TERNLF Vol. 3 Chapter 3 Part 3

“—Well, I see now. They turned the device itself into a magic tool.”

Then I spotted the magic circuits etched around the device, and it all clicked into place.

Apparently, this cryosleep device had been magically modified into a magic tool through dwarven and elven technology.

I did not know how the people who altered it had learned what the device’s original function was, but thanks to them, Cheki had been able to survive for all those long years.

Just to test it, I poured mana into the magic circuits.

“It’s not working.”

It seemed the magic circuits had already lost their function, and nothing happened.

Perhaps the circuits had broken down over the long passage of time, and that was what caused Cheki to awaken.

“At any rate, that settles one of the things that had been bothering me. Time to head for the Forest of Illusions.”

I took my hand off the cryosleep device.

Then, just as I braced my legs to leap out of the pit—

“What? An earthquake?”

Gogogogogo.

With a low rumble, the ground shook—

“Uwaah!”

The cryosleep device in front of me suddenly began sinking into the earth.

“This is bad. It feels like there’s something under the ground.”

At that ominous presence, I hurriedly tried to leap up from the bottom of the pit.

But the ground had turned to mud, and my feet sank into it, making it impossible to jump.

“Damn it. 【Blessing Earth】!!”

In a panic, I cast a spell to harden the ground beneath my feet.

If I could kick off the hardened earth, then I could jump free—

“What!? Why isn’t it hardening?”

My magic produced no effect at all, and it could not stop my feet from sinking into the mud-like ground.

What the hell was going on?

“【Blessing Earth】! Still no good… then 【Blessing Freeze】!”

If I could not harden the ground, then I could at least create ice to use as a foothold.

That was what I thought, but…

“No good… there’s no reaction at all.”

What was happening here?

Never once in my life had I experienced my magic simply not working.

“This is bad, bad, bad, bad…”

I fell into a panic.

If I could have calmed down, maybe I would have thought of any number of ways out, but in my desperation, not a single good idea came to mind.

At this rate, I was going to be swallowed by the ground.

To die in a place like this…

After telling Nikka and the others so confidently that I would be fine.

As the earth buried me all the way up to my chest, I was just about ready to give up on everything.

And that was when it happened.

“Oh my, I thought that voice sounded familiar.”

“You fool. I know I taught you better than to let your guard down like that.”

At the top of the pit, I looked up to see two figures standing there, looking down at me as I flailed pathetically in the hole and tossing those words at me.

A moment later, with a sharp whistling sound slicing through the air, something like vines wrapped around my body.

“Go ahead. Reel him in!”

“Right-o. Hup!”

At the man’s hearty shout, my body was yanked upward with all its might.

Thanks to that, my body, which had been buried almost up to the chest, was pulled free all at once like a radish and sent flying into the air.

And from there, I dropped straight toward the ground.

“Uwaaaaaaaaah! 【Blessing Wind】!”

Instinctively, I fired wind magic toward the ground.

A normal wind spell would have struck the ground and scattered, but by controlling the movement of mana, I could create a lump of wind in midair.

In other words, a wind cushion.

I somehow twisted my body in midair and came down feetfirst toward that cushion.

The sensation that reached my feet was like stepping on an impossibly fluffy marshmallow, and my falling speed dropped all at once. Of course, I had never actually stepped on a marshmallow before, not even in my previous life.

“Whoa, that was close…”

Landing on the ground, I wiped the cold sweat from my brow.

Somehow, I had survived.

“You are as deft as ever, dear.”

“What a shame. I was all set to catch you myself.”

I knew those two very well, the pair now addressing me in half-joking tones.

“I appreciate being saved, but don’t you think the method was a little too rough? Rish. Lentret.”

“It has been a while, Toa.”

“I wanted to see you.”

Rish and Lentret.

They were, so to speak, the mentors who had trained me at the frontier fortress.

From Rish, the dwarf, I had learned simple magic tool crafting and how to use a shield in combat. From Lentret, an elf so knowledgeable about herbs she was known as a Herb Elf, I had learned all manner of medicinal herb lore and how to use wind magic.

But why were they here of all places?

“The two of you… why are you in a place like th—”

I had just started to voice that question when—

“Toa dear, I think this conversation can wait until later.”

Still wearing a gentle smile, Lentret pointed behind me.

Gogogogogo.

At the earthshaking sound, I hurriedly turned around.

Don’t tell me—

“The real one is coming out now.”

