Chapter 061: Iris Extended Her Hand to the Agent
Iris extended her hand to the agent.
"Intermediate detector. Do you have any left?"
"Yes. One remaining."
"Would you mind using it once?"
"Understood."
The agent pulled out an artifact resembling a compass from his pocket. And the moment he infused it with mana.
Beep-beep-beep-BEEP!
"……!"
A piercing alarm shattered the silence of the forest. The needle spun wildly before locking onto the massive dead tree right in front of them.
"……It's detecting it blatantly."
Even the agent looked flustered.
"Could it be picking it up because we've entered the phase-shift barrier?"
"No."
Iris shook her head firmly. She raised her staff, condensing mana and spreading it widely through the surrounding space.
Crackle-crackle!
After dispersing her mana broadly, Iris spoke.
"A phase-shift barrier isn't active here right now."
"……Really?"
"Yes. It's not just the door being open—it's like the entire doorframe has been ripped off."
Iris swallowed a hollow laugh. One thing was clear. After her disciple had visited yesterday.
This dungeon had fundamentally changed in some profound way.
'He said he disabled the phase interference.'
Normally, "disabling" meant unlocking a lock with a key. But Kasian's method had been different. He hadn't picked the lock—he'd demolished the entire wall the door was attached to.
That was why the suppressed mana inside was bursting out like a dam breaking.
"Haa…… seriously."
She was exasperated by her disciple's brutish approach, yet a strange thrill ran through her at the same time. Pushing up her glasses, Iris said to the agent,
"It's dangerous, so I'll go in alone."
"Pardon? But without an escort……."
"If I don't come out within an hour, evacuate everyone as quickly as possible. Don't look back."
"Are you sure you'll be alright?"
At the agent's worried question, Iris smirked. Her red eyes gleamed with arrogant confidence.
"If even I can't handle it, no amount of support under my command will make a difference. In that case, running away fast is the better option."
"……Understood."
The agent bowed without further argument and retreated. Iris stepped toward the dark maw of the knot-hole in the massive dead tree.
The moment she took one step into the knot-hole of the dead tree.
Hummm—
"Hng……."
Her breath caught in her throat. It felt like diving naked into the deep ocean—the density of mana dissolved in the air crushed her entire body.
Reflexively, Iris raised her staff and deployed a defensive spell.
Shiiiine—!
A transparent barrier enveloped her body. Only then did the crushing pressure, like deep-sea hydraulics, lighten considerably.
"Haa."
Catching her breath, she surveyed her surroundings—and her eyes gradually widened.
"What is this……."
A typical dungeon entrance should have warped space or a labyrinthine complexity. An organic structure formed by naturally condensed mana.
That was the basic grammar of dungeons. But the passage before her was a straight line. Like a tunnel bored straight through a mountain, extending endlessly ahead.
Iris cautiously touched the wall.
"……Smooth."
As expected. This wasn't a natural cave. It bore the grotesque traces of space itself being forcibly pried open and ironed flat with immense force. The dimensional fabric, which should have been rugged, had been violently smoothed out.
'He said he disabled the phase-shift barrier…….'
Muttering to herself, she read the mana traces on the wall with the tip of her staff—and immediately understood what had happened here.
"It wasn't disabled."
Her red eyes trembled behind her glasses. It wasn't unlocking a lock or ripping off a door. Realizing the door and house were one integral unit, he'd collapsed the entire house, tearing the door apart in the process.
"Ha……."
Iris let out a short sigh. Venturing a bit deeper confirmed her hypothesis into certainty. There was a section where space had been ironed grotesquely flat. Right beside it, another looked like shattered glass, fragments scattering in disarray, glowing faintly as they floated in the air.
The dungeon's independent dimension was collapsing from within.
"So……."
Gripping her staff tighter, Iris continued muttering to herself. It was a habit. She'd do this whenever tackling a problem in her lab.
"He poured power from outside, cracking the entire dimension."
Cold sweat trickled down her spine. Theoretically impossible. A dungeon was an independent world. To shatter it from outside required energy exceeding the total existential force of that dimension.
"What on earth did you do, my disciple?"
Step, step.
She pressed deeper. And soon.
"……."
Iris's footsteps halted at the horrific scene. There were mana beasts. But not a single living one. Scattered on the floor weren't corpses—they were remains of what had once been mana beasts.
One form was flattened like it'd been crushed under a massive press. Beside it, traces of something obliterated by a powerful shockwave, without even a shape left.
