Regardless of the Hidden Stage having begun, Team 4 still had something they needed to accomplish.
“To get straight to the point, our primary objective will be escaping.”
“Was escaping from a Conquest Operation supposed to be that easy?”
After Colton gave his men a rough explanation of the situation, the others continued resting while Jun held a brief discussion with him about what they would do from here.
“Every phenomenon has a process behind it.”
“What kind of vague nonsense is that all of a sudden?”
“Exactly what I said. There’s no absolute rule saying escape is impossible simply because this is a Conquest Operation. There’s just something within the Conquest Operation that prevents us from escaping.”
It was commonly believed that escaping a Conquest Operation was impossible until the target of the subjugation had been killed.
But that phenomenon existed only because there was a corresponding process that caused it.
In other words, if one understood the process, there was also a way around it.
“As proof, every Conquest Operation has a different reason why people can’t escape halfway through.”
“Hmm…… Now that you mention it, that isn’t entirely wrong.”
Apparently recalling several Conquest Operations he knew of, Colton nodded.
“And in the Black Forest Conquest Operation, the entrance is blocked by a black Barrier. But doesn’t that black Barrier look familiar?”
“……Ah! The Barrier your companion is trapped inside! It does look similar!”
“Right. But killing the Fairy Queen isn’t the only way to remove that Barrier.”
If Aiden earned the approval of Pride, the Beast Knight inside, the Barrier would disappear on its own.
In other words, there could be more than one way to remove a Barrier.
“The method for removing the Barrier that blocks the entrance to the Conquest Operation lies with the Forest Guardian. We have to kill it.”
“So in the end, it comes back to the raid target. Is that at least some consolation? We don’t have to fight that monster called the Fairy Queen.”
Perhaps remembering the scream from when she awakened, Colton shuddered.
“So that’s why you said we shouldn’t kill those Adventurers?”
“Whatever else they’ve done, they’re still Level 3 players. Frankly, it isn’t as though we can subjugate the Forest Guardian by ourselves.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Colton nodded at that.
“If we have to subjugate the Forest Guardian…… then what we need to do hasn’t changed after all.”
“Right. We have to Clear the dungeon.”
Defeating the bosses of the individual dungeons weakened the Forest Guardian.
That was why, despite everything that had happened, Clearing the dungeon remained their objective.
“Phew…… Damn it. Then we’d better get moving.”
After progressing through the dungeon for roughly three hours, they finally reached the Boss Room.
Ordinarily, it should have taken only an hour, but since the Fairy Queen’s awakening had dramatically increased the frequency of monster encounters, their progress had been delayed considerably.
Exhaustion showed on everyone’s faces, but none of them could afford to complain.
“You lot heard everything, right? We have to fight either way. If we don’t, we’ll die like dogs.”
“Then let’s kill them all and have a beer afterward, Captain!”
“When have we ever done a safe job?”
“Let’s go smash everything!”
Fortunately, the mercenaries’ morale had not fallen as much as expected.
An inexplicable situation inspired fear, but when there was a clear solution, all that remained was to follow that path.
Mercenaries risked their lives for a living as a matter of course.
As one of them had said, they understood perfectly well that there was nothing to gain by putting off what had to be done.
“Good. Then let’s go.”
The cavern was illuminated by Jun’s [Light].
Inside, an enormous Steel Bug loomed over the team.
“That thing looks hideous…….”
A Giant Steel Bug.
A mutated specimen that had absorbed the essence of the forest.
It was the boss of this dungeon, and one of the targets they had to kill in order to weaken the Forest Guardian.
KRRRRIK.
Six of its eight legs supported its lower body against the ground, while the remaining two were shaped like enormous blades.
Its appearance alone clearly distinguished it from ordinary Steel Bugs, but Colton pointed out something else.
“Just like you said, Mage. That thing’s completely covered in mold.”
Purple mold grew around every joint of the Giant Steel Bug.
It was not normally part of the creature’s body.
This was another change caused by the Fairy Queen’s awakening.
Even a minor impact would send poisonous spores scattering in every direction, making it an exceedingly troublesome pattern to deal with.
For Jun, however, that was not necessarily the case.
Before the creature could move, Jun cast a spell.
[Aqua]
The image he envisioned was a waterfall cascading down an enormous mountain.
Responding to Jun’s mental image, the manifested spell created a tremendous torrent of water directly above the Giant Steel Bug.
KRRRRIK?!
“Good! Charge!”
