episode_0100

The students’ reactions to the closed gate varied wildly. There were five types of people present.

First, those who were in a panic and didn’t know what to do.

“The gate is closed! We’re all dead!”

“We’re toast!”

“Aaaah! Mom!”

Second, those who desperately denied reality and didn’t know what to do.

“No, it must be a mistake. Look closely. It’s just the color that changed, right?”

“Hahaha… of all days, this had to happen on the day of my field trip.”

Third, those who still hadn’t grasped the situation. Most of the students belonged to this group.

“Why is the gate like that?”

“Why are the kids acting like that?”

Amidst this chaotic situation, there was a group that managed to collect themselves and try to do something. The student team I called the ‘Hero Party’ belonged to this group.

“Nathan, where’s the flare? Give it to me quickly. We need to call the instructors!”

“It’s on my waist. Shoot it quickly!”

“I’ll check the nearby panic button.”

And finally, there was a group that calmly observed the situation. Our Violet team belonged to them.

“To think the gate would be disrupted again.”

“Indeed.”

Irene and I looked at the closed gate as if it were no big deal. Perhaps because we had experienced it before, it felt like nothing out of the ordinary.

“Well, it’ll open soon.”

“Right! Nothing bad will happen.”

After all, we had heard from previous explanations that due to the dungeon’s structural characteristics, it wouldn’t close permanently.

“Violet, can you contact the outside?”

“Contact? What are you talking about? Phones wouldn’t work here.”

I stared blankly at Daphne with a ‘what are you talking about’ expression.

“I know that. I mean, can you connect with the other Violet outside?”

“Ah, that’s what you meant. Of course, I can! I’m talking to her right now.”

“Then, could you check the external situation? If possible, talk to the instructor outside.”

“Alright!”

I immediately called Violet 345, who was waiting in the school dormitory. I went to the outer gate leading to the Chloris Forest; it would only take about 30 minutes by car.

“I’m going home! Open the door!”

“Hey, wait. It’ll open soon.”

The gate entrance was still noisy with the shouts of dozens of students.

Just then, a strange sound was heard from beyond the fog. A heavy thudding noise as if something heavy was repeatedly striking the ground. For some unknown reason, an ominous premonition gave me goosebumps.

I looked at Irene, and she also nodded.

“Did you hear that?”

“Of course.”

By then, students who sensed something strange began to turn their gazes towards the fog, one by one. The commotion subsided. Everyone looked beyond the fog with tense eyes.

“Everyone, gather around me!”

Irene raised her spear and shouted. The surrounding students, who still hadn’t grasped the situation, looked at her in surprise.

“What? Who was that?”

“She’s the first-year representative! The top student who fought the demon beast at the entrance ceremony!”

The students gathered beside Irene without knowing why. First, a male student with a shield and sword dragged his friends near our team. It was the Hero Party team.

The brown-haired male student asked Irene,

“Your name was… Irene Solstice, right? Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“It’s a demon beast. Do you hear the sound of trees breaking? It’s at least intermediate rank or higher. Its size won’t be small either.”

She pointed the tip of her spear towards a spot beyond the thick fog. The sound of shrubs breaking and the ground trembling drew closer.

-Crunch!

The source of the sound revealed itself.

A colossal demon beast resembling a carnivorous theropod dinosaur emerged, tearing through the fog and forest. Some students who saw it were struck with fear.

“Aaaah!”

I knew what that thing was. It was the intermediate demon beast that had appeared at the entrance ceremony, Kranos!

-Roar!

The demon beast, impressive with its four fierce red eyes, roared at the students.

“Not enough cockroaches, now a T-Rex too!”

“It’s not a dungeon, it’s Jurassic Park!”

“Everyone, get ready. We can do this.”

As Irene struck her spear shaft against the ground, a golden aura enveloped everyone.

Just as the students, invigorated by the magic enveloping their bodies, were about to charge, Kranos opened its mouth wide. It was a breath attack!

“To unleash a finishing move right from the start!”

“What a cheater!”

“I’ll deploy the barrier. Everyone, stay still!”

Daphne deployed a large barrier. The powerful torrent of magic extending from the demon beast’s mouth struck the light green barrier and vanished.

Realizing its finishing move had been neutralized, Kranos charged at us, dragging its massive body.

