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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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On the very evening that Iris mentioned the term “runes,” we rode horses towards the mountain ridge where the newly discovered dungeon was said to be located.
The party consisted of four people: Iris, myself, Lizé, and Erica.
Claudia stayed behind in the castle, saying that at least one person needed to guard the city.
After riding for about an hour, we arrived in front of the entrance to a cave that was revealed between the collapsed mountainside.
Iris, who had used a scroll to create a barrier to prevent monsters from detecting the inside, approached the cave entrance while drawing her sword.
“Although the wavelength of runes was detected, the interior has not been explored at all. That’s what we need to do. Since we don’t know what’s inside, don’t let your guard down.”
Lizé and Erica also took out their respective weapons.
Lizé had twin daggers with blue gems embedded in them, the same color as her pupils, while Erica had a Japanese sword engraved with intricate patterns on the blade.
It wasn’t due to the mods, but those were the original weapons of the NPCs.
‘Well, it’s a Japanese company after all.’
Although the actual setting of Brightest Darkness 4 was Western, it was a game made by a Japanese company in Japan, so there were no users who would specifically nitpick about the appearance of a Japanese sword.
In the first place, from the 1st to the 4th installment of the Brightest Darkness series, the “sword” type weapons were never particularly good in terms of performance, so it couldn’t even become a topic of controversy.
In the tier lists created by users, at best, one or two of them would reach the middle of the 3rd tier, while most of them were relegated to the 5th tier, which was practically the same as being discarded.
“I’ll enter first.”
Iris, firmly gripping her longsword with one hand, thrust the torch held in her other hand forward and took a bold step.
Lizé followed behind her.
I was the third, and Erica was last.
As soon as we entered, Lizé shut her mouth as if it were a lie, as if she clearly distinguished between public and private matters. It felt like she was a completely different person from before.
The scale of the cave seemed to be overall larger than what I had seen in the game.
Well, considering how huge the boss here was supposed to be according to the setting, it was natural for the boss room to be enormous as well.
‘My head already hurts thinking about it.’
Just the thought of having to engage in a long struggle with that guy made the back of my neck ache.
I sighed inwardly and followed behind Lizé.
“……”
The cave was filled with only the clanging sound of armor.
It was because Iris, Lizé, and Erica were all thoroughly armed with silver full plate armor.
Now, they gave off a strong impression of being knights.
Although they were still wearing white sleeveless tops and dolphin shorts without even underwear underneath the armor, I decided not to pay attention to that.
Of course, I was wearing my usual cloth top and leather pants.
I had tried wearing armor once, just in case, but I couldn’t roll with it, so I had no choice.
It wasn’t that I had to roll in a much more uncomfortable way, but rather, when the weight of the armor exceeded the character’s available weight, like when it happened in the game, I couldn’t roll at all, just nodding my head forward.
I tried it several times, wondering if it made sense, but my body didn’t even fall flat on the ground with a thud.
It just staggered for a moment and that was it.
I couldn’t even run. Claudia laughed, saying I should build up some stamina after seeing me struggle, but I knew why it was happening, so I couldn’t bring myself to laugh at all.
So I just took it off.
‘I’d rather go around with my bare body than give up rolling.’
It was clear which one took priority between the two.
“Stop for a moment.”
Iris halted her steps.
A vast cavern stretched out in front of her.
I recognized at a glance where this place was.
This was the passage leading to the boss of this dungeon.
“The space is too wide. Lizé, stick close to me. Newbie, stay next to Erica. We’ll move in pairs.”
Lizé stepped forward and stood next to Iris, while Erica took her place beside me.
The weapons held in each of their hands were genuinely razor-sharp, with elements slightly leaking out.
Compared to the three of them, who were cautiously taking steps without letting their guard down, not knowing what might come out, I walked while only pretending to be vigilant of the surroundings.
The small fries that appeared here were nothing special.
Besides, even if I didn’t step in, the knight commanders would take care of them all.
The only thing that would chip away at my mental strength was the boss here.
“Erica, where is the location of the detected rune reaction?”
Upon hearing Iris’s question, Erica briefly looked down at the necklace she was wearing around her neck.
It was a necklace emitting a green light.
“It’s quite far underground from our current position. Assuming the path is not twisted and leads in a straight line, it will take a little over an hour to reach at this pace.”
“One hour in a straight line? That means we need to allocate at least two hours to arrive. If we go back and forth, more than 5 hours will easily pass by?”
“And if monsters appear along the way, it will take even longer.”
The moment those words were spoken, Iris wrapped her sword in wind, Lizé made ice flowers bloom on her twin daggers, and Erica covered her weapon in flames, all happening simultaneously.
Something with rough scales, a mixture of black and gray, was approaching from the distant passage.
Upon seeing its appearance, Lizé and Erica made disgusted faces, saying “Ugh.”
It was a centipede almost the size of a human.
Dozens of pairs of legs wriggled disgustingly, all covered in scales.
The antennae on its face constantly trembled.
