CHAPTER 23. DLC: Meyer Knox, 1st Round

“I heard Fabian’s expedition team closed the dungeon tremendously this time.”

“Is it the emergence of new powers? Well, no matter how much you fly and crawl, they won’t be a competitor for the Black Knights… Oh no, it’s Meyer Knox.”

The expedition members, who had been talking alone, found Meyer Knox appearing at the end of the corridor and kept their mouths shut.

They turned their heads sideways at an angle so as not to disturb Meyer Knox’s path.

Meyer Knox passed by without even giving them a glance, but the intimidation that pushed at their heads remained until the moment he disappeared. They breathed a sigh of relief when Meyer passed by.

“No, we didn’t say anything bad about Meyer Knox, so why are you being so facetious?”

“Why are you asking me that? You were looking scared with me.”

“Is this exactly the intimidation of the 80th level…”

“After all, no matter how many Fabian expeditions fly and crawl, it will be the Black Knights who will fight against the Demon King.”

They mumbled, thinking Meyer couldn’t hear them, but his acute hearing caught every breath they took.

But Meyer did not care.

He was always at the top, and it seemed fate that the newly formed expedition would follow him.

There have been many who have struck for a brief, sparkling moment.

Numerous expeditionary parties had set out in great force to overtake the Black Knights, but none had been able to stand before him.

Perhaps the Fabian Expedition would do the same, and Meyer had gone over lightly.

He hoped that this time that “upstart force” will be a little more excited and embark on a more aggressive approach to closing the dungeon.

As such, he had no special expectations for the Fabian Expedition, and he had to be frankly surprised that the gap between them and the Black Knights had been narrowing more and more, and that they had soon reached a position where they threatened the stronghold of the Black Knights.

And that wasn’t the end.

The Fabian Expedition was finally to point its sword close to the neck of the Black Knights.

The word “still” became “maybe.”

Perhaps the Fabian Expedition would overtake the Black Knights.

At that level, no matter how much he was Meyer, he could not sit back and watch them.

“Commander, this is the information on the attack dungeon that the Fabian Expedition submitted to the performance report.”

Meyer read the report handed to Axion at once.

The more he read the report, the deeper the wrinkles on his forehead.

Meyer asked, placing the report roughly on the desk.

“Does this make sense?”

“…Of course I think it’s impossible, but they actually did it.”

Axion’s face was also full of doubt.

The dungeons are so difficult to time that you never know when or where they will appear.

But the Fabian Expedition was different. They seemed to have seen it all. They had conquered most of the dungeons over the past few years.

Of course, there were times when Meyer and the Black Knights also conquered dungeons that way, but that was because their base area was originally large enough to have many dungeon occurrences…

It was almost impossible for a base area as small as the Fabian Expedition.

Axion, who knew exactly what Meyer’s question was, told him the facts he had come to know.

“They have been mainly reaching the territory of the owner of the dungeon just before the dungeon was created. It seems that they were the first ones to get permission to go through with the dungeon.”

“There have been one or two coincidences. It’s impossible to do that unless you have all the insight into when and where the dungeon will be opened.”

“The existence of such a person is unprecedented.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Meyer touched his chin. But even if it’s unprecedented, it doesn’t prove that it doesn’t exist

“Still, let’s investigate it just to be sure.”

“Understood.”

Axion left the office as soon as Meyer’s words fell.

Competent as he was, not too long after, he carefully organized the information about the Fabian expedition members and handed it to Meyer.

Meyer read the roster slowly. They must have attacked the empty dungeon; they were all good people.

Some of them were people who, if they had not belonged to the expedition, Meyer would have gone ahead and made a proposal to join the Black Knights.

Who among them knew about the dungeon?

The direction of the expedition dungeon was a fairly important decision. It was clear that it was the expedition leader, or at least in a position where they could speak directly to the expedition leader, just because no one else could interfere.

The main members…

Meyer’s gaze, which had been looking at the main members of the Fabian expedition in this way, stopped for a moment at one of the people.

Meyer, thinking he had looked at the wrong person, asked with a frown.

“By the way… Is the support wizard a mainstay member of the Fabian Expedition?”

“Yes. That’s a bit strange to me, too. She’s even a one-armed person.…”

Axion also had a dazed face.

“The dungeon participation rate is higher than I expected.”

“Is that so? Does she have some special ability?”

