Ch.52Beyond the Burning Gaze

~ ~ ~ Dungeon Boss Perspective ~ ~ ~

In the deepest part of the Plague Dungeon, the boss chamber.

“It,” who had lived as a gatekeeper protecting the dungeon’s heart, the “Core,” was consumed by a rage it had never felt before.

A dungeon boss exists to protect the core, but simultaneously serves as the dungeon’s master, wielding power supplied by the core’s magical energy.

The structure and maintenance of a dungeon, the monsters generated within it, the magical items that lure intruders—

All of these are created, repaired, and maintained using the dungeon core as a resource.

The more abundant this “resource” is, the deeper, more complex, and dangerous the dungeon becomes. The higher the “rank” of the boss monster, the stronger the monsters inhabiting the dungeon grow.

Unfortunately, the resources provided by the Plague Dungeon ranked among the lowest of all dungeons in Grantis.

The boss of such a resource-poor dungeon could not, even charitably, be considered strong.

Having awakened to intelligence, blossomed in intellect, and accumulated magical knowledge, the dungeon boss despaired at its own weakness and the uselessness of this dungeon.

A pathetic, tiny dungeon consisting of barely ten rooms and corridors.

Insignificant powers that could only create and command filthy mice.

Even if granted a few spells capable of disturbing the human mind, there was no way to build enough strength to counter intruders with such miserable resources.

Yet without attracting intruders and absorbing their bodies and souls, even those meager resources would become impossible to maintain.

‘I must do something… to survive, to become stronger!’

The dungeon boss thought and thought again.

How to defeat intruders and ensure the dungeon’s survival with only a handful of resources and weak mice?

What method could meet the minimum conditions for survival, efficiently supply resources, and allow both the dungeon and itself to grow?

After endless self-reflection and contemplation, the answer ironically lay in acknowledging its weakness.

If it couldn’t muster the strength to defeat intruders seeking treasure, then simply don’t offer treasure from the start.

If it couldn’t defeat enemies who invaded the deepest part of the dungeon, then prevent them from reaching the depths in the first place.

A worthless dungeon that gives nothing—that was the operational policy the dungeon boss chose for survival.

However, physically eliminating the path to the dungeon’s depths was impossible.

For a dungeon to exist as a dungeon, there must be a passage connecting the “Core” to the “outside.”

Therefore, various schemes were necessary to realize the policy of preventing intruders from reaching the deepest part.

It gathered plague-carrying rat monsters in one place, disguising it as a monster house rather than an important facility.

After completing an altar that efficiently drained human life force and magical energy, it demanded living sacrifices under the pretext of the plague.

It stole life force and magical energy from “pure maidens” who had good compatibility with its magic, and sometimes could even absorb magical abilities they had learned.

The souls of slain girls were recycled as curse mediums using necromancy, further strengthening the dungeon’s defenses.

When it managed to use magical runes absorbed from an elven elder’s daughter to conceal the path to the deeper levels, it even shed tears of joy.

Adventurers who entered the empty dungeon contracted the plague, gradually weakening as their life force was drained.

Thankfully, if they died within the dungeon, a “bonus” could be obtained.

Even if someone discovered and invaded through the secret passage hidden by magical runes, their minds could be easily broken by disturbing their sanity with a maiden’s vengeful spirit and making them wander endlessly in a staircase with no end.

An impregnable fortress achieved precisely because it was the weakest boss born in a dungeon with negligible resources.

This perfect mechanism was both the dungeon boss’s lifeline and its pride.

That’s why.

The presence of intruders who desecrated everything about this dungeon, right in the middle of that perfect mechanism, was absolutely unacceptable.

“Smack… mmm… slurp… suck…”

“Nyaah… I love being touched… mmm… kiss…”

What the dungeon boss was looking at was a mirror-shaped artifact that created and maintained the infinite staircase trap binding the intruders’ feet, while also serving as a surveillance tool to observe those trapped inside.

On the mirror’s surface, instead of showing intruders breaking through the last line of defense succumbing to despair and terror, a sticky, erotic pornographic film was playing.

“Mmm… Will, when you stroke my thigh like that…”

“Sucking on tongues… touching my butt… massage my tail more…”

The scene showed a black-haired human male embracing two women, exploring each other’s lips and tongues while caressing various parts of their bodies.

The man whispered intimate words to the women, and sometimes the women explicitly seduced the man, gradually heating up the atmosphere between the three.

Meanwhile, a few steps away, a dwarf woman watched their shameless display with a bright red face.

“Howww… shouldn’t the three of you stop at that point soon…?”

