Episode 52.5

Lecan noticed that he was gripping something in his right hand when he came to.

Something that holds an enormous amount of mana.

He lifted it up while still laying on the ground.

It's a magic stone.

A crimson-colored magic stone with a beautiful luster at about the same size as Toron's.

(Is this the Argent Flame Wolf's?)

That's the proof of his triumph over Argent Flame Wolf.

Lecan finally defeated that mighty foe, a Divine Beast that had honed itself in battle.

He was awash with a sense of satisfaction while still feeling hazy, then he put away the magic stone in <Storage> before falling asleep again.

The next time he woke up, he was hit with insatiable hunger.

And it's cold.

It's night already.

Lecan got up and cast <Recovery> on his legs first thing first.

It worked well.

He crunched on Mana Restorative and Stamina Restorative and drank down water.

It was refreshing.

He felt the water soaking through his entire body as it gradually regained its strength.

He cast <Recovery> on his whole body.

Then he gathered some withered branch, grilled some meat and made soup. As he could only wait until it was all done cooking, he chewed on some bread all the while.

Then he slowly enjoyed his meal. He could never had enough no matter how much he ate.

After meal, he refilled <Necklace of Intuador>'s mana and went to sleep.

Once he woke up, he put on new clothes first. And picked up the broken pieces of <Sword of Toron> on the ground.

It was cold.

His body is getting chilly. He collected some firewood and lit them up.

The Argent Flame Wolf left no corpse behind. Which means the magic stone was his only prize this time.

"Now, then. Time to get a move on. Wait, where is this place again?"

He walked on with maximum <Life Detection>'s scope for a while before eventually running into a village.

He entered the village and asked the villager there their whereabouts.

According to the villagers, he was in Tiren Village in Modo Barondom.

Apparently, Lecan has strayed far to the northwest.

To the east is Town of Transhe, and to the west is town of Egis. They're both about the same distance away from Tiren Village, though Egis is apparently a tad closer.

Lecan bought some food from the villagers.

He gave up trying to find a lodging since the villagers were obviously wary and scared of him, and just went straight into the forest toward the northeast.

He should arrive at Egis or at least a highway that connects to Egis if he just followed this direction. And since Egis is connected to the capital on highways, getting to Mashajain from there should be simple.

As he was about to set up camp in the forest, he noticed a spot his <3D Perception> can't detect behind a dense formation of trees while probing the surroundings with it and <Life Detection>.

"What?"

Lecan drew near that spot and probed it.

There's a lump of protruded soil. It looked like a part of the hillside at a glance, but Lecan had ended up searching the spot with <3D Perception> by chance since the trees looked as if they surrounded the spot. He usually doesn't make it a habit to search inside soil, but it's not like it can't be done. And yet it can't be done for this particular spot.

There is only one explanation for this phenomenon.

"<Flame Spear>! <Flame Spear>! <Flame Spear>!"

The hillside laid bare after he blew away the trees that were in the way.

Lecan stared hard at it.

Then he leaped back, held out his right hand forward, converged mana and recited a spell.

"<Flame Spear>!"

An extra large <Flame Spear> hit the hillside, breaking and blowing away the rocks.

A hole emerged.

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

A dungeon.

It really is a dungeon alright.

Lecan took a small shovel out of <Storage>, pushed the soil away and removed the rocks.

There's no mistake, it's a dungeon. The entrance to this dungeon was buried under soil and rocks.

It might be an undiscovered dungeon. Meaning it has never been conquered before of course.

To dungeon adventurers like Lecan, unconquered dungeons are the most exciting of adventure. Moreso when it's a dungeon no one else has gone into. He could feel the thrill welling up, complete with anticipation.

He quickly had his meal and changed his clothes.

Fortunately he has that armor he got at Yufu. The armor made from a mix of Great Flame Dragon and Dylan Silver Steel with free sizing joints. It's almost an exact replica of the armor Duo Bahn had, but there's no crest of Yufu Dungeon Knights on it. It's made as a gift to the Royal Family or other lords.

It's a bit over the top as a casual wear, but there's no denying its extraordinarily high magic and physical resistance, and it's also much more unrestrictive compared to common full plate armor.

Lecan was hesitating what to do about the helmet at first, but he decided to put it on. His field of vision gets restricted with it on, but Lecan's got <3D Perception>. He's not really a fan of helmets, but there's no harm in trying out how it feels at least once.

He didn't put the gauntlet parts.

The left one would get in the way of <Shield of Wolkan>'s gauntlet state. While his right hand needs to be free of obstructions to handle his sword.

The sword on his waist is <Sword of Rusk>.

With the gauntlet form of <Shield of Wolkan> on his left hand.

<Ring of Rozan>.

<Necklace of Intuador>.

<Dagger of Harut>.

<Ring of Undying King>.

<Talisman of Darkness Demon>.

<Leg Bands of White Devil>.

And <Guardian Jewel of Zana>.

He's pretty much fully prepared for everything. It's a bit dramatic for just exploring shallow floors, but as this dungeon is of a completely unknown quality, there's no such things as overly prepared.

It's already light out as darkness wraps the surroundings, the insides of the dungeon becomes the only source of faint light instead now.

It was already cloudy before, but it turned worse with nightfall.

A cold breeze blew then it started pouring as thunders could be heard from afar.

A heavy downpour hit the mountain right as Lecan took a step inside the dungeon.