With blades in hand, we harvested the wood. There was so much ivy that had been cut down during the battle as well that collecting it all was an entire job by itself. Landmakers or not, we never would have finished without everyone’s help.
The remaining bloodsucking kudzu vines had crawled up the walls and curled up near the ceiling. I considered exterminating them but decided against it. We didn’t have the time, and if we let them grow, we could harvest them again.
We could use the ivy as is for makeshift ropes to tie what we gathered together, too. A little elbow grease, and they’d make even better tools. Once we returned, I’d have to ask that executioner about it.
We didn’t have the tools or workforce to put the entirety of the treant to good use. Regretfully, we’d have to leave the better part of it here. Still, we cut off all the bark and wood we were able to and packed them into our things.
Taking three straight branches, I shaved off the skin and fixed the dagger onto their tip. With that, I’d made a spear. Able to be handled even in a narrow passage, it was at most the height of a person, but its reach and power were still nothing to laugh at.
Estimating how much we could carry back, I gathered lumber until I couldn’t hold any more. As I looked up, figuring that would be enough, I saw Mizuho and Troach looking down at their feet atop the hill. The subordinates working nearby had gathered around them, too.
What’s going on?
I climbed up the hill. Mizuho turned to me and said, “Taiga, we found something…”
What they were looking at was a large hole that had opened at the top of the hill. It was where the treant had pulled its roots from; the earth seemed to have fallen in and formed a pit. Several white stone fragments were buried around the crater, making it look like a gravestone or monument.
“There’s a cave down there. Look.”
Troach hung a lantern onto the spear I’d just made and lit up the pit. She was right—under the hole seemed to be an empty, open space. It was partially obscured by the dirt that had fallen from above, but the stone flooring was visible. It was about five or six meters down.
“What should we do? If we descend a floor, we might find more stuff.”
I thought for a moment. With everyone safe and having found the meat and wood we were after, it was logically unnecessary to take on any more risk.
“Do stronger monsters appear the lower you go, or something like that?”
Mizuho shook her head at my question. “Maybe if you went very, very deep into the dungeon to where the Deep Ones live, but there’s generally no difference in threats whether you go up or down.”
“And I hear if you go up, you find strange things called High Risers loitering around,” Troach added. “Million Dungeon is perilous in any direction.”
“…All right. I’ll go and check.”
“Huh?”
“Wait, you?”
I nodded at the surprised girls. “We have too many things for us all to investigate. It’ll be a lighter trip if I take it alone.”
“You’re not wrong, but if you want a scout, I’m your girl—”
“No, you’re already wounded. We’ll need everyone up here to pull me out in case something goes wrong.”
“But…”
“You stay here. Protect Mizuho and the others. I’ll be right back.”
Troach scratched her neck for a moment, then sighed. “Okay, fine. You better bring me back at least one souvenir.”
Her face fraught with concern, Mizuho said, “Taiga, it’s true that moving one stratum won’t necessarily increase the threat. But it’s common for monsters of similar strength to make their homes near each other. We don’t know what’s waiting for you down there. Please be very careful, and if you sense anything at all out of the ordinary, come back.”
“Sure thing. I’ll be cautious.”
I took the rope and tied one end of it to the treant’s corpse. Dropping my bag of ivy next to the hole, I put a thick layer of cloth down over the top of it to ensure the tether wouldn’t wear away the edge of the opening.
I wrapped the cord around one of my thighs at an angle like the lower-right part of the letter N, and then with the upper-left curve around my opposite shoulder, I let the rest of the rope hang behind me. In this state, I could descend slowly by unraveling as I went.
“I’ll only be gone for a moment,” I assured, starting to rappel down to the lower floor.
The pit was barely two meters wide, but it wasn’t a hindrance as long as I went down slowly. I’d done this thousands of times in the Regiment. Even without rappelling gear that had pulleys and a brake attached, if I messed up on a tiny descent like this, they’d force me to return to duty.
The wall changed from earth to stone. The lantern at my hip illuminated the floor below. No movement.
Descending the last three meters without a foothold, I landed on the ground. I heard nothing moving and took that to mean I hadn’t set off any traps. Removing the rope from my body and looking up, I could see Mizuho’s and Troach’s silhouettes at the edge of the hole. I unhooked the lantern from my waist and swung it side to side to tell them I was safe. Then I hung the light on the end of my spear as Troach had done.
