Once again, I came across Riona’s map. This time, too, it had a dead-end mark. And also, another unnecessary love message.

Ilga smirked as he read it aloud.

“Let’s go on a date at an open terrace café…”

“Stop reading it out loud!”

Why did Seneca assign Riona to leave messages?

Ilga placed a hand on his chin, closed his eyes, and tilted his face upward.

“Hmm. But if Eremia and Belzhein are in that kind of relationship, she’ll eventually marry into a baron’s household. Perhaps we should have invited her to our party.”

“You’re seriously asking for a beating.”

Since Kilpus had classified it as a state secret, I couldn’t say it out loud, but the Neu family was a fabricated noble lineage.

Still, Riona was steadily closing in. Maybe she was better suited to being a covert operative rather than an assassin.

“I suppose I should apologize for my rudeness eventually.”

“Do it immediately. No, wait. If you leave Void out of the apology, it’ll only cause more trouble. Ugh, this is a mess!”

I ruffled my hair in frustration.

“Eremia sure has it tough for a ten-year-old.”

“That’s your fault!!”

“Hahaha.”

“Don’t laugh!”

More importantly—

They had enough leeway to carve maps into the walls, meaning they were far ahead of us. Not only had they checked the dead ends, but they had also deliberately retraced their steps to leave markers.

Even though I wasn’t as openly anxious as Ilga, I couldn’t help but feel a little pressed. I just hoped they hadn’t run into danger.

A deep voice called down to me.

“Eremia.”

Bernald’s gaze was fixed on several ogre corpses lying ahead.

We occasionally came across the remains of ogres. But instead of being gutted and devoured, nearly all of them had been slain by blades. It was probably the work of Void’s team—Squad Four or Five.

The ground was a chaotic mix of ogre and human footprints.

“Looks like they’re progressing steadily.”

“Yeah.”

“Relieved?”

“I was never worried in the first place… but, well, I suppose.”

Bernald chuckled as I clicked my tongue.

“You’re not very honest.”

“Shut up!”

Ilga spoke up.

“Let’s move on.”

Ilga and Oujin, leading the way, no longer stopped for ogre corpses. If Squads Three and Four had already passed through, it should be safe—for now. We even picked up the pace a little.

Ilga was feeling the pressure, too.

But when we reached yet another three-way fork, Ilga came to a halt once again. Letis, checking ahead, quickly jogged back to us.

“He wants everyone to gather.”

We ran up to the two at the front.

“Ilga, Oujin, what is it?”

“Look at this.”

Ilga pointed at the ground.

“This is…”

The footprints were gone. No, they had been erased. Something massive had dragged itself through, smearing out the tracks. The wall’s map was also missing.

I brought my nose close to the ground and the walls.

No scent remained. There was none of that distinct beastly stench from ogres or goblins.

“Did they find something and drag it off?”

“No. The marks are too large for that. Look over here.”

Oujin motioned me to the edge of the wall. There, imprinted in the ground, was a massive footprint.

“—!”

Huge. Each print was about the size of Eremia’s entire body.

Oujin crouched near the footprint and spoke.

“There’s an identical print on the opposite wall. Perfectly symmetrical. This means it came from a single creature. Could it be a subterranean behemoth?”

Bernald immediately rejected the idea.

“No. We of the Yasha Tribe revere earth spirits. If it were one, I would recognize it.”

But I had seen these footprints before. Not in this life, but in my past one.

A cold sweat ran down my cheek.

“This is ridiculous…”

Could it be? No, in this bottomless rare dungeon, it wouldn’t be unnatural for such a thing to exist.

Ilga asked me.

“Eremia, do you recognize the owner of these footprints?”

The tunnels of the sixth layer of this rare dungeon were wide enough for five or six adult men to stretch their arms out side by side. Since the footprints were symmetrically positioned at the edges, the creature must have had an enormous body.

There might be hundreds, maybe even thousands of undiscovered monsters on this continent. But those with this kind of size were limited. And if it was what I suspected, this would actually be considered small.

“A dragon…”

The murmured word sent a ripple of shock through everyone.

This was bad. Very bad. Whether it was an ancient dragon or a wyvern, students like us didn’t stand a chance.

If it was an ancient dragon, it meant this dungeon contained an unimaginable treasure. Ancient dragons were guardians of lost civilization’s relics.

And if anyone touched that treasure, even the Kingdom of Galia could be destroyed. People on this continent had already seen nations perish after provoking ancient dragons.

This was a threat far beyond that of a homunculus.

“Are you certain?”

“I think so. But it’s small for an ancient dragon. It might be a young one, or perhaps just a lesser dragon…”

Sweat dripped from my forehead.

Once, Blythe had slain a dragon—an ancient one. The cost was the lives of 1,200 knights. Even after ambushing it with giant ballistae and pinning its wings, that was the casualty count.

The coalition army, consisting of ten thousand troops from various nations, had united under international law to prevent dragon-related disasters from spreading.

Back then, I had been just an unknown mercenary. Riding into battle, I had witnessed pure devastation.

The fallen dragon’s breath melted hundreds of knights in an instant, reducing them to nothing. Not even bones remained. The ground turned to glass from the heat, and its roar shook entire kingdoms.

Only after a relentless barrage of siege weapons, after its every movement had been locked down, did my sword finally reach its skull.

That was when I first met Kilpus.

At last, I understood what had devoured the ogres.

“We can only pray it’s a lesser dragon…”

If we encountered an ancient dragon in the dungeon, its breath would incinerate every corner. No one would survive—it would be like being trapped inside a furnace.

Engaging it was out of the question. If anything, Kilpus needed to mobilize siege weapons around the dungeon and lure it into the open air.

A lesser dragon’s breath, on the other hand, could be endured—with a steel tower shield. But none of the students carried such heavy gear. Their shields were only meant for temporary defense.

Just what kind of dungeon was this?

“Eremia!”

Oujin called out, and I looked up.

He pointed to something.

There, half-carved into the wall, was a name.

My name—left unfinished.

Which could only mean one thing.