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Dungeon Site and the Final Clue – Part 07

“Hey, Yoshino, can you read ancient texts?” Hikaru asked.

“Ancient texts?”

Hikaru brought out the documents he’d planned to take to the Tower.

“I found these in the remains of the dungeon. I can read a bit, but it’ll take forever if I do it myself.”

“Let me see!”

Yoshino stood up, took the documents, and moved to the side table. She spread them out and started reading.

“W-Wow. This was written by someone from the Saak family. I never thought I’d see something like this.”

“Can you read it?”

“Yes, it’s just standard formal language. The handwriting is unique, though.”

Yoshino pointed to dots and circles added to parts of the script. These marks weren’t part of the original characters but were added to make the text look more beautiful, a characteristic of the Saak family’s writing.

This reminds me of the message Soaarunay sent me in the dungeon. It had similar marks.

He hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time because he was too irritated.

“I really want to read this thoroughly! Is that okay?”

“Of course. Just tell me what it says.”

“Got it!”

Yoshino then started reading the documents one by one.

After finishing their meal, Granryuk took the neighboring room to sleep. Hikaru stayed with Yoshino, who was engrossed in the documents, providing snacks like bread, cheese, and ham. Paula tried to help but was nodding off in her chair.

The decoding progressed. Some were just diaries or draft letters. They mentioned things like rising material costs or ongoing droughts in certain areas, not the information Hikaru was looking for.

There were also complaints about the family, similar to the carvings in the elevator. It seemed the family couldn’t stop fighting among themselves.

“This is amazing.”

“Hm?”

Yoshino had been reading the only book left from the first page. It was almost midnight now.

“Do you recognize this map?” she asked.

“Yeah. It looks like a map of the entire continent.”

“It marks the Saak family’s bases.”

“What?!”

Hikaru wondered if he could access the floating dungeon from there.

“The Man Gnomes already knew about these, though.”

“Oh.” Hikaru sat back down.

“Of course, all of those sites have been investigated. They were all ruins, completely empty.”

“…”

Noticing Hikaru’s disappointment, Yoshino continued, “We haven’t fought the Saaks for so long without results. We found all their bases on the surface. In fact, there were traces of the Saak family in places not on this map, so the Man Gnomes’ information network might be more accurate. But there’s still an unsolved mystery.”

“A mystery?”

“I just said bases on the surface. We’ve been fighting the Saak family for generations, but we never found the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas.”

“You didn’t know it was on the outskirts of Agiapole?”

“Yes and no.”

“What do you mean?”

“Throughout history, adventurers found it or villagers in the sticks stumbled upon it, and when such rumors reached our ancestors, the Distant Girdle always went to check.”

“But they couldn’t find it? Were all the rumors false?”

“The sightings were all over the place. You could say they were scattered across the continent.”

“So they were false.”

“No.”

Yoshino pointed to the next page of the continental map.

“The dungeon moves slowly.”

“It does?”

“Underground.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s easy to say it’s ridiculous, but look around—ridiculous things are happening. The dungeon itself is flying, isn’t it? We’d suspected it could move, but this is the first clear account from someone in the Saak family.”

“But…”

Hikaru started to argue but then thought better of it. Airplanes were common on Earth, so his shock was nothing compared to the people of this world. To them, the idea of flying through the skies and moving through the ground were both equally ridiculous.

“Considering the energy required, wouldn’t flying be easier?”

“Not necessarily. There are currents of mana underground.”

“Ah!”

They had previously discussed how the Linga Quill Pen utilized the magical energy flowing underground. Using it to move slowly might also be possible. It was like plate tectonics, but faster.

“The Saak family’s bases were built along the dungeon’s path. That’s why they were often abandoned and in ruins. It makes sense now.”

Due to Soaarunay’s absence and the unsealing of the great pit, the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas had surfaced and remained in one place.

“Ah, I guess that’s not what you want to know, huh? You’re looking for more direct information about the dungeon.”

“That’s right. I want to get inside that dungeon.”

Yoshino sighed. “What you want to do is what us Man Gnomes have been dreaming of.”

“It doesn’t concern me.”

“There’s other important information, but it might not be relevant to you.”

