Chapter 93
Count Wolfhaupen returned to his domain.
He had expected great results from this attempt to clear Dreamland.
But the information he brought back amounted to only two lines.
"This is a devastating result."
"……You've all worked hard."
It was an unequivocal failure.
The price was far from small.
The Winter Wolf Knights, the core of the domain's defenses, had been reduced to half their original number.
And the enormous sum spent purchasing escape scrolls had vanished into thin air.
Dragrad, a valuable vassal, had also died.
They had expended a considerable amount of time and other supplies as well.
Calling it a devastating result was not wrong in the slightest.
"Didn't I tell you from the beginning that this was impossible?"
"We even provided the funds to purchase the escape scrolls, expecting results, and this outcome puts us in a difficult position."
The count had to endure their sharp glares.
There was no need to distinguish between those who had opposed him and those who had supported him.
…….
There was nothing he could say.
The person responsible was the count.
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Area 5
1. To avoid dying, you must make a loud noise.
2. The raider's spawn location is random.
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The sacrifice of nine knights.
The loss of nine escape scrolls.
And yet, this was the sorry state they were in.
Even the lord of a domain could not act however he pleased.
He no longer had the right to utter the words 'clear Dreamland.'
"Fuck."
The count returned to his office.
He sat in his chair and looked at the journal instead of the paperwork that had piled up.
The contents were brief.
The knights had all been transferred to the newly added Area 5.
And they had all been sacrificed.
That was the price of obtaining such pitifully little information.
"Fuck."
There was no way to clear the dungeon.
Any hope of obtaining mana stones had been an illusion.
When Avaralis had spoken about Dreamland in the count's domain, the count had felt as though he had encountered fate itself.
A dungeon with treasures more dazzling than any other.
The mana stones were one thing, but he had even found a justification for claiming them legally.
But that had been a mistake.
The count was no hero from a fairy tale.
"Fuck."
The person sitting here now was a failure.
A hopeful ending like 'He saved his daughter and lived happily ever after' would not be granted to him.
-My lord, my lord, where is my daughter?
-Didn't you say you had given the knights escape scrolls? My child became a knight for the sake of the people of the domain! But, but, how could this…….
-Did he die for something meaningful? Just as he said in his final testament, our husband had to sacrifice himself for the peace of Wolfhaupen and the North Kingdom, didn't he?
"Fuck…."
The families of the dead kept coming to mind.
It was a vile sense of guilt.
He admitted it.
All of this had been because of his greed.
Not for the sake of the North Kingdom, nor for Wolfhaupen.
It had been for the sake of saving his daughter.
It was the mistake of a fool.
He must not repeat it again.
And yet.
The count was still holding the strategy guide in his hand.
A sigh escaped him.
He put a cigarette he had quit smoking between his lips.
Click, hiss-
He lit it.
"Haa…."
When he looked at the world through unfocused eyes,
perhaps because the lights were off, it looked a little darker than usual.
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Even so, the world kept turning.
Count Wolfhaupen returned to his work.
There was a considerable backlog from the dungeon raid.
The count focused on his work.
The strategy guide was wedged into a corner of the bookcase,
but his gaze remained fixed on the paperwork.
…….
Belluga watched him.
She still did not care for her older brother.
But for now, this was enough.
If he had returned to normal, that was enough.
Clearing the dungeon was an illusion.
Mana stones were something he could never obtain.
If her older brother had realized that fact, it was enough.
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The count held A's hand.
"Dad."
"Yeah."
"I'm in so much pain."
"What should Dad do?"
"I don't know. It just hurts so much. It hurts, it hurts…."
A's tearful voice.
"Does it hurt that much?"
"Yeah… Really."
"Dad will stay by your side the whole time."
"But, Dad, it's so hard."
"What should we do about our daughter being in so much pain?"
Her eyes were red and bloodshot.
Cold sweat ran down her face, with traces of blood from a nosebleed.
His daughter was gradually beginning to resemble his dying wife.
She looked so tormented that it gave him a sense of déjà vu.
He was no different.
Even the helplessness he had felt back then had returned once again.
"It hurts so much…."
A had little time left.
The count bit his lip.
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After that.
The count often stayed up all night, his eyes open.
He could not lie comfortably in bed because of his sick daughter.
