Days of Dungeon: From Simple Quest to Strange Adventure

"Please stay here with Beatrix… I'm going to the Crystal Mirror Dungeon," Arezu said after hearing the knight's report that the commander of the cavalry, along with Liz's party, had gone to conquer the dungeon.

"Ehh?..." Lynn muttered, before letting out the loudest scream either Arezu or Beatrix had ever heard from her. "EHHH~!"

"Quiet, Lynn!" Beatrix hurriedly leapt on Lynn, covering her mouth with both hands in a panic.

Lynn's scream caught the attention of the Visages outside, crawling on the walls and roof. Their pounding grew even louder, and the Crafters Guild building shook, creaking as though the barricades on the broken windows were about to collapse. Everyone inside—adventurers, crafters, merchants, mage students, even soldiers—grew more anxious, or rather, terrified.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Struggling against Beatrix's hands covering her mouth, Lynn finally lowered her voice and asked Arezu, "What do you mean you're going to the dungeon?"

With everyone staring at him, Arezu hesitated. Noticing this, Lynn eased her resistance against Beatrix, causing the latter to lose her balance and stumble. Seizing the chance, Lynn grabbed the sleeve of Arezu's coat and pulled him out of the fifth-floor hall into another room.

"Now answer my question, Mr. Arezu."

Even with no one around to overhear them, and despite Lynn's threatening glare and tone, Arezu still refused to confess why he wanted to enter the Crystal Mirror Dungeon. As usual, he dodged Lynn's question with a vague but compelling answer.

"I... at least want... to save them..." he murmured, trying to hide both fear and sorrow in his voice.

"Are you saying Liz's party would lose against the Dungeon Master? Even with the commander and Ms. Sweet-Sylvie with them?"

Lynn was more surprised than afraid, knowing Arezu wasn't someone who spoke lightly about people's lives.

They had both seen how strong the commander of the cavalry and Sylvie were. If Arezu said they would still lose against the Dungeon Master, then he clearly knew something about the Crystal Mirror Dungeon he had been keeping secret from her.

The thought that Arezu didn't trust her certainly annoyed Lynn, her face slowly turning red. Yet even she knew to set aside her displeasure, given their dire situation. That didn't mean she would stop questioning him, though.

"But you said earlier today that you didn't go inside the dungeon when you first visited this town," Lynn pressed, continuing her interrogation.

"I only said it's not my hobby to throw myself into a place full of monsters—"

"GRRR~!" Lynn snapped, growling.

Shocked, and assuming Arezu had twisted his words to deceive her, Lynn couldn't hold back her frustration any longer. She broke into a childish tantrum, throwing weak punches at him.

"You're unbelievable, Mr. Arezu!"

But despite her souring mood—

"If you're going to the dungeon, then I'm coming with you!"

"Just stay here with Beatrix and your students—"

"I said I'm going!"

"I'm serious, Lynn. It will be dangerous—"

"Who do you think I am, Mr. Arezu?!"

Losing the debate, and knowing she would simply sneak after him anyway, Arezu reluctantly agreed to let Lynn accompany him to the Crystal Mirror Dungeon.

When they returned to the fifth-floor hall, everyone turned to look at them the moment the door opened.

"So you two are really going to the dungeon?" Beatrix asked, echoing the thought on everyone's mind.

It wasn't that anyone had overheard Lynn and Arezu's conversation—Beatrix simply knew Lynn wouldn't let anything involving Arezu slip past her. That was the nature of their relationship, as Beatrix had come to understand during their days together on the Annual Caravan Quest.

"I'm sorry, but I—ouch!"

Lynn elbowed Arezu in the side, glaring at him with a pout that silently demanded he correct his words.

"I know, I know..." Arezu muttered. "We're going to the dungeon."

"Fine, if that's what you want to do." Beatrix sighed. Despite her worries and fear that Lynn and Arezu might meet the worst outside, she had no authority to stop them from doing as they wished.

"But let me say it again... Just don't die, you two weirdos."

After a bit of preparation, Lynn and Arezu were ready to leave.

"That club... What do you call it again?"

"It's a baseball bat."

"That baseball bat won't be enough to protect both of you, so don't hesitate to use your weapons and cut down the Visages," Beatrix warned them.

—"Please be careful, Ms. Lynn, Mr. Arezu."—

Leo, Cliff, Senna, and Casey spoke in unison.

"I still have a debt to pay, so make sure you come back alive—and not as undead—Lynn, Arezu."

At Gwen's words, her Minions nodded in agreement, saying they owed the same debt to both of them.

—BONG~!—

The sound of the midnight bell echoed through the entire town—or rather, the dungeon—as though giving a cue to Lynn and Arezu's quest to save Liz's party. It was still as calm and soothing as it had been when it rang at six in the evening.

But just like before, a minute when the chime ended, that calm and soothing atmosphere was replaced by fear and terror.

—Bamm!... Bamm!... Bamm!—

The Visages grew more aggressive, their pounding on the walls, barricaded windows, and roof louder and stronger. The entire Crafters Guild shook as though it might collapse.

"Reinforce the barricades!" Beatrix commanded the crafters.

While they hammered and nailed more wooden planks over the windows, a lookout adventurer in the attic above the fifth-floor hall called out.

"Another group is heading this way!"

Lynn, Arezu, and everyone else peered outside through the gaps in the barricades.

Even in the dim light, they recognized a group of more than a dozen individuals. Like Gwen's party, they were sprinting across rooftops, leaping from building to building via the ice bridges Lynn conjured with her mystic spell.

The group had reached the hundred-meter-long ice bridge that spanned the wide, Visage-infested street leading to the Crafters Guild. But, like Gwen's group before them, they were soon cornered by Visages swarming from all directions.

"We could still save them..." Lynn murmured, but before anyone could volunteer to go out again—

—BOMM!—

A loud explosion reverberated through the air as the massive ice bridge shattered to pieces.

"Tsk!" Lynn clicked her tongue, annoyed at the sight of her elegant bridge being destroyed.

"That shouldn't be your concern," Arezu muttered—not as a lecture, but as a warning for her and the others to stay hidden.

The attack that obliterated the bridge had been a spear thrown by one of the Visages chasing the group outside. Judging by the sheer force and destruction, that Visage was probably as strong as a silver-rank adventurer—or perhaps even a gold-rank.

As the mist from the shattered ice bridge cleared, everyone inside the Crafters Guild saw the group outside dragged away by the swarming Visages.

"Are you two still planning to go outside after seeing what just happened?"