The Hidden Strength
From some point on, posts started appearing in the gallery claiming that natural disasters were occurring in the ticket dungeons.
At first, everyone dismissed them as troll bait. But as similar posts kept popping up consistently, and comments piled on from people who claimed to have been in the same dungeons, it became recognized as a genuine phenomenon.
A rare catastrophe striking inside ticket dungeons.
People started calling it a Dungeon Disaster.
...Some folks shorten it to "DunDi," or whatever.
Anyway, looking over the posts describing these events...
Of course, as these posts piled up and became gallery hot topics, they reached my ears too.
If something was going wrong inside the dungeons, investigating it was part of my job. So I rounded up every post related to these anomalies.
I compiled them into a single dataset...
And after close analysis, I noticed all these incidents coincided meaningfully with times when I was ramping up my mental imagery intensely during magic practice sessions.
The stats were clear enough that ignoring it would be weirder.
My magic manifesting in reality as these hollow shells was definitely tied to the dungeon disasters.
To confirm, I entered an empty dungeon and cast a spell.
"Whoa..."
The result? I realized where the substance of my magic was leaking off to.
And one more realization...
"......"
I stared at the aftermath straight ahead.
The landscape in front looked like a disaster zone swept clean.
What the hell was this grotesquely overwhelming power?
Even if my real-world magic had its core intact, it couldn't produce this kind of output.
I fired off a few more spells to test.
But every spell manifested not as intended, but as raw, unfiltered projections of my mental imagery.
"......So it's projecting my raw imagery instead of the spells I meant to cast."
Image a fierce bolt for brain freeze, and lightning crashes down. Picture the hottest fireball imaginable, and a mini-sun appears.
Plus, normal spellcasting shoots from the caster toward the target... but like Yeomje's Transferee ability 'Domain,' my magic ignored positioning—anywhere inside the dungeon worked.
Probably because the dungeon felt less like outside my body and more like an extension of it... or actually is damn close to my inner world.
So no need for the usual processing of imagery into spells here.
Mages chase that direct projection endlessly.
But I'd skipped straight past, reaching the pinnacle of magic—at least inside dungeons.
"Eh, compared to a true master's imagery, mine's pretty lame. I'd get stomped before I could blink in a real fight."
Anyway, back to the Raid Dungeon...
Expecting the fight to get rough, I'd been sniping special variant slimes from the rear one by one.
Hardening-body fragment shotgun slimes? Pit trap, then dungeon powers to crush 'em flat.
Multi-core variants resistant to physical hits? Same deal.
Couldn't get the armor slime or jaw slime though.
Not 'cause they were fast—too attention-grabbing.
Dungeon-synced senses fed battle info straight to my brain nonstop.
Who was looking where. Every move.
Couldn't instant-kill the spotlight hogs without drawing eyes.
Then shit hit the fan.
Raid couldn't hold aggro on armor and jaw slimes—they were barreling rearward.
'Uh oh... why're those heading this way.'
Yeah. Dungeon? Mine to tweak. Monsters? No control.
Vague sense said they wouldn't hit me, but my raid buddies? Toast.
Iron-tier explorers and zero-combat priests/nuns vs. 5m variants? No chance.
Synced senses picked up Elise's panic from the mage group.
She wanted to rush back but couldn't—frontline would collapse without her.
Jaw and armor slimes closing in fast, now visible.
"Ah... oh God..."
"Why are those... coming here..."
Dungeon sync made their despair hit vivid.
"...No choice."
Couldn't let 'em all die. Or even most.
How to explain solo surviving?
Better: Used magic to hold on.
"Haa... haaa...!!"
"Please hear my prayer..."
As late runners and the resigned panicked, I stepped forward slow.
They'd ignore me probably. But no sending 'em past.
Just a tiny nudge image—flick 'em frontward.
Rest? Bullshit miracle strength in death's grip.
Magic amps in crises sometimes, they say.
Lame excuse, but plausible.
'Just... mine's gotta be super weak...'
Calm the imagery.
Gently... gently... like a baby...
Two behemoths charging head-on.
My image: Giant's hand.
'Wind'd struggle with their mass—better intangible hand push...!'
5m left. Next leap and they'd blow past.
Cast on the near ones, aiming feather-soft...
But jaw and armor slime's momentum triggered panic.
'Shit...!!'
Truck-sized horror—giant's hand clenched too hard.
Slimes shattered, shards spraying radial.
"Power control fail..."
Jaw slime, fine. But armor slime—thought indestructible shell? Pulped.
That output? No normal mage.
Slow turn back.
Explorers and priests gawking, jaws dropped.
To them, slimes just exploded.
Now what...?
"...What you all just saw? Top secret, yeah?"
They snapped to, nodding.
"Y-you were... hiding your power...?"
Denver—our closest link here—spoke up. Probably everyone's question.
"Uh... yeah?"
Denying now? Dumb.
His face twisted complex... No clue what he thought.
"Any reason you gotta hide it?"
"Yeah, could get real messy for me."
Straight answer. Could genuinely suck depending.
Denver nodded.
"You could've ditched us, survived solo..."
"...Could've."
Wait, only mage here—solo survivor not that sus maybe.
"Exposing your true strength that troublesome?"
"Might cost me my neck..."
Gasps from eavesdroppers.
"A mage that strong... must have some epic backstory we can't imagine."
"And he stayed for us!!"
"Thank you... God bless..."
Others spun wild fantasies, misconceptions flying.
"Heard a tale once... legendary mage kills king, flees kingdom."
Fugitive mage? News to me.
"Aye, heard somethin' similar... grand mage wipes nation for lover's revenge."
Psycho avenger too.
Typical explorer chit-chat though.
Famous so-and-so legends always fodder.
"Hidden power... true mage..."
"The Hidden Strength...!!!"
Anyway, they swore secrecy. Blame Dungeon Disaster for slime smash—unified story. Who knows if it'd hold outside.
Elise slashed incoming slimes, but fidgeted, glancing rear.
'...What now, should I—'
Desperate to save Soo-chan, but bailing meant hundreds dead.
One vs. hundreds.
Weighing lives, she moved to break rearward late—
—rear exploded massively, backblast hitting her.
"...What... the?"
Debris rained.
Looked like armor slime shell chunks...
"Phase 3 starting!!!"
"Huh...? But the variants are all down already...?"