Super Senses (3)
"Huh? That branch doesn't have a single leaf on it. Weird."
Raylo, too, pressed a palm to her forehead as she stared at the barren limb. I furrowed my brow, sinking into thought.
A lifeless branch.
So that was what it had meant — that branch right there. What else could it have been? The sight was far too unnatural to write off as coincidence.
But how is something like that even possible?
Whether it was simply a genetic quirk of the tree, or whether the dungeon's creator — the one who'd left the cipher — had worked some magic on it, I couldn't say. It wasn't particularly important, so I let it go. What mattered was that if this was the lifeless branch, it was the single most decisive clue for finding the dungeon. The cipher had said the lifeless branch would guide those who ventured forth.
I stared up at the branch.
How was a limb just sitting there on a tree supposed to guide anyone? The absurd thought flashed through my mind that maybe if I cut it off, the branch would go flying around and lead the way — but even in a fantasy world, that seemed like a stretch.
...Direction? Is it the direction?
I tried thinking more simply. Maybe it just meant to go the way the branch was pointing. It was a bit of a stretch, but nothing else came to mind, so I decided to try it. If I was wrong, we could always come back.
I turned to the two of them.
"We're heading that way."
Just then, Raylo — who'd been lost in thought — let out a sudden cry of realization.
"My lord, could that 'lifeless branch' be talking about that one? Not a single leaf on it, so the meaning kinda tracks, doesn't it?!"
She figured it out pretty fast. She'd claimed she'd done plenty of dungeon exploration, but I was starting to think she wouldn't be much help.
At any rate, we set off in the direction the branch was pointing. Before long the sun had fully set, and darkness settled over the forest. I pulled out a luminous stone and walked, carefully scanning our surroundings. There was no telling where a trace hinting at the dungeon's location might appear.
After twenty or thirty minutes of walking, something distinctly eye-catching came into view. A single tree standing among the others, its leaves glowing with a faint light, radiating a presence all its own.
...A Luminous Tree?
Raylo spotted it too and muttered in wonder.
"That's a Luminous Tree. You don't see those often. Didn't expect one in this forest."
A Luminous Tree, true to its name, had leaves that glowed in the dark — like fireflies. It sat precisely along the path we'd been traveling, and a vague sense of recognition clicked into place.
Could that be it?
The reason twilight's settling — night itself — had been specifically written into the cipher. Interpreted another way, it meant something visible only at night was the hint pointing toward the dungeon. And a Luminous Tree was a tree that only glowed like this after dark.
Feeling the pieces snap together in my mind, I approached it.
Hmm...
So now what? We'd followed the direction of the lifeless branch and found a Luminous Tree sitting here by itself. What were we supposed to do from here?
I asked Raylo.
"Any ideas?"
"Huh?"
"The greatest tree, when twilight has fully settled, the lifeless branch shall guide the adventurers. We followed the Mengrodi Tree's branch and found this Luminous Tree. It seems to be a signpost toward the dungeon. If anything comes to mind, say it."
Raylo stood there with a blank look on her face, then asked,
"I got nothing? More to the point, why would this be a signpost toward a dungeon?"
"What else stands out at night besides this?"
She seemed to sink back into thought — then suddenly startled, as if it had just clicked.
"Ah, so that's it! You could've explained it a little more thoroughly, y'know."
"...Have you actually explored dungeons more than once?"
"I'm better with my body. The thinking stuff, my other teammates handled that."
"And where are those teammates now?"
"They found some relic, hit it big, and all retired. Me, adventuring's my calling, so I kept going."
So that was the story. Anyway, Raylo didn't seem like she'd be much help. I didn't expect much, but I asked Ashel as well.
"Any thoughts?"
Ashel seemed to think hard, then carefully opened her mouth.
"Well... never mind."
She started to speak, then shook her head. One of the two surest ways to piss a person off is starting a sentence and then cutting it off.
"It's fine. Just say it."
When I pressed her, she reluctantly spoke again.
"I have heard that ruins are, for the most part, located underground."
"That's true."
From ancient times through to the present, ruins on the surface were more visible and thus more frequently excavated. Simple as that.
"So I wondered if perhaps the ruins might be hidden directly beneath this tree."
An extremely simple suggestion. And yet somehow... it actually felt somewhat convincing.
"Come on, that's a stretch. No way they'd hide it that crudely, right?"
Raylo cut in. My reason agreed with her, but my gut leaned toward Ashel's idea. I hesitated, then gave Ashel an order.
"Dig deep, right in front of the tree. Keep going until I tell you to stop."
"Yes, sir."
Then I stepped well back. Ashel gestured for Raylo, who was standing there blankly, to back off as well. Raylo came over beside me and stared at me like I was insane.
"You're actually going through with this?"
"I can't think of anything else."
"Look, I don't know how deep you're planning to go, but how long is that even gonna—"
KABOOOOOM!
The explosion slammed into our ears, and Raylo whipped back around in shock. Every time Ashel's fist struck, the ground burst apart, the earth being excavated in an instant. Raylo's jaw dropped as she stared at the absurd spectacle.
And after some time had passed, Ashel — who'd been digging for a while — suddenly leaped up out of the pit.
"I found something like a stone wall. There's a space on the other side."
"...A stone wall?"
I approached the pit and held the luminous stone down to look. She'd dug deep. It was dark and hard to make out, but just as Ashel had said, an artificially constructed stone wall was faintly visible.
This was actually it?
I let out a hollow laugh, incredulous. Had the bastard who made this dungeon actually thought someone would find it this way? Even after locating it myself, I was amazed Teir had managed to find this at all.