The thing that had just tried to swallow me was starting to reveal itself from the bottom of the pit.

In a flash, I pulled out my staff and sword from storage and took up a fighting stance.

Behind me, I heard Rish’s and Lentret’s exasperated voices.

“You are still doing that ridiculous staff-and-sword dual-wielding nonsense, I see.”

“That is Lutony and Dalmor’s fault. Those fools found it amusing and drilled it into you, after all. Thanks to that, you never properly learned my shield techniques.”

Lutony was my swordsmanship mentor, while Dalmor was my magic mentor.

Lutony, a human, was a female swordswoman whose slender frame belied the unbelievable speed of her blade, fast enough to bisect powerful monsters in a single strike.

Dalmor, meanwhile, was a mage, rare among beastkin, who could cast two spells at once and possessed the ability to “see” the flow of mana.

Unlike my own rough sense for it, he could perceive the detailed movement of mana, making him such a genius that he could do absurd things like stop a monster’s spell before it was even cast.

“Stop chatting and help me out here, both of you.”

Without turning around, I called out to the pair behind me, who were still reminiscing instead of readying their weapons.

But the words that came back were a complete letdown.

“No thanks. Too much trouble.”

“If you do not let your guard down, this should be easy for you.”

“Fine, then. I’ll do it myself if I have to!”

Throwing that out in exasperation, I began pouring mana into my staff.

A moment ago, every spell I used had been nullified.

Which meant that if I hit it with direct attack magic, there was a strong chance that would be nullified too.

“【Quick】! 【Power Augment】! 【Physical Shield】! And 【Magic Barrier】!”

So instead of using magic for direct offense, I used it to enhance my physical abilities and support myself.

That meant my main means of attack would be the sword in my right hand.

In other words, I would fight it physically.

“Oh ho. Your spell construction speed has improved.”

“So you really did gain all sorts of experience after leaving the fortress.”

I ignored the idle chatter behind me.

It was coming!

Gogogogogo.

The bottom of the pit began to churn like the Naruto whirlpools.

Just what kind of monster was lurking beneath it?

“Hm? The whirlpool stopped—”

Dogaaaaaaaaaah.

The instant the churning ceased—

A giant monster burst out from the bottom of the pit, opened a maw lined with sharp fangs, and lunged at me.

“So it’s a Sandworm!”

The monster looked like a giant, thick hose.

Its mouth at the tip was ringed with saw-like teeth, writhing grotesquely.

“What are you talking about? That thing is no tame little monster like a Sandworm.”

“Huh? Then what the hell is it?”

With 【Quick】 boosting me to several times my usual speed, I darted about and narrowly avoided the monster’s descending maw as it tried to swallow me whole, all while shouting my question back at Lentret.

Say what they wanted, but to me the monster in front of me looked exactly like the Sandworms I had seen in games back in the day.

“Did your magic not failing against it tell you nothing?”

But what Rish threw back at me was not an answer, only a hint.

“Magic? Whoa!”

The attacks did not stop just because we were talking.

The rule that enemies politely waited during transformations or cutscenes only existed in games and anime.

“Magic nullification… no, that’s not it.”

I recalled that strange sensation I had felt when I cast my spells.

“Wait… it absorbed them? Then that means this thing is…!”

A realization hit me, and I shouted its name.

“This thing… is a dungeon!?”

A gigantic cylinder towering up from the ground.

Who would ever look at that and think it was a dungeon?

Sure, I understood that dungeons were monsters.

But no one would expect one to burst out above ground and attack people.

To begin with, the common understanding in this world was that dungeons, monsters, and adventurers existed in a mutually beneficial relationship.

True, adventurers were sometimes attacked by powerful guardians created by dungeons, and at times a dungeon’s internal mana could grow too much to process, causing something akin to a Stampede.

But for a dungeon itself to actively move and attack adventurers… even seeing it right in front of me, I could hardly believe it.

“That’s right. All of your magic was absorbed by the dungeon.”

Normally, a dungeon lived by absorbing the mana produced by the monsters, animals, and adventurers it invited into itself.

In other words, that thing had sucked up my magic as “food.”

“Had you not heard that the dungeons around here had undergone strange evolutions because of the warped mana pools?”

“I knew that much, but no one ever told me they’d come straight at you like this!”

Even as I shouted back, I kept dodging the dungeon’s mouth as it swooped down at me from above.

“You really did not study enough.”

“What were you even doing in the Demon Capital…? I taught you that gathering information was the basics of being an adventurer.”

