#064
Once I get into the dungeon, I can just take an elixir or potion and be fine. They don’t know that, so they’re trying to interfere by making me have a fever.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it.
“I’m fine. Really.”
I reassured Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon. Although they said I was running a fever, my subjective condition didn’t feel bad at all.
To show them I was fine, I started jumping up and down on the spot, but suddenly I almost fell over. Fortunately, Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon each grabbed one of my arms, preventing me from falling.
‘What was that?’
Looking down, I saw a stone embedded in the ground. It seemed I had almost tripped over it.
“You really do seem sick…”
“Shouldn’t we go to the hospital? I’ll somehow take care of the aftermath.”
The two of them fussed when I almost fell on the spot, thinking my legs had wobbled. I shook my head and replied, “I almost tripped because of a stone.”
“What stone?”
“There’s nothing there though.”
The two of them muttered, puzzled. And when I looked down, the stone that had been there just a moment ago had indeed disappeared.
I blinked, but the ground remained perfectly flat!
‘Is this the author’s doing too?’
Once the suspicion arose, I kept feeling suspicious. It’s just an insignificant stone, but for something that was there to disappear…? I didn’t know what the author was planning, but I thought it would be better to be a bit tense rather than just relying on items.
‘The author is still practically a god of this world.’
Even though they’ve lost some power, seeing how they can make things disappear, there’s no telling what else the author might be able to do.
Especially when there are so many people around, it’s hard to get help from Nine… I have no choice but to do better. I should conquer this while observing my surroundings more carefully.
“Dungeon entry preparations complete!”
An employee from the dungeon management department shouted. Immediately, people’s gazes turned to the wide-open dungeon entrance.
“The entrance is quite large for a B-rank.”
Hyun Dowoon muttered, looking at the enormous entrance. Usually, the size of the entrance varies depending on the dungeon’s difficulty, but this dungeon’s entrance was particularly large compared to typical B-rank dungeons.
“If there was anything unusual on the gauge, the staff would have mentioned it, so it’s probably nothing serious.”
Hyun Dowoon quickly changed his words, seemingly worried that I might become more tense after his unconscious comment.
I nodded and approached the dungeon entrance with the two of them.
[B-rank Orange Dungeon – 49 Entrants / Special: Mirror / BOSS ???]
As we entered the dungeon with the others, I saw winding glass paths stretching out everywhere, just as I had been told.
“We should set up a base camp.”
The mirror maze dungeon had a slightly elevated area near the entrance, so it was better to set up the base camp there for safe conquest. Actually, when going down to catch monsters, mirror mazes about two stories high would obstruct the path.
It was a type of dungeon where it was easy to get lost unless you used long ropes or dropped objects to move around, and the mirrors made it difficult to grasp the monsters’ positions at once.
Moreover, these mirrors had the ability to reflect skills, so you had to be mindful of controlling reflected skills. This greatly increased the difficulty of the dungeon.
“Um… just a moment.”
Seeing people starting to take out tents, I stopped everyone and took out a spaceship from my inventory. It was a housing item that looked more like a battleship, much larger than the round UFO I had revealed before.
As a huge space battleship appeared in the air, people gaped at it with their mouths wide open.
“Would you like to go inside? It’s safe.”
I said with a smile. Someone asked with a pale face how I could guarantee its safety.
“Today is the day I’m conquering the dungeon… so it’s right for me to give instructions, isn’t it? You’ll be able to see what I’m doing well from up there.”
I replied, tilting my head. Then someone who seemed to be an S-rank Esper leaped up and struck the spaceship with their hand.
“It seems really sturdy since it doesn’t even leave a mark, huh?”
“Maybe we can go in…?”
After the S-rank Esper took the initiative to check its safety, people began to enter the spaceship with half-belief.
Of course it’s sturdy. It’s made of a new material mixing dragon scales and special alloy, and it took ten real-time days to make!
“Wouldn’t it be better if I stay by your side?”
Shin Haejun asked with a worried face. Then Hyun Dowoon spoke to Shin Haejun.
“It seems more appropriate to trust Jaeha here.”
“But…”
“Of course, I understand your concern. Jaeha, please be careful.”
Hyun Dowoon spoke to Shin Haejun, who had a sullen face, and then sent me a worried look. It seemed he was worried but willing to trust me.
Finally, even those two went inside, leaving only me and the spaceship floating high in the sky.
“Hmm…”
What should I do now? Looking down, I could see large ant-like creatures crawling through the maze. The dungeon seemed quite large, with glass mazes stretching out to the horizon.
‘Ow, it’s so bright.’
The light reflecting off the mirrors flickered. I had wondered why Hyun Dowoon told me to wear thinner clothes because it would be hot, but it seemed it would be hot inside due to the reflected heat.
