Chapter 76: Impromptu Wolf Pack II (6)
The shrine located directly opposite the castle on the 43rd floor is the entrance to the lower floors.
However, using that route only allows you to go as far as the 45th floor.
The 44th floor can only be entered by a select few.
And its entrance was located beneath the castle.
“This door.”
Deep within a corridor on Basement Level 2 stood an iron door.
When Agaro inserted that key into the keyhole, the door opened with a heavy sound.
A light orb was sent flying down the dark passage to illuminate it.
I used [Danger Detection]. There were no enemies.
“Doesn’t seem like a very long corridor.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. And once we go down to the 44th floor, we’ll arrive at the core of the ruins—the control room, apparently.”
“It’s that close?”
“Hey. Do you know what a lift is?”
“You mean an elevator?”
“Eleva—? It’s called a lift.”
“Ah, yes. I know. I see—we go down with that.”
“Right. Apparently it has buttons and all.”
“It does.”
“I’m not good with this kind of thing.”
“If you like, I can operate it.”
“Seriously? Sorry about that.”
“I’m pretty good at this sort of thing.”
I glanced back.
“Hey. You’ve been staring at that the whole time.”
“Huh?”
“That blue ribbon? You weren’t wearing it yesterday.”
“Um, um, um—woof.”
“Why did you bark just now?”
“Woof?”
Dagaa and Narcissus had been teasing Juicy for a while now.
Juicy, for some reason, looked glossy and more energetic than usual.
Maybe the bracelet was that unusual.
Well, it was definitely something suspicious in more ways than one.
Once we returned to the surface, I planned to check if that street vendor was still around.
Every time I gave someone the bracelet, I ended up getting kissed.
No matter how much they said it was thanks, that felt like too much.
Was the bracelet a legacy item? Or legendary?
There had to be something special about it.
Still, it didn’t seem harmful.
If it were dangerous, [Danger Detection] would have reacted immediately.
But the bracelet didn’t turn red or black.
So giving it as a token of gratitude seemed fine.
Even if it meant getting kissed in return.
At first, I’d thought about giving one to Ens and the others, but now I could only give them to women.
I’d bought more than enough, so I was thinking of giving them to all the women I knew.
Getting kissed as thanks wasn’t so bad.
Not bad at all.
Then we arrived in front of the elevator.
Yeah—this was definitely an elevator. I pressed the open button.
“Whoa, it opened.”
“It’s cramped inside.”
“Everyone on?”
“Um, woof.”
“Why did you bark just now?”
“Woof?”
“Huh?”
“So tight.”
Everyone’s in. Good.
I closed the doors and pressed 44.
There were other floor buttons, but it probably only responded to 44.
The doors closed and the elevator began to move.
It arrived quickly.
That peculiar sensation from descending.
It made me feel strangely nostalgic.
“What—ugh—this squishy feeling is gross…”
“Um, I feel dizzy.”
The women didn’t seem to handle it well.
“Huh?”
“Hey, hey. You two okay?”
“You’re fine, Agaro?”
“Yeah. You seem fine too.”
“More or less.”
Ding—a quaint bell sound rang out as we arrived on the 44th floor.
44th Floor
I could hear the sound of water.
Right beside us was a white wall and a black glass door.
This must be the control room.
When I opened the door, there was a wide room with a pedestal in the center.
I stood on the pedestal and operated the console.
“How is it?”
“No errors… everything seems normal.”
With this, Hydrangea’s water supply was secured.
“All that’s left is them, huh?”
“Hey, let’s go check out where the treasure is!”
“Hmm…”
“Wof. You copied it down, right?”
“I have it.”
I pulled out a memo from my pouch.
Oh right—I inserted the memory stick into the pedestal.
Another window appeared, displaying a map.
I could tell it was a map, but it was hard to read.
Actually, I couldn’t really tell where it was at all.
I operated the console. I could read the text.
From ‘Items’ to ‘Settings’—no, there’s ‘Search.’
Searching ‘Map’ and ‘Ruins of Avsdrakdu’… oh, there it is.
