episode_0072

“So, what do you know this time?”

“…What are you talking about?”

Eve quietly spoke to me on the street, where we were alone for a moment.

Her intuition is so sharp, it’s unbelievable.

Instead of agonizing alone, I decided to share information with her.

“Roughly… I think I know. The cause of this dungeon break.”

Eve’s eyes widened.

“…How?”

It’s about 95% certain information.

Considering the timing and circumstances, it’s almost safe to say it’s true.

However, since the source is my past life’s memory, I couldn’t reveal everything clearly.

Ultimately, I had to fabricate the process while having the answer already decided…

I first looked around, found a suitable alley, and went in.

I gestured to Eve, and after looking around for a moment, she followed inside.

“What is it—”

“—Shhh.”

Even though she’s a party member I’ll be working with, our cooperation with the Four Saints Society is temporary.

It’s not my intention to leak more information than necessary to anyone besides my companions.

The person I need to be most wary of is their ranger, the shadow assassin, Leif.

She uses subspace magic that lets her hide in shadows, so even in unpopulated areas, it’s best to be cautious.

I first stepped on the ground and let mana flow into the surrounding earth.

[Mana Detection].

There’s no reaction in the shadows nearby for now.

Just in case, I deployed a double wind-attribute [Mana Barrier] to create a soundproof barrier as well.

“…Is that the same magic you used last time?”

Eve poked the thin mana barrier with her hand and softly laughed.

“What? Are you getting nostalgic?”

“It wasn’t that long ago. So—”

She sat on a nearby wooden box, composed her expression, and looked at me.

“—What kind of story requires this much secrecy?”

I’ve bought us some time, so I might as well offer my answer.

.

.

.

“First, when you looked at the relic map earlier, didn’t you feel something was strange?”

“…Is the middle layer the problem, as expected?”

“Exactly.”

It’s obvious if you think about it for a bit.

No matter how enigmatic the monsters’ origins are, they are still living beings.

There are two major questions regarding their presence in the middle layer, not the upper layer.

First, food.

The estimated time when the Artemis Ruins were built is about 500 to 1000 years ago.

Would there be enough food in such an old ruin for living creatures to survive?

Even if they were to steal food from adventurers who occasionally visit or eat the adventurers themselves, their numbers are too small.

It’s not like groups of tourists are flooding there, and you need considerable skill to even reach the safe zone near the entrance to the middle layer.

Second, their origin.

According to the investigations so far, there are no records of the ancient Artemis people coexisting with monsters.

Then how did the monsters get through the upper gate and enter the inner parts?

Even if they somehow dodged traps, the gates connecting each area contained riddles written in indecipherable characters that monsters wouldn’t be able to solve.

I improvised these reasons, but in fact, I did know the answer.

“Probably, there’s another passage connected to the middle layer.”

“…That makes sense.”

Today it’s called a ruin or labyrinth, but for the Artemis people who lived in that era, it was just one facility.

From a series of clues, we can assume that the ruin was a shelter to protect themselves from something.

In such a place, it wouldn’t be strange at all to have made a secret passage or two to get outside later.

“So in my opinion… the monsters came into the ruin through that secret passage, and they’ve been surviving so far, scavenging for food.”

“I agree.”

“Then naturally, the cause of this dungeon break is…”

That the passage was sealed.

The monsters, suddenly isolated in the ruins, sensed danger and attacked the adventurers to secure food.

“Especially, the Grey Wolf pack that appears in the ruins is known for its strong sense of belonging. When facing food shortages, instead of reducing their mouths, they tend to increase them and go hunting together.”

“…You’ve even researched that?”

To completely win Eve over, I put on my usual nonchalant smile.

“Of course.”

She slightly opened her mouth, seemingly impressed.

She silently thought for a moment, then looked up at me again.

“Then, where does the other end of that passage lead?”

“That should be important, but… will you take a look at this first?”

I gathered strength in my fingertips and roughly drew a line on the alley wall.

It’s not accurate, but it shows the general location of the central continent’s map.

I sketched a simple drawing, focusing on the Tarun Mountain Range.

“This is the Tarun Mountain, the central point. Taking this as a base… the entrance to the Artemis Ruins would be somewhere around here.”

I pointed a finger below the pointed mark that I drew symbolically and marked it with a circle.

“There are three possibilities. Excluding the main entrance in the south, there are three directions remaining: west, north, and east.”

