Ch.4949. Howling Darkness

“Kieek!”

Slash.

The zombie spider that had charged with a scream split in half, spraying yellow bodily fluid.

The spider twitched a few times before going limp and moving no more.

Amon shook his sword clean of any potential fluid before returning it to its scabbard.

“Be careful not to step in the fluid.”

Those using magic tattoos carefully crossed the corridor avoiding the spider’s fluids, while the others simply stepped over them.

Dungeon exploration centered around Amon had begun the day after he confessed to having Divine Power.

The advantage of specialized mobs was their absolute effectiveness against their specific class.

The disadvantage was that they became incredibly weak against non-specialized opponents.

Thanks to this, Amon’s dungeon exploration proceeded smoothly.

Undead specialized against Divine Power couldn’t even exist in the first place.

Slash.

Amon cut through the undead as easily as slicing butter with a hot knife.

The party members watched Amon’s one-sided domination with mixed feelings.

“Do we even need to be here?”

[Aren’t we just baggage carriers?]

The other members couldn’t refute the buffalo tanker and the mute sniper’s words.

Of course, they weren’t completely useless.

They handled the undead they could deal with and did their part.

But whenever specialized mobs appeared, certain members had nothing to do, making them feel somewhat useless.

[I want to do something too…]

The mute sniper became dejected whenever enemies immune to bullets appeared.

But since bullets were consumables, she and the ogre heavy gunner were excluded from those battles.

A selfish party might have been happy about saving on ammunition costs, but this kind-hearted party wasn’t like that.

After each battle, party members would look to Amon and treat him like their lord.

“Are you thirsty? I have water.”

“Ah, thank you.”

“Are you hungry?”

“I’m not hung… so keep your block, please.”

He politely declined the dual mage’s offer.

Although the mage could create drinking water, mana was still a resource, and as for nutrient blocks… that went without saying.

Feeling awkward about being treated like some lord, Amon spoke up.

“Please don’t treat me like this. Everyone’s doing great.”

But Kathy, who had been surplus to requirements, wasn’t convinced by Amon’s consolation.

“But you’re doing all the work yourself.”

“It’s not just me, so stop saying that. Even with that spider just now, Vox supported me.”

Vox joined the conversation.

“I was useless in the battle before that!”

“Vox, I’m trying to defend you here, and you’re not helping.”

“As an ogre, I have my pride! Kathy’s right, I’m useless.”

“No, don’t say that. Without you all, I would have died long ago.”

As Amon said, even he couldn’t handle overwhelming numbers alone.

Without his companions’ support, he would likely have been crushed by sheer volume.

Moreover, as they descended, specialized undead began appearing mixed together.

In the end, it was a dungeon that could only be conquered if everyone did their part well.

“Alright! That’s enough self-deprecation! Let’s continue downward!”

Amon urged the group forward, saying there was nothing sillier than arguing about this.

The party immediately resumed their exploration.

They continued to encounter numerous specialized undead.

Each party member handled their assigned undead well, while Amon swept through the rest with overwhelming force.

When they got hungry during battles, they filled their stomachs with nutrient blocks, and when fatigue built up, they returned to the surface to rest before continuing.

Before they knew it, the party had reached the highest officially reported exploration level.

“This is El Dorado.”

The buffalo tanker examined an unclaimed technique while exploring the uncharted level, expressing admiration.

As expected of a magic technology company, they discovered techniques not yet reported.

A magic inscription that could heal severe wounds during battle, though not quite regeneration.

It had a different inscription and circuit method from those sold on the market, making it patentable.

Selling this technology would instantly make them rich, or applying it to themselves would make them named mercenaries.

Typically, when such technologies were discovered, parties would fracture over distribution issues.

But Amon’s party remained calm.

“I think the party leader should decide.”

[Yes, yes.]

Not just the buffalo tanker and sniper, but the other members agreed as well.

However, Amon postponed the distribution issue.

“People on the surface probably don’t know we’re the frontrunners. Rather than drawing attention and becoming corporate targets, let’s deal with the lich first.”

The party all nodded in agreement and set aside the discussion about the magic tattoo technology.

The party discovered several more technologies afterward.

According to the dual mage’s calculations, they were worth approximately 8 million dollars.

