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A Little Shift in Perspective Required for Clearing a Dungeon – Part 05

That was nerve-wracking. I mean, who charges into poisonous monsters like that?

Hikaru thought Jillarte was being reckless earlier. Needless to say, he wasn’t aware of the turmoil within her, so it was understandable for him to assume that she fought like that regularly.

I’ll warn her about her fighting style later. Right now, we should focus on moving forward.

The door Hikaru unlocked wasn’t particularly challenging. It had an unconventional design with five scattered keyholes, but the keys themselves were simple in shape. Unken’s training had actually included lock-picking.

Hikaru held the door open, and Jillarte, along with Lavia and Paula, passed through in that order. Once everyone had crossed, Hikaru closed the door.

Instantly the lights in the passage went out.

“What’s going on?!”

“Calm down,” Hikaru said. “I think the supply of mana has been cut off. That’s all.”

Hikaru turned on a magic lamp, revealing Jillarte with her sword drawn. She sheathed her weapon back awkwardly.

“You could have told me that earlier,” she grumbled.

“I didn’t know what would happen either. And besides, this map doesn’t have any warning written on it whatsoever.”

The map of the Maze of Magic Locks that Hikaru had purchased from the Adventurers’ Guild was intricately detailed, with precise annotations about door shapes and monster spawns. However, it failed to mention anything about the passage’s lights going out when the door closed.

“Yup, there are marks on the floor.”

There were dirt streaks around the area where the door had been fully opened. Adventurers must have left the door ajar like this to ensure an escape route in case of emergencies. If this was standard practice among adventurers, very few people would know about the passage darkening when the door closed.

“It’s ironic that adventurers being optimal made it impossible to clear the dungeon,” Hikaru said. “If people knew that the passage would go dark, they would probably suspect some sort of mechanism in the passage itself.”

“This dungeon was thought to be just a place to collect elemental magic stones,” Jillarte replied. “Skilled adventurers would set their sights on other dungeons.”

As Jillarte said, if the dungeon was more accessible and offered more attractive spoils, the fifth floor would have been cleared a long time ago.

“But thanks to that, we have the chance to be the first to clear the fifth floor.”

“I can’t wait,” Lavia said.

“Wh-What could be waiting for us?” Paula wondered.

Jillarte laughed “So eager. You two have complete trust in Hikaru, huh?”

“Of course,” Lavia declared proudly.

“I, uh… I trust him too!” Paula blushed as she nodded.

“Nice party you got there.” Jillarte nudged Hikaru’s elbow with a grin.

“Let’s hurry,” Hikaru briskly moved on, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

“I know.” Jillarte followed with a smirk on her face. “So, where did you meet those two?”

“In Ponsonia. Wait, I don’t think that’s important right now.”

“Oh, come on. Just killing time until the monsters appear.”

“Please keep an eye out.”

“You got that covered. Isn’t that right?”

“…I guess.”

Hikaru’s Mana Detection didn’t sense anyone approaching from behind. He was trying to sense the sixth floor underneath, but he couldn’t pick anything up from that direction.

He wondered if there was no sixth floor after all. Perhaps the first to fifth floor passages were filled with magical power for a special purpose—supplying mana to the locked door—and the sixth floor below was just a regular dungeon. Simple passageways without mana flowing through it wouldn’t get picked up by Mana Detection.

“We should be safe, then,” Jillarte said.

“What about you? Getting cozy with any of those Beastmen?” Hikaru asked to prevent Jillarte from pressing any more questions.

Jillarte frowned. “Those guys are lost cases. They only care about what I look like.”

“I see. So you’re saying what’s on the inside is more important?”

“Of course. Besides, I haven’t known them for very long.”

“Is that so. Then, what about the people of the same race as you? You know, people you’ve known for a long time.”

“They’re more like family than companions. They even somewhat worship me… Oh, I’m actually the daughter of the chief.”

“R-Really now?” Hikaru couldn’t reveal that he already knew about it.

“My father has long passed away, though… Hmm?”

“What?”

Jillarte seemed to have sensed something.

“Weapons ready. We’ve got company.”

A second later, Hikaru also sensed monsters approaching.

The monsters that appeared were the familiar Goblins. However, they were not the regular kinds that only reached a human’s waist; they were Hobgoblins, a superior species about the same height as Hikaru, with green skin. And there were five of them.

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Their eyes were yellow, and their fangs were pronounced. They brandished wooden shields and iron swords in their hands.

“Haahh!”

