Chapter 29 - Rupture (3)

Infighting is a constant occurrence when playing [Dungeon and Stone]. And the cause, without fail, is money.

Research might be the top priority for a financially comfortable mage, but explorers enter the Labyrinth to make money. Every last one of them.

And this mage bitch had just messed with that.

"You intend to take all the Guardian's loot?"

The dwarf was no longer smiling amiably. His voice had gone low, and his eyes gleamed fiercely from amid his thick hair.

"Do I look like a fucking idiot?"

The atmosphere turned icy in an instant. Perhaps sensing it, the human man placed a hand on his sword hilt.

CLINK.

Apparently, he wasn't just a porter after all.

Raven broke the heavy silence.

"... In return, I'll give you all the magic crystals from the rupture."

"So we're supposed to live off your scraps."

"... I think it's a reasonable calculation. Those items aren't even guaranteed to drop."

Raven tried to hide it, but her bewilderment was written all over her face. Apparently, she hadn't expected such a hostile response...

What a naive woman. Shouldn't she have seen this coming?

The Guardian's loot was practically the crown jewel of a rupture. And among its drops, a Numbered item would be a treasure beyond compare to the dwarf.

"I won't give up the Numbered item."

"... Fine. But I get the Guardian's Essence. And acknowledge my ownership of any other discoveries made using my knowledge."

"Agreed. Then let's be fair and roll dice between the two of us for the Rupture Stone."

Well, would you look at that. Fair, my ass.

The two of them had started fighting over their own interests without giving Aynar or me a second thought. Just watching gave me a headache. I was even starting to think I'd have been better off bleeding my way through the rupture with first-floor beginners.

At this rate, we'd barely get to pick up scraps from the rupture I'd gone to all that trouble to enter.

So this was how bitter it felt to be powerless.

"Bjorn."

"I know what you're thinking, but stay put for now."

"Understood."

What I needed to do was becoming clearer.

I had to get stronger. Whether those bastards kicked away the ladder or not, I had to claw my own way up. Only then could I defend my rights like they did.

Of course, that was no reason to give in today.

"Hold on."

"...?"

The two, who had been conversing in a much friendlier atmosphere, turned to me as I spoke.

"Do what you want with the Essence and the Numbered item. But we're taking the Rupture Stone."

"You're being greedy."

"Do you think we'd have any trouble without two barbarians?"

Their gazes were razor-sharp.

Fuck, they'd all been so friendly when we first met.

Well, fine. I'd only been testing the waters anyway.

"Fine, we'll give up the Rupture Stone. In return, give us first pick of up to two Essences, excluding the Guardian's."

"All right. That much is fine."

"I agree as well."

As expected, Raven and the dwarf readily accepted my demand. This was probably as far as they'd let me go. At their level, none of the Essences other than the Guardian's would have been all that appealing.

"Shall we get going, then?"

"Sounds good. All this standing around has already left me aching! Hahahaha!"

Once the negotiations were over, the mage bitch and the dwarf laughed together, every bit as friendly as before, as though nothing had happened.

Scary fucking explorers.

* * *

How long had we been climbing the mountain trail toward the castle visible between the ridges?

We reached its entrance and came face-to-face with two statues of winged demons.

"Gargoyle statues."

Gargoyle statues, rank-8 monsters.

Normally motionless, they were troublesome creatures that activated upon spotting an enemy, using Petrification.

The usual strategy was to have one person take all the Petrification effects while the others killed the gargoyle statues to lift the curse...

But, astonishingly enough, we had a mage.

"Kyaaaah!"

As the dwarf and I approached, the gargoyles opened their eyes and spread their wings. My lower body turned to stone in an instant, but it didn't last long.

"Artena Bjar."

Raven recited the Remove Curse spell, and the battle began in earnest. Aynar and I took one, while the dwarf handled the other.

CRASH!

The short dwarf swung his hammer like a madman, smashing both of the gargoyle's legs. When it fell, he gleefully crushed its skull with his hammer, as though he'd been waiting for that very moment.

Was that the dwarven way? Methodically fucking it up from the bottom was pretty damn manly.

Well, we weren't much different.

"You two aren't half bad either!"

There hadn't been much difference in how long it took us to smash our gargoyle statues to pieces. We were fairly confident in close combat ourselves.

「You have defeated a gargoyle. EXP +2」

The two gargoyles dissolved into light and dropped magic crystals, but we didn't need to pick them up. They floated into the air on their own and slipped neatly into a large sack.

"I'll collect the magic crystals and divide them up at intervals."

