Ch.51Crushing Terror

After defeating the Ratmen and resuming our dungeon exploration, we were able to progress quickly through the dungeon thanks to Mina and Seti’s efforts.

The dungeon’s structure, consisting of narrow corridors and rooms, made it easy for Seti alone to hold off several monsters at once. The occasional creatures that managed to get past Seti were quickly taken down by my revolver and Jessica’s magic.

No more Ratmen with guns appeared after that first one. According to Jessica, 38 years ago there weren’t many mages active as adventurers, and the price of automatic pistols was much higher than it is now, making them too expensive to purchase casually.

The corridors and rooms occasionally contained traps. There were various types: floor traps that opened to make you fall, traps that shot arrows imbued with harmful magical effects, traps that released sleeping gas, and more. However…

“Secured the gas sprayer and fast-acting sleep potion~”

“Ohhh~”

They all met the same fate of being helplessly dismantled by Mina, the dwarf technician with skilled hands, who stripped them of all usable parts.

Mina, who never missed a trap while simultaneously mapping the dungeon, was undoubtedly the ace of this dungeon expedition. I shudder to think how much we would have struggled in this dungeon without her.

After passing through a long, winding corridor full of dead ends, we arrived at a room much larger than any we had encountered so far. Unlike the plain stone walls of the dungeon interior we had traversed until now, the walls here were decorated with geometric patterns, indicating this place held special significance.

“It’s a dead end.”

“Hmm~ If there are no hidden areas, this must be the final room.”

Mina’s dungeon map was complete with this location, showing every part without omission. If Mina, who had caught every trap in the dungeon, couldn’t find anything, there probably weren’t any secret doors or passages that could be found by conventional methods.

Of course, that’s only true for conventional methods. If one could find an Arcane Word, the situation would be different.

“Bingo.”

“You found something?”

“Yes, right in the middle of the front wall.”

An elaborate circular magic circle filled the decorated front wall. And in the center of that magic circle was a secret phrase, visible only to my eyes as an Arcane Word.

{What lies ahead is anger directed at you, pain for you, despair caused by you. Praise to the courage of those who enter, condemnation to their ignorance, punishment to their arrogance}

As I finished reciting these ominous words, the Arcane Word disappeared, and a soft light began to emanate from the surrounding magic circle. The clicking sounds that followed reminded me of the sound of picking a safe lock in spy movies.

‘Drrrrr…’

Just as I thought the clicking sounds were increasing in frequency, the front wall began to split open from the middle. Behind the split wall was a staircase leading downward. There was no doubt it was a secret passage to the deeper levels of the dungeon.

“Amazing… there didn’t seem to be any mechanism on this wall.”

“Looks like they hid the secret mechanism for the passage with an Arcane Word. As they say, those who can’t read Arcane Words can’t even find traces of them.”

“So the boss of this dungeon was waiting for someone who could read Arcane Words… No, they might have used Arcane Words as a safety measure, thinking no such person would ever come to the dungeon.”

Only elves who have trained for many years can read Arcane Words, and those elves don’t work as adventurers due to their values. If it weren’t for a rare case like me, they could have continued receiving living sacrifices while making threats, without risking invasion of the deeper levels.

“Let’s go then. Into the depths of the Plague Dungeon where no one has ever been before.”

We began descending the stairs with tense hearts. Watching torches light up one by one along the seemingly endless dark stairway made me feel like we were walking into the depths of hell, but at the same time, my heart wouldn’t stop racing at the thought of being the first pioneers to set foot in the unexplored depths of the dungeon.

Ten meters, twenty meters… as we continued down the endless stairs, the tension was evident on all our faces. Even Jessica, a second-year adventurer, Seti who had longed for adventure, and the usually energetic Mina were all walking in silence.

‘No!’

“Eek!?”

At the sudden unfamiliar voice echoing around us, Jessica and Mina clutched each other while Seti’s tail stood straight up as they all froze in place. I nearly screamed and drew my revolver but managed to maintain my composure.

‘Why me of all people? What did I do wrong!?’

‘You bastards! How dare you sacrifice me, the chief’s daughter!?’

‘Is there… really no other way?’

The strange voices echoing in the dark corridor began to multiply. From a young, irritated voice to a husky, heavily accented one, and a gentle, polite voice—they all had different timbres and personalities, but shared the commonality of being female voices protesting against something.

“Is this…?”

“The voices of women who were sacrificed?”

“Seems like it. This is only the second time for the pioneers, but the Plague Dungeon itself must have existed for a long time.”

They say when a woman holds a grudge, frost falls even in May and June. The resentment and anger of young women forcibly sacrificed would certainly not be light. Moreover, this is Grantis, a fantasy world where magic and monsters exist. The grudges of women wandering the afterlife could easily become reality.

‘It hurts… my ankle hurts… I can’t see… where am I?’

