Chapter 22
Chapter 22
“That crazy bastard!”
Crane, who usually restrained himself from swearing as befitting his image as a man of upright conduct, could not hold back at Tolln’s actions.
“How exciting.”
“That’s not exciting, it’s foolish, Villau!”
“Anyway, the conclusion has been reached, right?”
She also put her foot on the open part of the bell tower.
“I’ll go first.”
Saying he couldn’t let Liana go first, Crane jumped into the bell tower.
Liana looked at Pine and Pels.
“What will you two do? It seems to me that you don’t have a choice.”
“Right. The back is already full of monsters.”
Pine sighed.
Pels, next to her, was clasping his hands and praying to the goddess.
“Then I’ll see you below.”
Liana also jumped down into the bell tower.
Pine follows, walking to the bell tower.
As if the three who went ahead were taking care of it, there were no more monsters coming up.
Instead, a flashing light kept leaking out from below the bell tower.
She swallowed hard.
Honestly, she didn’t want to go in.
She wanted to return to the academy like this, lie face down on her bed, and read a lot of her favorite history books.
But it was impossible.
“Haah, let’s go.”
Pels tapped Pine’s shoulder and pointed to the bottom of the bell tower.
“Are you prepared?”
“Can we go back if we’re not prepared?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the use of being prepared?”
“That’s true.”
The two put their feet on the railing of the bell tower.
“President, if we make it out of here alive.”
“Are you going to confess your love?”
“Can I leave the club?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Shit.”
And so, the last two also disappeared into the bell tower.
* * *
The height to the bottom of the bell tower was quite high.
That alone allowed one to guess the size of this building buried underground.
Wouldn’t this be comparable to a decent grand temple?
[It’s understandable that the city would control access for safety reasons.]
Swish! Swish!
I cut down the monsters that were swarming below.
As I roughly finished cleaning up, something fell from above.
“Ugh!”
Crane grimaced and looked down at his feet.
He wasn’t the type to be scared of stepping on a corpse at this point, but he seemed reluctant to have his lower body covered in flesh and blood from the monster’s corpse bursting due to the speed of his fall.
“Are you going to follow?”
“Of course! And I’m not following! I’m trying to resolve this situation!”
“Is that so.”
Soon after, Liana came down, and Pine and Pels also followed.
“Kyaak!”
“Aaargh!”
Except for Pine and Pels almost slipping due to the copious blood and flesh, and the tilted floor, all five landed at the bottom of the bell tower without any particular injuries.
“Ugh, it’s a field of corpses. And the ki sense here is strange.”
“It’s that thing from the dungeon, President. The one where your ki sense is extremely reduced due to the abnormal mana flowing in the walls and floor.”
As Pels said, my ki sense was also not normal.
I could barely feel any presence even from the floor directly below.
“Let’s go.”
I moved, pointing to the only entrance on the wall.
“Wait! We need to secure a light source first!”
“I don’t need it, Dawson. You can light it up as you need.”
Even if it wasn’t nighttime, there was no way the inside of this building, stuck in the ground, would be bright. But for me, who uses black mana, darkness was no problem at all.
Rather, the orbs of light those guys shot in all directions to brighten the view were annoying.
We moved along the passage.
The tilted floor made me use more concentration than necessary even when just running.
Fortunately, everyone following me was moving stably.
The same went for the ensuing battles.
However, the difficulty gradually increased.
“Dammit, the level of the monsters has clearly gotten higher!”
“The dungeonization is intensifying! Dawson! Is your remaining mana alright?”
“Still plenty!”
“What about you seniors?”
“I’m still fine too! Illusion magic doesn’t consume much mana!”
“I barely used any!”
“Frois!”
“I’m fine.”
If I got tired and dropped from just this much, I wouldn’t be able to search for information about the Demon King.
A fork appeared in the passage that had been stretching straight.
“Which way should we go?”
“President?”
“I-I don’t know either. Even if I’ve been here before, I don’t have the entire building structure memorized.”
“Right, and as I said before, we haven’t been here in a few years because no new students came!”
“Wait, Pels! You don’t have to say that much.”
“This way.”
I ran in the left direction.
The party members hurriedly follow.
“Do you know the way?”
Dawson asked.
“No.”
“Then? Are you just going in anywhere?”
“I’m following the traces of a large number of monsters.”
“…I’m not sure I see it?”
“Of course.”
Are experts for nothing?
The inside of the building, which had already turned into a monster’s nest, was full of traces left by the roaming monsters.
An expert is someone who can extract the necessary information from within that.
“Really? I heard it’s not that easy.”
This guy is talking like ‘But YxTxbe said it’s not true?’, ‘But Nxver said it’s different?’.
“Don’t believe it if you don’t want to.”
“…….”
Although still visibly suspicious, Crane shut his mouth with an attitude of backing down for now.
He probably had no other choice.
He couldn’t use his ki sense either.
I continued to lead the party through the building.
“We’re going down.”
“We already expected that, President.”
“Right, that’s true.”
“Give it up. It’s obvious we’re going to the very bottom floor.”
“Senior Pels is right. They say the dungeon core is created in the deepest part of the place that’s dungeonizing.”
