Dungeon Assault (3)
The long-awaited day of the raid arrived.
A massive force advanced toward the place where the Entrance of Hellfire lay. Elite clan troops marched at the center, flanked and enveloped by imperial soldiers.
The presence of those imperial troops was less an escort than a declaration—an unspoken pressure that the will of the empire itself rode with this operation.
Because of that, no one bold enough to bar their path appeared.
Most of the clans challenging the Calamity-class dungeon kept their bases in the northern outer cities, so the distance to the dungeon itself was not especially long.
They reached the mouth of a deep mountain range. Faint traces of an old mine still lingered, but ever since the dungeon had been discovered the road had been utterly abandoned by human feet.
The first to enter the dungeon was Ren’s clan.
And among them, Bell strode at the very front, carving the path without the slightest hesitation.
A dim entrance that funneled into a tunnel.
The moment he stepped into the straight, endless darkness, a searing heat of unknown origin wrapped around his entire body.
It was not quite enough to choke the breath from his lungs, yet it made unmistakably clear that the heat was no natural phenomenon.
To Bell, however, heat of that degree was no real problem.
Fortunately, it was not a heat only he could endure.
Most veteran adventurers could withstand it without difficulty.
There was no reason to hesitate.
Bell took one of the torches carried by his party members and walked straight ahead, deeper into the dark.
For a long while the only sound was the ring of his boots on stone as he led the way. Then an urgent voice called from behind.
“Hey, wait—! You’re going way too fast! What are you doing charging in blind like that?”
It was the leader of another clan that had been dogging the Deep Night Clan’s heels.
He hurried all the way to the front and stopped Bell, unable to hide the unease on his face.
Bell slowly tilted his head and looked back at him.
“The preliminary survey is already finished, isn’t it? What’s the reason to drag our feet?”
“Well, still…”
“A little farther and the Pyro-species appear, then the first gate with the great corridor. You all know that.”
The Pyro-species were mana beasts with humanoid skeletons, yet their bodies were sheathed in volcanic rock that made them look like monsters. Heat poured from the glowing crimson cracks that riddled their hides; they were considered troublesome opponents.
They had not even appeared yet. This was still nothing more than a dark passage. What was the problem with simply moving forward?
The other clan leader’s lips worked soundlessly.
What was he supposed to say to this mercenary who brimmed with reckless confidence?
Anyone who knowingly challenged a Calamity-class dungeon ought to feel a healthy measure of caution. That was common sense, wasn’t it?
Yet not a shred of that anxiety showed on the man. It was as if he already held every danger and every structure that lay ahead in the palm of his hand.
Even with a completed survey, no one should look this relaxed.
And the leader of the Deep Night Clan, Ren, who had entrusted the vanguard to such a person, was equally suspect. What on earth had he been thinking?
Of course, anxiety alone was not why the man had stopped Bell.
There was also a quiet resentment at the sight of someone simply punching a clean path forward without the slightest hitch.
Bell knew that feeling well enough.
They wanted the Deep Night Clan—thin on strength—to charge recklessly into the lead, collapse, and create the opening they needed. Only when the Deep Night Clan was driven to the brink would their own chance arrive.
Bell had no intention of turning that hope into reality.
No—he intended to crush it completely. The sneers and mockery that had filled the strategy meetings had not sat well with him either. He had felt those stares directly.
And now I have a proper rival of sorts, too.
Bell had already spread his vast sensory field across the dungeon from the moment he decided to break through at the head of the column.
His senses mapped every part of it with perfect clarity, as though he were looking with his own eyes—hidden structures, every presence, all of it sharp and distinct.
Yet past a certain point the world beyond simply vanished, just as the far side of the stone blockage in the Ruins of the Cliff had been sealed from his perception.
That was no mere limit of sensitive senses; something else had been deliberately put in place.
The structure Bell had grasped reached roughly to the second floor: a long corridor after the narrow passage, a single enormous presence coiled at its end, then a wide plaza-like space, and at the far edge of that plaza another overwhelming existence.
