Let's Explore the Dungeon!
The current headmaster of the Academy was Els Akatio. Like the Colwen family, their ancient noble house had amassed many territories over the years—and lost just as many. Yet one piece of land they had sworn never to surrender was this very place: a humble peak that broke away from the Malite Mountain Range, a mountain whose summit offered a sweeping view of the entire landscape below.
“Rotato! How beautiful!”
I was approaching that mountain now.
“Young man, you shouldn’t be saying that yet. The real scenery only reveals itself after you’ve climbed Rotato Mountain, you know?”
“I’m well aware of Malite’s majesty. But to me, the value of this Rotato is every bit its equal.”
“Well, I’ll be. In all my years living here, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that.”
What meaning did the sheer scale of a mountain range hold, anyway? It only made travel inconvenient and turned the place into a den where beasts gathered in hordes. It was Rotato that made the Malite range truly scenic. What the Akatio family had fought wars to seize and protect wasn’t Malite—it was Rotato. And I was about to uncover yet another reason why this place held such value.
“From here on, you’ll have to climb alone. Are you really sure that equipment will be enough? This mountain may be smaller than the others in the Malite range, but it’s no easy hike.”
“Of course. I’m quite confident in my stamina.”
I had to claim that value for myself. In the name of Colwen.
“So this is the dungeon.”
As expected, it wasn’t located near any hiking trails. The mountain was quite large; if I hadn’t checked the coordinates in advance, it would have taken days to find. I couldn’t afford to stay past the weekend—Melina would chew me out again.
In the game, the event started with you already inside the dungeon.
I never imagined it would be hidden in a place like this. Even after entering, I didn’t feel any particular atmosphere. Who would ever think a magic sword was concealed here? If I hadn’t recognized the terrain from the game, I would still be doubting it myself.
“Shall we?”
This dungeon was one you visited early in the game, so it wasn’t particularly difficult. Eres and Arte had cleared it without much trouble, aside from the boss. Which meant my job was simple.
“Indomitable ON.”
“Kiiieek!!”
“Kwek! Kueeek!”
“Kyaaaak!!”
Goblins, cave worms, kobolds, spiders. All the rest. I didn’t bother fighting the small fry that were supposed to help raise Eres’s level.
The dungeon’s monsters were at war.
Deep underground, in a place humans had never discovered.
The various monsters that had originally claimed this cave suddenly found themselves invaded from the outside one day. Months ago, investigators from the Academy had come. After watching their kin slaughtered during the so-called “safety inspection,” the monsters harbored deep hostility toward humans. When more humans began appearing a few days ago, that hostility exploded.
And now—
“Kill it! Kill this human!”
“Pile on tighter! If we keep attacking it’ll hurt eventually!”
“We’ve been hitting it forever—why is it still fine?!”
They were swarming something that looked less like a person and more like a moving lump of iron.
“Kieek!”
“Kyaaak!”
“Kueeeek!”
“Ugh, so noisy.”
To Luke it sounded like that, but the creatures were actually communicating with one another. Twenty minutes after entering the dungeon. Every monster that crossed his path from the entrance had joined the fray, focusing fire on him.
“My hands hurt…!”
“How can a human be this strong…?”
The one being hit was completely unharmed, while the ones doing the hitting were the first to break. No matter how they struck, pulled, kicked, or bit, they couldn’t even slow his stride, let alone injure him.
“Kyaaak! That’s impossible! Even a human would die if you hit it there!”
At that moment, one brave goblin climbed up his body and stabbed at his eye. Goblins born and raised in caves didn’t know much about human weak points, but the cunning creatures had guessed where a blow would be fatal on a similar bipedal being. However—
“Huh…?”
Crunch!
What broke wasn’t the wicked human’s eye, but the goblin’s own hand that had stabbed at it.
“Why… is this…”
“Tsk. What are you doing breaking your hand like that?”
And a goblin that could no longer fight could not become experience points.
“You’re in the way.”
Wham!
