Chapter 39: Archon Conquest (1)

“Is it good?”

“…….”

I chuckled as I watched Aisha silently nod, her face bright red.

I mean, of course I was startled at first.
There I was, resting peacefully, when she suddenly barged in—then just stood there staring, drooling at the meat I was grilling to golden perfection.

So I asked, just to be polite.
After all, Aisha is my one and only sponsor.

And now here we are.

I let out a dry laugh as I watched her hurriedly stuff the meat into her mouth, cheeks puffed out like a squirrel as she chewed.

“I-I just haven’t been able to eat properly till now…!”

“Who’s blaming you? There’s plenty—just eat comfortably.”

“I should at least give you something in return…”

“Then pay for the meal later.”

“Of course I will!”

I’ve got food to spare anyway. Sharing a bit with Aisha doesn’t cost me anything.

And her affection level will probably go up while I’m at it—win-win.

After practically inhaling the meat, Aisha lowered her head and blushed in embarrassment.
When I kept staring at her, she fidgeted before finally managing to speak up.

“So… um, does that mean you’ve given up on the exam?”

“The exam? Of course not. I’m participating harder than anyone.”

“You call this participating? You haven’t hunted a single monster! What are you even—”

“And what about you? Shouldn’t you be out hunting monsters instead of following me around?”

“T-That’s…!!”

If someone asks you a difficult question, the best solution is simple—
Just throw a harder question right back at them.

I looked at Aisha with interest, wondering how she’d respond.
She started flailing through excuses, saying she had no choice but to monitor me.

“Why are you spying on me, exactly?”

“B-Because I’m the only one who knows your true identity!”

“My identity?”

“You’re the Church’s Guardian Dragon, aren’t you?”

“…What? Guardian Dragon?”

What the hell is she talking about now?

First I was a Saint, now I’m a dragon too? What’s next—a fusion class?

I couldn’t help but let out a baffled laugh.

“And what exactly is that supposed to be?”

“Don’t try to play dumb! I already know everything!”

“Hah… Think what you want, I guess.”

Even without hearing the rest, I can guess where this is going.

She probably overheard something about the Guardian Dragon and decided that I must be it.

Dragons are said to be the beings closest to the gods—guardians of balance who roam the continent.
So I suppose her logic kind of tracks.

But I’m not a dragon.
And I’m definitely not the Church’s Guardian Dragon.

Still, with everyone so convinced I am, what am I supposed to do about it?

I gave up trying to explain.

Honestly, now I’m kind of curious how far this rumor’s going to go.

Aisha, still mumbling to herself, didn’t stop eating for even a second.
The moment her mouth was empty, she’d grab another piece of meat from the brazier and shove it right back in.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get to eat properly at all. I was stuck manning the grill.

Oh well.

If I want her to leave faster, feeding her is the quickest way to do it.

Of course, I did manage to sneak a few of the juiciest pieces off the grill for myself in between.

After that wild feast, Aisha leaned back against the wall with a deeply satisfied look and tried to catch her breath.

“Happy now?”

“……Thanks to you, yes. I ate well.”

“Then how about you finally stop following me around?”

“I-I was planning to leave anyway, okay?!”

“That so? That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”

I snorted as I grabbed the last pieces of meat off the brazier.

Judging from the map on the bracelet, it looked like the other tailing students had finally given up and moved on as well.

Perfect timing.

It was about time I got moving, too.

I reached into Subspace and pulled out a few random packed meals, handing them to Aisha.

It was my subtle way of saying eat this and scram.

“I’m heading out.”

I turned my back as Aisha cried out behind me, asking where I was going.

“Don’t follow me.”

I made sure to leave her with that one firm warning, spoken from the heart.

If she tried to follow and got herself into danger, it’d be a huge pain to deal with.

The reason Arcon, the demon, has been able to hide from Stella all this time—
It’s all thanks to the existence of a special dungeon.

The reason I know the geography of the artificial island Orte so well—
It’s because of the weekday dungeons placed here for farming specific materials.

A dungeon is essentially a quarantined dimension.
Because of that, detecting the presence of a dungeon through intuition alone is nearly impossible.

That same logic applies to everything inside the dungeon as well.

If a demon like Arcon has buried himself deep inside and doesn’t intend to come out, how would someone like Stella ever detect him?

Unless you’re like me—a 15-year veteran—don’t even dream of it.

And now—

“That sync rate’s insane.”

The inside of the special dungeon looked exactly like I remembered it from the game.
Right at the entrance, the welcoming lava zone, and monsters leaping out all at once.

[4-Star Magic: Frost Lance]

Naturally, I buried massive lances of ice right between their brows.

By now I’d taken down about twenty or so monsters like that.

There was one peculiarity, though—
The monsters I killed here didn’t leave behind corpses. They crumbled instantly into ash.

That detail matched the way it was in the game almost perfectly.

Eventually, after walking for a good while toward the deeper layers of the dungeon—

“Hm?”

