“With this, I can just laze around and live my whole life!”
“Look at all these gold coins! There are so many I can’t even count them!”
The stone chamber was filled with the frenzied war cries of the ‘Red Blade Mercenaries’. They were frantically scooping gold coins and jewels into sacks. Watching them, Rick finally let out a long-held breath.
“Haa.”
Although he felt a lingering unease, the immense treasure before his eyes seemed to mock all his doubts. Perhaps he was truly lucky. Rick lowered his guard and picked up a gold coin that had fallen to the floor. It was at that very moment.
From the darkness at the entrance of the stone chamber, a chilling sound echoed.
“……?”
While everyone else was distracted by the gold, Rick, who had maintained his keen senses, clearly heard the sound. As he quickly turned his head, he saw shapes stirring and approaching from the darkness in the corridor.
“Captain! It’s monsters!”
As Rick shouted, the adventurers, previously engrossed in the gold, started in surprise and drew their weapons. Emerging from the darkness were staggering zombies and rattling skeletons. A unit of undead composed of dozens.
However, upon seeing them, Borgo sneered rather than showing any tension.
“Puhahaha! Is this all?”
He slung his axe over his shoulder and shouted in an arrogant tone.
“A dungeon with such immense treasures, and it’s just skeletons and zombies crawling on the street? How laughable!”
At Borgo’s words, the other party members relaxed and started to chuckle.
“You’re right. It looked flashy on the outside, but it was an empty dungeon inside!”
Borgo smiled confidently.
“It seems the supposed owner of this dungeon is nothing special! Did they send these guys to offer us treasure?”
Everyone laughed at his words. This expedition was practically a freebie. This dungeon was likely one of two options: either the dungeon’s owner was dead, leaving only low-level monsters in an empty dungeon, or the owner was incredibly foolish and weak, unable to properly assess their strength. Either way, it didn’t matter. For the adventurers, including Borgo, simply sweeping away this gold meant they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
“Alright! Let’s smash all these boneheads and take all the remaining treasure!”
Borgo, fueled by fighting spirit, charged forward first. His massive axe easily shattered the head of a leading skeleton.
“Let’s go! They’re no match for us!”
The morale of the ‘Red Blade Mercenaries’ soared. They charged towards the undead force.
***
Meanwhile, after several adventurers, including the ‘Red Blade Mercenaries’ party, were drawn into the dungeon by their greed, Northe, the Knight Captain of the Kalrn Empire, looked at the departing adventurers with a look of contempt.
“Tch, vulgar fools. They’ll probably just step on traps and clear the path.”
His voice was still sharp, tinged with the humiliation he had just suffered from Dambi. However, he couldn’t stay there forever. He couldn’t tolerate these vulgar people taking all the treasure in the dungeon.
“Maintain formation! We cannot fall behind these vulgar fools!”
Northe finally began moving his knight order.
“For honor! Forward!”
At his command, the knight order entered the dungeon. The knight order led by Northe entered the right corridor of the dungeon in an orderly formation. Their exploration method was vastly different from the adventurers. Two shield-bearers led the way, guarding the front, followed by Northe and knights wielding long swords. Archers lingered at the rear, their bowstrings drawn, surveying the surroundings.
“The corridor seems to go on endlessly. Are those murals?”
After advancing for a while, they encountered enormous murals on both sides of the corridor walls. The murals depicted a heroic saga of a crowned figure leading countless soldiers to fight a colossal monster.
“Is that monster a dragon?”
Northe analyzed inwardly. It was small for a dragon. Furthermore, the absence of forelegs suggested it was clearly a wyvern. While dragons and wyverns were in different leagues, a 5-star monster like a wyvern was by no means a weak opponent. After a moment of thought, Northe exclaimed with admiration.
“Indeed! This must be the King’s tomb!”
The crown was the symbol of royalty. Northe was confident in his deduction. This tomb was likely built to commemorate the great king’s feat of hunting a wyvern.
“If that’s the case, then the king’s artifacts must be sleeping here!”
Northe’s eyes gleamed with greed. As they passed through the corridor, engrossed in the murals, a vast open field appeared at the end of the path. It was a space like a colossal underground plaza. The ceiling was impossibly high and dark.
“Guard the perimeter!”
The moment Northe gave the order.
Kiyiaaaak-!
A sharp roar that tore at their eardrums echoed from above the dark ceiling. The knights, startled, raised their heads. From the darkness, a massive shadow was diving towards them. Gigantic, monstrous leathery wings like a bat’s, sharp claws, and a long, extended tail. It was a creature that looked exactly like the wyvern they had seen on the mural just moments ago. No, it wasn’t just similar; it was a real wyvern.
“A, a wyvern?!”
“How is it here… This is impossible!”
Chaos spread through the ranks of the knights. They had barely entered the dungeon. This was practically near the entrance, and a 5-star monster appeared without any warning! They had never heard of such a dungeon.
‘A trap!’
