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S-rank dungeons were irrational spaces ruled by chaos, but many still had consistent themes.

The Abyss Where Evil Comes From was full of deadly poison. The Farthest Ends of the Blue featured lush nature and a seemingly infinite horizon. The Golden Land of Crimson Luxury was a labyrinth of fire and gold.

And the Elves’ hidden ace, The Vigil’s End?

We understood its nature the moment we passed through the true entrance, just a little north of the fake one.

「I-It’s so cold!!」

「It’s said to be a dungeon of auroras and frost-laden trees.」

It was a dungeon thick with trees—but every tree was cloaked in pure white snow and ice, appearing only in the form of juhyo, or frost-covered trees.

I tossed Angelina some winter gear. She bundled up in it at astonishing speed, curling into a ball. Her thick-layering technique, honed through the village’s harsh winters, was clearly still alive and well.

「What the heck is this…?」

「Good thing we brought mountaineering gear. Let’s move.」

「But the deeper we go, the colder it’s gonna get, right!? Maybe if I keep moving, I’ll warm up…」

「That’s dangerous too—move cautiously.」

In ordinary cold, moving your body to keep warm made sense.

But in lethal cold where even your breath freezes, things change. Break a sweat and you’re signing your own death warrant. There have been real cases where adventurers, lost on icy plains, hurried back while sweating and then stopped for a short rest—only to be frozen solid and never rise again.

「Ooh, that’s the kind of tip only a veteran adventurer would know.」

「Experienced adventurers walk slowly in this kind of cold—to avoid sweating.」

「But Master, we’re on a time crunch. We can’t exactly take it slow.」

「Right. So the correct answer here is to use a different method to guard against the cold and keep moving fast.」

Fortunately, I still had some magic-type skills. And they’d prove useful here.

「Break the frost—[Cocytus].」

「Wait, that’s an ice spell!?」

「Technically, it manipulates cold. And if you can control it, you can block it.」

I selected a few of the mana blades protecting our perimeter and overlaid a spell to repel the cold. Visually, not much changed, but it would significantly block out the freezing wind.

I considered doing the same for Angelina, but she already had her own countermeasure ready.

「Then Gelli’ll do this.」

Beside me, Angelina slipped into the body of a large golem. Normally she would ride on its shoulder for better visibility, but she’d also fought from inside a giant golem back in Vita Tama. Technically speaking, it was possible to control it from within.

「Ready, Angelina?」

「Yep, full speed ahead!」

Most of the monsters from the upper layers had already emerged to the surface. As long as we had countermeasures against the cold, nothing really stood in our way. Even Angelina, who had been on alert for traps, soon shifted to a speed-first approach.

「So basically, most of the monsters here headed for Fathie, right?」

「Exactly. Especially the ones near the entrance—they’re all gone.」

As we progressed through the second and third layers, we saw hardly any monsters. The few we encountered were mostly beast-type, and as we moved forward, the dungeon’s structure became clear.

It was a snowstorm-drenched forest at night. Trees, terrain, massive ice formations—all of them formed a labyrinthine network. Without preparation, a person would lose their sense of direction in an instant, lose all sense of before and behind, and end up becoming one more piece of the standing frost.

And yet, in this deathly world, when Koe-san looked up at the sky, she let out a voice of astonishment.

「It’s beautiful…」

In the clearer layers, auroras shimmered like curtains in the sky, overlapping with diamond dust glittering like stardust to create an enchanting vista.

This was a world that truly lived up to the title: Dungeon of Auroras and Frost Trees. Far ahead, a silver-scaled ice dragon glided through the glowing waves of aurora. Its body was long and lithe like a serpent, and its shimmering scales reflected the aurora’s colors, giving it an overwhelming presence in this frigid rainbow world.

The dragon wandered the sky for a while, then slowly descended to the ground. Angelina watched its path and pointed toward where it disappeared.

