Chapter 50
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Fallen
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Having obtained the authority from the emperor to personally select the personnel to dispatch to the dungeon, Lumen headed straight to the temple.
"Well! Lord Lumen... It's been a long time. Have you been well?"
"Lucas..."
When Lumen personally visited the temple's main headquarters, the high priest named Lucas came out himself to greet him. Lumen's expression softened slightly upon seeing his old comrade from over fifty years ago, with whom he had conquered dungeons on the front lines together.
"Have you already heard?"
"Heh heh. Of course. We've been preparing ever since Chris's body arrived at the Temple of Return. Though I did think you might step in yourself, Lord Lumen..."
"Sigh... His Majesty did not permit it."
"I understand. With the sudden emergence of this new dungeon forcing investigation teams to every dungeon across the continent, manpower is short, and the demons' movements have grown suspicious after witnessing our reaction."
Lumen let out a deep sigh upon hearing Lucas's words. After all, he had been the foremost opponent of the late emperor's 'dungeon maintenance' policy.
Destroying dungeons only led to new ones appearing, so claiming further destruction was meaningless sounded plausible. But abandoning them entirely was nonsense.
'Even now, the demons inside are steadily growing stronger.'
Demons were inherently stronger than ordinary humans, no matter how weak. They also boasted lifespans twice as long.
Excluding cases like Lumen, who maintained his youth through the power of holy relics, the elite knights who once raided dungeons were gradually reaching the end of their lifespans and aging since the policy took hold.
Meanwhile, the long-lived demons, blessed by the dungeons, had been continuously building their strength in that time.
"How are the preparations?"
"Fortunately, many mages who haven't forgotten the nightmare of the dungeons remain, so we should have enough magic tools for the raid. I'll use my authority to provide as many priests and knights as needed for the conquest."
"Thank you."
In dungeon raids, heroes with overwhelming power were deemed most crucial, but conquests weren't solely about brute strength.
Modern heroes, untested by dungeons, didn't grasp this, but true raids required ample supplies including various magic tools, and skilled priests always on hand to heal injuries.
"What about the heroes?"
"We have plenty of 2-star and below... but most 3-star and above have their assigned duties... Still, a few remained..."
"No 4-stars?"
"4—4-star heroes? To that extent...?"
There weren't just six 5-star heroes in existence, but 4-stars were exceedingly rare too. Even across the entire Holy Empire Yukram dominating the continent, there were fewer than thirty.
"My disciple was defeated. She had many shortcomings... but her skill was genuine."
Even Lumen, Chris's master, found her combination of 'Durandal' and 'Scales of Equity' genuinely threatening. For such a Chris to meet a gruesome end meant the dungeon raid needed at least 3-star heroes—ideally 4-stars.
"W-Well, for 4-stars..."
Lucas broke into a cold sweat at Lumen's demand for top-tier 4-star assets, but someone strode out from within the temple.
"What about me, Lord Lumen?"
"You...!"
His hair was streaked with gray, proving his advanced age. Wrinkles lined his face. Yet his eyes held the indomitable spirit of a veteran hero who had traversed countless battlefields, and his rigorously honed physique defied his years.
"Fallen...!"
"Lord Fallen, weren't you investigating the dungeon in the Catalac region...?"
"I just returned. Then I heard you'd come to the temple and hurried over."
Facing familiar faces, Fallen smiled faintly. He knelt before Lumen and spoke.
"Lord Lumen, entrust your disciple's vengeance to me. Though my body grows frail, I can still wield a sword."
"Frail body? You..."
Lumen and Lucas let out incredulous laughs at Fallen's words. Who on the continent would dare dismiss him as old? A rare '4-star' hero, no less.
Moreover...
"Haha! Truth be told, I'd love to stand on the battlefield with you again, Lord Lumen..."
As a veteran who had conquered countless dungeons alongside the Hero of Glory in the past, all the more so.
"Fallen, I can trust you."
Lumen's expression softened further upon seeing him. He wasn't comfortable entrusting his disciple's revenge to another instead of going himself, but Fallen was different.
"I entrust it to you alone."
"Leave it to me!"
The temple headquarters featured a special training ground built to withstand the superhuman power of heroes.
It was laced with protective magic spells that had consumed a full year's budget of the Magic Tower, staffed with skilled priests to prevent accidents, and even equipped with special totem-form holy relics that deployed protective barriers around the area—the continent's finest training facility.
