Chapter 110
Jiu descended into the black thick mist and drew a dagger.
It was a dagger adorned with elegant decorations and engraved patterns.
She slashed her skin again with the blade, drawing blood.
"Skill activation——Bloodfly Realm."
The dripping blood writhed, rose into droplets, and floated up, as if falling upward, until it reached in front of Jiu's eyes. Its shape shifted, and round, beady eyes formed into a plump little fly.
"......This mist has a range of about 10 meters, I'd say. Better than nothing."
Jiu crouched down and pulled out a gun from the holster strapped to her thigh.
It was a magic gun, equipment used alongside magic swords in dungeon conquest.
Like magic swords, an ordinary person couldn't harm monsters with it. Only those with the aptitude of an explorer could use it to fight monsters.
"......Let's go, little fly."
Jiu took out a torchlight and illuminated her surroundings.
The fly began buzzing energetically, flying around Jiu.
It might appear weak, but it was a highly capable fly with various functions.
Jiu proceeded cautiously through the thick mist.
Inside the tower, the corridors were intricately and three-dimensionally tangled.
Jiu raised her torchlight and looked upward.
What could be called aerial corridors—stone pathways—were constructed in layers, stretching in all directions.
The floors and walls were covered in moss. Jiu thought that the passage of time had weathered this place.
What was strange was that the usual principles of domestic dungeons didn't apply here.
(......Typically, domestic dungeons are constructed as a series of corridors about five meters wide and five meters high, but this place doesn't follow that rule at all. It also gives off a rather dilapidated impression. Dungeons are said to metabolize, grow, form anew, and continue expanding...... but there's no sense of vitality here.)
Jiu, a receptionist who had worked for many years in the supply base division of the Dungeon Foundation, had seen numerous dungeons over 15 floors deep, but she had never encountered one so eerie. It felt as if it were already dead.
While exploring, Jiu came across a stone monument.
It was a massive monument, cracked and shattered, standing nearly ten meters tall.
It was inscribed with unreadable characters.
She had no idea what it meant, but she understood that it was an artifact.
Artifacts are materials created by beings of a lineage different from modern humanity, encompassing the information they recorded. The term is especially used for those with low or no abnormality.
In short, while they don't have strange functions, they are items the Dungeon Foundation must manage and understand.
(......Considering the Dark Mist as well, it's reasonable to assume this is the Archon Dungeon. This information is valuable, but it's not something I can resolve on my own.)
Experts would be needed for the investigation, and retrieving such a massive monument from deep within a dungeon would require several procedures.
Ensure safety, reduce the number of monsters, install the point-to-point teleportation device, and finally begin the recovery effort.
Jiu resolved that she needed to rescue the explorers from this place as soon as possible.
"Ugh, ugh...... Is someone there? Help me......!"
Jiu turned toward the voice.
Someone was approaching from the distance.
As she aligned the magic gun's sights, a figure appeared in her scope.
It was a muscular man with pale skin.
He was wrapped in simple white cloth.
His hand bore a massive claw.
His right shoulder and chest were deeply gashed, soaked in fresh blood.
Jiu recognized that appearance.
"......Don't move."
"Tch, you... are you from the Dungeon Foundation......?"
"......A follower of the Archon, huh. I'll tell you now—I'm ready to shoot you dead at any moment due to the emergency situation."
The silver-clad follower stopped in his tracks and ground his teeth.
"Damn it, to think a little girl like you would trample through Central with filthy feet......!"
"......A little girl, you say. Looks like you've taken a serious wound. If you come with me, I'll restrain you and treat you. Of course, there's an after-service of interrogation and legal judgment too."
"Don't screw with me!"
The silver-clad follower swiftly swung his claw.
Jiu fired without hesitation.
The claw caught the bullet and tried to slice her slender neck.
Jiu took a step back.
The claw grazed her bangs.
She dodged with minimal movement, exposing a fatal opening in the follower's defenses.
Jiu, unfazed, fired three shots into his chest, two into his face, and one into the groin as a bonus.
The crisp sound of the hammer echoed in the layered, enclosed space.
Still, he wasn't an ordinary human.
Drenched in blood, the silver-clad follower still glared at Jiu with eyes full of fighting spirit.
"Not bad, explorer...... Fine then! If I'm going to die anyway, I'll take you with me......!"
Saying that, the follower raised his claw.
The claw gleamed with silver light.
That light burst outward as if to dispel the darkness.
But then, the surrounding thick mist rapidly closed in as if to smother it, and the claw's gleam vanished.
"Hahaha, this is the end for you too."
The silver-clad follower spread his arms and laughed loudly, "Ahahahaha!"
A moment later, something moved at the edge of her vision.
"Gugh!"
The follower stopped laughing.
He let out a strangled gasp...... and was then cleaved in two.
He was split diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip.
A cold fear ran down Jiu's spine.
She realized that death thicker than the mist stood before her.
The clawed man must have summoned it by some means.
A demon that brought death to himself—and now to Jiu as well.
Jiu threw away her torchlight and bolted.
The sound of the light shattering echoed far behind her.