While the creature shook its entire body in surprise at the unexpected deluge, Colton immediately gave the order.
The mercenaries, each with cloth wrapped around their mouths and noses, charged without hesitation.
Wet spores could not float through the air.
‘Phew. They need to hold out.’
As he began preparing the next spell, Jun watched the mercenaries charging toward the Giant Steel Bug with concern.
The mold spores were not the only dangerous thing about the mutated Giant Steel Bug.
Its physical capabilities had also improved dramatically, which meant the burden on the mercenaries drawing its attention would be correspondingly greater.
“Dodge everything! Don’t force yourselves to attack! Just keep its attention!”
Having already heard that from Jun, Colton focused entirely on drawing the Giant Steel Bug’s attention while moving unpredictably around it.
Their objective was simply to buy Jun enough time to prepare his next spell.
‘I have to finish this in one attack.’
For now, the mercenaries’ efforts were keeping the creature’s attention away from Jun.
But if he failed to kill it in one blow, Jun himself would not escape unharmed.
Once the enraged creature charged him, those mercenaries alone would never be able to stop it.
[Interpreting Word of Power…….]
[Interpretation complete.]
[Reducing the influence of the Word of Power, ‘Odyssey of the Lazy Pilgrim,’ by 10 percent.]
Jun removed his hand from the Choker around his neck and focused on his Mana.
Even the noisy shouts of the mercenaries faded from his awareness.
Only the arrangement of Mana and the image he was constructing remained.
What he envisioned was lightning crashing down amid an endless torrential storm.
And surrounding that lightning—
Lightning rods.
The wrath of the heavens, impossible to predict, followed instinct and crashed toward the rods that called to it.
[Dual Casting]
[Enchantment-Type: Elemental Armory]
[Enchanted Attribute: Metal]
Jun completed a metallic enchantment upon the spare weapons the mercenaries had planted around the Giant Steel Bug.
[Detecting Target]
Then Mana targeting points for the spell to follow locked onto both the Giant Steel Bug and the weapons embedded in the ground around it.
And then—
[Lightning Whip]
Lightning erupted from Jun’s fingertips and shot forward.
KRIK?
The Giant Steel Bug sensed the surge of Mana and briefly turned its gaze toward Jun.
But its realization came far too late.
The whip carrying the lightning strike slammed into its body in an instant.
Because Jun had already drenched it with water, the devastating electrical current spread across its entire body.
And Jun did not stop there.
He continued pouring Mana into [Lightning Whip], forcing the spell’s effects to persist.
“Urgh……!”
Compared to the version he had used during the battle against the Goblin Lord, its destructive power was overwhelming.
But perhaps he had been mistaken in believing he had improved it enough.
Far more Mana than expected drained away at once.
Jun possessed an ocean-like amount of Mana, but the Mana Circuits forced to handle that power began burning red-hot.
‘Just die already!’
Contrary to Jun’s wishes, the creature struggled desperately to escape with astonishing tenacity.
But there was nowhere for it to flee.
[Lightning Whip] had spread through the metal weapons the mercenaries had driven into the ground around it.
SKREEEEEEEECH——!!
Inside a cage of flashing blue lightning, as though imprisoned by a god of thunder, the creature screamed.
The prison of lightning finally vanished only after the Giant Steel Bug had completely stopped moving.
Once the Giant Steel Bug’s death was confirmed, a blue Gate appeared.
‘I really need to investigate this someday.’
Jun stared intently at the blue Gate.
‘Back in my old world, whenever fantasy came up, Warp Magic was common enough in games and comics.’
Yet information concerning Spatial-Type Magic was exceedingly rare within the world of <Blackout>.
At Jun’s current position, it was difficult even to hear rumors remotely related to it.
‘If I want to find a way home, Spatial-Type Magic would probably be the most promising avenue…… Hmm.’
Even back when he had been Lee Jeong-jun, he had never seen so much as a trace of Spatial-Type Magic within <Blackout>.
The only opportunity to witness anything resembling it came from mysterious Warp Gates like the one that appeared inside dungeons.
‘Back then, I just thought it was there for the player’s convenience…….’
Now that Jun was personally standing before a Warp Gate, however, his thoughts became considerably more complicated.
Colton spoke to him.
“You aren’t coming?”
“……I am.”
The mercenaries entered the Warp Gate, and Jun followed after them.
The scenery on the other side was the clearing they had seen before departing for the dungeon.
The tents belonging to the various groups were still there.
