Chapter 14
Purgatory.
A subterranean dungeon that extends all the way down to 100 floors.
To summarize the difficulty of this place:
First, up to the 30th floor.
A difficulty level that even the academy's top students could clear without difficulty.
In accordance with its original purpose, this is an area where students can safely gain experience.
For that reason, it is also used as the setting for practical training, assignments, and exams.
‘The real deal starts at the 40th floor.’
From that point onward, students must be accompanied by the professor in charge.
It is too much for an individual student to clear alone.
‘From the 50th floor onward, it's a restricted area.’
Student access is restricted below the 50th floor.
Professors only come and go to obtain research materials.
Even then, they cannot enter without the dean's approval.
These are floors where even professors can lose their lives if they let their guard down.
In particular, once they enter the 60s, even professors have difficulty operating alone.
Entering alone is tantamount to suicide.
‘From the 70th floor onward, they're entirely unconquered floors...’
Floors that had remained unconquered even over the past several hundred years.
An area where expedition teams had been dispatched several times, only to suffer bitter defeats every time.
There had been 15 officially recorded deployments of regular expedition teams alone.
A total of 137 expedition members had been dispatched, and not a single one had returned alive.
Perhaps because of the continuous losses, the academy decided to seal off the 70th floor entirely.
[Warning]
This area has an extremely low survival rate even for regular expedition teams.
-Regular expedition teams consist of at least two powerful individuals at the professor level or above.
-Twenty years ago. After five professors died in the line of duty during an expedition, the conquest of this area was suspended indefinitely.
Your probability of returning alive is extremely low.
Do not enter under any circumstances.
That meant the warning I had seen earlier wasn't merely intended to scare people.
137 people had died here alone, including more than 50 individuals at the professor level.
‘The master of the 70th floor is that troublesome.’
Once you enter the room, escape becomes impossible as well.
Teleportation and dimensional travel through sorcery are impossible, too.
There is only one way to open the locked door: hunt the master of the area.
“Shall we go in?”
A pitch-black backdrop.
It was a space filled with nothing but musty darkness, without even the flickering lanterns.
We had passed through the warning notice and the massive gate and finally entered the boss room.
Rumble—!
The entrance to the room was sealed again.
There was no way to escape now, either.
A trembling voice came from right beside me.
“Vic, Victor...?”
“Your Highness.”
Carmilla muttered as if nervous.
Her hand was gripping my sleeve tightly.
If she was as perceptive as usual, she must have sensed it.
Even the faint remnants alone would have been enough.
How unreasonable a being the master of this 70th floor truly was.
“I-I can't breathe... This is the first time I've ever felt such a vile, um, yin energy.”
“Take deep breaths. You mustn't let its aura beguile you.”
“Ugh, that's impossible. To think we're going to hunt something like that...”
“You're doing well. Breathe more deeply.”
Hoo, hoo—.
Only after panting several times did Carmilla regain her composure.
Yet her red eyes remained filled with fear.
The girl wiped away her cold sweat and spoke.
“Victor really is amazing...”
“Pardon?”
“Even I, this great me, feel as though I might be crushed by that aura, yet you aren't afraid—or even showing the slightest sign of agitation.”
“Hmm...”
How was I supposed to explain this?
Unlike Carmilla, I was simply too weak to even detect its aura properly.
In the first place, could someone with an E-rank in sense perception possibly do something like that?
All I felt was that it was a little more eerie than usual, that it sent a chill down my spine—nothing more.
“I'm glad you're by my side. Please don't leave me, all right...?”
“Of course. With this Victor here, you needn't worry.”
“My trusted retainer really is so dependable.”
Of course, I didn't bother with any unnecessary explanations.
The princess was relying on me, after all.
We looked around.
“But... how strange.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can feel a powerful aura, yet I can't see so much as the tip of the nose of the being who owns it...”
“You'll find out soon enough.”
It was almost time for it to appear.
Before I could finish saying that, a faint breeze touched my cheek.
There was wind in a sealed space. I had no time to wonder about it.
Because the next instant, a fierce storm engulfed us.
“Eek, eek...?!”
“Your Highness! Please use Bloodcraft to create a barrier...!”
“I-I understand!”
Though she staggered in the gale, the girl carried out my request.
When she clasped both hands as if offering a prayer, light writhed.