‘You’ve got the wrong person! I’m not Laura, I’m her twin sister Rose! Laura was the one who was supposed to be sacrificed!’

‘How could Mother do this!? My own mother!!!’

“Ugh… this is really bad for our mental health.”

“I want to go back…”

“It must be some kind of magic or curse. Listening to it makes my heart feel heavier and heavier…”

The echoes of resentment reverberating through the dungeon were more than enough to devastate the mental strength of anyone who heard them. How many women had been forcibly sacrificed or tricked into coming to this dungeon? The warning in the Arcane Word about anger, pain, and despair waiting was certainly not empty words. If we continued like this, everyone’s mental state would shatter before we even reached the deepest part.

“This won’t do. Let’s go back outside the dungeon and come up with a plan…”

If such an ambush was waiting from the very stairs leading to the deeper levels, we couldn’t recklessly push forward. With that thought, I turned around to see an upward staircase stretching roughly a hundred meters or more.

“Holy Shit…!”

It was a painful mistake. If the dungeon’s operating principle was to thoroughly block access to the deeper levels, I should have expected some mechanism even after breaking through the Arcane Word. However, I hadn’t anticipated that the mechanism would come so quickly in a way that would shake our mental fortitude.

‘Aaaah! No! Don’t eat me! Please stop!!’

‘Rats… RAAAATS!!’

‘Kyaaaa! My eyes! My eyeeees!!’

The voices echoing through the dungeon were changing from resentment and lamentation to primal pain and fear. Even with their ears covered, the screams reached them, causing Seti, Mina, and even Jessica to collapse on the stairs, trembling. I desperately tried to calm them down, shaking their shoulders and patting their backs.

“Everyone, snap out of it! We can’t just sit here like this. We need to climb back up these stairs somehow and regroup, or we’ll all be wiped out!”

“B-but the stairs have somehow become so long…”

“It must be a trick or hallucination! We’ve only descended about 20 meters, right? Seti, can you sense anything? Mina, do you notice anything suspicious?”

“I don’t know, I can’t think of anything…”

“Me neither. It feels like something is rummaging through my head, making it impossible to focus on my surroundings…”

I understood what they were feeling. The sensation that the brain refuses to process any emotion other than fear. The feeling that even if you try to think of something else, all your senses are forcibly blocked, and only the image of fear is presented before your eyes.

“Ah… ah… ahhh…”

Seeing Mina now unable to even form proper words made me even more anxious. Compared to the three who had fallen into a state of panic, I was relatively better off, but if we stayed like this, all four of us would end up as mental patients. I had no choice but to forcibly evoke emotions other than fear in their minds, so I started shouting whatever topics I thought might get a reaction from them.

“Mina! Snap out of it! Money, no, artifacts! If we get artifacts here, I’ll give them to you to dismantle as you please!”

“A…artifacts…”

“Think about it, Jessica! Such a terrifying trap couldn’t be made without using magic! The legacy of the great sage you’ve been searching for might be here!”

“Legacy…”

“Seti! You are, well…!”

Unlike Jessica and Mina who had clear ambitions, I couldn’t think of what to say to Seti. An exciting adventure? A date just the two of us? A meat party!?

‘Damn it! Whatever happens now!’

“!?!?!?”

Looking at Seti’s eyes losing their light, my mind went blank, and without thinking, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. With one arm around her waist and the other hand caressing her cheek, I pushed my tongue between her moist lips.

“Mmph…!? *slurp*…haaa…”

Recalling Seti’s cute reaction from the morning we departed from Oxville, I grabbed the black tail extending from her bottom and began to knead it.

“Nyaaaan-!!”

When I gripped the base of her tail a little harder, Seti, who had been passionately exploring my tongue, pulled her face away with a startled cry like a cat. And at that moment, a rich fragrance spread through the stairway corridor that had been covered with nothing but fear.

A sweet fruity scent similar to peaches. The ultimate concentrated pheromone that female cat-folk release only in front of the person they love turned my mind pink. As I paused the kiss to enjoy the sensation of Seti’s bottom, suddenly someone’s hand turned my head to the left, and a moist tongue invaded my mouth.

Jessica, completely freed from the spell of fear thanks to the potent pheromones, pressed her body against me and showered me with kisses.

“Mmm… Will… *slurp*… *smooch*…”

“Jessica… are you back to your senses?”

“Yes… and this time I’m thinking clearly about what I want…”

“Will… do more to me too…”

The three of us, forgetting we were inside a dungeon, embraced passionately and exchanged sticky kisses. Mina, who had also regained her senses, was watching us from just a few steps away with a bright red face.

“*smooch*…*slurp*…*smooch*…haah…”

“Mmm…*chu*…*slurp*…”

In the corridor where the voices of sacrificed girls could no longer be heard, a harmony of sensuality performed by three people raised its curtain.