But even then, Amon’s party showed no signs of discord.

“Our party leader contributed the most. We have our dignity.”

Even the dual mage, who best understood the value of these magic tattoos, said this, keeping the party peaceful.

Of course, they were still human.

Seeing valuable items before them naturally aroused greed and the desire to claim them.

But they could resist this temptation due to their strong bonds and the fact that the dungeon exploration wasn’t over yet.

They would continue exploring the dungeon, and falling out with Amon now would be like killing the goose that laid golden eggs.

So they placed camaraderie on one shoulder and rationality on the other to suppress their greed.

*

Two months into dungeon exploration with twisted energy bars from the underworld.

While breaking through another uncharted level, Amon raised a question.

“Are these technologies actually safe?”

This company had already turned people into undead with magic inscriptions once before.

There was a good chance the technologies obtained here were contaminated.

“We could verify by selling them to a major corporation.”

The dual mage answered Amon’s question.

It was quite a reasonable thought.

But that only worked if the corporation on the other end was benevolent.

“Wouldn’t they just kill us all and swallow both the zombification technology and us?”

“Ah…”

The mage was left speechless at Amon’s point.

The party members who were listening chuckled.

It wasn’t a serious discussion anyway.

They hadn’t decided whether to sell the inscriptions or use them themselves, so it was more like half-joking banter.

The party continued forward, exchanging such trivial jokes.

They defeated the now-familiar specialized undead, advancing endlessly until they would meet the lich.

However, that day was slightly different from others.

At a dead end in an empty corridor.

Thump thump.

Kathy tapped on a seemingly normal wall with her spear tip and said:

“Hey, this door is really strange.”

Everyone was puzzled by her words.

Even Amon couldn’t sense anything unusual about the wall.

“Door? Isn’t it just a wall?”

At those words, Kathy smiled triumphantly as if she’d been waiting for this moment.

“No. This is technology commonly used in corporate research labs. If you push this part like this—”

Creeeeak—

The wall slid into another wall.

On the opposite side, an iron door with a card key slot was revealed.

“Ta-da~”

Kathy spread her arms, revealing the iron door.

But contrary to her expectations, the party’s reaction was underwhelming.

“Wow.”

“Good job.”

Clap clap.

The party members applauded.

They knew she’d done well, but seeing her proud demeanor made them want to tease her.

“Tch.”

Only after she started pouting did the party begin to properly praise her.

“Kathy, you’re the best.”

[As expected of our deputy party leader.]

“Kathy is much better than Vox!”

“Ms. Kathy. That’s amazing.”

Kathy regained her confidence amid the party’s praise.

Meanwhile, Amon examined the iron door from various angles.

“So, Kathy. How do we open this?”

“You can see for yourself. We need a key card.”

“Do you have one?”

“Of course not.”

“I thought you might, since you found the hidden wall.”

“I just happened to know about it by chance. We’ll have to use brute force on the iron door.”

But Amon was skeptical of her suggestion.

Tap tap.

He knocked on the iron door a few times and then nodded.

“This seems doable.”

“?”

“Vox. You know how to make thermite, right?”

“I know the recipe by heart.”

“Then put thermite here and here.”

The party members finally realized what Amon was planning.

The corners of the ogre’s mouth—the party’s firepower specialist and severe firepower enthusiast—turned upward.

“How much do we need?”

“As much as possible.”

As a soldier from Amon’s previous life once said,

Power is light and wisdom.

Agreeing with Amon’s muttering, the ogre excitedly installed all the bombs he had on the door’s hinges.

Once the installation was complete and the party members had backed away from the door.

“Blasting!”

Hisss— BOOM!

The bunker door was torn off.

As the party members quickly prepared to enter,

Amon suddenly changed his demeanor and rushed toward the bunker.

“AAAAAMEEEEEEN!!!”

None of the party members could understand Amon’s sudden charge.

***

In the deepest part of the dungeon.

Inside the bunker of a now-defunct company, the lich tilted a teacup.

Slurp.

Thick blood moistened his lips.

His throat and chest, nothing but dried skin, moved with gulping sounds.

Though a lich doesn’t need food, he still enjoyed it as entertainment, unable to forget his human sensations.

