Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Newbie Adventurer Bern (25) - Dungeon
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Among the adventurers who had joined the lich subjugation, there were no small number of those with their noses held high.
Even a Rank 3 adventurer was considered elite among their peers, and by Rank 4, they became talents coveted not just by the guild but by outside forces as well.
The nobles of the Birka Kingdom were particularly rotten-smelling, but normally, adventurers of this caliber would be treated like junior knights in most factions. They knew their own worth well, so how could they not hold their heads stiffly?
However, at this very moment.
Before the elderly man who appeared in front of the plaza, even these prideful adventurers kept silent and showed their respects.
Guild Master Tarbon.
The representative leading the Birka Kingdom's Adventurer's Guild, the guild's sole Rank 5 powerhouse, and an adventurer who had completed countless commissions.
Whether by position, experience, or skill, he was a leader more than qualified to command them, and so even the rough adventurers paid him their due reverence.
"There's no dumber move than blabbering on at length when the enemy lines are right in front of you, so I'll get to the point."
His tone was so plain it bordered on stark, hardly what one would expect from a high official's speech, and the adventurers perked up their ears.
"No point cramming a bunch of people into a cramped dungeon; you won't gain any numerical advantage anyway. So, we're splitting into teams."
The black-banded agents dispatched from guild headquarters stepped forward, holding lists of names on paper and ample leather pouches.
They began distributing armbands for the adventurers to tie around their biceps—not all the same, but divided into red, blue, and yellow.
"Those with red or blue bands are the assault teams. You'll split into two groups, alternating rest and combat to clear the dungeon. Those with yellow bands will secure the rear from here and rescue the assault teams if anything goes wrong."
Those who got red and blue bands cheered, while the yellow-band recipients scowled or wore faces full of discontent.
This was a massive commission pooling the guild's full might—one that might not come around again for decades.
In a situation where shining here could make them legends in the adventurer world, being told to hang back in the rear was hardly settling.
If the Guild Master himself hadn't given the order, complaints would surely have poured out.
Fortunately—or perhaps not—Bern and his comrades drew blue bands.
With the red and blue teams combining for about eighty people charging into the dungeon, even though it wasn't small, the space felt terribly confined.
"Red Team advances first; Blue Team follows at a distance where you can still spot them."
Following the Guild Master's instructions, the Red Team—red bands on their arms—picked up the pace, while Blue Team slowed to widen the gap between them.
A moment later.
"Undead!!"
"Battle stations!!"
Some Blue Team members started rushing forward at the shouts from Red Team, but the Guild Master held them back.
"We can't all fight at once anyway. You'll take point next, so conserve your strength until then."
The Blue Team adventurers flashed dissatisfied looks for a moment, but Bern nodded.
Splitting forces was usually seen as foolish, but it depended on the time and place.
In a dungeon of unknown depth, with no intel on the enemy's exact strength.
Far better to divide into combat and rest rotations to preserve maximum fighting force than to throw everything in and burn through stamina and mana.
As the Guild Master said, the space was too tight for everyone to fight simultaneously anyway.
Still, watching the fight in case things turned sour, Bern saw Red Team crush the undead horde without much trouble.
"Ha! A lich's dungeon, they said? Doesn't seem all that different."
"Nah, we're just that strong. Honestly, with this lineup, we could wipe out most baronies' standing armies in one go. We've got how many knight-level folks right here?"
Their clothes were dirtied, and scratches marred their bodies here and there, but that was it.
No adventurers with fatal wounds or on the verge of collapse from exhaustion.
They even had the leisure to chat lightly.
The Guild Master signaled Red Team to switch.
"Good work! Blue Team takes point now; you follow from the rear."
Red and Blue swapped positions, and now Blue Team unleashed fury on the blocking undead.
Especially Blanca's performance—it was utterly overwhelming.
-Roooar!
Every time the mid-tier fire spell, Rock Burning Magic, shot out, the undead in their path went up like kindling.
It wasn't the magic swordsman style she'd trained with Bern but pure orthodox mage combat—yet that alone let her wipe out more than half the enemies single-handedly.
The other adventurers, especially the mages seeing Blanca fight for the first time, looked dumbfounded.
"No way—she's spamming mid-tier spells like they're low-tier."
"How much mana does she even have?"
There were Rank 3s at minimum, even some Rank 4s in certain parties, so top-tier firepower like Blanca's wasn't entirely absent.
But while most were conserving mana for the lich fight, Blanca was hurling spells like water, making her output incomparable.
Her display drew so much attention that the Guild Master himself, overseeing both teams, approached her.
"Pushing too hard from the start— you okay?"
Blanca nodded.
"No problem."
"How long can you keep this up?"
"Battles like that last one? Ten times over, easy."
Honestly, she could probably do it a hundred times, but Blanca deliberately downplayed it.
She needed to keep the 'Ring of Essence Absorption'—which let her siphon mana mid-fight—secret from outsiders, and Bern had advised hiding her true strength just in case.
The Guild Master pondered briefly before speaking.
"Blue Team stays on point—no rotation with Red. Anyone need a break?"
The Blue Team shook their heads.
A few sword swings in, and the enemies were already ash; they had plenty left in the tank.
-Grrrrrr...
-Boom!
Thanks to Blanca's overwhelming firepower, the group blitzed through the dungeon.
After a while.
"A fork in the path."
Three ways: left, center, right.
The somehow familiar structure—or fateful, perhaps—narrowed Blanca's eyes.
"I'll check it out, boss."
