Chapter 161

Chapter 161

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 161Our progress through the dungeon was completely different from that of any other party.

With two overwhelmingly powerful all-rounders among us, Alessia and I had practically nothing to do from the very beginning.

Just as I was starting to feel guilty, wondering if it was really okay for things to be this easy.

“Everyone, stop──.”

Antonio, who had been walking ahead, raised his right hand and shouted while giving a hand signal.

At the same time, tension began to fill the surroundings.

Until now, whenever Antonio detected an enemy first, Parnello would rush ahead and immediately erase it, but this time even Parnello crouched down and quietly observed the situation.

Slowly moving forward until we reached Antonio's back, we learned why he had told us to stop.

The pitch-black forest ended, and as though a line marked the boundary of an entirely new place, a pure-white desert appeared.

“Don Vivald. Have you ever seen a dungeon like this?”

“This is also my first time seeing a dungeon where the environment changes this drastically. A white desert...”

“...

This texture. These seem to be fragments of bone.”

Alessia muttered as she touched the white sand lying before her, and the others were shocked.

“A desert made of bones. Horrifying.”

“Sir Parnello, have you ever seen a dungeon like this?”

“I haven't been dispatched to dungeons very often in the first place. This is my first time seeing somewhere like this.”

At that sight, a dungeon with these exact characteristics suddenly came to mind.

“...

Undead Den?”

Parnello turned his head toward me at the words that slipped from my mouth without realizing it.

“Undead Den?”

“Yeah, I think I heard about it at the Academy.”

In truth, it was a memory from entering it in the game, but that wasn't important.

Among all those countless dungeons, there was only one A-rank dungeon where a white desert appeared immediately after a forest terrain like this ended.

The Forest of the Abyss, formed from the grudges and fears of the dead.

And the other was the Desert of Bones, formed as their bodies crumbled away.

Among us gamers, we used to call a dungeon like that.‘Undead Den’.

At first, a dark map and mobs that tormented the players' eyes and senses. After passing through that, a bright background and endlessly surging hordes of undead.

If you didn't bother clearing it because it was annoying, it would even pour undead outside the dungeon, making it something that could practically be called a disaster.‘But why is it appearing here?’According to the original setting, it was supposedly created when the resentment of powerful lifeforms accumulated and accumulated, so it was essentially an unpredictable disaster that appeared after mass-casualty events or the disposal of a being with that much deathly energy──ah, I remembered.

“Parnello, the waste disposal site was near this dungeon, right?”

“That is correct, but why do you suddenly ask...”

“I think I know why this dungeon appeared.”

The materials from Fafnir that we'd recently brought here and thoroughly dismantled.

Other than the waste produced in that process, I couldn't think of anything else connected to it.

“I heard that dungeons like this can appear when an enormous amount of resentment accumulates.”

The pure-white desert that appeared after passing through the sticky forest of resentment looked beautiful on the surface, but in reality it was nothing of the sort.

“Everyone, get ready! If what I heard is right, the undead will be swarming us soon!”

The Bone Desert, which could basically be called Phase 2 of the Undead Den, proceeded in a defense format.

Endless hordes of undead generated from the bones.

And the players who had to stop them.

Thanks to the bizarre rule that you couldn't escape without defeating at least a certain number, it was a dungeon full of malice where even fleeing from the undead horde would never allow you to leave.

As I pulled out Tommy and prepared for what was about to happen, Antonio trudged toward the Bone Desert.

“Don Antonio?”

“Do not worry.”

His hair fluttered in the fierce desert wind as he silently walked out onto the sand.

And.

“This should be enough.”

The moment he muttered those incomprehensible words.

-Kirik──.

Countless hands made of bone began rising from the vast white desert.

-Krk.

-Kirik?

-Kagagak!

Thousands, tens of thousands of skeletons rose while trampling through the bone fragments and twisting their bodies upward, like a scene from an old horror movie.

It was an overwhelming violence of numbers that could rightly be called a ‘disaster.’

Yet Antonio showed no reaction whatsoever to the shocking sight.

