Chapter 11
Once you entered the dungeon, there was no such thing as a safe place.
The Dark Land had unique places called Sanctuaries, and each faction's main base was protected by the blessings of the Outer Gods.
But there was nothing like that inside the dungeon.
With the exception of a few individuals possessing overwhelming power, no one was free from the clutches of the Great Old Ones and the monsters.
Many who could no longer endure such a life eventually stopped resisting and chose submission instead.
They believed it was the better choice.
Those intelligent beings who became believers escaped being hunted by monsters, but in return, their souls were bound, and they usually met miserable ends.
Either they fought until the end and died before surviving even a year...
Or they became believers, lived for ten years, and eventually had even their souls claimed.
For the residents of the dungeon, their lives usually ended in one of those two ways.
“Huff... huff...”
And here was one rare exception.
Kyaaaak!
Keeeaaak!
Barely managing to escape from the pack of monsters chasing right behind him, the young dwarf Rodur gave a bitter smile.
What a damn lucky day I'm having again...!
Compared to the other floors, the first floor, the Dark Forest, wasn't particularly large.
It was much bigger than the Sanctuary of Karaam, but even then, it wasn't even five percent the size of the Dark Land.
The estimated number of monsters living here was only a few hundred thousand.
Some veteran residents who knew the ecosystem well could even go an entire week without encountering one.
The problem was food.
There were only three edible things inside the Dark Forest.
Monster meat and two kinds of emergency crops.
They couldn't survive on carbohydrates forever, so sooner or later, they had no choice but to hunt monsters.
And every single hunt meant risking their lives.
That was the dilemma all the residents faced.
Even so, today's hunt had gone fairly well.
Rodur had found an abandoned old monster far away from the creatures' main hunting grounds.
He killed it in a single strike and finished butchering it in less than two hours.
The meat tasted horrible, but meat was still meat.
He had thought he could stay hidden without worrying about food for the next four days.
But...
If I'd known there was a monster cub nearby...
A young monster had been hiding near the place where he'd finished his hunt.
It had gone off and brought an entire group of its own kind back with it.
And that was how everything had gone completely wrong.
Rodur clicked his tongue while looking around, his breathing steadily growing heavier.
At this point, he couldn't just throw away the meat and run.
The Dark Forest was an extremely harsh environment even for the monsters.
If they found something edible, they didn't care whether it was a dwarf or a Sapien.
They would chase it to the ends of the forest and tear it apart.
That was simply how they lived.
Normally, the best strategy was to use his small body and hide somewhere the monsters couldn't follow.
But in this enormous forest, even finding a place like that wasn't easy.
At this rate, I'll run out of stamina and they'll catch me sooner or later.
After surviving for an entire year, he would end up being the first among his companions to die.
“Fuck... I can't let that happen!”
It was do or die.
There was only one way to drive them away.
He needed to make them feel fear.
He had to make them think,
If we stay here, we're all going to die.
To do that, Rodur would have to tear apart their leader in the most brutal way possible.
Of course, the other monsters wouldn't just stand there and watch him do it.
Even so, he had to succeed.
It was the only way to survive.
As the tension slowly rose, Rodur carefully waited for the perfect moment to attack the enemy leader.
BOOOOM!
That was when the roar of a monster and a massive explosion echoed from somewhere ahead.
Gweeeh...
Gweeeehk...
One monster.
Then another.
And another.
A monster struggled helplessly as an enormous tentacle wrapped around its neck.
A moment later, its bones and internal organs were completely crushed, killing it instantly.
But apparently, that wasn't enough to intimidate the creatures.
More and more monsters continued gathering around the area.
“...”
Yohan stared at them with lifeless eyes before quickly classifying them.
Four-legged.
Large bodies.
Dark blue skin.
Those were some of the few common features shared between monsters, but every individual had many different characteristics.
After hundreds of years of fighting them, Yohan had learned to roughly categorize them and determine how to deal with each type.
Front, Type A. Right, Type E. Left, Type C.
Just as the heart and brain were critical weaknesses for humans, monsters also had weaknesses.
They possessed a high-energy structure where much of their body's energy gathered.
It was commonly called the core.
The location of the core differed slightly from monster to monster, and its size varied greatly as well.
For example, Type A monsters usually had their cores in the head.
Type C monsters usually had theirs in the abdomen.
And Type E monsters usually had theirs in the left hind leg.
Of course, just because Yohan knew where the cores were didn't mean he chose the easy method of targeting them.
Grrr...
Grrrrrr...
Just as he had done in front of Dexter Boyle, Yohan showed no intention of changing his method.
First, he severed part of their nervous systems so they could no longer move.
Then he began devouring them greedily.
The fear of death created during that process reached his emotions through their screams and cries.
Yes.
This was not the right path.
And precisely because it was wrong, he would leave it behind and finally obtain true rest.
That was the message Yohan repeatedly carved into himself through slaughter.
Friends.
Honor.
Love.
Even emotions.
He had abandoned all of them.
The only thing left now was this tiresome life.
[Even after throwing all of that away, you're still trying to discard more? Just to escape from me?]
“Yes.”
The Goddess scoffed at Yohan's firm answer.
[That kind of future doesn't exist for you, Yohan. This is your destiny, and mine as well.]
There was an icy chill in her voice with every word she spoke.
It carried such madness that even Yohan, who had thrown away his emotions, felt a faint shiver.
[You'll belong to me for the rest of your life.]
But Yohan didn't shrink back in the slightest.
He opened his eyes wide.
“...We'll see about that.”
After that, more than twenty monsters foolishly attacked Yohan with their claws.
Not a single one managed to leave so much as a scratch on his body.