A dark crimson light. It bloomed like a flower, gently illuminating the darkness around us.
The girl's lips recited an incantation.
“O life that scatters, quench the thirsty throat of dawn with moonlight.”
Whirling blood-red light.
Thinly spread droplets of blood enveloped us.
A neat hemispherical barrier, transparently covering us.
“Worship the rightful master. At night, I shall speak of night, to night, with night.”
-Vlandir-style Bloodcraft, Form Seven-
‘Crimson Blood Half-Heaven (赤血半天)’
“Bloom.”
Rumble—.
Following the final sentence, the storm shattered into fragments.
Thanks to that, we avoided being swept up in it and remained unharmed.
It was the most durable barrier Carmilla could deploy.
Beyond the reddish glass-like barrier, something black writhed.
“It has appeared.”
The beginning.
The gale from a moment ago was merely a by-product of its appearance.
Carmilla's red eyes trembled as she looked beyond the barrier.
As if doubting her own eyes, and also hoping desperately that it wasn't.
“Th-that is...”
An opaque green.
Wings spread majestically, yet torn in places.
Bones and muscles were plainly exposed beyond the rotting flesh.
A vile stench wafted out, and green runoff dripped from pupils seething with maggots.
Carmilla's single word caught in her throat.
“······A dragon?”
Yes, the thing standing before us was a dragon.
Or rather, perhaps I should say it was something that had once been a dragon.
The stench of rotting meat wafted through the air.
[Name:Undead Dragon(Undead Dragon)]
-Race:Undead
-Description: An undead being based on the corpse of a dragon. It is the master that presides over the end of the 70th floor.
-Passives: Reduced physical attack damage, reduced magical attack damage, immunity to fire-attribute attacks, immunity to water-attribute attacks, immunity to light-attribute attacks, immunity to dark-attribute attacks, immunity to attacks of all attributes...
A body festooned with every imaginable immunity.
It looked down at us, then opened its rotting maw and roared.
“Kuoohhhhh—!”
It felt as though my eardrums were going to split.
The ceiling shook, and cracks spread across the barrier.
Carmilla hurriedly reinforced the barrier.
“Vic, Victor...!”
“It's all right. Buy us time like this!”
“Against that? Th-the barrier won't hold!”
“I only need a moment! Precisely 75 seconds should do.”
“C-could we really... defeat something like that...?”
The next moment.
The dragon's arm came crashing down on the barrier.
“Kraaaang—!”
“Ngh...!”
The barrier crumpled horribly, then recovered in response to Carmilla's gesture.
It seemed as though it could withstand a few attacks like this.
The creature seemed to be underestimating us, too.
“I'll prepare right away.”
I immediately bent down.
I sat down on the floor.
‘Exactly. This is the spot.“
A claw fragment rolling around.
It was a very small piece.
It must have fallen from that creature's body.
I picked it up and began rubbing it against the floor.
’It can't be wrong. Exactly the order I remember.”
Boom, boom—!
Even as I did so, the barrier was attacked several more times.
The crimson barrier repeatedly crumpled and spread back out.
The speed at which it recovered began to slow.
No, it hadn't slowed.
It simply couldn't keep up with the speed of its collapse.
“I'm reaching my limit...!”
I scratched it five times to the left, then seven times to the right.
I rolled, rubbed, and scrubbed the claw fragment diligently.
I kept going until I got the reaction I wanted.
“Hngh, ugh...!”
“Kaboom—!”
It wasn't something one could dare take on.
Even if it had been downgraded to an undead, a dragon was still a dragon.
As I had seen in the status window earlier, it possessed immunity to all sorts of physical and magical phenomena.
That was also why the expedition teams sent before had suffered bitter defeats time and again.
‘But...’
I was different.
The experience etched into my fingertips, the sensation of operating a keyboard, and time.
All of those things would be a calamity the creature had no way to counter.
Creak, creak—.
The claw I had been scraping along the floor finally reacted.
Faintly, it crackled, and a heat-haze-like shimmer began to rise.
‘Got it.’
I raised my head.
I rose to my feet.
“Even I, this great me, can't hold out any longer...”
Carmilla staggered as if exhaustion had set in.
The barrier had failed to recover and was on the verge of shattering completely.
Grrr...
The creature had its jaw gaping wide, as if preparing to finish us off.
