There's No Point Running Away (2)

Their food had run out long ago. But they weren’t hungry. And no matter how much time passed, they never felt sleepy, either.

So, aside from the first day and the two days they spent waiting for monsters to appear, they had been pressing deeper and deeper into the dungeon for four days straight.

They had already descended the spiral staircases—which always appeared at the end of each passage—at least ninety-eight times, and had reached the dungeon’s ninety-ninth floor.

“Oh, looks like we’ve reached the end. What floor are we on now?”

“The ninety-ninth. The next one will be the hundredth.”

“Whoa, you’ve been keeping count this whole time.”

“Of course. We’re probably the first people to come to this dungeon. That means we have to find out exactly how many floors it has for the sake of those who come after us... And we also need to think about how we’ll get back.”

As he spoke, Menou took a notepad from inside the hat on Menou’s head and put on a serious expression. Kagami brushed him off as if he didn’t care, then peered down into the enormous hole leading to the floor below.

“Huh? Hey, Menou. There’s no spiral staircase here.”

Until now, spiral stairs had wound along the sides of the circular holes. But this time, there were no stairs. And the walls inside the hole weren’t glowing blue-green, either. Instead, a pitch-black void stretched downward.

“Is this a dead end... or are we supposed to jump down? What do you think, Kagami-dono?”

“I mean, there’s a hole, so I wouldn’t call it a dead end. But if we’re supposed to jump, we can’t see what’s down there at all... I probably wouldn’t survive a fall from this height, either. What should we do?”

To test it, Kagami took one silver coin from the enormous bag, which had grown huge from all the money they’d collected in the dungeon, and dropped it into the hole.

He listened closely, waiting for the sound to echo back, but it never did. The silence continued no matter how long he waited.

“All right, let’s head back, Kagami-dono. It’s getting difficult to carry all the money we’ve collected, and jumping down with it would be practically suicide.”

“What?! We came all this way, and we’re leaving without meeting a Dark Dragon? It’s definitely down there!”

“It’s far too dangerous. Besides, I was against the idea of you fighting the Dark Dragon in the first place, Kagami-dono. It’s time to call it quits, isn’t it? We’ve accomplished something... We should just head back... Wait, Kagami-dono? What are you doing?”

Ignoring Menou’s suggestion, Kagami tossed the bag of money into the hole, then took two knives from his backpack. He forcefully drove them into the wall, alternating between them, and began slowly descending.

“Wait here, Menou. I’ll go down and check it out.”

“What?! There’s no way I can let you go alone! Ngh... You could listen to me once in a while!”

With an utterly exasperated look, Menou followed Kagami, driving knives into the wall of the hole and beginning the descent.

“Huh?”

Not long after they started descending, Kagami noticed something strange.

“Huh? Hm? What’s this?”

The space around them was pitch-black, but it was still bright enough for Kagami to see his own feet. And yet, the tips of his feet had vanished from sight, as if they were wrapped in some sort of black substance.

He tried slowly lowering himself. From a certain point on, his body began to disappear into the darkness, as if there were something that blocked out the light.

But even though he couldn’t see his feet, he could still feel them, and nothing seemed to have happened to them.

“Ah... I see. So that’s how it is.”

He continued lowering himself into the darkness. The moment his eyes crossed that boundary, a dazzling blue-green light filled his vision.

When Kagami looked up, Menou—who should have been above him—was nowhere to be seen. The space overhead was completely covered in darkness.

Then he looked down. Not far below him was a pure white floor, with the bag of money he had dropped and the single silver coin lying on it.

“Menou! Looks like it’s safe to jump down!”

Kagami called out to Menou, let go of the knives he was holding, and jumped. He was airborne for a few seconds, but for some reason, he landed with no jolt at all, accompanied only by a soft plop.

Menou followed, falling from above and landing with a soft sound, as if the ground had absorbed all the impact.

“So the reason the space below looked pitch-black from above, with no end in sight, was that there was some mysterious substance blocking the light... We were completely fooled. ...Kagami-dono? Why are you staring so wide-eyed...? Wha—?!”

Menou had never seen Kagami look so shocked. What could have surprised him so much? Menou followed Kagami’s gaze—and was struck speechless, too.

Before them was a vast, dome-shaped space, incomparable to anything they had seen so far. The floor shone pure white, while the dungeon walls gave off a faint blue-green glow.

‘You have done well... You overcame all of the trials and reached me.’

A voice resounded in their minds, as if speaking directly into their heads.

Standing before them in the enormous chamber was a single dragon, large enough to occupy a quarter of the space. Its black scales gleamed dully, like iron. Its enormous, razor-sharp claws were as dark as clotted blood, sending a chill through them just to look at. The fin along its back was beautiful enough to captivate them, glowing purple like crystal. It had massive, powerful jaws that looked capable of crushing anything, and sinister purple eyes that gleamed ominously, as if a single glare from them would leave anyone trembling.

Even without being told its name, the two of them instantly understood that it was the Dark Dragon.

‘When there is only one way forward, even if you cannot see where it leads, you have no choice but to summon your courage and press on. You did well to gather your courage and leap into the hole... You are truly strong.’

“Huh? No, um... Well, we... We just climbed down, driving knives into the wall...”

‘What... did you say?’

Even as he stared in astonishment, Kagami raised his hand and answered with complete honesty.

Then the Dark Dragon, without changing its terrifying appearance, spoke directly into their minds in a goofy, anticlimactic voice.