If they relaxed at this point, there was a possibility that guardian monsters might ambush them. It was not uncommon for the monsters to employ the old trick of hiding underground.
Given the malicious nature of the Yggdrasil developers, this might be the cue for a Tuveg boss to jump out and draw everyone into a full-scale battle. Or rather, Momonga had seen such things before in game videos, where the result was a total party kill.
This was why the scouts had such an important job.
First, Momonga made sure that there was nothing that would be triggered by the presence of the undead nearby.
Then, he accessed the hotkeys on his console, selecting the number 8 out of the numbers 1 to 10. This 8 represented 8th tier spells.
A complex menu composed of layers of ring-shaped pages appeared before him. There were 12 spells in each of the four rings, for a total of 48 spells.
In this way, he could hotkey up to 480 spells.
Normally, a level 100 magic caster would learn around 300 spells over the course of the game. Even cash items could only increase that number by another 100. However, there were more than a few players who looked at the extra empty spaces on the shortcut menu and took it as a challenge from the developers.
The ability to skilfully navigate these menus — fully understanding and memorizing the effects and proper application of each spell — was one of the biggest factors in one’s ability as a magic caster.
Just as warriors were affected by their real-life reflexes, magic-using classes relied heavily on their memory.
Momonga fluidly navigated the menus.
Although he would not browse his spells so leisurely in combat, he had the luxury of taking his time for now. As he went through the pages of spells by rote, he recalled the order in which the spells were arranged, an order which he had forced himself to memorize.
He tapped the fourth ring, the outermost one.
Out of the ring of 12 spells that became larger than the others, he tapped on one of them.
“「Remote Viewing」.”
There was no need to tap any other hotkeys, given that he was not planning to apply any metamagic enhancements to the spell.
As the spell was cast, an arcane eye — a magic sensor — appeared. There were other members of the guild who had already released similar sensory organs, so there was no need for Momonga to do that. Still, Momonga was the best undead detector in the guild, so just in case, he deftly manipulated the arcane sensor and sent it toward the small island.
His right hand held the control stick for the sensor’s movements, while he used his left hand to direct the sensor’s field of view. Missing a huge chunk of one’s visual field was frightening, to say the least, but it was fine now, because he had trustworthy allies nearby.
The wall which separated the island from the swamp was overgrown with moss and broken in many places, and could no longer serve its purpose as a barrier. One could see the inside through the gaps.
There were remains there — the remains of a tomb.
The destruction was thorough, even the tombstones had been smashed. There seemed to be something like a mausoleum in the middle, but it was beginning to collapse. There was a shrine of some sort as well, but it was little more than a ruin. Not even monsters could hide within it. At a glance, there was nothing else which was suspicious.
Still, after viewing this scene, Momonga seemed even more tense than before.
In games, tombs would almost certainly be inhabited by undead creatures. Yggdrasil was no exception, which was why Momonga had cast this spell.
If there were any undead in there, he would definitely find them.
With that resolve steeling his movements, he turned the control stick, sending the arcane eye in a full orbit of the small island. However, there were no undead reactions.
“No sign of monsters. No sign of incorporeal beings either.”
“Same here. No signs of moving objects above or below ground.”
“No undead reactions either.”
“Do you think a boss is going to pop out?”
“Or a trap? Multiple summoning-type traps at once are hard to deal with.”
“In any case, I’ve used my trump card once already, out of four times a day. At the very least, there are no magical traps here.”
The other guild members had already examined the island in their own ways, and the reports slowly filtered in. They paused for a moment to look at each other, and then began heading out for the small island. The rear guard team remained on alert, keeping an appropriate distance from the delving team in case something should happen.
“…So this is the sort of dungeon where the real fight starts after we step into that broken-down old building?”
“No, it should be once we pass through the mausoleum and enter the underground, right? After all, we’re still quite close to the swamp.”
“Well, that’s pretty meta…. In any case, keep your sensors away from the building so you don’t trip any flags. After we set foot on the island, it’ll be a different matter. Then, Momonga-san, please do the honors.”
“Well then…”
The moment he set foot on the ground from the swamp, text appeared in his field of view, just like when he had entered the swamp. However, this time, beside the words Great Tomb of Nazarick was an icon which indicated an unexplored dungeon.
“Nazarick, huh… I wonder which mythology it came from?”
“No, I’ve never heard of this before.”
The prompt answer came from Tabula Smaragdina, part of the rear guard. They were steadily catching up with the advance party, and establishing a formation against possible enemy attack.
“It’s not Latin or Greek either. Ah well, not all names in Yggdrasil are from mythology anyway. This is probably one of those exceptions. Also, there’s no special info about this place either.”
Just then, Nuubou stepped forward and cast a spell. He should probably be able to scan the area with no problems.
Several second later, he informed the group of his findings.
“—There’s nothing, Momonga-san. I sent my arcane eye into the central mausoleum, but there were no contacts on the enemy sonar.”
“In other words, this is a safe area, then?”
“Still, those shitty developers built this place, there might be some sort of timed effect waiting for us…”
Many people indicated their approval of the scathing criticism. Most players thought poorly of the Yggdrasil developers.
“Scouting party, is everything alright? If it is, then I believe the dungeon is in the basement of that building. Then, shouldn’t we change our team lineups for dungeon exploration?”
“I’ll make a shelter for us, then.”
Blue Planet the druid raised his shovel in response to the suggestion from Punitto Moe, the strategist.
Then, he cast the 10th-tier divine spell, 「Nature’s Shelter」, and everyone entered the bunker which had sprung forth from the earth.
The massive doors swung open easily.
The roof of the vast chamber they entered was just like the outside, the sky spreading endlessly above them.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It looks like anyone could see everything inside from above, and it kind of unsettles me.”
“True, I mean, even though they say it’s so you’ll know if the enemy is above you or something, I’m still uneasy about it. Still, I heard this thing can remain standing after taking a hit from super-tier magic—”
“Ah, that’s not true. I’ve seen a video, it’s been breached by a 「Sword of Damocles」 before.”
“That’s an orbital weapon, right? But isn’t that an exception to the rule? After all, it’s super-tier magic designed to target structures. Bit unfair to use it as a comparison, right? Shouldn’t you compare it to other super-tier spells?”
“All right. Everyone, your attention please~”