It had been about an hour since the Jewel Sniper had been successfully captured alive and Rei’s group parted ways with Vihera and Byune.

Rei’s group made their way through the natural rock maze in more or less a straight line to the exit without getting lost.

Needless to say, it was Set who made this possible.

Riding on Set’s back, Rei had been able to find the exit from the air and traced the path back to where they were. Telling Elena where to go, they crosschecked with the information on the map they had as they continued forward.

Of course, with their party of three split like that, it was only natural that monsters would target and attack them.

However, the unlucky monsters who had those thoughts were all killed by Elena’s sword whip and wind magic.

As for why all the monsters attacked Elena, it was because she was alone while Rei was flying through the sky on Set, a Griffon.

Even now, two Goblin Bandits were slashed to pieces by Elena as Set crushed a third as he descended from the sky, scattering bits of its body everywhere.

「Seriously, there weren’t that many monsters before we entered this maze.」

「The monsters probably don’t want to fight in a place where they don’t have a good vantage point. If there is a place they can use to their advantage, they would naturally set up ambushes there.」

Replying to Elena, Rei stored the dead Goblin Bandits into the Misty Ring.

「I guess that’s true……Set, it’s fine to attack their heads, but if you crush them, we can’t collect proofs of subjugation.」

「Guru~……」

Set gave a sorry cry when he heard Elena’s words and saw the right ear of the Goblin that had been torn in half.

That said, although the ear had been torn in half, depending on the person at the counter, the guild would still be accepted sometimes.

Rei smiled when he saw that and reached out to stroke Set’s head and encourage him.

「Well, I’m not that troubled for money. If you over do it all the time, it would be a bit of problem, but for now, it’s fine. Just be more careful next time.」

「Gurururu~!」

Set gave a happy cry at the comfort of Rei stroking his head.

「Now then, if we go a bit further along the maze, we’ll reach a point where the path splits. Is that area on the map?」

「Yeah. Here is it.」

The place Elena pointed to on the map certainly showed a split in the path. However, there was one difference from what Rei had seen.

「According to the map, the shortest path is through the far right, but from the sky, that side is blocked. Perhaps it was from a fight. I don’t know if it was between monsters or adventurers and monsters though.」

It could also be the aftermath of a rampage by the Cyclops Vihera had fought.

Thinking like that, Rei traced the maze on the map with his fingers.

「At the split, if we take the second path from the left, it will be a bit of a detour, but we should be able to get out.」

「I see. ……I’m sorry that I can only move along the ground.」

Elena gave a sigh as she thanked Rei for his help.

While slightly distracted by her melancholic response, Rei shook his head.

「Don’t worry about it. It would have been fine if we could both ride on Set’s back. It’s a shame we can’t, but that’s not your fault.」

「Guru~……」

At Rei’s words, Set gave an apologetic sigh and lowered his head.

It wasn’t that Set didn’t want to carry Elena. It was just simply difficult to carry anyone other than Rei and fly. It was possible to carry a child, but it wasn’t possible to carry an additional adult. The conclusion the two of them reached was that it was related to the Magic Beast Art.

「Didn’t Rei say not to worry about it? In the first place, flying in the sky can usually only be done by Dragon Knights. Considering that, just having someone guiding me from the sky makes it easy enough.」

Elena said that with a smile as they arrived at the place the path split.

The route they had taken up until now had been a single path, but they now reached an open space where way forward split into several paths.

(This really isn’t a maze that was created naturally. It’s definitely being influenced by something. ……Well, I don’t need to bother thinking about that right now.)

The dungeon core that he had previously destroyed came to his mind.

What Rei had destroyed back then was a dungeon core that had yet to form a dungeon.

(Now, I wonder what kind of dungeon core we’re dealing with here? ……Well, I’m not sure if I could even get to it now, considering it would be guarded by a boss monster.)

Unlike the dungeon core he had previously destroyed, the dungeon core here was still growing the dungeon. The strength of the monsters guarding the core would likely be as strong as, or be……a Dragon, if he wasn’t mistaken. With those thoughts in mind, Rei shook his head to clear his mind.

「Rei? What’s wrong? Let’s go.」

Rei had said to take the second path from the left, but he had started heading towards a different direction when Elena called out to him.

「Oh, my bad.」

Rei replied to Elena before following after her with Set.

 

 

They continued through the rocky maze for another hour.

Because they had spent a bit more time than expected dealing with the Cyclops and Jewel Sniper, they increased their walking speed slightly.

Rei and Set went back and forth from the ground and sky a few times to make sure they were on the right path as they kept walking.

「Are those……stone statues?」

It wasn’t just Rei, Elena had also noticed them. There were three stone statues of a female with fox ears, a male Elf and a male Human.

The stone statues were located on the edge of the path in a position where they seemed to be hiding from something. They looked very out of place compared to the surroundings.

In the first place, who would bother carving stone statues inside a dungeon?

Such a question went through Rei’s mind, but the next moment, he held his breath.

What if they weren’t stone statues but were originally a Beastkin, Elf, and Human?

Desert, petrification. Tying those points together, he was about to say the conclusion he had reached……but Elena spoke up first, beating him to the answer.

