[Check Out My P4treon For +50 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!! And get chapters before publishing them here for free on my p4treon][https://p4treon.com/roaverse]
===
Flickering lightning! Gloomy, dense forest!
A torrential downpour! Wet mud pits!
Tree after tree!
Shadow after shadow slammed into them!
They couldn't tell which way was which!
Nor did they have time to!
Someone was running wildly through the dense forest!
Squelch!! Leuf stepped into a mud pit that looked shallow but was incredibly soft from the pouring rain. His foot lost its footing, and he stumbled, hitting a tree in front of him.
"Hey!! Holy sh*t!!"
The recoil sent him into a somersault. His head snapped back, and he plunged into a mud pit. Klem abruptly turned, crouching to pull him up.
Swish!!
A sharp gust of wind suddenly tore through their original position, sweeping horizontally! It cleanly sliced the rain curtain and the dense forest before them in half!
Rumble, rumble, the sound of thunder mixed with the sound of trees falling. Klem completely forgot to reach out to pull Leuf up. The latter slapped the puddle, and with a dry-land pole-vault, he scrambled out of the mud.
A Specter monster that had fallen from the sky emerged from the dense forest before them.
He turned. A dense horde of specters was rapidly approaching from behind.
He swung his hand and gave the still-horrified Klem a resounding slap.
"What are you standing there for? Run!!"
"Ah!!"
"Damn it!!! How can these Specters throw their companions to attack people?!"
"They just can!!"
"Huh? Do those Specters surrounding the hilltop do that too??"
"What else!! Why else would we care so much about the barrier spell?!"
"F*ck! Where did they learn this from?!"
"Stop talking and run!!"
"That way is more open! Go figure out a direction! Lead them up to the hilltop!"
"That doesn't seem like a good idea!"
Leuf grabbed Klem and dodged another object falling from a great height. The Water God Style talent of this guy had been pushed to its limit by the adrenaline surge in this life-or-death situation.
He roared! "Say that again?"
"I said it's a great idea!!"
And with his words, his figure did not stop moving.
After a fierce lunge, the two of them burst out of the dense forest.
But their feet were in the air.
—The open space before them in the rain was indeed very open, because there were no trees there to begin with. It was a slope.
Just as a look of surprise and astonishment appeared on their faces, their bodies, following inertia, plummeted. Yellow mud churned, pebbles flew, and they rolled and rolled down the slope.
Fortunately, the slope wasn't steep. It was, in fact, a long, gentle 30-degree incline. Midway down, Leuf had already drawn his sword and stabbed it into the ground, stopping his descent. He also, with his foot, managed to scoop Klem up.
As soon as he steadied himself, he immediately turned to look up.
In the rain.
At the edge of the slope.
Gray shadows popped up, one by one, emerging from the edge of the slope. Dozens of two-meter-tall Specters looked down from this position, exuding an immense sense of oppression.
They formed a circle, looking 'leisurely,' as if they were watching the amusing escape of rats.
Enjoying a game of cat and mouse.
Gulp, Leuf swallowed hard, his teeth chattering. The fire of anger burned in his eyes. He wiped the yellow mud from his face and, grabbing Klem, prepared to continue their escape.
Cat and mouse?
Catch!
He was going to show them if they could get away!
But he felt resistance from his hand. He pulled again and found he still couldn't move Klem. He turned his head to look at Klem in surprise.
Swish! Lightning tore through the sky, illuminating Klem's face.
"What are you doing?! Have you gone crazy?! Hey! Wake up!! Klem! Are you waiting to die?!"
Klem did not respond. He stared blankly at Leuf. Rain streamed down his face. He pointed a finger forward, behind Leuf.
Leuf froze and turned his head.
His pupils contracted to the size of a pinprick.
He saw the full extent of the slope:
It was not a mountainside that had been cut in half, which was common on the island. It was more like a massive crater.
Rainwater streamed down the sides of the crater, mixed with mud, all pouring into the bottom.
At the center of the bottom, a bright, hot red glow, a flickering fire, licked at the surface of Leuf's eyeballs.
It was hot, searing, and completely out of place with the surrounding chilly rain curtain.
It made his heart pound with fear.
It was a mana vortex connecting the bottom of the "Archipelago" dungeon cluster. It was about an arm's length in circumference. If Rudy had seen it, it would have looked like a volcano, shrunk countless times over.
Something was emerging from the scorching mana magma.
It was faceless, two meters tall, spindle-shaped, and had a bone blade, over a meter long, that was rapidly forming in the dim rain.
And then...
Crack!! The blade, like a sea-dwelling monster's claw, brought its two giant pincers together, rubbing them, creating sparks, as if announcing its arrival.
And then.
The bone blade was grabbed by a hand.
What Specter monster knew how to make a show of force? It was just that the only solid part of its body, its bone blade, was wrapped in battle aura and was forcefully pressed together by the wind stirred up by the rain.
