Garami's PoV:

My eaaaaarrrrsss! What's going on over there!?

I made the Pale Horse land on the ground just as I was about to fall off the saddle from the pure agony of that wretched sound. What is it? Is there a world tournament in scraping your nails on a blackboard going on somewhere nearby?

"GM! What is that sound!?" - Garami

"Th-this is...it is the scream of a Queen Banshee!" - GM

What?! That's the undead Dejidem granted Revi! Even if it's a one-time use just for defeating that Mirror Throne-thing!

"I'm gonna go check on her-!" - Garami

"Eeh!? We haven't even discovered the Mirror Throne's lair!" - GM

Guh, that's right...that's the whole point for me letting Revi act on her own...

Right before Dejidem said he would go to where the gods lived and demand their cooperation (he's got guts, that Skeleton-god), we decided that I should scout the Sea to look for the secret hideout of that Mirror Throne. It's Chaos Dungeon.

I'm the fastest one, and my Pale Horse even has my [Genocide Drive: Speed] and [Storm Compression] just to name two movement-type skills it has, so I was chosen for the job. Even so, I haven't even seen the D in Dungeon in this godforsaken Sea! And I've looked over the whole place already!

"Tch, then do you have any great ideas?" I asked GM while making the mental map created by [Auto-Mapping] visible for others. It looks like a holographic map you can see in some sci-fi movies while in this mode, and the map has several Xs that show the areas we have already visited.

"Ugh...I don't understand. A Dungeon is not something that easy to hide..." - GM

"It was supposed to be impossible to build one down here as well," I replied bitterly.

Do we have to look over all the areas again while using detective loupes or something? Just as I thought of that last resort, a voice called out to me:

"You are struggling despite my advice? O' child who walks in the shadows."

I quickly turned around and found a man dressed in dirty-black rags. Where did he come from!? I didn't notice him at all before he started to talk! Wait, where have I...and the fact I can't "see" him with my Perception Skills means...

"You're the beggar that warned me about the Life Champion!" - Garami

"So your memory has not failed you completely." - Beggar(?)

*Smack*

Ouch!? Why're you hitting such a beautiful girl (?) on her head with a stick? Hey, what's up with that thing anyway? It's all goldy and fancy, like something the pharaohs of old owned.

"That your mind was preoccupied with the Champion of Yrlanaya is something I can forgive, but to not think back on our encounter after that and waste the precious advice that I've granted you after I went all the way to even use my clairvoyance to observe this predicament of yours." - Beggar(???)

*Smack*, *smock*, *smack*

Ou-ou-ouch! That hurt! You little-!

*Clang!*

"There's a limit to how unreasonable you can be, you bottom feeder!!" I shouted in a fit of rage while blocking the beggar's stick with Carnwennan. 

The beggar looked like he was raising his eyebrows in admiration of my move...I think. His hood's in the way-

*Clang!*

And the bastard attacked right outta nowhere! Tch, I have to compliment the jerk!

The beggar kept on striking with his stick, which I parried with Carnwennan in its "dark-sword"-mode. Honestly, I wanted to throw a Dark Blast, a Darkness spell that exploded when it hits the target, but this beggar is not the kind that needs to beg for mercy! Jokes aside, he's damn strong! I'm barely keeping up here! Parrying is all I can do, and I have the [Ehangwen-Style Self-Defense] skill!

These Self-Defense-type skills are the accumulated experience and power of [Guard], [Parry], and [Evasion], which each style has its way of defending oneself. And Ehangwen is a super-parry-specialized style that even has the passive boost that improves your reflexes for parrying or evading attacks! It even uses the Light attribute to enhance one's speed! And this beggar is keeping up with me, no, putting me on the defensive even! I don't have any leeway for magic, threads, or other things! 

Just as the situation started to look really grim, a sudden light was cast on this situation.

"CHAAARGE!!" - GM

GM tried to body-tackle the beggar, but he simply took a step back and let her fly past him and into a boulder so hard that she passed out. Still, good job!

"Take thiiiiis!!" - Garami

*CLANG!*

I took a grand swing with Carnwennan and struck the beggar's stick with so much force that I knocked it into the sky. I was then planning on giving the beggar a good whack myself when I noticed that my trusty dagger's blade was stuck in the ground, despite the impossibility of that happening. I mean, it's a dagger, not a broadsword...

I stand corrected. Because it wasn't my trusty, black-bladed dagger that I was holding. Instead, it was a huge broadsword made of burnt-orange metal with a black, serrated edge.

Don't tell me...this gotta be a joke...

"Deathcalibur!?" - Garami

Why!? Why is the weapon of that Wild Hunt Lord here!? And this "completed growth" ability...did the auto-growth effect reach its limit?! No, was the whole auto-growth effect just so Carnwennan could return to being Deathcalibur!? Ah. I can return it to its dagger form. Phew. 

"Oho? This is interesting. To think the first adventurer would pass on his final will to someone who needed the assistance of their most hated guardian." - Beggar

"Haah? I never agreed to that...wait, what was that second part about? That "assistance" talk." - Garami

"Did you think a no-name demon such as yourself could defeat the first true adventurer on Terra Sol without the help from the middleman your patron Ultimate Goddess asked for assistance?" - Beggar

How does he know about that!? Wait, then...my Thaumaturgy Revolver, plus the various abilities I learned from that fight, is all because of----!!

"NOOOOOO!!" - Garami

"Hmph. So you are more worthy of being called "a child lost in the dark". Hurry up and find that Throne's hiding place so I can stop calling you the one who walks in the shadows. Not that you ever did though."  - Beggar

And with that line, the beggar disappeared in a sudden whirlwind of sand. 

