The second floor of the dungeon, a level that was considered shallow and suitable for beginners. The magic circle next to the stairs up to the first floor shone……and the next moment, Rei, Elena, Set and Yellow appeared.

「Huh, so this is how the spatial transfer feels like when entering the dungeon. I did experience it when we used it to leave yesterday, but it seems like there’s not much of a difference since it’s the same magic device.」

「Gururu~」

While Rei opened and closed his hand and thought about how the transfer had felt, Set turned to look at him and gave a cry.

Rei couldn’t understand Set’s pround appearance for a moment, but soon realised what he meant.

「Oh right, Set had previously been sent to a different location by a transition stone that was created by the Bestir Empire.」

「Guru~!」

That’s right! Set seemed to say boastfully as Yellow, who was sitting on Elena’s shoulder, tilted his head slightly.

「A Bestir Empire transition stone? Are you talking about those ones? The ones used by the Bestir Empire in the spring war to raid our headquarters?」

「Yeah. When some Bestir Empire spies that were in Gilm tried to escape using one, Set ended being transferred instead of the spy. ……It was quite a surprise.」

「Gurururu~」

Set nodded at Rei’s words.

For Set, he had just been trying to stop someone from escaping, but the next moment, he had found himself inside a cave he didn’t know about, so it was no wonder.

After that, Set had frantically searched his surroundings, eventually finding the members of Scorching Wind before ultimately rejoining with Rei……the series of events was explained to Elena.

「I see, so something like that had happened. Some transition stones were obtained after the war and are being researched by the Mireana Kingdom, but they seem to be quite complex. At the very least, it looks to be quite difficult to mass produce them.」

「Hm? It’s possible to make them?」

「Yeah. However, it costs a lot and their performance is significantly inferior, including the maximum distance objects can be transferred to.」

「Even so, if research has made it that far, they must be close to mass production, right?」

For some reason, Elena just smiled at Rei’s question.

「What’s wrong?」

「No. There’s some things I can’t even tell you Rei. Please understand that.」

「So that’s what it was.」

As the daughter of a duke belonging to the Aristocratic faction and the General Princess, there were some things she could tell Rei, who was considered to be part of the Neutral faction. Rei realised that and just gave a small nod in response as he looked around.

「Well then, do you want to head for the stairs to the third floor?」

「Yes. Yesterday, in order to become accustomed to this dungeon, we went down the left path at the crossroads, that does not lead to the stairs. I would like to make some more progress today.」

「In that case, we’ll go down the right path to the stairs today.」

「That’s fine with me. ……But, we still don’t have a thief. I don’t think it will be a problem since we’re still on the shallower levels, but let’s proceed carefully regarding traps.」

Rei nodded at Elena’s words.

「Do you want me to use Thin Flames? Complex traps in the deeper floors aside, I should be able to find traps on the shallow floors quite easily.」

「……That’s true……」

Elena thought about Rei’s option for a moment before shaking her head.

「I think it would be better if we didn’t do that. It would be fine if we were the only people in the dungeon, but given the presence of other adventurers, it would probably cause an unfortunate mess.」

「That’s true.」

Rei nodded without any objections at Elena’s decision.

For a moment, the headline 『Mysterious! Flames overflowing through a dungeon passage』 pass through his mind. In the worst case scenario, people might even think that he was a new kind of undead or something.

Of course, it might be fine if they discussed it with the guild beforehand, but it was still likely that they would probably get dragged into complicated situations with other people.

「In that case, let’s just go ahead for now. Be wary of traps.」

「Hmm. As for our formation, we’ll go with the same as yesterday. Rei and I will be at the front, Set will be at the back.」

「Kyu!」

Sitting on Elena’s left shoulder, Yellow gave a cry as if to remind them of his presence.

「Yellow, you can ride on Set’s back. Is that fine?」

「Kyu!」

「Guru~」

At Elena’s question, the two of them responded with a brief cry of agreement.

Settling their formation, the four of them left the second floor’s magic circle.

Defeating several monsters, they soon arrived at the crossroads they had come to the day before without much trouble.

「Today, we’ll take the right path to the stairs?」

「Yeah, watch out for traps though. Fortunately, we didn’t run into any yesterday, but that could be because Byune had disarmed them……then again, I don’t think there would be any deadly traps on the early floors.」

「You’re probably right, but it would still be best to proceed with proper caution from here on out.」

Rei started to slowly observe his surroundings……particularly the ground as they moved forward.

Because of that, the speed at which they went through the dungeon went down by half……no, down to 1/3 of their original speed.

Normally, there wouldn’t have been any traps on this floor which would cause fatal injuries to Rei. However, considering that they would be proceeding further down without a thief, they would have to get used to finding traps themselves. Because of that, their progress was slow.

Looking at it the other way, since they wouldn’t suffer fatal injuries even if they did trigger a trap, there was no better place to try to learn the skills of a thief.

Rei and Elena continued down the passageway, silently and carefully.

「Gurururu~!」

Occasionally, they would hear a cry behind them as Set took down a monster. They would stop only to remove the monster’s magic stone before moving on again.

