“Luke, are you all right?”
The rumbling in the ground finally began to settle.
Lefiya addressed the boy who was kneeling beside her.
They were in a side passage on the fifteenth floor, a narrow little cave far from the main route.
They had run quite far. The ceiling collapse over such a vast area was murderous, and even Lefiya, a second-tier adventurer, had no option but to run. She grimaced as clouds of dust still filled the air.
“Nano…Cole, Milly…damn it!!!”
Luke slammed his fist against the ground.
Breathing raggedly, distraught by his powerlessness, he trembled with an aimless anger. Watching him from the side, Lefiya found herself wanting to click her tongue at herself for the first time in her life.
Finn, Riveria, or Gareth would have noticed the missing bad bats and immediately given the order to fall back. They would not have been so foolish as to try to discover the source of their unease when they were responsible for the safety of students.
Did I think I could do anything now that I’m Level Four?
She still had so much more to grow. Lefiya berated herself for having left them in harm’s way.
“…Luke, breathe in. And exhale slowly. Once your breathing is calm, answer my question.”
Not letting even a trace of how she felt about her pathetic display show, Lefiya immediately shifted gears.
Hearing her voice, Luke’s logic began to take over again, and he slowly breathed in and out like she said, standing up.
“Is this your squad’s first experience with a cave-in? Have you experienced anything similar in your fieldwork?”
“…We have. We were in trouble once, in a ruin in Teresas. The ruins collapsed while we were inside… That time we waited to be rescued and somehow managed to survive…”
“In that case, I doubt they’re panicking. Even if it is in the Dungeon, having experienced something similar before, they should be able to handle themselves.”
That made an enormous difference.
Staying calm and composed led to a dramatic improvement in survival rates inside the Dungeon.
“The problem is that they have all likely fallen down to a lower floor. The floor collapsed beneath all of the rubble in that area. They were likely caught up in that collapse when they disappeared into the rubble…”
Just before she pulled Luke away and ran, she felt the floor collapsing beneath her.
Without her or Luke, they would surely not have been able to escape falling, too.
“…How…?”
As Lefiya calmly analyzed the situation, Luke’s voice trembled, and his eyes flared.
“How can you be so calm?! You don’t even know if they’re safe!!!”
It was a reasonable question.
There was no reason Luke could remain calm when the comrades he had known for so many years were suddenly torn away from him. It would be hard enough just to stay calm. If she were in the same position as him…if she had been separated from Elfie and the others like that, she would have been more than a little shaken.
So, careful not to provoke him, she firmly held up a finger.
“There are two reasons why I am remaining calm. First, nothing about this situation would be improved by losing my composure. Throwing a fit is just a waste of stamina. And there is no point in exhausting myself mentally, either.”
“Gh…!”
“We can’t do anything other than work from the assumption that they are alive. They might be dead, but they might still be alive, too. So long as both possibilities remain, would you abandon them and head back to the surface?”
Of course not.
Luke looked at her, his brow furrowing as he answered without words.
Judging that his emotional state was improving, Lefiya held up a second finger.
“The second reason is that if I lost my composure, then you would, too.”
“!!!”
“So even if it is a bluff, I will always look calm in front of you students.”
Lefiya was not, in fact, agitated at the moment, but even if further absurdities pushed them to their limits, she would still have kept her cool.
Just as Riveria and Aiz and the others did.
Whenever she panicked and cowered at the irregularities that occurred in the Dungeon, they never lost their composure in front of her. They never said anything that would make her panic (though they did tease her on occasion).
Staying calm. Not letting communication fall apart. Even if it was just jokes and banter, just calmly speaking with each other was extraordinarily helpful. It was minor, but it allowed them to understand and reassure each other.
In the past, Lefiya had been the one saved by it, but now it was her turn to save someone else.
“…Sorry, Lefiya. I got heated again.”
“No, the situation is what it is. That much is completely understandable.”
After they’d looked at each other for a few moments, Luke’s fiery temper had cooled, and he apologized.
He was embarrassed, having lost his cool again even though he had been warned about it after that first time in the Dungeon, but Lefiya shared with him a few words, not as an adventurer, but as herself.
“Luke, your tendency to get heated and blurt out whatever’s on your mind might be a bad habit for an adventurer, but…I think the passion you feel for your comrades is a good thing. I don’t hate it at all.”
Lefiya smiled, sharing her honest feelings.
Luke’s face reddened enough that it was visible even in the dark of the cavern.
Though Lefiya didn’t notice as she reached into her pouch and looked over the map she pulled out.
We left the main route quite far behind to escape. Fortunately, I know this area…but it is far from a connection to the next floor.
Memorizing the route they had taken, Lefiya carefully traced the way back to the main route.
In terms of escape, Knossos is possible, but…we can’t use that. It is heavily classified, and even if Luke and I escaped, that would do nothing for them.
Daedalus’s masterwork was connected to every floor, but without a key, there was no way for her to effectively make use of it. And the access door was far away as well. It could be used to send in rescuers by those who knew its existence, but that was about all the good it could do them now.
“…We should prioritize linking back up with them.”
Putting her mind to work, Lefiya came up with a plan.
Fortunately, they had planned for a mini-expedition and camping out in the Dungeon, so they had prepared more food, water, and items than usual. Half of them were with Lefiya, and the other half were with Nano, who was acting as a supporter in addition to a mage. That the two of them were not together was a small silver lining.
At a quick calculation, if they were still alive, they could support themselves alone for around half a day.
If they holed up together and limited their exertion, it would be different. Still, considering the possibility of having to fight monsters in an endless stream and managing the timing for recovery, that would be their limit.
They would have to find the three of them in the vast area of the middle floors before time ran out.
“…What about other squads or adventurers who got caught up in it…?”
“Ignore them. Even if other squads were left behind, unfortunately we cannot take care of them. And all the more so for any adventurers. Just finding the rest of our squad that we were separated from will be exceedingly difficult. We don’t have the leeway to try to save some unknown number of people who may or may not need help.”
There was no time. They did not have the leeway or the time to make the wrong choice or flounder over what to do.
Luke pursed his lips when she announced it so clearly.
Take responsibility for your own party. It sounded cold, but it was the judgment of an adventurer who knew what she was talking about, and the kindhearted boy accepted it.
He was able to prioritize his desire to search for his own comrades.
And—despite what she said, if they did find someone suffering, she would absolutely help them without question. It was a dispassionate answer to help him clear away his doubt, and it was a lie of convenience.
“Luke, I believe I know what they would do when separated, but I would like to ask you since you have known them for far longer than I have,” Lefiya said, leading into an important question. “Will they wait to be rescued or try to forge their own path? What do you think they will choose in this situation?”
Luke closed his eyes for a moment and then quickly looked up.
“If it were before we met you, we definitely would have waited to be rescued,” he said, envisioning their past selves. However, he continued with a loud shout, “But after learning so much from you, I’m sure they will keep going deeper! They won’t leave their lives to fate or luck! They’ll make their own path!”
They would venture forward even if it were dangerous. They would become adventurers.
Hearing that, Lefiya smiled.
“Good. I was thinking the same thing. In that case, they will have set out for the eighteenth floor. Now that we know that, we can act, too.”
“Yeah!”
There was the possibility that someone was injured and unable to move, but Miliria could use healing magic. As long as it was not an especially bad injury, they would be able to move.
She would have to believe that they would choose to become adventurers and proceed accordingly.
“Let’s go.”
It was just five minutes from the time the floor collapsed.
Lefiya and Luke began to act.