"Much appreciated! Hahaha!"

The dwarf didn't seem worried that the mage might skim off some crystals. Then again, a mage wouldn't get worked up over pocket change like this.

"Let's get moving, then!"

The dwarf smashed the old wooden door apart with his hammer, clearing the way.

So this was where the real dungeon began.

With a strange feeling stirring inside me, I followed him in.

"We'll need some light."

"Riate."

An orb of light rose above Raven's hand, brightly illuminating the dark interior.

We were now in the outer checkpoint, where they would have inspected wagon cargo, checked travelers' identities, and carried out other administrative duties before letting people into the castle.

"Grrrhh."

As though drawn by the light and sound, rotting corpses rose from cupboards along the walls and beneath tables, shambling toward us.

"Deadmen."

Deadmen. Unranked monsters that gave neither EXP nor even magic crystals. Their bodies didn't disappear, either.

Except when they dropped an Essence.

"All they can do is bite and scratch, so I'll conserve my mana."

Even without magical help, clearing the room didn't take long.

"Mr. Murad, Mr. Jandel, could you check upstairs while I open the door?"

"We'll have it done in no time! Hahaha!"

I followed the dwarf up to the second floor, where we found what looked like communal sleeping quarters. There were about ten deadmen here as well, but the room was larger than downstairs, making them easier to clear out.

THUD! THUD!

Having cleared the second floor in moments, we climbed a ladder to the roof without much conversation.

There were around fifteen soldier deadmen in rusty armor and one slightly larger commander deadman.

I wouldn't quite call it the first boss... but it was an enemy we had to kill to progress.

"It only looks bigger than the other deadmen. Let's finish it off! Hahaha!"

Once again, we cleared the area quickly, then searched the commander deadman's clothes and retrieved a horn.

When we returned to the first floor, the iron door on the other side was already open.

"Having a mage along is certainly reassuring."

Light now entered from both sides, making the windowless room considerably brighter, but that hardly mattered. We were done with the outer checkpoint.

Next came a bridge about fifty meters long.

"Watch your step, Lady Raven."

"Oh, thank you."

The bridge, which had crumbled in places, ended about twenty meters short of the castle gate. That wasn't damage caused by age. It had been designed that way.

BWOOOOOO!

When we blew the horn we'd retrieved earlier, the drawbridge began descending with a clatter.

Of course, that wasn't all...

「The long-dormant castle defense magic circle activates.」

"Bjorn! Water's rising down below!"

The moat.

The trench dug around the castle walls to repel invaders began to fill as well. With dark, deep-red blood.

This was why the place was called the Blood-Tinted Castle.

Red above, red below.

But something else was about to heighten the apocalyptic atmosphere.

"Bjorn! Hands! There are hands flailing above the water!"

"They're deadmen. Don't be nervous."

"Hmph! Who said I was nervous?"

As the blood reached the underside of the bridge, the deadmen flailing at the surface began climbing up. The drawbridge hadn't even descended a fifth of the way yet.

The concept of this section was simple.

—Hold out until the drawbridge lowers.

If this were the game, that was surely the message we'd have seen.

"Grrrhh."

Nobody gave any particular orders, but everyone began fighting on their own, shoving deadmen away or bringing weapons down on them.

THUD! THUD! CRUNCH!

Unranked though they were, deadmen were fairly troublesome opponents on this bridge. One wrong step over the edge, and it was game over.

"It's ready."

About a minute in, Raven completed her mana formula.

"Witerna Dertu!"

A literal translation of the spell's name would be something like Blade Storm.

A fierce gale spread outward from our tightly packed formation, instantly grinding the deadmen up like a blender.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.

The dwarf let out a gasp as he surveyed the bridge, now littered with deadmen's remains.

"... Impressive."

"They were only deadmen."

Despite her modest words, Raven's eyes were brimming with pride. But it didn't strike me as arrogance. Without a mage with an area-of-effect spell, this section was by no means so easy to get through.

We casually crushed the occasional deadman that clambered onto the bridge after that, until the slowly descending drawbridge finally touched down.

BOOOM!

The first chapter of the Blood-Tinted Castle was over.

Almost disappointingly easily.

* * *

With the drawbridge behind us, three chapters remained: the street battle within the outer walls, the dungeon within the inner walls, and the demon worship chamber in the lord's castle.

"Now, this is interesting."

Upon entering the castle, Raven's eyes lit up at the sight of what was practically a ruin, as though a trove of treasures lay before her.

