Chapter 12
Around the time Yohan was following Rodur toward the underground settlement...
The Ascartier expedition, which had jumped into the dungeon entrance so they wouldn't fall behind, had been locked in battle with a horde of monsters for over an hour from the moment they arrived.
“Urgh...!”
“Grit your teeth and hold the line! If you bastards die here, I won't forgive you!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
While the subordinate behind him gritted his teeth and held back the monsters' assault, expedition leader Danforce drew his sword and cut down the monsters trying to break through their formation one after another.
He had already killed ten of them.
Faced with an enemy assault far fiercer than expected, Danforce clicked his tongue in disbelief.
“To think even the monsters on the first floor would move this systematically... This is ridiculous.”
A dungeon was an ever-changing place where circumstances could shift at any moment.
If Danforce claimed to understand the dungeon after entering it only twice, Yohan would laugh at him.
The elves and weres would probably do the same.
But even limited experience became something different when hundreds or thousands of cases were gathered together.
After all, the four major factions had once joined forces in an attempt to reach the end of the dungeon.
By combining all their accumulated experience, they could at least produce reasonably useful statistics.
Hundreds of years' worth of information gathered by the Ascartier Empire had been thoroughly memorized by Danforce as well.
Especially the information regarding the first ten floors, which were considered the dungeon's tutorial section.
This time was no different.
They had created their strategy based on that information and acted accordingly.
The first floor of the dungeon.
Also known as the Dark Forest.
Average number of residents: three thousand.
Roughly half of them secured safety by worshiping an Outer God.
There were no underground monsters, so most races, including dwarves, dug tunnels underground and lived in hiding.
However, some factions among the elves and weres had established defensive lines near the edge of the forest and continued fighting the monsters.
Elite expedition teams such as Uel Ferda and Vika Harad would likely join those groups, inspect their combat strength, and prepare to descend to the next floor.
Not that I have any intention of aggressively clearing the dungeon like those bastards...
Danforce had prepared two main plans.
Both centered around Yohan.
The first option was if they managed to join Yohan in time.
When it came to the dungeon, no one in the expedition could compare to Yohan.
Even Yohan probably wouldn't try to descend to the second floor immediately after arriving.
They would simply join him, inspect their forces, and decide their next move afterward.
The second option was if they failed to join Yohan in time.
Without the powerful man known as the Mad Savior, Danforce couldn't lead the expedition into an all-out battle against the monsters.
They would need somewhere to catch their breath.
Normally, he wouldn't even have needed to think about it.
He would've immediately chosen the second option.
And the ones who made that possible were the so-called dungeon residents.
Boom!
KABOOM!
Their current strategy was simple.
They blocked the monsters eagerly slashing at them with their claws using mana barriers, then rained mana missiles down from above.
It was straightforward and not particularly powerful, but it required no preparation and could be used almost anywhere.
In the earliest sections of the dungeon, where there were almost no monsters with special abilities, it was fairly effective.
Of course, they could have chosen another strategy and launched a more aggressive counterattack...
But it wasn't time yet.
They needed to observe the situation until the perfect opportunity appeared.
For now, they maintained the most basic defensive formation and continued confronting the enemy.
Amid his subordinates' urgent shouts, Danforce immediately searched for Dexter, their observer.
“Are you finished observing, Dexter?!”
“......”
“Dexter!”
“Y-Yes, sir! Observation complete! We only need to go another two kilometers from here!”
“Then you should've said that sooner, you bastard!”
“S-Sorry, sir!”
Danforce asked several more questions.
“How many monsters do you see?”
“A-About three hundred!”
“Which direction has the highest concentration?”
“...Southeast!”
“Okay.”
Three hundred monsters.
It was a large number for the first floor, but it was by no means impossible to break through.
Of course, some casualties would be unavoidable.
They could continue holding their position and wait for the monsters to spread out toward the other factions.
But if this became a battle of endurance, humans would be at a disadvantage, not the monsters.
