abcnovels
Chapter 687
Chapter 687
Episode 687 Mystery (1)
[Dungeon and Stone] is a hardcore game.
Even though I didn’t make any mistakes, my character that I worked so hard to raise keeps dying throughout the game.
In that sense, it wasn’t a particularly surprising story.
Team Baekho’s archer Leighton Bryatt has died.
It was something that could have happened.
I fought the bone dragon and was teleported to a random coordinate after that.
It is never easy for any character to survive alone on the 9th floor, especially if they are injured.
Healer Jaina Flyer would have met her fate right there if she hadn’t been lucky enough to meet me.
but····
“······yes?”
Still, it is inevitable to feel embarrassed when you suddenly hear news like this.
“What do you mean…? Mr. Bryatt is dead…?”
When GM asked again with a shocked face, the old man continued to speak as if he was only telling the truth in a voice that did not show any particular emotion.
“I found his body on the way here. It seems this area was too harsh for him to survive alone, with all his strength drained.”
“That kind of····”
GM was speechless at the news of his party’s death.
It’s so ironic.
The old man who had been with us for much longer than we did didn’t seem to care at all.
“Anyway, since Mr. Bryant is dead, my conclusion is that the only person who can hang a cloth on a tree and deliver the news is that friend Baekho Lee.”
“I see···?”
“That’s enough for Bryant County, so what’s the situation here? What’s that building?”
“We don’t know either. We came here and suddenly this happened…”
“Hmm, very interesting…”
I was momentarily dumbfounded as I watched the doomsday ship heading towards the structure with its eyes sparkling.
I closed my eyes for a moment and had a moment of silence.
‘Leighton Bryatt···’
Judging from the fact that he hung out with Baekho Lee, he must not have been a good guy.
But let’s also express our condolences.
It would be too sad if there wasn’t even that much romance in this bleak labyrinth—·
“···Mr. Bryant always wanted to quit everything·”
I suddenly heard a voice and turned my head to see Jaina.
“It went as I wanted. Now I don’t have to do anything.”
What the heck? Is this guy a psychopath too?
I had that thought for a moment, but when I saw Jaina’s expression, I just laughed.
It may sound sarcastic, but I felt that this was also her way of expressing condolences.
“It would be nice for your colleagues to have someone who would be sadder than anyone else when they die.”
“Then why don’t you just transfer?”
Jaina paused at the playful remark, then smiled slightly and replied.
“That won’t work. I need a lot of sacrifices.”
“It’s a sacrifice. Just kill the looters and Noarks and that’s it.”
“···Do you know that I’m one of those Noark guys?”
Oh, that’s right too.
“Thank you for your words, but I will decline.”
Yeah, what?
Anyway, I didn’t really mean what I said.
In the first place, I accepted Karui’s priest as a clan member, but when that fact was discovered, even the ‘Sanshin Cult’ became my enemy.
Just thinking about the royal family gives me a headache, so this is something that should never happen to me····
‘Now all that’s left is for Rex Aureus and Lee Baek-ho to come.’
After that, the old man and GM started investigating the new anomaly, while the rest of them waited on standby.
and····
One or two days····
On the third day, Rex Aures showed up.
It was such a disgrace that it was no exaggeration to say that he was reduced to rags.
“Ha haha… I survived….”
You can tell just by looking at his appearance how much he has suffered over the past few days.
As soon as he found us, Aures relaxed and fell asleep right away, and Jaina took care of him and treated him.
and····
“So in the end, it wasn’t you who hung the cloth····”
“It’s embarrassing, but that’s true. I barely escaped the monsters and set foot on the Land of the Ancients, and then—”
“stop·”
He cuts off Rex Aures’ speech, which seems like it will get longer, and shares a look with his companions.
“···Isn’t it strange? Given the circumstances, it is clear that Baekho Lee hung a cloth to deliver the news, but he himself has not shown up.
“It’s definitely a bit strange. At first, I could understand that they went to other areas to sell the cloth, but···”
“I also think that at this point in time, it would be reasonable to come back and check in the middle.”