“Oh, it’s coming! Aaaah!”

“Hey! There’s nowhere to run! Fight!”

As the house-sized demon beast charged, some students stumbled in surprise from its momentum, and some were terrified. Fortunately, the remaining students, perhaps emboldened by Irene’s unique ability, did not flee. They all rushed in, attacking the beast simultaneously as a pack of hyenas might surround an elephant.

“Die!”

“Aaaah! Die! Just die!”

“Yelp!”

Kranos was incredibly strong and tough. It was even bigger than the one that had intruded on the entrance ceremony. Small wounds appeared on its body, but there was no sign of it falling easily.

Moreover, the demon beast’s only offensive weapon wasn’t just its breath.

“Tail’s coming. Dodge!”

“Ugh!”

Every time it swung its tail, everyone was busy dodging. Its forelegs were also threatening. The front claws were over a meter long and extremely sharp. Magic flowed through each individual claw.

“What kind of demon beast uses sword aura? Aaaah!”

A student who saw Kranos wildly swinging its forelegs shrieked. Fortunately, Daphne immediately deployed a barrier to block it.

“What! The crossbow is blocked?”

“It’s stuck in its hide!”

I took out my crossbow and fired. The magic-infused bolt was blocked by its hide. Arrows fired by me and other students were already stuck all over its hide. On one side, numerous magic bullets and magic arrows struck Kranos’s body.

From the front, Lucian darted around as if flying, unleashing a barrage of large and small magic attacks. Spears of flame and a rain of magic blades struck it, but the beast did not fall.

“Damn it! It’s tougher than the one we fought at the entrance ceremony! Why is this happening?”

Lucian dodged an attack, annoyed. Irene, who was grappling with Kranos’s sharp teeth, replied,

“The one we fought was relatively young. This is an adult! Its defense and magic resistance are incomparably higher!”

It hadn’t even been a few minutes since the fight started, but several casualties had already occurred. Truly an intermediate demon beast, it was like a living heavy tank. If we didn’t subdue it quickly, there might be fatalities.

Among the weapons I possessed, was there anything powerful enough to subdue that thing in one blow? I wondered.

Magic-infused crossbow bolts didn’t work. So, gun bullets probably wouldn’t work either.

Melee attacks infused with sword aura might be better than crossbows, but if I wasn’t careful, I’d be sliced into Violet chunks by its forelegs and teeth, like grain being harvested.

A powerful, single blow that the demon beast couldn’t counter was needed.

“Bombs! Only bombs!”

“This isn’t working. It’s time to self-destruct.”

“Self-destruct! Self-destruct!”

In my mind, a temporary command post rapidly formulated a strategy. A Violet assault team, laden with explosives, would strike Kranos, after which a squad-sized force would climb onto its body and stab its vital points with sword aura to confirm the kill.

“Irene, tell the other kids to fall back first! If our unit gets caught between them in this state, it’ll get even more chaotic. It’s better if only we fight!”

“Alright! Everyone! Fall back…”

As I prepared to create a Violet squad, a fierce ripping sound passed overhead, and a white object flew past.

A projectile too large to be called an arrow, the size of a short spear, struck Kranos’s neck.

-Thud!

“Roar!”

Kranos let out a cry of pain. Surprisingly, a gaping hole-like wound had appeared on the demon beast’s neck.

“Ah… ah… I hit it…!”

I looked back and saw Levi, wide-eyed and trembling, holding a ballista larger than his own body.

“Huh? That attack worked!”

“Levi did it!”

Wounded, Kranos thrashed even more violently, blood gushing from its neck. The moment the students retreated, a large male student holding a poleaxe dashed into the gap.

“Everyone move aside!”

Granite’s magic-infused poleaxe struck Kranos’s ankle. After a single impact, Kranos’s ankle split more than halfway, gushing blood.

“Ugh!”

Granite was kicked and sent flying, but Kranos also fell, its ankle severed.

“No need for self-destruct now.”

“Now it’s our turn. Charge!”

The students were coincidentally at a safe distance from the demon beast. The Violet squad, clad in black, ran and climbed onto the demon beast’s massive body. They furiously stabbed its vital points with swords and spears.

-Roar!

Kranos’s life was extinguished.

“We won! Though it feels like we only got the last hit.”

“What happened to that big guy just now?”