He intended to smash through all the way to that point without the slightest waver.
The worried clan leader shot Ren a look, was ignored, and finally withdrew with poor grace. With the obstruction gone, Bell moved on without pause.
Exactly as the survey had described, the moment they entered the corridor beyond the narrow passage the Pyro-species began to appear.
Clad in hard gray volcanic rock, they lumbered forward with unnatural, stomping steps. Their forms recalled small golems, yet their movements twisted like grotesque ghouls.
Whether they had been born that way or were human corpses warped into monstrous shapes was impossible to tell.
Bell, still at the very front, smashed their outer shells the instant they came into view.
Not a single one was left standing.
They were certainly stronger, matching their rank.
At a glance the heavy golems should have been tougher, yet these humanoid beasts possessed far greater durability—an unsettling fact.
Even their seemingly merely hard skin radiated a searing heat that scorched flesh on contact.
It would not have been strange to claim that the heat filling the entire space poured from their bodies alone.
While he pulverized every Pyro-species in sight, Bell thought:
Have these beasts been affected by the polluted mana as well…?
Come to think of it, the very concept of polluted mana was still unclear.
Perhaps it was less polluted mana and more like black mana—something closer to the erosion of an Outer God.
Of course he could not verify it, so he could not be certain. It was only an intuitive impression.
When nothing remained around him but the hard, rocky remnants of shattered shells, Bell cut the thought short and pressed forward again.
He did not slow in the slightest. If anything, he grew faster.
Once he confirmed that the Pyro-species could not withstand a blow delivered with the force of a “river,” he became even more unrestrained.
“Hah… hahh… Please, just a moment—! From here on the traps will start appearing fairly often. You have to be careful.”
The party members right behind him were already gasping, almost pleading.
The deeper they went, the fiercer the heat became. At first it had merely warmed the skin; now it threatened to choke the breath from their lungs.
Yet the speed of the advance never dropped.
It was only natural that people began to struggle.
“It’s fine. Better to reach the end of the corridor before our stamina runs out. Then we can rest properly.”
“But still…”
The faint voice from behind was cut off by Ren’s firm order.
“Just follow for now.”
Ren stayed close at Bell’s side, supporting the advance as best he could, and so he saw every one of Bell’s movements.
At the head of the column Bell allowed not a single gap.
When large numbers of Pyro-species swarmed, he issued brief orders to the members behind him as well.
Rather than trying to kill them, hold the line and push them back—create even a momentary opening.
In that opening Bell finished them all.
Ren realized it was deliberate: so the heat-exhausted members would not waste their remaining strength.
Even while handling hundreds of beasts alone, Bell showed no sign of fatigue. He did not let a single one slip past him to the rear.
There were advantages to taking the vanguard. If you had the skill, you could monopolize everything before the other clans ever got a chance.
Of course every veteran adventurer present would agree that it was nowhere near as easy as it sounded.
Yet Bell was proving it perfectly right now.
Ren already knew Bell stood outside the ordinary category of adventurer—an alien level of power that even the Five Stars could not match.
But he had never imagined Bell would casually break through a Calamity-class dungeon by himself. Even if this was still only the entrance.
It was not merely a matter of raw strength.
He seemed to… see the future.
He would charge without hesitation, then suddenly halt the entire line and stop mid-step—just as a fireball trap erupted in front of him.
The kind of trap that formed naturally inside dungeons.
He sensed them with no warning at all and simply avoided them.
It was pure domination.
Ross’s almost worshipful descriptions of Bell fighting the Black Moon finally felt real, even though Ren had never witnessed that battle himself.
Bell was single-handedly seizing control of the battlefield.
While Ren was thinking that, they reached the end of the corridor. Even Ren, who had cleared Calamity-class dungeons several times, was left speechless by the speed of the breakthrough.
Meanwhile Bell, finally facing the beast that guarded the gate, thought:
About time he stepped up.
And the instant the thought finished, a figure who had been positioned in the middle of the column burst forward.
It was Rice.
His flustered, hurried movements laid bare the impatience he currently felt.