Yoshino continued reading. She read about past battles with the Man Gnomes from the Saak family’s perspective. They mentioned encounters with Man Gnomes in the city and nobles who installed massive magical devices with the Saak family’s help, only to have them destroyed, presumably by the Man Gnomes.

“This is accurate.”

“Wait a minute. Did you attack anything you suspected to be related to the Saak family?”

“We made sure there were no casualties.”

“That’s reckless.”

“We had to, or we’d be the ones getting hurt.”

Yoshino explained that the more skilled a Distant Girdle member was, the more likely they were to die mysteriously.

“Those who got close to the dungeon’s secrets were killed. This book confirms it. The Tally you found was obtained by killing a Distant Girdle. This book is both a history of Saak sorcery and a blood-stained account of their enmity with the Man Gnomes.”

Yoshino put on a cynical and somewhat pained smile. Reading the memoir of those who’d killed her people couldn’t be pleasant.

“Should we take a break?” Hikaru suggested.

Yoshino shook her head. “We’re almost done. Don’t you want to know the rest?”

“Thanks.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You brought us such valuable information. It was worth leaving the village.”

Yoshino continued reading. The pages seemed to go on forever, but soon they reached the last one.

“The final part is about the great pit.”

“So the Saaks knew about the great pit. And Man Gnomes knew because of Funai.”

“Yes. The Saaks didn’t know what was in the great pit. It says here that after it was sealed, many dungeons disappeared and the Great Labyrinth started malfunctioning. It took a lot of resources to repair it.”

“If we re-seal the great pit, will the Great Labyrinth stop functioning again?”

“That would’ve been the case until recently. The dungeon was drawing mana from the earth.”

“So now that it’s airborne, it’s pointless.”

Yoshino nodded.

I guess that’s it for this lead.

Hikaru leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes. Exhaustion instantly washed over him.

Soaarunay always seemed to be one step ahead of Hikaru, even back in Japan. She feigned ignorance about the other world and then used the spell for crossing worlds when she saw the opportunity, unintentionally dragging Hikaru back into this world with her. Before he could return to the dungeon, she escaped by taking to the skies.

“I’m sorry,” Yoshino said. “It looks like this book doesn’t have the information you want.”

It wasn’t her fault. Hikaru wanted to say something, but he couldn’t find the words.

Despite all his efforts, tirelessly gathering information, he fell just short of reaching Soaarunay.

This might have been the first time he’d felt so lost. He didn’t know what to do. If he stopped trying, he would never see Lavia again.

There was no one he could consult. The spell for crossing worlds had been perfected with the knowledge of Roland, his body’s previous owner, and Queen Kujastria. Asking Kujastria wouldn’t help. If the Saak family’s magic was blocking the spell, only the Man Gnomes, who knew about the Saaks, could help, but Yoshino, a Man Gnome researcher, was already out of ideas.

He felt completely stuck. An overwhelming sense of futility gripped him. But he couldn’t afford to sleep. Time was slipping away.

He couldn’t believe the floating island would remain outside the holy city forever. If the Great Labyrinth’s functions stopped and it fell, the Saak family’s magic might be undone, and the spell for crossing worlds could work again. But what if it wasn’t undone? If Soaarunay, who knew the truth, died, he would never uncover the spell’s secrets.

Disappointment. Exhaustion. Frustration. They all combined to torment Hikaru.

“Let’s re-examine what we know tomorrow. We need some sleep.”

“Yeah.” Yoshino didn’t know what else to say. “Good night.” She stood up and left the room.

A heavy silence descended. Hikaru felt like he was drowning in it. He needed to pull himself together, but the anxiety left him clueless about what to do.

It was a simple obstacle of being airborne, yet he couldn’t think of a way to overcome it.

Unlike candles, lights from magic lamps were steady, so nothing moved.

“Lord Hikaru?” Paula had woken up. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

Hikaru turned to Paula and saw her pointing—right between him and her.

There was a shimmer. The air wavered like a heat haze. In the next moment, a crack appeared in that space.

But in an instant, the crack and the shimmer vanished as if they had never been.

“Was that…” Hikaru’s heart pounded in his chest. “No way!”

Hikaru and Paula exchanged glances.