After marking three possible passages with arrows, I crossed out the arrow pointing towards the kingdom.

“Let’s exclude this one for now. The west of the mountain range is in the direction of the kingdom, but that area is all the Bewitching Forest. It’s not impossible, but the probability is very low.”

Eve tilted her head.

“Because it’s an area where people’s eyes don’t reach, wouldn’t the possibility be higher?

I don’t usually use people’s names but I have no choice here.

“There are no monsters coming over from the forest, the World Tree said so.”

“…! That’s…”

“And that forest has traps, and other monsters have taken root; it’s a harsh place for the Grey Wolves of the ruins to find food.”

Even monsters with low intelligence and rely only on instinct, are bound to have a minimum level of intelligence or intuition to fulfill their instincts.

It intuitively judges that attacking adventurers, who provide high-quality meat, is more beneficial than a complicated forest with only plants – even if it’s slightly more dangerous.

– I persuasively added that.

“Right… If it’s a species with a long lineage, they wouldn’t go to the Bewitching Forest.”

“Then, next.”

Now I marked the arrow pointing east, towards the Empire, with an X.

“Well… you probably know this better than I do.”

“…That’s right. This area is frequently visited by adventurers.”

If the west is too harsh, the east is too fertile.

Adventurers would never miss the rich natural environment beneath the mountain range, with its easy difficulty and abundant rewards.

Evermore, where we are now, and most adventurers operating in the western Empire use this as their main hunting ground.

There’s no way a secret passage would be located in a place where so many eyes are constantly watching.

“Then the remaining area is…”

“Naturally, the north.”

Eve pointed to the last remaining arrow.

“Right. The north of the mountain range, the sacred nation’s territory connected by the underground caves of Tarun Mountain is the exit I’m thinking of.”

“Then there would be clues to support that?”

Instead of answering, I nodded.

And overlaid several shapes on the map drawn on the wall.

“This is the upper floor, and…”

Following the internal map of the ruins I saw at the guild, I overlaid the drawing on the world map.

“This is the middle floor.”

The middle floor appeared to be skewed towards the north.

“When looking at each area’s map separately, I didn’t realize it… but when overlaid like this, the middle floor is strangely facing the sacred nation’s territory.”

“It’s difficult to judge with only this.”

“Right.”

The real final clue.

I had to use someone’s name again, but this one deserves it.

“I heard from someone from the Sacred Nation…that in the southern forest of the Sacred Nation—that is, the Tarun Mountain Range—monsters descend at regular intervals and destroy crops.”

“Those monsters are…”

I subtly placed a triumphant smile on my lips.

“Grey Wolves.”

“…It’s confirmed.”

With this, all the problems were solved.

The truth behind this dungeon break is as follows.

The Grey Wolf pack, who originally lived in the southern part of the Sacred Nation, were driven out by adventurers there.

The passage they found while escaping was connected to the middle layer of the Artemis Ruins.

That place consists of large caverns and is rarely seen by humans making it a perfect habitat for monsters.

They lived hidden there, sometimes attacking adventurers who came in and occasionally went to the Sacred Nation’s forest at certain times to obtain the food they needed.

That ‘time’ is the breeding season.

It was a time when there were especially many mouths to feed; they needed to obtain a large amount of food no matter what.

They were left with no choice but to attack the human settlements for crops and livestock.

Things changed with the recent ‘wolf hunt’ in the Sacred Nation.

The lord of that territory, unable to simply watch the suffering of the people, hired adventurers to organize an extermination squad.

After a long chase, they sealed off the passage they believed to be the wolf’s lair.

It would have been the right choice under normal circumstances.

But they might not have imagined that the lair might have another passage.

The Grey Wolves, unable to go out to get food during breeding season, led their increased population in a full-scale attack.

The result was a dungeon break.

“What… does that mean we have to break into the Sacred Nation’s lair?”

“That will only maintain the status quo. And it essentially shifts the blame of this dungeon break to the Sacred Nation.”

If that happened, it wouldn’t end as a small problem.

If the Empire and the Sacred Nation keep shifting the blame to each other, it might escalate into a dispute over the Tarun Mountain Range and the surrounding area of the Artemis Ruins and even lead to a border conflict.

“…This is troublesome. What do you think we should do?”

“It’s simple, isn’t it?”

We essentially revealed the cause of the dungeon break, and even if not, the immediate goal should be centered on searching for the secret passage.

The task has been set.

“Just catch all those wolves and punish them.”