(Urgent background music ON)
Just as there are heroes whose names echo across the continent—
and villains whose infamy spreads just as far—
the Reverse Heaven Mage Pelerian was known by more than just the title "Reverse Heaven."
Among his many titles, one of the most famous was "Dungeon Master."
It was common knowledge that mages loved building dungeons.
But in Pelerian's case, it went far beyond normal.
The number of dungeons he created easily exceeded a hundred—
some even estimated over five hundred.
Even if he were a long-lived elf, it would be hard to believe.
Even building two per year would take 250 years.
And considering that many of his dungeons were large-scale or greater, such a number should have been physically impossible.
Yet it was a well-known fact that his dungeons were scattered across the entire continent—
with many still undiscovered.
How had this ancient monster of Reverse Heaven constructed so many so quickly?
First, his overwhelming elemental magic ability.
In elemental magic alone, Pelerian was considered to possess the most terrifying talent in history.
There was even a tale of him collapsing an entire mountain in a single day—
so foundational work that normally took the most time could have been completed instantly.
With the help of earth spirits, it would have been even faster.
Second, it was speculated that he maintained close ties with dwarves and gnomes.
No matter how powerful a grand mage he was, a dungeon could not be built with excavation alone.
Internal structures, complex traps, mechanical devices—
those clearly required manpower.
Some might question whether a fairy could cooperate with dwarves or gnomes.
But considering Pelerian himself was an outsider even among fairy society, it was entirely possible.
There were even records of him visiting dwarf mines and shadow elf nests.
Still, Pelerian was a man obsessed with trap design.
It was certain that the dungeon's traps were personally designed by him.
—Excerpt from "On the Malevolent Nature of Reverse Heaven," published by the Magic Tower
***
Click, click.
"Damn it… damn it!"
Hobgoblin King Krok fidgeted with his bracelet.
It had a peculiar design with a small magic stone embedded in it.
Next to it was a button-like latch.
He kept pressing it.
Click, click, click.
The magic stone flickered.
It was sending a signal to the one who had given him the bracelet.
He had never intended to use it—
but now his enemies were right in front of him.
The bracelet was a transmitter.
One day, a fairy had come to him.
Not an ordinary fairy—but a shadow fairy.
His name was Deshnan.
Ash-gray skin, with a dark, ominous aura.
He had helped Krok evolve into a Hobgoblin King.
And he had told him a secret—
That beneath Elephant Rock lay a mage's dungeon.
And that the legacy inside could allow Krok to evolve beyond even a Hobgoblin King.
Evolution was a monster's instinct.
And having already evolved once, Krok had grown ambitious.
He wanted to become the ruler of all goblins.
The fairy had told him:
once you reach the dungeon entrance, call me with the bracelet.
The dungeon is like a demonic realm—you will need me.
Krok had agreed—
but never intended to call him.
He wanted everything for himself.
"Why isn't he coming…?!"
But now, Krok frantically pressed the bracelet.
That Serpent—
that insane Serpent—
was breaking through the traps.
"Shh!"
As the Serpent flicked its tongue, the Runga goblins behind it stopped.
These lunatics weren't even afraid—they followed the Serpent.
A Serpent dismantling traps.
It tapped the ground a few times with its tail—
then something slid into place.
Thud-thud!
Arrows dropped harmlessly from holes in the ceiling.
The Serpent raised its head proudly and advanced.
A mad Serpent.
A trap-disarming Serpent.
Could that be the "heart-eating Serpent" those useless subordinates had mentioned?
Following its lead, the Runga goblins had already crossed half the chamber.
Krok had sacrificed all his subordinates just to get through this area—
and even then, it had taken sheer luck.
Yet not a single one of them was injured.
Then the Serpent suddenly stopped.
It began fiddling with something on the wall.
Tiles crumbled away, revealing a lever.
The Serpent grabbed it with its tail—
Clank—
An ominous sound echoed.
No—
ominous only to Krok.
Then a voice rang out.
—Interception system halted.
—Welcome.
Krok didn't panic.
The voice was in the fairy language—he couldn't understand it.
But it didn't sound good.
The Serpent turned to the Runga goblins, gesturing with its tail and body.
"The traps are disabled!"
Nanaruk understood immediately.
How she could understand the Serpent, Krok had no idea.
She rushed forward without hesitation.
The traps truly didn't activate.
With two axes in hand, she charged.
"Good! You insolent brat!"
Krok drew his weapon—a massive curved blade.
Nanaruk leapt high.
"Die!"
"Come at me! Let's settle this—!"
"You mean decide the victor, you idiot!"
She swung her axes down—
Krok countered with an upward slash.
Claaang!
