Chapter 59
Finally… am I really going to be able to get my hands on a mana stone?
An elf affiliated with the World Tree Forest, and
Giradriel, the elf in charge of conquering Dino World, had joy spilling from his face.
The long, grueling raid.
Because the moment to finally put an end to it had at last arrived.
They were the invaders of Dino World.
After countless battles across Zones 1 through 7 of Dino World.
They were enjoying a rare moment of rest.
'We really went through a lot to get here… haha, I'm deeply moved.'
About two years ago.
This battle, which began after Dino World was transferred to the World Tree Forest,
had, before anyone knew it, been racing toward its end.
Dino World.
Like other dungeons, it was presumed to have existed since ancient times.
A dungeon with strangely little notoriety or fame.
'I was skeptical at first, but the elders were right after all.'
Dino World was weaker than other dungeons.
That had been the correct answer.
Though they were not Blessed Ones,
it was a dungeon the World Tree Forest, the strongest elf faction, could conquer.
Short, if you call it short.
Long, if you call it long.
After so many battles of attrition, Dino World was the first to run out of steam.
Now it was almost over.
All that remained was to take the Dungeon Master's head and claim the mana stone.
Then all that remained was to return home in glory.
Mana stone.
It was the most mysterious stone in this world.
A miraculous substance that could turn stone into gold, beggars into rich men, and ordinary trees into a World Tree.
It could exponentially extend the lifespans of both short-lived and long-lived species alike.
The so-called Philosopher's Stone, hailed as the most powerful energy source.
To think he could actually get his hands on that mana stone he'd only ever heard rumors about.
It probably felt like all of this was a dream.
Giradriel clenched his fist.
With this, the World Tree Forest could advance even further.
From this moment on, the elves were one step closer to greatness.
"Haha."
He couldn't hide his joy.
"Lord Giradriel. You seem happy."
"Of course. The entire World Tree Forest faction is hoping to clear the dungeon, after all… I'm truly relieved. Aren't you happy too?"
The subordinate elf nodded.
"By the way… why were the Blessed Ones just leaving a dungeon we could clear alone?"
His laughter faded for a moment, and he fell silent.
Giradriel knew the reason.
The Blessed Ones were the most special beings in this world.
They were long-lived like the elves, and possessed the miracle of coming back from death.
Beings who could be said to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dungeon Masters, who—like the God of Oblivion—could create life and space.
Clearing an entry-restricted dungeon had only been easy in the past.
Now it was terribly difficult.
Even so, the Blessed Ones still took dungeons on.
Our lives are finite,
but theirs are infinite.
However.
The Blessed Ones didn't target mana stones like we did.
They were nothing more than incidental loot.
Because their purpose in targeting dungeons was clearly different from ours.
Giradriel closed his eyes and recalled the past.
-We wait until a dungeon becomes worth conquering. I said it before, but the things that make us stronger can be obtained outside dungeons anyway… and money and fame are plenty available without even clearing one.
Giradriel had once encountered a Blessed One named Avaralis.
It had been a chance encounter.
At the time, the elves had just begun clearing Dino World.
Giradriel had asked all sorts of questions in order to get advice on dungeon conquering.
As if Avaralis, the Blessed One, had seen right through his thoughts.
She kindly explained even the things he'd always been curious about besides conquering.
Among them were topics related to Dino World as well.
The reason Dino World wasn't being targeted by the Blessed Ones.
Because it was a dungeon that didn't align with the Blessed Ones' goals.
It was a question unrelated to dungeon conquering, but suddenly the thought came to him.
What benefits did the Blessed Ones gain by conquering dungeons?
If it wasn't money, fame… or power.
Just what future were they envisioning that made them want to conquer dungeons?
When he asked her about it,
-Well. No one knows that. It might be the god who bestowed power upon us, or it might just be a hollow reward that would only make us sigh.
-Hehe, that's why we challenge it. We're the same as you. We don't know what's waiting for us up there in the sky… Isn't charging ahead like moths to a flame without even looking back a privilege of thinking beings?
He got a baffling answer.
With the corners of her eyes lifted like a fox's, she wore a strange, alluring smile.
The Blessed One's appearance was an image he could hardly forget.
Avaralis encouraged the elves.
Dungeon conquering wasn't solely the Blessed Ones' privilege.
Unless they suddenly barged in while a Blessed One was conquering a dungeon.
