Dungeon Practice (3)
Dungeon Practice (3)
The queasy lurch in my stomach lasted only a moment before solid ground pressed against the soles of my feet.
At the same instant, the spatial perception I'd already retracted gave a tremor.
A shift in space.
I recognized it before I could stop myself. The fine hairs on my skin rose.
This place is Earth. It definitely belongs to Earth. It isn't a space complete enough to be considered independent — merely a subspace that can only exist by clinging to Earth.
Yet it is also a severed space. Inside and outside are separate places, governed by different laws.
'Ah.'
A gate was nothing more than crossing a bridge built within the same world.
A dungeon, then, is a small subspace rooted in Earth. An unstable pocket dimension that can only exist because Earth does — but still, a space with its own distinct principles, separate from Earth.
The understanding came unbidden, settling into my awareness whether I wanted it to or not.
"...All cadets have entered. Commencing subjugation as of this moment."
Meanwhile, the three who had formed a triangle with Ellia and me at the center were already scanning our surroundings the instant we entered the dungeon.
Just as we'd discussed: on entry, the three combat-track members would guard the two support-track members.
"Ha-yul, please scan the vicinity."
Attila swept sharp eyes across the area as she spoke. I nodded.
How should I put it — riding a wave of exaltation born from realization, I unfurled my spatial perception wide. A tidal wave of information surged into a pitch-black world.
Outside the dungeon, I'd held back, mindful of my experience at the gate, but now I felt certain there would be no problem at all.
Radius 10m, 50m, 100m... 200m...
Roughly 300m or so. By diameter, about 600m, I suppose.
My range had swollen severalfold all of a sudden. Saying "severalfold" makes it sound modest, but when you consider the expansion is a sphere, the actual increase in information volume easily soars past several dozen times.
- Bzzt... bzzt...
My head flashed. It felt like an electric current was crackling around my brain.
[Within range: no monsters detected]
"Thanks. If you notice anything unusual, let me know right away."
[Yes]
My role in the dungeon subjugation is to locate monsters, herbs, and the like. Thanks to my spatial perception, I can handle reconnaissance, but the problem lies in conveying that information.
Since I'm mute and can't speak, reporting my findings to others has always been inconvenient, even after I complete the scan.
This issue will be resolved once I acquire the Confession Necklace later, but that doesn't solve the immediate problem.
So for now, I'm compensating by pre-typing the things I need to report onto a clipboard and outputting them quickly.
After a more thorough sweep of the surroundings, we regrouped in one spot.
Attila, who had taken the role of squad leader, cleared her throat to draw our attention. Ahem.
- Thud
He struck the ground with his massive shield. A heavy vibration traveled up my legs — the kind of tremor that made its brutal weight felt in my bones.
"As discussed beforehand, our priority is reaching Point A first. We will subjugate any monsters we encounter along the route, but we'll postpone venturing deeper to hunt them."
Everyone nodded at Attila's words.
The dungeon subjugation practice was a time-limited assignment. The conditions for completing the assignment had been announced along with our squad assignments.
[ Ipchun Class — Squad 11 ]
①: Reach Point A, discover the marker, and establish a temporary stronghold (35)
②: Subjugate 80 Green Ghosts (40)
③: Collect 500g of Mana Grass (15)
Squad 11 had received three conditions.
Reach Point A and establish a temporary stronghold.
Arrive at the coordinates included in the file and set up a temporary base.
Subjugate 80 Green Ghosts.
Exterminate 80 Green Ghosts—monsters averaging 8th Rank, with stronger individuals around 7th Rank—and bring back proof. Normally you cut off ears or fingers as evidence, though it depends on the individual monster.
Collect 500g of Mana Grass.
Gather 500g of the weeds that grow fat on mana in forest-type dungeons. Mana Grass isn't particularly precious, but since it's a basic ingredient in alchemy, both supply and demand are high.
After establishing our formation, we moved toward the coordinates of Point A. It was straightforward because the smartwatch has a coordinate targeting function.
The group pushed through terrain thick with trees and grass.
Green vegetation grew past thigh height. It only stayed at that level because the blades bent over partway up; if they had grown straight, they would have surpassed my height.