Today, that training ground was crowded with people.
"Why did he call us here?"
"To test our skills, maybe?"
Each one brimmed with confidence, radiating formidable auras. Among them were paladins who had honed their holy power to extremes, knights who had reached the realm of wielding aura through endless training, and heroes chosen by multiple holy relics.
In the center of the gathered crowd, an elderly hero in light clothing without armor stepped forward.
"Pleased to meet you all. This old man's name is Fallen. If you've been active in the capital, you might've heard of me."
With an exceedingly casual demeanor, Fallen scanned the assembled personnel and smiled. Lucas, who had come with him to watch, clutched his forehead.
'Here we go again...'
In the distant past, Fallen—Lumen's comrade in dungeon raids—was a utterly reliable knight, but in daily life, he often acted like an eccentric.
After Lumen appointed Fallen as leader for the new dungeon conquest and delegated recruitment authority to him, Fallen immediately used it to gather personnel for the raid, asking Lucas to clear the training ground.
Knowing Fallen's personality well, Lucas had desperately refused, sensing what was coming. But when Fallen invoked 'Lumen's' name, he couldn't ignore the request.
'I hope no one gets seriously hurt.'
Instead of the usual standby priests, Lucas had come personally and sighed deeply.
Those present were applicants for the new dungeon raid team. Many had applied, but he couldn't take them all.
Mediocre fighters would only be baggage, and larger numbers exponentially increased supply needs. He had to select the best. The issue was the selection method...
-KABOOM!!!
"Hoo..."
As Fallen said something to the crowd, one hero suddenly charged with fist clenched, attacking him. A massive roar echoed through the entire training ground.
The attacker was a familiar face—a 2-star hero with a holy relic that unleashed massive shockwaves on impact.
"Hm! Fail!"
"No way!"
But Fallen, who took the hero's attack and the resulting shockwave full-on, declared failure with a hearty laugh. Lucas hadn't caught what Fallen said earlier amid other thoughts, but it was obvious.
Probably something like 'attack me, and if you budge me even a step, you pass'... Decades ago, during another raid team formation for dungeon conquest, Fallen had used the exact same method.
"Even you, Lord Fallen... can't ignore aura!"
Denying reality, a spear-wielding hero leaped from behind the first. Aura—the hallmark of master knights—undulated along the spear, an absolute force said to pierce anything short of transcendent holy relics.
"Haaap!!"
He sharpened his momentum and thrust the spear, expecting Fallen to dodge or defend against the lethal strike.
"Excellent!"
"...?!!"
But contrary to expectations, Fallen neither dodged nor defended—he stood still. The hero, aiming precisely for the heart assuming evasion, panicked, but it was too late to pull back.
-CLANG!!!!
An unimaginable metallic clash rang out upon the spear touching skin.
"Th-This can't be... Aura...!"
The spear-thruster's voice trembled in disbelief. The invincible aura that pierced all was blocked by Fallen's bare, unarmored body.
-CRACK...!
The thrust was so forceful that the spear hero's wrist bone snapped instead, as he gripped it tightly.
"Hm! Excellent! You're pass! Head back there."
Laughing boisterously, Fallen patted the dazed hero's back, grabbed him, and tossed him aside before beckoning the frozen crowd.
"What are you waiting for? Come at me. Scared of this doddering old geezer?"
"........."
Even after the provocation, no one charged in boldly like before. Fallen clicked his tongue, thinking 'these youngsters nowadays...', but Lucas understood their mindset.
'A body aura can't even dent? Enough to despair.'
Especially since it looked like he'd taken it bare-skinned without armor. Though in truth, a holy relic was involved.
Urging more attacks, Fallen stripped off his tunic, revealing a bizarre tattoo on his back like a massive shield fused with a city wall. Emboldened, another hero swung a giant hammer at him—but Fallen didn't budge an inch, absorbing it all.
The tattoo-form holy relic, 'Fortress'. Unlike others with unique effects, it simply boosted the user's defense.
But its power was tremendous enough to block even aura.
Watching Fallen stand firm against over a hundred assailants, Lucas shook his head while inwardly regretting the overkill.
'Too much firepower for a newborn dungeon...'
Still, with Fallen leading and his handpicked team, the new dungeon should fall without issue.