Chapter 96
I'm the Only One Without Minions : Looks like they've somehow figured out the sound gimmick?
I'm the Only One Without Minions : They've kept their mouths shut ever since they came in lol
I'm the Only One Without Minions : And they're watching their feet too. Are they just perceptive?
ㄴCowhead : Even if the information is manipulated, not all of it is.
ㄴCowhead : They can roughly infer what rules the anomaly in front of them follows, so maybe they considered various possibilities before coming in.
ㄴTV Head : They're really trying lol
ㄴKongKong : Hmm...
ㄴKongKong : I kind of feel sorry for him...
ㄴKing Slayer : Is that so?
ㄴKing Slayer : Not really.
ㄴSealed Philosopher : There are more than one or two people in this world with sick loved ones.
ㄴSealed Philosopher : Don't go feeling weird sympathy for him for no reason.
ㄴOrange★ : What's there to feel bad about?
ㄴOrange★ : Don't get attached to an intruder.
ㄴOrange★ : Newbie's having weird thoughts for no reason.
ㄴAnt Queen : Agreed.
ㄴAnt Queen : No need to pity someone who came in trying to kill Newbie, right?
ㄴAnonymous Butcher : I agree.
ㄴAnonymous Butcher : We need to make sure the fear is etched into them.
ㄴNarrow-Eyed Character : But everyone.
ㄴNarrow-Eyed Character : This time, none of you are worried about Newbie at all.
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : Well... I suppose so?
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : Honestly, he looks like someone who came in intending to die.
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : You could call it his last desperate struggle.
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : Up until now, he came claiming to be raiding Dreamland,
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : bringing a bunch of knights and escape scrolls,
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : so with a raid party in that state, how could anyone feel tense?
ㄴDungeon Master Was Disappointed : They say even a cornered rat will bite a cat.
ㄴDungeon Master Was Disappointed : But it's only biting, isn't it?
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I think the big brothers are right.
It was a meaningless struggle.
I knew the count's circumstances through scouting.
He could no longer bring people from his domain.
Everyone except the count opposed raiding Dreamland.
He had only one escape scroll.
He couldn't even use it in Area 5.
ㄴNewbie : What a shame.
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : If you're going to die, die outside.
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : Why die in Newbie's dungeon...
ㄴNewbie : The points are pretty sweet, though lol
ㄴShibgan Love Dog : That's true!
Well, as I said at the beginning, it wasn't that I felt no sympathy for him.
Losing someone you love is painful.
I had never had children myself, but if I were the count, I think I'd be devastated too.
But that's that, and this is this.
He was trying to take my life.
I wasn't Oblivion.
I was just an ordinary small-time citizen running a dungeon.
I had no intention of imposing moral standards on the count.
He was an intruder, and I was the Dungeon Master.
That was all there was between us.
Therefore.
I wouldn't bother talking about right and wrong.
I only had to do what I was supposed to do.
Protect the mana stones and repel the intruders.
That was all.
"Hmm."
I looked at the monitor.
One person had been caught in a trap in the eastern forest,
and then lost his life to a Death Alien.
There were now four people left.
The intruders had gathered in the village.
How would they get through this predicament?
I decided to watch quietly with Mallangi.
***
The PTSD Knight was dead.
The remaining members were the count, the black mage, the criminal, and the half-ogre.
They silently looked at one another.
They had a lot they wanted to say, but before entering, they had agreed to be careful about 'sound.'
In front of the well.
They each took out their journals and began communicating through written notes.
「The knight is dead.」
「I heard a loud noise in the eastern forest.」
「That seems to be what killed him.」
「Are you sure?」
The black mage nodded.
「It was definitely because of the sound.」
「Why?」
「I witnessed how the knight died.」
Everyone reacted with confusion.
The black mage had been far from where the alarm had sounded.
Of course, he had been the closest to the knight among the party.
But no matter how good his eyesight was, could he really observe the eastern forest through the fog?
The others thought it would be difficult even with black magic.
「Listen to what I have to say.」
The black mage said that although the fog had obscured his view,
he had witnessed a black creature.
'A monster.'
That thing was a minion of the dungeon.
In other words, an anomaly.
「Let me describe what it looked like.」
Its body suggested a human shape,
but it wasn't human.
Its limbs were far too long.
Its joints were bent in ways that ignored their natural direction.
Every time it moved, a sharp sound like bones scraping against each other tore through the air.
There were about thirty tentacles on its back.
They even looked somewhat like wings.
Its skin was closer to a thick carapace.
It resembled a thick barrier impervious to magic, fire, and impact.
The strangest part of its body was its head.
It had no eyes. Instead, its entire head was structured to split open.
「It was like looking at a horrible button mushroom.」
The black mage remembered the scene vividly.
The moment the sound rang out, the tentacles moved.
The creature's tentacles were long.
Their length ignored the laws of physics.
They seemed infinite.
Those thirty long tentacles
mercilessly struck the eastern forest like a bombardment,
centered on the place where the alarm had sounded.
When the creature retracted its tentacles,
the limp knight was dragged along like food impaled on a skewer.
Then the creature ravenously devoured the knight's head.
The black mage watched it while holding his breath.
