Chương 73: Chapter 72: Just One Death

"Wait!" Gern kept backing away until his back hit the wall, his gaze darting between Owen and the square stone platform.

"Didn't you just say you were going to save me?"

"Yeah." Owen nodded as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's why the first thing we need is for you to die once." The smile on Owen's face made Gern's scalp prickle. He instinctively turned to flee toward the stairs, only to find Greer and Elias standing on either side of the stairway.

"Y-You two..."

"Gern, calm down." Greer rested a hand on his shoulder and spoke gently.

"Remember that rumor? People who die in Blackstone Dungeon come back to life." Gern opened his mouth.

"So... that's actually true?"

"Come on. I've died seven times in this dungeon, and I'm still standing here alive and well, aren't I?" Gern's head snapped toward Greer. Seven times? How long had it even been since this dungeon was discovered? Even if resurrection was real, that didn't mean you were supposed to keep getting yourself killed! Still, Greer's interruption had somehow taken some of the fear out of him.

Gern turned back toward Owen, drew a deep breath, squeezed his eyes shut, tilted his head back, and shouted in a trembling voice,"C-Come on, then! If all of you are saying it's fine, I'll trust you this once." Fuck. He was terrified. Owen took one look at him and couldn't help laughing. Gern's eyes flew open. His face flushed red as he glared at him.

"What? What's so funny?"

"You don't have to look like you're being led to the chopping block. We're not a bunch of cruel executioners." Owen gestured toward the square stone platform.

"Lie down first. It'll be over quickly." Gern swallowed hard, steeled himself, and walked over to the platform. Then he glanced at Owen again.

"Lie down?" Owen nodded solemnly and walked over beside the platform.

"Don't be nervous. Make yourself at home."

"Haha. Wonderful advice..." This was someone else's turf. He couldn't afford to get angry. Gern forced down his unease, climbed stiffly onto the platform, and slowly lay back. The stone beneath him was freezing cold. And hard as hell. What am I even thinking...? It's stone. Of course it's hard. Gern let the ridiculous thoughts spin through his head, trying to distract himself. But the moment he settled into place, one horrifying way to die after another began surfacing in his mind.

He hurriedly squeezed his eyes shut, only for the images to become even clearer. How exactly was this dungeon going to kill him? Decapitation? A sword through the heart? Or would he get swallowed whole by a slime like before? Please. All of those sounded horrible. Couldn't they give him one that didn't hurt at all? While Gern was still letting his imagination run wild, his consciousness suddenly blurred for an instant. A wave of grogginess followed.

Several seconds passed before his dulled senses gradually sharpened again. Gern slowly opened his eyes. Something seemed to be digging into the small of his back. He hurriedly pushed himself upright and looked around in confusion.

"What... just happened?" Owen quickly walked over to the platform and picked up a round object that had appeared there at some point. Gern's gaze instinctively followed his hand. The moment he saw what Owen was holding, his eyes went wide.

"Th-That's—" He cried out and immediately pressed a hand against his abdomen. He could no longer feel the eyeball inside him. But there was no mistaking the thing in Owen's hand. It was the very same eyeball he had swallowed inside Rockspring Dungeon.

"Did I just die?" Gern pointed blankly at himself, then turned toward Greer and Elias.

"How did it happen...?" Greer and Elias exchanged a glance. They looked just as puzzled as he did.

"It happened too fast. We didn't really see it either." Greer shook his head.

"All we saw was a beam of blue light shoot through your head. By the time we reacted, you were already sitting up." Gern remained completely baffled. Blue light? What blue light? Oh. Right. He had kept his eyes shut the entire time. No wonder he hadn't seen anything. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Now that the damned thing was out of his body, the contract should be gone too, right? The gloom vanished from Gern's face in an instant.

A broad smile he hadn't worn in far too long spread across his face as he hopped off the platform.

"That's it? It's over? That thing can't bother me anymore?" Owen held the eyeball between his fingers and studied it carefully for a while, but did not answer immediately.

"I need to take this somewhere and examine it first. Getting it out of your body doesn't necessarily mean the contract was removed with it." Owen looked up at the three of them.

