Currently we're in the middle of a rest break from doing cooperation training a bit outside of the outer crater, having tea time.
"Is it fine to talk for a bit?"
Kamu came over to where I was accompanied by Rokko.
"It's about the dungeon but I think it would be about a good time for us to go to the 2nd and 3rd floor as well though.."
Rokko said while chewing on the stem of a long piece of grass. What era delinquent are you from?
As you go to the lower floors there's a tendency for the levels of monsters to vaguely get higher but from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor there's only an average of a 1 level difference. The 2nd floor is in the middle of that.
"No, I mean, putting it frankly the enemies on the 1st floor are an easy victory right?"
Don't lie. Even the {Slaughterers} would suffer some injuries if we spent an entire day running around the 1st floor fighting consecutively. Since we have a lot of members who can use magic I wonder if there's an impression of us not getting hurt very often? Even that has it's limits and as we get tired our movements get dull. It's only obvious eventually we'll end up taking some attacks.
Call it an easy victory when you can spend almost an entire day fighting it alone without getting hurt even once.
She must have noticed my displeased face, Kamu started talking try to follow up for him.
"Nn..It's a bit difficult to say. That is, we were originally called one of the top teams right."
Yeah, and?
"And you know, since around August of last year, it's been about half a year..that we've always been on the 1st floor? After all you know, isn't it a bit embarrassing?"
I see now, the so-called pride of a former top team huh? Though if you were to weigh out pride and your lives I'd pick my life. Even if it's uncool I think it's better than dying. But, I have no intention of rejecting their pride itself either. It can become a big driving force after all. Also, while there's only a handful of them in a persons life but there's times when a person needs to remain obstinate with their pride on the line as well. Although, I don't think right now is that sort of time.
"That sort of thing huh? Got it. If you can clear through the 1st floor in 4 hours then that's fine. I'll keep an eye on things in the dungeon for a week starting tomorrow. I'll make the decision based on you all making it to the teleport room on the 1st floor a number of times. I guess departing at 8 am in the morning and returning at 5 pm in the afternoon? The condition is arriving at the teleport crystal two times every day. Ah, I'll also add the conditions for going past the 2nd floor as well. If you can reach the teleport room on the 2nd floor by 5 pm in a stable way after departing at 8 am then it's fine for you to go to the 3nd floor. The condition for going to the 4th floor is departing at 8 am in the morning and reaching the teleport room on the 3rd floor by 8 pm, if you can do that then I'll make going to the 4th floor okay as well I guess."
"4 hours huh..Alright, that'll be easy!"
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We still haven't found a monster room in the area we believe to the 9th floor where the monsters in the passages change.
Starting from the 8th floor, to the 9th floor(convenience sake), returning back to the 8th floor, then if we have good luck(?) we'll find a monster room, that sort of feel. If we have bad luck(?) then it's just a matter of going back and forth between the 8th and 9th floors. Ah, also we found the teleport crystal that leads to the 9th floor as well. However, we haven't tried touching it. If you were to ask why, it's because it gives off a completely dangerous feel to it. Or at least the reason for that is because, while it's not to the extent of the 14th floor that I was forcefully teleported into in once upon the time, but based on the map it seems there's a strange and stupidly large 2 km diameter or so room in the center of the 8th floor.
The salvation is that just like the other parts of the dungeon, the floor still gives off light when moving.
The huge once were even as high as 5 meters or so. Of course, nothing got caught in the spell {Detect.Life}. either.
Miduchi commented on this situation as, "It feels like there's a {Guardian}." In other words, it seems it would be best to think that there's something like a gatekeeper guarding the teleport crystal that leads to the 9th floor. I wonder if it's something like {The.Gazer} we encountered on the 14th floor? Then, in that case it's only obvious in regards to the 14th floor, but if we think that there's one on the 13th floor as well, then that would mean they start to appear in the latter half of Baldukk dungeon. After all the 7th floor must have been the center and midway point of the dungeon.
"They were pretty common in games right. Something like a mid-boss standing in wait at the end of each floor. If you don't defeat that then you can proceed to the next floor. Though it's often the case that there's some kind of condition or a special key needed for a door, the one who usually has or manages that is the boss that protects the floor."
Everyone was nodding hearing what Miduchi was saying. Toris and Basutoral were saying something like, "I thought it was unnatural there was nothing like that up until now." Then say something about it.
However, if something like that is there then it'll be difficult. Honestly speaking I don't ever want to encounter something like that again. What we obtained was huge but it was way too dangerous. Though I say that, it feels like if we can't do something about it then we can't get to the next floor either. It might not be bad to go with just Miduchi and I again but if it's not {The.Gazer} and a monster which is better to have a front line against we'll be in trouble.
I think it's unlikely but if something like 100 trolls were to appear if I freeze them all at once we can probably win but after that is the problem. It would take too much work to let them out of the ice on at a time and take them on with just the two of us, eventually we'd end up completely exhausted and worn out.
Well, regardless of what I'm saying it's still scary.
The ambiance of the center room of the 8th floor is really, in any case just gives off an ominous feel. It's to the point where I even start to suspect whether it might all be a trap that makes you hesitate to enter with a small number like one or two people.
Even if I had multiple bodies it wouldn't be enough.