The Four Adventurers and the Clockwork Beanstalk (4)
1755 Words
Naturally, our first instinct is to push the tall wooden door.
We gather all our strengths to give that much needed push, and even the spell-casters in our team contribute.
And...
Yes! The door's finally open.
We are met with a blinding light... but only for a second.
Once we all cautiously step towards what lies beyond the door...
We all feel like we're walking on air.
Or maybe... stepping on actual clouds that feel kind of solid.
Yup, this is the top floor, alright.
The top is unlike every other floor; it is a wide and expansive field of clouds divided by a river with a bridge we can spot from afar. A health-replenishing orb is near where we are currently, and so are pieces of furniture that lay around. Thankfully, there are no monsters. Not even traps – since the rest of the dungeon is not known to house them.
We take our sweet time walking towards the bridge, appreciating the abstract yet serene scenery.
Once we all approach the bridge, we are greeted by someone who's not clearly a tiny black-dressed man on a portable magical entertainment screen.
Someone with a voice.
An annoying voice, to be exact.
A voice belonging to a giantess.
Her form is muscular and gonk-like, her trademark weapon is a club made out of bones of fallen angels, and her height is roughly twice that of the metal golems we have defeated a while back.
What's even worse is she reminds me of a more annoying version of a former entertainment ratings board chairwoman and a showbiz pundit who once suspected two matinee idols to be gay combined.
Yup, those two people I'm talking about are real existing persons in the entire kingdom, and they are Consolize LeGuarde and Lolith Tulis, respectively.
I'm no fan of those two women due to their haughtiness and tendency to say something controversial out of their mouths.
“Fee fi fo fum! Who goes there?”
“And who are you, anyway?”
Sergei answers back.
“Your voice is so irritating.”
“How dare you disrespect me! It is I who created that seed that becomes a beanstalk as a test for guinea pigs like you. And since you have succeeded in reaching me, I will give you all a reward.”
“Guinea pigs...”
I respond with disgust.
“You sound so manipulative... as if you treat us like puppets dancing on the end of a string. Are you the Most High or something?”
My retort leaves her stunned.
We – the entire kingdom of Lebenswasserheim – all recognize the one true god we worship, and that is the one known only as the Most High.
So for a giantess to play god... that's what I call blasphemy.
“Grr! Enough of that useless lecturing!”
The giantess shouts.
“Do you want the reward... or not?”
“Well, since you're down with that, I've got three words for you...”
Aloysius answers.
“DO NOT WANT!”
“Such fighting words!”
The giantess says with contempt.
“You all want to do battle with me for no other reason than to whoop my butt! If that's the way things should be... MORTALS, TASTE THE POWER OF MY VOICE!”
She then begins to assume a fighting pose and opens her mouth wide.
“Fine, then.”
Luningning draws out her dual swords and assumes a battle-ready pose.
“You shall taste our steel. COME AND TAKE IT!”
I know from the very moment we first heard her voice that she's gonna use her vocal cords as one of her potent weapons.
Therefore, I advise my teammates...
“Everyone! Cover your ears so that you won't get distracted by that bothersome voice!”
Luningning then warns...
“But how will we attack when both our hands will be used to cover our ears?”
That takes me back to when I used improvised earplugs in order to be immune from the red chicken's feral goose-like honk.
But Sergei has another solution.
Well, as it turns out, that solution is similar to mine.
He brings out four pairs of earplugs, which are made of rubber, and tells the rest of us...
“Go wear them, quick!”
With our ears covered, we're now ready to do battle without being crippled by the pestiferous voice every five seconds.
For this battle, I'm using magically-infused hardcore wrestling techniques.
This is an advanced unarmed combat style I've learned from a wrestler named Hunter Levasque three years ago.
I'm charging up energy in my right arm to perform...
“Choujinken (Superman Punch)!”
I jump to a considerable height, feigning a kick, then let loose all that energy in my arm onto the giantess' face.
She's definitely taking a hit; but at the same time, she's calling a bluff.
“Come on! You can do better than that, puny humans!”
Luningning then unleashes her best dual-sword attacks.
In fact, she's fired up for a powerful attack, as her two swords glow red and blue.
She leaps to the sky, and chants the following.
“Have a taste of divine justice! Haaaaaaahhhh! Eagle's Crest!”
