Chapter 97 – Floor 15. Greater Madness Suppresses Madness

Falling piles of stone drummed against the floor.

Rising hot lava steam added accompaniment with its hissing sounds, while the blood of all kinds of beasts falling like rain made drum-like sounds.

Red musical notes filled the world.

This beautiful apocalypse was art without equal in the world.

Let us dance at its center.

The ground beneath my feet collapsed, and as my vision spun around, darkness and light mixed together in confusion.

The sweet taste of blood from infinite knowledge flowed down my tongue, falling into my heart and moistening my heated innards.

Praise it. Praise it again.

I have come for you.

Break the egg of ignorance and spread your wings.

Understanding the truth of all things gives a truly ecstatic sense of fulfillment.

Every floating dust particle spoke to me, and though I felt like my eardrums would burst, I danced in this pure floating sensation.

Stepping forward, rotating around the planted foot, bowing again with bent knees.

Even though I couldn’t control my body as it staggered like I was drunk on strong liquor, my mind was clear.

Clearer than at any time in my life.

Praise it-

To that irreverent yet great voice resonating directly in my brain, I couldn’t hide my laughter and opened my mouth.

“Fuck off, octopus bastard.”

A strangely shimmering silver crown settled on my head, somehow remaining bright even in the falling red rain of blood.

***

KUGUGUGUGUNG─!!

“Mmm..! Dwarven─ crisis!”

“Damn it… First you tried to cook me alive, and now you’re trying to flatten me? Is this what all elementals are like?”

A small hand proudly stroking an impressively fine beard from a dwarf’s perspective, and beside it, a sweaty, irritable face of an old knight complaining.

And sitting next to them was a being of different form.

A long, thick tail, mineral-like reptilian eyes, sharp teeth, and blue membranes visible inside.

“It’s dangerous to stay here. It will collapse soon.”

“And outside is safe?”

“That’s not the case either.”

“Tsk, useless.”

The great warrior who left his homeland.

Blue Tongue made a hissing sound, seemingly displeased with Albert’s criticism.

“Stop, both of you! Fortunately, we found a place to escape the heat, but we don’t plan to stay here forever. According to great Dwarven─ knowledge, the ground will collapse in about 3 minutes!”

Naude, mediating the dispute in the center, was sweating profusely as he looked at the four barrels of liquor that Albert and Blue Tongue had recovered for him.

Just when they had recovered everything, there could be nothing worse than falling into the lava below while arguing.

Fortunately, both still had their senses and simply clicked their tongues and turned their heads, bringing the matter to a close, and Naude descended back down to the scorching heat below, employing his Dwarven─ intuition.

“It feels like my skin is cooking.”

“Endure that much, monster. You can’t imagine what it’s like inside metal armor.”

The plate armor had become a natural steamer.

They had been lucky to find a shortcut with good ventilation to the surface and could temporarily escape the heat, but Albert had to return to being steamed inside his heated plate armor, sweating profusely. He frowned deeply, drew his sword, and took the lead.

There were no enemies on Floor 14 except for the heretics who had started using strange magic, but that didn’t mean there was no danger for Naude, who had almost no combat power.

And now even more so with these abnormal phenomena occurring.

KUGUGUGUGUNG──

The abandoned mine shook increasingly violently as time passed.

Naude bent his already short body down to his knees to lower his posture and hold onto the cart he was pulling, while Albert and Blue Tongue deflected falling rocks one by one to protect their heads.

“Tsk…”

The massive vibrations gradually subsided.

But they would soon return.

“It’s better to die quickly from being hit on the head than falling into a hole. Run quickly!”

The passage leading down to where the elemental was located was already known. They had been waiting there briefly to escape the heat and wait for him, but now wasn’t the time to consider that.

“Use that damn liquor to calm the elemental quickly!”

“Damn liquor? Dwarven─ Brandy is not damned!”

“Stop your nonsense and move, dwarf. I can’t endure heat for long.”

Thud- thud-

As the mine’s corridor undulated like a snake’s intestines, rocks poured down from the ceiling like crazy.

Pa-ba-bak-! A skillfully thrust spear lightly pushed aside the falling rocks to clear a path, and a charge reminiscent of a full-armored tank pushed aside boulders blocking the way.

“I’d rather…! Face twenty soldiers at once!”

Albert, whose arms trembled after pushing aside another large boulder, panted and rushed forward to stab his sword into a screaming heretic driven mad, ending his life.

“My tail is cooking…”

Blue Tongue, feeling like he was being cooked in real-time, had an extremely uncomfortable expression despite his facial structure that shouldn’t have easily shown emotions, as he continuously deflected falling rocks and kicked the cart.

Escorted by two veteran and powerful warriors, Naude ran for the plan he had dreamed of for over 100 years, and his efforts bore fruit as they reached the passage leading down.

“It’s right in front of us! Now…”

KWAAAAAAANG!!!

Just as the goal was right in front of them.

With a massive boom, something revealed itself as the wall exploded.

“Ha- hahahahaha!!!”

Familiar appearance. Familiar voice. But an unfamiliar, ominous atmosphere.

Despite being hit by something and breaking through that thick rock wall, he was laughing maniacally as if something was incredibly funny, with a box hanging from his arm that rattled its chains as it flew through the air.

And just before it fell into the lava below.

The first to react was the great warrior of Osaieris.

