Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Passing through the central tree on the 18th floor of the safe zone will take you into the "Great Tree Maze" area, which spans from the 19th to the 24th floors.

The walls, ceiling, and floor, formed of bark, resembled the interior of a gigantic tree. Moss, emitting a blue glow, grew haphazardly throughout the maze, replacing the phosphorescent glow.

Adventurers exploring this place will encounter a wealth of plants unlike anything found on land, including leaves of wondrous shapes and colors, giant fungi, and flower petals dripping with silvery water droplets. Each room visited offers a different landscape, and some even feature beautiful gardens.

In comparison, the monsters that appear are more bizarre than those on the floors so far. By the 24th floor, the highest level of ability (stat) at Lv.2 is required, and the density of the team is also indispensable.

"Oh, it's a white leaf. Asphie, would you like to pick some before you go?"

"Let's forget about it. Going there will only result in us being surrounded by monsters. Let's not waste our energy before handling this request."

"White leaves are out of stock in all the prop shops right now, they can fetch a good price... What a pity."

Upon seeing the white tree standing deep within the cave, Lulu immediately reacted, but after being scolded by Asphie, she could only wag her tail reluctantly.

This floor area also has a unique feature: adventurers often commission the collection of raw materials (items) here. Research has confirmed that many of the herbs here, when consumed directly, have rapid effects in restoring stamina or detoxifying, making them highly valued by apothecaries who concoct elixirs and other items. Even the dazzling moss that forms the labyrinth's light source can be sold for a considerable amount of money when brought back to the surface.

When they discovered the rare Gem Tree—bearing beautiful red or blue gem fruits, a veritable money tree—the entire team was excited, including Asphie, but they still had to reluctantly leave. Guarding the tree was the strongest monster on the floor, the Green Dragon, whose potential rivaled that of a Level 4 monster. Like the powerful dragon (Cadmus) on the 51st floor, valuable gathering items were often guarded by formidable treasure keepers.

When Ais met the green eyes of the tree dragon lying under the gem tree, she felt a surge of blood rushing through her veins, but not wanting to bother Asphie and the others, she lifted her feet and continued walking.

After the blonde, golden-eyed girl left, the tree dragon, with its eyes closed, seemed to feel fear and shifted its body a few times.

"...!"

"Everyone, please stop."

Asphie and the other adventurers reacted to the aura lurking in the passage ahead. Asphie immediately raised a hand, signaling the party to halt.

Ahead lay a massive crossroads. The glowing moss slightly dimmed the light, and countless shadows stirred in the gloom. The adventurers watched the shadows and quickly realized what they were.

It was a huge horde of monsters that filled the wide passageway, so many that it was hard to look directly at them.

"Oh My God……"

Luluni groaned beside Ais.

Seeing countless monsters swarming about, the other members of the group couldn't help but take two steps back. The hideous monsters, which were unacceptable to human nature, seemed to have emerged in full force, enough to send chills down everyone's spine.

Ais observed the monsters and felt that the way they gathered was very unnatural.

She had never seen so many monsters gathered in one area, forming a procession.

After observing for a while, some of the monsters noticed them.

The monsters left the ranks, changing direction in groups, with the other individuals following behind.

"Asphie, what should we do?"

"Since we'll have to get rid of them sooner or later anyway, let's just deal with it here."

Faced with the large number of monsters slowly approaching, Lulu asked Asphie how to deal with them, and she ordered the crew to "prepare for battle".

Each member of the squad picked up a weapon, and the person acting as the vanguard (wall) stepped forward with a shield.

"The rearguard begins chanting, reducing their numbers before approaching the enemy—"

"Wait a moment."

At this moment, Ais spoke up and stopped Asphie from issuing the artillery order.

Asphie turned to look at her suspiciously. Ais walked to her side and said briefly:

"Let me go."

"Huh?"

Ais equipped the Sword of Despair, swung it, let out a "whoosh," and charged forward in one breath.

"Wait, wait a minute!?"

Before Asphie and the others could stop Ais, she had already taken the initiative and acted alone.

A startled scream came from behind, and almost at the same time, the monster army and Ais launched their attack.

As soon as the battle began, several screams of agony erupted as a silver saber slashed horizontally.

"Roar!?"

The sweep operation began.

The devastating slashes cleaved the charging monsters into pieces, claiming their lives. A single swing swept in three enemies, the evasive maneuvers interspersed with spinning slashes; the moment a monster looked up at the beautiful blonde woman leaping into the air, its face was instantly severed in two.

Facing the approaching horde of monsters, Ais confronts them head-on, delivering a crushing blow.

Each time the girl moved forward, the monsters around her disappeared, and the previously buried passage became empty, replaced by a large amount of corpses and dust left on the ground.

It was practically a barrier of swords and blades. Any monster that dared to approach would be torn to pieces without explanation, its head, chest, and body separated in two.

Ais used brute force that hardly befitted her name as "Sword Princess" to slash and suppress the monster's attacks and defenses, defeating multiple enemies in one go.

The monster's excited roar instantly turned into a shrill scream.

"..."

"..."

"...Why don't we just let her handle everything herself?"

"...Should we just go back?"

