Chapter 507: Episode 507
The Gold Mine Dungeon, Third Basement Floor.
Simon moved through the darkness, panting for breath. His heart hammered against his ribs, and sweat streamed down his forehead. Around him, the shattered husks of undead soldiers writhed on the ground, beyond repair.
’I tried to conserve my stamina, I really did.’
But it had been a complete failure. He had ended up destroying everything in his path. At this rate, he might be exhausted before he even faced Nirti.
[Mwahaha! Immortal undead, eh? These fools managed to create something decent!] Pier remarked, surveying the scattered bodies with the keen interest of a fellow commander.
[They look pathetic to me. They call them immortal, but it’s all just a parlor trick powered by the dungeon, isn’t it?] Herseva scoffed, utterly unimpressed.
"We’re out of time. Let’s keep moving." Simon pressed on, greatsword in his right hand, staff in his left.
Suddenly, Pier’s voice echoed in his mind. [Boy! New enemies ahead.]
Simon blinked, trying to pierce the thick fog and darkness that blanketed the third floor. It was impossible to see what lay ahead, but he trusted Pier’s senses.
[Immortal soldiers. Hundreds of them, at a glance.]
’They’re relentless.’ Nirti had layered her defenses two, even three times over. He could certainly break through with the power of a legion commander, but the cost to his stamina would be immense.
[And to the right.]
Simon turned his head. Beside the central path leading to Nirti’s lab, another passage branched off.
[I can feel countless presences from there as well!]
’A pincer attack?’ Getting hit from the front and the side simultaneously would be a nightmare. Forgoing the main force for now, Simon slipped into the side path.
And there...
He froze, faced with a horrifying sight.
It was a writhing mass of not only residents already turned undead but also all manner of monstrous abominations, all struggling wildly. It seemed to be a dumping ground for her uncontrollable failures. Excited by the presence of a living being, they clawed at the bars of their prison cells, their bloodshot eyes wide with seizure-like frenzy.
’Is she planning to incinerate them?’ Simon glanced into the distance and saw the telltale glow of an incinerator, its flames pulsing with heat.
[I don’t like this, kiddo.] Herseva’s staff form came to rest on Simon’s shoulder. [Maybe it’s because I’m a lich, but seeing undead experimented on and discarded like trash... it enrages me.]
Simon was silent.
As Simon stood in thought, chin in hand, a strange light flickered in his eyes.
"I have an idea." He cleared his throat. ’Ahem, ahem.’
Herseva’s form seemed to stiffen. [You’re not going to sing that weird song again, are you?]
---
On the third basement floor, masked men from the Order stood guard with their immortal soldiers. One held a communication crystal to his lips.
"Lady Nirti! A necromancer from Kizen has made it to the third floor."
—"One person?"
"Yes."
—"The experiment is in its final stages. Stop him by any means necessary."
"Understood."
The connection cut. The man pocketed the crystal, surrounded by a dozen of his masked comrades.
"Surprising. I thought we could hold out for at least three days by fortifying this position."
"Still, it’s impossible for him to break through alone."
"He was too hasty."
’Thud. Thud.’
The sound of solitary footsteps echoed on the stone floor. Someone was approaching.
"He’s here."
A figure emerged from the darkness, his entire body encased in a large, unfamiliar suit of bone armor, his face hidden by a skull helmet. In his hands, he held a white greatsword and a staff. The members of the Order drew their weapons as the immortal undead behind them let out low, guttural growls.
"Your courage is commendable, but do you truly intend to face all of us alone?"
[Alone?] a low, chilling voice echoed from within the helmet. [What foolish dream are you living in?]
’Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!’
Following Simon’s footsteps, a cacophony of countless more sounded from the darkness behind him.
’No way! He had hidden forces?’
A moment later, a horde poured from the shadows—over a thousand failed undead, escaped from the prison and the incinerator.
"Th-Those are our undead!"
[Der König ist Zurück――!!]
As Simon raised his greatsword and gave the order to charge, the failed undead shrieked, rushing at the very people who had twisted them into this state. Simon led the charge, his cloak billowing behind him.
"Stop them!"
The members of the Order and their immortal soldiers surged forward. The two armies crashed head-on in the middle of the passage.
---
A series of deafening booms echoed from outside, but within the room, all was quiet. This was the laboratory of Nirti, head researcher of the Tarados branch.
"It’s almost done."
Before her, a monster was fused to the dungeon wall like a cocoon, with nerve-like tendrils converging on it as if drawing sustenance from the entire dungeon. She was injecting it with drugs and weaving complex black magic.
"Just a little more." She smiled with satisfaction as she checked the readings on a floating magic circle. "Just a little more, and the greatest masterpiece of my life will be—!"
[Masterpiece?]
’BOOM!’
The door was kicked open with brutal force, and an intruder stepped into the lab, bringing the stench of blood with him. He was encased from head to toe in bone armor, his face hidden by a skull helmet.
[You’re Nirti, right?]
"...Impressive. To reach this place in just a few hours."
Beyond the open door, the bodies of the masked Order members and their undead lay strewn across the floor, a testament to their failure.
"Useless things."
The horde of failed undead swarmed at the entrance, trying to follow him in. Nirti snapped her fingers, and the heavy door slammed shut with a resounding ’thud’.
"More importantly, who are you? With that level of skill, you can’t be a student. There was no one like you in the profiles I obtained."
’Chk.’ Simon didn’t answer, merely pointing the tip of his greatsword at her. [Stop the undead outside.]
"That’s a difficult request to grant."
