Chapter 120, Completionist Spirit

Translator: Barnnn

 

Up ahead were the stairs down to the fifteenth floor, the deepest level of the Poides Dungeon.

With its conquest, Ize and Hal — and even Fieda — would achieve their first-ever full Dungeon clear. A small but undeniable milestone.

Hal stood at the threshold with fire in his eyes, gesturing dramatically, his voice practically glowing with excitement.

 

“Well, well, here we are! The final floor of the Dungeon! Word has it a half-decayed Wyvern awaits us here!”

Ize raised a brow. “Wasn’t there something about Padre Donatham getting doused in that Wyvern’s putrid flesh?”

“Yes, yes! That’s the one! Apparently, the stench was so awful he was shunned by the village for an entire month. A tragic, grotesque tale — positively hair-raising, wouldn’t you say!?”

“Even in summer, nobody wants horror stories like that! Am I right, or am I right!?”

“…Uh, sure?” Fieda offered uncertainly.

“And so!” Hal continued, one hand raised like a preacher before a congregation. “Enter me, Hal! My water magic will form a fine mist barrier, utterly disintegrating any rotting meat or stray organs that rain down upon us!”

“And I’ll land the finishing blow!” Ize said with a determined nod. “A clash of drums, a flash of light! All enemies, erased from sight!”

Fieda blinked. “…Right. Good luck with that.”

“Yeeeah!” Hal cheered.

“Yeeeah!” Ize echoed.

 

They’d come a long way. Decayed wolves, decayed Goblins, melted boars… After so many drippy, oozing foes, even the thrill of battle was wearing thin. Fortunately, Hal’s water spells neutralized most of the sludge, and Ize’s light magic purified what remained — turning gloppy horror into little more than drifting mist.

 

“I miss enemies with bite,” Ize muttered.

“I’m done with sludge,” said Hal.

“Agreed,” Fieda added.

“There’s always that adventurer’s ration they call the ‘Jawbreaker.'”

“What’s that?” Ize perked up. “Sounds fun.”

“You got one on you now, Fieda?”

“Sure, I do,” Fieda said with a rare grin. “But you’ll have to wait until after we kill that Wyvern.”

“”Yaaay!””

 

Their excitement had gone from high to feverish. Fieda couldn’t quite keep up, but he let them have their fun. He knew he hadn’t contributed much in this Dungeon — better to quietly follow along.

 

“We go on my signal,” he said, stepping up to the boss room door.

 

Hal’s mist magic already encircled them. All that remained was for Fieda to open the way and for Ize to fire off her purifying magic. She tightened the Bangle on her wrist — a special weapon that amplified her spells — and gave Fieda a nod.

Fieda raised his hand silently, three fingers outstretched.

 

Three.

Two.

One.

 

A piercing roar echoed from inside.

 

“GYUOOOAAA!”

“Haaah!” Ize cried, leaping into action.

 

The chamber was smaller than a gymnasium, and the air was thick with decay. Above them, a grotesque Wyvern soared — flesh melting, wings ruined — and yet still it flew, defying natural law.

Ize locked eyes with it for one brief instant and hurled a beam of searing light straight into its core.

 

“GYAAA!”

“Whoa, chunks are falling!” Hal shouted. “Oh, there goes the main body–!”

 

CRACK!

 

“That sounded… dangerous,” Fieda muttered.

“Let’s finish it!” Ize called, launching a second blast.

 

With a final, pitiful cry, the Wyvern dissolved into mist.

 

“Gone. Just like that,” Fieda marveled.

“Amazing! Saint Ize strikes again!” Hal laughed.

“Will you two be quiet!?” Ize snapped.

 

Irritated by their whispers behind her back, she turned and fired a Cleanse spell at both of them.

 

Hal flinched. “Hey! What’re you cleansing US for!?”

“You ever think about ENCOURAGING a girl who’s out here giving it her all?” she scolded.

“You just erased a boss monster with two spells,” Fieda pointed out dryly.

“Actually, wasn’t the second one unnecessary?” Hal added.

“It was a MERCY. I was being GENEROUS,” Ize huffed, puffing out her cheeks.

