Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Count (4)
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Count Wolphausen had clearly come in fully prepared.
It was because Dreamland was never a place to take lightly.
He hadn't let his guard down from the very start.
He was prepared for sacrifices, and perhaps even for failure itself lurking in the back of his mind.
But.
But still.
"The communication magic has been cut off again."
"So now there are only five left..."
Honestly, he hadn't expected it to be this bad.
This defies reason.
Like twisting a child's wrist.
Dreamland was taking the knights' lives far too easily.
And all without revealing a shred of information.
Silently, quietly, boldly.
Meaningless deaths.
Men honed over decades were dying.
Vanishing helplessly due to some incomprehensible phenomenon.
"Ah..."
As if crawling into molten lava.
Like madmen charging into storm-ravaged land.
This was a dog's death.
A death without meaning.
"Aah..."
He couldn't picture it.
He couldn't see any future where they could defeat this Dungeon Master.
Even if they painstakingly gathered information.
Even if they sifted truth from lies through sacrifices.
The dungeon would spawn new zones.
Places that wouldn't tolerate even the slightest intelligence gathering.
There was no hope.
The magic stone was nothing but a desert oasis—a mirage.
It existed, but was forever out of reach.
"......"
Beside the count, who sat with his head bowed in silence,
Lorensia stroked her chin.
"This is fun."
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Drip—
The communication cut off.
Now, only three remained.
Count Wolphausen's expression was grim.
The mages glanced nervously and stayed silent.
Only Lorensia pondered deeply.
She cast a detection spell.
Fortunately, the surviving knights had successfully gathered at the rendezvous point.
The recording team discussed the situation at the elevator before the entrance.
It was about why the knights had died without a sound.
To sum up Dreamland's anomalies in one word: gimmicks.
Perform a "specific action," and you lose your life.
It wasn't as if merely entering the dungeon killed you.
There was definitely a cause.
The knights had broken a rule.
And so, the result was death.
It had to be that.
The recording team needed to uncover the rules.
At least to make this expedition meaningful.
"There's one thing that's been bothering me."
Lorensia spoke up.
From some point on, the knights had stopped speaking.
Even when answered, there was no reply.
The communication magic hadn't been severed.
So they must have been silenced for some reason.
"It's probably best to assume the knights are in a situation where they 'cannot speak.'"
That was Lorensia's theory.
"Hello, knights. If you're in a situation where you can't speak, please gently press your Adam's apple once. Yes, got it. Then, are you in an urgent situation like the 'teacher's lesson in Zone 2' where you could lose your life right now? Just stay still for no. Good, thankfully not."
Lorensia had figured out through communication magic that the knights couldn't speak.
Just like when Denrid had assessed Max's situation before.
"Still, it's a relief. You knights figured out the keyword 'silence' before everyone died."
Suspicious signs had been detected just moments ago.
The knight closest to the rendezvous point
had suddenly turned and headed in the opposite direction, observed via detection magic.
It had seemed odd at the time.
But now it made sense.
The knight's name was Dolrind.
He had been traveling with one other knight near the village.
The moment his comrade's life signal cut off, he acted that way.
Dolrind must have figured out the "silence" rule.
He had hurried back to save the others.
"So, speaking means death? Haha, I see. Man, this is truly hopeless."
If they couldn't speak,
basic communication became incredibly difficult.
Of course, the recording team could still input information.
They could distinguish yes or no with throat presses.
"Hmm."
Though Lorensia wasn't a cryptography expert,
her on-the-spot method was as follows.
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.
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1. Ask the knights if they have any discovered information.
2. If they signal yes, build the sentence letter by letter from the start.
3. The process: Slowly recite consonants. When Lorensia says the correct one, the knight presses their throat.
4. Once consonants are found, do the same for vowels.
5. Repeat to complete the sentence.
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It took up to about eight minutes to complete a single letter.
To assemble a simple greeting like "Hello."
At least twenty minutes were needed—it was so absurd she could only laugh.
"Already dealing with info manipulation, memory erasure, forced elite conscription is dizzying enough, and now they pile on silence too. This dungeon is truly impressive in every way."
"...Lorensia, this is in front of the count."
Lorensia shrugged.
As if to say, what's wrong with stating facts? She eyed the mages.
Her voice was excited, words tumbling out fast.
"A newborn dungeon like this has reasons for surviving so long. I've never seen one like it. Not even in history books were there records of such vicious dungeons. World first, one of a kind, impossible to clear, haha!"
A mage forcibly covered Lorensia's mouth.
She mumbled in protest before sealing her lips.
"......"
The count remained silent.
Lorensia's words felt like mockery, but they weren't wrong.
Should he give up?
Quitting here seemed the rational choice.
But.
What about his daughter then?
The count despised himself for clinging to hope even now, to the point of madness.
Lorensia watched the count quietly.
She licked her lips, then flashed a sly smile.
"For now, let's watch. The knights might pull through with grit. They're elites, after all. So, let's hold onto hope. Maybe silence is all there is, and nothing else."
Of course, Lorensia believed no such hope existed.
The Dungeon Master wasn't an idiot.
If Zone 5 were that easy,
they wouldn't have allocated personnel that way.
'Is she certain?'