“They're light. They'll fly well.”

He looked at the scene blandly as though it were nothing and snapped his fingers.

Whoooooooosh────The desert began to move.

That wasn't a metaphor or a description.

The endless Bone Desert really began moving from nothing more than the wind blowing across it.

-Keeeeek!

-Krk! Krarak!

In the process, the skeletons that were supposed to crawl out of the ground were swept up by the wind and sent flying into the air.

They were ground down by the wind and reduced back into bone fragments.

With a cigarette between his lips and one hand in his pocket, the sight of him controlling winds powerful enough to destroy the terrain itself was enough to inspire awe just from watching.

“This is... the Vivald Bloodline Ability.”

A family that didn't merely manipulate wind, but ruled it.

The Vivald Family.

Under the razor-sharp winds that seemed intent on pulverizing his enemies, the skeletons repeatedly vanished the instant they spawned.

After merely a few minutes of whipping up the wind and grinding away everything around him, the skeletons stopped appearing, and the area became calm enough that only silence remained.

That took care of the defense phase I'd been worried about.

But if that were all, this dungeon wouldn't be hated so much.───────!!

-Krrrrrrrrrra!!

The desert exploded as a gigantic figure revealed itself.

A Skeleton Dragon.

At a glance, it was obvious that this was the dungeon's boss.

“Hmm... an undead dragon isn't a particularly good matchup for me.”

The winds he controlled tore violently around the bone-made dragon, but its thickness and the undead dragon's resistance stopped them, leaving only a few scratches.

Antonio frowned.

“As expected, that one will be a little troublesome.”

“Then I will handle that.”

Parnello, who had been standing behind us, stepped forward while unfastening the buttons on his sleeves.

In that case, I had something perfect.

“Parnello. This!”

I pulled ‘that’ from the Cube and tossed it to him.

“...

Is this a chopstick?”

“A chopstick? Anyone can tell it's an awl.”

“It's too thin to call an awl.”...

I spent the whole night hammering that thing into shape on Jeju Island.

“Anyway, attacking with that should help. It's a sacred relic, at least.”

“Pardon?”

He looked surprised at the words sacred relic, but.

At the sound of the dragon slowly beating its wings behind him, he immediately turned around, pulled back the hand holding Ascalon, and shouted.

“If it is a sacred relic, then this should be enough.”

“Huh? Wait, hey──.”

Bang──!!

Ascalon flew toward the dragon soaring into the sky with all his strength behind it.

A gigantic beam of light rose along its trajectory, drawing an afterimage.

Most importantly, that light pierced straight through the dragon's chest.

-Krr... ack?

The creature had been born from the Bone Desert only to be reduced to light at once.

If it had done anything wrong, it was probably meeting us today of all days.

“Young Master. I used it well. I don't know how you obtained a sacred relic like this... but its effect is certainly reliable.”

Parnello said that and returned the Ascalon he'd just thrown.

His Awakening Ability, ‘Retrieval,’ had activated.

As its name suggested, the effect called back objects that had left his hands.

I knew about it, but because he'd suddenly thrown Ascalon away, even I had been startled without realizing it.

“...

Yeah, as long as you gave it back.”

When I put Ascalon back inside the Cube, the remains of what had been the Skeleton Dragon began emitting brilliant light and scattering around us like snow.

Whew, anyway, it was dealt with even faster than expected...

“Alessia.”

“Yes. Young Master.”

“Let's pick all of that up.”

“...

Pardon?”

“Every bit of that is treasure.”

‘Dragon-Eye Stones,’ the standard reward from the Undead Den.

They were gems containing a dragon's lingering thoughts, used as materials for making elixirs or crafting items.

But.

“Wow, can this many really drop?”

Was it because it had died the instant it spawned?

There were easily twice as many as I remembered.

The total number of Dragon-Eye Stones that dropped was 42.

It was enough to make me wonder whether the day I established Calione's own dragon unit might really not be that far away.

“Young Master. I found something like this in the desert as well.”

