Chapter 111
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 111
Drawn by the ominous energy emanating from the sword, Melju snapped her head around.
The sword Patrick held was unlike any other. It was a malformed thing with no pommel or guard, making it questionable whether it could even be called a sword. Yet, its blade was sharper than any she had ever seen. Entirely black from hilt to tip, its edge was impossible to distinguish in the dim light of the cave.
“So, you have a favorite weapon too, Sir Patrick,” Melju said, her eyes fixed on the blade with curiosity.
Patrick swung the sword through the air with a sharp whoosh and replied, “Of course. I’m only using Tanabella right now because I haven’t fully mastered it. Until a few months ago, I used all sorts of weapons. To be honest, Tanabella is the most awkward of the bunch. The blade is so large it’s hard to get used to, and more importantly, I still don’t know its true ability.”
Strictly speaking, a Masterpiece was a type of magic tool—or more simply, a magic tool imbued with power that far surpassed conventional common sense.
As one of the 36 Masterpieces, Tanabella surely possessed a special ability, but because Patrick had yet to figure it out, he was essentially using an incomplete weapon.
“Well, a Masterpiece is a Masterpiece, even without knowing its full ability… but isn't it a disgrace for a swordsman to be unable to draw out his sword’s full potential?”
Having said his piece, Patrick resumed his maintenance.
Meanwhile, after finishing her cleaning of the fork in the tunnels, Rene packed her tools with a solemn expression and headed toward Room 5, where the Anthropophago resided. Melju’s magical assistance with cleaning was only useful up to Room 4. Besides, with only 2 Ounce to manage in the Demon King's army at the moment, Melju had nothing in particular to prepare.
She spent the next several hours idly swinging her legs from atop a stalagmite.
“Sir Patrick.”
Melju suddenly looked up and called out to him. With an anxious expression, she projected a screen into the air. A hazy image materialized within the shimmering space—the feed from the Observer's Eye installed in Room 1, the dungeon’s entrance.
“Someone has entered.”
Looking closely at the silhouette, they could see something long crawling along the ground. At that exact moment, the blurry feed cut out. Despite being hidden in darkness and difficult to detect, the Observer's Eye had been discovered and destroyed in an instant.
“With a size like that… it must be Hexabel, the boss of ‘Sand Hell.’” Patrick, who had watched until the last afterimage faded, gripped his thin black sword and spoke to Melju.
“Please report the situation to the Boss, then join me immediately. Now, let’s go see the face of another Great Evil Cave boss.”
*
By the time Melju, having informed Swallow of the situation, rushed to Room 3, a massive, crushing pressure already weighed heavily on the area. The moment she entered, the air grew so thick it was hard to breathe. Amidst it all, she spotted the entity standing in the distance.
The being she had glimpsed through the Observer's Eye—the boss of a Great Evil Cave—was right before her.
So that is the Great Worm, known as the Mother of All Insects…
Melju’s pupils narrowed as she stared at Hexabel. Though not as massive as Swallow's true form, the figure looming ahead was still colossal. It undoubtedly possessed a strength befitting its gargantuan size. The chilling pressure alone was more than enough to convince her.
It was strong. Unquestionably, its power was on a level far beyond any mere Demon King.
And confronting this monster was Patrick, gripping the thin black sword from earlier.
A tense silence stretched between them, a distance of barely five meters separating them. Neither made the slightest movement, as if both were determined not to reveal a single opening.
Melju didn’t doubt Patrick’s strength, but she couldn’t be certain he could win against that colossal worm.
I need to at least call Sir Rene.
Just as Melju had this thought and tried to take a step back, suppressing her presence as much as possible—
“…It seems the monsters have not yet been restored.”
A bizarre voice echoed through the cave. It was Hexabel’s, emanating from a grotesque mouth that resembled a lamprey’s, its insides swirling like a vortex. Melju instinctively realized it wasn’t the monster's own voice, but a clumsy imitation of a human’s. She had read about it in a book: some insectoid monsters mimicked the voices of the humans they devoured.
No, more importantly, what did she mean by that?
Hexabel must have confirmed that the Primordial Core’s forces hadn’t fully recovered yet.