Shockingly, it was Nanaruk who was knocked back.
The difference in size.
The difference in strength.
The gap of one additional evolution.
Krok realized he had the advantage—
and he wasn't the type to lose momentum.
He lunged at Nanaruk as she tried to rise.
His blade fell to split her in two—
But hobgoblins swarmed him.
Zadiram thrust his spear.
Zadiram swung an axe.
Clang-clang!
Even together, they couldn't injure him.
He wore proper scale armor—
not stylish, but highly defensive.
Thud!
Krok kicked Zadiram in the abdomen, sending him flying.
"Zadiram!"
Nanaruk sprang up.
Her axes swung faster—faster—faster.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"This… this is insane!"
Even Krok was shocked.
She was accelerating.
A mere hobgoblin—matching him in physical ability?
His eyes widened.
"You… you're evolving—!"
"What nonsense!"
But Krok knew.
The new chieftain of the Runga tribe was undergoing evolution—
to the next stage.
To the same level as him.
For the first time, Krok felt true danger.
"How—!"
"Shut up!"
Their weapons clashed evenly.
But Krok was at a disadvantage.
Nanaruk wasn't alone.
Zadiram was still fighting—
and wounds began to accumulate on Krok.
At this rate, he would lose.
Just as he realized that—
"N-N-Nanaruk—!"
A trembling voice.
His pathetic son—
yet never had he been so glad to hear it.
"Chandal!"
Chandal—once promised to marry Nanaruk—
stood behind Zadiram, holding a blade to his neck.
"Stop! Stop right there!"
Both Nanaruk and Krok had no choice but to halt.
"Chandal, what are you doing?!"
Nanaruk shouted in fury.
But Chandal screamed threats, ready to stab Zadiram at any moment.
"Drop your axe! Or your brother dies!"
How had Chandal entered?
The answer was simple.
He had entered with Krok—
but gave up halfway out of fear.
Then, when Nanaruk and the Runga warriors entered,
he pretended to be a corpse.
And now—he struck from behind.
"Sis, ignore him! Just kill Krok!"
"Shut up!"
The blade dug slightly into Zadiram's neck.
Nanaruk hesitated.
Krok rejoiced inwardly.
Fools.
They should have married.
Chandal had his own plan.
"Drop your axe, Nanaruk! And Father!"
His demand:
"If we surrender… spare Nanaruk and her brother!"
Krok had ordered him to kill Zadiram.
But Chandal now begged him to cancel it.
How could a son be this foolish?
"Of course! Of course I will!"
Krok said it easily.
Of course—
he planned to kill them all afterward.
But then—
Once again, a voice echoed from above.
—Interception system reactivating.
—The interception system can be manually controlled.
No one knew what that meant.
After all, no one here could understand the fairy language.
Except for one Serpent.
A single Serpent, separated from the chaos of this absurd hostage situation, fiddling with the exposed mechanism inside the broken wall.
—Hey, idiot! Not there—lower.
'Here?'
—Yeah, pull that. If you pull the one next to it, everyone dies.
No one could hear the conversation between the Serpent and the fairy's spirit.
No one could have imagined that a Serpent casually operating machinery would lead to such a result.
Thunk.
The sound was light.
But the traps installed here were far more powerful than anything in the place where the cockatrice had nested.
Pelerian's fondness for spears remained unchanged.
From a hole in the wall, a rotating iron spear shot out.
CRRRUNCH!
The spear pierced through Krok's scale armor—
then tore through his flesh, shattered his ribs, and ripped apart his organs.
Even then, it didn't stop—
it punched through the armor on the other side.
Entangled with the spear, his armor, and his ribs, Krok was flung into the air.
BOOM!
He slammed into the wall.
The Serpent thought:
'That's quite the visually striking goblin skewer.'
The goblins were horrified.
Even Chandal, who had been holding the hostage.
Zadiram seized the opportunity and ducked.
"Sis!"
Chandal's chest was now exposed.
Nanaruk hurled her axe at her ex-boyfriend.
Thud!
Nice shot.
A hostage-taker deserves proper punishment.
Nanaruk really is a dangerous woman.
That idiot Chandal just experienced the most painful breakup imaginable.
"Guaaagh!"
Chandal collapsed.
Not dead?
Judging by the way he screamed and writhed, it seemed the axe hit his shoulder rather than his heart.
Whether Nanaruk intended that or not, who knows.
Zadiram quickly got up, climbed onto Chandal's stomach, and began punching him relentlessly.
"You bastard! I treated you like a brother!"
Whether Chandal would live or die was uncertain—
but one thing was clear: his life wouldn't be easy anymore.
Well. That wrapped up nicely.
—That was close.
Pelerian grumbled.
