CH 392

「So this is the third floor…… It doesn’t look any different than the other ones.」

Elena murmured after they went down to the third floor.

A magic circle for the transfer device was installed next to the stairs, the surrounding passageways were made of cobblestone and the walls shone faintly.

The scene was almost identical to that of the first and second floors, so much so that there was a faint sense of deja vu.

「We’re still on the shallower floors. If you remember, the dungeon with the Altar of Inheritance, it didn’t change very much in the first few floors, right? Especially since this dungeon is extraordinarily large compared to that dungeon. If you consider that, it’s inevitable that the same environment will remain for a while.」

The dungeon they were currently in was at least 30 floors deep, which was the deepest floor that adventurers had reached. Compared to the dungeon where the Altar of Inheritance had been, where the dungeon core had been located on the 7th floor, the Exil dungeon was at least 6 times deeper, and that was only if the dungeon was as deep as adventurers had gone.

「Anyway, it hasn’t been that long since we had lunch. In that case, could we break through the third floor……and get to the magic circle on the fourth floor before leaving the dungeon?」

「Yeah, that’s no problem. How far is it to the stairs?」

Although they were at a magic circle, it didn’t mean the surroundings were completely safe. Rei asked while looking over at Set, who was keeping an eye on the surroundings. Elena looked at a map that she took out from her magic pouch.

「Let’s see. This floor is filled with a lot of crossroads, so without a map it would be very hard to reach the stairs. Fortunately, we have a map. Considering that, we should be able to continue without any problems.」

Using the map, there was no doubt that they would be able to use the shortest path to the stairs to the fourth floor. However, there was no way the map would tell them how long it would take them to walk the path to the stairs, it only mean they didn’t need to worry about going down the wrong path. If it was someone who had cleared the floor multiple times, they would have had a general idea of how long it would take. However, that was hard to expect from Rei and Elena, who were new to the third floor.

「Anyhow, let’s get moving. What do we do about traps? Do we handle them like on the second floor?」

Elena was troubled by Rei’s question for several seconds before she spoke up.

「Let’s take the same care as the previous floors. I don’t think there will be any fatal traps on this floor, but it would still be better to keep up the habit of keeping an eye out for traps as we don’t know when we’ll be able to get a thief to join us……hmm?」

As Elena said that, the magic circle near the stairs shone……the next moment, a group of five men appeared next to the magic circle.

All five of them were at ages that could be considered young, some were a little older than Rei but younger than Elena.

「Alright, let’s go. The request was to collect Sword Bee magic stones. We need seven of them. However, it goes without saying that magic stones are also currently the most valuable material from monsters. Especially since the Marschel and Levisor families are paying a lot of buy them. For the sake of big bro……hmm?」

A young man who seemed to be the leader of the group started speaking to his companions before he realised that there were other people nearby. Turning to see who it was, he saw Rei, Elena and Set looking back at them.

As for Yellow, it was napping on Set’s back.

When he saw Rei, the leader shouted out.

「AHHHHHH-, you guys……no, you’re the people from yesterday!?」

You could see his impression of Rei as the man rephrased his words.

「……Ah, oh right. You’re the guy who was thrown out of the eatery from yesterday?」

At the man’s words, Rei remembered the events from the day before. The man had been the one Rei had caught after being thrown out by Vihera as he and Elena were entering the eatery.

It wasn’t rare for Rei to be dragged into troubles by other people, so even if he recognised the man’s face, it didn’t mean he remembered who it was right away.

「-It took that long for you to remember-!」

「……Is something wrong?」

When Rei asked if he had any complaints, the man shook his head vigorously.

「Speaking of which, I see some familiar faces with you.」

Standing next to Rei, Elena murmured as she looked at the men behind the leader.

It was quite easy to see why, they were the men who had been beaten up by Vihera in the eatery yesterday, including their leader.

「……So, what on earth are you doing on such shallow floors?」

Seeing that they wouldn’t get anywhere if he didn’t say anything, the leader eventually asked Rei.

Although they had barely met in person, the leader’s judgement of Rei showed that he was quite astute.

However, Rei replied with a simple answer as he carried his Death Scythe on his shoulder.

「What do you mean? We’re here to clear the dungeon.」

「No, I mean, if you’re in the dungeon, I know you plan to clear it. But why are you on the first few floors?」

「That’s because we only started to clear the dungeon yesterday.」

「……Ah.」

The leader nodded in understanding at Rei’s response.

The men with him nodded as well.

Those who had already been knocked out by Vihera when Rei entered had no idea of his strength, but it was clear that Rei wasn’t someone they could look down on after they saw Set.

「So……are you here on a guild request?」

「Yes. We have to collect seven Sword Bee magic stones. Normally, we would be working on the 10th floor……but yesterday’s events made big bro angry. Because of that, this is our punishment……」

The leader scratched his cheeks with a embarrassed smile.

「In that case, do your best. We’re about to head off.」

「Yes, please take care! Hey, you lot bow your heads as well!」

『Take care!』

The men all bowed their heads in a row at the words of their leader. They weren’t quite in unison……but it was still something they did at the same time.

Giving a small nod, Rei and the others left the magic circle.

The leader silently watched them leave……before finally exhaling after Rei and Elena were out of sight.

His forehead was covered in cold sweat. He had managed to hold up a front when Rei was in front of him, but after Rei had left, his sweat poured out all at once.

「……What’s wrong? It’s unusual for you to be covered in cold sweat.」

One of the men called out to their leader. The rest of them were equally surprised at their leader’s reaction.