The moment she finished speaking, Patrick subtly shifted his right foot back. The movement was so cautious that his sabaton made no sound against the ground. He was preparing to charge at a moment’s notice. It was a touch-and-go situation where a clash could erupt at any second.
Just as Patrick gripped his sword tighter and Melju swallowed hard, taking another step back—
“Oh my.”
A voice suddenly sounded from behind her. Bathory, who had been relentlessly pestering Swallow while he tried to nap, had appeared without anyone noticing.
Recognizing Bathory, Hexabel’s head turned slightly.
With every breath, her protruding teeth shifted, and hot air leaked from within. Each exhalation was accompanied by a hideous, squelching sound of flesh grinding between her segments.
“…”
The two bosses of the Great Evil Caves stared at each other in silence. The heavy pressure intensified, making Melju feel as though her energy was being drained just by standing there.
After a brief, tense moment—
“What are you two doing, having a staring contest?”
This time, Swallow approached from behind Melju, yawning so wide his jaw looked ready to dislocate.
“Boss?” Patrick asked, turning to face Swallow, his eyes still locked on Hexabel. The high pitch of his voice laid bare his sheer bewilderment.
Swallow was someone who would doze off even when humans invaded his very room. He had never once gone out to greet an intruder. The fact that he had walked all the way to Room 3 himself left Patrick utterly flabbergasted.
“Mmm…”
Having finished his long yawn, Swallow rolled his eyes, casually scanning the situation. After a quick look around the room, his gaze settled back on Hexabel.
Deciding that further silence was pointless now that Swallow had appeared, Hexabel spoke to him first. Her bizarre voice was like sandpaper on the eardrums.
“Swallow…”
“…Hexabel.”
“Swallow… Master! Have you been well?”
“Hey, Hexabel. It’s been a really long time. I heard you’ve been doing pretty well for yourself. How’ve you been?”
“I have been doing quite well, of course. It is all thanks to your grace, Master.”
“Huh?”
That last bewildered sound came from Patrick.
Letting out a dumbfounded noise, he blinked his blue eye-lights as his focus faltered. When he looked at Swallow to demand an explanation, the Boss was so absorbed in his conversation with Hexabel that he didn’t even notice Patrick’s gaze.
Rene, who had appeared behind Bathory at some point, let out a similar sound of disbelief. Her eyes met Patrick’s. After exchanging a look that clearly showed neither understood what was happening, they both turned to Melju.
But there was no way the young Demon King would know.
As incomprehensible confusion filled the air, Bathory took in everyone's expressions one by one before speaking.
“Oh my, you all didn’t know?”
Only then did Hexabel, having finished her brief greeting with Swallow, turn toward Patrick and Rene. Bowing her massive head with a politeness that was utterly at odds with the dignity of a Great Evil Cave boss, she greeted them.
“I couldn’t greet you properly earlier because of the awkward situation. I am Hexabel, the boss of ‘Sand Hell.’ Are you two the gatekeepers?”
“As you can see,” Bathory continued, addressing Patrick, whose jaw was rattling as if his soul had detached from his body. “Hexabel used to be in the Primordial Core, too. She was a gatekeeper, just like you.”
*
In the heart of the Kingdom Alliance lies a desolate region known as the Great Desert. Though a barren wasteland, it was an undeniably vital strategic point. The desert bordered all five kingdoms, and the territory near its boundaries consisted of flat plains, allowing for easy travel between any of them. As long as one could endure the harsh journey, it was the finest trade route imaginable.
Until a dungeon suddenly appeared and seized control of it.
The Great Evil Cave ‘Sand Hell’ was located there. Spreading out from the center of the Great Desert, ‘Sand Hell’ was the collective domain of the worms and insects that made the desert their home. The insects gathered and indiscriminately devoured merchants crossing the desert. A trade route that had been established for over a century was severed in an instant.
The movement of goods ground to a halt. Merchants were forced to take long, costly detours. The prices of commodities skyrocketed. Above all, the leaders of each kingdom were furious that a dungeon had appeared and occupied the desert—a territory that none of them had been able to monopolize.
“Let us reclaim our land.”
“We need only set it ablaze and tear apart the bugs that flee.”
