Chapter 218

“Looks like we can start challenging the dungeon from tomorrow. As for food… we’ve got a pretty good stockpile, and we still have plenty of the tools we bought last time when we went to the dungeon on Yasha Island. I think our preparations are perfect.”

“Yeah! But still, there really weren’t many people who knew any detailed information about the dungeon.”

“Indeed… all we were able to find out was that it’s unexplored, offers little reward, and has a high difficulty.”

Once again, we soothed our fatigue at the public bath, then returned to the inn to discuss the dungeon we’d be tackling starting tomorrow.

We had made some inquiries around the village during the day, but not a single person knew anything in detail about the dungeon.

Apparently, explorers themselves rarely came to this village, and even when they did try the dungeon, they quickly returned home, fed up by its high difficulty and poor rewards.

After all, no one would bother complaining to the villagers about an experience that wasn’t interesting and only left them exhausted.

“Even so, we haven’t heard any stories about people who challenged it and never came back. So I don’t think it’s the kind of extremely high-difficulty dungeon where your life is constantly at risk. It might be difficult due to some kind of gimmick.”

“I see… The first border dungeon we ever cleared, Scorched Valley, was that type, right? I heard that if you don’t choose the correct path, you get sent back near the starting point.”

“I see… then perhaps this one has a similar mechanism. How did you manage to get through the valley?”

“In Scorched Valley, there was a former classmate among Melt’s group who had the ability to never get lost. Plus, the map itself was displayed, so we followed the traces that showed others had already passed through.”

“Hm, so basically, ‘because there were traces left by people who went ahead first.’ If it’s the same gimmick this time, that won’t be something we can rely on… we should keep that in mind.”

That’s true. Even if the map shows the paths, if you get sent back when you choose the wrong one, you won’t know the correct route until you actually try it.

If the structure is the same, there probably won’t be any traces left by previous explorers, so we’re bound to struggle.

“There’s no point worrying about it now—let’s go to sleep! Sheele, same bed as always today!”

“Hehe, yes. Let’s sleep, Shizuma.”

“Melt’s right. Well then… good night.”

With that, we turned off the light, cast a brief glance at the pitch-black forest outside the window, and fell asleep.

Just for a moment, I thought, ‘Maybe we should drop breadcrumbs as we go,’ but I was probably just sleepy.

That night, I had a dream.

A dream where Melt followed behind me, picking up the breadcrumbs I’d left as markers.

‘You shouldn’t waste food,’ she said, overtaking me as she went.

…Why were there breadcrumbs in front of me too?

—

The next morning.
The first thing I heard upon waking was the sound of rain hitting the inn’s roof.

Rain, huh. It doesn’t really matter if we’re going into a dungeon, but somehow it dampens the mood.

We did buy umbrellas, so it’s not really a problem.

“Good morning, Melt, Sheele.”

“Good morning… listening to the sound of rain makes me sleepy…”

“I hate rain… my tail fur goes poof and spreads out.”

Looking over at the next bed, Melt was already dressed, vigorously brushing her tail on the bed, while Sheele—still in her pajamas—stared blankly out the window with a sleepy expression.

The contrast between the two was amusing enough that I almost laughed.

By the time I finished getting ready, Melt had given up on taming her tail fur, and although Sheele still looked a little drowsy, she had properly finished changing.

“After breakfast, let’s head to the dungeon right away. It’s on the opposite side of the road from where we usually go, right? I heard that once you enter the forest from there, there’s a slightly open clearing, and that’s where the dungeon entrance is.”

“Ugh… I hope the air inside the dungeon is nice and dry…”

“Hm… not even knowing what kind of environment the dungeon has is a bit unsettling.”

That’s true—this time, we really have very little information. But we have no choice but to go.

If there’s no danger serious enough to get us killed, then that alone makes it relatively safe.

There’s also a management hut near the dungeon, so we should be able to ask around there one last time… though we probably should have gone yesterday. Assuming we’d get information in the village was my mistake.

