Chapter 152
Chapter 152
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: The Escape Dungeon
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“This is…”
There was a stone slab engraved with strange characters where Barundel was pointing.
A large slab with a fist-sized groove carved in the center…
Kee-ee-ee!
Slash! Slash!
Crunch!
First, we dealt with the demons Barundel had drawn in, then gathered in front of the slab as if by prior agreement.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know exactly, but it doesn’t look like an ordinary item.”
“Why’s something like this just sitting out here?”
“Could it be an artifact?”
“Isn’t it too big for that? I don’t sense any mana either.”
They were all sharing their opinions, trying to figure out what the slab was.
Of course, excluding me.
The moment I saw it, I knew the answer.
I’d encountered setups like this countless times in the game.
“It’s a dungeon.”
Dungeon.
The place we’d first entered thanks to that suspicious passerby.
“…A dungeon? This? You sure?”
“Yeah, more precisely, it’s the entrance to a dungeon.”
“But I don’t feel any energy from it?”
Just like Thompson said, no energy emanated from the slab.
Unlike the previous dungeon entrances.
But that wasn’t strange.
“This is pretty common. The first dungeon was the unusual case.”
“Oh yeah? Now that you mention it, the second dungeon we entered was like this too…”
“Right. It was the same back then.”
The second dungeon we’d gone into as a solution when Asmodeus’s power had messed with everyone’s minds en masse.
Its entrance had looked like some abandoned ruins, and it hadn’t given off any energy either.
‘That’s why dungeons are so valuable.’
It had strange characters now, but there were plenty without such hints.
If you missed them, you’d lose out on a whole dungeon.
I might’ve overlooked a few myself while focusing elsewhere.
‘Not that I’d have had time to clear them anyway.’
My schedule had been packed tight.
That’s when it happened.
“We’re going in, right? Number One.”
Thompson glanced between me and the slab before asking.
I nodded as if it were obvious.
“Of course. We’re going in, no question.”
There was no need to hesitate on a honey pot like a dungeon.
Going in was always the right answer.
Rustle, rustle.
Thompson fiddled with the slab and spoke up.
“But this thing’s not reacting at all. How do we enter?”
“First, we need to unseal it.”
“Unseal?”
Thompson tilted his head in confusion, and I pointed at the slab with my finger.
This dungeon wasn’t open-access; it was sealed by some mechanism.
And the way to unseal it was simple.
“See that groove? We just need to fit the right stone in there.”
Like solving a puzzle, insert the matching stone into the groove.
It was probably hidden somewhere nearby.
And most importantly.
“Heh heh heh heh.”
“…What’s up with him all of a sudden?”
When there was a mechanism like this, the dungeon clear rewards were almost always great.
‘At least double!’
“Heh heh heh heh!”
Unable to hold back my laugh, I immediately told the group.
“Let’s find it quick!”
I wanted to get into the dungeon as soon as possible.
How much time passed?
“Found it!”
A booming male voice echoed from not far away.
Thompson.
Sure enough, when I checked.
“Heh heh, Number One! This the one?”
“Looks like it.”
It was a stone shaped exactly like the groove in the slab.
Even the markings on it resembled the slab’s carved characters.
“I’ll put it in.”
“Yeah, everyone gather up.”
“Whew.”
Thompson exhaled once, then carefully brought the stone to the slab.
He twisted it a few times with a clatter until it matched the groove perfectly.
“Nice.”
Thompson let out a small cheer of victory as he pushed the stone in flush—and that was the moment.
Fwaaash!
Pure white light burst from the slab’s characters.
“Gah!”
Startled, we let out sharp cries, and soon after, we opened our eyes elsewhere.
***
“Whoa, success!”
Thompson looked around and grinned in satisfaction.
Just as he said.
‘It’s a dungeon.’
We were inside the dungeon now.
And not just any—it came with double rewards.
‘I’m gonna loot it clean.’
Buzzing with excitement, I surveyed our surroundings first.
‘It’s sealed off. No monsters in sight.’
The most important thing in a dungeon was figuring out its type.
That told you if it was dangerous, time-limited, and so on.
Fortunately, I grasped this dungeon’s structure quickly.
Splash!
“Hm?”
The sound hit the moment I stepped forward, so I naturally looked down.
“Water…?”
For some reason, water had pooled on the floor.
Not just in a depression—it covered the entire floor.
And.
Splash!
It was rising, very slowly.
I whipped my head around on reflex, confirmed there were no windows, and solidified my guess.
“It’s an escape dungeon!”
“What? Escape?”
“We have to get out of here within the time limit!”
“What do you…”
Splash!
The flustered Thompson took a step forward and looked down.
His gaze fixed on the pooled water.
“W-Wait, this isn’t…”
He seemed to have realized the situation.
“Yeah, it’s exactly what you think.”
