The light of the campfire flickered in the cavern, stretching the shadows of Greg and the black cat crouching opposite him, casting them onto the uneven rock walls like two ancient statues standing in silent confrontation.
Having heard Greg's question, Nightmare, the Goddess of Night, did not answer immediately.
She stood up elegantly and walked over to Greg with silent, catlike steps, slowly pacing around him in circles.
One lap, two laps.
Illuminated by the firelight, her deep green eyes glistened like jewels at the bottom of a deep pool. She scrutinized Greg intently, as if examining a complex and precise apparatus, or perhaps confirming some intangible quality within him.
After completing the third circle, she stopped beside him, her ethereal voice wafting directly into his mind: “Because you are very special, Greg Sass.”
“Special?”
Greg raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.
Especially unlucky?
Especially good at laying low?
Or especially prone to being targeted by death CGs?
Nightmare continued, her tone carrying the unique perception of a deity: “I can feel a powerful talent within you, giving you the potential to conquer the Five Great Dungeons.”
The term ‘Five Great Dungeons’ was not unfamiliar to Greg.
Beside the main storyline of cute girls getting intimate, this was practically the most core and headache-inducing hardcore setting in the game Do You Like a World Where You Can Happily Party Up Even as a Girl?.
The Glory Cael Magic Academy Dungeon—the godforsaken place he was currently squatting in—was merely the first and most accessible one.
The Duchy Dungeon—located beneath the permafrost glaciers of the Northern Ice Duchy, a paradise for extreme cold and ice-attribute magical beasts.
The Empire Dungeon—hidden deep beneath the capital of the Central Empire, heavily guarded and brutally difficult.
The Undersea Dungeon—submerged in the deepest trench of the Endless Sea, with maximum environmental suppression, completely unreachable for anyone except top-tier water-attribute users or special adaptors.
The Demon Realm Dungeon—located in the heart of Demon territory, brimming with overwhelming demonic energy, a literal depiction of hell for humans.
These five dungeons were massive in scale, had complex mechanics, and the strength of their monsters increased exponentially.
In the original game, rather than being called ‘conquerable dungeons,’ they were more like ‘ultimate challenges prepared for the most hardcore players.’
Before Greg transmigrated, no complete playthrough guide for all Five Great Dungeons had ever appeared on the game forums, nor was there even a full guide for a single one of them.
Most players, including himself, had only dipped their toes in, idling around the top few layers to grab some rare materials or special gems before running away.
After all, this was essentially a Galgame!
Wouldn't spending time and energy figuring out how to bicker with a tsundere princess, raise the favorability of an aloof Saintess, or trigger special events with the daughter of a merchant chamber be infinitely better than dying repeatedly in dark, damp dungeons overrun by monsters?
Therefore, Greg's knowledge of these Five Great Dungeons was limited to the general terrain and early monster types of the top few layers.
As for the deeper layers?
That was an unknown abyss steeped in the stench of death.
“Hold on.” Snapping out of his memories, Greg's expression shifted from solemnity to outright confusion and resistance: “Whether I have the potential to conquer these dungeons or not, what does that have to do with you, Goddess? And why on earth would I want to go conquer these godforsaken places anyway?”
Greg was genuinely baffled.
When other people were chosen by a goddess, it was usually because they possessed the power to save the world, whereas he was picked because he was good at being a gloomy mouse scurrying around in dungeons.
What kind of logic was that?
“Of course it matters.” Nightmare seemed to have anticipated his reaction, her voice remaining unhurried.
She walked back to the campfire, sat down gracefully, and wrapped her tail around her front paws.
“Though my memories have also been eroded into fragmented remnants by the passage of time and the severing of faith, certain core imprints remain clear. I recall... that these five dungeons were neither formed naturally, nor could they be easily built by the creatures of this world.”
She raised her deep green eyes and looked into the endless darkness deep within the cave, as if looking through the solid rock to somewhere far beyond.
“They are seals, and they are also tombs.”
Greg's heart skipped a beat.
“Tombs? Buried with what? Powerful ancient magical beasts? Fallen heroes? Or... legendary treasure?” He tried guessing along conventional fantasy tropes.
Nightmare slowly shook her head, dismissing all his guesses.
“They bury... certain extraordinarily dangerous entities. Their nature, forms, and purposes are utterly incompatible with this world. Should they fully awaken and break free from their bonds...” The black cat's voice took on a rare gravity, even carrying a trace of... dread.
“This world may face true... annihilation.”
