Ethan Kaldis, the young lord of the Kaldis viscountcy, had been truly lucky today.
While taking a morning walk he had found the cufflink he had lost as a child, the one holding so many memories; in his business management lesson he had been praised by his teacher; and during sword training, movements that usually eluded him had come off well today of all days.
And he had received a gift and a letter from his beloved fiancée, which put him in a very fine mood. While agonizing over what to give in return, he had come to the south gate to pick something out himself.
'I shouldn't have.... I should have just sent someone.'
To think he would be sucked into a dungeon.
'I should have stayed quietly at home.'
He had no idea why the dungeon had to form while he of all people was there.
Of course, a dungeon could form anywhere, but for one to form at the lord's castle's south gate — right beside him, no less — was an utterly dreadful feeling.
In any case.
Ethan Kaldis set aside his complaints and worked out how to get out of the dungeon. Fortunately or unfortunately, five soldiers and a dozen or so of the domain's people were with him.
"At least it isn't an extreme zone, young lord."
"Yes. We only need to hold out until the rescue party arrives."
It was fortunate that it was a forest.
If it had been an ice region or a flame region, they might have died before the monsters ever got to them.
"Judging by the size of the entrance, it was a lowest-grade dungeon."
Just before being sucked in.
Kane, the soldier who had seen the dungeon entrance as it formed, said so.
A dungeon's grade could be told from the size of its entrance: small meant lowest-grade, large meant high-grade.
Ethan Kaldis had seen it too.
It was a fortunate thing.
If it was a lowest-grade dungeon, the people here would be more than enough to get out.
"It looks like goblins or slimes will be what comes out."
At those words the soldiers and the people brightened, and they began to move with easy minds, watching only for ambushes, to look for the dungeon's exit.
But something was strange.
—Kiyeek!
A goblin shaman, which had no business appearing in a lowest-grade dungeon, appeared.
And using poison and magic that weakened the body, at that.
"Is that... a tumor?"
"...Why does it look like that?"
A goblin shaman with black tumor-like lumps of flesh growing on one side of its head.
At its grotesqueness, everyone felt an unaccountable fear.
'When is the rescue party.... No, even if the rescue party comes it's a problem.'
On the surface it was a lowest-grade dungeon. But there was a lower-middle-grade monster, a goblin shaman, here.
Coming to rescue them while taking it lightly as a lowest-grade dungeon could get them beaten instead.
'The only knight left is Loren.'
The fact that the only knight remaining at the lord's castle today was Loren, invested a week ago, came to Ethan Kaldis's mind.
The knight he still felt awkward calling 'Sir Loren' — a friend-like knight he sometimes trained with.
With Loren's skill, facing a goblin shaman would be difficult.
On top of that, the forest inside the dungeon seemed quite large. If they took it lightly as a lowest-grade dungeon and split their numbers only to be defeated piecemeal, it would be serious.
'It might be different with mercenaries' help.'
Most likely the mercenaries would not come.
It was only a lowest-grade dungeon.
With the domain's soldiers and knights available, there was no way they would swallow their pride and call in mercenaries.
'Damn it, what kind of dungeon is this?'
Coming in taking it lightly as a lowest-grade dungeon was a perfect way to be wiped out.
Cold sweat ran down the back of Ethan Kaldis's neck.
Whether it was from the pain of the poison, or the strain of the weakening magic, or from foreseeing a future in which he died, he could not tell.
The faces of his father and mother and his young sibling flashed past. They would surely grieve. And he worried for his beloved fiancée as well.
'Please, somebody save us!'
He prayed earnestly that if only someone would save them, he would reward them and donate to the temple and pray to Solenius as well.
Just then.
Balls of fire came into being in the sky.
He drew a sharp breath, thinking it was the goblin shaman's magic, but those balls of fire fell toward the goblins.
"Magic?! How?! Loren!!"
And he saw a welcome face too.
Ethan Kaldis somehow felt as though tears might come. He heard the voices of the people cheering behind him too.
He had no idea how they had come with a mage, but there was no time to ask such things. They had to run.
After sending the domain's people and the wounded ahead.
Ethan Kaldis fell back along with Loren, the mage, and the soldiers while keeping watch on the goblins.
Just then, the goblin shaman used the weakening magic.
Ethan Kaldis, and Loren and the soldiers as well, staggered as though crushed beneath a heavy stone.
