According to the village warrior, it seemed that they had intensified their patrol in the forest since the appearance of monsters was increasing around their farms because they also suspected that there might be abnormality occurring somewhere.
And yet they couldn’t discover anything that looked out of place. At the very least they didn’t find any dungeon in this place several days ago.
There was no way that they could overlook an extremely dungeon that kept birthing out monsters one after another like this.
In that case, there was only one possibility that I could think of.
「As I thought, it’s an outbreak of magic saturated dungeon……!」
To begin with, a dungeon was a monster nest that manifested due to inclination of magic power that was beyond human understanding.
It had various forms depending on the location where it manifested but, the attribute that they all shared was how dungeon gave birth to monsters.
Monsters reproduced by mating, just like normal animals.
But unlike normal animals, they also had a special characteristic of being produced endlessly inside dungeons where the magic power had inclination.
But, even though the production was said to be endless, normally there was still limitation.
A dungeon couldn’t produce monster more than it could contain. After the monsters got hunted by adventurer for example, the dungeon would start producing new monster again as though to replenish the stock.
Even though dungeon was something that exceeded human knowledge and got formed by inclination of magic power, there was no such thing as unlimited magic power so that could only be considered as natural.
But in an extremely rare case, a dungeon that surpassed such rule could manifest.
That was magic saturated dungeon.
Such dungeon was created by magic power inclination that was far denser than normal.
This dungeon wouldn’t care even if its internal capacity was filled to the brim and would continue to give birth to new monsters while ejecting the excess monsters to outside. It was an extremely troublesome attribute.
Furthermore because magic saturated dungeon was formed by super dense inclination of magic power, a lot of them managed to grow into mature dungeon in a short period of time. Its abrupt appearance without even giving any time to humans to take countermeasure was a recipe for great disaster.
Just like how the village almost got destroyed this time without even any chance to call for help from the guild at the city.
「This instant dungeon wasn’t here several days ago. Then is the cause of the appearance of many monsters around the village separate from this……? No, that’s not important right now. We have to do something about the dungeon as quickly as possible.」
I ascertained the nature of the dungeon using the knowledge that I learned when living in the capital while muttering.
There was a core that was managing the inclination of magic power at the deepest part of the dungeon. The dungeon could be stopped from functioning if that core got destroyed.
Various resources like magic stones could be gathered from dungeon because of that magic power inclination, so normally city or country would manage the dungeon without destroying its core but……it was a different story for magic saturated dungeon.
It had to be stopped from functioning as quickly as possible.
「This is a serious matter……! We gotta return to the guild right away and form a subjugation force!」
「But how!? It’ll take half a day to reach the city from here! This kind of dungeon might grow even more if it’s not destroyed right away, and even now it’s already producing monsters level 50 or 60, who knows how high its difficulty level will become after this……」
「This dungeon got saturated in just several days after all, even just a day of delay might be fatal……」
The adventurers who came with us exchanged words with pale expressions.
Their worries were only natural.
This dungeon needed to be conquered immediately in various meanings.
In that case,
「We’re going.」
「Ha?」
The senior adventurers froze hearing my words.
They turned their eyes toward Alicia and me with taken aback looks.
「You said we……don’t tell me you’re planning to conquer the dungeon with just you and that little miss healer!?」
The senior adventurer yelled with misunderstanding about Alicia’s Gift.
Normally, it was common sense to conquer a dungeon with a party of five or six people.
And if it was a dangerous dungeon like magic saturated dungeon, the standard rule was to form a large force of dozens of people with veteran adventurer of higher level than Rainy-san as the leader. Depending on the situation, one option was to ask the army of the feudal lord or the kingdom to take over.
But the situation this time was too unique in various meanings.
I told the bewildered seniors.
「Either way we will need to continue eliminating the monsters inside so that they can’t go outside until the subjugation force arrive here. In that case I think it will be more effective to go inside and proactively hunt monsters to make the magic power inside the dungeon to be split for creating more monsters instead of expanding the dungeon. If things go well we can also consider conquering the dungeon by ourselves……but we’ll return right away if it looks impossible, so for now please let us go in.」
There was no denying that we had to do something about this dungeon as quickly as possible. And it would be easier for Alicia and me to fight with our full strength if were alone.
If it was the current dungeon that only produced monsters level 50 or 60 at best, then it would be safe enough even with just Alicia and me.
I might sounded a bit arrogant but, considering how I faced the monsters swarms that attacked the village before this without any problem, my analysis of our combat strength shouldn’t be that mistaken from the reality.
With that thinking, I volunteered to conquer the dungeon with few people that looked reckless in a glance.
「W-welllll, if it’s you guys then I guess you might be able to charge alone into a dungeon of this level but, as expected simply leaving this to two rookies is just……」
The seniors looked alternately at the dungeon and us as though they were making a bitter decision.
But before long the weight of the emergency pushed them into a decision. They scratched their heads as though to shake off their hesitations and conflicted feelings.
「Aa, shit, how pathetic. Even though that kinda role should fall to us seniors! Got it, we gonna leave the inside of the dungeon to you two. We’re going to split into a team to request reinforcement from the city and a team to stand by at the dungeon entrance. It’s so that the team remaining here can back up you two in case you ran out of stamina and magic power and need to retreat. Also, if you two are gonna enter into the dungeon alone then I got a condition.」
The senior said that and pushed something to me.
It was a crystal that was radiating a mysterious light.
Don’t tell me this is…….
「It’s teleport magic item for escaping that can only be used inside a dungeon with magic power inclination. It’s a trump card that I bought just in case but, I’ll give it to you two.」
「Eh, but this, is something really expensive……」
「Yeah that’s right! Originally I’ll never give away something like this for free! But I’m not gonna be able to keep my face as a senior unless I do this! If you two are gonna leave us behind and enter the dungeon alone, I’m not gonna allow it unless you bring this thing with you!」
His words and attitude were rough, but he actually must be really worried for us.
I stopped being considerate and obediently pocketed the item.
「Thank you very much. We aren’t going to force ourselves so please don’t worry too much.」
「Not forcing yourself in a dungeon is just common sense! Then, let’s meet up again later!」
The senior adventurers said that before splitting into two teams.
A team that returned to the village together with the guide to ask for reinforcement from the guild, and a team who would wait in standby here in case we needed back up for escaping.
「Yosh, then let‘s go.」
「……Yes.」
And then Alicia and I stepped into the dungeon that was continuing to produce monsters endlessly.
「「「GUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」」」
「「Shi-!」」
「「「GUGAH!?」」」
We cut down the attacking monsters and charged into the monster territory.
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