“Well. I have not heard of any special abilities, but rumor has it that she is Fabian’s faithful dog. She does anything for Fabian. I think that’s why he keeps her close to him.”

Meyer countered with a cluck of his tongue.

“Loyalty alone determines the main members of the order. Well, you’d be on the verge of the elite of the Black Knights, Axion.”

“No, I have only loyalty to the Commander, don’t I?”

“I told you that I was on the verge, but you didn’t think it was impossible, did you?”

Axion chuckled at Meyer’s joke.

The two men, who were in a similar age range and had a tendency to swap their lives into one that they were immersed in, were quite in tune with each other.

Meyer tapped his fingers lightly on the wooden desk in his office and repeated.

“Supportive wizard…”

It was then. He began to pay attention to a support wizard named Jun Karentia, whom Meyer had given him.

And he didn’t know if it was coincidence or not, but it wasn’t long before Jun Karentia tried to approach the Black Knights, slowly.

Her target was Nova Pellum, who had joined the Black Knights elite relatively shortly.

She approached him with reasonable caution, but the problem was that the very person she approached in that manner was Nova.

Information about the dungeon was top-secret, and Nova was not of the smallest reach to obtain such information.

Meyer, sensing something fishy, immediately questioned Nova, who, unable to resist the order of Meyer, the leader of the group, finally confided the truth.

“Hmm… Jun Karentia.”

“Do you know her?”

Nova, who had heard Meyer’s soliloquy, opened her eyes wide and asked back.

Not wanting to reveal that he had been paying attention to her for no reason, Meyer shook his head in denial.

“In the meantime, try to be as discreet as possible… Try to keep up with her tone.”

“I understand…”

As Nova did not know about Meyer’s suspicions, he could not understand Meyer’s order, but instead of asking a counter-question, he nodded obediently.

As such, Nova left, and Meyer called Axion and Agasto to discuss the pertinent matters.

Axion mumbled seriously.

“I didn’t know it was that easy to solve high-level dungeon information… There must be some kind of dream.”

“How much so, would she dare dig a pitfall for the Black Knights?”

August shook his head.

Even with the large number of dungeons closed by the Fabian Expedition, they were no match for the Black Knights, considering their substantial level.

Meyer, who had been listening to the conversation, made a decision.

“… Let’s move once as per that information, just in case.”

“But…”

“I can’t do anything but give a false kick.”

Meyer chuckled.

Already they had been caught up within sight of the Fabian expedition.

It was necessary to point out a certain amount of risk in order to know if she really was a gem of dungeon information.

Axion and August expressed their concern, but a braced Meyer was adamant.

Thus, they followed Jun’s information to the designated location and soon came upon the gate in all its vividness.

“It really was true.”

As they gazed at the dizzying gate, they felt as if they were possessed by something. When it came time to come, Meyer himself was puzzled, even as he said he would try to come.

The dungeon they entered was somewhat more difficult than they had been told, but that much was to be expected.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence?

Meyer called Nova and ordered him to interact with Jun as soon as the opportunity arrived. He also told him to tell him immediately if he had any information to pass along.

Nova, who is far from spying, lying, and questioning, seemed to be disappointed by Meyer’s orders.

“I feel like you’re taking advantage of people, a little…”

“Don’t you realize that they’re taking advantage of you too?”

“That’s true, but…”

Their first meeting was pure liking and coincidence, but Jun Karentia, who gave him the information about the dungeon when he gave it to him, must have had an agenda.

Nova mumbled sadly as his large body drooped.

“But she didn’t seem like a bad person.”

“That’s not your call.”

Meyer said deliberately and firmly.

Apart from Meyer’s unwillingness to order, Nova also acknowledged the importance of the information that Jun had given him.

Nova nodded decisively.

“I’ll give it one good try.”

As Meyer had expected, Jun gave Nova information about dungeons many times after that. And all of those dungeons had produced meaningful results.

It was pointless to deny the truth when it came to this. The information Jun Karentia gave was solid.

Of course, there was no certainty that she knew anything about the dungeon. And she might just be telling them what she picked up, too.

But why on earth would she be giving the Black Knights information?

Meyer stared out the window at Nova and Jun sitting side by side in the corridor, conversing.

She lifted her left arm involuntarily, laughing hysterically at the amusing joke, perhaps oblivious to the fact that she had no left arm.

However, she quickly realized that she had no hand to hit her thigh, so she smiled awkwardly and lowered her arm.