Chapter 68 – Heretic Saint, Forbidden Nun (1)
11. Heretic Saint, Forbidden Nun (1)
There wasn’t enough time to rest. The first day was more of a faint than a break, and the next day was great.
However, there was no problem heading to the dungeon. Perhaps because they officially confirmed their relationship and proved it through a strong physical relationship, their encroachment was also released.
Unlike me, who still had a little soreness all over my body, they were very lively.
“I will omit the description of where I am going. Kaya and I have been there twice and Shay has been there once.”
“Yes, chief.”
“The problem is that we have no idea how deep we went the other day, and exactly when and how far the kidnapped nun was taken.”
I did bring the map I used the other day. However, I wondered if a quarter of the total size had been revealed, and judging the difficulty of this place based only on the monsters I had encountered before was a no-brainer.
Still, since it’s level 4, if you meet the guys you’ve met before, you won’t be treated as badly as before.
“Then what is your number one goal?”
“It must be a search. Either on the nuns’ side or the church’s contingent.”
“Search.”
“To be honest, I don’t know how strong the contingent is. Still, if the church branch dispatches it urgently, I wonder if it will be possible to preserve one’s own life.”
“The sisters who belonged to the combat team at the headquarters… I remember being very strong. To the extent that I wonder if it would have been okay if we had not stepped forward if that number of people had been dispatched here.”
“On the contrary, the fact that they opened their hands to us means that the strength of the dispatch team is weaker than that of the combat team at the headquarters.”
Sabaksabak – We moved forward, stepping on the gloomy-colored soil. Shay, who is the most talkative and active, had been silent and exuding a sharp spirit even before entering the dungeon, while Kaya, the least of her words, was already arousing her purpose to calm Shay, who was already pulling up.
Kaya’s efforts seemed to have worked, but Shay’s steps slowed slightly. Then I quickly approached her and gently held her hand.
“The church sent a combat team, and we got here as soon as possible. I understand your impatient feeling, but we were walking as fast as we could, but I think it is dangerous to blindly look forward.”
“… Sorry.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I seem to be judging too coldly.”
“No. No. The boss should do that. The captain is right.”
Shay took a few deep breaths, then she got back in front of her and started moving her steps. It was slightly slower than her previous speed, but instead her impatience was gone.
“Thank you Kaya.”
“It’s nothing, chief.”
After all, Kaya was trustworthy. She seemed to have benefited from getting closer with Shay as well.
“There is nothing special about it.”
“This one too.”
We moved at a fairly fast pace to the place we broke through the other day. The image of Shay, who fell into near death, came to mind here, but she quickly scattered. She was just unlucky to think about it.
“Has it been completely neglected? No trace at all?”
“Yes. Maybe the place we passed by is extremely outskirts. Didn’t you do that the other day?”
“I don’t think the heretic bastards and the delegation have even come close to this side.”
“Hmm.”
Perhaps, I thought that the scale of this dungeon 〈 Between Heresy and Forbidden 〉 might be bigger than I thought.
I compared the map of District 1 of the dungeon I saw right away with the in-dungeon map that had been revealed so far. At first glance, it looked like a similar structure, but…
‘For the sake of being sure, I think it’s best to move further inward, no, towards the center.’
I pointed to one long stretch of road.
“I’m going to rush over there. Let’s be vigilant thinking that we don’t know when and where the heretics will pop out from there. Keep in mind The search is the number one goal, but all of that is after the safety of our warriors is premised.”
“Yes, chief.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Is it because of my mood? This place, which was relatively brighter than the dungeon, was getting darker and darker. It seemed to be a fact that the closer it got to the center, the darker it got.
Blazing-
[A small ember resists the approaching darkness.]
[Brightness: 99]
Lighted the magic torch. Last time I didn’t bother to use a torch, but now it was so dark that I couldn’t be alert in all directions without using it. Although it was obviously not a place that was blocked on all sides like this dungeon, the chilly air brushed my face.
‘Between heresy and forbidden, between heresy and forbidden.’
I thought of a dungeon name. Heresy is heresy, and forbidden is forbidden. What does it mean to be between heresy and forbidden? I understand that this is like a stronghold or lair of heretics who worship fear…
“Careful!”
“Back off!”
The smoke I had seen before suddenly came out. Smoke darker than the smoke that had just escaped from a car blocked the road ahead. And the smoke was gradually expanding its territory towards this side.
“Damn it, another way!”
“Doesn’t exist!”
“Captain, instructions!”
It seemed as if access beyond this was not allowed. The acting I had in the past seemed to disappear with time, and it actually did, but it never seemed to disappear naturally.
It seemed to contain the power of ‘fear’.
‘What if I get out of here? We don’t even know where the other entrance is.’
Even if you report that you couldn’t enter because of the unknown smoke after you got out of here, the church wouldn’t have anything to say. It’s not like we got paid first.
But.
“Everyone drink holy water! Enter!”
“Yes!”
Even so, the smoke didn’t seem like an obstacle that I had to step back from right away.
“Huh!”
After confirming the message that resistance to various status ailments had risen, I covered my nose and mouth with one hand and threw myself into the smoke. Upon entering, it was more like soaked cotton than smoke.
[Terror and darkness cover all sides.]
[Brightness: 71]
The brightness of the magic torch decreased rapidly. It was very frustrating, as if breathing was choked and even normal people would suffer from fear of the dark or claustrophobia.
“Shay! Kaya!”
– Get out of here!
– No, no… !
The voices of the comrades in front of me sounded like echoes from afar.
‘Was my judgment wrong?’
