Random Encounter (4): The Swamp Ambush
Luna quickly relayed that Faye was in danger of being attacked by black mages, and the mood between the two of them turned deadly serious in an instant.
“Those bastards again…!” Theo’s long-buried thirst for revenge flared up the moment he entered the academy.
“How dare they set foot in the academy where the Goddess resides!” Claire was furious that they had trampled into the Goddess’s domain with dirty feet.
Both of them reacted with equal fury. “Calm down. We’re not even sure yet.”
“The fact that black mages appeared is already confirmed, isn’t it?”
“That part is true.”
“That’s more than enough. If Faye is in danger, we obviously have to save her. Even if she wasn’t involved, those scum still need to be cleaned up.”
“I feel the same. Nothing good ever comes from black mages being around.”
Their reactions were far more intense than I had expected. I thought at least one of them would say something like, “We’re not even certain. The professors will handle it.” But no one brought that up. The conclusion was unanimous—we had to enter the dungeon.
Getting into the dungeon itself wasn’t much of an issue. We had the Goddess’s dungeon free-pass. Normally we only went to the Goddess Dungeon to break her seal, but if we wanted, we could enter the Academy Dungeon whenever we liked.
The real problem was how to reach the hideout.
“Please move calmly! The dorms are safe!”
The academy staff member escorting us was the issue. The academy had a duty to protect students from external attacks, so they would definitely keep checking that every student remained safe until the assault ended. That was admirable dedication on their part, but it was the last thing we needed right now.
“Leave the staff member to me. Luna, get behind me.” Theo stepped forward with confidence.
“Excuse me.”
“Student? Is there a problem?”
He stopped the busy staff member. The next moment, the tension visibly drained from the man’s body.
“Theo, Luna, and Claire’s party already headed to the dorms. The dorms are safe, so there’s no need to worry about them.”
“The dorms… are safe…”
The staff member parroted Theo’s words in a dazed voice. He clearly wasn’t in his right mind. Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d actually seen someone get hypnotized. I’d been around Theo when he used hypnosis plenty of times, so why was this the first?
The question flashed through my mind, but there was no time to dwell on it. Theo confirmed the hypnosis had taken hold and returned.
“Good. This should be enough. Let’s move.”
“Is this really okay? If they find out we’re not in the dorms, that man will be held responsible.”
“Can’t be helped. We’ll just have to hope we don’t get caught.”
Theo cut off Claire’s concern without hesitation. Claire had only been voicing her worry; she didn’t argue that we shouldn’t go. I could only pray the staff member’s luck held.
……
Once the staff member’s attention shifted away from constantly watching the students, slipping out of the group was easy. We moved to an empty corner and headed straight for the hideout.
“How many potions left?”
“Half! I’ll grab the spares too!”
“Equipment all good?”
“Wait a second. Let me grab a few more things.”
We finished our quick preparations and stood before the Goddess.
“Is something the matter? You all look quite rushed.”
“Yes, Goddess. We’re in a bit of a hurry.”
“I see. Then perhaps I shouldn’t talk so much right now. What kind of help do you need?”
“We’d like you to send us to the dungeon. The Academy Dungeon.”
“The Academy Dungeon?”
The Goddess tilted her head. Oops. “Academy Dungeon” was just the name we used. How was I supposed to explain that?
Ah, that should work.
“It’s the dungeon around here with the most people in it right now.”
“The dungeon with the most people… One moment, please.”
The Goddess closed her eyes. Less than a minute passed, but it felt like an eternity while I frantically simulated backup explanations in case that description wasn’t enough.
“Understood.”
Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.
“Hmm… I think I can send you directly to the seventh floor. Would the seventh floor be acceptable?”
“No. Please send us to the sixth floor.”
My sentences kept getting shorter today. Normally I’d relax in the Goddess’s gentle presence and chat casually, but right now that wasn’t happening. An inexplicable urgency kept pushing at my back, as if I needed to move even faster.
It was a relief we’d decided to act. If we’d hesitated any longer, that restless feeling would only have grown worse.
Suppressing my impatience, I double-checked my gear and consumables one last time. Our party, which had been fighting nonstop in the Goddess Dungeon, had nothing to fear from black mages on the sixth floor. They wouldn’t be pushovers, but we could handle them. And if my bad feeling was right and Faye’s party was on the sixth floor… that would just mean three extra dead weights to protect.
Preparation had to be thorough.
Once everything was checked, we entered the Academy Dungeon.
-------------
Faye’s party had chosen the swamp route on the sixth floor. The main monsters there were baby crocodiles—small creatures that hid in the swamp and approached stealthily, making them threatening. However, their small size meant low durability, leaving them especially vulnerable to area attacks. With two mages in Faye’s party, the swamp had seemed like a reasonable choice.
And it had been the right choice. The only mistake was deciding to come to the sixth floor in the first place.
After smoothly clearing their first battle, Faye briefly thought things might be okay after all. The party’s ability to strike enemy weaknesses made the latter half of the fifth floor feel easier by comparison, so it wasn’t surprising.
But that brief moment of relief made her miss the timing to suggest turning back.
The next instant, Faye realized the swamp air had taken on an unpleasant quality.