Liana’s words were knowledge humanity had learned through the few experiences of dungeonization.
Of course, the casualties incurred to obtain that knowledge were enormous.
“Seniors. Do you happen to know how much is left until the bottom floor?”
Dawson asked.
“About that….”
“Umm….”
Pine and Pels looked at each other and tried to recall.
“I don’t remember exactly, but….”
“Wouldn’t we be about halfway there by now?”
“I think so too?”
“Then we just need to go down as much as we’ve come down.”
It was then.
Ruuuumble!
“Aaargh!”
“Ack!”
“What’s this!”
The entire dungeon began to shake.
“President, was there any information like this about dungeonization? I heard they teach about dungeonization in class.”
Dawson asked urgently.
“No, I’ve never heard of a phenomenon like this!”
“And that education isn’t very reliable! In the first place, the number of dungeonization phenomena humanity has experienced is too small! The teacher also told us to just keep it in mind as a reference when he was teaching us!”
The shaking didn’t last long.
It stopped as suddenly as it had started.
The dungeon became quiet.
But the people did not relax.
No, they were even more on guard.
“Hey, Frois.”
“Right. The mana flowing in the building has changed.”
I tapped the floor with my foot a few times.
I could feel the mana flowing haughtily.
It was rougher and stronger than before.
“Don’t tell me it has become a dungeon?”
“I don’t know. But personally, I don’t think so.”
Although I had experienced dungeons to the point of being sick of them in all sorts of worlds, this was my first time in this world’s dungeon.
Still, my experience hadn’t gone anywhere, so I could make a guess.
“The flow of mana is rough. It means it hasn’t stabilized. I don’t know the principle of the dungeon, but it’s unlikely to be unrelated to this mana.”
“Since the mana hasn’t stabilized, it means it hasn’t been completed yet.”
“It’s just a guess.”
“No, I agree.”
Crane also said, tapping the floor with his foot.
“…Thank goodness.”
“…It seems so.”
Pine’s and Pels’s attitudes were somewhat awkward.
[Why are they like that?]
It’s a relief that the dungeon isn’t complete, but personally, it’s not a good thing.
If the dungeon had been completed, it would have been a good excuse to retreat immediately.
[How human.]
“Then we’ll keep going down, right?”
“Of course, Villau. We have to stop the dungeonization.”
“But be more on guard. That shaking earlier was suspicious.”
“I know even if you don’t say it, Frois.”
We moved again.
There were about two more tremors on the way down.
Fortunately, there were no signs of the mana stabilizing.
However, it wasn’t a good phenomenon, so people’s expressions hardened.
Before long, we entered a large space.
“This is the largest place in this building. It’s speculated that important rituals were probably held here.”
Even without Pine’s explanation, it looked just like that.
The area was wide and the ceiling was high.
Whether it was for praying, holding festivals, or offering sacrifices, there would be no more suitable place in this building.
“Which way is next.”
“There’s no need to go any further.”
“Hmm?”
I pointed to the ceiling with Bekareuneum to the questioning Crane.
People’s gazes moved there.
“That’s….”
“Is that the dungeon core?”
It looked like a sphere made of darkness.
The way it wriggled disgustingly made it look like a beating heart.
Vwoom!
It suddenly trembled.
“Tch!”
Crane, as if sensing something ominous, swung his sword.
The light took the form of a crescent moon and flew towards the black sphere.
Thwack!
Crane’s attack hit the black sphere precisely.
But it didn’t seem to have done much damage.
“You can’t destroy the dungeon core with an ordinary attack!”
Pine shouted.
“Then let’s attack all at once…!”
“Wait, Dawson! The feeling is strange!”
Liana’s warning.
The core’s wriggling intensified.
Shwaaaak!
Monsters began to pour out of it.
Not one or two.
As if monsters were being poured in from the other side of the core, the monsters were continuously replenished.
Pepepeng!
Liana attacked the core.
However, the continuously spawning monsters became meat shields and blocked her attack.
Crane also threw a few blades of light, but it was the same.
“Seeing as it was still until just now, it won’t keep spitting out monsters! There will be a time when it stops! So for now, let’s deal with the monsters!”
“Keuk, alright!”
At my command, Crane, who was about to aim at the core again, turned the tip of his sword towards the monsters.
The other party members also prepared to face the monsters.
[With your skill, you could easily break through that much interference, couldn’t you?]
I came here to gather information.
What am I supposed to do if I break it right away?
Rather, even if those guys try to break it, I have to stop them as much as possible.
I dealt with the monsters moderately and glanced at the core.
[How does it spit out monsters?]
There are two main possibilities.
Either it creates the monsters itself, or it summons monsters from somewhere else.
[What do you think?]
It seems to be the summon type.
Maybe it’s connected to another space?
[You seem to have seen this kind of ability a lot.]
I’ve used it a lot too.
[Is it related to the Demon King?]
There’s a high possibility.
But I’m not sure.
As expected, I need to see it in more detail….
Kuuuung!
The building shook once again.
“Ack!”
“So that was the cause!”
“But this is bigger than before!”
When the vibration stopped, everyone’s gaze, as if by agreement, focused on the core again.
The core began to vomit something again.