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Dungeon Site and the Final Clue – Part 06

“What’s this?”

It was a small room. He hadn’t expected to find something like this here. It looked like a living space, but clearly abandoned.

Dust covered everything. The table’s legs had decayed, causing the tabletop to tilt. The shelf by the wall was also damaged.

“This place is a mess,” Jillarte said. “Are we really gonna find something here?”

Hikaru couldn’t blame her for being skeptical. Had he not known this was the lowest floor of the dungeon, he might have called it a junk room.

“Oh, well. You two stand back. I think it’ll be more efficient if I do the searching.”

Hikaru covered his mouth with a scarf to keep out the dust.

Though Jillarte and Paula offered to help, given the rotting table, their feet could very well break through the floor. Besides, Hikaru’s Mana Detection made searching easier.

Dust obscured his vision, but he managed to gather what seemed like fragile papers and books. Most of the mana signatures came from catalysts, which had no practical use.

“Is this a box?”

Hikaru found a small, rusted metal box. Given the current humidity, if he had come a year later, it might have been entirely corroded, with its contents decayed. The Great Labyrinth’s surfacing had indeed disrupted the ventilation and temperature control.

He carried the box back to the passage, where Jillarte and Paula helped him clean up the dust.

“Did you find anything else?”

“Nope. But I’ll keep searching some more.”

Hikaru scoured every corner of the small room but found nothing else of note. There might have been an elevator or something similar leading deeper or to the upper levels.

There was a vent in one spot that let air flow out. The duct could lead to the crater left by the dungeon, but it was too small for Hikaru to crawl through, so he ignored it.

About thirty minutes later, Hikaru, Paula, and Jillarte returned to the surface. The piercing cold clashed with their sweat-soaked clothes. They worried they might catch a cold.

Jillarte needed to give her report to Gerhardt, so she headed back to the Einbiest camp, forlornly, while Hikaru and Paula returned to their lodging in the Holy City to examine their findings.

First was the small box. It was locked, so they broke it open.

“What is this? Charcoal?” Paula tilted her head in confusion.

Inside was a black piece of wood, about ten centimeters square. It had been burned and charred, with a hole in the center.

Hikaru picked it up. What could it be? It looked familiar.

His breath caught. “It’s a Tally.”

“A Tally? Oh, like the Man Gnomes use!”

It was the same size as the ones used to open the Black Wedge Gate, but this one lacked the stone fitted into the center. Hikaru still didn’t know exactly what those stones were.

“So the Saaks had this.”

It made sense. If they were in conflict with the Man Gnomes, and the Man Gnomes used a warp device like the Black Wedge Gate, it would be natural to analyze this technology.

There was nothing else inside the small box.

“As for the documents and books…”

The documents were written in an ancient language. They would likely need help from the Church.

“Hmm… I don’t want to owe anything to the Pope.”

If Hikaru asked even one favor, he’d probably be made to work three times as hard in return. His Intuition agreed with him.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess. I’ll drop by his place and ask for someone who’s fluent in ancient languages and good at keeping secrets.”

“Only you can say such things to His Holiness,” Paula said with disbelief.

---

When he stepped outside, it was already dusk.

I hope there’s some clue here.

Adjusting the backpack containing the documents, Hikaru hurried ahead. There was probably nothing else left at the dungeon’s former location. If he didn’t find any clues here…

It’ll turn into a wild goose chase.

He needed to gather information about the supposedly mythical Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas. It might require searching through official documents and restricted libraries across countries, a daunting task that would consume vast amounts of time.

It was reasonable to hope these documents he’d found held some clues. He was desperate at this point.

As Hikaru made his way to the Tower, he overheard a heated argument.

“How am I suspicious? I’m just walking through town, dressed as a researcher. You can’t treat me like this.”

“It is what it is. If you have complaints, take them up with your friend who gave us a headache.”

“What friend? What do you even know about us?”

