The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 110 Special Substances

"Ah~ um, you mentioned earlier that you were worried about the demonic tide. Is your area being affected by the demonic tide more and more?"

Yanami didn't want to talk about the fishmen any further, as it would be difficult to explain if they continued to delve into it, so she quickly changed the subject.

Hyacinth nodded.

"Hmm, it's probably because of the dragon's power. The demonic tide has become even more turbulent recently. We used to be very isolated here, but now some demons have started to accidentally wander in."

"Are you alright?"

"Haha, there's no need to worry about Yanami. Our rat race has a large population and plenty of fighting power. And as you can see, the tunnel at the entrance is designed to defend against magical beasts. Even if the gate is breached, only small magical beasts can get in, so it won't be difficult to deal with them."

"Wow, what a great design!"

"I'm more worried about Yanami, since you're all alone. But since you have a... dragon, I think it should be fine."

When it came to the dragon, Hyacinth was clearly hesitant, as it was truly unbelievable.

As they chatted, the three of them arrived at a wide area, a square in the city center, a circular open space surrounded by buildings.

In the center of the square, the towering black tower rises from the ground.

"We've arrived."

"It looks even more spectacular up close..."

Looking up, Yanami's entire field of vision was almost entirely occupied by the Black Tower, but the Black Tower was very black and was not really a tower. Instead, it looked like a charred tree trunk with spirals.

"Look at the ground."

"Oh, there are so many cracks in the ground."

After being reminded by Hyacinth, Yanami noticed that the ground around the Black Tower was cracked and fissured, just like the ground that had been pushed open by bamboo shoots.

The ground looked almost like—

"It's like a black tower emerging from the ground."

Unlike the others, the closer Klein got to the tower, the stronger his strange feeling became.

It felt like I'd finally seen it...

And judging from other people's situations, it seems that only I have this feeling... What does this mean?

Could it be that my identity is related to this black tower?

It's strange, really strange... Although it's a baseless thought, Klein feels that he must have some connection with this strange black tower.

It might even be related to why I transmigrated and became a plant, and that strange system.

On the other hand, Klein also felt strange that the black tower was less a tower that had been built and more a pillar that had always been there.

Klein saw no entrance or windows, and it didn't look like a "building" for people to live in at all. Instead, he felt that it must have some strange purpose.

If possible, I really hope to learn more about it.

"Right? That's what we suspected too, so we started digging down this black tower, only to find that it's actually very, very deep, and we can't seem to reach the bottom. And the rock layers below are extremely hard; even though we're skilled at digging, we can't go any further."

"Sigh, what a strange thing. Didn't you try going inside the tower to take a look?"

"Ah, you've hit the nail on the head."

Hyacinth smiled, looked at Yanami, and then continued.

"This tower has no entrance whatsoever; at least, we haven't found any way in yet. And what's most strange is that we can't budge the tower at all, not even scratch its surface."

"Can't even scratch it?! Have you tried magic or something?"

Hearing Hyacinth's outrageous claim, it was now Anami's turn to be surprised.

Seeing Yanami's surprised expression, Hyacinth seemed to have won back the game, and her smile showed a hint of satisfaction... even though what had given her the upper hand wasn't something they had made themselves.

"We not only used our most powerful magic attacks, but we also tried using our strongest explosives! It was because we used up so much explosives that we had to risk going out to collect charcoal—ah, sorry, never mind!"

Halfway through her sentence, Hyacinth paused, realizing she had said something she shouldn't have.

Oh, I let it slip. They seemed to have said before that the charcoal was for starting a fire, but in reality, that little bit of charcoal was nowhere near enough for so many rats. It was just a drop in the ocean.

So they were going to use charcoal to make gunpowder, and then use the gunpowder to make explosives. It seems that their cave development relied not only on magic and rock-crushing rats, but also on explosives.

This also explains why the charcoal they traded with Yanami was enough for their needs, since making gunpowder doesn't require a lot of charcoal.

"The wind, the hyacinth is an idiot too."

"Shut up, you stupid daisy!"

"snort."

"You two have a really good relationship."

"No, that's not true... cough cough, let me continue."

After exchanging a few words with Daisy, Hyacinth continued to explain.

"In short... the tower is made of a black substance that we have never seen before. It is not only the hardest material we have ever seen, but it is also extremely rigid. Even with the abilities of our rat race, we are completely unable to damage this substance."

"A substance this hard must be incredibly powerful to make into a weapon, right?"

"If it were really possible, perhaps it would be like that, but we can't even mine a tiny fragment, let alone use the tower's materials to make weapons..."

"I was just joking."

"Furthermore, the surface of this tower is covered with many strange runes, which can be seen upon closer inspection. We have begun to suspect that it is the effect of these runes, rather than the material itself possessing such high strength."

("Yana, ask them if we can get closer to take a look.")

Klein's voice suddenly rang in Yanami's mind. Without asking why, Yanami relayed Klein's words to them.

"Magic runes...? Can I come closer and take a look?"

"Your curiosity is really strong. I think it shouldn't be a problem for me to take a look... But those runes aren't written in spells we're familiar with, so there's not much point in looking at them."

"I still want to get closer and take a look."

"It's fine, but be careful, it wouldn't be good if you accidentally fell into the crack."

"Okay, I'll go take a look."

Yanami nodded, indicating that she would proceed carefully, and then took a step towards the Black Tower.

"Ah, you're a human. You must be Miss Yanami, the one these two children were talking about? You've already arrived here."

Yanami had only taken two steps when she suddenly heard other people's voices behind her, causing her to stop in her tracks.

"leader!"

"Leader!"

leader?

Yanami turned around and saw two rat-like beings walking towards her not far away, one tall and one short, and they both looked extraordinary.