I moved the weapon around to check whether my surroundings were safe. The stone room was about six meters square. On one of the walls was a metal door. Its surface was rusted and beat-up. In the opposite corner of the room were some miscellaneous items piled up in a disorderly fashion, appearing to have been blown here by the wind.
Illuminating them with the lantern, I found some things in the garbage that were still usable—a sword free of rust, a glass container, and a large pot. I hadn’t exactly struck gold, but all these things would help our Great Camp Bravo Kingdom.
As I drew near the pile, I suddenly blinked, sensing something out of place. I thought I’d just glimpsed a shimmering outline around it.
There it was again. It was almost as though there was a watery surface between the heap and me, with ripples spreading through midair…
I thrust my spear’s tip in front of me. No doubt about it, something was here. A filmlike substance was floating above the ground, reflecting my lantern’s light. It had something of a roundness to it, and no sooner had it withdrawn from where my spear pointed as if in displeasure than it approached me along the ground like water…
A moment later, I was nearly drowning.
I had no idea what had happened. A liquid surface had suddenly appeared and engulfed me. I paddled in desperation, getting my head into the air. The stuff immediately followed, trying to smother my face. Whatever it was, it moved just like a creature might.
No. That was just it. This was a creature!
It wasn’t liquid, but an almost jellylike substance. It bounced and shook as it tried to swallow me. The thing’s exterior was made of a thin coating that provided resistance against my thrusts.
“Taiga?! What happened?!” Mizuho’s voice echoed down from above. She must have heard the commotion.
I shouted, “Some kind of clear blob is attacking me! It’s trying to drown—”
The monster in question held down my head and pulled me back under.
With my spear, I stabbed through the film, and when my face next emerged, I heard Mizuho cry, “It’s a slime! It should have a core in the middle! Stab—”
The creature moved around me, dragging me back in.
A core? Dammit…
I cracked my eyes open and searched for something fitting the description. The lantern had been pulled in with me, providing faint visibility. If I hadn’t been about to drown, I would have called the sight surreal.
Several items of trash had sunk into the slime. What I thought had been lying on the ground had actually been embedded inside its body. That meant this thing drowned anyone foolish enough to let their curiosity get the better of them, then ate them. Fools like me…
The slime fluids had more resistance than water, and I needed every ounce of strength just to move my limbs. To make matters worse, I was engulfed while fully clothed. My breath and stamina would run out within moments. In desperation, I looked for something that might be a core, like Mizuho had said. But I couldn’t see anything like that anywhere.
Finally, as I was just about to give myself up for dead, I spotted between pieces of trash a green orb that looked like a ball with most of the air sucked out of it. Translucent, it had fluid-filled tubes strung along its interior. That was it!
With the last of my energy, I paddled through the water to get close, shoved my hand into the pile of rubbish, and grabbed hold of the slime’s core. I tried to crush it, but it simply changed shape in my hand; it didn’t feel like I’d done any damage to it.
I thought I remembered Mizuho telling me to stab it. Groping around for any nearby trash, I found a rocky fragment. When I pushed one of its sharp edges against the thing and heaved, the core split, mixing its green into the surrounding liquid.
Suddenly, with a hard splashing noise, the slime’s body collapsed. The now-lifeless fluid spread across the floor, slamming both the garbage it had absorbed and my body onto the ground. A moan like a dying dog escaped my throat as I struggled to inhale.
“Taiga! I’ll be right there, so don’t die!” Troach’s voice came from the top of the pit.
Coughing, I answered, “I’m fine… I handled it.”
“…Really?”
“All clear. No need to come down.”
I picked up my spear and stood. It looked like a supersized water balloon had popped. My skin tingled, and my eyes stung, too. I popped open the cork on my water pouch and dumped the contents over my head, washing off as much of the bodily fluid clinging to my skin as I could.
What a terrifying creature that was. Once it had you inside, anyone without much endurance would immediately suffocate. The slime likely digested prey over a long period. Consuming nonorganic material seemed to serve two purposes: to lure prey and to protect its core, its only weak point.
I collected myself, then started gathering up the items scattered about the floor. I threw everything of worth into a bag, and once I finally tried to close it back up, I noticed that the rock shard that had been lying with the other discarded objects was faintly glowing. Closer inspection revealed that its surface was clouded, riddled with many scratches, but there was definitely light coming from within. The stone was also warm to the touch.