‘I don’t want to go down.’
Is there really a need to go close? Anyway, it’s over once I conquer it.
I stared down for a while, then quickly rummaged through my inventory. I grabbed my favorite ‘[Yeonsoo] Crescent Moon Hammer of the Hidden Night’.
It was a hammer made using ‘Moon Fragment’ as a crafting material, with an effect that gave a 5% chance to smash anything.
‘This should be enough to break mirrors.’
Of course, I don’t need to go down and exert myself. I took out a golem’s magic stone from my inventory and immediately summoned a golem.
“Kuooo-!”
A golem about three times my height rose up.
“Here, go and smash everything with this.”
I handed the hammer to the golem. The golem, faithfully following my orders, jumped down with the hammer.
‘Should I have a cup of tea?’
I thought it would be good to stay here for now, ready to jump in if the situation changes. I took out a table and chair as if playing house.
Then I took out hot tea and cake, and drank a potion first. The heat I had been feeling in my body quickly disappeared.
‘It’s boring. Maybe I should have told Haejun not to go if I knew it would be like this.’
Those people couldn’t get out of my battleship until I opened it for them. Even if they saw me leisurely drinking tea here, they absolutely couldn’t come out unless I let them down.
I’m sure they’re probably making a fuss, saying things like “Is this a proper way to conquer?” and “What is this?” even without me seeing it.
I rested my chin on my hand and looked down. The golem was swinging the hammer wildly, faithfully trying to “smash everything”.
Since the mirrors were all connected, I attacked the mirrors first, assuming that if one part was completely destroyed, cracks would spread throughout. For the first few times, I had to be careful to control the golem to dodge as the attacks were really reflected. While the golem inherited its master’s attack power, its defense was low.
‘Ah, the probability triggered.’
The 5% chance was a bigger number than I thought, and after a few attacks, I could see the mirrors shattering. Thanks to the additional effect of the hammer that could break anything, the mirrors shattered completely.
I could see mirror shards flying around crazily, but unless they had special properties, there was no wind inside the dungeon, so they wouldn’t fly up here.
I enjoyed watching the scene of the golem cheerfully smashing everything.
“Oh my…”
As the mirror walls were destroyed, the monsters were all crushed to death. The ant-shaped monsters struggled and then went limp. The golem went and beat any monsters that were lucky enough to survive.
The golem was a summon related to puppetry, so I had to directly control it as if manipulating a puppet tied with strings. So, all of the golem’s movements were controlled by my thoughts.
Smashing everything thoroughly relieved my stress properly after a long time.
After smashing hard, the terrain below was almost completely devastated. There were no more monsters left marked on the map.
‘The author isn’t doing anything unexpected? Why isn’t anything happening?’
Surely they won’t end their interference just by making me have a slight fever. It seems there’s nothing left to conquer, but the lack of interference from the author made me more anxious.
Above all, there were no enemies left on the map, but no changes were occurring in the space.
‘What’s going on?’
A dungeon core should appear when everything is finished… Didn’t we catch all the bosses too?
I drank the last drop of tea while thinking I’d wait a bit longer, but still nothing appeared.
I tilted my head and looked up at the sky. I’m not sure, but… is it resolved? I should probably open the battleship and let people down.
After maneuvering the battleship down and opening the entrance, people rushed out from inside. Somehow, they were quiet, not saying anything. Then they just looked down at the devastated area below.
‘Why are they reacting like that?’
I was puzzled, but resolving this quickly was the priority. I put the table and chair back into my inventory and gestured towards Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon, who were approaching.
“Hey, I’ve smashed everything so there shouldn’t be any monsters left, but why isn’t the dungeon core appearing? Seeing that no portal is appearing, it seems we haven’t destroyed the core yet…”
I asked, tilting my head. Hyun Dowoon let out a short groan, “Hmm…” Judging by their expressions, neither he nor Shin Haejun seemed to have any clear idea about this situation.
“Did you really see everything?”
“Doesn’t the core emit light? There’s no light down there… The golem smashed everything.”
I muttered, directing the golem this way. As the tall golem approached, I could see people staring blankly at it.
To check more closely, I took out a telescope from my inventory and thoroughly examined the area below, but still couldn’t see anything.
“This is a first for me too.”
Shin Haejun muttered, tilting his head awkwardly. If even an S-rank Esper who has been through countless dungeons hasn’t seen this before, why did it have to happen during my verification?
“Jaeha, over there…!”
As I was frowning and retrieving the golem and hammer, Hyun Dowoon pointed behind my back. His eyes were wide as if he had discovered something.
“What the…!”
“The entrance portal…?”
And at the same time, people started to murmur.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
