Chapter 90
Dungeon Exploration, Day 1.
In front of the entrance elevator.
The Eighth Wolfhaufen Dreamland Raid Party is preparing to challenge Dreamland once again.
There are thirteen people in total.
The raid party is led by Count Wolfhaufen.
Three mages from the Flame School are in charge of records and communications.
And nine knights are in charge of exploration.
For the count, this raid was effectively his last chance.
Even if they failed, they had to return with plenty of information this time.
Only then could he persuade the vassals who opposed him.
Dreamland is not a dungeon that can be conquered by force.
But.
The reason the raid party was made up of valuable assets like knights was the dungeon master.
The dungeon master has the most freedom in this dungeon.
He knows all its secrets and is watching us.
Therefore, he appears when intruders are at their weakest and most defenseless.
That was information Dragred had brought back.
Unlike the other information, the handwriting hadn't been tampered with.
This was definitely true.
The dungeon master is far stronger than an ordinary soldier, but weaker than a knight.
That might raise a question.
Why not make most of the ordinary soldiers the exploration team
and simply assign a few knights to escort them?
Who knows.
Count Wolfhaufen didn't think that approach would be particularly effective.
And for good reason.
The dungeon master had far too much of an advantage in the dungeon.
The dungeon is vast.
So vast that exploring it would take a long time unless they split up.
The amount of food they could bring was limited.
And no matter how sturdy a man might be,
he couldn't stay cooped up forever in a dungeon where death lurked.
As time passed,
the explorers' condition and concentration would steadily deteriorate.
So it was best to act quickly and decisively.
In other words, investigating separately was essential.
But.
If those unable to deal with an attack from the dungeon master
were separated from the rest of the group, it would be a truly meaningless death.
They could split into as many groups as they had knights.
At least one knight had to be assigned to each group.
Even so, there was still plenty to worry about.
The dungeon master was watching what we were doing from the core room, even now.
He must be observing us in real time.
The dungeon master had the initiative.
An ambush was a powerful enough advantage to temporarily turn the tables.
He could appear at any time.
That was why the count had placed three mages at the entrance.
It wasn't just the records that needed protecting—the lives of those keeping them did too.
So.
He still thought a handful of knights wouldn't be enough.
He hadn't seen the dungeon master's strength with his own eyes.
Dragred had likely only inferred what was happening through 'communication magic.'
For the reasons above, the raid party's exploration teams ultimately had to consist of at least
a large number of 'knights' and a small number of 'soldiers.'
But here's the thing.
A few soldiers didn't act like knights.
Dragred's journal proved that.
I don't want to go in.
You go in.
We're not your expendables.
There had been a mutiny like that.
People weren't dolls.
Unless they had explosive collars around their necks,
they weren't expendable items you could toss in just to check the rules.
It was better to form teams out of capable, willing knights instead.
At least knights wouldn't kill, betray, or insult one another.
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The plan was the same as last time.
The explorers would be knights.
The mages and the count would stay in the safe zone and record the information the knights sent them.
The exploration teams and the recording team would be linked together.
Each mage would be assigned two knights,
while the count would take three.
With this setup,
they could keep track of the exploration teams' overall situation.
"The more people we have, the more efficient the exploration will be. The dungeon master knows that too."
In the previous raid, the exploration party had been split into two teams.
Into the school and the mansion, by force.
Exploration was more efficient with more people.
It was unfortunate that they couldn't send everyone to one area,
but at least they probably wouldn't be split into even more groups.
"The dungeon master can only change the spawn area once."
The exploration teams wouldn't split into more than two groups.
The count emphasized that fact.
"I'm nervous. But for the sake of peace in the North Kingdom and prosperity for Wolfhaufen, we must steel ourselves."
"We have information brought back at the cost of their lives by brave people like Dragred, Krok, and Comfort. This time will be different."
The count remained silent.
This raid certainly ought to be more favorable than the last one.
They had information purchased with the lives of those who had been sacrificed last time.
Even if it had been tampered with, they could still learn what anomalies lay ahead.
But.
He remained silent.
He couldn't simply be optimistic.
A new zone had been added to Dreamland.
Zone 5.
A place beyond Zone 4, still shrouded in mystery.
What on earth had happened in that short time?
He had a bad feeling about it.
It certainly didn't bode well, but
he couldn't stop now.
He had an absolute reason to bring back mana stones.
"That's right. This time will definitely be different from last time."
He watched the knights file into the elevator,
and murmured softly.
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The exploration party ran into trouble right from the start.
Agitated voices came through the communications.
-Judging by my location, I seem to have arrived in Zone 5. But is it normal that there's no one around me?
-Where are the other knights? Surely I wasn't dropped into Zone 5 all alone?
"Everyone, use your detection magic."
"Understood."
The recording team immediately got to work to assess the situation.
When the mages and the count expended mana at the same time,
they witnessed a strange phenomenon.
"This is…"
"All the knights are in Zone 5."
The count's brow furrowed slightly.
What on earth was going on?
All the mana signatures were in the same zone.
The nine knights had been transported to Zone 5.
It was a good thing for the group.
They would be more efficient if they stuck together.
But.
How should he put it?
It felt a little different from before.
The knights were spread out.
It felt strange that each of them was in a different place.
"Ask everyone what they can see around them."
"Understood."
-I see fog. And it's quiet.
-There's a village over there.
-I'm in a forest. I can hear water too, so there might be a river nearby.
Fog, nature, a village, quiet.
The knights began to list their observations one by one.
Putting it all together,
Zone 5 seemed to be a foggy rural village.
"What is the dungeon master up to?"
"We don't really know either…"
Was Zone 5 a place where an especially powerful anomaly had been set up?
That was probably why he hadn't split up the party.