“If we each draft 200 soldiers, that’s an army of a thousand. While we’re at it, let’s pull them out by the roots.”
Discussions of subjugation circulated among the leaders of the Kingdom Alliance. The strongest individuals from each nation gathered to conquer the dungeon. In an already arid desert, the desiccated worms and insects had clear weaknesses. There was no risk of fire spreading, so they could burn everything to the ground without a second thought. If necessary, they could freeze them or simply bombard them from the air.
“The enemy is nothing but oversized bugs! Let us drive out the evil horde and reclaim the desert!”
The humans’ morale was sky-high. Confidence overflowed in their shouts as they marched, each calculating their personal gains. There was not a single trace of defeatism to be found. On the contrary, some even questioned whether it was truly necessary to deploy a thousand men for a single dungeon.
To them, it was a holy war. To the Kingdom Alliance, it was a grand festival.
Everyone predicted the battle would end within two days. And, just as they expected, the battle began in the early evening as the sand cooled and was over before the next sun rose.
But the number of defeated soldiers who returned to the Kingdom Alliance's camp was less than fifty.
The number of insects that had revealed themselves was dozens of times greater than the entire human subjugation force. Furthermore, ‘Sand Hell’ always hid itself beneath the sand, revealing nothing but a vague outline. Even after the squad entered the dungeon, its structure shifted constantly, causing them to lose their way before they could take more than a few steps. The exhausted soldiers were nothing more than prey for the thousands of insects lurking in each room.
Even the survivors who barely escaped could not lead normal lives. Their nights were plagued by nightmares. They suffered seizures at the slightest provocation.
The star of those nightmares was always the boss monster of ‘Sand Hell.’
They had all seen it on their way out. Their eyes remembered it vividly. The entity that had ambushed the weakened humans was an adult Great Worm measuring over thirty meters long.
Mother Hexabel.
Mother of All Insects.
Master of the Desert.
Despair Coiling Around the Five Kingdoms.
……
……Despair Coiling Around the Five Kingdoms.
“I must formally introduce myself once again. I am Hexabel of ‘Sand Hell.’ It is an honor to meet you all.”
‘Despair Coiling Around the Five Kingdoms’ bowed her head repeatedly toward Rene and Patrick. It was an exaggerated bow, so deep that her mouth, lined with dozens of spiral teeth, nearly touched the ground.
Wondering how to respond to such an overwhelming greeting, Patrick averted his gaze and asked Swallow, “So, Boss, to summarize… Ms. Hexabel was the gatekeeper guarding the Blue Path right before I came here.”
“Yeah.”
“And when she said, ‘It seems the monsters have not yet been restored,’ she was genuinely concerned for our dungeon.”
“Right.”
“And that cold war just now was simply because Ms. Hexabel was too shy to greet us properly?”
“You got it.”
“…Why didn’t you tell us this until now?”
“Well, I was going to.”
“And?”
“I forgot.”
“Of all the things to forget…”
His blue eye-lights, which had flared brightly as if to scold Swallow, suddenly dimmed. Patrick, who was about to let out a heavy sigh, stopped himself and fell into thought.
At times like this, he must not undermine Swallow's authority. He also had to consider how Hexabel, a former gatekeeper, would view this situation.
“…Well, I’m just joking. Anyone can forget.”
Above all, the thought crossed his mind that saying anything more wouldn’t change a thing. There was no way Swallow possessed a personality meticulous enough to distinguish between ‘things that are okay to forget’ and ‘things that must not be forgotten.’ Arguing with him would be utterly useless.
Turning back to Hexabel with a deflated sigh, Patrick spoke in a somewhat stiff voice. “I am Patrick, the gatekeeper.”
“Ah, so you are indeed Mr. Patrick.” Hexabel raised her bowed head to look at him. Although it was impossible to tell where her eyes were, her gaze was directed toward him nonetheless.
“You speak as if you already knew of me.”
“I have heard much about you through rumors.”
Despite the goodwill in her voice, Patrick maintained a flat expression. Just before the greetings were exchanged, he had briefly locked eyes with Rene.
Swallow seemed to trust Hexabel out of old affection, but Hexabel