Renya and a few other scouts split off cautiously to probe the branches.
Luckily, they all returned soon with reports.
"Left led to a big open area. Problem is, it's crawling with undead and all sorts of monsters."
"Center has a huge door! No handle or keyhole—looks like it opens with magic or some mechanism somewhere."
"Oh, right side's got a ton of civilians crammed in like us! But, uh, the floor pattern in that room's glowing, like something's about to happen any second!"
All eyes snapped to the scout from the right.
Compared to the others, this one screamed urgency.
The Guild Master frowned.
"Civilians and a suspicious pattern. Anything else? Guards?"
"About ten in robes—faces hidden. They were circling us chanting something spell-like, but I couldn't make out the words!"
"We have to save them now!"
Someone from Blue Team shouted at the Guild Master.
Alserus Burtrea.
A Rank 4 from the eastern branch and senior to Bern's party, he poured out his plea with a grave face.
"Innocent civilians. If they're already dead, fine—but if they're alive, we have to rescue them!"
"You know our goal is lich subjugation, right?"
"If they complete that ritual, who knows what power the lich gains! Morally, strategically—saving the victims is a must!"
Alserus's fervent argument drew agreement from the others.
"No time to deliberate! If we hesitate and they finish, it's over!"
"Noble trash aside, we can't abandon people too!"
As the Guild Master wavered, Bern stepped forward.
"I'll go."
The Guild Master's eyes fixed on him.
"Gutsy is good, but solo acts aren't allowed."
"If you stop me, I'll go anyway. Asking permission first is just basic courtesy—understand that."
"Hmph."
As the Guild Master hesitated, Alserus's eyes widened in shock.
He shouted urgently.
"No! Multiple enemies— you can't send Bern alone!"
"Then you'll go with him?"
At the Guild Master's dry retort, Alserus gritted his teeth.
Exchanging quick glances with his party, he yelled as if with no choice.
"Fine! Our party will go too!"
"Settled, then. Bern's party and Alserus's together—"
"No, I can handle it alone."
Bern's and the Guild Master's eyes met.
Before the Guild Master could respond, Bern bolted down the right path, and Alserus's party chased desperately after.
At the fork's end lay exactly the scene Renya described.
People caged like animals, surrounded by robed figures chanting ominous spells.
-Slash!
The sword Bern swung felled one robed figure without even a scream.
Yet even with a comrade down, the robes didn't stop chanting.
Nor did the caged victims react to Bern's arrival—they just stared blankly upward.
Bern checked the one he'd cut down.
Under the robe wasn't a mage, but an ice-cold undead.
The next instant, Bern's vision warped violently, teleporting his body elsewhere.
A forced teleport trap.
In the pitch darkness where he couldn't see an inch ahead, someone swung a blade at him.
Sudden relocation, vision blocked, and an out-of-nowhere ambush.
Even a master would show an opening, but Bern casually parried and reset his stance.
Someone in the dark clicked their tongue and backed off.
The swift, unhesitating moves revealed the foe had some way to see through the gloom.
Facing the quietly closing killing intent, Bern spoke.
"Feels strange. I predicted this, yet I hoped I was wrong."
No reply came.
But Bern didn't miss the agitation from the foe—or foes—in the dark.
"Time to talk, wouldn't you say? Eastern branch Rank 4 adventurer. Or rather, lich's disciple—Alserus Burtrea and his comrades."
After a brief silence, an irritated response.
"...Damn know-it-all punk. Suspected as much, but you really pried it all out of them, huh."
Invisible, but the voice and tone were pure Alserus.
He asked Bern.
"When'd you catch on?"
"Not certain. But hearing how you handled things in Frensia felt off."
Bern continued calmly.
"Sleep magic might escape non-mages, fine. But there are drugs to force sleep too. Yet you didn't investigate that angle at all."
"Same with the joint watch shift you proposed and failed. If you were really setting watches, you'd assign multiples per slot to monitor each other—not leave gaps on purpose. That bred distrust in the city, complicating the culprit hunt."
"You claimed incompetence would harm people so you quit the commission, but really, you dragged others in to fool the guild? Talking 'help catch the perp' while sabotaging or misleading—ensuring newbies struck out until the guild dropped it."
Alserus sighed wearily at Bern's rundown.
"Hah, fine. You saw through it from the start. And still played dumb and innocent in front of me?"
"Not as bad as you—selling people to the lich behind backs while fronting as the good guy and senior."
"......"
The killing intent thickened in the dark.
"Annoying little shit. That smug know-it-all face pissed me off from the first sight. But your arrogance went too far."
Alserus sneered.
"You knew the hostages were bait but jumped in thinking you could escape anytime? Wasted a group trap on just you... but now you're alone in one meant for dozens."
-Step.
-Grrrr.
-Clack—of bones colliding.
"I'll kill you gruesomely. Parade your head before your pals. Though our 'siblings' might've handled them already."
Bern didn't respond.
Thinking he'd stripped Bern's leisure, Alserus grinned wider.
-Thwack!
The next moment, a hand seized his nape and slammed his face-first into the ground.
"@%)($!?"
Confusion, shock, horror.
His scrambled mind heard Bern.
"—Ah, sorry. Violence mid-chat is barbaric, but I slipped unconsciously."
Not his usual polite tone, but utterly arrogant and authoritative.
"As atonement, I'll let you live till your friends are cleared. Won't die no matter what—come at me freely."
Bern added, however.
"When you're the last one standing, answer my questions politely, accurately, and promptly. Or what I do to your friends from now on... happens to you too."