Lorensia stared straight up at the surveillance camera.
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Dungeon exploration, day two.
Regrettably, no miracle occurred.
They all died.
Communication magic severed.
Detection spells showed no mana reactions.
They had told the knights to use escape scrolls before dying.
But.
Not one escaped.
Probably a zone like the mansion where scrolls couldn't be used.
Survivors: Flame School mages at the entrance elevator,
and Count Wolphausen.
"......"
This added one more note for the recording team.
Zone 5 had anomalies beyond silence to beware of.
One Flame School mage sighed.
"...This is tough."
"I suspect it's structurally impossible to clear."
Everyone except Lorensia looked utterly defeated.
They hadn't expected this level of difficulty.
"Zone 1: maze, Zone 2: academy, Zone 3: mansion, Zone 4: unknown, Zone 5: village. None fully cleared yet..."
"Hundreds including dwarves and humans, plus 17 knights sacrificed. Truly..."
It was an utterly unreasonable dungeon.
Everyone felt it in their bones.
Uncover the rules and proceed to the next zone.
Such a simple method.
Yet utterly unfeasible.
Information manipulated, memories erased.
Only a few elites for scouting.
Multiple runs essential,
yet blocked by every obstacle.
With our current means,
Dreamland is impossible to clear.
The mages concluded.
Wrapped in "newborn dungeon" packaging
was pure hell.
Count Wolphausen stared at the elevator.
His eyes still held lingering attachment.
"Count."
"......"
"Time to go. Now I understand why the Space School abandoned scouting. This is a demon's treasure trove that tempts people. It won't end well."
The mages persuaded Count Wolphausen.
"You might grieve the sacrifices so far. But sometimes you must curb greed for gain and accept the loss."
"Yes. Use the escape scroll now."
The count finally nodded.
There was nothing left to do here anyway.
Fleeing was the only option.
"Wait. Wait, everyone, before we go."
Lorensia stopped the group.
All eyes turned to her.
Lorensia grinned wickedly,
holding up three fingers.
"Give me three hours?"
"Hm?"
Lorensia said she had something to verify.
Not entering the elevator, of course.
What she planned was a kind of ritual.
Everyone eyed her curiously.
But.
They didn't press for details.
She raised a finger.
Pointing straight at the surveillance camera.
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"Done. Now let's escape."
After logging the final entry,
she said it was time to leave.
Everyone blinked.
Count Wolphausen, the Flame School mages.
They stared at what Lorensia had done.
It was a "Delayed Explosion."
A Flame School battle spell that wouldn't activate until triggered by the user.
"Dreamland's Dungeon Master can exit outside, right? I set this up to give them trouble on the way out."
The group stared at her, even more baffled.
A delayed explosion wasn't a landmine.
Without means to monitor inside the dungeon,
it was surely meaningless magic.
They couldn't grasp her intent.
But.
Lorensia had no intention of explaining here.
She used her scroll first and escaped.
"Let's go too."
"......Yeah."
It was the last chance to save A.
Wasting it so futilely twisted his gut like a noose.
The count used his escape scroll.
Was losing memories a blessing or curse?
It might temporarily ease this unpleasant helplessness.
But he thought the latter.
When he looked at the log outside,
he'd suffer even more shock.
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The count had predicted it.
He'd be several times more anguished upon seeing the log.
He was right.
The count bit his lips until they bled.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"
The count's cursing bordered on screams.
He dropped to his knees.
And bashed his head against the hard floor.
Thud!
He repeated it endlessly.
Blood didn't faze him.
Until the impacts turned his vision white.
He endlessly self-harmed his head.
"Count!"
"Calm down!"
The Flame School mages restrained him.
The count mumbled endlessly, "It was the last chance......" and went limp.
One tended to him.
Another eyed the log at the entrance.
And swallowed hard.
The results were shocking.
And rightly so.
Nothing added except: "In Zone 5, make loud noises. Spawnedgers' positions are random."
"He's heartbroken."
"He said he needed the magic stone for his daughter..."
"Something wearing the shell of a newborn dungeon. Truly the worst place."
"Normal dungeons feel that way... But if those anomalies burst out like the Oblivion Church claims, it'd be horrific."
The Flame School mages gave up on.
The listless count likely would too.
There was nothing more to do.
They prepared to return to Wolphausen territory.
But.
Lorensia, standing apart from the group,
just waved them on.
"Huh?"
"I have something to check."
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Lorensia found a village near Frostthorn Mountain.
And stayed there.
Then,
after a fortnight,
she headed back to Dreamland.
"Dreamland can manipulate info related to minions and traps. Info on the Dungeon Master or everyday events inside isn't altered."
Lorensia eyed the log.
It contained the "one possibility" she'd thought of last time.
"Handwriting's mine, so at least this isn't manipulated. Good. Let's go."
She stepped into the dungeon entrance again.
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"As expected..."
Lorensia gazed at the still-lingering "Delayed Explosion."
Its duration was extremely long—years at minimum.
But dismantling it was relatively simple.
Use jamming.
Dreamland had no jamming.
No means to interfere with magic at all.
She stroked her chin.
Definitely a devastating dungeon.
But perhaps, Dreamland,
not entirely impregnable after all.