Ch.17Dungeon Practicum – 5

“…Isn’t this the same place we were before?”

“Yes, it is. You’ve got a good eye.”

Exactly 30 minutes later, we were circling the same area. More precisely, we were circling the same area while gradually moving deeper inside.

“Is it an illusion?”

“No, not an illusion. If it were, my detection magic would have caught it easily. This is more like the dungeon’s structure changing.”

At first glance, everything seemed stationary, but beyond our field of vision, the structure was changing in real-time, guiding us in a specific direction.

“…Was that even possible?”

“We’re experiencing it right now. So apparently, yes.”

“What do we do now?”

Diana’s face fell. It was exactly as she had lamented before we set out—that her mind would go blank when faced with unexpected situations.

“We need to head for the dungeon core.”

“The dungeon core? Go even deeper inside?”

“I’ve been testing something whenever we reached a fork in the path. One direction always led toward the dungeon core, while the other led outward.”

Thankfully, my detection magic could sense the dungeon core, allowing me to gauge direction. Otherwise, I would have been quite lost myself.

“O-okay. And?”

“If I chose the path toward the core, we could keep moving forward. If I chose the path leading outward, we’d end up back where we started.”

“Ah, so that’s why sometimes we were going in circles and other times going deeper?”

“Exactly. It means something wants to draw us inward. Whoever’s behind this.”

“I see… So we have no choice but to go deeper?”

Diana glanced at Warden. Since receiving the potion and first aid from me, he hadn’t uttered a single word.

When I told him to at least thank the person who saved his life, he bowed so deeply his head nearly touched the ground, and then remained silent ever since.

Both of them were shocked when I pulled out a potion from my pocket. I wonder what kind of image they had of me that they thought I wouldn’t even carry potions.

So we changed our objective to the dungeon core, and despite wandering in circles for over 20 minutes, we reached the vicinity in just about a minute.

With a hollow look in my eyes, I stopped Diana as she was about to enter. My detection magic had sensed something.

“There’s something big in there.”

“…How big?”

“Roughly 3 to 4 meters? I’m not certain, but around that size.”

Upon hearing it was about 4 meters tall, Diana tensed up and raised her sword. Warden still had that shell-shocked expression. Well, he didn’t have a weapon anyway, so it was better than watching him try to step forward.

I drew Eternity and entered the central area. As expected, there was a large creature. At the same time, I understood why there hadn’t been a single monster in the deeper part of the dungeon.

A creature that looked like a patchwork doll—an ogre’s body with troll limbs haphazardly attached—was staring at us and licking its lips.

“Ah! Visitors have arrived!”

Next to it stood another strange being.

Its upper body resembled a human’s, but it had only one eye on its face—an enormous eye that took up nearly half of its face. It had no nose, with a mouth directly beneath the eye.

Below the waist, its lower body looked like a slime stretched thin and long, anchoring it like a pillar. The overall color was gray. The creature shouted while exaggeratedly swaying its body.

“Welcome! I sincerely welcome your visit!”

“Why does your voice sound like that?”

It was like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard. I immediately mocked it, but the creature rubbed its hands together, unfazed.

“I’ve been like this since birth! Oh, I’m late with my introduction! Pleased to meet you all! I am a demon who serves under the Demon Lord, and I am honored to be the commander of the Third Legion! Please call me ‘Maker’!”

Clap, clap, clap—it applauded itself as soon as it finished speaking. The patchwork creature of troll and ogre followed suit with applause. None of us joined in.

The creature cackled.

“My, my. What ill-mannered guests you are!”

“What’s a legion commander doing here?”

“Why? Why, you ask! I’m here to play a little prank, following the Demon Lord’s orders!”

‘He actually answered.’

I got an answer, but I planned to take those words with a grain of salt.

The fact that he blurted it out so readily meant either it was fake from the start, or it didn’t matter if we knew. If it were truly important information, he wouldn’t be announcing it like that.

“Then all this—the dungeon being like this, and that thing over there—it’s all your doing?”

When I pointed my blade first at the purple-tinged artificial dungeon core and then at the ogre patchwork, the creature spun its head around and answered.

“Yes! Yes! You’re finally taking interest in my work! So, what do you think of my creation?”

“I could do better than that myself.”

“What?! How rude!”

The creature jumped up in indignation. Its body stretched vertically before returning to normal. Its single eye bulged.

“I mean, the center of gravity is slightly off. If it were me, I would have pulled the left arm more forward. And I would have removed the opposite leg and attached it near the femur. Look there. That part is also attached oddly.”

As I calmly pointed out various flaws, the creature, initially bouncing with rage like a spring, suddenly began to contemplate something.

“Ohhh!”

Then it suddenly stretched its body up and down, exclaiming in admiration.

“I understand! I thought something felt subtly wrong while creating it, and now I see the flaw! I made a huge mistake! Thank you!”

