Chapter 501
Clatter—clatter—
Simon was enjoying his fill of carriage travel after arriving in Tarados.
The sound of the carriage wheels rolling was becoming familiar to his ears. The uncomfortable rattling, the water glass swaying precariously with a light splash—when all of it becomes familiar, it starts to feel pleasant. If he only had a light book to read along with it, it would be perfect.
“Simon. Six o’clock.”
“Yes.”
Of course, the journey wasn’t entirely peaceful.
A chimera, made from the twisted combination of all kinds of animals, was chasing after the carriage. The land of Tarados was the paradise of abandoned experiments and chimeras.
Simon gave the chimera one steady glance, then returned his gaze to his book.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Black arrows rained down like a storm onto the chimera. Its body pierced by countless arrow shafts, it staggered, and eventually collapsed onto the sandy ground with a heavy thud.
—Ttak!
—Ttak-tak-tak!
Skeleton Archers cheered from atop the carriage.
“Ah, as expected of necromancers!”
The coachman driving at the front exclaimed in admiration.
“Never in my dreams did I think I’d be able to cross Tarados so comfortably!”
“Yes, don’t worry about the chimeras. Just focus on driving the carriage.”
Skeleton Archers stood ready atop the carriage, while a little further behind, Feer and Erzebet were clearing out chimeras in advance as they trailed the convoy.
It was, all in all, a comfortable journey. The client’s younger sister, Lisa, had dozed off soundly; Kajan was transferring the information they had gathered into his notebook.
A brief peace before the next battle.
Simon leaned back against the carriage’s cushions and turned the next page of his book.
‘Reads smoothly. I’ve come quite far already.’
Richard, his father, always taught him that whenever one came to an unfamiliar place—whether on a mission or deployment—solutions would reveal themselves only if one understood the culture and history of the region.
On the way, Simon had asked the coachman to tell him about Tarados, but the coachman instead pulled a book from the luggage compartment, saying “This is the real deal.”
It was a memoir written by Tarados’ “former lord” during its golden age.
The childhood stories were over. The highlight was beginning.
The Gold Mine Dungeon.
‘Interesting.’
It was said that in the Gold Mine Dungeon of Tarados, when monsters were slain, actual gold dropped from their bodies.
This slightly reddish gold shone more brilliantly than any jewel on the continent, and its luster did not fade even when brought outside the dungeon.
Adventurers sold the gold at the market, and ornaments crafted from it became wildly popular among high-ranking nobles. Tarados entered its great golden age.
<I still vividly remember those days. At the rumor of a dungeon that dropped gold, tens of thousands of adventurers flocked to Tarados, dreaming of striking it rich.>
<Villages sprang up around the dungeon, bustling with people. I thought this was my opportunity. I invested in the town, expanded and promoted it. Within just a few years, the town grew into the wealthiest city in the kingdom.>
<But I did not know then the despair and suffering this dungeon would soon bring upon us.>
“Mmm…”
Lisa stirred, restless in the cramped carriage. Simon gently brushed her hair, and she soon fell asleep again, resting her head on his thigh.
Simon returned his eyes to the book.
<The dungeon’s monsters were born from its walls, with uncanny regenerative abilities. Even impaled with spears, they recovered easily. But if the gold lodged in their chests was forced out of their bodies, they could be destroyed. That gold, handed to the merchants eagerly waiting outside the dungeon, brought hefty bundles of cash in return.>
<Blinded by greed, people eventually occupied the dungeon’s first floor, where monsters no longer appeared. Inside this dungeon, even humans recovered quickly from wounds. They barely felt hunger, and even drunkenness left no hangovers. As though time itself was frozen.>
<On the first floor, people ate, drank, and slept all day. With no fear of bodily harm, narcotics became rampant. They indulged in any pleasure imaginable, a hellscape of human depravity. Those who lived in the dungeon we came to call ‘Dungeon Addicts’.>
<Dungeon Addicts never wanted to leave. They spent their days drinking and feasting, and when their money ran out, they descended to the second floor, slew monsters for gold, sold it to merchants, and returned to buy more drink, women, and drugs.>
“When mankind loses the value of labor, tragedy always follows.”
Kajan spoke suddenly beside him.
“…Ahaha, how long have you been watching?”
“From the first page onward.”
Kajan scratched the scar on his face.
“Knowing the history and culture of a place is as important as battle itself.”
“You sound just like my father.”
Simon chuckled and returned to the text.
The next part began with ominous words:
<Something is going wrong. The number of Dungeon Addicts increased, while the dungeon’s monsters appeared less and less. Addicts drew blades against each other to seize gold. Blood splattered, heads split—but within moments, all returned to normal. They began killing humans for amusement, like children playing games.>
<When gold ceased to drop, the merchants abandoned them. Unable to earn money, the Addicts could no longer buy drink, women, or drugs. In desperation, they burst from the dungeon, robbing honest townsfolk of gold, food, even their lives. They carried over the casual killing habit they had formed inside the dungeon.>
<I dispatched guards to subdue them. But the Dungeon Addicts who emerged outside could no longer die, no matter how many times they were cut down. Wounds healed, and they revived endlessly. Yes. At some point, they had become the very ‘monsters’ of the dungeon.>
Simon was dumbfounded.
“…Humans becoming monsters? Did this really happen?”
“Yes, sir. It did.”
The coachman turned his head back as he answered.
“When I was five or six, my father was a Dungeon Addict. My mother always sighed heavily because he never came home.”
“Ah…”
“The calamity is about to begin.”
Kajan urged him.
“Turn the page, Simon.”
“Y-yes.”
