Volume 3 Chapter 5 Part 2
「Have a safe trip!」
「Thanks Shizuku!」
Bidding goodbye to Shizuku, who would watch over the apartment in our absence, we headed into the dungeon.
Our goal: to acquire the seven-colored fish which lived in the spring of Yomi Dungeon’s 7th floor.
Now that I thought about it, this was my first time venturing deeper into the dungeon. In the past, we’d formed a party to travel upwards to the surface, but I’d never gotten the chance to explore deeper floors.
Luckily for us, my apartment lead to the 5th floor, which was relatively close to the 7th.
The fifth floor walls were built from stone bricks, resembling ancient ruins I’d seen in photos and games. We also encountered a diverse variety of aggressive monsters.
Which wasn’t a big deal, since Ria easily cut them all down with her gleaming sword, whether it be giant rats or monster mushrooms.
As we walked, I became curious about what the 6th floor contained.
I turned to Ria and Deet. 「You mentioned that the dungeon’s first floor is mostly a city where people rejected by society go to live, right?」
「Yeah.」
「Mhm.」
The two nodded.
「Nya-!? Hey! The people in the Thieves’ Guild are good people!」
You can claim that all you like, but no one’s believing you.
I ignored Miri and continued the conversation. 「Then, the second floor is a forest, the third a castle, the fourth a tree, and the fifth is here. And I guess the seventh is a lake. What about the sixth floor?」
「The sixth floor requires special caution.」Deet replied.
「R-really? Even more so than the seventh?」
「Yeah.」
That seemed to go against what I’d been told before about the dungeon getting progressively more dangerous the deeper you went.
From Deet’s words, the 6th floor sounded far more dangerous than the 7th.
「I mean, the seventh floor isn’t that dangerous if you can use water-walking magic.」Deet explained.
「That makes sense. So it’s hard to navigate around, but there aren’t many dangers.」I paused. 「So what’s on the sixth floor?」
「Sentient monsters. Orcs, kobolds, goblins… they tend to swarm together when they attack, so you end up having to fight against all of them at once.」
「That’s… bad news, isn’t it?」
「Well, orcs, kobolds, and goblins don’t get along with each other, so it’s not as bad.」
I got the impression that swarming masses of monsters were quite dangerous.
Naturally, I’d fought countless monsters in video games, but even then, they rarely allied together with different races and attacked in large numbers.
Nor did such occurrences even happen on earth. Imagine if bears, lions, and tigers came together to attack humans. They’d probably end up fighting each other first.
And so I couldn’t help but fear for my life when I thought about the 6th floor and the swarms of monsters attacking all at once.
But Deet wasn’t finished. 「There are also rumors that the sixth floor monsters capture humans alive and… do that to them…」
「That? You don’t mean… they capture girls… and…!?」I shuddered. I couldn’t bear to think about what would happen if Ria and the others were captured.
「Not just girls. Guys too, apparently.」
「Guys too!?」
「Well, you’re really cute, so they might capture you too. It’s not like female goblins and orcs don’t exist.」
A-are you kidding me. My shivers grew.
But at the very least, I now knew what was the floors were like up to the 7th.
The First Floor: A town filled with humans shunned by normal society. Three guilds fought and vied for power. Very few monsters lived there.
The Second Floor: A forest. Sun-moss grew all the way up to the ceiling of the dungeon, creating the illusion of sunlight streaming through the branches. Monsters included blue slimes and the like.
The Third Floor: Resembles the interior of a castle. Said to be caused by a distortion in spacetime, or perhaps the remnants of an old castle that sunk underground. Monsters included skeletons and the like.
The Fourth Floor: An area completely overgrown with the roots of some unknown, massive plant, as one might find in a natural cavern. Though the walls had originally been constructed from stone, the roots had destroyed much of that, exposing the soil behind the walls. Monsters included large rats and the like.
The Fifth Floor: Ruins. Straight roads paved with stone blocks and perpendicular turns. Occasionally, a path would open up into a space resembling a room. Monsters of all varieties appeared, and giant centipedes, in rare occasions, could be seen.
