[Those Who Lurk in the Dungeon]
At the depths of the dungeon, in a space untouched by anyone before, we found ourselves with no option but to wait for rescue.
“I never imagined a place like this existed…”
Annette seemed even more surprised than Madeline and me.
But it was no wonder, I guess.
For her and her schoolmates, this dungeon was their daily training ground. But as it turned out, hidden within this dungeon was a massive hole that could lead to certain death. Her disbelief was entirely justified.
But our situation wasn’t looking very optimistic either—since there was no telling if there was only one such a hole. Just the idea of Tayte and the others facing a similar plight left me unable to stand still.
“I wonder if there’s a way we could climb back up.”
“Huh? You’re thinking about climbing that?” Madeline said with surprise in her voice, pointing up at the hole we had fallen down from. “It might be possible using levitation magic, but…”
“Getting all three of us up together is out of the question.”
I might be able to make it back up first, but then there was no way I could hoist both of them up; I mean, given the depth of the hole, I couldn’t possibly see them from above, and that being the case, I wouldn’t be able to cast magic on them.
The others should realize that we were missing before too long, so we should be able to return by the end of the day at the latest.
For now, we could do nothing but wait—at that time…
“Barrett! There’s a passage over here!”
Madeline, searching around the space where we had fallen, shouted.
A passage?
That meant… there might be a route that led to this place from above.
“What should we do?”
“…I’ll check it out.”
Instructing Annette and Madeline to stay put, I cautiously proceeded down the passage, gripping the Holy Sword. Eventually, I emerged into a spacious area.
“T-this is…”
Bluish-white glowing ores dotted the surroundings, and the occasional sound of water droplets added an indescribably eerie ambiance.
This dungeon might be much larger than indicated on the map–the space was so vast that such a hypothesis popped into my mind.
And the sheer number of magic ores… if they were all sold, it could amount to quite a fortune.
“I guess we better report this.”
As I was admiring the brilliance of the magic ore, I suddenly sensed the presence of someone. I hurriedly hid myself behind a nearby rock, waiting to observe the situation.
“Did you really hear a voice?”
“Y-yeah. It sounded like some brat’s…”
“It’s gotta be your mind playing tricks on you. Come on, we better start working immediately. We got a lot of work to do today.”
“And they have to carry out a dungeon exercise today of all days… what a shit luck.”
“Got nothing to do with us. They don’t know the existence of this place anyway.”
That’s… quite a disturbing conversation.
As I was about to eavesdrop a bit further,
“Barrett~! Our rescue is here~!”
Madeline came to call me at the worst possible time.
[Those Who Lurk in the Dungeon]
At the depths of the dungeon, in a space untouched by anyone before, we found ourselves with no option but to wait for rescue.
“I never imagined a place like this existed…”
Annette seemed even more surprised than Madeline and me.
But it was no wonder, I guess.
For her and her schoolmates, this dungeon was their daily training ground. But as it turned out, hidden within this dungeon was a massive hole that could lead to certain death. Her disbelief was entirely justified.
But our situation wasn’t looking very optimistic either—since there was no telling if there was only one such a hole. Just the idea of Tayte and the others facing a similar plight left me unable to stand still.
“I wonder if there’s a way we could climb back up.”
“Huh? You’re thinking about climbing that?” Madeline said with surprise in her voice, pointing up at the hole we had fallen down from. “It might be possible using levitation magic, but…”
“Getting all three of us up together is out of the question.”
I might be able to make it back up first, but then there was no way I could hoist both of them up; I mean, given the depth of the hole, I couldn’t possibly see them from above, and that being the case, I wouldn’t be able to cast magic on them.
The others should realize that we were missing before too long, so we should be able to return by the end of the day at the latest.
For now, we could do nothing but wait—at that time…
“Barrett! There’s a passage over here!”
Madeline, searching around the space where we had fallen, shouted.
A passage?
That meant… there might be a route that led to this place from above.
“What should we do?”
“…I’ll check it out.”
Instructing Annette and Madeline to stay put, I cautiously proceeded down the passage, gripping the Holy Sword. Eventually, I emerged into a spacious area.
“T-this is…”
Bluish-white glowing ores dotted the surroundings, and the occasional sound of water droplets added an indescribably eerie ambiance.
This dungeon might be much larger than indicated on the map–the space was so vast that such a hypothesis popped into my mind.
And the sheer number of magic ores… if they were all sold, it could amount to quite a fortune.
“I guess we better report this.”
As I was admiring the brilliance of the magic ore, I suddenly sensed the presence of someone. I hurriedly hid myself behind a nearby rock, waiting to observe the situation.
“Did you really hear a voice?”
“Y-yeah. It sounded like some brat’s…”
“It’s gotta be your mind playing tricks on you. Come on, we better start working immediately. We got a lot of work to do today.”
“And they have to carry out a dungeon exercise today of all days… what a shit luck.”
“Got nothing to do with us. They don’t know the existence of this place anyway.”
That’s… quite a disturbing conversation.
As I was about to eavesdrop a bit further,
“Barrett~! Our rescue is here~!”
Madeline came to call me at the worst possible time.
