The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 120: The Power of Light

Chapter 120: The Power of Light

“Secrreeeeeee!”

The Kelraras slammed into the walls attempting to scurry up the side. Their bone claws dug into the wall as they tried dragging themselves up the wall.

The lizardmen guards immediately got back into position, and a few jumped off the wall back to the city to grab additional weapons, as the ones they had thrown down earlier were still on the ground.

(“ I’m so proud, what a lovely defender of the weak ”)

Espr was being sarcastic back to me after my earlier comments. 

That I am! I hope you keep on cheering me on from behind my adoring fan.

“...Ceella… what are you going to do?” Lu, who was still dangling in my arms, asked. She was trying to stay as still as possible so as not to fall off the edge. She had barely any faith in me; it would take a lot more than a little movement for me to drop her.

“Destroy one.” I tossed Lu underneath my left arm and stretched out my right hand.

[Star Lance].

My Starlight Lance formed around my arm, and I created an additional Starlight chain from the back of my lance and around my arm.

“Woah…”

“Do you want to hop down or would you rather stay on for the ride?”

Lu paused, registering my question, “I… would like to go down.” 

“Sure.” I dropped her on the city side of the wall.

Thud.

“Ouch!” She cried as she landed butt-first.

“Land better next time.”

I leapt off the wall and a Starlight chain emerged from my back and latched onto the top. 

“Hey, bastard!” My lance fell right onto the first beast’s head as I forced it down, and then with a tug, my body flung itself upwards like I was on a bungy.

The beast screamed with its non-existent throat, and sand spat from its head.

The sand explosion seems to be proportional to the size of the impact hole, and either the sand is tightly contained or it is generated within the skeleton, as there is so much more sand coming than there would be space inside.

I tugged the chain around my lance which was covered in sand as I grabbed back onto the top of the wall.

Definitely weaker than expected for the ‘Great Evil’.

I wasn’t disappointed, as if this was what I had to expect for the strength of this world, then they would mean the monster defending the core wouldn’t be much better.

This sand mana-draining shit is so annoying.

I flicked my Lance a few times to fling the stuff off it.

While I hadn’t killed the first Kelraras, its body was rolling around on the ground like a dead fish.

Why does it feel pain? Does it feel pain? The other undead monsters I faced didn't, so why do these creatures?

They were screeching, but they were made of damn bones and sand. I understood you didn’t need blood, muscles, and a bunch of shit to be alive anymore considering all the other crazy monsters I had seen, but these things were weird.

Finally, as the sand drained, it stopped moving, and its whole body was consumed by the sandy waves.

“That is creepy. Is this whole desert alive?”

If it was, that might make my goal of finding the core a bit harder.

The Nelatta guards had gotten back up fast, and this time Al-Roo took a step back. 

In the first wave of attacks, the guards poked at the beast to push it down the wall as a group of guards prepared for the second. The second wave had smaller, sharpened-to-the-point spears whose whole design was about striking a hole in the beast’s bones. There was a small hole in the blade of the spear; if it was designed to make holes in the bone, my guess was that it was for the sand to flow out of the hole easier so the spear wasn’t simply clogging up the hole after making it.

The guards threw down the spears, and the beast roared as it slammed its stupid head into the wall.

This wall is quite durable.

There was a distance between the elevated mountain level the Nelatta lived on and the bottom of the outside wall, but from my quick glances, the wall seemingly was holding up strong. I wondered if they constantly repaired it or if it was an old construction.

The spears did their job, and the sand began bleeding out the creature. Afterwards, they went back to poking as they kept pushing the creature down. The beast kept trying to climb like it was the only goal it had in mind. I knew this from earlier, but these undead-like creatures were very simple in how they acted.

Over time I watched as the creature became more sluggish as it became more difficult for it to counterattack and climb.

So the sand basically acts as the creature's blood?

