Chapter 191
Seeing that Bors and the others looked ready to tear Turk apart with their bare hands, Kiriya raised a hand and signaled for them to wait.
Surprisingly, the entire crowd obeyed.
"Who’s your leader, and where is he now?" Kiriya continued.
"Our leader is Jura. He’s currently acting as bait to lure Gale deeper into the Dungeon."
Turk recited the plan with a blank expression, while his companion broke into a cold sweat.
The man desperately wanted to interrupt, but Kiriya gave him a single glance.
His entire body locked in place. He could not move or even open his mouth.
"Gale hates our leader because of what happened to the Astrea Familia," Turk continued. "She’ll try to kill him the moment she sees him, which makes him the perfect bait."
"That can’t be the entire plan," Kiriya said, carefully guiding him along. "Jura isn’t strong enough to guarantee Gale’s death, even with all these people helping him."
"That’s right. We have insurance!"
A sinister smile appeared on Turk’s face.
"We planted a large quantity of Kaenseki (Flame Rock) on the twenty-seventh floor. There are enough to collapse a significant portion of the floor—"
Kiriya immediately covered his mouth.
He already knew what came next.
Such severe damage would send the Dungeon into a frenzy.
And in response, it would create an unimaginably deadly monster—the Juggernaut, the Dungeon’s executioner.
Years ago, the Astrea Familia had fallen into the same trap.
Every member except Ryu Lion had been slaughtered.
There was no reason to reveal that information to the crowd.
The adventurers gathered in Rivira came from all kinds of backgrounds, and placing such a dangerous secret in their hands could have disastrous consequences.
Someone might attempt to recreate Jura’s plan and use the Dungeon to eliminate a rival.
Others might sell the information or spread it until every adventurer in Orario knew how to deliberately summon a Juggernaut.
The already fragile trust between adventurers would collapse. Everyone would begin treating everyone else as a potential assassin.
Kiriya had no intention of allowing that.
All these people needed to know was that Ryu had been framed and was not responsible for the murder.
"That’s all I needed."
Kiriya placed another genjutsu on Turk and his companion, preventing them from speaking.
"I’ll leave these two to you."
He walked away.
Bors and the other adventurers slowly turned toward the two prisoners.
Their smiles became increasingly disturbing as Turk and his companion regained consciousness and realized what was about to happen.
A short while later, both men had been beaten so badly that their faces were almost unrecognizable.
Bors also intended to send them back to the surface so the Guild could put them on trial and punish them properly.
Everyone’s mood improved considerably after dealing with the two conspirators.
Then one particularly slow adventurer ruined the moment.
"Jura murdered someone and tried to use us. Bors, shouldn’t we head down there and..."
He dragged a finger across his throat.
Instead of receiving the approval he expected, he found everyone staring at him as though he had just said the stupidest thing imaginable.
"Wh-What?" His voice weakened.
"Didn’t you notice that Sylvan already went after him?"
"With that monster handling it, what would we even accomplish down there besides embarrassing ourselves?"
"Did you miss the part about the floor being packed with Kaenseki? Are you desperate to get roasted alive?"
"Please stop telling people we’re friends. This is humiliating."
"..."
By the time the ridicule ended, the man’s face was burning red and his head had sunk nearly to his chest.
Bors waved one large hand.
"Send someone to report everything to the Guild."
"As for the rest... leave it to Sylvan."
...
On the twenty-fifth floor, Kiriya raced through the Dungeon at full speed.
’The Juggernaut...’
’I wonder whether I can defeat it using only my normal strength.’
Excitement rose within him as he imagined the coming battle.
He had only reached Level 4 yesterday, and fate had already delivered a perfect opponent for testing his new power.
The timing could not have been better.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of violent explosions suddenly erupted from the lower floors.
The entire Dungeon shook.
An instant later, a crushing presence swept through the surroundings on a level that seemed to reach directly into the soul.
Every hair on Kiriya’s body stood on end.
"The Dungeon... is angry?"
His eyes widened as he realized what had happened.
"Damn it! Jura detonated the Kaenseki early."
He immediately accelerated.
"If I don’t hurry, the Juggernaut might get away."
There was another reason he needed to move quickly.
Kiriya had a favorable impression of the short-haired elf.
Ryu appeared cold and distant, but beneath that exterior she was kind and deeply compassionate.
She was also Hestia’s coworker and had apparently helped her several times at the tavern.
Now that Kiriya knew Ryu was in danger, he could hardly ignore it.
He pushed his speed even further.
Before long, however, he encountered a problem.
Jura’s people had destroyed every conventional passage leading downward.
Some routes had collapsed entirely, while others were buried beneath enormous piles of rubble. Clearing them would take far too long, and waiting for the Dungeon to repair itself was not an option.
By then, everything would already be over.
Most adventurers would have been stranded.
Kiriya was not merely an adventurer.
He was also a ninja.
Roads were convenient, but hardly necessary.
Even a perfectly vertical cliff posed no obstacle to him.
He reached the Great Falls, gathered chakra beneath his feet, and began walking down the wet rock face toward the lower floors.
The chakra adhering to the stone prevented him from slipping into the abyss.
Unfortunately, the monsters repeatedly leaping from the waterfall were far more troublesome.
Perhaps because of the massive explosion, they were appearing in unusually large numbers.
They were also far more aggressive than normal, and their strength seemed to have increased.
None of them posed a real threat, but dealing with them slowed Kiriya’s descent.
By the time he reached the twenty-seventh floor, he found a scene of absolute carnage.
The remains of countless adventurers lay scattered everywhere.
Severed limbs.
Torn torsos.
Shreds of organs and flesh.
The floor looked less like a battlefield and more like a slaughterhouse.
Judging from the wounds, most of the victims had been ripped apart by claws or mauled by enormous teeth.
These adventurers had averaged around Level 3, with several likely reaching Level 4.
For a group that strong to be annihilated on the twenty-seventh floor—especially immediately after the explosion—there was only one reasonable explanation.
The Juggernaut had already appeared.
"Miss Ryu, you’d better still be alive."
Kiriya followed the trail of destruction at full speed.
Eventually, inside a vast cavern, he found a survivor.
Well...
Calling him a survivor might have been generous.
The man had been severed at the waist.
His intestines and internal organs were spread across the ground, his face was as pale as paper, and his unfocused eyes suggested that he was already watching his life flash before him.
Living witnesses were rare, and Kiriya urgently needed information.
He used Everflowing Vitality to drag the man slightly back from the brink of death.
"I’m Sylvan. What’s your name, and what attacked you?"
The dying man’s unfocused eyes gradually cleared.
The moment he recognized Kiriya, he seized his arm with desperate strength.
"Save me! Please, I don’t want to die!"
"My name is Jura. I have money—more than you can imagine. You can have all of it!"
"Please... just save me!"
Kiriya paused.
Then a brilliant smile spread across his face!