As they spoke, Simon’s eyes scanned his surroundings. The laboratory was immense. Countless chimeras floated in test tubes, at least a hundred—no, a thousand of them. If she gave them all the immortal attribute and unleashed them... the thought alone was horrifying.
"Magnificent, isn’t it?" She traced a finger through the air. "This was originally the Dungeon Master’s room. Now, it’s my lab."
A test tube shattered. In the next instant, a chimera launched itself from the floor, landing directly in front of Simon.
’It’s huge!’
Simon’s eyes narrowed with caution. It was a medium-sized monster, but it was a grotesque amalgamation of so many creatures he couldn’t begin to identify them all. Human faces were embedded across its body, their expressions twisted in agony.
"I’m a bit busy right now," Nirti said, turning back to her work. "That thing will entertain you in my stead."
Simon lunged for her, but a brown, fleshy arm sprouting from the chimera’s back lashed out.
’Whoosh!’
He threw his head back, dodging just in time. A green orc’s arm followed, then one covered in reptilian scales.
’There’s no opening!’
Forced to create distance, Simon watched as ten arms simultaneously formed jet-black orbs in their palms and hurled them at him.
[Tch!]
He met the barrage with the Greatsword of Ruin, his blade a blur of motion. Each slash flashed through the air, cleaving the orbs and causing them to detonate harmlessly.
’Ughhhhh!’
The faces on the chimera’s body shrieked in pain. The incompatible parts were warring with each other, causing a severe strain on the undead’s body. Horrifying tumors swelled and burst in a constant, gruesome cycle. At that moment, the voice of Grelion, the Professor of Summoning Materials, echoed in his mind.
"When I called this class ’Chimera Design Theory,’ I saw fear in some of your eyes. I understand. Chimeras have a reputation for being forbidden research, a horrifying disregard for life. But you are mistaken."
’Thump!’ Simon kicked off the floor and charged.
"Chimera design builds character. The more you learn, the more you will come to realize the sanctity of life. You will all feel it—how exquisitely each living being is crafted. How it adapted to its environment, which parts developed, which atrophied. Why does this organ exist? How does it move? Life hones itself to the absolute limit through competition and evolution! When you design a chimera, you will be moved, awestruck by every single one of those aspects! You will ask yourself: can I truly combine two already perfect creations? You can’t help but doubt!"
He weaved between the monster’s flailing arms, sometimes dodging, sometimes using them as footholds. He blasted jet-black from his palms to change direction in mid-air, creating an opening with a sudden stop.
"The chimera is the necromancer’s answer to the goddess’s creation myth that the priests preach!"
[Nirti!]
Simon launched himself from the floor, soaring toward the chimera. His eyes widened. He saw it—the creature’s most critical seam, its ’centerline’.
"A chimera is not about forcibly mashing things together to enhance performance. That is not a chimera."
[Everything you’ve made!]
The Greatsword of Ruin descended upon the monster’s seam.
"It’s just a hodgepodge!"
[Is just a hodgepodge!]
’SCREEECH!’
A single strike. A long gash opened across the monster’s chest. Its organs spilled out as the massive creature toppled over. ’Grrrk!’ One slash was all it took. Even with the power of the immortal legion, severing its centerline with the regeneration-negating Greatsword of Ruin was enough to neutralize it.
’Thank you, Professor Grelion!’
Simon readjusted his grip on the greatsword and walked forward. Behind him, the giant’s body crashed to the floor with a heavy ’thud’ and twitched its last.
"What? Number 2109 is already down?" Nirti, who had been injecting the monster on the wall, turned around, her expression frigid. "And what did you just say? That my chimera is a hodgepodge?"
[That’s right. What you’re making isn’t a chimera, or anything else for that matter.] Simon’s eyes flashed. [I need an answer. Why did you commit such atrocities in Tarados?]
"An answer, you say." She tossed her research tools aside and reached toward the magic circle surrounding the still-incomplete monster on the wall.
The monster’s eyes shot open. It parted its jaws and unleashed a blinding beam of light.
Simon threw himself to the side as the beam seared a line across the floor, which glowed red-hot before exploding in a secondary blast.
"You know," Nirti said, releasing the monster’s seal, "this thing is actually the Dungeon Master of this ’Gold Mine Dungeon.’ If you truly want to save your friends and the residents, you just have to defeat it."
Even without her telling him, Simon’s instincts screamed that this monster was the heart of the dungeon. With its every footstep, the very floor trembled in revolt.
’Kiiiiiiing!’
Dodging another beam, his cloak whipping around him, Simon retaliated with a slash from his greatsword. The attack carved into the Dungeon Master’s shoulder, but...
’Gurgle!’
The flesh regenerated in an instant.
"Of course! It has the power of immortality, too!" The Dungeon Master’s thighs swelled, veins bulging, before it kicked off the floor and charged. "Kill him! Then we can finish our work!"
Just then, a smirk touched Simon’s lips.
"Now, Herseva!"
Launched from Simon’s hand, Herseva’s staff form unleashed a torrent of sand that enveloped the charging Dungeon Master.
’Shwaaaaaa—’
’Herseva Original – World of Sand’
Herseva and the Dungeon Master vanished without a trace. Nirti’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"H-How?"
[A Dungeon Master with the power of immortality inside its dungeon... what happens to that power if it’s forcibly transported to another dimension?]
That creature stood no chance against Herseva and Akemus. Simon was certain of it. Seeing the technique that had banished her trump card, Nirti finally found her voice.
"...No way. Are you the one who brought down Silage and the Blood Cult?"
Simon didn’t answer. He simply unleashed a massive wave of jet-black energy. [Right here, right now, we end this. Nirti.]