This state of progress continued for about 2 hours. Rei and Elena continued to advance while defeating the monsters that attacked them from time to time. However, as expected, after repeating the same tasks endlessly but only progressing slowly, they gradually became impatient.

Rei was the first to speak out. In comparison, Elena, who had served in the army, had significantly more patience in situations like this.

That said, even she was beginning to feel tired.

「Hey, why don’t we take a break?」

「……That’s a good suggestion. There’s still some time before noon, but do you want to have lunch?」

「Gurururu~!」

「Kyu!」

Hearing the word ‘lunch’, both Set and Yellow gave a joyful cry.

Rei was troubled about whether they should stop for lunch or not. However, although he had been too focused to notice earlier, it was true that he was starting to feel hungry.

「Well, it’s a bit early, but we might as well have lunch. Needless to say, we’ll still need to be wary of the surroundings.」

「Yeah, of course.」

「Guru~」

「Kyu!」

After the three of them responded to Rei, he went to move to a spot close the passage walls……

「Ah.」

Spotting something in front of his eyes, Rei unintentionally raised his voice.

Hearing that, Elena turned to look over, before making a similar sound herself.

There was a switch. It was disguised as part of the passageway and was hard to tell from a distance. However, if you were close by, you would be able to see it clearly.

However, the question was who would push a switch like that in the first place.

「……Hey, what do you think?」

「Could it be designed for people who happen to take a break nearby, like us?」

「……It’s very obvious when you look at it up close.」

「That’s true, maybe it’s for people who are tired or distracted? The monsters that appear on this floor are basically all low rank monsters. Considering that, the traps might just be equally shoddy.」

Rei nodded in agreement at Elena’s words.

Given that Goblins were the most intelligent monsters to show up on the floor, Elena might have been correct.

「I heard that most adventurers who stayed on this floor would be beginners. Considering that, it might not be surprising for some of them to fall for it.」

「Maybe. Fortunately, we’re not stupid enough for fall for it. ……Well, that’s fine. Let’s have lunch first.」

Saying that, Rei took out his magic tent from the Misty Ring.

Normally, meals would be eaten in the corners of passageways or rooms while keeping an eye on the surroundings. However, in Rei’s case, the magic tent had an effect that kept away D rank or lower monsters. On deeper floors where C rank or higher monsters appeared, the magic tent would no longer be effective, but on the second floor, its effects were more than sufficient.

That said, aside from monsters……it had no effect on human adventurers, so it wouldn’t do anything if other adventurers wanted to attack them.

(Well, in a situation like that, I could just go out myself……in the first place, there shouldn’t be that many idiots who would do something like that after hearing about Set and my title.)

As he thought about that, Rei entered the tent with Elena, Set and Yellow.

The inside of the tent was about 10 tatami in size. Rei and Elena immediately sat down on the sofa as Rei took out lunch boxes from the Misty Ring. Set was given roasted Bicorn meat that had been prepared back at the inn while Yellow bit into a piece of roasted meat that had been prepared for him.

「Thinking about it, I had been really impressed with your food situation when we entered that dungeon to look for the Altar of Inheritance. However, looking at it now, you really are too lucky to have a tent like this. How to put it, it feels like things have gone in a strange direction.」

「We still had to camp out in the dungeon back then. If we have to to set up camp now, this magic tent would be a great help since we wouldn’t need to worry about hurting our bodies by sleeping on the ground.」

Rei nodded as he chewed on some chicken stew and a cheese sandwich that had been given to him for lunch.

Actually, this magic tent they were using was quite old and lacked some functions such as a water supply. However, it was still a magic item that had been handed down Margrave Rowlocks family. Of course, it was something that would be difficult for a commoner or adventurer to buy unless they had a considerable amount of money.

They could be bought at a price of an A rank adventurer’s rewards or with the rewards of a B rank adventurer after considerable saving.

「It also has the nice effect of keeping monsters away. However, in Rei’s case, since you have Set, most monsters won’t come near anyway. I would also like to have a magic item like this of my own without having to borrow one from my family.」

「……In Elena’s case, don’t you have your carriage?」

Rei responded to Elena’s comments.

The carriage they had travelled in on their way to Exil was much better than the magic tent they were using in terms of the facilities it came with. It had a much larger room and higher quality furnishings than the sofa Rei and Elena were currently sitting on, let alone all the other furniture.

In terms of comfort, it was definitely superior to the magic tent. In terms of its effectiveness as a magic item, it also had the effect of making it seem ordinary, warning people inside of approaching hostile threats and reducing the physical drain on the horses pulling it. As a magic item, the carriage was an overwhelmingly superior item.

(The only thing the magic tent is better at is being able to shrink down to a portable size. Well, that is a pretty useful feature for adventurers.)

Rei thought about that, but it wasn’t really something that important to him as he could just store it inside the Misty Ring. That said, it was function that would cause ordinary adventurers to shed tears in happiness.

Conversing like that, Rei and the others quickly finished their lunch.

They would have liked to take a longer break if they could, but that would have been too careless of them to do so inside a dungeon. After finishing their food, Rei quickly stored the tent back into the Misty Ring before moving ahead.

Continuing on, Rei kept an eye out for traps, but in the end they arrived at the stairs to the third floor without finding any traps.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]