On cue, I sent an arrow to pierce the legs of our next foe, a monster with a dizzying array of eyes. The thing looked like a huge, ungodly chunk of flesh with multitudinous eyes and innumerable, razor-sharp tentacles, all propped up on two thin legs. I feinted so it wouldn’t slap my arrow away and released the bolt. Naturally, the monster lost its balance and fell over, restricting the movement of those tentacles, on which its body collapsed.
“Shuna, duck behind me and stay hidden.”
“Yes, sir!”
The wizened man crouched down low, his shield out before him; Shuna was behind, making himself just as small. The two slowly but surely crept toward the monster. Numerous tentacles slammed into the shield; Pops angled it with expert precision, deflecting the attacks.
“On my call, jump out to the left.”
“Yes, sir!” I was glad to see Shuna so pumped. Assisting the father of adventurers in battle would be a great experience for him.
“Now!” Pops pinned a bundle of the tentacles against the ground under his shield while Shuna leaped at the enemy and thrust his sword in its body. Without skipping a beat, the battle-hardened adventurer rushed at the monster, treading on its tentacles to get close. Under the onslaught of their two blades, the creature perished.
“Corpse.”
“On it.” Splash of oil, light a fire. We kept moving on to the next battle.
“Arms.” I shot as ordered. Once our enemy lost its balance, the two vanguards finished it off. I disposed of the body, and we continued on.
“You see the pattern now, don’t you? After those three.”
“Oh yeah.”
“?” Shuna tilted his head like a confused puppy as he pondered Pops’s question.
I voiced my takeaway. “Don’t aim for the monster’s most developed organ. Go for its weakest part, right?”
“Exactly. They habitually use the more distinguished, evolved parts of their bodies to attack and defend. So we center our aim somewhere else. If you’re lucky, you can destabilize your enemy with a single arrow or knife. Once it’s down, collect yourself and strike its fatal point. This strategy should get you through most of the less intelligent creatures.”
“How do you decide where else to shoot first?” Sometimes, monsters didn’t even have arms or legs to aim for.
“Experience, little chick. Trial and error.” Great, so the most difficult option. “Shuna, you’re quite the swordsman already. I imagine there are none in Remlia of your age who can match your skill.”
“Thank you very much!” The young boy’s eyes shone so brilliantly I hardly recognized him. Would it hurt for you to look at me like that sometimes?
“So no need to panic. Your sword betrays you, though that much is to be expected of one so young. Remember to take a deep breath before you go in for the attack every once in a while.”
“Yes, sir, I will, sir!”
Our party stopped in its tracks.
“And where should we aim for on that thing in our way, Pops?”
“Hmm?”
Down the corridor, a giant reptile known as a rock-eating turtle chomped away at the wall. We’d fought with an oversize, mutated version of this beast before. Compared with that, the one before us looked tiny—so small—but even so took up about 70 percent of the passageway.
“Think for yourself. Don’t expect all the answers to be given to you.”
“……Understood.” I stepped in front of the group on my own. Based on my encounters so far, this kind of monster was—
“Be careful, my love.” I gave Lana a wave in response.
Creeping up next to the giant turtle, I started hacking away at the wall with my woodsman’s ax. It was rock-hard but gave way easily after the ax’s blade made it through one of the layers. Fluorescent specks of unrefined emiluminite peppered the crumbled stone. I made about six fist-size clumps of the stuff, figuring they’d be easier for the big guy to eat than gnawing away at the wall, then made a trail with them, placing one every few steps. The massive turtle ate them one by one, with each bite moving farther away until the path had cleared.
“All clear.” I led the others past the hungry turtle safely. “How did I do?”
Not all dungeon monsters were necessarily hostile or violent. Those who remained calm if you looked them in the eye wouldn’t aggressively attack—at least, in my experience. Though, that theory may be proven wrong going forward with new monsters, but I’d only know for sure after gaining experience and through trial and error like Pops had mentioned.
“Not bad, I’d say.” Hey, why are you so harsh on me? “I’ll hand it to you for getting us through the obstacle without injury, but those turtle shells go for quite a bit. One that big’d probably run about twenty gold.”
“Saltine! We must turn back!” The shopaholic Champion of Light jumped at the news before anyone else could respond.
“Cease your whining, milady. The sight of it is too embarrassing, even for you. You seem like a petulant child.”
“Yeah, not a good look, dude.”