Once she plants her swords onto the ground after that leap, a magic circle resembling eagle wings appears from the spot and does considerable damage to the giantess, staggering her.
But not for long.
“You are now making me mad! I'll crush your bones into fine powder!”
The giantess casts Heisbilis on herself, then swings her club at us at blinding speeds.
Despite her huge size, she still manages to get a hit on us all.
We're all down on the cloud-laden ground, but we're not all knocked out.
It's now time for Sergei to utilize his potent healing magic.
“Nature's soothing breeze, revitalize the fighting spirit! Intensified! Healom Lahall!”
A canopy of gentle light revolves around us, emitting healing energy that undoes the damage we have sustained.
Now fully recovered, we're now doing our best to dodge her blows.
Aloysius takes his time to cast the highest-level non-elemental spells in his arsenal, with the rest of us protecting him while he charges up before his invocations.
“Beyond the overworld and the underworld, beyond the elements eight... stands a force as formidable as nature itself! Nuclear Flare!”
A red-hot spherical thermonuclear blast that is not as strong as the infamous Crepitus spell but still can deal some considerable damage is working wonders against the hulking woman.
It's not a huge explosion that's needed for a spell of that caliber, but whatever.
Now she's showing signs of giving in.
Despite her repeated boasts of “I just can't be defeated” and the like, she's struggling to keep her fighting stance.
We all agree to channel all our powers into one surefire killer blow that I will perform myself.
Luningning, Sergei, and Aloysius transmit part of their inherent fighting spirits (not mana) to me, which I then use to charge not just my fist, but also my entire right arm that now glows with white-hot energy.
I do the same feinting leap I did when I performed the Choujinken, and with all my fury...
“I'm more than stylish, you know! Kyoui Zenwan (Phenomenal Forearm)!”
I perform a punch that is much stronger and even emits energy equivalent to that of five hundred one-inch punches.
The punch itself, as well as its residual energy, hits every part of the giantess without much effort.
Naturally, the giantess says her final words of defiance as she struggles to get up once more, but now to no avail.
“You may have killed a beautiful giantess like me, but there are hundreds more who occupy beanstalks similar to this that will give you pesky adventurers a hard time! Have fun climbing them, daredevils!”
She is finally defeated, and she explodes in a glorious blaze.
I declare...
“Sucks that I didn't just summon a chainsaw to finish this battle quick.”
Luningning responds...
“But that would be anti-climatic, you know.”
Aloysius cuts in.
“But what about the giantess' dying words? Should we take these seriously?”
Sergei responds, once more shedding his taciturn attitude...
“If there are accounts of other people receiving seeds that produce beanstalks like this, then it's up to others like us to tackle them. Remember... the adventurer's spirit is strong, as strong as that of our kingdom's founder.”
To that, I answer...
“Never said it better.”
Beyond where the giantess once stood, there is another huge door.
This time, it's all plated in gold and platinum, plus it's adorned with twelve different previous jewels.
I comment...
“I hope this door can take us back to the ground.”
We all enter the door.
And in a flash of light...
...we are warped back to the castle town of Pum Quoc.
Back to the adventurers' guild.
And it seems Mr. Cou'thegvac, the quest starter, has already heard of our successful journey.
“Adventurers, thank you so much for tackling the mystery of these beans that fell from the sky! Who would've thought that a mechanical-looking beanstalk existed?”
We all then fill him in on the important details that we encountered in this undertaking of ours, including the structure of the beanstalk, the enemies that lurked within, the giantess that seemingly lorded over the beanstalk itself, and the presumed existence of similar beanstalks.
“Alright! I think I might have to contact the main branch of the adventurer's guild in the capital about that last thing. Now for your rewards: Money I have received from my earnings selling organic vegetables to the royal family!”
For the completion of the quest, we, the adventurers four, are rewarded with four moneybags.
One bag usually contains 10,000 guintos.
We take one each, as we feel that we have all contributed equally to the successful completion of the quest.
“Guess it's time for us to part ways, huh.”
I declaim that in a forlorn way.
“But we will meet again in different pages someday, yes. So until then... farewell.”
We all give each other a huge group hug, and then part ways for good.
As the first quest I've undertaken on Oraclemonth 1019 CE drew to a close...
I still have a long way to go as an adventurous vagrant.
1019-1578, “These Seeds”
Quest complete.
- Writer