Green runoff bubbled, and condensed energy flashed within its maw.
‘A breath.’
It seemed intent on melting us away without leaving even a trace.
The barrier could no longer be repaired and began to fall away in pieces.
Terror filled Carmilla's pupils.
Perhaps she had sensed death.
Following a brief leaking breath, the dragon exhaled as well.
Sticky gastric juices and flames poured out, enough to fill the space.
“Kraaaaaaaaa—!”
“······!”
“Shatter—!”
The barrier broke helplessly.
The two of us couldn't even cry out.
Our figures were swallowed by the stomach acid without a trace.
Grrk, grrrk—.
Certain that we were dead, the undead swallowed the bubbling green runoff.
Just as it was about to disappear into the darkness once more.
“Oh dear.”
Unfortunately for it, we were alive.
More than alive, we hadn't suffered even a scratch.
Ding—!
[The item ‘Mask of the Evil God’ has activated.]
A mask that nullified the breath.
Carmilla was also cradled in my arms.
After confirming she was unharmed, I looked up at the tremendous height.
“Where do you think you're going?”
The corners of the mouth behind my mask were stretched wide.
I imagined the mask's mouth was stretched the same way.
The claw fragment was still in my hand.
“I wonder if you know what a clipping bug is.”
Clipping bug (Clipping Bug).
The phenomenon in games where a player or NPC gets stuck in a wall.
“It's all right if you don't. You'll experience it now.”
The undead looked down at me as if it had no idea what I meant.
I held out the claw pinched between my fingers.
Then, infusing it with a little mana, I flicked it toward the creature.
“Fwish.”
“Hollow Technique: Purple.”
The claw fragment flew away limply.
Perhaps because a heat haze had attached to it, it left a long, distorted afterimage.
The undead remained motionless, as if it hadn't even understood what I had done.
Tap—.
The fragment finally struck the creature in the chest.
Soon, the heat haze spread to the undead as well.
“Hit.”
“Grrr...?”
The creature writhed its flesh, as if it had realized something was wrong.
But it was too late.
The claw remained stuck fast to its chest.
Crackle, buzz—.
Its image stuttered as if an error had occurred in the game.
The next moment, half of its body sank into the floor.
Exactly halfway up its torso.
“Kuwaaaahhh—!”
It flailed about in confusion.
It was a technique that made use of a clipping bug.
It induced a mob or NPC to get stuck in the map.
Unable to go anywhere, the dragon could only roar in place.
‘Good.’
Half its body was completely embedded in the floor.
Then what would happen if the bug wore off just like this?
I pulled on the thread I had tied to the claw beforehand.
Tug—.
With a little force, the claw came away limply.
This was the source of the bug.
Since it had originally been part of the creature's body and was stuck to it, the game treated them as a single body.
I applied the clipping bug to it, then attached it to the creature to transfer the phenomenon.
But now the claw had been removed again.
“Then... wha.t... will... hap.pen?”
What would happen?
If the bug's designation were removed now that it was stuck in the floor.
Its torso and the floor were effectively overlapping.
There was only one answer.
“It dies split in half.”
“Splat—!”
Flesh burst with a rupturing sound, spraying blood.
When the crackling heat haze came undone, half the creature's torso vanished.
“Whoops.”
Viscera flew in every direction.
The rest disappeared without a trace.
I took an umbrella from my robe and blocked the green runoff pouring down.
“Rumble—.”
The bloated body sprawled across the floor.
Numerous messages appeared before my eyes.
Ding—!
[You have defeated the master of Purgatory's 70th floor, ‘Undead Dragon’.]
[You have acquired the exclusive weapon ‘Dragon Scale ×1’.]
[You have completed the mini-quest ‘A Little Courage’.]
[You have completed the hidden quest ‘What Matters’.]
[You have completed the hidden quest ‘Hero of the Reversal’.]
[You have completed the main quest ‘Conquering Purgatory's 70th Floor’.]
[The main quest ‘Conquering Purgatory's 71st Floor’ has been unlocked.]
Ding—!
Ding—!
Ding—!
.
.
.
Status window notifications rose frantically.
I asked the girl in my arms:
“Heh heh, what do you think?”
With a relaxed gleam.
Without a hint of wavering.
“I told you I'd be fine, didn't I?”
“······.”
I smiled at Carmilla, who wore a blank expression.