“Huh? That’s what the boss was wearing,” Emily murmured.
“What a good guy! He fixed this perv’s outfit! Right, Kotomi?”
“Erm, it does seem a bit better. Not that it’s good, per se.”
“Seeing that its enemy was nude, it gave him the very clothes off his back. Truly a samurai’s compassion.” Shizuku had an interesting view of the events.
In other words, it was like, Wow, do you not own clothes? Fine; just wear mine, then.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Ahahaha! Who knew the boss was so nice?!”
“Wow, that’s like sending salt to the enemy! Just like Uesugi Kenshin would.”
Emily was a fan of Japanese history. She knew a lot about it, it turned out. We’d played a historical strategy game together, after all! That was what grabbed her interest in the first place.
Yano also found it hilarious. “Pfft! Look at him, giving clothes to the guy he was just fighting! Looks like someone’s in looove.”
“Maybe he’s just picky about appearances?” I joked.
“Ahahahaha! Sounds like a mom!”
Either way, good job. Thanks, Death Chariot!
Despite how terrifyingly ugly it was, the chariot was growing in popularity among us. However, one person alone seemed unmoved.
“Grrr! Do you expect me to wear this disgusting attire?!” Ryuutarou quickly unequipped the robe, basking once again in his beloved nakedness.
You’re one to talk, man! You’re plenty more disgusting than the chariot!
Sure, it was a black robe with bloodstains and scary writing, and it came with weird, ghastly effects. At least people would just think you liked horror-themed cosplay. I figured it was better than being an unabashed pervert!
“This is an unwelcome favor. I do not need it, so you may as well take it,” he grumbled, forcing it on me.
Blood-Dead Robe
Type: Armor
Level: 50
DEF: 77
Wearable by all classes.
Effect: All stats -100, movement speed down.
Hah! It’s just cursed garbage! If it was wearing this, we must’ve fought it while it was weakened.
No matter what, reducing all of your stats just wasn’t good in battle. You could try to just wear it between battles for fun, but it reduced movement speed too, so it was a pain to have on. Truly a real problem child among gear. The only people who might be happy to possess it would be item-lovers with a penchant for collecting.
Hm. Maybe Homura would buy it off me for a high price?
“Uh, I don’t really want it, but thanks?”
All I could really do was just throw it in my inventory.
It has been 29 minutes since you entered. In 60 seconds, you will be booted from the dungeon.
Looking at the system message, I cried, “Oh, no! We gotta hurry! Run, run, run!”
We rushed to the warp zone that appeared in the center of the floor and progressed to B11F.
“Woo, nice! Found the save point!”
It was right in front of where we’d warped in. Looks like the rule is still one save every five floors. Good, good.
After completing the save and taking a short breather, we were forcefully expelled. As usual, the air in front of me distorted as we were kicked out of Aswarth’s Undersea Ruins.
At this point, we could tentatively note that every five floors, there was a save point. Furthermore, there was a boss every ten floors. As we progressed, however, that pattern could change at any point. Oh, and we had even more important information: the Death Chariot was a good guy! Duly noted.
I wanted to hurry up and map the layout of each floor before I forgot it all.
“Yo, Emily! Time for some mapping!”
“Okay! Coming!”
Emily and I quickly whipped out the Dealer’s Desk and got to work drawing maps. Naturally, I’d brought it with me! We were planning to do all five of our attempts today, so we needed to take care of this before we were bombarded with even more information.
“Err, this was over here... and that was...”
“Oh, no. That’s like this. Then we saw...”
“What are you two doing now?” Shizuku asked, curious.
“See, we’re making maps of the floors we’ve been on,” I explained. “Looking through them later might help us out somehow.”
“If there’s a method to how they’re generated, it can help us strategize!” Emily added.
Shizuku gave us a bemused look. “That sounds... rather boring. Do you enjoy it?”
“Yes, ma’am!” we replied in unison.
“I see. You’re like two little lab workers. I suppose that is one way of having fun, isn’t it?” She seemed a little more convinced.
“How was it, Shizuku? Did you enjoy raiding that dungeon?”
“Yes, it was rather exciting. It’s quite a new experience, but partaking in explosive battles is fun in its own way. I think I’d like to accompany your little group for a while longer.”
“You’re very welcome! We’re short on people, anyway.”
When we finished making our maps, we decided to dive right back into the dungeon. We had up to five runs a day, and darn it, we were going to use them! After each run, we mapped everything, then went right back in again. Eventually, our day of dungeoneering came to an end. For the next few days, we would repeat this process.
Save points every five floors and bosses every ten floors were hard and fast rules. We didn’t necessarily reach a save point every time, but we were able to progress often enough. Other players didn’t seem to be too much farther in, and I hadn’t heard of anyone grabbing the Rainbow Guard yet.
Things changed, however, once we passed B50F. After descending five floors down from B51F, we expected to find a save point—but we did not. In other words, the intervals between them had increased, making it much harder to progress past B51F. We would have to get some real strategizing in!
Akira would be back soon too. It was time to really show what we were made of!