“So it actually works.......”
Veronica wore a strangely relieved yet wistful expression.
After all, this had been the problem tormenting her mercilessly for the past several dozen days.
The time she had spent agonizing over it day and night already felt like a distant memory.
She stared up at the canyon wall carved by the winding winds for quite a while before turning back around.
“Congrats. I didn’t expect you to clear it immediately just because I gave you a single hint.”
“Haaah! Seriously. Still, thanks to you, I finally get to leave this damn place.”
Showing a refreshed expression, Veronica lightly scratched her cheek.
“Ahem, hm-hm. Hey, uh... anyway...... this time, I’m really thankful...... yeah, that’s how it is.”
Anyone could tell she was embarrassed.
Watching her, Oscar blinked twice.
“Why are you embarrassed?”
“Ah, it’s just...... saying thank you out loud feels awkward. Ah, can’t we just gloss over this part already?”
“That’s a little late for that, isn’t it? It’s not like I’ve only saved you once or twice.”
Just off the top of his head, there was Vince, the artificial island, and even Null City.
“I can’t always be there to save you, so try being a little more careful from now on, alright?”
“......If only your level had been lower than mine.”
“If that were the case, you’d have died a long time ago.”
“Gah! You never let a single comment slide, do you? Why’d you become so damn annoying while I wasn’t looking?”
Veronica’s tightly clenched fist trembled violently.
Ignoring her, Oscar glanced around the area and muttered,
“By the way, where’s the exit?”
Now that they had cleared the theme dungeon with a reproduction rate of 100%, an exit should have appeared.
But nowhere in the wasteland was there anything resembling a door.
“Don’t tell me you can’t see anyth...... Veronica?”
Oscar hurriedly looked around.
The Veronica who had been grumbling just moments ago had vanished without a trace.
“She has been moved to a place where she can receive her reward.”
Instead, the voice of the guide from the cabin sounded from behind him.
When Oscar turned around, the guide was staring at the canyon wall Veronica had carved.
“A spirited and free-spirited challenger indeed. Even now, I can still feel her power lingering in those traces.”
“She’s so free-spirited that she becomes a headache half the time.”
“Kekeke.”
The guide chuckled and turned his head.
The deep eyes that met Oscar’s in midair sparkled with curiosity.
“How old are you this year?”
“Why do you ask?”
“It’s not just your insight into understanding the dungeon’s theme. You also seem to possess deep knowledge related to magic.”
“I’m just kind of like that. I’m twenty-one.”
“Hm. Twenty-one......”
Oscar spoke to the guide stroking his beard.
“So you didn’t come here just to send Veronica out. You came to see me.”
“You could say I’m handling this task while taking care of another one at the same time.”
“Sounds like being a guide isn’t all that busy.”
“When you get old, time’s about the only thing you have left, isn’t it?”
Smiling warmly, the guide snapped his fingers, and a door appeared beside him.
“Sorry for keeping you here so long. Now then, once you leave, you should return to where you originally were.”
Oscar stared fixedly at the guide before speaking.
“It feels like the thing you’re truly curious about still hasn’t been asked. Are you really okay with just letting me leave like this?”
At those words, the guide flinched for an instant.
But he quickly regained control of his expression and smiled gently.
“Hah, you really are different. Thank you for being considerate. If I truly become unable to contain my curiosity, then I shall ask.”
“Suit yourself.”
Oscar nodded, opened the door, and stepped out, returning to the place where thousands of doors stood.
“Hm? It’s Oscar.”
Walking between the doors, Tesila Windroar widened her eyes and approached him.
“You finished quickly. How was it?”
“Hmm...... it was interesting.”
“Interesting? As far as I know, all your friends have been trapped in theirs for over fifty days already. And that’s only on stage-one difficulty.”
“You’ve really been investigating a lot, huh?”
When Oscar asked with a dumbfounded expression, Tesila nodded proudly.
“Of course I have. It’s an occupational hazard. If I don’t receive the best reward from a dungeon, I start getting restless.”
“So I’m basically just a stepping stone you use to get the best reward?”
“Can’t we call each other pleasant collaborators instead? Come on, this way.”
Smiling softly, Tesila slowly began walking.
Oscar unconsciously followed behind her and asked,
“By the way, where are we going?”
“Weren’t you about to go break into your friends’ doors?”
“That’s right.”
“Both doors are this way. The Sirius Merchant Company brat and the White Tower’s Holy One, right?”
“Yeah.”
She asked again.
“So which one are you entering first? I’ll guide you there.”
“Oh, convenient. Nice.”
“Well, naturally. You think I became a top-class adventurer for nothing?”
Did that really have anything to do with this?
Oscar casually nodded and answered.
“Killian Lockwood.”
“Hm? That’s unexpected. I thought you’d go into Fran Sirius’s door first.”
“Why?”
“Well...... because the Holy One seems like the type who’d do perfectly fine even if left alone?”
Oscar unconsciously nodded in agreement.
Killian certainly wasn’t the type to make people uneasy or worried.
Still, because of the dungeon’s structure, he simply thought entering Fran’s door first would be a disadvantage.
‘Spirits. And not just spirits, but colorless spirits even I’ve never heard of before. How exactly am I supposed to give advice on that?’
On the other hand, he knew quite a lot about the forest tribes.
After all, he had heard many stories through his former friend, Radan.
“I think Killian’s side will be easier for me to coach.”
Maybe because he had already seen Veronica’s theme, he could roughly grasp how these things progressed now.
