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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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There was no time.
Listening to the approaching footsteps, now just a stone’s throw away, I immersed myself in thought.
Run?
Where to?
There was no other exit in this room, and digging through the walls was too risky.
What if the next room was swarming with grotesque creatures? What if there was a trap on the lower floor?
So, digging was out of the question.
Besides, we didn’t have enough time.
Was there a better option?
I scanned the room, my eyes darting around.
My heart was pounding like crazy, but I tried to remain calm, racking my brains for a solution.
Digging was out, as I had already concluded.
Fight them head-on? Did we even know how many there were?
Judging by the symphony of footsteps, they outnumbered us at least two to one.
It wasn’t a number we could handle stealthily, and even if we managed to eliminate them all, it wouldn’t be the end.
Reinforcements would arrive and we would be exhausted from the fight, both physically and magically.
If only Renny were here, we might have stood a chance, but trying to pull off a Musou Attack with four students and a thieving cat was like trying to take down a group of armed enemies with a single knife in a shooting game.
[T/N: the original word for musou attack was in chinese and it basically means an unparalleled or invincible attack like a 1 man vs an army situation and he wins.]
It was suicide to fight when we were outnumbered and outgunned.
So, we had to avoid a confrontation at all costs.
There had to be a better option… Ah!
“Perinne, cast Silence magic on the entire room.”
“Huh?”
“Now! And line up against that wall!”
All my brilliant ideas were gambles, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
I glanced around the now completely silent room and pressed myself against the wall, activating my skill.
“…”
A wall rose up, accompanied by a muffled groan.
A wall identical to the one we were leaning against.
This wall was much thinner and would be easily discovered if they touched it, but who would go around tapping on walls to search for people?
We held our breaths and communicated silently using lip movements.
‘Release the magic.’
The moment Perinne nodded, the sound returned.
We held our breaths, listening to the sound of the door creaking open.
Don’t get caught.
If we get caught…
Click.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click…
The endless symphony of footsteps continued.
A long time seemed to have passed, but the footsteps didn’t disappear.
They kept circling around, drawing closer and then fading away, as if they were pacing back and forth right outside the wall.
But we had to endure.
Patience was our only way out of this situation.
Click.
Click.
Click. Click. Click. Click…
“Silence magic.”
Nod.
The room fell silent once again.
I placed my hand on the wall and activated my skill.
“Dismantle.”
The wall sank into the ground, revealing an empty room.
“I, I thought we were going to get caught…”
Shuri collapsed to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief, her legs giving way.
Looking at the other members, they all seemed mentally exhausted from the prolonged tension, but we didn’t have time to rest.
Even a brief respite would decrease our chances of survival.
“Wait here for a moment. If I get caught, I’ll try to distract them. Be ready to escape through the tunnel I dug-”
“Wait, what about you?”
“I’ll be fine, so don’t worry.”
I had lived with worse company for ten years.
I wasn’t going to die in a place like this.
I ignored their concerned gazes and approached the door.
I quietly grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
The sound of scraping hinges grated on my ears.
I slowly peeked out and listened intently.
Faint footsteps.
At least they were far away from here.
Why had they suddenly appeared in a group like that?
Where had they gone?
Were they in the rooms?
I motioned for the group to stay in the room and stepped out into the hallway, pressing my ear against the other doors.
Most of the rooms were silent.
One, two, three, four… I carefully opened each room, checking for any presence.
The structure of the rooms was mostly the same, as was the presence of corpses.
Their postures and locations differed, but some were wearing armor, suggesting they were adventurers.
Had they also fallen into this rift?
I seemed to have seen similar armor at the market.
Anyway, it seemed like there was no one here.
Where had they all gone?
Had they gone to the other hallway?
It seemed like there was no more information to be found in this hallway.
I contemplated for a moment, then came up with an idea and returned to the room where the group was waiting.
The group was huddled in a corner, resting.
“Everyone, listen up. I’ve come up with a decent plan, so I need your cooperation.”
“Cooperation? You want us to dig a tunnel?”
“No.”
As if I’d dig without knowing what was underneath.
We might fall through to the lower floor and end up in a hot mess with the grotesque creatures.
“What do we need to do?”
“Conserve your strength here. And rehydrate if possible.”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to turn this room into a secret chamber. I don’t know how smart those things are, but if I hide it well, they won’t be able to enter. I’m going… to check the other hallway.”
“That’s too dangerous!”
“No, this is the safest option.”
“Won’t it be the end if you’re caught?”
I looked at Lewis, who was objecting.
He was a pretty boy who somehow managed to flaunt his love life even in this situation, but he was also a good guy who genuinely cared about me.
I grinned and replied to Lewis,
“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
It was a spontaneous idea, but it was worth a try.
“Just get some rest.”
I waved them off, ignoring their gazes, opened the door, stepped out into the hallway, and used my skill.
“Crafting.”
The space where the door used to be was now covered with a wall.
No one would be able to tell that there was a room here just by looking.
However, there was the issue of oxygen, so I needed to act quickly.
I hoped my plan would work.
I left the hallway and clung to the wall in the lobby.
I couldn’t hear any chanting.
