Chapter 20
“U-Uaaaargh…!”
“Hey! Hey! Shut that bastard’s mouth!”
“I told you it was going to hurt! Grit your teeth! They get even wilder when they hear screams!”
While the expedition members and soldiers behind him struggled against a small number of thorny vines, Johan continued moving forward alone, taking on all the remaining vine monsters by himself.
Slash!
The tiny hooks at the ends of the thorns dug straight into his skin and injected neurotoxic poison all over his body.
It caused mild paralysis throughout the body and unbearable pain, but it did not kill its victim.
They were thorns made purely to cause suffering.
In a way, this was also a warning from the Dungeon to intelligent beings.
If you cannot even endure this much pain, never descend any farther.
Even for Johan, whose emotions and senses had grown numb over the years, the pain was considerable.
Yet not even a twitch appeared on his face.
[I want to see it again. You screaming in pain. How many years has it been since you last groaned like that? Two hundred? Three hundred?]
“No idea.”
[But you don’t seem to like hearing those people scream very much. Last time, you were even smiling while enjoying it.]
“Those were Were. These are humans.”
[There are dwarves too, you know?]
“……”
As Johan fell silent, the goddess moved closer with a teasing smile.
[Actually, darling, you were already satisfied back at the village, weren’t you?]
[You got to watch countless lives end in unfair and miserable ways. And there were even those unbelievably foolish fanatics.]
[That must have been quite a satisfying meal for you, right?]
“…Who knows.”
The goddess continued pressing him.
[Why don’t you finally be honest, Johan? That’s why you came down into the Dungeon, isn’t it?]
[The end is near, this time is different… You never really cared about any of that, did you?]
[Even the Great Remains are nothing more than an excuse to you.]
[You’re exactly the same as me.]
[You enjoy the suffering and death of others so much that you can’t stand it.]
[But because you don’t want to admit that truth, you force yourself to live while carrying this false mission called salvation.]
Johan did not answer her accusation.
He simply quickened his steps.
“Yeah…”
His voice was low.
“That’s who you are.”
No.
Perhaps she was right.
Maybe his true nature had always been like that, and that was why he had been able to make a contract with her on that day.
But even if that were true, he had absolutely no intention of admitting it openly.
Even if his true nature was as wicked and vile as she claimed, Johan had not lived that way.
He had made his own choices because he believed they were right.
And he had taken responsibility for those choices.
More proudly than anyone.
At the very least, he had no regrets about them.
That resolve had nothing to do with her curse.
It was a resolve that belonged only to Johan Blake.
The seemingly endless forest eventually came to a stop before an enormous tree trunk.
Countless branches and thorny vines covered the area around it.
The thick leaves overhead blocked the sky completely, preventing even a single ray of light from entering.
After another ten minutes or so, everyone finally arrived in front of the enormous trunk.
Danforth and Belvar approached from directly behind Johan.
“Did anyone pass out?”
“Dexter. That idiot couldn’t hold back and started screaming his lungs out…”
“We have one on our side as well. Though he’s a dwarf rather than a human.”
Johan glanced ahead.
“We might have to use those two as food.”
Leaving behind those ominous words, Johan took another step forward.
The branches and thorny vines blocking their path began moving aside.
Then a thin crack appeared in the enormous tree trunk.
The crack rapidly widened.
Only when it became barely large enough for one person to squeeze through did it finally stop.
Belvar and Danforth both stared with their mouths wide open.
“The Thorn Divine Tree opened its entrance without demanding any payment…!”
“Seriously… Last time it took all our alcohol, gold coins, and even the magical beast meat we had before it opened the door.”
Johan frowned slightly.
“It is strange. Normally, we would have needed to feed it several liters of blood.”
As Johan briefly fell into thought, a faint voice reached his ears.
It came from inside.
The young, stuttering voice of an elf.
Johan narrowed his eyes.
“…Looks like someone arrived before us.”
The Divine Tree was called Laufel.
There were thorns everywhere—on its trunk, vines, branches, and roots.
That was why it was also known as the Thorn Divine Tree.
It was a gigantic World Tree occupying the center of the Dark Forest, which stretched from the first floor all the way to the fourth.
What made it strange was that the same Divine Tree appeared on every floor, only in different sizes.
On the first floor, only part of its trunk and roots remained.
Even those parts were hidden deep inside the Great Forest, making them impossible to find from outside.
However, the Divine Trees on the third and fourth floors openly displayed their enormous forms.
“The Dungeon belongs to the Inner Gods, but the first ten floors are actually rather friendly toward us four major powers.”
“I-I see! S-So that’s why you p-paid a spirit as the price?”
“The transaction isn’t finished yet.”
While Aren continued bombarding him with noisy questions, the expedition members of Uel Ferda—except for Nuadilen—focused on summoning the spirit needed to open the path to the lower floor.
It was at that exact moment—
The Sapiens and dwarf alliance, led by Johan, entered the inside of the enormous tree trunk.
Albern looked toward them.
“…So it was Uel Ferda that opened the gate.”
Danforth answered him.
“You’re the expedition from the Ascartier Empire… right?”
The first ones to begin talking were the two expedition leaders, Danforth and Albern.
Albern looked over the newcomers.
“It seems there was quite a commotion in the village… Yet all of you managed to make it here safely. Impressive.”
Danforth’s expression hardened.
“…So you knew about it after all. Things would have gone much more smoothly if your side had helped us.”
“I’m sorry, but we weren’t exactly in a position to spare much help either.”
“……”
Then Albern continued calmly.
“And more importantly, hadn’t most of the villagers already given up on challenging the Dungeon?”
“Even if we saved people like that, they would eventually become nothing more than baggage.”
His eyes remained cold.
“Unless you intended to use them as bait for the magical beasts, of course.”
The survivors immediately exploded in anger.
“W-What?!”
“That’s going too far!”
“Do you have any idea what we went through to make it this far?!”
There were still six survivors from the village, so naturally, voices began rising.
However, from the perspective of some of the elite expedition teams that had always been completely serious about conquering the Dungeon, the survivors’ complaints also seemed insignificant.
Before the argument could grow any worse, the expedition members hurried to calm the survivors.
Meanwhile, Danforth pulled Albern away from the group for a private conversation.
“Those people don’t have any other choice anyway.”
“If they don’t descend with us, they’ll obviously get killed by magical beasts. That’s why they followed us.”
Albern answered without hesitation.
“Which is precisely why I want to leave them behind. They’ll only become a burden.”
Danforth sighed.
“Even if we don’t abandon them, they’ll probably fall behind on their own soon enough.”
“Can’t we wait until the second floor before worrying about that?”
“……”
Albern eventually gave in.
“…Well, I suppose it is more of a problem for you Sapiens to worry about than us.”
