Live Dungeon!

”Whew…”

The hooded man, one of Ealdred Crow’s informants who had become infamous as of late for his known soft spot for Eunice, downed a cup of chilled lemon water, letting the citrus tang bite sharply against the fatigue in his throat. Though his face was hidden, the weariness in his voice was unmistakable.

Behind him, a line of similarly dressed informants waited their turn to order from the same street vendor. The sight of hooded figures queuing for lemon water might have seemed surreal elsewhere, but here in Dungeon City, both locals and the Security Team had grown too accustomed to such oddities to give them a second glance.

As he returned the metal cup to the stall, the informant glanced toward the nearest Monitor and let out another sigh.

[Those idiots in upper management… I never thought they’d waste the main team’s time on something so pointless.]

They’d ordered Stephanie’s team to search for a hypothetical hidden passageway on the ninety-sixth layer, the very existence of which remained unconfirmed, and the operation had been going on for five full days. That time could have been spent bringing in a torrent of profit. After all, anyone could see that Stephanie’s team was Ealdred Crow’s primary breadwinner.

Their performance in the Dungeon directly impacted the Clan’s bottom line, and the stakes were growing. Following Amy’s lead, individual sponsorships were beginning to pop up with increasing frequency. Stephanie herself had received no shortage of offers. For now, they were funneled through the Clan, but it was anyone’s guess when those offers might tempt a member to strike out independently.

So who, in their right mind, thought it wise to assign the Clan’s most valuable team to sift through dust and cobwebs for a hidden passageway no one would ever see on a public broadcast? To make matters worse, the search directive had been categorized as low priority. From the footage of the ninety-sixth layer alone, the informant network had already extracted far more actionable intelligence. But instead of capitalizing on that, management had ignored the data they were provided and pressed ahead with their own misguided plans.

He had raised eyebrows at leadership decisions before, but never had their disregard for the informants’ work been so blatant. He couldn’t overlook this, neither as an informant nor as someone who had bled time and sleep gathering what they needed to win.

So he had dug deep into the ones in charge… and what he found was damning. Several individuals who had clawed their way up the hierarchy in the wake of the Stampede incident, riding waves of popular backlash, had insinuated themselves into the upper ranks. It was they who had championed the absurd decisions as of late, and even the official records of meetings’ finer details had been tampered with.

When he confronted a friend within the inner circle for clarity, he learned that some arrogant former clerk from the Royal Capital had spent half a meeting waxing poetic about hidden escape tunnels in the capital’s castle. The others, apparently dazzled, had followed his lead without question. It was political maneuvering at its worst.

[I can’t just keep burying myself in fieldwork forever…]

His specialty had always been observation, analyzing broadcast footage and compiling information. But perhaps if he had stayed more engaged with internal politics, this could have been avoided. He wasn’t just any informant running around the city; he had been part of the dungeoneering business even before Ealdred Crow was officially formed. His connections ran deep.

Fortunately, he’d already begun using those connections. The necessary moves had been made, and countermeasures were in place. Still, a cloud of bitterness lingered over him.

Later, joined by other trusted Clan members, he made his way to the Guild and stood by the Monitors, watching footage of Bittman, Dorssia, and Rook gathering materials on the ninety-first layer. The moment the trio emerged from the Black Gate, he called out to them, prompting Rook to blink in surprise.

”Oh? What’s up, guys? You don’t usually come all the way here.”

He smirked and flicked Rook lightly on the forehead. As rude as it may seem, they actually were old acquaintances, what with him being scouted by Rook to join the Clan in their early days.

”Don’t play dumb. You’ve noticed, haven’t you? The upper brass is rotten. Stop using the Dungeon to escape reality and start acting like a real Clan Leader.”

”Wha…? Wait, I don’t–”

”No excuses. We’re going to the Clan House right now.”

With that, he gestured, and the secretary beside him swooped, lifting Rook by the arms and carrying him off before he could protest. Bittman looked a touch surprised, but recognizing both the informant and the secretary, he saw no reason for concern and made no move to intervene.

”Bittman. Dorssia. Once your break’s over, I want you exploring the ninety-sixth layer instead. Try this method from the top down.”

”…I’m fine with that,” Bittman said, but eyed him carefully. ”Are things on your end secure?”

”We’ve covered all the bases. Don’t worry.”

”Very well. We’ll give this a try right away. You all right with this, Dorssia?”

”Yes.”

With eyes as unblinking as a doll’s, Dorssia immediately began preparing; she said nothing more, nor did she need to. Soon, the two delved back into the Dungeon. Following the notes the informant had handed them, they tested each proposed solution in order. The second one, in particular, showed results quite different and promising.

Among the informants of Ealdred Crow, especially those who specialized in Monitor observation, the competition was fierce. After all, the broadcasts were free for any resident of Dungeon City to watch.

If one had the time and dedication, even a casual viewer could become a Dungeon Maniac, which, as comical as that sounded, was a crowd that could not be underestimated. In fact, many informants sourced intel from them, and their numbers were growing. Soon enough, those hobbyists would rival even the seasoned informants.

