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Chapter 163 – Central Dungeon Strategy・Makyo and the Others
The day after Jennifer left the demonic land on a scouting mission, I took the dwarves to the training ground. They had already spent a night in the cave and heard the eerie cries of monsters echoing through the demonic land. They had also experienced some of the dangers, such as the cam fruits.
“I would be troubled if any of you, including Saketsu, were to die suddenly. At the very least, please learn how to survive here.”
Standing in front of me were Saketsu, Katan, Kahiman, and an elf guard.
“Margrave, do the plants here gnaw on you like the cam fruits we ate yesterday?”
Katan asked.
“Don’t think of it as biting. Think of it as attacking. They attack in various ways, so observe them carefully before touching them.”
“Margrave! What about those monsters over there?”
Saketsu asked timidly.
“Of course they are. Look, there’s a Green Tiger sleeping over there.”
I pointed to a Green Tiger yawning in the shade of a tree.
“””Hii!”””
The dwarves hadn’t noticed it and were cowering in fear. Perhaps its green fur blended in with the surrounding grass.
“The Green Tigers here are like our pets, so I don’t think they’ll easily attack us. You should be more careful of monsters that come from the sky or crawl out of the ground. There might be monsters we don’t know about.”
“Are there monsters that even the Margrave doesn’t know about?”
“I only know about the ones that stand out. I thought I knew a lot about the monsters in this demonic land, but they vary depending on the location. The other day, when I went northwest to collect stones for the road, I saw a monster I had never seen before. I’ve only heard their voices, but there are monsters I’ve never seen. When the climate changes, the monsters start to move. The only thing you can do is observe them carefully and cautiously. That’s the only way to survive. There’s no need to rush. If you take your time and do what you can, one day you’ll find yourself in an amazing situation. Right?”
I call out to Lipa, who is watching from above.
“That’s right!”
Lipa jumped down from the broom and landed on the ground. She looked at the dwarves and the elf guard.
“Um… really, if you panic, you’ll die. The healing potion from the demonic land is highly effective and can even heal fatal wounds. But there’s nothing we can do if you die instantly. Please don’t let yourself die instantly.”
Lipa bowed her head, and the four of them nodded vigorously.
“The one baking bread over there is Chel. Are you the instructor at the training ground today, Chel?”
Chel was in the middle of the training ground, baking bread on a makeshift stove. Despite the early hour, she must have been preparing in advance.
“Yeah, I figured it’d be good to teach them about dangerous plants and how to use magic.”
That’s surprisingly considerate for someone who was once a candidate for Demon King.
“All right, I’ll leave it to you.”
I left the training ground to Chel and headed for the central dungeon with Lipa and Ka-Ryu. Hel and Sylvia, who had brought the dwarves, should have been sleeping in the cave. However, I could hear noises coming from their room, so they might have been making something.
Ka-Ryu, who had been shrunk and was being carried in a bag on my back, told me that the dungeon used to be a botanical garden 1,000 years ago.
“There are all kinds of plants, from cold regions to warm regions, and some were imported from foreign countries. I heard that there is a research institute in the innermost part where improved plants are being created, but I’m not sure. The plant monsters used in the Colosseum were probably raised there, so you shouldn’t let your guard down.”
I’ve seen plant monsters like treants before, so I’ll keep my distance and observe them.
Apparently, there was a botanical garden west of the Midgard ruins where the “Migrating” monsters were raising their young.
Now, the area is overgrown with trees, and Guardian Spiders are everywhere in rock form. We began exploring with caution. Guardian Spiders won’t attack unless you have a weapon. However, if you use magic to probe the ground, they’ll move and start observing you.
When they gather, they become a nuisance, knocking down trees and making exploration impossible. When they hear the sound of falling trees, the monsters gather and start fighting among themselves.
“How far have we explored?”
I ignore the fight between the monsters and the Guardian Spiders and look around. The area is littered with fallen trees, so it’s impossible to tell how far we’ve explored.
“Shouldn’t we clear them out first?”
“No, let’s just burn them. They’re just in the way anyway. Can you dodge the Guardian Spiders’ attacks, Lipa?”
“I can dodge them, but…”
“Then grab a weapon and fly around. I wonder if I have anything…”
I took out a dismantling knife and aimed it at the Guardian Spider. Lipa was flying around on a broom with a sword in one hand.
The swarm of Guardian Spiders turned toward us at once and fired red beams. They gathered their magic power before firing, so it wasn’t difficult to dodge them.
BANG!
Explosions occurred where the beams hit, setting the surrounding grass on fire. The recently fallen trees were burning too, but since they were still moist, the fire didn’t seem to be spreading.
As I ran around, I had the Guardian Spiders fire their beams, turning the entire area into charcoal. Smoke rose from all around, and the gathered monsters fled.
All that was left was to touch the moving Guardian Spiders and change the direction of the magic flowing inside them. Their internal structure is the same as what I saw at the military base in the desert.
I confirm that the nearby Guardian Spiders have stopped moving. I used my water-spouting staff to extinguish the burning leaves.
“Lipa, do you have any butterbur leaves? My nose is completely black.”
I had covered my mouth with a cloth, but coal dust still got into my nose. Dried butterbur leaves are soft and disposable, so they can be used for many things.
“I don’t have any. We should probably rinse our noses.”
The two of us looked ridiculous as we poured water from our bags into our noses.
Despite the area being a burnt-out wasteland, new buds were beginning to sprout from under the charred fallen trees.