It was true that being attacked immediately after arriving had thrown them into confusion...
But there was nothing they could do about that now.
It might not be the best choice, but it's probably the next best thing...!
Having made his decision, Danforce drew everyone's attention and rapidly issued his orders.
“Everyone, listen carefully! Two kilometers to the right! We're breaking through at full strength! I'll take the front! Frank, cover the flanks! Angelo, take the rear! Move!”
Exactly one hour and fifteen minutes had passed since they first began confronting the enemy.
It was finally time to counterattack.
Battle cries.
Screams.
Explosions.
Death throes.
Shouts.
All sorts of sounds blended together into a sickening orchestra as the boundary between life and death became increasingly clear.
Most of the dead were monsters.
Most of those still alive were humans.
But not everyone managed to earn that result.
“Hah... Hah... Hah...!”
“Don't stop! Keep running! I'll take care of the bastards falling behind!”
They forcibly broke through the sea of monsters surrounding them and advanced two kilometers.
Within the Dark Forest, which stretched across a radius of four hundred kilometers, two kilometers was quite a short distance.
Once they reached their destination, they would be able to drive away most of the monsters immediately.
There was no reason not to join the people there.
That was why Danforce had forced the breakthrough.
And out of thirty-seven expedition members, he succeeded in getting thirty-one alive to the destination.
“D... Die...!”
Kyaaaaak!
Puk!
Puk!
Angelo, who had willingly taken responsibility for guarding the rear, continued trying to take the monsters down with him until the very moment he lost consciousness.
This was his first time entering the dungeon, but he had plenty of experience fighting monsters.
In particular, he had participated in more than ten guerrilla operations against monsters.
But this battle was different.
They had to protect their allies while retreating at the same time.
It was an extremely difficult battle.
Even someone like Angelo had obvious limits.
Yet despite knowing that, Angelo hadn't opposed Danforce's order.
He had remained at the very rear until the end and fought the enemy.
Was it because he had been born into a military family?
Or because of the camaraderie that had developed between them?
Whatever the reason, Angelo and the other five sacrificed their lives to save everyone else.
The last thing they saw was Danforce's back as he forcefully drove the enemy away.
Crunch!
Crack!
The monsters, furious that their prey had escaped, took their frustration out on the fallen victims before them.
They stomped on their necks, separating heads from torsos.
Then they roared wildly as they crushed what remained of the flesh.
It was a horrifying act that gave them neither benefit nor necessity.
And being forced to stand there and watch without being able to stop it made the survivors suffer even more.
Slash!
Danforce neatly cut down the monster that had approached the destination.
With that, the battle finally ended.
Without even having time to wipe the sweat from his forehead, Danforce immediately joined the others.
Treatment for the wounded was already nearly complete.
“...We already lost too damn many in our first battle. Damn it.”
“......”
Among the expedition members' grim expressions was a faint sense of relief that they themselves had survived.
Seeing that, Danforce swallowed the sigh he had been about to release and pointed toward the distance.
“...Don't lower your guard yet. Their position might've changed over the past year.”
And just like that, the expedition began entering the believers' territory.
Overwhelming strength.
Unknown objectives.
Impossible to persuade.
And seemingly rich experience within the dungeon.
That was Rodur's overall assessment of Yohan.
And honestly, it wasn't far from the truth.
In any case, thanks to Yohan drawing the attention of every monster nearby and completely devastating the area, Rodur had managed to survive.
They had also secured more meat than they could ever ask for.
Even if that's only judging by the result, we received this much help... I suppose we should cooperate to some extent as well.
That was the dwarven way of dealing with a favor.
So Rodur guided Yohan toward their settlement without complaint.
And the moment they arrived near it, Yohan suddenly said,
“In another month, the protection of the Outer God will disappear.”
It was a completely unexpected topic for Rodur.
“...The protection will disappear? What do you mean?”
