novelraw Chapter 123 : Chapter 123
Chapter 123 : Chapter 123
Chapter 123. Dungeon’s Aftermath (1)
On the 99th floor, the level just below the dungeon’s lowest floor, the 100th, Mammon stared at a single surveillance magic crystal ball with a sinister smile.
On the screen, the country bumpkin youth whom Frank had been wary of a few days ago, Douglas Junior, was shown finally reaching the 30th floor.
‘Hahaha. It’s finally here.’
Mammon recalled Frank’s earlier words, ‘When that guy enters the dungeon, raise the difficulty significantly!’
Of course, Frank’s intention was to moderately interfere to slow his growth or make him give up, but Mammon interpreted that instruction very maliciously.
‘Raise the difficulty, you say? Fine. I’ll raise it for sure.’
He immediately gave a command to the dungeon system.
It was a command to forcibly summon a powerful Floor Master, who should have originally been on the 50th floor, to the 30th floor.
The corners of Mammon’s mouth curled up wickedly.
‘Even a talented adventurer like him won’t be able to handle that thing.’
Hydra.A fearsome water serpent with nine heads.
golden scales easily deflected most attacks, and even if a head was cut off, it possessed a near-immortal vitality that allowed it to regenerate in an instant unless all nine heads were severed at once.
Even Frank’s proud two daughters, Adel and Iris, had quite a hard time against that thing.
‘Does that country bumpkin dare to stand on the same level as the princesses? Not a chance. him taste despair here. Huhu.’
Just as Mammon was smiling with satisfaction, anticipating Douglas Junior’s miserable defeat.
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind him.
“What are you watching so intently? If it’s something fun, let’s watch together.”
It was Lucifer, one of the demon brothers.
Mammon frowned and gestured dismissively.
“Go away. Do you want to get scolded by Anonymous again? Haven’t you learned your lesson after getting a good scolding last time?”
Lucifer smirked and came up next to Mammon, looking into the magic crystal ball with him.
“I’ve already finished all my work. Can’t I even take a break like this?”
The moment his gaze landed on the Hydra on the screen, Lucifer’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What? Why is the Hydra on the 30th floor? Wasn’t it the 50th-floor Floor Master?”
Mammon shrugged with a triumphant smile.
“Huhu. This is a special order from the master. He told me to stop that arrogant brat here, no matter what.”
“Kyahahaha!”
In that moment, Lucifer burst out laughing with a wicked smile.
“As expected, Frank is just a helpless father! He’s trying to block the bug approaching his daughters in advance. What a hero of justice.”
The two demons fixed their gazes on the magic crystal ball with intrigued faces.
Expecting to see Douglas Junior, who had just encountered the Hydra, collapse helplessly.
At first, it was as expected.
Douglas was relentlessly battered by the fierce poison pouring from the nine heads and the attacks of its giant tail, being pushed back one-sidedly.
“Serves him right! That guy is going to die soon at this rate, isn’t he?”
Lucifer giggled.
But what was this.
Douglas Junior, who had been flustered and focused only on defense at first, gradually regained his composure and began to evade the Hydra’s attacks with surprising movements, looking for an opening.
Every time his sword flashed, one of the Hydra’s heads was cut off.
“Huh?”
Four heads had already been severed.
Of course, the severed heads regenerated quickly, but the Hydra also showed clear signs of panic.
Its nine pairs of eyes were shaking 불안하게.
“Wh-what? That guy.”
Mammon and Lucifer doubted their eyes.
They couldn’t close their mouths and were completely engrossed in Douglas Junior’s movements on the screen.
Before they knew it, the sneers on the two demons’ faces had been replaced with excitement and admiration.
“H-hey! You can do it! Just a little more!”
Mammon shouted without realizing it.
“Ugh, you idiot! Not that way! The third head on the left! You have to cut that one first to slow down its regeneration!”
Lucifer shouted in frustration.
At the commotion, the other demons nearby started to gather one by one.
They too were puzzled at first, but soon they became engrossed in the scene on the screen and started to cheer passionately for Douglas Junior.
“That’s it! Dodge!”
“Go for it! Now!”
“Hang in there, human!”
The demons, who had once tried to thwart him under Frank’s orders, were now cheering for the young hero’s fight with one heart and one mind.
Demons cheering for a human.
It was a truly rare sight.
***
Meanwhile, at that time, on the 8th floor of the dungeon.
Although it was a low-level area considered relatively stable, the ‘Golden Griffin’ party was having a hell of a time.
“Kaaargh! My arm!”
The party’s tanker screamed as if his arm was broken by an ogre’s stone fist that flew over his shield.
The healer rushed over to cast a healing spell, but the ogres charged again without giving them a break.
“Damn it! It wasn’t this bad yesterday!”
The party leader, a swordsman, cursed as he barely dodged an ogre’s club.
He was right.
Just a day ago when they cleared it, the ogres on the 8th floor weren’t this fast or strong.
