There was an awful disconnect in the things I was seeing. The objects within what used to be a store and their placement remained the same, but the walls, the ceiling, and the lighting all transformed to be that of a dungeon’s.
Most of the shelves full of modern goods—the exception being the ones knocked down in the earlier battle—were still lined up in an orderly manner, and the silent mannequins were now sporting their fashionable clothes under torchlight.
It was like I was caught between fantasy and reality. It felt strange.
Ahh, but we’re in a serious situation right now. It isn’t the time to be distracted with thoughts like this.
“First of all…let’s head for the station platform. If I recall correctly, it has a barrier that wards off monsters and also lowers the concentration of magic power in the air.”
“Understood!”
All that being said, train stations weren’t necessarily evacuation shelters in times of dungeon overflows. After all, creating powerful barriers in all the stations was still under consideration in the National Diet. It was better to have a few of such stations than none at all though.
Whether this station had such a barrier or not though, having a goal and heading there was still better than wandering aimlessly. Not to mention, other Awakened Ones might have went there too. In times like these, they were bound to be of great help.
Layla agreed to my suggestion, so we headed for the station.
“Oh, before that”
I undid my Magical Attire, took out my Item Bag from my regular bag, redeployed my Magical Attire, and then attached the Item Bag onto my waist. Lastly, I took out another bag that contained the Obstructing Brambles we made the other day and handed it over to Layla.
“I’m glad I brought this. I’ll let you decide when to use them.”
“Yes, please leave it to me.”
Like that, we had cleared the absolute minimum level of preparation. I did wish I also brought our own flashlight, but the torches illuminated the place brightly enough.
And so, while being wary of our surroundings, we pressed forward. Almost surprisingly, we didn’t encounter any of that skeletal monster. Soon enough, we heard the voices of people talking. The pathways had changed and were hard to follow, but that wasn’t much of an issue as long as we followed the voices. Which just goes to show how loud and filled with confusion those voices were.
“What’s going on!? You’re a station employee, aren’t you!? Please do something!”
“Mom! Where are you mommy!!?”
“Damn it, my phone won’t connect! Just what is happening?”
“If I brought back a video of this, it’d probably go viral, won’t it? The government really screwed up this time.”
“P-please calm down! Talking in a loud voice might attract the monsters to our location!”
There was an old lady was talking to a person who looked like a train employee. There was a child who was crying and searching for their parent. There was a young man who was cursing while holding his phone. There was another young man who was also holding their phone, but that one had a faint smile for some reason. And then, there was a young woman in a suit who was deftly shouting in a quiet voice.
The concrete pillars packed with ads and also the floor had become made of stone, and the automatically opening doors were replaced by old-looking wooden doors. Meanwhile, the ticket gates remained as they were, making them feel all of a sudden out of place.
The supposedly large platform was crowded with people. Especially toward the center. If something were to happen, those people would likely be unable to move.
…at any rate, calmest person nearby looked to be the woman in a suit.
“Excuse me, but can I talk to you for a moment?”
“Huh? M-me?”
Maybe it was because someone wearing a helm suddenly appeared and talked to her, but the woman was a bit flustered and took a couple of steps back. She seemed willing to talk though. She had quite the nerves of steel, even in this mayhem.
“What’s the situation in here? I can tell that a dungeon overflow has happened, but has there been a decision on what to do next…”
“…none. Everyone’s panicking and can’t really do anything. If they keep being loud like this, it’s only a matter of time before the monsters get here…but as to be expected, it’s hard to be calm in a situation like this.”
“I, see…”
Crap.
I thought that if I came here, I would get some hint on how to escape. I thought the police or the JSDF would be around to help us. There was only so much a civilian like me could do to help ourselves, after all.
But looking at this…it looked like I should distance myself from here and escape on my own.
“Wahh!”
“Kyaa!?”
Suddenly, there was a loud thud and the ground under me trembled. It was hard to tell due to the echoes, but the source of the sound seemed to be far away.
The other people here also heard that sound and all became silent, aside from the initial screams of surprise. Our instincts old us the same thing: we mustn’t let the source of that sound know of our existence.
