Chapter 37
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Hidden Dungeon
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In the game Blackout, there were no so-called munchkin elements.
If one had to nitpick, maybe it was dragging a party all leveled up to 8 into the first-layer field to play king.
Jun could ramble on about the reasons for that for an entire night without pause.
And among them, one in particular stood out.
'Goddamn matchup system.'
Just like how Jun, despite possessing the Demon God Body skill, had been powerless against a golem with Magic Resistance.
Warriors had their counters too.
Clang—!
The Everlight Sword, which had never been blocked before, was halted by a sturdy shield.
The erosion phenomenon was loathed by many users for a reason: most erosion entities were tough matchups.
Jun, who had felt that wall more acutely than anyone in the game, knew that bewilderment all too well.
Aiden must have been shocked too.
But Aiden neither despaired nor panicked before the wall.
He simply accepted it.
'Right. That's why he's the protagonist of this game.'
If he'd despaired at the mere existence of an opponent his power couldn't touch, Aiden never would have dreamed of escaping his exile.
He was the type who faced the walls blocking him head-on.
"Hup...!"
A spear thrust out from between the shields. The waiting fourth row moved in.
Faced with an enemy type they'd never encountered, anyone might hesitate—but Aiden didn't, deftly maneuvering his feet without a second thought.
"Raaah!!"
"Block them!!"
He knew there was no time for bewilderment.
Though barely a minute had passed since blocking the army's advance, Colton and his mercenaries were already hitting their limit.
This was the terrifying part of Blackout.
Even a level 2 user could die in the second layer at any moment.
Enemies encountered by the slimmest odds introduced massive variables to the game.
The dungeon's boss being irregular. And that irregular becoming eroded—how rare was that?
But there was no time to despair over reality.
Aiden humbly accepted it.
'With my current skill, I can't pierce that shield.'
It was probably a shield with Physical Resistance.
Unless he awakened aura right now, there was no way through them.
So he needed to create a variable.
Right on cue, Jun's magic activated.
Granting: Elemental Armory
Transformation Magic
Enhancement: Elemental Body
Attribute Granted: Wind
Blackout was a team game. Naturally, no one survived its world alone.
Aiden had learned that bone-deep from his isolated life in the imperial exile.
That's why he needed comrades.
Trustworthy ones.
'This is enhancement magic.'
Was it his keen mana sensitivity?
Aiden easily accepted the enhancement magic Jun had woven into his body.
'And this is the intent senpai poured into it.'
More than that, he read Jun's will embedded within.
A typhoon raged.
A typhoon that permitted nothing to block its path, carrying energy fierce enough to hurl away entire buildings.
Aiden felt as if he himself had become the typhoon.
The eye of the storm.
Only where Aiden stood was calm.
He assumed his stance.
The form he'd practiced so relentlessly over the past month that he could perform it in his sleep.
Charge
No need to swing the sword. His body was already a typhoon.
He just had to pick his target.
Colton and his mercenaries were awestruck by the scene unfolding before them.
The army couldn't ignore the typhoon bearing down on them either.
They were soldiers. Devoid of individual value as living beings, they stood firm for the greater cause.
Even a typhoon wouldn't halt their advance.
'But even that has its limits.'
Jun watched Aiden fully embrace his magic and thought.
Withstand a typhoon?
Fine. Let's see how long you last. I'll watch with my own eyes.
'This magic isn't just simple alteration.'
He'd chosen enhancement magic for its efficiency.
Over the past month's journey, Jun hadn't fixated solely on his own growth.
He'd keenly observed his comrade Aiden too.
And from that, Jun gained one key insight.
Aiden was attuned to elemental power.
The talent usually innate to mages or spirit casters—Aiden had it.
Maybe it was inevitable.
Aiden had rejected life in exile and burst free.
Like wind wandering the world unbound.
That's why Aiden could forge Bash from Charge.
So rather than cast a 4th-circle wind spell himself, Jun instilled equivalent destructive power in Aiden.
Kwaaaaa—!
A typhoon passed through in the literal sense.
Every footprint Aiden left brimmed with wind's lacerations.
Yet the earth steadfastly supported his steps.
And the moment Aiden's body—the typhoon within him—collided with the army...
Krunch!
One cogwheel bent.
As one shield-bearing soldier was flung back by the typhoon, the army's precise machinery shattered in an instant.
The frontmost third row crumbled, then the guarding fourth, then the second.
With two-thirds of their forces swept away and felled...
"Now! Kill 'em all!"
"Uwaaah! You fucking bastards!!"
