Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 137

Chapter 07: The lord of the dungeon

We move forward, even as we struggle with the maze-like structure.

An hour passed without encountering any monsters, with some disappointing dead ends, and some short breaks in between while I was digging around.

If my senses are correct, we are not circling around in the same place, we are progressing in a meandering manner. Well, we didn’t see any landmarks again after I made them, except when we were coming back from a dead end, so I guess I’m not wrong… And I’m think the marks hasn’t been erased or tampered with, probably. If this dungeon was one full of magic traps, the landmarks can sometimes disappear…

However, considering it was created naturally this dungeon is a quite large one. I wonder if someone or something dug it up in the past. As expected, I can’t tell that just by looking around.

“…… Mu?”

“Uru, is something wrong?”

Just as I was getting tired of trying to maintain the attention, Uru let out a small voice.

Even with a lantern, the passage was still dimly lit and I couldn’t see clearly, but was there something unusual at the end?

“The air is moving, albeit slightly.”

“You mean… There’s an exit close?”

This is a dungeon in a mountain covered with dirt and rocks. If there is a change in the flow of air, it means that there is a hole through which air from the outside passes – in other words an exit or something like one.

… That is, if it’s not some kind of natural phenomenon or some trap that’s expelling a strange gas, but judging by the tone of Uru’s voice, it didn’t seem like a dangerous situation.

“Haa, I guess we’re finally at the exit. There weren’t any monsters, so I was about to get disappointed.”

“Regulus-nii, you still shouldn’t let your guard down, okay?”

Although Liese is scolding Regulus for letting his guard down and stretching himself, there is a part of her that feels relieved as well.

Well, if there’s nothing here, it’s bound to be boring. This tight space is uncomfortable even to me. Although, I was able to obtain a fair amount of materials, so it wasn’t a waste of time.

However, our relaxed atmosphere was tightened again by Fricka’s words.

“… If this is the exit, then where is the core after all?”

“… Now that you mention it, we haven’t found it…”

By the way, I haven’t encountered any guardian (or monsters) either. Beings other than the monsters were wandering around here and there, but perhaps because they usually spend their time in the dark, when we (the lantern’s light) approached, they ran away like spiderlings.

I don’t think there are any cores lying around without being protected by monsters, but… I wonder what is happening here

“Fumu… Rion, do you sense the core?”

“Hmm, It’s ahead.”

In response to Uru’s question, I pointed in the direction that we are facing.

“… So even if we leave the cave, the dungeon itself continues…?”

“Maybe.”

In stories, a dungeon often refers to an underground labyrinth, but in the game World Maker and in this world Asteria, it refers to the “range of influence of the dungeon core”. However, just as monsters rarely appear during the day, cores often appear in caves and ruins that are not exposed to sunlight, creating dungeons.

In this case, it is possible that we will have to go outside once, but there is another hole nearby to explore, or in the worst case scenario, there is no path to the location of the core in the first place. I don’t have much time to spend on it, so I hope that it is somewhere we can easily find it. I feel like we are getting closer, so I’d like to think it’s not that far away.

Perhaps because Uru started relying on the flow of air to move forward, we stopped coming across dead ends. As expected from Uru, I personally can’t tell the difference at all.

When I finally started to feel the difference, I noticed that the end of the path was getting a little brighter.

“…… Sunlight?”

“I don’t know, I can’t make any affirmations at this point. More importantly, there’s something ahead. From my senses, it’s pretty big.”

“!”

To Uru go out of her way to say that is quite large, there are no chances there’s actually people there, it’s likely a monster… And there’s a high possibility that it’s a Guardian.

We reviewed our equipment, so that we could fight at any time, and recovered our SP just in case, before slowly approaching the enemy while trying to make as few footsteps as possible.

Uru doesn’t show any sign of worry as usual, maybe the estimated monster is not that strong? No, but if it’s based on Uru’s standards, it doesn’t apply to us…

At the moment when I took another step forward while thinking about that.

?? A chill ran down my spine.

A strong presence struck me, stopping me in my tracks.

…… Huh? What’s this?

The change was so sudden that for a moment I thought I had slipped into another world.

For example, the inside and outside of a barrier. When you’re on the outside, you’ll have no idea what’s going on inside, but as soon as you step inside, you can see everything.

In the game, the dungeon in the second half of the scenario, The Mirage Castle, was like that. The surrounding area is just a forest filled with normal (albeit powerful) monsters, but the castle is hidden and cannot be discovered from far away, even by flying through the air. Only when you get within a certain distance will the castle appear (or seems to have just appeared), and at the same time the miasma overflow like a waterfall.

“… Rion-sama?”

Fricka, who was walking next to me was the first to notice that I had stopped.

I wonder if she doesn’t feel this pressure, she looks perfectly normal. Or she is barely outside the range?

“… Fricka, could you please take a few more steps forward?”

“……? Understood.”

She tilts her head, but moves forward obediently. There are no particular changes.

I also asked Regulus and Liese who were behind me, but there were no changes. It goes without saying that Uru is the one walking in front is fine.

…… It’s only me?

If there’s a difference between me and everyone else… Is it because I’m a miko? Was there something that only affects a miko…? Something like a Miko’s unique dungeon core sensing ability…?

No, I can’t think of anything.

“Rion, are you okay?… Do you want to turn back?”

“No… Let’s go.”

Uru is worried about me, but it would be a waste to turn back after coming all the way here. I was distracted by the heavy pressure, but it seems like there is a core on the other side. I can’t turn back here.

And there’s another reason… It certainly feels like something is pressing down on me, but there’s no stagnation like miasma. Just like I’ve never had a bad feeling before, I feel like it’s not a bad thing.

Although it was vague and only my subjective opinion, I still had the will to move forward, and Uru nodded with a “I see.”

“The wind–”

I’m not sure whose words were blown away by the raging wind.

Ahead, there was indeed a hole to the outside.

However… It’s far above.

In front of us is a large cavity, completely different from the holes we have passed through so far.

I can’t measure it exactly, but it’s at least 100 meters long and wide. It’s quite tall, and looking up you could see a small slice of the sky. The wind is blowing in from above, so the wind must be strong here.

Since there is a hole at the top, this place is also illuminated by the sun, and even though it is inside a cave, the visibility is good, and you can easily see what is there.

That’s why I could see ‘it’ clearly.

A being so large that for an instant I mistook it for a giant rock sitting in the center of the room…

“… No way… The King of the sky…?”

A colossal bird covered in bright sky blue feathers.