[31] Illuminating Keys and Cosmic Conquests

**Note 1: Light**

This refers to LOMILWA in Wizardry. It's noted somewhere that it has the same effect as MILWA but with no time limit. Without it, Werdna would never escape the initial room in Wiz #4. Since Werdna is a wizard and can't use LOMILWA himself, he must summon a Priest who can use it, and wait for the Priest to cast LOMILWA during combat.

**Note 2: A Certain Western Game**

The author purchased Stellar from Stea○. To put it simply, it's a space territory game. You develop technology, strengthen your economic and military power, explore the universe, and compete for dominance in space against rival nations. It's quite enjoyable—I've logged over 5,300 hours, including loading times. Haha.

Inside the Sky Hole, the necklace appeared more like a pendant, with a pendant top that unmistakably resembled a key. The part you hold features a skull relief, and a long chain threads through a loop attached to the top of the skull's head.

To be blunt, the item looked pretty rough, so I said, "Lily, I'll hang this around my neck." I draped it over myself, and luckily, the chain was long enough to dangle comfortably. At my age, it felt oddly nostalgic to be a "key kid" again.

Based on my gaming knowledge, this key-shaped pendant was bound to be an important item, at least through the middle of the game. "But if a key item is hidden in a place like this, no one would ever find it," I remarked.

"Perhaps someone like Tahara, who has an exploration level of three, could have found it," Lily suggested.

"Right. We managed to find it before they did."

Lily's face lit up with joy, revealing just how much she disliked those two. Kindness often begets kindness, but the opposite is true too—life is full of contradictions.

"Well, let's check out that door next."

"It seems there's no anomaly, but should we be cautious and use Knock to open it?"

"Sounds good. However, Lily, in games, spamming support magic can leave you unable to use offensive or defensive spells when you really need them. Are you okay with that?"

"I didn't even know you could run out of magic from using it too much."

Those words are truly reassuring.

"If we can't use magic and can't move forward, we can always return to the mansion and retry the next day."

"Yes, that sounds fine. Well then, Knock!"

At Lily's exclamation, the wooden door in front of us slowly swung open toward us. Beyond the door was a corridor made of the same stone as this room. Illuminated by the light shining above Lily's head, the corridor stretched straight ahead, lined with several wooden doors along the walls. It felt just like the world of a dungeon-crawling game, and my enthusiasm surged.

"It's probably best to check every door we can see."

The reason for this is simple: that's just how dungeon crawling works. Ideally, I'd want a party of six, but there's no point in being greedy. Having just the two of us tackle the dungeon means we'll gain experience points quickly and grow fast. Defeating the enemies we encounter should earn us experience, right?

In reality, this isn't a game, so defeating foes probably won't reward us with experience points that lead to level-ups. However, if such a system is in place in this dungeon, that would be amazing. I'm confident I could lose myself to it, forgetting to eat or sleep.

"Let's start by opening the first door," I said.

"Rockwell, hold on! Detect Anomaly!" Lily interrupted.

This was precisely what the saying "Learning from a child who's been carried on your back" meant. I'm glad Lily is such a reliable girl.

With her Detect Anomaly ability, the hallway lit up with red flashes at various points. Every wooden door caught my eye, each one blinking a warning red.

"Wow, this place is quite the dungeon. The entrance itself was challenging, but to discover that traps might be hidden everywhere is impressive. I'll assume every red indicator is a trap and deactivate them with Detect Something or other."

"Identify Trap!"

"That red flash over there is a pitfall."

"Disarm Trap!"

When Lily cast Disarm Trap, the red blinking ceased. I cautiously placed my right foot on the spot and pressed down lightly—nothing happened.

Then, recalling my magic staff, I pulled it from my item box and, using both hands, I gave the spot a solid poke. Again, no reaction. Still, it's wise to avoid unnecessary risks, so I didn't put my full weight on it.

Lily directed her focus to the next red flash on the floor. "Identify Trap!"

"This one, too, is a pitfall," she confirmed.

"Disarm Trap!"

It was a pitfall-filled trap. The next red blink indicated a wooden door.

"Identified trap!"

"Poison needle."

"Disarm trap!"

"Rockwell, shall we open the door?"

"Let's check one room at a time."

"Alright. Then, Knock!"

The wooden door slowly creaked open.

"I'll go in first."

I readied my staff and stepped through the doorway into a room measuring ten meters on each side. Unlike the previous chamber, this one was draped in webs, and at the far end, illuminated by the pale light of Lily's lamp behind me, loomed a massive spider. Its body was 70 to 80 cm long, and its legs stretched around a meter each. When fully extended, it spanned over two meters. The eight red eyes arranged on its head seemed to stare blankly, but I knew they were fixed on me.

While I found centipedes more unsettling than spiders, this creature was no less terrifying. They say house spiders are beneficial, but this immense arachnid certainly didn't seem like it. Closing the door now would only deny me the experience points I needed, so I steeled my resolve to take on this giant spider.

