The Underground
Each of them held a rope, linked together at three-meter intervals from front to back. Separate combat squads existed as well, but the ropes could be detached at a moment's notice.
It was a display of efficiency that suggested thorough pre-dungeon preparations.
Caligurio, who believed he had obtained a reasonable grasp of the dungeon's interior structure through the interrogation of Shinji and the others, had devised a strategy to nullify the labyrinth with sheer numbers.
Spirit Magic users confirmed the path forward while special engineering squads disarmed traps.
Combat squads drove back monsters while analysis squads dissected them and harvested Magic Crystals.
Valuables extracted from treasure chests in each room were passed to the rear, and personnel were designated to transport everything back to the operational command headquarters.
By linking soldiers together, they could respond to shifts in the situation.
Caligurio's strategy had been working at first.
But before long, anomalies began to surface.
Small-scale confusion arose — communications with the soldiers who had entered first broke down, for instance.
There were also reports that beyond the entrance, rather than a labyrinth, it was a vast open space.
Since they had been told there were stairs ahead, Caligurio surmised the structure was irregular and issued the order to continue exploring.
According to the spirit users' reports, the spirits were confused and the path was not always clear.
He already knew from Shinji and the others' testimony that the dungeon's structure underwent changes roughly once a week.
That knowledge led Caligurio to make a flawed judgment.
(They're not catching up… The structural transformation must coincide with this timing.)
Thinking as much, he instructed his subordinates to relay that information.
However, Caligurio felt disgraced on behalf of the Empire, annoyed that anyone would be rattled over something as trivial as a maze restructuring.
The items carried out one after another were all exceptional equipment forged from first-rate
The Magic Crystals harvested were of high quality, with what appeared to be excellent energy conversion efficiency.
Faced with such profit, minor confusion was hardly a problem.
Then, over the course of a full day, the bulk of the 350,000 soldiers completed their infiltration of the dungeon.
The surface forces remained stationed at the entrance, prepared to relay messages from inside via rope communication.
They also set up tents in an orderly flow to receive the valuables being brought out.
That was when the real abnormality occurred.
Communication with the soldiers inside the dungeon was lost entirely, and the ropes had suddenly gone slack.
It happened at the precise moment all 350,000 soldiers had been sent inside.
After that, they attempted telepathy and magical transmission to reestablish contact, but no response ever came.
The flow of valuables from inside, which had been proceeding smoothly until then, had also been cut off simultaneously.
Every means of surveying the dungeon's interior from the surface had been lost.
The dungeon entrance gaped open just as it had from the start.
And yet, near the entrance inside, every trace of soldiers had vanished without a word.
An indescribable, eerie silence settled over the area, filling the Imperial officers and soldiers with an ominous premonition.
Caligurio was no exception, and he would hesitate over his next course of action.
But the situation was changing rapidly, and there was no longer time to worry about those who had invaded the dungeon…
The time remaining for Caligurio was all but gone.
— Dungeon Floors 61–70 — Pushing through hordes of undead monsters, the soldiers of the Imperial Mecha-Augmented Corps advanced through the dungeon.
Combat squads trailed slightly behind the vanguard, maintaining a guard while staying on alert.
That said, every last one of them was a proven fighter.
In adventurer terms, they were all at least B-rank equivalent or higher.
They possessed the skill of those called first-rate.
Because of that, they had been able to handle monsters without panicking… or so it went.
Approximately one day after entering the dungeon, the situation underwent a drastic change.
Contact with the surface forces was severed, and they were completely isolated.
No — to be precise, that was not quite right.
They had descended roughly nine flights of stairs, that much was certain.
And when they reached the bottom, it opened into a large space — and there was nothing there.
The follow-up waves kept pouring down, but the instant the number reached ten thousand, the staircase vanished.
In its place appeared a massive door.
Without time to even question it, the door opened.
And then— "Welcome to my Kingdom of Death.
Come now — let's have ourselves a splendid time.
You've got more reinforcements waiting behind you, so let's begin!"
An skeleton — or was that the right word to use?
Polished, pure-white bones spoke fluent words to the Imperial soldiers.
Immediately after, an evil roar was unleashed with enough force to crush the space around it.
And there appeared the Undead Dragon.
The most fearsome dragon at the apex of the undead hierarchy descended upon the Imperial forces.
The great door swung fully open, and from within, waves of Undead Knights led by an Undead Knight Commander crawled forth.
From the sky above, the Undead Dragon rained down Corrosive Breath, while on the ground, battle with the Undead Knights commenced.
The Imperial forces were decimated in the blink of an eye, and the first ten thousand were annihilated in less than an hour.
