The Dungeon's Maw

The dungeon on the outskirts of the Hero Academy looked ominous from the very entrance.

Inside, the space was wider than expected, filled with damp air that clung like fog. The stone-walled passage was etched with unknown glyphs that only deepened the eerie atmosphere. The whole place called to mind ancient ruins—so much so that it even reminded me of the interior of a pyramid I’d once glimpsed online.

That was the impression the scene left on me.

“So this is a dungeon…….”

“To be precise, this is the dungeon’s entrance.”

Every single dungeon entrance in Hero Con Brio looked exactly like this. Not one exception.

They used to call it the waiting room.

Before heading in, players would gather here to form parties or check their gear. At the center of the broad entrance chamber swirled a tear in space-time—no, a portal shaped like a sphere of blue light, spinning like a black hole that drank in the surrounding glow.

That was the trigger for entering the dungeon. The moment you touched it, you were swallowed whole.

“That must be the portal the professor mentioned. It looks just like a beast’s maw…… a little unsettling.”

Enri’s words caught me off guard. She was exactly right.

“Calling it a mouth isn’t entirely wrong. Dungeons are alive, after all, and they keep drawing living things in. In a way, that portal really is the dungeon’s mouth.”

It wasn’t exactly a secret; anyone who knew the lore knew this much. In the setting, a dungeon was like a massive living magical beast that lured nearby monsters into its body and stored them there. Whether it swallowed a monster or a hero made no difference. Once something died inside it, the dungeon absorbed the corpse and turned it into nourishment.

“—Which is why neither humans nor monsters leave corpses inside a dungeon. The dungeon digests them.”

“Eek…….”

“That’s horrible.”

Enri and Angela—who had just joined our party—wore looks of pure revulsion, but Elizabeth seemed already familiar with the fact and remained calm.

“Winchester party, please enter immediately. Other parties are waiting behind you.”

The professor in charge of this dungeon exploration training looked our way and spoke with a touch of impatience.

“My apologies. Elizabeth, Green Girl, Witch—are you all ready?”

“Ready.”

“Perfectly!”

“I’m ready too.”

After one last check of the party, we moved toward the portal. From a distance it hadn’t seemed so bad, but up close the strange humming and the pitch-black mouth of the entrance stirred a fear far greater than I’d expected.

—Gulp.

I swallowed without meaning to. When I glanced back, every one of my party members looked just as tense. Seeing them frozen stiff actually eased my own nerves.

Just as we prepared to step in, the professor watching from the side spoke in a grave tone.

“Winchester party, one final reminder. If anything goes wrong inside the dungeon, you must use the escape crystals we issued you. This training prioritizes your safety above all else.”

At his words we each looked down at the dull white crystals hanging at our waists.

It was an item I’d used often back in the game. Without one of these, you had to endure the hassle of finding the escape portals placed every five floors.

“Understood.”

“Then please be careful.”

I nodded to the professor, turned to the portal, and spoke to my party.

“We’re going in.”

Recalling both the professor’s warnings and every caution I remembered from my past life, I stepped into the portal. A sudden, powerful pull seized us, and before I could even think huh? the scenery before my eyes had completely changed.

“Amazing. So this is what the inside of a dungeon looks like.”

“I’ve seen it in books, but even though it’s pitch-dark, I can still see clearly.”

Enri, true to her role as tank, stood at the front with her shield raised. Angela, newly joined, scanned the surroundings as she spoke. I was a little surprised myself. In the game it had been only natural to see in the dark, but experiencing it in reality—standing in a place with no light yet still able to see—felt strangely wondrous. Like wearing sunglasses, almost.

Hoo. Get a grip.

As party leader I couldn’t afford to keep spacing out.

“I get that it’s fascinating, but focus.”

I unfolded the map the professor had given us.

“Our goal is to hunt the first-floor boss, collect its magic stone, and get out.”

In a dungeon, monster corpses vanished and left behind byproducts called magic stones instead. In this world magic stones were like electricity—used in countless magitech devices. According to a book I’d borrowed from the academy library, a dungeon ate monsters or people and then spat out the mana it couldn’t digest in the form of stones.

