Dungeon Subjugation Practice (2)
On the day of the practical exam, we stood before the gate connected to the Lucian Kingdom.
“So this is a gate!”
Of course Luca had never seen one before, so her eyes sparkled as she stared at the warp.
“Everyone here?”
“Yeah. Shall we head out?”
The party had to consist of one member from each department. From the Vanguard Department: Radien Draken and Luca. From the Assault Department: Estelia. From the Magic Department: me. From the Support Department: Elesia. And from the Special Forces Department, I brought Eileen.
Everyone was kind enough to warmly welcome Eileen even though it was their first time meeting her.
Soon it was time to enter the gate.
Whoosh…
“Whoa! This feels weird!”
“Hooee…”
“Uwee…”
For the record, the “Hooee…” was Elesia and the “Uwee…” was Eileen. Eileen really is like a corrupted version of Elesia.
“So this is the dungeon we have to subjugate.”
A cave filled with an unsettling atmosphere. Using the coordinates provided by the Lucian Kingdom through the gate, we arrived in an instant. Naturally, since the party was made up entirely of first-years, it was bound to be extremely easy.
“Hey. How are they supposed to kidnap us when we came here using coordinates?”
“In the original story, academy spies secretly find out the coordinates. So they’ll definitely show up.”
“Ah, got it.”
The spies must be loaded if they even have their own gate. Not to mention how many magic stones this thing eats up.
“Eileen. I’ll leave the scouting to you.”
“Okay!”
Originally she spoke formally, but Estelia told her it was fine to speak casually. After that, Eileen spoke comfortably to everyone.
At Radien’s words, Eileen quickly ran ahead. Her specialties were stealth, infiltration, and trap disarming. Even though she was a commoner, she had learned from a hidden master in her neighborhood. A retired assassin, if I remembered correctly.
“Hmm… There’s nothing here.”
“A dungeon with no traps? It’s probably goblins or kobolds. Luca and I will go in first.”
“Ooh!”
By the way, the reason Luca obediently followed Radien’s instructions was because he promised to buy her something delicious if she listened. Extremely expensive meat, at that.
“Meat, meat!”
“Be quiet. We learned this in theory class… Please.”
Even in this situation, Radien was giving Luca a lecture on theory. How reassuring!
As we slowly moved deeper inside, we spotted goblins. Normally goblins set up simple traps, but there were none here. This really was a completely raw dungeon.
“Luca and I will take the front and handle them.”
There were three goblins ahead. They looked like scouts, holding only simple daggers. Radien charged forward in a flash. As expected of a ducal heir, the goblins were flustered by his full plate armor. The one in front thrust its dagger, but the blade shattered on impact.
Swish!
With a single swing of Radien’s sword, the heads of two goblins—including the one charging from behind—flew off.
“Uwahaha! This one’s mine!”
Thud!
Luca charged straight in and drove her sword into the heart of the last remaining goblin. She pulled the blade from the fallen goblin and shook off the blood. She might look a bit dumb, but she was one of the top five warriors even in the north. Of course, goblins were nothing to her—she could handle them with her eyes closed.
“Let’s keep moving.”
“H-Here!”
Elesia handed over a mana torch she had made herself. Just as Radien, holding the torch, was about to enter, Eileen—who had gone ahead to scout—spoke up.
“No hobgoblins. Two goblin warriors and seven regular goblins.”
“Is it the boss room?”
“There’s no separate boss room. The core is right in the center.”
The core. It was what allowed the dungeon to exist. Destroying the core would kill the boss, but killing the boss wouldn’t destroy the core.
“Cores fetch a high price. We won’t destroy it—we’ll just wipe out all the monsters. Let’s go.”
Radien handed the torch to Eileen. Since she wasn’t a combatant, she slipped back, and Radien and Luca took the lead.
Clank, clank.
As we entered, the goblins—who had heard the sound of armor—were already prepared. Among the two warriors, the larger one seemed to be the boss.
“Here I go.”
Whoosh.
Swish!
Radien dashed forward and bisected the shoulder of the goblin in front. Then he took its head as well.
“Hup…!”
Boom!
Right after, while Radien drew the aggro, Estelia stepped forward with spirit power wrapped around her fists. Her flame-wreathed punch smashed straight into three goblins ahead.
“Kiek… Kieeeek!”
While the burned goblins flailed about, Luca took on one of the charging goblin warriors from the side.
“Uheh… Let’s fight!”
With Luca fighting one warrior and Radien going after the other, one goblin suddenly lunged toward Elesia. Eileen quickly stepped in front of her.
“Binding Talisman.”
Clang!
“K… Kieeeeeek!”
She had already attached a binding talisman in front of the two non-combatants. Chains materialized from the manifested mana and bound the goblin tightly.
Thud!
She poured mana into the chains and exploded them.
“Hik…!”
Elesia was terrified, but Eileen wore a surprisingly calm expression. She must have real combat experience.
“We’ve taken care of all of them.”
“Yes! Meat! It’s meat!”
In the meantime, the rest of the goblins had been dealt with by the party members. I just got to coast along for free. We stuffed anything valuable into the pouch provided by the academy—cores, goblin ears and eyeballs for alchemy, and scrap daggers.
“Elesia, you take the alchemy materials.”
“Eh…? Is that okay…”
“Everyone here is rich. Ah, Eileen. I’ll give you the value of the core.”
