Hell Week: Black Desert Assault (2)
Special Area: Entered the Black Desert.
Due to Elan Academy's barrier magic, all escape item effects are sealed for one week.
The notifications popped up the moment we stepped into the Black Desert.
Liv, the principal of Elan Academy, had spread her grand barrier over the entire Black Desert, sealing the effects of escape scrolls and all other escape items within.
If you just look at this, you can really feel that the chicken (principal) is a great demon.
I thought of Liv and once again marveled at her being the greatest genius of the Astaroth family.
Still, thinking of Liv gave me the chills for some reason.
"So this is the Black Desert. They said it was hot, so I was worried, but it's bearable."
"It's still morning. Once noon hits, the minimum temperature approaches 60 degrees. If you don't wrap yourself in mana, you'll cook from the inside out."
"60 degrees? That's a temperature set to straight-up kill people."
The Black Desert's temperature swings put real-world deserts to shame.
You might think the black sand avoids absorbing sunlight, but the sand here isn't inanimate.
Each grain is like a living spirit, and their staple food is sunlight—more precisely, the mana within it.
They suck in sunlight indiscriminately, drain only the mana, and spit out the leftover heat. This peaks during the day, driving temperatures from a minimum of 60 degrees up to 100 in the worst cases.
In this extreme environment, you have to keep a mana barrier up constantly or suffer severe long-term damage.
"And at night, the black sand grains go dormant, so the temperature plummets."
"Ijun, you know your stuff."
"I did some research."
"Yeah, just like Ijun says. At night, a northern freeze hits that could rival the poles."
At night, the black sand that rampages from morning to evening enters hibernation.
The temperature drops rapidly, down to a maximum of minus 45 degrees.
Erara shook her head as she heard this.
"This place is insane."
"That's why you stay alert."
"By the way, has the mission come in yet?"
Hell Week missions are assigned to the team leader.
And for our F-Class Group 6, that leader was me, Ijun.
I'd originally planned to hand it off to Black Wind, but he said it was better if I did it, Erara enthusiastically agreed, and Lien ambiguously said Ijun would be fine—so it was unanimous, and I had no choice but to take it.
"Mission? Oh yeah, my pocket vibrated earlier."
I'd actually seen the mission in the notification window, but there was no point advertising the system window, so I played it off.
F-Class Group 6 Hell Week Mission: Clear at least 3 floors of the Black Pyramid
📍 Note: Not required, but affects evaluation bonus points
"It's something like this. What do you think?"
"Black Pyramid? Who came up with that mission? Are they crazy?"
"What's the Black Pyramid?"
"Uh, the Black Pyramid..."
"For Erara who doesn't know, allow me, Black Wind, to explain personally."
The Black Pyramid is one of the permanent dungeons located in the center of the Black Desert.
It takes the form of a massive pyramid jutting upward, but that's just decoration—the real dungeon extends underground.
Composed of 50 floors total, the difficulty ramps up the deeper you go, naturally.
The highest floor reached so far is 10, and even that was just a reach—every party that attempted it was wiped out except for one survivor.
And even that lone survivor reported reaching floor 10 before going silent from floor 6 onward, where difficulty spiked, meaning the stable clear limit for students is around floor 5.
"Floor 3 is the line for student-level achievement."
"Even so, the Black Pyramid has a lot of variables."
I knew the Black Pyramid's hellish difficulty all too well.
After all, I'd designed it myself.
"Just like Ijun says. Especially the floor 3 boss—it's a scary one."
The Black Pyramid's floor 3 boss, Priest Karim, doesn't look that threatening at first glance.
But as a necromancer lich, his terror lies not in himself but in overwhelming numbers.
He summons mummy dogs—undead beasts wrapped in bandages like watchdogs. One alone is weak, but the swarm is the problem.
Of course, I know the strategy. And even a no-combat clear method.
I knew how to beat Priest Karim.
It was only natural since I'd designed it, and I even knew a way to skip combat entirely.
"So, what do we do? Clear the mission first?"
"Sounds good. Strike while the iron's hot, as they say."
"What's that mean?"
"Ah, it's like a proverb from my homeland. Means once you've decided, push forward without hesitation."
"I see. Yeah, once decided, you charge ahead. Then our first goal is the Black Pyramid."
F-Class Group 6 set off toward the Black Pyramid.
"We have to punch through this?"
"There's a detour, but it'll take us past the end of Hell Week."
I scratched my head looking down at the wriggling mass of black-toothed worms.
In the game, fast travel skipped it, so I didn't realize these guys blocked the path.
Black Mongolian Deathworms are tricky beasts.
Size and numbers are issues, but their combat style is the real problem.
They move underground, making them a pain to hit.
These worms burrow like lurkers, then burst up for attacks, diving back down if you counter.
But it's not like there's no way.
Some lunatic dives into their sand pit for melee, but that's for real crazies.
There is one surefire, effective counter to Black Mongolian Deathworms.
"What're you doing, Ijun?"
"Hold on. Found it!"
Pretending to rummage my bag, I pulled a fist-sized acorn from the inventory space inside.
"Huh? Isn't that Rata's tactical bomb Acorn?"
Erara recognized the acorn I pulled out.
As she said, it looked like an acorn but wasn't.
Tactical Bomb Acorn—the squirrel beastkin hack Rata Tosk's signature weapon, generated three times a day from her tail, three total.
Yesterday, I traded future interview rights with that squirrel for one.
"Guys buried underground crawl out when you churn up the dirt."
I immediately pressed the button on the Acorn.
A timer light flicked on, and I hurled it into the worm swarm.
"Everyone, down!"
The moment I threw it, I yelled for the team to hit the deck—
Boom-!
Whoom-!
Rumble-!
Kabooooom-!
A massive explosion roared, followed by the blast wave.
The power's insane.
She generates these three times a day from her tail? Scary squirrel.
In the game, it was just decent, but in reality, this was like a mini nuke.
"Whoa~ No wonder the academy bans it."
Erara marveled at the mushroom cloud from the Acorn.
Elan Academy even had staff dedicated to collecting Rata's auto-generated Acorns daily—the danger was official.
If only I could gain XP, I'd hate my no-XP self.
That blast wiped enough monsters for a level-up spree, but my XP bar stayed (0/0).
"Alright, let's go."
Our group stepped over the Black Mongolian Deathworm corpses toward the Black Pyramid.
Meanwhile, in a mixed B- and C-Class group—
"Huh? Where'd Eldina go?"
"Now that you mention it, where is she?"
That group was searching for their missing member.
The missing member's name: Eldina Prosche.
She'd vanished suddenly during the mission.
As her teammates searched, Eldina walked the desert.
"I smell it. My husband's scent..."
Unable to see her husband's face since the women's dorm hot spring incident locked her in the punishment room, she headed straight for the Black Pyramid—where Ijun's group was bound.
"Wait for me, husband. I'll come to you soon♥"
The most dangerous person was heading straight for Ijun.