“...Seriously? I mean, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but still,” Rei muttered to himself inside the dungeon.
There was no road to be found beyond his current position.
At the Y-junction, Rei had followed his intuition and taken the right path. After twenty minutes of navigating a single passage and several turns, he had reached his destination.
He had been traveling for a considerably long time by this dungeon's standards, only for his efforts to culminate in the dead end standing before him.
Perhaps because it was a cave-style dungeon, there wasn't a distinct dead-end wall blocking his view. Rather, the passage had tapered off until it was impassable.
“Do I really have to spend all that time heading back? ...As far as dampen an adventurer’s motivation goes, this is a pretty effective bit of harassment.”
He had spent that time advancing cautiously to avoid traps, and the realization that it was all wasted was a heavy blow to his morale.
As Rei ruminated on his bad luck, he suddenly turned his gaze back the way he had come.
The wry smile from a few seconds ago vanished, replaced by the predatory grin he wore when facing an enemy.
“I see. A dead end is just another way of saying there’s nowhere to run... Maybe this wasn't about mental fatigue after all. Was this the plan from the start?”
Keeping his spear ready for immediate use, he waited for the approaching enemies to show themselves.
If this were a straight corridor, he could have seized the initiative with a spear throwing attack like he had with the Orcs, but the winding nature of the passage made that difficult.
“Then again, it’s not exactly impossible, is it?”
He murmured, his eyes shifting from the spear in his hand to the stones scattered across the ground.
If he only needed a probing strike rather than a one-hit kill, there was no reason to be picky about using his spear. Furthermore, while they were just rocks, their lethality was nothing to sneeze at; depending on where they struck, they possessed more than enough power.
In fact, considering these were projectiles thrown by Rei, they were practically lethal by default.
...The only downside was that since every stone had a slightly different shape, the difficulty of hitting his mark was significantly higher.
“Well, if they’re weak enough to die from a few stones, that works better for me.”
He scooped up several rocks from the ground and waited for the monsters to round the corner.
“Gya-gya-gya!”
“Gyo-gyo-gya!”
“Ga-gya-gya?”
As soon as the voices reached his ears, Rei’s expression shifted to one of sheer boredom.
He had heard those cries countless times since entering the dungeon; he didn't even need to see them to know exactly what was coming.
(Goblins again? Honestly, aren't there way too many of them? ...I heard there were a lot of weak monsters here, but this is ridiculous. I can see why this dungeon is so unpopular. No one in their right mind would want to dive into a dungeon just to pick a fight with Goblins for fun.)
Rei possessed an abnormal amount of magic power and physical strength that far surpassed the average adventurer. Moreover, thanks to his Misty Ring, he never had to worry about restocking his weapons.
But for an ordinary adventurer, there was no appeal in fighting Goblins in a dungeon.
No matter how weak a Goblin was, fighting them still drained one's stamina. Using magic consumed magic power, and weapons were always at risk of breaking.
To top it all off, the rewards were pitiful—materials and magic stones that were worth next to nothing.
It was hardly the kind of environment that inspired anyone to challenge the dungeon.
(Well, it’s a different story if you have another objective like I do... like right now!)
The moment a Goblin turned the corner, Rei unleashed a stone projectile.
The rock flew true, striking the lead Goblin’s head before it even realized he was there, pulverizing its skull.
Its head shattered, the Goblin collapsed instantly to the ground.
“Gya!”
The Goblin following immediately behind it shrieked, seemingly unable to process what had just happened.
That cry was a fatal mistake.
Rei’s next stone projectile followed instantly, pulverizing that Goblin’s head as well.
The final survivor let out a terrified scream and spun on its heels to flee. It was the quintessential Goblin personality: aggressive toward the weak, but cowardly when faced with a superior foe.
However, a Goblin marked as an enemy by Rei had no hope of escape. Rei sprinted to where the two headless Goblins lay, threw another stone, and the last creature perished.
“So this really was a spot meant to corner people at a dead end and keep the pressure on until they run out of room? It certainly would have been effective against a normal party.”
The passage was so narrow that two people could barely fight side-by-side. If someone were forced to fight endless waves of Goblins in such a cramped space, the mental exhaustion alone would eventually break them unless they were exceptionally strong.
“Then again, if you’re strong enough, it doesn’t matter how many of them show up.”
Just like me, he thought. He glanced at the two dead Goblins on the ground before lightly leaping over them.
Rei began retracing his steps, but he ended up encountering Goblins several more times before he finally made it back to the Y-junction.
“Now then, this way.”
His tone had grown rougher, irritated by the constant, repetitive encounters. Still, he pressed on toward the left path of the Y-junction, his sights set on the treasure that was the dungeon core.
Oddly enough, as he proceeded down the single path, no Goblins appeared.
“What gives? The other side was crawling with monsters—well, Goblins, anyway—so why is this side so empty? I mean, I’m not complaining about it being easy, but it’s weird.”
It was certainly easier, but the lack of enemies compared to everything he had faced so far felt unnatural.
As he continued down the corridor with these lingering doubts, he eventually came across three stone doors embedded in the wall.
The three doors, lined up neatly, were blatantly suspicious.
“There’s no way this isn’t a trap, right? ...Given how new this dungeon is, I doubt there’s anything truly lethal, but I can’t be a hundred percent sure.”
He observed them from a distance for a moment, and when nothing happened, he slowly approached.
He moved closer, spear at the ready to react to any sudden developments, but he reached the doors without incident.
“There has to be a trap here... right? There’s just no way.”
