Chapter 18: To whom the knowledge is for.
『Jeez, I haven"t put on my makeup yet and I"m still in my sleepwear…. Wait a minute Belc! What do you mean we can"t redo?! Hey, what are you laughing at?! Want me to kill you!? You impudent underling! 』
I"m sure she"s not referring to me. Well, obviously, because this is a recording. All this time she was complaining at the guy behind the camera.
What is this?
What am I looking at?
I mean, why is something like this placed at the centre of the ruin?
Also, is that her sleepwear?! It looks so cool!
Soon after, while roughly scratching her head, she gave up.
『Argh, seriously, so annoying. Whatever. Let me see. To those who are watching this, I believe that by the time you discovered this I"m already dead. So, don"t worry about my makeup, okay? 』
She said it was really annoying.
I couldn"t care less.
『That"s why I"m telling you this.
I will soon die. Due to various circ.u.mstances, I have to die. Really, what a pain.
But listen, I went to great lengths to record my magic and arcane research in some form, ya know? Whatever it is.
I"m sure you"ve already seen the lithograph and the mural painting by now, right? All of those are the things I"ve studied so far.
It"s hard to carve them.
Well, it was Belc who did the most anyway, hahaha.
Ah, "ey "ey, don"t be so mad. I was praising you. 』
Say, could you please stop talking to the camera guy?
『I really wanted them to be on paper but I know they wouldn"t last long.
I made the lithograph so that it can remain even if the person watching this doesn"t appear until several hundred years later.
Since it"s written in the common language, Faudo, can you understand it? Good luck deciphering it using a dictionary if it had already been several hundred years, hahaha.
So, for now, there"s the lithograph of magic, demon, monster, the demon king and hero, and also dungeon. Things related to it were also written in it.
Regarding this information, I"ll have you know that whoever it is that might have made it here, my discovery that I left behind is worth a lot. 』
With a *fufun*, the woman made a smug face.
So annoying.
I bet the guy who was filming this also feels the same.
『Yup, that"s right. Did you understand? 』
Sorry, I have no idea what you"re saying.
I did the tsukkomi inside my mind.
『Oh, by the way, I haven"t introduced myself yet. Well, considering that you have successfully broke through the dungeon that I had made, I"m sure you already know. 』
What? A dungeon?
I didn"t break through anything though?
I just found it by chance while digging.
『My name is Elibel Löwenherz. Apart from the demon king and the brave hero, I"m the only magician in the history of the human race that has mastered all four major elements until Soul King-cla.s.s. 【The Sage Elibel】, does it ring any bells? I"m a famous person. I"m sure my name will still remain until future generations. 』
Then, she made the smug face again.
I don"t care.
However, this woman feeling smug from time to time really p.i.s.sed me off.
I want to hit her.
But her, a sage?
I see, no wonder she"s deemed so. She can use all four major elements and even Soul King-cla.s.s magic. According to the records, one must be able to use the Pope-cla.s.s magic to be regarded as a sage.
It just that, the drifting regret ruins it all.
『I"m a sage but all I"ve ever done was nothing. 』
Her tone suddenly changed.
The cheerful atmosphere is no longer there.
『War, war, war. The war between the humans and demons went for decades. My magic, knowledge of magic tools and technology, everything, all of them were used only as tools for murdering humans and demons.
I guess it can"t be helped since that"s the way things are.
Still, I believe that, rather than being a tool of conflict, magic is there to make the humans and demons smile and help each other.
Magic and magic tools" use depends on the people who use it, don"t you think so? 』
She looks beat.
『For me, knowledge is an important treasure that can"t be replaced by anything. Hopefully, the knowledge I left behind will be used correctly.
Also —–』
Then, her monologue continued for a while.
If I had to say then, it"s more of shrift rather than confession.
Knowledge is treasure?
That"s certainly true.
