The Divine Spear... What?
One flap of the wings, and the view shifted dramatically. The pristine white clouds drew closer. Folding my wings to reduce resistance, I soared vertically, taking in the blue sky. Wow. Look at how clear the sky is.
A sky so pristine it put the perpetually overcast Terraforming city to shame, along with its warm sun! And that air—so pure it was almost addictive! Ah, how wonderful.
“Ugh....”
Tears welled in my eyes from the clean air filling my lungs as I beat my wings with vigor, and I felt a tremor from the contractor cradled in my arms. Ah, she must be trembling from sheer excitement.
“This is too high....”
Her eyes were slightly moist, so it seemed she was simply terrified. Well, children who had ridden amusement park rides might find it fun, but a medieval kid who only traveled by carriage wouldn't know the thrill of a gyro drop.
“We need to go a little higher.”
“Please save me.”
Though flapping one's wings looked simple, it actually consumed an enormous amount of bio-energy. If I assumed I had enough energy to last about five hundred years, each wingbeat would burn through roughly a month's worth. To minimize energy expenditure, I had to climb vertically fast and then switch to gliding instead of powered flight.
“Understand?”
“I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die....”
“....”
Despite my best efforts to explain with my limited eloquence, the contractor was babbling nonsense with half-glazed eyes. I listened to the toddler-regressed contractor's freestyle muttering while flapping my wings at a leisurely pace, and before long we reached just below the clouds.
“Hmm.”
I wanted to show her the world above the clouds, but passing through them was surprisingly prickly—and, more importantly, extremely cold. Regrettably, for the sake of protecting the contractor's eardrums, this height would have to do.
—Whoosh!
I spread my wings wide to halt our ascent, adjusted their angle, and shifted into a glide. Our falling speed dropped instantly. The bio-energy consumption also decreased noticeably.
At this height, I should be able to reach any part of the city.
They could call me the Gliding Master. I circled slowly to bleed off speed and gently shook the half-broken navigation device, now more reliable thanks to our altitude.
“Contractor. Open your eyes.”
“No. And stop shaking me.”
Oh dear, the contractor had turned vicious. Still, this flight was what she wanted, so she would have to endure it. And if she didn't open her eyes now, we would have a problem.
“You need to at least tell me roughly where the Adventurer's Guild is, or how am I supposed to go there?”
There were at least five districts of buildings visible below.
“Just head toward whatever looks like the center of the city.”
“....”
Feeling like a taxi driver who had picked up a middle-schooler, I followed the contractor's instructions and searched for the city center.
What the hell is that?
Even I, who rarely got surprised by anything, shook the contractor in a panic, forgetting all demonic dignity.
“Agh. I told you to stop shaking me...!”
“Hey, Contractor. What in the world is that ridiculously huge pillar?”
“...Pillar? Ah!”
She cautiously cracked her eyes open, and soon her black pupils widened. The fear in them had vanished, replaced by shock and awe in equal measure. What spread before us as we glided on the wind was a miraculous sight created by a single structure. At the heart of the city encircled by towering walls stood one colossal pillar. That magnificent edifice, which tore through the sky and pierced the clouds, stretched so high its end could not be seen.
It looks just like a space elevator.
I was intensely curious whether its tip truly reached space.
“...The Divine Spear.”
“The Divine Spear?”
A mystical name that seemed capable of bringing about a cataclysm if even one more character were added to it.
“You mean a spear you throw?”
“Yes.”
It was the divine punishment once inflicted upon the Betrayer who had dared to challenge the Goddess's authority. The Goddess's spear that had pierced through the flood of malice called the Dungeon and halted the stirrings of the end. Proof of myth rooted in reality.
“Dungeon City Story. It's a very famous fairy tale.”
Overcome with emotion, the contractor kept her gaze fixed on the enormous tower and continued her explanation in a trembling voice.
“The Dungeon is actually the fallen body of the Betrayer, and the Goddess personally drove the Divine Spear Road into its heart to seal it.”
“If it's sealed, does that mean the Betrayer is still alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why stop at sealing it? Why not confirm the kill for certain?”
“It's said that divine beings cannot use their full authority when they descend to the middle realm. Perhaps that's why?”
“An age-old tradition for the sake of balance patching.”
“Pardon?”
“Just a demon's nonsense. Pay it no mind.”
The Goddess had selected the five most capable workers from the divine realm and sent them down to purify the malice rooted in the lower world. The workers who descended bearing divine names were a blessed race modeled after the Goddess's own body reflected in the sea—the human race. Together with them, they had built the first and final bulwark centered around the Divine Spear.
“Is that the dungeon city Bastion?”
“Yes.”
Destroying the heart of the Betrayer at the tip of the Divine Spear and ending its breath completely—that was the mission of all humankind. However, it was never an easy task for the human race, whose physical abilities were relatively inferior to their capable minds, to conquer a dungeon filled with bloodlust and malice.
“That is why the Goddess bestows a gift upon the human race through the Divine Spear.”
“Interesting.”
“Right? What's even more interesting is that most of the stories in the fairy tale are actually true.”
“Hmm?”
If most of the story was true, then it wasn't a fairy tale—it was a true story.
“The five workers of the Goddess are said to actually exist somewhere in the dungeon city, and you can supposedly receive the Goddess's blessing for real once you enter the dungeon.”
“And yet it's still treated as a fairy tale?”
“Exactly. Strange, isn't it?”
It was indeed strange, just as the contractor said. If all of that was true, shouldn't the dungeon be conquered on a worldwide scale? It should have become Dungeon World, not Dungeon City.
Perhaps deliberate information control is being carried out.
And worldwide information control was usually implemented when the revelation of the truth could cause a massive upheaval capable of collapsing society.
