Ch.49Dungeon Conquest Preparation

After taking Albert and Elise to the Third Western City, we took a 30-minute break before heading toward the valley where the Plague Dungeon had appeared.

“Could I ask Jessica to give a brief lecture about dungeons to Mina while we travel?”

“Oh~”

“*clap clap clap*”

“I don’t have much experience with dungeon raids myself… but I’ll explain what I know.”

Jessica made a slightly embarrassed expression, but she seemed secretly pleased to be treated as a walking encyclopedia. She cleared her throat with a light “ahem” before beginning her explanation.

“First, let’s cover the basics… dungeons are enclosed spaces that can only be entered and exited through entrances called ‘gates.’ They exist in spaces completely separate from the surface or underground where we live, so a massive labyrinth might be housed inside a small hill, or you might enter a gate in an empty plain only to find yourself in a tall tower.”

“Where are these gates usually found?”

“The exact conditions aren’t known. They can exist anywhere—plains, forests, hills, cliffs, inside ancient ruins… They can even suddenly appear in places where they didn’t exist before. However, they’ve never been discovered in places extremely difficult for people to access or near Mother Towns that aren’t covered in black mana.”

Apparently, scholars of Grantis speculate that dungeons possess consciousness and draw in visitors.

If that speculation is correct, appearing in places where people can’t find them would be disadvantageous for dungeons themselves. The fact that they’ve never been found near Mother Towns suggests there’s enough reason to believe there’s some relationship between dungeon appearances and black mana.

“While dungeon structures and sizes vary, they all commonly have one gate, a dungeon core, and a boss room.”

“The core… is that an important facility within the dungeon?”

“More precisely, it would be correct to describe it as the heart that creates and maintains the dungeon. When a dungeon’s core is destroyed, it forcibly expels everyone inside before disappearing—adventurers call this ‘dungeon demolition.'”

“So adventurers who enter dungeons have two objectives: finding treasure and destroying the core to demolish the dungeon.”

“That’s right. But the room where the dungeon core is located exists beyond the ‘boss room,’ which is guarded by a powerful monster. You can’t enter the room with the dungeon core without defeating the boss monster. So defeating the boss monster is essential to demolish a dungeon.”

Defeating the minor monsters wandering the dungeon while finding treasures, defeating the boss monster hidden deep inside, and then destroying the dungeon core to completely demolish the dungeon itself.

This is the general flow of what’s known as dungeon raiding.

“So the adventurers who entered the Plague Dungeon 38 years ago didn’t find the boss room or dungeon core.”

“Exactly. That’s why Will’s theory that there might be undiscovered secret passages in this dungeon, possibly hidden by Arcane Words, is likely correct.”

“Question! What exactly are these Arcane Words?”

“Hmm… right. Since we left Albert and Elise in the city, I should probably explain the details to Mina as well.”

Having made up my mind, I gave Mina a general explanation about Arcane Words.

I told her they were secret characters written using special means; that only elves with exceptional magical talent could discover them, with me being the only known exception; and that Ancestor was a treasure obtained by discovering Arcane Words hidden in ancient ruins.

To avoid making the explanation too long, I omitted details about the linguistic significance of Arcane Words and elven thought processes, but even with what I shared, Mina was staring at me intently, her eyes shining like a child who had received a game console for Christmas.

“…This is the ‘talent for finding hidden things’ I mentioned when we left Blackforge Mine.”

“So what you’re saying is, if I travel with Will, I can see treasures and amazing things that other adventurers could never discover!?”

“Well, I can’t guarantee it will always happen…”

“Amazing! Absolutely a-ma-zing!! I’m so glad I came with you! I might fall in love with Will!?”

“Hey, hey, that’s a bit too direct, don’t you think…”

I had a hallucination of seeing $ signs—no, gold currency symbols—floating in Mina’s eyes as she clung to me with her arms linked.

For Mina, who wants to build her skills as a magical tool craftsman by discovering artifacts, I must be like a walking treasure map, a living metal detector.

“So assuming we find a secret passage hidden by Arcane Words inside the dungeon, what do we do next?”

“Ideally, we’d defeat the boss, destroy the dungeon core, and completely demolish the dungeon. But if that’s not possible, just identifying the principle behind the small-scale overflow and stopping it would eliminate the worry of plague-carrying monsters escaping.”

“But even before the overflow occurred, adventurers who entered to investigate the dungeon contracted the plague. That means we might also catch the plague while exploring.”

“Seti is right. But if the characteristics of the plague haven’t changed from 38 years ago, we have some countermeasures we can prepare.”

“Countermeasures?”

