“This is so unfair!”
“Don’t act like a child, just accept the outcome, Benny.”
“Ugh…!”
Crunch.
Benny sharpened his pointy teeth, looking somewhat threatening, but the tears welling up in his eyes made him anything but scary.
With his shoulders drooping, I opened the entrance of the backpack I was carrying behind him.
“Let’s see… Ah, here it is.”
What I was looking for was a basic lantern I had bought before entering the labyrinth. It had a unique design that wrapped around the waist like a belt, made of a material that wouldn’t break under intense movement.
It’s a soft crystal that only appears on the second floor… in simple terms, it’s a material that can be processed into soft glass, right?
I don’t know the principles behind it. I guess that’s what makes it fantasy.
Curious about the lantern wrapped around my waist, I fiddled with it and turned it on.
Click-!
With the sound of the switch clicking up, the lantern lit up brightly. Thanks to that, the dark surroundings started to become visible a bit further away.
The muddy path surrounded us. Heavy, musty air. And the terrible silence, without a sound.
That’s right. If the first floor had the Great Forest as its background, the second floor is an underground tunnel.
A massive maze created by countless intertwining tunnels over a long time. That’s the theme of the second floor. Of course, it’s a maze where the攻略 has been completed and there’s a map.
“Wow. Seeing it in person is no joke. People must have tackled this with just their bare hands back in the day, right? I don’t think I could do it.”
“Yeah. Even now, most deaths on the second floor are not from monsters, but from people who get lost and starve. So Jonah, be careful. The pathfinding difficulty will be different from the first floor.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Thanks to my Pathfinding Skill, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about going missing in places with maps. But even knowing that, the scenery before my eyes was so overwhelming I couldn’t help but worry about getting lost.
The range of the lantern’s light was about 1.5 meters in radius. Beyond that, it gradually grew darker, eventually fading into an unknown.
Shaking off the chilling feeling as if peering into the abyss, I beamed brightly.
“In that case, should we confirm where we are first?”
“Hmph! It’s lucky enough we made it to the second floor, but do you really think a newbie who’s only been around for a month can properly navigate?”
Unlike Lydia, who stood calmly behind me, Benny muttered with a face full of disbelief. I grinned at her.
“Hey! Is the porter allowed to complain? Just enjoy the show!”
Benny’s face scrunched up. But what can she do? If she was annoyed, she shouldn’t have doubted me and made a weird bet.
Giggling, I scanned the center of the safe zone, which resembled a spacious room, where a monument oddly stood.
“Zone 17, huh? A nice outer area, just perfect. I’m thinking of going through Zone 15 to return at Zone 26. Do you have any objections?”
“Yeah. Looks good. I’m in favor.”
“Not me! It’s definitely a route that circles the outskirts, and only suitable monsters that match your level should appear. But do you know how many forks we’ll have to go through to circle the outskirts?!”
“Umm… Nine.”
“Right! Quite a lot, huh?! You think you can make it through all nine without getting confused and taking the wrong path? Either way, we’re here, so monsters won’t be a big deal. Why don’t we go a bit deeper and stick to one path until we get to Zone 13 and then return?”
Benny pointed to the winding path that connected directly from where we were on the map.
Ultimately, it leads to the core of the second floor, but as Benny said, we probably won’t face any dangers since our stamina is low. But…
“Hmm. So you really just don’t trust my skills? This is so cocky for a porter!”
“Isn’t it natural?! What have you done to make me trust you?!”
“Well, I appreciate the concern from someone who has only seen my face a few times, but really, I’m totally fine, so just trust me once. If things go sideways, we can always retrace our steps, right? And since you’re a mage, your memory should be good. With you around, it shouldn’t be hard.”
“…I wasn’t worrying about you! But, hmm. If you promise to trust me in a pinch, I’ll let it slide this time.”
Benny strutted around with a backpack as big as her torso. I often think about how her tight-fitting witch dress is basically unfair.
Her body, which should never look seductive, is starting to seem alluring.
I turned my gaze away and crouched down, placing my hands on the ground.
In the labyrinth, where everything changes irregularly, the basic tip to locate oneself and find the way is simple.
The unchanging elements… In other words, using the locations of the safe zones and the God’s remains as reference points. On the first floor, the World Tree was visible from anywhere in the Great Forest.
