The Rolling Horror
"Kiiik..." Poof!
With the final, feeble death cry of the last remaining bat, we managed to wipe out the entire swarm of giant bats that had suddenly descended from the ceiling.
"Variant goblins weren't enough—now we've got a giant centipede and giant bats too. This place is just a collection of the most nightmarish creatures imaginable."
Twenty cave goblins, variants of ordinary goblins. After successfully concluding our first battle in the cave without taking any damage, we pressed onward toward the depths without rest.
We had been walking for about two hours, letting the heat of battle cool, when we encountered a giant centipede that had silently crawled along the wall before leaping at us in ambush. My heart had pounded wildly. Its massive body easily exceeded three meters—nothing like an ordinary arthropod, but a true magical beast. Countless legs wriggled disgustingly beneath its torso, and its mandibles gleamed with sticky, unknown green venom dripping from the stinger-tipped jaws.
'That was quite the ordeal. Ugh, its appearance was so grotesque I'm worried it'll show up in my dreams.'
[Chaos remarks that it's troublesome if you make such a fuss over something so minor.]
Well, at Chaos's level, something like that probably just looks like an insignificant insect, appearance aside.
[Chaos chuckles behind a hand, saying that despite appearances, it's quite the coward and still has a long way to go.]
'It's not that I'm a coward—it's just physiologically repulsive. Fine, then. Next time we meet in a dream, I'm reserving five good smacks to the head.'
[Chaos sticks out its tongue, declaring it won't take hits from some weakling.]
Anyway, after battling the creature I'd temporarily named the Giant Centipede, we defeated it relatively easily—perhaps because only one had appeared, allowing us to focus completely. Lumia's Black Hand binding combined with the cold that gradually eroded the gaps in its carapace did the trick. When I brought my greatsword down on its neck in one stroke, thick blue blood gushed out with tremendous force. The image is still vivid in my mind.
Compared to that, the swarm of giant bats that appeared just now was... well, merely a little disgusting. At this point, I'm not just terrified of what magical beast might appear next—I'm genuinely curious.
"Ugh, I'd rather face mermen or goblins. Bugs and bats are all just openly repulsive. I hate it..."
"Just hold on a little longer. We're doing better than most. How do you think Aren feels, having to see them up close enough to touch?"
"Right. Come on, let's endure it a bit more! Once we clear the cave and get our rewards, we can return to the city quickly. Getting back to the portal should be easy once we're out of here."
I patted Yeriel's back as she looked unwell.
"Resting right here wouldn't look good, so let's walk a little farther. If we find a decent spot, we'll rest then."
"Mm... Sorry for complaining."
"It's fine, I understand. Lumia, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Maybe my stomach's strong—I don't feel anything from this. Don't worry."
I smiled at Lumia as she quietly nodded. Every time I saw her calmly taking charge and doing her part, I felt an immense sense of relief.
"That's admirable. Let's get moving again. If anyone notices anything unusual, report it immediately—don't keep it to yourself. Especially you, Lumia. If you sense or discover something, speak up right away."
"Got it."
When I raised the torch, the darkness rippled in the bright light. The eerie, chilling aura was growing stronger. Enduring the sensation of my hair standing on end, I took another step forward.
We finally found a suitable place to rest.
"This spot looks good. We've already walked quite a bit, and the consecutive battles have built up fatigue. Let's sleep here and continue tomorrow."
About an hour and a half after encountering the giant bat swarm, we discovered a small clearing connected to a narrow passage. Of course, it wasn't a shelter completely inaccessible to magical beasts. Still, the space itself seemed suitable for spending the night.
Thud.
Everyone unpacked and took their rest.
'The paths are getting more complicated. Just getting here, I lost count of how many forks we passed.'
I thought this while pulling preserved rations from my pack and dividing them. Up to the entrance, the passage had been a single straight line. But soon after, we faced two forks, then three—sometimes as many as four branching paths.
'Thankfully, Yeriel had prior experience choosing the right path to the Transcendent's Altar.'
She'd been reluctant at first, but thanks to following the path she reluctantly picked, we'd reached this place safely. Of course, magical beasts had appeared several times, but that would've happened no matter which path we took, right?
"Darkness is my servant. Rise and obey."
[Black Puppet]
Click. Kieee.
As always, Lumia summoned her familiars to serve as alarm magic. The entrance was narrow, and thanks to those short, pitch-black creatures, we'd be able to wake up immediately if anything happened. Though the cave was pitch-black with not a single light, the cheap watch from the general store on my wrist showed it was already 10 o'clock.
"Let's sleep quickly and move again tomorrow. Can you all feel it? Something ominous is pricking at our bodies."
"Yeah! It's faint, but definitely there."
"What do you think it'll be...? Undead? A large magical beast? Some strange creature?"
Who knows. At the very least, it seemed like something similar to what we'd mentioned would appear. Whatever. Let's just sleep for now.
Shaking my head, I lay down in my sleeping bag. I must have been more exhausted than I realized—sleep overtook me the moment I closed my eyes.
