Three times.

The slime’s storm that I hoped would end in one go had actually repeated itself twice more.

As the pursuing slime added new slimes, the scale of the purple tidal wave grew larger and larger.

By the third attack, there were so many slimes that I couldn’t even think about passing through with just a holy barrier; I had to waste even more of Arine’s other holy miracles.

In other words, somehow, I had pierced through and made it to the fifth floor.

“Huu… I guess the slimes are done for now.”

After dropping down to the fifth floor and a prolonged sprint, we finally managed to shake off the relentless pursuit of the slime legion.

“It doesn’t seem like they plan to chase us anymore, so let’s take a quick break here.”

I set down Arine, whom I had been carrying, wiped the sweat off my cheeks, and announced a brief rest.

“Hah… Hah…! I’m alive, I’m alive…!”

Reed, who had been gritting his teeth to keep up, plopped down and gasped for air.

His body was soaked in sweat, and he looked pale as a ghost. His legs, half-bent, were shaking like he was having a seizure.

Hmm… this guy, for a ranger, doesn’t have much stamina.

Maybe it’s because he’s not on the front lines? If he was just shooting arrows from the back, he would have trained more for strength and focus than stamina.

A choice to leave what he lacks to others and focus on honing only the necessary skills.

It was an efficient method. If you spend time reducing your weaknesses, you’ll end up with little time to build on your strengths.

Of course, if faced with a situation without a front line, he’d greet the next morning in the afterlife.

But well, Reed was doing slightly better than Arine.

While Reed was recovering quickly, Arine was still struggling to keep herself together even though she had been brought here like a sack of potatoes.

“Ugh…! I almost met the goddess… ugh, gwah… I nearly ran into the goddess…!”

Was she getting motion sickness? As soon as she hit the ground, Arine splattered the floor with slime food.

In fear of the waterfall of goo more terrifying than poison, I took a couple of steps back from her, worried it might splatter on my clothes.

“Guwah…!”

…Looks like she had a lot of different snacks. Quite the slug level, I’d say.

I naturally took two more steps back to secure a safe distance from her chemical weapon of a mess.

◆◆

The scenery of the fifth floor was not much different from the upper floors.

A partially collapsed, winding corridor filled with luminous crystals. Enormous stalactites and stalagmites, with a stream flowing beneath the crumbling ground.

A fish-man leaping up like a flying fish in the underground water, and an eight-legged lizard that gobbles up the fish-man.

Three-legged bats fluttering between the stalactites, and a giant spider that traps and devours those bats in its web.

A transparent giant centipede writhing around like a pole, and carnivorous plants by the stream that grab and chew on the centipedes.

Various monsters formed a slightly violent but natural ecosystem, killing and eating each other.

The monsters, too busy eating each other, showed little interest in us. This seemed like the perfect layer for some leisurely rest.

“…Even if we take a break, we should at least change locations. It’s better to rest in a place with good air if we can.”

Of course, that’s excluding the spot sullied by Arine’s goo.

“I think that’s a good idea…!”

Following Reed’s suggestion, we walked for a few more minutes, then spread out and sat down, inhaling fresh air instead of the sour smell as we took our break.

Not wanting to just sit in silence, we chatted about various things during our rest.

“I’ve never encountered so many slimes in my life. What on earth did they eat to grow that big…?”

“Maybe it’s the luminous crystals? They must have bred by absorbing the magical power contained in them…”

“Ah, that might be it. A monster that can even dissolve steel surely wouldn’t have trouble digesting crystals.”

The topic was naturally about the slimes we had barely escaped from a moment ago.

The tidal wave of slimes that had surged even to the ceiling. It isn’t exactly common to face a sight like that.

Even I was somewhat freaked out by the terrifying spectacle, so it was obvious that was the first thing that came to mind when trying to speak.

“More importantly… what about the first exploration team that entered before us? Could they have all melted away on the upper floors? With that many slimes, it seems quite possible.”

