Chapter 23. Preparation (1)
“An engagement?”
At Aneis’s question, Oliver G. Daniel, the current Commander of the Judgment Knight Order, nodded.
“Yes. As you know, Aneis, Dyra’s death has caused considerable unrest within the Order.”
“…….”
“His Majesty is deeply concerned because of it. He fears that if the vermin in the underground city are allowed to accumulate strength, they may eventually become a grave threat to humanity.”
What did that have to do with an engagement?
Aneis had little desire to learn about the complicated affairs of adults, so she simply listened in silence.
“Because of that, we have decided to plant an agent who can directly interfere with the underground city.”
“And?”
“That agent will be House Clayton. Since they already lead a Great Merchant Association, we believe they can exert considerable influence within the underground city.”
“I see…….”
“However, even House Clayton cannot be trusted completely. That is why an engagement is necessary.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Aneis understand the adults’ reasoning and nod.
“Then is this also…… for justice?”
“Yes. And for the greater good as well.”
“……All right.”
Aneis nodded without complaint.
She had little interest in relationships between men and women.
For justice.
For the greater good.
Those two conditions alone were enough for her to accept it.
Justice and the greater good had always been little more than different names for sacrifice.
Had the Judgment Knight Order not shed its own blood and sacrificed itself for the sake of great justice and the greater good?
‘Still, it’s frustrating.’
It was not that she resented the decision made by her uncle, Daniel.
She was simply frustrated by her own weakness.
If she possessed absolute, immutable power, there would have been no reason to go through such troublesome measures in the first place.
In the end, Aneis nodded.
And on the very day the engagement was confirmed, she went to find Shane.
—
“For that reason, Lintberg J. Aneis will temporarily be joining our team.”
“Whaaat?!”
Everyone was surprised by Aneis’s sudden appearance, but the most shocked of them all was naturally Delilah.
Aneis.
One of the members of the Judgment Knight Order had been involved in Delilah’s kidnapping only a short while ago.
Her reaction was only natural.
Had that very person not even been killed right in front of Delilah?
“N-No, wait. Isn’t this strange? Why are there so many Department of Command cadets on this team?”
Delilah’s bewilderment aside, she had a point.
Normally, Department of Command cadets formed teams with cadets from other combat-oriented departments.
Considering that the team leader received the largest share of points in the Department of Command, that was only natural.
At the same time, however, Aneis’s choice also made perfect sense.
“Not really. Why is it strange?”
“Because you’re in the Department of Command too!”
“So what? Even if I am, there are more than enough reasons to join this team.”
Now that she mentioned it, she was right.
They were going into none other than the Mezaia Great Forest, one of the Five Great Cradles.
The points they would earn hardly needed to be mentioned, and collaborating with the Raviata Adventurer Party would bring tremendous prestige to any Adventurer.
Regardless of department, once word of the expedition began spreading, more than a few cadets had personally sought Shane out.
Of course, after Shane ignored every last one of them, Klein was the one who ended up being pestered instead.
“Besides, I only came to take a look at the team my fiancé is in. I won’t be staying for very long.”
“Oh, really? W-Wait. Fiancé?”
Before Delilah could voice any more questions, Shane cut her off.
“In any case, Aneis will be accompanying us temporarily until this collaboration is over. I am going to explain the dungeon we will be entering, so listen carefully.”
“Urgh…… Fine.”
Hearing that Aneis would only be there temporarily, Delilah finally sat down.
It was not really her place to interfere, but if possible, Delilah wanted to have as little involvement with Aneis as possible.
“I chose a dungeon with an environment as similar to the Mezaia Great Forest as possible. Inside, each of you will participate in the subjugation under certain restrictions.”
“Restrictions?”
Shane nodded at Klein’s question.
“As all of you know, the Mezaia Great Forest places severe restrictions on the use of Mana.”
The others nodded at Shane’s words.
The Mezaia Great Forest was more dangerous because of its environment than because of its monsters.
