Chapter 98. Dungeon Attack (4)
“The Blue Moon party is rather impressive. They are very skillful.”
“The Red Dragon party is in first place. They’re indeed an honor party.”
The audience made various comments on the performance of the parties.
On the other side of the room, professors busily scored the performance of the parties. As it interested in the students that occupied the top ranks.
“The third rank is Desir’s party.”
“Oh, you mean the party that doesn’t have an official name yet? The new one?”
“I had some hope for them, but they are a Beta Class party after all. They did a great job reaching third place though.” The professors continued to converse with each other.
“Nice to see you, Prof. Bridgette.”
A husky voice squeezed out a greeting. His attitude immediately showed that he habitually treated others with disrespect. He then sat next to Bridgette. It was Pugman Niplica.
“Nice to see you, Prof. Pugman.”
It was a rare occasion for Pugman to start a conversation with Bridgette. Bridgette was uncomfortable talking to Pugman as a result. After a short exchange of greetings, she returned her focus back onto the display panels.
“You don’t seem well.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Of course. You probably don’t feel like talking. I can tell by the situation.”
Pugman deeply breathed in, staring at Bridgette’s face as if enjoying it. For some reason, he looked oddly determined.
“It’s over, Bridgette.”
In a moment, there was a loud scream amongst the professors. The Blue Moon party cleared a high-level obstacle in Stage Two and claimed the rank one position.
Bridgette turned to look at Pugman.
“You’ll never know until it’s really over, Professor.”
“If it makes you feel any better.”
Pugman replied with a slight smirk.
“Desir… maybe this is his limit.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Bridgette enquired.
“I admit that he is competent, but he is a commoner. He came all the way up to this point by pure luck, but there is a glass ceiling as a commoner.”
“Well, there was a person who lost to a commoner.” She was referring to Kelt.
“… That was a careless mistake.”
“If that makes you feel any better.”
It felt like cold air was billowing between the two. Eventually they focused on the display panels again.
“It won’t be as easy as it was before.”
“Is there a reason that you are so confident?”
“Hmph. It is a party competition after all.”
Pugman replied as he continued staring at the display panels.
“Even the honor parties attempted this with their best members. But this one… is made up of
Beta Class members. All of them! Aren’t they too full of themselves?”
“…”
Maybe they were. For this competition, the top magicians had gathered. This was what Desir was trying to do — compete against them with commoners who were regarded as incompetent.
‘But…’
It didn’t phase Bridgette at all though. She shook her head.
“I’ll admit, Pugman. Your bravado is incredible.”
This time fire seemed to spark between the two as they stared at each other.
However, on the display panels that displayed the Beta Class parties, nobody noticed that there was something going on in the corner of a panel. A spot that no one paid attention to.
* * * *
“They went ahead to the next stage!”
Back in Stage One of the dungeon, a place where many parties struggled and tried their best to clear, there was a party moving forward effortlessly.
“Any traps or monsters?”
“Nope, they completely cleared them out.”
“Great. They don’t leave any debris behind them as I expected.”
O’Quinn smiled after the report from their scout. His prediction was correct. It was a great choice to select Desir’s party. He turned towards his party members.
“Good news everyone! It’s time to resume our journey!”
The party, Arachne, was a Beta Class party. They had neither decent gear nor skills.
Surprisingly, all six members were still alive. As a Beta Class party, it was certainly a miracle that all of their members had survived with the entrance to Stage Two right around the corner.
O’Quinn, the leader of Arachne, was smart enough to know that his party was not competent enough to finish Stage One on their own merit.
‘Then, I can literally follow in the footsteps of a good party?’
When a party clears traps and monsters, just follow quietly behind them. This was their strategy. People would say that it was sly, unfair, and sneaky, but O’Quinn thought that it was foolish to go head to head when he could go around.
The downside to this strategy was that if the leading party found out, the whole competition would be over for O’Quinn’s party. Not only that, dire consequences would swiftly follow after the tournament.
Therefore, they tried to select a party that would be magnanimous about this matter even if they were caught: Desir’s party.
“They wouldn’t harm us, even after finding out that we were chasing right behind them.” O’Quinn smirked.
“They even took our ace, Freechel, away from us. At the very least, they should let us follow them.”
The Arachne party members responded with somewhat vacant gazes.
“S… Sure.”
“We were so nice to Freechel.”
O’Quinn shrugged his shoulders.
“You’re right. She was the one who couldn’t take our ‘prank.’ It was just a little prank, and it was so awkward that she just ran out like that.”
He then glared at the members who hadn’t said anything yet.
“Somebody has to be a toy for the Alphas, right, Aljay?”
Aljay looked away. Her eyes wandered around the area. She responded emotionlessly,
“… Right.”
O’Quinn had a close relationship with Alpha Class parties and was subcontracted with them as a result. The party members had to be careful with O’Quinn. Otherwise, they could be made the new target.
