Waves 4

Standing at that crossroads, the knight made an unexpectedly rational choice.

“We will submit.”

“…Huh?”

He said it so readily that, for a moment, I wondered if I had misheard him.

But I had heard him correctly.

“The nineteen members of this 4th Company have made efforts in various ways to rejoin the main force. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, I have judged that fulfilling that duty will be difficult. From this moment onward, in accordance with Article 41 of military law, we will act under our own judgment, and for the survival of the unit, I will transfer command authority as Viscount Jandel demands.”

“Ah.”

Only then did the tension leave my arms as I realized what was happening.

I had been thinking about how to use my noble title to crush him if he refused and tried to oppose me.

But he had only needed a reason to submit.

I had been fighting an enemy that had never existed.

“You are exactly as the stories say. This is somewhat embarrassing, but I will entrust myself and my company members to your judgment. I guarantee that we will pull our own weight and will never get in your way,” he continued.

“Well… I wasn’t worried about you dragging us down, but is this really fine?”

He tilted his head, confused.

“That is an odd question. Everyone in Raphdonia knows that if something happens inside the labyrinth, the most reliable person to find is you.”

Huh.

How should I put this…?

The situation was unexpected enough, but hearing him praise me so openly left me feeling a little flustered. It also made it difficult to treat him the same way I had before.

For a moment, a thought crossed my mind.

Wow, now that I know more about him, he actually seems like a pretty decent guy.

Is that what this bastard was aiming for?

Saul Endreako, captain of the 4th Company of the 3rd Knight Order.

There was no way someone like him was just some random fool.

I could not afford to let my guard down.

“Fine. If you have no intention of complaining or causing trouble, I’ll take responsibility for you. I promise to look after you the same way I look after everyone else.”

“That is enough.”

“Armin!”

After taking in the knights, I handed them over to Armin.

With his experience, Armin quickly assessed everyone’s strengths and began the process of integrating them into the group.

Somehow, our numbers had increased by a lot.

Thirteen people had died during the fourth wave, reducing our group to twenty-six. Then, during the search around the resting area, we found fourteen more survivors.

Now, with the knight order and the people they had brought with them, our numbers had increased by another twenty-two—nineteen knights and three survivors they had rescued, including the guild master.

A total of sixty-two people.

At this point, it was safe to say we had essentially reached the maximum number.

If we gained any more people from here, the available space would shrink.

This feels strange…

Not long ago, our lack of numbers had been my greatest worry.

But now?

All I had done was send out a search party and sleep deeply for a while. Yet in that short time, our numbers had suddenly swelled, and now we were at the point where we could not accept anyone else even if they came.

That made me feel extremely strange.

Things are suddenly going this well…?Anxiety bloomed inside me for some reason.

Of course, since the last wave had been so brutal, it might simply be that luck was favoring us a little this time.

Still, something feels off.

I had a habit of my heart beating faster and my breathing growing short the better things went.

So I checked everything again from start to finish.

To see if there was anything I had missed.

I looked through the roster Armin had made, checking whether any Hans had slipped into our ranks. After confirming that there were none, I went and spoke with each of the new members personally, listening to their stories.

I asked what had happened while they were trying to survive, and whether they had seen anything strange during their travels.

It was all just an attempt to calm my nerves, but in the process, I ended up learning something interesting.

“When the collapse began, you were on Arpus Island?”

“Yes.”

After hearing Captain Saul’s story, I found myself frowning.

The reason was simple.

The Royal Army had announced that they would occupy the three islands most efficient for farming mana stones.

“I don’t think Arpus Island is particularly good for gathering mana stones,” I said.

“I don’t know the details either. Besides, the disaster struck right after we moved.”

Saul added that they had been lucky.

After all, Arpus Island was one of the few islands that remained unaffected even after the Lord of Tears was summoned.

This does not feel like a coincidence at all…

With that thought in mind, I asked Saul about various details.

At first, he seemed reluctant to speak about the army’s internal affairs, but once I brought up my status as a viscount, he gave in and answered honestly.

And as a result…

“Hmm…”

I was able to form a rough outline of the Royal Army’s movements from the moment they entered the labyrinth to the moment the dimensional collapse began.

At first, the Royal Army had indeed acted according to plan.

They split their seventeen hundred soldiers into three groups, moved to the three islands, and began farming mana stones.

However…

“So the order to move to Arpus Island came suddenly?”

“…That’s right,” Saul admitted.

“And you don’t know where the troops on the other two islands went?”

“I didn’t hear anything about the other units. But wouldn’t they have stayed where they were?”

No.

That definitely would not have been the case.

I remembered the resentful cry of one of the people who had been dragged to the center when the Lord of Tears was summoned.

“The Royal Army! Where are the royal soldiers?! They should at least be here after realizing something has happened!”

There had not been a single royal vessel in the area.

They had probably been sent to one of those safe islands, just like Saul’s unit.

Luckily.

Coincidentally.

Fortunately.

The situation was far too convenient to be described by any of those words.

Honestly, at this point, I was certain.

I still had no idea what they had been aiming for by doing it, but…

It was not that bastard Lee Baek-ho.

The one who had summoned the Lord of Tears was the palace.

***

The palace had summoned the Lord of the Sixth Floor.

But why?

For what purpose?

What could they possibly gain by summoning that monster?

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to think deeply about it.

The safe period had come to an end.

Rip!

With that familiar sound, the air was torn apart.

Still, since everyone was already awake and prepared, our response was swift.

“Get into formation!”

“The collapse is starting again!”

To avoid being separated from the main group, everyone stood shoulder to shoulder within the boundaries we had already marked on the ground.

“Haah…”

I took my position as well.

And then…

Flash!

With a blinding burst of light, the fifth wave began.

