Chapter 387
Day 4.
Simon once again climbed to a hill with a good view of the surrounding landscape.
Carrying a spear made of dungeon minerals over his shoulder, he sharply scanned the vast fields. Herds of monsters, resembling bison, were gathered and active among the tall grass.
Massive in size, their bodies were covered in brown-tinted minerals, and their tails swayed like whips.
[Ew, there’s a disgusting number of them.]
That was Herseba’s impression. As a staff, she was perched upright on top of Simon’s head.
[Hey, kid! You’re not planning to take all of those down, right?]
“No. I just need to get one or two of the right ones.”
[The right ones?]
Simon nodded.
“Help me find one with an injury.”
[An injury, huh. One that’s been wounded.]
Herseba rose even higher. Simon also looked down over the surrounding area again.
The monsters in this dungeon don’t prey on each other, nor do they fight. They don’t have concepts like territorial disputes, competition for food, or males fighting over females.
They only fight for one reason.
When they encounter an outsider—namely, a human—they go berserk and try to devour them.
‘So, if there’s a monster with injuries, it means it’s fought an outsider. Since they don’t fight among themselves.’
Simon looked at the book in his hand. It had come from the stomach of a monster he’d captured earlier.
‘I might be able to find another one of these.’
[Kid! Over there, found one!]
Looking where Herseba pointed, Simon saw a monster covered in slash wounds. A long spear-like object was even embedded in its mineralized hide.
“Nice! That’s the one.”
Simon dashed down the hill, kicking up a cloud of dust.
After figuring out a strategy, hunting monsters became noticeably easier.
Simon would smash the surface minerals using pre-made mineral weapons, then cast curses or tear apart the exposed flesh using Overlord.
And as for Herseba—
[Kyaaaah! Kyaaaaaaaah!]
She was frantically running around, drawing the attention of other bison monsters. Thanks to her distraction, Simon could safely isolate and hunt his target.
“Up we go.”
Even with two stacks of the motion sickness curse, Sickness, the monster resisted violently, shaking its body.
Simon, bouncing on top of it, spotted a spear shaft embedded near its abdomen.
‘That’s it!’
Grabbing it with both hands, he pulled with all his might.
Puhak!
Blood burst out as the spear was cleanly removed. The spearhead was made of mineral, just like the ones Simon used.
‘This definitely wasn’t Keyzen’s doing.’
The spear looked old and worn. Simon felt increasingly confident in his theory.
Thud!
Eventually, the monster couldn’t withstand the nausea and blood loss and collapsed.
Simon quickly sprayed a scent-masking potion over the body and dragged it to a safer location.
* * *
Crackle, crackle!
Successful hunts like this yielded both meat and clues.
Simon set up camp atop a steep hill, lit a fire, and skewered some meat over the flames.
“Good work, Herseba.”
[I’m exhausted!!]
Simon soothed the whining Herseba as he continued the dissection.
Once again, the stomach contained bones and various keepsakes. There was even another book.
“Jackpot!”
With a proud look, Simon laid out his loot.
He’d already collected three books this way.
Out of all 647 students trying to uncover the secrets of the dungeon, his achievements stood out.
[But hey, kid.]
Herseba, still in staff form, bounced over and stared at the books.
[Why are books like these inside monsters? And who wrote them?]
“I have two hypotheses.”
Simon raised two fingers.
“First, some people entered the dungeon before us. Second, there were people living here from the beginning.”
[So either way, someone was here.]
“Yeah.”
It looked like they were all wiped out by the monsters. Still, the presence of books and weapons showed that they had made efforts to survive in this dungeon.
Simon opened one of the books. The writing was in a completely unfamiliar, wavy script, filled with diagrams and illustrations.
[Can you read it?]
Simon shook his head at Herseba’s question.
“Nope, never seen this language before. But the drawings help me guess the content.”
Simon decided to use this knowledge to craft new mineral weapons.
There was a special method for processing minerals.
“Like this.”
He placed a raw lump of mineral on the ground. Using another sharp-edged mineral like a flint tool, he set it against the edge of the lump, then struck it hard with another stone.
Clang!
A clear sound rang out.
After striking the four corners several times, the mineral cracked cleanly into large, usable chunks.
[Ohh! So that’s how it’s done!]
Then, he firmly embedded the mineral into a spear shaft, poured adhesive potion over it, and let it dry—done.
It was disposable, but when used to stab a monster, it would break through the tough hide and pierce the soft flesh inside, dealing significant damage.
As Simon crafted several bundles of spears, he fell into thought.
‘Still, there are so many unsolved mysteries.’
The dungeon’s monsters don’t eat.
Their digestive systems are severely degenerated, and they no longer have excretory systems. That’s why bones and items remain intact in their stomachs.
But no matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense for such large monsters to function without consuming food.
There had to be an alternative energy source.
He had to figure out what that was.
‘And more importantly, how all these clues tie to the dungeon master’s location, that’s the biggest issue.’
