I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 334

## Chapter 334 – Dungeons and Adventurers (1)

The long-awaited day of the decisive battle.

Vivian, busy reviewing and approving various parchment documents as she walked, heard Lanie’s reply. Lanie, carrying a box and her ponytail swishing, hurried alongside.

“Did you pack all the supplies?”

“I packed everything you told me to, but more medicine arrived, so I added it.”

“Double-check. You never know what might happen. It’ll be too late once we’re inside.”

Even while restoring the chaotic streets and Floraz, they had been quietly preparing behind the scenes.

Now that their preparations were finally about to bear fruit, Vivian tried to calm her excited heart and issued orders to Aurora.

“Do you understand the operation?”

“First…!! As soon as we enter, we annihilate the surrounding monsters…!! Second… um… we… construct an initial base…? And after that, we move on to the next stage…!!”

“It’s a forward base, a safe zone in the dungeon, a base camp for long-term exploration. Did you convey that properly, Lanie?”

“Yes… yes…!! I conveyed it exactly as I heard it, Vivian-nim!!”

“Good job. Are they waiting below?”

“Yes!! They’re ready to go in at any time…!!”

“We don’t know what will happen, so be prepared. No matter what, this is not something to take lightly.”

“Yes!! Woo-hoo!! Dungeon!! Adventure!! Romance!!”

As Vivian finished speaking, she heard Lanie’s shout as she excitedly ran off with the box. Vivian sighed and turned slightly.

“She already seems to be in a party mood…”

Where her head turned, Verdi was giving Serkov a light kiss on the cheek, waving with a worried smile.

And Yui, carrying a small trunk bag on her shoulder, seemingly packed with all her personal medical equipment, stood there stiffly, looking very nervous.

“Serkov, it’s time to go. Is Yui ready?”

“Haa!! Is it time to go? I’ll be back, Verdi!!”

“Be careful!! Okay…? I’ll be waiting with Goldie…!!”

‘They’re like cockroaches, that couple…’

Watching the couple kissing again, even though they had been doing it just moments before, Yui and Vivian seemed to be thinking the same thing.

And as Serkov hurried after them, entering inside, the thugs who worked for Jebi began to tightly guard the Floraz main branch, as the door completely closed behind them.

“He really left… what an idiot…
I’ll be waiting while praying…”

Verdi, who had recently become interested in the Church of the Celestial God and started attending services, turned away with tears welling up in her eyes.

Gently caressing her belly, one of the thugs cautiously moved beside her to escort her out of the back alley.

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“Sorry, but bear with it for a little while.”

“I’m used to this treatment, so it doesn’t particularly matter.”

Small whispers, only audible to each other.

Among the line of people walking through the tunnel, an incongruously large figure, a woman with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of a human bound tightly.

Leah whispered to Vivian, who had a sword to her neck, and they were conversing.

“Rather, if you give me a chance to go out for a change…
Shouldn’t I be grateful to you?”

Normally, she would be holed up in her hideout on the fourth basement floor of the lair, mixing her tentacles with her body and drooling whenever she felt like it, but even for her, that comfortable life wasn’t entirely happy.

“Seeing blood is truly enjoyable…”

Her essence was that of a hunter.

A fearsome being who lurked, waiting for prey, and then pounced on it in an instant, injecting deadly venomous fangs.

She didn’t shy away from direct confrontation when necessary, so she had no reason to refuse the offer that came just as she was feeling restless.

“First, you need to prove that you don’t seem hostile to people.
It probably won’t take long.”

“I already know that much.
You don’t need to comfort me like that.
Wasn’t the gaze of fear my life anyway?”

Her lower body was left intact to allow her to walk, but her upper body was tightly bound, making it impossible for her to resist.

Even so, Leah showed no hesitation in her response, even though the sight of the sword blade held to her neck, gleaming with a blue light, was quite chilling.

Unlike the other humans or demi-humans in the lair, Leah was an Arachne, one of the artificially created demi-humans created by Chao Xing’s bio-experiments.

Leah was the most different from the other members of the lair, and therefore the most isolated.

That was why she trusted Vivian, the woman Enic had chosen and trusted.

To the fifty or so Henias who lived with her in Enic’s lair, Leah, who didn’t particularly eat anyone and was also a fellow pillar wife as Enic’s mate, was not exactly ‘familiar’ but not someone to be ‘wary’ of.

