Isekai Dungeon Architect

[When the White Scale Naga raid started: ]

The joint raaid operation was a big event for the great city of Westford.

Many high ranking people from all around the kingdom had come to the city to observe this great event.

They had been staying at the different estates throughout the city, even booking the entire inns for their people.

There were nobles present in the city right now, and along with them, there were also people who were brought together by these nobles for their security.

The news reporters as well as the association presenters were going to present everything that was going on inside the dungeon to the people of the city.

While there would be a slight delay, they were going to send out footage of things happening inside of the dungeon so that the people could see everything going on inside.

This wasn't for entertainment purposes only. The association was proving its prowess by doing this.

When the dungeon was opened for the raid, the entire city held their breaths as they watched the people that they knew, the people that they looked up to, and the heroes that were going to bring down a disaster that might threaten their city.

As people watched everything unfolding inside the dungeon along with the good commentary of capable individuals, this whole event seemed like a game to the masses.

While the stakes were real and lives were on the line, the entertainment that was gained through the many battles which would happen inside the dungeon in the following few hours was also a different point that many merchants and vendors capitalised on.

Mages had their work increased as well.

Along with the city guards, the association people assigned throughout the city for internal and external safety of the citizens and guests had their work increased.

"Miss Aria…"

Aria's initial heroic feat of walking into the spirit fog all by herself was something that took away the breaths of many.

There were people who could not help their admiration as they hoped for her safety.

Cass, watching everything unfold from a safe place along with the other members of their party, could not help but be worried about this whole raid.

He wanted to be with them inside the dungeon. He even pulled some strings to get into the party, but Aria was the one who strictly blocked him, making sure he did not enter the dungeon for this raid.

She knew he was strong, almost unbelievably so. But he would stand out too much and risk his freedom for something that could be done without him.

She was putting herself on the stage anyway. There was no reason for him to join her this time.

So, just like the rest of her party, she left him behind in the city.

Aria also made sure the branch manager was aware of everything happening inside the dungeon so along with the public broadcasts that were set around the city, various personal channels that broadcasted unfiltered information only to him.

Some individuals were also set to record everything happening inside the dungeon during the raid so, everything that had happened inside the dungeon, from Aria's critical success in taking down the spirit fog, to the following battle, the sanctuary deployment, the <S> rank skills and how Aria coordinated them, everything was recorded by them.

What reached the public was filtered, what reached the nobles was further tainted, and what reached the association branch master was the least filtered reality.

He knew about the things only present in the direct records, but that wasn't all. As someone who had fought his fair share of beings on par with this Naga, only he knew how strange the situation right now actually was.

'It was strange from the start.'

How did the creature maintain the fog for so long? How did it use so many powerful skills? Why was it moving despite there being eggs around it?

The questions ate away at branch manager Quinn's heart and, when he confirmed that the creature was also being corrupted, something he had heard a long, long time ago came to his mind.

'The dungeon can forcefully corrupt the creatures within it by forcing negative energy inside them.'

It was a very, very occurrence that he himself had never experienced. He had only ever heard about it from the true master of the Adventurer's association in his younger days.

He did not know how that could happen, but it was possible. And every time that happened, something very bad was bound to happen inside the dungeon.

'Hurry…'

Knowing this, he could not stay in his position and immediately used a secret dungeon entrance to enter the dungeon.

He made sure not to be late, however, by the time he arrived at the location, what he saw stunned him in his place…

"Huh?"

The Naga was dead.

There was a wooden pillar similar to what he had seen before. The dungeon ground had stabilised and the environmental Mana was stable as well.

The adventurers that fought against the creature were all resting right now as well… or so it appeared to his eyes at that moment.

"What… is going on here?"

But that was not the case.

Every single person that was involved in this raid, the assault team as well as the support teams, and even the people of the association that were in a protected zone all this time… were all had fallen to the ground.

"What's happening to them?"

When he looked closely, there were strange blue lines around their bodies, faint and connecting them to the dungeon ground.

Each individual had these strange line marks around them. It seemed like the dungeon's energy channels were trying to invade them and interfering with them from the outside would result in something critical.

"..."

Confused, he looked around the place and tried to get a better understanding of the situation.

The dungeon was doing something to all the people involved in this raid. Something was happening to them, and the source of all of this, from the looks of it, was the person who had the brightest and the densest energy channels covering her body.

"Aria… it's you again."

The branch manager found her on top of a cliff some distance away from a medical area.

He knew how she got there and how she commanded the situation from that point forth, but he could not understand how she got in this state.

The defeat of the Naga was perhaps her doing, but, was the state everyone was in right now her doing as well?

From her expression she seemed to be fighting against an enemy far greater than this Naga mother, so it was unlikely that she was doing something to these people.

If everyone was in this state right now including the battle healer that possessed resistance against most abnormal conditions, then the only possible culprit behind this phenomenon was the very dungeon they were in right now.

"Strength isn't needed here." The boss monster that they needed to defeat was already dealt with. The problem right now was related to something more fundamental.

Aria may not be the one doing this considering everything that has happened until now, but from how she was related to the strange safe zone that created this whole mess, she certainly had a unique relationship with the dungeon.

If she was the one behind this mess, then she would take care of the rest of the things as well.

"I don't know what would happen if you fail here, Miss…" He looked around and spotted Reddy, his child-like student, as well as captain Lux, a boy he had raised himself.

They weren't supposed to fall like this. This was not how their lives would end.

"You like her, don't you? Then you better make things right."

He sat down beside her, placing his hand to the ground and channeling his Aura into it to detect any threats.

The others may have taken care of the mobs earlier but now that the boss monster was dead, they could return.

So until the others wake up…

-Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish…

The branch manager decided to stay here and look after everything.

He needed to be here so the ones experiencing whatever this strange phenomenon was could deal with it.

Sadly…

"Ughhh!"

As the branch manager saw the moment he opened his eyes at the unknown sound of someone choking, one of the adventurers some distance away closed his eyes for eternity.

The blue connection with the ground he had also vanished, confirming his death at that moment.

"Ughhh…!"

And, that was just the start of the ordeal as, one after the other, more and more people started experiencing the same scenario, closing their eyes for eternity after what seemed like a sudden burst of unbearable pain.

"..."

It was a horrible scene.

"Really?"

One that made him question his decision of trusting someone like her with a task of this scale.

But then again, his decades of experience and enormous strength was of no use here.

All these people did not need a sword right now.

They needed a kind of help that only this person could provide, probably.

So as for an outsider like him?

He could only watch this miserable, familiar scene of deaths…