The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter

Chapter 116 Exposing the Trick

「That’s a wyvern. They are on the smaller side among other species of flying dragons, but they are extremely violent and dangerous opponents.」

Apparently, even parties of high ranked adventurers might struggle with a strong specimen. I have fought against the Earth Dragon before, and this one definitely seems smaller than that.

Being unexpected, I missed the chance to identify it. I hesitated if we should chase after it, but decided to prioritize supporting the soldiers.

In preparation for today, there are several treatment centers in town, where doctors and soldiers with recovery skills are waiting.

Coming inside, the doctors are in a state of great chaos. With a lot of beds arranged, dozens of people were being treated.

There are already so many injured… I wonder if other treatment centers are also like this. Asking them to treat the soldiers we brought, we once again rush outside.

I wonder if we should chase after Emma, look for the escaped ghouls, or maybe do something about the wyvern?

「Ghouls seems to be strong, so we better not leave them to chance. Laura and I will look for them, you, Noir, should join Emma and others.」Layla-san advised.

「I agree. Regrouping, we will take down the wyvern with three people.」

Deciding on the course of actions, I part with the two and go on a separate way. However, it does not go that smoothly. That was because the number of monsters in the city kept increasing.

Not even the flying types or ghouls that move through shadows, but mere goblins were wrecking the surroundings. Just now, from the ruined house appeared a blue-skinned goblin, dragging a young woman by the hair.

A nearby middle-aged man tries to slash at him with a sword, but another goblin rams into the man, throwing him to the ground. Though small in stature they had a lot of strength.

「Haaaa!」

With a loud battlecry, I enthusiastically swing my sword. The blade cut through the eerie blue skin and dyed the ground red with blood and flesh.

「You are a strong lad. Thank you for helping. .」

「Thank you for saving me.」

After being thanked by those two, my mood somewhat improved. As they didn’t seem to have any serious injuries, I recommend they move to another location.

And once again I hurry while exterminating monsters in the town. The strength of monsters varied greatly, as well as the species.

Even types with low intelligence were present, so why are they uniformly drawn to the Hornest.

……Ah, the previous Wyvern is attacking the lookout tower. The direction was different from where Emma was, but I can’t just ignore it. Let’s hurry there.

Soldiers stood on the platform at the top and retaliated with bows and magic. However, with wyvern’s hard skin arrowheads can’t harm it. The wyvern doesn’t pay any attention to them and just rams the tower.

Just as I heard, it’s astonishingly ferocious. The building already had cracks in it, from the outside it was clear that it won’t last much longer.

「You should go down, it’s dangerous there! The building is about to crumble.」

As I shout at them from the ground, they stopped fighting at once and came down using the stairs inside. At about the same time, the building collapsed with another attack from the wyvern.

To be honest, it scared me quite a bit. But, I missed my chance earlier, so I will measure its strength right now.

Name: Breath Wyvern

Level: 105

Skills: Flame Breath, Body Slam, Tough Body

So its level was a little higher than that of the monsters around Hornest, after all. I don’t think that it’s impossible to defeat, but since it dropped in altitude and now was closer to us it gave quite the impression.

The length is about five meters. Two horns growing from its head, the eyes were black. With dark blue skin covered in slight bumps, it was of the same type as harpies, with its arms and wings combined as one.

The breath wyvern looked down at me and opened its mouth wide. Breath is coming?

「Close your ears!」

Several soldiers immediately cover their ears, but I brought out the Champion’s shield and braced for impact. One of the reasons was that getting hit by 【Flame Breath】 would quite possibly mean death. And another one…

「OGAAAAAAAAAAAhhh!」

A numbing sensation dominated my body. I was the only one who didn’t cover my ears versus that tremendous roar.

The wyvern flapped its wings a couple of times, and surprisingly, flew towards the central part of the city without attacking us.

「Hey lad, are your ears okay?」

Soldiers rush to me with pale faces.

「No problem. I have defense skills.」

I judged that I don’t have to guard against the roar because I have 【Hearing Protection】. I created it in the past when we fought the earth dragon.

「Okay then. But if it weren’t for you, we might have been crushed by the building. You have my thanks.」

「No problem, more importantly, why did you think that it was a roar? There also was a possibility that it would spit fire, right?」

Earlier, they appeared to be convinced that it would be a roar. The soldiers tell me with a light laugh.

「When wyvern breathes, there is almost always a wind-up. Often, it would shake its body.」

「That is nice information. I will follow after it.」

「Hey, are you in the right mind? Can you win against it?」

「I have strong weapons, so I think I might manage somehow.」

「Ah, I see. Could it be that you are that lad that had a good bout with General Stay?」

I can’t nod confidently. I was overwhelmed from the beginning to the end. Giving a vague answer I run in the direction of the wyvern once again. Good grief, playing tag with a monster? Give me a break.

◇ ◆ ◇

As I approach the heart of the city the number of monsters keeps increasing. Most of them were small fry around 10-20 levels, but among them were also strong enemies like ghouls and wyvern, so I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

Before the fight, I confirm abilities with appraisal and then defeat them. It’s a real lifesaver that there isn’t that much of the general public around. Nonetheless, I can’t turn a blind eye to orcs, goblins and the like, who are actively destroying the city.

「Kekeke, kekekeke.」

I switch to the penetrating spear and sneak up to the goblin who was working hard on destroying the wall. Then, I repeatedly stab it from behind.

Please don’t look at me like I’m doing something cowardly. I have decided that there is no need for manners with monsters.

