Chapter 21

Chapter 21

At Yohan's shocking declaration, not only the Were, but even the Imperial Expedition and the dwarf soldiers all dropped their jaws at once.

Isabella, who had been planning to mediate the situation, could only clutch her forehead at Yohan's response, which had gone far beyond anything she had imagined.

What is that man planning to do, causing trouble from the very first floor...?!

Unlike the brave but simple-minded Were warriors behind him, the General was at least capable of judging the situation rationally.

Yohan had killed some of his precious brethren, but the Were had been the ones at fault, and the cause had been racial discrimination.

So Isabella believed that if Yohan had at least offered a formal apology, the General would probably have been willing to let the whole matter go.

But Yohan had not only refused to apologize—

He was demanding that the Were apologize instead.

“...I don't know anymore.”

Isabella gave up and stepped backward.

The General let out a hollow laugh as he looked at Yohan's outstretched hand.

“Haha... This is quite something. I didn't think you were the type to deliberately make a disturbance worse... Was I mistaken?”

“Normally, I'm not. If my opponent weren't a Were, that is.”

“Do you have some kind of grudge against the Were? Is that why you killed my brethren as well?”

For the General, this was his final warning.

If Yohan hated the Were for some particular reason and that was why he was acting this way, the General was willing to endure it just this once for the sake of his goal.

He couldn't care less about those insignificant Sapien expedition members, but as long as conquering the dungeon remained his objective, there was no benefit in making Yohan Blake his enemy.

“Not really.”

But Yohan's answer completely ignored that warning.

“It's not as if you Were hate Sapiens for any particular reason either, is it?”

And at that moment—

The last thread of patience remaining inside General Kalkerak snapped completely.

BOOM!

With a sound like a cannon firing, the General's massive body shot toward Yohan.

BANG!

He curled his hard, scale-covered shoulder inward and tried to send Yohan flying with the full weight of his body.

Creeeak.

Creeeak.

“...Oh?”

But Yohan's body didn't move even slightly as he took the charging General head-on.

The first ones to be shocked were the Were themselves.

Isabella in particular stared with wide eyes and let out a quiet gasp.

“H-How...?”

General Kalkerak.

One of the greatest heroes of the current era, chosen by the mighty Divineheart, and the expedition commander of the Empire of Vika Mamalium.

Even among his own race, he possessed exceptional natural strength.

He was a Weredraco—

A Dragonkin.

Though only slightly over two meters tall, his body weighed several hundred kilograms.

And yet Kalkerak could move that dense, massive body with agility surpassing even most dwarves.

Ordinary defensive walls could be destroyed by his bare body alone.

And when he charged at full strength, the pressure generated by his body could even tear through metal.

Thanks to the natural immunity of the Dragonkin, most mind-affecting magic was useless against him.

And his naturally powerful aura was so strong that ordinary spears and blades couldn't even scratch him.

In fact, people said that more than half of the strength of the expedition known as Vika Harad came from Kalkerak alone.

And yet—

Yohan hadn't moved even an inch after taking the General's full-powered charge.

Was such a thing even possible?

“...”

Now that the battle had already begun, there was no backing down.

Kalkerak stood there as the representative of the honor of tens of thousands of Were warriors.

So he drew his famous sword, Bonehurt, and pointed it toward Yohan with a hardened expression.

“My goal is not you, Yohan Blake. I must continue forward so that I may fight a battle to the death against the power of the ‘White Silence’ that blocked my path before.”

“If you're struggling this badly against me now, you won't even reach the thirty-third floor.”

“...Then that's even more reason for me to overcome you. Until I force an apology from your lips!”

The General smiled as he adjusted his grip on the sword with both scale-covered hands.

The aura covering both his arms moved into the sword, forming a single blade of concentrated aura.

The blade then transformed into something resembling a rapidly rotating saw.

It was ready to tear apart anything it touched.

[I don't think you can just take that one head-on. As expected of a Weredraco. His aura is on a completely different level from those mediocre Were.]

At the Goddess's sudden comment, Yohan silently agreed.

[Hmm... You really wanted to see what that guy could do, didn't you? Enough to provoke him even though you didn't mean what you said.]

If he's only as strong as he was before, there's no reason to bring him down to the lower floors with me.

More than ten seconds of silence passed.

The General stepped forward, preparing to charge.

Yohan prepared to receive him.

And then—

“Enough!”

The one who stepped between them was the strongest warrior of the elves—

Nuadilen Westport.

“Any further fighting between us will only be a pointless waste. Stop here, both of you.”

“...”

Nuadilen stood between Yohan, who remained silent, and Kalkerak, who was still burning with fighting spirit.

He looked at both sides.

“I don't know exactly what happened between your two factions... but if what you want is an apology, then I'll apologize in his place. Let that be the end of this matter.”

With those words, Nuadilen bowed his head first.

The elves behind him immediately began protesting, but Albern quickly stopped them.

“Can't you accept that, General?”

“...If you're going that far, I suppose I have no choice. Especially when the request comes from none other than Nuadilen Westport.”

The General withdrew his sharpened aura.

Then he asked,

“But why? Do you owe Yohan some kind of debt?”

“Is there anyone inside this dungeon who doesn't owe him something? And if we continue downward, we'll probably owe him again soon enough. Isn't that right?”

“...So that's your reason.”

Nuadilen turned toward the members of the four great factions, who were still glaring at one another with wary expressions.

Then he shouted loudly.

“Uel Ferda will provide the sacrifice required for entry! Anyone who wants to continue this pointless fighting will be considered a volunteer to replace the sacrifice! Understood?!”