It was as if someone had given them a potion overnight; the monsters’ aggression and defense had noticeably increased.
“Liga! Magic support!”
“M-my mana is almost gone!”
The party’s mage replied, almost in tears.
She had already used up all her emergency hot spring water.
‘We’ll be wiped out if this continues.’
The leader calmly assessed the situation.
He shouted to his party members.
“We’re retreating for now! To the shelter’s transition circle!”
Fortunately, they had pre-registered with the recently installed transition magic circle system.
They supported the injured tanker and barely shook off the charging ogres, rushing into a nearby shelter.
As soon as they entered the shelter, the leader activated the central magic circle without hesitation.
[Moving to the registered coordinates.]
With the familiar message, the party members’ bodies were enveloped in a faint light and instantly transported to the dungeon entrance.
Once outside the dungeon, they finally let out sighs of relief and collapsed to the ground.
“Damn it. What the hell happened? Why did it suddenly get so difficult?”
“Did the difficulty go up? Or was it always like this and we were just lucky?”
Their mutterings were commonly heard from other parties exiting the dungeon.
The adventurers gathered in groups of three and five, complaining about the sudden spike in the dungeon’s difficulty, while at the same time marveling at the convenience of the transition magic circles.
“Still, we survived thanks to that magic circle. In the old days, we would have been dead for sure.”
“As expected of the former hero. To think of creating something like this.”
They felt gratitude towards the Margrave and Noemi.
And at the same time, they felt resentment towards Mammon, who was presumed to have arbitrarily raised the dungeon’s difficulty, and looked forward to their next challenge.
The dungeon’s infamy had grown, but that only further stimulated the fighting spirit of the skilled adventurers.
***
Number 1 silently followed Adel.
Before he knew it, they had set foot on the 53rd underground floor.
Adel had now become the record holder for the Lumen Fortis underground dungeon.
Her growth was astonishing.
Number 1 quietly watched Adel’s fight, recalling another girl he had taught in the past, Iris.
‘Adel is certainly different from Iris.’
If Iris was like a sharp dagger, an ambitious type who would stop at nothing to achieve her goal and take the shortest path, Adel was like a sturdy fortress wall.
A child who was just, upright, and silently walked her own path head-on.
Sometimes she seemed frustratingly stubborn, but within that stubbornness lay a will of steel.
‘Frank really has enviable daughters.’
Adel, Iris, and the genius mage, the youngest, Noemi.
Each with different personalities, but all with extraordinary talents and potential.
Number 1 found himself thinking that Frank was enviable.
Perhaps he too should quit his life in the shadows and try to start a family and raise children normally.
Such a fleeting, idle thought crossed his mind, but he soon shook his head.
‘I’ve gotten old too. To be so sentimental.’
He dismissed the thought and focused again on the battle before him.
Adel was not being pushed back at all against the demonic beasts of the 53rd floor.
Her swordsmanship was not flashy, but it was flawless, and the reflection armor and twin swords, Anceps, inherited from her father, perfectly supported her solid defense and sharp attacks.
The very image of a flawless knight.
‘Iris, who received the training of the Unseen Ones, is also strong, but in a head-on confrontation, she might not be a match for the current Adel.’
Iris' strength was specialized in assassination techniques.
She was skilled in ambushes, deception, and vital point attacks, but in a chaotic battle against multiple enemies or in a situation where power clashed head-on, she would find it difficult to display stable combat power like Adel.
On the other hand, Adel’s swordsmanship, which was specialized in defense but also had strong attack power, shone even more brightly, especially when facing a continuous stream of enemies like now.
‘If I were to fight her one-on-one right now, my chances of winning would be less than half.’
Number 1 was a little surprised by his own assessment, but he soon smiled with satisfaction.
Iris, whom he had watched over for a long time and considered like a daughter.
And Adel, Frank’s eldest daughter.
With these two growing up so wonderfully, the fight against Primus, the primordial being who would one day appear, might not be so desperate after all.
He suddenly thought of Frank, who was orchestrating this whole board.
‘He’s an amazing man.’
Thanks to him creating the dungeon here, the skills of the numerous adventurers gathered in Lumen Fortis were improving by leaps and bounds every day.
Individually, they might be weak, but if they united as one, they would become a force that could never be ignored.
Perhaps if things continued like this, they might really be able to gather a force that could fight on equal footing with Primus.
‘Just how far is he seeing?’
While Number 1 was lost in such thoughts, Adel had already defeated all the enemies before her and was walking towards the next area.
Number 1 quietly followed her.
Looking at her strengthened back, he suddenly thought that if he ever got the chance, he would like to challenge this dungeon not as a guide protecting this place, but as a single adventurer.
He wanted to test his own limits.
At that very moment.
From the magic crystal ball tucked in his pocket, a voice came out.
Huh? What is this?
A warning he had never heard since the dungeon opened.
‘This is no simple matter.’
Number 1 immediately grabbed Adel’s wrist and said.
“To the shelter, now!”
Something that had never happened before was about to occur.