The air trembled slightly.
Feeling the grim reaper behind her, Jiu ducked on instinct.
Something whizzed past above her head at high speed.
Jiu looked up.
The figure was draped in black cloth.
A monster with a color deeper than darkness itself.
It moved with a slick, smooth motion.
Jiu fired her gun——and by the time she noticed, she was dead.
What was the weapon?
It was definitely a blade, but beyond that, she couldn't tell.
The only thing she knew was that her body had been torn apart.
And that was when her consciousness cut off.
————
(......That was a close one.)
Behind the stone monument, Jiu let out a sigh of relief.
She confirmed the death of the avatar to which she had transferred her consciousness.
(......'Embodiment of Lies,' you saved my life again.)
Jiu was used to throwing herself into danger.
That was because the skill she possessed, 'Embodiment of Lies,' was suited for exploration in unknown areas.
The skill 'Embodiment of Lies' was essentially a decoy.
It was a skill with a limited use of once per day that created a doppelgänger identical to herself.
It had several drawbacks, one being the need for a living creature as a catalyst.
Another was its extremely short range.
Originally, the decoy couldn't stray more than a few meters from the real body.
Jiu compensated for this limitation by using her 'Bloodfly Realm' skill.
She overcame the drawback of requiring a living creature as catalyst by preparing her own, allowing her to use the skill anywhere, and by controlling the bloodflies, she had greatly extended the range of control over her avatar.
She had equipped the avatar with a torchlight and was holding her breath ten meters behind it.
As a result, she managed to survive the monster's attack.
That said, the monster was still just around the corner.
Jiu watched cautiously from behind cover.
(......That monster killed an Archon follower without hesitation. Which means it's hostile toward the pale-skinned invaders who attacked the supply base. Hmm, this Archon Dungeon doesn't seem like something we can take lightly.)
Jiu pulled her head back behind cover.
She worked as the Dungeon Foundation's receptionist.
Though she possessed exceptional combat abilities and mysterious skills, even she couldn't take that thing on—meaning there were very few who could.
(......I can't handle this. If I get found and die here, everything will be for nothing. Just the phenomenon of a Double Dungeon forming inside a dungeon is rare enough, but for it to happen inside the Archon Dungeon... I need to get this information to the surface as soon as possible.)
She resolved to stay hidden until the danger passed.
"Ugh, uh, uhh!"
"......You are—"
A rasping groan came from someone clutching Jiu's ankle.
It was the Archon follower who had been brutally slaughtered earlier.
Despite being violently slashed, it seemed he was still breathing.
Apparently, he had dragged his entrails along and crawled to Jiu using only his upper body.
Jiu shuddered at the grotesque tenacity and grit he showed.
And with the last of his strength, the follower fulfilled his goal.
The black monster reacted to the sound and moved.
"Tch, 'Ominous Automata'!"
Jiu gripped her necklace and focused, tearing open space from which arms shot forth.
Six arms burst out—much longer than a human's, with numerous joints.
The arms pinned down the monster's claws, grabbed its black cloth with the remaining limbs, and with immense power, slammed it into the stone monument.
'Ominous Automata'
It was a G4 anomalous substance.
A necklace-shaped anomalous substance that could, when focused upon, summon a creepy mechanical doll with six multi-jointed arms.
It had been Jiu's precious partner since her early days.
The monster struck against the stone monument quickly got up and lunged at them.
'Ominous Automata' grappled with the monster to stop it.
In the darkness, metal gleamed dully. Two of the doll's arms were severed.
Jiu's eyes widened.
For a brief moment, her gaze met that of the mechanical doll.
They had never exchanged words.
Yet Jiu understood the doll's—her—will.
Jiu hesitated... then chose to run.
(......'Ominous Automata' is a level 280 summoned monster. But even she probably can't win. At best, she can buy me time.)
Jiu ran with all her might, not looking back.
Then she came to a stop.
Her breathing was ragged. With each gasp, despair surged.
"Hah, hah, hah... A dead end? No way..."
She patted her hands against the cold stone wall.
Jiu turned around.
The black monster was slowly approaching like a hunter stalking its prey.
"......Just my luck. If I knew this would happen, I'd have eaten more cake on my birthday."
Her only regret was skipping the strawberry and whipped cream-covered whole cake on her birthday because she was worried about her weight.
——Gagagaga
"......?"
Suddenly, a sound came from behind her. Right behind.
She turned instinctively—and saw the massive wall splitting right down the middle.
The ground shook as the wall rumbled open, revealing a silhouette on the other side.
Compared to the thick black mist, the other side looked far more promising—though the people standing there had a bizarre appearance.
A human-sized bean pastry carrying a beautiful silver-haired girl.
A pervert shamelessly exposing his private parts.
The only one who looked remotely decent was a young man in a heavy long coat.
"Heya, good morning, afternoon, or evening! It's your guy Finger Man! Today, we're kicking off another episode of Finger Man Channel!"
A voice so cheerful it pierced the darkness.
Perverts who banished the gloom.
Jiu couldn't quite bring herself to call them hope.