Chapter 30 - Blood-Tinted Castle (1)

Every gamer has a habit of hitting the interaction key whenever they come across a suspicious wall or an unusual sculpture.

I was no different. And over nine years of playing [Dungeon and Stone], that habit had helped me discover countless “hidden pieces”—secret elements of the game.

Like the statue in that fountain, for example.

“Bjorn?”

“Ah, coming.”

Setting aside my misgivings, I followed the others into the inner castle. I decided not to bring up the statue.

A barbarian possessing knowledge that even a mage who devoted her entire life to learning didn't have?

'Better not give her any unnecessary reason to suspect me.'

The lie about reading it in a book clearly wouldn't work this time. Besides, “that thing” was an item you couldn't take outside even with spellbend.

“So this is the inner castle.”

In medieval times, the outer castle served as the first line of defense, while the inner castle was more of a last bastion. Normally, the lord's retainers, knights, and soldiers would have been stationed here, along with armories and other military facilities.

Raven sighed as she surveyed the area.

“... I'd heard about it, but there's hardly anything worth salvaging here.”

The inner castle, one-third the size of the outer castle, had been utterly devastated. Every building had collapsed, leaving barely more than foundations. There weren't even any monsters here.

“Let's move on to the next area quickly.”

Under Raven's direction, we spent about thirty minutes clearing rubble before finding a passage underground.

“Mr. Murad, would you take the lead?”

“Gladly!”

“Oh, and please light a torch. I need to conserve mana.”

The dwarf took out a torch and fitted it above his head. Maybe it was his height, but he looked like a mole miner from a cartoon.

FWOOSH!

We pushed aside the thick wooden planks and slowly descended the staircase hidden beneath them.

The third section of the Blood-Tinted Castle: the dungeon.

I swallowed and braced myself anew.

「You have entered Dungeon Level 1.」

Ugh, I couldn't handle gross stuff...

* * *

“Miss Raven, what monsters appear here?”

“Skull rats, banshees, deathfiends, chimera wolves, ghoul lords, and Corpse Golems, as far as I know.”

“I've fought all of those except Corpse Golems.”

“I'd imagine so. Corpse Golems only appear in the Blood-Tinted Castle.”

“Hahaha! Finally, a chance to earn some more accomplishments!”

The dwarf was delighted at the prospect of fighting a new monster and gaining EXP.

I couldn't share his enthusiasm. Even its illustration had been horrific. How revolting would the real thing be?

“Anything in particular we should watch out for?”

“Just Flesh Explosion. The blast itself isn't all that powerful, but its bodily fluids contain acidic poison, so getting hit at close range can be fatal. Of course, I'll block it before that happens.”

“Haha! Nothing to fear with a mage on our side!”

“It's only possible because I have dependable warriors like you, Mr. Murad.”

Bullshit.

As if they hadn't been glaring daggers at each other while arguing over the loot just a little while ago.

THUD.

We stepped off the final stair, and a labyrinthine dungeon unfolded before us. Behind the bars, deadmen growled in their chains, while rats made of nothing but bones scurried across the floor, making bizarre noises.

“Bjorn, are these monsters too?”

“Those are the skull rats I mentioned.”

“I wasn't asking you, mage!”

For the record, they were unranked, just like deadmen. They barely had enough combat power to qualify as monsters, so we simply trampled whichever ones we saw as we moved on.

Before long, we encountered a banshee.

“Heheheh, hehehehehe!”

The banshee drifted about in spirit form, with only the outline of its grotesque face visible.

“B-Bjorn...”

Oh, right. She was afraid of banshees.

Raven smirked as Aynar pressed a little closer to me. Luckily, Aynar didn't see it. Otherwise, she'd have started yelling at the top of her lungs again.

“Be careful not to collide with a banshee. Once or twice won't put you in any serious danger, but...”

“... But?”

“You'll have a very, very horrifying experience.”

“A-a very, very horrifying experience? What does that mean? Explain yourself, mage!”

“Well, shall I leave that to your imagination?”