“Th-The exit! Where is it…!”
“Truly, dungeons are mysterious places. To think a space like this exists!”
“Drowning us to death? …That sucks.”
The others caught on too.
They all muttered to themselves and began searching for the exit in their own ways.
Thompson pounded the walls randomly, Barundel tried deciphering the inscriptions here and there, and Kayla wandered around with a determined look, hunting for clues.
It felt just like being stuck in an escape room with these guys.
Except our lives were on the line.
‘Not the time for that.’
Shaking off the thought, I started searching around too.
It looked empty at a glance, but something had to be hidden.
Sure enough.
‘This it?’
I soon found a block with a slightly different texture.
Rustle, rustle.
I felt it over a few times, then extended my index finger and pressed it firmly.
Then.
Rumble!
“Bingo.”
The block sank in about halfway.
I hurriedly scanned the surroundings.
If this wasn’t coincidence, some change should occur.
And indeed, an obvious one was happening behind me.
“Huh!”
“Wh-What’s that…!”
A bluish-green figure had appeared in the center of the room.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t human.
It resembled one, but no person was that translucent and blue.
“A g-g-ghost?”
The moment someone said that.
Splash! Splash!
Water sounds suddenly started coming from somewhere.
At the same time, the blue figure in the room flailed its arms wildly.
As if swimming.
Splash! Splash!
The figure floated through the air and advanced forward.
In that instant, I realized why it had appeared and clicked my tongue.
“It’s a hint.”
“A hint?”
“Yeah, we just need to watch what it’s doing. …Tch, thought the exit would show right away.”
Disappointing, but unavoidable.
I shook off the regret and focused on the figure’s actions.
The water had already risen to mid-calf.
No time to mope.
We needed to find some way out.
Splash! Splash!
The figure kept swimming through the air.
Its behavior changed a bit later.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It swam to a corner and suddenly started pounding the wall hard.
As if something was there.
The moment the figure vanished, I pointed at the corner and told Thompson.
“Mister, over there!”
“Got it!”
Thompson dashed to the corner and leaped high.
Thud!
Then he threw a powerful punch.
Kwa-gang!
“Whoa!”
His fist punched straight through the wall.
“The other walls wouldn’t budge at all…”
The strength was definitely different there.
Anyway.
“Mister, what’s inside?”
“Hold on.”
Thud!
Thompson leaped up again, peered into the space beyond the wall, and said.
“Can’t see well ’cause it’s dark, but seems like a room similar to this one?”
“Yeah?”
A space like this one.
That was probably the next area.
Escape dungeons required clearing five such spaces to return to the start.
Unlike simple dungeons, escape ones were tricky.
Either way.
“We’ve at least resolved the immediate danger.”
A hole the size of Thompson’s fist had opened in the wall.
Once the water filled up, we could escape through it.
We’d avoided drowning, at least.
Worst case, we could enlarge it and climb through.
The group seemed to think the same, voicing their opinions.
“That’s good, but why not just go through? Looks like we can make it bigger here.”
People really did think alike.
However.
“What do you think? Number One.”
“Let’s hold off on going through there for now.”
I didn’t choose that option.
Simple reason.
‘It’s a hint the dungeon gave us directly.’
The hole itself was provided by the dungeon.
In other words, it wasn’t the proper escape route.
Which meant.
‘No reward.’
Using it would likely mean no reward.
Escape dungeon rewards were only given for escapes the dungeon recognized.
It wouldn’t point out an invalid path itself.
‘Worst case, we can use the hole as a last resort if things get dire.’
I shared that thought, and the group nodded before resuming their search of the surroundings.
We were ultimately looking for another exit.
Fortunately, they’d gotten the hang of it, and it didn’t take long.
Barundel was the one who found it.
“What if it’s this?”
He pointed at one wall.
It was embedded with blocks covered in dense black lines… all jumbled up, impossible to make sense of.
Then.
Rustle.
Barundel slid one block sideways like a puzzle piece, and the black line on it shifted accordingly.
“…No way?”
It wasn’t just that one.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…!
With each gesture from Barundel, the black lines on all the blocks moved.
He methodically grouped similar ones, and we watching quickly grasped the situation.
“Looks like a puzzle, huh?”
“…Yeah, seems so.”
“We need to move them to the right spots to form some kind of pattern.”
“Hmm.”
Now only one obstacle remained.
“The key is figuring out what pattern.”
There were over twenty blocks.
Random moves wouldn’t form anything meaningful.
‘Gotta hurry.’
Splash! Splash!
The water had reached waist height.
Dragging this out meant we’d have no choice but to forfeit the reward and go through the hole.
That’s when I was worrying.
Tap tap.
“Hm? What?”
Kayla suddenly tapped my shoulder from behind.
Her expression suggested she had something to say.
“Um… isn’t that it over there?”
Something told me it was good news.