And the benchmark for the second floor is the remains of the God, the Heart of the Earth.
It’s marked as a big heart shape on the map, and if we go there, we’ll find a giant rock heart beating.
As the name suggests, the God sleeping on the second floor is the Earth God.
While other elemental gods died during the war, only the Earth God survived until the end.
That’s why, among the spirits born in places thick with the traces of the elemental gods, the earth attribute spirits are the least in number.
While many spirits were born from the corpses of other gods, the Earth God wasn’t buried above ground but in the labyrinth.
As I gently touched the ground, I felt a faint vibration. No, it’s not that I can hear the heartbeat of the Earth God from so far away.
Just like the Great Forest is the domain of the World Tree, this tunnel itself is the domain of the Earth God, so I could sense the presence of its master anywhere.
Remembering the position of the heart, I got up from my place.
“I found it! This way.”
In the large, room-like safe zone, as I headed toward one of the three connected passages, Benny mumbled from behind, sounding uneasy.
“Lydia. Do we have enough food?”
“I always carry a year’s worth of emergency food.”
“Isn’t that a bit too much?”
“But you don’t carry any, Benny. If we divide it, it’s just half a year.”
“Ah… Sorry.”
“And if we share with Jonah, it’s enough for four months.”
“I’ll make sure to prepare a bit from now on…”
“No, it’s fine. Anyway, emergency food comes out every year, so it’s just right.”
“…Return my apology!”
Despite the banter, Lydia and Benny followed closely. How many times have we repeated that while giggling down the long passage?
Crack.
A small discord arose in a space where there was no other sound apart from our party’s.
I stopped in my tracks and drew my dagger from my waist.
“Enemies.”
“I know that. …How did you know?”
Benny tilted her head. When I waved at the eyes that had popped out from her shadow, they blinked eagerly.
I chuckled in response to that sight.
“I’ve got a bit of a sharp instinct.”
After obtaining the ability of Silent Steps, I became more sensitive. If you want to hide your presence, you need to be aware of the effects you have on the surrounding environment.
I tapped my toes on the ground twice, concentrating my mind. A focused awareness. At the very tip, I heard a faint breath.
Is it coming from the right wall?
Suppressing my presence to the maximum with Silent Steps, my breathing became quiet, and the footsteps grew dimmer.
It felt as if I was blending into the world itself or wrapping myself in this world to conceal my existence.
Perhaps startled, the breathing from a distance began to falter.
Of course, it’s natural. Monsters on the second floor live in tunnels, so most of them have diminished eyesight but developed other senses.
From the monster’s perspective, it probably looks like a target has suddenly disappeared.
“What, what?!”
Even Benny, who was muffling her admiration, seemed to notice something.
According to Lydia, it was said that they could detect using their aura, or that even they would lose track if they’re not actively looking.
Benny likely wouldn’t be much different. No, since she’s a mage, her sense of perception is likely less sharp than Lydia’s, perhaps startling her even more.
I chuckled inwardly as I carefully approached the monster, step by step.
What stood there was a bipedal creature pressed tightly against the wall, cradling a pickaxe protectively.
It looked to be about my height or a bit taller. But its appearance, like a mix of a wolf and a lizard, along with shabby clothes, indicated it was a threatening monster despite its small size due to its long, spiny tail.
A kobold.
It’s the weakest monster on the second floor, similar to goblins on the first floor. Perfect as the first opponent.
I quietly grinned and approached it, which was straining to listen in my direction.
Its eyes, now clouded with a grayish tint. It’s probably a sign of diminished sight.
I swung my dagger at the kobold, which didn’t even notice I was right in front of it.
“Kobold?”
Was it the sound cutting through the air, or the light emitted by the Unicorn Dagger? The kobold finally recognized my presence a moment too late.
Indeed. It looks definitely stronger than mere goblins. But it’s already too late.
Swish.
Like slicing through pudding, the Unicorn Dagger smoothly passed through the kobold’s scaly neck.
Its body collapsed without its master, and its head rolled until it stopped at my feet.
After a brief hesitation, I picked up its head and dangled it as I returned to my companions.
Specifically in front of Benny.
“Benny! A present for you!”
“What are you, a cat bringing me bugs?! I don’t need that!”
How cruel.