However, in this expedition, which included several others, Leah was bound to be seen as a rather threatening presence.

Serkov, who had been one-shot by an Arachne in a special evaluation during his drug addict days, and Yui, who had been gnawed on by her and had only recently started to clear up the past and restore their relationship, were of course included.

This time, several carefully selected executive-level members of the Jebi Cartel and about a hundred of their members, who were both combatants and workers, were also following, so it was necessary to reduce possible friction.

“But when I think about it again, isn’t it delightful?
The sight of men pissing their pants… Hehe!!”

In fact, when she first revealed herself as a reinforcement, the men of the Jebi Cartel were terrified and drew their swords in a panic.

It seemed she was still remembering the sight of one man falling on his butt and staining the floor with the smell of urine, as Leah’s face was filled with irrepressible joy as she tried to hold back her laughter.

“I miss my husband already…
Should I not have come if I knew it would be like this?”

“I agree with that.”

Anyway, for that reason, Leah was still having Vivian hold a sword to her upper body, a performance that was essentially a way to build trust.

“We’ve arrived…!!
It’s right ahead!!”

While walking through the tunnel, Vivian turned her gaze to the voice coming from the front. She soon understood and, riding on Leah’s spider body, began to move ahead of the others.

She walked to the front of the line and stepped into a small, empty clearing.

“I see… so it’s like this…”

The sight of the dungeon gate above the seemingly empty ceiling of the clearing with ample space.

It was a different feeling from looking down at the gate laid on the floor of a room inside a hidden building, opening several locks.

‘Pretty…’

In Vivian’s eyes, which were taking in the sight of the gate, the sparkling galaxy flowing across the blue sky was reflected.

Of course, it would be best to lie down and look up at this picturesque scene, having a picnic and biting into a sandwich.

But as Vivian, who had a purpose, watched the people who were gradually arriving and filling the clearing, she was looking for an opportunity to move on to the next stage.

“El…!! No, Magician!!”

“Yes…?”

At Vivian’s voice calling for the magician, a person wearing a thick cloak, emitting a clear woman’s voice, walked forward through the crowd.

That person wore a wooden mask carved with the face of a beautiful woman, perfectly fitting their face, so that no one could see inside.

But when that person came forward, another girl was already standing next to them.

The two women, exchanging bewildered glances and predicting each other’s identities, whispered to each other in confusion.

“… Mari-yang…!! Why are you here…”

“… Professor Eloise…? Are you the professor…?
U-um… shhh……. Let’s talk later…”

Watching the masked person look at the purple-haired girl next to them, their voice trembling.

Vivian, feeling like she could already imagine the face inside the mask, smiled and gave an order to the person who had sealed the dungeon and would let them inside.

“Prepare to let us through.”

“R-really…?”

“Is there a problem?
I don’t sound like I’m joking, do I?
I heard you came to help?”

“Umm… it might be dangerous…
I’ve warned you…”

Eloise, hiding the beautiful mask that had been placed on her table along with a long overdue invitation (read: threatening letter).

Naturally, she had left the academy for a while and even followed them to some dungeon to avoid the humiliating and embarrassing video of her past being spread.

This time, the letter, which was also anonymous, was the first to involve her with other people.

‘Maybe the culprit is among them…
Or at least someone involved…’

Thinking that she might be able to escape this manipulated state, she took a vacation in the middle of her busy schedule and followed them without complaint, hoping for a chance to retaliate.

But to find her precious student, Mari, in a place like this, and to realize that her job was to control the dungeon gate, she didn’t know what to do.

But all she could do was bite her lip tightly in tension behind the mask, and slowly reach out her hand towards the sealed dungeon gate, along with Mari, who was also raising her hand.

Fortunately, she thought it was a relief that no one could recognize her panicked self thanks to the mask. As Eloise’s hand glowed with magic, and the magic circle that was being completed in the air shone.

“Tras!! Wigen Portarea!!”

The sight of the group being swallowed by the light that was gradually consuming them, being swept away by the light of magic and slowly being sucked into the gate.

A short time later.

In the clearing where the people who had filled the space had completely disappeared, only the light flowing from the gate filled the surroundings, scattering a faint tranquility.

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