“Got it,” Hal said, chuckling.

“Whoa, check this out,” Fieda said, crouching near the remains. “The Magicite’s huge — and we’ve got loot too! Hal, can you appraise these?”

“Sure thing!”

 

This was the first flying Mystic Beast they’d fought besides the insect-type ones, and their first real encounter with a large Mystic Beast. Had the Wyvern not been Undead, it might have posed a greater threat.

 

“Let’s see… looks like… an Undead Wyvern Heart?”

“It’s SUPER dried out…” Ize observed.

“Apparently it’s a Potion ingredient.”

“Makes sense. Better sell it to the Guild,” Fieda said.

 

The trio glanced around to make sure they hadn’t missed anything.

 

“Feels kind of anticlimactic,” Hal muttered. “Like, no fanfare? No ‘You’ve cleared the Dungeon!’ moment?”

“I know, right?” Ize agreed.

“I heard that in Rank 2 Dungeons and above, a teleport circle lights up to return you to the first floor,” Fieda explained. “Not here, though.”

“Cheap,” Hal sniffed.

“Figures — it’s a Dungeon everyone hates,” Ize sighed.

“Right, let’s pack up,” Fieda said.

“”Yes, sir…”” Ize and Hal replied in unison.

 

Later, to commemorate their conquest, the trio sampled the infamous adventurers’ Jawbreaker ration. Hal’s appraisal ranked it BELOW F. Ize claimed she’d rather starve to death than eat it again. And she meant it.

 

◆

 

As usual, the gatekeeper looked like he’d rather be doing anything else.

The trio handed over their Guild Cards and cleared the departure formalities from the village.

 

“So, hey,” Padre Donatham grumbled. “You sure you don’t wanna run the Dungeon one more time?”

“Doesn’t it take a full month for the Undead to respawn?” Fieda asked. “We’ve got other things to do and places to be.”

“Not quite. They start trickling back earlier, so you can’t just leave it alone,” Donatham replied.

“Won’t other adventurers show up in a month?” Hal asked.

“No chance. Nobody touches this place in the dead of summer. Not until late September.”

“Then you’re stuck with it for another two months. Good luck,” Ize said with a little chuckle.

“Damn it all… Eh, it’s like this every year,” Donatham muttered, scratching his head. “Still, can’t complain. Got to take it easy this time, and I managed to plant the potatoes.”

 

For all of Padre Donatham’s efforts to keep them around with idle chatter, in the end, he was smiling with genuine gratitude.

It was quite rare to obtain a Wyvern Heart at this time of year. The Guild would pay handsomely for it. And besides that, Hal and Ize had honed their magic, and all three of them had gained the invaluable experience of clearing a Dungeon from start to finish.

For all its quirks, the Poides Dungeon had been a pretty decent place, all things considered.

 

“You three heading for Sooryab next?” Donatham called after them. “Give my regards to the Undead there!”

“We will NOT be doing that,” Ize snapped.

“Take care, kiddo! You too, little miss! And the old man, too!”

“Please take it easy too, Awesome Padre Donatham,” Ize called back with a wave.

“Ooh! You’re finally saying the thing! C’mon, say it again! One more time! PLEASE!”

“Fieda!” Hal shouted. “We’re leaving! NOW!”

“Right!”

“Aww, stingy!”

 

As they turned away, Hal and Fieda called to their horses — Hiro and Take — to get moving.

Ize let out a peal of laughter, throwing one last wave over her shoulder before they left the funny Padre behind.

 

◆

 

The day after they returned from the village of Poides and its Undead Dungeon, the trio once again visited The (Embarrassing) Museum of Heroes and Sages, just as they’d promised.

They walked slowly, taking care to pass through exhibits that wouldn’t strain Hal’s mind too much. As they moved along, Hal suddenly stopped and pointed toward a quiet corner.

 

“Hey, I don’t think we’ve seen that section yet,” he said.

 

At his prompting, Ize and Fieda followed his gaze and changed direction.

Unlike the other wings that celebrated the glory of Heroes with grandeur and light, this one was subdued, almost forgotten. There was a hush about it, as though the room itself remembered what history had lost.