"Please wait here for a little while." Gern stiffened from head to toe. But a moment later, he was smiling as though nothing had happened, and even his tone had become considerably friendlier.

"Take your time. I'll wait right here. As long as you need. Haha." Gern watched Owen disappear up the stairs. Only then did the tension drain from his body.

"Well?" Greer teased from beside him.

"Not quite what you imagined, was it?" This time, Gern showed no irritation whatsoever.

"Not bad. Really." He lay back down on the stone platform. The surface he had been complaining about for being hard as hell only moments ago now felt strangely comfortable.

"I think I'm starting to like this place." ◆ ◆ ◆ The traveling merchant carried the eyeball back to the first floor of the church, then entered Bishop Lorian's room. He moved a loose stone brick in the wall aside and pressed a button hidden behind it. The wall before him trembled faintly, then parted to either side, revealing a cramped space barely large enough for one person. He stepped inside without hesitation. The stone wall slowly closed behind him. A faint vibration came from beneath his feet.

A moment later, the entire compartment began descending rapidly. Nearly two minutes passed before it finally came to a stop. The stone wall ahead parted once more, revealing a vast chamber illuminated by azure light. The heart of the dungeon. The Core Chamber. Owen, hovering above the core pedestal, saw the traveling merchant arrive with the eyeball and immediately floated over. The merchant lifted the eyeball in both hands and presented it to him. Owen circled the thing once.

"Hmph. So this is the vessel for the forced contract?" The longer Owen looked at it, the more disgusted he became.

"What a nasty thing. It gives off exactly the same feeling as those gazes." He opened the dungeon interface and attempted to examine the eyeball in detail. [Threat Scan: Inactive Corrupted Surveillance Core] [Threat Level: None at Present]"System, is this enough to remove Gern's forced contract?" [The forced contract remains active. This core serves as the vessel for the forced contract and must be completely destroyed.] [The Management Sprite can completely destroy this core and absorb the remaining power within it.] [Absorb: Yes / No] Owen's entire core gave a violent shudder. He could absorb this disgusting thing? Who knew whether absorbing it would corrupt him too and turn him into something like those demon cores? To be safe, Owen did not make a choice immediately. He decided to ask the system first.

"If I absorb it, will it affect me? Like... could I get corrupted the way those demon cores are?" [The system will remove all harmful elements, leaving only pure power that can be safely absorbed. The Management Sprite has no cause for concern.] Even with that assurance, Owen still found the whole thing revolting. Still, if it really was safe, there didn't seem to be any harm in absorbing it. The system wouldn't lie to him... right? Owen drifted anxiously back and forth above the pedestal.

After hesitating for quite a while, he finally decided to try it once. Just this once. Surely nothing would happen, right? Owen finally selected [Yes]. The next instant, the azure glow radiating from his core began to flicker. The eyeball resting in the merchant's palms twitched. The dark-red veins covering its surface suddenly seemed to come alive, writhing wildly across the white of the eye.

"Wait, wait!" Owen hurriedly floated backward.

"Didn't you say you'd remove the harmful parts? Why the hell is this thing still moving?" The system gave no response. One dark-red strand after another was drawn out of the eyeball and began drifting slowly toward Owen's core. Before any of them could touch his core, however, the surrounding azure light moved on its own and wrapped around them. The dark red gradually faded. The nauseating presence disappeared with it.

In the end, all that remained were strands of pure azure light, floating quietly inside the Core Chamber. Owen stopped retreating. Carefully, he moved closer. He could no longer sense even the slightest trace of corruption from the strands. Quite the opposite. The closer he came, the more strongly an almost instinctive craving stirred deep within his core. The next moment, the azure strands began merging into his core one after another. A solemn, weighty power surged into his core and enveloped the entire crystal.

When his core had been repaired, that warm, gentle power had felt like being softly gathered into a mother's embrace. What entered him now felt different. It was more like a father standing silently behind him. Unfortunately, the amount of power contained inside the eyeball was pitifully small. Before long, every last trace of it had been drained away. The eyeball rapidly shriveled, then crumbled into a tiny handful of ash in the merchant's palms.