「NOOOO!」

This time it is a scream from the house behind. Looks like this time, it’s a harpy, who broke in through the window of the second floor. But this scream… Is it a woman? It was not time to care about that, so I went to that house. But it was locked.

「Excuse me, I will break it.」

Dash to the second floor after destroying the door by hitting it with the large stone bullet.

「No, stop, I’m not tasty at all!」

Harpy was trying to drag a muscular man from the corner of the room.

「Close your eyes.」

After confirming that he shut his eyes I use【Flash】and emit a strong light from my fingertip.

It seems to be dazzled just fine, thus the harpy’s movements lose sharpness. Clearly confused it’s bumping into walls here and there. That sight reminds me of a beetle trapped in a cage.

And as it fell to the floor after hitting the head on the ceiling, I stab it with a sword.

「Did it forget that it’s indoors?」

Confirming that Flash is effective on them at a short distance can be called a great find. Well, looks like the saved person had something to him.

「Tha~ank you~! If you weren’t there…… It would’ve completely messed me up. <3」

「N-no. Or actually, sorry for breaking the front door.」

「Don’t mind that~. You are my prince.」

He spoke in a high-pitched voice with female mannerism, but his face was completely that of a middle-aged man, he even had a small mustache. Please, someone, tell me, what is the correct way for dealing with those types.

When I urged him to hide in the closet, he submissively obeyed. However, I’m a bit troubled with how he is beckoning me from inside.

「I have places to go.」

「You have a cute face, come with me~.」

「Not possible. Absolutely.」

「How cruuel! You are hurting the maiden’s heart! Ah, I’ve had it, you are so despicable despite your lovely face.」

「……Don’t forget to shut the closet properly.」

As he appeared alright, considering how much composure he had, I escape from the house. With all those muscles he should be able to resist more. Do your best, old man… Since the destroyed window was right there, I jump outside from it and go from the second floor to the roof. Improving my vision I slowly look around. And as I’m doing so I catch the sight of the wyvern around the central square.

Jumping off the roof I roll forward to minimize the impact. And without skipping a beat I start running.

I pass several partially destroyed buildings. That guy… Does it have a hobby of destroying buildings or something?

The wyvern was ramming a fine mansion near the central square. How much does it have to break to calm down? I think nobles are hiding inside.

「I’ll be your opponent!」

Even if I take it head-on, it’s not the opponent I can’t deal with. Using the magic bow I shoot a number of arrows. The wyvern swirls over the sky, but I manage to hit her. However, ordinary arrows get blocked by the hide, and arrowheads can’t pierce into it.

So I make a pause. Lure it. That guy is pretty intelligent, and most likely waiting for a good opportunity. Here you go, it saw a chance and rushed at me.

「GOOUAAAAAAA——」

「Too naive.」

——Booooooooooom!!

【Explosive Arrow】 direct hit! Looks like even the wyvern with its 【Tough Body】 can still feel the damage as it’s flight became unsteady. It tries to escape in the opposite direction, so to make sure I also burst it with 【Thunderbolt】. It hit the target, just as planned, and wyvern fell onto the fountain on the square.

I quickly approach. Wobbling, it tried to get up, Quite formidable, as expected of the dragon species.

Should I keep whittling it from a distance? Or wound it with the penetrating spear? Which would be easier and safer?

「Gooh, guuh, guuh.」

With a strange cough, the wyvern opens its mouth. A tremor that started from the tip of its tail continues along its body and neck.

In a hurry, I brought out Champion’s shield which has 【Fire Resistance A】 and hid behind it. Flames assault me. The heat is tremendous even though it is blocked by a shield.

I have resistance skills as well, so I can endure it, but if I didn’t, it could have been a little dangerous.

Perhaps finished emitting the flames, but the wyvern broke into another fit of coughing. To take it down for certain I first used 【Ice Needle】 to attack both of its wings. I don’t know if it got frostbite or not, but it’s suffering. There, I sprinted and stabbed it to the head from below, piercing into the brain.

「Noir.」

「Noir-dono.」

I’m happy about my victory, but I’m even more safely happy to rejoin with Emma and Luna-san.

「Sorry, we left you to fight the wyvern by yourself.」

「We’ve got in trouble with hawk monsters.」

It looks like they had a hard time as well. But they defeated everyone, as expected. Did Layla-san defeat ghouls already?

It bothers me, but it’s not like this place is safe either. Monsters keep coming from all four directions.

「Hey, don’t you think that there are especially many monsters around this area?」

「You’re right. Yet it’s not like there is anything here.」

As I said that, my gaze fell upon the peace stone that was lying next to the statue of Gaien. if it wasn’t for the attack, we would have started our investigation with brother from this statue.

Let’s examine it now. First, the statue, looks like it’s just a normal stone sculpture. There was no mistake in the words of Shoen-sama. The thing is, the stone of peace, that Gaien made before his death, was a little tricky.

It had 【Biological Seal】 and 【Monster Beacon】 attached to it. Immediately examine them by editing.

【Biological seal】

《Allows to seal living things. Can keep them alive until the sealing object is broken. 》

【Monster Beacon】

《When a certain amount of magic power accumulates, it activates the power to strongly attract monsters. It also has the power to gradually attract monsters as the magic power approaches a certain amount. It is also effective for distant monsters.

Once the summoning power is activated, the magic power is lost, and when a certain amount of magic power accumulated again, the same power will be activated. Repeated until the bearer of this skill ceases to exist. 》