Unlike the three who were biting and sucking on each other, seemingly unconcerned that they were in the middle of a dungeon, the dwarf woman emanated the aura of a “pure maiden” suitable for magical sacrifice.

Although she had entered as an intruder rather than an altar sacrifice, there wouldn’t be much difference if her mind was shattered inside the infinite staircase trap and then collected directly.

The problem was that these four intruders had completely escaped the influence of mental attack spells.

Intruders who somehow perfectly resisted both the magical barrier created by artifacts and mental attacks using necromancy.

To obtain the dwarf maiden as a sacrifice, their mental defense mechanisms had to be neutralized.

“Um… guys? You’re not seriously planning to do it here, are you…?”

“We’re not going… mmm… that far yet… kiss… smooch…”

“Slurp… lick… Mina, want to join us?”

The boss’s heart raced when the cat-eared, brown-skinned girl invited the dwarf girl to participate.

The lustful beastkin girl approached the firmly refusing dwarf girl and began whispering sweet temptations in her ear.

Eventually, when the man who had been kissing the human woman’s nape and chest area reached out his hand, the dwarf woman, as if entranced, took his hand and slowly climbed onto his thigh.

‘No! Stop! Don’t touch that virgin!!’

The dungeon boss screamed and pleaded toward the man reflected in the mirror.

Dwarves lived their entire lives underground working in production, and even those who occasionally traveled were only men.

A dwarf maiden visiting this dungeon was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to examine the essence of dwarven magic.

But the boss had no means to harm the man, let alone stop their actions.

The necromancy that used a girl’s grudge as a catalyst to collapse the target’s mind had no effect on the four people, and its minions, the Plague Rats, couldn’t enter the barrier created by the artifact.

It was truly a situation of watching helplessly as everything fell apart.

When the man’s hands began removing the dwarf woman’s clothes and his lips moved toward her small breasts, the dungeon boss, knowing it was futile, continuously hurled every curse and necromantic spell it knew at the man reflected in the mirror.

If even one of these could drive that man insane, if it could protect the precious dwarf sacrifice’s virginity, it wouldn’t mind completely consuming the human girl’s body it had carefully used for the past 38 years.

Perhaps the boss’s desperate feelings created a miracle.

The boss’s curse, flowing into the barrier’s interior through the artifact medium, became a dagger flying toward the human man’s heart, and,

‘…What!?’

In that moment when the boss felt the human man in the mirror looking directly at it, everything vanished into nothingness.

~ ~ ~ Protagonist’s Perspective ~ ~ ~

“Bingo.”

Confirming my gambling victory, I tucked my revolver into my waistband and calmed Jessica, Seti, and Mina.

“Jessica, Seti, Mina. Good job. You can get up now.”

“Haa… haa… kiss… it really worked…”

“Mmm… give me one more kiss…”

“I-I’m fine, I’ll get up!”

Using Seti’s pheromones to mitigate the effects of the mental attack was successful, but my nerves were on edge due to the hostile gaze I felt coming from somewhere.

That gaze, vaguely felt like fog surrounding us, occasionally shot sharp hostility toward me, and in those brief moments, I experienced sensations similar to when my danger detection skill activated.

Recalling that this dungeon’s master only took “pure maidens” as sacrifices, I whispered to Mina through Seti.

If the mysterious gaze we felt belonged to the dungeon’s master, I thought showing an attempt to take a virgin’s purity right before the eyes of a dungeon master obsessed with pure maidens might provoke a significant reaction.

Using Mina, who had boasted about her extensive experience with men but was actually a virgin.

– ‘This is a matter of life and death, so answer truthfully. Mina, you actually have no experience with men, right?’

– ‘Come over here and pretend you’re going to have physical relations with me. It’s to provoke this dungeon’s boss.’

Mina silently complied with my request, and I could feel the ambiguous gaze growing distinctly stronger from the moment she climbed onto my body.

And when I removed Mina’s clothes and moved my mouth toward her chest, my danger detection skill activated with a sharp sensation. I immediately fired my revolver, hitting “something,” and the surrounding space shattered like breaking glass.

Now before our eyes, instead of the endless staircase, stands a large, elaborately decorated door flaunting its presence.

Even as a novice adventurer, I could easily guess that what lay beyond this door was an extremely important place.

“…It’s the door to the boss room.”

“The finish line is right in front of us. Can all three of you fight?”

“I’m fine. I felt really good, so I’m actually full of energy.”

“My thighs are still a bit shaky… but I don’t think it’ll affect my fighting.”

“Good, then let’s see what kind of creature this troublesome dungeon boss is.”

Taking deep breaths to calm our excited hearts and bodies, we slowly approach the boss room door.

Come on, our true battle begins now!