Chapter 73
-Lord Dragred, are you all right?!
-The count said the communication magic was cut off...
Munch munch.
Munch munch.
Ack.
I was busily chewing away with Mallang.
For the first time in a long while, I was eating proper food instead of tough jerky.
Of course, I didn't personally gather the ingredients and cook it. Remember when Restia stayed in Dream Land before?
A dungeon master can buy food from the point shop, and among the listings there was something roughly like chicken being sold.
Of course, one chicken cost as much as Boongboong, which I'd already sent to the scrapyard, so I had never bought it, then or since.
Familiar flavors are scary; for some reason I suddenly craved it today, and in the end I couldn't resist and ordered it.
"A reward for myself is only right."
Crispy skin, warm and juicy meat, an addictive umami flavor.
This was unquestionably the most perfect chicken in the world.
I wouldn't say the points were wasted. A change of pace is important, after all, so it was a satisfying purchase.
I didn't particularly feel full.
I'm not joking, I could probably eat another 300 after this.
I had thought the same thing when I ate jerky; what an amazing body this is.
Surely if I got an X-ray, my body wouldn't turn out to be liquid like Mallang's, would it?
Anyway.
I gave the leftover bones to Mallang and looked at the monitor.
"The mansion side is starting soon, too."
Dragred was sucked into the mirror.
And the anomalous phenomenon that had taken over Dragred's body blended in with the others.
At school, intruders get roasted from the outset, but the mansion needs a lot more warming up in various ways.
You could say it starts the moment the intruder looks into the mirror.
Personally, I think the mansion is the superior version of the maze.
They're similar in many ways, but they have a different feel, if that makes sense.
Personally, I think the mansion is the more unpleasant place.
"I'm curious how they'll deal with this rigged nonsense."
Anyway, the live reactions were a little unexpected.
Dragred, who ranks in the Dungeon Gallery's Top 10 Most Hated, had been trapped by a strange phenomenon.
It's not impossible to break, though.
Like the other anomalous phenomena, it's hard for an intruder to realize what's going on all at once, so I considered it essentially a death sentence.
A lackey who betrayed Yongyonggari pays the price.
So I expected reactions like "Good riddance" to keep coming, just like with Julius, but...
.
.
.
I Have No Minions : Hey, newbie, I really need to ask something.
I Have No Minions : Who is controlling Dragred's body right now??
I Have No Minions : Could it seriously be Yongyonggari??
ㄴSkeleton Bones : Even if it's an anomalous phenomenon.
ㄴSkeleton Bones : I don't think it can bring a dead dungeon master back to life.
ㄴKingjjang Evil Spirit : But if it really is Yongyonggari...
ㄴKingjjang Evil Spirit : newbie, could you relay a message via DM??
ㄴKingjjang Evil Spirit : I want to tell him we're all doing well
ㄴAnt Queen : Ah, I really would like to talk to him again after so long...
ㄴAnt Queen : He had a rough mouth, but he was good at giving advice when we had worries...
ㄴCowhead : His jokes were good too, honestly, he was funny
ㄴCowhead : Especially when he messed with Secha—that was legendary
ㄴNight Raven : Agreed, agreed...
ㄴThe World Is Cold : Shut up.
ㄴThe World Is Cold : But if I said I'm still alive to this day, you'd probably keel over from shock lol
.
.
.
It was all talk about the anomalous phenomenon that had taken over Dragred's body.
It would undoubtedly be a source of fear for the intruders, but for the Dungeon Gallery regulars it would surely be a welcome sight.
ㄴNewbie : Hmm
To be honest,
it was a fake that mimicked Yongyonggari.
It was nothing more than a manifestation of the concept of the Red Dragon King that existed in Dragred's memories.
And its personality and tendencies were also different from the original.
It bore a deep hatred,
and would want to lead everyone, including Dragred, to ruin.
Unfortunately, I couldn't grant the veterans' request.
That would have been an insult to the dead Yongyonggari.
Even if a paper bouquet smelled like flowers,
it still couldn't become a real flower.
ㄴNewbie : I think you can just think of it as an anomalous phenomenon.
ㄴKingjjang Evil Spirit : Ahh...
ㄴSkeleton Bones : What a bummer
ㄴAnt Queen : That's too bad...
Sorry for getting your hopes up.
"Oof."
I stood up and stretched.
***
Dream Land Sector 3.
Mansion 1st Floor, 19:00.
After a long time, the first-floor investigation was finished.
The party finished their exploration and gathered at the meeting point.
Everyone was looking at Dragred.
After glancing around for a moment, he continued.
"It looks like the first-floor exploration is more or less done, so how about we share the information we've gathered so far?"
