Ending Maker Chapter 9
Ending Maker Chapter 9
Chapter 2 - Dungeon Book #3
Dungeon Books.
There were quite a few varieties, but in the end, their purpose was all the same.
'They transport the person who opens the book into a dungeon.'
Sometimes the dungeon they moved to was a completely virtual space, like in a virtual reality game, and sometimes it was a real, existing dungeon, but broadly speaking, they could be considered teleportation keys.
Yuder slowly opened his eyes.
What filled his vision was not a pure white light, nor the sight of the narrow, dark confessional, but a black sky and a white floor—more precisely, a wide space covered in pure white cloth.
'I made it.'
A Dungeon Book of unknown author and title, hidden in the Temple of Baruna, god of the Silver Veil.
In Hero Legend 2, the only person who had ever cleared this dungeon—no, even just entered it—was Outboxer009.
'There's a reason it's lasted over ten years.'
The world of Hero Legend 2 was constantly growing.
What that meant was that even now, nearly ten years after its release, Hero Legend 2 had not stopped receiving periodic updates.
Not only the main story of the second installment, where the single-player campaign unfolded, but also the story between the second and third installments, which served as the main stage for multiplayer.
The personal stories of each NPC, the various quests that arose from them, the unexpected relationships that developed between NPCs, and so on.
Moreover, the sheer volume was by no means small. Rumor had it that an AI utilizing big data was continuously crafting the stories, and while he didn't know if that was true, an enormous amount of story content was generated with every update.
Thanks to that, even though Hero Legend 2 was overflowing with rotten fossils like Yuder and Cordelia, the game still had not been completely solved.
'There are probably still elements even I don't know about.'
Of course, in a place that might be inside Hero Legend 2—or merely a world identical to it—the existence of unknown territory was more of a drawback than an advantage, so it wasn't something he could simply celebrate.
In any case, what mattered now was the fact that Yuder himself had entered the dungeon.
'What about Cordelia?'
"Ugh, my head hurts. Is this like teleportation sickness?"
As if in answer, Cordelia's voice came from behind him.
When he spun around, he saw Cordelia clutching her head with a pained expression.
"Cordelia, are you okay?"
"Ugh... not okay. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay."
"Why are you okay?"
"Then why aren't you?"
"Right?"
Perhaps because of the motion sickness, Cordelia gave a slightly dumb reply and shuddered.
"Anyway, whew... so this is the dungeon inside the Dungeon Book. From the looks of it... is it a virtual dungeon?"
The biggest difference between a virtual dungeon and a real dungeon was, of course, the presence or absence of death.
In a virtual dungeon, dying inside didn't mean actually dying. You felt the pain in full, but in the end, you were simply expelled from the book without even retaining any injuries.
Of course, besides the pain, there was also a penalty.
'No retries.'
A person who had been expelled once could never return to the virtual dungeon.
'Still, it's far better than dying.'
In the first place, Yuder had chosen Baruna's Dungeon Book at this stage for two reasons.
One was, as he had revealed to Cordelia, because the rewards were good, and the other was to experience real combat without risking his life.
'Hero Legend 2 is ultimately a fighting game.'
The journey to stop the Great Summoning Ritual was inevitably accompanied by battle.
"Phew."
Yuder composed himself once more, looked toward Cordelia, and soon smiled faintly.
"Wow... it's really real."
It was a place he had gone in and out of countless times in the game, but this was his first time in reality.
The sight of her looking around with wide, round eyes, as if amazed, was oddly entertaining.
'Anyway, that's that.'
Yuder shifted his gaze from Cordelia to his own left hand and smiled in satisfaction.
"Bingo."
Just as planned, he was holding a large bag in his left hand.
It was a bag he had deliberately grabbed just before opening the book.
'Because in the game, when you went into a Dungeon Book, you took all the items you were holding with you.'
Yuder grinned and opened the bag. Given the size of the bag, it contained quite a variety of items.
"I should've brought a bag too."
Cordelia said, slightly lifting the hem of her skirt. Apparently, she had once again stashed various items under her skirt.
"What'd you bring?"
"Just the basics."
After answering, Cordelia looked around once more, then pouted and spoke.
"Don't look until I tell you to."
"Should I just turn my back and sit?"
"That'd be good."
Having said that much, Cordelia smiled brightly, and Yuder quickly turned around and sat down, then rummaged through the items in the bag again and said.
"By the way."
"Yeah."
"What kind of build are you going for?"
"You mean magic?"
"Yeah, magic."
"Elemental for now. I'm planning to specialize in fire."
"What about buffs and debuffs?"
"I'll get there. But for now, my base is Elemental. I need firepower."
"How should I put it, that's a very Yellow Storm answer."
A battle maniac who lived and died by raw damage.
At Yuder's remark, Cordelia laughed softly and answered.
"Of course, because it's me. You can turn around now."
"Then don't mind if I do."
Yuder spun back around, his eyes widening for a moment before he smiled again.
"That's more like our Yellow Storm."
Cordelia, who until just moments ago had been wearing a wide-skirted dress covered in lace, was now dressed in her own version of combat attire.
A form-fitting blouse and leather pants, a dagger at her waist, and a short magic wand that looked like a conductor's baton in her hand.
Her shoes were leather boots instead of dress shoes.
"Did you know we were coming here?"
"No, but since you were calling me, I figured something was definitely up, so I brought them under my skirt."
"Can you show me the inside of that skirt sometime? I'm curious how it's put together."