However, these non-poisonous monsters were no match for Jillarte. Although she had some trouble dealing with five of them, she managed to defeat the Hobgoblins without getting hit, turning them into white smoke.

“Oh, three water elemental magic stones. And there’s fire and wind.”

Hikaru picked up the magic stones to give to Jillarte, when he found her staring at him dubiously.

“Jillarte? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, um… I-It’s nothing.”

Jillarte accepted the water elemental magic stones and carefully put them in a leather bag.

“All right, let’s go. We’re almost at the locked door,” she said with a stern look, her earlier cheerful tone gone.

As she said, there was a vast space up ahead picked up by Hikaru’s Mana Detection. Finally, the party arrived at the current deepest part of the Maze of Magic Locks.

“It’s huge,” Hikaru breathed.

The ceiling stretched so high that it disappeared from view, and unlike the corridors, it didn’t glow, giving an impression of being under the night sky.

The floor and walls emitted a soft glow, but it faded away beyond a height of five meters. The space resembled an artificial garden nestled within the darkness of the night.

Hikaru expanded his Mana Detection in all directions. “It’s fine,” he said. “Doesn’t look like there are monsters around.” He could see the locked door in the distance, but there were no signs of any living creatures.

“The door looks closed,” Jillarted said.

“Yeah. We need to close one side of this door and open the other,” Hikaru added.

The locked door was on the opposite side of the square room from where the group stood, with separate entrances on the left and right walls. The right door was shut, while the left one led to a corridor.

They headed to the locked door and set down their belongings nearby.

“What a massive door,” Hikaru said.

It was unlike any of the doors they had seen in the corridors. This was remarkably huge, reaching perhaps three meters in height. Dull, golden double doors were embedded in the wall, devoid of handles or keyholes. Hikaru ran his hand over the smooth surface and found no bumps, only geometric patterns drawn with some form of paint. He already knew that these patterns were merely decorative and held no magical significance.

A door so unusual could either mean a colossal monster (or a treasure chest) on the other side, or it was merely an ornamental wall.

“All right, I’ll take care of the final door,” Hikaru said. “You guys stay here.”

“I feel bad leaving everything to you, so I’ll close the other door,” Jillarte said. “Don’t expect me to do any lock-picking, though.”

“Okay, then. Lavia and Paula, you two stay here.”

“As lookouts. Gotcha,” Lavia said.

“I’ll do my best,” Paula added.

There was no real need to do her best, but seeing Paula bracing herself, Hikaru couldn’t help but chuckle. Then, Hikaru and Jillarte proceeded in separate directions.

Jillarte headed towards the already open corridor. The sight of an open door without a lock was unnerving. It had to be closed for the locked door to open, but who would actually bother to close it?

Hikaru had completed the circuit up to this point. The two doors in this room should supply mana to the locked door.

“I’m closing it,” Jillarte said.

The door creaked, likely because no one had touched it for a long time.

Hikaru’s breath caught. As soon as the door closed, the light on the walls crawled upward, illuminating the outer perimeter of the ceiling.

“Oh!” Hikaru couldn’t contain his amazement.

The seemingly-empty ceiling was now adorned with shimmering stars. If not for the surrounding walls, one could easily forget they were inside a dungeon.

“Now, then. It’s my turn.”

Before Hikaru stood the same type of door they had encountered in the passages. One by one, he unlocked the five keyholes, and with each unlocking, light encroached upon the ceiling. The stars of the night sky vanished, replaced by swirling cloud patterns.

As the final keyhole clicked open, the door slowly swung open to the other side.

Simultaneously, light radiated toward the center of the ceiling, revealing a depiction of the sun.

Click.

The sun emitted a dazzling light.

Hikaru, Jillarte, Lavia, and Paula all directed their gazes upward.

A cracking sound came from the locked door. Dust rained down from above as the sand trapped between the doors fell due to the vibrations.

The locked door groaned open. After centuries of remaining sealed, the door that had never been unlocked since its discovery was finally open.

On the other side of the door was a dark space, with stairs leading downward.

“All right,” Hikaru said. “Let’s hurry—”

“Hahahaha! These brats actually opened it for real!” A voice came from the entrance to the room.

It was Gogo Zoro, the de facto head of the adventurers of Southleaf Island, carrying a massive battle axe on his back. With him were Esrat the lockpicker, a bat Beastman with keen hearing, a man with bandages on his face and skin, and a hunchbacked old man with a hood pulled low over his eyes.