The Transmigrated Villain Claims the Heroines!

Chapter 44: Why Am I Suddenly In An A-Rank Dungeon!?

I unrolled the message and read it quickly.

B-Class beast sighted three hours out. Four C-Class packs flanking. Anastasia and Rerick have arrived and are engaging. Holding for now. Will update by nightfall.

— Edward

A B-Class beast?

If I remembered correctly, a B-Class beast was equivalent to an entire tank squadron back in my old world, something capable of unleashing magical ranged beams while its claws tore through everything in its path.

It shouldn’t be a problem for Edward, though.

He was a master on his own, but with my capital now turned into a battlefield, he couldn’t exactly face it one-on-one. That meant bringing it down with resources and manpower, resources and manpower that the B-Class beast would almost certainly shred apart with its tough hide.

I wasn’t even on the battlefield yet, and I already felt overwhelmed.

But then another problem arose in my mind.

Helios Factory.

I still needed to train for the magical beast that would appear there.

A B-Class Goblin King.

Despite this world’s advanced technological setting, it still had classic fantasy creatures like goblins. Oddly enough, that thought calmed me down. At the very least, it was familiar.

"I should finish the Noctierre swordstyle quest."

***

I headed back to the training room, which honestly looked more like a greenhouse the longer I stared at it, and there it was, the dueling machine, standing idle.

Hopefully, it won’t take an entire day just to get this damn sword style to 10%.

I don’t even think this can be called a sword style...

It was really just street fighting with swords...

"Activate—"

I started to say, but immediately stopped when something appeared just behind the machine, a strange, swirling mass of blue energy that slowly grew larger.

Wait...

Was that a—!?

FWOOSH!

The swirling mass suddenly erupted, fully forming into a huge portal that pulled the dummy inside with a powerful gravitational force, and I wasn’t exactly immune to it either.

"Fuck!"

I drove my sword into the ground, trying my best to avoid being pulled in.

This was the last thing I needed. I wasn’t even sure I could take down a single D-Class Magical Beast if my life depended on it.

"Guards...!"

I yelled, but it didn’t work. My voice was completely muffled by the portal’s gravitational pull. Right now, I was practically horizontal in the air, the portal dragging me even harder as I struggled to keep hold of my sword.

But...

CRACK!

Of course, with my luck, it broke.

"You’ve got to be kidding me—!"

FWOOSH!

***

I landed hard on something that felt like cold stone, the impact knocking the wind out of my lungs. For a moment, I just lay there, staring up at a ceiling I didn’t recognize, dark and vaulted and covered in strange, glowing runes.

Not my training room.

Not my estate.

Not even close.

"Ugh..."

I pushed myself up onto my elbows, my body screaming in protest. The fall hadn’t killed me, but it had definitely reminded me that I wasn’t invincible.

The room around me was circular, maybe thirty feet across, with walls made of the same dark stone as the ceiling. The runes pulsed with a soft blue light, casting eerie shadows across the floor. In the center of the room, there was a pedestal, and on that pedestal...

A sword.

Not just any sword. I could tell that much even from here. The blade was black, darker than anything I’d ever seen, almost like it was drinking the light around it. The hilt was wrapped in what looked like worn leather, and the pommel held a single gem, deep crimson, that seemed to pulse.

[Unknown Location Detected]

[Dungeon: The Forgotten Vault (Rank: A)]

[Warning: You are not prepared for this area.]

No shit, system.

I climbed to my feet slowly, seeing my sword that had snapped back in the training room. The hilt was still in my grip, barely six inches of broken blade attached.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..."

I looked around the room again, searching for the portal that had dumped me here. Nothing. Just stone walls and that pedestal and the sword that was definitely going to get me killed if I went anywhere near it.

[Optional Task Unlocked]

[Beat Your First Dungeon]

[Reward: Magical Artifact + Skill Point (Combat Tree)]

"Can I leave...?"

[Dungeon does not support early departure]

"W-Why did a dungeon even appear in my training room...?"

[Detecting...]

[Dungeon made from emotions, likely cause: Lust + Incubus Race]

"So if I hadn’t become an incubus, lust alone wouldn’t have created this dungeon?"

[Correct]

I looked around again, searching for anything that might actually help me. This was a Rank A dungeon, for God’s sake. Even the original main character didn’t take one on right away, and that was after awakening.

I scrambled around, doing my best to keep my distance from the sword, and then I saw it.

The machine.

That ridiculously expensive machine.

Surely that could work as an ally, right?

Maybe it could even carry me through this entire damn thing if I set it to its highest difficulty. If the lowest setting alone was enough to kick my ass, then surely this one could handle something like this, especially if I tried supporting it with my own physical strength.

Maybe I wasn’t about to die just yet...

I was about to say I was lucky, but... I don’t think I can call it luck after getting dragged into a damn dungeon portal...

I scrambled toward the machine, my boots skidding on the slick stone floor. The machine itself had come through intact, its metallic frame humming softly in the dim blue light.

Thank God for incredible craftsmanship.

I knelt beside it, fingers fumbling across the control panel. The display flickered to life, familiar at first, like the interface I’d used in the training room, before its runes blazed and reshaped it into something entirely different, filled with options I hadn’t seen before.

[Difficulty Selection - Dungeon Mode Protocol]

[Note: Currently experiencing dungeon turbulence, training mode disabled temporarily to assist in user survival.]