Chapter : 186

There was nothing to be done about what had already happened. All I could do was tell him not to do it again.

…Still, was it really okay to let this slide so easily? With a complicated mind, I walked for a long time, trying to escape, and noticed the senior’s expression gradually hardening.

It seemed like a problem had arisen.

A sense of foreboding made my lips tighten.

“Senior.”

“…It seems we’re trapped.”

Trapped. The word hit me with overwhelming force.

In fact, I had noticed it to some extent. It felt like we had been going around in circles in the same space for a while now.

Usually, when I get this feeling, that judgment is not wrong.

“How did that happen?”

Senior Lerwon hadn’t shown any signs of being lost on the way here.

That’s why he was able to walk confidently in the opposite direction and still move forward.

But being trapped now would mean that our location was being specifically targeted and intentionally confused…

“How on earth?”

The Writer skill is still active in real-time.

The reason I blocked our vision in the first place was because I judged it to be the most effective way to interfere with Iris.

When it came to judging information, the first thing used, no matter what anyone said, was visual information.

I didn’t have the optimistic thought that I could completely escape Iris’s surveillance just by blocking visual information, but wasn’t this too fast?

Anxiety arose first at the unexpected variable.

“Can you think of a way to escape?”

At my question, the senior remained silent with a pale face.

Seeing that, I felt a genuine headache.

How on earth could Iris find our location like this and pull such a trick?

“She used it against us.”

She had figured out all the secret passages we were in and had identified only the parts she couldn’t see.

“Damn it.”

There was no need to waste mana on something useless.

I immediately deactivated the skill and hurriedly looked around.

“Alright, Senior. Let’s just stand here and think for a bit.”

I tore at my hair. No matter how harsh the world is, it can’t be this harsh!

“Argh! How do we escape from this situation!”

I was forcibly healed by asking Lou.

In fact, my muscles were throbbing just from walking.

I was barely holding back the urge to collapse and vomit stomach acid on the floor! I was already screaming inside just by maintaining the skill!!

The words that I would use all means to escape were practically a bluff.

Did Iris really fall for it and let me go?

‘The probability of that is 0%.’

She let me go knowing full well that my whole body was screaming.

To see if I could escape even in that state.

“By the way, how did you get here, Senior? You can’t use teleportation magic either.”

“I came with the movement artifact that was distributed at the Academy.”

The only hope!

“But ever since I came here, no matter how much I try to activate it, it won’t work.”

“I can’t use teleportation magic either.”

And it’s impossible to move with the Writer skill either.

Trapped here, unable to do anything. This is really hopeless.

“How’s your body?”

“I feel like I’m about to die, so don’t worry.”

At my indifferent answer, a gaze that said “that’s why I’m more worried” was directed at me.

I was being sincere in my own way.

I really felt like I was about to die, but it was at a level where I could somehow grit my teeth and endure it.

“By any chance, the success you mentioned—”

“I gave the extra to Senior Laurel.”

…Right, Iris would somehow try to capture us alive, but she might just kill the others because it’s a hassle.

“By the way, seeing as you’re separated, it doesn’t seem like you just parted ways… what did you ask of the three of them?”

“Perhaps the most dangerous thing.”

The senior answered a little indifferently.

* * *

The inside of the dungeon was a maze of paths.

The appearance of the snakes was indeed directly and indirectly related to Lerwon.

As soon as they parted from him, the snakes no longer targeted them.

On the contrary, they thoroughly ignored the three of them and slowly slithered somewhere. As if they had a purpose.

Lilia thought about getting rid of them, but she couldn’t waste time dealing with such snakes, so she decided to keep moving forward for now.

She had her doubts that the plan Lerwon had mentioned would actually be a solution, but that was all they could do.

Suppressing her somewhat miserable feelings, she moved forward, and then they discovered something.

Hah!

Lilia covered Laurel’s mouth, who was about to gasp in surprise, and covered her own mouth with her other hand.

Cecilia skillfully held her breath and composed her emotions.

Ssssk.

Only the sound of a snake’s belly sliding smoothly across the floor echoed in the quiet dungeon.

In the eerie sight of flesh falling off with every movement of the huge body, they remained silent, and only after even its shadow had completely disappeared did the three of them let out a hurried breath.

“Isn’t that a basilisk?”

“An undead basilisk.”

At the appearance of a monster she had never heard of or even imagined, even Cecilia was uncharacteristically flustered and busy catching her breath.

Undead magic, which creates the undead.

There was no doubt that it was a magic that was in the spotlight for its unique immortality.

