The Birth of a Lord
Road. When the fairy tale Dungeon City Story first appeared in the world, it was nothing more than one ordinary tale among many. But after scholars and Sherpas poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the effort, the map of the dungeon’s first floor was finally revealed to the public. The story that had been fading from memory suddenly surged back into the spotlight, drawing intense fascination.
“...Is the dungeon really shaped like this?”
“No, this looks just like....”
A human with a spear driven through its chest, wasn’t it?
“Enraged by the betrayal of her beloved confidant, the Goddess personally thrust the Divine Spear ‘Road’ into the Betrayer’s heart and sealed it away.”
—An excerpt from Dungeon City Story.
The path was simpler than I’d expected.
Finding your way through the dungeon was far easier than I’d imagined. It made me wonder if the whole Sherpa profession was even necessary. My top-down viewpoint certainly helped, but the real reason was that each floor’s terrain felt like it had been copied and pasted. After descending just two floors or so, I was confident I could navigate alone without Sion’s guidance.
The zones themselves were structured so simply—Head, Neck, Torso—that getting lost was actually harder than finding the way.
“Kkyu!”
“You don’t have to say it. I already know. Keep going straight, pass through the canyon that appears, then find the portal in the plains beyond it, right?”
“...Correct, nyang! Exactly right, nyang!”
We moved from the initial confirmed spawn point, the Head, to the Neck. From the Neck we advanced into the main field, the Torso, then searched the arms, hands, and fingers for the portal leading to the next floor. After repeating this process several times, our party once again set foot on the Head of White Zone Floor 10.
“It only took an hour to travel from Floor 1 to Floor 10! This is an unbelievable new record, nyang! Those wings are the best, nyang!”
And that was in just one hour. I’d thought thirty minutes would be enough, but the gimmick of having to locate hidden portals to move between floors took longer than expected. As a result, I’d gotten more than enough flying practice to last a lifetime.
“...How about we stop flying now and try running instead?”
“That sounds good.”
“Aww, nyang. But it was fun....”
Unlike me, who controlled the wings directly, the Contractor relied on Kkachi to handle them. That was probably why the Contractor’s face looked terrible—like a motion-sick middle schooler. After dry-heaving a few times in midair, they suggested we run the rest of the way to the Green Zone.
This was a proposal the old, frail version of them—whether him or her—who used to pant after running even a short distance could never have made. Seeing it now, I realized just how much they had grown.
“But, Mr. Adventurer. It’s actually quite far. Are you sure you’ll be okay, nyang?”
“I could run all day.”
The Contractor answered Sion’s worried question calmly while stretching their legs and loosening up. Their completely serious expression overflowed with confidence.
“Where does all that spirit even come from, nyang?!”
“Impressive.”
Amazed by the Contractor’s determination to run a distance that would take four hours on foot, we set off toward the Neck of White Zone Floor 10—the gateway to the Torso of Green Zone Floor 10.
Running at full speed.
Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Sion the guide took the lead, I the marksman brought up the rear, and the Contractor stayed protected in the center. In that single-file formation we crushed glowing moss underfoot and pushed through the darkness.
“Everyone, stay on high alert, nyang! Watch your step so you don’t slip on the moss! And never forget, nyang! Letting your guard down means death, nyang!”
“Hoo, yes!”
“Understood.”
Although White Zone Floor 10 was a safe area, it bordered the Green Zone, so there was still a chance aberrations could appear. Just like when we first entered the dungeon and encountered that Rabbit Spider. That was why our party never relaxed even while running. You could say we maintained full perimeter awareness the entire time.
We paused to rest in cover along the way, chewing on jerky (I could only watch with a watering mouth), and in the end we reached our initial and final exploration point without any trouble. The entrance to the canyon where I had blown those aberrations to pieces.
“...Huh? All those corpses are already gone?”
“Slimes or rats or some other scavengers probably crept in and cleaned them up, nyang.”
“They must have had quite the feast thanks to me.”
The walls and floor that had been scorched black by fire were now covered in glowing white moss. The aberration corpses that had been scattered everywhere by the explosion were gone without a trace, as if professional cleaners had come through. Was this the resilience of nature? It was impressive.
