Chapter 64

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 64

Chapter Title: Group Assignment

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A Blesseds entered Dreamland.

Her name was Aborallis, a stunning beauty by all accounts.

But according to Dungeon Gallery rumors, she's a vicious bitch.

She's eyeing the guide while poking around in front of the elevator.

It's probably the one provided by the dwarves... but ever since Chase got in, the elevator's become pretty damn shabby.

So, I have to assume it'll get breached eventually.

For reference, even during a wave, I can expand the dungeon, buy minions, and install traps.

There's a penalty that I have to go there myself, but creating Zone 4 right in front of the core room should be doable.

Now, where should I send this one?

According to Lovey's intel, Aborallis has a trait that nullifies traps.

That's the one ability I need to watch out for most right now.

If she breaks the anomaly in Zone 3 with that power and spots the elevator, nullifying the elevator itself would open a straight path to the core room.

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All paths in the dungeon must connect.

That's the basic rule.

So the elevator's always placed in the middle passage linking zones. Even if it's on floor 70, 80, or whatever due to trap placement, it's judged as the 'passage to the next zone.'

If the elevator gets temporarily disabled, the path to the core room opens up.

If there's no elevator to begin with, that becomes the escape route.

That's why I can't just drop Aborallis straight into the goblin cave.

Not until that ability of hers is used up, anyway.

She also has the power to read memories from corpses, apparently.

I don't know the exact range or cooldown for that illusion.

It might take a long time, or there could be various cases.

The goblin cave has intruder corpses left behind.

Best to clean them all up with Squishy, but...

Like the school office, corpse-related stuff is completely out of my hands.

Maybe because those zones have their own independent ecosystems? I don't really know why.

Even anomaly-themed Dungeon Masters can't cross certain lines.

I can't claim to understand everything.

So the remaining options are the maze or the school, but the maze seems best.

Lure her into using that ability as much as possible in the maze, then crush her in the school.

She might die to the doppelganger or drown in the maze.

"Honestly, dying to Bug Human would be ideal..."

-Sigh...

-Whoa.

That woman.

She doesn't seem like the type to go down easy.

What a straightforward bitch.

She's already figured out the elevator mechanics and is jamming the number buttons.

"Please just head to a hallway without lights."

-Ignore the unlit hallways, I said.

Sigh, fuck.

Yeah. She has the guide.

Wishing for luck was a long shot anyway.

For some reason, I can picture Bug Human looking all dejected.

It's fine. It's fine.

You carried us through the Branded Elves.

Just handle her with other anomalies.

Muttering those words of encouragement I couldn't say aloud,

I observed Aborallis's movements.

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Aborallis eventually cracked the password.

-She'd figure it out eventually anyway. What's wrong with setting it easy?

-So shady and unpleasant. Does Dreamland's Dungeon Master have tastes like this?

-She looked decent enough, but what a waste of a face.

She's just stepped out of the elevator into Zone 1.

What can I say?

From the moment she entered the dungeon,

it's like she knows I'm watching.

She's muttering to herself like a crazy bitch. What's her game?

Hmm.

Sorry, but beauty traps don't work on me.

"Ugh."

I get it.

Of course it's not a honey trap.

"Reminds me of those balanced 5:5 team games."

You know, the assholes who trash-talk in general chat when their side has the advantage.

I don't know if she's trying to rile me up, but...

She's flaunting that she knows my identity to some extent.

-The Branded Elves came through first, right?

-Did they breach the elevator? The dwarves' guide showed some nasty traps.

-Yuben didn't seem to die in the elevator.

-Makes sense. You personally came out and... no, you herded him into a den with a starving bear and killed him.

-Won't you show yourself to me too?

-You're a Dungeon Master brave enough to step outside. Hehe, scared of a 1:1?

-I won't rough you up. I just want to see you with my own eyes.

She's really pissing me off.

"Squishy. Mobilize."

I immediately grabbed a pen.

And wrote a memo to hand to Squishy.

"Ugh."

Well, might as well humor her cheap provocation.

The gallery's been quiet here anyway, so I'm bored.

「ㄴㄱㅁ」

Aborallis blinked at the memo.

"Hehe..."

What a feisty one.

I should keep this as a souvenir.

I tried slicing the slime that delivered the memo,

but like the elevator, it was physically unkillable.

Drip, drip-

Water fell from the sprinkler.

"Ah, it's cold."

Aborallis looked up at the ceiling.

This didn't seem like a meaningless phenomenon.

Not poison, just plain water.

But what kind of trap was this?

Surely it wouldn't flood the whole maze later?

"Spraying water on a lady..."

Aborallis walked through the maze.

She kept her mouth moving without pause.

"When you should be serving me tea in a cup... this dungeon has zero manners."

Of course, it wasn't just to rile the Dungeon Master.

It was closer to self-suggestion.

A hallway with nothing but stark white lights—the epitome of minimalism.

The path to the goal was long.

Just walking would make it easy to lose focus.

In a place like this, where anything could happen, lapsed concentration

was a surefire way to get herself killed.

Her tone was playful to the extreme, but her expression was rigidly set.

'What the hell was Oblivion thinking, letting a trash dungeon like this exist?'

And rightly so.

This Dreamland offered no achievement points, not even points or experience.

It was a demon cave where only rewardless death awaited.

If a hot-tempered Blesseds had come, they'd surely spew curses.

Of course,

Aborallis wouldn't stoop to such vulgar words.

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Like the black mages massacred before, Aborallis confronted the true secret of Zone 1.

The maze was obsessive.