But the atmosphere was completely different.
“Bring out the Raid Leader right now!”
“How the hell did the dungeon turn into this mess?!”
“Do you have any idea how many casualties we took?! And you’re telling me the Assault Force hasn’t given us a single explanation?!”
The first thing Jun noticed was a group of people shouting with furious expressions.
They had clearly suffered badly.
Wounds covered their bodies.
Even so, they were too enraged to restrain themselves.
‘Judging by how many people are missing…… there were deaths too.’
Of course, Jun had expected a certain amount of damage.
No matter how thoroughly Azure Cloud had prepared, there were limits to what the two Adventurers assigned to each team could accomplish if they were responsible for ensuring a Clear.
The twin Adventurers assigned to Team 4 had possessed Poison-Warding Beads, for example.
But could those two alone really have dealt with the Giant Steel Bug safely?
Without Jun, their team would undoubtedly have suffered considerable losses.
“I-I don’t know either! And monsters have already attacked the camp five times!”
Meanwhile, the guides who had remained behind to guard the camp looked as though they were living through hell.
Apparently, they knew nothing about the incident.
Sweat poured down their faces.
But naturally, that did nothing to appease mercenaries who had just returned from hell.
“Contact the Raid Leader right now. If you don’t, once this Conquest Operation ends, I’m filing a formal complaint with the Guild!!”
“P-please, everyone. For now, just try to calm——”
“Calm down, my ass!”
The increasingly heated atmosphere of the camp suddenly turned cold just as one of the Team Leaders seized a guide by the collar.
“M-Messenger……!”
A man appeared at the entrance to the campsite with a voice bordering on a scream.
One of his arms looked as though something had torn it away, blood pulsing heavily from the stump.
The sight was more than enough to seize everyone’s attention.
“V-Vice Leader?!”
The others stared blankly at the bleeding man for a moment.
Then the guide being held by the collar cried out like a scream, and murmurs immediately filled the campsite.
“The Vice Leader?”
“What the hell is happening?”
“Don’t tell me…… the Assault Force failed?”
Another guide hurriedly retrieved a potion bottle from a tent and rushed toward the man they called the Vice Leader.
“Vice Leader! What happened to you……?”
“Th-the subjugation failed…… wiped out…….”
“Th-the Assault Force was wiped out?!”
“Catastrophic…… losses…….”
With those final words, the Vice Leader lost consciousness.
Even the murmuring vanished.
A cold, heavy silence descended over the camp.
“This…… doesn’t exactly seem like the right atmosphere to start telling everyone what we know.”
After the Vice Leader from the Assault Force delivered his message, the camp descended into complete chaos.
Ordinarily, failure in a Conquest Operation meant only one thing.
Death.
The word annihilation therefore sounded synonymous with their own deaths, and the Raid group’s reaction needed no explanation.
“Don’t make me laugh! I’m going to die here? Here? Like this?!”
“That makes no sense! Everyone clears these! It’s only a damn Level 1 Conquest Operation……!”
Some rambled incoherently.
Others worried about the families they had left behind.
Some refused to accept reality, while others were swallowed by rage and shouted meaningless curses.
“Yeah. There’s no chance we can convince anyone while they’re like this.”
“Truthfully, my side isn’t exactly calm either.”
Just as Colton said, his own men could not conceal their agitation.
Colton himself looked grim, but there was no resignation in his expression.
Curious about the reason, Jun asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re still looking perfectly calm, Mage. Doesn’t that mean you have something in mind?”
“Not at all.”
Even Jun would have no solution if the main force had truly been annihilated.
That would remain true even after Aiden returned.
“But I don’t think the main force was completely wiped out.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, I need to meet that Vice Leader.”
Leaving those words with Colton, Jun entered the tent where the Vice Leader had been taken.
Inside, a man who appeared to be a Healer was examining the Vice Leader’s arm.
“Pouring more potions on him won’t do anything.”
“W-who are you? You cannot simply enter this place without permission!”
“His arm. And he still hasn’t regained consciousness, has he? It won’t matter how many potions or how much Holy Water you pour over him.”
A holy symbol was painted on a transparent bottle resting on a nearby shelf.
It was the symbol of Ariclotos, the God of Healing.
“How did you know that?”
“First, let’s save this man.”
Whatever happened next, they needed the Vice Leader alive if they wanted to break through the current situation.
Having reached that conclusion, Jun rolled up both sleeves.
“From this point on, do exactly as I say.”