“Freyja, you will bring the Gastolfo name to tears.”
The three’s harsh criticism almost made Freyja cry. “But my money, my money…”
“Yes, yes, we know, milady. Time to move on.” The reptilian maid pushed her employer forward so as not to break formation.
“It’s no walk in the park to take them down, you know. And it takes time. Forget it.”
“My sheeell… My gold…” Evidently, not even Pops could distract Freyja from her loss.
Normally, adventures boiled down to a repeating cycle of trekking, scouting, fighting, dissecting, and resting. Since we aimed to finish this mission quickly, we’d removed the dissecting part entirely, ignoring all the resources we came across. I’d explained that at the briefing this morning when we met up. Have you forgotten already, Lady Champion?
The map on my glasses showed the exit staircase from this floor at thirty meters ahead of us. There were no enemies around the stairs, either; I let out a brief sigh of relief. We arrived at the next level without much else to write home about.
To make a long story short, the eighteenth floor was the easiest to cross. The array of monsters we encountered remained the same as the previous floor, and Pops gave commands and took the lead at the head of our group. We left everything to him. Seriously, adventuring in the dungeon had never been close to this easy. I didn’t have to think about anything, and I knew we were all in good hands. It became painfully clear how ill-fit I was to lead anybody.
Everyone was in even better condition than before we stepped foot in the dungeon that morning. Elated at all our successful battles, in the groove, and relaxed to have an exceptional adventurer leading us, we felt no more tired than after a nice walk. Plus, our magical reserves were basically full. Nobody had sustained injury. Every one of us in our peak condition, we took those fateful steps to the nineteenth floor. It looked exactly the same as every other floor before. And yet, something—
“?”
Shuna had apparently sensed the uncomfortable shift, too. The very air around us felt different; it hung thick with tension. Everyone else seemed to attribute the charged atmosphere to the floor itself, but I saw past that. It was Pops; the aura surrounding him had darkened. I took a sidelong glance at him and saw a demon, one cursed to spend thirty endless years searching for his friend in this shadowy prison, hunting an enemy he couldn’t see—all alone. The average person could not even imagine the fortitude that took; it was beyond human.
“Now, then.” The haunted man turned around to face us all once more. “Let me introduce you to the gatekeeper of this floor.” He lifted his thumb and pointed at himself. “Me.”
““Huh?”” Our party reacted as one.
“I don’t mean you need to take me down, but you do need to take me with you to the twentieth floor. This will be your last trial as initiate adventurers. Overcome it, and the Adventurers Guild of Remlia will recognize you as full-fledged adventurers and delegate quests they could not have entrusted to amateurs. Both the rewards and risks you encounter will not hold a candle to what you’ve seen so far.”
So all this time, we’ve been provisional adventurers?
“One more thing: Although not many people have gone missing on this floor, all of them were elves or those with great magic ability. You four are at greatest risk,” he said, looking at Lana, Éa, Lis, and Freyja. We had two Hoense School Leaders of the Final Flame, an elven archer, and a Divine Medium priestess—and one of them might soon fall victim.
If possible, I really hope it’s not Lana— No, stop. What a shitty thing to think.
“An evil lurks on this floor, one we believe to be behind all the disappearances. I’ve already told Souya this, but I’ve been after that son of a bitch for over thirty years.” Pops trailed off into silence. “……And I’ve got nothing to show for it. The twenty-nine parties who lost their loved ones here all searched with everything they had, scouring every inch of this floor. But no one was ever found. That’s why I’m going to keep searching until the day I die.
“So if one of you does go missing, the rest of you don’t go looking for them—I’ll do that for you. I’m just a man who’s failed to find the one friend he’s sought for this long, but at the very least, I can continue the search in your stead. And I will find you—I swear it. So don’t you dare stop here. Do not let this Deranged Stratum hold you prisoner. Once you touch that twentieth floor, you’ll officially become higher-ranking adventurers than I. Adventuring is all about results. No one below you has any right to demand anything of you. As of tomorrow, you’ll all stand above me. Keep that in mind and don’t waste your time on me.”
The adventurer, his face hardened by years of toil, continued, “I am just a wretched madman, an imprisoned adventurer—a failed one, at that. Take a good hard look at me and promise yourselves you’ll never end up like this. That’s my—” Pops’s voice caught in his throat. “No, never mind. Let’s move, little chicks. Time for your last lesson.”
Was I the only one who heard the words he never spoke?