「Hey, Skill Lender-san. That place the dragon went…」

「Yeah. There’s a door.」

「So the dragon’s a ‘General’, and that’s its chamber, huh?」

「The first checkpoint. Be careful.」

In higher-level dungeons, it’s not just the final ‘King’ that guards the deepest part. There are often powerful ‘Generals’ stationed at key points. In a dungeon this size, it would be stranger not to have one.

Even from a distance, I recognized that figure from ancient records.

「Probably Hoyau, the winged serpent god. A serpentine dragon, like Vritra.」

「Why would a reptile be in a place this cold?」

「Because this is a dungeon.」

「That’s just… too unreasonable. And if we open that door, it’s gonna attack, right?」

「Yeah. There are cases of tentacles shooting out and dragging people in the moment they touch the door. Better be careful.」

「People actually fall for that?」

「Don’t mock the dead.」

Just because it’s in the shape of a door doesn’t mean it gives the challenger any advantage. Even stealthy adventurers who avoided combat all the way here are forced to confront the ‘General’ head-on at this point.

When Bellman’s squad once tried to breach a General’s room in the Farthest Ends of the Blue of the Earth, they couldn’t even take a single step inside and were wiped out. Angelina’s father, Lord Emesmes—also known as Roll All Emesmes—had also fought a General to a draw and spent years transformed into a chain. Opening this door carried that level of risk.

「Well then, I’ll do this.」

Taking all that into account, Angelina gently placed a hand on the door. She didn’t push it open—instead, she closed her eyes.

「Time to make use of Papa’s mistakes. …[Mudborn Infant], activate. Reference, citation, standardization—process complete. Summoning clan head: [Guerlain of Dread].」

She concentrated in silence. Then a massive magical force surged from her body—and a golem in the shape of a robed magician appeared beside her, raising both arms to the sky.

In sync with its gestures, Angelina chanted with dignified reverence.

「Come, come, slurp the mire. Gather ye old and young. A gift from the king of filth.」

Something inside the room stirred and swirled.

When the presence finally vanished and we opened the door, all that awaited within was a sludgy pool of pitch-black mud.

Despite the intense cold, it did not freeze—instead, it radiated a faint warmth, as if alive. Koe stared at it and murmured softly.

「Black… mud? Don’t tell me…」

「That was the General. Or what’s left of it.」

「Good heavens…」

If opening the door is too dangerous—then just kill what’s inside before you open it.

A brutally efficient solution. One that no ordinary spellcaster could replicate.

「Would have been better to fight it? Y’know, the usual dungeon boss protocol.」

「Nah. There’s no point wasting time and energy on that. If I could do the same thing, I would.」

「I like that about you, Skill Lender-san.」

The Emesmes’ secret arts were developed to defeat the ‘King’ of a  Womb of the Star. While originally meant for the Golden Land of Crimson Luxury, they proved adaptable. Even handling threats behind sealed doors had been accounted for over the course of 1,100 years.

We passed through the General’s chamber and descended to the lower levels. While not as vast as the Farthest Ends of the Blue, the maze-like terrain still slowed us down. We couldn’t afford to dawdle.

「In the end, we’ve barely run into any monsters. They really did spill out.」

「And we can’t trust Pervert-san to handle them alone, so we’d better hurry. He might already be monster food.」

「No proof of that. And honestly, I doubt it.」

Angelina seemed worried about leaving the town in Altora’s hands, but I wasn’t. Even if he was lacking in raw strength—

「Because he used to be in an S-rank party? The kind of guy who steps up when it counts?」

「No. He’s selfish, short-tempered, thinks only of his own gain, and never listens. Pretty typical adventurer, really. Gifted with all the makings of an early death.」

「Wow, brutal. So then… why’s he still alive?」

What quality is most essential to win—to avoid defeat?

A simple, yet terrifyingly powerful one:

「Because his hatred of losing is so pathological, it overcomes every one of his flaws.」