—

Breakfast was pancakes generously topped with sauce made from the forest fruit Gias Cherries—the same ones we’d distributed throughout the village.

The balance of sweetness and acidity, along with a subtle hint of cinnamon, made for an exquisite sauce, perfectly matched with the gently sweet pancakes. The women in our party were completely captivated.

“That was delicious… those pancakes were really, really good…”

“Indeed. I’d like to be able to recreate at least the sauce… Shizuma, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Haha… I do have some cooking skill, so I’ll try copying it sometime.”

Still basking in the afterglow of breakfast, we entered the forest from a direction we didn’t usually take.

Perhaps because explorers rarely come this way, the weeds were more overgrown than on the paths we usually use.

The wet grass soaking the hems of my trousers was slightly annoying.

Surprisingly, though, once we entered the forest, the sound of rain hitting our umbrellas lessened.

I see—the trees must be blocking most of the rain.

After walking a bit further, a clearing with fewer trees came into view.

Just like the village, this area probably isn’t one of those points where trees grow abnormally fast.

Or perhaps, because it’s near the dungeon entrance, someone didn’t want the area to be swallowed up by trees.

“There’s a hut… do you think someone’s there? It doesn’t really look like anyone lives in it.”

“…No, it seems like someone does come and go. Let’s take a look.”

At the edge of the clearing stood a small hut—too small to really be called a house.

Its roof was covered in moss, and the outer walls were overgrown with weeds. At first glance, it didn’t look well maintained, but Sheele said there were signs of human activity.

Hmm… now that I look closely, the grass around the door has been trampled down. An outward-opening door, maybe.

I knocked on it.

“Excuse me—! Is anyone here?”

‘Yeees…’

“Oh, there’s a voice.”

It was extremely faint—more like it was muffled by something.

When I slowly opened the door, the inside looked far more like a proper living space than I’d expected.

The interior was clean, with a neat carpet laid out and a table set prepared to entertain guests.

However, between the entrance and that living space stood a counter, like one you’d see at a guild, asserting that this was indeed a proper reception area.

Wondering where the owner of this hut—so mismatched in exterior and interior—might be, I looked around inside, and—

“Um… what are you doing?”

‘Just a moment—I’m looking for a pet that ran into the attic.’

In the corner of the room was a child with her head stuck up into the attic through a gap in the ceiling.

A tail extended from her backside, clearly marking her as a beastkin.

Hmm… a big, fluffy-looking tail. That must be—

“Wow… a squirrelkin…! It’s my first time seeing one in person!”

“Kurinezumi tribe… I see, a squirrel.”

“Ohh, so that big tail is a squirrel’s tail.”

Even considering that her head and upper body were hidden in the attic, the tail alone was more than half the length of her body—a truly impressive thing.

Then again… maybe she wasn’t a child, but simply a short-statured race.

‘Got you! Hey, come here—… caught you!’

‘Chichi!’

Along with the girl’s voice coming from the attic, we heard the cries of a small animal.

I see—she must be keeping a mouse or a squirrel as a pet.

Soon, the girl emerged from the ceiling, brushing dust from her hair as she climbed down the stepladder.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. So, what can I do for you?”

“Ah, sorry. We’re explorers from outside, and before challenging the dungeon here, we were hoping you could tell us a little about it.”

Her manner of speech was very proper.

In appearance, she looked like an upper-elementary-school-aged child with small squirrel-like ears.

But I revised my assessment—she was probably already an adult, or close to it.

“Oh! Explorers for the first time in half a year! Sure, ask me anything!”

“Then, if you don’t mind—”

It seemed she had a fair amount of information about this dungeon.

So we decided to ask everything we’d been wondering about: its structure, environment, what happened to those who challenged the deepest level, and why its difficulty was considered so high.

“I see… I wasn’t assigned here during the early days of this dungeon, so I don’t know all the details, but since I was posted here, I’ve spoken with several groups of dungeon explorers. Compiling dungeon information is part of my job, after all.”

