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Chapter 23: Spring, Demon Dungeon

The dumbfounded expression on Seron’s face didn’t fade—she hadn’t expected me to bring the Saint along.

Leaving her to her thoughts, I turned to introduce everyone else.

“Aisha, Foara, this is the Saint. He’s agreed to team up with us this time.”

“The S-Saint?!”

Just like Seron, Foara stared at the Saint in shock.

“Senior, how did you manage to recruit the Saint to our team?”

The one with the least reaction was Aisha, who calmly asked the question.

I shrugged.

“Well, no one else seemed to have thought of asking him.”

So I simply extended the invitation myself and provided some reasonable arguments to convince him.

“...You absolute idiot! Of course, no one would dare to!”

Suddenly, Seron, standing behind me, screamed.

She grabbed my collar tightly, her eyes blazing with frustration.

When I gave her a questioning look, Seron’s forehead flushed red, as if steam would burst from it at any moment.

Her face screamed that she was at her wit’s end.

“Are you out of your mind?! What if something happens to the Saint while he’s with us? Do you even realize the consequences?!”

The Saint—Sirmiel of the Holy Eden Church.

As the Saint of the Empire’s greatest religion, his status was second only to the imperial family.

If anything were to happen to the Saint, none of the students would be able to bear the consequences.

Because of that, until now—when Sirmiel was already in his second year—no one had dared to invite him to a team.

It was an unspoken rule.

But I didn’t care.

I mean, why would I ignore such a powerful trump card?

It didn’t make sense to leave such an asset unused.

“Even the Princess is going in.”

I gestured towards the Third Princess, Iris Hysirion, who was already preparing to enter the Demon Dungeon.

A member of the imperial family, whose status was even higher than the Saint’s, was entering the Demon Dungeon.

“That’s completely different!”

Iris was the top student in the Combat Studies department.

Her skills in swordsmanship and academics alike made her the epitome of excellence.

She was said to possess the greatest talent among all royals in history, so much so that it would be a national loss for her not to participate in the Demon Dungeon.

But the Saint’s situation was different.

Although he was the top student in the Sacred Arts department, his specialty was healing.

He lacked the power to protect himself.

Naturally, the students who would have to protect him worried about what might happen.

“As long as we protect the Saint properly, there won’t be any problems.”

“As if that’s so easy!”

I flicked Seron’s forehead with my hand.

“Kyah?!”

She screamed, clutching her forehead, and glared at me furiously.

“Then make it happen. Do you think the Demon Dungeon is some kind of playground? Do you honestly think there’s a stronger cleric than the Saint himself to take along?”

And above all—

“How can you say that when the Saint is standing right here?”

Seron flinched.

Finally grasping the situation, she glanced nervously at Sirmiel, who smiled kindly and shook his head.

“It’s fine. I’ve heard this many times before. I understand why people hesitate to team up with me, which is why I haven’t joined any teams until now.”

Sirmiel had voluntarily explained this to the professors and refrained from entering the Demon Dungeon unless specifically invited.

“But knowing all of this, Brother Hannon still called for me.”

Sirmiel rolled up his white sleeves, his determination evident.

“Now that I’ve been invited, I will give my utmost, in the name of the Divine.”

Seron’s lips trembled.

Perhaps feeling guilty about her earlier words, she couldn’t respond.

I left Seron behind and turned to Aisha and Foara.

“Aisha, Foara, no issues on your end?”

“I had a hunch something like this might happen when I joined your team, Senior.”

“M-Me too, it’s fine!”

Aisha really had keen instincts.

“Senior always manages to drag us into strange situations, so it was expected,”

Aisha said with an all-knowing air.

She clearly knew too much about me.

“Team Hannon Irey.”

Right then, our team name was called.

I signaled the others with a glance, and they followed me.

Seron was the only one sighing heavily, her face full of worry.

As we approached the entrance to the Demon Dungeon, Professor Vega stood waiting.

Dressed in her uniform, she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Hannon, your team composition is as absurd as ever.”

I thought she was about to scold me, but she didn’t say much beyond that.

Instead, she simply reminded us of the dangers ahead.

