“What’s going on……?”
Why couldn’t I enter the dungeon — why had I been pushed straight out the other side?
With no idea what had happened, I tried once more, this time jumping into the vortex from the opposite direction.
For just a moment, a brief floating sensation.
Then it vanished, and I was dumped back onto the cave floor again.
As if the dungeon was actively rejecting me.
“An entry limit?”
——Dungeons have a cap on how many people can enter at once.
I had a vague memory of reading something like that somewhere.
Apparently a great nation in antiquity had tried to conquer a dungeon by funneling in soldiers one after another, and at some point the dungeon had simply stopped letting anyone in.
But in the dungeons that existed today, I’d never heard of anyone running into that limit.
Adventurers from across the world dived into them continuously without issue.
I’d pushed the entire village and all the golems into this one — maybe a hundred people total.
If that were enough to hit the cap, dungeon cities would be completely nonfunctional.
“The entry limit changes based on the dungeon’s size……?”
The hypothesis crossed my mind.
This dungeon was smaller than any other known dungeon. It was plausible.
Wonderful — of all the places to discover a quirk like this, it had to be now.
“Hey!! Someone bring the golems out! I can’t get in!”
I shouted as loud as I could, but no answer came.
The dungeon interior was a separate dimensional space — sound apparently didn’t carry through.
This is a problem. If someone would just come to check on things……
If Mumul noticed I wasn’t there, he might poke his head out.
I resolved to wait — and was forced to abandon that idea almost immediately.
“……Damn, they’re here already!!”
The Crawler swarm had reached the cave.
There’s nowhere to go from here!!
I looked around desperately and spotted a stalactite stretching up toward the ceiling.
No other option — I’d have to climb.
I grabbed hold and began pulling myself up, using it like a tree.
“Whoa——!?”
Groundwater seeping through the stone had made it slicker than expected.
My hand slipped.
“That was close……!!”
I clenched my legs hard and kept my weight supported, upper body dangling in midair.
Hanging there upside down, I looked down.
The Crawlers had already blanketed the floor beneath me.
If I fell into that, there would be no coming back!!
As I thought it, a portion of the swarm began trying to crawl up the stalactite.
“Get back! Take that!! And that!!”
I drew my short knife and fought them off, one by one.
As bad luck goes, this was a small mercy — the slick stone was just as hard for the Crawlers to climb as it was for me.
They came at me slowly, one at a time, and I could manage them.
If my stamina held, I might be able to hold on.
“Fine — a war of attrition then. I’ll last until the replication-types eat through all of you……!”
My mind made up, I hauled my upper body upright and locked myself onto the stalactite again.
I stabbed at the climbing Crawlers and drove them back.
Slash, slash, slash——!!
I kept cutting them down, mechanically, endlessly.
Ten minutes or so of this.
Once a small mountain of Crawler corpses had built up, they changed their approach.
“Oh no——!!”
The Crawlers began piling on top of each other, building a mound.
Using each other as footing to climb — trying to reach my height.
Clever little insects……!!
I tried to knock the pile down, but it kept rebuilding.
And then——
“AAAAHHH!!”
The mound of Crawlers collapsed — directly toward me.
I swung my blade wildly, but in seconds I was covered in them.
——I can’t breathe!!
The crushing weight of the swarm pressed the air from my lungs.
If this continues……I’m going to die.
The ugly certainty of it flashed through my mind, and my blood ran cold.
But in the next instant, a tremendous roar shook the entire cave.
“……Makina?”
A hole opened in the ceiling. Light poured in.
And then a shadow dropped through it, skirt billowing.
Makina.
She landed right in the middle of the swarm and immediately threw a spinning kick.
——BOOM!!
With a thunderous crack, Crawlers flew in every direction and a bare patch was blasted into the black floor.
Like a bald spot, in the middle of all that black.
She spotted me, and moved toward me, sweeping aside the Crawlers around her.
“You saved me!! I couldn’t get into the dungeon!”
“I was right to come directly. Hold on tight.”
Makina scooped me up in her arms, kicked off a stalactite, and launched upward.
She vaulted off the cave walls through the air and shot out through the hole in the ceiling.
“——Ah——!?”
Outside, Crawlers had already covered everything.
Only the very peak of the mountain remained — a small island in a black sea.
I’d understood intellectually that the numbers were beyond imagination.
But seeing it was something else entirely.
I was struck silent, just staring and trying to breathe.
Then Makina quietly pointed in the direction of Isvall.
“It’s alright. They’re coming.”
She had barely finished saying it.
Something with a silver gleam was approaching from the direction of Isvall.
The numbers seemed far too few compared to the Crawlers — laughably small and fragile-looking.
But——
“They’re eating them?”
The silver mass spread thin and wide, and began consuming the black sea.