They had heard about it in numerous dungeon-related classes. Its rainfall was certainly a serious problem, but the greatest danger of all was the persistent Mana Instability throughout the entire Cradle.
“Recovering Mana there is dangerous, but more importantly, it takes a great deal of time. Someone with sufficiently high Mana Adaptability would be fine, but that is not a level relevant to us at present.”
Shane himself was somewhat different.
The Mana Instability of the Mezaia Great Forest was a phenomenon caused by something deeply connected to the Runic Language.
His restrictions would therefore be less severe than those of the others.
“So for the next ten days or so, each of you will enter this dungeon under a restriction.”
“What kind of restrictions?”
“First, Klein. You are forbidden from using Mana for anything other than Body Reinforcement.”
“Hmm…….”
Body Reinforcement was a basic combat technique available to anyone capable of wielding Mana.
For Klein, who fought by wielding his tremendous quantity of Mana as a weapon, it was a severe restriction.
“Delilah, take this.”
“Huh? What is this? Dirt?”
When Delilah opened the pouch Shane handed her, she found only a handful of soil inside.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“You will use only that soil as your weapon.”
“What?”
As a Subterranean, Delilah could broadly be considered an Earth-Attribute Mage.
That meant even such a small quantity of earth could become a lethal weapon in her hands.
But that was not Delilah’s usual style.
She normally fought through sheer mass, using enormous quantities of earth.
“Controlling such a tiny amount that precisely gives me a headache…….”
“Endure it.”
“Urgh…….”
Once someone joined a team, it was generally proper to follow the team leader’s instructions.
In fact, the leader of an Adventurer Party often took an active role in improving the abilities of their companions.
Next, Aneis looked toward Shane.
“What about me?”
“Hmm.”
At Aneis’s question, Shane paused to think.
She had never been part of the forces Shane originally planned to bring.
Of course, Aneis would become an important figure in the future as well.
But she was also someone Shane had not intended to approach yet.
Aneis would grow naturally with time.
Certainly, she would experience almost as many hardships as Klein.
But that was none of Shane’s concern.
If she was not Klein, there was no reason for him to go so far out of his way to look after her.
Nor was she someone like Delilah, whom he had to prevent from eventually becoming an enemy altogether.
“You will follow a restriction similar to Klein’s. Use Mana only for Body Reinforcement. And one more thing.”
“Okay.”
“Swing your sword without even a single second of hesitation.”
“……? All right.”
Aneis nodded despite not yet understanding what Shane meant.
Shane then began properly explaining the dungeon they would use for training.
“The dungeon contains a forest, a cave, and underground tunnels. It is a Multi-Type Dungeon. Its size is medium.”
“That’s larger than I expected.”
“The difficulty itself is not particularly high. The primary monsters are Ratmen, Trolls, War Boars, Mass Goblins, and Leather Kobolds.”
As Shane explained, a Multi-Type Dungeon was a dungeon inhabited by several different kinds of monsters across multiple environments.
There were several ways to clear such dungeons.
Usually, two or three Adventurer Parties entered together, with each party taking responsibility for a particular territory.
The alternative was to monopolize the entire dungeon, as Shane intended to do now.
In that case, however, the amount of time spent inside naturally increased, which also raised the likelihood of unexpected incidents.
Of course, they would also monopolize the rewards from clearing the dungeon.
“We begin in the underground tunnels. After that comes the cave, and beyond it lies a dense forest.”
That information had been obtained beforehand by a Mage specializing in exploration, who had surveyed the dungeon through Familiar Magic using a summoned Familiar.
Shane went over the dungeon’s characteristics and the habits of its monsters before speaking again.
“Although I have imposed restrictions on you, the moment you judge the situation to be dangerous, ignore those restrictions and fight at full strength. That is all. Any questions?”
Delilah raised her hand.
“Don’t you have any restrictions?”
“I am always fighting under restrictions.”