It appeared the plan was for the guards to ‘bleed the creature to death’. I mean, it seemed effective, and it also kind of proved how much stronger Al-Roo was in comparison to the rest of the Nelatta.

I simply watched as the guards slowly dealt with the Kelrara. There was a bunch who were ready to attack the way I had dealt with them, but because I defeated the monster so quickly, they instead joined up and supported the squad, killing the second Kelrara.

Maybe the reason why the first one was rolling all over the ground was that the wound was too deep and too much of the sand that controlled it fell out, so it short-circuited.

Using an electronic definition might not have made perfect sense for an undead creature, but I was trying my best. 

I jumped back off the wall where Lu was.

“You do it!” She cheered, 

I asked, “Did you sneak a peek again?”

“No…” She lied.

“Sure.”

She waved her hands around in an attempt to prove her innocence, but she got distracted and asked a question instead, “What is that?” She pointed at my [Star Lance].

“This?” I waved around my lance of Starlight. “Just a projection made of Starlight.” The reason I dealt with the monster the way I did was because I wanted to reabsorb the Starlight after use. I wouldn’t get it all back, but at least it all wouldn’t go to waste. Due to mana-draining sand, attacking with my fire was a no-go.

“Star…light?” Lu asked, confused.

“Yeah, Starlight, an extremely rare variant of Light. Only created when Light is released from the sun and has been supercharged with Sun energy. After travelling a large distance the radiant heat fades away and the Light is refined into Starlight. This is a very rare process and technically only a few strands of Light become Starlight.”

Lu said, “I… don’t understand what you are saying.” She tightened her fist as she smiled with excitement. She didn’t understand, but she wanted to understand.

As her brain began to overheat from thinking too much, “Wait! I forgot my most important question! How is it still existing?”

“Pardon?”

“It touched the golden sand that destroys magic.”

“Oh.” I giggled, “As I said, Starlight is a very rare and refined energy, to the point it has a much lower mix of additional mana within it compared to most energies.”

“What..?”

“Let me quickly explain.” I told Lu that most energies still had large portions of raw mana within them; it was simply how those energies stayed stable. “Starlight has reached the point where it is practically all Starlight energy. This has its ups and downs, but it means on its own it is a very stable energy.”

“If it is about being stable, why isn’t Earth stable?” Lu asked, “Rock is hard. Doesn’t move.”

“Haha, Earth actually has a lot of mana within it; when you create a rock construct with Earth magic, the average construct would be forty-percent Earth sixty-percent mana.”

“So weak…”

I clarified, “Please don’t think energy is weak because of the mana ratio, the mana ratio is simply the natural most optimal form. In a way, constructs which use less of the pure energy are easier to create and technically cheaper in cost, and there is a deficit in transforming a portion of mana into energy for a skill.”

“I see…” Lu mumbled. “I need to write this down.”

“Hahaha, sure do that.”

At least this is keeping me entertained.

(“ And soon you will have to kill her ”)

Do you have to be the annoying voice in my head right now?

(“ Did I say anything wrong? ”)

No. No, you did not.

It took some time, but I heard the second beast fall outside the wall and a second round of cheers. It seemed the guards were proud of themselves for taking down the beast without Al-Roo’s help.

Speaking of which, he appeared besides me and said, "Hello, Ceella.”

“Hello, did everything go well?”

“Indeed, all be well.” 

“That’s good to hear.” I still didn’t know exactly what ‘all be well’ meant; it seemed to be used as confirmation for an action, a ‘you're welcome’, and ‘a all is well’.

Your translation is crap, Espr. 

(“ The fault lies solely with you ”)

I doubt that.

Al-Roo thanked me for my support and quickly left. I guess Lu was right about him not standing around people.

What to do next… 

I had a few things I needed to do and a few locations I wanted to search, but picking to order was annoying.

Lu came running back with a stone tablet, “I found my writer!” 

I shrugged. I guess I’ll extract what other information I can get from her head.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.