Raven grinned at the now-pallid Aynar. Getting back at her like this suggested she wasn't exactly nice herself.

Sighing inwardly, I joined the conversation.

“I've heard mages have a way to deal with banshees.”

“Hmm. They said you liked books, and you really are well-informed, aren't you?”

Did that really qualify as well-informed? Well, maybe if you added “for a barbarian”...

Still, this much should be safely below the threshold for suspicion.

“Then I'll stop teasing and clear out the banshees before we continue. Thaeloon Shell.”

An arrow of light formed at the tip of Raven's staff and shot out, piercing the banshee.

In the game, the spell was called Mana Unit. It was a basic offensive spell, essentially a mage's normal attack, so it didn't even have a casting time.

“Keeeeeeeeee!”

After a short wait, dozens of banshees began swarming toward us, radiating intense hatred. They had sensed the “mark” their companion had left behind upon dying.

For a mage with an arsenal of powerful area attacks, though, that was probably a welcome development.

“Iherno Haindar.”

Flame Barrage.

Fire poured from her staff, filling the straight corridor. When the flames subsided, not a single banshee remained.

WHOOOSH!

Once again, the magic crystals scattered across the floor rose into the air and deposited themselves in the pouch.

Honestly, I envied that more than her offensive spells. Not having to pick up every single crystal by hand.

Sigh. How long would it take before I could bring a mage onto my team...?

It reminded me just how far I still had to go.

* * *

Reality was different from a 2D world on the other side of a monitor. Especially when it came to the chills crawling over your skin.

「Your character has entered Dungeon Level 2.」

Experiencing the dungeon firsthand felt more like visiting a mad scientist's laboratory.

Chimera wolves with three or four heads and muscles bulging like mutants. Ghoul lords with thirty elder ghouls in tow.

Not only were these rank-8 monsters grotesque, but every little prop scattered around us evoked a horror game.

Though the crowning touch was still to come.

“You're quite something too, Miss Raven. Aren't you frightened?”

“Well, I'm very fond of anatomy. This much doesn't bother me at all.”

Fuck, hopefully she didn't mean barbarian anatomy.

Come to think of it, I'd heard barbarian hearts fetched such high prices because they were magic ingredients...

“Ah, we're here.”

After hunting every monster in the dungeon and reaching the third underground level, we found a hidden door leading to the underground chambers of the ruined lord's castle.

Normally, we would have needed to get a map from the guards' room first...

“A door hidden behind a wall. Good thing I memorized the map before coming in.”

Thanks to Raven's thorough preparation, we hadn't gotten lost once.

Well, I would have found my way just fine on my own. The dungeon's layout, at least, was identical to the game's.

'But that's only possible because I'm a Player.'

Once again, I understood why mages were held in such high regard.

Powerful offensive magic. Versatile support abilities like the Worsening Wounds Curse. And knowledge accumulated through careful study of countless books.

There was a reason teams treated mages even better than priests.

“It would be best to leave our backpacks outside before going in. Yours especially, Mr. Jandel.”

A little embarrassed, I set down my enormous backpack, which stretched from my head to my thighs, in front of the door.

... When I had the money, I really needed to buy a magical backpack. This one had already gotten in my way more times than I could count.

“Oh, and Mr. Jandel, please light your torch from here on as well.”

Following Raven's instructions, I secured a torch above my head too.

With that, we were ready.

CREEEAK, CREEEAK, CREEEAK.

We turned the round valve and opened the iron door, and a putrid stench washed over us.

“I wasn't expecting a place like this at all.”

“M-mage... Do we really have to go in there?”

“I hate it just as much, but we have no choice.”

The place resembled a wastewater treatment plant. Huge pipes lined the cylindrical chamber's walls, dripping dark, filthy sludge.

And on the floor, broken and severed limbs and heads lay heaped like mountains. The gas that must have accumulated as they rotted stung my nose and gave me a headache.

“Urgh, bleegh!”