...suddenly arriving and suddenly disappearing...what is that guy anyway? My brain's hurting. 

Eh, just shove all that away for now! I don't have the time nor any idea on how to figure out that guy's identity, and Carnwennan is working alright, so all the Deathcalibur-trouble can also wait!

Besides, the time where the dagger suddenly felt heavy back when I was fighting that crystal cow CC must have been the dagger turning into Deathcalibur for a split moment. I've had no trouble using it after that, so its new "function" ain't something I need to care about for now at least. 

Instead, I need to figure out what that beggar wanted me to do. You don't need to be a genius to understand he's related to the World System somehow, so maybe he was here because Dejidem's complaints got through to some degree?

If that's true, then the beggar really did offer a good piece of advice, but what? Hmm... he kept on calling me "one who walks in the shadows" or something, despite not wanting to do so from the sound of it. I'm not feeling that's a title that describes me either. Rather. it would fit someone like Zaria...

"Ouch..." - GM

"Good morning, and good work back there." - Garami

"Thanks...but what was all that about?" - GM

"Don't ask me. But I think I've got something here." - Garami

I kneeled and tried to use [Shadow Dive] on my shadow. Like the time Zaria tried to experiment with it before we located the church where we met Dejidem, my hand sunk a little into the shadows before being repelled as if it hit one of those Jump Panels that I can place in Damavand.

"Is this a normal thing to happen in the Demonic Sea?" I asked GM, as we had concluded for this to be yet another of these Seas' weird properties like the non-magic property.

"No. Why would it? Magic is only unusable because of the dense curse-aura that this Area is contaminated with. Shadows aren't affected by such a thing." - GM

I should have known. Filyn only waved this strangeness away due to her too-long experience with the ridiculousness of this place so we didn't investigate further other than using [Shadow Dive] a few times. But if this is not a...okay, "natural event" may not be the right word, but if this rubber-like barrier that prevents us from going into the Shadow World is done by someone, that person must have a reason for doing so, probably.

"If that's the case, how would you bypass this barrier?" I asked GM after laying out my theory about the barrier.

"Wouldn't [Shadow Lantern] be good? The barrier is in the shadows, but the shadows themselves aren't affected by it, meaning that using the Lantern to turn you into a "Shadow" should make the barrier ignore you." - GM

"Tch, correct..." - Garami

"Why did you click your tongue there!?" - GM

While feeling irritated at how fast GM came to the same idea, I decided to swallow my complaints and activated the skill. Upon activation, a black lantern appeared in my hand, a dark light shining inside it.

The ones who are in contact with this lantern will be treated as a shadow in the same manner as to how skills like [Ocean Territory] can make other skills think that solid ground or whatever is the ocean instead. The benefit of this ability is to improve other Shadow attribute skills, meaning stuff I don't have, or soften the impact of Shadow attribute attacks, which is something I can use. After all, hitting a shadow with a shadow ain't such a smart move.

And then there's this situation.

I went into the shadow again, but this time, there was no resistance from the barrier. Guess even low-level skills can work sometimes, as long as they are tailored for the job.

I entered the Shadow World, but instead of the normal everlasting darkness, I could see light at the bottom. It felt like the light of the surface that connects the Shadow World to the real world. I tried entering it like I do when I'm exiting the Shadow World normally, and lo and behold, I reached a new area~. One that looks like the corridor of a fancy castle.

The corridor must be around 20 meters high and half as wide. A red, velvet carpet is laid in the middle of the corridor, and the walls are made of what looks to be white marble, with pillars of the same material placed in rows along the corridor. They have even attached fancy-looking lights to the walls. Magitech lamps, from the look of it.

I'm looking down at the place from the roof. Or, my head's sticking out of it would be more correct. To explain it better, maybe thinking that this Shadow World entrance to this place is its roof?

Right as I was gonna jump down to the floor, I heard footsteps. Loooots of footsteps. So I returned to the Shadow World to wait for whoever it is to pass.

...and damn good that I did. Because inside that castle corridor, which I'm in no doubt now is the Chaos Dungeon, came a small army of floating mirrors, walking armors that are made completely out of mirrors, and one gigantic gecko with three heads.

"What is that all about?" asked GM as she floated down to me after entering the Shadow World herself, experiencing the same effects used on me due to technically being part of my skill.

"An army to harvest souls since they are in a pinch?" - Garami

They probably need to find the Chaos Dungeon's real entrance or something, seeing as they didn't go straight through the roof. Because that was far from a patrol group. They were armed for war.

"That's horrible! Shouldn't we warn the others?" - GM

"Of course, but we shouldn't let their master roam free either." - Garami

Dejidem called the mastermind behind this Chaos Dungeon the "Mirror Throne", and I saw no thrones in that army.

"Then...what are we going to do? Call for help or warn people about the army?" - GM

"Both." - Garami

I then took out pen and paper from my Storage. 

Chaos Dungeon is located in the Shadow World of the Demonic Seas.
There is a barrier blocking the way, so use skills that let you either be treated as shadows or find a way to break the barrier altogether.
Additionally, an army of bad-looking guys is moving around in the Dungeon. Could be planning on attacking somewhere. Mostly mirror-based monsters, plus one huge lizard with three heads.

After finishing the note, I returned to the "real world" and gave the note to the Pale Horse that was still around and asked it to find someone from Babel to hand the note to.

"Uh...why not give the message yourself?" asked GM 

"Because, if that army is really moving out, it's a sweet situation for someone with my Main Class," I said as I dived into the Shadow World again and entered the Chaos Dungeon.

Time to take down a king...I mean, the king's throne. Man, that felt surreal...

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Kigal-Note/Active Skills: [Shadow Lantern]