Equipment Farming (3)
According to Sepia’s explanation, this dungeon was the underground architectural type—a giant subterranean structure meant to be explored floor by floor. Being underground, it was naturally dark, and the fact that each chamber was clearly separated made it similar to cave-type dungeons. The difficulty, however, was so absurdly high that comparing the two felt almost insulting.
Architecture implied that someone had built it. That meant the place was often rigged against intruders—usually in the form of traps. It was only natural that it would be far more dangerous than a simple cave where you just had to kill whatever monsters popped out.
Still, the higher the risk, the more popular it became. Because when human hands were involved, there was a good chance the creator had hidden away items they considered truly valuable. …Of course, since dungeons were mysterious structures that could pop into existence at any time, there were no guarantees. But that was usually how it went.
“In other words, high risk, high return.”
“That makes sense! Luna, you really know your stuff!”
“Ahem. Pretty impressive, right?”
“Yeah. You’re usually clueless about the most basic common sense, yet you’re weirdly knowledgeable about stuff like this.”
“Theo. I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part.”
It couldn’t be helped that my knowledge was a little biased. After all, most of it came from the game. Other possession stories always had protagonists who knew every hidden secret and behind-the-scenes lore for every character, but unfortunately I hadn’t dug that deep into this one. I was just your average player who cleared the story without skipping too many cutscenes.
That meant I was pretty useless when it came to everyday common sense or small details of daily life. On the other hand, I had a solid grasp of stats, dungeon traits, monster matchups, and things like that.
“Theo, how much farther?”
“Hang on. According to the map… it should be right around here.”
“Ah! Guys! Isn’t that it over there?”
When I looked where Faye was pointing, I spotted a small cabin peeking through the tree branches. It was the kind of ordinary wooden hut you’d see anywhere, but the map was clearly indicating that exact spot.
“It’s tiny.”
“I told you, it’s underground architectural type. The real dungeon is probably huge and deep below ground.”
We had finally reached our destination. Even so, the actual raid was only just beginning. I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.
As we approached the dungeon entrance with renewed focus, an out-of-place sound reached my ears.
“Hold up.”
I immediately stopped Faye and Theo. Since I had taken on the scout role many times during our Goddess Dungeon run, the two didn’t panic. They simply lowered their stances and scanned the surroundings.
When I strained my ears, the voices were coming from near the dungeon entrance.
From the conversation, they didn’t exactly sound like the refined type. I quietly relayed what I’d overheard to the others. The moment Theo heard it, he identified them immediately.
“They’re dungeon thieves.”
“Dungeon thieves?”
“Yeah. Remember what Sepia told us? She said she barely managed to secure the first exploration rights.”
“Oh, right. She did mention that.”
“First exploration rights literally means you get to clear the dungeon before anyone else. The final reward from the very first clear is always the most valuable.”
“So it’s the first-clear bonus. Got it.”
“But even with those rights, it’s just a claim. It doesn’t physically stop other people from sneaking in. If someone clears it in secret, takes the reward, and runs, there’s nothing you can do about it. You could punish them by law if you caught them, but how do you catch someone who finishes the dungeon without anyone noticing and then disappears?”
“Aha. So that’s why they’re called thieves.”
In short, they were bastards who secretly robbed dungeons that already had owners. After hearing the explanation, Faye became furious.
“This place belongs to Sepia! These guys are total scumbags! Theo, what are we going to do?”
“Since they’re thieves, we’ll just treat them like thieves.”
The standard countermeasure for dungeon thieves was to handle them the same way you’d handle any other thief. Simple and easy to remember.
So if we caught them and handed them over to the soldiers—
“We can just kill them all!”
…Huh?
“Um. Faye. What did you just say?”
“Huh? Why?”
“No, maybe my ears are acting up today. I must have misheard.”
“I said we can just kill them all?”
“Ah. Yeah. That’s what I thought. My ears are working fine. What a relief.”
What wasn’t working fine was this entire fantasy world. How brutal. Or maybe I was the one who still hadn’t adjusted. Even back on Earth, there were countries where you could shoot intruders with malicious intent on sight. In a fantasy world, that kind of logic was probably even more common.
Yeah. Whether I liked it or not, I was living here now. Time to adapt.
I steeled myself.
“Luna. Ready?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Alright. On three, we charge. I’ll support from the back. One, two… three!”
—Taat!
The moment Theo counted three, he burst out from the bushes. Faye charged with him.
“Don’t move! You dungeon thieves!”
“What the—what is this kid? …Aaaargh!”
