We moved near the dungeon using Baker's Teleport.
After arriving, when I looked back, it wasn't as far from the Magic Tower as I'd thought.
That said, using Teleport hadn't been just for show.
Due to the Magic Tower's nature of having no entrances or exits, Teleport seemed to be the only way in or out.
For reference, I heard that mages below the 7th Circle who couldn't use Teleport used entry passes with built-in Teleport magic.
At first, we'd tried using those to get outside too, but Baker said he had to go anyway and suggested we go together.
Thanks to that, we were able to get to the dungeon comfortably.
***
After arriving, we headed to the dungeon entrance under Baker's guidance.
Along the way, several mages who'd been waiting greeted him, and greeted us as well.
The gender ratio definitely seemed slightly more female.
But even so, most of the mages were blushing as they looked at us.
"Hey, look…"
"He's really pretty. Does he get special treatment?"
The female mages tried to speak as quietly as possible, but being Experts, we heard it all too clearly.
"Wow… holy shit. Wow… holy shit."
"Is this bastard broken?"
"Wow… insane. Wow… wow…"
"This bastard's lost it too."
Well, the men… they're just men.
"Hey, hey."
Then I saw one female mage tapping her colleague's shoulder.
"Over there, over there."
She gestured toward me with her eyes.
"She must be crazy… Who is that??"
Her colleague tapped her back and asked.
"Why, why. You know… that mercenary who just came in."
"Ah, the one announced by the Imperial Palace a few days ago?"
"Right. I think it's him. His name… was Evan… wasn't it?"
"Wow, shit… If it's a man like that, I'd date him even if he's a mercenary."
"True, I agree. I'd earn the money and ask him to just stay home."
Hearing that, I slightly turned my head, lowered my gaze, and continued following Baker.
"Feels good?"
Eladrien deliberately matched my pace and asked.
"It's my first time receiving such blatant praise."
Because up until now, the only things I'd heard were along the lines of:
Noble Lady 1: You… ahem. You're somewhat handsome.
Noble Lady 2: Come work as my butler. It would be much better than a lowly profession like being a mercenary.
So this direct, almost fawning praise was a first in my life.
"Your face is good enough for that. Better than an elf. No… seeing how you can shoot a bow, maybe you're just an elf?"
"Stop teasing me…"
Elves were obviously the most beautiful race on Earth.
A human with truly exceptional looks would just look ordinary among elves.
Their entire race were face geniuses.
Thus, it was truly rare for an elf, whose standards had been raised among such kin, to praise someone's appearance.
Knowing this, I couldn't help but feel slightly pleased.
Even though I should be nervous since we were about to enter a dungeon.
"Ahem."
So after managing my expression, I walked nonchalantly again.
"What's with that bastard."
"Should we kill him?"
"I should be the one in that spot, goddamn."
"Your face isn't good enough, you retard."
From behind, I heard the jealous voices of the male mages who'd seen me talking with Eladrien.
***
Once we'd gotten through the crowd of mages, they started following behind us.
When we'd reached a distance where voices couldn't be heard, Baker apologized to us.
"I'm sorry about earlier. They spend most of the year in the Magic Tower, so even with education, they don't improve much."
Veronica smiled slightly at his words and replied.
"It's fine."
"Thank you for understanding."
After walking about three more minutes like that,
Baker suddenly stopped in the middle of a forest where there was nothing.
"Dispel."
At his command, what I'd thought was part of the forest rippled, revealing stairs leading underground.
It seemed they'd set up a barrier to prevent ordinary people from approaching.
*Thud. Thud.*
Our footsteps echoed through the underground space, creating a peculiar atmosphere.
In that atmosphere, when we reached the end of the stairs.
"This is…"
"This is serious."
We saw a door trembling as if it would burst, unable to withstand the black demonic energy inside.
"We've done all the basic countermeasures we can."
Originally, clearing all monsters on a floor should prevent a Dungeon Break,
Baker explained, but even after clearing every floor up to the boss room, this dungeon remained in this state.
Additionally, from what I'd heard, this dungeon consisted of four floors and a boss room.
All floors progressed as if inside a cave, so it wasn't an environment where many people could move without restrictions.
The plan was for us to take the vanguard and clear the path, then fight together in the relatively spacious boss room.
Having received all information about each floor's layout, gimmicks, and the monsters that appeared, we slowly prepared to enter.
Our hero party of five, twenty-five 3rd-4th Circle mages, five 5th-6th Circle mages, and Baker who was a 7th Circle mage.
Thirty-six in total were deployed for this entry.
'With this much firepower, we won't die like dogs.'
….
But.
This time too, to an utterly absurd degree.
"What? Where did everyone go?"
A variable… had occurred.
