LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 37
Chapter 37: The Enemy Beneath (3)
Suddenly, the kobolds and goblins that had been devouring each other came to a halt.
Then, as if they had received a signal, they all turned their heads simultaneously to meet Martin and Sien’s gaze.
A deafening roar echoed throughout the dungeon.
“Kieeek!”
“Grrraaah!”
The monsters no longer fought amongst themselves. Instead, they turned and charged straight toward Martin and Sien.
Hundreds, thousands of them, all at once.
“Doesn’t it look like a tidal wave?” Martin asked playfully.
“A tidal wave? More like a bunch of idiots cramming into a narrow passage,” Sien scoffed in response.
As she spoke, she activated her unique ability.
Vroom.
An interdimensional space opened behind her right side, and from within, the hilt of a zweihander sword emerged.
With a firm grip, she grabbed the hilt with her right hand.
While Sien prepared for battle, Martin raised his right index finger toward the charging monsters.
“They really are just dumb, after all.”
With a simple flick of his finger, moving it from top to bottom—
Boom! Boom!
A massive whirlwind, twisting like a dragon, surged toward the monsters.
The fifty or so creatures in its path were obliterated without a trace.
However, the remaining monsters were unfazed by the death of their comrades, continuing their relentless charge.
Their instincts screamed at them to kill the humans in front of them.
Despite this, Martin remained still, simply holding out his right hand.
“I’ll leave it to you, Sien.”
“Honestly, you really know how to work me,” Sien grumbled.
Sighing, she drew her zweihander and stepped forward, positioning herself in front of Martin.
With one powerful swing of her sword, she cleaved a goblin clean in half, from head to torso.
In the next moment, a kobold leaped at her, sinking its teeth into her right arm.
But neither Sien, nor Martin, who was watching, reacted at all.
It was the kobold that appeared shocked.
Crack.
Its teeth had shattered completely.
“Get lost.”
Sien flicked the kobold’s forehead with her left index finger.
What seemed like a playful gesture caused the kobold’s head to explode.
Immediately after, she twisted her body on her right foot, swinging her left leg in a wide arc.
Her kick struck a goblin square in the abdomen.
Crunch.
The goblin’s stomach burst open, and it was flung through the air like a cannonball, crashing into a group of monsters, sending them sprawling in a bloody mess.
“Kieeek!”
“Kriieeek!”
Five more goblins, unaffected by the carnage, closed the distance between them and Sien.
Wielding stone axes, stone swords, and crude weapons, they swung with all their might.
Normally, goblins weren’t particularly strong, but these had been greatly enhanced by consuming mana stones.
In terms of pure strength, they could easily overpower an ordinary orc. To add to that, their weapons were now infused with mana.
Even so, Sien didn’t bother to defend herself.
Crash!
A stone axe struck her right side.
A stone sword embedded itself into her left thigh, and a stone spear slammed into her abdomen.
But that was as far as the attacks went.
The goblins’ weapons couldn’t penetrate Sien’s body and shattered on impact.
Meanwhile, Sien remained completely unharmed.
Even the uniform she wore didn’t have a single scratch.
Watching this, Martin couldn’t help but shake his head in disbelief.
“Your family really is beyond ridiculous, Sien.”
“Yeah, even I think it’s absurd sometimes,” Sien shrugged nonchalantly.
While she remained calm, the goblins flinched, their bodies trembling in fear.
Despite being lost in primal instincts, they still felt terror.
Of course, there were still plenty of monsters charging toward her, determined to bring her down.
“You’re wasting your time,” she muttered.
But Sien, standing like an immovable fortress, didn’t budge. She continued her onslaught, cutting down kobolds and goblins with ease.
Her overwhelming presence drew all of the monsters’ attention.
‘She really is the best ally I could ask for.’
Martin mentally praised her.
With Sien holding the monsters’ attention, he was free to gather his strength.
Vwoom!
A brilliant white sphere began to spin rapidly on his right palm.
It hungrily sucked in the surrounding air, growing larger with each passing second.
“Sien! Step back.”