For now, they had no choice but to keep investigating.
They had far too few clues at the moment.
"I'll designate a rendezvous point. All knights, head there from now on, and investigate your surroundings along the way."
They were brave men,
so gathering up shouldn't be a problem.
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The count began writing up the strategy guide.
After adding the entry, 'The locations where raiders spawn in Zone 5 are different,' he thanked the mages from the Flame School.
"Thank you so much for your help. Especially you, Lorencia. I know you're busy with your research, so I never expected you to accept so readily."
Lorencia was a young mage, just eighteen years old.
Though she had reached the fifth tier at such a young age, she bowed on behalf of the mages.
The Flame School and the Wolfhaufen estate had a history together.
The previous head of the house had sponsored the Flame School many times due to complicated circumstances.
Even Dragred's collar had been made by the Flame School.
They were a reliable ally and a trusted business partner to Wolfhaufen.
This time, the count had asked the Flame School for help with the dungeon raid.
These three were the ones they had sent.
Among them, Lorencia, like Count Wolfhaufen,
showed tremendous interest in Dreamland.
"Compared to the funding the previous Count Wolfhaufen gave our school, this is only a small contribution. We're simply recording information in the safe zone, after all."
She laughed it off.
The recording team was taking risks too.
A dungeon was a place where anything could happen, anywhere and anytime.
The count told her it was by no means a small contribution.
"Thank you so much for saying that. Hehe, I'm personally very interested in Dreamland too."
Mana stones aside,
she seemed interested in the fact that Dreamland's dungeon master
was a 'special individual who can leave the dungeon.'
"Then let's leave the small talk there."
"Yes. The raid is what matters."
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About an hour had passed since the knights arrived in Zone 5.
No one had died yet.
Their spawn locations were scattered, but
things could still be called smooth so far.
This was what the exploration party had learned up to this point.
Unlike the other zones, Zone 5 wasn't a multi-story building.
It looked like a small domain transplanted here, complete with a village, forest, and river.
The point to keep in mind was
that it wasn't any smaller than the other zones.
Instead of having floors, it was that much wider and more expansive.
If the school and mansion each had eighty floors of the same size,
this foggy village felt like all of them had been gathered together and spread out.
"It's vast."
By the feel of it, this might be the largest zone in Dreamland.
The count ordered the knights to always keep an eye on their surroundings as they walked.
It was a zone where death constantly lurked, whether from the dungeon master, anomalies, or something else.
They couldn't let their guard down until everyone had gathered.
They were scattered in different places,
but they weren't that far apart.
He had a feeling
they could all gather within a day.
Today was the critical point.
If they could just make it through today, they could conduct a proper investigation in relative safety.
Uncharacteristically, the count clasped his hands and prayed to the God of Oblivion.
O merciful Oblivion, please let them all join up safely.
Let me bring back mana stones so my daughter can recover.
"…Huh?"
A startled voice came from beside him.
"What is it?"
"I've suddenly lost contact with one of the knights. That's strange."
The count immediately used detection magic.
It might be a sign that an anomaly had appeared.
"……"
Just as he thought.
One of the mana signatures had vanished completely.
It meant someone had died in an instant.
So suddenly, they hadn't even had time to utter a last cry.
The count asked in an urgent voice,
"Were there any signs beforehand?"
"No. We were just having an ordinary conversation. He was walking through the western forest and said he didn't see anything suspicious nearby, but…"
The forest.
Zone 5 was laid out like this.
There was a foggy village in the center.
A river ran to the north, with fields nearby.
To the west and east were woods that hadn't been cleared,
and there seemed to be something to the south too,
but no one had been there yet, so they didn't know what it was.
The western forest.
The death had occurred there.
They had to respond quickly.
"How many people are left in the western forest?"
"Two now. One of them is connected to me."
"Tell the people in the western forest that there's an anomaly that kills people instantly."
"Understood."
The mages informed the knights in the western forest.
The knights responded and thanked them.
-Understood.
-From now on, we'd better be even more caref—
Click, click.
Crackle, crackle.
The mages' expressions twisted.
The communication magic had gone dead again.
"…Huh?"
"Hello? Hey! Can you hear me!?"
"What happened?"
"Damn it… we've lost communication again."
Could they have died again?
The mages could hardly believe it.
Even when they used detection magic again, the result was the same.
The life signs of the knights in the western forest had disappeared.
The cause was unknown.
The mages were flustered.
What on earth had happened?
It had happened in an instant.
It was truly no more than an instant.
But.
Two people had vanished in that brief moment.
"W-what on earth…"
"They… died again?"
If they could at least figure out the cause,
it wouldn't be so frustrating.
They couldn't even predict it.
It was as if there were a black hole that sucked people in.
The knights had vanished into the darkness.
"Damn it…"
There were only six explorers left already.
The count's fist trembled.
***
If communication magic is the problem,
and there's no way to deal with it without a jammer,
then why not just make them shut their mouths?
There was one absolute rule in this Silent Village.
Make a loud noise, and you die.
"Maybe this will be the quietest livestream in Dungeon Gallery history?"
"Eek."
I don't think it's entirely impossible to deal with this.
Even a cornered rat will bite the cat.
They'll figure out a way eventually.
Still, I'm not expecting much.
All I needed was to make things a nuisance.
As long as I could make it gnaw at their minds,
my plan had succeeded.
"I should enjoy this while I can, before the intruders learn what's going on."
For now, let's milk this new-trap buff for all it's worth.
Newbie : Be Quiet plz
ㄴCowhead : :)
ㄴAnt Queen : :)
ㄴOrange★ : :)
ㄴDamnLoveDog : :)
ㄴSkeleton Bones : :)
But why are even you guys sitting there with your mouths shut?
It's kind of cute.