Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 276: The 202nd Floor
To resupply the conquest teams operating on the dungeon’s 202nd floor, three delivery parties departed from the 201st-floor rest room.
Tauro joined the party assigned to the third conquest team. Including Tauro, his five escorts, and the five guards from the original supply team, the group consisted of eleven people.
“Ordinarily, each support team would return to the rest room and collect its own supplies. Because Tauro-dono is accompanying us, however, the support teams can remain focused on aiding the conquest force while we deliver the provisions directly to the front line.”
Tsugumu explained while the group descended the long staircase.
“Does that mean my involvement has increased the supply team’s workload?”
Tauro had assumed their normal responsibility ended once the supplies reached the rest room.
“No. Without Tauro-dono, the supply team would first have to descend through every floor under its own power merely to reach the deepest rest room. Food removed from [Magic Storage] also has a limited shelf life, so it can’t simply be left there unattended; personnel would need to wait until a support team arrived to collect it. Compared with those difficulties, carrying the supplies from this rest room to the front line is easy. The expedition’s support force has also secured much of the route. Overall, the burden is perhaps one-tenth of what it would otherwise have been.”
Tsugumu carefully explained just how much Tauro’s transportation had simplified their work.
After descending the stairs, the party entered a side passage whose far end shone with brilliant light.
“We’re already on the 202nd floor, aren’t we?”
Tauro asked Tsugumu cautiously.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. Once we pass through that opening, you’ll understand what kind of floor the 202nd is.”
With Tauro positioned in the rear, the supply party advanced through the passage under strict vigilance.
The area immediately beyond a floor entrance was often dangerous.
Monsters on deeper floors were also intelligent enough to use skills and set ambushes.
As Tauro approached the illuminated exit, however, he became certain that no monster was waiting nearby.
He had recently acquired [Anti-Inhibition].
Combined with [Presence Detection] and [True Eye], the new ability produced an almost unfair level of perception.
It negated concealment and other inhibition effects, making hidden creatures effectively transparent to Tauro.
“I can’t sense any monsters nearby. The exit should be safe.”
Tauro gave the warning and continued forward.
The moment he passed through the bright opening, an astonishing landscape spread before him.
A vast grassland lay beneath a blue sky.
A forest stood nearby, while mountains rose in the distance.
“What? Are we outside?”
For a moment, Tauro wondered whether he was seeing an illusion.
“So the 202nd floor is a field-type floor. No wonder the conquest teams have needed so long to search it.”
Tsugumu spoke as soon as the scenery came into view.
“How can this exist inside a dungeon?”
Tauro remained bewildered.
“This is unquestionably the 202nd floor. The sky is a ceiling created by the dungeon, and although the landscape appears endless, walls eventually enclose it. The space is nevertheless enormous. Locating the stairs to the next floor is extremely difficult on field-type floors, so it’s not surprising that the teams have found no route downward after five days.”
Even after hearing the explanation, Tauro stared across the landscape in disbelief.
A natural breeze brushed his skin, and the air carried the warm scent of sunlit grass.
What, then, was the object shining like the sun above them?
Tauro looked toward the intense light illuminating the floor, although it was too bright to observe directly.
“That object? We attempted to investigate a similar one on another floor, but the ceiling was too high to reach. Our current theory is simply that the dungeon created something resembling a sun. In other words, we still know almost nothing about it.”
Unable to offer a better answer, Tsugumu laughed awkwardly.
“Even the dragonfolk have been unable to explain many parts of the dungeon?”
“Correct. Investigating such mysteries is one responsibility of the support force, and new discoveries are still made, but the unknowns far outnumber the answers.”
If even the dragonfolk lacked this knowledge, humanity’s understanding of dungeons was likely far more limited.
Tauro was seeing the incomprehensible nature of a dungeon firsthand.
“We should now follow the trail left by the conquest and support teams.”
The tracker assigned to the supply party moved to the front and examined the ground.
“The third expedition group began its search in this direction, according to the plan. We’ll follow them.”
The terrain looked completely ordinary to Tauro, but the tracker could evidently read signs invisible to him.
Following the tracker’s guidance, the supply party proceeded deeper into the 202nd floor after the third conquest team.