Episode 372

Lee Han put on a slightly stern face.

“Please just speak comfortably.”

“I-I am speaking comfortably though?”

“……”

“I just misspoke earlier.”

The seniors belatedly tried to reclaim their dignity.

Of course, they were amazed at how unbelievably vast Lee Han’s mana was, but after all, weren’t they the seniors who had come to Einrogard first?

As seniors, they could not give up their dignity.

“But just how much mana do you have exactly?”

“There aren’t any strong ones among the first sector undead, but is it really possible they’d run away just from sensing mana? Didn’t the professor exaggerate?”

• * *

It was possible.

The seniors, who saw the ghoul hounds that appeared on the other side of the tunnel whimpering and running away, stared at Lee Han with an expression of disbelief.

“How many times was that?”

“S-six times.”

“Isn’t this way more effective than undead repellent potions? We might not even need them.”

Originally, exploring areas controlled by undead was a lonely and suffocating task.

Magicians would cast dark vision magic and then have to take each step with great caution, even holding their breath.

Loud noises, heavy breathing, sweat, or body odors summoned the undead, and if you ended up fighting the undead, even more would swarm in after hearing the commotion.

At that point, there was no point in gathering or exploring—the focus would be only on battle.

To avoid this, you had to thoroughly evade the enemy from the beginning.

Using undead repellent potions to block approaches was also a good method, but that came with the disadvantage of high potion consumption.

But today, a new method had been discovered.

A living human undead repeller!

“This way, junior.”

“Detected undead, junior. Go quickly that way! Yes! That’s right! The undead are running away!”

“Stand here a moment! So they can’t come!”

Direte apologized with a regretful voice, seeing Lee Han standing still.

“Sorry, junior. Are we working you too hard?”

“Pardon? Not at all. Honestly, this is pretty easy.”

“…R-right.”

“Ah. There’s a shadow bug here!”

“I’ll get the harvesting net!”

Seeing underclassmen rush over with gear at Lee Han’s call, Direte thought to himself.

‘…In about half a year, are the senior-junior positions going to be switched the other way around…’

• * *

About two days after Lee Han’s group had gone in, Parkdgul in the village started to sense something strange.

“…Something seems off.”

It was unusual for there to be a two-day error from the expected overlap date.

Other parties in the village seemed to sense it too; he noticed them murmuring and discussing in the square.

“What did the knights say?”

“They kept saying it hasn’t opened yet, and they’d let us know first thing when it does, over and over…”

“…Could those bastards possibly?”

Parkdgul felt a creeping sense of foreboding.

People with any brains in the Empire didn’t put their trust in knights.

Knights had their own strong internal logic, so they often broke promises on a whim.

“First, check the surroundings. See if any parties have disappeared or not!”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“And go and keep probing the knights! If they react suspiciously, push them hard. If those knight bastards have something to hide, they won’t be able to push back strongly!”

He sent people to nose around, and quickly, a clue showed up.

It turned out that the magician party that arrived a few days ago hadn’t been seen for a while, and one or two knights were avoiding eye contact.

Once the answer became clear, Parkdgul’s face went red with anger.

“How dare those knight bastards?!”

“S-sorry!”

“Call everyone who’s resting. We’re leaving immediately!”

Parkdgul grit his teeth, swearing that one day he would repay this debt.

His objective was more important now, so he had to let it slide, but these knights were truly infuriating.

“Sir Knight! Is it true that the dimension has opened?”

“What is this! Why are you hiding it from us!”

Other adventurer parties who had gathered in the square crowded forward and demanded answers first.

Those who’d heard the rumor belatedly shouted furiously.

“Answer us!”

“I think this is a misunderstanding.”

“What!?”

“The dimension opened today, an hour ago.”

“……”

“…What are you talking about…! I heard that two days ago, something black was oozing out of the forest! Isn’t that when the entrance opened!”

“That’s just a false rumor.”

“When this kind of anomaly happens, rumors always spread with it.”

‘These bastards are disgustingly shameless!’

Even in this situation, the adventurers were impressed at the knights’ ironclad refusal to admit fault.

No wonder not just anybody could be a knight.

“Then why are you telling us now, an hour after it opened?”

“If we’d announced it was open right away and let everyone rush in, imagine the chaos and harm. Look at the situation now.”

“At times like this, there needs to be an orderly approach.”

“……”

The adventurers realized that arguing any more would only hurt them.

‘You bastards.’

‘May you be cursed.’

Grinding their teeth, they quietly moved toward the entrance to the dimension. Parkdgul trailed with his party behind.

He would’ve started a fight right then if he could, but he couldn’t risk starting a brawl.

“S-sorry.”

“……”

“We’ll definitely find and secure those mushrooms.”

“If you don’t want to die, you’d better. Keep a close eye on the other parties. If you spot anyone finding the mushrooms…”

Even spoken quietly, his supervisor’s words seemed to reek of blood, and the subordinate nodded, trembling.

• * *

“Found it! I’ve got it!”

“Quick, dig it up!”

“Should I help too?”

“No. You can just stand there.”

“Don’t waste your strength unnecessarily, save your mana.”

Gainando and Raphadael grumbled as they pulled mushrooms from the ground and put them in baskets.

‘I’m good at standing still too!’