A crimson glow.

A rhombus-shaped mineral pulsing with red light.

No doubt about it.
A mana stone. And a high-grade one at that.

“Jackpot.”

Mana stones themselves are a pretty common material.
They’re basically a required component in crafting anything that stores magic.

Because of that, demand is sky-high—but the supply is absurdly low.
Especially stones of this caliber.

Naturally, the price is whatever you can get for it.
And at this quality, it’ll definitely be useful for crafting future class-exclusive equipment.

If nothing else, I could always just sell it for gold.

“Can’t believe this drops here.”

Humming to myself, I tossed the rare mana stone into Subspace.

Now that I was over level 60, I had enough mana reserves that keeping Subspace open wasn’t a burden.

There’s no need to hide anything here anyway.
The Observer that had been watching me probably couldn’t follow me into this place.

Actually, after spending three days watching me eat and nap, the Observer must’ve gotten fed up.
At some point, it just stopped showing up altogether.

“Nothing much on the first floor.”

---

<Special Dungeon: Elemental Zone>

This dungeon consists of five total floors.
Each floor has a different elemental theme.

Naturally, the deeper you go, the harder it gets.

But it’s not just a difficulty curve—
The elemental attribute of each floor changes too.

Fire on the 1st floor.
Water on the 2nd.
Earth on the 3rd.
Wind on the 4th.
And on the final 5th floor?
All elements appear at random.

I’m fine, since I can manipulate all elements thanks to the system’s support.

But most mages typically specialize in two attributes for their entire lives.

Anyone charging in unprepared would get totally wrecked by elemental counters.

“……”

Here comes the fork in the road.

Should I go the normal route—clearing floors 1 through 5 one by one?

Or abuse a bug to skip straight to Arcon, kill him, and get out?

The first option is annoying and time-consuming, but with loot like that mana stone, it might be worth it.

The second option is peak efficiency.

“Hmm… what to do…”

Honestly, the proper route is probably the smarter one.

After all, time flows differently inside the dungeon compared to the outside.

Just because time passes in here doesn’t mean the same amount passes outside.

But the real problem is…

———————————————————————————

[Status]

Name: Luke Richter
Level: 70
Gender: Male
Mana: 10,125 / 12,050

<Synchronization Rate: 13%>

———————————————————————————

“Will this even be doable?”

My current level is 70.

It’s definitely high—but still, it feels just a little lacking to solo-clear this entire dungeon.

Not that it’s impossible.

But clearing the dungeon itself isn’t my only goal here.

“That bastard Arcon… I have no idea how strong he is right now.”

Arcon, the demon who grows stronger the more time passes.

The real reason I came here was to take care of him—and the army of monsters under his command.

And the reason I’m so fixated on taking Arcon down is simple.

It’s because of Pafnir, the death dragon sleeping beneath Blackmoor, the Witch’s City.

The Pafnir raid—
Mess this up, and it’s game over. We’re talking literal world-ending consequences.

Unless every pattern is perfectly countered, no amount of tricks or passive skills like Sleepwalking will save you.

Originally, Stella is supposed to die during the Pafnir campaign.

And while humanity does technically win in the end, the cost is catastrophic—so bad that society can’t recover.

If I want a clean ending, I need to finish off Pafnir myself.

“Hmm…”

I thought it over again and again.

And finally came to one conclusion.

“Yeah… I should take the proper route.”

To safely reach level 73, I’ll need to clear all five floors—from the first to the last.

It’s going to be rough, but I’ve come this far. Not like I have many alternatives.

The condition to move on to the next floor is simple:

Defeat the floor boss, and the path forward opens automatically.

Like right now.

Screeeeeeeeech—!!

A sound like nails on a chalkboard tore through my ears.
The ground rumbled, and a suffocating bloodlust filled the air.

[ Skarred / Lv 50 ]

A massive beast wreathed in crimson flame, heavy shackles clamped around its arms.

It had to be over two meters tall.

The Lord of Flame—Skarred.
The floor boss I’ve been waiting for.

“Talk about a dramatic entrance.”

Its species: Elemental.

The method to defeat it is simple.
Just destroy the core embedded in its lower abdomen.

I raised my right hand toward the front.

A magic circle formed in the air.

The temperature around it began to plummet.
The air froze, scattering snowflakes in all directions.
Even the lava running across the ground began to congeal, turning black and solid under the cold.

Vwooooom—

The atmosphere trembled under the flood of mana—but only for a moment.

“Please let there be a drop!”

I shouted my loot wish and released the spell.

A beam of pure cold, devouring all traces of heat, surged forward toward Skarred.

BOOOOOM—!!

A deafening explosion rang out, followed by a thick cloud of steam.

Skarred didn’t even get to scream.

It vanished into a pile of ash.

Then, as if in response, a new path opened at the site where its corpse had been—
a portal leading to the second floor.

“Are you kidding me? No drop?”

Of course, I didn’t get anything.