So, it was the sound of those things moving from the center where they were praying?
I didn’t know their objective, but it seemed like they were doing some kind of patrol.
Let’s see, where was that corpse… There it is.
I approached the abandoned corpse and stripped it of its clothes.
I also picked up the severed head and removed its hood.
The sight of the nearly naked corpse was grotesque.
It looked like it had been stitched together from multiple bodies.
The limbs were different colors, mismatched in size, resulting in sunken areas and exposed bones at the seams.
What kind of abomination had they created?
I carefully turned the body over and checked its back.
[@&*!(!]
…I didn’t understand the content, but I could roughly grasp its meaning.
I dug a hole in the floor next to the body using my skill and tossed it in.
I didn’t want to continue subjecting myself to this visual assault.
I used my skill to restore the floor, and the corpse vanished without a trace.
After disposing of the body, I quietly repaired the torn clothes.
They were still stained with blood, but they were wearable.
I immediately put them on.
With the blood-soaked hood covering half my face, I looked like a convincing cult member.
“Let’s see if this works.”
Click.
Click.
First came the footsteps.
I mimicked their gait and quietly followed behind them, walking from the opposite hallway.
Fortunately, it seemed like my gamble had paid off.
They didn’t suspect me.
I followed them for a while as they patrolled the hallways.
Walking around pretending to be a cultist made me feel like I had befriended the grotesque creatures.
Although, becoming one of them, worshipping some tentacled statue, was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.
But how long were they going to keep circling around?
It wasn’t like they were exercising.
We had already completed three cycles of the hallway-lobby-hallway-lobby route.
Had they encountered a bug because I had blocked off the room?
I vaguely remembered the one in front tilting his head in confusion in front of the blocked door and the statue.
But one thing was certain.
There was no one else on this floor besides them.
So, my course of action was clear.
I pulled out the shovel I had hidden beneath my baggy clothes and extended it.
Hearing the sound, the creatures turned around in unison, staring at me, the one at the back of the line.
“Showtime, motherfuckers.”
The sacred shovel, imbued with my rage, drew a beautiful arc through the air.
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“Johann? We heard a commotion outside. What about those monsters…”
“I crushed their heads, so it’s fine.”
“Huh?”
“I crushed them all.”
I only left them alone because I was worried about reinforcements, but without backup, they were nothing more than mobs.
With my skill, I smashed them all before they could even scream, turning the first floor into a safe zone.
While I was at it, I also found a way down to the second floor.
It turned out that the dagger I had taken from the first corpse was one of the keys to the second floor.
These creatures only acted according to pre-programmed patterns, so they malfunctioned like broken machines.
It seemed like they were supposed to repeatedly go up and down between the floors, but with one dagger missing, the cycle was broken, resulting in a bug.
Strangely, all dungeons seemed to operate based on game-like rules.
Why it was only dungeons, I didn’t know.
Was it because this was a game world after all?
“I found a way down to the second floor, so we’re leaving right now.”
“Huh?”
There was no time for explanations, so I threw open the door and motioned for the group to follow me.
Fortunately, they obeyed my command and stepped out into the hallway.
“Follow me.”
I led the group to the statue.
A statue of a tentacled creature, needlessly realistic in its detail.
I approached a smaller statue next to it.
A statue of a human in agony.
I inserted the dagger into the groove near its heart.
The floor in front of the statue sank, revealing a staircase.
“Perinne, use your Search spell.”
“Yes!”
As I watched Perinne prepare her spell, I instructed Shuri to use her light magic.
The light illuminated the stairs, followed by the Search spell.
Looking at Perinne’s bewildered expression, I was certain that there was something down there.
“I think there’s something down there. A, an enormous life force… tens? hundreds? But it seems to be concentrated in one spot…”
Perinne looked at me with a confused expression, her eyes pleading for an answer.
But I didn’t know either.
I had only come to one conclusion based on the information I had gathered.
There was a boss in this dungeon.
The creatures roaming the temple were grotesque, seemingly stitched together from parts of different people.
The corpses in the rooms seemed to belong to outsiders.
Why had they left the corpses unattended? Why were tentacled creatures bursting out of them?
And those creatures had been searching the rooms as if they were looking for something.
Perhaps the thing down there…
“Listen carefully. There’s a high chance that there’s a boss down there.”
“A… boss?”
“Yes. So… Sif, you stay here. The rest of us will go down and confront the boss.”
“Wait, isn’t it dangerous to leave her here alone? What if those monsters come back?”
“Crafting.”
Four walls.
A roof.
A sturdy door.
“Wait inside.”
“Uh… Okay.”
Sif nodded blankly at my words.
“…I’m sorry. I’m making you all go through this because of me.”
Was it because she was in such bad shape?
Viola’s voice sounded weaker than before.
Lewis and the others panicked and began comforting her.
“No, Miss Viola! How could you…”
“That’s right! Don’t worry, Miss Viola! I’ll blast them all away with my magic!”
Maybe they were reaching their limit.
I met Viola’s gaze and said,
“Think about what you want to eat when we get back. It’ll be over soon.”
I placed my foot on the first step.
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