The hard carapace on its back was also entirely covered in scales.
Moreover, it wasn’t just one.
There were five more creatures that looked exactly the same approaching from behind.
“Ugh, I never imagined such monsters would appear here. What the hell is this place?”
“…It’s a bit disgusting. No, not a bit, but a lot.”
Lizé and Erica shuddered and ignited the elements on their swords.
Ice enveloped Lizé’s body, and flames rose from Erica’s sword, illuminating the surroundings.
‘I shouldn’t bring them along later when I obtain the grimoire.’
Later on, not just centipede-like monsters, but dungeons filled with real human-sized insects would be discovered.
It was famous for directly shocking the player, not just the character.
The developer even placed an NPC in front to warn that beyond this point, it was swarming with bugs, so turn back.
However, very gloomily, one of the grimoires I needed to obtain was located there. If it weren’t for that grimoire, it would have been a place I wouldn’t even bother to look at.
“I’ll take care of them quickly. Newbie, stay put in the back.”
Saying that, Iris, as if not finding it disgusting at all, wrapped a whirlwind around her sword and charged at the centipede. Lizé and Erica also let out groans of “Eugh!” and charged with ice and flames wrapped around them.
—Splat!
And they shattered the centipede’s head in one hit.
The centipede with its head blown off twisted its body back and forth, wriggling its joints, and soon curled up its legs and died.
The other ones were the same.
Their bodies burst and were torn apart just by being grazed by the weapons.
“Huh?”
Despite their hideous appearance, they were dealt with so easily that a bewildered sound escaped Lizé’s mouth.
She probably didn’t expect them to die in one hit.
The reason lay in the fundamental difference in specs.
This was a dungeon that opened at level 20, while the knight commanders of the Silver Dawn Knights were bosses from the mid to late game.
Naturally, it was possible for them to crush the small fries here with their specs alone.
“You’re not surprised this time either, newbie.”
Iris, who had cleanly chopped the centipedes into pieces with a few sword strokes, turned her head towards me.
Although I couldn’t see her expression due to the helmet, I could guess what kind of face she was making.
“Do you have any idea about this dungeon?”
Her voice contained a slight expectation.
I answered without changing my expression.
“I do know something.”
“Really?! No, wait. But why didn’t you tell us until now?!”
“I’ll need your help later. Right now, I’m enough alone.”
I looked around, searching for a large crack that had formed on the wall.
I approached it and walked towards the center of the cavern until a stalactite was located right next to it.
From there, I took three steps back to the right.
The three of them seemed to have no idea what I was doing.
“Ah, you guys shouldn’t stay there either. You should go over there and stand.”
“……?”
Although they looked very puzzled, the three of them retreated to the passage where the centipede monsters had come from, as I instructed.
They seemed to think that they wouldn’t lose anything by listening to my words for now.
After confirming that the knight commanders had retreated to the safe zone, I stabbed the blood-stained sword into my stomach.
Since Lizé had already blurted out the special ability of the blood-stained sword, no one was surprised.
In that state, I absorbed blood to the limit and then pulled out the sword. An ominous blood color swirled on the blade.
“Mr. Newbie, why are you suddenly using that? And what’s the reason for telling us to stand here?”
“So that you guys won’t get swept away too.”
“So that we won’t get swept away too. Newbie, what do youㅡ”
—Rumble rumble rumble!
Before Iris could even finish her sentence, the bottom of the cavern began to collapse with a roar.
The floor on the side of the passage where Iris, Erica, and Lizé were standing was the first to sink to the left and right as if being torn apart.
The three of them were startled and tried to save me, but a gap several times the height of a person had already formed between us long ago.
No matter how skilled they were as knight commanders, they couldn’t jump over that width without a running start.
Moreover, even at this very moment, the crevice between us was gradually widening.
The speed at which the floor collapsed gradually increased.
The crevice gradually approached me.
Iris shouted urgently.
“Newbie! Don’t tell me you’re…!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. I won’t die. Do you trust me?”
“It’s not a matter of trust! If you knew about this, you should have told us in advanceㅡ”
Before she could finish, even the remaining parts that had been barely holding on collapsed, and my body began to fall downward.
The silver armor of Lizé, Iris, and Erica quickly grew distant.
“Just follow the path all the way down! I’ll be waiting at the bottom!”
I shouted upwards with all my might as I fell.
I wasn’t sure if they heard me since the sound of the floor collapsing was so loud.
‘I’ll probably get an earful again for not informing them beforehand when I return.’
It couldn’t be helped.
This boss had to be defeated by thoroughly executing the gimmicks, so if there were multiple people, the aggro would jump around, increasing the likelihood of the fight dragging on longer.
If unlucky, accidents could occur in the middle.
I refused to take such risks.
Receiving help from the knight commanders was sufficient only in the 4th phase after all the gimmicks were cleared.
‘It’s about time to get ready.’
After falling downward for what felt like almost 10 seconds, I finally spotted a pond at the bottom and calmly prepared for a falling attack.
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