CH 173

After finishing their meal and taking a breather, the group passed through the second castle gate.

Once they passed through this gate, the atmosphere around them changed drastically.

There were no houses left, only soldiers, and the atmosphere was tense as they were training.

“This is the center that guards and monitors this dungeon, Babylon,” Taichi explains.

Taichi explains.

“Then, when we pass through that gate, is it the dungeon?”

Tauro pointed to the gate further ahead.

“No, there is another gate beyond that one, and beyond that is a temple that houses the entrance to the dungeon.”

While Taichi was explaining, the captain, Tsuyoku, went to the gate and went through the formalities beside it.

Then, he must have finished.

He beckoned to us.

“Let’s go then,” Taichi urged.

The group passed through one more gate.

After checking with the gate of the castle beyond which we passed, we passed through it and found that one large temple stood in the center of it.

It was surrounded by cobblestone pavement and no vegetation.

“When was this temple built?”

“I don’t know. I’ve heard it’s a thousand years old. Oh, actually this temple is not man-made, you know? This is part of ‘Babylon,’ apparently.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s why it’s been here all these years, never fading away.”

Aeris explained here and there.

“So these cobblestones are too?”

Tauro asked Taichi, curious about the cobblestones paved all around the temple.

“These cobblestones are man-made,” Taichi said. It seems that when the dungeon overflowed with plant-based monsters a long time ago, they attacked people by manipulating the plants that grew around them, and the cobblestones were laid out after that.”

Taichi responded with a laugh, wondering if that was what was bothering him.

Tauro thought that the dungeon might also encroach on the earth, but his fears seemed to be unfounded.

“Let’s go into the dungeon.”

Captain Tsuyoku, leading the way, stepped onto the steps of the temple.

Tauro and the others followed him up the steps and into the temple.

It seemed that they were already in the dungeon.

The entire interior of the temple was glowing faintly.

The walls, ceiling, and floor were glowing, just as Tauro had experienced in the dungeon he had first entered.

As he walked forward, he saw soldiers standing guard, an open door at the back, and a staircase leading down.

“Be careful down here, there are monsters.”

Taichi warned Tauro and Aeris.

They nodded and headed down the stairs.

Once down the stairs, they found themselves in a maze of unknown size.

They went down a path, came to a wide space, and then the path split, and so on.

Captain Tsuyoku leads the group, moving forward without hesitation at the front of the line.

He seemed to remember the route perfectly.

“Oh, it looks like there are demons up ahead,”

Tauro was the first to notice.

” Oh, That’s ‘presence detection. You’re quite skilled, aren’t you?”

Captain Tsuyoku sounded impressed without looking at Tauro.

He quickly stepped forward and struck the three skeletons that were coming toward him with his magic-enhanced spear.

It was a sophisticated move with no waste.

Tauro was impressed, thinking that there was no way he would need to take part in such a situation.

After that, they continued to walk through the maze, and the skeletons they encountered were kicked away by the escorting knights.

Tauro felt a sense of being out of touch as he just walked, but just  in case, he was constantly using his “presence detection.

Suddenly, he felt an evil presence on the other side of the wall.

‘Is there a skeleton on the other side? I’ve never felt such a presence before….’

As he was thinking this, a translucent black shadow appeared from the wall.

It approached one of the knights who was guarding the wall and touched him, then went back to the other side of the wall.

“Look out everyone, it’s a ghost!”

Taichi points his sword at the area where the ghost disappeared.

‘Tsk! It’s gone and put a curse on us!”

The knight guard who was touched by the ghost clicks his tongue.

The curse of reduced status can be cured by magic “purification” or by spending time in a church or other holy place to break the curse, but until it is cured, the sudden drop in status causes temporary weariness and other symptoms.

“Since there is no one with ‘purification’ this time, I guess you’ll have to go back and get the cure.”

Taichi called out to the cursed knight.

Tauro ran up to him and cast the magic “Purification”.

The knight’s curse faded away with a pale light.

“”What?””

Everyone was simply astonished.

The boy who was the target of the escort in front of them cast “Purification,” which is a higher magic, so they could not help but be surprised.

Tauro walked along the wall and suddenly slashed at a ghost that appeared through the wall with his small sword.

“This guy is awesome!”

The knights who were escorting him were surprised to see that he was no ordinary person.