Chapter 385
A monster, shaped like a turtle by continental standards, with a mineral shell protecting its body.
Even though it was a bit large, Simon, who had defeated all sorts of vicious monsters across the continent, thought this wouldn’t be a difficult fight.
However—
“……Hoo, haah. Haah!”
It had already been 30 minutes since the battle began.
Simon hadn’t managed to take down a single monster and was panting heavily.
Clack!
Clack-clack!
Skeletons surrounded the monster, swinging their blades, but their weapons bounced off uselessly as they struck the mineral shell covering the monster's body.
In the rear, a skeleton archer fired arrows, and beside it, a skeleton mage launched Dark Blaze. But neither arrows nor firepower worked on the monster.
Its defense was nothing short of impenetrable.
‘Open Gate!’
As the skeletons distracted it, Simon targeted the monster’s joints with Overlord’s bladed tentacle.
The blade skimmed sharply along the monster’s leg, but didn’t leave so much as a scratch. Not only the shell, but all of its skin was made of ore-like material.
‘Then!’
Simon took a few steps back, completed a magic circle, and pointed his index finger. If physical attacks didn’t work, he’d win with a curse.
<Sickness>
Ping!
But even the curse bounced off the mineral covering the monster’s entire body.
“……What the hell is this?”
He hadn’t expected every form of attack to be useless.
At that moment, the monster broke through the skeletons and charged straight at Simon.
Simon quickly focused Darkness into his legs and opened subspace.
“Help me! Herseba!”
[Little one!]
A staff shot out from the subspace and landed in Simon’s hand with a snap! At the same time, he kicked off with his knees and leapt high into the air.
The Darkness recovery speed of Life Vessel was slower than that of an average human Core. It was unfortunate to bring her out so early, but there was no choice.
Simon, now airborne, brought Herseba down with all his might onto the monster’s shell.
“Golden Transmutation!”
Clang!
However—
Even Herseba’s psychic ability failed to turn the shell to gold.
[Yikes! That hurts, little one!]
“Ugh!”
Having failed the attack, Simon rolled off the shell.
‘How is this possible?’
Neither physical attacks, nor magic, nor curses, nor even psychic powers worked.
And this wasn’t even a Dungeon Master—just a regular monster.
It was slightly disheartening that none of the skills he had worked so hard to learn were effective, but Simon quickly pulled himself together.
‘This is a dungeon.’
Before coming here, Simon had read many books on dungeons from the Keyzen Library. And there was one thing dungeon explorers consistently emphasized.
It wasn’t about strength to protect oneself, nor experience in navigating dungeons, nor sharp intuition.
It was what people commonly referred to as a mindset.
—A dungeon is a world of its own.
—Don’t assume that the rules of your world will apply here.
—Even the strongest, largest creatures on land are weaker than a palm-sized sea anemone once they fall into the ocean.
—Reset all your common sense and think.
Just as he was beginning to sense something faintly, the monster realized Simon was on its back and began to thrash violently.
“Whoa!”
Simon flailed his arms, struggling to keep his balance. If he fell, he’d be crushed under those heavy legs.
[Uugh! W-whoa? Kid!]
Herseba bit onto Simon’s hem, shouting as she tried not to be flung off.
“Let’s retreat for now. I need time to think!”
He decided there was no need to stubbornly push forward at this point.
Simon recalled Herseba into the subspace, then shot Cloud toward a tree in the distance.
An emerald-colored rope wrapped around the tree, and Simon leapt off the shell, swinging away along the line.
The monster, still thinking Simon was on its back, continued to thrash wildly.
* * *
Roke Island.
Keyzen Main Auditorium.
“This is a disaster.”
Host Conrad clicked his tongue.
A low-resolution observer feed taken from the dungeon had just been projected onto the screen, and the scene was utter chaos.
The students had entered with full confidence. Compared to when they first enrolled as freshmen, they had grown immensely and held great pride in their skills.
But that pride and confidence shattered within minutes of entering the dungeon.
Students from Keyzen, who had confidently declared they would defeat the Dungeon Master, now found themselves unable to catch even rabbit-like monsters and were in despair.
The more confident and arrogant the student, the more devastating their downfall.
“Die, die!!”
“Why won’t it go down?!”
A student was recklessly pouring out Dark Flame-type spells, now showing signs of Darkness depletion.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Another had overexerted himself at the start, fracturing his arm within hours and fleeing. Parents could be heard sighing in distress.
“Professor Hongpeng! How do you assess this situation?”
“In the grasslands where I was born and raised, we have a saying.”
Hongpeng spoke in a calm voice.
“When in the grasslands, follow the laws of the grasslands.”
“……Excuse me?”
“Many from the continent come to the grasslands, flaunting their status or wealth, disturbing villages and violating nature. That saying is for people like them.”
In the grasslands, there is no nobility or lowliness. Above all is the great nature, and beneath it, each person is equal.
“The same applies to students who enter a dungeon.”
Hongpeng rested her chin on her hand and sighed softly.
“If you’re in a dungeon, you must follow the laws of the dungeon.”
* * *
Day 2 in the Dungeon.
Crunch, crunch.
Simon sat on the ground, chewing a high-calorie choco bar.
‘I did try to ration them.’
But he had only brought food for two days.
Now, unless he started hunting monsters, he might starve to death. After savoring one precious calorie bar, Simon turned his gaze to an artifact he had placed on the ground.
A so-called Life Spring Artifact, which could collect moisture from the air overnight and turn it into drinkable water.