Swish! A lightning bolt sliced through the sky.
The figure in the magma hole sat on the edge, reaching out and grabbing the newly formed, crab-like Specter, which was a head taller than himself, and flung it onto a pile of 'trophies' beside him. He then quickly lifted his foot and stepped on the crab's pincers.
And under his feet, bone blades were stacked neatly to a height of half a meter.
The frayed hems of his pants, and the layers upon layers of stacked shadows, squirmed like fish on a dock.
His movements were very practiced, as if he had performed them a thousand times.
It even made the dazed Leuf recall a farmer catching caterpillars in a field and a fisherman killing eels on a dock.
He even perfectly mimicked the tired, practiced demeanor of a fisherman.
Everyone was completely dumbfounded.
Bizarre, absurd. The kind of scene he couldn't even dream up was now in front of him, making Leuf feel as if he were truly in a dream.
Or perhaps he had already died in the S-rank dungeon of the main island, 'Volcano,' five months ago, and these past five months were just a fleeting hallucination before his death?
This bottom level of the dungeon actually has a mana vortex that is supposed to only appear at the bottom of the main island? The Specters are actually climbing out of the mana vortex?
And that 'figure'?
A Lord-rank humanoid monster?
How... how could this be?
A-rank Specters were so helpless in front of it? Like fish waiting to be slaughtered, piled up on a cutting board?
By some strange coincidence, Leuf thought of the shadowy cats behind them, who were playing 'cat and mouse.'
He stiffly turned his head to look at the top of the slope.
The Specters all turned their heads in unison.
And they were leaving.
They're leaving??
Leuf turned his head again. The 'Lord-rank humanoid monster' at the bottom of the slope was just looking at the 'mouth of the fishing net,' confirming that no new crabs were climbing out of the magma lake. He then lowered his shoulders.
He looked very tired and reluctantly took a step.
With his right leg as the pivot, he raised his arm, making a throwing gesture. The crabs stacked on the ground struggled violently. The half-meter-wide 'combined pincers' were dragged along the ground, leaving a deep mark.
Squelch... slice...
The action froze, the power was built up. A slight pause.
The next instant!
A huge collapsing hole suddenly appeared before them. A shockwave exploded from the center of the pit!!
The rain and wind formed ripples, which swept outwards, plowing through the mud, heading straight for Leuf and Klem.
Leuf was still dazed. This time, however, Klem grabbed his head and pressed it into the mud.
Bang!! The sonic boom he had just heard was now right beside him, making his eardrums hurt.
Hum...
Hum...
Hum...
His hearing gradually returned. The wind howled again, and the rain did not stop.
Pat, footsteps sounded in front of him. Leuf lifted his head blankly.
Bare feet, but no injuries.
The 'Lord-rank humanoid monster' crouched in front of him. His cheeks were sunken like a demon's. White hair was matted to his face.
His dark eyes pierced through the curtain of rain between them.
He said.
"Hey."
"I finally... got someone to come. You guys are really slow at 'tracking the source'... Where the hell is this place?"
"...'Demon God's Cave'?"
"'Dragon's Roar Hole'?"
"Or 'Hell'?"
"Never mind... I'll figure it out later."
Pat, the figure sat down in front of Leuf, his hand on the ground.
He leaned in close to Leuf's face, staring intently at both Leuf and Klem.
His gaze was as if he were looking at two pieces of marbled meat.
"My friends..."
"...Got any food?"
Leuf stared blankly at Allen's face. After a long moment, he belatedly realized something.
That was...
The Specter monster tides that popped up on the hilltop after each inexplicable 'earthquake.'
It wasn't a natural disaster at all?!
It was an act of a human, damn it!
On the hilltop.
The wind and rain were furious. Chaotic footsteps ran aimlessly. Some cried, some screamed.
Merna lay on the ground, her face pale, watching the grey shadows of the Specters appearing one by one in the rain outside the barrier.
"The fifth time..."
"There have been five earthquakes today... two in just the past half hour..."
"How can this be... how can this be..."
The new Specters, filled with rage, led the Specters from the previous day and all the remaining Specters on the island in a fierce assault on the hilltop.
The total number reached...
The monster tide was dense.
With no end in sight.
At the bottom of the crater.
Not a single monster. And if it weren't for the torrential rain, the scorching mana vortex would have looked like a harmless bonfire.
Two figures sat around the 'fire,' and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
So harmonious that Klem felt like he was back in his village.
He glanced sideways at the person who, after confirming there was no food, had slumped to the ground to conserve energy...
...a young man.
A head of strange, dirty white hair was messy. His eyebrows were sharp and a similar color to his hair, knitted together. His pupils, unlike the typical light-colored pupils of Asura, were also as black as night. His jawline was as sharp as a jagged reef by the sea.