The trees were enormously huge as well. They easily exceeded 15m in height and were staggeringly thick. So thick that even if I split myself into four or five people and surrounded one, we still couldn't encircle it.
Judging by the broad leaves, they might be broadleaf trees.
The air was damp, too. Every breath drew moisture-heavy air into my lungs. Droplets of water clung thickly to every tree and every blade of grass.
"At least we're fortunate there's a path already open."
"Right. If we'd had to scout and cut a path from scratch... haha."
One small mercy was that we didn't need to hack our way step by step through walls of grass like those.
A path had already been cleared through periodic subjugation operations. We still needed a bit of trimming since the plants inside a dungeon grow with such ferocious vigor, but at least we weren't forcing our way through virgin terrain, so it was relatively easy.
Attila and Nam Yeon-jung, taking the lead, were using the short swords at their waists to cut down the grass that had grown back a bit.
The only thing that required extra caution while walking was the somewhat squelchy ground.
[Northwest, 75m, 2 targets]
"Confirmed. Keep signaling like that."
In the meantime, I was handling the detection role. My spatial perception had grown a little broader and more precise, so there was no strain in conducting the scans.
We had passed by a few Green Ghosts so far. They weren't right in front of us, and their numbers weren't large. We bypassed them for the time being on the grounds that we hadn't yet set up a stronghold.
I'd also detected a great deal of Mana Grass. Since my spatial perception reaches beneath the ground, I can differentiate tree roots or grasses embedded in the soil.
Just gathering the Mana Grass I'd spotted while passing through would easily exceed the quota.
The Mana Grass condition isn't worth many points, but still, I wouldn't have to worry about it.
I walked on while memorizing the locations of the Mana Grass and Green Ghosts I'd found along the path so far.
"Arrived at Point A... Let's sweep the perimeter, then move to set up the stronghold."
It was only about two hours after entering the dungeon that our squad was able to reach the vicinity of Point A.
"Ha-yul, can you find the marker?"
[Found it]
"We'll look for the marker and the site at the same time— What? Already?"
Attila blinked. I nodded and pointed in one direction. The squad members followed my guidance and moved.
"It really is there."
A man-sized flag was planted where thick tree roots wove together. Its color was a camouflage blend of earth tones and grass tones, so finding it without a detection ability must have been exceedingly tiresome.
Attila voiced her admiration as she patted the flagpole.
"Ha-yul's detection ability is incredibly precise. A lot of the detection-type cadets I knew at the other academy had trouble with poor precision."
[Thank you]
'If it were lousy, I'd have died of sheer resentment.'
After all, this ability cost me my eyes, nose, and mouth.
Sure, it was a spatial perception that nearly killed its own owner at first because its performance was excessively powerful, and later showed me nothing but a garbage-tier field of view under the excuse of cost reduction... but even so, at this point, I can't imagine living without it...
Having found the marker, we selected a suitable location and set up a temporary stronghold.
We searched for an open clearing for a bit but couldn't find one, so we just cut down some trees to make room.
Since a stronghold here was only a temporary base where we'd stay for a single day, no special measures were needed.
You simply make a wide clearing, then lay down crime-prevention, protection, and survival magic tools — and that's it.
If we had a pure mage, they'd install the magic directly, but our squad had no mage.
Ellia could cast some enhancement magic, but that was her limit, and I was still a novice barely managing lowest-grade spells, so I didn't volunteer.
"Uh... Ha-yul, you brought a lot with you, huh?"
'......'
While everyone was gathered in the tree-cleared clearing rummaging through their packs, an exceptional number of items kept poking out of my backpack, drawing their attention.
[I packed extra, just in case]
Professor Atra had crammed things into it indiscriminately. When I asked if it wasn't too heavy, she told me the backpack also had a weight-reduction spell formula worked into it.
"Well then, let's go find a Green Ghost village."
Once the modest stronghold was finished and we'd marked the coordinates, we took a reasonable break and then rose to our feet.
The first condition — reaching Point A, discovering the marker, and constructing a temporary stronghold — was achieved.
