Chapter 34
“……”
“……”
“Is that… a Dhole? Why is that untouchable monster here?”
“…One disaster after another.”
After the horrifying battle on the previous floor, everyone had encouraged one another and continued downward without collapsing.
Now, the first thing waiting to greet them was a worm monster several hundred meters long.
Anyone would have lost some fighting spirit.
They tried not to show it.
But exhaustion was obvious on their faces.
General Kalkelak, who still looked relatively calm, approached Yohan.
“…Is that thing this floor’s gatekeeper?”
Yohan silently nodded.
Kalkelak gave a hollow laugh and shook his head.
“…Can it even be killed? That earth dragon of the Dreamlands tears apart the creations and servants of Great Old Ones without mercy.”
“Who knows. We won’t know without trying…”
“We won’t know without trying… If even you answer like that, then killing it is practically impossible.”
“Because killing it isn’t the end of the problem. I already became Dagon’s enemy, so I had no reason to hold back against his Deep Ones. But we need to be careful about whoever is behind that thing.”
“Haha. For us, any god is a disaster.”
The Dhole attacked magic beasts that appeared near the passage.
It also knocked away swamp crocodiles that approached without thinking.
Its rampage was clearly visible even from several hundred meters away.
At least this prevented the crocodiles from gathering around the expedition.
Still, that was hardly enough to make anyone happy.
While everyone rested and reorganized, the commanders gathered together.
They began discussing a strategy for dealing with the Dhole.
“Isn’t the most important question who ordered that creature to come here?”
“…Wouldn’t Nightgaunts be the most likely answer? Summoning a Dhole should require that level of power.”
“I agree. Even in the records left by supreme mages who worshipped the Inner Gods, I’ve never seen anyone claim they summoned a Dhole.”
“Isn’t that obvious? You all know whose servants Nightgaunts are. There’s no reason an Elder God would lend power to a Great Old One.”
“…Speaking of Nightgaunts, wasn’t there a creature they especially hated? I think it was called Shan… Shanti something.”
At Danforth’s last words, Yohan and Nuadillen answered at the same time.
“Shantak.”
“Right, yes. Shantak.”
Shantak.
A cunning and grotesque birdlike creature serving Nyarlathotep, the black ocean wave that would swallow the entire world.
They wandered throughout the Dungeon, including the Dreamlands, hunting and eating every creature they encountered.
And the greatest natural enemy of a Shantak was a Nightgaunt.
“So you think… if we summon a Shantak here, we can keep the Dhole occupied?”
“Assuming someone among us can actually do that.”
“The gatekeeper isn’t a Nightgaunt itself. Isn’t that a little too much of a leap? And if we summon a Shantak based on that assumption, only for the Dhole to show no reaction, we’ll be in an even worse situation.”
“…That’s true.”
“……”
“Hey! I only mentioned it as a possibility! If you have a better idea, then say it!”
Danforth shouted in frustration after Kalkelak’s objection.
Silence followed.
“Using a Shantak… isn’t a bad idea.”
The person who broke the silence was Nuadillen Westport.
“But there’s no way we can summon the real creature without an Inner God’s Authority. Maybe if we possessed a grimoire connected to one, but we don’t.”
“…Then?”
“We don’t need to summon the actual Shantak. We only need to summon something that looks like one. That should be enough to fool the Dhole.”
Everyone looked as if they had overlooked an obvious answer.
Everyone except Yohan.
He immediately raised a problem.
“It sounds like the most realistic strategy so far, but…”
Yohan looked at Nuadillen.
“Can you accurately reproduce the appearance of a Shantak when you’ve never seen one? Even for you, Nuadillen.”
Before Nuadillen could answer, Yohan added,
“I don’t recommend using my memories as a medium. Your mind will probably break before you finish observing them.”
“…Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. I remember what one looks like.”
“…What?”
Nuadillen grinned.
His face was filled with fighting spirit.
“Only once… but I’ve seen a Shantak with my own eyes.”
“…You’ve seen one? A Shantak?”
“I was one hundred and three years old. It was my third Dungeon expedition. We were on the eighteenth floor.”
It had happened more than one hundred and seventy years ago.
Yet Nuadillen still remembered the scene clearly.
“Partly because it was that shocking… but I also try to remember any information or scene that might become useful later.”
He had seen it inside an unnamed city district on the eighteenth floor.
“I was returning to an old stone building my companions were using as a temporary base.”
As he passed one of several alleys along the way, he saw something sitting inside.
It was greedily finishing a meal.
“Its body was mostly covered by wings protected with reddish brown scales, but I could still see it clearly. Its head looked like a horse’s. It had a tongue divided into three parts. There were sharp teeth hidden inside its mouth too.”
It had been nothing more than the strange curiosity an intelligent being felt toward an impossible creature.
He watched it for about two minutes.
“At the final moment, our eyes met. It had finished eating. I could feel two, or maybe three, empty eyes staring directly at me.”
Nuadillen was certain he would not have survived unharmed if a battle had started.
“But for some reason, it suddenly fled. Since it clearly noticed me and still ran away, perhaps a Nightgaunt was somewhere nearby…”
That was the entire story.
The expedition members had gathered nearby and listened to Nuadillen’s story.
They swallowed hard.
Nuadillen shrugged and finished speaking.
“It’s an old memory, so I can’t say it’s one hundred percent accurate. But I can reproduce most of it. That should be enough to fool the Dhole. What do you think?”
Silence covered the area again.
Albern understood exactly what Nuadillen meant by summoning a similar creature.
After hesitating for a long time, he carefully spoke.
“…Commander in Chief.”
“Hmm?”
“If you show the Dhole something shaped like a Shantak, then naturally you’ll become the Dhole’s target. You won’t be able to properly control the summon from far away, so you’ll have to act as bait together with it.”
“That’s correct.”
“And yet… you’re still planning to do it?”
Nuadillen silently nodded.
The expressions of the Uel Ferda members immediately hardened.
Yohan simply watched him without expression.
“We can’t delay any longer. If the enemy recovers and attacks us again, we’ll be trapped between two disasters. We can’t ignore Dagon’s forces either. If they bring more troops from below, nobody except Yohan will survive. We need to descend quickly. From the eleventh floor onward, they won’t be able to interfere this easily. That territory belongs to another deity.”
Nuadillen strongly encouraged his comrades.
Then he joked,
“I said I’d act as bait. I never said I planned to sacrifice myself.”
He pointed toward the Dhole with determination.
Then he nodded repeatedly while looking at his companions one by one.
“I’ll survive that monster and descend to the eleventh floor right in front of you. Starting after the tenth floor, we won’t be able to advance as quickly anyway… So our reunion will probably be on the eleventh floor. I’ll see you there, everyone.”
His gaze finally reached Aren.
Aren seemed to want to say something.
He hesitated.
Then he closed his mouth and simply took Nuadillen’s hand.
Thanks to the long meeting, everyone had already completed their preparations.
To avoid attracting the Dhole’s attention, the force was divided into groups of four.