They wouldn't be provoking her.
Anyway.
Giradriel finished reminiscing and stood up.
"Well, stories about the Blessed Ones aren't important right now, so it's about time we set off..."
He thought it was about time to move on, but.
"Hold on. I want to revisit the reward split. Aren't the things you do a lot fewer than the things I do?"
There was someone who cut him off, and that someone was Icarus.
The Sword Master of the North Kingdom.
A tough man who could be called the top contributor to this raid.
If only he could fix that greedy personality, he'd be a pretty decent person.
"You want to keep talking about the reward split here? We already agreed to give you one-fifth of the mana stone before we came in."
"But haven't I killed more minions than the total number killed by all of you combined? One-fifth is too little."
"Haa."
'What a fucking bastard, seriously.'
Even one-fifth was already the elves' generous concession.
Did this bastard not even know what satisfaction was?
Giradriel barely held back his curses and calmly went on.
If he had his way, he'd have punched that face.
But they were in the middle of a raid.
"Fine. It's an undeniable fact that you contributed to this clear. But haven't I told you over and over that the reason you could pick off minions so easily was because our World Tree Forest had been gnawing away at Dino World for the past two years?"
"Still, one-fifth is too little. Let's make it one-fourth."
What kind of robber bastard was this?
Unbelievable.
"You're saying that now? If we had needed to give you that much of a share, we wouldn't have brought you into this dungeon in the first place."
"No, I said that before you came in. I also said the reward could change depending on performance…"
Icarus refused to budge.
The conversation went on for about thirty minutes, but the same conversation just kept looping around.
The longer it went on, the uglier the atmosphere grew, and at this rate it seemed ready to turn into a fight.
The mana stone was right in front of them.
They couldn't ruin the raid over a petty squabble like this.
Giradriel barely swallowed his anger and ended the argument.
"The raid isn't over yet. Let's talk again once the mana stone is right in front of us, okay?"
"Tch… Fine."
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.
The mana stone was right in front of them.
That fact soothed his anger.
There were ten elves left, himself included.
And one damned Sword Master, still perfectly fine.
Clearing the 8th Zone should have been a piece of cake.
So why did he have such a bad feeling?
"There aren't any minions?"
The surroundings were barren.
Zone 8 was a cave.
In the previous raids, the Dungeon Master would surely have been defending it to the death with the remaining minions.
"Use detection magic."
"Huh?"
"Didn't we confirm last time that there was no jamming from the 8th Zone onward? You annoying bastard. Use detection magic already."
"S-Sorry…"
He was sure there'd be some kind of scheme.
But the subordinate's answer was that there was nothing here at all.
Instead, they seemed to be gathered in the 10th Zone, where the healing spring was.
'Did they move the decisive battleground? Well, whatever.'
They moved forward.
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.
.
"Hm?"
Where had I seen this before?
Giradriel spotted two statues at the midpoint of Zone 8 that gave him a strong sense of déjà vu.
Ah, right.
I remember seeing them in the swamp before.
If a crying person were turned to stone, this is exactly what they'd look like.
They were very intricately made ornaments.
'For a dragonkin, you've got some taste.'
It wasn't just Giradriel.
The group thought nothing of the statues.
And the moment they passed the statues.
Crack! Crack!
When a sound that should never have been heard reached them,
everyone turned around.
"Ah…?"
The two statues were clutching necks.
Elf necks.
One in each hand.
A total of four elves hung limp in the air.
Like prisoners being hanged.
They died without even managing to utter a final cry.
Giradriel blinked.
How on earth did this happen?
It had happened in a split second.
There shouldn't have been any warning at all.
As if personally proving that the statues could move,
they were already one step closer to us.
As the elves were flustered by the sudden situation,
"You're fighting back until the very end."
Sching—
Icarus's sword was drawn from its scabbard.
He wore a ferocious smile, like someone who had finished all his calculations.
He seemed excited at the thought of bringing the hammer of justice down on this insolent dungeon minion.
"Honestly, I was surprised. I couldn't sense any killing intent. I thought it was just an ordinary statue, but this thing was terrifying…."
The Sword Master of the North Kingdom.
Icarus had immense pride in his own skill.
And for good reason—there were only seven people in the entire North Kingdom who held that honorable title.
"If you were going to target someone, you should have targeted me."
The world's greatest swordsman.
His sword would cleave rocks, cleave enemies, and in the end, even split a mountain.
