[NB] 54. A Dark History (Patreon)

The dim room lit up with an azure blue as an expansive runic formation engraved into the dull green metal floor sprung to life—the old computer blue-screened, and a green laser scanned the entire room like something out of a sci-fi movie.

[Error: Dungeon entity not found]

[Login failed]

There was a flash of mana, and everyone found themselves back outside. Surrounded by endless emerald-rolling hills littered with golden petals and wandering golems.

"Okay, what the hell was that," Alice said, and Victor also wanted to know the answer. Shaking his head, he replied, "Not sure. I have encountered those things before, but they could never do that... But a computer casting spells doesn't seem so impossible."

"What is a computer, though? Some kind of artifact?"

"Similar," Victor responded. "It's a tool to automate tasks too repetitive or complex for humans... but they are often rather limited in their ability to affect the real world. But if a computer could use magic—that changes everything."

Victor had been pursuing a computer science degree back on Earth and was an avid user of them for entertainment and work purposes. Although he felt like a caveman discovering fire for the first time after seeing an actual working computer.

Computers in this world made him question everything around him—especially the system. Was the Goddess that gifted him this life real? Was what he saw an actual cosmic entity or merely a computer program? 'Wait, don't be silly. The fact there are computers in a world doesn't make it a simulation or mean people or things don't exist. They are merely a tool, one of many.'

"Automate tasks?" Alice rubbed her chin, "Don't we have golems for that? Isn't a computer just a golem that can use magic?"

Victor hummed as he mulled over her words. In a way, the golems were somewhat similar. Or at least the ones on this floor were. 'Would Rock be artificial intelligence, then? It seems smart enough. Wait... what gave Rock his intelligence? The system? Doesn't that make Rock a way for the system to directly interact with the world?'

The sound of rubble moving made Victor look over to the collapsed mountain. Even from here, he could see waves of mana dancing across the surface of the rubble, and soon enough, boulders began rolling up the landslide and fusing in place. The trembling and noise were like a volcano going off as the entire mountain slowly pieces itself together.

It was another impossible sight that reminded Victor of the true power magic held over the world. Genus seemed to fly back down from the floating platform and join them to witness the spectacle.

Victor didn't blame Genus for running away and therefore didn't press the matter. It was a display of insubordination, but Victor made a rash decision that could have cost all three of them their lives. Ultimately, Genus couldn't contribute much to the wall's destruction or kill whatever came out. 'But if he starts defying my orders when I put him on the dragon throne, then I will end him. Immediately. No questions asked.'

An hour passed, and finally, the very last rock rolled up the steep mountain edge and perched itself on the top. A golem trod in the distance, this one far larger than the one Victor had slain. It seemed unfazed by the mountain that had just reconstructed itself and took one look at the dull grey castle wall without a single blemish or hole—ignored it and decided to chew on an amethyst stalagmite nearby instead.

"So that's why such a dull color was chosen." Victor was happy that one of the many mysteries around the place had been solved. Whether the golems were color-blind or programmed to ignore grey things, the designer of the computer's container clearly knew what they were doing.

Alice frowned as she watched the scene. "I don't feel any mana anymore."

Victor realized that was true. He had only noticed the room initially due to how it stood out compared to the sparkling scenery. However, with the mountain fixed, the dense mana that had suffocated the area had dissipated, and from this distance, Victor couldn't tell there would be anything unusual past the wall.

Floating closer... it wasn't until he had crossed a mile of emerald hills and stood around twenty meters from the wall did he feel the sudden suffocating mana leaking through the wall. 'The computer said I wasn't a dungeon entity and teleported me outside, meaning it has powers over teleportation. What if that computer is how a dungeon entity moves between floors?'

Victor hadn't seen any evidence of a dungeon master or something managing the dungeon. Maybe they moved and pulled strings from the shadows? 'Is there a way for me to become a dungeon entity?' Victor didn't know, but one thing was sure, he needed to find out.

