Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Ch. 78 .｡.:✧ The Clockwork City (5) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Final check.”
“Ah, this is already the third time, Vice Captain.”
“We can’t skip the final check, that’s our principle.”
“Yes, yes.”
I had heard that there was a trend of mercenaries underestimating Black Star Dungeons these days, but good heavens, how many people were there?
Eight?
Did these bastards not just underestimate Black Star Dungeons, but look down on them completely?
Even if they were veterans, they should have at least one combat team of 8 people, with two more reserve teams to fight in rotation.
With just one combat team, the moment someone slipped up, they would all be wiped out like falling dominoes.
‘Ah. Damn. That was the standard that was established later.’
I had mixed up the timeline.
The tactic of having two reserve teams was established much later.
It was a tactic that would be established after much more blood was shed in Black Star Dungeons.
It was so they wouldn’t recklessly enter like that…
‘There’s no way to stop them.’
They weren’t the type to listen if he tried to dissuade them.
If they were the kind to turn back after being told Black Star Dungeons were dangerous, they wouldn’t have taken the train all the way here from the southern continent in the first place.
There was only one way to stop these guys.
To reveal that I was the Black Star Slayer and block their way, but even if I suddenly claimed to be the Black Star Slayer, they probably wouldn’t believe me…
This was just hopeless.
“Let’s start getting tense! We’ve only encountered small fry so far, so from now on we should expect truly strong monsters to appear!”
“Yes!”
‘If they don’t know, they’ll have to die.’
All of the rules of this world were written in blood.
The deaths of these guys would serve as good propaganda to warn people about the dangers of Black Star Dungeons.
Hiding behind a rock, I watched as the mercenaries entered the depths of the dungeon one by one.
“The humans who went ahead will deal with the traps and monsters for us and die. So this is how they conserve their strength. It’s very economical! This way, the dungeon… Huh? Where are you going?”
“Follow me.”
I couldn’t just let them die after all.
If these guys died, fear of the Black Star Dungeons would spread again.
It was actually more beneficial for me if dungeon conquest attempts were active, even if they were reckless.
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“Hah…”
30 minutes after entering the dungeon.
The Vice Captain, who had stopped still, let out a faint sigh.
He thought they had made thorough preparations.
Since they were challenging a Black Star Dungeon against the Mercenary Council’s policy, they had to be even more prepared.
They had selected only elite troops from within the mercenary group and they had put them through harsh training until recently.
They hadn’t neglected preliminary investigations either.
“Was this where the clock tower used to be?”
“Yes. The one in the city center is apparently a new one built after the old clock tower collapsed.”
“Why did it collapse?”
“No one knows. They say it just suddenly collapsed on its own on the day of its completion…”
They had investigated the dungeon’s location, terrain, and so on.
They had scraped together every bit of information they could find about the dungeon.
They didn’t filter out even seemingly useless information.
They had discussed tactics day and night.
Everyone had expected it wouldn’t be an easy fight.
The tension was so high that everyone deliberately made jokes to lighten the mood.
And yet, and yet…
‘Why is this so easy?’
Despite their preparations, the dungeon’s difficulty was far too easy.
To the point of it being bewildering.
Of course, it wasn’t a dungeon to be taken lightly.
After all, it was a dungeon where the types of monsters appearing changed midway through.
At first, it was mainly undead like skeletons and zombies, then from the middle, mechanical monsters started popping up.
“Have you heard of monsters like these before?”
“No. This is my first time seeing them.”
It was different from what they had investigated, but they decided not to make a big deal of it.
The numbers weren’t large and they weren’t particularly strong either.
They were just mechanical arms or industrial excavators moving on their own and attacking them.
Unlike monsters full of malice towards humans, these machines didn’t require much effort to destroy.
Usually, they would stop if you targeted and destroyed their power source, so their weak points were clear and intuitive.
“No matter how I look at it, these seem to be a new type of monster.”
“I think so too. This is something we need to report to the Mercenary Council.”
It had been over 10 years since the first dungeon appeared.
They thought the classification of monster types and categories had been completed 5 years ago, but the things they encountered here were clearly monsters, not just malfunctioning or rampaging machines.