And.
He moved cautiously once it had left.
"……."
Honestly, it was hard to believe.
I had never even heard of a monster like that.
If it existed outside as well,
something too terrible to imagine must have unfolded.
「In my opinion,」
「I think that minion might be why you failed the previous raid.」
The creature could move a great many tentacles very quickly.
It could kill its target like a sniper, no matter how far away they were.
In other words, it could kill people while ignoring spatial limitations.
It was a truly terrifying minion.
「My wrist hurts. Give me a moment.」
「Take your time writing.」
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That monster killed the knight.
And the reason it targeted the knight.
「It didn't kill me, even though I was nearby.」
「And it specifically killed the knight, who was far away.」
The most likely explanation was the alarm.
It was certain that the black creature was an anomaly that placed importance on 'sound.'
The reason the guidebook contained information about 'sound' was probably
because of this creature, judging from the circumstances.
「There's something we need to consider.」
「That creature's hearing.」
「To what extent should we assume it can hear?」
The black mage was relatively close to the creature.
Close enough to identify it with the naked eye.
The black mage was human.
His pulse must have quickened in the tense situation,
and breathing made noise too.
If the creature's hearing was that good, the black mage should have died.
「But I'm alive and well right here.」
「It doesn't feel like the creature's hearing is all that superhuman.」
「Considering that the keyword 'sound' is written in the guidebook,」
「the knights must have figured this much out too...」
But.
The fact that there was no information about Area 5 after this
meant that they had all died.
Even after realizing this important fact.
「What on earth wiped out the knights?」
「Was it the creature?」
「Are there so many traps laid out that they couldn't avoid them?」
「Or was it another anomaly?」
「If the creature's hearing is about the same as ours...」
「Honestly, I don't understand how they were all slaughtered.」
「If we stopped communicating through writing right now」
「and talked directly,」
「we wouldn't die.」
Everyone folded their arms.
It was a difficult problem.
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Suddenly, the count recalled what Anemone had been like when she was alive.
Though she was always bedridden because she was ill,
whenever he entered her room after finishing his work,
she was the kind of wife who would somehow sense him and wave happily at him.
-How do you always know?
-Hmm?
-So many people enter Anemone's room. Doctors, maids who tend to you, servants, and so on... I don't even come at a set time, so it's amazing that you just notice.
The count asked her.
He asked whether she was secretly using some amazing magic even the Archmage didn't know about.
Anemone answered with a bright smile.
-Because I can distinguish the sounds of you and Ae?
-How?
-I'd feel awkward answering if you asked me that.
-What does that mean?
-Because I know since I love you.
-Is that so?
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「Could it hear certain sounds better?」
The count proposed.
「Certain sounds?」
He nodded and moved his pen.
「Yes. It might hear certain sounds, like human voices, better.」
「Even if its normal hearing is the same as a human's.」
The black mage stroked his chin.
Maybe it wasn't an entirely impossible possibility.
He wondered whether it was right to apply that to an anomaly,
but some monsters could hear the sounds of certain creatures better than others.
「Is that intuition too?」
「It is.」
Sound was the keyword.
If so, they should be cautious about everything they could be cautious about.
「Let's watch our surroundings and be careful with sound. Anyway, judging by the fact that we've survived this long, we have a decent chance as long as we stay quiet.」
「Yeah. There must be traps that produce loud noises too, so, anyway.」
「For now, let's start with the village...」
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The party had only one thing to do.
Find the 'elevator leading to the next area' without dying and escape Area 5.
They didn't need to defeat the creature.
This was Dreamland, after all.
The count told them about what had happened in the village one last time.
People lived in this place.
They were obviously not ordinary people, but minions of the dungeon.
Since they had kept their mouths shut even when they encountered them,
nothing had happened.
「It felt like I could communicate with them.」
「I didn't try because it was dangerous.」
「Anyway, I think it will be fine if we ignore them.」
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The party investigated the village.
They were looking for the elevator.
The count moved along as well.
It would be nice if they could hurry into the next area.
He fiddled with the escape scroll inside his clothes.
He had entered prepared to die, but he had kept at least one last resort.
Maybe.
That thought crossed his mind too.
Perhaps the knights had been complacent.
Maybe they had underestimated Dreamland and let their guard down.
Maybe I would be different.
There was nothing of note outside the village.
Then all that remained was the inside of the houses.
'Should I go in?'
The count gathered his courage.
Then he opened the door from which a faint light seeped.
Then.
The count's expression hardened.
A familiar face was standing there.
It must be a minion of the dungeon.
It was certainly an anomaly, but.
"……."
The count almost spoke without thinking.
Because she shouldn't have been here.
She was someone who existed only in the count's memories.
"……."
She was cleaning inside the house.
When she heard someone outside the door, she stopped what she was doing and looked toward the entrance.
Their eyes met.
She looked startled, but soon smiled at him.
The count held his breath for a moment.
He caught the scent of perfume. This was definitely longing.
She looked healthy.
There was no pain in her expression.
Life had returned to her once-pale skin,
and flesh had filled out her haggard, thin body.
It felt as though he had returned to when he first met her.
'Anemone…….'
A woman who looked like his late wife stood before him.