It was a casual backhand, like swatting away a fly. Luke hadn’t even put any real strength into it, yet the goblin’s head exploded on impact. In truth, the motion contained a fair amount of refined technique, but the monsters had no way of knowing that.
“Kyaaaaaaaak!!!”
“Kuek! Kuek! Kueeek!”
“Hiiiiiiiaaaaak!!”
Even by monster standards, the shrieks that poured out were nothing but screams. What the hell was this thing? It didn’t flinch no matter where you hit—face, throat, even the groin. Yet if it casually swung once while standing still, it killed instantly. They could no longer tell if it was human or some monster that simply looked like one. Perhaps it was something like a demon. Or maybe the monster gods had sent an avatar.
“Was it around here? I think the wall collapsed somewhere nearby.”
Luke himself felt about as much danger as a beekeeper wearing a protective suit while observing a hive. Subjectively, it felt closer to wearing a spacesuit.
“Kyaaaak! Everyone move aside! I’ll handle this!”
“Kieek! Boss! It’s the boss!”
“The boss is stepping up!”
Once again, a brave goblin stepped forward. This one was carrying a sword it had picked up somewhere and was performing an elaborate sword dance.
“Oh? It even has a sword?”
Judging by its sturdy build for a goblin and its sharp eyes, Luke could tell this was a special specimen.
“An elite monster. Lucky me.”
A stronger monster that appeared with low probability. It was pure luck whether one showed up, and running into one at the wrong time could mean game over. But—
“This will be great experience for Eres…!”
The rewards for defeating one were quite generous. The goblin faltered for a moment under that gaze that looked at it like prey—except it wasn’t the one that would be eaten. But if not me, then who? Having steeled its resolve, the goblin charged at the demon, and the other monsters all withdrew so as not to interfere.
The moving iron mass facing the goblin warrior said,
“Die, human!!!”
“I can feel your strong spirit. Very well! I’ll test you too!”
He neither dodged nor blocked. He spread his arms wide, leaving his body completely open as he accepted the goblin warrior’s attack head-on! If the creature could even leave a scratch on him in his current state, it would make a formidable opponent for Eres. Yet—
Thud—!
Was that a sound one could make by striking a human body with a sword? The goblin’s blade—origin unknown—could only slightly press against the skin. Even when attacking a completely defenseless enemy, that was its limit.
“Kieeeeek! Run!!”
“If you want to live, get out of here! How are we supposed to kill something like that?!”
When even the elite monster proved no match, the rest of the monsters fled the cave. The only one who could not was the single pitiful goblin that had bravely challenged the monster.
“K-Kieek…”
“So this is all you amount to.”
The goblin felt pure terror under the gaze of the man looking down from above. People often said goblins had the intelligence of human children, but even a child would understand. No matter what it did, it could never kill this thing. And it had dared to raise a sword against an unkillable being. Even a goblin could imagine that this overwhelming powerhouse would now kill it.
“What are you doing? Try again.”
“Kiek…?”
But the man was different. He still held his arms wide open. He had even taken off his top, as if inviting the goblin to strike anywhere it wanted, and was simply waiting for the attack. Surely it didn’t think the human was afraid of it. Not even a goblin would believe that.
“Kyaaaak!!!”
It swung its sword purely to survive. If it ran, it would die anyway. For whatever reason, the human wasn’t moving right now—so it had to kill him now. It could only pray for a miracle.
Once, twice. Dozens, then hundreds of swings, all trying to cut down the enemy.
Crunch!
Crack!
And it thought: Why did this have to happen to me? Why do humans invade the places where we lived in peace, the places where we were born and raised? Then it lost the ability to think.
Thinking was originally something done with intention. It was not a natural state. For this goblin, resentment had melted into its very core and become common sense rather than something that needed to be considered. It had become a being that naturally resented humans.
Crack—!
Was it the sword that had broken, or was it the goblin?
“Kyaaak!”
On the 108th strike, the frenzied blade finally left a red mark on the human’s body.
I can win. I can win!!
If it could just hit harder and faster than before, it could tear through this human’s skin and rip out his organs!!