“This is a fork in the road. Do we go back with the monster corpses… or should I say machine fragments? Whatever, the things we destroyed, and report to the Mercenary Council? Or do we finish conquering the dungeon first? For reference, we’ve come about halfway now.”
The time for a decision had come.
Contrary to their expectations, a new type of monster had appeared.
So far, they had only encountered easy-to-deal-with monsters, but they didn’t know what dangers might be lurking ahead.
They had to be even more cautious since they were facing a new type of monster.
“We should press on! Surely you’re not thinking of turning back here, Vice Captain?”
“Are you scared?”
“You bastards…”
The men’s responses didn’t deviate an inch from his expectations.
Was it because they had gathered only the most aggressive and brave ones from the mercenary group?
None of the members of the party seemed to have any intention of stopping here.
“Alright! Let’s go!”
At this point, even the Vice Captain wanted to see the end of the dungeon out of sheer stubbornness.
He knew well that turning back here would be safer.
It would have been right to report about the new monsters, check if similar monsters had been reported elsewhere, and then challenge it again, but he felt it would be a shame to ruin their momentum now.
This expedition had to inject vitality into the mercenary group that was pervaded with a sense of defeat.
While the number of Black Star Dungeons cleared by the Black Star Slayer had exceeded double digits, they had to somehow show results of them successfully conquering a Black Star Dungeon.
And they had to do it as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t arrogance or recklessness since they had made thorough preparations.
At least, that was what the Vice Captain and the members of the party thought.
“It gets very dark from here. Light the torches.”
“Yes sir!”
Up until the middle, the structure of the dungeon was like a mine shaft.
Though the path was quite bumpy, there were lights fixed to the ceiling, but as they approached the end, the structure changed drastically.
It was still a tunnel, but it didn’t look like it had been dug by humans.
The tunnel’s size had even shrunk, to the point where they now had to bend over to pass through.
“Ow!”
Here and there, people bumped their heads on the ceiling and groaned.
In the quiet tunnel, the only sounds were the men’s labored breathing and footsteps.
Beyond the endlessly stretching tunnel, there was only a deep abyss, it would have been better if traps or monsters had jumped out.
With nothing appearing, the tension kept rising endlessly, making it feel like their hearts would burst.
“Captain. What’s that sound?”
“What? What sound?”
“Don’t you hear a woman sobbing?”
“Don’t joke around, you bastard. You should read the situation before making jokes.”
“It’s real! The guys in the back say they all heard it too!”
“A woman’s voice from where…!”
Just as the Vice Captain was about to snap back in an annoyed voice, a sound from the end of the tunnel made his nerves stand on edge.
He raised his shield and prepared for impact.
From far away, along with a chilling wind, a woman’s voice was transmitted, but it was mixed with static noise between words.
The poor sound quality made it clear it was a recorded voice.
It seemed to be coming from a phonograph stashed somewhere.
There was no reason for them to be afraid at all.
These were mercenaries who had crossed the line between life and death countless times.
They were an elite team gathered from those who could face the fear of death and sacrifice themselves.
Those who had faced giant monsters several times wouldn’t be scared by mere voices.
“Shall we go back?”
“Yes. Let’s go back. I was just starting to feel tired and wanted to leave.”
“Oh my. My head hurts. Since I’m tall, I keep hitting the ceiling. I might seriously injure my head, so we should hurry out.”
“Right, right. It’s definitely not because we’re scared.”
“No way, of course not.”
In an instant, their opinions aligned.
They absolutely weren’t scared, but they all agreed they should leave anyway.
The mercenaries who had been frozen turned around without hesitation and headed in the opposite direction.
Amidst the noisy clanking of equipment as they turned, the Vice Captain, who had naturally ended up at the very back, reacted to a faint sound.
It sounded like metal scraping against stone.
“Hey. Give me the torch.”
“Here it is.”
Even with the torch, he could only see right in front of his nose.
The Vice Captain immediately threw the torch he received into the tunnel.
“Huh?”
“Ah.”
As shadows were cast in the tunnel, a human figure appeared.
It was a human figure, but not a human.
The figure approached with awkward steps.
As it got closer to the torch, a face that had melted and hardened was revealed.
“A clockwork doll?”