However, the leader simply tapped the helmet of the man who had asked as he wiped away his cold sweat with his arm.

「Don’t you know that he has a title?」

「Yes, of course. Didn’t big bro Vosk personally tell us not to pick a fight with him?」

「Yeah. Aside from Crimson, I’ve heard of other people with titles. Of course, since they have titles, they’re definitely stronger than us. But he’s not the only one. The woman called Vihera from yesterday, even though we were the ones to cause trouble at first, she was able to fight big bro Vosk to a draw yesterday. Can you believe it? The woman who could go toe to toe with big bro Vosk admitted that the two of them were strong. In other words, they are probably as strong as big bro Vosk.」

「That’s……」

At their leader’s words, the men all held their breaths.

Vosk was someone they all looked up to as an older brother. Despite having been born into the Silva family, Vosk was still willing to talk with them casually. Above all, Vosk’s combat strength with his claymore was very high. He had once struggled in a spar against a B rank adventurer, but had still eventually won. He had even been able to fight on equal terms against some A rank adventurers.

For someone to be a match for Vosk……that wasn’t even mentioning about the Griffon, an A rank monster, and Elena, the General Princess. The leader didn’t mention those things to his companions so as to not scare them any further. With such a difference in strength, it was clear why Vosk had told his men not to mess with them.

「Anyhow, you guys shouldn’t mess around with Rei or the woman inside or outside the dungeon. I’m not the only one who has been told this. Do you understand? This isn’t my order to you. This is an order from big bro.」

『Yes sir!』

Seeing them all nod with one voice, the leader decided not to worry about it any further. He grasped the spear in his hands.

「Alright, let’s go. Sword Bees move quickly but have low defences. We can easily kill them as long as we can hit them. We’ll collect the seven magic stones for the request as quickly as possible and take as many others as we can get. This work will get us drinks and girls tonight. Understand you lot!?」

『UOHHHHHHH!』

They all gave a shout on the spot before moving out.

The thief moved at the front of the party, but unlike Rei, he didn’t seem to be actively searching for traps around them. Part of the reason was because he was a professional thief, but the other reason was that from his years of experience he knew the traps on the third floor couldn’t cause any fatal injuries.

Continuing straight ahead, they took a right at the first crossroads followed by a left and then straight ahead. The third floor had a complicated layout with many crossroads, but the monsters that appeared weren’t that strong. Killing any low ranked monsters that appeared, such as Goblins, they stripped away any materials and collected proofs of subjugation as well as magic stones.

「There don’t seem to be any Sword Bees.」

「Yeah. It’s been quite a while but not a single one has appeared……what’s going on?」

「Hey, you’re not just choosing paths that don’t have Sword Bees are you?」

The thief at the front frowned at the words from his companions.

「I shouldn’t be. I’ve been heading for areas were Sword Bees appear, but I can’t help it if none of them show up, even though they would usually show up by this point.」

「……What’s going on?」

Hearing the thief’s words, the leader asked questioningly.

It was obviously quite strange that they hadn’t encountered any Sword Bees after entering the dungeon.

Of course, Swords Bees showed up on floors other than the third floor. So if they didn’t find any here, the thought of moving to the next floor passed through the leader’s mind. However, the reason why he didn’t make that decision right away was that he felt somewhat uncomfortable. Yes, his intuition as an adventurer who had entered the dungeon for multiple years was telling him something.

(What should we do? It seems like something has happened. ……Should we leave?)

The leader thought about it for a moment, but he was one step too late.

「They’re here! Sword Bees!」

The thief at the front shouted out. The people behind him finally gave a sigh of relief as they prepared for battle……

「Wait!」

The thief shouted again. However, his voice held some confusion before his expression turned serious.

「This number……this is……this is bad! It’s not just 10 or 20, there might be more than 50 of them!」

「What-!?」

One of the men cried out involuntarily at the thief’s words.

However, the leader ignored him as he quickly made his decision.

「Hey, we’re leaving right away. Something is wrong. Or could it be……」

In that moment, the leader thought of Rei, who he had conversed with back at the magic circle.

He wondered if this was the result of the two people and monsters doing something. At any rate, they needed to leave this place immediately.

His decision was fast, but it was still too late to deal with the situation.

「They’re coming from behind!」

As the thief shouted, a large number of Sword Bees appeared from in front and behind them, as if they were of the same mind. There were about 50 coming at them from the front with slight less, roughly 40, closing on them from behind.

「Tch, every prepare for battle! Although there are a lot of them, there are only Sword Bees. If we can hit them once, they will die! This is a chance to collect a lot of magic stones!」

Although the leader shouted as such, he had to admit their disadvantageous situation. He readied for combat as he tried to think of a way for him and his party members to make it back to the surface.

The leader’s words were technically correct. Sword Bees were an easy opponent to deal with and would die easily.

However, their numbers were too large for them to deal with from the front and the back. As they started to become flustered……

Whoosh-!

Almost all 40 of the Sword Bees approaching them from behind were instantly wrapped in flames, burning to ashes alongside their magic stones before scattering to the winds.

The temperature of the passageway rose for a moment, causing sweat, whether hot or cold, to appear on the men’s foreheads……

「Do you need any help?」

The leader’s eyes widened when he heard a familiar voice from the direction which the flames had come from.

It was a boy with a huge 2m scythe and a dignified beauty with a sword whip in hand. A Griffon gave a cry while a small Dragon flew alongside them so as to not be a burden. It was an all too familiar group.