While Alessia and I walked through the desert collecting Dragon-Eye Stones, Antonio brought something over and showed it to me.

“A dagger?”

When I carefully accepted the dagger from him, the item's information appeared before my eyes.[Name: Dagger of Resentment(Dragon)][Rank: Unique][Type: Dagger][Description: A dagger containing a dragon's lingering resentment. It induces a fear effect against monsters and inflicts a Decay Curse(curse)

on targets it cuts.]

“This is a decent item. It'd be good to give it to Jin-woo, wouldn't it?”

“...

This?”

“Yes. In actual combat, the more weapons you have with different effects, the better. He'll probably like it too, won't he? It contains a dragon's lingering resentment, so you could call it a dragon-made weapon.”

Even in this world, dragon-made weapons were luxury goods among luxury goods.

They were things anyone would want.

“As you say, Young Master, I'll try giving it to him after we return... I've never really given him a proper present before. I don't know how I should do it.”

It was just giving his son a gift, yet Antonio was already thinking about it with an extremely serious expression.

What was so difficult about that?

Feeling a little sorry for him, I decided to give him a word of advice.

“Just be honest.”

“...

Be honest?”

“Yes. Say something like, ‘I picked it up on the way.’... I mean, you really did pick it up.”

You could call it a clichéd way of giving someone a present, but the old ways were usually the safest.

“I picked it up on the way... yes. I'll try giving it to him while saying that.”

Apparently unable to think of anything else to say, Antonio nodded and put the dagger away.

For some reason, seeing him like that, I could already imagine Jin-woo going around bragging about it everywhere.‘...

Hmm. I'm probably going to want to beat the shit out of him. Still, since Antonio helped me, maybe I should let him off about three times?’While I was mentally holding a ceremony to grant Jin-woo three immunity-from-beating coupons.[Hidden Achievement Accomplished!][Achievement: 「Bus Passenger」 acquired!][You successfully cleared an A-rank or higher dungeon while dealing 0 damage.][Applause for your conscience!][A special reward is granted!][Trait 「Human Totem」 acquired.]

What the hell is this now?

Looks like this was another trait newly created after I came to this world.【Human Totem】[1. Human Totem: You help your team merely by standing there. If you stand around doing nothing, your teammates' luck rises slightly and the trait holder receives an action modifier.]...

Was this trait made specifically to make fun of me?

What kind of ridiculous trait is this?

It didn't seem like a trait I'd ever use, so I closed the system window. Then, as though flushing a toilet, the pure-white bone powder began being sucked into the ground, and a gigantic portal formed.

It was the signal that the dungeon had been cleared.

“Let's head back. The people outside will be worried.”

Anyway, not bad.

Dragon-Eye Stones, a dagger... and even a trait I don't know if I'll ever use.

My first A-rank dungeon had been very successful.

______________

The next day.

For some reason, Jin-woo had arrived at the Academy earlier than usual and was sitting at his desk with a bright grin, just as I'd expected.

There was only one thing different from usual...

“Ahem. Ahem! Ahem!”

Exactly as I'd expected, the moment he arrived at school, he'd placed the dagger on top of his desk and kept making nothing but bizarre throat-clearing noises.

“Khrrrrrm!”

Moved by the amount of effort he was putting into saying ‘Look at my dagger’ through nothing but coughing, I decided to subtract one of his immunity coupons.

“Ahem!”

Immunity Coupon - 2“Oh my, how pretty~ Ohoho~ I wonder who could possibly own such a pretty dagger?”

Immunity Coupon - 3“Who am I? Owner of a dragon-made weapon. Jin.

Woo.

Vi.

Vald.”

How do you use up all your immunity coupons in less than a minute?

That's talent.

Pure talent.

I was clenching my fist, ready to give him a forehead flick if he did one more weird thing.

“Eugene! Is Eugene here!”

“H-huh, Old Man?”

Kwak Chun-sik, dressed in outing clothes, roughly threw open the front door and shouted.

“Come on! Let's go!”

“...

Pardon?”

Go where?