Ch.35Dungeon Exploration is a 3D Industry

After about thirty or forty minutes of descent, my feet finally touched the bottom of the underground dungeon.

The muddy floor was soggy with pooled water.

The air inside was still thick and sticky with rot and moisture, creating an unpleasant sensation with each breath as if filth was clinging to my lungs.

Looking up at the ceiling, the entrance we had descended through shone in the distance, no larger than a coin.

The sunlight that had filtered through the hole seemed to have given up on following us down, losing its strength halfway.

The surroundings were extremely dark without a single light, and even with my vision, I could barely make out outlines but couldn’t distinguish the colors of objects.

“I’ll… light the lantern first.”

Minea took out a metal lantern and lit it. With a whooshing sound, a crimson flame illuminated the underground.

Shadows danced on the dungeon walls following the flickering light.

Beyond the damp mud cave, a brick archway entrance was visible.

From beyond the dark entrance came a rumbling wind sound like a giant moaning.

I see, that must be where the real underground ruins begin.

“Let’s go.”

I moved toward the entrance of the ruins.

I took the lead, with Minea in the middle and Nigel at the rear.

The mud stuck to the soles of my shoes, making squelching sounds.

So far, I couldn’t sense any signs of living creatures.

As we passed through the entrance, the smell of the air changed.

Instead of rotting soil, the distinctive smell of stone like that of a beach permeated the air, mixed with the occasional pungent animal odor.

The interior of the ruins was an indoor structure with brick walls, ceiling, and floor.

A corridor wide enough for three or four people to pass through stretched ahead, and metal protrusions jutted out from the walls at regular intervals.

Perhaps they were originally used to hang some kind of lighting?

“This isn’t from the early days of the Empire. It’s a dungeon from even earlier, from the time of the Race Wars.”

“You can tell that?”

Minea pointed slightly upward. The ceiling, about 6 meters high, had faint cracks here and there.

Sandy dust leaked through the gaps between the old bricks, and patches of what looked like moss were growing in places.

“The ceiling is too high for an indoor corridor. It’s too wasteful of space for a building used by humans. Those trolls might not have flowed in from elsewhere, but might be descendants of the races that originally lived in these ruins.”

She had seemed intimidated by me until we entered the dungeon, but now that we were inside, she appeared quite composed.

Perhaps this environment was more familiar to her?

Her calm explanations revealed a sense of professionalism.

“Baron Hebel would be pleased. Ancient ruins like these might contain quite valuable artifacts.”

“Is that so?”

I borrowed the lantern to light my cigarette.

Taking a drag, I felt my senses becoming more acute.

I guess this is why people can’t quit this habit.

“Yes. Most ruins from before the human era were destroyed by Carlos the Great and his Twelve Knights, without leaving a single cornerstone. So except when underground dungeons like this are accidentally discovered, artifacts from that era are hard to find in the Empire. They might still exist in the countries of other races though.”

“I see.”

I continued down the corridor, making small talk with Minea.

Nigel followed behind, maintaining silence as if he didn’t want to get involved.

—-

Three pairs of footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.

Gradually, the smell in the air began to change.

A foul stench mixed with the smell of blood reached my nostrils.

…It must be time for them to appear.

I stretched out my arm to silence Minea and sharpened my senses.

My vision suddenly became clearer, reaching beyond where the light could penetrate.

My sense of smell became sensitive enough to distinguish subtle differences in scent, and I could clearly hear even the sound of sand particles falling from the ceiling.

Thirty paces ahead, beyond where the corridor bent.

From the echoing wind sounds, it seemed to be quite a spacious area.

The lack of swirling sounds suggested there weren’t any particular structures inside.

A disgusting smell flowed from beyond.

The smell of blood. The smell of decaying entrails. The smell of beasts.

…There was no sign or sound of breathing from living creatures.

Then, these must be the corpses of the knights and soldiers who were said to have been killed by trolls.

I drew my steel longsword and walked slowly.

Beyond the corridor was a vast space that looked like an auditorium.

The center was empty as if someone had cleared it, and all around the walls were piles of unidentifiable fragments that had been broken and weathered.

Among the fragments lay scattered remains of what had once been people, about thirty percent intact.

The stench filling the room seemed to originate from them, with particularly strong odors coming from their vicinity.

I left Minea and Nigel at the entrance and took the lantern from Minea.

I approached a bit closer to examine the remains.

About seven corpses, it seemed.

No, by now they probably amounted to about three people’s worth combined.

A corpse with only the left arm and head remaining.

A lump of flesh with half the body flattened, its contents bursting through the skin.

A piece of meat vertically crumpled so that its height and shoulder width were similar.

A soldier split in two, as if grabbed by the legs and torn apart up to the collarbone, sprawled in two pieces.

And pieces of meat that had been partially eaten, now unrecognizable as specific body parts.