『That"s the end of my story. I ended up talking for so long. Well, it"s your freedom, you can do whatever you like. As someone who"s already dead, I know I don"t have the right to say this, but I pray that you put it for good use…』
Because of her face, it feels as if she"s looking directly at me.
Even though it"s only a hologram.
Maybe I"m just imagining it.
Her image slowly fades away and disappears.
Apparently, it seems to have ended.
I slowly approach the pedestal —
*Bite*, *Munch* *Munch* *Munch*
*Gulp*
Yup, as expected, gold tastes good after all.
I also ate the colored ball. The inside was delicious.
Afterwards, the continuation of that hologram flows into my head, but it"s nothing to do with me.
I want nothing to do with it, and there"s no need to.
Because it is just "that".
After I"ve eaten all of the lithograph and mural inside of the dome, there"s nothing noticeable anymore.
Wait a minute. If my memory serves right, this dome is filled with hidden doors.
Ah, that reminds me, it said something about being a dungeon.
I didn"t break through it. I fell from the ceiling.
When I ate that colored ball, I got the knowledge of the ruin itself.
And also knowledge of the dungeon.
………She"s awful.
That woman, she is quite, no, she is an outright awful beauty.
I mean, her personality is probably the worst, though.
*THUD*!
Ouch, it hurts!
What, what just happened?
I saw a stone. A part of the ceiling had fallen. On top of my head.
………….. It- it"s just my imagination, right?
Looking at the wall in the surrounding, and some of the walls have concaved artificially.
Is this the one?
I push the indentation.
Then, with a sound, the wall opened.
There"s a stone pa.s.sage at the other side of the wall, illuminated with light magic stones.
I see. So this is the right way to enter this place.
An eighty-eight floors teleportation dungeon.
That is the dungeon Elibel made.
Moving through the pa.s.sage, I arrived in an open area.
It"s a dome-style hall, the same as the ruins before.
Except there"s nothing here.
There"s a magic formation in the middle of it.
According to the records, there seems to be an entrance in the centre that connects to a place called the Belsen Great Forest which is far from the dungeon itself.
Essentially, to get here, you need to go through the teleport gate.
However, in this dungeon, each floor has a guardian-like guy and are packed with traps.
What"s more, you can only head to the next floor by going through the teleport gate that has been placed in some random location.
Also, this hall.
I picked up a suitable size pebble on the ground and throw it at the edge of the magic formation.
By the way, I"m in the pa.s.sageway.
At the next moment, the magic formation exploded.
Landslides occurred in the surroundings, leaving only half of the hall remaining.
Instantly, the entrance leading to the pa.s.sageway is blocked by an earth and water element barrier.
Poison mist rises and surrounds the place.
What"s more, the poison seems to consume the surrounding oxygen and change the atmospheric concentration.
Right now, I find it very disgusting.
But, to be honest, it"s not that bad.
The teleport point of the original dungeon is a lot worse than this with nasty traps and a legendary beast, a floor boss the size of a mountain.
I could never break through it.
If you keep breaking through that eighty-eight times, you will end up becoming a rotting mess of a person.
To be honest, I don"t understand the humans of this world. Going through all that trouble to obtain knowledge.
As for me, there"s quite a lot of things I don"t want to know.
Now then, shall we return.
In order to not be hunted by the adventurers, I will somehow renovate the dungeon.
The knowledge I"ve obtained with a lot of effort, I"ll put it to good use.
For my own safety.
Also, I have a few things to verify.
Turning back the way I came from, I went back home.
Ahh, it"s hard to climb to this wall.
Author"s Note:
Chapter 1 『I"ve Turned Into a Dragon』complete.
Next time 『Ann"s Dungeon Defense Journal! 』
This is the end of the first chapter. Next chapter will be Ann"s side story.
However, as I"m writing this, it became gorier than I expected.
Some people may not like it. I"m sorry.
It will be updated tomorrow. (TLN: Author side, not me.)
(Ed note: hi, I"m new, please treat me well. I call myself OriginOtakuTesting)