Chapter 410: Is the Dungeon Finally Dropping All Pretense? (Patreon)

A few days later, Isagi returned to the Dungeon.

The sky above him was still that fake night, so fake it wasn't even worth complaining about. The moon and stars sat in exactly the same positions as when he'd left.

That was the Dungeon for you. "Just like that." And it really was just like that.

Isagi wasn't surprised at all. He turned around, looking for the "black silhouette of a girl," but...

What he saw instead was a black robe trimmed with gold thread, the hood pulled down very, very low. Between her small frame and the hood, her face was completely hidden. Only a few strands of soft pink hair spilled out from either side.

"..."

Wasn't this girl silver-haired before?

Had he misremembered? Isagi honestly couldn't say.

But why had she gone from a pitch-black outline to something with an actual shape? Was it because of his memories again?

The Dungeon seemed very pleased with herself. She spun in place, as if inspecting her brand-new "model," humming happily.

Fine.

"Let's go. An adventure, together."

The voice no longer came from beside his ear. It came from the petite girl next to him. Her thin lips moved slightly, and her voice was as cold as ever, flat and calm. It even sounded a bit robotic, probably because she was still learning how to speak.

If they were going, they were going. Isagi said nothing and turned his attention to the city at the foot of the distant mountain.

Even from here, he could see it was a thoroughly ruined city. The stars and moon of this world were dazzlingly bright, yet the whole city still looked a dim, "deep purple." That was the "filter" of the night. He knew it well and had long since gotten used to it, so he paid it no mind.

His gaze settled on the most conspicuous spot in the wrecked city: an enormous clock tower. Atop it, a giant humanoid stone statue held up the clock face. Part of its surface had crumbled away, and indigo-colored flesh bulged out from the gap.

"..."

What a classic scene.

Flesh, tentacles, eyes, and even stranger shapes, grotesque things that words couldn't describe. Yeah, yeah. Same old flavor.

Further down the mountain road, a few Monsters shambled up from the ground like zombies. Then...

Isn't that way too fast?!

It happened in almost a single instant. The Monsters, which had been climbing to their feet so lazily, charged right up to him at blinding speed.

Even Isagi froze for a moment. They'd accelerated far too suddenly. A second ago these were the usual desiccated corpses, the "seen them a thousand times" kind. The next, their speed and Strength were beyond belief. He even realized there was a sort of "sonic boom" accompanying their lunge.

Luckily, he was a cut above them!

Reacting just as fast, Isagi drew his long blade from beneath his cloak and unleashed the Undying One's blade techniques. In a flash, the corpses in front of him were cut in two.

"..."

For some reason, he had a feeling that if he'd used any other weapon, these corpses wouldn't have died even if he'd cut them into "two and a half." They might even have split apart and had the upper and lower halves attack him in completely different ways. But the Undying One's blade techniques could slay any form of life outright, so they'd died for good.

Isagi had no intention of testing it. It was just what he felt.

Right at this moment, he could already see the first hints that the "hodgepodge" world the Dungeon had created was not so simple!

Tch!

Faintly, he even heard the petite girl beside him make a "strange" sound. Was she annoyed because he'd figured that out?!

He kept going. Soon Isagi found that his hunch had been right.

When he left the breach and reached the edge of the city, the road ended at a ruined, fortress-like stronghold. A large hole had been knocked into one side of the broken wall, just big enough to slip through. And right behind that wall hid a black-armored knight.

Seriously? How many times has this old trick been used, and they're still doing it?!

Isagi naturally scoffed at it. But once the fight began, he quickly noticed something wrong!!

This knight... was immune to the effect of the Undying One's blade techniques. In short, the long blade cut into it and it simply didn't die.

"?"

Only after Isagi had lopped off one of its arms did he see that the armor was completely empty inside. It didn't even have a Magic Stone. It wasn't a Monster at all.

It was something like the Alchemy Puppets he'd seen in the Magic Kingdom, the kind Asfi and Miss Fels used. A totally lifeless magical construct!

And on top of that, the thing could split!!

The armor that fell to the ground wriggled and turned into a gooey liquid like a slime, and before long, another armored knight rose out of it.

"..."

Can't even.

Isagi had to change his approach and use magic to destroy it completely. Yeah, yeah, just as he'd figured, the Dungeon's tricks were getting an update. He could even sense the petite girl beside him giggling away happily.

After entering the abandoned town and leaving the watchtower at the crossroads, he spotted the first "save point." It was a golden point of light floating in midair, as always. The save points seemed generous here. Was that some kind of "consolation"?

Isagi calmly pulled out a sheet of paper from his coat and prepared to start mapping. Getting lost would be a disaster, after all.

At the same time, he summoned the Soul Teardrop. After what had just happened, he was absolutely certain the "world" before him was extremely dangerous. And not only because its mechanics were so pointedly nasty: the stats of those corpses and knights were all wrong. He was Lv.8 now, and those things could trade blows with him. With stats like that, they could destroy a country if let loose outside. It was ridiculous!

Were these really just roadside corpses?! They were practically Monster Kings of the desiccated dead!!

And just as Isagi was about to begin truly exploring this brand-new "world"...

Meanwhile, elsewhere—

*

Ridiculous. This was absurdly ridiculous!!

Staring at the mountain path ahead, Riveria, Ais, and Tiona felt a bone-deep weariness.

At the same time Isagi had returned to the Dungeon, the girls had taken the Elevator back to the adventurers' town on Floor 18. From there, they'd gone through the door in the mountain forest outside town and returned to their "adventure."

