This is completely unexpected.
I knew that you could cast curses in the dungeon.
But I never thought that there would be someone else doing something this crazy besides me.
Well, it doesn’t add up at all.
Back then, using all of Seo Gong’s magic just to cast a weak curse on one dungeon was all I could manage.
The effect was so weak that it was hard to feel, and I thought it was totally useless.
‘That’s right. The main heroines have endless energy generated from their bodies…’
What I never anticipated was that the main heroines didn’t care about efficiency at all.
They are superhumans who can pour in the amount of mana that an ordinary mage would use over their whole life in one go.
And this curse is still trying to pursue its own efficiency amidst all that.
It doesn’t react at all when others enter, but activates as soon as I step in.
If it’s a curse that applies only to me, the amount of demonic energy consumed would drop drastically.
Smart thinking indeed.
‘But why?’
However, the intent behind it is completely eluding me.
Yerina… Hmm.
If she hasn’t fully mastered the wide-range heart technique yet, I could see her acting this way.
As for Yulia and Jill, I believed they wouldn’t take such extreme measures.
After all, I witnessed them turning over a new leaf with my own eyes.
What reason do those two have to suddenly grab my ankles?
‘Is there competition…?’
Could it be that all three of them have realized something?
That they all possess memories of the past.
And that each of them has been in a romantic relationship with me.
A chill runs down my spine.
If that’s true, and they’re competing to catch me first…?
There’s no answer to that.
I’d end up in the midst of a Three Kingdoms scenario in this land.
The Petenburg invasion from the last round might come back to haunt me.
Game over, or rather, life on hard mode is about to unfold.
‘To seal off the dungeon means cutting off my money supply.’
A sense of urgency sweeps over me.
I thought the time attack would begin with the Four Heavenly Kings.
But I never expected it would start with the heroines chasing me this round.
Do I need to run away?
If I do, where to?
Should I seek refuge in the distant sea fortress as originally planned?
I won’t be able to stay there forever, and eventually, I would have to return.
As soon as I dock and step off, I can clearly envision people in black suits swarming to drag me away.
If those three truly put their all into it, there would be no land where I could show my face.
‘This is bad…’
There’s no path in sight.
The only escape route is to defeat Draken and see the ending.
But now that I can’t defeat the dungeon, overcoming Draken seems like a distant dream.
As long as I’m supplying energy from the dungeon, Draken will recover infinitely.
Plus, there’s not even enough power gathered to confront Draken yet.
So many ways out, yet none of them lead to answers!
Now the remaining options are only three.
First. Get caught by Jill.
Second. Get caught by Yulia.
Third. Get caught by Yerina.
The only option besides ‘getting caught’ is ‘getting ugly while trying to escape’.
None exist at all.
The best option amongst these is ‘getting caught by Yerina’, which is absurd.
With Yerina, there’s no way she’ll reach a 100% completion rate, so I can rest easy.
The problem is, I have no idea what Yulia from round 12, who caught on to all my infidelities, would do to me.
But surely, she wouldn’t go so far as to kill me, right?
I’d just have to spend my life kidnapped, that’s all.
“If you don’t want that… the only way is a direct confrontation…”
And the last, hidden option.
A direct confrontation.
Confess to all three, avoiding the worst treatment of abduction.
If I’m unlucky, the completion rate goes up and I hit the ending.
If I’m lucky, the completion rate might drop instead.
It’s a high-risk, low-return gamble.
But in a situation where every way out is a cliff, I must grab any rotten lifeline available.
“Alright. Let’s go. Time to get beaten up.”
Just as I finished that thought and stood up, I felt a small attraction tugging at my sleeve.
Turning around, I saw the Nameless struggling, biting my clothes with its tiny mouth and pulling.
“What’s the matter?”
“Uuuung…!”
“……?”
Then the Nameless pointed at my bag with its leg.
I was confused until I realized it wanted to talk about Kali’s dead soul.
“This is useless. Kali’s dead soul can only devour demonic energy, it can’t block curse effects. The real curse is somewhere else, so this won’t do anything.”
“Wuuuuuh!”
“You’re saying that’s not it? Then what is it?”
With an expression of frustration, the Nameless shook its head vigorously.
Then it bit my sleeve again and started leading me somewhere.