His features were so rugged that they looked menacing. He probably had a bad temper...
His cheeks, which had sunken in from hunger, combined with his rugged features, gave him a strangely wild, beast-like aura.
In noble society, he would definitely be considered an unattractive person.
But for an adventurer who spends all their time in dungeons, he would definitely be a pretty face who attracted women...
The skin on his face was actually soft and delicate, on par with Merna's.
Klem's lips twitched. He looked at Allen's face. Rainwater flowed down his face very smoothly, not being caught by the sweat on his cheeks.
—Unlike the skin of people in the Sword and Magic Continent, which was more like that of people from Allen's world, his original body had fused with his body in this world, and his skin had returned to the genetic manifestation of a person of Asian descent.
The smoky words, which Klem could not see, floated in the air.
[Survey Magic activated. Assessing host's physical condition with host's own mana.]
[Allen Boreas Greyrat]
[Mana: Remaining, 60%]
[Battle Aura: Remaining, 78%]
[Physical Stamina: Remaining]
[0.5%]
[Survey result: You are truly on the verge of death. You should eat something, anything.]
Allen gave a weak glance at the cowhide boots on Klem's feet, which scared the latter so much that he began frantically kicking his size 34 feet in place, splashing up mud and water.
"..."
Allen shook his head, thinking of Roxy. He then continued the previous conversation.
"...Are you saying that our current location is the 'Archipelago'? The junction between the Begaritt Continent and the Central Continent?"
"There's a dungeon... of this intensity... here?"
Klem hugged his knees, his face, which usually looked menacing with its eye patch, now looked delicate and fair in comparison to Allen's.
"Mr. Allen, that is indeed true. As for the dungeon, there was some kind of... anomaly..."
He glanced at Allen and swallowed, then added.
"It's probably caused by mana turbulence."
Allen looked at the mana vortex before him and was silent for a moment, then he continued.
"I see. This storm is not an inherent feature of the dungeon; it was caused by the storm outside the island. And the dungeon mutated due to the chaotic mana, creating this mana vortex that should have only appeared in the S-rank dungeon, 'Main Island,' in the center of the Archipelago. Is that why it's behaving so abnormally?"
Klem's eye twitched. He looked at the source of the monster anomaly that had been raging for two months, then slowly nodded.
"Yes. It seems that the main anomaly is that the original 'progressive dungeon' was affected by this mana vortex and turned into a 'composite dungeon.' As for the monster tide in the camp... um... that..."
Allen's face was impassive. "...I misjudged. I thought a dungeon that continuously spawned these Specter monsters would at least be one of those famous, central dungeons. I didn't expect it to just be the Great... just a dungeon mutation caused by mana turbulence."
"Then why were you throwing monsters out?"
"Because I can't kill them."
"...That is effective, Mr. Allen."
"And one more thing." Allen looked at Leuf, who was bent over at the edge of the pit in the rain, studying how to escape from this 'Composite Dungeon.' He pointed at him and continued.
"After I discovered that monsters could freely enter and leave the dungeon, but I was teleported back to the same spot whenever I tried to leave, I thought that by continuously throwing monsters out, I would attract adventurers to 'trace the source' and rescue me."
"Because if monsters kept appearing endlessly, someone would surely come to investigate and deal with it. After all, you have to find the cause to solve the problem once and for all."
"But I didn't expect... that you would have so much trouble even killing this one. I misjudged the dungeon's difficulty. My apologies. The incident was so sudden that I couldn't prepare for it."
Klem stared blankly at Allen.
Trace the source? Deal with the source of the monster tide? Solve it once and for all?
What kind of foreign, incomprehensible words are those?
Is a human even supposed to say that?
You're tracing the source of monsters in a dungeon?
Do you think this is a chicken you're killing?
And 'once and for all'?
Allen noticed Klem's gaze, which looked at him like a dog. He was silent for a moment, then spoke with a forced effort.
"...I'm not very familiar with dungeon mechanics. When I read books, I always skipped these parts. They were too boring. My attention was always on the girls I liked."
"The receptionist at the Adventurer's Guild, Miss Leos, was a beautiful person... no, wait."
Klem's face was a little confused. "Even if you haven't read the adventurer's handbook? When you accept a quest from the Adventurer's Guild, there should be a description of the dungeon... How... how did you get here?"
"I came from the sky."
"...Are you sure you're not joking?"
Allen looked up. In the distance, Leuf seemed to have confirmed something and was running towards them very quickly.
He turned to look at Klem and said seriously.
"Absolutely true."
===
Note: This story is currently available up to chapter 390 on my Patreon, go check it out.
exclusive 18+ character images, and early chapters, please visit my Patreon. Thanks for your support!
https://p4treon.com/roaverse
if you want more updates == supports with power stones
Power Stones==Bonus Chapter
every three 5-star reviews == Bonus Chapter