“Oh…! Thank you!”
Anyway, I had already promised to treat everyone to an expensive restaurant after this practical, so it didn’t matter. Luca also looked like she didn’t care as long as she got expensive meat.
Just as we were about to head back, someone entered the dungeon.
“Mercenaries, huh.”
The Lucian Kingdom had put out a request because the nearby village wanted it handled quickly, but sometimes people hired mercenaries separately. Radien, thinking that was the case, walked forward—then stopped.
“…What are you doing?”
“Whoa, you noticed?”
One of the two men walking slowly toward us pulled back his hood. He was completely bald, his head gleaming. With the light behind him, it was hard to make out his face.
So he’s a veteran…
While I was thinking that, the other man spoke.
“…Shut up and hurry up and take them. They’re the offering ‘He’ wants.”
“Uhehehehe… Yeah. Let’s go.”
Clack.
“Nobody move.”
The two men entered the dungeon with relaxed expressions. Radien placed his hand on his sword hilt, tense.
“Binding Talisman.”
“Guhk?!”
Thud, thud.
Suddenly something caught their feet and they were hung upside down. Radien stared in shock.
“What the—?”
Then he looked at me. When I nodded, he let out a hollow laugh.
“These bastards…!”
The bald man’s face turned bright red with rage. Just as he tried to cut the rope with his dagger—
“You want to cut it? Then I’ll cut it for you.”
Thud!
“Aaaaargh!”
Both their legs exploded. Of course, the rope binding them was the same binding talisman that had blown up the goblin earlier—only the shape was different.
As the two men with severed legs crawled on the ground, Radien stepped in front of them and slammed his sword down on one’s hand.
“Ghhk…”
“Who the hell are you people? Estelia, take the kids and wait inside.”
“Okay. Everyone, let’s go over there.”
“Uuuung…!”
“Let’s go, Elesia.”
Eileen patted the trembling Elesia while gently stroking her back. Even while doing that, she was clearly groping her. Estelia, being innocent, thought Eileen was just a kind girl and looked moved. This girl was seriously skilled.
“I’ll ask one more time. Who is this ‘He’ you mentioned earlier?”
“Heh… He is the one who created this world, the strongest being in existence…!”
Swish!
“Aaaaargh!”
Enraged, Radien sliced off the man’s wrist. He probably already knew. Their gazes had been fixed on Elesia, and they had called her the “offering.”
“Hey, why are you going so easy on them? I’m right here.”
I crouched down in front of them.
“I’ll dig through your brains for you.”
Thud.
When I placed my hand on their heads, I discarded the useless memories and extracted only the valuable ones. Normally it would take about ten minutes. But with me, it only took five seconds.
“Alright! Done.”
“U… Uuu… Uwahwah…”
Swish.
Having no interest in listening to the babbling of a brain-damaged bald man, Radien immediately cut off his head. The companion beside him spoke up in panic.
“I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
“No need. I already know everything.”
Swish!
At my words, Radien swung his sword without hesitation. Shaking the blood off his blade, he asked,
“…Their identity?”
“Demon cultists.”
“And their target?”
“Belferno, one of the Twelve Demons.”
“…Belferno? You mean that Belferno?!”
Radien shouted in excitement. When I frowned, he lowered his voice and asked again.
“If it’s Belferno, isn’t he the Demon of Violence?”
The Demon of Violence, Belferno. The one who slowly drives humans into madness and violence, making them kill each other. Of course, that was just his ability—most sword masters wouldn’t even be a match for him.
“Yeah. Let’s go tell the kids first.”
When Radien and I went inside, we saw Elesia trembling and Eileen stroking her back. Estelia spotted us and let out a sigh of relief that we were unharmed.
“They were demon cultists. Worshippers of the demon called Belferno.”
“…One of the Twelve Demons? Why would he target Elesia?”
“I don’t know either. I’d like to ask her, but right now…”
Shiver, shiver.
“Hik… Sniff…”
Elesia seemed completely broken, only sniffling. Having never experienced proper killing intent before, the malice and bloodlust they had directed at her must have been too much to handle. Especially since they had said they would make her an offering—it was even harder on her gentle heart.
Grind…
Radien was furious as he looked at Elesia. I poked his back.
“…?”
When he looked at me like he was asking what I was doing, he soon nodded as if he understood. He slowly approached and crouched in front of her. Even then, Elesia only cried while staring into empty space. Radien looked at her for a moment, then took her hand.
“…Elesia.”
Swish.
At that, her gaze turned toward Radien. It was so dramatic it felt like watching a soap opera—extremely cringy. But Estelia just watched calmly. Well, that’s just how romance-fantasy noble society is.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. Whether it’s one of the Twelve Demons… or even a god.”
In a way, it could be seen as insulting the gods. But this kind of line was surprisingly common and considered very romantic in noble society.
…That’s what Eileen muttered beside me.
“Elesia. Nothing can stand in your way. I’ll make sure of it. So believe in me.”
“Hngh… Sob… Hwaaaah!”
“Hurk…”
Elesia looked at Radien and threw herself into his arms. The usually calm Radien froze solid.
“Kgh… I want to be smothered by those massive H-cup breasts too…”
Eileen. Get a grip. Estelia is right there. Fortunately, there was enough distance that she probably didn’t hear.
“Hwaaaah…”
“Is this really something to cry about?”
“Luca. Be quiet.”