“……I’ll follow for now.”
“How do you even understand me?”
“……I don’t know. Just do.”
“……”
I wondered if monsters had some kind of understanding with each other, but apparently not.
Yet, the Nameless was surprisingly stubborn.
Until now, it had followed me without complaint, sticking to my clothes without voicing any opinions.
What conviction could it possibly have?
“Wuu!”
“It’s useless, I’m telling you. It’s a curse imposed on every dungeon. It probably interfered via the dungeon core to mess with the underworld… huh?”
At that moment, my thoughts shifted to the underworld, and I discovered something odd.
This is strange.
Very strange.
The same curse effect is appearing across all dungeons.
There’s no way they went around individually cursing every dungeon in Gallia.
They definitely successfully interfered with the underworld through the dungeon core.
But originally, that shouldn’t be possible.
Draken’s power should be blocking any intrusion.
So what on earth could allow access to the underworld… Ah.
“Has Draken’s power been collected back?”
My mind cleared.
I think I understand the nature of the upheaval from a few days ago.
The change seen in every monster globally, and in Linda.
It was none other than that Draken took back its power.
As a result, the monsters who had been slightly enhanced returned to their original state, appearing weakened.
The security of the dungeon core network likely weakened too, allowing reverse access.
“Let’s go. I have something to try.”
If that’s the case, this is an opportunity.
A chance to access the underworld and glean Draken’s scheme.
If I’m lucky, I might also discover its weakness.
I hurried back to the dungeon towards the dungeon core.
[Due to Priestess Jill’s blessing, the dungeon monsters are enhanced.]
[Due to Witch Yulia’s curse, the dungeon monsters acquire mild toxicity.]
[Due to Frost Duchess Yerina’s grudge, the dungeon is filled with chill.]
In an instant, the dungeon turned into a snowy country.
I can feel the dungeon monsters becoming overwhelmingly stronger.
Since it’s a Red Star Dungeon without a separate boss, we could reach the core relatively quickly.
“Let’s try this…”
I placed my hand on the dungeon core, feeling the mana and the flow of demonic energy inside.
I closed my eyes.
Focusing on the flow of information.
‘I don’t understand a thing…’
However, even with nothing blocking me, I can’t figure out how to access the underworld.
I have no clue.
I thought I could use the dungeon core like a control panel to check the underworld’s situation.
But the patterns seem completely random; I can’t grasp anything.
Meanwhile, the chill created by Yerina continues to pierce my bones in real-time.
I feel my lips crack and my corneas drying up.
If I don’t leave soon, I’ll die.
That sense of urgency rings alarms in my mind.
But just a little more.
Just a little longer on this futile investigation, when suddenly…
A small hand rests on my palm.
“Here.”
“……?”
It’s the Nameless.
The Nameless has transformed into a human form and is holding my hand, guiding me.
While I’m bewildered, the Nameless adjusts our stance and whispers into my ear.
“I’ll show you.”
Whoosh…!
The flow of mana and demonic energy aligns, and my vision suddenly shifts dramatically.
The meaningless flow of signals instantly transforms into electrical signals, directly slamming into my brain.
Not sight or sound, but a signal.
If I had to name it, it seems to be a sensation that combines all of them.
Countless senses that can’t be neatly described all collide and pour in at once, yet my brain organizes and accepts them orderly.
Perhaps the Nameless translated the sights I couldn’t see into a form suited for a human.
“Ah…!”
And at the scene the Nameless showed me, my body trembled violently.
What can I even call this?
It felt like the universe’s spectacle, something humans couldn’t comprehend, being forcibly shoved in.
But just that gave me a wealth of information.
Right now, the underworld has entirely ceased energy supply from the dungeon.
Draken has withdrawn its power, leaving all monsters and dungeons that were energy-dependent unemployed.
So what is Draken doing with the power it’s reclaimed now?
The answer is simple.
Draken seeks to descend from the underworld to our world.
Instead of remaining in the underworld, it’s drawing our world into it.
Utilizing strong attraction, it aims to collide the two worlds into one.
And the speed at which this is happening isn’t even slow.
While we don’t feel it due to the dimensional shift, the two worlds will become one within a decade at most.
“Ah…!”
What was meant to happen a thousand years from now has been accelerated to ten years.