We had been careless.
Thududududud—
"Aaaah! Save me!!!"
"No, shit—don't come near me, you crazy bastard!"
"Kyaaah!"
"Wh-where to?"
We'd woken up refreshed, prepared thoroughly, and set out—only to enter one of the branching paths again. After walking for about an hour, rumble—! Suddenly, from up ahead, a boulder the size of a house came rolling down the passage, completely filling it.
No. From the patterns on its surface and its glowing eyes, I could tell.
'That's not just a rock!'
It wasn't a boulder at all—it was a massive magical beast that had curled its body into a spherical shape and was charging forward at full speed.
'If it were standing still, maybe. But if we collide head-on with that frenzied charge, we'll be pulverized for sure.'
If I kept running like this, I could escape without being caught. But what about Yeriel and Lumia, both with E-rank agility?
"Kyaa!"
"I'll run, so both of you stay still!"
I tucked them both under my arms and sprinted, mana exploding from my legs as I ran and ran. We fled so desperately that we ended up retracing the entire hour-long path we'd walked earlier. I could see the fork we'd passed before!
Bang!!
Enduring the strain on my legs, I made a sharp right-angle turn and dashed into the adjacent passage.
Kwaaaang—
Perfect! The magical beast had built up too much momentum in its spherical form and couldn't change direction in time, slamming hard into the wall instead.
"Huff, huff, huff."
This damn thing had somehow managed to keep following us without falling behind. This wasn't the time to relax. We needed to put distance between us before it caught up again.
"Hiee... heeung."
"Ugh..."
"Oh no."
Carrying them like luggage under my arms and running so violently in such a short time had taken its toll. Yeriel was making strange noises, her eyes spinning, while Lumia had her eyes tightly shut, trying to settle her stomach.
"Kuuuoooorgh!!!"
Wait—did crashing into the wall not even faze it? Let's just call it an Earth Golem for now. The Earth Golem's red eyes glowed as it now charged at us on two legs.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I couldn't keep carrying them forever, so I set them down and stood in its path. Was fighting the only option left? Fine, come on then!
Its momentum was noticeably reduced compared to when it had been rolling. I took a defensive stance with my greatsword raised like a shield to intercept the attack. Staring at the creature as it drew near, bracing for the impact—
'...Wait. Something's wrong.'
Its gaze was unnaturally fixed on a single point, its head tilted sideways. Sideways?
"Uwaaaah!!!"
Kwaaaang!
"S-save me!"
Thud!
Crash.
...The Earth Golem's target had been the noisy adventurer we'd accidentally fled alongside earlier. It struck the man and sent him flying, then chased after him.
'Right. Now's our chance. No need to fight. Whether he gets crushed by the golem or not isn't my problem—we just need to slip away while its aggro is pulled.'
Without taking my eyes off the golem and the adventurer, I tucked the still-dazed pair back under my arms.
Huh? But the situation unfolding was strange. The scene I'd expected—the man being beaten to death by the golem—never happened. Instead, as if the sprawled man was no longer of interest, the golem ignored him and began rummaging through his belongings.
Thududud.
All sorts of junk spilled from his pack. Plop. Then the golem roared upon spotting a palm-sized black orb that had fallen to the ground.
"Kuuuoooorgh—!"
Thud. Thud.
The moment it picked up the orb, the golem lost all interest in the adventurer and lumbered away with heavy steps.
...What the hell was that?
"Haa. That really took ten years off my life."
A sigh escaped me.
[Chaos expresses relief, saying that if we'd fought in that situation, the damage would've been considerable.]
'Damn it. I got complacent.'
In the swamp zone, we'd been lucky enough to enter the room with the altar because the area was vast, its preference rating was low so other adventurers were hard to find, and the path choices at the forks had all aligned into a stroke of luck. But conversely, if the cave was large enough for us to discover easily... then naturally, other adventurer parties would've found and entered it too.
'Why did I ever think our party was the first to discover this cave? No matter how vast each floor is, was it really possible that no other party had passed through the area before us?'
What an idiot!
What was that nonsense about "If another party finds this place and manages to reach the end and gets something, it'll be annoying"? The truth was, I'd briefly lost my mind thinking we'd found some event dungeon, and we were simply latecomers to a race that had already started.
The orb the golem had taken from the sprawled man was probably some hidden piece his party had discovered inside. The golem was likely some kind of guardian.
'Just what is this cave? Even if it's an unmapped event map, we haven't gone that deep yet... and it's already like this?'
While gathering information in the city, I'd naturally looked into the village with the fourth-floor portal. It was definitely larger than the third floor, but still confined to goblins and hobgoblins. If that was the case, I had no idea what floor level this cave's difficulty would be classified as—certainly not the fourth.
Should we just be satisfied with farming byproducts from these unusual magical beasts? Just as I thought that—
"..."
"?"
"...H-help... me..."
The adventurer we'd thought was dead spoke, begging for help.