Forbidden-Class Dungeon (5)
By this point, I had no choice but to notice. They wanted something from me.
Figuring out what that something was didn’t take much effort.
The reason they cleared dungeons was simple: the magic stones harvested from the beasts, and whatever treasures might be hidden inside. Those prizes were sweet enough to make people risk their lives—that much was undeniable.
When Rohan first offered to guide me, I’d agreed without much thought. Now, though, I found myself hesitating.
Who should I take with me?
Their eagerness to accompany me wasn’t pure goodwill. There had to be a clear benefit for them. In that case, I was entitled to something of equal value in return.
I felt their gazes on me in the silence and slowly looked from one face to the next. After a moment’s consideration, I pointed at Estelle.
“Can you take me up?”
“…M-me?”
Estelle blinked in surprise. On the other party leaders’ faces, nearly identical expressions flickered—regret and disappointment.
“Ah…”
Rohan was the quickest to compose himself. He smoothed his features and spoke with careful courtesy.
“First, allow me to thank you sincerely for saving our lives.”
He showed not the slightest hint of displeasure that I had initially agreed to go with him and then changed my mind.
“If you intend to take Estelle, we have nothing more to say… Still, knowing how shameless it is, I must speak. If you head to the upper floors now, the rest of us will have a hard time holding out here with the strength we have left.”
I caught his meaning at once. We had cleared every golem in sight, but with the ceiling open, more could come crashing down at any moment. He was worried about that possibility. A rational man. I’d taken him for someone simply eager to snatch an advantage; instead he suppressed his feelings even after losing the chance and coolly looked ahead to what came next.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“…Thank you.”
I could at least guarantee the safety of those who remained.
I felt neither fondness nor dislike for them. Ours was a relationship of mutual necessity. Still, they had kept their word. They had stationed the fifty of us—myself included—in the rear so we wouldn’t take damage in the fighting. That was enough that I didn’t want to abandon them to a pointless death.
I nodded and turned to Estelle.
“Let’s go.”
She edged closer, reading the room. I stepped toward her first.
“Hold on tight.”
I scooped her up and kicked off the ground.
A heavy impact cracked the floor beneath us; our bodies shot upward in an instant.
“Kkh…!”
Her startled cry hadn’t even faded before we punched through the dark ceiling against gravity.
I had my reasons for wanting to face the boss-class beasts myself.
First, I needed to gauge the raw power of a Forbidden-class dungeon boss with my own hands. Only then could I compare it to the monsters inside the Forbidden Zone.
Beyond that, meeting this land’s emperor would require a certain standing. Defeating a dungeon boss that even high-rank adventurers struggled against would make a name for me—and that reputation might reach the emperor’s ears.
Bringing Estelle along followed the same logic. Of the five parties, hers held the most influence. Forming a connection with her raised the odds of reaching higher circles.
At the same time, a question lingered: was it wise to flaunt my strength so freely?
If these people were truly ordinary, how would they react to someone who displayed monstrous power the way I did? The looks the other adventurers had given me while I wiped out the golem horde only sharpened that doubt. Outside of a special situation like this—where I’d saved them from danger—would they welcome it, or fear and reject me? There was no way to know.
I still didn’t even know what relationship this place had with my home kingdom. There had to be a reason some people who looked just like me lived outside the Forbidden Zone while others lived inside it.
Assuming I’m not actually a naturally born magic beast…
I would reveal only as much strength as necessary. Until I met the emperor, I would keep it moderate.
Of course, what I was showing now was already moderate enough. I hadn’t used the martial arts I’d refined after shattering the fourth wall, nor had I drawn on Will. Even my sixth sense had stayed silent ever since I left the Forbidden Zone.
While I sorted my thoughts, we cleared the collapsed ceiling and landed in the darkness of the upper floor.
Even there, looking up revealed another open ceiling. I finished off the remaining gray golems still wandering the unbroken sections, then leapt for the ceiling again.
After dropping the golems in a flash and moving on without a second glance, Estelle—still cradled in my arms—spoke.
“You know… magic stones come from the beasts, right?”
“The ones I kill are mine?”