“Remember, the most important thing in the Demon Dungeon is your lives. If it gets too dangerous, retreat. There’s no need to risk your lives unnecessarily.”

She gestured to the knights stationed at the final defense line of the Demon Dungeon.

“If an Apostle appears, the adults will handle it. Just do what you can.”

In this world, sending young people to the Demon Dungeon to reduce surface casualties was an unfortunate reality.

Vega didn’t seem pleased with this grim truth.

Her only wish was simple: that we all come back alive.

“We will.”

This promise was non-negotiable.

Feeling my resolve, Vega didn’t say anything further.

“Good luck.”

And with that, we stepped into the Demon Dungeon.

The massive entrance to the Demon Dungeon gaped open like a mouth ready to swallow us whole.

As we walked in, a chilling breeze brushed past my face.

When I finally raised my head, I was met with a scene of sunlight streaming over a vast field of grass and greenery.

“This is...”

Aisha, who had entered the Demon Dungeon for the first time, froze in her tracks.

The landscape before us was completely different from what we had just seen.

The lush greenery looked undeniably peaceful.

“This... feels strange. It’s a forest, but I can’t sense any spirits here.”

Standing beside Aisha, Foara looked around the forest with a confused expression.

As he had said, though it appeared to be a forest, it felt distinctly unnatural.

“Tch, it’s the Gray Forest this time.”

Only Seron, with prior Demon Dungeon experience, clicked her tongue among us.

The first floor of the Demon Dungeon was divided into four distinct regions.

One of them was the Gray Forest, which we had just entered.

“If it’s the Gray Forest, that means...”

“Yes, as time passes, gray zones will begin appearing throughout the forest.”

I answered Sirmiel’s question while stepping forward.

The moment I did, the patch of greenery beneath my feet turned gray.

In the Gray Forest, all paths we walked became shrouded in gray.

And the moment anyone stepped on these gray zones—

‘A chunk of stamina gets drained away.’

This was a place where stepping on the same spot was strictly forbidden.

That place was the Gray Forest.

“What a fascinating forest,”

Aisha said, marveling at the ground she stepped on turning gray.

“There’s nothing fascinating about it. It’s the most tiresome forest,”

Seron, who had experienced it firsthand, looked utterly fed up.

As she said, the Gray Forest wasn’t a place I welcomed either.

Above all, the Gray Forest’s trigger was arguably the worst in the entire first floor of the Dungeon.

“What now? If we delay any further, we won’t be able to move at all,”

Seron urged.

As she said, if we lingered here, the people ahead of us would turn the Gray Forest into an impossible place to traverse.

“No, we won’t move.”

“What?”

Seron turned around, her face filled with disbelief.

It was as if she couldn’t comprehend a word I was saying.

I couldn’t blame her for her reaction.

But this was the way it had to be.

“We won’t proceed to the second or third floor.”

Act 3, Chapter 3: The Dungeon Event, Keeper of the Gray Forest.

Originally, this was an event Lucas was supposed to handle.

But Lucas was no longer here.

Which meant I had to take care of this event instead.

I lifted my head.

“From now on, everyone—”

And what followed left everyone stunned.

“Take a good rest.”

We needed to conserve our energy before the event.

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* * *

Inside the Dungeon, the Gray Forest.

Although we were inside the Dungeon, the gentle sunlight and the cool breeze made it the perfect place for a nap.

With trees scattered here and there, there were plenty of shaded spots.

And, most importantly, unlike a normal forest, there wasn’t a single insect in sight.

It was an unusually pleasant place to rest.

“Is this for real? Resting in the Dungeon? Are you out of your mind?”

But instead of the buzzing of insects, there was something noisy: Seron, who was nagging beside me.

Leaning against a tree and resting, I heard her escalating complaints until she eventually started shouting.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Seron.

“What? Is there some kind of law that says you can’t rest in the Dungeon?”

“Hah, you idiot! Don’t you understand why we came here?”

“I understand perfectly.”

To stop the Apostles, creatures raised to destroy the world, from being sent to the surface.

That was the mission of the Academy, its very purpose.

Every student of the Academy held this truth with pride, even if it meant risking their lives.

