The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 253
After arriving at the Cradle of the Swamp, our group established a base at that location.
Sophia checked the time and said.
“At noon, other units will begin their advance from the outskirts. While they draw attention from other dungeons subordinate to the Cradle, our plan is to reach the center and destroy the Cradle. Any objections?”
Only Leitin nodded at Sophia’s words, while others turned their gaze to me. For them, my words were more important than Sophia’s.
At this, Sophia made a sour expression and handed it over to me, saying to handle it.
“It’s as Sophia said. We’ll take the shortest route to the center. We don’t know what might attack us during that time, but we’ll make a bold breakthrough relying on teleportation scrolls.”
Then Meissen quietly raised her hand.
“I know about it in theory, but this is my first time using teleportation scroll. Could you explain it in more detail?”
“Of course.”
Meissen seemed nervous about attempting a dungeon raid for the first time. Since Yumir was also using teleportation scroll for the first time, I decided to explain.
“There are three points to note about teleportation scrolls. First, there’s a time limit, you can’t get too far from the casting location, and if necessary, you must commit suicide.”
While high-grade teleportation scroll can last up to a week, the minimum standard is 12 hours. If it doesn’t meet this, even if you make a teleportation scroll, its value drops significantly.
This was why Dorofei still couldn’t make teleportation scrolls.
He could make them, but the duration was too short.
Recently, there were opinions to actively make scrolls with shorter durations due to high demand for teleportation scrolls, but since scroll creation wasn’t easy, it was still under review.
“So when the spell’s effect disappears, you must either abandon the dungeon raid and return, or use it again at that point. However, using it again in an unsafe location carries risks, so it’s usually not done.”
The second point is that you can’t get too far from the casting location.
“In this world, magic in the atmosphere is unstable, making long-distance spatial movement impossible unless moving from deep underground to underground. The same applies to teleportation scroll. If you get too far from the casting location, you might teleport to a strange place and create danger. So you mustn’t exceed a certain distance.”
The last point is about forcing teleportation scroll activation through suicide.
“This is a bit tricky, methods like stabbing your own heart or neck, or jumping from high places are often unreliable. After spatial movement, if you can’t stop the stabbing, you might receive fatal wounds, and if jumping from a height doesn’t have a future of death, you might just get seriously injured without activation. So usually, tools are used. Ash, could you explain about the tools?”
Then Ash explained about tools specifically for teleportation scroll.
These were tools devised by mercenaries, and they’re supposed to be carried during dungeon raids whenever possible.
While explaining about these tools…
“Waaahh!”
A faint crying sound came from the rear carriage. Due to the distance, I couldn’t tell which of the three it was, but seeing Eonia’s reaction, it seemed to be one of the twins.
Eo anxiously looked at the rear carriage. As the crying showed no signs of stopping, she didn’t know what to do.
Unable to watch this anymore, Elena quietly took Eo and left the group.
I followed and said.
“Eo, leave the children to Mother and Bisketa. How will you manage in the dungeon if you worry about every little thing?”
“But Ed has never cried like this before…”
“That was Ed crying? You can tell from this distance?”
Weren’t all baby cries pretty much the same?
When I followed them into the carriage to check, sure enough, Ed was sobbing uncontrollably as she had said. Mother was desperately trying to comfort him, but he showed no signs of listening.
Even Ryuna was patting his back, slap! slap!, as if telling him to stop crying, but Ed was wailing about something that made him so sad.
“Lady Claire, let me try to comfort him.”
“Please do, this is the first time Ed has cried like this.”
Eo picked up the baby and gazed into his eyes gently. Perhaps feeling somewhat reassured seeing his mother’s face, Ed stopped crying with a sniffle.
After stopping crying, he rubbed his nose, played for a moment, then she held him to her breast to help him calm down.
When Ryuna tugged at her sleeve asking for the same, she smiled wryly and held both Ryuna and Ed in her arms.
Elena watched this scene contentedly, saying ‘She’s become quite the mother.’
I quietly asked her.
“Elena, did you not know about the significance of a male child born from Mirabel’s bloodline?”
“I didn’t know, I’m from the Magic Continent. I never heard such things there. I knew the Valkyries had been women for generations, but I didn’t know that male children weren’t born.”
“But you could have known after returning to the elves’ island, right?”
“The elders who knew my origins did pressure me to continue the lineage. They said the Mirabel bloodline that had continued on the island was broken. But as you know, I had no intention of being with any man other than Melian. I refused, prepared to face punishment. Then the elders seemed to think they had no choice. They thought my abilities were too valuable to punish or execute me. So we agreed that I would just give up the Mirabel name. They eliminated the political significance that the Mirabel name held.”
“Ah, so that’s why….”