Even though I was desperately trying to avoid getting killed, the two of them went on talking in voices utterly devoid of tension.

When I looked, the two of them were sitting on rubble and watching me with amused expressions, as if they were out on a picnic.

“Why is it only attacking me!?”

Strangely enough, the dungeon focused all its attacks on me alone and did not so much as glance at the other two.

Why?

Was I supposed to believe the two of them were somehow outside the dungeon’s range?

But the distance between me and them was not all that great.

I had no idea how long the dungeon really was, but there was no way its attacks could not reach them.

“Well, because a dungeon’s whole purpose is to absorb mana, obviously. The fact that you did not notice even that much makes me wonder if your instincts have dulled, Toa dear.”

“My mana… don’t tell me…”

Before the fight, I had cast multiple support spells on myself.

Was she saying this thing had identified those as food and come after me for that?

Come to think of it, the first time it attacked me had also been right after I poured mana into the magic circuits of the cryosleep device.

If the dungeon had sensed that and come after me, it all made sense.

“I did hit it with magic over and over. So to this thing, it looked like a premium meal had shown up, huh?”

Without realizing it, I had backed myself into a corner.

I could not even blame Lentret for saying my instincts had dulled.

“If mana is food, then magic attacks are only going to backfire. In that case, I just have to stick to the original plan and beat it down physically!”

I stowed my staff away and pulled out a large shield instead.

Then I looked up at the sky and took a stance to receive the attack, shouting with all the fighting spirit I could muster.

“Come on!”

“Oh ho. So you are finally willing to use the shield techniques I taught you.”

“Gwaaaaaaaaaah!”

It must have thought my stopping was its chance.

The dungeon let out an ear-splitting roar, then swung its body, which it had raised high into the air, straight down at me with enough force to crush me flat.

“Not yet.”

I stopped trying to evade and planted my feet, gauging the distance as the dungeon’s enormous body came rushing down at me.

And the instant it entered a range where dodging was no longer possible—

“Now!”

Bang!

I poured all my strength into the hand holding the greatshield and batted the incoming body of the dungeon diagonally behind me, toward those two casual sightseers.

“Kyaa!”

“Whoa!”

I heard screams from behind me, but that was none of my concern.

Those two were more than capable of dodging something like that.

“Take thisssss!!”

Without even turning around, I slashed my sword across the dungeon’s exposed flank.

“—Ggooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”

With every aspect of my speed and strength boosted by support magic, my strike easily tore a massive hole into the dungeon’s side.

But my attack was not over yet.

“Next!”

I stowed away both sword and shield, then raised my empty hands high overhead.

“I’ll smash you flat!”

The next moment, a gigantic hammer appeared above my head.

Back when I was still at the frontier fortress, they had handed me this crude hammer because it was useful for smashing apart the golems that attacked us.

It was about the size of a small truck, and even with enhancement magic cast on myself, it had been too heavy for me to do much more than lift, so I had left it sleeping in storage all this time.

But simply swinging it down was something even I could manage.

“Eat thisssss!!”

Gripping the hammer’s shaft with both hands raised high, I brought it down with all my might onto the dungeon’s body, where the grotesque wound still gaped open.

There came a wet, crushing sound as flesh was smashed apart.

The hammer dug in deeper, widening the wound created by my first attack.

“Grrrrrrrraaaaaaaaah!”

A sound rang out that could have been either a scream or the rumbling of the earth itself.

I let go of the hammer, now embedded in the dungeon’s body, then kicked off its handle and leaped backward.

“Did I get it?”

To avoid getting caught up in the dungeon’s violent thrashing, I put even more distance between us and watched carefully.

This was my first time fighting a dungeon, and I barely had any information on them to begin with.

Having just learned firsthand how fatal carelessness could be, I kept my eyes fixed on the monster writhing in its death throes.

Before long, after rampaging for a while, the dungeon finally collapsed to the ground.

Once I confirmed that it had completely stopped moving and was dead, I sat down where I was and wiped the sweat from my brow.

Once I understood what it really was, it had not been such a difficult opponent after all.

But I had taken too long to realize that in my panic, and if Lentret and Rish had not helped me, I would have died.

“Hah… I might have gotten a little overconfident.”

Ever since leaving the frontier fortress, aside from fighting a powerful foe like Luchimada, my battles had all been far too easy. There was no doubt that my instincts had dulled because of that.

As I rose with that thought in mind, I looked down at my body.

“And this robe was a gift I just got.”