“And yet you act like this? What are you thinking? With a team this strong, we should be moving deeper to fight the Apostles!”

“Listen, Apostles aren’t only below us.”

Apostles existed on the first floor as well.

In fact, the first floor had the highest concentration of them.

The Apostles were first born in a hatchery at the center of the first floor.

“Of course I know that! But they all eventually go down, don’t they?”

Apostles that were born would mostly descend to the lower floors in search of power.

Because of this, the number of Apostles on the first floor would diminish at the fastest rate.

“To defeat more Apostles, we need to move to the lower floors—that’s just common sense!”

When Seron insisted on this, I squinted at her.

“Yeah, so we’ll go down later.”

“Seriously, I have no idea what you’re saying.”

Seron looked at me with an utterly confused expression.

But I had my reasons.

Grabbing her shoulders, I made her sit down firmly.

“Don’t get so worked up. Just rest for now. It’s not like I said we won’t go down at all.”

Even though I tried to persuade her, she refused to listen, eventually sitting down in frustration and muttering curses under her breath.

Someday, I’d have to knock some sense into her.

“Senior Hannon, another party just passed by,”

Reported Foara, whom I had assigned to scouting.

Foara’s spirits were scattered throughout the Gray Forest, serving as reliable scouts.

“It looks like they’re the last group.”

The students were heading toward the center to descend to the second floor.

‘It’s about time.’

Soon, we were the only ones left who hadn’t gone down to the second floor.

“Seron, how many times has the Gray Forest been triggered?”

When I stood up and asked, Seron glanced at me, her face filled with dissatisfaction.

“It’s my second time since I joined.”

“Right, your second time. And counting from the Dungeon’s opening, it’s the ninety-ninth.”

Seron’s eyes widened slightly, as if surprised I had kept track of such a thing.

But this detail was critical.

“The environment of the Dungeon has been changing steadily for a long time.”

The ever-changing environment was one of the reasons the Dungeon was so dangerous.

No matter how thoroughly it was investigated, the conditions would eventually shift, requiring scouting teams to risk their lives again.

And now.

The era of transformation in the Dungeon had arrived.

This period marked significant shifts in the Dungeon’s strategy and environment, causing countless casualties.

During this chaos, Apostles would fully mature into beings of immense power.

An age of upheaval.

“When the Dungeon reaches its hundredth Apostle birth, unusual phenomena often occur.”

Seron’s pupils began to dilate as she rose to her feet, her face filled with disbelief.

“You can’t mean…”

“The Gray Forest reaches its hundredth cycle today.”

My eyes narrowed coldly.

"Perhaps today will be the most dangerous day in all the history of Dungeon expeditions."

Once you descend to the lower levels of the Dungeon, there’s no direct way to return to the surface.

Technically, there is a way—but I’m the only one who knows it.

Which means that for the students, even the journey back is a grueling ordeal.

In fact, after completing a Dungeon expedition,

It’s not uncommon for more injuries to occur on the way back.

The sense of accomplishment from having cleared the expedition makes them let their guard down.

Thus, Act 3, Chapter 3—the Dungeon Battle—

becomes the event that causes the worst casualties in the game's history.

The starting point of the Dungeon's transformation era.

How you handle this starting point drastically affects the game’s difficulty moving forward.

RUMBLE!

At that moment, the entire Gray Forest began to echo with a resounding noise.

Feeling the vibrations, Seron’s face turned pale as a sheet.

In contrast, I slowly tilted my head upward toward the sky.

The once-bright sky had begun to darken.

And through the darkened heavens, long, root-like tendrils began to descend.

"They’re here."

The Saint, Sirmiel, who had already been prepared, rose from his position.

The reason I had been able to bring Sirmiel along on this Dungeon team was thanks to a prior conversation.

The possibility of significant casualties.

Because I had taken that possibility into account, Sirmiel had willingly chosen to join me.

"Hannon Team,"

I said, drawing the heavy shield strapped to my back.

"From now on, our mission is to carve a path for the students’ safe return."

The true Apostle of the Gray Forest—

The Keeper of the Forest must be defeated.

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