Besides, it was somewhat necessary.

Storing blood or organ manipulations in his stomach would be useful later when using black magic.

“Hmm…”

The lich leisurely accumulated materials in his stomach while looking at the CCTV screens.

Most of the CCTVs were broken.

It was impossible for CCTVs to survive in a dungeon filled with bullets and explosions.

Even without intruders, the uncivilized undead would often destroy them, leaving only one CCTV remaining.

The CCTV was monitoring the door leading to the bunker where the lich was.

He maintained it in case an executive from the ‘headquarters’ came knocking regularly, but since an executive had recently visited, there was no real need to watch it.

Nevertheless, he continued to stare at the CCTV because it was the only thing to do in this underground facility.

“I really have nothing to do.”

Yet in the early days of creating the dungeon, there was much to do.

He deliberately showed himself to parties outside the boss room to prove this place was a dungeon,

Placed traps and monsters, and diligently created undead from the corpses headquarters kept sending.

‘Decades ago, I was so busy.’

But once the dungeon stabilized, there was nothing left to do.

The explorers who entered provided corpses, and automatic undead conversion circuits installed throughout the dungeon meant he didn’t need to go up.

The only time he left the bunker was to receive executives from headquarters.

‘I wonder if any explorers will come…’

The lich briefly entertained such thoughts out of boredom but quickly dismissed them.

This dungeon was carefully designed by headquarters and the lich.

While the upper levels were ordinary undead dungeons, the lower they went, the more impossible it became to conquer.

It was filled with extremely powerful mobs, with difficulty calibrated to ensure at least one explorer would fail at each level.

Even headquarters’ hundreds of simulations confirmed that no explorer-level team could possibly pass through.

At best, a ninja squad sent by headquarters with full preparation might force their way through, but with casualties, and people of that combat level wouldn’t be explorers in the first place.

Moreover, reaching the final level posed another problem.

The already difficult-to-reach bunker had a secret wall in front, making it even more hidden.

Anyone not affiliated with the company would hardly notice the structure.

‘Still, if explorers occasionally visit… No, what am I thinking?’

This dungeon was designed to be unbreakable.

From both the lich’s and headquarters’ perspective, it was better if explorers never discovered the bunker.

Besides—

‘Getting caught means death.’

To be honest, the undead hordes in the lower levels that had been meticulously prepared were stronger than the lich himself.

A well-organized collective is far more troublesome than an overwhelmingly powerful individual.

So if by some miracle someone reached the lich, the lich wouldn’t even be a match for them.

As he was thinking this, a group appeared on the CCTV screen.

‘Huh?’

Speak of the devil—it was a group of explorers.

The lich wiped away nonexistent cold sweat and contacted headquarters.

While keeping the party in the corner of his vision.

When the woman in the party opened the wall, the lich’s hands moved faster.

And just before the lich’s message reached headquarters.

Hisss

With the sound of something burning.

BOOM!

The bunker door was blown off.

As soon as the door fell, a roar came from the other side.

“AAAAAMEEEEEEN!!!”

A dagger flew and cut off the lich’s wrist.

“Aaaagh!”

Despite having a body that should no longer feel pain.

The lich involuntarily screamed at the burning pain.

Meanwhile, Amon, who had rushed into the bunker, stabbed his sword into the seated lich’s shoulder and thigh, stomped on his solar plexus, and said:

“Yes. I’ve been wanting to see you, you corpse.”

Despite being strangers, Amon’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent.

Searing the lich’s solar plexus with his foot filled with Divine Power, Amon said:

“I’ve been irritated since seeing corpses moving in formation. I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

“Ku…kuhak! Wh- who—”

“My Mother said: ‘Behead those who desecrate rest and hang them upside down in the square.'”

“Ah- AAAAGH!!”

Amon began searing the lich’s limbs before he could say anything more.

Watching from behind, Kathy muttered:

“Wow, how did he hide this personality until we got down here?”

While Kathy was somewhat aware of Amon’s true nature, the other party members were not.

“KYAAAAGH!”

Inside the bunker filled with the lich’s screams.

“We should be careful about using the term ‘Mystic Power’ from now on, right?”

An unspoken agreement formed among Amon’s party members.