A Man's Versus Game 1
The stealth centaurs that had been creeping across the plains to surround us were hunted down with almost pathetic ease.
It wasn't that anyone's combat power had skyrocketed—the knights simply charged in like madmen, and the centaurs were carved to pieces in an instant. The Empire's apprentice commanders were only mid-tier at best, and the mercenaries they brought along sat around that same level, but the adventurers they'd hired on top of that were all top-tier, every last one of them advanced-rank or higher.
People who casually wandered around with ten-meter frenzy ogres, making a killing on the Tower's uppermost floors where safety information was nonexistent.
"Don't hog the magic stones! There's better loot than these bastards!"
"Push forward! They came from that direction!"
Those monster butchers came charging in—not just one party, but nearly a hundred of them. To them, the stealth centaurs looked like walking money pouches, and they fought without a shred of hesitation. The result: in less than five minutes, the plains were empty, and the apprentice commanders who'd been about to charge ahead were now glancing our way for cues.
We'd been marching forward in a straight line at a leisurely pace, so the stealth centaurs had only managed to detect our party at the front and had rushed to surround us. Thanks to Rusalka sensing them in reverse, the combat forces in the rear had charged before the centaurs could react—a natural outcome.
"Leave the magic stones and reform ranks! Unless you're planning to charge the Demon King's army alone, maintain formation!"
"Damn it, don't get greedy over the small stuff! Aim for the big one, the big one!"
"That young master's right—gather up for now!"
And once again, it was Oleg's roar that gathered the people who'd scattered in every direction hunting for magic stones. Whether he was more blinded by merit than money, he picked up a single magic stone rolling at his feet, then returned toward us without hesitation, bellowing loud enough for everyone to hear.
People who wanted achievements and money but didn't want to become the first meat shields charging the Demon King's army slowly gathered again, raising their flags and reforming their ranks.
Aside from how easily swayed he is, this guy's reputation keeps climbing.
Instead of being thick-skinned, does he instinctively serve as the lubricant for group combat?
"In the name of the Goddess! In the name of the Goddess!"
"These bastards are nothing! As long as we can detect them!"
"What was that adventurer's name again? Rusalka? Hmm… more impressive than I expected."
"Shall we go, Roland?"
With everyone clustered behind Irene, looking at us with the desperate eyes of puppies begging for a walk, Irene naturally began to move forward.
Not a single person injured—and even if there had been, the priests embedded in the adventurer parties would have healed them—but after an overwhelming victory in the first scouting engagement, everyone had their shoulders squared with pride. Comparing themselves to the incompetent apprentice commanders who'd died surrounded, they raised their flags high.
What blocked our path next wasn't stealth-skilled centaurs, but a centaur unit carrying suicide goblins on their backs.
"They're coming head-on!"
"What? After just one try, they've given up on surrounding us?"
Once again, they fell easily to the knights' swords as the order charged forward. After all, Irene's holy magic blocked not only the stones they threw as ranged harassment but also the goblins' bomb belts that would explode at the slightest provocation.
Every move on their side was shut down, and every move on ours went through with ease. It took longer to clean up than the stealth centaurs, but not a single person was hurt.
"Hmm, what are they thinking?"
"What's wrong, Hanna?"
"Doesn't this feel like they're stalling for time? Blocking the gate, Roland's point about them surrounding us to hide information… It feels like they're deliberately tossing bait one unit at a time to stop us from charging in fast?"
"You're right."
"Uh… I suppose you could see it that way?"
But Irene and the party chimed in, matching Han Se-ah's suddenly serious expression.
The stealth centaurs and the rock-throwing goblin centaur units had both gone down so easily that chat had started murmuring about the bug roulette, so she'd hastily changed the subject—but she wasn't wrong, so I nodded along in agreement.
As Han Se-ah said, the mid-boss monster vanishing, the gate closing, information blockade through encirclement, centaur units tossed out as bait—from start to finish, they were blatantly buying time, so reading the intent itself was easy.
What exactly were they trying to buy time for, even while grinding down their own forces?
We'd know soon enough.
In the distance, towering walls had come into view.
Wooden palisades, earthen walls, and then stone walls.
"Where the hell did they get the stone from?"
"How should I know? The things that come out of the Tower have always been insane."
"Damn it. I figured they'd slap some curses on wooden stakes and hang a few skeletons, but this?"
When the towering walls rose beyond the plains, one adventurer spat and cursed. It wasn't a log palisade—it was a meticulously crafted wall of carefully dressed solid rock standing right in front of them. Of course he was speechless.
So this was why they'd been stalling?
Apparently the 60th Floor boss monster had been more serious about building a base than expected. Not a military encampment—they'd started construction intending to build a fortress, conquered the surrounding area, and then we'd come charging in so fast they'd desperately tried to hold us back.
"Irene, Grace. Do you sense any suspicious mana on the walls?"
"No, not particularly. Looks like an ordinary wall to the eye. They seem to have stopped digging the moat halfway, too."
"There's a sinister flow of mana, but nothing finely woven like black magic."
"……I don't see anything either."
Thanks to that, the fortress seemed unfinished. Adventurers who'd been cowed by the sheer height of the walls—taller than an ogre, nearly fifteen meters—regained their morale at the words of Grace, Irene, and Rusalka, who'd sidled up to examine the walls with them.
After all, a stone wall that was merely tall with no magical treatment was something the superhumans gathered here could easily climb over or smash through. In fantasy common sense, an unenchanted fifteen-meter stone wall was easier than a magically reinforced five-meter wooden palisade.
Whether magic or black magic, if you didn't know about it, you had to take the hit—which made it pretty vicious.
"What now?"
"What do you mean, what now? We throw them."
So what we needed to do wasn't push into the unfinished walls and moat and verify unknown black magic with our own bodies. We had ten sturdy friends who'd verify it with their bodies on our behalf.
Charlotte, who'd naturally approached us as we stopped before the walls, heard my conversation with Han Se-ah and immediately signaled the mages she'd brought.
Given that Charlotte herself had insisted on coming all the way to the 60th Floor despite being a mere 2-star in combat power, the mages following her seemed equally unhinged. They moved the cages of the two ogres at the front, sprinkled drugs, and activated the magic circles, gazing at the ogres with faces full of anticipation rather than worry.
"So, Miss Charlotte, how do you plan to control the ogres once they're released from the cages?"
"I plan to guide them with a drug made from the secretions of a female ogre in heat. It works on ordinary ogres, but I'm not sure about frenzy ogres. Still, it should have some effect."
"No, just wake them up and open the cages."
"……Roland? Wait, hold on! Then how will we know the performance of the attractant…!"
"This is more reliable!"
I had no desire to keep watching the grimy mages gazing lovingly at naked giants, so I strode over.
Whether they'd neutralized the sleeping agent, the ogres began to twitch after the drugs were sprinkled and the cage magic circles deactivated. Looking ready to wake within a minute, I shoved the mages aside and gripped the iron bars hard.
Even with the magic released, the cages—perhaps made of some special dwarf alloy—screeched as they resisted my grip—
"Wh-what? With bare hands?"
"Whoa, so it's not just goblins—ogres can fly too."
I stomped the ground flat, put power into my waist, and hurled with all my strength—and it vanished over the walls.
Kyaek?! Kwee-eiaaang?!
Kruu, krhuu, krheeeeeeeeeeong——!!!
The simultaneous screams of orcs and the thoroughly enraged roar of an ogre made it easy to guess what was happening behind the invisible walls without even looking.