It was already Day 4, and still no clear leads. Simon flopped down on the grass and flipped through the books he had collected.
They looked like field guides depicting the dungeon’s flora and fauna.
He couldn’t read the text, so he flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures.
‘Oh.’
And the last page.
A human appeared.
A drawing of a human sitting cross-legged. Grass was growing on their body, and a white hand was reaching up toward them from the ground.
‘What is this?’
Simon adjusted his posture, his expression growing serious.
‘It seems symbolic.’
* * *
Roke Island.
Keyzen Auditorium.
"Alright! It’s already day 5 of the promotion exam!"
The host, Conrad, with deep dark circles under his eyes, lifted a stack of papers.
Despite his exhaustion, his voice remained loud and professional.
"Let’s do a quick midterm review! It's already day 5, how are the students doing? Professor Hongpeng!"
"It’s tough."
Hongpeng, resting her chin on her hand, looked at the video feed.
"I think clearing the dungeon will take longer than I expected. Around a month or two."
Although every student had the clear goal of defeating the dungeon master, they were being tossed around by the harsh environment.
Surviving alone was already difficult, so the test was gradually shifting from a dungeon conquest to a dungeon survival evaluation.
"They're going insane."
Watching a student break their teeth trying to chew on minerals for food, the host shook his head.
"This is really going to be a problem! Especially if, like Professor Hongpeng said, this exam drags on for more than a month or two! I hope someone can defeat the dungeon master quickly and end this test!"
Hongpeng nodded.
"The only ones worth noting are the students who’ve formed parties."
Elisa Celine’s four-person party.
Also, students like Dick and Jaime had formed three-person parties.
These groups shared monster strategies and acquired food through hunting. With survival more manageable, they had a better chance of focusing on finding the dungeon master.
"And then... ah!"
Just then, the video showed a blue-haired boy sitting by a campfire, flipping through the pages of a book.
His face was clean, and he looked to be in great health.
Simon, seasoned by life in the rural fiefdoms, maintained a stable lifestyle in the dungeon, unlike the other suffering students.
"He’s even calmly reading a book. I wonder what book that is?"
The host asked.
At that moment, Hongpeng’s eyes widened dramatically.
"...Let me revise my statement."
"Sorry?"
"Not two months, but two weeks."
A satisfied smile appeared on her lips.
"Everything depends on that student, Simon."
* * *
Day 5.
Simon was startled awake.
The hill that had been near him last night was completely gone. He had taken cover behind it, considering it a good hiding spot, but when he woke up, the area was wide open, and he was stunned.
Where the hill had been, there was a massive footprint.
Simon followed the footprint and saw a colossal monster, nearly identical to that hill, slowly trudging away.
"No way......"
Simon hurriedly pulled out his field guide and flipped through it.
On the right page were monster illustrations, and on the left, drawings of plants. He hadn’t thought much of it before, but now a pattern emerged.
All the monsters in this dungeon were—
‘!’
Simon shuddered and turned around.
The moment he saw the tall, stretching trees, his breath caught and a chill of fear swept over him. Trees that would normally go unnoticed now filled him with dread.
‘...Right. Both plants and animals were covered in minerals. The animals didn’t consume food, and some plants had facial features like eyes, noses, and mouths.’
After secretly observing the monsters, Simon had discovered several important facts.
The monsters in this dungeon transform into parts of the surrounding terrain and dungeon environment—trees, hills, rocks, and so on.
By flattening their bodies to the ground and curling up, their organic tissue would shift, solidifying into rocks, plants, or other forms. Some even reverted from plants back into animals.
It was impossible by the continent’s standard biology, but these dungeon monsters operated on a different system.
‘...I need to be careful.’
Simon had also realized how these monsters gained energy.
Once they depleted their energy, they would transform into plants and seem to recharge through photosynthesis or similar methods.
‘If that’s the case...’
Shrrrk!
Simon opened the final page of the field guide. A human turning into a plant. And next to them, the ‘white hand’.
‘What does this mean?’
He figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Simon decided to mimic the process, even if just as an experiment.
He tied minerals together into a sort of mineral robe, draped it over himself, and sat down cross-legged.
Fwooo...
He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Concentration with closed eyes was Simon’s specialty.
And sure enough, before long—
‘...Ah!’
He felt his consciousness drifting.
He nearly blacked out completely. He had to cling to reason.
‘Focus, focus.’
After struggling to hold on to consciousness for tens of minutes—
Poke.
A thin, white, nerve-like appendage rose from the ground and tried to connect with Simon’s body.
Simon pretended not to notice. Eventually, the appendage seemed to realize Simon wasn’t one of the dungeon’s monsters and fled in a panic.
Simon’s eyes snapped open.
‘That definitely touched me just now!’
This was the true identity of the "white hand" from the guidebook.
And Simon could still feel its lingering sensation across his body.
Even after standing up, he could sense the direction in which the white nerve had retreated.
Simon, standing blankly for a moment, slowly smiled.
‘...Found it!’
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time