After all, there were only some fifteen hundred Undead Knights — but no matter how many were cut down, they simply regenerated.
That situation shattered the Imperial soldiers' morale and drove them to despair.
Enemies with no fatigue and no death. And overhead, the overwhelming threat of the Undead Dragon.
The second wave and third wave met the same fate.
The Imperial soldiers kept descending deeper and deeper, unaware that what awaited them beyond was death itself, the stream unbroken.
— Dungeon Floors 71–80 — The Imperial forces that ventured into these floors found themselves locked in an endless war against swarms of insects.
A relentless, unceasing insect assault.
They feared no death and attacked in ceaseless waves through sheer numbers.
That said, the Magic Crystals harvested from them were of high quality, and the soldiers' spirits remained bright.
Though the attacks never stopped, each individual insect was not particularly strong.
A normal adventurer party, unable to rest and attacked while fatigued, might be overwhelmed and killed before they could bring their full power to bear.
But even with the sheer volume of insects, the Imperial soldiers were not outnumbered.
The moment someone grew tired, they rotated out, and the formation advanced at full strength.
The reports had indicated the dungeon interior looked quite different from what they were encountering, but that was not for individual soldiers to judge — they filed reports upward and left it at that.
There was no moment to let one's guard down, yet neither was the situation unmanageable. In fact, some soldiers were all smiles at the lavish spoils.
One of them must have opened a treasure chest in a previous room and found a short sword within.
A blade adorned with gold and silver filigree, obviously expensive to look at. Its performance appeared quite high as well, and the material was said to be pure Magisteel.
Even a blade using Magisteel only in the core would be costly, but this short sword was made entirely of Magisteel.
It was no wonder that soldier was grinning from ear to ear.
A belongings inspection would certainly come later, but something as small as a short sword was likely to slip through unnoticed.
The surrounding soldiers looked on with envy, but each of them believed their turn would come next.
Without such rewards, fighting insects in a place like this would be utterly unbearable.
The Magic Crystals being harvested were also accumulating in impressive quantities.
High-purity Magic Crystals were rare, but here they could be obtained easily from defeated monsters.
At this rate, the bonuses would be generous.
They had been discouraged hearing the previous unit screaming about the floors being flooded with undead, but this insect-filled layer had to be the jackpot.
Everyone was indulging in blissful fantasies of a windfall.
While the soldiers grew complacent, there existed those who felt a creeping sense of danger.
These individuals gathered secretly and formed a small unit — they were personnel from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau.
Deployed to various units, they had quietly slipped away and congregated.
The reason was simple.
They sensed danger.
"This dungeon is dangerous. Entering it may have been a mistake."
One of them spoke without opening their mouth.
They held hands and communicated via telepathy — the Intelligence Bureau's signature method of conversation.
"Yes. You noticed too, then?
That powerful individual earlier — the one referred to as the Floor Boss…"
"Right. The one in the room near the staircase?
Its strength was on another level, but a few upper-rank soldiers took it down."
"That's the one. But I received a report from a follow-up wave that I can hardly believe.
It apparently came back to life. In about three hours."
"Wh… at…?"
And then they exchanged information they had each gathered.
The more they heard, the more it became clear this dungeon had a warped structure.
It was entirely different from the pre-invasion reports.
When intelligence proved this unreliable, the normal course of action would have been to halt the advance and re-investigate.
And yet, the upper echelons had forced the exploration onward.
It was obviously the result of prioritizing greed, and the Intelligence Bureau personnel considered it a mistake to have gone along with it.
They debated whether to extract themselves from the dungeon— The head of the soldier walking beside them rolled across the ground.
It was all too late.
They had not even reached a decision, and the window for discussion had already closed.
"Fufufufufu. Has the bait come to us of its own accord?
You've worked hard. You may die now."
The voice reached their ears simultaneously.
A beautiful voice echoing throughout the floor.
It belonged to the Floor Boss guarding this layer — the
She had converted her thoughts into waves and broadcast them across the entire floor.
And what began was a one-sided massacre.
Being somewhat confident in one's combat ability meant absolutely nothing here.
Even A-rank meant nothing if one fell below a certain threshold — the outcome was no different from that of a novice.
Those who could not react were not even permitted to resist.
Apito's Legion Bees.
Their true form: killing machines roughly thirty centimeters in length, executing high-speed three-dimensional maneuvers at supersonic velocity.
Their small, transparent wings produced a terrifying blade of high-frequency vibration. They closed in beyond the speed of sound — Silent Assassin Bees.
Over a thousand of these killers used their hyper-sense to locate even hidden humans.
Superior dynamic visual acuity was meaningless; without the Extra Skills of Thought Acceleration and Super-High-Speed Reaction, responding was simply impossible.
