by Fujino Omori
“You’re not gonna overdo it, are you?” Ouka replies. He likes to drink and seems surprisingly willing to jump onboard.
“You talking to yourself, eh, Ouka?” Chigusa teases.
“Should we really be treating ourselves like this on the first day…?”
Cassandra is the last to speak, and her soft mumble disappears in the excitement of the impromptu party.
Haruhime, dressed in battle gear that resembles a shrine maiden’s getup, looks like an alluring temptress as she fills our cups on Aisha’s orders; well, she does have experience working in the Pleasure Quarter. Even Daphne, who appears astonished, and Mikoto, who’s scowling, are eventually drawn in by Aisha. Cassandra tries to escape unnoticed into the tent but is forced to join the others.
Before long, someone starts laughing happily, and then others join in.
“…”
I’m watching the scene from outside the circle.
It’s my turn to guard the party right now. Since the meal began, I’ve been sitting on the stump that Aisha had been occupying until we switched places, watching the entrance to the room. Although I have to admit, I’ve been using only one ear to listen for monsters. The other has been following the conversation inside.
I take a bite of porridge from the bowl in my hands and feel my eyes soften as I watch my friends. How long have I been smiling?
“Mr. Bell! How about seconds?”
“Oh, thank you, Lilly.”
Somehow, she’s managed to slip away from the devil’s grasp and escape to where I am, pot in hand. I gratefully accept another serving.
“It’s completely absurd! Getting drunk in the Dungeon, and not even at a safety point…”
“Well, we’re on an expedition, so I doubt anyone is really letting loose…”
“What if a monster hears all the commotion?!”
She’s right…I hunch down without answering and take another bite of porridge.
But I don’t try to stop Welf and the others.
In the room that feels like a forest at night, the Lamp Moss stuffed into bottles gives off a strange blue-green glow. It’s both mysterious and cozy. Fragments of light cast faint shadows of the party that dance on the walls and floor, and the plants growing on the ground wave along with them.
Camping is the real pleasure of an adventure.
I read as much from heroic tales, but to see such a scene before my own eyes makes me happier than I can put into words.
“…Are you enjoying this, Mr. Bell? I see you’re smiling.”
Lilly is giving me a strange look from her perch by my side.
“Oh, sorry…What can I say? I’ve always wanted to camp like this with everyone.”
“But didn’t we do the same thing when Loki Familia saved us on the eighteenth floor?”
“I guess so…But it’s just so great.”
I scratch my cheek, feeling self-conscious, and smile wryly to hide my embarrassment.
Lilly watches me in silence. I cock my head at her.
“…I’m glad,” she mutters as her expression relaxes.
“I’ll make a confession to you, Mr. Bell…Lilly was just the slightest bit scared.”
“Huh?”
“Ever since that day, you’ve had your sights set high for the sake of Wiene and the other Xenos…I thought you’d changed.”
She’d been confused and a little afraid. She’d worried that if I set my sights so far ahead, I’d gradually drift away from the rest of the group. I fix my gaze on her as she admits her fears. Her cheeks flush, but then a dimple appears.
“But in the end, Mr. Bell is still Mr. Bell.”
As she smiles happily at me, I can’t help feeling tenderly toward her. It’s not a romantic feeling but something much kinder, like I’d feel toward a sister.
Before I know it, my right hand is reaching out toward Lilly’s head.
She starts with surprise, but then accepts my hand and sits sweetly still as I clumsily ruffle her hair.
“I’m sorry I made you worry,” I say, smiling at her to ease her concerns, like Wiene did, but—
“…No, you might have changed after all. It’s like you’ve become, how do I put it…more of a womanizer…”
“Whaaat?!”
All I get in return is criticism.
Maybe she’s mad, because her puffed-out cheeks are red and her chestnut eyes are narrowed.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry—!” I say, apologizing in a panic, since apparently it was very rude of me to pet her head.