“The plague from the past was only transmitted through contact with bodily fluids from monsters or infected individuals—blood, saliva, vomit, and so on. There were no reported cases of infection through air or mana flow. If that’s the case, a spell I created when editing the grimoire recently will help.”

“What kind of spell?”

“It’s called Airy Coat. It wraps your body in a layer of air that keeps you dry even in the rain. I created it for marching in bad weather, but its basic principle is preventing contact with liquids, so it should be effective against plague infection through bodily fluids.”

So it’s like wearing protective clothing using magic. If the plague’s infection route is limited to direct contact with bodily fluids, it should definitely be effective.

“And if Airy Coat doesn’t work, we can rush to complete the raid, destroy the core, and demolish the dungeon as a solution.”

“If the dungeon is demolished, will the plague’s effects disappear? Like when they offered a living sacrifice 38 years ago?”

“Some dungeons commonly inflict negative magical effects or curses on people who enter them, and such effects typically vanish along with the dungeon when it’s demolished. When they offered a living sacrifice 38 years ago, the dungeon only temporarily disappeared, but since both the dungeon entrance and the effects of monsters and plague all vanished, it’s highly likely the same would happen with a complete demolition.”

“A spell that prevents plague infection and a solution through dungeon demolition… that seems feasible.”

While not perfect, we’ve prepared as many countermeasures as possible. All that remains is to do our best to conquer the dungeon.

With that determination, we continued toward the Plague Dungeon, and about 1 hour and 30 minutes after setting out, we finally arrived at the hidden dungeon entrance in the valley.

An arched entrance made of stone material completely different from the surrounding land was set into the rocky wall of the narrow valley, and inside the arch, something like a magical barrier rippled with a purple glow, emitting a soft light.

“So this is the entrance to the Plague Dungeon…”

“Will, are there any Arcane Words hidden outside the dungeon?”

“None that I can see within range. Logically, they’d be inside the dungeon.”

“Then like before, Seti will take the lead, with Will and me behind…”

“I want to go too! I want to see how you find and activate those Arcane Words!”

“Then there’s one thing we need to confirm first.”

“What is it?”

“Mina, are you a virgin?”

“Huh!?”

Mina’s eyes narrowed as if to say “what are you talking about?” Meanwhile, Seti continued in a calm voice, ignoring Mina’s flustered appearance.

“This dungeon demands a pure maiden who hasn’t known a man as a sacrifice. Jessica and I are already Will’s women, so we don’t qualify. But what about Mina?”

“Ah… I see. If Mina meets the conditions for a living sacrifice, something might happen when she enters the dungeon.”

“The place where they offered the sacrifice 38 years ago was an altar inside the dungeon, so I don’t think anything would be triggered just by a virgin setting foot in the dungeon…”

“But it doesn’t hurt to check. Mina, if you don’t mind, could you tell us?”

As the gazes of myself, Jessica, and Seti focused on her, Mina turned away with a bright red face and answered in a trembling voice.

“O-Of course I’ve had experience with men! How old do you think I am?!”

“True, you are 5 years older than me.”

Because of her small build, it’s easy to forget that Mina is 25 this year, and the daughter of the Blackforge Mine representative.

In a way, she’s in a position like a “engineering department goddess,” so she must have been popular, and it wouldn’t be strange if she had developed a deep relationship with one of her admirers. It wouldn’t be strange, but…

‘That’s definitely a bluff.’

The trembling voice, bright red face, and refusal to make eye contact with any of us.

Her claim about having experience with men seemed like a lie, but I decided not to point it out.

As Jessica said, it didn’t seem likely that a virgin entering the dungeon would be offered as a sacrifice or trigger a fatal trap just by entering.

Why do I think that? Because the message demanding a virgin sacrifice was found at an altar inside the dungeon.

I don’t think the dungeon’s creator was stupid enough to make a mistake like writing “Do not flip over” on the bottom of a delivery box.

“Then let’s consider Mina’s issue resolved… We’ll enter the dungeon in this order: Seti, me, Mina, and Jessica.”

“Got it. What about Ancestor?”

“Let’s set up a barrier a little distance from the dungeon entrance and have him wait there. We can’t take him into the dungeon anyway.”

We lit a campfire about 50 meters from the dungeon entrance, activated a Repellation Field, and detached one of the backpacks from Ancestor’s harness.

That bag, containing about two days’ worth of food and water, various tools, and spare mana stones, was the product of Mina’s idea to gather all the necessary items for dungeon exploration in one place.

“Everyone ready? Let’s go.”

After gathering our bags, equipping our weapons, and confirming that Jessica’s anti-plague spell “Airy Coat” had been cast on all four of us, we stepped one by one into the rippling dungeon gate.