Chapter 55: The Impact of the Dungeon Anomaly

"Huh? A full-blown riot in the Dungeon?"

Eina looked at the Adventurer complaining at the Guild with a puzzled expression.

"Yeah, Miss Eina. You wouldn't believe it—this all started early in the morning. It felt like the whole Dungeon was unleashing a Monster Parade."

The Adventurer gestured to the bandage wrapped around his hand.

"Look at this, Miss Eina. I got this injury during the commotion in the Dungeon."

Blood was still seeping through the wrapping. Eina could tell right away this wasn't just a minor cut. But rather than worry about the Adventurer in front of her, her mind instantly drifted to a certain child she hadn't seen in a while.

'That child… he didn't get caught up in all this, did he?'

Snapping herself back to the present, Eina focused and asked seriously for more information.

"Mr. Doran, what exactly happened? Just how many monsters were there in this so-called Monster Parade?"

The Adventurer—Doran—still looked shaken as he recalled the earlier chaos in the Dungeon. He had hoped to chat with Eina more casually, but the terrifying memories still made his back break out in a cold sweat.

"It came out of nowhere. And it wasn't like the usual waves of monsters spawning from the walls."

"I've seen Monster Parades before, but Miss Eina—have you ever heard of one with over a hundred monsters showing up on the upper floors?"

Even after saying it aloud, Doran felt goosebumps rise on his skin. Honestly, if he hadn't been with his party—and if other Adventurers on neighboring floors hadn't been retreating too—he might not have made it back at all.

Looking at Doran's pale complexion and shaken demeanor, Eina didn't think he was exaggerating. A lower-tier Adventurer wouldn't be able to stay that composed if he were lying.

Still, having over a hundred monsters appear on the upper floors was unheard of.

And if this was happening across all levels, then something was truly wrong. If the Dungeon was behaving like this, even the city of Orario wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure for long. What could have triggered such a sudden and widespread Monster Parade?

"Mr. Doran, do you have any idea what might have caused this?"

Doran looked a bit lost for words. As a lower-ranked Adventurer, how could he possibly know the cause of something this bizarre?

But he didn't want to seem completely clueless in front of Miss Eina. So he wracked his brain, trying to recall if anything unusual had happened recently.

And then—unexpectedly—something came to mind.

"I've got it! I remember now—seven or eight days ago, the Dungeon had the exact same situation. Waves of monsters spawned all at once, just like today."

Eina, who hadn't expected much from Doran's recollection, froze for a moment.

Something that serious happening twice in one month was definitely suspicious.

But what really struck Eina wasn't just the frequency—it was the timing. She remembered that day vividly. After all, that child had shown up at the Guild with over two hundred Goblin daggers. That left quite the impression.

Back then, Eina had already wondered how the Goblins on the first floor could have spawned in such numbers. How had one person managed to collect so many daggers in just one day? And in the end, she'd determined that the cause was most likely that child.

Still, that incident hadn't caused the kind of chaos she was hearing about today. There hadn't been a mass exodus of Adventurers from the Dungeon.

"Mr. Doran, but I recall things didn't get this intense that day."

"Ah, that's probably because the monsters didn't appear all at once. I remember there were a lot of them, though—my party and I spent nearly the whole day down there, so I know just how many we had to deal with."

As he recalled the details, Doran didn't notice Eina's use of "that day" with uncanny precision. He'd pegged the date through his experience as an Adventurer—but for Eina, a Guild receptionist, to recall it so clearly? That was odd.

Still, Doran remained focused on piecing things together.

"It felt like the other floors were also overrun that day, but the monsters didn't come out in huge batches. The waves were staggered, so most of us managed to hang on. A lot of Adventurers I knew still died, though."

He remembered earning sixty or seventy thousand Valis just from selling Magic Stones. Others earned even more—some walked away with over a hundred thousand Valis, making Doran green with envy.

For low-tier Adventurers, that was a huge windfall.

Normally, they'd spend their days looping between floors two and eight. On a lucky day, they might bring in thirty to forty thousand Valis. On a bad one, they'd be lucky to make ten or twenty thousand.

Looking back, that day and today shared many similarities. The key difference was the spawning rate.

That day, it had been steady—one wave after another, a near-constant rhythm that allowed Adventurers to manage.

But today? Today was different.

The spawn rate was unnaturally aggressive—like the Dungeon was trying to kill them outright. Dozens of monsters would appear in an instant. Blink, and more would crawl out of the walls.

...

The memory made Doran shudder with regret.

Meanwhile, a drop of cold sweat trickled down Eina's forehead.

'Could it really have been that child who caused this?'

'What did he do on the first floor today to trigger this level of chaos?'

Even with her eyes closed, Eina could guess that the Guild would absolutely step in and investigate something with this much impact.

Things had clearly escalated, and now the Guild would want answers—who or what caused this phenomenon in the Dungeon?

'Bell-kun, please don't still be in the Dungeon!'

If she weren't working, Eina would've rushed to Hestia-sama's place immediately to ask where Bell was. But abandoning her post now would only draw suspicion.

By this point, word of the incident had already spread across Orario within a single morning. All the gods knew something had happened in the Dungeon.

Not that it would've stayed secret for long. Even if the gods didn't investigate, their children would've told them everything.

The divine interest in the Dungeon's sudden unrest was growing fast.

And among those intrigued, one god stood out.

High atop Babel Tower, a goddess held a wine glass in hand, gazing out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at Orario below.

"Was it those rats? Or is the Dungeon itself stirring?"