But the mage was different.
The area near his outstretched arm seemed to glitter, and then he was perfectly fine, as though completely unaffected by the weakening magic.
'Did he use defensive magic?'
He seemed to be a mage of considerable skill, which was a relief.
For a mage like this to come rescue them in this strange dungeon was heaven-sent luck.
Today really had been lucky.
Though good fortune that came after the worst possible incident was not much of a consolation.
'If I return alive I will pray without fail. Lord Solenius.'
Of course, he intended to see the mage rewarded as well.
Then something went wrong.
The dependable mage had stopped walking.
He did not appear to have been struck by the goblin shaman's magic.
But he was staring blankly at the goblin shaman.
"Mage, what's the matter?"
Even at Loren's question, there was no answer from the mage.
"Ha... haha...."
Instead he began to laugh.
"Mage...?"
Laughing in a situation like this? Why?
Even when he asked Loren with his eyes, Loren only shook his head. Naturally Loren did not know either. Wasn't this a mage he had met at the dungeon entrance moments ago?
'Mages, as expected.'
Did their mouths sprout thorns if they went a day without doing something insane?
Still, he wished they could be spared it just now. Wasn't this the time to run?
Just then.
The mage, having blocked an attack with 「Shield」, drew his sword with a shing—! The sword he had been wondering why the man was wearing.
'Don't tell me he means to charge in?! He's a mage!'
Fwoosh—!
「Fireballs」 appeared in the sky. Fortunately he did not seem insane to quite that degree.
Instead.
He seemed to be insane in a different direction.
The shapes of the 「Fireballs」 floating in the sky changed into arrows. And they began to spin rapidly. Hot sparks seemed to be falling downward.
Ethan Kaldis swallowed without meaning to. The knight Loren and the soldiers did the same. At the pressure the mage gave off, no one dared breathe deeply.
"Die!!"
The spinning arrows of flame fell on the goblins all at once.
Craaaash!!
A great explosion and shockwave, searing heat and staggering force.
"!!!"
Everyone stared, mouths hanging open, transfixed at the mage's back with his cloak swaying.
The savage scene left after the smoke cleared was more than enough to inspire further awe of the mage.
Just then.
Ethan Kaldis saw a blade gleaming.
'But why did he take that out?'
Just as he was puzzling over it, the mage moved.
Thunk!
He saw him drive his sword directly into a goblin's skull. Ethan Kaldis's and the others' eyes went wide.
—Gyeek!
At the sight of him performing confirmation kills without hesitation, a chill ran down their spines.
"...Do you suppose he holds some grudge against goblins?"
"...He might."
But even so, to perform confirmation kills with a sword directly rather than with magic.
At any rate.
Mages really did seem to be lunatics.
Look at him even now.
Wasn't he driving the sword in — thunk! thunk! — with an utterly refreshed face?
The obsession and mania of performing a confirmation kill even on a goblin shaman that anyone could see was already dead was terrifying.
So even though he saw the mage seeming to pick something up, he did not think to ask about it.
Well, even if a magic stone had come out, that belonged to the mage anyway.
He simply regretted the dungeon core that had been shattered during the fight. If it had remained, this lowest-grade dungeon could have been maintained.
Just then the dungeon rang with a hum, and holes large and small formed here and there.
They were exits.
When a dungeon began to be annihilated, exits leading outside formed like this, as though holes were being punched through it.
Living monsters could not leave.
"...?"
Alex, whose face had been clear and unburdened, made a puzzled expression.
"...Exits formed?"
A corrupted dungeon did not vanish even if the boss monster and the dungeon core were destroyed, so he had no idea what was going on.
"Ah, Lord Alex, shall we head back now?"
At Alex frowning as he looked at the exits, Ethan Kaldis asked carefully.
"...Let's do that."
When Alex nodded, Ethan Kaldis, Sir Loren, and the soldiers hurried into an exit with relieved faces.
***
Outside the dungeon it was loud.
Because when the missing people came out of the dungeon entrance, their families and acquaintances pressed forward to check on them.
"Oh! My daughter!"
"Father! Father, are you all right!?"
"Get the wounded to the temple, quickly!!"
The goblin shaman's death had lifted the weakening magic, but the injuries from the poison remained, so the soldiers hurried to send the wounded to the temple where healing priests would be.
"Poison? Wasn't it a lowest-grade dungeon?"