“O-of course. Who would try to steal that credit…?”
A reasonable answer, yet I tilted my head. Her awkward manner had finally registered.
The Estelle I’d first met hadn’t been like this at all. Beyond her striking looks, she’d carried the fierce presence and seasoned edge of a high-rank adventurer. Now she was oddly clumsy—her sentences trailing off, her bearing uncertain.
Well, thinking back to the moment I’d first opened my eyes in this place, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
Anyway…
“How do you collect the magic stones?”
“Usually we gather them all at once after the boss is down.”
“Hmm. Can anyone else even get up here without me?”
“If you just lift a few of my party members… we’ll handle the rest.”
“Got it. And talk normally, the way you used to. Putting on formal speech this late feels weird.”
“Uh… uhm… s-should I?”
She forced a smile and nodded, but the hesitation beneath it didn’t vanish easily. Even after I told her to relax, she still fidgeted. She seemed practiced at dealing with subordinates, yet clumsy the other way around.
It wasn’t a problem I could solve, so I looked away.
The floor we landed on held black golems. Apparently some of them had fallen all the way to the first floor from here. And this floor’s ceiling was intact.
The black ones really are tougher…
They were clearly different from the gray golems. Where the gray ones looked like roughly clumped rock, the black ones resembled refined ore. Their surfaces caught the light with a subtle sheen—finer and smoother than ordinary stone.
And they felt familiar, as if I’d seen them somewhere before.
My home village. The hard, silver-gleaming substance that had encircled it—something even those with monstrous strength couldn’t scratch no matter how they rampaged. The color was different, but the resemblance was there. Of course, this black material was far more fragile.
…So is my homeland a place beyond even Forbidden-class dungeons?
By simple calculation, yes.
I disposed of the black golems in sight just as easily. Medium strength among the three grades of force—one clean blow and they shattered.
I moved through the unbroken sections, methodically clearing every remaining golem. It was almost like repetitive labor. No novelty, no tension. Using the martial arts I’d learned in the training cave served little purpose beyond stirring old memories. It didn’t even require real effort, nor did it count as meaningful form practice. Insight wasn’t going to bloom from such dull, simple repetition.
Then another thought struck me.
How precisely could I regulate my strength so the impact stopped a golem’s function and nothing more? Fine-tuning that threshold might make for a new kind of exercise.
I threw punches with that idea in mind, and the last of the black golems toppled.
With no open ceiling, I followed the passage forward. At its end, a massive sphere blocked the way. A strange pattern was engraved dead center on its surface—similar to the stone that had sealed the passage on the first floor. The only difference: this one was pure black, likely the same mineral that formed the black golems.
I drove a fist into it. The black sphere crumbled without resistance.
A heavy rumble. Beyond it, another passage appeared, as expected.
Estelle watched the scene with her lips pressed tight.
“….”
“What?”
“I was just wondering if it’s really supposed to be this easy to get through…”
From her perspective, that reaction made sense. I had nothing useful to say, so I changed the subject.
“I heard adventurers clear dungeons looking for treasure. Where is it?”
“…Honestly, this mineral itself is all treasure.”
Estelle pointed at the shattered fragments of the sphere and the golem remains scattered around us.
“Just hauling these out and selling them would cover everything you’d expect from a Forbidden-class dungeon.”
In that case, we’d definitely need to come back and collect after the boss was down. Money was always welcome.
We climbed the newly revealed stairs and soon faced a colossal stone gate. It easily spanned dozens of meters. Its surface was carved with a mix of corrosion-like marks and alien patterns.
As I stared up at the vast gate, Estelle offered explanations.
“There’s a high chance the boss is inside. Usually there are traps in front of a final gate like this, and for a Forbidden-class dungeon it won’t open easily. No matter how strong you are, simple methods probably won’t—”
I stepped up to the gate before she finished. Placing both palms against it, I pushed.
A deep, grinding tremor rolled through the earth. With a harsh scrape of stone on stone, the gate began to move. Dust billowed in every direction.
The center split, opening a gap wide enough for a person to pass.
I had opened it the simple way she mentioned.
“….”
Estelle closed her mouth again.