From here… what is this… I should write this down.
“Man, Wof. You’re really good at using that thing.”
“I learned it from the witch.”
“I see.”
“That witch can even do things like this?”
No idea. But maybe.
“Um, um—the witch is amazing.”
“Huh!”
“It’s frustrating, but witches really are impressive.”
“That’s true. Oh.”
“What is it?”
“One spot had reduced water flow, so I adjusted it.”
“Adjusted it… thanks.”
“That should do it.”
I checked again.
Nothing else seemed unusual.
I closed all the windows and stepped away from the pedestal.
Agaro scratched lightly at his eyepatch and said,
“Just in case, I think we should explore the rest of these ruins.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Um, um—yes! Let’s explore!”
“Understood.”
We left the control room and went down the staircase at the end of the hall.
As soon as we reached the bottom, I used [Danger Detection].
Three red dots appeared.
“There are enemies ahead.”
We readied our weapons.
The area below had a complex layout of corridors with small rooms in between.
All of them had black glass doors, and several passages and rooms had collapsed.
In a room at the corner ahead, three red dots were wandering around.
The door to the room with the enemies was firmly shut.
We could have ignored it, but Agaro said they might be the ones we were looking for.
That was possible, so we decided to go in.
The door could be destroyed.
Agaro broke it down, and we all rushed in at once.
Inside were explorer zombies.
All three of them were zombies.
“Seriously…?”
Agaro muttered, sounding shaken.
From his reaction, we understood.
The zombies were the explorers we had been searching for.
Narcissus asked,
“‘Annihilation Sword’… what will you do?”
“We do it. We can’t leave them like this.”
“…You’re right.”
Agaro drew Flametongue.
“Sorry. Let me handle this alone.”
None of us objected.
Agaro imbued Flametongue with black flames.
One by one, he carefully put them to rest.
He collected their belongings and their explorer tags.
Then Agaro muttered,
“There aren’t enough.”
“Huh?”
“‘The Lid of Tartarus’ had five people. Add the inspector and that makes six.”
“So three are missing.”
“Um, um—those three might still be alive!”
“Or… they might be somewhere else… already turned.”
“Agaro. Let’s go.”
“…Yeah.”
Agaro looked utterly dejected.
That was only natural—finding acquaintances turned into zombies.
Agaro was far more accustomed to this sort of thing than I was.
Even so, the shock was real. Some things can’t be cleanly accepted.
My memories from my previous life had plenty of moments like that.
If someone close to me had turned into a zombie… could I do what Agaro did?
Since [Danger Detection] showed no response here, we moved on to the next floor.
The next floor had a similar layout.
I used [Danger Detection], but there was no reaction.
We went down the stairs.
I assumed the next floor would be the same as well—but it wasn’t.
“It’s completely flooded.”
“Um, um—it smells!”
“There’s a strange smell.”
“Huh!”
“Is that… fish?”
“……”
I used [Danger Detection].
Countless red dots appeared.
“GYOP-GYOPA!!”
“GYOPURAPA-GYOPA!”
“GYOP-GYOPLAA!!”
“GYOPUU-GYOP-GYOP!!”
Sahagin.
They had noticed us and were gathering one after another.
But fodder is fodder.
Dozens—no, even hundreds of them.
I didn’t feel like we could lose.
Besides, the current Agaro was invincible.
In no time at all, he wiped out every last Sahagin, and we exited the ruins.
The view outside was a dark bluish hue.
First, there was a waterfall—a massive cascade like Niagara Falls, an absolute spectacle.
Near the basin of the falls, something that looked like a town could be seen.
It was probably a ruin.
Other than that, there was nothing—only blue rock walls encircling the area.
That was all the 44th floor contained.
I used [Danger Detection] together with [Wheel of Fortune].
I’d activated [Wheel of Fortune] because I felt something when I saw that town.
First, there were no enemies nearby.
The other result made me catch my breath.
“—!?”
A chill ran through me.
From the ruined town, black and violet light was rising into the air.