“Even Outer Gods can't escape the laws of this world. They can't keep leaving things alone forever.”
“......”
“Well, whatever happens has nothing to do with me.”
The two continued walking deeper inside.
Within a cluster of spruce trees hidden in the thick forest, dozens of different traps designed to activate against monsters had been installed.
“Wait here for a moment. I need to remove the triggers.”
The moment Rodur disappeared, Yohan immediately stretched out both hands and felt around.
Magic circles carved into the tree trunks spread a dense, colorless curtain through the bushes.
It was a barrier impossible to detect without the authority of both an Outer God and an Inner God.
“He must've been a fairly promising apostle. This barrier is quite advanced for something placed on the first floor.”
[When you say that, it makes me want to smash it apart. Hehehehe.]
“You probably can't.”
Without another word, Yohan took a tentacle from inside his clothes and brought it near the barrier.
BZZZT!
The moment he did, violent sparks erupted, setting part of the tentacle on fire.
[Ow!]
“See? The compatibility is terrible.”
[Stupid Yohan! That hurts! Hurry and lick it! Hurry!]
The goddess sitting on his shoulder stuck out her tongue and flailed both arms around.
Yohan casually rubbed the burning tentacle against the ground until the flames went out, then smirked.
“If it weren't for me, you would've already become food for the Absolute Gods. Weakling goddess.”
[Hmph. Stupid Yohan. I'm not helping you anymore.]
“Suit yourself.”
[Hmph! Hmph!]
The goddess became upset on her own and hid behind his neck.
Yohan seemed perfectly satisfied with that response and quickened his steps toward the inside of the barrier.
The traps spread throughout the area had already stopped functioning.
Rodur hadn't even returned yet, but Yohan continued walking alone until he reached the dwarves' main settlement.
When he looked inside the pits scattered around the area, he saw numerous small holes carved along their walls.
That was when it happened.
“It's rather narrow for a Sapien to enter, isn't it?”
The one who suddenly appeared without making a sound was an elderly dwarf with a severely hunched back.
Using a roughly carved wooden staff for support, he gestured toward the holes and explained their purpose.
“The stairs humans use are simply too tall for us. So we place our hands and feet into those holes one at a time when climbing up and down. They're excellent for preventing intruders as well, so we've grown quite fond of them.”
“...Who are you?”
“I thought the meat resupply was taking unusually long. Seems we had a guest after all. Nice to meet you. My name is Belvar, the chief of this village.”
Yohan merely stared at the hand the old dwarf extended.
Belvar chuckled and scratched his forehead instead.
“If you've got some business here, speaking to me will probably be the fastest way. I'm the one who makes the decisions in this underground village, after all.”
“I like how quickly you understand.”
Yohan immediately got to the point.
He didn't bother mentioning the battle with the monsters along the way.
Judging by Belvar's reaction, he already seemed to know roughly what kind of existence Yohan was.
“That's all. You should more or less understand now. Once I finish searching, I'll leave immediately.”
“...I see. I understand. Then there's no reason for either of us to waste time. Let's go.”
Belvar immediately began walking ahead.
After another ten minutes or so, two enormous pits, far larger than the ones before, appeared in front of them.
“We occasionally need to interact with other races too. That's why we've prepared spaces like these for them.”
“......”
“Though no outsiders have approached us at all during the past year...”
The old dwarf suddenly asked Yohan, who had been silently following behind him,
“By the way... that ‘remains’ you're searching for. Do they happen to belong to a dwarf?”
“...Why are you asking?”
“...Because if that's your objective, I'm afraid we won't be able to cooperate.”
Belvar slightly turned his head.
A quiet but unmistakable fighting spirit burned in the old dwarf's eyes.
“The remains of Kranon, the ‘Thorn Shield’... Apostle of the Outer God ‘Rofgor.’”
Inside both pits stood dwarf soldiers armed with spears and bows, their weapons aimed upward.
“We're being protected by the blessing he left behind as well.”