Ize stepped closer and read the sign mounted on the wall aloud.

 

“The Nation Forgotten by the Goddess — Forgotten Heroes.”

“Gotta be the place that’s now the Sea of Decay,” Hal murmured.

“Seems like it,” Ize nodded. “If there was a Rank 1 Dungeon there, then of course they would’ve summoned Heroes.”

“No records of that country remain,” said Fieda, scanning the sparse display. “It’s wrapped in mystery. Honestly, the fact they managed to gather even this much here is impressive.”

 

There were only five items on display. In any other section, each artifact would be accompanied by a story — who made it, under what circumstances, its significance. But here, each placard was barren. No names. No explanations. Just a barebones history.

 

“Creator: Unknown. Purpose: Unknown. Materials: Unknown,” Fieda read flatly. “So basically, they know nothing.”

“Hal, can you get anything from them with your Appraisal?” Ize asked in a hushed voice.

“Yeah, sort of. But some of the information is garbled,” Hal replied, furrowing his brow. “You remember how the name of this world looked like gibberish until we met the Goddess? It’s like that.”

 

He pulled out a small notepad from his bag and began writing down the fragmented appraisal results as they appeared in his vision.

 

Communication Device

A machine used for transmitting information via [unintelligible] in [unintelligible].

Method of creation and usage lost with the fall of [unintelligible].

 

Replication Device

Used to reproduce printed materials in [unintelligible].

Method of creation and usage lost with the fall of [unintelligible].

 

Mixing Device

Used in cooking in [unintelligible].

Primarily for blending ingredients.

Method of creation and usage lost with the fall of [unintelligible].

 

[Unintelligible] Device

Used to power [unintelligible] in [unintelligible].

Method of creation and usage lost with the fall of [unintelligible].

 

Illumination Device

Used to produce light in [unintelligible].

Method of creation and usage lost with the fall of [unintelligible].

 

Ize and Fieda leaned in over Hal’s shoulder, reading the notes. They fell into silence.

 

“Uh… yeah. Okay. Got it. I guess,” Ize said at last, sounding thoroughly bewildered.

“I DON’T get any of it,” Fieda muttered. “Are these supposed to be magical tools or something else entirely?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Hal said, closing the notepad with a soft snap and slipping it into his Magic Bag.

 

The group proceeded to step away from the display.

 

“I’ve got a theory,” Hal continued. “I think that lost nation — whatever it was — had advanced technology. Like the world we came from.”

“Technology,” Fieda parroted. “You mean the kind of knowledge and tools used to make your cameras and voice recorders?”

“Yeah. The Goddess said that when the Rank 1 Dungeon there Deluged, they summoned ten people — the maximum allowed.”

 

His mind traced the line of an old divine decree:

“No more than ten individuals are to be summoned at a time.”

 

Ize nodded thoughtfully. “So if a summoned group came from the same place — like, say, a lab or university — they might’ve shared the same knowledge.”

“Right,” Hal agreed. “Imagine if they weren’t like us, a random group pulled together by coincidence — like, if they were all scientists or engineers — people who actually designed machines.”

“They might’ve tried to recreate their technology here,” Fieda said, catching on. “Using what they knew.”

“That’s my guess. That forgotten country could’ve been the only one in this world to achieve any kind of cutting-edge technology.”

 

They made their way to a quieter part of the museum — a reading corner lined with Sage Encyclopedias. The three of them sank into the seats.

No one else was around — evidently no one cared to read these particular books here when they could be accessed elsewhere.

 

“I’ve always wondered,” Ize said, pulling a small, familiar object from her ring-shaped Magic Bag. “If Heroes and Sages have been summoned for centuries, why hasn’t more of Earth’s technology stuck around?”

 

It was her smartphone. The screen remained dark, just as it had been since she arrived in this world. Without an internet connection or a reason to power it on to use its camera, it was little more than a piece of glass, metal, and plastic. But even inert, it represented the pinnacle of the world she’d left behind.