The frustration grew worse and worse. There were no monsters or traps, but I couldn’t tell if I was really moving forward.
‘No. I wasn’t wrong.’
Rather than saying that my judgment was wrong, I thought that if someone else had entered this place, they would not have been able to hold on and would have destroyed themselves.
To this extent… Compared to the things I experienced in this dungeon, it was pretty cute. In death-death, I didn’t even have a body to struggle with, and in nightmares, I had very vivid and terrible dreams.
On the other hand, it was just very dark and stuffy.
‘These women have endured worse situations than here. I can stand it. And I can get out.’
I was not wrong.
I kept repeating that I could get out of the smoke, but it was because my vision cleared up at some point.
“Leader!”
“Captain!”
“Oops!”
And the gray cat and the golden dog, who cast a torso slam with all their might from both sides, confirmed the safety of all the warriors.
Unless they forgot they were wearing heavy armor…
“I have no face. Leader.”
“Sorry…”
“No. It hurt like I was about to be crushed, but I wasn’t really crushed…”
“Sorry!!!”
“I’m kidding.”
It wasn’t a joke. Still, looking at Shay’s expression, which looked like she was about to cry, the seriousness had to be a joke. It hurts a little bit.
“How have you guys been?”
“I couldn’t see, I was suffocating and stuffy. And I wanted to give up moving forward and sit down. However, I believed in Shay, who was leading the way, and the captain who supported me from behind, and I kept going.”
“It seemed to remind me of the vicious bastards who tortured me on my knees. That’s why I never wanted to kneel. I didn’t want to get caught. So I kicked and ran and threw it away, and it came out before I knew it.”
“Good job. You did very well.”
[The Fog of Fear]
[Shay struggles as hard as she can.]
[Resistance roll]
Dread Mist: 5
Shay: 6
[Shay resisted ‘Success’.]
[Kaya endures fear with firm faith.]
[Resistance roll]
Dread Fog: 3
Kaya: 4
[Kaya resisted the ‘submission’ of the abnormal status.]
[Eugene faces fear with calm will.]
[Resistance roll]
Dread Fog: 3
Eugene: 5
[Eugene resisted ‘submission’.]
The battle message was being updated. It was a message that rolls occurred in a pile and that everyone resisted the ‘surrender’ of the status abnormality. And the message contained the situation the colleagues had talked about.
‘As expected, it was dangerous, but it was bearable enough.’
That dark thing was a trap that gnawed at the mentality, and we, who had become more mentally hardened, pierced through it with a head-on breakthrough.
Those of us who destroyed the evil traps of the monsters that would have gnawed away our mentality in the first place were rather full of morale. The surroundings, which had become abnormally and suddenly dark, became slightly brighter, and there were miscellaneous obstacles and traps in the middle, but they passed easily.
Then, for the first time, I came across a fork in the road, and I fell to one knee at the sudden tingling sensation hitting my head.
“Leader! What happened…”
“Shh!”
He hastily stretched out his hand to restrain his comrades from approaching me.
[Patrol the nearby area.]
[The results of scouting vary depending on the state of the scout.]
It was because the fog on the mini-map, which had been brightening only the road we had been on, was brightening in a conical shape along with two lines of messages that suddenly popped out.
‘I think my fucking eyes are about to fall out!!!’
Did the heroes who scouted countless times in The Long Terror suffer like this every time? I didn’t know that, and I scolded him for not doing the reconnaissance properly. I’m sorry for the fuck
Every time the map was revealed, the pain that seemed like my brain would ripen increased, so I wanted to pass out, but I could barely stand it while watching the restless expressions of my colleagues.
“Whoa…”
“Captain!”
Shay hurriedly hugged me, and Kaya took out a water bottle from her bag.
I quenched my thirst with water and explained the situation, and only then did they let out a sigh of relief.
“I was embarrassed because it was the first time I saw it.”
“Me too.”
“That goes for me too. It’s embarrassing, and it hurts too. If you guys suddenly get really sick in the head and eyes and feel like you know more about what’s out there, then I think reconnaissance has been triggered.”
Still, he stood up and took out a schematic to divert attention from the girls who were still not letting go of their worries. Then, with a pen, he traced the newly revealed part without hesitation.
“It’s amazing to see you again.”
“Wow… So, is it correct to go left here?”
“If you look only at the places that have been revealed, that’s true.”
“Then?”
“It may be a dead end if you go all the way, but it would be right to use the information given for now. So let’s go left.”
“Captain, the body…”
“Are you okay. Really.”
I lightly kissed their cheeks and eased my worries. It worked really well, and I never got caught in a blind trap or ambushed, at least in areas that were scouted.
That’s why I temporarily took the lead and moved, and quickly reached the end of the revealed place. The ranks were reverted back to normal.
“Ahead of this, I feel a rather uneasy aura.”
“That’s right. I think he’s at least on the same level as or higher than that heretic scumbag who pretended to be a knight I met last time.”
Coincidentally, the reconnaissance stopped just before the door in front of us. But it wasn’t particularly sad. Everyone, including me, easily predicted that the least elite monsters would greet us.
Isn’t it a bit funny to see miscreants appearing in such a well-thought-out place?
“Is everyone ready?”
Nod-
“Open it.”
Kiki-Ik–
The door slowly opened inward with a grating sound.
“Did the disturbing unbelievers come again? It’s boring.”
[Elite monster 〈 Dread Sister 〉 has appeared.]
What greeted us from the inside of the gate was neither a dark knight, nor a soldier, nor a monster… She was a slender woman in a black robe.
