Chapter 109
The rescue team led by Jiu, the Dungeon Foundation receptionist, descended the steep, sixty-degree-sloped trunk of the cedar giant planted by the Pollen Fighter.
As they took their time to descend safely, something strange came into view.
"Jiu-san, that looks like a tower."
"......A tower, yes."
Jiu answered while keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead.
What appeared before the rescue squad was a massive tower.
(......A tower looming within the Dark Mist. If that structure is as it appears, it must be about 100 meters in diameter, by visual estimate. The tree trunk has grown straight and pierced into the tower.)
The trunk had forcefully broken through the tower's outer wall and extended inside.
And just when it had punched a hole through the wall, it seemed to have stopped growing.
Inside the massive tower, the black mist was even thicker.
The density was incomparable to normal levels.
You could see the thick black mist leaking out from the hole the cedar tree had bored through.
(......The Dark Mist is thick. A mist that corrodes the mind. Operating in this tower for long periods is dangerous.)
The rescue team landed on the tower's outer wall and looked down at their feet.
The visibility was so hopelessly poor that they couldn't gauge the height at all.
Jiu dripped a drop of blood once more.
"......It's a safely descendable height. We'll drive in rope piles here and go down."
"Wait, we're going inside that?"
The members of the rescue team understandably hesitated.
It was visibly ominous, that black mist.
Jiu silently drove in the piles by herself, and tugged on the rope to confirm it was securely fastened.
"......Everyone, please handle the outside of the tower. I'll take care of the inside."
"W-Well, if that's the case, then..."
In the end, Jiu was the one to descend into the mist-filled tower.
Leaving a few people on the outer wall and atop the cedar tree, the rescue team also descended to the outside of the tower.
"Jiu-san, are you really going to be okay alone? Jumping into that thick mist is like doing deep breathing on a sunny day after the rain, when pollen levels are twenty times higher than normal."
"......Even so, it's true that this is too much for an ordinary explorer. I should be able to resist it to some extent, so it's all about the right person in the right place."
"I see. As expected of the Foundation's receptionist. You're tough enough to join the fight against pollen once you retire."
"......How rude. I'm still in my prime, thank you."
Jiu cracked a light joke as she descended into the tower.
Incidentally, the fact that she celebrated her 29th birthday alone last month is a secret no one knows.
────
——Akagi Hideo's perspective
Once again, the Finger Man Theater opens with full energy today.
It was a sudden event, occurring about four hours after the silver apostles began guiding Finger Man and his merry crew into the Abyss.
"He-hey-hey, this is Finger Man from the Finger Man Channel! Today, we've got Naked Man joining us! Naked Man, thanks for being here today!"
"............What the hell just started?"
"Hey, Naked Man, what kind of stuff dwells in the depths of this silver dungeon?"
"......Hmph, if you're that desperate to know, I'll tell you. You're doomed to die anyway. The silver dungeon is a sanctuary we, the proxies, summoned after years of magical research. Here, we carry out the ritual to resurrect the great ruler Metania—or perhaps Merunya. You can't even begin to imagine the sheer amount of time we've invested. Someone as ignorant and foolish as you couldn't possibly understand."
"Thanks, Naked Man! I totally get it now! (*He doesn't.)"
"......(This guy... Did I say too much? No, wait! Could it be he pretended to be a lunatic just to make me talk...!?)"
The silver apostle looked at the side profile of Finger Man, who had gone back to a straight face.
The doubt turned into certainty.
Finger Man is a completely different person on the inside than he appears on the outside.
The apostle couldn't hide his shock at the brilliant performance.
(They say a wise hawk hides its talons. This guy was playing the fool on purpose. Damn, so that's it. All those insane stories about Finger Man... every one of them was a bluff to hide the truth... I couldn't get to the bottom of it because the info was so chaotic, but now I'm sure. He's cold. Cold and calculating. A rationalist who doesn't care what it takes to achieve his goal. That's the real Finger Man...!)
The silver apostle trembled at his own naivety.
(Finger Man... He's been aiming for this all along. Waiting for me to let my guard down and start babbling...! (*Self-destructs.))