However, along with the unpleasant nature of controlling the dead, the undead were also a type of monster, and there was the anxiety that the hierarchy of power would apply and they might attack the caster at any time.

Thanks to its weakness to the Hero’s Holy Sword, the Church’s holy magic, and flame magic, it was a magic that had been virtually lost, even if one wanted to learn it now.

The existence of the undead was still widely known from dungeons or gates where they appeared, but if not for that, it would have become a name without substance, like spirits.

Even if an ordinary monster became undead, the Church would have to step in and burn it down with holy magic, but for the basilisk, known as the king of snakes, to become undead…

“Well, I’m here.”

Flame magic, which was said to have the power to purify and burn evil things.

It couldn’t deal a direct blow to the undead like holy magic, but it was better than nothing.

However, the problem was that physical attacks were meaningless against the undead.

Laurel was a martial artist who purely increased her physical strength through magical girl transformation, and although Cecilia could use some magic, it would be far from enough to deal with an undead basilisk.

In that case, there was only one way.

“I’ll face the undead basilisk alone. Thanks to my master, I’ve faced the undead many times.”

Beatrice would sometimes throw Lilia into an undead dungeon.

It was an experiment to see if the pure flames created by Lilia’s magic could have the same effect on the undead as holy magic.

At the time, she had harbored disrespectful thoughts toward her master, but who would have known that strange experiment would be so helpful?

At least among the students of the Academy, there was probably no student with as much experience against the undead as Lilia.

“It’s a basilisk. It’s completely different from an ordinary undead.”

“I know.”

Right now, it was right for Laurel and Cecilia to fulfill Lerwon’s ‘request’ while she faced the undead basilisk alone.

They couldn’t stay forever in a battlefield where an overwhelmingly strong opponent had the advantage. They couldn’t be held back by an undead basilisk now.

“It’s too dangerous, Lilia.”

“Who doesn’t know that? I value my life too.”

Lilia let out a sigh as if she were a little annoyed.

She didn’t want to do anything dangerous.

Lilia was the one who had objected the most when Lerwon asked for help.

But, not now.

Anyway, since she was caught up in this, she would risk her life and not give anything to Iris.

“Three should be enough.”

Three spare lives.

This should be just right for facing an undead basilisk.

Three small vials glittered in Lilia’s hand.

“So, get going.”

At Lilia’s words, Laurel and Cecilia nodded and went on their way.

As the sound of footsteps was heard, the sound of the basilisk coming this way again began to echo in the dungeon’s passage.

Indeed, the undead basilisk seemed to judge the opponent’s location by hearing.

It probably had no sight. The part where its flesh had rotted and fallen off was right around its eyes.

“I see.”

Lilia thought as she lightly leaped to avoid the basilisk’s attack, which was rushing straight at her.

“I can hunt it.”

If I’m alone, it should be possible, for sure.

* * *

“Is it his intention to separate us one by one?”

Cecilia, walking along the dungeon path, cautiously guessed.

She felt a strange gaze.

At some point, Cecilia’s eyes flashed, and she threw her rapier like a dagger without hesitation, and with a thud! the rapier was stuck in the wall.

“Senior, I know you’re anxious because of Lilia, but—”

Calm down.

Laurel, who was trying to calm Cecilia, was about to retrieve the rapier stuck in the wall when her expression hardened.

“Why is there a snake corpse here?”

When Cecilia threw the rapier, it was clean, without anything.

But on the sword stuck in the wall, a snake’s corpse was pinned like an insect specimen.

“…We’ve been watched from the beginning.”

Cecilia looked around her.

Hiss.

The snakes, which had been secretly hiding in the dark and watching, let out a metallic hiss as if threatening Cecilia when she noticed their presence.

“What is this.”

Laurel’s expression hardened, and she crushed a snake with her foot.

“Doesn’t it feel like they’re following someone’s command?”

“Are you saying they’re doing this under the command of the Master of Gold?”

“It seems so.”

“But for this to be possible…”

Dozens, perhaps hundreds or thousands of snake monsters.

Commanding one or two monsters was difficult, but not impossible.

Dozens of monsters? It was practically impossible, but there were always exceptions in the world.

However, controlling hundreds or thousands of monsters was a kind of power only allowed to boss monsters, that is, the masters of dungeons or gates.

For 1,000 years, countless dungeons had been created, and even more gates had been created, closed, and disappeared, but there had never been a time when the master of the monsters in a dungeon was not a boss monster.

“The Master of Gold can control this dungeon at will. That’s why he asked us to take away the ownership of the dungeon.”

Cecilia finally began to understand a little of Lerwon’s incomprehensible words.

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