"My lord. Lady Laurencia, a fifth-tier mage of the Flame School, has come to visit."
"…Laurencia?"
"Yes. She said she had something important to discuss with you, my lord."
He looked at the servant with dark circles under his eyes.
He told the servant to bring her in.
What could she want?
Now that the Dreamland raid had failed, she had no reason to see him.
Laurencia arrived at the office.
They exchanged brief greetings.
"You look terrible."
"Well, I do."
"Is it because of the dungeon raid?"
"…Yes. My daughter is very ill. The only way to save her is with mana stones."
Laurencia was intrigued.
What kind of talent did a girl named A possess
for the count to cherish her so dearly?
'Was she truly irreplaceable?'
Well, that was not the important thing.
She quickly got to the point.
"Would you like to try clearing Dreamland again?"
"…What?"
The count looked at Laurencia in surprise.
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Laurencia spoke.
The best way to clear a dungeon is to prepare thoroughly and finish it in 'one' attempt.
"They say dungeons use intruders as nourishment. According to information uncovered by the Blessers, it makes no difference whether they escape from a dungeon or die inside it. And as for quality, I suppose? Intruders with greater strength provide even more nourishment to the dungeon, so this is a very troublesome structure for us."
But.
Dreamland made that impossible.
An extreme first-encounter death trap.
It was nearly impossible to grasp the rules of its inexplicable phenomena in a single attempt.
"It can't be helped. That's the power Dreamland possesses. Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge and respect that aspect of it."
Therefore, Dreamland had to be cleared through 'multiple attempts.'
This was an essential element.
"The best option is to send easy-to-handle people of lower status, such as 'ordinary soldiers' and 'commoners,' into the dungeon. The elevator is for one person. You must not enter a corridor without lighting. Following rules like those as you advance doesn't require aura or magic, does it?"
But.
It was impossible to use them as sacrifices for clearing the dungeon.
"Yes, it's impossible. The Dungeon Master is strong. I heard that an expedition made up of ordinary soldiers failed several times. If a weak person enters, he will swing his sword without mercy."
That was an immutable law.
It was the same as why knights were necessary in war.
Because ordinary people had no chance against them.
For an ordinary person to enter Dreamland,
it was the same as throwing themselves into lava.
Suicide.
Nothing more and nothing less.
That was why they needed someone stronger than the Dungeon Master.
"Unless they're at least as capable as dwarf soldiers, they can't even attempt it. The next-best option is the method you've used so far, my lord, but that also creates problems."
Information manipulation.
Memory erasure.
The worst gimmicks for making 'multiple attempts' difficult.
Sending elite personnel into a raid was burdensome.
Yet minions existed that rendered such investments meaningless.
It was virtually impossible to conquer.
"At this rate, it's meaningless. Unless a miracle occurs, the dungeon will grow larger faster than it can be cleared. The fact that the Dungeon Master can leave the dungeon is unusual and fraught with danger in itself, and there's a reason the Blessers are leaving it alone."
Was Laurencia someone who wanted to clear Dreamland?
Or was she someone fascinated by the power Dreamland possessed?
Clearing it was meaningless.
That was what she had argued until now.
But now she was telling him to try again?
What on earth was she trying to say?
The count narrowed his eyes.
"Haha, don't make that angry face. What I mean is that perhaps the dungeon can be cleared if we improve our methods in several ways."
"Improve them?"
Laurencia nodded.
What Laurencia was saying was
that their current method of clearing the dungeon was crude.
A multi-attempt raid, the death of raiders due to extreme first-encounter death traps, the dungeon's growth, the Dungeon Master's intervention, and so on had to be accepted as basic premises.
That was Dreamland's nature, something they could not change.
But.
There was room for improvement in every other area.
For example.
"The other day, I came up with an idea while inside the dungeon. It was to cast an ambush spell there. Dreamland has no jamming. Therefore, I judged that magic could be used more freely here than in any other dungeon."
And.
Laurencia's idea had been correct.
"The ambush spell was still there even after half a month had passed. It could be the Dungeon Master's bluff, but who knows? If that were the case, he would surely know what I intended, so I saw no reason for him to leave it there deliberately. Being unable to interfere with magic is a tremendous weakness for a dungeon."
Magic could be used freely in Dreamland.