Cold sweat ran down my back. This dungeon was bad news in all sorts of ways. Which begged the question, how high was its dungeon rank?
“E-everyone! Please listen.”
While everyone, even the children, had grown quiet, the woman from before spoke up. She then took out something from her breast pocket and raised it up with her hand. It had the cherry blossoms crest that glowed in gold. It was a police identification card.
My instincts gave off an alarm and I stepped away. I didn’t recall anything I should be guilty of, but I felt this sense of impending danger for some reason.
Her voice carried well in here and everyone soon focused on her.
“I’m a police officer. I had come here to investigate the report of a person missing since the other day.”
At that, people started to raise their voice, asking things like “what’s going on?” or “did the police know about this?”. But the people nearby covered their mouth or did gestures to shut up the others.
“On my way here, I encountered a monster. It was a Spartoi. It was a monster of B rank.”
The people who asked questions earlier and the people that silenced them both let out small shrieks and other voices of bewilderment. Even I felt my face twitch under the helmet.
It did feel like a strong monster. It was basically at the same power level as me. I had been defeating them using my superpowers and Layla’s help, but ordinarily, someone with my stats could have died to them.
“Based on that monster and the present circumstances…I am of the opinion that it will be difficult for all of us here to make an escape.”
“S-stop screwing around! If you’re the police, then do something about it!”
“Yeah! Helping us is your job, ain’t it!?”
“I can’t save you all by myself!!”
Unable to bear it any longer, people began screaming their complaints. In response, the police officer shouted back in a louder voice. I was worried about the source of that sound earlier coming our way, but it wasn’t like I could stop them. As such, I just kept watch of the area around the station platform as much as I could.
“So, please, I need your cooperation!”
“W-what?”
“Are there any Awakened Ones in here? Please come forward and introduce yourself.”
I stealthily canceled my Magical Attire. I could tell where this was going. As such, I had to blend into the crowd before the officer’s eyes landed on me.
“I too am an Awakened One. I’d like you to help me in thinning out the monsters of this dungeon.”
The police officer donned her Magical Attire. With her light armor and tight skirt, she looked like a female knight. Hanging on her waist was a rapier.
She drew that sword out and held it up.
“This dungeon should only have started the 3rd stage of a dungeon overflow. If we act now and cull down the monsters within, we can make the dungeon consume more magic power which in turn will prevent it from expanding further. We can even return it to its original size. If we can do that, everyone here can go back home safely.”
She said that so resolutely…it was ridiculous.
The moment a dungeon overflow began, the number of monsters within it skyrocketed. To make matters worse, this dungeon spawned B rank monsters. Even if we started now, it seemed unlikely that we could cull enough monsters in time to bring back the dungeon to its original size.
Given that, it was probably better for Layla and I to escape by ourselves.
“I beg you. I realize it’s wrong of me as a police officer to ask the citizens I’m supposed to protect to fight, so rest assured that I’ll surrender my badge as soon as this incident is over. So, please, please lend me your aid!”
I looked away from the bowing officer. In this kind of situations, it took a good deal of courage to reveal her identity as a police officer and even more so to ask for help from civilians. It was hard not to respect her as a person and as an officer. However, when the matter involved risking my own life to return the dungeon to its original size, I would have to refuse.
With that, I started to leave the station platform.
“……”
Just as I did though, I met the eyes of the kid who had been crying until a few moments ago. They seemed to have reunited with their mother, thankfully. For some reason though, that kid was looking at me while they were being carried by the woman I presumed to be their mother. My guess was that the kid saw me change from my Magical Attire into my regular clothes. The kid wasn’t saying anything to anyone, and only kept staring at me. Whether they were expecting something from me or they were just curious, I couldn’t tell.
But…but their gaze did make me feel like I was a coward. I shouldn’t have looked at the kid, damn it.
I scratched my head and sighed.
Man, this feels awful. I wish I can just close my eyes and leave.
“I’ll, I’ll do it!”
“Count me in!”
Were they being foolhardy? Or could they just not endure the gazes of those around them? Whatever it might be, the Awakened Ones who were too late to undo their Magical Attires—maybe they had been fighting to get here—raised their hands.
