## Chapter 47 – Best Friends
“Ugh… Ugh-huh-huh…”
In a complex maze where even the path one step ahead was uncertain.
The girl, struggling through it, was panting, her breath about to burst from her chest, as she ran forward.
Clearly, when she passed through the first gate, she had cheered with her teammates and Yui, filled with emotion.
“Yui… Yuiii…”
She had never known until now.
That the existence of a monster, something she had only learned about from books and writings, was such a dangerous thing.
Only after seeing her friends’ bones break and flesh torn apart did she confront the chilling reality of the emotions flowing through her.
“Hic… It doesn’t make sense…
How are we supposed to do this…”
Fear. Terror. And the instinct of the preyed upon.
It was the despair of a hothouse flower, sheltered in peace until now, facing a storm head-on for the first time.
“Let me out…!! Please let me out…!!”
But no matter how much she shouted, there was no response from her body.
Even though she had clearly withdrawn from the evaluation, the emergency escape artifact was not activating for her.
Eventually, consumed by despair, Carla stopped running and stood frozen in place.
‘Could it be…’
“It’s… broken…?”
Carla hastily pulled out the very item she had tucked deep into her pocket.
An emergency escape artifact, a kind of charm made by engraving a magic circle on a flat, hard piece of metal.
It was designed to automatically send her out of the dungeon if something bad happened inside, or if she sustained severe injuries, but the fact that this artifact wasn’t working had serious implications for Carla.
“N-No… Please…!!”
It meant that even if she was severely injured, on the verge of death, there was no one to help her.
Carla’s eyes widened in horror as she belatedly noticed a scratched, broken line in the intricate magic circle engraved on the artifact.
“Yui… I…”
Yui, who had always been with her, playful and lighthearted.
Even though she had thrown herself in front of the monster to protect her with such a serious expression.
Even though Yui had stood in the monster’s path with her frail body for her sake.
Despite Yui’s sacrifice, she, who had barely escaped, was now trying to find a way to escape, only to realize there was nowhere left to run.
‘I’m sorry…’
Soon, the monster would appear from somewhere, its creepy four pairs of legs clicking, and Carla would be chewed from head to toe, bones and all, becoming spider food.
Without even her corpse being found, the world would go on without her.
“I don’t want that… I hate that…”
‘Find a way… Okay…?’
The feeling of Yui’s last words, whispered warmly as she sent her away, echoing in her ears.
But now, Yui was not there to help her.
All that was left for her was to struggle until her last moment.
Carla took off her backpack, placed it on the ground, wiped away her tears with her sleeve, and began to empty the contents of her bag onto the floor.
Numerous experimental drugs, reagents, and metallic and non-metallic substances began to spill out, and Carla groped through them, searching for what she needed.
‘The Arachne from Chao Xing… its nature is that of a bug…
Weak to fire… S-So…’
“Fire… Boiling point… No…
Ignition point… No… High heat generation…!!
Low-pressure plasma…!! This is it…!!”
Following Yui’s voice, Carla gathered what she needed and began experimenting on the workbench she had laid out on the floor, her eyes filled with the determination of a hopeful girl.
‘I’m not going to die in a place like this…!!’
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Plasma is a state of matter known as the fourth state of matter.
It is a state in which a gas is heated by a strong electric field or heat source, surpassing the gaseous state and dividing into particles such as electrons, neutral particles, and ions. However, the characteristic of plasma is that the degree of charge separation is quite high, but the total number of positive and negative charges is the same, making it neutral.
Since plasma is the state in which electrons gain heat and become free from atoms, any element can naturally be turned into plasma. The substance that gains charge due to the escape of electrons has the usability of being confined by electromagnetic fields or accelerated in a specific direction.
Basically, the method of completely decomposing atoms through ultra-high heat is often used to create plasma, but in Valmhausen, which reaches the pinnacle of engineering, there is a technology to separate ions through special reagents.
‘If you forcibly separate ions using reagents…
Heat is generated by electron liberation just from that…
But if you generate plasma using the electron temperature difference…
That high heat is amplified several thousand times… enough to roast a monster…’
Fundamentally, ion separation using reagents creates unstable ionized substances, which can cause major disasters depending on the substance, so it was a subject forbidden to most alchemy students.
So much so that the very existence of this reagent would normally be learned in the fourth grade.
Carla shuddered at the thought that she probably wouldn’t have known about it if she hadn’t been the daughter of the Sterben family, who received customized gifted education from a young age.
Knowing the danger of this experiment, her hands became even more cautious, yet they moved quickly and accurately, as befitting a skilled individual, without trembling at all.
‘If you put ionized gases with different properties and reagents in a flask…
And break them all at once…!!’
If she could do that, she could create a plasma storm of such high heat that she would have to worry about getting caught in it herself.
It might be as powerful as a firestorm created by magic, so Carla, feeling like she was holding a grenade, grabbed the two sealed plasma flasks she had created, one in each gloved hand, gathered the rest of her belongings roughly, and stood up.
‘I’ll do it… I’ll make it, Yui…’
By now, Yui would have already made an emergency escape and be receiving treatment for her fatal injuries, waiting for her to make an emergency escape as well.
But now, she was just a powerless girl with nothing left to lose, filled only with determination.
‘I’ll avenge you…’
As the last surviving member of the special evaluation team, Carla reaffirmed that she would never give up, and began to walk back the path she had been running away from.
Carla’s hands, holding the flasks on both sides, tightened slightly as she repeated her resolve.
As Carla walked forward with half fear and half bravado, a familiar scene began to unfold before her.
The entrance to the very passage where she had parted ways with Yui earlier.
“Haa… Haaa…”
Carla took a deep breath and began to walk forward with a tense gait.
As she walked forward, Carla finally returned to the entrance of the passage, staring intently at something that caught her eye, unable to hide her surprise.
“Y… Yui…!!”
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I was looking down at the maze with the two girls, watching the situation while tracking the Arachne that was running around wildly.
“Ugh…!! Is that the monster that’s the final target…?”
“That’s right… It’s the Arachne. But why is it in this maze…”
Lanie frowned as she looked at the rampaging Arachne, and Vivian, who was answering her, also seemed unable to understand the current situation.
“According to the information I got, the Arachne was supposed to come out of the final room…
But why is the Arachne in the maze…”
Vivian was looking down with a rather serious expression, as she could have become a victim down there herself if she had believed the wrong information.
Although the Arachne’s appearance was sometimes completely hidden due to angle problems, it usually reappeared within a few minutes at most.
I was able to feel a little relieved each time I discovered that she hadn’t been harmed by anyone, but I was starting to worry that the Arachne would run wild and cause a major disaster by encountering Anne’s group from earlier.
Thinking that I had to finish the operation somehow before that happened, I began to move my mind to the kernel worm prepared below and swim through the ground.
‘Arachne…!! Arachne!!’
“Hmm? What is it?”
After digging tunnels in all directions and sending telepathic messages, I finally sensed her vibration above my head, and as I rose out of the ground, I was surprised to see the Arachne looking down at me.
‘Arachne…!! That!!’