With the explosive confrontation finally brought to an end, each faction resumed preparations for entering the next floor.

The expedition leaders gathered together to discuss their strategy for the second floor.

Meanwhile, Yohan was finally released from the commotion—

Only to be bombarded by Aren's endless questions.

“M-Mister, you're going too, right? You're staying with us? H-How many floors are you going? F-Fifty? Or n-ninety? Hehehe.”

“There's a high chance that both you and your guardian will die before then... but if possible, I suppose I'll go all the way.”

“D-Die? Everyone? You too, Mister?”

“...Who knows.”

The discussion ended in less than ten minutes.

Now it was finally time to head for the lower floor.

Aren was dragged away by the expedition members, each holding one of his shoulders.

Yohan remained behind for a moment and spoke with Nuadilen and Kalkerak.

“There isn't anyone who still wants to remain here, right?”

“Even if there is, we'll have to drag them along until at least the thirteenth floor.”

“True... They'll need to reach at least that far if they want to bring in new blood.”

“Then we'll descend directly until the fourth floor.”

“No.”

Yohan interrupted the General.

“There's something I need to check.”

“...Check?”

For a moment, Yohan considered whether he should reveal his intentions regarding the Remains.

But there was no particular reason to hide it.

So Yohan explained that he was searching for Remains and told them his purpose.

Both men's expressions immediately stiffened.

“You're going to use the Remains to track traces of the ‘Great Remains’...? So you find Remains with other Remains?”

“Hmm... I didn't know Remains had such a function.”

“It's a function only I can use. The chances are low. But at this point, it's the only method I have left.”

“...I see.”

Kalkerak stared at Yohan suspiciously.

“There's no way a man like you hasn't already determined whether the ‘Great Remains’ are real or not... Do you have any intention of telling us your actual goal?”

“You're the one who hasn't figured anything out.”

“The Four Great Factions have challenged this dungeon hundreds of times. More than a million have died in those attempts. And during all those years, not once have we found any information related to the ‘Great Remains.’”

What exactly were the Great Remains?

Who had first spoken about them?

Even those things were unknown.

“If it's something we've never been able to learn anything about and only exists as a collection of rumors... wouldn't it be more reasonable to assume it doesn't exist?”

Yohan didn't bother arguing.

Kalkerak shook his head and started walking away.

“...I'll help you search for ordinary Remains. They'll be useful to us as well. What happens after that is your problem. Search as much as you like.”

The discussion was over.

All the information they were willing to share had been exchanged.

Of course, they were probably still hiding things.

No—

It would actually be more troublesome if they weren't.

There needed to be an appropriate amount of tension.

Wariness.

Distrust.

Only people capable of surviving on their own could truly cooperate with others.

It was not until the second day after the expeditions entered the dungeon that preparations to descend to the next floor were finally completed.

The dwarf expedition, which should have reached the first floor by now, never joined them.

Just as expected.

“Those guys probably weren't that interested in conquering the dungeon either. Same as us.”

“Then why are we going down?”

“Did you forget what happened to the village?”

“Ah...”

Danfos decided there was no need to mention that even if that hadn't happened, he still would have followed Yohan.

The elven expedition, Uel Ferda, had already taken the central position.

The Askartier Imperial Expedition and the dwarf soldiers took the left side together.

The Were expedition, Vika Harad, positioned itself on the opposite side to the right.

At the center, the core of the Thorn Divine Tree pulsed faintly behind thick pillars.

In front of it was a pit covered by tens of thousands of branches.

“Couldn't we just remove that thing and enter the lower floor without a sacrifice? Cut it with swords or burn it or something...”

“The fact that you might actually try it is what's terrifying.”

“You want to anger a Divine Tree while we're standing inside a forest? Are you insane?”

Frank and Danfos both grabbed Dexter by the collar after his tactless suggestion.

“We're inside a dungeon, you idiot. Use your head.”

“Haa... No. Forget it. Don't use your head. We can just throw you in as the sacrifice instead of the spirits.”

Dexter shook his head repeatedly and shut his mouth after receiving both a warning and a threat.

With that, even the smallest noise disappeared.

Nuadilen, who had completed the preparations for the summoning, looked between Yohan and Albern before giving a signal with his eyes.

Albern ordered his subordinates to stretch out their hands.

“Thus commanded Iwen, God of Forest and Earth.”

The summoning magic circle carved into the exposed inner wood began shining with a crimson light in response to the elves' mana.

Watching the companions of his own race slowly appear, Albern spoke the remaining words of the incantation with an ashamed expression.

“For the world that shall be liberated... sacrifice yourselves, Spirits of the Earth.”

Responding to the spell, pale green spirits appeared above the magic circle.

A mass of mana gathered together like a cloud and took the shape of a small child.

Three spirits appeared in total.

They began speaking in a language that only elves could understand.

At their words, all the elves lowered their heads in mourning.

Only Nuadilen remained standing straight, respectfully witnessing their final moments.

Slash!

Thorny vines erupted from the ground and mercilessly wrapped around the three spirits.

Being spirits did not make them immune to pain.

They cried like children searching for their parents, waving their unfinished, blunt little hands helplessly through the air.

Their screams did not stop until the vines completely dragged them into the earth.

The Thorn Divine Tree greedily absorbed the spirits' screams.

Then the earth shook—

As if the tree were expressing its satisfaction.

And soon after...

The pit that had previously been completely blocked by branches finally revealed the abyss beneath it.

Covering his eyes with one hand, Nuadilen quietly muttered,

“...Let's go, everyone.”

It was impossible to tell exactly who those words were meant for.