“Yes, that’s when I started living as Elena, not Elenia Mirabel. After that, I didn’t hear any stories about Mirabel. So I didn’t know. Even after Eo was transferred to the island, since Eo was already pregnant at the time, such topics didn’t come up in conversation. Since she was already pregnant, there was no need to find her a partner.”
Judging from this, they probably intended to rebuild the Mirabel family through the child born from Eo.
Since having the Mirabel family under one’s command held great significance among the elves, Eo, with her sealed memories, was being politically used by Cailum.
“Lady Claire, it’s done now.”
By then, Ed had fallen fast asleep.
Just then, with a ‘ping!’ sound, signal flares were fired from several points. Other teams were signaling their entry into the dungeon.
Since we had to depart right away, Eo carefully handed Ed over, then turned around while holding back her lingering feelings.
“Sir Ars, let’s go.”
“If you’re that concerned, you can stay here.”
“I can’t do that. My most important mission is to protect you.”
“…Alright, then let’s go.”
* * *
The subjugation of the Cradle of the Swamp began in earnest.
When other teams rushed in simultaneously, the area became chaotic.
This dungeon formed a mountainous terrain that included forests and swamps.
I asked Sophia.
“Wasn’t this area originally a gentle hill?”
“That’s right. Which means all of these are created by magic. The ground, the swamp, and the forest, all of it.”
The dungeon is past history.
That means this area was once a mountainous region with dense forests.
The fact that there’s no trace of it now made me wonder just how ancient this history was.
“Be careful, enemies approaching!”
Gaspar, who was at the front, sounded a warning. Not long after, killing intent began to be felt from various directions.
Kuoooo!
What appeared was a group of bears. Whether because they were ancient bears or not, they were terrifying with bodies reaching 4m in size.
Rather than feeling like monsters, they felt more like beasts, which made them seem even more formidable.
Even humans using aura would struggle to withstand the tremendous force emanating from their large bodies.
“Form ranks!”
Since leaders had already been chosen for each unit, everyone responded in perfect coordination.
I led Team A, Elena led Team B, Master Ilya led Team C, and Ash led Team D.
Under each leader’s command, the elimination of the charging monster bears began.
Here, Sophia showed unexpected prowess.
“This terrain is my world!”
Sophia, born with the forest attribute, a combination of water and earth, was skillfully using magic with her magic stones.
Seeing her proficiency, it seemed she had undergone considerable training.
When she cast forest magic, the trees moved as if they had come alive and grabbed and crushed the bears.
No matter how strong the bears were, they couldn’t overcome the weight of trees weighing several tons.
“Did you see that!? This is my magic! How about that, Leitin!”
“As expected of the minister, you’re amazing! The best! Great Magician Sophia Veron!”
“Huhahat!”
Sophia rejoiced even at Leitin’s obvious flattery as a salary man. It was true that her performance had exceeded expectations.
‘This is why attributes are so important.’
In this kind of mountainous terrain, fire attribute magic can’t be used recklessly. Wind attribute magic also loses efficiency due to many obstacles. The same goes for lightning magic.
That’s why Leitin, Erina, and Rinoa couldn’t show much activity.
On the other hand, those with versatile attributes like myself and Estelle, who aren’t greatly affected by terrain, used magic smoothly.
I created light flares to blind the bears, while Estelle infected and controlled the bears with her magical power.
‘Well, we could subdue them even without magic at this level.’
That’s because our warrior lineup was exceptionally strong.
Gunther was breaking bears’ necks with his bare hands, and Master Ilya had penetrated into the center of the group, slashing bears as if performing acrobatics.
Eo provided impenetrable cover fire with her arrows, and Elena seemed determined not to lose to her master as she tried to take down as many bears as possible.
In this way, nearly 50 monster bears disappeared in an instant.
Leitin expressed continuous admiration.
“Everyone is truly amazing! A monster group of that level would have been at least danger level 3, yet it was handled so simply and quickly!”
Lucretia nodded in agreement.
“This overwhelming frontline force is abnormal indeed.”
“Yeah, considering you’re the weakest, Luc.”
“Who’s the weakest! That’s just something Ash arbitrarily decided!”
Leitin tilted her head and asked with an innocent face.
“Then who can you beat?”
“What?”
“I’m asking who you can win against, Luc.”
“T-That’s….”
Everyone burst into laughter at the sight of Luc losing her words. Thanks to that, the tension that had built up from the monster bears’ attack melted away.
‘Even so….’
They were stronger than expected. Moreover, the fact that they were mindless monsters was also concerning.
‘That means there must be someone controlling them.’
The fact that someone could use such dangerous monsters as mere sentries raised my vigilance.
“Well, let’s get moving again.”
However, there was someone who stopped.
It was the elf Beato.
She was carefully examining something in front of a tree. There seemed to be something like a gravestone standing in front of that tree.