“Ah, I see—so that’s part of your job as well. In that case, even just what you know would be helpful.”

“Well then… ‘Heart-Piercing Eternal Autumn Melancholy’ is a rather unusual dungeon. I can’t say this with absolute certainty, but everyone who’s challenged it ends up saying the same thing: ‘For some reason, I really wanted to go home.’ I couldn’t quite understand it myself, so I went in once just to see… and, well… how should I put it? You become seized by this overwhelming feeling of sadness or loneliness. It might sap the very will to challenge the dungeon—that could be what’s happening to the explorers.”

What she brought us was information about the dungeon’s strange and unsettling nature.

And that wasn’t all. The very structure of the dungeon itself was abnormal.

Summarizing her explanation—

When you pass through the dungeon entrance, you find yourself in what looks like an ordinary forest somewhere.

No matter when you enter, it’s always the end of autumn: fallen leaves blanket the ground, and a lonely, desolate scenery stretches on endlessly.

The only obstacles are the trees. It’s far too open to feel like a dungeon, yet there’s no visible path forward.

Monsters suddenly come rushing toward you at a run, appearing out of empty space.

But if you turn your back on them, the monsters stop approaching.

Even if you fight them, they either drop nothing—or, despite that, they aren’t weak at all, but rather quite powerful.

The sun never truly sets. The sky remains in a perpetual half-light, a pale blue as though dusk were about to fall but never quite does.

The temperature is slightly low, evoking the feeling of autumn.

Explorers assume there must be a hidden route to the next level somewhere and search for it, but not once has anyone ever found one.

—that’s how it is.

…This sounds like a very troublesome dungeon.

On top of mental interference, you’re thrown into a forest with no hints whatsoever.

And having to constantly fear sudden monster attacks means there’s never a moment to truly relax.

“It’s kind of a mysterious dungeon…”

“Indeed. Shizuma, I’ll say it again just to be clear—it’s a mysterious dungeon.”

“Sheele… don’t tell me you’re into roguelikes or something?”

“Hehe, quite a bit.”

Well, seeing that Sheele hardly seems tense at all actually puts me at ease.

Which means, from her perspective, she doesn’t really see this dungeon as a serious threat.

“Thank you very much, miss. It really does sound like a difficult dungeon. We’ll start by going in once. If it feels too hard, we’ll come back the same day, and if we think we can manage, we’ll continue for just one day and investigate further.”

“Yes, please be very careful not to overdo it. Even in the middle of a fight, if you show the monsters your back, they’ll retreat, so if things get dangerous, use that to avoid combat.”

I see—so that’s why, despite being such a perplexing dungeon, no one has ever died there and everyone managed to make it back out.

If you know that particular trait, returning safely wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Leaving the hut behind, we stepped into the hollow of an enormous ancient tree said to be the dungeon’s entrance—probably a giant tree comparable to Yakushima’s Jōmon Sugi.

It felt like a scene straight out of some famous anime I’d seen long ago—enter a hollow tree and end up lost in a mysterious world.

The dim hollow turned out to be a surprisingly long tunnel.

As we walked through that dark passage, a certain phrase suddenly crossed my mind.

“Melt! So your name is Melt!”—I almost wanted to say it…!

“Melt! So your name is Melt!”

“Huh? Huh? What’s going on? Why all of a sudden, Sheele…?”

“Ah, sorry. I just couldn’t hold it in.”

“…Sheele, I was thinking the exact same thing, but I restrained myself.”

“…How embarrassing. I guess I got a little carried away, being in a dungeon for the first time.”

Thanks to Sheele’s words—so close to my own line of thought—our tension eased, and we safely made it through the hollow of the giant tree, emerging into an unfamiliar forest that spread out before us.

But at the same time—

An intense ache welled up in my heart.

So this… this feeling is the baptism of Heart-Piercing Eternal Autumn Melancholy—.