Whoosh─

The spear in her hand tore through the air and struck the box’s chain.

Kwang!

With a clang- sound, the box flew with the spear and lodged into the wall.

Though she didn’t know what it was, Blue Tongue had prevented the box, which likely contained something useful, from plunging into the lava, and immediately dashed forward like lightning.

She passed through the flying debris and splashing lava, hunching to minimize damage, but the closer she got, the more difficult her sprint became.

And what stopped her feet was the giant tentacle that had followed him.

A giant with a tentacle head that awkwardly mimicked a human body, with thousands of suckers spraying blood of all foul odors, was swinging its arms at him who was still laughing maniacally.

“Kughh… AAAHH!!!”

“C-close your eyes!”

Excruciating pain as if my head would split open.

The suddenly arriving sanity tearing apart—enough to incapacitate all three of them.

KUGUGUNG-

Once again, the mine shook as if about to collapse.

***

The wailing one.

The avatar of that thing summoned by the heretic leader using the necromantic grimoire and his life as sacrifices.

Floor 14 is where it first appears in Dungeon Dive.

It’s an enemy that inflicts the ‘madness’ status effect across the entire map when summoned, making both players and enemies go berserk, and it has the most horrific stats of any enemy encountered so far.

Moreover, even if you’re lucky enough to quickly escape from madness, if you don’t have a way to deal with it afterward, madness will strike again with its wailing howl at regular intervals.

While enemies with better specs appear later, this one is more troublesome in the sense that no matter how good your equipment is, you can’t do anything if you don’t solve the madness problem.

“Hehehe! Hahahahahaha!!!”

Each time I stepped on the cracked ground in a dance-like movement, large tentacles covered in what looked like a chitinous shell, yet flexible, followed me to grab me.

Blood sprayed from the greenish-black tentacles, wetting the heated ground and evaporating again, filling the air with an intense iron smell.

“Good! Great!”

KUGUGUNG─

The mine shook even more violently.

The torches had already fallen and disappeared somewhere, and the materials that looked like remnants of ancient dwarves were engulfed in flames, burning vigorously.

The madness of the other.

A devastating status effect that forces you to move, use items, and attack however you want.

An incredibly powerful status effect, but ultimately just one of the mental status effects.

If so, the Mental Barrier blessing received at the altar works.

That reduces the relentless chattering of minute things, and moreover, I wear a crown said to have been made by an ancient god of madness.

The “Crown of Madness” continuously inflicts ‘madness’ on the wearer until removed.

From ancient times, aren’t there sayings like “fight fire with fire” or “fight poison with poison”? Then if someone with madness goes even more insane, wouldn’t that become normal?

Even if not, it doesn’t matter. The ‘madness’ scattered by that creature and the ‘madness’ bestowed by this crown are treated as the same yet different.

The crown’s madness is basically a sane state.

But it has the effect of randomly redistributing the total of all stats to one stat each turn, changing abilities from moment to moment.

And identical mental status effects don’t stack.

“Come and catch me if you can, you retarded octopus bastard!!!”

===========================================

Name : aaaa

Level : 18

Health : 76/81 ■■■■■■■■■■

Magic : 49/49 ■■■■■■■■■■

Status : Crown’s Madness, Other’s Madness (inactive), Burn

Strength 61(+2) | Dexterity 03(+1) | Constitution 03(+1)

Mental 03(+3) | Perception 03(+1) | Charm 03(+2)

===========================================​​​

I swing the mace down. Strength 63—a supernatural power that wouldn’t normally exist.

It was just a simple downward swing, but that alone could create disaster-level results.

KWAAAANG!!!

The extended tentacle crumpled under overwhelming force.

The weapon, made by human standards, shattered to dust with just that one strike, completely crushing a part of what was worshipped as a god and spreading a massive shockwave throughout the mine.

The air burst, the spraying blood shattered into mist, and the floor that received the force cracked greatly and collapsed into pieces.

K̴̠͇̄r̵̰̼̅͒̔̿̄͘͝’̶̢̧̛̛͈̞͇̹̥̻̗͂́̉̐̉̉͒̀̑͝͝ͅę̵̣̳̙͎̩͖̘̔̆͆͂̀̅́̽̃͌̌ḩ̷̢̛͎̘̞̦̥̜͙͎̃̔̓̅͋̌̑͊͘͝i̷̛͖̖͖̟̖̘̘̘͂̐̋̾̂͂́̆̉̈̈́̈́̆̚a̶̛̱̙̠̗͂̕į̷̺̟̰̗̞̇͊͊̎͑̓̎̔̋͛͆̄͐̍͜͝!̵̛̬̫͕̖͖͕̘̅̓͑͐̈́̎̈́̋̚͘͝!̷̭̺̾͑̌͒̀̒͋!̴̲͆̇̓

A tearing scream.

One more time. Bang─ And once more. Bang─ Three isn’t even odd, so once more. KWAAANG─

With the mace now melted and gone, I struck down with my fist. The Wailing One screamed in pain and sprayed blood from its head, which was turning into meat pulp.

Grrrrrrrrr───!!!

Finally, the lifespan of the rock seemed to have ended as the ground began to sink.

Rising flames and lava, and one eye watching me and the Wailing One.

“Heh- hello. Fire lizard.”

The gaze of the mountain’s master was directed at me.

“Heheh- ah, sorry. I can’t stop laughing.”