Northe gritted his teeth. He bitterly regretted his arrogance in mocking the adventurers. This was not a normal exploration. It would be more accurate to consider it a death stage meticulously designed by someone to kill them from the start.
‘This is a dog’s trick!’
Then, who was the architect of this stage? Or rather, who was the one who discovered this dungeon in the first place?
‘The Sail Empire.’
And who proposed a joint exploration of this dungeon?
‘Irena…!’
His face contorted with hatred and despair.
‘No wonder the conditions were too good!’
Only then did Northe realize everything. Typically, when such a massive dungeon was discovered, a nation would control all information and monopolize the benefits. Yet, the Sail Empire announced the dungeon’s existence and even made the unprecedented proposal of a joint exploration. While the White Church’s influence was present, that too was part of the Sail Empire’s scheme. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have offered the preposterous condition of handing over ownership of all items found in the dungeon to the discoverer. This was a giant trap laid by the Sail Empire from the beginning to lure other nations.
‘Irena, you snake!’
While unleashing a torrent of curses towards Irena in his mind, Northe did not forget his duty as a knight captain. He then shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Everyone, form ranks! Shield-bearers, block the front, and archers, aim for the wyvern’s eyes! The rest, follow me! Attack!”
The situation was desperate, but they couldn’t die like this. Nor could they escape. The moment they turned their backs, the wyvern would likely attack, so stalling for time was crucial. The knights suppressed their fear and began to move as they were trained. But.
“Kuaaak!”
The shield-bearer in front blocked the wyvern’s path, but as a massive claw swept out, the shield was torn apart like paper.
Quazijik!
“Kuhuk!”
Along with the shield, the knight was sent flying backward. The arrows shot by the archers at the rear failed to even pierce the wyvern’s thick hide and bounced off uselessly.
“Don’t fall back, everyone! For the honor of the Empire!”
Northe himself drew his sword and charged towards the wyvern’s legs, but his sword, unable to inflict any damage, merely scratched the scales. The wyvern looked down at the knights’ struggles as if they were bothersome insects. Then, it seemed to grow tired of this game.
Kwooooh-!
The wyvern opened its massive maw and inhaled deeply. From deep within its throat, a red blaze that seemed capable of melting everything began to ignite.
“D, dodge!”
Northe desperately shouted, but it was too late. A colossal flame that seemed to consume the world engulfed the knight order.
***
“Khaha! You bonehead bastards! I’ll turn you all to ash!”
With every arc of Borgo’s axe, the skeletons’ bones were shattered and scattered. When the undead wave first appeared, the ‘Red Blade Mercenaries’ had been immensely confident.
“Captain! There’s no end!”
“Shut up! Just destroy them as they come!”
It was as they expected. The zombies were slow and stupid, and the skeletons were mere weaklings that broke with a single hit. They mocked and massacred the undead. But after about ten minutes. The situation began to take a strange turn.
“Hek… hek… Damn it, why is there no end!”
One of the party’s adventurers grumbled, gasping for breath. It was as he said. No matter how many they killed, the undead kept crawling out from the end of the corridor. Their numbers showed no sign of decreasing, like an endlessly gushing spring.
“Th-this can’t be…”
The arrogant laughter Borgo had emitted earlier was long gone. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and his arm, swinging the heavy axe, felt noticeably heavy. But the problem came next. A peculiar phenomenon was observed. The continuous stream of skeletons and zombies suddenly stopped.
“Wh-what? Is it over?”
Rick spoke with a voice tinged with hope. At that moment, a different, ominous aura was felt from the darkness. Instead of shambling zombies, ghouls crawled on all fours with greedy groans. And instead of frail skeletons, skeleton warriors armed with rusty armor and shields appeared. The 1-star skeletons and zombies had been perfectly replaced by the 2-star skeleton warriors and ghouls.
“……!”
Borgo’s face drained of color upon seeing the scene. Numerous thoughts flashed through his mind.
“Why… now?”
If this dungeon contained ghouls and skeleton warriors, why weren’t they deployed from the beginning? And why did they appear precisely at this moment when their stamina was depleted and their concentration was wavering? It felt as if they had been waiting on purpose! A hypothesis struck Borgo’s mind like lightning. The immense treasure discovered initially. The endless tide of 1-star undead that had tired them out. And finally, the arrival of the 2-star undead legion precisely when they were exhausted. All of this couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Hah, we were just being played.”
Borgo realized. The owner of this dungeon was not incompetent. Quite the opposite. The owner of this dungeon had been playing with them from the very beginning. Like a cunning predator waiting for delicious prey to become sufficiently exhausted before hunting it.
“You son of a bitch!”
What came out of Borgo’s mouth was a groan mixed with rage.
“Hang on a little longer, everyone!”
“B-but-”
“Shut up! If they’re sending these guys now, it means the owner here doesn’t have that much power either!”
He was clinging to one sliver of hope. They might be able to handle the 2-star undead somehow. Even if their strength was depleted, they were still just undead. If they kept holding on, this wave of undead forces would eventually cease. He pinned all his hopes on that.