Granite, who had been kicked earlier, was receiving treatment. It didn’t seem like he was seriously injured.

After the battle ended, while Daphne was treating the injured students, I surveyed the surroundings. Large and small noises continued to echo from within the fog. There was no sign of anything coming this way, though.

“Weren’t there supposed to be few demon beasts here originally?”

“Indeed. Where could such a large one have come from?”

I couldn’t understand it. Hadn’t the instructors said they had cleared everything out beforehand? We didn’t know what other demon beasts might be beyond that fog.

It was truly a puzzling situation.

***

No students died in that round of fighting. This was because the battle ended quickly.

“Hey, you guys… why were you like that yesterday? You could have done well. Your firepower is unnecessarily strong…”

“It was just luck. I’ll work hard in the future too.”

“Are you f-forgiving what happened yesterday?”

“What? Forgive? Don’t misunderstand. Do you know how much I struggled yesterday? I’ll never forgive what happened yesterday. Don’t get the wrong idea!”

Lucian’s party could be seen talking under a tree. Just like yesterday, Lucian grumbled at his teammates. His attitude was a little more lenient than yesterday.

The students also generally seemed full of energy. As a result of catching a powerful demon beast without getting injured, everyone’s morale had risen.

“Wow! So this is a Kranos. That’s amazing.”

“Did you see me dodge its tail earlier? It came flying like this, *whoosh*! And I dodged it with a *swish*…”

“Idiot, didn’t you just run away?”

“Hey! When did I!”

Unfortunately, the students’ high spirits didn’t last long.

I, Irene, and the Hero Party, who had gone out for a moment, searched through the fog. This was because even after firing flares and pressing the nearby panic buttons, the instructors didn’t come.

The students’ morale plummeted after seeing the results of our careful search.

“Ugh…”

“It’s an instructor! Are you okay?”

“Daphne! Quick, heal him, huh? Why isn’t he breathing?”

“…It’s too late.”

Sadly, the instructors who had been waiting inside the dungeon had long been wiped out by an unexpected group of demon beasts. The one instructor who was barely alive was also on the verge of death.

“May he rest in peace.”

Daphne, with a sorrowful expression, closed the eyes of the nameless instructor.

My gaze, Irene’s, and the student named Nathan’s, met as we saw the agitated students. In a brief moment, we reached an unspoken agreement not to mention the other instructors’ bodies.

“Any news from the outside? It’s a mess here!”

“I just met Instructor Frederick. It’s chaotic here too.”

Meanwhile, Violet 345 arrived at the gate entrance. This place was in an uproar as well.

“You said ‘clones,’ didn’t you? To think your unique ability could connect the inside and outside of the dungeon. That’s fortunate. No one’s hurt, are they? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. But the other instructors…”

Frederick, hearing 345’s words, let out a grunt. His scar-ridden face twisted grimly.

“Kranos appeared? Kranos don’t live in Chloris Forest. Why…”

“Still, we caught it without anyone getting hurt.”

I examined the gate entrance. Technicians clung to large, unknown machines, trying to stabilize the gate. On one side, people who appeared to be mages were discussing something.

“Do you see those slow-pokes? They’ve started the stabilization work now. It’ll be done within half a day. Even in the worst case, a closed dungeon gate naturally reopens within one to two days. We’ll come rescue you quickly, so tell the kids to wait at the entrance. Understood?”

“Yes! I’ll relay that.”

Instructor Frederick sighed.

“So diligent people just go like that again…”

I relayed what I had heard from the instructor to Irene. Irene gathered the students and explained.

“The outside world is trying to rescue us right now. So we’ll be rescued soon. Don’t worry too much, okay?”

One of the students raised a hand and asked,

“But what about our food? The provisions we brought were only enough for yesterday.”

The students nodded, muttering, “That’s right, that’s right.”

“I’ll try to figure something out for that. The important thing is that it’s dangerous if you leave this area. Understand? In a situation like this, you need to stick together.”

Nathan and the Hero Party team next to her chimed in.

“Irene’s right! We need to cooperate with each other.”

“She’s the first-year representative, so we should trust her.”

As one by one, they supported Irene, the students gradually calmed down.

Now, all that was left was to wait. We waited at the entrance for the rescue team to arrive.

***

And then, a day passed.

The gate disappeared.