The expressions on the corpses were all distorted with fear and pain.

The remaining parts hung limply like pieces of cloth, crushed by strong impacts, with half-rotted eyeballs flowing out beside their faces and intestines protruding from their mouths—a truly horrific sight.

The burst and excavated abdomens leaked rotting entrails, emitting a terrible stench, and some soldiers had completely empty abdomens as if someone had eaten their contents.

…Horrible.

I forcibly swallowed the rising nausea.

Showing such weakness by vomiting from shock at something like this wouldn’t suit Haschal.

The corpse that appeared to be a knight was somewhat less disgusting, probably because the armor provided some coverage.

Though only the torso remained, with the limbs torn off.

Blood had congealed black between the gaps of the terribly crumpled breastplate, and the helmet was flattened as if it had been placed in a compressor and crushed.

I had no desire to check inside the helmet. There wasn’t even enough space left to call it an “inside.”

The black, sticky pieces of meat flowing through the gaps in the helmet were horrific enough.

I thought I was quite used to seeing corpses.

But there was an enormous difference between a corpse killed by a human’s blade and one smashed to death by a monster.

I could kick a person with all my might and cause similar damage, but such corpses would fly far away, so I never had to look at them closely.

Since I didn’t sense any danger in the vicinity, I called over Minea and Nigel.

I couldn’t be the only one to see this.

…Not because I felt it was unfair for only me to see it, but because they might notice information I had missed.

—-

“Hmm… if the helmet was damaged to this extent, there’s a high probability of an ogre being present.”

The two responded quite calmly.

Nigel was expected, but Minea too seemed unfazed by such corpses, merely holding her breath due to the stench.

Well, unlike me, these guys must have seen this kind of thing often.

“An ogre? Why?”

“Trolls typically use blunt weapons, resulting in torn or burst corpses. Grabbing people and crushing them with sheer strength is the typical hunting method of ogres.”

“An ogre… Are you two really sure you can handle this? I’m suddenly feeling like going back…”

Minea muttered somewhat anxiously at Nigel’s mention of an ogre.

“Don’t worry, Miss Minea. Even Lord Haschal alone could easily handle a single ogre.”

…I’m feeling a bit less confident, but I’ll have to trust Nigel’s word.

The knight’s sword was still in good condition, so I picked it up.

Made of good quality steel, it looked much sturdier than the sword I received from the academy.

I put away the academy’s longsword and took up the knight’s sword instead.

I wasn’t trying to steal from the corpse; I intended to return it to the baron’s family after this was over.

Even if it broke, I would have avenged the dead knight with his own sword, so he should be satisfied in the afterlife.

—-

After passing through the large space where the knight’s corpse was found, we continued deeper into the ruins.

There were occasional side passages branching off from the main corridor, but most had collapsed, making what lay beyond impossible to determine.

It seemed better to explore the main corridor to the end first.

The overwhelming stench of blood and rot made my nose feel numb.

Perhaps they were attacked while fleeing to that hall, as the corpses of soldiers—burst open and partially eaten—were rotting throughout the inner corridor.

I focused on the smell of tobacco, consciously ignoring the disgusting stench.

– Huff…!

I heard breathing nearby.

I immediately stopped and focused my awareness in that direction.

From one of the side passages of the corridor, I sensed the presence of a large creature stirring in an inner room.

There were no other presences around besides it.

It seemed to have separated from its group and was doing something alone.

Listening carefully, I could faintly hear the sound of meat being chewed.

I see. It’s eating.

Gripping my sword firmly, I silently headed toward the side passage.

Beyond the passage, its form came into view.

—-

A large gray mass of flesh was sitting down, tearing apart a human corpse.

The massive body, more than twice the size of a human, was bulging with muscle and fat, with a rounded head covered in bulging veins.

Its ears were pointed and its nose was flat.

It had no eyebrows.

Deep within its sunken eye sockets, red whites and cloudy pupils gleamed ominously.

Stiff hair grew sparsely on its jaw.

Rotten blood dripped from its mouth full of sharp teeth, and pieces of meat stuck between its teeth emitted a disgusting stench with each breath.

Between its legs, it wore tattered leather to cover its lower body, and judging by the limbs attached to the leather, it appeared to be human skin.

An unpleasant groin was slightly visible through the gaps in the leather.

So this is a troll.

A large stone club, seemingly torn from the ruins, lay on the floor.

“Grrrrrr…?”

Perhaps it smelled me—the troll, in the middle of its meal, growled and raised its head to look at me.

Just one of them. Perfect.

I walked into the room, gripping the longsword.

Seeing me, the troll threw aside the corpse it had been eating, picked up its club, and stood up.

A heavy roar shook the ruins, and stone dust showered from the ceiling.

…Is it calling for companions?

If so, I need to deal with it as quickly as possible.

I raised my sword and charged at the monster before me.