Chapter 232
Thanks to our forceful strategy and the fact that we were able to rest properly at night, by the morning of the third day after entering the dungeon, we had already reached our first target: the abandoned village.
Even calling it an “abandoned village” almost feels misleading—it would be more accurate to describe it as a “village-shaped forest,” so completely has nature reclaimed it.
Every house is overgrown with moss; grass sprouts from the roofs in long, continuous sheets, turning the structures almost into a meadow.
Branches burst through walls, enormous trees grow through roofs into the sky—it’s clear that decades have passed since this place became abandoned.
“…Somehow… my chest feels tight… Maybe my hometown will someday become like this too…”
“Melt… I’m sorry. Bringing you here was thoughtless of me. Truly, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. I expected it, really. I think my hometown will eventually return to the forest too. If there are no people left to live there, this will happen someday… Ah, maybe…”
At the entrance to the abandoned village, Melt spoke sadly, painfully, revealing her thoughts.
Yes… that’s it. This dungeon is a forest—a forest dungeon, like the tragedy that befell her hometown.
A village with no inhabitants, where weeds begin to grow and swallow up all traces of the people.
The scene before us could very well be the future of her village.
And knowing that, I wanted to punch myself for making her sad.
“Melt, I imagined the same things as you just now. Perhaps… this abandoned village is the beginning of this huge dungeon…”
“I see… yes, I think so. As long as the dungeon master lives, the forest will keep spreading endlessly. That might be why this village ended up like this…”
“And the masterminds who likely know how dungeons are created, like Hus Fan and the others, are probably acting behind the scenes on this continent too. Most likely, they have some connection to this village.”
“…Then maybe we’ll meet them again on this continent someday.”
“When that happens, before trying to extract information, we kill them first. They should be wounded anyway.”
If my memory is correct… that person should have had both hands killed by Still’s attack.
And that bitch, Inami, who escaped with them, is also poisoned and cursed.
“Yes. Theoretically, one might try to extract information, but realistically, it’s more important to reduce the opponent’s numbers first. When the time comes, I’ll mercilessly take them out with a sniper shot too.”
Yes. That’s the right approach. Forget about honor or fairness—kill first.
If we can finish them off with a preemptive strike, then that’s enough.
That’s precisely why I’m exploring this dungeon in Silent’s form.
“Let’s take a short walk around the village. We might find some clues.”
“Right. Let’s split up and search.”
We wanted to find hints about how this dungeon began, and what this village had been like.
However, so many years had passed and nature had fully reclaimed the village. Not only were books gone, but even shelves and tables had collapsed—there was no real information to be found.
Still, in what seemed to be the abandoned house of the village chief or some person in charge, we found that.
“Everyone… this probably isn’t an ordinary box.”
It was a box decorated with ornate metal fittings and embellishments.
It didn’t look like a treasure chest, but it was clearly no ordinary box.
Even the wooden parts showed no signs of decay; we guessed it must be some kind of magical item—a type of magical tool.
“Oh, I think this… might be a magic device using a spatial stone, like my ‘this’.”
She pointed to the storage magic device at her waist.
I understood. If that’s the case, then whatever is inside—though possibly aged—would not be infested by moisture or plants.
We carefully opened the box.
“Whoa… we have to take this out carefully… looks like some documents.”
“Hm… Silent, let me handle this.”
I handed the papers to Sheele, who is also a scholar.
The stack of papers was fairly thick, but she carefully cut the string binding them and began examining the contents.
I meanwhile checked the box for anything else, but it only contained an empty inkwell and a completely weathered quill.
“Hey, hey, what does it say, Sheele?”
“Hm… it looks like a report. Apparently, this village was… a type of penal colony. Interestingly, it says the village was built inside the dungeon after the fact. I had assumed this village was sacrificed to summon the dungeon, and that’s how this vast forest began…”
“What? That would reverse the timeline… I thought the village was consumed by the dungeon, from the way it looked.”
“Hmm… maybe an additional dungeon was summoned afterward…?”
“Additional… well, if that’s even possible…”
“This might be the secret behind this massive dungeon. In that case… there could even be two dungeon masters?”
“No, perhaps… one defeated the other and rules over it. I don’t know, but it’s a possibility we should consider.”
Honestly, we still don’t know who or what the dungeon master really is.
But they don’t seem to share such a strong camaraderie that they couldn’t fight each other.
Perhaps they kill or compete for control of dungeons.
“We won’t get any more information. It just summarizes when and how many people were brought to this village.”
“I see… then, tonight we’ll stay here, and tomorrow we’ll head toward the mansion deep within the dungeon.”
I told them about the mansion Still had mentioned.
Of course, I presented it as something I had seen when I was sent here—but Sheele was with me at the time, so she should know the truth.
Someday, I should probably tell Melt about Still too.
“This dungeon really is similar to my hometown’s… I’m sure the dungeon master is terrifying too…”
“Certainly. A dungeon master capable of controlling a dungeon of this scale could be the strongest opponent yet.”
“I agree. Tonight we rest here, and tomorrow we head for that mansion. It’s quite a distance from here, so we’ll keep cutting down trees as we go. The deeper we go, the more dangerous it’ll get… at some point, we might even encounter monsters like the ‘Boundary Breaker.’”