Unless one exceeded the limits of the human species, detecting them was impossible. Even a single one warranted a Special A-Class Threat designation — in the Western Nations, for reference, the discovery of even one would trigger an emergency alert. A squad of upper-ranked Holy Knights would be mobilized, hemming the target in with Holy Barriers before weakening it with debilitation and slow spells for a large-scale extermination operation. Even then, one had to accept the likelihood of casualties — such was the extreme danger level of this monster.
And so the feast of slaughter began.
The time it took to annihilate every Imperial soldier on that floor was less than ten minutes.
— Dungeon Floors 81–90 — Now it could be said.
The first floor had been a bonus stage.
Michel and
Their comrades were already gone.
All of them had been killed.
By the demon before them — a beautiful, pure-white-furred, intelligent ape.
But they were hardly the only ones suffering.
They did not know it, but from the eighty-first floor onward, those who descended into each respective layer had each been forced into their own miserable battles.
Floor 81 had been merely a showcase floor — a paradise of magical beasts where powerful individuals roamed.
Among them were apex specimens leading their packs, but the majority were mindless monsters.
Even veteran soldiers with considerable strength could defeat them with ample margin.
They had struggled against monsters stronger than expected — on average, three to five B+ tier or higher monsters appearing as a team — but they had reached the first staircase without casualties.
Thinking that at this rate, it might take several days but the dungeon could be conquered, that was when it appeared.
A speaking ape of great intelligence.
It wielded sorcery to devastating effect, reducing an entire army to ruin.
The Pure-White Demon Ape —
A unique fighting style employing a staff, with shape-shifting aerial killing techniques.
It commanded wind and sound, taking to the sky and summoning storms.
And it could unleash vacuum blades in every direction — an extraordinarily dangerous magical beast.
More than an hour had passed since encountering this beast Byakuen, and their companions were falling one after another.
Michel and Raymond were individuals who, both as "Otherworlders" and as soldiers, were relied upon and held upper-tier positions.
Carrying the pride of their strength, they fought this beast with everything they had.
The sniper squad's attacks were deflected by the storms. The magic squad's debilitation and status-infliction spells were neutralized by its sorcery.
Direct offensive magic lacked the power to breach its wind barrier.
Byakuen toyed with the Mecha-Augmented Corps' elite augmented soldiers as if they were children.
It was an almost unbelievable sight.
But in truth, Michel and Raymond were far from the only ones locked in desperate combat.
Similar beasts waited on other floors as well.
The vanguard soldiers suddenly collapsed, writhing in pain.
Upon inspection, dark spots had appeared on their skin, and they were running high fevers.
Tiny black rats scurried at their feet. The creatures looked so feeble that the soldiers paid them no mind.
But those rats were the very source of this catastrophe.
Black Rats.
That was the Floor Boss of this layer.
The plague sovereign who spread the black death.
Had someone with Shinji's abilities been present, this floor could have been neutralized — but unfortunately, no such person was here.
Healing magic was largely ineffective against disease, and those who could wield Holy Magic capable of full cure were rare.
Treating wounds and treating disease operated on entirely different principles.
And so, death spread throughout this floor.
On other floors as well — a tiger wreathed in lightning — Thunder Tiger — blocked the path on one floor, while a gravity-manipulating rabbit — Moon Rabbit — rampaged on another.
A serpent with wings — Winged Serpent — manipulated atmospheric composition to reduce oxygen to zero, and a sheep that reaped soldiers' consciousnesses — Sleep Sheep — lured them into slumber through hypnotic hallucinations.
A bird wreathed in flame — Flame Bird — incinerated soldiers with searing heat, and a dog that wielded a mirror reflecting all things — Mirror Dog — deflected all spells back upon their casters.
On each floor, a fearsome magical beast lord held dominion.
Most terrifying of all was the fact that even if they were defeated, they would regenerate.
That single fact was enough to shatter the soldiers' wills.
All they could do was continue the hopeless fight.
Rats, tigers, rabbits, serpents, sheep, apes, birds, dogs — these animal-type magical beasts.
They were the Eight Legions of the Nine-Headed Beast
Those magical beasts assembled together were Kumara; individually, each was merely the manifestation of one of Kumara's abilities.
Kumara appeared as a nation-toppling beauty, but its true nature was that of a demonic beast that beckoned death — the Illusion King.
And even before Kumara, the foolish arrived.
To Kumara, they were nothing more than food…
Still more death was mass-produced within the dungeon.
And then…
When all 350,000 Imperial soldiers had completed their dungeon infiltration and a full day had passed…
the number of survivors had reached zero.