「A Basilisk.」

「……Yeah. Set, keep an eye on the surroundings. Elena, are you resistant to petrification?」

Rei quickly gave instructions.

There was no hint of casualness in his tone.

Rei himself had a body with a strong resistance to such effects and he was also wearing the Dragon Robe. However, it was hard to tell if Set and Elena had the same level of resistance.

Of course, Set was a Griffon, so he should have a higher level of resistance compared to lower ranked monsters and Elena had inherited the magic stone of an Ancient Dragon.

Elena was definitely more resistant to petrification that ordinary adventurers, but Rei wasn’t sure by how much.

(No, that’s the same for me.)

Even Rei didn’t believe his resistance was perfect as he had never been attacked by something like this before.

「Those were real adventurers, weren’t they?」

While hearing Elena’s murmurs, the two of them hid in the shadow of a rock near the three petrified adventurers.

「I didn’t expect to find a Basilisk in a place like this……no, considering there was a C rank Cyclops, it’s not impossible for a B rank Basilisk to be here.」

「Yeah. In the worst case, it could be a Cockatrice and not a Basilisk, but either way, it still has the ability to petrify its enemies.」

Basilisk’s were giant one eyed lizard monsters with eight legs that could petrify enemies with its eye.

Cockatrice’s were monsters with the upper body of a chicken and the lower body of a snake. They had a breath that would petrify anything it touched.

Despite the difference between using their eye and breath to attack, their ability to petrify enemies was still the same.

「However, if you ask me which one is more troublesome, it would probably be a Basilisk.」

Rei spoke as he focused on his surroundings, careful not to miss anything.

It was the same for Elena, who nodded as she searched for signs of a monster nearby.

「Yeah. You just have to avoid a Cockatrice’s breath. It’s not easy, but not impossible. Basilisk’s are different. They can petrify things just by looking at them. Unless we have something that can cover our whole body.」

As long as they blocked the Basilisk’s line of sight, they wouldn’t be petrified. It was possible to get close to attack a Basilisk, but the close one got, the more dangerous its poisonous fangs and eight claws would be.

If they weren’t directly injured, poison wouldn’t have any effect, so there were more ways to handle it compared to its petrifying gaze. However, its poison was still strong enough to be considered deadly.

Although they had bought a set of antidotes from the store where Elena had bought her cloak before entering the desert floors, they couldn’t say for certain that it would work against a poison this strong.

Of course, if they could kill it, they would also earn a lot of money.

Basilisk claws and eyes were useful catalysts for producing magic items or advanced potions and its scales were useful for making scale armor, which was quite expensive.

Its claws and fangs could also be incorporated into weapons that could be used to poison enemies.

The price of its magic stone was also reasonably high.

(That said, if I can kill it, its magic stone will definitely be used for the Magic Beast Art.)

Rei was wary of the surroundings as he thought about that, but after several minutes, there was still no movement.

「……What do you think?」

「If you think about it normally, even if they were petrified by a Basilisk, it might not be nearby here right?」

Although they had found three petrified adventurers, they didn’t know when they had been petrified.

In an extreme case, they could have been petrified for days or weeks already.

Because they had been petrified, it would be hard for any adventurer to take them back to the surface, even if someone found them. Furthermore, considering that this was a path that few people used as a detour, it was not unlikely that Rei’s group was the first to find them.

「Anyhow, if the Basilisk isn’t here right now, we’ll get moving right away.」

「That’s fine……but what about these three, Rei?」

Elena turned to look at the three petrified people.

「What do you mean? I can just take them back……no, can I take them back?」

As he replied, Rei suddenly realised something.

The Misty Ring couldn’t store living things.

However, conversely, as long as it wasn’t alive, it could be stored. And, the three statues in front of him didn’t seem to be something he could call alive.

(……Can I store them?)

With those thoughts in mind, Rei gently touched the nearest statue, the one of the male Human. Ordering the Misty Ring to store it away in his mind……the stone statue he was touching disappeared, as if it were natural.

「Ohh.」

It wasn’t Elena, who was watching, that made that sound, but rather, Rei.

He had thought that he would be able to store away the statue, but was still surprised to actually see it work.

「Why are you so surprised when you’re the one trying to store it away……?」

Rei gave an embarrassed smile at Elena, who had asked with a wry smile, and stored away the statues of the Foxkin and Elf to try to hide it.

He had an interesting expression on his face after storing the three of them away.

He was happy to be able to store them, but realised it was also pointless just to bring them back to the surface.

To begin with, advanced potions mages with very high skill in healing magic were required to restore petrification.

Of course, considering the amount of money that Rei had on him, it wasn’t that big of a financial burden……

(Well, at worst, they’ll get restored first and then work to pay off the cost. The first step is to get them back up to the surface.)

The reason Rei though that was because he knew the next floor wasn’t like the previous floors.

From the information he had read, what Pleiades had told him, and the map Elena had, Rei knew that the next floor was going to be different, even if it was still a desert floor.

Thinking about that, they hurried down the path while being wary of Basilisks.

Eventually, with careful movements, they found the stairs to the 15th floor that had taken them longer than expected to reach.

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