It seemed that when Sophia controlled the other trees, this hidden feature had been revealed.
Since we couldn’t waste time, I sent Teams B and C ahead, then headed toward Beato.
“What is that?”
“I’m checking it now.”
Curious, I also examined the gravestone’s contents, but the characters were unreadable to me.
‘Wait a minute, this…!’
The characters looked somewhat familiar, so I quickly pulled out the book from my backpack. It was the book that recorded basic languages of various races.
I could find similar characters there.
“Elven characters…?”
Beato answers my question in a cold voice.
“These are ancient characters. They’re characters that ceased to be used about 2,000 years ago when the writing system was reorganized.”
“Can you interpret it?”
“Not perfectly. I haven’t properly learned them either. I can only read them vaguely. It says at the top: ‘Here, the great Olkin shared their power.’“
“Olkin!?”
One of the five dragons Altron mentioned.
Olkin of Hope. The one who later became corrupted by magic and became the main culprit behind this dungeon phenomenon.
“Olkin shared their power here…? What does it say below?”
“There’s nothing but laudatory phrases praising this Olkin. There doesn’t seem to be any other content.”
“…”
Learning that a dragon was involved with the dungeon heightened my vigilance.
Wondering if there might be other gravestones, I decided to search the surroundings.
Then something surprising happened.
“…?”
“Elaine, how did you get here first?”
Master Ilya and Elena expressed their confusion. The two teams we had sent ahead appeared behind us.
“I stayed at the spot where we killed the monster bears. That means you’ve come back around in a circle.”
At this, the expressions of veterans including Gaspar and Ash hardened.
Gaspar speaks.
“There must be some strange mechanism preventing us from reaching the center. Magic perhaps?”
Estelle immediately counters.
“I’ve been circulating magic externally for detection until now, but there were no traces of magic. So it’s probably not a magical barrier.”
As she spoke, Estelle drew back the black energy she had been circulating. Ghost-like magic was sucked into Estelle’s body.
“If it’s not magic…”
It meant it was an elaborate trick.
That’s when it happened.
“Could this be…”
Eo frowned and said to me.
“Sir Ars, there’s something I’d like to test.”
“What would you like to test?”
“That gravestone. Have you read all the contents?”
“Yes.”
“Then…!”
She suddenly aimed her spear at the gravestone.
“Haah!”
Kwadeudeugeuk! Eo destroys the gravestone without hesitation.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Just watch for a moment.”
Destroying terrain features usually serves no purpose. Terrain features only transform into magic and disappear after the dungeon boss is defeated.
However, this gravestone was an exception.
The shattered stone pieces transformed into magic and silently disappeared. This meant it was one of the dungeon’s core elements.
“No way!”
Then Elena also widened her eyes as if realizing something. Eo nods heavily and says.
“That’s right. This is exactly the same as the formation that was protecting our Kuravel Holy Nation.”
* * *
The suspicious formation that had protected the mountain city of Kuravel Holy Nation in the past.
It had caused the annihilation of the Fensillon Empire’s great army and made the Kuravel Holy Nation an inviolable territory.
If Juras, who led the Crossing Republic’s army, hadn’t destroyed it, Kuravel Holy Nation would have remained a mysterious nation.
“This is from Kuravel Holy Nation…?”
“Yes, we used much larger stones, but the principle is similar.”
Eo talked about when Juras destroyed the formation.
“Juras Pamilion, that person somehow knew that the terrain where those stones were placed was crucial. So he found the terrain where the stones were placed and completely devastated it. Through that, he disabled the formation.”
She meant this was similar.
The formation would only be disabled by destroying the gravestones located throughout.
Hearing this, Sophia rechecked the documents about the Cradle of the Swamp and tilted her head.
“That’s strange, there was no such content in the historical records.”
I thought I knew why.
“Look at the subjugation numbers written in those records. The kingdom mobilized an army of 10,000 for subjugation, worried about additional dungeons being subordinated. If they pushed in with that kind of volume, this narrow terrain couldn’t have held.”
Elena also agreed.
“Our Kuravel’s formation wasn’t perfect either. When Fensillon’s great army attacked, many enemy soldiers came through the gaps. That’s why I had to lead soldiers out to fight. So Elaine must be right.”
A dungeon with complex mechanisms that could be solved by pushing through with numbers.
However, we didn’t have those numbers.
“But why?”
Ash expressed his doubt.
“Why is the formation used by Kuravel Holy Nation installed in this dungeon?”
Ash had this doubt because he didn’t know that dungeons were past history.
Meanwhile, some people had approached the truth about the dungeon through these clues.
The elf Beato and Elena.
“N-N-No way…”
Elena stuttered in disbelief.
The elven Queen Mother Beato confirmed the kill.
“It seems to be correct. This is undoubtedly an elven fortress, and our opponents are ancient elves!”
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