In other words, magic stones are dungeon shit.

Pure lumps of mana, sure, but I had zero desire to touch them with my bare hands. Shaking the filthy thought from my head, I continued the briefing while looking at my party members.

“According to the professor, the first floor of this dungeon is characterized by continuous monster encounters. There’s one rest area in the middle, so I propose we push hard until we reach it.”

The passage inside was wider than ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expected. Wide enough that combat wouldn’t restrict our movement, and with our skills I doubted the monsters of a beginner dungeon would slow us down. On top of that, it was a single straight path with no forks—nowhere to hide. Better to break through quickly and rest at the designated area than stop halfway in the open.

“No objections.”

“I’m fine with that.”

“It’s my first dungeon, so I’ll follow the party leader’s lead.”

At their answers I looked down the long stretch of dungeon ahead.

Daily dungeons were linear maps too, weren’t they?

At this point it was safe to treat this as a daily dungeon. That meant I could roughly guess what monsters would appear.

“Uh…… shall we move out, then?”

“Yeah. We keep advancing without stopping until we confirm monsters. I’ll handle detection.”

For the record, I didn’t have any detection skill. I could spread mana to mimic one, but the range was tiny and it didn’t stay active like a real skill, so the efficiency was garbage. Still, now that I knew this was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a daily dungeon, predicting where the monsters would spawn was easy.

My experience is a detection skill in its own right.

I’d used the method before, so Enri and Elizabeth seemed to trust me right away. Angela, who hadn’t yet seen all our party’s skills, probably just assumed I had a detection skill.

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

“Then let’s go.”

With Enri in the lead, our group advanced through the dungeon. Moving quickly along the stone-walled passage, I spotted a mural that looked familiar.

“Halt.”

I stopped the party and spread my mana to examine the darkness ahead. The mana stretched forward and caught something at its edge.

“Enemies detected. Combat ready, everyone. There’s a room ahead packed with monsters. Nine of them—goblins. We’ll hit them with Angela’s skills from outside, then charge in.”

Discovering the enemy first and still charging straight in was the kind of idiocy only someone like William—who could never tolerate anything underhanded—would pull.

We advanced carefully through the dark dungeon interior. Before long an arched entrance came into view.

“Th-there really is an entrance.”

“Heh heh. See, Angela? I told you our young master is amazing.”

Who the hell is your young master?

Angela, who had apparently been a little doubtful of my words, looked astonished at the discovery of the archway.

“Witch, do you have any wide-area skills or something that can reliably kill one target?”

I ignored her reaction and asked whether she had any skills suitable for an ambush in the current situation.

“Unfortunately I don’t have any skills that can deal that kind of damage. If you want the highest lethality I can manage, it would be something like Death Curse.”

Death Curse was a DoT skill that slowly chipped away at a target’s vitality, so calling it lethal was a stretch. As expected of a late-blooming Witch talent, she didn’t seem to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have any attack-focused skills at this low level.

“B-but I can also use Slow Curse to restrict their movements, or Mischief Curse to sow momentary confusion.”

Angela must have sensed my disappointment and offered something that wasn’t quite an excuse. Honestly, I hadn’t expected much from her to begin with. I already had a rough idea of what the Witch talent could do, and more than anything she was an extra member—nice to have, but not essential.

“Then use every curse you can and we’ll go in. Elizabeth, fire Wind Cutter together with the Witch’s curses. Green, once the curses land, you charge in with me.”

Friendly fire—unlike ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the game, allies could actually hit each other in reality—made using area attacks mid-combat pure insanity.

So the solution is to use the area skills first, then enter combat.

“Understood.”

“Green……. Young Master, are you not even adding ‘girl’ anymore?”

“Alright. I’ll start us off.”

Once Enri and I finished preparing to rush the room, Angela and Elizabeth’s activation phrases rang out.

The two women’s skills slammed straight into the room full of monsters.

Kak?

Kuek?!

Kieeek!!

Agonized goblin cries tore into my ears.

Now.

“Alright, everyone—charge!”