The porter was the first to vomit. The man who had been standing imposingly beside Raven as though guarding her emptied his stomach with a completely expressionless face.

Raven was next.

“Urk, bleeegh!”

All her experience with dissection might have given her a tolerance for the sight, but she apparently couldn't handle the smell.

Surprisingly, I could bear it. A scene that would once have made me faint lay before my eyes, yet it had no effect on this barbarian body's iron stomach.

“Thank goodness you're still all right, at least. Let's move forward.”

With a feeling I couldn't put into words, I slowly approached the center.

SQUELCH.

Each step sounded like I was treading on a sponge. As our lights drew closer to the center, the enormous shape that had been only a silhouette in the darkness came into focus.

“Hel, lo.”

Astonishingly, it spoke to us. In a woman's voice, like a broken recording of an announcement.

“Ghk, gak! Live! I, k-k-ghk, save me! Me! Krrk, grrrk, deli, cious, Father, hee!”

Uh, um, uh...

Honestly, it was a bit of a shock.

“Whew...”

Fuck, you were quiet in the game. Seriously, why were you doing this to me?

The complaints came unbidden, but whining wouldn't change anything.

I glanced aside. Even the dwarf, who had seemed fairly dependable, was frozen stiff.

“Everyone, snap out of it!”

I immediately shouted to rouse my dazed teammates. But perhaps that had provoked it.

“Father! Father! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It huuuuurts!”

The crouching pile of corpses rose to its full height and stepped forward on something that might have been a foot.

BOOOOM!

The Blood-Tinted Castle's miniboss.

The Corpse Golem.

* * *

[Dungeon and Stone] was about as niche as a game could get, but it wasn't entirely without mainstream appeal.

Its illustrations, at least, were famous. The images were so lifelike they looked like black-and-white photographs, and people often used them as reaction images online.

Few people actually knew those illustrations came from a game, though.

Once again, I realized something.

“Fuck.”

No matter how realistic a drawing was, it couldn't compare to the real thing.

“It hurts! It hurts! It huuuuurts!!!!”

Was this what you'd get if you gathered thousands of human arms, legs, and heads and packed them tightly together?

Worse, every single part moved independently, as though it had a will of its own. The hundreds of mouths were no different. Each spewed whatever it wanted, without restraint.

Most were fleeting feelings, without logic or coherence: I'm suffering, I'm cold, I hate you, kill me, save me.

“Kyaaaaaah—!”

Well, either that or simple screams.

The grotesque voices melded into a spine-chilling harmony, leaving everyone stunned once more.

“Hikurod! Watch out!”

The mage who claimed to know anatomy. The third-year dwarf who must have encountered countless monsters. The human man whose imposing air seemed out of place on a mere porter.

They had treated the two novice barbarians as dead weight...

Yet astonishingly, Aynar and I were the only ones keeping our cool right now.

“What are you all doing?!”

Aynar, who had been watching the Corpse Golem closely, grabbed the dwarf by the scruff of his neck and hauled him up. At that very moment—

KABOOM!

A mass of corpses hurled like a shot put exploded where he'd been standing. Blood and flesh scattered, splattering Aynar and the dwarf.

HISSSSS!

Luckily, it only hit Aynar's clothes, leaving her unharmed. The dwarf wasn't so fortunate.

“Aaargh! My eye! My eye...!”

Fuck. Somehow, it had gotten through the narrow opening in his helmet and into his eye.

The dwarf was incapacitated in an instant.

And the mage who had told us to trust her...

“Urgh, bleeegh!”

Was still throwing up.

... Seriously, what were you people doing?

I'd wondered why everything had been going so smoothly. Of course it couldn't last.

“Aynar! Take the dwarf to the back and protect the mage!”

Shouting my orders, I raised my shield and faced the Corpse Golem.

I had no choice. I wanted to avoid standing out if at all possible, but the people who'd strutted around claiming they could carry us were busy screwing everything up.

“VEHELLLAAAAAA!!”

If I wanted to survive, I'd have to take the wheel myself.