41. Is It Wrong to Try Shoveling in a Dungeon? (13)
41. Is It Wrong to Try Shoveling in a Dungeon? (13)
Wall. Wall. Wall.
Countless walls blocked the tentacles' path. No matter how strong and fast the monstrous creature's onslaught was, it couldn't ignore the walls.
Even when the walls cracked and collapsed under the tentacles, they still blocked the attacks effectively. The moment I gained a little breathing room, I lowered my gaze to the floor.
An earthen floor that seemed to be made of the same material as the first floor. From everything I'd seen so far, I could roughly infer the dungeon's structure. It was something I'd done countless times over the past ten years. To survive, I had to memorize the terrain thoroughly and identify the available materials so I could use my Skills in the right places. How many years had it taken me to work out that simple formula?
I drove my shovel deep into the dirt.
"Craft."
The earth churned, and a pillar of soil slammed into the ceiling. That still wasn't enough to make my plan work.
"Reni! Buy as much time as you can!"
"What are you trying to do?!"
"I have an idea!"
"Fine, just do it fast!"
Reni wouldn't let them break through easily. I spammed the Skill until I grew dizzy. Walls rose, new pillars formed, and a mountain of blocks began piling up to serve as stairs. By the time I could no longer see the tentacles, I stepped onto the blocks and climbed. The ceiling was roughly fifteen meters high—not extraordinarily high, but hardly a height I could ignore.
The damn thing was going berserk.
How many times had I nearly fallen while climbing high enough to reach the ceiling? The tentacles thrashed everywhere, smashing the structures I'd built. If I slowed down even slightly, I'd fall to the floor and be reduced to mush.
"Repair."
I repeatedly repaired the structures with the broken materials and kept climbing until I reached a point where I could touch the ceiling.
I wanted to see if it could block this too.
"Craft."
I brought down the ceiling—or rather, tore chunks from it and shaped them into stalactite-like pillars. The creature was so large that there was no chance of it dodging. The fake stalactites broke free under their own weight and began plunging into its body.
Two or three wouldn't be enough.
"Craft."
Craft. Craft. Craft. Craft. Craft. Craft. Craft...
Even a low-cost Skill wasn't meant to be spammed this recklessly, but this was no time to worry about that. I had to use every means at my disposal to kill that thing.
Stalactites, stalactites, stalactites, stalactites, stalactites...
My throat hurt. My heart pounded like mad. By then, I could barely force out a sound. I leaned my exhausted body against a pillar and looked up. I had drawn on as much of the ceiling's brick and earth as I could, leaving a massive hole overhead. It wouldn't bring down the entire dungeon, but after I'd driven this many stalactites into it, the monster couldn't have escaped unscathed.
I forced my exhausted body to move and checked the creature’s condition.
The monster wailed with stalactites embedded all over its body. Did it feel pain, or was it furious that I'd done this to it? I couldn't tell, but the attacks seemed to have hurt it. They still had not dealt a fatal wound.
If killing it was the condition, then I had to deal with that fucking regeneration. I needed to use this brief respite to rack my brain and find a way to finish it off.
As I turned the problem over in my mind, I suddenly remembered what Skullhead had said.
Cheating.
If there was such a thing as cheating, there also had to be a proper solution.
What was the proper solution? I thought back over the first three floors.
The dungeon followed the classic format of the horror-adventure games that had once been popular. It contained genuinely threatening elements, but only by ordinary-person standards. Reaching the next floor had involved almost no combat and consisted entirely of solving puzzles. Had this dungeon been designed from the start so that people with virtually no combat ability could clear it?
If so, there had to be a way to resolve it without shedding blood.
I thought it through. What had been the core element of this dungeon? What had its story revolved around?
My head turned naturally toward the others. Karina sat slumped on the floor, gasping, while Millia spoke to her anxiously.
Right.
It was Millia.
Finding her had been cheating, but Millia was deeply connected to this dungeon. Its story had ultimately revolved around her past. There was a good chance that she also held the clue to ending it. At the same time, an ominous possibility came to mind.
No matter how insane the bastard who created this dungeon was, surely they wouldn't...
I desperately pushed the ominous thought away and focused on how to solve the problem.
...Millia's body.
House Karkason, which had sought eternal life. The headless attackers whose bodies had moved on their own.
Millia, left with only her head.
"Millia! Where is your body?!"
"...That thing! Inside! It's inside that thing!"
As expected.
If they had wished for eternal life and offered sacrifices, something answering that wish would have appeared. Could this creature have been born from Millia's body as a sacrifice, like the ending of some cheap B-grade horror game? If so, her body might still be somewhere inside it, serving as its heart.
"So I have to dig inside that thing? Millia! Can you pinpoint where your body is?!"
Clinging to any hope, I asked, and thankfully Millia answered right away.
"Yohan! Throw me at it!"
"What?"
"If I make contact with it, I might be able to sense where my body is!"