Up until I arrived here, the robe had looked brand new, but during the fierce battle it had gotten pretty dirty.

“【Cleaning】. Looks like it only got dirty, not torn anywhere. Good.”

【Cleaning】 was, at the end of the day, just a spell for removing dirt.

If anything had actually been damaged, it would require some other method to fix.

Especially since this robe was a magic tool, I had no idea whether I would even be able to repair it myself.

“Finally over, is it?”

“That certainly took long enough.”

As I let out a relieved breath, Rish and Lentret walked over toward me with light steps.

“You can’t really blame me. Normally, nobody would expect a dungeon itself to come attacking them.”

“That is only what counts as ‘normal’ within the limits of what you know, is it not?”

Rish cut down my complaint with a single sentence.

“Toa dear has always lacked that kind of experience, since he spent his whole childhood at the fortress.”

“That is true, Lentret. Until Toa left the fortress, he knew almost nothing of the outside world.”

Born in the royal capital and cast out to the frontier fortress while still young, I knew nothing of the world beyond the fortress and its surroundings.

I had no idea what kind of contract the Kashit family made when they left me there, but I was never once given a mission that took me far away from the fortress.

So it would not be an exaggeration to say that, aside from the knowledge and experience I gained at the fortress and in the small town nearby, I had almost nothing.

“I think I finally understand why everyone told me to ‘go see the world’ when I left the fortress.”

I murmured that while looking at the dungeon’s corpse as it dissolved away into particles of mana.

“Dungeons are basically masses of mana, so when they die, they turn back into mana. But—”

Saying that, Lentret walked over to the fading remains of the dungeon.

Then, when she got close to its huge mouth, she thrust both arms right inside it.

“There.”

“H-Hey, what are you doing?”

“What do you mean, what? I figured I’d grab a trophy for you, Toa dear. There it is.”

When Lentret pulled her arms back out with a wet pop, she was holding a magic stone about the size of two of my fists together.

“That is quite a splendid magic stone.”

“I thought it was starving, considering how desperately it was trying to eat you, Toa dear, but it had actually stored up quite a lot. Here.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa—”

I hurriedly caught the magic stone Lentret tossed at me.

Its weight sank heavily into both my hands.

Apparently, my body enhancement magic had worn off before I noticed.

“So this doesn’t disappear like the main body did.”

“Of course it doesn’t. That’s because it’s a dungeon core. If it stays inside the body, it’ll revert to mana and vanish along with it, but once you rip it out, there’s no need to worry about that.”

A dungeon core was the dungeon’s heart.

A dungeon stored mana there, using it to create guardians to protect itself and to draw monsters lured by mana into its body.

“But aren’t dungeon cores supposed to be at the very deepest part of the dungeon? Why was it in its head…?”

“How should I know? I just happened to see something that looked like a magic stone inside its mouth while you were fighting it, so I figured it might be.”

“Monsters born and raised from warped mana have ecosystems quite unlike normal ones, after all.”

As I listened to Lentret and Rish, I looked down at the dungeon core resting in my hands.

While it was still serving as the dungeon’s heart, it glowed faintly and pulsed with movement.

But once torn away from the dungeon, its glow vanished, the movement stopped, and it hardened into nothing more than a magic stone.

“So dungeon cores turn into magic stones this big. No wonder nations want them.”

“With that much mana, one could create a rather powerful magic tool. But taking a dungeon core means losing all the benefits that dungeon would continue producing, so unless there is an exceptionally good reason, no one would lay a hand on one.”

Naturally, tearing away a dungeon core meant the dungeon itself died.

That was why, unless there were extraordinary circumstances, the taking of dungeon cores was currently prohibited.

So long as the dungeon remained alive, materials such as the minerals produced by it could be obtained in almost inexhaustible quantities.

If you weighed the value of a single core against the resources a living dungeon would continue producing indefinitely, it was only obvious that the latter was overwhelmingly more profitable.

Of course, it was not as though there had never been cases of dungeon resources running dry, but such cases were exceedingly rare.

“Can I really keep this?”

“You were the one who defeated it, Toa dear. Of course you can.”

“Indeed. Keep it. It may prove useful to you someday.”

“Then I’ll take it.”

It would have felt wrong to reject their kindness.

I tossed the dungeon core magic stone into storage.

“Phew…”

As I stood there taking a breather, Rish walked over to my side, looked over the robe Nikka and the others had given me, and opened his mouth with a grin spreading across his face.