“I don’t think that’s the case. They had several mages among them, and unlike us, they entered the dungeon early in the morning.”

The speculation was that the first exploration team had been annihilated by the slimes. However, Arine shook her head and firmly denied it.

“Um, what does the morning have to do with any of this…? Do slimes even sleep?”

Freed, who had somehow gotten close to me, cutely asked Arine, who smiled back and explained why I was wrong.

“Didn’t you know? Slimes don’t sleep, but they’re considered nocturnal monsters. They become more ferocious at night. Just like a moment ago.”

When the sun is out, slimes move slowly and have little aggression, but once night falls, they turn into deadly monsters that devour everything around them.

“I see. That’s something I didn’t know before.”

That was new information to me, even as someone who had read the original work.

Well, the original protagonist was more focused on becoming stronger as fast and efficiently as possible than paying attention to such trivial information.

Unless it was some top-secret info like ‘the Arch Demon’s hidden treasure’, he wouldn’t bother stuffing useless knowledge like the ecology of slimes in his head.

Since the original protagonist didn’t show any interest in such matters, it was naturally absent from the descriptions. The original novel I read was in the first-person perspective of the protagonist.

Anyway, if what Arine said is true, it means the first exploration team likely passed through the slimes on the fourth floor without issue.

“If we’re all rested, let’s start moving again. We probably have about four hours until midnight, so we should go down to the next floor and set up camp.”

After about twenty minutes of a brief rest.

After chatting and refueling myself with water and snacks, we got back up and scouted the remaining areas of the fifth floor.

It was a cautious exploration.

We had managed to safely escape the horrific horde of slimes, but that didn’t mean we could let our guards down completely.

Dropping our guard could lead us into an even more dangerous situation than before.

The fact that the slimes abandoned the pursuit meant there was something lurking on this fifth floor that could be stronger than those slimes.

“Reed, if you sense anything strange from now on, just shoot first and ask questions later. Whatever it is, it’s bound to be more dangerous than a slime.”

“Well, as long as it’s not physically immune, I should be fine.”

Finally given permission to shoot arrows, Reed confidently bragged. His tone suggested he could kill anything that wasn’t physically immune.

Well, it’s good to be overflowing with confidence. As long as it doesn’t lead to complete carelessness.

“Arine, how many miracles can you still use?”

“I’ve used up all my attack, barriers, and purification. I still have blessings and healing available, though.”

Compared to Reed, who preserved all his arrows, Arine’s power had significantly depleted after breaking through the fourth floor.

She could still fulfill her role as a healer, but had burned through all her holy barriers, and now her only direct attack option was to buff her axe and swing it.

After midnight, she would regenerate her powers, but until then, she could be considered the weakest in the party.

‘I’d probably lose even against a mediocre warrior.’

She had really become quite weak… but well, as long as the healer can heal, it’s fine.

The lack of a holy barrier was a bit concerning, but if needed, I could deploy a holy barrier in her place, so it wasn’t a serious problem.

◆◆

Thus resumed the exploration of the fifth floor.

After walking along the curving paths carved by groundwater for a while, we finally came face to face with the root cause of the slime exodus from the fourth floor.

– Fwoosh!

Flames illuminating the dim dungeon. Monstrous wolf-shaped creatures surrounded us, glaring with burning fire.

“Grrr….”

With claws like daggers and crocodile-like teeth. Their black bodies were filled with ash from being singed. They had four eyes and split tails.

“…I see why the slimes gathered on the fourth floor.”

A pack of wolves engulfed in flames that would even burn themselves. They were magical creatures created by demons imitating fire spirits, known as the Bund Wolves.

‘Of all the things to encounter, why does it have to be such a headache…?’

I clicked my tongue quietly and pulled out Edelmut.

Just by looking at them, it was clear that those things were living fireballs themselves.

With their flaming attacks and explosive self-destruction upon being mortally wounded, they were a real pain in the neck.