When Still explored here previously, he didn’t encounter such monsters, but he did see those who had tried to eliminate Fulerica.
If that period happened to coincide with a lull in monster activity in this area… and the hunters were released in the forest…
If my timing leaving the forest happened to coincide with powerful monsters returning…
Then the appearance of the ‘Boundary Breaker’ may have been nothing more than a coincidence of timing.
From here on, the possibility of encountering such monsters is not zero.
“How did you defeat it, Selene?”
“It was a giant wolf-type monster. I charged into its mouth with my spear. Before it could bite me, I pushed down its throat, rampaged inside, pierced its belly, and emerged, defeating it.”
“That’s reckless…! How could you do such a thing?”
“Well, considering Selene’s stats, I didn’t think she’d lose. Plus, Selene can enhance herself with medicine, and her level is reasonably high.”
“Never go inside a monster’s mouth again, okay?”
“Haha… got it.”
Well, with Silent’s attack power, I could probably just cut it from the outside anyway.
At the time, there were people around, so I had to fight in Selene’s form.
Anyway, from here on, we have to proceed carefully—
The next day, we set our sights on the mansion in the deepest part of the dungeon, near the mountains bordering the continent.
I remembered that along the way, we’d encounter a river. If we went upstream, we’d eventually see the mansion on the mountainside.
Opening the map to check the direction, I saw the river at the edge of the displayed area.
Once again, I swung my sword in Silent’s form, cutting down a swath of trees.
We were completely used to it by now; Sheele shot arrows at any monsters that slipped through, almost as if training her reflexes.
Meanwhile, Melt continued to watch our backs, scanning for approaching monsters or any signs of large beasts nearby.
Thanks to our brute-force strategy, our senses had become somewhat dulled—but considering the frequency of monster appearances, it’s abnormal for an area of this size.
In a confined dungeon or narrow passage, that frequency would make sense—but in such a vast dungeon…
Yet last time we passed through here, we didn’t encounter many monsters.
Could it be… the dungeon is in a sort of dormant phase…?
“…The mansion was blown up, temporarily paralyzing the dungeon’s functions…?”
At that time, the mansion had detonated in a massive explosion in an attempt to eliminate Fulerica.
If the mansion had contained some essential function controlling the dungeon, then perhaps the reason we didn’t encounter many monsters back then was because of that…?
“If that’s the case, the mansion has almost certainly already been restored by now.”
Three more days of dungeon exploration passed.
Finally, we reached the river that was our intended landmark.
Arriving faster than when I had traveled alone was undoubtedly thanks to our ability to cut down trees and move in a straight line.
And with the river nearby, Melt was able to create the long-desired makeshift open-air bath.
Naturally, while the two of them were bathing, I kept watch on the surroundings.
“…There’s bloodstains remaining. This must be the trace of Fulerica and Still repelling the assassins.”
No corpses remained. Perhaps the monsters devoured them, or someone else came to dispose of the bodies.
…Back then, Still had sensed someone was observing us.
If those people are still monitoring the dungeon now… it could be a bit troublesome.
‘Ahhh… this feels so good to come back to life—’
‘Indeed… there’s only so much you can do just wiping your body with water.’
‘Luckily, with the river nearby, we can change the water easily when we’re done. It got dirty so fast.’
‘We were dirtier than we imagined…’
I could hear their conversation.
Come to think of it, this river is unusually calm, despite being fairly wide.
To monitor the surroundings, I focused my attention on listening—definitely not eavesdropping.
‘Look, look! It looks like my chest got bigger!’
‘Hehe, there are such kinds of underwear too. If we go to a big city, we can try to find them.’
‘Oh… there are so many kinds of clothes!’
Alright, time to move a little further and check the area.
I scoured the surrounding forest more than necessary, and finally, it was my turn.
As always, the bathwater was drained efficiently, and fresh water drawn from the river filled the tub.
Melt then used sparks from flint to create a fire, heating rocks until they were red-hot, and dropped them into the bath. Instantly, the water began to boil.
Adding river water again to adjust the temperature produced a bath of perfect warmth in no time.
“Alright, this time Sheele and I will watch the surroundings.”
“Take your time and relax. You’ve been swinging that sword nonstop until now.”
“I will. Actually… my arms were pretty tired.”
Even for a high-level Silent, swinging a greatsword hundreds of times a day is exhausting.
Healing potions can fix injuries, but accumulated fatigue isn’t completely removed.
Sinking into the hot water, it felt as if the warmth seeped into every fiber of my strained muscles, gently warming my entire body.
It felt so good that my eyelids grew heavy almost immediately.
“Ah… this feels amazing…”
Come to think of it, I’d taken a similar makeshift bath near Lindblum while in Silent’s form… back then, I was startled when Schuris joined in.
I’d been so impressed by the outdoor bath at the time that I remember seriously thinking whether it would be possible to set up a bath at the caldera lake on the mountaintop where I’d fought as Silent.
By the time we return to that continent, maybe there really will be a hot spring on the mountaintop.
“Just kidding. Phew… pure bliss.”
From here, the mansion wasn’t yet visible.
But we’d likely reach a point where it could be seen by the end of the day.
I could sense that the battle with the dungeon master was approaching, but for now, I allowed myself to quietly close my eyes and savor this brief moment of healing.