As soon as Dragred finished speaking, Hector, the most senior of them, took over.
He had investigated the north side of the mansion with Olivia.
"There were two rooms on the north side. One was a dining room. Its defining feature was a feast laid out inside, and everything on it was edible."
"You actually ate that?"
"I didn't eat it; Olivia did. She's a newbie, so let's cut her some slack."
Olivia looked embarrassed.
Hector shrugged and went on.
"Anyway, besides the dining room there was another room. But it was locked, so we couldn't check it. It feels like we could smash it open, but something about it felt really bad, so we left it alone for now."
"Good, next?"
Comfort raised his hand.
He had investigated the east side of the mansion with Bitters.
Apparently, he was brimming with the urge to make his report.
He was staring at Dragred very awkwardly.
"Take your time and explain."
"There were two rooms on the east side as well. One was a storage room and the other was a prison."
"Start with the storage room."
"It was a place packed with trash of unknown purpose. But it wasn't all trash—we also found some usable items."
The things Comfort found were three in all: a clock, a longsword, and a key.
I'm not sure what the longsword is for, though.
Maybe the key can open that 'locked room' mentioned just now.
He said as much.
Bitters took over with the explanation of the clock.
"The guidebook said that in 'Sector 2,' you need to pay attention to time. Since that rule might also apply in this mansion... I figured it would be best to check it often."
That was a reasonable opinion.
When the party first arrived in Sector 3, the sun was out.
Because you can't see the sky in a windowless mansion.
If you want to check the time, this clock is essential.
It was 7 p.m. now.
It was about time for the sun to go down.
"What about the prison?"
"Should I even call it a prison? A torture room? It was full of tools so horrific I could hardly bear to say them out loud. It looked ominous, so I didn't go inside and just took a quick look."
Comfort and Bitters finished explaining.
Leo and Krok were the last to speak.
Dragred had originally been going alone, but
a minor mishap ended up bringing the three of them together.
Since then they had stuck together the whole time, so in practice they were the final team.
"At first Krok and I were acting together, but Lord Dragred's communication got cut off, so we naturally joined up."
"Did you figure out the cause?"
"There'd be no reason for the count and me to lose contact with each other, so I think it's the dungeon master's trick."
With memory erasure and information manipulation happening, there was nothing that couldn't happen.
The others wore complicated expressions.
"If there's a way to nullify communication magic, that would be a real problem."
"Well. If the dungeon master could use something like that, wouldn't it have affected us too?"
"Since it can use detection magic, it isn't jamming; it may be a kind of anomalous phenomenon. Probably one with a limited number of activations...."
They couldn't determine the cause right away.
So anything beyond that would just be armchair theorizing.
Leo cleared his throat.
Once everyone fell silent, he went on.
"Krok, Dragred, and I investigated the southwest. There was one room to the west and two rooms to the south. Let me start with the south side."
On the south side there was a locked room and a guest room.
Like Hector's group, it felt ominous to break open the locked room, so we left it alone.
The guest room was where we joined up with Dragred, and it had furniture such as a full-length mirror and a bed.
There was a study on the west side.
Its defining feature was that it was packed with books written in unreadable characters.
"Good, let's sort everything out."
The first-floor corridors of the mansion are like a maze.
Still, if seven people move efficiently, theoretically the whole place can be covered in about forty minutes.
The reason it took so long this time was partly because we carefully checked the rooms,
and partly because we spent a lot of time checking whether there was anything suspicious in the hallways.
Anyway, the rooms on the first floor are as follows.
1. ??? (North)
2. Dining Room
3. Storage Room
4. ??? (South)
5. Study
6. Guest Room
7. Prison
None of the places we found gave any clue to how to proceed to the next floor.
So it's likely in one of the rooms we still haven't identified.
We decided to try opening it with the key Comfort brought.
"By the way......"
There was one last issue we had to address.
Among the seven people gathered in the hallway right now, one of them stood out.
That was Leo.
There was a black mark branded on his forehead.
「1」
Everyone looked at him.
It couldn't have been a prank where someone drew on his forehead with a pen during the exploration.
Leo let out a sigh and explained.
"Lord Dragred told us, so we only just found out ourselves. Since the moment we first joined up, there was a number written on his forehead. It's probably one of the mansion's phenomena. It can't be meaningless... and honestly, since we can't figure out the cause at all, it's pretty ominous."
Leo wasn't the only one.
Everyone found it ominous, but there were too few clues.
"Well, it's not information we can know right now...
let's investigate the unopened rooms first."
Dragred was right.
Searching the mansion is the priority right now.
"Understood."
"Then Lord Hector and I will investigate the locked room... everyone else, please rest for a bit."
They continued their investigation.