It wasn't a battle trace—it was too one-sided. Battle implied at least some exchange of blows. But there wasn't a single sign of resistance here. Just swept away by passing force.
Iris murmured softly.
"Just stepped on."
Like ants underfoot while walking. The shockwave squeezing the dimension from outside had propagated inward, wiping out every lifeform in one fell swoop.
"Hoo……."
A deep sigh escaped her. Leaning on her staff, she advanced further. The end of the passage came into view.
Iris stopped before the gaping open space.
"……Boss room."
Rumble-rumble…….
Debris rained down from the ceiling. A vast domed chamber. This should have been the final stage where the dungeon's boss reigned, awaiting intruders.
But like all life here, the boss was dead too. Iris frowned up at the ceiling.
"……Spider Queen."
Its upper body had been torn out by the roots and impaled upside-down into the ceiling. The lower body lay sprawled on the floor, bodily fluids pooling thickly where it had separated.
'So this was the Spider Queen's nest.'
Iris's gaze shifted to the tip of the lower body. The core. The heart of this dungeon, straddling the Spider Queen's remains.
"……."
She carefully probed the core's cracks with her staff tip. The core, fractured in hundreds of fissures, was shattered from within like a glass bead struck by a hammer.
From entrance to boss room. The shockwave had permeated the dungeon from shallowest to deepest.
"Ha……."
A sigh slipped out involuntarily. Looking up at the collapsed ceiling, she muttered,
"Really lucky."
Before entering, when she'd heard the full story from Professor Wilhelm, the inexplicable had become clear. How was it possible, and why was he alive? Fortunately, answers emerged.
The internal space size, number of mana beasts, the dead Spider Queen's size. And the residual energy in the cracked core.
Putting it all together, Iris concluded.
'Low-grade.'
This was definitely a low-grade dungeon. The sticky, dense mana concentration was just the aftermath of all mana beasts dying in an instant and the core bursting.
"Because it was low-grade…… the total existential force of the dimension was low. So it couldn't withstand being squeezed from outside. Kasian's output is abnormally high, but it only worked because the target was low-grade."
Only just. Truly, barely.
'If this had been mid-grade?'
Iris bit her lip slightly in unease.
"He'd have tried smashing it the same way. And instead of the dimension breaking, the backlash would rebound straight to the caster……."
She trailed off. She didn't want to imagine it.
"I need to warn him."
Iris now somewhat understood why her master always emphasized caution and warned her repeatedly. If her disciple got hurt or did something irreversible due to a risk she could predict from experience, it would be utterly agonizing.
Resolved to nag her disciple until his ears blistered, Iris turned back.
Step, step.
Her footsteps retraced the straight passage.
A while later.
"Hoo."
The moment the forest air filled her lungs, Iris finally relaxed. Right after she emerged from the dead tree.
The masked agent waiting behind a tree approached.
"Professor. Are you alright?"
"Yes. It was a low-grade dungeon."
"Low……grade?"
"Yes. The core's already non-functional and will naturally dissipate soon. No need for additional personnel."
Relief flickered in the agent's eyes.
"So, in effect, Kasian single-handedly conquered the dungeon……."
"Less 'conquered' and more 'blasted,' but yeah, seems like he did. I confirmed there's no regeneration risk either."
Iris gave a wry smile and adjusted her glasses.
"Anyway, report to Professor Wilhelm. I need to check on my disciple."
"Understood."
The agent leaped onto the trees and vanished.
…….
In the empty boss room of the unmanned dungeon. The cracked core began emitting a faint glow.
Ziiing…….
Light leaked through the fissures. And on the core's surface, text materialized.
Plausibility Post-Processing (Dungeon Grade Restoration & Witness Securing) Complete.
To erase traces of direct causality intervention (artificial dungeon grade manipulation), the dungeon will undergo complete annihilation.
Approved.
Proceeding with disposal.
Kuuuung—
As the text vanished, vibrations echoed through the entire dungeon. The ceiling began collapsing. Walls cracked. The straight passage Kasian had pulverized crumbled from the inside out, section by section.
Like a sandcastle swept away by waves. The Spider Queen's remains, the shattered core, and even the traces of the text that had floated above it.
Everything began to be swallowed into darkness.
And moments later.
KABOOOM!
A massive explosion from the dimension's collapse rang out, and the dungeon vanished from the world.