Abandoned in the mountains, I was adopted by a lizard ~I mastered magic and surpassed my parents, but I didn't know they were legendary ancient dragons~ - Chapter 23

Chapter 23   Dungeon Training – 2

Now, the challenge is how to handle the scouting role effectively. Scouting itself is straightforward; with a single detection spell, I can map out everything up to the 10th floor. The key is how to share this information clearly.

I could give instructions like, “There’s a monster 10 meters ahead, around the right corner,” but it would be better to find a more intuitive method.

…I have an idea.

“Hey, you two, can I have a moment?”

I called Ian and Cecilia over and cast a light magic spell. It wasn’t to illuminate the dungeon. The spell I cast was a holographic projection of the dungeon map.

“Whoa, a map appeared in the air!” “What is this?”

The sudden appearance of the map made them both widen their eyes in surprise.

“This is a map projected by light magic. It shows the route and the location of all the enemies.”

I then explained how the holographic map worked.

“The orange triangle is our current location. The red, green, and blue circles are enemy locations. The colors indicate their strength. Green is the average strength for this floor, red is stronger, and blue is weaker.”

I color-coded the enemies by strength so that Ian and Cecilia could assess the threat levels themselves. My subjective danger assessment wasn’t trusted, so this method allowed them to make their own decisions.

“For example, if you find the green enemies easy, you might decide to take on the red ones. Or, if green is challenging, you might choose a route with only blue enemies.”

“Got it. This is very intuitive and easy to understand…” “It’s amazing you can display something this useful. As expected from someone who can use Absolute Heal…”

They both seemed satisfied with this method of sharing information. Cecilia’s praise might be a bit exaggerated, though.

“What’s this yellow star mark?”

“Oh, that’s the staircase.”

“I see. So if the red enemies on the first floor are easy, we can just head straight for the star.”

“Exactly, that’s the idea.”

They quickly got the hang of using the map. Confident in their abilities, I decided to stick to just displaying the map and follow their lead.

◇

The exploration went extremely well. We defeated the red enemies, found them to be weak, and headed straight for the star mark. Repeating this process, we reached the 10th floor in under 20 minutes.

This was the deepest floor we were allowed to explore today.

“There’s a green enemy nearby.”

“Alright, let’s take it down.”

Talking like that, they headed toward a green-marked enemy on the 10th floor. They didn’t defeat it instantly, but they managed to take it down with some effort left to spare.

“This fast-paced exploration is all thanks to you, Hadar.”

“Even though you promised not to fight, you’re definitely the MVP, Hadar…”

I felt quite frustrated not being able to join the fights, but I didn’t want to lower their grades, so I stayed silent and watched.

“Let’s go for the red one next.”

With that, Ian led us toward the nearest red-marked enemy on the map. Bored to the point of yawning, I followed the two as they navigated the map.

But the real problem started here. When we reached the red enemy’s location, there was a 2-meter-long, pitch-black lizard with red eyes. For some reason, seeing it made the two of them start trembling.

“What… what is this…”

“It’s… it’s an Abyss Lizard, the floor boss…!”

What’s going on?

“A monster like that…?! It’s said to appear only once every 50 years!”

“There’s no way we can win against that…”

Wait a minute. Could this monster actually be a serious threat?

“Hey, is this something we shouldn’t be confronting?”

“Without a doubt. This monster… it’s not supposed to be on a floor like this…”

Ian replied. He continued:

“Screw our grades! It’s better to fail than to die!”

Hearing this, I realized for the first time that I had been careless. Damn, I really messed up.

“Sorry…”

“No, Hadar, it’s not your fault. This is completely beyond our control.”

“Exactly. If anything, we were too overconfident thinking that even a red-marked monster would be easy…”

Despite what they said, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there might have been something more I could have done. I should have set the green markers based on the average strength instead of the median. This way, if there were very few red markers on the map, it would indicate that one of them might be exceptionally strong. With that information, Ian and Cecilia might have decided to avoid the red-marked monsters on this floor altogether.

In general, the median is a better reflection of reality than the average in statistics, but perhaps dungeon exploration is an exception. This was a mistake on my part as well.

Furthermore, since I confidently claimed I would handle the scouting, it wouldn’t sit right with me if their grades suffered because of it. I needed to find a way to resolve this peacefully.

Defensive and obstructive actions were also prohibited, so setting traps or barriers to escape was out of the question. These restrictions were quite stringent…

But then, an idea struck me.

Wait, what if…

This monster is lizard-like, right? Maybe I can communicate with it.

There’s a spell known as “Dragon’s Intimidation,” which allows communication with dragon-type creatures. By channeling magic into speaking the dragon language, one can assert dominance over dragons, wyverns, and some lizard-type monsters. This particular lizard should be easy to intimidate with just a few words, provided it understands them.

Whether this would work depends on the lizard’s intelligence and if a human can effectively replicate the dragon’s method. But it’s worth a shot.

The instructor said not to attack or defend, but he didn’t say anything about negotiating. This way, we can safeguard both our grades and our safety.

I decided to give it a try.