With Rex Aures joining, the questions grow.
If it’s not him who hung the cloth, then it’s really Baekho Lee. Where the hell is he and what is he doing?
While we were talking about this, the old man suggested a possibility.
“Maybe Baekho got in there first.”
The place that the old man was pointing to with his finger was a newly appeared building on the left side of the monument.
A structure that looks like an entrance to anyone who sees it.
I’ve been doing a lot of research outside, but I still don’t know what’s hidden underneath.
Since we didn’t know what would happen, we decided to gather everyone together and then make a decision…
“Surely… Baekho Lee might have gone in alone. He said he would just check briefly before we came.”
“···It’s ridiculous, but somehow I think it wouldn’t be strange if he did that.”
The group nodded as if they understood the explanation of the old man of destruction.
However, the old man who brought up the subject shook his head.
“No, it’s definitely strange. I don’t know what you think of that guy, Baekho Lee, but in my eyes, he’s the most cautious person of all.”
“···yes?”
“Contrary to his appearance, Baekho Lee never does anything reckless. Sometimes, when I see him, he is so scared that I feel suffocated.”
“···Are you talking about that Baekho Lee?”
“Being confident and being cautious are two completely different things.”
“But wasn’t it Lord Ruingenes who said that I might have gone inside?”
“Yes, because no other possibility comes to mind by the method of elimination, but if Baekho Lee, who is so careful, had gone in there, I think there must have been another reason for that.”
Hmm···
“What do you think? Bjorn Jandel, what do you think?”
My head gets complicated in many ways.
If the old man’s guess is true, it means that once you go in there, it’s hard to get out.
That would be the case. If he could come and go freely, Baekho Lee would have come out at least once a long time ago.
“Wait just one more day and then decide.”
After that, I gave myself a one-day grace period, but during that time, Baekho Lee never showed up.
So now it’s time to make a decision.
“Do you have any idea what might be underneath Havellion?”
When I asked while looking down the stairs, which were covered in dark vision and not visible, the GM shook his head.
“I have never heard of anything like this in the land of the beginning.”
“Yeah, that’s right····”
Actually, I feel the same way.
I have never seen such an entrance in the entire Star Tomb, not just in the Land of the Beginning, and it is also very suspicious that it suddenly appeared when it was not there before.
but····
“Okay, I decided.”
“It looks like it’s going to go in, huh?”
“okay·”
I never intended to not go in from the beginning.
Wasn’t the reason you searched the entire Star Tomb, risking your life, to find something ‘suspicious’?
Something like that just showed up, so there’s no way I could just pass it by.
“I tried waiting for Baekho Lee a little longer… but he didn’t show up, so there’s nothing I can do. There’s a chance he’s inside, so we’ll go in alone.”
Let’s go in first.
***
I decided to think of it as a kind of dungeon.
There will be some unknown gimmick and hidden traps that you cannot help but step on if you don’t know about them.
With that thought in mind, I carefully go down the narrow stairs.
Thump thump
Of course, I am in the lead, and Rex Aures is at the back. Then, the long-range lines are in the center.
Thump thump
Take each step carefully.
That’s what a ‘dungeon’ without information is like.
In the game, the unknown areas are so dangerous that the first attempt always had to be satisfied with obtaining information.
Thump thump
In that sense, all five of them tied ropes around their waists like a gulbi.
For reference, the rope was fixed to a stake in front of the entrance, like a rock climbing wall····
“Eww! Oh no! Oh no!”
Before I could even get very far down the stairs, I heard a loud noise coming from the back.
“The rope has broken!”
“···What did you say?”
“It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything! I just followed—!”
“I don’t think it’s a lie. If you look at the cross-section here, it looks like it was cut with something sharp…”
“Everyone, stand against the wall.”
I climbed up the narrow stairs and checked the cross section of the rope myself. It didn’t look like Aureus had made a mistake and cut it.
There is no way that a magic rope, which is designed to stretch hundreds of meters, will accidentally break.