If each of them only had one life.
Even among the Blessed Ones, very few could beat Icarus one-on-one.
He was the youngest among the Sword Masters.
That meant he had the greatest potential of any swordsman alive.
He thought it was a pitiable act of struggle.
It would be a mistake to think a minion like this could stop him in a dungeon that was already falling apart.
I've already carved up monsters far bigger and stronger than you in a single stroke.
Icarus took up his stance.
He was a textbook power swordsman.
The aura produced by his overwhelming mana amount only made his rough swordsmanship sharper.
"If you won't come at me first, then I'll come to you!"
Icarus kicked off the ground.
However.
Unlike his confident expression, Giradriel instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
'No. This minion doesn't feel like that….'
The battle had already begun.
"Oh… you're withstanding that strike!?"
The statue didn't budge at all.
If the legendary adamantium that could never be broken really existed, it would probably feel like this.
Even so, Icarus's sword path didn't waver.
"Hahaha! This is fun. Yes, that's how you should be!"
If anything, he was more excited.
He seemed determined to bring down the statue in front of him by any means necessary.
"From now on, I'll go all out…!!"
His aura began to blaze even more fiercely.
From crimson to blue, as if reaching its limit, the veins stood out on his forearms.
"Lord Giradriel… sh-should we help too?"
"Uh, uh…"
Right.
The core room was right in front of them.
All that remained was to behead the Dungeon Master and
return with the mana stone.
It had been an unexpected trial.
Still, still.
"F-For now, help Icarus!"
They had to fight and win somehow.
***
Golem King : I'm going all out from now on (swinging his sword at the anomaly)
ㄴDIP : Ah, this is so fucking funny LOL
ㄴKongKong : hahahahahahahahahahahaha fuck
ㄴNight Crow : Ah, fuck, I shouldn't be laughing hahahaha
ㄴOrange★ : No, but it's seriously hilarious hahahaha
ㄴI'm the Only One Without Minions : Ah, my stomach hurts hahahaha
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : Is this the average intelligence of a Sword Master??
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : Just what kinds of bastards has the newbie been fighting all this time;;
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : The way that bastard's face is rotting in real time is so fucking funny hahahaha
ㄴKing Slayer : hahahahahahahahahaha
ㄴThe World Is Cold : No, but guys, this is thanks to me too;;;
ㄴThe World Is Cold : My dungeon was simple, which actually induced confirmation bias...
ㄴThe World Is Cold : Fuck, please stop mocking those bastards... I'm going to feel embarrassed about almost dying to them ㅠㅠ...
ㄴMagic Hero : We-w-well, up until now everything's been going the smash-it-all-to-pieces route...
ㄴMagic Hero : It's pretty hard to get your head around something like, 'this minion has some rule and you have to do blah blah'... lol....
ㄴMagic Hero : It's just bullshit, yeah...
ㄴMagic Hero : But 'Jijinga' is fucking hilarious hahahaha...
ㄴSsipgan Saranggae : What's Jijinga??
ㄴMagic Hero : It's short for 'I'm going all out from now on.'
ㄴSsipgan Saranggae : 'Jijinnyutta'
ㄴMagic Hero : W-w-w-what is that?
ㄴSsipgan Saranggae : It's short for 'I'm going all out to screw the newbie from now on!'
ㄴMagic Hero : WoW...
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"Yeah. I'm not a bad guy, you know. We're almost done, so just eat this jerky and wait a little longer."
Seeing that post, he could relax.
Most likely, they'd be wiped out. Well.
Anyway, that aside.
He'd gotten friendly with the goblin.
"Ke, keureuk…"
After all, once he sent it out, there'd be no reason to see it again.
Its eyes, nose, and mouth were all in the right places, so it was kind of cute.
Watching it crunch jerky gave him a bit of the same feeling as watching a monkey at the zoo.
"Eek."
Come on, don't be jealous.
Malang, you're the minion I cherish most.
He let out a sigh while petting Malang.
Tough. Really tough.
It was truly a relief that there wasn't anyone quick at reading the room.
Honestly, I'd been a little scared until just now.
Like if they suddenly went, 'We figured it out. The core of the anomaly!' and started spouting that bullshit.
The chance of it getting countered wasn't exactly zero.
But then, stupidly, seeing them challenge the anomaly head-on,
I can finally breathe easy now.