Directing the zombie dragon that had been Henry's mount with his mind, Victor commanded the black dragon to soar down through the sky and land in front of the castle wall, just outside its mana range. "The dragon will guard this place and help me keep track of where it is."

"Do you think we passed rooms like these without knowing it?" Genus asked, and that was an exciting thought. If there was one on this floor, maybe there was one on every floor?

Victor entered the black ocean within his mind and saw a sparkling night sky. The number of undead under his command had reached an astronomical amount, although most were flies, earthworms, and a floor or weak skeletons. Victor hadn't bothered to bring the flies to this floor. They were weak and annoying to regularly manage. Also, the constant beat of their wings produced a tremendous amount of noise that made Victor feel deaf. 'But they are perfect for the job. Scouting is their specialty.'

With an order that consumed a disturbing amount of mana, Victor saw the flecks of light in his black ocean begin to spread out across the black sky. The order was simple: find areas of high mana concentration. Some false positives were inevitable, but even those areas could have a treasure or lead to a secret zone.

"I have sent my undead to investigate. The flies and worms will work their way up, and the skeletons will check the first ten floors." Victor said before flying back to the floating platform. "Whatever the result, it does not change our objective. Let's keep moving down."

***

A few days later, Victor and his crew made it to the 72nd floor, and a skeleton on the 2nd floor had found something. The first floor of the dungeon was the meadow with the dragon eggs, and then the next nine floors were the graveyard.

Victor hadn't put much thought into it, but it was rather odd that the first couple of floors were just thousands of undead human skeletons, some even wearing or wielding human weapons such as chipped swords or dented helmets. 'From what I've seen so far, the dungeon doesn't have the ability to create items like that... all it can do is distort nature. So where did all those undead-wielding human items come from...'

"Alice."

The girl was lying peacefully on the platform, her legs dangling off the edge. Unfortunately, the golems were relatively rare and seemed to net no experience while being incredibly hard to kill unless she utilized void mana, so she was left with nothing to do. She tilted her head to Victor's call with a smile. "Yea?"

"You know the graveyard floors? Is there a story behind it?"

Alice returned to staring at the slowly passing fake sky. "Well... there used to be a city surrounding the Grand Dungeon. But when the dragons arrived, people retreated into the dungeon for shelter. But with the city destroyed, the people tried to live down here...

"Ah. I assume that didn't last long."

Alice stifled a laugh. "According to the records, they lasted a few weeks until the dragons chased them down here. Most perished, but some managed to delve deeper and deeper. Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Victor concentrated on the skeleton that had alerted him to a high mana concentration and described to Alice the situation. The poor thing had tumbled down a ravine and smashed itself into pieces. But as it lay in the stream, a few meters from it, embedded into a cave, was the front of a crumbling building. It looked like some monastery Victor would see in pictures from ancient china. Complete with pillars and a grand-looking entrance overrun with weeds. But the mana emanating from it was similar to the green metal room on the 71st floor.

Alice hummed to herself as she thought over the possibilities. "The records are inconclusive as nobody managed to escape to write the records, and nobody has been here since the dragons took charge, but the evidence of a building like that suggests humans may have hidden underground for a while..."

"No way they are the ones managing this place, right?" Victor refused to believe that Delvers, from an age long ago, had such power.

"Unlikely. The Grand Dungeon has operated since human records began. But the chance of humans building a teleportation network throughout the dungeon? Certainly plausible. We have similar ways of transportation between cities on the surface, but they are used exclusively by the nobles due to the high cost."

Victor nodded and directed more skeletons on that floor to investigate the building and the rest of the ravine. He honestly should have done this sooner with how much free time he had back then... but the thought of exploring every inch of these continent-sized floors escaped him. 'I need to be more vigilant. I have resources at my disposal, and I should use them fully. What kind of overlord doesn't have complete control over his territory?'

It was time to get to work.