“How about you?” asked the leader. “You must’ve been here a good number of times if you’re here alone.”
“Oh, me?” I asked. “No, this is my first time here.”
“Your...first time?! And you’re here by yourself?!”
“Yes,” I nodded.
Immediately, they all looked at each other incredulously. They all had a surprised look on their face as if they’d just seen a ghost or some inexplicable being.
Is it really that surprising...? I guess it is.
Though, only Divers with a decent diving track record could come here, so it shouldn’t have been all that unusual. If I was good enough for the receptionist to approve my entry, it should’ve implied that I could handle a Dive here solo even if I had to flee or use items to survive.
“You must’ve passed the Murder Mantises’ territory to get here...”
“I didn’t think I could easily take one head-on, so I ran away,” I said.
“Well, that was a wise choice.”
“But there were Guerrilla Snowmen in the Snowy Jungle! What about them?”
“Oh, those? I just poured hot water on them. They weren’t that strong,” I said.
“Huh? What?!”
Guerrilla Snowmen were monsters that appeared on the floor before this one. They literally looked like snowmen, and they only differed from the ones I was familiar with in that they were made up of three snowballs like Western-style snowmen. I’d read in the guidebook that groups of snowmen would suddenly emerge from the snow, and that was why they’d been dubbed Guerrilla Snowmen.
When I’d encountered them, they’d been immediately obvious—they’d had twigs for arms, some sort of bucket on their heads, and carrot noses sticking out of the snow. I hadn’t been able to help myself from saying “Do you guys suck at hide-and-seek that bad?”
Anyway, I’d poured the warm leftover water from my bathtub that I’d been storing in my Dimension Bag. The water hadn’t been all that hot, so it’d actually frozen around and immobilized the snowmen, rendering them useless. Blue mages were probably better suited for dealing with them than red mages. I’d zapped the ones that had managed to avoid getting immobilized, and that was that.
“But still, this floor is pretty deep.”
“Oh, it’s totally fine,” I said. “It’s nothing compared to the Night Soil Swamps or the Visceral Cave. Ha...ha ha...aha ha ha...”
My brain always shut down whenever I thought back to those places. I was sure that the light had faded from my eyes at that moment. Maybe I should’ve considered Lion-Maru as demon number two. I had a feeling I still had a whole lot of suffering awaiting me.
Meanwhile, team Aurora was at a loss for words, and I totally understood why. Lion-Maru and the Visceral Cave were no joke. I never wanted to go back there again, or my sanity would be chipped away until I finally went mad and vanished. Someone would find my EXP Card and retrieve it like a soldier’s dog tag.
The awkwardness in the air made it difficult to touch on the topic any further, so I changed the subject. “You must all be very strong to be able to defeat a Murder Mantis.”
“As elite Divers recruited by the kingdom, we have to be able to take on the likes of those mantises,” the leader said confidently.
The swordsman boy turned his nose in the air and said, “Well excuse me for not being elite then.”
“Don’t pout. That’s why everyone calls you a kid.”
“Shut up.”
They started arguing in the back, but it seemed to be banter between friends.
“Who dealt the finishing blow?” I asked.
“Me. I can use Tertiary Magic,” said the mage woman proudly. She seemed like the prideful type.
As an aside, this made me appreciate once again how powerful Scrae was—she truly was in a class of her own. This had nothing to do with the topic at hand though.
“Huh,” I said, unimpressed.
“Wh-What kind of reaction is that? Have you even seen Tertiary Magic before?” asked the mage.
“Yes? I mean, I personally know several people who can use Tertiary Magic. Ricky said he can use Quaternary Magic, and then there’s Mimir from Miguel’s team, Rada from that laid-back team, Elina from Endless Splendor...” I said, counting off the mages I’d met before.
Judging by the surprised looks on their faces, they were familiar with those names too. The mages I listed were all pretty famous after all. There were a few others I hadn’t mentioned, like the twins from Blessings of the Mystic Water, whom I’d met in the Evernight Meadows, and the members of Blast Fire. Yeah, there were quite a few of them. Mei wasn’t a Diver, but I was pretty sure she could use Tertiary Magic too: y’know, the emissary girl.
I didn’t even know that being able to use Tertiary Magic was something worth bragging about. Sensei had even told me “You’ll never get stronger if you’re bragging about the likes of Tertiary Magic. Get over yourself, you little weakling.” Apparently, people from this world hadn’t heard of giving encouragement through praise. My sorrow was deeper than the Mariana Trench. No one was gonna salvage me.
Suddenly, the archer girl who’d been playing with Carbuncle looked up and said, “Those are some famous veteran Divers, along with the top graduate and the runner-up from the magic academy.”
“Ugh... W-Well, those people may be able to use Tertiary Magic too, I suppose,” admitted the mage girl.
“Of course. They all go diving in high-depth-level floors,” said the archer.
Huh, I guess Ricky and Mimir really are famous at the magic academy.
“What was your rank when you graduated?” the martial artist asked the mage.
“We graduated in different years, so there’s no point in comparing!” she said.
“Well?”
“I was...within the top ten,” grumbled the mage.
“And how high of a spell grade have you mastered? Can you use Quaternary Magic?” asked the martial artist.
“O-O-Of course I can! Probably! I think!”
That phrasing sounded familiar. But from the sound of it, she hadn’t actually tried it before. I’d noticed that a lot of mages had too much pride.