Chapter 96
Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Village of Silence (2)
Looks like they somehow bypassed the sound gimmick?
Been totally silent since they entered lol
Watching their feet too... pretty sharp, huh?
Even if the info's manipulated, not everything is fake.
Can kinda guess the rules of the anomaly up ahead, so they probably came in prepared for stuff like that.
They're really trying hard lol
Hmm...
Kinda pitiful...
Nah?
Not really.
This world's full of sick bastards around you.
Don't go feeling weird sympathy or anything.
Pitiful? What pitiful.
Don't root for invaders.
Newbie might get weird ideas.
Agreed~
No need to pity the bastards gunning for Newbie's life.
Same here.
Gotta burn that fear right in.
But guys.
No one's worried about Newbie at all this time.
Well... yeah?
Honestly, they look like they came here to die.
Last-ditch struggle, maybe?
Paraded in knights and a shitload of escape scrolls for "Dreamland clear."
Party looks that pathetic—no way you can even get tense.
Even a cornered rat bites a cat.
But it's just water.
......
I agree with what the big bros said.
It was meaningless flailing.
I knew the count's situation from scouting.
He couldn't bring any more people from his territory anymore.
Everyone except the count opposed tackling Dreamland.
There was only one escape scroll.
And it couldn't even be used in Zone 5.
Too bad, huh.
If you're gonna die, die outside.
Why die in Newbie's dungeon...
The points are sweet tho lol
True that!
Well, like I said from the start, it's not that I felt zero sympathy.
Losing a loved one hurts the heart.
I hadn't borne a child myself, but if I were the count, I bet it'd crush me.
But that's that, and this is this.
They're coming for my life.
I'm not Oblivion.
Just your average joe running a dungeon.
No intention of shoving morals at the count.
He was an invader, and I was a Dungeon Master.
Nothing more, nothing less.
So.
No need to talk right and wrong.
I'll just do my job.
Protect the magic stone and repel invaders.
That was it.
"Hm."
I looked at the monitor.
One guy got caught in a trap in the eastern forest.
And lost his life to the Death Alien right after.
Four left now.
The invaders had gathered in the village.
Wonder how they'll get through this from here.
Decided to watch quietly with Squishy.
The PTSD knight was dead.
Remaining members: the count, the black mage, the criminal, and the half-ogre.
They looked at each other wordlessly.
They had plenty to say, but they'd agreed before entering to watch the "sound."
At the well.
They each pulled out notepads and scribbled messages.
「The knight's dead.」
「Heard a loud noise from the eastern forest.」
「That's what got him, looks like.」
「Sure? 」
The black mage nodded.
「Definitely the sound.」
「Why? 」
「I witnessed how the knight died.」
Everyone looked puzzled.
The black mage had been far from where the alarm went off.
Sure, he was the closest among the group.
But even with great eyesight, observing through the fog into the eastern forest?
Even magic would struggle—that's what the others thought.
「Hear me out.」
The black mage wrote that the fog blurred it, but he'd spotted a black aberrant creature.
'Aberrant creature.'
That thing was a dungeon minion.
An anomaly, no doubt.
「Lemme describe what I saw.」
Its body evoked a human shape.
But it wasn't human.
Limbs stretched too long.
Joints bent ignoring their natural direction.
Every movement scraped the air with sharp bone-grinding sounds.
About thirty tentacles sprouted from its back.
They looked like wings, too.
Skin thick as armor plating.
Like a barrier shrugging off magic, fire, impacts.
The creepiest part was its head.
No eyes—instead, the whole head split open.
「Felt like staring at a horrific oyster mushroom.」
The black mage remembered it vividly.
The moment the sound hit, its tentacles moved.
The aberrant creature's tentacles were long.
Ignoring physics.
Felt infinite.
Those thirty long tentacles.
Pummeled the eastern forest mercilessly, like a bombing run.
Centered on the alarm spot.
When the creature reeled them in.
The knight dangled limp, skewered like food on a spit.
Then it devoured the knight's head greedily.
The black mage watched, holding his breath.
And once it left, he moved carefully.
"......"