"A smithy, a tavern, an inn, a church, stables that merchants would have used... Most of these ruins appear to be communal facilities."

The dwarf chuckled.

"Is that really so surprising, Miss Raven?"

"Of course. There were no farm plots or residential areas on the mountain trail we climbed, or inside these walls. That means there were no farmers. Aren't you curious what everyone lived on in a fortress city built in such remote mountains?"

"Perhaps this dimension had alchemists too. They probably turned magic crystals into bread, just like us. Hahaha!"

"... That is certainly the leading hypothesis among scholars."

"Haha! Is it? I suppose even learned folk think much the same as everyone else!"

"But that's not the only interesting thing, Mr. Murad. The long drawbridge, the high walls... This castle was built for practicality. Who exactly were their enemies?"

The dwarf had initially humored her, but as the conversation dragged on, he recoiled and put some distance between them.

"I can't understand why you're curious about such things. Isn't this all just an artificial space?"

"An artificial space? Certainly, laypeople who haven't properly studied dimensional theory might think—"

"Enough, Miss Raven. Monsters are coming."

As we made our way through the streets toward the inner castle, monsters soon appeared. Deadmen, skeleton archers and mages, ghouls, and even rank-8 deathfiends.

The monsters weren't much different in strength from those in the Land of the Dead, but their numbers were on another scale. Each group contained at least several dozen.

"Everyone, gather around me."

Worse, fighting one group drew another toward the noise. Less than a minute after encountering the first group, we were surrounded on all sides by hundreds of monsters.

But at that moment, the Blade Storm we'd seen earlier swept through our surroundings again.

WHOOOOOSH!

As a spell designed to mow down weaklings, it couldn't grind everything to pieces like before. Some ghouls survived with only a single limb severed, to say nothing of the deathfiends, the very embodiment of defense and regeneration.

Still...

"I'll leave the remaining monsters to you."

Simply wiping out all the deadmen and skeletons, which had made up over ninety percent of the horde, meant she'd undeniably done the work of several people.

"Aynar!!"

At my shout, Aynar charged out. Our target was a deathfiend.

As for how we'd kill it... there was no need to explain in words. A single exchanged glance was enough.

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

After coordinating hundreds of times, we'd reached the point where we hardly ever made mistakes.

We called it the (True) Double Barbarian Tackle.

THUMP!

The dwarf looked aghast as we lifted both its legs, slammed it into the ground, and smashed its skull.

"... Is that how you usually hunt?"

His eyes practically said, What kind of savages are these?

"Is there a problem?"

"No. It's quite, quite a bold approach. Just what I'd expect of barbarians! Ha, haha!"

I had nothing to be embarrassed about at this point, but it was a little funny. It wasn't as if the dwarven fighting style was particularly refined.

"Raviod Eheltoon."

There were still seven deathfiends left, but once Raven even cast a Worsening Wounds Curse on them, they were easy to kill. A deathfiend with its Body Preservation passive sealed wasn't such a difficult monster.

"I think I understand why everyone says mages are amazing..."

Perhaps those two battles alone had driven home the impact of a single mage. Aynar muttered in a deflated voice.

Raven didn't reply, but on closer inspection, I could see the corners of her mouth twitching. Apparently, she enjoyed being admired.

The dwarf added his own comment.

"Haha! Having a mage certainly changes what you can accomplish."

I agreed. If we'd been tackling the Blood-Tinted Castle with a five-person party of beginners, we wouldn't even have dreamed of a head-on battle like this. We'd probably have whittled down the monsters from the outskirts, even if it took dozens of times longer.

"Hmm, well... That's why we study so hard. Of course, talent is necessary too."

Raven squirmed a little under the continued praise.

I was starting to get a sense of her character. A gifted young mage who pretended to be modest but loved showing off, and whose passion for magic and research surpassed even that.

I was also starting to get a sense of how to handle her.

"I'd like to look around for a bit and collect some research materials. If you don't mind, could everyone help?"

"You're the reason we have time to spare, Miss Raven. Of course we should help! Hahaha!"

"Thank you."

Afterward, we searched the ruins of the town, collecting a varied assortment of antiques, books, soil, metal, and deadmen's flesh and bones.

"Thanks to everyone, we finished early. Let's move on to the next area!"

I blanked for a moment.

Huh? Wait, we're done?

We've killed all the monsters and searched every inch of the place, so why aren't we taking that?

"What are you doing over there? Come along!"

... Could it be that none of them knew?

About that incredibly easy-to-find thing that came out when you smashed the fountain statue?