"Millia?! What are you saying?! How could you do something like that...?"
"Karina! We have to! We have to end this! If I get my body back, I can expose the core!"
Was I supposed to throw Millia inside that thing?
Millia?
Seriously?
My hands trembled. So this was a situation that demanded a sacrifice.
A sacrifice befitting a nasty horror game. Perhaps Millia had been created from the start on the assumption that she would meet us. I had simply found her too early by cheating.
Was there another way?
"...You know full well there isn’t."
I looked at Reni. Countless severed tentacles lay around her, but they regenerated as quickly as she cut them and lunged at her again. Even Reni couldn't hold out forever against a monster that regenerated endlessly. No matter how strong she was, she was still human in the end.
If unconventional methods did not work, I had no choice but to rely on the intended solution. I climbed down from the blocks and ran to Millia.
"What took you so long?! Come on! Hurry up and throw me!"
"Millia..."
"I was destined for this anyway. Don’t feel so guilty."
Millia forced a smile, but her face looked sad.
"Hurry up and do it, idiot."
I picked up Millia’s head and walked toward the creature. It turned every eye toward me. Did it want her head? I hurled Millia at it with all my strength.
When the tentacles seized Millia’s head, the creature wailed and drew her toward its torso. Its flesh split open. No—that was a mouth. As the gigantic maw swallowed Millia, a horrifying laugh of pure delight began to echo.
"Yohan! Why did you suddenly... Millia...!"
"Come over here."
Leaning on my shovel like a cane, I glared at the creature. After shrieking with joy for a while, it seemed to realize something was wrong and began howling in pain and thrashing. But the dozens of stalactites I'd driven into its body kept it from moving freely.
The monster’s mouth opened again. A gigantic heart burst from it, pounding with a sickening beat.
"...Is that the main body?"
I gripped my shovel with both hands and started walking. Reni, sword in hand, was with me.
There was only one thing we had to do.
-----------------------------------
"Is it over?"
"...What about Millia...?"
Reni said that, then turned to look elsewhere. Following her gaze, I saw that Skullhead had reappeared and was applauding us.
"Excellent. You found the answer despite having so few clues."
"What happened to Millia?"
"That monster was born with Millia’s body as its core. And you just killed it, did you not?"
Killed it... Skullhead wasn't wrong, but the way it said that grated on me.
I did not know what expression I was making, but Skullhead spoke gently, as though trying to reassure me.
"When a play ends, all the characters are meant to exit the stage. Millia has fulfilled her role, so she must exit now."
"That's absurd."
"Still, what can be done? In the end, this is the rule."
A rule...
This fucking sucked.
"Please don't grieve too deeply. Is life not a cycle of farewells and meetings? More importantly, do you not have questions for me?"
I wanted to split that unpleasantly grinning skull in half right then and there, but I needed information.
After a moment of thought, I organized the questions I wanted to ask Skullhead.
"Will the whirlpool disappear?"
"Yes. It will. It was only a device for the tutorial, after all."
"Tutorial? What are you talking about?"
"Heh heh. Isn’t this way of speaking more familiar to you?"
It knew game terminology...?
What the hell was it?
I stared at Skullhead suspiciously, but it didn't seem inclined to answer.
"Why did I end up stranded on this island?"
"You were not the one who washed ashore, were you, transmigrator? Ah, this may be a little difficult for you."
A finger snap rang out. Startled when the world suddenly fell silent, I looked around.
The world had stopped.
The only ones still moving were Skullhead and me.
"This makes it easier for us to talk, does it not?"
"Answer me."
"Your transmigration into that body was a coincidence. You might have transmigrated into another body. That body simply happened to wash ashore at the right time."
"This really is the world of Survival Academy, isn’t it?"
"Ah, yes. Though it's somewhat different from the world you know."
"...How so?"
"You'll learn that by experiencing it for yourself."
"...Can I go back?"
"Who knows? That depends on what you do—whether you return or not. But either way, that will only become possible after you see this world’s True Ending."
"True Ending?"
"Do you not remember? The True Ending DLC was released on the day you transmigrated."
...Right, it did.
"...You're telling me more than I expected."
"I'm merely telling you what I'm permitted to. I am on your side, after all."
"You’re on my side?"
"I sincerely hope that you reach a new ending rather than one of the countless endings you've already experienced."
Was that sincere, or a lie? I couldn't gauge it at all.
Skullhead watched me quietly, then clapped its hands with a sharp smack as though it had remembered something and spoke with a click of its jaw.
"My allotted time ends here. Before I go, I should give you a reward for clearing the dungeon."
Skullhead rummaged inside its robe, drew out a translucent silver sphere, and placed it in my hand.
"This is..."
"I trust you remember how to use it. With that, I shall disappear. I hope all four of you return safely."
Skullhead crumbled into powder from the feet up and vanished. I stared blankly at the place where it had been, then murmured quietly.
"Use."