***
"Let's go in."
Those were Veronica's last words before I came here.
We opened the door and entered one by one.
Naturally, I thought that when I opened my eyes, the party members who'd gone first would be waiting for me.
However, there was no one here except me.
'They say that when you die, the party members who went first will greet you… I learned that story is false.'
I waited quietly in that spot for now.
Someone might come after me, or rescue might arrive.
In times like this, panicking and moving recklessly was the worst possible move.
….
…….
After thirty minutes passed like that,
no one appeared.
'Fuck…'
At this point, I had no choice but to assume the worst-case scenario.
Entering at the worst possible moment when the dungeon's structure was transforming.
1. Only I was teleported to a strange place.
2. We're on the same floor but teleported to different locations.
3. Each person was teleported to a different floor.
Possibility 2 was almost nonexistent.
If we were on the same floor, someone would definitely have come to find me.
Then possibilities 1 and 3 were the highest.
Fortunately, in both cases, my course of action was determined.
'Clear this place and move to the next floor if possible. If I can't move to another floor even after defeating a set number of monsters, then wait for rescue in the safest location possible.'
If the former, it was somewhat fortunate.
The former was a situation where I could act proactively, and if I could just move to another floor, the chances of meeting a comrade were high.
Or I could escape the dungeon.
But if the latter….
In the worst case… I had to consider that rescue might never arrive.
"Let's just go."
I decided not to think about the latter.
Because thinking shitty thoughts in a shitty situation doesn't make anything better.
'I hope everyone made it through okay.'
It was already vastly different from the original plan.
The format where the hero party, including me, stood at the front to break through while the mages supported from the rear.
Clearing all the floors with low-level monsters like that, then in the boss room supporting the hero against the minions summoned by the Elder Lich.
It was a reasonably solid plan.
But,
now the situation had completely changed.
Since I thought it would take four hours at most, the water we'd been given was minimal and the food was convenience items like chocolate.
The more time passed, the higher the probability that everyone's lives would be in danger.
***
*Click-clack. Click-clack.*
*Grrrr….*
With over ten monsters before my eyes,
"Huuu…"
To draw out my aura smoothly, I took a deep breath so that oxygen and blood would flow well to my muscles.
*Fwoosh!*
My aura spewed fierce flames at monsters for the first time in quite a while.
Normally it would dissipate into the air since I only used it during training, so seeing it used so effectively, I felt like my aura was rejoicing too.
The flames instantly melted skeleton soldiers and bone hounds, beastly creatures in the form of skeletal dogs.
*Fwoosh!*
Then,
without giving me a moment's rest, an arrow from a skeleton archer in my blind spot flew toward my head.
I slightly tilted my head to dodge the arrow cleanly,
*Swoosh!*
then shot toward the bastard and beheaded it in one breath.
"Huu…"
After exhaling once, I immediately surveyed my surroundings.
Thanks to that,
"Such shit—!"
*Boom!!!!*
I threw my body quickly to escape the explosion radius of the undead called a "suicide zombie."
But,
*Boom!!!!!*
As they say, there is no paradise where you flee, and another suicide zombie was right where I'd thrown myself.
When I threw myself once more, a skeleton archer aimed his bow at me.
*Shwick!!*
I extended my aura long and pierced the bastard's skull as if sniping from a distance.
*Ssssh….*
"Haa… haa…"
After confirming there were no more monsters around, I sank to the ground and organized my thoughts.
The ones I'd encountered so far were all 4th-5th Circle monsters.
That meant….
'If we were each teleported to different floors, most of the participating 3rd-4th Circle mages are probably dead….'
If my guess was correct, it was an incredibly despairing situation.
The mission I'd definitely thought was no big deal,
Therefore their final breaths that they couldn't leave behind,
rose ominously in my mind again and again.
*Whoosh. Whoosh.*
I shook my head violently.
"Everyone's alive. I probably just got unlucky and dropped here alone."
I shook off the negative thoughts and checked my remaining aura.
'About 85%, huh….'
If this were during the Abraxas incident, the aura that would have been around 65% was about 20% higher,
so I could directly feel how much I'd grown since then.
Still, since I'd used aura, I wanted to refill it before moving in case of unexpected situations.
Aura's natural recovery was too slow, so if I wanted to refill it, I'd have no choice but to cultivate right here, but….
'That's suicide.'
If I were attacked while cultivating without confirmed safety, there was no more foolish natural death than that.
It was common knowledge that any martial artist, anyone who used cultivation methods, would know.
"What a shame…"
Because I had PTSD from being surrounded by countless Abraxases and nearly dying, I'd come to prefer having my aura fully charged,
but I pushed aside my unease and moved my steps to escape this space once more.