This is already the fifth one…

The fewest waves I had ever seen in a dimensional collapse was seven. If we were lucky, we could escape the labyrinth and return to the city after just two more waves.

Of course, the key word there was lucky.

“Still, we’ve made it this far.”

The end was not yet in sight.

But we had at least reached the point where we could begin hoping for it.

With that thought—

“Bethel–raaaaaa!”

I let out another roar, almost like a prayer to survive one more day.

The starting point of the fifth wave was one of the eighth-floor rifts—Frostlord’s Palace. The average rank of the monsters there was fairly high, and the field effect was troublesome to deal with as well.

But there was one silver lining.

As the saying went, it was better to get the hard part out of the way first.

Facing these powerful monsters now, while we were still in relatively good condition, was far better than facing them later when we were battered and exhausted.

Just like this.

[You have defeated Frost Spirit. EXP +7.]

[You have defeated Knight of Bitter Cold. EXP +6.]

[You have defeated Icy Spire. EXP +7.]

[You have defeated Ice Ogre…]

[…]

[…]

Although high-ranking monsters continued to pour in, we dealt with them quickly and steadily racked up experience points.

We were now a large force of more than sixty people. More importantly, the knights who could use aura had joined us, and that made a huge difference. Recruiting nineteen knights had directly strengthened our melee lineup

Slash!

Their aura cut through a Rank 4 monster like tofu.

And the knights were not only good at dealing damage.

Like most knights, their absurdly powerful aura handled their offensive needs, while they compensated for their defensive and physical shortcomings with essences and heavy armor.

Simply put, they could tank a bit as well.

If I had to nitpick, it was that those with higher defenses tended to be less agile…

But in this situation, that hardly mattered.

[Character has cast Dragon Fear.]

A single roar from me stunned everything in the area.

All the knights had to do was cut down the enemies I had prepared for them—

Rip!

Whoa, that was fast.

The first field was cleared much more easily than I had initially feared.

Unlike with the Red Dragon’s Heart, no boss monster suddenly appeared, and only a few monsters followed us into the next field.

Realistically speaking, we had dealt with everything the field had thrown at us.

“Haah… the ninth floor this time?”

But the next battlefield was even trickier than the last.

[Character has entered a special area.]

[Field Effect – Dragonskull Mountains has been applied.]

[Status Effect – Dragon Curse has been applied.]

[Physical resistance is reduced by 50%.]

[One random essence is sealed.]

I quickly checked and found that I could not use Soul Dive.

That meant Primordial Cell, its passive effect, had been disabled as well.

“Argh, what the…? It looks like an army is charging at us!”

“Block them!”

As soon as we opened our eyes in the second field, monsters charged at us from every direction. There were more of them here than in any field we had encountered so far.

Well, the overwhelming number of monsters was one of the defining traits of the Dragonskull Mountains.

But the matchup isn’t bad.

We were quite good at area damage too.

[Myul Armin has cast Self-Destructing Spirit of Vengeance.]

[Myul Armin has cast Self-Destructing Spirit of…]

Especially when our enemies were undead.

[Character has cast Wild Outburst.]

[All undead within the area take damage.]

[Maria Shur Eloyd has cast Torch of Evil Destruction.]

「While the song continues, the resistance values of all undead within range are greatly reduced.」

We blew apart, crushed, and slaughtered the waves of monsters that came at us.

「You have defeated a Lich.」

「You have defeated a Dark Knight.」

「You have defeated a Bone Drake.」

「You have defeated a Skeleton Kinghelm.」

「You have defeated a Zombie Lord…」

At one point, several Rank 2 monsters even appeared at the same time.

But one was removed from the field by Elvain’s teleportation, while Ainar and the knights focused down another.

I held the last one back on my own for a while, until the others finished dealing with the first two and came to support me.

Unfortunately, none of the three dropped an essence.

And then…

Rip!

Even though the first two fields had been on the eighth and ninth floors, we cleared them with relative ease.

After that, things did not change much.

Rip!

The battlefield continued to shift, bringing new field effects and new monsters with each transition.

“AAAH!”

As exhaustion accumulated, the monsters we could not finish off in time began piling up around us.

Tap, roll…

But in the end, we made it through the fifth wave without too much trouble.

…Though that did not mean we came out completely unscathed.

“Three confirmed dead. That leaves us with fifty-nine survivors!”

Even though I felt we had handled the wave without encountering any truly serious danger, we still lost three people.

However, their deaths were not something I could refuse to accept. I

In the labyrinth, one small mistake could take your life.

he fact that only three people died amid this chaos, surrounded by Rank 3 and Rank 4 monsters, was proof that we had handled the wave extremely well.

And it was not as though our field luck had been particularly good this time either.

Our combat strength had simply increased that much.

Objectively speaking, the fifth wave had been far more difficult than the previous one. Our destination for the safe period was not exactly favorable either.

The Primordial Land.

The field at the center of the ninth floor.

The Tomb of Stars.

“What will you do?”

“We won’t scout this time. It’s not like we lack people, and there’s a high chance that anyone who goes out searching won’t make it back,” I said.

“Understood.”

“Increase the number of people on watch as well. The monsters here are all capable of breaking through Destruction of Evil.”

“We’ll do as you say.”

“Ah, and… call for a priest.”

“Yes.”

Like during every other safe period, I called a priest over and had a fire lit.

However, unlike last time, no one was sobbing.

After all, all three who had died this time were people who had been separated from their original groups and joined us alone.

There was no one around with any particular connection to them.

Even so, we all gathered before the burning flame and observed a moment of silence.

“Show them mercy. Embrace their souls warmly and guide them. Grant rest to the weary.”

As the fifth wave came to an end, I stared into the crackling fire and thought.

Fwoooosh.

How many more times would we have to light this fire?

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