"Die!!"
"Felt good stabbing away like animals, huh? You goddamn shits!!"
Colton's mercenaries, who moments ago could only block, hurled their shields aside in a burst of rage and charged with weapons drawn.
A spear was the mightiest weapon in the age of cold arms, but it demanded tactics.
After a typhoon's passage, no such order remained.
The surviving soldiers flailed with their long spears, but falling one by one to Colton and his crew was inevitable.
And then.
Thud.
At the battlefield's rear.
Maya, who had leaped straight to the enemy's back, finally severed the commander's head, sounding the victory cry.
A perfect triumph.
Rest followed the fierce battle.
Colton and his comrades were already deep in sleep.
Amid that, Jun left Aiden on watch and headed to the dragon skull's tip.
"This the spot?"
The dragon's jawbone location.
Each tooth evoked massive ancient trees, making it impossible to imagine the dragon's living majesty.
Scrutinizing between those teeth, Jun spotted one deeply hollowed section.
"Bingo."
Reaching in, something caught.
Pulling it up...
Grrrrumble...
A faint vibration from behind revealed stairs descending underground.
One of this dungeon's hidden pieces.
"Whew... Never thought it'd take over a month to find this."
Once the dust settled, Jun entered, lit Light, and surveyed inside.
A small room thick with signs of habitation.
Just a humble shelf and remnants of what were once books, now utterly crumbled.
And in the room's center.
Jun nodded at the lone cauldron.
"Witch's Cauldron. Just like in the攻略."
Scourtriz's Poison Sac
Cockatrice Tail
Cockatrice Eyeball
Viper Fangs
Bantwolf Vocal Cords
A dozen-odd trophies spilled from Jun's bag.
All monster body parts.
Once the bag was empty, Jun dumped them all into the cauldron.
The inert cauldron then emanated eerie light.
The glow devoured the ingredients.
It seemed to swell—then flash! pulsed and vanished.
"That fulfills all the conditions..."
The past month's journey involved training and mercenary missions, but its core purpose was this.
To meet the hidden piece conditions for the second-layer dungeon Eternal Slumber.
Unlike prior ones, this hidden piece offered no immediate reward.
"About a week from now."
In a week.
The hidden dungeon would open as recompense.
Jun's ultimate destination.
Checkpoint in the second-layer Gray Wasteland: Wasteland Village.
Jun and his party had exited the dungeon and secured this spot ahead for the road forward.
'As expected of an unpopular field. Nothing much here.'
A few visiting merchants aside, the village was quiet overall.
Just the rowdy chatter from Colton and crew at the tavern downstairs.
Thus enjoying quiet rest, Jun sank into thought.
Two days since returning from the dungeon.
Focused on recovery, his condition was near peak.
"Corrupters..."
His first thought: the corrupters' existence.
Blackout brimmed with unforeseen crises.
It drew ire from users, yet veterans persisted.
Because those 'unforeseen crises' always had clues.
Delving deeper unearthed countless Easter eggs, driving vets mad.
And the erosion Jun had faced had clear hints too.
'But this time, I didn't notice the corrupters at all.'
This was odd.
Sure, late-game or story progression sometimes spawned them subtly.
But even then, details hid in plain sight—users just missed them.
'If I overlooked it, this likely ties to story changes.'
The community攻略 for Eternal Slumber hadn't mentioned it, so it must stem from Jun's presence.
'A change because of me...'
Where did it start?
Possibilities swirled.
'At first, I thought it was Maya.'
Maya was an NPC hostile to corrupters by default.
He'd chalked it up to her, but that was wrong.
She might factor in, but not the main cause.
'Corrupters usually have clear targets when they appear.'
For instance, 'exterminate a certain entity' showed as:
[Corrupters are targeting NPC Maya.]
Like that.
In that vein, these corrupters had clearly targeted Jun.
Meaning he was the trigger.
'Because I went for this dungeon's hidden piece? But the攻略 didn't mention it.'
Vets sometimes crafted elaborate traps to troll newbies.
But those threads got downvote-bombed.
The攻略 he'd seen had no such marks, so not a troll.
'Then it relates to my path so far... Wait. Path?'
A memory flashed by.
But before his thoughts deepened, a knock sounded.
"Yeah, come in."
"S-Senpai. A letter arrived at the counter."
"...? From Cloi?"
Faint mana flowed from the letter.
Designed to auto-ignite if opened by unauthorized third parties.
"..."
That familiar bad feeling crept in, as always before trouble.
Then commotion erupted outside the village.