Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Descent into the Abyss
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"Want to come with me to the Rune Dungeon today?"
The clinking of plates and silverware came to a sudden halt. Silence blanketed the dining hall. Four pairs of eyes in every color imaginable turned toward me.
Iris, Claudia, Lize, Erika—all of them stared at me with blank expressions. Thunk. The bread in Lize's hand tumbled onto the table.
"...The Rune Dungeon? What are you talking about all of a sudden, Delta?"
Lize was the first to snap out of it. She paid no mind to the bread that had rolled all the way to the edge of Iris's plate.
"I stepped out briefly this morning. That's when I decided."
"That's not what I meant."
Lize let out a sigh. Iris picked up the conversation.
"Delta. This isn't the Empire—it's the Holy Kingdom. Rune Dungeons are basically—"
"I've already got permission. Straight from the Inquisitor herself."
"...."
No one had anything to say after hearing it'd been approved directly by an Inquisitor. After all, Inquisitors and Adjudicators held positions right below the two Popes in terms of authority.
"Judging by your faces, you never thought we wouldn't tag along, huh?"
"Correct, Knight Commander Claudia. Sharp as ever."
"Is scaring us your hobby, Mr. Delta? You could've said something sooner."
I answered with a smile. Erika shook her head with an exasperated look upon seeing it.
It had only been decided thirty minutes ago, so there hadn't been time to mention it beforehand. By the time I'd wrapped up with Selene and returned, they were in the middle of preparing breakfast.
"Let's hear the details first."
Clink. Iris set down her silverware. The other knight commanders seemed to have lost any appetite as well.
Just as I'd expected.
"Have you finished your preparations?"
Selene and her battle nuns, who had arrived at the rendezvous point ahead of time, welcomed the knight commanders. They were all thoroughly armed.
Daggers hung in clusters from belts at their waists, and their rapiers were gripped with iron strength. Even their form-fitting holy robes looked sharper than usual.
At a glance, their expressions seemed as impassive as ever, but there was clear tension beneath the surface.
No one blamed them for it. The Inquisitor herself wore an even stiffer expression than usual, and every movement from the knight commanders brimmed with taut readiness.
The only one acting normally here was Delta. As always, he fiddled leisurely with the weapon at his waist.
"You're as unflappable as ever, Delta."
Iris gave a wry smile as she addressed him. The helmet covering his head hid whatever expression he might have made.
"Me? Why's that?"
"Everyone here's on edge, and you're the only one looking perfectly fine."
"Well, yeah. You all seem stiffer than usual."
"You're the one who said this dungeon we're about to raid is extremely dangerous. If even you put it that way, the risk must be beyond imagination. You're not tense at all?"
The Holy Kingdom had sent subjugation teams here multiple times, only to fail at acquiring the rune and lose dozens of holy knights and battle nuns in the process.
Due to the danger, it had been sealed off by special order of the Adjudicator and Inquisitor, guarded by holy knights—and honestly, it hadn't felt real until we'd arrived.
Especially since the man saying it all looked so utterly calm.
"Eh... not really?"
Nothing had changed now. Delta's demeanor was the same as this morning—peaceful. It was the word that best described him at the moment.
Before they knew it, all eyes had turned to Iris and Delta.
"Why not?"
"It's a place I suggested we come to. If the guy who invited you here is tense, what does that make the rest of you who followed?"
Delta said it with a slight smile. Seeing that smile made the tension melt away, at least for Iris.
That was the smile. The one that turned the impossible—what everyone else deemed absurd—into reality without a second thought.
Iris steeled herself. If he was saying that much, her job was simply to trust him, as always. Hadn't she heard his plan straight from him just this morning?
Even if that plan was mad enough to call insane.
"Got it."
Iris gave a curt reply and turned away. Her helmet swiveled sideways. Selene, who had been eavesdropping, quickly straightened up.
"Heading in now?"
"Yes. I'll give the order to depart immediately."
Selene gestured to the holy knights standing before a veil of white light. They snapped to attention and touched the tips of their spears to it.
The point of contact began to warp. It twisted and thinned until a gap large enough for a person to pass through opened up.
The knight commanders peered into the space beyond. It wasn't sealed for nothing—everything in sight was shrouded in murky darkness.
"May the moon watch over you."
The sacred catalyst glowed. Thick silver holy power swirled around Selene and her battle nuns, as well as the knight commanders and Delta.
"Be especially cautious from here on. Near the dungeon—"
"Guess I'll go first, then?"
"...Pardon?"
Before Selene could warn the knight commanders, Delta cut in and strode boldly through the gap in the holy barrier.