How would I defeat it? Though it had meter-long legs, my staff had a clear range advantage. I could probably take it down head-on, and since the floor was stone, I could even drop nitroglycerin from above. However, detonating it in this enclosed ten-meter room would likely send the blast rushing toward the door—and I would definitely feel the repercussions.

As I was deep in thought, a voice called out from behind me, "Fire Arrow!"

With that shout from Lily, a beam of white light shot forward, striking the enormous spider right in the center of its eight eyes. It curled its legs and flipped over, motionless. It seemed that Lily's Fire Arrow had killed it in one swift blow.

What was I even pondering? That giant spider had perished so easily at Lily's hands.

"Lily, that was impressive," I said, trying to mask my slight frustration with a show of maturity.

"We should keep this spider; it might be useful later. Storage!" I declared.

Once I stored the spider in my item box, I noticed something on the ground behind where it had been. However, the spider's webs were in the way, so I considered making a torch to burn them away. But then I thought it would be better to let Lily handle it with her magic.

"Lily, could you burn away the spider webs with your magic?"

"Sure! Flame!" she responded.

A burst of orange flames erupted from Lily's right hand, incinerating the spider webs in an instant.

"Lily, you're amazing!" I exclaimed.

"Hehe," she grinned.

Now that the webs were cleared, I saw that what lay in the back of the room was a Wooden Box. One could say the spider was protecting it.

"That's definitely a treasure chest."

"I've never seen a real treasure chest before, so I can't be sure."

I've never seen an actual treasure chest either, but I've encountered plenty in games. That box is indeed a treasure chest. And since it's made of wood, the contents are probably underwhelming. While there's a risk of traps, we have the brilliant Lily with us. We can open it without any risk!

"Lily, there might be traps on the chest. Can you use Identify Trap and Disarm Trap to check for any?"

"Sure. Identifying traps... The trap is a Poison Needle. Disarm Trap… That should do it."

"Then I'll open the box."

I felt relatively safe since the traps were supposedly disarmed, but I still felt a twinge of fear. If I hesitated now, it might seem like I didn't trust Lily, so I steeled myself and placed my hand on the lid of the box.

However, the lid wouldn't budge. I thought it was strange, and upon closer inspection, I noticed a keyhole on the chest. It might be possible to unlock it with Lily's Knock spell.

"Lily, there's a keyhole. Could you try using Knock?"

"Okay. Knock."

Nothing seemed to happen, and the chest remained closed. I examined the keyhole again and noticed its unique shape. It looked like the key for the Keychild Pendant might fit.

When I tried inserting the key from the Key Child pendant into the lock, it fit perfectly. As I turned it, I heard a click, and the lid lifted up in front of me.

"It's open. There are gold coins inside!"

Upon lifting the lid, I saw a treasure trove of gold coins. Lily peered into the box too.

"There's quite a lot in here," she remarked.

To my surprise, there were thirty-two coins. They seemed larger than the usual gold coins I was accustomed to, and the designs were different as well.

"There are thirty-two gold coins, but since they're not like regular coins, I should set them aside."

I stored the large coins in the item box.

"Though there are traps everywhere, and it was tough just leaving the first room, it seems that exploring dungeons for a living could yield worthwhile rewards."

"I don't quite understand, but what's the purpose of treasure chests?"

"They're likely meant to lure greedy people," I replied.

"And what benefits come from luring them?"

"From what I've read in light novels, when humans move within a dungeon, it receives nutrients to grow. It's particularly noted that when people die inside, the dungeon absorbs a lot more energy."

"I see. So dungeons exist to grow and develop themselves."

"Hmm. I'm not sure about that.

For instance, while human children need nutrients to grow, growing isn't necessarily the sole purpose of life.

That said, dungeons don't just sprout up like mold; they must have been created by someone. Surely, the creator had some sort of intention."

"I wouldn't want to meet that creator."

"Exactly. Even if they were a creator, they likely weren't human."

"Could it be a god?"

"There's a possibility of that, but being a god doesn't guarantee they're a benevolent one. Conversely, they might be an incredibly good god who created this for the benefit of humans or this world."

"Now that you mention it, it's strange—this world's sky, its clouds, and its plants and animals closely resemble those on Earth."

"Perhaps one world is the original and the other is a copy."

"If we expand on that idea, there might be an original world somewhere, and both Earth and this world could be copies."

"That seems plausible. So, does that mean Earth might have dungeons like this too? But probably not."

Just as the conversation started to take on a philosophical tone, I wrapped it up.

"It's time to move on."

"Alright."

"Wait, hold on. Before we proceed, double-check with Detect Anomaly to make sure we haven't missed anything."

"Yes. Detect Anomaly."

Lily's Detect Anomaly found no anomalies, confirming that this room held nothing of interest.

"Just as I thought, nothing here. Let's move on."

We exited the room and returned to the corridor, where Lily systematically checked and disarmed a series of red, blinking traps. Soon we stood before the next door.

This door also blinked red, prompting Lily to inspect and disable the traps. That's when it struck me: both of us were dressed in casual clothes. Our outfits were far too careless for a dungeon raid.