“Oh, we know a lot. You conducted outrageous research that threw this country into chaos.”

One side was security guards, clearly tense since the floating island appeared. As for the other party, Hikaru recognized the voice.

“Yoshino?”

“Huh. Ah, Silver Face!”

“Did you just say Silver Face?!”

Yoshino of the Ultimate Mirk and Granryuk of the Distant Girdle were surrounded by guards.

---

Not wanting to abandon them, Hikaru hurried back to the inn, where a puzzled Paula awaited, and asked the Man Gnomes what they were doing in the Holy City of Agiapole.

“I just thought we should act. Yoshino agreed,” Granryuk said, his response so spontaneous it left Hikaru both stunned and amused.

Hikaru explained why the guards had been so suspicious of them. It all had to do with the floating island and the mad scientist, Ranna.

Ranna, a Man Gnome, had been conducting forbidden research, attempting to transplant monster powers into Templar Knights. She also invented the Accursed Toxin. Her actions led to a series of major events, including an invasion by Einbiest’s Beastman army, causing great turmoil for the people of Bios.

Since the full truth couldn’t be revealed to the public—partly to avoid exposing the wrongdoings of the previous Pope—Pope Luvain explained to the citizens that Ranna had acted alone. This made the guards suspicious of Man Gnome researchers.

The guards had contacted the Tower to verify Silver Face’s identity. When they received a handwritten letter from the Pope himself, they were astonished, while Hikaru looked up at the sky—or rather, at the Tower.

“You owe me one.”

He felt as though he heard those words.

After Hikaru explained Ranna’s deeds, Granryuk fell silent.

“I see. So she did something like that,” Yoshino murmured. She seemed to know her.

According to Yoshino, Ranna loved research and often engaged in borderline forbidden studies when she was still a member of Ultimate Mirk. She frequently argued with the director who tried to stop her, was often alone in the village, and was occasionally placed under house arrest for criticizing the elders. This might have been due to losing her parents early on.

Ranna’s father, a Distant Girdle member, died on a mission shortly before her birth. Her mother, devastated, fell ill and died after giving birth to Ranna.

“Maybe she wanted to communicate with the souls of the dead,” Yoshino said.

“I see.”

The Man Gnomes considered soul technology supreme and were very cautious in their research on souls. That’s probably why Ranna’s research was deemed forbidden.

After causing numerous problems without any improvement, Ranna was banished from the village. And the rest was as Hikaru knew.

Regardless of her circumstances, she did things that shouldn’t have been done. That was undeniable.

“This is getting gloomy. Let’s eat.”

They had the inn bring food to their room, and Yoshino eagerly started eating. This was her first time stepping out of the village, so everything was new and exciting for her.

“So, did you find anything, Silver Face?” Granryuk asked.

“Yeah.” Hikaru nodded. “We went to the deepest part of the labyrinth.”

“You what?!”

“We found a burned-out Tally there.”

“A Tally?!”

Shocked, Yoshino stopped eating, snatched the Tally, and examined it under the light of the magic lamp.

“It looks authentic. This might be one of the missing ones. If so, it’s a major discovery!”

“It’s already burned, though,” Hikaru said.

“I think it can still be used.”

“What? But it doesn’t have the stone.”

“Oh, we can just make one. The wood is what’s important.”

She was probably telling the truth.

“Does that mean the Black Wedge Gate can be used freely with this?”

“Well… yes. But we want it back.”

“I’ll return it once my business is finished.”

“That’s fine. I’ll make the stone tomorrow.”

“Thanks. What is this wood anyway?”

“That’s a secret. The biggest one we have.”

Yoshino handed the charred Tally back to Hikaru.

Since the wood itself was a secret, it must come from a very special type of tree. Hikaru had heard that the Man Gnomes hadn’t succeeded in replicating the Tally, likely because they couldn’t obtain the material.

He didn’t expect it to still be usable in its burnt state.