“Destroy the world?” Greg froze for a moment, then seemed to realize something, putting on an ‘ah, I get it’ expression: “Oh, so you're talking about the Demon King. You can rest easy on that front. While that guy is indeed a pain, someone else will naturally deal with him.”
According to the original plotline, the Demon King's Army would wage war in the mid-to-late story, but they would ultimately be defeated by the heroine joining forces after growing in power.
Although the journey was full of twists and turns, a bright outcome was guaranteed.
That was part of the main questline. As a former villain, all he had to do was cheer from the sidelines and lay low.
However, upon hearing his words, Nightmare the black cat visibly froze.
A clear glint of... confusion surfaced in her deep green cat eyes, accompanied by a subtle mood of ‘what on earth are you blabbering about?’
“Demon King?” She repeated the word in a peculiar tone, the tip of her tail flicking unconsciously. “Where did this... random nobody come from?”
Now it was Greg's turn to be stunned. “Wait, are you sure the world-ending guy you're talking about isn't the Demon King who sits in the Demon Realm, building an army and dreaming all day about conquering the human world?”
Following the tropes of almost every fantasy work, shouldn't the ultimate world-destroying Boss be the Demon King?
“Of course not.” Nightmare's tone was utterly firm, even laced with a bit of disdain: “In my remaining memories, I can find no trace corresponding to the Demon King you speak of. Such a creature may stir up trouble in your present era, but in that far more ancient—and far more... dangerous—era in which I was active, he wouldn't even make the cut. What I speak of are those buried at the cores of these Five Great Dungeons—the Outer Gods.”
“Outer Gods?”
Greg chewed on this completely unfamiliar term, his brows knitting tightly.
He was one hundred percent certain that in all the text, dialogue, lore fragments, and even hidden background stories of the original game Do You Like a World Where You Can Happily Party Up Even as a Girl?, the concept of Outer Gods had never once appeared.
This was a setting completely outside the scope of his knowledge of the game.
“I've never heard of any Outer Gods. Couldn't it be that you're so old your memory's failing you? Or did you just make this up on the spot to trick me into going on an adventure?”
After all, this Goddess didn't look particularly reliable, and she had a criminal record of forcefully binding him against his will.
Nightmare's voice betrayed a genuine touch of emotion and loneliness: “To think that after my long slumber and oblivion, the living beings of this world have not even heard the name of the Outer Gods. Then surely nowadays, no one actively explores or tries to conquer these five cages that suppress calamity.”
Greg nodded. “Well, the dungeons are full of the unknown. If it weren't to avoid certain death flags, I wouldn't want to stay here for even another second.”
This was the general mindset of players, as well as a true reflection of most adventurers in this world.
A dungeon was a treasure trove of resources, but also a tomb of death.
Hearing this, Nightmare seemed to sigh softly.
She spoke in a tone tinged with slight incomprehension: “How bizarre. From what I have observed, when you humans face the unknown scenery beneath a beautiful female's skirt, you often burst forth with astounding courage, wisdom, and yearning, charging forward regardless of hardship. Why is it that when the subject is replaced with a dungeon—which is equally full of the unknown, yet might hold the key to the world's survival—you are left with nothing but fear and retreat?”
Greg said, “How on earth did you manage to connect those two things together?”
Nightmare blinked her deep green eyes innocently, as if saying: Did I say something wrong?
Greg palmed his forehead, feeling that discussing this with a goddess who had such a bizarre train of thought would go on endlessly.
He decided to steer the conversation back on track.
Picking up a few dry logs, he tossed them into the campfire.
The flames flared up with a whoosh, crackling louder and dispelling the chill deep within the cavern along with the psychological weight of the darkness.
Greg dusted off his hands, his tone turning firm once more: “Anyway, if you're looking for someone to conquer those Five Great Dungeons for you, you've found the wrong guy. I'm not going out of my way to seek death.”
He would conquer a dungeon if it was to save his own skin, but he would never actively go out of his way to conquer one.
Because the high difficulty of these Five Great Dungeons was universally acknowledged.
Although this black cat was indeed a goddess, Greg had no way to verify the truth of her rambling claims, as these were factors never once mentioned in the original game.
Besides, as long as events followed the original plot, once Victoria defeated the Demon King, wouldn't the world regain peace all the same?
Even taking a step back, even if some Outer Gods were truly buried inside, and even if they really did wake up one day... when would that be?
A hundred years from now? A thousand years?
By that time, his bones would have turned to dust. Whether the world ended or not, what the hell did it have to do with him?
Rate on N.U.