"Wow. We nearly walked into disaster."
At the news that the people had been saved, the onlookers and mercenaries who had gathered were startled to see the wounded who had been struck with poison.
Poison damage like this in a lowest-grade dungeon.
"What happened?"
"Whew, there was a goblin shaman."
A friend asked one of the missing who was in comparatively good shape.
"A goblin shaman? In a lowest-grade dungeon?"
Even those who did not know much about dungeons knew that a goblin shaman was not a monster that appeared in lowest-grade dungeons.
"Yes. It was so strong... if it weren't for the young lord and the soldiers we'd have died on the spot."
"Its skin color was strange too."
"Right, right!"
And the missing spoke about the mage dressed like a mercenary.
"When that mage let his magic fly, the goblins all just died."
"That's right! I saw it too! He was incredibly strong!"
At those words, the people gathered in front of the dungeon entrance recalled the mercenary who had gone in with the knight.
"So he was a remarkable mage!"
Just then.
Alex, Ethan Kaldis, Loren, and the soldiers came out of the dungeon too.
Whoaaaa!!
Cheers and applause poured down on them for having rescued the missing.
Ethan Kaldis, who as the young lord was fairly used to cheering like this, glanced at Alex.
An ordinary mage would rarely receive cheers like this, and yet Alex looked perfectly calm.
Naturally.
He had received plenty of cheers like this.
Though of course they had been cheers directed at the 'Hero Leo.'
'Back then I shouted too.'
He had called out praise no one could hear: 'Aaah!! That's my nephew! Well done!!'
Having recalled that memory for a moment, Alex turned his head back and looked at the dungeon entrance.
The dungeon shrank steadily and then vanished.
It really had been annihilated.
[Didn't you say corrupted dungeons don't get annihilated?]
Alex found that puzzling as well.
In the 'future,' corrupted dungeons had not disappeared no matter what experiments were tried, so why had this one suddenly been annihilated?
Frowning slightly, Alex looked at the empty air where the dungeon had been.
Having exchanged a glance with Loren, Ethan Kaldis carefully opened his mouth.
"Is there something troubling you, by any chance?"
"No, it's nothing. I simply didn't expect the dungeon to disappear... my apologies. I should have left the dungeon core alone."
Of course, he had been half out of his mind at the time and had not thought that far.
Ethan Kaldis quickly waved a hand.
The dungeon was already gone, so building a connection with a skilled mage was far more important.
"It's quite all right. There are lowest-grade dungeons in the north as well. If anything, the cost of removing the south gate and building a new road and gate would have been greater."
On top of that, a black goblin shaman of a kind he had never heard of coming out of a lowest-grade dungeon troubled him.
Having such a strange dungeon at the lord's castle was unsettling.
Perhaps it was fortunate that it had been annihilated.
"Mage. Ah, we haven't even exchanged names yet. I am Ethan Kaldis."
"I'm Alex."
"Lord Alex, if you're hurt anywhere, how about going to the temple? Potions are prepared as well."
At Ethan Kaldis's words, Alex politely declined.
"No, I'm fine. There's somewhere I have to be."
Leo would be waiting anxiously.
And....
[An otherworld temple!]
[I'm curious!]
It's because of you that I can't go.
"Understood."
Ethan Kaldis, disappointed, went on.
"Then would it be all right to ask where you're staying? As thanks for saving me and the lord's castle's residents, I'd like to invite you to a meal."
"Ah, that's...."
[A noble's dinner invitation!!]
[A banquet!]
[Delicious noble cuisine!]
Alex, about to decline Ethan Kaldis's offer, faltered at Two Hundred's scream-like cheering.
[Let's go, Alex!]
[Leo would love it too!]
At that, Alex thought for a moment and then asked.
"Would it be all right to bring my nephew?"
"Of course it would!"
Ethan Kaldis quickly nodded with a bright face.
***
Meanwhile.
Word reached the Lake House inn as well.
"Master! Kane is at the temple. He's safe!"
At that, the people in the inn let out sighs of relief. Sophia and Sophia's mother, who had been anxiously waiting for word, finally smiled widely too.
"Then Alex... the mage?"
At Hallon's question, the soldier answered with shining eyes.
"The mage? Of course he's safe! They say if it weren't for him it would have been a disaster!"
Leo, who had been worrying, broke into a beaming smile.