—If we'd been any slower and that Krok forced the door open, everything would have collapsed.
This wasn't just a villain's secret base—
this dungeon had a self-destruct mechanism.
If the inner door was forcibly opened, Elephant Rock and the entire dungeon would collapse.
When asked why he used such an extreme method, Pelerian replied that he couldn't let grave robbers take his precious magic stones.
A perfectly reasonable answer.
—Honestly… treating me like some navigation spirit.
Pelerian kept complaining.
For now, I'll allow it.
After all, I plan to devour all those precious magic stones.
And thanks to that, we defeated Krok easily.
Krok was still alive, even impaled on the spear.
"Y-you… bastard… ugh…"
Blood poured from his mouth.
His eyes were bloodshot—terrifying.
"To think… a mere Serpent… my… grand ambition…!"
"Sssaaak!"
"Keh…"
After I responded once, his head slumped.
Dead?
[Level has increased.]
Dead.
And the level-ups didn't stop.
[Level has increased.][Level has increased.][Level has increased.][Level has increased.][Level has increased.]
…This is insane.
Ah—this is one of those moments where that person comes to mind again.
My body trembled with joy.
Considering Krok was about as strong as Nanaruk, was it really okay to give this much experience?
Well, without Pelerian's trap, it wouldn't have been this easy.
As expected of a Hobgoblin King—the experience gain was massive.
High-tier monsters really are different.
[Level has reached its limit.][Some conditions for evolution have been fulfilled.]
'White Doublehorn Serpent Lv.20.'
Descending.
...
Perfect timing.
I still need to fulfill the remaining evolution conditions, but I can probably do that inside the dungeon.
Which means—it's time to part ways.
I'll be entering the dungeon alone.
I returned to Nanaruk.
"Ugh…"
She collapsed to the ground.
Startled, I rushed over.
The other goblins gathered too.
"What's wrong, sis?!"
"I'm fine… just dizzy… and a bit sleepy…"
At first, I thought she was injured—but that wasn't it.
Her hands trembled.
"I… I think…"
She seemed to instinctively sense her condition.
"I think I'm about to evolve."
"Evolve…?"
Ah… no way.
Pelerian suddenly shouted.
—Aaaah!
'What now?!'
—That's it! That's the evolution condition for a Hobgoblin King!
Hobgoblin King.
The higher evolution of goblins.
The one we just killed—Krok—was exactly that.
—It's a species where only one individual can exist at a time! Since the previous Hobgoblin King just died, her condition has been fulfilled! The mystery is solved! I'm a genius!
'…Right.'
—There were records. This goblin might even go beyond that stage.
Whatever it was, Pelerian kept muttering excitedly.
From what I gathered—Nanaruk was about to evolve into a Hobgoblin King.
And possibly…
become the ruler who unifies all goblin tribes across the continent.
'That's a bit of a stretch.'
—She always had potential.
Potential?
Says the guy to someone with 20 potential.
I approached Nanaruk and praised her.
'You did well, Nanaruk.'
I didn't expect a reply.
"Yeah… no, you did well too."
'No, you worked harder—… huh?'
Our eyes met.
"Huh?"
'You can hear me?'
"I think… I can understand you."
Not just mutual understanding—
she could now fully understand me.
Shocking.
[Hobgoblin Nanaruk Lv.30 (Evolving)]
[Traits]
[Warrior], [Chieftain], [Communication (new)] …
Whoa.
I thought evolution only happened during sleep.
She gained a new trait: Communication.
—The King of Goblins must be followed by all goblins. For that, they need to understand each other.
I don't even have that trait, and I communicate just fine.
—Says the Serpent who can't even speak…
'…And Krok couldn't understand me at all.'
—Then he wasn't properly evolved.
But Nanaruk clearly could.
We were both amazed that we could understand each other.
"Thank you… I won't forget your help."
Her eyes welled with tears.
"I swear—you will always be a friend of us goblins."
'That's a bit embarrassing… but thanks.'
「Achievement 'Ally of Goblins' has been obtained.」
Huh.
I wasn't aiming for that.
I'll check it later.
Right now, I want to enter the dungeon.
"Want to go together?"
'No, I'm fine.'
I'll go alone.
'Nanaruk… if, after I enter, light starts shining from Elephant Rock…'
I explained something important.
If blue light bursts out from the dungeon and I don't come back—
retreat as far as possible.
Return to the Runga tribe, or go even farther if needed.
Because an elven investigator might come.
"Come back before you leave. We'll be above."
'Alright.'
Nanaruk held out her hand.
I extended my tail and clasped it.
She grinned.
I did too—
well, at least I think I did.
Alright then.
Let's enter the dungeon.
Time to begin.