I tilted my head. Wait. Something didn't add up. The pit Ashel had dug was, at a rough estimate, well over several meters deep. So Teir had supposedly excavated this far by himself, the way Ashel just had, and found it...? Did that make any sense?
A strange dissonance lingered, like something was off — but we had to go in first. I turned to Raylo.
"Wait here. We'll be back."
"...Ah, yes."
She nodded obediently. Having seen Ashel's monstrous strength, her tone seemed a shade more polite than before.
I jumped straight down into the pit. It was a considerable drop, but that wasn't a problem. I'd already confirmed that using Immovable Barrier in midair would freeze my body in place. In other words, activating it while falling canceled the downward momentum, making it useful for landings as well.
Thud.
I used Immovable Barrier just before impact and set down stably on the stone wall. Where Ashel stood, there was a hole punched through the masonry. I held the luminous stone close, and sure enough, there was a space on the other side.
"Let's go in."
"Yes, sir."
At my word, Ashel jumped down first through the opening. After confirming the floor height, I followed. And then...
I stood there slightly stunned, taking in the scene before me. Beyond the stone wall, an astonishingly vast space unfolded — a scale I hadn't imagined at all. And it was thoroughly artificial. Smoothly carved walls and corridors, like some secret organization's underground lair, and luminous stones emitting a faint glow as if their power was nearly spent.
What the hell is this place?
No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't an ordinary dungeon. No — was this even a dungeon at all? Feeling the sense of wrongness growing stronger in my chest, I followed the passage ahead.
The corridor was extremely long. It twisted and turned, and split into multiple paths. After traveling for a long while, we reached a cavernous chamber.
...An altar?
That was the first thought that came to me. A structure of red stone sat in the center of the vast space. The walls, ceiling, and floor around it were densely inscribed with magic circles and bizarre characters, all glowing.
But I couldn't pay attention to those trivial details for long. Because something was sitting in the magic circle at the center of that bizarre structure. Something wearing a tattered robe, that at least appeared to have a human form.
The moment I spotted it, an instinctive, sourceless dread surged up — and a number that made me doubt my own eyes appeared in my vision.
...What the fuck is that.
There was no way not to realize we were completely fucked. This was absolutely not the dungeon where Teir had found a Mystery. I was about to tell Ashel — who stood beside me gripping her sword hilt with a tense expression — that we needed to get out, when it happened.
FLASH!
A violet beam of light flared. Before I could even react, Ashel took a direct hit and was sent flying backward.
"...!"
I whipped my head around. Ashel was embedded in the wall, not moving. I thought she might be dead, but her level was still visible, so she'd just lost consciousness. I slowly turned my gaze forward again. And then came the laughter.
"Khh... hhat, hhahahahat...!"
The grotesque laughter pouring from the robed freak echoed through the chamber.
"You've come! At last, you've come! In the end, fate has not abandoned me!"
As the creature rose from its seat, the robe it wore crumbled and scattered. And the body that was revealed... was simply grotesque. Its skin was black as ink, the veins standing out vividly in stark white, and its eyes burned with a blood-red light.
Fwing!
I immediately pulled the bow from my back, smeared blood on an arrow, took aim, and fired. But the arrow was blocked by a barrier that had already wrapped around the creature, bouncing off weakly. Feeling a deep sense of disaster, I lowered the bow and spoke.
"...What are you?"
The freak, who'd been laughing for a while, stopped and answered.
"Enfirus Deyma. The Mage Who Dreams of Eternity."
"...Never heard of you."
"Oh, my. If even my name has been forgotten, I've lost all sense of how much time has passed in the world outside."
Level 97. A monster only one level below Grand Lord Rashatein. Death was at my doorstep. Ashel was down, and Instant Kill couldn't reach him. I maintained my composure and stared at him with calm eyes.
"Did you attack us because we trespassed on your territory?"
"Trespassed? Hhahahat! Quite the opposite! Do you have any idea how long I've waited for someone to find this place?! Unable to take a single step beyond this paltry magic circle, barely sustaining a body that's as good as dead!"
Words whose meaning I couldn't grasp. But from what he'd just said, I could tell he was an ancient mage, trapped here for an extremely long time for some reason — and that, for some reason, he was extremely pleased by my arrival.
Thwuck!
"...?!"
Light flashed again, and my abdomen burned. Then came a surge of agony, and I felt the strength drain from my body as my knees buckled.
"Ghk..."
I looked down at my side, where a chunk of flesh had been completely torn away, blood pouring out. I hadn't reacted to the attack at all, so there hadn't even been time to activate Immovable Barrier. Then his voice came, tinged with puzzlement.
"What are you? The caliber of your soul is so high — why can't you even block a single attack like this?"
The blood flowing from me floated up into the air and drifted toward him. Then a voice filled with rapture flooded the cavern.
"Well, no matter. Blood from a being of your caliber can breathe life back into this body of mine! I can leave this accursed place and finally walk the world again! Hhat! Hhahahahaha!"
Listening to the ringing in my ears, I lifted my head. He began greedily absorbing the blood he'd stolen from me, sucking it into his entire body. The more he did, the more his flesh seemed to swell and contract with returning vitality, and a massive aura swirled around him.
My mind reeled from the pain, but watching that scene, I couldn't help but let out a low chuckle. Having drunk every last drop, he looked at me with a face flushed with exaltation and tilted his head.
"What's so amusing?"
I barely managed to open my mouth and squeeze out a voice.
"Thanks for... eating it yourself."
"What?"
Thud.
The freak's body collapsed, and the aura filling the cavern vanished all at once.