The Sixth Floor: Ruins, similar to the 5th floor, however, monsters often attacked in swarms. Monsters composed of orcs, goblins, and kobolds.
The Seventh Floor: A lake with islands. Though it still existed inside a ruins-like structure, filled with faintly glowing water, which was dotted with islands. Navigating it was difficult, requiring water-walking magic or a canoe. Monsters mainly comprised of various sea monsters.
I asked Deet about our plan for the 6th floor. 「How should we get past the sixth floor monsters?」
「We’ll try to avoid them if possible. And if we do end up encountering any, we run. The last thing we need is to end up in a battle, since they’ll have infinite numbers of reinforcements.」
「Huh??? Are you sure we’ll be okay?」
「The monsters are smart, so they won’t attack a party if the risk is too great. If you don’t venture too far into their territory or instigate an attack, we’ll be fine.」
「I see.」
Which meant that on the flipside, if we did end up venturing deep into their territory, things would get dangerous.
Deet guided us forward, carrying our sole map. With her leading the way, I didn’t have too many concerns.
But for some reason, I felt like I was forgetting something important.
The party comprised of Ria, our tank and physical damage dealer, Deet, our spellcaster, and Miri, in charge of sensing enemies. Between the three of them, I was mostly useless for our expedition.
And so accordingly, I’d been designated as the luggage-carrier. Which meant that I was free to lose myself in my thoughts as we walked.
My thoughts drifted to the monsters that Deet mentioned. I wondered what orcs and kobolds and goblins would be like.
「Deet, what kind of monsters are goblins?」
「Out of the sixth floor monsters, they’re the weakest, but their numbers are also the greatest. They’re small monsters, about as tall as a human’s waist.」
「Hmm. What about kobolds?」
「They’re dog beastpeople monsters.」
「Huh? They’re beastpeople?」
So… like Miri? Though for obvious reasons, I didn’t want to ask that out loud.
「They’re closer to monsters in terms of both appearance and intelligence.」Deet explained. 「They’re classified as beastpeople, but that’s about it. Though they’re around the same size as humans.」
Deet picked up her pace, walking on ahead. From what she’d described, I didn’t feel particularly terrified at the thought of goblins or kobolds.
「What about orcs?」
「Their numbers are the fewest, but they’re the strongest. As for their size… I’d say they’re slightly bigger than a large human.」
I nodded. Though I couldn’t seem to remember what I’d forgotten, at the very least, I learned that I’d do well to not provoke the 6th floor monsters.
But if I recalled correctly, it had something to do with orcs…
「Oh right. Speaking of monsters grouping together, do monsters live together?」
「Depends on the type of monster. But I guess they do live together similar to the human city on the first floor.」
The floors in Yomi Dungeon were exceedingly large. On each floor, not just one, but multiple staircases and paths leading through and between floors existed.
Adventurers simply traversed the familiar routes they knew. In our case, we were following a route that Deet knew.
Four hours later, we arrived at a downwards sloping path. Beyond this was the dangerous 6th floor, so we took a small break to recuperate our strength.
As we munched on the sandwiches that Shizuku had packed for us, Deet firmly warned us about the path ahead.
「We’re going to the sixth floor now. Avoid fighting at all costs. Miri, tell us immediately if you sense any enemies.」
「Yes ma’am!」
As a bandit, Miri’s skill allowed her to detect nearby enemies.
「And Ria, if we do happen to encounter any monsters, your job is to slay them before they can call for reinforcements.」
「Understood!」
Ria’s flawless swordsmanship was faster than even magic. In the chance that we had to fight, she was our best bet.
「And if we can’t kill them before they call for reinforcements, we run before we get surrounded. In that scenario, feel free to discard the luggage, Tooru.」
「G-got it.」
I guess she had taken me into account as well.
And thus, we headed carefully into the 6th floor, which, like the 5th, resembled abandoned ruins.
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