<The city was set aflame, destroyed. The great lords trembled, fearing that these immortal Dungeon Addicts might invade their fiefs. The kingdom issued an edict to end the crisis by any means necessary—or Tarados itself would be abandoned.>
<I hired the most skilled adventurers. The five most famous across the continent, who had never failed to conquer a dungeon. This was all I had left. They would descend to the deepest depths, slay the dungeon master, and destroy the dungeon once and for all.>
The lord’s shaky state of mind bled into his writing. Simon turned the page with tension.
<They did it! The adventurers—no, our heroes—killed the dungeon master! The dungeon began collapsing, and the Addicts inside and outside finally regained their sanity! The great adventurers saved Tarados!>
The joy in the lord’s words was palpable.
But.
The euphoria lasted barely a page.
<It is all a nightmare. I heard a dreadful tale. Once the Addicts regained their minds, they turned their fury upon the very heroes who saved them, demanding why they destroyed their paradise. They butchered the wounded adventurers mercilessly, desecrated their corpses. Rumor says one survived, but I cannot be sure.>
<I have decided to resign my lordship. I feel only despair and cynicism at humanity’s depravity. Are these truly humans? If so, I can no longer lead them. A new lord will soon be dispatched from Langerstine. May fortune be with him.>
The memoir ended there.
“……”
Simon closed his eyes and shut the book. Along with the surprise that such history existed on the continent, he was left with a restless, unsettled feeling.
“Coachman.”
“Yes?”
“What happened afterward?”
The coachman gave a bitter smile.
“What could those addicts, who lived with nothing but pleasure in the dungeon without the least bit of effort, possibly do after it disappeared? One by one, they starved to death.”
“……”
“The economy of Tarados, which had maintained prices three to four times higher than other regions thanks to the activation of the Gold Mine Dungeon, collapsed as well. Especially since, when the dungeon was destroyed, the ores once used as luxury items for nobles all lost their luster and turned into worthless stones. Tarados had to bear the cost in full. Capital and people drained away like a receding tide, and gangs swept in to snatch anything of value.”
Simon nodded.
If the infrastructure of Tarados had depended entirely on the dungeon’s income, then suddenly changing the system and adapting its people would have been impossible.
Thus it became the poor fiefdom it was now, and the new lord sent by the kingdom would have exploited and oppressed the people.
Then came the Executioners, the group conducting human experiments. With the support of the Ganes Guild, they established themselves in Tarados, and from there everything spiraled out of control.
“It’s been more than forty years since then. So yes, I do feel some resentment toward the previous generation.”
The coachman said.
“When I was just about old enough to understand, all that disaster struck. The mistakes of the elders and the Dungeon Addicts were left entirely for our generation to suffer. In the end, after my mother passed away, I fled to Eplun to work.”
“…I see.”
Kajan suddenly jerked his head.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve arrived.”
Passing through the wastelands roamed by failed chimera experiments, Simon’s party finally arrived at a ruined city.
Only the foundations of houses remained; everything else was desolate.
“No way…”
“Yes. This is the very place from the tale.”
The coachman’s voice was heavy.
“This is Sogo—the city that housed the Gold Mine Dungeon, the city of pleasure, and Tarados’ greatest golden age.”
The city called Sogo truly had nothing left.
It was uninhabitable—literally a ruin. Only the remnants of foundations and the occasional pillar stood here and there.
“According to intel, the Ganes Guild and the lord’s soldiers move the captured residents here, to these ruins.”
Kajan said.
“Could the Executioners’ base be nearby? Why would they choose such an ominous place…”
“Because it’s a place the people of Tarados avoid. A perfect site for illegal human experiments in secret. Otherwise—”
Kajan’s eyes sharpened.
“There may be an entirely new reason why they had to choose this place.”
As they spoke, the carriage passed through the ruined city.
‘……’
Behind a pillar, a wide white eye glared at them.
“Get down, Lisa.”
“Mm!”
At last, they reached their destination. The spot where the Gold Mine Dungeon had once stood within Sogo.
“Never thought I’d return here.”
The coachman’s gaze swept the place, filled with deep regret.
Simon spoke.
“Coachman, did you ever go inside the dungeon as a child?”
“…No. Adults kept children away from the dungeon entirely. It was too debauched, and knife fights broke out often. The only memory I have is being chased away after sneaking in to find my addict father.”
Simon knelt on one knee, pressing his palm into the sand, brushing through scattered stones and pillar fragments.
Kajan pressed his nose to the ground, sniffing.
“There are faint traces of human presence. Not long ago.”
“There are marks where sand scraped against the pillars. Someone passed by here.”
Simon’s eyes sharpened.
“Then it’s true—Ganes Guild and the lord’s soldiers have been moving people here.”
Kajan’s face, sniffing the air, turned grim.
“Simon.”
“Yes, Kajan.”
“Be careful.”
Sssshhhh—
Ssshhhhh—
The sandy ground around the ruins began to bulge upward. Simon instantly stirred Darkness and shouted:
“Coachman! Lisa! Get back into the carriage!”
“Ah, understood!”
The coachman grabbed Lisa and ran back, while Simon positioned himself to protect the carriage.
Ssshhhhh!
Finally, the sand rose fully, and dried-up undead soldiers—bodies shriveled like jerky—approached with swords and shields in hand.
“Kajan!”
“Got it.”
The two leapt into action simultaneously. Simon lunged forward, smashing his leg into the head of the first soldier.
Wham!
The soldier’s head scattered easily. But then—
Squirm—squelch—
From the broken area, flesh welled up like mud, restoring its face.
Even when broken multiple times, the same thing happened again.
‘Of all things…’
Simon’s expression darkened.
‘Immortal regenerating soldiers—in this place, of all places.’
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