The creature created a hat on its head, took it off, and bowed deeply. Diana and Warden were staring at me with bewildered expressions.

I didn’t want to learn this kind of insane knowledge either.

“Since you’ve shown me kindness, I should return the favor! It seems your companions are incomparably weaker than you, so I’ll specially escort them safely outside!”

The floor writhed and rose up, carrying Diana and Warden. I reflexively reached for Eternity to cut it down, but stopped when I saw a section of the wall opening to reveal the outside scenery.

The raised floor gently deposited the still-confused pair outside, then was reabsorbed into the wall and disappeared. Diana and Warden found themselves in the middle of the monster corpses I had slain earlier.

The wall that had briefly opened returned to normal. The creature made its hat disappear and laughed with that chalkboard-scraping sound.

“Aren’t you going to escape with them? I believe you were looking for an exit!”

“And you. Why didn’t you take them hostage?”

“If you were a rude person, I would have! But since you appreciate art, that changes everything! People with your aesthetic sense are rare even in the demon realm!”

“Is there a possibility that the outside is an illusion?”

“Absolutely not! I stake my honor as an artist on it!”

An artist, huh.

I had met such a madman once in the first world. The advice I gave earlier was knowledge I had picked up while fighting that madman to the death. I hadn’t even wanted to hear it.

“So, you came here just to play a prank? Why not just stay quietly in the demon realm?”

“Good question! The reason I came all the way here is because…! The Demon Lord has truly awakened!”

“…Truly awakened?”

“Yes! Until now, he was always just bored, but a week ago, he suddenly began gathering all the forces of the demon realm to prepare for an invasion of the human world! According to my adjutant, he had never seen the Demon Lord with such an expression of joy!”

‘A week ago?’

That date sounded familiar. I tried hard to erase from my mind the memory of Bellium Academy’s entrance ceremony, which happened almost exactly a week ago.

“Of course, the invasion of the human world was already planned, but with the Demon Lord taking such an active role, we legion commanders couldn’t just sit idle! So I had no choice but to come here!”

My thoughts were more or less organized now. It seemed the monsters had started appearing much earlier than in the original story because of this so-called Demon Lord.

“How much time until the invasion?”

“I don’t know exactly! My legion’s preparations are already perfect! But if I dare to guess the Demon Lord’s intentions, I’d say we still have about a year!”

The creature cackled again, producing that spine-chilling laugh.

A year, huh. That meant the actual preparation period was probably around three to six months. Surely not all of this information could be true.

“And why are you telling me all this? Is it also because I’m not a rude person?”

“Oh, no! That’s not it!”

The creature’s neck rotated 360 degrees while facing me directly. One rotation, two rotations, three rotations before it finally stopped.

“What could humans possibly do with this information! How could you handle the overwhelming power of the Demon Lord and his army!”

A cackling laugh echoed through the room.

It was hard to dismiss those words as mere arrogance. In the original story, the hero spent a year and a half at the academy, then traveled the world in part two to grow stronger before challenging the Demon Lord.

But the current hero had only been at the academy for just over a week. So if war broke out soon, there was a high probability they wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Is that your only reason?”

“What?! Are you suggesting there’s another reason?! Another reason that even I, Maker, don’t know about?!”

The creature stretched its neck out long, appearing genuinely surprised. I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Why are you leaving out the reason that you needed time to completely transform the dungeon?”

“Aha, oh my! Oh my!”

The creature’s enlarged hand slapped itself just above its eye.

“How did you figure it out?”

“The purple color was intensifying so obviously. How could I not notice?”

“Haha! You got me there! But knowing that, you still didn’t run away—”

The creature froze, hand on forehead, eyes wide.

“You’re being reckless, aren’t you?”

“Reckless?”

I smirked and raised my sword.

I hadn’t recognized him at first because he wasn’t wearing armor made of human bones and flesh, but as soon as he said he was the Third Legion Commander, I was certain.

‘After all Priscilla told me about you.’

Her information naturally included details about the legion commanders—enemies we would have to face in the future.

“If you don’t believe me, see for yourself.”

Diana and Warden were first surprised by the fact that the demon had truly taken them outside the dungeon, second by the sight of monster corpses strewn about, and third by the forest that was already in the process of demonification.

Jeina rushed toward them anxiously. She hastily pulled out potions to force-feed them, but then awkwardly lowered her arms when she heard that Diana was unharmed and Warden had already taken a potion.

Diana immediately explained what was happening inside. The Third Legion Commander of the Demon Lord’s army had appeared in the dungeon, and Mira Crate was facing him alone.

Naturally, upon hearing this explanation, Jeina jumped up and rushed inside.

And at the same time.

“To come barging in without any notice—even for a Saint, this seems quite rude, don’t you think?”

The Crown Prince and Priscilla were facing the Saint who had arrived without any warning.