While watching them, I redeployed my own Magical Attire and held up my sword.
“Master…!?”
“Sorry, Layla. But, you see…I don’t think I can abandon the people here.”
I had unfortunately seen the face of a child that had traces of crying, the sight of a mother comforting their child, the elderly couples reassuring one another as they held hands, junior high girls huddling and crying together, and many others.
In just a glance, I saw so many people who were in need of help. If I were to forsake them here, I had a feeling I would regret it for the rest of my life. I didn’t want that, of course. But this was probably the foolish choice. A smarter person would probably wait for outside help or escape by themselves. However, evidently, I was a fool.
There were about 30 Awakened Ones who raised their hands. At the sight of this, the police officer had tears welling in her eyes.
“Everyone……thank you!!”
She bowed deeply once again, and I gently nodded in response.
Alright, let’s do this. I’ll give this my best so that I won’t regret raising my sword. Being born a man means having to be cool when the situation calls for it. And that moment is now!
* * *
30 minutes later.
“Enough of this, I wanna go home!!!”
While Layla and I were running as fast as we could, I shouted so with tears in my eyes. We were currently being chased by a group of Spartoi monsters. There were about 50 of them. Yes, 50. 50 of them against the two of us.
How is that fair!?
“Master, didn’t you say you can’t just abandon the innocent?”
“I’m sorry! I got carried away by the mood back then! I’ve changed my mind!!!”
“But you know, it might just prove to be a wise decision in the end.”
“Even when we’re like this!?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, we have to go down a narrow path so that we can funnel them.”
“I have no idea where that narrow path is though!”
The pathways we took just earlier had morphed before we knew it. Pathways that used to be straightforward had branched into multiple other ones, and hill-like paths all of a sudden had stairs that led to a whole new place. We couldn’t even go back the way we came.
It was all too incomprehensible. To be sure, dungeons did change layouts, but I had never heard of it happening this frequently.
Is it because the dungeon is in the middle of an overflow!?
“Master, I have a secret solution for this”
“Huh!? What is it?”
Layla said so and grinned quite confidently.
“If you use your intuition when choosing which way to turn, you’ll get somewhere good sooner or later.”
“That’s not really a secret solution!”
“Do you have any alternatives?”
“None at all! Layla-sama, my lord and savior, help me!”
At the next crossroads we saw, we turned right.
We soon found out that the path we chose was a narrow one.
“Wait, Layla, did you actually know…?”
“Intuition is such an amazing thing, isn’t it?”
“It really was just intuition!?”
Either way, the path we were on was in fact narrow. The Spartois which ran by threes or fours before were now forced to slow themselves down.
“Master!”
“Huh? Ah, okay!”
Layla turned around and threw an Obstructing Bramble. It sprouted and grew right in front of the Spartois that led the group. Soon enough, it became a wall that blocked the path.
Even if the Spartois had high Resistance stats, it could not counteract the secondary effects produced by magic. And so, those at the front were pushed by those behind and got entangled in the thorns.
However, the Spartois also had incredible physical strength. So much so that they would tear through the brambles almost right away, despite the brambles being as strong as metal wires.
In that case, I’ll use this chance to attack in full power with Magic Power Discharge.
“Go fly!!”
I swung my sword sideways in a great arc. I might have described the path as narrow, but that was only if multiple individuals tried to pass it side by side. There was still plenty of space to swing my sword.
Along with the brambles that were on the verge of being torn, I managed to destroy the first 10 Spartois. I gave them a bonus and swung again. This time it was downward slash and I managed to take down an additional 5 to 6.
“Alright!”
“No, not alright. Let’s run!”
“Ah, yeah!”
There were still a whole lot of them! They were looking at us with those eye sockets devoid of light, and clacked their teeth together as though to emulate laughter.
We turned again and dashed as fast as we could. I felt swords and spears grazing my back throughout, but after 5 minutes, I managed to finish them all using the same trick.
