many of these and some much larger from all kinds of Beasts, be them Dark Beasts or beings from the Holy Places of Power that the Gods would use as trials for me. It was a Magic Stone. This one would be far too small to be worth anything, but being someone without a coin to my name in this world, anything is worth it, so I took it and shoved it inside a pocket of my pants.

I took a couple of steps further in, and right then, I heard rushed steps of something large coming my way from behind me. I calmly turned to take note of whatever was making such a ruckus inside the cave, but it couldn’t be one of the Dark Beast inside this Tainted Land, at least not one that would make this much noise while moving, especially from a place I had already passed.

There was a white light, not too different from the one I was using to explore the caves, and behind it, I took notice of the large silhouette with a pair of large glowing red eyes that had its eyes on me. Bo’guth had caught up with me already.

He was donned in a jet-black armor that hardly reflected any light; an enormous hammer strapped on his back, which no normal human could carry; a large tower shield on his left arm that looked more like a house door than a shield; and a bag on his right hand.

“Argh, why didn’t you wait for me!?,” he questioned, a frown floating on his demonic face. “I feared you would’ve gotten yourself in trouble already.”

“I decided to go ahead by myself. I don’t need a demon on my back,” I replied with a glare.

Bo’guth laughed while shaking his head. “No need to be so defensive, I’m a demon of my word, and I’m here to make sure you don’t die,” he said before presenting the bag on his right hand to me. “Here, I got you a little something to help you inside the Labyrinth.”

I looked straight at the bag. It looked normal on the demon’s hand, but it was larger than it appeared. I couldn’t help but look back up at the demon, doubting the intentions behind this action, so I refused to take it. “What is it?”

“It’s just a few things to aid you. Take it and see for yourself,” he answered, shaking the bag.

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I narrowed my eyes while looking at him, but he just smiled. I tried to ignore his pointy large teeth, and took the bag, carefully opening to make sure nothing strange popped out of it. Once it was open, and I was sure that nothing was wrong with it, I took notice of the things inside.

There was something metallic inside, but it wasn’t a weapon, so I carefully pulled it out to look at it. Once I took hold of it with both hands, I realized that this was the torso piece of a metal armor.

“It’s not quite the golden armored dress that the people from our world revered and feared, but I think you’ll feel comfortable in it,” Bo’guth said while nodding before reaching into the bag. “It also comes with a set of enhanced clothes, although… the design is quite weird—something that the smiths of this world for some reason really like.”

“Is this…” I tried to ask while looking at the piece of cloth.

“Yes, it’s a skirt—but don’t worry, it covers… enough…” Bo’guth finished, his face a bit awkward as he said that.

I raised an eyebrow. I was used to wearing skirts since I always found them comfortable to move and fight with, especially on the Holy Golden Armor, but the skirt on that one wasn’t nearly as short as this one. “Does this thing even protect at all?”

“Oh, yes it does. With enough magic infusion, it will create a mana barrier that will protect you for a while, even if it’s not nearly as powerful as the best things out there,” Bo’guth firmly answered with a sharp nod.

I took the piece of cloth and circulated mana into it. From the bottom part of the skirt, a thin membrane of mana emerged which lasted for a couple of seconds before turning back off. “Well… I guess it’s something…”

I started taking off my clothes to put on the clothes and armor that the demon brought, but he gasped as soon as I removed the hooded red shirt I had on top. “What are you doing?!”

“Hm? I’m changing into the armor that you brought,” I replied, while giving Bo’guth a questioning look.

“You shouldn’t do it out here!” he exclaimed while waving his hands.

“Huh? There’s nowhere else to change,” I replied, pointing out that this cave didn’t have much more room than what was around us.

“T-that’s true, but…”

I sighed, shaking my head as I did. “I’m going to trust you, demon, so how about you go behind me and look into the darkness. Shouldn’t be too hard for you.”

“Urk!” he exclaimed, and I feared that perhaps he had been provoked, but he just threw his hands up in the air and quickly made his way behind me, keeping his back to me. “Fine, I’ll be on the lookout. Please change quickly.”

I did as he said and I quickly changed out of the very comfortable clothes I’d been wearing and into the clothes that he brought. I was surprised to feel that these new black clothes were not that different in comfort to the ones I was wearing, noticing only that the material they were made out of was just tougher and not quite as stretchy as the other ones.

The armor piece on the other hand, was indeed quite strong, not bending at all like many cheap armors would. Because of that, it was a bit awkward for me to put on the armor, but I didn’t take long to fit myself into it. It was somewhat tight on the chest area, but not enough for it to be an issue.

As for the lower part, it was weird to have my legs exposed like that, but nothing to worry about, since the clothes’ magic will cover the rest, and I didn’t want to risk damaging the other comfortable clothes, so I just shoved the comfortable clothes into the bag, and strapped it on my back.

“Okay, I’m done,” I said once I made sure that everything was in place.

Bo’guth half-turned his face to look at me before fully turning to face me. “…This Holy…” was all I could hear from him as he murmured something else—probably a curse, which I did not fear from the demons.

“Do you have something to say? If not then let's go,” I said, ignoring whatever curse he was casting on me as I made my way past him.

“Another thing,” Bo’guth said and I stopped to look at him. “I didn’t want you to go unarmed, so I got this as well.”

He pulled a sword from out of nowhere from his side. It looked like a regular sized one when he held it in his large clawy hand, but it was likely larger than it appeared. It didn’t seem like it was anything impressive, no different than the one I used for yesterday’s tests. I went over while keeping my eyes on the movement of the demon and took a closer look at it.

It was indeed another greatsword. He presented the hilt to me and I carefully looked at it, quickly feeling some traces of magic on it. “Is this a trap? I can sense there’s magic on it.”

He laughed and shook his head. “It is not a trap. It is just a simple weapon that I figured would be enough for you. Similar to the armor I gave you, only that this one is enchanted to ease on the mana consumption that you would have to spend strengthening normal ones—it will even amplify it if you do it.”

I gave him a doubtful glare, but I had already donned the armor that he gave me, so I, again, decided to foolishly trust him, taking the sword by the hilt and preparing myself for anything.

After a few seconds, I confirmed that the weapon was safe to use and that what the demon had said was true, so I brought it up to my shoulder as I usually liked to do. “Okay, let's go now.”

Without waiting for the demon to say anything, I turned and made my way deeper into the Tainted Land.