Following Isagi's walkthrough, the three had hacked their way through all manner of yaoguai. They'd defeated the new Monster Kings, Lingxuzi and the serpent yaoguai Whiteclad Noble, found the three hidden great bells, beaten the big-headed freak called Elder Jinchi, and cleared the whole of Black Wind Mountain.

Until now. Now they'd reached the final stage.

Further up lay the summit of Black Wind Mountain. They had already defeated the Monster King known as Black Bear Guai in his humanoid form. According to Isagi's walkthrough, the last step was to fight his "yaoguai form," a huge black bear.

But the girls were stuck at the foot of the mountain. The road up was simply too hard.

The narrow trail left no room to maneuver, and the only crossings were crude suspension bridges. Lesser yaoguai stood guard the whole way up. The ordinary ones with swords and shields were fine, and the heavily armored ones with great hammers were a nuisance but manageable.

The real problem was the archers.

Riveria could raise a barrier to deflect every arrow. But the three had just tried, and holding Defensive Magic all the way to the summit was flat-out impossible. The arrows came down like a rainstorm, relentless, giving no room to breathe!

And in theory, Ais's wind should have been able to blow them aside with ease. But it couldn't.

Those archers looked ordinary, but by the numbers they were at least Lv.7, and their arrows were no ordinary arrows. They carried some kind of Magic-breaking effect. When they struck Defensive Magic, they drained Riveria's Magic far faster, so she couldn't hold it for long. And they weren't affected by Ais's wind at all.

Tiona's blood aura should have been able to sweep them away or even "devour" them, but that failed too, as if each arrow were wrapped in an invisible protective film.

So the three girls stood before the Keeper's Shrine at the foot of the mountain, having tried several times, and every time they'd turned back about halfway up. It was maddening!

Isagi had warned them earlier that the route might be troublesome and that the Dungeon had surely raised the difficulty. They'd never imagined it would be like this.

So what should they do? Riveria, Ais, and Tiona thought it over.

The mountain was very tall. Ais could fly the other two straight up, but in midair all three would become sitting ducks for every archer. They absolutely couldn't do that.

In that case, the only way was to go up slowly and steadily.

All three actually had ranged options. Riveria, as a mage, was naturally an expert at long-range bombardment. Ais could use her wind magic along with the Hunter's bow and crossbow to fire from a distance. Tiona could use her blood aura magic to form ranged "sword qi" and the like, as well as javelin throws, which she'd only recently learned from Empress.

After some discussion, they decided to climb up like that, without worrying about speed or efficiency, clearing the lesser yaoguai along the way bit by bit. It was a snail's pace, but it was the safe way. Thanks to what they'd just learned, Riveria had even memorized where the bow-wielding wolf yaoguai would appear along the route. From far away, while they hadn't yet noticed her, she used her sightline advantage to strike first and kill them outright.

Slower, yes, but the advance as a whole became easier. The cautious, careful feeling struck the girls as strange, yet oddly familiar.

And so, smoothly, though it took a very long time, the three finally reached the Keeper's Shrine before the summit platform. Beyond it, according to Isagi's walkthrough, waited the end-of-stage boss, the Monster King Black Bear Guai.

"Let's go."

They had to defeat him sooner or later. Riveria's expression was firm, and so were the other two girls'.

The three advanced in their most basic formation: Ais in front, Riveria in the middle, Tiona at the rear. They climbed the short flight of stone steps and soon arrived at the summit, which was now ablaze.

A gust of black wind swept in. With a piercing roar, the light and nimble black wind took shape as a giant bear at least four or five meters tall.

"ROAAAR!"

The battle began at once. The giant bear leapt high and slammed down, and Riveria immediately sprinted backward. The opening felt almost familiar, since the Tiger Vanguard had started in a similar way. But this fight was different from before. She didn't need to dodge constantly while hunting for a chance to chant.

Instead, she had to get away first and find a relatively safe position. Close combat, of course, she left to Ais and Tiona.

Trusting her teammates completely, Riveria quickly put distance between herself and the mountain of a bear.

According to Isagi's walkthrough, the Black Bear Guai itself would use fire-attribute magic attacks. In its so-called second phase, it would ignite the entire summit platform and set its arms ablaze, and every swing of its fists would trigger a violent fire explosion.

In that case, her first-tier attack magic was ice, but its power was low and it mainly provided control, so she passed on it. Her second-tier attack magic was fire, the same element the bear specialized in, so it would probably do little.

And alone as she was, she lacked the confidence to control [Primordial Magic], afraid of some accident.

That left Explosion Magic and... her strongest attack magic, the so-called "giant emerald wave of light," her third-tier attack magic: [Verse · Viddheimr].

Without hesitation, Riveria raised her staff and began to chant.

Choose your spell from the very start, see it through to the end, and make haste to release it. That was the most important thing for a mage: judgment in battle.

"—Herald of the end, white snow, glittering. As twilight falls, whirl up the gale, sealed light, frozen earth, snowstorm filling the sky, thrice-over winter—"

"—Before long, flame shall loose the war-fire creeping near, inescapable ruin. Let the war horn sound high and clear, let the raging strife that besieges all come forth, crimson-lotus flame, merciless blaze, you who are the avatar of karmic fire, sweep away ten thousand soldiers and horses, ring down the curtain on the great war, burn all to ash, the sword of Surtr—"

The first two chants flowed swiftly from her lips. To Riveria, those utterly familiar incantations were no different from eating or drinking.

But it wasn't over. That was merely the appetizer. What mattered was the third-tier chant she was about to begin.

One minute... no, thirty seconds would be enough. If she made haste, even less!

Watching Ais and Tiona locked in combat with the giant Black Bear Guai in the distance, Riveria felt time slow to a crawl.

Soon. The battle would be decided any moment now!!