Lilly interrupts me by giggling.
I give her a blank look, but then her mood spreads to me and I let slip a smile.
“M-Mr. Bell, would you like a drink? Not alcohol, I mean, but a drink of water.”
“Hey, Miss Haruhime, why’d you come over here? Read the mood a little, geez!” Lilly snaps at the renart, who is the second escapee from the party.
“Miss Aisha let me stop serving, so I wanted to join in the pillow talk over here…!”
“Eeergh!! Everything you say is so obscene! Do you do it on purpose?!”
“Um, why are you arguing…?” I interject.
This fight that Lilly is provoking with Haruhime is making me sweat.
Predictably, some monsters hear the commotion. When a herd of Metal Rabbits approaches the entryway, we’re momentarily caught up in intercepting their attacks.
So goes the first night of the expedition.
After the modest drinking party ends, a quiet like the tranquility of a forest falls over the room.
When I listen carefully, I can hear the soft breath of Lilly and the other girls sleeping in the tent. Out of consideration for them, Welf and Ouka are sleeping in the open, leaning against a wall of weeds and brush. Their arms are wrapped tightly around their greatsword and ax, respectively.
UOOOOON…Far down the passageway, I hear a howl. It’s probably a beast-type monster, but from the way the howl echoes, I can tell it’s far away. I decide it’s not a threat.
I’ve been on guard duty since the party. One of the bottles stuffed with Lamp Moss is at my feet, lighting up the dim entryway. As I look around, I see that the room is slowly but surely repairing itself. Just to be safe, I keep adding new gouges to the walls with my knife.
I sit down on a stump and open the broken watch Lilly lent me. It’s two in the morning. Almost time for someone to take my place.
“…?”
I hear the sound of cloth rustling and turn around.
A woman emerges from the tent and walks toward me. She has long hair and gorgeous legs. The Lamp Moss that lingers like starlight on the ceiling illuminates her sheer battle garment, reminiscent of a dancer’s outfit, and her immaculate brown skin.
It’s Aisha.
“Miss Aisha…? I thought Welf and Ouka were taking over next!”
“Obviously. I just finished my turn.”
“So what’s going on?”
“What would you do if I said I was creeping into your bed?”
I jump up from the stump and back wordlessly away from her.
“Just kidding!” Aisha says, but her smile leaves me unsure if she actually is or not.
…She’s really beautiful.
I can’t help thinking that as I stand in front of the Amazon. She’s close enough to touch and is smiling seductively. But even though she’s gorgeous, her raw sex appeal intimidates me a little. The same goes for the look in her narrowed eyes that are staring right at me.
I can’t stand the silence, so I try to make some conversation.
“Um…I should have said this earlier, but thank you, Miss Aisha…for coming along on our expedition…”
“It’s no problem. I was planning to get you to help out with one of our expeditions anyway. The timing was perfect.”
If she had added, “In exchange for helping with the Xenos situation,” I wouldn’t have had any response. Plus, despite her words, she was probably worried about Haruhime. I smile back at the rough-and-tumble woman
who hates formalities. She sweeps her bangs away from her face.
“I thought your nerves might be getting to you,” she says.
“Huh?”
“That’s why I came to check on you.”
She looks away from me down the long, dim passageway.
“There’s a passageway connecting to the lower levels right over there. Tomorrow we’ll attack the twenty-fifth floor, our goal.”
“…!”
“You probably overheard our conversation, but the next level—the lower levels—they’re a whole different deal.”
The twenty-fifth floor.
For my familia and me, it’s unknown territory. This is the first time we’ll step foot in the lower levels.
This threshold is known as the Second Line, just like the First Line up in the middle levels. Even among upper-class adventurers, only a select group has ever crossed it.
“Do you know what adventurers call the zone starting on the twenty-fifth floor?”
“…No.”
“I heard the term was used in the early days of Dungeon exploration, but we still use it today…It’s called the New World.”
…The New World.