 

“Just imagine,” she continued, “you’re summoned to a new world, and one of the countries here is already as advanced as Earth. Some summoned people might stay in the country that summoned them, sure, but others could be drawn to this advanced nation.”

“And then that country would have an even greater concentration of Sages and knowledge,” Fieda reasoned.

 

Hal hesitated, then nodded slowly.

 

“Like Ize said, it’s strange that science hasn’t spread. It makes me think this one country kept it all to itself. They gathered otherworlders, absorbed their knowledge, hoarded their technology… It’s easy to imagine the surrounding nations resenting them.”

 

His lips twisted in a bitter smile. Ize and Fieda mirrored his expression.

 

“When the Deluge hit,” Ize said, “it’s true the other countries couldn’t get there in time. But… I can’t help wondering.”

“You mean…” Fieda said grimly, “…they chose not to?”

“Maybe they helped evacuate citizens,” Hal added, “But it’s possible they didn’t lift a finger when it came to stopping the Dungeon itself.”

 

Ize and Hal exchanged a look. Fieda let out a long sigh and pressed his hands against his temples.

 

“Sorry,” Hal said quietly. “There’s so little information about the Sea of Decay. It feels like a taboo topic. We’re just speculating.”

“Even so,” Fieda replied, his voice low, “it’s better to be informed. Eventually, we’ll head south through Adoghan. That means we’ll be getting closer to the Sea of Decay — maybe close enough to see it for ourselves when we loop around back to Lazulseed.”

 

He pressed a hand over his mouth as if trying to keep his thoughts from escaping. But Hal and Ize both nodded solemnly.

After the Kingdom of Tajellia, their next destination was the Republic of Adoghan. And beyond that, the scattered islands would lead them back into the territory of the Lazulseed Kingdom.

But no matter which route they chose — by sea or by land — they would have to confront the Sea of Decay. That blighted land lay between the two nations like a scar across the world.

 

“Um, so…”

 

Hal’s voice came hesitantly, as if unsure whether to speak at all.

Ize glanced at him, already sensing what he was about to say, and gave him a small nod of encouragement.

 

“Yeah,” Hal began, taking heart. “When we head south through the Republic of Adoghan… I was thinking, even if it’s from a distance, I’d like to see the Sea of Decay. Even if there’s no trace left — nothing of the otherworlders who built things there long ago — I still want to see it.”

“I do too,” Ize said quickly. “Ever since we heard that story from the Goddess… it’s been stuck in the back of my mind.”

“Then go,” said Fieda simply, arms crossed. “This is your journey, after all. If it’s pulling at you, then go take a look. Who knows — maybe there are still ruins out there. Even if there are only a handful of remnants this far out, you might find more near the towns along the way.”

 

At his words, Ize and Hal’s faces lit up, excitement sparking.

 

“I’ve always liked stories about Sages,” Fieda continued with a wry grin. “And the thought that I could actually feel something from that time, out there in the Sea of Decay — well, it’s tempting. So yeah, when we make it past Adoghan, we’re going to see it for ourselves.”

 

He flashed them a grin, and the two responded by raising their hands in perfect unison, clapping them together with a sharp smack.

 

“Yeah!”

“Ancient ruins!”

“Grand excavation!”

“Historic discoveries!”

“Mountains of gold!”

“Wait, what?” Hal said, frowning. “That one doesn’t belong.”

“Why not?” Ize replied, feigning innocence. “When you think of ruins, don’t you picture gold and treasure?”

“You idiot,” Fieda shot back. “It’s going to be broken-down machines and junk, not piles of loot.”

“Aww, that’s way less romantic,” Ize groaned.

“Then why are we even going?” Hal asked, baffled.

“To strike it rich, obviously!” she said, thrusting her fist into the air.

 

Hal gave her a long, disappointed look.

Still, whatever the reasons, whatever the daydreams — riches or relics — the course of their journey had shifted. It no longer stopped at the Republic of Adoghan.

Even if they found a peaceful place along the way, the three of them would keep going. They would press on until they laid eyes on that blighted land — still crawling with Dungeon-born Mystic Beasts — that place was once forsaken by the Goddess herself.