Its mouth didn’t move.
Instead, the sound echoed from inside its stomach.
Its legs where the silicon had already fallen off were just rusty metal frames.
It was a clockwork doll.
The ones that had briefly been popular in this city long ago, then disappeared…
Then where had all the clockwork dolls that used to walk the streets gone?
Today, that question was answered.
“Battle positions!”
“Ready!”
The Vice Captain and the rest of the mercenaries raised their swords.
In a dungeon, nothing could be taken lightly, but a problem immediately arose.
“It’s not just one…”
The shadows cast by the torch began to multiply.
There were suddenly over a dozen clockwork dolls in various states.
Some were crawling with their arms, their lower bodies gone, while others approached flailing about with their heads missing.
Those things were dangerous.
The mercenaries’ instincts were telling them so.
“Everyone retreat at full speed!”
“Y-yes sir!”
The moment the order was given, the mercenaries behind began to evacuate hurriedly.
After confirming that they were quickly moving away, the Vice Captain raised his shield to chest height and prepared to hold his ground.
The clockwork dolls began rampaging towards him.
The Vice Captain braced for impact.
“Ugh!”
Finally, with a bang, the metal bodies collided with his shield.
If it weren’t for his innate initial trait, ‘Herculean Strength’, he would have been pushed back by the impact.
If he didn’t have a shield, his waist might have been broken by now…
Even now his waist felt like it might break, but the Vice Captain stood his ground, gritting his teeth with his legs stretched back.
It was a tremendous display of strength.
If it weren’t for this narrow terrain, he would have obviously been torn apart by those sharp metal fingers long ago.
Even as metal fingers reached through gaps in the shield, scratching his face and stabbing his sides, the Vice Captain didn’t budge.
‘I have to hold out until all of the men reach a wider area, then fight while stabbing through the narrow entrance from the wide space!’
Just a little longer.
Until all of the men escaped.
That was his intention, but
“Damn it! I let a few slip through!”
A legless clockwork doll instantly passed between his legs.
One, then two.
Another clockwork doll passed through a small gap, running towards the back.
‘They’ll all die!’
This was bad.
It was all he could do to stand his ground with this sturdy shield and ‘Herculean Strength’.
The moment the other members encountered these things in this narrow space, they would die instantly, and if they died, the Vice Captain had no way to survive either.
At this rate, their only future was death from being attacked from front and back.
“Aaaaargh! It grabbed my leg!”
“Shake it off!”
“Aagh! This bastard is strong! My ankle! My ankle! It’s breaking!”
Amidst the screams of the mercenaries behind him, the Vice Captain fell into panic, not knowing what to do.
At this rate, everyone would die.
He couldn’t see a way to break through this situation.
Creeak…
Meanwhile, a clockwork doll with a melted face reached out its fingers to grasp the edge of the shield.
It came face to face with the Vice Captain’s pale face.
“Huh?!”
And then, whack.
Instead of pushing the shield, it pulled.
Due to the sudden change in force direction, there was no time for him to respond.
The Vice Captain was dragged forward, and suddenly found rusty metal parts of the clockwork doll reaching towards him.
‘So this is how I die.’
As metal skewers rushed towards his chest, the Vice Captain squeezed his eyes shut.
“Ugh?!”
He felt something pulling him strongly.
His body floated in the air.
Then with a whoosh, he flew along the tunnel.
His vision changed rapidly, and he found himself tumbling onto the floor of a wide cavern.
When he raised his head, he saw the other members looking around in confusion.
It seemed they had also been pulled out by an ‘invisible force’ and thrown.
“You are…”
And then they saw, a man and a child standing blocking the tunnel entrance.
The clockwork dolls came running quickly from inside the tunnel with enraged mechanical voices.
The man muttered softly as if it were nothing.
“Shoot.”
“…Okay.”
Bang!
Flames burst from the girl’s fingertips.
The inside of the tunnel was filled with blue fire and the charging metal bodies instantly melted away.
Silence fell again inside the tunnel.
Amid the still unextinguished embers crackling, the mercenaries couldn’t say a word, their mouths agape.
‘It’s the Black Star Slayer.’
Everyone was thinking the same thing.
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