Honestly, hard to believe.
Never heard of a monster like that.
If it existed outside.
Unimaginable horrors would've unfolded.
「My take is...」
「That minion's why your last raid failed.」
The aberrant creature could whip tentacles fast and numerous.
Distance irrelevant—like a sniper kill.
Killing by ignoring spatial limits.
A truly terrifying minion.
「Wrist hurts. Hold on.」
「Write slow.」
......
The thing that killed the knight was that aberrant creature.
And why it targeted him.
「It didn't kill me, nearby.」
「But went for the distant knight.」
Most likely the alarm sound.
Clear this black aberrant was a sound-focused anomaly.
guide mentioning "sound" was probably because of it.
「One thing we gotta consider.」
「That thing's hearing.」
「How good we figuring it for?」
The black mage had been relatively close.
Visible to the naked eye.
He was human.
Tense situation, heartbeat pounding naturally.
Breathing makes noise.
If its ears were sharp, black mage should've died.
「But I'm fine here.」
「So its hearing isn't that superhuman.」
「 has "sound" keyword.」
「Knights figured this much...」
But.
No info on Zone 5 after that.
Means they all died anyway.
Even knowing this key fact.
「What the hell wiped the knights?」
「That aberrant?」
「Traps too dense to dodge?」
「Or another anomaly?」
「If its hearing's our level...」
「Wipe makes no sense.」
「We could ditch notes right now.」
「Talk out loud.」
「And not die.」
Everyone folded their arms.
Tough puzzle.
......
Suddenly, the count recalled memories of Anemone while she lived.
Always bedridden in pain, but.
Whenever he finished work and entered her room.
She'd sense him like a ghost and wave happily.
-How do you always know?
-Huh?
-Lots of people come to Anemone's room. Doctors, maids for care, servants... I don't come at fixed times, but you just know. Amazing.
The count asked.
If she secretly used some arcane magic even archmages didn't know.
She smiled brightly and answered.
-I can tell your footsteps from Ei's?
-How?
-Hard to explain if you ask.
-What kinda answer is that.
-Because I love you.
-That so?
......
「Maybe it's extra sensitive to specific sounds?」
The count proposed.
「Specific sound?」
He nodded, scribbling.
「Yeah. Like human voices, maybe hears those better.」
「Normal hearing like ours otherwise.」
The black mage stroked his chin.
Not impossible.
Wonder if it fits an anomaly, but.
Some monsters hear certain creatures better.
「Intuition again?」
「Yep.」
Sound's the keyword.
Then better watch everything.
「Stay alert around us, sounds too. We've survived so far—being quiet should give us a shot.」
「Yeah. Traps that make noise for sure, anyway.」
「Village first...」
......
The party's sole task: find the "Elevator to Another Zone" and escape Zone 5 without dying.
No need to take down the aberrant creature.
This was Dreamland.
The count finally mentioned village events.
People live here.
Not normal folk—dungeon minions.
Encountered but kept mouths shut.
Nothing happened.
「Felt like they could talk.」
「Didn't try, too risky.」
「Ignoring works fine.」
......
The group searched the village.
To find the elevator.
The count moved too.
Wish they could hurry to the next zone.
He fiddled with the escape scroll in his pocket.
Came prepared to die, but kept this last bastion.
Maybe.
The knights weren't careless?
Underestimated Dreamland?
I'd do better.
Nothing special outside the village.
So insides of houses left.
'Shall I?'
The count steeled himself.
Opened the door where faint light leaked.
Then.
The count's face hardened.
A familiar face stood there.
Dungeon minion, sure.
An anomaly, definitely.
"......"
The count nearly voiced out.
She shouldn't be here.
Existed only in his memories.
"......"
She was cleaning inside the house.
Sensing someone at the door, she stopped and looked toward the entrance.
Their eyes met.
Startled expression, then a quick smile.
The count held his breath.
Nostalgia hit. Pure longing.
She looked healthy.
No pain in her face.
Pale skin now vibrant.
Gaunt, withered body filled out.
Felt like the day they first met.
'Anemone......'
A woman resembling his late wife stood before him.
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