Now all that remained was to finish the second and third conditions: subjugating Green Ghosts and collecting Mana Grass.
"Let's begin our sweep starting near the places where Ha-yul spotted Green Ghosts on the way here."
Green Ghosts live in groups. The groups of two or three we'd seen along the way were ones that had left their village to hunt.
A notable feature is their very small stature. They stand about the height of an adult man's waist, and their bodies are generally scrawny. By human aesthetic standards, they're ugly.
In short, they are your garden-variety goblins.
Finding the village didn't take long. By focusing our search around the areas where Green Ghosts had mainly been spotted, we quickly discovered its location.
The village was situated on an auspicious site, backed by a mountain with a river nearby. I think the term is 'baesanimsu' — a mountain behind and water in front. It's absurd that mere monsters would choose such a location.
'Classic layout.'
A wall made by cutting down trees, sharpening the ends, and driving them into the ground in a row. Inside stood primitive tents with wooden frames draped in leaves and the like.
The village was packed with Green Ghosts. Roughly 135 of them. Ridiculously many. I'd wondered whether we'd manage to find 80 within the time limit, but we'd located the entire quota in one go.
"...Now I see why everyone keeps looking for detection-type ability users."
After I noted down the situation inside the walls — structures, traps, numbers — Attila, who'd been hiding in the forest right near the village and observing the wooden palisade, spoke with a rueful tone. Beside her, Nam Yeon-jung nodded too.
"They command high prices for a reason. And on top of that, the raw number of detection-type ability users is small, so it's all the more true."
Seventy percent of superhumans are vanguard-type. Most superhumans who fail to awaken a unique ability end up focusing on close combat using reinforced bodies and aura.
Among the modern population, those who awaken as superhumans are few; those who possess unique abilities are even fewer.
And detection-type abilities are scarce within that already small pool. That's why even individuals with middling ability levels are sought after in so many different places.
In short, the supply is lacking.
There's even a nasty culture of sneering at superhumans without unique abilities, calling them fakes. Not that I'm endorsing it, of course, but the existence of such talk shows just how vast the gap is between those who have a unique ability and those who don't.
"A hundred thirty. Mostly 8th-rank, with three at 7th-rank..."
Attila, acting as squad leader, wore a thoughtful expression.
"The numbers are somewhat high, but since the majority are 8th-rank, let's go in by the book."
Let's just hit them head-on. It sounded like a plan with no real countermeasure, but everyone except me nodded.
To begin with, apart from me, all of our squad members were promising talents who had ranked at the very top even among the academies of their respective regions.
They could handle 8th-ranks with their eyes closed, and 7th-ranks would pose no problem either.
On top of that, a safety device was in place. Right now, each squad member wore a bracelet on their wrist made of a woven purple cord.
This was the safety measure that Vice Headmaster had distributed last Friday.
When I examined it with spatial perception, it was a magic tool so tangled with complex formulas that it was dizzying to look at.
We'd been told that the moment anyone inside Siyoram sustained a life-threatening injury, a protection spell would deploy and a summoning spell would instantly transport them to the infirmary.
Naturally, it wouldn't react to minor scrapes and bruises. The condition was an injury on the level of losing one's life.
An astonishing effect. Almost enough to make me doubt whether such a thing was even possible. According to Vice Headmaster's explanation, it was a miracle made possible only because the Headmaster actively assisted, and because these were dungeons managed within the Cradle.
Since Vice Headmaster assumed office, the bracelets' function had never once failed to activate. Thanks to that, I was able to shed a bit of the psychological burden.
"Let's move."
At Attila's words as she raised her shield, everyone gripped their weapons.
I also swallowed hard from the tension and clutched my staff.
If I got too careless and was eliminated, getting chewed out hard by Professor Atra would be the least of my worries — beyond just failing to earn credits, I could end up with a negative score.
For someone like me who has nowhere to go if abandoned by Siyoram, that's an absolute dead-end I must never set foot on.
If I'm expelled from here, it won't just be a temporary suspension — it'll be the termination of my life. I absolutely cannot be expelled.
Treading across the uneven dirt, we moved cautiously toward the village.
This marked the beginning of the subjugation in earnest.