The special attack that beat the bear, Involute. I don’t know why it’s named that, but still... For some reason, it allows me to float in the air. According to Crown, it’s “a quasi-anti-gravity device, utilizing rotational centrifugal force.”
It wasn’t perfect, though. To put it simply, moving up and down with it is easy, but moving forwards and backwards or side to side is still tricky. And it’s tricky to maintain my balance, too.
So I couldn’t exactly fly freely through the skies like a bird. I wonder what would happen if my skill level went up more, though... I’d probably be able to just keep on going up, but I’m not really interested in being up among the stars.
For now, though, I was doing the opposite and steadily drifting downwards.
“It’s so deep... And dark...”
When I looked down I saw a big, biiiig cave stretching out beneath me. It was scary, but it wasn’t too bad since Crown was lowering me down pretty slowly.
...Was that out of consideration for my feelings?
The walls looked like they were made by piling up stones... Yeah, like a big well.
It was dank and uncomfortable, but the space was so wide open that it also strangely had a bit of a mysterious feel to it.
It was quiet, so the sound of the gears keeping me afloat reverberated through the air.
The numerous little flames shined in the darkness of the abyss.
[—Bottom detected. 102 mels, 87 celchis.]
“Seriously...? I didn’t think 100 mels would look this deep...”
I slooooowly touched down on the ground.
The little lights lit up the area around me. I could only see one big path leading ahead. Amazingly... it actually looked to be paved.
Thanks to the sudden drop in air pressure, the mask had slipped loose around my forehead.
...Can I just leave it like this?
“Crown. You’ve got the knowledge of a beginner dungeon in your head, right? Is there any chance this place is...”
[—Analyzing.
—Affirmative. This terrain shows the foundations of a dungeon.
—Perceived mana outside of mana circle up above: zero.
—Predicting that dungeon core has been eliminated.]
“So it’s the ruins of a dungeon...”
That’s a shock. I never imagined there was a place like this between Donius and Cardiff.
The mask beckoned me into the now-pointless labyrinth.
This cave... The way it was paved made me think of an irrigation channel. It reminded me of a school field trip back in Cardiff.
“I’m heading in. If anything moves, tell me.”
[—Continuing search.]
I walked onwards, sending the little fire gears out ahead of me. Yeah, it was no shock, but I was scared. It’s real dark, after all. I mean, there’s pretty much no light down in this cave...
Or so I thought. There were actually little shining spots scattered here and there on both sides of the path.
The mask heated up a little again.
“Light magic stones... Are they reacting to you?” I asked, tapping the mask on my forehead.
I wouldn’t have seen that magic circle from before if I didn’t have this thing on, either. It must have been set up so that the person wearing it could see the path forward.
...Just what exactly was hidden here?
I was worried monsters may have settled down here, but fortunately I didn’t run into anything. Here and there, though, there were places where it looked like a path had been caved in.
Somebody had made sure this path was the only way forward.
Finally, I arrived at the end.
The ceiling was a bit high here. When I illuminated the space with my flames, I saw furniture.
This place is...!
“A... room?”
There was a room in the depths of these hidden labyrinth ruins. It... didn’t feel like a boss room, though. Then again, I’ve never been in a dungeon before so what do I know?
There was a desk and a chair, as well as a lamp and a map. Yeah... Feels like somebody had been living here. Was this where the owner of the mask on my forehead had lived?
“If they were holed up in a place like this, were they some sort of big bad guy...?”
...
“Well, whatever. So, what now...? Am I supposed to take care of some unfinished business? Destroy the ‘special books’ in the sock drawer or something?”
Hopefully it’s not too big a job for a restaurant owner’s daughter.
Shake, shake, shake...!
“Gah, it’s shaking! Crown, the mask is shaking!”
[—Crown can confirm.]
“Hey, you! Don’t you have any sense of danger?! Ah...!”
Fwip!
Ah, the mask went ahead and re-equipped itself.
“Seriously, you’re cutting off the circulation in my... Ah!”
It was shining! The desk! The drawer of the desk was shining!!
It was the same sort of yellow-green pattern that I’d seen with the magic circle at the entrance.
So this mask really does have the power to see hidden magic!
“That has to be this thing’s objective, right...?”
[—Direction of vector is a perfect match with the indicated point.]
“Should I open it...?”
Just don’t let it be pictures of naked ladies...
When I grabbed the handle, that yellow-green light seemed to burst apart, then disappear.
Clack. It was open.
I pulled, and it slid out with no trouble. Whoever made this seriously did a good job.
And inside...
“A knife and... a letter?”
There was a letter inside an envelope. All that was written on the outside was the recipient.
“To Basseley.”
That’s a woman’s name, right...?
Who is it? Your lover?
“So should I just burn this...?”
Shakeshakeshake!!
“Hey! It’s shaking again! Way too hard, actually!”
[—Crown can confirm.]
“You dummy!! I-I can’t get it off?! This thing really is a cursed mask! Gah, it’s itchy! My eyes are feeling itchy!”
Shake...
“Ha... haha... I-It stopped.”
Hey, what’re you doing? I was just talking about burning a love letter from your one-sided crush, right?
“You... don’t seriously want me to deliver this, do you?”
...
...This time, it wasn’t shaking. S-So did this silence mean that was right?
“Come on, give me a break...”
[—Reporting. Vector direction confirmed to be linked to one more item.]
“Huh? To the knife, too?”
So this letter and knife were a set?
“This knife... it’s completely clear...!”
Normally, a knife’s handle and blade are made of two different things. But this one seemed to be made entirely of crystal.
It was amazingly clear, like ice.
Ah! There’s some sort of plant inside...!
“That’s a bud... Is it a flower?”
[—Unable to find corresponding information.]
“Huh?! If it’s some plant that even you don’t know, it must be pretty rare, right?”
Crown had the information of a freshly created dungeon core packed into its head. That was a trait of the analyze card it had absorbed. So shouldn’t it have info on plant and animal type monsters?
Well, there may be all sorts of plants that can only grow in a dungeon.