The phrase, with its implication of unknown territory, sends ripples through my chest.
The Amazon glances back toward the tent.
“If you stumble, the party stumbles. That’s the kind of party this is.”
“…”
“So I’ll ask you one more time…Are you freaking out?”
A piece of moss comes loose from the ceiling and falls between us. If I close my eyes, the lush green smell that fills the air almost makes me think I’m not in the Dungeon at all but instead in a forest on the surface. In a forest all alone with Aisha.
I seem to hear nonexistent leaves rustling in the wind. I quietly inhale and hold my breath, then slowly answer Aisha’s question.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel afraid at all…but…”
I turn my thoughts inward. The conversation I heard earlier lingers in my ears.
—Dragons leap between floors down there.
—And that’s not the worst of it. There are swarms of monsters all as strong as floor bosses.
Within that unimaginable world is a certain person—my idol.
Beyond the New World we are about to step into.
That person stands on the front lines of the Dungeon, which I don’t doubt are nicknamed “hell.”
“But I still want to move forward.”
I quietly squeeze into a fist the hand I’ve brought to my chest.
It’s true. The truth is I am scared. No matter how hard I will myself to be strong, I can’t stop trembling.
But my desire to reach that place outweighs my fear.
Those are my feelings.
I don’t have time to freak out.
“…I like the look on your face. It’s way better than that other time,” Aisha says, narrowing her eyes. “I barely recognize you.”
Her violet garments sway, and she comes so close we’re almost touching, taking me by surprise.
“Call me when you feel like you’re on fire and you can’t cool down. I’ll lend you my body anytime.”
Her words, whispered into my ear, make me shiver. Her seductive sigh lingers around my neck as she returns to the tent, smiling.
After she’s disappeared, I let my flushed cheeks cool in the chill air of the Dungeon. My head cleared of distraction, I lower my fist.
Attacking a lower level.
My first Level-4 adventure.
I turn my mind to the coming day, when I’ll face the unknown with my companions.
CHAPTER 3
NEW WORLD ~WATER ISLAND~
The passage connecting the twenty-fourth floor with the twenty-fifth is a cave covered in crystals.
“Ice…No, crystals…”
We’ve left camp and arrived at the deepest part of the twenty-fourth floor. After killing all the monsters in the room, we gathered in front of a tree hollow that’s covered in crystals, as if just this one part of the wall had frozen over at some point.
The cave seems to swallow Lilly’s words. The cavity is dim and slopes gently downward into the distance, where a cool wind blows toward us from deep inside. The draft, absent elsewhere in the Colossal Tree Labyrinth, ruffles my hair and draws my thoughts to the next stage of our adventure.
We look at one another and, urged on by a nod from the smiling Aisha, step into the hole.
I’m standing at the head of the line. Holding one of the magic-stone lanterns that Haruhime passed out, I tread down the slope. All of us in the front and middle ranks have magic-stone lamps, but Aisha, who’s bringing up the rear, has brought along a jar of Lamp Moss instead. I move cautiously through the cavern, thinking how the slippery walls, floor, and ceiling remind me of an ice cave.
We go down, ever down into the depths of the long tunnel.
“I hear water…” Mikoto whispers.
When the end comes into view, I can see a bluish light filtering through the opening, along with the sound of water. It grows louder and louder. Soon we can tell that the water is clearly landing on something.
At this moment, I’m neither nervous nor anxious. I’m simply following my adventurer’s instincts as I search single-mindedly for the unknown beyond the light.
We reach the end of the slope and exit the cave.
“…”
I’m dumbstruck. The magnificent scene before my eyes enthralls me.
It’s a terrific, thundering waterfall, surrounded by valleys and cliffs formed from the tips of crystals.
Together with the misty spray of water, the air is full of harpies and sirens. Their songs ring out at a high pitch as their wings swoop and cut through the air in the spacious cavern.
We’ve arrived at a grand watery paradise.