They had to make use of that.
Indeed, none of the strategy guides so far, whether concerning detection magic or communication magic,
contained anything about the magic itself being interfered with.
Laurencia, like a merchant explaining a product,
continued speaking quietly.
"When a raider goes 'outside the dungeon,' their memories disappear and the information they've written down is manipulated. But what about when they're inside the dungeon? Nothing happens, does it?"
"That's true… Wait."
The count was aghast.
Only then did he realize what Laurencia was trying to do.
"I think we can leave information about Dreamland inside the dungeon."
It was of course impossible by physical means.
The Dungeon Master would simply erase it.
But.
If they used magic, the story changed.
"For example, we could carve a 'magic inscription' into the dungeon wall… or something like that."
"Wouldn't that be too easy to nullify?"
An inscription did not last that long to begin with.
Of course, it could be possible if it were newly modified for that purpose.
But if the Dungeon Master used a simple application of mana, or
destroyed the terrain itself bearing the inscription, it would easily collapse without even using jamming.
"I intend to create a magic vault whose position is fixed. It only needs to be impossible to destroy physically. If we store a 'rulebook' in that vault, at least 'information manipulation' won't occur. If I create a sturdy and complex vault that only I can open and close, wouldn't clearing Dreamland become much more reasonable?"
Laurencia smiled faintly.
Since the count knew little about magic, she explained it a little more simply.
"We would install something like the Blessers' 'inventory'—in other words, an 'extra-dimensional space'—at the spawn location."
An impregnable fortress.
A tiny crack would appear in its gate.
That was Laurencia's claim.
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Count Wolfhaupen thought Laurencia's argument was quite reasonable.
Create a vault inside the dungeon.
And store the rulebook inside it.
Information manipulation and memory erasure.
The phenomena probably occurred the moment intruders escaped from the dungeon.
At least, there was no record saying they occurred inside the dungeon.
There was no way to prevent memory erasure,
but if they could create a vault, he thought they could somehow prevent information manipulation.
If they left information inside the dungeon,
it would not be manipulated.
Of course, this was only a possibility.
He could not guarantee it would work 100 percent.
Even so, the probability was fairly high.
In the end, Dreamland's weakness was information about its strange phenomena.
It was practically a puzzle.
If you knew the answer, the difficulty of clearing the dungeon dropped dramatically.
The elevator was a perfect example.
He did not retain the memory,
but the information about Area 5 obtained during the previous raid,
along with the addition of information about Area 2, made this certain.
The elevator was useless.
But.
"I understand what you're trying to say. But is that really a feasible idea?"
In the end, for Laurencia's argument to hold,
the 'vault inside the dungeon' had to be beyond the Dungeon Master's ability to interfere with.
And the vault had to remain there indefinitely.
Was it realistically possible?
Extra-dimensional spaces belonged exclusively to the Blessers.
No one else could use them.
Could such a thing really be implemented with magic?
To be honest, he found it hard to believe.
"We have to research that from now on. With the help of the Spatial School, I intend to make a prototype first. The extra-dimensional space is only an example. Since there's no jamming, it will be enough if the Dungeon Master simply can't physically touch it, like an ambush spell. It only needs to last for a long time…."
As expected.
Her opinion was that it was impossible for now.
The count was disappointed.
And understandably so.
He needed mana stones immediately.
The count had no time.
He did not know how long A could hold on.
Unless it was a way to clear Dreamland right now,
the proposal was not all that appealing.
"It seems our domain can no longer attempt to clear Dreamland."
The count made his refusal clear.
In any case, his authority to lead a raid had already been revoked by the previous failure.
"…I see."
Laurencia turned away, looking disappointed.
"Laurencia."
"Yes?"
"Why are you trying to clear Dreamland?"
She fell silent for a moment.
And then.
"Because I want to study a god at least once."
She smiled faintly as she
uttered those meaningful words.
Laurencia left.
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And a miniature slime watched the scene.
***
Laurencia.
That woman really was planning to leave information inside the dungeon.
She's got impure motives, a touch of madness, and plenty of persistence—a Dreamland-optimized intruder.
But.
How should I put it?
"Was I scared for nothing?"
Of course, we'll have to wait and see.
Still, we can't let our guard down.
She seems manageable enough, though, doesn't she?