Unlike with Lee Han, the other first-year students didn’t get any leniency. Everyone had to work as much as they were present.

“Getting here before everyone else really paid off. Feels like we’ve cleared out everything in the first sector.”

“Right? I think we’ve got everything we could out of here now.”

The seniors put their heads together and compared the maps each had drawn.

The cave was winding and complex, but after wandering around for two days, the magicians had managed to fill out quite a bit of it.

“This area’s all checked.”

“And this part is done too. Even dug out the shadow stones from the wall.”

“It’s about time to move on to the second sector.”

As Gainando looked at them with pleading eyes, the seniors said as if they understood.

“We’ll let you out before we go in, so don’t worry.”

“This time we have plenty of time, unlike usual, so it’s more than enough.”

• * *

“You opened it two days late?”

“Hehe. It wasn’t hard.”

Having gained a lot of time and finished the map, the students who came out were surprised after hearing the explanation from the knights.

They couldn’t believe they had gained a two-day head start.

“No wonder nobody else was around…”

Suddenly reminded, Lee Han asked,

“Wait. So the people who entered late will have nothing left in the first sector, right?”

“That’s right. But what can we do?”

“If they’re bitter, they should have come early.”

“They can go into the second sector.”

Hearing the brazen responses of the dark magicians, Lee Han thought he was starting to understand just a little why dark magicians were despised in the Empire.

“There’s no need for you to feel bad at all, junior. We just did what we’re supposed to. Let’s rest, get our materials sorted, and go in afterward.”

“Great, we can rest a bit before heading into the second sector.”

The seniors said with joy.

Of course, since they needed to save money, resting meant nothing more than eating the coarse food from the inn and lying down, but it was still far more comfortable than moving around nervously inside the gloomy undead dimension.

“Um, what if we ask the merchants for extra food? If all you eat is what the inn brings out, you might not have enough energy… The merchants are having trouble since they’re short on Sanhwan Mushrooms, so I’m sure they’d be glad to trade even a small amount.”

“…Junior, can’t you just level up and join our year instead??”

The students were deeply moved at the junior who suggested something so appealing it made their ears perk up.

• * *

“I was going to kill you anyway, so this is perfect. Kill them!”

“H-how dare you?!”

Parkdgul’s subordinates began swinging their swords, and their opponents were startled.

They had just picked a fight with someone they thought was a mere pushover curious about the rumors, so a sudden ambush like this caught them completely off guard.

“Kill them!”

“These guys took what we’re supposed to take! Smash them and take it back!”

The parties who entered the now-empty first sector late were suddenly caught up in infighting.

At first, they just thought they were unlucky and kept roaming around thinking they’d find something worthwhile soon, but as nerves got frayed, they began to suspect the other parties.

—Didn’t those guys grab everything first?

—I thought it was suspicious how fast they moved…

A tense atmosphere, pulled taut with suspicion.

The first to trigger this was Parkdgul.

He needed to gather materials anyway and had no desire to take unnecessary competitors along.

He’d intended to kill them anyway, so when they started a squabble, Parkdgul’s subordinates welcomed the chance and drew their swords on the other adventurer parties.

“Block them!! It’s an ambush!!”

“Keep your heads down! Raise your shields! Arrows incoming!”

“Don’t let them use potions!”

“Scrolls! Where are the scrolls?!”

Shouts rang out and, hearing the noise from afar, other parties also started swinging weapons.

“Get close and you’re dead! Don’t come near!”

“Weren’t you the same guys fighting before? Stay back! If you don’t want to be suspected!”

With weapons ready to strike at anyone who approached, the atmosphere was tense and could explode at any moment.

But Parkdgul didn’t care.

“At this point, get rid of everyone.”

“I-is that okay?”

“Looking at things now, it’s better to deal with them all than leave them be. Even if it’s a hassle, just handle it. The second sector comes afterward.”

• * *

After replenishing themselves, the students went back in.

This time, the group was about half the size—it was time to head for the second sector.

“You’ll feel the difference as soon as you step in.”

“Ahem. The undead in the second sector will rush you even if they’re intimidated by mana. They’re that ferocious.”

“But as long as you avoid them, you shouldn’t have to worry.”

“By the way, junior. Want me to carry your bag?”

The seniors were worried that Lee Han might get tired from carrying his bag.

If Lee Han got tired, his mana would drop, and then the undead repeller for the first sector would weaken as well…

“Wait.”

Professor Mortum frowned and spoke up.

“There’s a fight happening.”

“Inside here?”

“So soon after it opened?”

It wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t that common either.

Students were puzzled to already see others fighting.

“Ahem. Normally, I wouldn’t intervene, but this one’s…”

What Professor Mortum saw with his Origin Magic was one side attacking the other unilaterally.

“Do we need to get ready to fight?”

“No. Ahem. They’re pretty strong, so it’s not worth the trouble.”

“Could we drive undead over toward them instead? If their fight is interrupted by undead, they’ll get exhausted eventually.”

At Lee Han’s question, Professor Mortum was about to protest that it made no sense, but then stopped.

“…That’s actually a pretty good idea. Not dangerous either.”

“With the undead repeller here, it’s more than possible!”

“Hey! Idiot. The junior is listening, you know.”

“……”