“Everyone! Something’s wrong here—”
Before she could finish her warning, white bones erupted from the swamp with a splash. Skeletons—undead monsters walking on nothing but bone, without blood, flesh, or muscle. Following them, countless skeletons and zombies emerged from the swamp and the surrounding forest.
“U-undead?! I never heard anything about undead appearing on the sixth floor! What’s going on?!”
“I don’t know! We know they’re enemies, so get ready!”
“R-right!”
Thanks to Faye’s sharp rebuke, the party managed to pull themselves together before panic could set in against the sudden undead horde. Whether that would help remained to be seen.
……
How much time had passed? She’d already lost any proper sense of time. Every single second right in front of her eyes felt unbearably urgent.
“Hah…!”
—Crack!
Faye’s sword smashed through a skeleton’s spine. She’d sharpened the blade that very morning, but after endlessly fending off the undead, it had become little more than a blunt iron club. Ironically, that made it more effective against skeletons.
“Faye! Behind you!”
At the warning, she ducked without looking back. A zombie’s claws whistled past overhead. She tripped its legs, then crushed its head underfoot. Another corpse sank into the swamp with a wet squelch.
“Huff, huff…”
She used the brief reprieve granted by the undead’s sluggish movements to catch her breath and glance behind her. Her other party members were huddled beneath protective magic barriers, trembling. They weren’t cowards who refused to fight—they had fought until their mana and stamina were nearly depleted, saving just enough mana to maintain the barriers.
It was easier for Faye this way than having them fight clumsily and put themselves in danger. Not that she had time to think, “I told you we shouldn’t have come up here.”
—Splash!
“Kgh…!”
A baby crocodile lunged from the swamp. She barely dodged in time, but not perfectly—a thin line of blood trickled down her thigh.
The enemies weren’t just undead. At first, the baby crocodiles had attacked both Faye’s party and the undead indiscriminately. But after a while, they realized the undead weren’t edible and switched targets. The undead, meanwhile, had only ever been interested in Faye’s party.
In the middle of all this chaos, there was no time to complain about whose fault it was. The swamp had been advantageous because of the two mages, but now that those mages were out of mana, it had become the worst possible terrain for Faye.
The shallow swamp only reached ankle height on the surface, but hidden quagmires lurked everywhere, ready to grab ankles. With this many undead around, there was obviously a black mage somewhere, yet her mobility was completely sealed. In the end, Faye could only hope the black mage’s mana would run out first—or abandon her party and flee alone.
At that moment, the undead in front of her parted to either side. A hole opened in the encirclement.
What was this? Faye narrowed her eyes, trying to read the intent, when a voice rang out from somewhere.
“Surviving this long is impressive… Consider it a reward. I’ll let you go if it’s just you.”
A voice like nails scraping across brass. The black mage. His words reached her companions behind her as well.
“F-Faye…”
The trembling voice had lost all noble pretense, raw fear that they might truly be abandoned laid bare.
“No. I won’t leave my companions behind and go alone.”
Faye didn’t waver even at the black mage’s attempt to sow discord. What trust did a black mage have that she would believe such words? It was obviously a trap. And even if it were somehow genuine and only she survived, it would be a vicious malice designed to torment her with guilt for the rest of her life.
Faye gritted her teeth and gripped her sword tighter.
“You sure talk a lot. You must be getting desperate too. This is still the academy, even if it’s a dungeon. If I just hold out, the professors will come to help!”
Even as she spoke, she only half-believed it. Help would come eventually. But Faye’s party was supposed to be on the fifth floor. Dungeons on the same floor were divided into countless branches—like the “servers” Luna had mentioned. How long would they have to hold out before the search expanded to the sixth floor after confirming Faye’s party wasn’t on any fifth-floor server? And what were the odds they’d reach the exact server where Faye was?
She couldn’t be certain.
“Kekekeke… How wise. I like you even more. Your corpse will make excellent material.”
The moment the black mage’s voice—promising the worst possible future—faded, an especially massive undead emerged through the gap in the encirclement. A grotesque giant that looked like chunks of meat haphazardly piled together with limbs attached—the Flesh Golem. It was at least two ranks above zombies or skeletons.
The exhausted Faye had no chance of defeating it. If she had fallen for the black mage’s trick and gone toward it, she would have been surrounded and killed without ever escaping the encirclement.
“A-ahh…”
One of the noble ladies let out a terrified whimper. They were barely holding on thanks to Faye’s desperate efforts, and now a Flesh Golem had appeared.
Yet Faye only burned with fighting spirit.
“Hah! After the small-fry undead comes the boss? Your head would make the perfect boss clear reward!”
She hadn’t received any holy arts or drunk a potion. So no one noticed that Faye’s stamina was recovering at an incredible rate. It wasn’t enough to fully restore her, but it was enough to keep fighting for now.
……
The black mage gave no reply to Faye’s strong voice. The encirclement that had paused began slowly closing in again.
Faye never took her eyes off the Flesh Golem. It was the most dangerous enemy. The other undead lacked the power to break her companions’ barriers, but the Flesh Golem could shatter them with ease. No matter what, she had to stop that thing.
The distance steadily shrank. Tension climbed higher with every step.
And at the moment that tension reached its peak—
“Don’t mess with our Faye—!!”
—BOOM!
A pure white flash shot in from outside the encirclement and obliterated the Flesh Golem in a single blow.