The board is commanded by his fingertips.
He possesses the strategic insight to see through everything.
Ultimately, even this current action connects to what comes next.
(This is Finger Man... He doesn't care how he's perceived. No matter if they call him a pervert, a weirdo, or look at him with pity, he never flinches. Because all of it is just a means to an end. Every move a step toward the goal. I never truly understood Finger Man. No—he made me think I did, manipulated me into underestimating him (*Self-destructs), and then extracted the information cleanly (*Self-destructs again).)
"Finger Man... Just how much can you see...?"
the silver apostle asked, his voice trembling.
The black thick mist made it easy to lose sight of the Finger Man standing right next to him.
He tilted his head slowly, his expression unchanged, and muttered, "How much, huh."
Somehow, even the fluffy white bird following him looked intelligent.
Finger Man hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
Even in enemy territory, he remained unfazed. His calm timing gave off an air of authority.
"I was wondering what you were going to ask...——Everything. Of course it's everything."
Finger Man declared.
Winter ends, flowers bloom, summer thrives, and autumn fades.
As if to say it was as natural as the changing seasons, Finger Man wordlessly directed his words to Naked A: "Don't ask such obvious questions."
"Everything, you say..."
"Yeah, everything."
Even when asked again, his answer didn't change.
Incidentally, "Yeah, everything. (Free interpretation: All that EXP is mine. Don't look at me with those hungry eyes. You're not getting any!)" was something the silver apostle failed to decipher.
"Everything......"
The silver apostle began to regret inviting such a monstrous being in, overwhelmed by Finger Man's sheer scale.
(But it's okay... It should be okay... No matter how superior he is in knowledge and power, he doesn't have access to higher-dimensional thinking. Taking care of him early to cripple the Foundation's strength—that decision shouldn't be wrong...)
No matter how much he agonized, it was all too late.
Because the silver apostle had already brought Finger Man into the deepest part—the Central.
And the true objective was now just ahead.
"Even I have never been beyond this point."
The silver apostle halted in front of a massive gate.
The gate stood over 30 meters tall, and walls curved around it in a circular fashion on both sides.
"Beyond here is the Central... In other words, the dungeon's core."
"So we were just in a corner of it?"
"You were near the very outer wall of the dungeon."
"So that cliff was the outer ring of the tower."
Finger Man looked convinced.
(The silver dungeon is a colossal tower dungeon with an 800-meter diameter and a 400-meter-wide Central at its core. We've been meandering around, but never met the Apostle... If we had, we could've taken care of Finger Man together.)
Even the silver apostle now found the dungeon's current state to be off-script.
Originally, he had no intention of guiding Finger Man into the Central.
(The Foundation's supply base raiders, the surface suppression unit, and the ritual unit... We had tight coordination, but ever since this black thick mist appeared, our thoughts have been completely cut off. When the explorers infiltrated, we switched to sweep mode for now, but... maybe I should've prioritized regrouping with the others?)
The silver apostle hesitated before the door he had arrived at.
Letting Finger Man wander around aimlessly to kill time was no longer feasible.
(Damn it, time to commit. If we don't kill this explorer "Finger Man" here, he'll become a serious threat. Therefore, I must release the Central and unleash the silver apostles slumbering in the deeper floors.)
"I'll open the gate."
"Looks too big to open by hand, though."
"Our years of research were also for the purpose of unlocking this Central."
The silver apostle raised a hand.
With a pale blue flame, a book appeared.
An old, blood- and fat-stained book. One of the creations of sorcerers who delved into the mysteries, hidden in the night, committing blasphemy and taboo.
(Come to think of it, it took a long time to obtain this... If I'd met that man a bit sooner, maybe the plan could've moved forward earlier.)
Lost in thought, the apostle flipped open the grimoire and began chanting a spell.
Slowly and precisely. Words from so long ago that no one remembers them anymore.
"——Open the gate."
The spell concluded.
The gate began to move on its own.
Immediately after, a vast amount of thick mist poured out from the gap that had opened.