Which was why the job could no longer be taken lightly. Informants now threw themselves into their work with renewed desperation, poring over broadcasts night and day, striving to distill useful data for Explorers. The golden age of easy victories would not last; those who didn’t sharpen their skills would be left behind.

…And then there was Tsutomu. His brazen efforts to obscure information had ignited a fierce rivalry within the informant ranks. He did not shy away from masking everything, even if it meant drawing criticism from the audience. His concealment techniques were so refined, so intricate, that even the informants who watched more broadcasts than anyone else could barely glean a sliver of insight.

Even he, one of the most seasoned observers, had been blindsided. And that fact alone had lit a fire in every informant across Ealdred Crow. Unlike many Dungeon Maniacs who had given up in frustration and turned to criticize Tsutomu, the informants saw the challenge as a proving ground. It was their chance to demonstrate their worth and they tackled it with a vengeance. They worked together, pooled every ounce of experience, and scrutinized each scrap of data until, piece by piece, the puzzle of the ninety-sixth layer began to yield its secrets.

Though some members of the upper management stirred uneasily upon seeing Team 1 ignore their directives and forge ahead with an unapproved strategy, it was already too late to intervene. Countermeasures had been laid in advance, alliances secured, objections silenced. From there, Bittman and Dorssia pressed on, confirming the strategy through firsthand testing. In the Clan House, documents summarizing the tactics for conquering the ninety-sixth layer were already being compiled.

[…That’s a rare pair.]

In the midst of all this, the informant caught a brief, almost dreamlike glimpse inside the Guild: Eunice and Lorena sharing lunch at the same table. For a heartbeat, he forgot everything and simply stared. But it was a fleeting moment. He returned quickly to his work, shaking it off like mist from a cloak.

”You’re back,” he said as Stephanie and Sova returned from their investigation of the ninety-sixth layer.

He wasted no time, handing them the final conclusions drawn from their deductions and verification.

▽▽

”Oh? I was under the impression that you weren’t going to start feeling sympathetic, Amira.”

”…Say that again and I’ll kill you.”

As a result of teamwork and intensive training, Tsutomu’s party had managed to break their way through the Goblin battalion guarding the Black Gate of the ninety-first layer. The ninety-second layer had fallen with equal ease, as Tsutomu had expected. After all, it was nothing too challenging as long as they resisted the temptation to save the Fenrir.

Still, Amira had been visibly shaken by the display of maternal strength shown by the creature — throwing away its own life to protect its young. Given her own circumstances, it clearly hit close to home. Watching her bristle with emotion, her gaze smoldering with suppressed rage, Tsutomu simply grinned, finding her fury amusing rather than threatening… though he couldn’t write her off completely, what with himself having set up the Fenrir pair to end up the way they did, all for the team’s benefit.

But then…

”Ah.”

His expression changed the moment he looked at Monitor #1, which showed Ealdred Crow’s team on the ninety-sixth layer, feeding Magic Stones to one of the Dragon statues. Tsutomu immediately stopped teasing Amira, eyes narrowing as he leaned forward.

[They’ve finally caught on. Would’ve saved us a lot of trouble if they’d kept searching for hidden passages, though…]

The ninety-sixth layer, in essence, was a Defensive Battle event. Two massive Dragon statues, positioned at the northern and southern points of a circular passage through the Ancient Castle, were defensive weapons that had to be powered with Magic Stones. Using them to intercept waves of monsters and defeat the boss would open the way forward.

Back in Live Dungeon, this had been explicitly described in the system UI, but this world lacked such conveniences. So Tsutomu had gone out of his way to obscure the layer’s true nature. He enforced a complete blackout of information within Absolute Helix, sealing every potential leak. That resulted in the halting of Ealdred Crow’s advance, with its main team unable to figure things out for quite some time.

[Well, the real challenge starts now. They’ve still got a long way to go.]

The ninety-first layer had been a test of offensive capabilities through an engagement in an open area. The ninety-sixth was the opposite: a siege defense. Both demanded tactics foreign to most Explorers, and neither could be overcome with brute force alone.

Stephanie’s group would likely begin their serious push on the ninety-sixth layer tomorrow. And with it, the headaches would begin, as the fight required coordinated defense, something that would trip up most parties. Still, Tsutomu couldn’t be complacent. With a former soldier like Bittman among their ranks, they might adapt faster than expected.

[We’ve got to press ahead ourselves. Our descent has been smooth so far, so we should reach the ninety-sixth before long. It’ll be a good time to light a fire under Daryl and the others. And once Hannah’s recovered, we’ll get serious.]

It was the first time a Clan member had taken time off due to illness, and while it worried him at first, the doctor had diagnosed Hannah with nothing worse than a mild cold. With Korinna, once a nurse, caring for her, she’d be back on her feet in a few days.

”Hey, dumbass. Why’re you spacing out like that?”

”Ah, forgive me. I was reflecting on the Fenrir’s touching bond with its child. OW! What the hell!? You broke my [! How hard did you hit me!?”

”I WILL kill you.”

Amira, unfazed by Tsutomu’s exaggerated wail, cracked her knuckles and turned away, her voice as merciless as the punch she had just delivered.