The Arachne party walked down the hallway of Stage One. Originally, traps and monsters would have blocked them. No, there were actually some traps set up there, but they were already all dismantled and destroyed. They continued to walk through patches of dead monsters and destroyed traps. It was a non-stop collage of post-battle scenes.
There was a path leading down stairs just behind the piles of gargoyle rubble. The Arachne party went down the stairs.
[Arachne party has entered Stage Two.]
“Great!”
They were probably the top rank amongst the Beta Class parties now. Even though they didn’t fight against a single monster or dismantle a single trap, by entering Stage Two they had gained so much credit already.
‘This is so easy. We can probably enter Stage Three if we continue moving forward like this.’
O’Quinn announced to his party members, “Alright, time to look for Desir’s tracks again.”
“On it.”
There were so many tracks on the ground. The debris from the battlefield was incomparable to the ones in Stage One.
“This way.”
The Arachne party continued following the tracks that lead from battle to battle. After about 10 minutes, they suddenly came to a stop.
*Thud*
A heavy noise could be heard, swiftly followed by a large vibration.
“What is that?”
*Thud* *Thud*
And it wasn’t a one time event. The noise became louder and louder. Soon, a red dot appeared in the dark.
*Shring*
One of the magicians cast light magic and illuminated the surroundings. From one of many paths in front of them, there was something walking towards them. It had a huge body and it made the ground shake as it stepped forward with its gigantic feet, one step at a time. The magician who cast the light magic noticed what it was and screamed.
“A golem!?”
Golems were mythical figures that guard dungeons. They were one of the highest leveled monsters that dungeon invaders, like themselves, could face. It was nearly impossible for them to defeat this monster. Even if they did, they would sustain so much damage from the battle that they wouldn’t be able to carry on.
‘Is it just strolling around?’
Unlike the monsters in Stage One, golems in Stage Two steadily roamed in search of invaders.
While the Arachne party tried to collect themselves, the golem had approached them. A red light scanned them once.
*Shwing*
The golem recognized the figures in-front of it as invaders. The massive body of rock was already so close to them.
O’Quinn ordered his party.
“Back off!”
It was suicidal for them to try and defeat a golem. They needed magic of at least the
Third-Circle or a Knight-Level swordsman in order to break the outer layer and damage the inside of its body.
The highest power in their party was Second-Circle. Retreating was the right decision.
The Arachne party started to run away from the golem, but the golem chasing them was surprisingly fast.
‘Way too fast.’
It seemed like it would catch up to them in just a moment. O’Quinn had to make a decision.
“Aljay, sorry.”
O’Quinn cast magic. He turned around and cast [Seize] magic at Aljay.
*Crush*
Aljay’s feet were caught and stuck to the ground. Due to her momentum and the abrupt stop, she immediately fell down to her knees. O’Quinn shouted at her.
“You need to be the bait for us.”
“…!”
Aljay looked up at O’Quinn and the other members, but nobody came to help her. They continued escaping.
‘We can find the tracks later. We just need to get rid of this thing first.’
Because Stage Two had a more complicated map somewhat reminiscent of spider webs, in comparison to Stage One, O’Quinn believed that he could remove this tail.
‘Next time, I should chase Desir’s party much closer.’
Unfortunately, he couldn’t change the past to make this happen. O’Quinn’s party suddenly stopped in their tracks. O’Quinn’s could see a red light glowing in the dark in front of them. It was another golem.
“We’ll turn around and take the side path that we just passed!”
*Thump*
It was a heavy sound from behind them. The first golem had caught up.
‘Wait, it’s here already? Aljay, you useless piece of sh*t.’
Two golems, on either side of the party, slowly closed in on them blocking any path out of this predicament. They were completely trapped.
“We’re done.”
All of the members heard what O’Quinn muttered and gave up on escaping their fate.
‘Well, we made it to Stage Two. We did pretty well.’
“Arachne party, we surrender.”
As the party leader claimed their surrender, all party members’ bodies faded as they were transported to the place where they first started the competition. At least, that was what was meant to happen. It didn’t happen this time though.
“…Why aren’t we being transported?”
Nothing had happened to their bodies. In a moment, the golem in the back swung its gigantic arm.
*Crush*
“Arrrrrrrr!!!”
An ear piercing scream resounded.
It was the party member in the rear. His armor and shield were crushed and a terrible amount of blood squirted out through the holes that had appeared in it. It was a serious injury. His bones were smashed into pieces and his body was thrown to the ground.
[Anin Pailmint failed.]
There was an announcement about the party member failing the mission, but the body that was supposed to fade and disappear was still there. In a short moment, the rest of the party realized what had just happened. Rather, what hadn’t happened.
“He’s dead for real!?”
The golems surrounding them came much closer.
Their faces were plastered with misery at their inevitable fate.
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