Instead, only the dark-red cloak wrapped around him was slowly torn into rags.
Kii...
Kieeeek...!
Kyaaak!
Kyaaaak!
As the mountain of corpses steadily grew, the monsters gradually lost their will to fight.
They exchanged strange cries with one another before eventually disappearing into the bushes.
Yohan merely watched them leave with an expressionless stare.
The short battle—
No.
The massacre came to an end.
Yohan searched through the corpses and removed the monsters' cores one by one.
Then he suddenly turned his head.
His eyes clearly reflected the silhouette of a dwarf who had already been staring at him from behind.
“Come out now, and I'll let you live.”
It was a rather rare act of mercy from Yohan toward another race.
Fortunately, the silence didn't last long.
Rustle.
Rodur slowly stepped out from between the bushes and raised both hands with an awkward smile.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, Apostle. I was only hiding because I didn't want to get in your way.”
“...”
“And if you're worried about the meat, you don't have to be. I've already got my own share right here... so I'll just be going.”
Rodur quickly said what he wanted to say and tried to leave.
But Yohan stopped him with a low voice.
“Hey.”
“Y-Yeah?”
“Where is your shelter? Underground?”
“...I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Of course it's underground. I can tell just from all the dirt covering your body.”
“This is because I nearly fell while running earlier...”
“I need to compare the reactions from aboveground and underground. Wait here for a moment.”
“No, I already said I have no idea what you're talking about! Hey!”
Yohan apparently had no intention of listening to the dwarf's protests from the beginning.
He silently continued with what he was doing.
He grabbed several vines nearby and threaded the monster cores onto them, forming a large ring.
While he worked, Rodur kept throwing out excuses and explanations.
But Yohan's attention was already focused on what was in front of him.
[You're going to do that, aren't you? It's been a really long time.]
“There's almost no chance of finding a clue on the first floor... but there's no harm in trying.”
A monster core was essentially a vessel capable of containing an enormous amount of energy.
After being removed from the monster's body, it stopped functioning, but that didn't mean it had been completely destroyed.
Yohan planned to reactivate the cores through a certain method and use them to search for the Remains.
The Goddess wrapped her arms around his neck and spoke in a seductive tone.
[It's a shortcut only you can use, the immortal chosen by this body. Why don't you show me a little gratitude?]
“Shut up. I need to concentrate.”
[Hmph. I hate you, Yohan.]
Ignoring her continued complaints, Yohan slowly began injecting some of the mana inside his body into the cores.
Rodur silently watched everything.
And only one thought came to mind.
...As expected, every Apostle is completely insane.
Hearing voices no one else can hear, talking to himself, and messing around with monster cores... If I stay here, I'll get dragged into whatever madness he's involved in.
He needed to leave before the Apostle became even more interested in him.
“I'm grateful that you took care of the monsters... but you know that doesn't mean I have to listen to your request, right? Anyway, I'll be going now. Good luck!”
With that, Rodur quickly ran in the opposite direction.
But he didn't get far.
More accurately, the scene before his eyes forced him to stop.
It was only natural.
Wooooong...!
The huge ring made from monster cores suddenly began rotating at incredible speed.
At the same time, it started glowing brightly.
“W-What the hell is this...?”
“...”
The light was so intense that it was difficult to believe they were standing in the middle of a forest filled with darkness.
Rodur instinctively lowered his head to shield his eyes.
Yohan, on the other hand, stared directly at the light without even blinking.
The mana used by monsters and Apostles shared the same fundamental origin.
Monsters created by the powers of the Inner Gods.
And representatives granted power by those same Inner Gods.
Both had connections to the gods of this world.
Yohan was also the only one among the Seven Players who had made a contract with an Inner God.
Something that would have been impossible for the other conquerors was ridiculously easy for him.
Reacting to mana originating from the same source, the cores began pulling toward one another.
They spun faster and faster.
Eventually, they transformed into a kind of radar that searched the surrounding area for similar reactions.
[Even if you search for traces of an Apostle now, I doubt it'll change anything. There's no way any traces would remain on the first floor anyway.]
“...Apparently, that's not necessarily true.”
[Huh?]
After glowing for several minutes, the cores suddenly stopped rotating and fell to the ground at the same time.
Yohan examined the dozen or so cores one by one.
Then he picked up the last one and stood.
Part of the core had been burned completely black by the intense heat reaction caused by the mana.
Rodur had been worried that the light might attract another group of monsters and force them into a second battle.
But even he couldn't help staring at the strange core.
Leaving the dumbfounded dwarf behind, Yohan turned his head.
“If there were no traces nearby, this reaction wouldn't have happened in the first place.”
His gaze moved toward the lower northwest direction, where the core's heat reaction had been strongest.
“Finding Remains on the first floor... That means one of two things.”
Either his luck was unbelievably good.
Or unbelievably bad.
Yohan handed the blackened core to the still-stunned Rodur.
“Guide me to your shelter, dwarf.”
“...What could someone like you possibly want from poor dungeon residents like us?”
“That's for me to decide.”
Yohan stretched out his arm and pointed toward the monster corpses scattered everywhere.
“If we leave all this monster meat here, it'll just rot away... Don't you think that's a waste?”
“...”
“There's enough here to last at least a month. If we divide it up and carry it now, we can also keep the spoilage to a minimum.”
“...”
“What do you think of my idea?”
That was Yohan's final offer.
Faced with Yohan's ice-cold gaze, Rodur had no choice but to nod.
“...Fine. I'll guide you. Just wait a little.”
Because if he kept pretending not to understand or tried to refuse again, he was certain there wouldn't even be enough of his bones left to collect.