“Wow…”
Behind me, Welf and the others stand completely still, taking in the scene. We are all dazed by this encounter with untrammeled nature in the Dungeon, but more than anything, it’s the enormous waterfall directly in front of us that draws our eyes.
“This must be what they talk about, the…”
“The Great Falls…”
The whispers of Mikoto and Lilly disappear into the roaring of the water. The sound is like a cacophony of thunderclouds or a rumbling of the earth. Even standing hundreds of meders away, it makes our eardrums vibrate.
The Great Falls.
As the name implies, it’s an enormous cascade that starts on the twenty-fifth floor. Judging by eye, it measures about four hundred meders wide and easily as many tall. Perhaps because of the reflected light, the falling water appears to be emerald blue. It’s so entrancingly beautiful that for a moment, it makes us forget we’re in a dangerous dungeon.
At the same time that I feel moved by the sight, however, I’m also shivering in awe—terrified awe. Directly below the crystal cliff we’re standing on is a huge plunge pool. Even a first-class adventurer would die instantly if they fell down there. But what really makes me question my eyes is the fact that the waterfall continues on past the pool.
Just like a staircase, the falls continue on below the twenty-fifth floor.
“This insanely huge waterfall crosses floors and reaches all the way down to the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh floors. Oh, don’t worry, monsters don’t climb up the falls. Well, most don’t,” Aisha explains. Ouka and Chigusa gasp.
A waterfall that transcends floors. In the parts of the Dungeon I’ve explored so far, that would have been completely unthinkable. It’s said that adventurers will constantly watch their common sense torn to shreds. This must be an example of what that really means.
The gaping cavern behind the falls must be a quarter the size of the nineteenth floor.
“How do we get to the twenty-sixth floor…? Don’t tell me we’re gonna climb down the cliff,” Welf groans.
“No, there’s a proper path. Tons of slopes and staircases, too. You take t
hem down to that cave over there.”
Aisha points to the bank of the plunge pool on the bottom of the twenty-fifth floor. Although it looks tiny from here, there’s definitely a cave with a yawning entryway down there.
The twenty-fifth through twenty-seventh floors have a multistory structure. We have to ascend or descend a distance equal to the height of the Great Falls using the interconnecting passageways at the depth of the plunge pools. If we were to jump over the falls, we could probably make it to the twenty-seventh floor in a single leap, but it doesn’t require much to understand that our bodies would be smashed to bits at the same time.
Unlike Lilly, Daphne, and the others who are staring downward, I look up.
The Great Falls pour out from the vicinity of the twenty-fifth floor’s ceiling. Right above the top of the falls, I can see traces of the Colossal Tree Labyrinth: The roots of an enormous tree measuring five meders in diameter radiate outward.
The falls must originate there.
I look back down at the magnificent scenery.
I trembled at the sight of the Under Resort on the eighteenth floor, too, but…what I feel now is at least as moving. No matter how much I learn from my seminars with Eina, there’s no stopping the feelings that well up when I lay my eyes on these places firsthand. My heart is pounding with trepidation, tension, excitement, and the shock of encountering the unknown.
Together, the three large caverns linked across three floors by a single waterfall are called the Water Capital of the Dungeon. From ancient times until today, it has been one of the great mysteries of this part of the Dungeon that adventurers call the New World.
“All right, enough gawking. Let’s get a move on. If we keep standing here, those harpies hovering over there are going to attack us.”
Aisha’s words dispel the trance we were in and pull us back to reality. Adventurers and their supporters are mercenary folks who leap at the mention of a potential attack, and we quickly forget our amazement as we hurry to follow Aisha’s instructions.
“Take that path off to your left and follow it along the wall. Of course, it’s a straight shot, so you can’t get lost. That cave over there will take us back to the usual labyrinth.” Aisha speaks authoritatively, like she knows everything about this place. She jerks her chin toward a crystal bridge that begins right next to us.