"Honored guest! You mustn't enter so recklessly—"
"It's fine. No issues."
Thud. Claudia placed a hand on her shoulder. While Selene and her battle nuns looked utterly flustered, the knight commanders acted like they'd seen it coming.
Naturally, since they'd heard Delta's plan in advance. Otherwise, they'd have been even more shocked than Selene.
Selene followed Delta with a troubled expression she couldn't hide, then the knight commanders, and finally the battle nuns entered the barrier.
"...This is horrific."
Lize's first words upon entering summed it up for everyone.
Black liquid coated everything in sight.
The grass and trees weren't exactly withered and twisted, but covered in the unidentified ooze, they'd lost nearly all their original color—making it little different.
Even the sunlight pouring down felt faintly dingy. Lize brushed at her armor, her mood soured for no reason.
"You're Iris, correct, honored guest?"
Selene approached Iris, who was grimacing as she scanned the surroundings. Iris turned her head. Selene kept glancing at Delta's back ahead.
"Yes. What is it?"
"Any idea what he's doing right now?"
Delta was muttering numbers under his breath as he walked ahead alone. Anyone unaware of the context would surely wonder.
Of course, Iris knew exactly why. Not just Iris—all the knight commanders did.
This Rune Dungeon was one Delta claimed he could clear solo, finishing in under thirty minutes no matter what—and he'd made it a firm condition for coming along.
He had to enter first, and once inside, no one could speak to him or interfere, no matter what he did.
That was why Lize—who'd normally be chattering nonstop at his side—was staying quiet. How could she defy his direct order not to?
"No idea. But he has his reasons, so best not to disturb him."
Remembering his request to keep it among themselves, Iris shook her head. Selene backed off quietly, as if she'd suspected as much.
Iris's curiosity was piqued too, though. Delta had stressed timing above all.
She circulated mana through her body to heighten her hearing and caught a snippet of his mutterings.
"66... 67... 68...."
He was counting numbers.
They rose steadily one by one, so he was likely timing something. He'd glance around, nod to himself, then move—repeating the cycle.
It wasn't just Iris who was curious. Countless eyes followed his back.
"This is the place known as the Abyss Dungeon. The rune lies at the very bottom."
Delta's odd behavior drew so much attention that they arrived at the Rune Dungeon before they knew it. The blackness enveloping everything grew even thicker.
A massive pit yawned right before them. True to its name, its depth was impossible to gauge. It would take hundreds of people to encircle the rim.
"...We're going down that, aren't we?"
"Indeed. You've got it right."
Erika pointed at the bridge spanning it. Or rather, it was questionable if you could even call it a bridge.
The surface looked incredibly slick, with neither railings nor handholds. A rickety wooden plank bridge would feel more stable.
At least those weren't glossy smooth.
"Take care. They're extremely slippery. Absolutely no running—walk only."
"Not planning on it."
Erika recoiled. The bridge slanted diagonally downward. It was the sole path into the dungeon's depths.
A cave-like gap at the end was just wide enough for one person, and such bridges tangled in a complex web, filling the pit below.
"Whoa, one slip and you'd slide right off."
Claudia tested it with a foot, stuck out her tongue, and stepped back. Even that brief contact had her soles slick. She scrubbed her sabatons against the ground.
"From here, dispatch the monsters as you descend to the lowest level via these bridges. I trust you know how to cross between them."
"...We have to fight monsters too?"
At Lize's question, Selene quietly pointed downward. About thirty meters below, undead armed with spears and shields patrolled the bridges.
Some even wielded bows nearby. A hit from either, and you'd slide endlessly into the abyss.
"What you see isn't all. Some hide in spots obscured by bridges, only revealed once you're down there."
"Can't we take them out with ranged weapons?"
"We've tried. But they vanish like mist beyond a certain distance. Likely the dungeon's own power."
Erika fell silent, speechless. That left only one option: descend the slippery bridges one by one, engaging the monsters up close.
"...That's brutal. I'd believe someone designed it that way on purpose."
"Agreed, Lize. That's why it's so danger—"
Iris's words cut off. Her silver eyes fixed on the bridge. More precisely, on Delta's back as he crossed it.
He walked the bridge casually, hopped the gaps effortlessly, cleared three in a flash, and landed on the fourth. Then he peered straight down.
As if about to leap right in.
'Come to think of it...'
In that moment, all the knight commanders shared the same thought. Delta's method for clearing the Rune Dungeon the easiest, fastest way.
Step one: Jump down.
"No way that 'jump' was literal and not a figure of sp—"
"Be right back!"
Before Claudia could finish her shocked outburst, Delta hurled himself off the bridge into the pit below.