「So this is the entrance to the dungeon.」
「Guru~」
At Rei’s words, Set, who had accompanied him right up to the dungeon, gave a disappointed cry.
Set had agreed to wait outside while Rei went into the dungeon, but seeing the entrance up close like this, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that he wouldn’t go inside together.
I’ll be lonely, Set seemed to say as he rubbed his head against Rei. While responding to Set’s affection, Rei looked at the dungeon entrance.
Huge rocks stood on either side, with another rock placed on top like a roof. Rather than an entrance, it was more accurate to call it a gap between rocks.
That gap was quite narrow, barely wide enough for Rei to slip through without any weapons equipped.
Even if Set used his Size Transformation skill, Rei was certain that it would be impossible for Set to fit, without even needing to try.
In fact, let alone Set, it would probably be difficult for even a tall adventurer to squeeze inside.
「This really is narrow……」
「Isn’t it? Well, thanks to that, the monsters that come out are only small, weak ones, and they only come out a little at a time.」
「In that case, is there really a need to wait in ambush here? If you just leave them be, they’ll probably just get killed by other monsters anyway.」
This was the frontier, a place where a wide variety of monsters roamed.
Especially at night, it wasn’t rare for high rank monsters to appear, so a few Goblins wouldn’t be a problem.
In response to Rei’s question, Ranga shook his head.
「It’s not that far from the highway. Not many people are using the highway at this time of year, but that doesn’t mean no one is using it. The monsters that come out of here might head that way, and since it’s a dungeon, you never know what might happen. Considering that, we can’t just leave it alone.」
「Dungeons grow, huh.」
「Exactly. Considering that possibility, we absolutely have to keep watch.」
As he spoke, Ranga directed an expectant gaze at Rei.
Precisely because he knew how much power Rei possessed, he was hoping Rei would clear this dungeon if possible.
Receiving that look, Rei nodded back.
「I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll do what I can. Fortunately, I won’t have any trouble with food.」
His Misty Ring contained a massive amount of food.
……A large portion of which was the food Rei had bought from Gilm’s stalls over the last few days.
「I don’t know how long it will take, so if you get hungry, just hunt some monsters and eat them, okay?」
「Guru~!」
I’ll be fine! Set gave a cry. Rei gently patted his head and looked at Ranga.
「Well then, I’m heading in.」
「Be careful.」
After a brief exchange, Rei slipped through the gap in the rocks, which was barely wide enough for him to pass through……
「Gugya?」
As Rei entered the dungeon, he found himself face to face with a creature coming up the stairs from the underground.
More accurately, since the other party was coming up the stairs, it was a head or two below Rei.
The creature Rei had bumped into seemed completely taken by surprise as well. It tilted its head as if to say, What’s going on?
However, its face was ugly, and tilting its head didn’t evoke any of the adorable charm that Set possessed.
……Naturally, the creature before Rei was one of the most famous types of monsters, a Goblin.
「……Whoa!」
Rei hadn’t expected to bump into a Goblin right away either. He paused for a moment before letting out a surprised shout and reflexively swinging his fist.
The visceral sound of flesh being struck and bones breaking echoed out as the Goblin’s face caved in and it tumbled down the stairs.
Furthermore, there seemed to be a few more Goblins right behind the one Rei had just punched, and they all tumbled down the stairs leading underground together with the one that had been sent flying.
「Gyabububububu!」
「Gyoaaaa!」
「Gyayaaaaaa!」
While watching the Goblins disappear from sight with such cries, Rei suddenly heard a voice from behind.
「Rei, what happened?」
Ranga, likely having heard the Goblins’ screams, peeked his head through the gap in the rocks and asked.
Rei shook his head, telling him it was nothing.
「Right as I came in, some Goblins were just coming out. So I reflexively punched one, and they all fell down the stairs.」
「……You have my condolences.」
Ranga smiled wryly. Rei lightly shook the fist he had used to punch the Goblin and sighed.
「Well, I heard it was this kind of dungeon, so it can’t be helped. Alright, I’m going in for real this time.」
「Be careful.」
Receiving the same words from Ranga as before, Rei descended the stairs.
The stairs looked as if they had been carved from stone, created not by human hands but by the dungeon core when the dungeon was born.
(Dungeons really are amazing in various ways when you think about it. It makes sense that I could learn the Terrain Manipulation skill from one. ……Though this dungeon core is going straight to Set.)
Rei reached the bottom of the stairs in less than a minute. He ignored the Goblins that had died from tumbling down the stairs and continued onward. Before him lay a stone corridor.
The stone itself emitted a faint glow, providing enough visibility. Though, in Rei’s case, he could see in the dark to some extent anyway.
However, the moment he saw the corridor, Rei frowned.
The corridor was barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side.
There was clearly no room to swing the Death Scythe. The most he could do was use the shaft like a spear.
But if he was going to do that, he might as well just use a spear meant for thrusting to begin with.
「The only effective weapons here are spears and daggers? ……I guess a spear will do.」
He might have been able to swing a long sword, but Rei wasn’t particularly good with them anyway. Long reaching weapons like the Death Scythe or a spear suited him better.
He took out a spear he had looted from a bandit he had defeated on the way back to Gilm from the Imperial Capital.
It couldn’t be called a high-quality spear, but it was perfectly fine for killing Goblins.
Spear in hand, he took a step into the stone corridor……when a question suddenly crossed his mind.
「I heard an Ogre appeared before, right? ……In this corridor?」
Even for someone with a petite build by Elgin’s standards, the corridor was only wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. The ceiling was reasonably high at about three meters, but even so, it would be impossible for an Ogre to walk through a place like this.