“Plants in this demonic land recover quickly. Let’s hurry and explore.”
“Isn’t there a small hill over there?”
Looking in the direction Lipa was pointing, it did indeed look like a hill. Ruins are often buried inside hills.
I pushed aside the charred fallen trees and released magic into the ground. Inside the hill, I found the remains of a building.
All that was left to do was remove the soil with magic cubes. I asked Lipa to check the soil with the water staff to see if there were any artifacts.
We took a break at noon after finding roof tiles and large pillars. The sky was clear, without a cloud in sight, and we couldn’t stop sweating. The surrounding area had burned, so there was no shade.
“It’s hot…”
I brought the Guardian Spider, which had stopped moving, and used it to create some shade.
Lunch was delicious bread made by Chel with crocodile meat and wild herbs. We didn’t make soup because we were running low on water.
“How’s it going underground?”
“We might start finding human bones soon. Sorry, but could you prepare some healing potions?”
It’s fine if it’s just bones, but if a ghost appears, we’ll have to stop the excavation.
“Got it.”
“By evening, this might be grassland.”
Among the charred surroundings, green sprouts began to emerge here and there. The plants of the demonic land were vigorous and grew quickly.
“There must be a lot of magical power underground in the central area.”
Ka-Ryu took on the form of an average-sized human and touched the ground.
“But there’s no magical power in the Midgard ruins.”
“It’s as if the magical power has been drained.”
“Did the giant magical beast transfer the entire underground area, or is it sucking up the magical power from the center to power itself?”
I looked at Ka-Ryu as I had speculated.
“I’m sorry. I’m not an expert, so I don’t know much.”
“I see.”
Even in an advanced civilization, there are many things that are difficult to understand. In my past life, I couldn’t figure out where the water in the pipes was coming from. Things underground are even more difficult to understand.
I took a short nap and then got back to work.
Perhaps because it was once a botanical garden, insect-like monsters’ exoskeletons and plant seeds the size of human skulls appeared. As I dug deeper into the ground, I discovered that the botanical garden had been quite extensive, with beautiful flower beds stretching out.
“Should we keep the plant seeds?”
Lipa showed me the fossilized seeds he had dug up.
“Yes, put them in a bag. We might be able to identify the variety.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
We continued collecting plant seeds buried in the flower beds.
Trusting Ka-Ryu’s words that the dungeon was in the center of the building, we dug our way inside.
Inside, we found many human bones and an empty golem cube.
We also found leather armor and rusty iron hammers, suggesting that a battle had taken place here. We thoroughly washed the bones with healing potions before burying them and stored the cube.
I drew magic circles on the weapons and armor, stacking them since they did not appear to be made of any unusual materials.
“I wonder if there are time magic circles drawn on the floor after all?”
Even when lifted with a magic cube, the floor showed no damage. Knowing that it wouldn’t break made the work much easier.
Unfortunately, the dungeon door wasn’t in the center of the building, but rather came from a room that looked like a warehouse. Fossilized wood was piled up, and the dungeon door seemed to be hidden at the very bottom.
“Does that mean it was moved after being attacked?”
“Probably. I wonder if we can even enter the dungeon.”
If the dungeons were fighting each other, they could have been destroyed.
We carried the door to the remains of the hall and leaned it against a pillar.
I took out the dungeon key with the lightning pattern on it, inserted it into the door, and channeled my magic into it. The key turned naturally, and the door opened.
Beyond the door, I could see a forest that hadn’t been reduced to charcoal.
Spinning my magic power in my lower abdomen, I took a step forward, making sure not to let any magic escape.
I checked the floor for magic traps but didn’t see any. Suddenly, countless spines like cactus needles flew toward my head.
“I hope the traps are visible.”
I grabbed all the flying needles and dropped them on the ground.
The passageway’s floor was covered with vines that were also growing on the walls and ceiling. They were moving faster than the plants outside. They weren’t hard, though, so I was able to cut them off with my dismantling knife. Lipa seemed to be able to handle them with his wooden sword as well.
Poisonous liquid occasionally flew toward me, but I could handle it with my magic barrier.
As we proceeded cautiously, we came to a huge space with a spirit tree in the center, just like the one I had seen in the Elf Kingdom.
Beetle monsters the size of houses flew around, and fire-breathing flowers wandered the branches of the spirit tree.
Thick vines, as thick as sandworms, spun around, knocking down monsters while protecting the spirit tree’s trunk. The spirit tree’s trunk was covered in glowing blue-white moss that illuminated the entire room.
Perhaps due to the high humidity, light rain continued to fall from the ceiling.
“What is this…?”
Ka-Ryu also seemed to have never experienced anything like this before.
“I’ve never seen anything like this outside either.”
“Yeah…”
The plants in the dungeon seemed to have lost the battle for survival in this demonic land.
If that’s the case, how did the plants in the demonic land end up like that?
“Hey! Is anyone here?”
I shouted, but no one responded. It would be nice to find some records, but we weren’t prepared to explore yet.
We went outside to prepare before returning to explore the botanical garden dungeon.
We returned home as the sun set in the western sky.
At the campfire in front of the cave were dwarves covered in medicinal herbs, lying down. They were unconscious but still breathing.
“It looks like they’ve been thoroughly baptized by the demonic land.”
“I’m sure their spirits won’t be broken,”
Chel, the instructor, said with a smile as she replaced the herbs.
Only the elf guard seemed to be sleeping in the training ground.
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