Shane primarily wielded the power of Origin, but he could not use that power while maintaining his current identity.
If that did not count as a restriction, what did?
Naturally, Delilah had no way of knowing that.
Question marks practically filled her face, but Shane ignored them.
And so, the dungeon subjugation operation began.
—
A place where dead monsters returned to life and destroyed terrain restored itself as though by a miracle.
So long as its central nexus remained intact, a dungeon would regenerate endlessly.
Countless Mages had devoted themselves to discovering the reason behind these strange phenomena, but nothing definitive had ever been uncovered.
Considering that such environments had been created by the seal of Akasha, who was revered as a god, that was hardly surprising.
Shane’s party used one of the Allied Nations’ Teleportation Gates and arrived at a dungeon called [Forest of the Blue Sentry].
“It really is damp.”
That was Delilah’s assessment the moment they entered.
Just as Shane had said, the dungeon began within a damp underground tunnel.
At the same time, Shane took out a round Magitech Device and added his Runic Language to it.
“Wow. Is that one of those Magic Recording Devices I’ve only heard about? Amazing. It’s floating on its own.”
A Magic Recording Device recorded images according to the Mana Circuits stored within it once Mana was supplied.
It was a useful tool employed to prevent various crimes inside dungeons, or to review battles afterward and improve one’s abilities.
Its drawback was the price.
Even a respectable Adventurer Party might hesitate before purchasing one, and a top-quality model with guaranteed durability was said—perhaps with some exaggeration—to cost enough to establish an entire Adventurer Party.
But House Clayton, the family of Shane and Klein, had covered both the cost of securing the dungeon and every expense required for the expedition.
Lowell was not normally the type to provide support so generously.
However, once he heard that his sons would be collaborating with Raviata and heading for the Mezaia Great Forest, he had, unusually for him, praised them at length and provided this assistance.
“As you can see, we will record our battles with this and review them whenever we have time. So abandon any thoughts of taking things easy.”
“Understood, Brother.”
“Ugh. If I mess up, isn’t my embarrassing history going to be preserved forever?”
“…….”
The Magic Recording Device, inscribed with the runes ‘Levitation’ and ‘Tracking,’ floated through the air and followed behind the group.
Then their first battle began.
The monsters that signaled the beginning of combat were Ratmen.
They were rat-like monsters the size of adult humans that walked on two legs.
They were as cunning as Goblins and so cautious that even Kobolds paled in comparison, making them troublesome opponents.
On the other hand, that also meant their intelligence was only around that of Goblins, and once their vigilance dropped, they were merely mediocre monsters somewhat stronger than an ordinary adult man.
Five Ratmen emerged through the passage.
There were only four people on Shane’s side.
Perhaps because they held the numerical advantage—
The Ratmen approached with squeaking laughter, closing the distance.
Ordinary Ratmen would rarely behave that way.
They were naturally as cautious as Kobolds.
‘But this is where the dungeon’s characteristics come into play.’
Monsters inside dungeons almost never turned their backs on humans and fled.
If they did retreat, it was generally because they were at a disadvantage and intended to summon allies or lure the enemy into a trap.
Countless scholars believed that this behavior arose from the monsters’ hatred toward Akasha, who had sealed them away—in other words, hatred directed at humanity as an entire race.
Furthermore, their level of knowledge had remained frozen at the moment the dungeon was sealed.
Humans of that era had been an inferior race incapable of wielding even Mana, the fundamental power of this world.
To Ratmen sealed by Akasha in a place where even the passage of time had been denied, the humans before them were nothing more than helpless prey.
Of course, Ratmen were still capable of assessing their opponents.
If the enemy outnumbered them by even one, or possessed vastly superior equipment, they would flee without hesitation.
Shane spoke quietly.
“Klein. You show us what you can do first.”
“Understood, Brother.”
Klein’s expression immediately shifted into one suited for battle.
He drew his sword and stepped forward.
