Natsuki explained that even if you began digging downward directly over the dungeon’s coordinates, you could never reach it, nor could you dig from one floor to the text. Apparently there were exceptions to this rule, but that didn’t seem to be the case for the twentieth and twenty-first floors of this dungeon. In any case, if they had been physically connected, then anyone who dug downward from the twentieth floor would probably fall to their deaths even if the distance was only as great as the height of the stairs.
“...Well, I guess it won’t be an issue if we just set up another teleportation marker later on this floor,” I said.
“We still have plenty of spares inside our magic bags,” said Haruka.
The materials to make teleportation markers weren’t cheap by any means, but they were affordable enough that it wouldn’t be a problem if we used a few extra to ensure our own safety. I felt bad given the amount of alchemical tinkering the girls had to do to make each marker, but when exploring a completely new floor, it was better safe than sorry.
“All right, let’s get going. I just hope this trail isn’t booby-trapped so it collapses under us.” Touya regarded the planks ahead of us with a somewhat dubious expression. “This is where we turned around last time, so we have no idea what’s ahead of us. Let’s all be on high alert. Hopefully Natsuki’s Traps and Snares 101 skill will help.”
“Oh, um, I’m afraid I’m not completely confident in that skill, but I’ll do my best.”
Natsuki seemed genuinely determined, but it was rare to hear her this nervous. Admittedly, all her skill did was furnish her with knowledge about traps, so it had occurred to me that it might not help her to detect them. There hadn’t been any opportunities for her to use it, so it was still level one. I felt like there were a number of reasons for concern here.
“It’s not ideal to restrict our range of motion, but for the time being, let’s tie ourselves together,” said Haruka. “This way, we’ll have some hope of recovery if one of us falls...”
“Touya’s the one who has the highest odds of falling, which might be a problem,” I pointed out.
Haruka didn’t sound entirely confident in her own idea, and I couldn’t really blame her. Touya was the strongest person in our party, and his total weight, including equipment, was far greater than Haruka’s and mine combined. If one of us fell, Touya could probably pull us back up on his own, but if he fell, there was no way Haruka and I could save him. Even with Yuki and Natsuki’s help, we would probably barely be able to save him given the velocity he would gain from falling. Mary certainly had the strength to help out, but as for her weight...
“Um, would you like me to lead the way instead?” Mary asked hesitantly.
Metea raised a hand. “I can walk with my big sis too!”
If Metea fell, we could undoubtedly pull her up easily, but...
“No way!” Coincidentally, I spoke at the same time as Touya.
If all we’d had to worry about was the plank trail collapsing under us, letting the sisters take point would probably have made sense, but we were inside a dungeon, so there were other threats—monsters, of course, and the possibility of different traps ahead—so we couldn’t in good conscience allow our youngest members to lead the way.
“We’d prefer it if both of you remained on guard in the rear,” I said. “That’s a very important contribution too.”
“It is? All right, then,” said Mary.
“Okay! You can count on us!”
As the sisters returned to their original positions, Touya came up with the perfect line. “All right. Feel free to cut the rope if you think it’s necessary, Nao,” he said, looking pretty satisfied with himself. “Sacrifice me to save everyone else if you have to.”
“Oh, I’ll be leading the way this time, Touya-kun,” said Natsuki. “You can walk right behind me.”
Touya froze at those words, and Mary clenched her hands in determination as she tried to cheer him up.
“D-Don’t worry, Touya-san! I thought it sounded cool!”
Mary had good intentions, but that had actually been the final blow to Touya’s ego. He flushed bright red and crouched down with his ears and tail tucked.
Haruka was at least merciful enough not to kick Touya while he was down. She turned to Natsuki as if nothing had happened and asked, “Are you sure about this?”
“It’s the best option available to us in our current situation. I’m a frontline fighter as well, and this will enable me to use my Traps and Snares 101 skill the most effectively. Besides, even in the event that I fall, everyone else will likely be able to pull me up. I should add that if anyone falls, everyone else should immediately halt and crouch—it’s easier to lose your balance if you’re standing up.”
Natsuki’s reasoning made perfect sense to me, and yet I was ill at ease with the idea of making a girl lead the way into a dangerous place. Generally, however, all of us treated one another as equals, so I had no grounds to reject her suggestion. Touya still looked mortified, so I kicked him in the butt to snap him out of it, then tied myself to him with some rope. I made sure that there was enough space between us that we would still have some freedom of movement but kept us close enough that our bodies wouldn’t gain too much velocity if one of us fell. In the end, we lined up with Natsuki in the front, followed by Touya, me, Haruka, Mary, Metea, and then Yuki in the very rear.
Natsuki turned to the rest of us for confirmation. “Okay. Let’s get going.”
She began to pick her way down the narrow trail, paying careful attention to the ground beneath her feet. As we followed the trail, it sometimes widened and sometimes narrowed even more. In the narrowest section, it was no more than fifty centimeters wide, and the grade was fairly steep too. This lasted for over ten meters. I was spooked the whole time. I would never have said I was afraid of heights, but my legs were weak from fear. Even Haruka looked somewhat terrified. She kept muttering to herself that she should have put more practice into the Airwalk spell. I felt exactly the same way. We’d spent about thirty minutes on this rather thrilling section of the trail when my Scout skill picked something up.
I hastily tried to get Natsuki’s attention. “Natsuki, hold on!”
“What’s wrong, Nao-kun?”
Natsuki immediately stopped in her tracks and turned back to me. I walked over to her, and because we were all tied together, the others had to move as well. It was pretty awkward, clinging to the cliff in a huddled mass, but we had no other choice.
“Well, I noticed something weird with my Scout skill, but I’m not sure how to describe it,” I explained.
The signal I had picked up was very faint, but there was something up with the wall ahead of Natsuki on the right. It felt somewhat similar to the sensation I got when Natsuki and the others used the Sneak skill. I had leveled up my Scout skill, so I was better at detecting hidden things now.
“This spot here feels off to me.”
The spot that had caught my attention looked like a normal section of rock wall. I poked it with my spear just in case, and...
“Yikes!”
“Huh?!” everyone else exclaimed.
The rock wall suddenly leaped forward, bouncing my spear back. The impact almost sent it flying into the gorge, but I snatched it up just in time, and the lump of rock fell. Wait, that’s the signal my Scout skill detected! What is it?!
“It’s a monster called a rock spider!” Yuki exclaimed. “Well, it was a monster called a rock spider...”