It was unthinkable that three doors would be laid out so obviously without a single trap.
Rei muttered his suspicions aloud, but unfortunately, he lacked the Thief Skills necessary to investigate or disarm traps. He did have the Faint Flame magic for exploration, but as long as the doors were closed, he couldn't see what lay behind them.
His only option was to use brute force and smash through the doors and any traps they might hold.
“I assume they won't explode. Well, even if they do, I’ll be fine as long as I keep my distance.”
He stored his spear back into the Misty Ring and withdrew his iconic great scythe, the Death Scythe.
The area in front of the doors was spacious enough that swinging the weapon wouldn't be an issue. However, Rei didn't get any closer; instead, he took a few steps back and swung the massive blade.
“Flying Slash!”
With his shout, a blade of pressurized air flew from the Death Scythe.
The slash traveled in a straight line, striking the rightmost door exactly where Rei had aimed and slicing clean through it.
“That was flimsier than I expected.”
Flying Slash was a skill Rei used frequently, but it wasn't powerful enough to be considered a one-hit kill. It was more of a probing strike. Seeing the door get sliced in half so easily actually surprised him.
But the surprise was fleeting.
Deciding he needed to see what was inside regardless, he stepped toward the broken door. He remained wary of any traps that might have been triggered, but he reached the threshold without any issues.
“...There’s nothing here. Even inside.”
The sight beyond the door made him hesitate to even call it a room. It was a rectangular room with a depth of about 2m. It was so narrow that it looked more like a cleaning closet or a warehouse than a proper room.
“Why would they build something like this?”
Rei tilted his head in confusion as he inspected the interior. The only thing on the floor was the stone door he had just sliced in two. There was nothing else. He couldn't fathom what purpose such a room could possibly serve.
“Totally nonsensical. ...Wait. If that’s the case, then maybe...”
A thought struck him, and his gaze shifted to the leftmost door.
Since the right door had been a dud, the left one was likely the same, meaning the middle door was the correct path.
Rei tested his theory by using Flying Slash on the left door, and his prediction turned out to be spot-on. The left door revealed the exact same structure as the right, leaving Rei with nothing but a sigh.
“Maybe as the dungeon grows, these room-like spaces will grow too... but is this just how newly formed dungeons are?”
This was only the third dungeon Rei had ever entered, so he didn't have a clear grasp of how they matured. He had read about it in books, of course, but it wasn't uncommon for reality to differ wildly from written records in this world. Since most books were handwritten, information was rarely updated, making such discrepancies inevitable.
“Well, at least there don't seem to be any traps, and I found the right path easily enough. I'll take it.”
Death Scythe in hand, he moved to a position away from the middle door.
(There haven't been any traps yet, so this one should be fine too... but since this is the right path, there's a good chance a trap has been set.)
Considering the possibility that this one could also be a dud, Rei swung his scythe once more.
“Flying Slash!”
The unleashed blade of air struck... but the result was different this time.
The middle door was certainly damaged, but it didn't shatter completely. That alone was proof enough that this door was different from its counterparts.
“...Well, I've confirmed there are no traps, so that’s fine.”
Though he felt a twinge of disappointment that even his leveled-up Flying Slash couldn't destroy the door, Rei walked toward it.
Beyond the partially shattered door lay a structure similar to the other two spaces. The key difference was that while the other two had ended at a dead-end wall, this one led into a continuing passage, at the end of which was a massive chamber.
“I knew the middle was the right way.”
Concluding there were no traps to fear, he used the Death Scythe's butt end to smash through the rest of the door.
He proceeded down the passage and soon laid eyes on the vast space beyond.
...However, what he found there was something completely unexpected.
The chamber was filled with a countless number of a certain monster.
They had massive bodies, ears that were as sharp as blades, fierce tusks, and long, sturdy tails that functioned like whips.
“Gamelions!? What are they doing in a place like this...?”
Rei froze for several seconds at the sight of the Gamelions filling the massive space.
It was such an unexpected sight that his reaction was only natural, though it was a stroke of luck that the group of Gamelions didn't immediately set upon him.
Once the initial shock wore off, however, a sense of clarity washed over him.
“I see. People were saying they couldn't catch any Gamelions specifically this year... but if they're all gathered here, of course nobody could find them on the surface.”
Since returning to Gilm, he had heard time and again that almost no Gamelions had been spotted this season. Realizing that the scene before him was the reason why, Rei couldn't help but let a smile touch his lips.
If the Gamelions were hiding inside a dungeon, any search on the surface was doomed to fail.
Rei suspected that these weren't all the Gamelions in the world, but rather that the ones on the surface had sensed their kin vanishing and were avoiding their usual migration routes.
“Gaaaaah!”
One of the nearby Gamelions noticed Rei entering the room and let out a menacing roar.
At a glance, there were at least fifty of them in the chamber. In response to the first creature's cry, all fifty turned their hostility toward Rei.
“Did the people who explored this dungeon not make it this far? ...I guess they didn't.”
Thinking back on the sheer number of Goblins he had fought just to get here, it made sense.
“Or did they keep their mouths shut so they could monopolize these Gamelions for themselves?”
This many Gamelions represented a fortune—enough to do far more than just survive the winter. With Gamelion meat being so scarce, the market price was skyrocketing. Even if he flooded the market and drove the price down, it would still be worth a king's ransom.
“Well, that plan went out the window the second I found them!”
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Watching a Gamelion leap at him with its tusks bared, Rei gripped his Death Scythe and let out a defiant shout.