Chapter 27
――The next day.
Today, I was taking on the third floor.
This floor and the next one, the fourth floor, are for Rank D adventurers.
Unlike the first two floors, the adventurers who ventured here had outgrown their rookie awkwardness and become full-fledged adventurers.
I could feel their taut, edgy tension.
As we moved up floors, the monsters we encountered were a rank stronger, too.
Judging by how things had gone yesterday, I could tell I still had plenty of room to spare.
But a dungeon was the kind of place where you could let your guard down and get gobbled right up.
I followed the other adventurers' lead and steeled myself.
Unlike the floors so far, the third floor was a cave-style floor.
We made our way through narrow, winding passages like a maze, clearing the rooms scattered here and there.
“Whoa~! A maze~!! Now this is a dungeon~!!!”
The first and second floors looked much like the world outside, but this floor was uniquely dungeon-like.
Though the floor was gloomy and depressing, MP was at maximum excitement, totally into it despite seeing it for the first time.
Dim passageways.
Damp air.
And a sense of confinement.
Some adventurers loved it, saying, “There’s nothing like this atmosphere,” but most adventurers, myself included, preferred the open-air floors.
MP seemed to be in the minority.
Well, maybe MP was just excited because it was something new...
“If you make too much noise, the enemies will come, so try to keep it down.”
Sounds echoed off the walls and floor, and some monsters were sensitive to sound.
We had to be careful not to make unnecessary noise on this floor.
'Oh, yes! I’ll switch to this, then.'
“Huh?! What?!”
MP’s voice suddenly rang in my head, and I let out a startled yelp.
'I didn’t explain, did I~? Master and I can talk just by thinking like this~. Sorry I forgot to tell you.'
'R-really?'
'Yes! You can do it too, Master~.'
'Then, what are we having for a snack today?'
'Fluffy taiyaki, stuffed with red bean paste all the way to the tail~.'
'You’re right...'
I tried communicating by thought, half-skeptical, and sure enough, we could talk.
This was convenient.
Though I did think that if MP had told me sooner, I could’ve avoided getting strange looks in the carriage... But what was done was done.
'All right, let’s get back on track and move on.'
'Yes~!'
This floor required abilities different from the ones we’d needed so far.
The intelligence to keep track of the complicated paths and predict the layout.
The perceptiveness to detect enemies lying in wait around the corner.
The teamwork to respond to a pincer attack.
And we needed to fight differently than we would outdoors, too.
The passageways were about three meters wide, so they weren’t exactly cramped.
Even so, combat was undeniably difficult—you might catch an ally in your attack, or an ally might get in the way and block your line of fire for long-range magic.
Once you got used to it, you could turn that to your advantage, but parties that hadn’t been thinking about teamwork until now would struggle to bring out their full strength.
As I explained all this to MP through telepathy while we walked, 【Presence Detection】 picked up a monster.
'Oh, our first visitor already.'
A skeleton was walking toward us from beyond the corner ahead, where the passage turned right.
Over the past few days, I’d gotten much more used to using 【Presence Detection】.
At first, I couldn’t even tell monsters apart from adventurers, but now I could more or less identify the type of monster.
I could easily take it out by firing a few Fireballs the moment it rounded the corner, but—
Keeping 【Presence Concealment】 active, I quietly moved up to just before the corner, crouched down, and waited in silence.
A skeleton’s weak point was its chest—the red core visible through the gaps in its ribs.
Hitting it required a fair bit of skill.
The sword-wielding skeleton rounded the corner, completely unaware of me.
Before it could notice me, I leaped at it—
“—Quick Stab!”
I drove my dagger into its core with a technique from 【Dagger Arts】.
The skeleton vanished, leaving behind a magic stone and a single bone.
Bones were occasional drops from skeletons.
They were one of the basic materials used to make magic tools.
'Goodbye, Mr. Bone~.'
'Yeah, still easy.'
I’d only learned the 【Dagger Arts】 Skill two days ago, but I’d been fighting with a dagger for five years.
Thanks to that, I could fight at a level beyond what my Skill level suggested.
At this rate, I’d be able to clear the third floor with room to spare, too.
As I was thinking that, MP was staring intently at the bone on the ground.
'Curious?'
'Yes~.'
'Want to chew on it?'
'Absolutely not~. MP isn’t a dog~.'
Given how much MP loved to eat, I thought there was a chance, but MP grimaced in genuine disgust.
'Sorry, sorry. Come on, then.'
'Yes~!'
After defeating skeletons and their variants as we went, we’d been making our way through the floor for about an hour when something ominous registered on 【Presence Detection】—