“It’s…it’s, haa, done…”
This was the first time I had ever ran and spent magic power this much. Thanks to my Distinctive Superpower, I was quite confident in my stamina, but…this was still rough.
“Good work, master. We still have to watch our surroundings, of course, but I think we should take this chance to catch our breaths.”
“Y-yeah…oh, right, I picked this up too. How about you use it?”
I said so and handed to Layla a two-handed sword, an Item Drop from a Spartoi. Against enemies who were resistant to magic, I would say it was better to have some other means to protect oneself. I had no idea how effective this sword would be though.
“I’ll gratefully use it.”
“…Layla, where do you think the others went?”
“I have no idea. But I doubt any of them has escaped the dungeon.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s about the nature of this dungeon. This labyrinth probably has a system wherein we must clear certain conditions first in order to get out. Maybe it has this system due to the influence of the land, or maybe it’s related to a power of the monsters that appeared here, or maybe it’s something else.”
“…I didn’t think that that’s possible.”
I rested my back on a wall and looked up at the ceiling. It was an awfully high ceiling, now that I took a good look at it. It was like an atrium that reached up to the second floor. The light from the torches didn’t even illuminate the ceiling all that well.
“I don’t know why exactly, but it seems like the layout of the walls and passageways of this dungeon have been changing from time to time. And the interval between the shifting has been shrinking.”
“Yeah, I felt that too.”
I thought back to the Awakened Ones that volunteered due to the police officer’s speech. At first, all of us moved together, but one person then another began missing from the group. Five minutes later and it was just Layla and myself.
It was like we were in a horror movie or something. Especially considering the location and the monsters around. Just an awful B-horror movie though.
“Just to reiterate, what it comes down to if we want to escape is that we have to either find the exit gate or cull the monsters enough to revert the dungeon back to its original size.”
“……Out of curiosity, can normal dungeons become smaller if enough monsters are culled?”
“No. Dungeons are usually at the smallest size they could be and therefore can’t become any smaller. And since they are connected to the ley lines, they won’t vanish either.”
“I see…”
“In any case, I think volunteering back then ended up being the right decision. This way, we can escape quickly but without fighting more enemies than we have to!”
Layla gave an encouraging smile. I could only smile wryly at that under my helm.
If my choice ended up being a wrong one, I didn’t think I would have regretted it. Conversely, if that police officer’s strategy ended up being the right one, I was all for it.
“Thanks…let’s give it our best.”
“I would argue that you’ve worked hard enough already, but yes, let’s do our best a little while longer!”
As soon as I thought I had rested enough, I separated my back from the wall. At that moment, I saw a medieval-looking stone wall plastered with advertisements for new games and new movies start to wriggle in the most unnatural of ways. It seemed like the passageways were about to shift again.
And maybe it was because an air passage was made just now, but I heard a scream.
<<Kyaaaa!?>>
“!?”
My shoulders jerked up in surprise.
Where, where did it come from? …no. The sound was an echo, so I can’t really tell from that. But was that, was that the officer’s voice?
<<H-help, n-no—ghh>>
Next, I heard a heavy thud. Lastly, she left a voice that made me think she was crushed…I didn’t hear her scream or anything at all from her after that.
I gulped down hard.
What the heck is this dungeon? What happened to that officer? Are there any monsters here besides the Spartois?
Despite feeling afraid, I exchanged nods with Layla and we pressed forward. If we didn’t fight, we couldn’t get out. Being passive and waiting for outside help likely won’t result in our survival. We would only be overwhelmed if we did nothing.
I just had to kill enemies and protect my life with my own hands. Just like what I had been doing in all the dungeons before this one.
* * *
—I soon found out how naive I was.
I had delved into dungeons many times now and defeated the monsters that were initially thought to be from fairy tales and such, so perhaps that was were my misunderstanding was from.
I thought I had gotten used to fighting. Plus, I had already helped people before and I had seen people die too, so I thought I was deserving of being called a warrior already.
However, the enemies I had taken down before were all of a low rank. They were decidedly weaker than me. What I did wasn’t really fighting; no, it was nothing but doing job.
But today, that changed. Today, I was truly [Challenging a dungeon].
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