「I should probably ask about that.」
Muttering to himself, he turned back the way he came with his spear in hand and climbed the stairs.
Poking his head through the gap in the rocks, he saw Ranga giving instructions to his subordinates.
「Guru.」
Seeing Rei, Set gave a happy cry and that sound alerted Ranga to Rei’s presence.
「Rei? Did something happen?」
「According to the information I gathered in Gilm, there are Ogres in the dungeon……but there’s no way an Ogre could move freely in that corridor, right? I was wondering if you knew anything about that.」
「Ah, the Ogres. There are some fairly spacious rooms inside the dungeon. The people who fought Ogres probably fought them there. Well, because Ogres are so big, they can’t leave those rooms anyway.」
「I see. That helps.」
After that brief exchange, Rei gave Set a small wave and re-entered the dungeon, descending the stairs once more.
He walked past the corpses of the few again Goblins as if they weren’t even there and stepped back into the stone-paved corridor.
The narrowness he had seen a few minutes ago hadn’t changed, and as he walked forward with a slight frown……
「Gigigigi?」
「Gyagyo.」
He heard those familiar voices once again.
Rei furrowed his brow, looking somewhat annoyed.
However, since there was only one path from the entrance to this point, there was no point in turning back now.
He continued forward, spear in hand.
Soon, familiar figures appeared in the dim light of the dungeon.
The owners of the voices he had just heard were, naturally, more Goblins. Two of them.
They were armed with a rusted dagger and a club made from a broken branch.
(Come to think of it, what did that Goblin from before have? Well, it’s just a Goblin’s weapon, so there’s no point in collecting it.)
While thinking that, he readied his spear and waited for the Goblins, who had spotted him and were charging at him with shrieks.
「Gyagagyaga!」
「Gyojojogyo!」
Goblins had small builds, even smaller than Rei.
In other words, they could fight in this corridor without any movement restrictions.
「……Well, that doesn’t mean a few Goblins gathering together makes any difference.」
Along with his mutters, two streaks of light flashed out.
With Rei’s physical abilities, two thrusts were unleashed in an instant, piercing the Goblins’ foreheads and blowing their heads apart.
The two Goblins took a few more steps forward with their remaining momentum before collapsing, scattering blood, brains, bones, and eyeballs across the stone floor from their missing heads.
Rei jumped back to avoid the mess. Not wanting to smell the foul stench any more than necessary, he used his Shoes of Sleipnir to walk through the air and jump over the Goblin corpses.
「If only an unknown monster would appear. Well, since this is a dungeon where Goblins are the main monsters, I can’t expect much in terms of magic stones, but still, maybe……」
He continued walking through the dungeon and eventually reached a T junction.
He hesitated for a few seconds about which way to go.
But while he was hesitating, he heard footsteps coming from the right. ……And from the left as well.
Three Goblins appeared from the right. Two Goblins from the left.
A total of five Goblins had shown themselves, but……
「You’re in the way.」
The moment they noticed him and entered a combat stance, Rei was already right in front of them.
Once again, flashes of light streaked out.
A few seconds later, only Goblin corpses remained.
「I don’t care about Goblins, give me a monster I haven’t encountered yet.」
He used the Shoes of Sleipnir to walk over the Goblin corpses again and continued onward.
Normally, he would harvest proofs of subjugation and magic stones, but in the case of Goblins, both the proof of subjugation parts and the magic stones were worth basically nothing.
For Rei, it wasn’t worth the effort to harvest them.
Because of that, he just ignored them and walked past.
Even if he left them alone, Slimes, the dungeon’s cleaners, would eventually take care of them, so it wasn’t a problem.
For the time being, he turned right at the T junction and continued for about five minutes.
Before him appeared a door to the left, and a path continuing straight ahead and to the right.
「A door, huh. I’m certainly curious what’s inside, but what bothers me more is……」
His gaze was directed at the path continuing straight.
Acting on a hunch, Rei ignored the door and the path to the right and went straight.
Continuing onward, he turned left twice and eventually emerged at a spot with a path going straight and one branching to the right.
And on the stone floor lay the corpses of five Goblins.
They were clearly the Goblins Rei had defeated just a moment ago.
「So, I just walked a full circle around whatever room is in the centre. Quite spacious.」
Just to be safe, he used the Shoes of Sleipnir to jump over the Goblin corpses again and proceeded down the path he believed he had already taken.
Naturally, the door on the left and the path on the right appeared before him.
「Now then, what to do? A door might have traps. In that case, I’ll check this way first.」
Rei directed his gaze at the corridor continuing to the right.
Keeping his spear ready to use at any moment, he ignored the door and proceeded down the right corridor.
He walked straight ahead for about ten minutes.
Eventually, he emerged into an area spacious enough to be called a large hall.
And standing there was an Ogre, possessing a massive frame that was incomparable to a Goblin.
However, upon seeing it, Rei couldn’t help but frown.
The reason was that Ogres he had seen before were about five meters tall, whereas the one currently in his line of sight was only about three meters tall.
Of course, it was still massive, and to Rei, it was nearly twice his height.
He had to look up to see its face, but compared to the Ogres he had encountered in the dungeon with the Altar of Inheritance, he could only say it lacked presence.
「Is it a younger Ogre? Or maybe there are only weak Ogres because this dungeon was only recently formed?」
Perhaps hearing Rei’s mutter, the Ogre gripped its club and roared, though it likely didn’t understand the meaning of his words.
「Gaaaaaaaaahhhh!」
However, even its roar felt severely lacking in presence to Rei.