The nearest thief was slashed across the torso and collapsed. It wasn’t an instant kill, but he was clearly going to die if left alone.
While the ambushed thieves were still panicking, the big brute who looked like their leader raised his voice.
“Shit! Of all the rotten timing! Boys!”
“Y-yes!”
Tsk. They recovered faster than I expected. They had the numbers advantage, so I’d wanted to seize the initiative right away.
But the boss’s next order was completely outside my expectations.
“Run for it!”
“Yessir!”
The second the order left his mouth, the thieves scattered in every direction without a single glance back. Their escape was so flawless and shameless that I forgot to chase them and just stood there, stunned.
“Uh… what?”
I wasn’t the only one caught off guard. Faye awkwardly lowered her raised sword and looked around in confusion.
“Um… Theo. What now?”
“Hmm…”
Even Theo didn’t seem used to this kind of situation. He stared at the corpses their comrades had abandoned without hesitation and scratched his head with a sour expression.
“…Let’s not chase them. Even if we ran after them now, there’s no guarantee we’d catch anyone, and they’re not worth that much effort anyway.”
Faye and I both agreed. We cleared away the fresh corpses, then entered the dungeon.
As Sepia had said, the dungeon was indeed underground architectural type. What I hadn’t expected, however, was the steampunk concept.
A world powered by steam and gears. Pipes of unknown purpose ran endlessly across the walls and ceiling, and most of the monsters were robots that moved with whirring cogs. If I had to give them a fantasy-sounding name, I’d call them gear golems.
And that was the worst possible combination for me.
Gear-based monsters in a dungeon where delicate maintenance was clearly impossible. The result was…
—Creak-creak—
—Creeeeak-creak—
An endless, hellish symphony of metallic screeching.
“Ugh, seriously! It’s so damn loud!”
The unpleasant grinding noise never stopped for even a second. Even the ones whose bodies were half-destroyed and could barely move kept creaking and clattering until you smashed them to pieces. It was driving me insane.
“Luna, move your foot.”
“Ah, right.”
I stepped away from the wreckage of the gear golem I had stomped into scrap. Theo crouched down, rummaged through the debris, and pulled out a single pale-glowing cog.
Apparently the reason these gears could keep turning even after sustaining fatal damage was because of that glowing piece. The mana-infused cogs acted as the golem’s core, or so he explained.
Then isn’t this just magic steampunk? I thought, but since no one had ever officially labeled the place “steampunk” to begin with, there was no point complaining. I was the one who’d arbitrarily seen pipes and gears and assumed the genre.
“The most valuable part of a gear golem is this glowing cog.”
“Question! So we just throw away every other piece?”
“Pretty much. The alloy is unique, so technically you could sell it, but it’s too heavy for how little it’s worth. Not very popular.”
Whenever Faye asked a question, Theo answered. I simply followed along behind them.
As time passed, I grew slightly more accustomed to the noise. I had stuffed hemostatic cotton into my ears, but at least I was adapting.
“Guys! Look at this!”
Faye, who had been walking ahead, called out excitedly. It was impressive that she could still hear so clearly even with blocked ears.
“What is it?”
“The path splits.”
The straight corridor had branched off into left and right passages. Both paths had large doors in front of them, with obvious pressure plates placed above.
“This… no matter how you look at it, it’s telling us to split up, right?”
“I think so too. Let’s test it.”
Theo stepped onto one of the plates. The door didn’t move. When Faye stepped on the opposite plate, both doors finally opened.
“Got it!”
But the moment Faye stepped off, the doors slammed shut at terrifying speed. If you got caught, you’d be sliced clean in half.
“No choice then. We’ll have to split up here.”
“In that case, I’ll go alone. You two take the other path.”
“Luna by herself? Will you be okay?”
“Of course. You saw the monster levels on the way here, didn’t you? Do I look like I’ll be in danger?”
Even at its highest estimate, this dungeon was only around the fourth floor of the Academy Dungeon. Even counting traps, maybe the fifth. Even if the worst happened and a boss suddenly appeared, I was confident I could escape safely.
“If you’re that sure… Still, take some consumables just in case.”
“Okaaay~”
I accepted the supplies from Theo and headed down the right passage first. Behind me, I heard Theo and Faye enter the left path and the heavy sound of the door closing.
Whew. This dungeon was incredibly annoying, but at least there was one silver lining.
Lately there hadn’t been many chances for Faye and Theo to be alone together. I walked forward alone, hoping something nice would happen between them.
—Creeeeak—
“Ah, damn it.”
Even so, this dungeon was still incredibly annoying.