Once the sphere’s rotation stopped completely, Martin warned her.
But Sien remained focused on fighting the monsters, so Martin simply smirked and released the compressed air.
Since he had confirmed that there were no other adventurers nearby, he didn’t hesitate in his attack.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A powerful storm of wind ripped through the dungeon.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Kriiiieek!”
The goblins and kobolds shrieked in agony.
The razor-sharp winds tore through their bodies, ripping them apart.
Even though their muscles, skin, and bones had been unnaturally strengthened by the constant consumption of mana stones, they were powerless against the raging storm.
And that wasn’t all.
The gusts also demolished the stalactites, stone pillars, and other structures within the dungeon.
As the debris rained down, the monsters, already in disarray, were further engulfed in chaos.
One minute.
That’s how long it took for every monster within a 200-meter radius to fall.
“Are you okay, Martin?”
“Come on, this much is nothing now.”
Martin grinned as Sien expressed concern.
In the past, an attack like that might have left him injured, but not anymore.
“But Sien, seriously…I’m running out of words for you at this point.”
Martin shook his head, both in awe and disbelief.
He had long since moved past simple admiration or astonishment.
Sien stood amidst the storm of death and destruction, yet there wasn’t a single scratch on her.
Even her uniform remained nearly intact, save for a slightly frayed collar and sleeve from the goblins’ earlier attacks. But that was all.
Her resilience was nothing short of astonishing, a feat that could only be described as overwhelming. At this point, one couldn’t help but wonder who the real monster was.
“Martin, you’re not thinking something rude, are you?” Sien asked suspiciously.
“N-No, of course not.”
“Good. By the way, you’ve been fighting using only air manipulation. Is there a reason for that?”
“The trial is just a few days away.”
Only Sien knew about this—the fact that Martin was learning swordsmanship and the art of utilizing his unique abilities from the avatar of the first family head in the Sovereign’s Chamber.
Sien nodded immediately, understanding the situation.
“The first head of the family really is unusual, isn’t she?”
“In what way?”
“There are many so-called omnipotent abilities, like Spatial Domination, but it’s rare for someone with such powers to take a genuine interest in mastering a different system entirely.”
“That’s true. It’s inefficient.”
To wield powers outside one’s original system required a vast amount of mana.
The issue was that, despite the effort, the power output was often weaker compared to abilities within one’s main system.
Take Omni Distortion for example—it could manipulate space, but compared to Spatial Domination, it was clearly inferior.
The power was weaker, and it lacked the efficiency of the primary system.
Because of this, few sought to truly master powers outside of their natural abilities.
“Yet the first family head went so far as to develop an entire martial art around it. And the fact that she’s teaching it only to you is fascinating.”
“I agreed with her philosophy.”
“Philosophy? What philosophy?”
“The head of the Adalbert family must be perfect. I’m just adhering to that belief.”
“You make it sound like it’s something you can achieve just by deciding to.”
“But I can,” Martin replied confidently.
Sien looked at him, a mixture of disbelief and awe in her expression.
The attack Martin had just unleashed had surpassed the abilities of most wind manipulators she’d seen.
He had mastered both swordsmanship and his unique abilities in just a few days—an unimaginable level of talent.
“Now that we’ve cleaned up the monsters, let’s move on to the next area. If the entrance is in this state, the deeper levels must be even worse.”
“Agreed. We need to be careful with this monster wave. It feels like it’s on a completely different level from anything we’ve encountered before.”
“I think so too.”
Sien sighed. “It’s seriously frustrating. It hasn’t even been that long since we suppressed the rebellion, and now we’re dealing with another disaster.”
“What’s the point of complaining about what’s already happened? We should focus on minimizing the damage,” Martin replied calmly as he began to move forward.
There was no time to waste. The road ahead was long, and there were still countless monsters to kill.
Knowing this, Sien followed closely behind him, her face set in a determined frown.
—
As Martin and Sien had suspected, the chaos wasn’t limited to just the first floor.
The monsters on every level, from the second floor onward, had become far more ferocious.
