Published: July 3, 2025
Holy Capital Marromar, West Dungeon. Floor eleven.
"Indeed... there is no one here," Amon said, and Nils nodded in agreement.
The tenth floor of the West Dungeon was like a cave or rocky tunnel...
It was a layer with exposed bedrock, but the eleventh floor was like a 'corridor' with marble embedded in the floors, ceilings, and walls.
"Certainly, with this, mining for ore is impossible," Zeek murmured.
Eto nodded in response to that.
According to the 'Dungeon Map', it seems that the West Dungeon changes drastically every ten floors.
There are even dungeons at much lower levels that have open blue skies.
"That's amazing!"
In stark contrast to yesterday's dejected and slow walking, Ryo was now beaming with joy.
"This is it, this is what I've been looking for!"
He said, but no one responded to him.
Everyone just watched with wry smiles...
"Up ahead, four lesser wolves are approaching," Ryo announced, detecting the monsters' approach with his passive sonar.
The group had already formed a dungeon exploration formation.
In the first row, Nils in the center, Harold to the right, and Gowan to the left.
In the second row, Eto and Zeek.
In the third row, Amon and Ryo.
It is preferable for the front line to have a swordsman capable of both offensive power and responding to initial enemy strikes.
Or perhaps a shield user.
For that reason, there were swordsmen Nils and Harold, along with dual-wielder Gowan.
Eto, who cannot be said to have high defensive or endurance capabilities, was in the center, along with Zeek.
The reason for this positioning is that it makes it easier to deal with injuries, no matter who gets hurt.
And at the very back, Amon, who was blossoming into his talent as a swordsman, was placed there because responding to attacks from the rear is extremely difficult, and that response is critically important.
In a dungeon with a ceiling, unlike a wide-open plain, there are sudden attacks directly from above, making the rear the most challenging position.
It is necessary not only to cover himself but also to cover the heads of the priests in the second row...
Ryo, being a jack-of-all-trades, was at the most troublesome back position...
However, from the back, he could spot enemies approaching from quite a distance, so that was not a problem at all.
Then, they encountered the four lesser wolves.
Nils, Harold, and Gowan each took one down with a single strike.
One that slipped past the three...
"Icicle Lance!"
It was pierced by an ice spear shot into its mouth and died.
"Since they are 'lesser', there's no point in collecting magic stones. The remains will be disposed of by slimes, so let's move on," Nils said, and everyone nodded.
The magic stones from 'lesser' monsters are very small and nearly worthless.
It’s more regrettable to waste time collecting them.
And above all, there's the truly convenient slime.
"It's a straight path, but... it's much wider than up to the tenth floor."
After diving into the eleventh floor and walking for about three hours, Amon casually remarked.
"Basically, it seems that the deeper you go, the wider it gets..." Eto replied with information from the 'Dungeon Map'.
Three hours later.
"Hey... isn't this a bit strange?"
Nils asked, speaking casually.
"We've been on this eleventh floor for seven hours... excluding breaks, we've been walking for six hours,"
"Since it's a straight path, we shouldn't have gotten lost," Eto replied, and Amon supplemented.
The eleventh floor still continued.
Since the marble corridor was entirely a straight path, it was unlikely that they had deviated from the proper route.
Of course, the 'Dungeon Map' didn’t mention anything like that...
In fact, the 'Dungeon Map' for the eleventh floor had no map at all.
Just a single sentence.
"Just keep walking down the corridor."
Nothing else, except for information about the appearing monsters.
There was no information about traps either. If it’s not written, it either means they don't understand it or it doesn't exist.
It’s hard to believe that there haven’t been many explorers in this layer.