“You soft-hearted beginners. Once we pass that canyon, we’ll be in the Green Zone, nyang. This isn’t children playing house anymore. The real dungeon begins here, nyang.”
Sion called over the Contractor—who was offering us jerky while I sat marveling at the dungeon’s restorative power with Kkachi—and began a simple briefing about the Green Zone.
“First of all, unlike the White Zone, the Green Zone has tons of grass and trees, nyang.”
“...Are there a lot of bugs there too?”
“Mr. Adventurer. It’s not just bugs. There are leeches as thick as your forearm, snakes with rotting human hands instead of heads—every kind of bizarre thing you can imagine, nyang!”
“Ugh… that sounds horrible.”
Unlike the White Zone, which only had glowing moss and those skinny trees called sugar trees, the Green Zone was a jungle teeming with countless varieties of vegetation, just as its name suggested. I hated stuffy, noisy places like jungles or rainforests.
“The Green Zone has so many things blocking your view that clearing it will probably be difficult, nyang.”
Not only was it easy to get lost, but there were poisonous plants, traps disguised as vegetation, and aberrations everywhere.
“No matter how interesting something looks, don’t touch it, nyang! Touch the wrong thing and you’ll be in serious trouble, nyang!”
“Even if you told me to touch it, I don’t think I could.”
“How about we just burn everything?”
Pyrophobia: Fear of fire. One of Raven’s fear-based bullet types.
I had just acquired an excellent flamethrower, after all. I hadn’t tested it yet, but I was confident that pumping about ten thousand mana into it would let me terraform the entire Green Zone into a Red Zone.
“...Are you trying to get the adventurers nearby killed, nyang? Don’t say such insane things, Crow.”
My suggestion to burn any objects obstructing our view was swiftly shot down. …I really wanted to try out that fear of fire.
Sion stared at me with weary eyes as I sulked over not being allowed to play with flames, then firmly declared that fire or massive explosions were forbidden before continuing the briefing.
“But the most dangerous thing of all is that we might run into a ‘Lord’ if we’re unlucky, nyang.”
“Lord? What’s that?”
“The aberration that has survived the longest on each floor is called a Layer Ruler—or ‘Lord,’ nyang!”
“So… it’s like an emperor of the aberrations?”
“Not quite an emperor. More like the boss of a village, nyang.”
“Boss of a village…? What does that even....”
It seemed a Lord was essentially a boss-level monster that existed on every floor.
“Still, you don’t need to worry too much, nyang. In beginner-heavy areas like the entrance to the Green Zone, Sherpas tear apart any potential strong Lords the moment they show signs of developing, nyang.”
After that, she wrapped up the briefing by explaining that the Green Zone could experience strange phenomena such as sudden downpours that made it hard to see or thick fog, then briefly outlined the goals for our second dungeon exploration.
“The focus of this dungeon run will be adapting to the entrance of the Green Zone, nyang. We’ll only start proper aberration hunting once we’ve gotten somewhat used to the terrain, so keep that in mind, nyang! Understood, nyang?”
“Yes.”
“Acknowledged.”
“Then let’s go, nyang!”
Into the Green Zone…!
It is said that the aberration which survives the longest on each floor becomes a Lord. However, this information is slightly inaccurate. The modifier “the one who survived the longest” is merely one of many titles that grant the qualification to become a Lord—nothing more than a possibility.
Crunch. Crack.
Here, in a pool of blood seeping from a deer whose neck had been severed by an inexperienced adventurer, one aberration quietly enjoyed its feast in that silent, blood-scented crimson pond.
The modifiers it currently possessed were two: “The one who survived the longest” and “The one who has killed the most adventurers.”
That was why the dungeon’s master had chosen it. As a hunting hound to tear off the crow’s wings.
—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
“...What was that sound just now?”
“Probably the cry of a roe deer.”
“What’s a roe deer, nyang?”
“It looks like a deer, but it isn’t a deer.”
“It looks like a deer but isn’t a deer… then what is it?”
“...I don’t know how to explain ‘what is it,’ nyang.”
Things like that exist. In Korea, anyway.