The adventurers couldn’t handle the monsters that had grown stronger from consuming mana stones, leading to heavy casualties.
Martin and Sien fought their way through the dungeon, which had turned into a living hell, rescuing as many survivors as they could along the way.
It was fortunate that Martin always kept a large stock of high-grade potions in his pocket dimension.
Thanks to that, they were able to save even those who were barely clinging to life, and in doing so, they also reinforced their forces.
The survivors, now in better condition, joined Martin and Sien in helping other adventurers.
As a result, Martin and Sien managed to reach the fifth floor in just half a day.
Dozens of adventurers had been rescued by them.
“Thank you! Thank you so much, Young Master!”
“I don’t even know how to express my gratitude… I’ll never forget this kindness!”
The surviving adventurers, tears streaming down their faces, shouted their thanks.
They had come face-to-face with death and were truly grateful to Martin and Sien for saving them.
Martin smiled softly as he looked at them.
“I was only doing my duty as a direct descendant of the Adalbert family.”
“It wasn’t something you did out of obligation alone! That place—it was hell!”
“I swear from now on, I will live only for the Young Master!”
“I understand how you feel. But please, focus on your recovery for now. You’ve been through enough.”
With that, Martin and Sien left the guild branch’s infirmary, stepping outside where Chief Beyren was waiting for them.
“Thank you so much, Young Master. As the branch chief of the adventurer’s guild, I will never forget the help you provided today.”
“Anyone staying in Varehein City is no different from one of the Adalbert family’s people. As the young master, I was just doing my duty.”
“Even so, the adventurer’s guild remains neutral. You didn’t have to involve yourself, but you did. That alone is significant.”
“Significant, huh…”
Martin smiled bitterly.
In truth, they had reached the entrance to the sixth floor. But they hadn’t gone any further.
Despite using all his strength to sense the dungeon, he couldn’t detect any more survivors.
Moreover, the adventurers who had made it that far were in poor condition.
If they pressed on, they might end up losing the very people they had just saved. So, Martin had chosen to return to the guild.
He understood it had been the right decision, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit of regret.
“What’s the situation now?” Martin asked.
“We’ve established a defensive line near the entrance to the first floor. I can’t emphasize enough how wise your foresight was. If we hadn’t gathered so many D-rank and above adventurers, things would’ve gone much worse.”
Martin’s request had excited the adventurers.
A monster wave always meant a chance for more spoils, and with the fee exemptions he had offered, only a fool would pass up the opportunity.
As a result, over 500 adventurers from various nations had already gathered in the short time since the announcement.
Now, they were fighting desperately in the dungeon.
“Even so, adventurers alone won’t be enough. As we speak, monsters are being born at an insane rate.”
“Yes, to resolve this crisis, we need to destroy the core. But we don’t even know where it is…” Beyren sighed.
Before a monster wave began, a dark sphere would appear somewhere in the dungeon. That was the core. Only by destroying it could the monster wave be stopped.
The problem was that the core’s location was unpredictable.
As one descended further into the dungeon, it became wider, making the task of finding the core incredibly difficult.
But Martin wasn’t worried.
“Destroying the core is our job. The adventurers just need to keep the monsters from reaching the surface.”
He had experienced this crisis before his return, so he already knew where the core was.
‘It was on the 35th floor.’
The Basilisk’s Nest.
The core was hidden deep within that place.
“Sien.”
“Yes, Young Master?”
Since others were around, Sien addressed him formally.
“Send a notice to all the branch families. We’ll hold a grand council in two days. Make sure everyone attends.”
“Isn’t two days too soon?”
“We were originally supposed to have it today, remember? Everyone should already be prepared.”
“Understood. I’ll carry out your orders, Young Master.”
Martin turned to look down at the entrance to the dungeon.
The nightmare had already begun, but it was merely the trigger.
The chaos in the Altaria Empire would only escalate from here.
‘I won’t become a hypocrite.’
Saving everyone was impossible.
In truth, it wasn’t even his goal.
For the glory of the Adalbert family, and for those who stood by him, Martin would overcome this ordeal.
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