“Follow me slowly”
I stopped going down and went back up the stairs because I needed to check what had happened.
but····
“Haven’t we already come up a lot further than we came down…?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’ve gone down 213 stairs so far, and I’m already over 240.”
No matter how many stairs you climb, you can’t see outside.
To put it simply, there is no way back.
“···Oh no, this is serious! Aren’t we trapped here?”
“Don’t be so excited. Everyone came in expecting that to happen.”
“Is that so?”
As Jaina scolds Rex Aures, the GM comes up to me.
“Now that we’ve confirmed that the way back is blocked, how about we go back to the way things were before?”
It was reasonable advice.
However, I felt something was off somewhere.
No, to be exact, it’s not a feeling of discomfort···
‘When you go down the stairs, the entrance disappears, and when you try to go back, the stairs appear infinitely···’
A sense of foreboding arises.
Well, there is one place like this among the cracks.
‘Golden Relics’
There was this kind of production at the entrance to one of the cracks on the 4th floor.
‘If you look closely, the wall seems similar to something······’
If it is an area based on the ‘Golden Relics’, then going down is not the way to go.
There is a piece hidden here too.
If you continue to climb the stairs while the entrance is closed, you can experience a special event.
‘I don’t know what’s next, so it’s better to just break the event and go.’
Of course, there is no guarantee that the event will occur here either.
There’s no harm in trying them out one by one, except for a little bit of time.
“We will continue to go up, so be careful and follow along so that no one gets left behind.”
“Yes? But······”
“Go first.”
After that, I quickly climbed the stairs with long strides.
and····
“How long are you going to keep climbing? No matter how far you go, there’s nothing but stairs.”
“Going back is also a job.”
It is now expected to have risen by about half.
Thump thump
I hurriedly stopped the formation as the sound of disparate footsteps caught my ears.
“Stop·”
“Ah, now you’re going back—·”
“Quiet·”
“···?”
“Someone is coming down from the front.”
By the way, I don’t have any information about that person either.
The special event itself wasn’t like this in the first place.
‘Who the hell is it?’
Although it is unknown, there is a high possibility of a battle breaking out, so a hand signal indicating alert status is raised.
And then·
“······”
“······”
The sound of approaching footsteps suddenly stops.
‘Did they notice us too?’
Stiff air like a taut thread.
Gulp-
It was the moment when I swallowed my saliva without realizing it and put strength into the hand holding the shield.
Ta-da-!
The sound of someone rushing in suddenly is caught in my ears.
“Prepare for battle!!”
A shout breaks the brief silence, and something rushes quickly out of the darkness.
I had no choice but to freeze as I instinctively prepared to use my shield.
fault-
Two feet running quickly and stopping playfully in front of the shield.
“Surprise! How was it? Are you surprised?”
I let out a long sigh as I watched the boy speaking innocently.
‘Is he really crazy?’
It was Baekho Lee
***
This time, I was contemplating whether or not I should hit this kid, when Baekho Lee chuckled and poked me in the ribs.
“Hahaha! Were you really surprised? Were you really surprised? It seemed like you were really surprised. Are you okay? Were you really surprised?”
“···Do the jokes according to the situation.·”
“Hey, how can I put up with this? I’m finally reunited with my precious colleagues!”
“······”
“But I didn’t know you were really inside. How could you just go in without waiting for me?”
···what?
“Your Majesty, you shouldn’t say anything like I was joking—·”
“···What did you just say?”
When I asked with a lowered voice, Baekho Lee also felt something strange and looked at me with a questioning look.
I quickly confirmed one thing:
“This is a very important question. Don’t joke around and answer seriously. Weren’t you the one who tied the cloth to the tree?…”
This was something I was almost certain of until now.
However, Baekho Lee tilted his head and frowned at that question.
“What are you talking about? Wasn’t that cloth… hung by the Baron’s side…?”
That reaction sent shivers down my spine.
‘···If it weren’t for Lee Baek-ho·’
Then who the hell told me to come here?