“Oh? So this is your limit.”
It had definitely struck harder and faster than before. Yet the human casually caught the goblin’s sword between two fingers as if it were nothing.
“At this level, it can at least leave a mark. Excellent. It’s just usable enough.”
He flicked the captured sword aside, then walked straight past the goblin and deeper into the cave without doing anything else. The goblin could not understand human language. It had no idea what the man had said. It could not read his thoughts. It did not know that if it had wounded him any earlier, he would have judged it a threat to Eres and killed it on the spot.
The only thing it instinctively understood was that the human had treated it like a toy.
“Kyaaaaaaaaak!!!”
Humans accumulated experience, strengthened their souls, and raised their levels. If so, what about monsters?
“Now that I’ve gone a bit deeper, no more monsters are coming out.”
This must be the section where the cutscene triggered. Eres and Arte had somehow made it through to the middle, but the moment they tried to rest, the wall behind Eres would collapse and separate them. Once she regained her senses, Eres would have to proceed alone through the dark cave until she reached the boss room.
“Around… here?”
It was hard to be certain since it was a cutscene section, but the wall structure here looked unstable and full of cracks. When I tapped it, the sound was different in this spot. This was definitely it.
“If Eres had known about the dungeon’s secrets, she never would have obtained the magic sword… Though the bigger problem is that the Academy idiots didn’t discover it first.”
I wanted to question them once I returned, but since I had sneaked in, saying anything would only get me investigated.
“I’ll just take care of it myself.”
Boom!
When I kicked the wall, a large hole opened leading downward. I jumped in, and my feet quickly touched ground, but I slid down the slope to a path below the original route. The distance wasn’t that great, so even a weak Eres would only faint if she rolled down. And because the path curved, you couldn’t see the upper section and wouldn’t think to climb back up. So that’s how the separation worked. No wonder they couldn’t reunite.
“Good. Now, which way?”
There were two choices: forward and backward. One led to the dungeon boss. The other led to the magic sword. Eres would definitely enter the boss room first, then flee from it and eventually reach the magic sword’s location.
“The magic sword first.”
I had no need to follow that sequence. I didn’t think I would struggle against a boss that a low-level Eres could endure. After walking quite a distance backward, I found a sword embedded in the ground not far ahead.
“Is this it…?”
A sword glowing with an ominous purple light that should have felt incredibly sinister. In the game, the moment I saw it I knew something was wrong. Yet even after gripping the hilt now, I felt nothing.
“All that chaos really happened because of this one sword…”
I was filled with the urge to destroy it, but even in my current state, breaking it would probably be impossible. Above all, without this damned sword, I couldn’t create a happy ending. Not unless Eres reached max level.
“I have to take it.”
Why didn’t I feel anything even after pulling it out? It was fortunate that nothing happened, but the fact that nothing was happening with an object that was supposed to cause something only made me uneasy.
“They say the magic sword chooses its wielder. It can’t be that… right?”
Nah, surely not. If someone like me—who was working to save the world—didn’t qualify, then it really would be Eres-exclusive. Well… from this world’s perspective, that might actually be the better outcome. What a selfish world.
Then now—
“I should kill the boss and head back.”
It was a boss that Eres couldn’t defeat without the magic sword. Since I had taken the sword, the boss would probably never let her leave alive if they met. I usually avoided killing monsters to preserve their full experience value, but this time I’d put in some real effort.
“Lady Eres. If we were to take control of a dungeon and prevent adventurers or soldiers from subjugating it, what do you think would happen?”
“Correct. Then what do you think would happen if we kept forcing more monsters into a limited dungeon?”
“Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. Because if they escaped, they would have to fight on humanity’s home ground. So they remained inside the dungeon.”
“Yes, exactly. So they fought among themselves to regulate their numbers. The weak monsters were culled, leaving only the strong.”
“Talking about dungeons with you suddenly reminded me. Our idiot Count has taken control of a dungeon and filled it with elite monsters. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but it really is quite the nuisance, isn’t it?”