"What the hell is this crazy bastard talking about?"
She let out a string of curses, but Cordelia was laughing.
Yuder merely shrugged, then picked up some of the items from the bag and walked over to Cordelia.
"Here, put these on too."
"Huh?"
"No refusing."
What Yuder had brought over were a leather vest with chainmail in it, stiff greaves made of oiled leather, and wrist guards.
"There's also a helmet and a shield."
These were also made of leather.
Yuder put an old-fashioned aviator-style leather helmet on Cordelia and smiled in satisfaction. Cordelia, who had somehow ended up holding a round leather shield, narrowed her eyes.
"Outboxer."
"Hm?"
"If I saw correctly, that's the only set of armor in the bag, right?"
"That's right."
"So why are you putting it on me?"
"Because you're the front line."
"Front line?"
"Yeah, front line."
"You mean the front line in combat?"
"That front line."
"You're the martial artist and I'm the mage, though?"
"Come on, don't be like that. I'm a man with the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage. How could I stand on the front line right now? I belong in the back."
"You got the Sun's Necklace."
"Do you think ten days will cure it? Even if it did, there's something you're overlooking."
"Which is?"
"Even setting aside the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage, Yuder is still frail."
His arms, legs, and waist were all thin, and he barely weighed anything.
His muscle mass might even be less than Cordelia's.
"See how considerate I am? I'm even giving you our only armor because you're taking the front line."
Yuder beamed, and Cordelia also smiled radiantly and said.
"F**k."
"Yeah, yeah. If my Nine Yin Meridian Blockage gets cured, I'll hug you, carry you on my back, climb over walls for you, and stand on the front line too."
Yuder smiled brightly again and raised his thumb, and Cordelia raised her middle finger.
"Hey. Fine, let's say I stand on the front line. Then what are you going to do in the back line?"
"Me? I'll use these."
Yuder walked back over to the bag and pulled out the bundles of paper he had packed inside.
"Magic circles?"
"I made them with spells we can use at our level."
In the first place, Yuder had experimented with all sorts of magic circles to find out whether Bellastin's Magic Circle would actually activate.
"Take a look."
"Right here. Take your time looking."
The sheets of paper, each slightly larger than a palm, bore fairly complex designs.
'Insane.'
After looking over the magic circles, Cordelia couldn't help but let out a curse mixed with admiration.
There were thirty magic circles in all.
They had 1-star magic drawn on them, and the reason Cordelia had cursed was simple.
'He memorized all of these?'
Bellastin's Magic Circle was also astonishing, but well, that was a truly special magic circle.
But the magic circles before her eyes now were not that impressive.
Of course, they were simple enough that memorizing them should be easy, but even so, he had memorized this many?
"Um......."
"Hmm?"
"No, nothing."
For a moment, Cordelia wanted to ask how many of the others he had memorized, but she decided to hold it in.
'Because he's definitely memorized all of them.'
And he'd tease her, asking if she couldn't memorize them.
"Cordelia?"
"Mm, good. These should be plenty useful. Nice variety, too."
"Right, so inject some mana into them."
"Huh?"
"I mean, you have to inject mana into magic circles to use them."
"What about your mana?"
"Hey now, there you go again. I'm a guy with the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage...."
"You f**ker, you bastard, you son of a bitch."
"Woof woof."
The last one was, of course, Yuder, and this time Cordelia growled like a dog.
And about an hour later.
Cordelia, who had finished injecting mana into the magic circles while chugging the mana potions she had brought like water, collapsed onto the floor.
"Haa... haa...."
We haven't even started yet and I'm already wiped out.
But this was no time to just lie around.
"What's the time acceleration... ratio?"
"In the game, it was twentyfold."
When Cordelia asked while panting, Yuder answered brightly and gathered up the magic circles.
Twentyfold.
In other words, 20 minutes inside this place—inside the Dungeon Book—meant 1 minute outside.
"Even if everyone thinks this is a secret tryst in a confessional, Maia and Dahlia will start worrying if we're gone more than thirty minutes. Let's finish before then."
"Wait, 30 minutes? How long does clearing this place take?"
"Hmm, let's see. At our current level, including enough rest time, roughly seven or eight hours?"
"Crazy. What's inside that makes it take that long?"
"As I already explained, skill books containing B-rank martial arts and magic. Obviously, we'll have to work for it, won't we?"
At the matter-of-fact answer, Cordelia rolled her eyes, then squeezed them shut and sighed.
"The magic better not be garbage."
"No way that'd happen."
Yuder answered leisurely, then sat down in front of Cordelia and unfolded a large sheet of paper.
It was a dungeon map he had drawn in advance from memory.
"I've memorized all the routes, but you should know them too. I also need to tell you about the monsters that'll appear inside... why?"
"No, nothing."
A guy who memorized Bellastin's Magic Circle in its entirety—what couldn't he memorize?
Still impressed in spite of herself, Cordelia began seriously discussing how they would clear the dungeon with Yuder.
And after some time had passed.
Having finished their rough discussion, Yuder and Cordelia stood side by side in front of a large arch-shaped door.
If the place they were in now was a safe zone, then beyond that door was a danger zone where monsters appeared.
Yuder let out a long breath and looked back at Cordelia, and Cordelia likewise looked at Yuder.
"Shall we start?"
"Let's start."
Their attempt to clear Baruna's Dungeon Book.
The two of them stepped forward side by side.