It was provided to every student from Keyzen, but had to be returned once the test ended. Losing it would incur a 2,000 gold penalty.
‘At least I don’t have to worry about water.’
Grateful, Simon drank the water collected in the artifact. His thirst vanished instantly, and he felt his strength return.
He carefully transferred every last drop into his canteen and stood up.
“Alright, let’s try again!”
Simon, as if making a vow to himself, walked toward the tree in front of him.
After spending a day here, he had come to realize something for certain: most of the flora and fauna in this world were covered in a mysterious "mineral".
From the roots of the plants to their branches, even the fruits and leaves.
There were minute differences in hardness and elasticity between parts, but all were composed of the same mineral material. The interior could not be easily damaged.
‘And why do the plants in this dungeon look so terrifying?’
They had features faintly resembling eyes, nose, and mouth, which gave him an eerie feeling for no reason.
Shaking off the stray thoughts, Simon placed his hand on the mineral tree bark. Then, carefully, he began to seep Darkness into it.
Ting! Ting!
Dark blue energy sparked and bounced outward. The mineral deflected any kind of external force, repelling it outside the body.
If there had been any chance for Darkness to penetrate, he could’ve built his strategy around that. But from the start, it had been entirely blocked.
‘It’s not even a defense mechanism. The material itself just repels external forces from outside the dungeon.’
Simon took his hand off the tree and drew a magic circle on his palm.
<Call Fire>
A small flame ignited. He pressed it against the surface of the tree and waited, then touched it.
The surface was hot, but soon, it returned to its original state as if it had expelled the heat. There were no signs of burning or contraction.
<Cold Bolt>
Same with cold. It seemed temperature had no effect either.
Beyond that, Simon tried applying electricity, even poured contents from a low-grade poison potion—but nothing worked.
At this point, it was practically an invincible mineral.
If this new material were to spread outside the dungeon, wouldn’t it cause a massive upheaval across the continent?
Of course, it was common knowledge that anything taken from a dungeon would lose its effect drastically in the outside world.
“…What should I do?”
As he was deeply pondering, crack!—a sound rang out, and Simon frowned.
His link to a skeleton had just been severed.
That meant one of the sentries he had stationed nearby was taken out. Simon quickly turned around.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
It was that turtle-shaped monster he had first seen upon entering the dungeon, now charging straight at him.
Of course, it was a different one than before. This forest was full of them, one of the most common monster types here.
“Whoops!”
Simon leapt up using Darkness under his feet. The turtle monster passed under him and slammed its head into the tree.
Craack!
The very tree Simon hadn’t even dared to dream of breaking—covered in mineral—shattered in a single blow and fell over.
Landing on the ground, Simon broke into a cold sweat.
‘It didn’t seem like an insanely strong attack.’
Could it be that dungeon flora and fauna could hurt each other?
Then, the monster turned its head toward Simon and charged again, kicking up clouds of dust.
‘Huh?’
Simon’s eyes widened. The mineral on the monster’s forehead was cracked.
“…….”
As he stared and thought for a moment, Simon’s lips slowly curled into a smile.
“So that’s what it was?”
Vwoom!
Simon immediately stepped to the side to dodge, then pulled out a fruit he had obtained on the first day from subspace.
He had kept it in case he learned how to break minerals and could eat it later.
“With this!”
Simon reached out his arm. Bones from the skeletons nearby quickly wrapped around his right arm.
<Bone Armor – Gauntlet Mode>
With his right arm reinforced using Bone Armor, he gripped the fruit and hurled it with all his strength.
Bam!
The mineral-covered fruit struck the monster’s head, shattering into pieces—and at the same time, the mineral on the monster’s head cracked wide open.
Thud. Clack.
Watching the debris fall, Simon confirmed his hypothesis.
“In the dungeon, follow the dungeon’s rules.”
Simon walked over and picked up the tree the monster had smashed earlier.
<Internal Darkness Divergence>
Fwoooosh!
For the first time in a while, he used a magical combat technique. Darkness surged throughout Simon’s body, enhancing his physical abilities to the limit. Easily lifting the large tree, he charged at the charging monster.
Tap!
Then, he leapt high and landed on the monster’s shell.
“Haaaaaaaah!”
With all his strength, he slammed the tree down onto the shell.
Kwaaang!
As the tree and the shell collided, the minerals clashed and shattered both materials.
“This is it!”
These minerals were nearly impervious to external forces, but when struck with great force by other minerals, a special wave-like reaction occurred, and both minerals shattered in proportionate mass.
Thanks to the monster slamming into the tree earlier, Simon had figured it out. He had gotten lucky.
Now, with the mineral cracked and the raw flesh exposed on the monster’s back, Simon raised two joined fingers and pointed.
Then, he cast the prepared curse in rapid succession.
<Exhaust>
<Exhaust>
Only the exterior was protected by mineral; the inside was fully susceptible to dark magic.
As the Exhaust stacks accumulated, the staggering turtle monster eventually collapsed with a heavy thud.
“I’m sorry.”
From Simon’s subspace, six bladed tentacles shot out.
“I’ll end it without pain.”
The blades pierced into the monster’s head with terrifying speed.
As the monster finally went limp, Simon exhaled heavily and dropped to one knee.
He was worn out and gasping from the recoil of Internal Darkness Divergence, but a wide smile spread across his lips.
“Now I’m starting to get the hang of this.”
It felt like he had finally taken a big step forward in this dungeon.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters