Vessa looked at the conflicting face of Lys. "A dungeon break," she tried to explain, thinking he might not know what it means, "it means the dungeon's floors start collapsing outward during its awakening phase. Everything inside, monsters, traps, raw mana, all of it floods onto the surface. The great dungeons have all had one. We've never managed to stop it completely. So, here too, we can only prepare and try to limit the damage."
Lys rubbed the back of his neck. Of course he knew what a dungeon break was. 'Who from Earth who's read even one isekai story doesn't know what a dungeon break is?'
The thought almost made him laugh inside. Here he was, living the exact kind of story he used to read under a blanket with a flashlight back at the orphanage. The absurdity of it hit him again.
"I already know what a dungeon break is," he said, cutting in before she could explain further.
Vessa raised an eyebrow but didn't question how. She just nodded once. "Ohh, good. Then it saves time."
"But what I don't understand is why now? Why did it appear now? Right when the guild opened?"
Vessa shrugged, her expression serious. She kept her voice even lower, looking at the sky while saying, "Well, nobody knows for certain. But I have a theory. There are currently three great dungeons in the world. One sealed beneath the capital city, formed when the fallen witch's magic was locked inside it. The capital was built around it and now relies on it for resources. The other two sit at the far corners of the world. All three formed because of an event tied to divine or witch magic on an enormous scale, as far as we know. That's the pattern. Whenever something connected to divine or witch power, something big enough happens, a great dungeon forms around the residue of that power."
She paused, watching his face, turning to shock, hearing all of that. She finally felt satisfied seeing that, at last, Lys was shocked to hear something.
"I think something divine must've happened near this village. Something large enough to leave a residue of power that awakened a greater dungeon."
Lys went very still. His mind flashed back to the goddess, to the dark orb, to everything that had brought him here. Liraya. He wondered if this was related to her or not. 'Could her bringing me back into this world might be the reason for this? It can't be, right?'
He didn't say the goddess's name out loud. Vessa didn't know about her, and he wasn't about to explain it; she was not his family whom he could trust with this big of a secret.
Vessa continued, unaware of the storm in his head. "We investigated it this morning. This dungeon is already behaving differently from the other three. That greater undead you and I fought was on the surface during the dungeon's awakening period. And there was that hobgoblin that you fought alone in that same area. Creatures from the lower floors shouldn't be able to reach the surface this early. It only suggests the dungeon formed fast, and its core may be far denser than the other great dungeons we know so far."
She looked toward the forest in the distance with a tight expression. "Now the real problem is the break. Almost every great dungeon has one at its first awakening. And when it happens, the floors collapse outward and everything inside floods the surface. This dungeon is right beside this small village with no walls strong enough to handle it. I don't think we are prepared enough to protect everyone here. The dungeon break could happen any moment now; we don't know for certain when it will."
Lys stayed quiet for a long moment, letting it all sink in. "If people find out about this, they'll flee, right?"
"Yes," Vessa said. "And panic will make everything worse. People trampling each other, supply lines breaking, monsters picking off stragglers. We need time to prepare before word about this spreads."
Lys nodded slowly. "What about Rhuvia? She's strong, right? Isn't she going to do anything about it?"
Vessa exhaled through her nose. "Rhuvia is already calculating. She's not the type to panic. But she's new here. She doesn't know the village or the people yet. However strong she is, she can't take on a full dungeon break all on her own. Right now, her priority is getting the guild fully operational. The dungeon situation isn't public knowledge, and she wants to keep it that way until we have something resembling a real plan."
The training yard felt even quieter after she finished speaking. Lys stared at the worn practice dummies while his mind was racing. A dungeon break. Right here. Under the forest, he had walked through so many times. All of it blew his mind the more he thought about it.
He had come to this world thinking he could handle things at his own pace. Build a family, grow stronger quietly, fulfill the breeding mission without turning the whole region upside down.
But the world, and whatever divine mess the goddess might've caused, clearly had other ideas for him.
Vessa watched him, waiting for his reaction.
Lys finally looked back at her. "So, what are we waiting for? We need to be ready for it, right?"
Vessa gave a small, serious nod. "Yeah, we do."
Neither of them said anything more. The weight of what was coming pressed down on both of them as the midday sun continued to climb overhead.