The moment an intruder tried to leave Zone 1, it changed structure in real-time, sealing the exit.

That wasn't all.

The droplets from the sprinklers had become streams, forming puddles on the floor. The drowning concept, once mere imagination, was slowly becoming reality.

And then.

Thud, thud.

Thud, thud.

"Haha..."

The moment she identified the approaching figure ahead, Aborallis couldn't help but laugh dryly.

It was her.

Not figuratively... a second Aborallis for real.

"Who are you?"

"That's what I want to ask... who are you?"

It wasn't just appearance.

It knew her abilities, items, memories, and past—everything.

This thing was probably Dreamland's minion.

The answer was to defeat minions physically.

But fight a copy with the exact same power alone and win?

What bullshit.

It was absurd.

"Impossible difficulty for a newborn dungeon."

"Tell me about it."

Aborallis drew her sword.

The copy did the same.

"Can fakes come back from death too?"

"Who knows. Guess we'll see."

"Couldn't agree more..."

Probably,

this match ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would end in a draw,

or victory for whoever got luckier.

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This time, the 'real' Aborallis got lucky.

She stomped the corpse of the 'fake' Aborallis's head and sighed.

Right now,

a sudden doubt crept in: maybe the one left in this dungeon was the fake.

And rightly so—the copy had been identical.

But the doubt vanished quickly.

The wave hadn't ended.

That was decisive proof she was the intruder, not the dungeon's minion.

'No experience or points again, as expected.'

Downing an advanced healing potion in her battered state, her wounds began to heal slowly.

She pulled out her journal from sub-space and started writing.

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Aborallis wanted to crack the maze's, but

with fakes appearing and dragging it out risking danger, she thought better.

'It's bigger than expected. Better to bring two or more for efficient scouting.'

She could nullify one 'trap' per wave.

And this maze counted as a trap.

Activating her power,

the bloated maze shrank, revealing a simple long hallway.

She walked the corridor.

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It was when she thought she'd almost arrived.

She couldn't go further.

And rightly so.

I was walking toward her again.

She'd anticipated it, but faster than expected.

"Haa..."

"Haa..."

Perfectly synced reactions.

Aborallis spoke.

"Hey."

"Yeah."

"If you were me, you'd be thinking the same thing right now, right?"

"...Write our journals before killing each other?"

Aborallis nodded.

The fake smiled and nodded too.

As Aborallis pulled her journal from sub-space, so did the fake.

Both turned away and scribbled.

Moments later,

daggers flew simultaneously.

The sharp blades crossed, embedding precisely in each other's throats.

Pfsh!

Can't breathe.

Aborallis and the copy clutched their throats and slumped down.

Clean, no-frills work.

Only then did Aborallis admit it cleanly.

That monster was another perfect her.

She'd shown an opening while writing to exploit the opponent's.

Apparently, the copy thought the same.

Blood gushed from her mouth.

Stopping breathing made her mind haze.

Even dying, seeing another her desperately scribbling in a journal like herself, Aborallis realized the anomaly's.

'One way to Zone 1 is probably to get friendly with your copy... or something.'

Realizing the method,

exchanging glances with her copy became genuinely fun.

Aborallis was different from normal people.

She could revive even after death—an immortal being.

That's why she could enjoy this nasty situation.

Aborallis slowly drew her dagger.

Blood poured from her throat, but enduring the pain, she forced down an elixir.

A rare potion, only three even for a Blesseds.

Half came back up with coughs, but

she could breathe somewhat.

"Haa, cough... ptui."

Sound came out again.

Spitting blood filling her throat, Aborallis asked,

"...My other self."

The copy had blocked the fatal wound the same way.

And continued the conversation, seemingly thinking the same.

"Why call me?"

"Do you want to come back to this dungeon?"

She shook her head.

"You got lucky this time."

No matter how much info she brought back to Zone 1, memories were erased and info tampered.

Of course, she could start much more advantageously next time.

Per Chase, Dreamland couldn't alter all info.

So she could infer minion and trap traits.

But still.

Even arriving here again, could she expect better results?

All her built abilities were mostly useless here.

Her ace, limited to once per wave, was already used.

So the action was simple.

The fake and Aborallis pulled escape scrolls from sub-space.

Same timing again.

"Does this mean theoretically three Aborallises could exist outside?"

"Hehe, probably not. It'd be a disaster for other Dungeon Masters."

The reason she was using the escape scroll now

was lack of confidence surviving the zones beyond.

No idea what's there—she couldn't up the stakes lightly.

'Dreamland can't be cleared easily. To remove it, you'd have to sacrifice more than expected.'

This was more reconnaissance and exploration.

Learning this and noting it in her journal was enough.

Aborallis looked at the ceiling.

It felt like exchanging glances with the Dungeon Master.

"Next time we meet, then..."

She muttered meaningfully and escaped Dreamland.

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Aborallis stroked her head.

She remembered absolutely nothing.

The only way to infer what happened inside was her journal.

Aborallis read it.

"...Fakes try to killers slyly. Fakes have the same power asers. So enter with multiple people to identify and kill fakes. Maze fills with water over time, risking drowning. No experience or points. Nearly died twice in Zone 1. Considering indestructible minions/traps and Dungeon Master growth, requires readiness for level losses, helpers, etc.?"

What to say.

It didn't feel real.

Did I really write this?

No memory, so even matching handwriting bred suspicion.

Aborallis touched her throat.

First time encountering such a creepy newborn dungeon.

'Gotta post this on Blesseds Gallery first.'

She moved her fingers.

Uploading a post including that the Dungeon Master could exit.

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