“Really? Well, you’re going into both anyway, so I guess the order doesn’t matter. Here we are!”
Stopping her steps, Tesila spread both arms and pointed toward the door ahead.
[Killian Lockwood, , 55 Days 04:11:43]
Oscar stared at the nameplate before turning his head.
“I’m going in right away. Are you staying here, Ms. Tesila?”
“Hm? Of course not. The owner of the door I contracted with is apparently entering soon too, so I have to go there.”
So she had already arranged contracts before entering the dungeon.
As expected of an adventurer, her preparation was thorough.
And honestly, he was a little curious.
About which door owners she had made contracts with besides himself.
‘Considering she’s a top-class adventurer, there’s no way she picked random nobodies.’
Reading his expression, Tesila grinned.
“Curious? Want me to tell you who the owners are?”
“Are they people I’d know?”
“At least one of them. Even those demon bastards would know him.”
“Who exactly?”
“Well, one is a level-six mage named Kiri Gloria from the Black Tower. She’s talented, so I bought low on her.”
So Kiri entered too.
Well, considering the dungeon’s rewards, it was highly likely that every mage and knight would eventually come here.
“And the other one...... don’t be shocked. It’s none other than the Yellow Tower Master.”
“......What?”
The Yellow Tower Master?
Oscar blinked rapidly.
“The Yellow Tower Master? You mean Tony Havertz?”
“That’s right. Don’t tell me you don’t know him?”
There wasn’t a single person living in this era who didn’t know the former head of the Magic Engineering Department.
Especially now that he had become the master of the Yellow Tower, he had become even more impossible not to know.
“That’s surprising. I figured he’d be swamped keeping his household in order.”
“That’s what I thought too, but apparently he forced open about two days in his schedule. He’s probably aiming for level eight like me.”
Well, even though Tony Havertz had risen to the position of Yellow Tower Master, he was still only level seven.
He probably felt the need to balance the scales of power.
‘Especially since the previous Tower Master was Pentarion Ereus, that old man.’
He had been considered among the strongest of all the tower masters when it came to sheer combat power.
Though in the end, he failed to overcome his own greed and destroyed himself.
“You’re pretty skilled. How’d you manage to secure that contract?”
“I’m a top-class adventurer. I promised I’d work for him once later.”
“I see. But if he only cleared out two days, what happens if he can’t finish within that time?”
“His entire schedule gets wrecked, I guess.”
Tesila shrugged.
“Maybe because of that, he doesn’t seem interested in raising the difficulty. Apparently he’s going in directly without any interference.”
“Ahh.”
Raising the difficulty granted additional reward points.
But those points were purely for the sanctuary itself and weren’t directly tied to personal growth.
‘Though if the difficulty rises, it’d probably affect personal growth too.......’
But considering the time required to clear it, Tony Havertz must have judged it excessive.
For someone in the position of Yellow Tower Master, it was probably an unavoidable decision.
“This conversation got longer than expected. I should get going too. Have a safe trip.”
“Yes, Ms. Tesila. Please come back safely as well.”
After seeing her off, Oscar took a short deep breath and opened Killian’s door.
Beyond the threshold stretched lush green foliage.
‘......A forest.’
A forest—the complete opposite of the wasteland that had been Veronica’s theme.
Well, since Killian came from a forest tribe, maybe it was only natural.
‘Where is this guy?’
In Veronica’s case, she had been making so much noise that finding her was easy, but this forest was far too quiet.
‘Could this not be a combat-related theme?’
The moment he entered, he expected to sense traces of battle and locate him immediately.
『Scan』
A wave of mana spread outward from Oscar’s body and swept through the entire forest.
‘Found him.’
Moving toward Killian’s detected location, Oscar doubted his own eyes.
“......Hey, what exactly are you doing right now?”
“Hmm?”
Killian, having noticed him, looked slightly surprised before quickly regaining composure.
“I see. So you came to help me with that interference thing.”
“Yeah, I did...... but more importantly, what the hell are you doing?”
“As you can see, I was studying magic.”
That guy had been writing spell formulas all over the forest floor with a tree branch, then studying them intently.
Of course, huge portions of the formulas were left blank in the middle.
“Kh!”
Killian suddenly let out a groan and frowned.
“Hmm, this one isn’t right either.”
“......Don’t tell me you’re trying to rediscover the 『Jet Booster』 formula right now?”
“That’s correct. Once I learn this formula, it becomes easier to uncover the formula for 『Haste』, an upper-tier enhancement spell, does it not? I had memorized it before, but I forgot.”
At that utterly barbaric method, genuine chills ran down Oscar’s spine.
It was like watching someone solve a problem by manually counting for days when they could solve it in seconds if they simply knew the equation.
In other words, an extremely primitive and inefficient approach.
“No, what I’m asking is why a magical torture class suddenly started on the forest floor. If you wanted to study, you should clear the dungeon first and do it in the Magic Tower library.”
“Because I need to do this in order to clear the dungeon. Ngh.”
Needless to say, what Killian was doing right now was the sort of thing any educator would absolutely forbid.
Every time he followed an incorrect formula like that, damage accumulated in his mana circuits.
Only then did Killian raise his frowning face.
“Hmm?”
Oscar, staring at that face, looked slightly startled.
The tattoo that should have crossed the left side of Killian’s eye was nowhere to be seen.
“You, don’t tell me.......”
“You are likely correct in what you are thinking.”
Killian calmly nodded and said,
“In this place, I cannot use tattoo magic.”

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