This world doesn't seem to be entirely peaceful either.
Well, given that the genre was fantasy to begin with, it wouldn't be strange if there was something like a Demon King aiming to destroy the world. Then, were the adventurers conquering the dungeon heroes?
Just when I thought I could rest easy.
This place was no different from the previous world. The only minor difference was whether it was after the apocalypse or right before it.
“Then, what happens if they succeed in destroying that so-called heart of the Betrayer?”
“The story ends like this.”
All that was misaligned finds its rightful place.
If only that were true, I would have no wishes left. Of course, that won't happen.
Even if all those fairy-tale stories were true, I doubted that defeating a single final boss would bring about such a convenient miracle.
Because I did it myself.
They would probably just throw some trivial reward my way. Of course, no matter how insignificant the reward, it wouldn't be as bad as a character reset ticket.
Oh. Terraforming, you godforsaken game, really is trash no matter how many layers you peel. You rotten onion bastard.
Dungeon City Story, huh.... I hope it's just an ordinary fairy tale.
I simply wanted to live a wise fantasy life in this beautiful, mysterious world alongside my money-grubbing cute contractor. So whether it was the final boss or some world-ending instigator, they had better stay quiet like dead mice and not cause trouble. My patience had long since perished along with the previous world.
If one were to name the most chaotic place in the dungeon city aside from the dungeon itself, people would unanimously say this: the Adventurer's Guild, of course.
—Bang!
A loud, dull sound echoed through the already crowded and noisy first floor of the Adventurer's Guild headquarters.
“Eek!”
“Eeeek! It's an attack by bomb flies, meow!”
“Everyone, please calm down. This isn't the dungeon.”
The sudden loud noise caused the elves and beastkin with sensitive hearing to collectively convulse, while the receptionists sighed, muttering that it was happening again.
“Good grief, another tantrum over mana stone prices? The receptionists really have it rough.”
“That guy looks like a Rat who just pokes around the entrance of the Green Zone picking up scraps, yet his voice is as loud as a pig's. Hmm, maybe I should teach him a lesson?”
“I won't stop you if you want to get beaten by the guard captain.”
“Getting hit by Hilde would be a reward.”
“Yeah. I think I get the feeling.”
“Right?”
“You two over there, you perverted muscleheads. If you're done settling your accounts, get lost... please? There are kids waiting behind you... okay?”
““Yes, ma'am!””
“Haa... I told you not to call me ma'am... okay? People are giving us weird looks... okay?”
“Kyyaaaah!”
“Hiiik! The receptionist is hitting an adventurer!”
“That was a textbook side kick.”
“Aegis, please hit me too! No, please step on me, I beg you!”
“If you don't want to get kicked, get lost... okay? I don't want to touch something worse than roadside trash... okay?”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“Is this really an elf?”
“Very different from the books. Yeah. Quite a lot.”
Though the sudden noise had reflexively drawn everyone's attention, the adventurers and staff quickly lost interest and returned to their own business. Commotion at the Adventurer's Guild was an everyday occurrence, nothing more than white noise to be ignored.
However.
The person at the center of the commotion was having a terrible time!
That asparagus-looking human brat! He sure talks a lot, like a chirping chick! I want to pound his head until it turns into a squashed lump of dough!
But she couldn't! She was a receptionist! Receptionists must not use violence against adventurers! Verbal abuse was likewise forbidden! The crazy albino at the counter five windows over might lead with a side kick before words, but... that wasn't how it was supposed to be! If she slipped up and got reported to the Goddess's slave, her already meager salary would be halved!
I have to endure... Once I get through this adventurer, it'll be lunchtime! I can eat lots of sandwiches!
Deceived by sweet words promising her plenty of delicious food, she had been locked away in the prison called the Adventurer's Guild as a receptionist for two hundred and thirteen years now. Regina Gura, a demon so consumed by greed that she would snatch candy from a child she met on the street, had, after enduring over two hundred years of the torture known as dealing with adventurers, overcome her racial traits and finally awakened the ability called patience!
She didn't want that kind of ability even if it was given to her!
“No, didn't you say ordinary mana stones are valued between four hundred and one thousand Dallant each? But sixty Dallant? Do you have knots for eyes instead of pupils? Even if the words are different, this is too different!”
How rude! The one with knots for eyes isn't Regina Gura but the asparagus adventurer! A mana stone split more than halfway isn't classified as an ordinary mana stone but as dust, so it's normal for the price to be lower! Shut your stinking mouth and listen to my explanation!
In reality—
“Adventurer, please calm down... and listen to my story....”
“Calm down? Do you think you could calm down in my position? I risked my precious life in the dungeon all day just to put food on the table, and if you lowball the price like this, what am I supposed to do? Do adventurers look like easy marks to you?”
Crack.
A single blue vein rose on her pale forehead. The triple-stacked footrest shook violently as if it had developed a twitch.
Indeed. Regina Gura was currently....... enraged!
A demon's wrath! What in this world could be more terrifying than that? The closest equivalent might be a dragon's fury. But Regina Gura was a professional. She never lost her smile.
“An easy mark? That can't be! The Guild always respects you adventurers and....”
“Senior....”
The junior receptionist at the next window looked on with pity and maternal affection, while Regina hid her small fists beneath the counter and swallowed her usual rage—when a commotion arose from the direction of the guild's main entrance.
“That's one hell of a big crow!”
“Isn't that a bat?”
“But it looks like it's flying this way?”
“Whoa! That thing's coming straight here! Everyone scatter!!!”
“Wait. No, that's....”
A demon?
“Hmm? Has another new kin arrived?”
She didn't sense that kind of energy, though.