Owen swayed from side to side twice, still wanting more, before finally opening the system interface. [Corrupted Surveillance Core Destroyed] [Divine Power Gained: 9]"Divine Power?!" Owen's entire core flashed brightly. He had never imagined that Divine Power could be extracted from something like that. The eyeball certainly didn't look remotely divine.

"Wait. Don't tell me this world actually has evil gods or something?" The glow across Owen's surface dimmed slightly.

"Or were those dark-red things just corruption attached to the Divine Power?" At the very least, he had confirmed one thing. These surveillance cores created by dungeons really did contain Divine Power. Then if he destroyed Rockspring Dungeon's core someday, could he absorb even more Divine Power from it?

"Come to think of it, is Divine Power only useful for forming contracts? There have to be other uses for it, right?" The system interface gave him no answer. Maybe he would have to accumulate a certain amount before new functions unlocked.

"But if even cores created by dungeons contain Divine Power..." Owen slowly floated back above the pedestal, sinking into thought.

"Doesn't that mean dungeons themselves are connected to gods somehow?"

"Forget it. I could rack my core all night and still get nowhere. Better confirm Gern's contract first." Owen reopened the system interface and set Gern as the scan target. [Scan Result: Gern's forced contract has been removed.]"Great! I'll have the merchant go back and give them the good news." Owen shifted his view toward the dungeon entrance. Night had long since fallen outside. For today, he would let Greer and the others head back and get some proper rest.

Tomorrow, once everyone had gathered, they could discuss how to deal with Rockspring Dungeon. He opened the interactable unit panel. The panel held a batch of crude templates he had hastily thrown together some time ago. Among them were exactly the templates he needed for a full squad of Silver Oath paladins.

"Heh heh. A whole squad of paladins, including two Gold-rank paladins." The longer Owen looked, the more satisfied he became.

"That ought to be enough to deal with a little Rockspring Dungeon like you, right?" After all, these paladins were not supposed to "return with Bishop Lorian" until tomorrow. He had more than enough time to generate them tonight. ◆ ◆ ◆ Gern did not have to wait long before the traveling merchant returned to the basement. The eyeball he had taken with him earlier, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Owen walked over to the others.

"The contract has been removed. Mr. Gern is safe now." Gern jumped down from the stone platform, hurried over to Owen, and clasped his hand tightly between both of his own.

"Thank you. Truly. To be honest, these past few days, I really thought there was no saving me." Gern's eyes reddened slightly, and his voice grew hoarse without him realizing it.

"A man can say he's not afraid to die all he wants, but if he can live, who'd actually want to die?" Being thanked so solemnly only made Owen feel awkward. He scratched the back of his head and gave two dry laughs.

"If you're still worried, once you leave the dungeon, feel free to curse Rockspring Dungeon a few times." Owen paused, then added,"I guarantee nothing will happen." A gleam immediately flashed through Gern's eyes, and his mouth split into a broad grin.

"Oh, I'd be delighted." Only then did Gern release his hand. Owen gave his arm a friendly pat and turned toward Greer.

"Right. I just received word from Bishop Lorian. He'll be returning to the church with his people tomorrow." Elias folded his arms and looked at him.

"And the manpower?"

"Don't worry. The bishop will be bringing back a full squad of paladins, including two Gold-rank paladins. That should be enough to help you deal with Rockspring Dungeon." As he spoke, Owen rubbed his thumb against his fingertips, putting on the look of a merchant discussing business.

"However, Bishop Lorian does have one small condition for offering his help."

"That's reasonable." Greer nodded.

"What do you need?"

"Nothing particularly valuable." Owen smiled.

"Once Rockspring Dungeon's core has been destroyed, we want whatever remains of the core. Other than that, we won't claim any of the dungeon's spoils." Elias frowned slightly and fell silent for a moment.

"Agreed. I can accept that condition on behalf of the Guild." Owen nodded in satisfaction.

"Then it's settled." He turned to Gern again.

"Tomorrow, we can sit down and figure out how we're going to take Rockspring Dungeon apart."