"That can't be done..."

Asifi and her group members stood frozen in place, and she couldn't help but whisper that Lulu asked her if they could go back. Asifi barely managed to hold back her nod and answered that no.

Watching the swordsmen launching a one-sided annihilation campaign in their field of vision, the Hermes Familia couldn't help but feel the same way: "They don't need us at all..."

"!"

Despite the stunned gazes of Asif and the others far behind, Ais never hesitated to slay her enemies.

The monster never managed to hit her directly, but she would sometimes deliberately defend herself, gradually increasing the speed of her movements.

(I need more.)

The golden eyes reflected the monster's image, and consciousness spread to every corner of the body.

Ais is confirming her current abilities through battles with monsters.

The upgrade has been confirmed.

Ais is working hard to master her [ability value], which has been greatly enhanced after reaching Lv.6.

During the process of sublimation (upgrading), the body experiences a separation between the physical and mental states caused by a sudden increase in power. She gradually eliminates subtle sensory errors, repeating and trying various movements to harmonize her mind and body.

Previously, in order to catch up with the boy (Bell Crane), she rushed to the 18th floor, and then because Asphie and others showed off their skills, Ais didn't have a proper fight all day. Now she's taking this opportunity to have some fun.

She doesn't use "magic".

He accumulated the number of battles solely through pure swordsmanship and physical strength.

"!"

"grumble--!?"

As she charged forward, she killed the monsters in her wake, and the instant she reached the end of the passage, she kicked the wall and leaped into the air.

Ais cut the flying monster "Deadly Wasp" in two with a single sword strike.

The giant wasp (Deadly Wasp), known for its high agility, split in two and crashed to the ground. As it landed, Ais also took down two sword-horned deer. The monsters couldn't even swarm her while she was on the ground; Ais rushed forward and cut them down.

“Gahhhhh!!”

"Sand!"

Seeing their brethren dwindle and the monsters finally begin to flinch, the lizardmen, equipped with natural weapons—a large flower shield and a petal-shaped short sword—challenged Ais. However, the three lizardmen who swung their swords fiercely were repelled by a total of three flashes of light, showing them the difference in skill levels among swordsmen.

In an attempt to stop Ais from wreaking havoc, several fungus monsters called "Dark Poison Mushrooms" spat out poisonous spores, disregarding the potential harm to their own forces—but to no avail. Against Ais, who had acquired a high level of "Abnormal Resistance (Ability)," the abnormal attacks of mid-level monsters were ineffective.

illustration

Ais charged into a vast expanse of deadly poisonous spores.

As the lizardman and the sword-horned deer gasped for breath and collapsed with a series of thuds, the sword tip that emerged from the poisonous fog pierced a dark poisonous mushroom and drove away the swarm of mushrooms.

"Roar! Ro ...!"

Even a second-level adventurer would not have enough lives if they encountered such a brutal battlefield alone, but Ais remained unscathed and prevented the monster from retaliating from beginning to end.

Finally, the battle ended with the dying scream of the "Giant Goblin," a superior breed of goblin.

After the massive body of the large-scale monster collapsed with a tremor in the ground, Ais sheathed her beloved sword (the Sword of Despair).

She annihilated all the monsters that appeared in about ten minutes.

"...So that's Fiora?"

After looking around at the countless monster corpses, Asphie gazed at Ais, who was standing in the middle of the passage.

Like Lulu, who swallowed hard, her fellow faction members all looked at her with fear, except for Asphie, who stared at her back with narrowed eyes.

"...A first-level adventurer is indeed impressive! He managed to defeat that whole bunch of monsters all by himself. No wonder the other adventurers were so scared! Ah, do you need some elixirs?"

"No, I'm fine... Thank you."

Although they were a little timid, they still greeted Ais with smiles as she returned.

They were thrilled with their most reliable helper and praised her in unison.

Despite the praise, Ais remained expressionless, but inwardly she had a real sense of the heights she had reached. The stamina that would have been somewhat depleted at Lv.5 was now completely unnecessary, even without elixirs.

She experienced a significant increase in power and speed, and most importantly, an indomitable resilience.

"So, now that she's taken care of the monsters... Asphie, what's next?"

They couldn't ignore the corpses scattered all around them—mountains of monster carcasses—so the supporters and others divided the work and tackled the task of extracting the "magic stones." At this point, Luluni sought advice from Asphie.

Ais, repeatedly clenching and unclenching her hands, also listened intently to the direction of future actions.

"If we believe what that man in black said, there should be something in the granaries, right? There are three granaries on the 24th floor... located in the southwest, southeast, and north respectively. Which area should we start from?"

Luluni rummaged through her bag and took out a piece of parchment.

This is the 24th layer map depicting the vast and complex maze.

Three large, hollowed-out areas—larger than any cavern—were drawn in the corners of the map, in the southwest, southeast, and north, and circled in red. Ais walked over to Luluni, who was staring at the map, and peeked at it from the side.

Looking at it this way, the 24th floor is really big.

In this underground city that expands as you descend deeper into its layers, the 24th floor might already occupy half the total area of ​​the city (Gorare). If you were to circle around all three food depots located at the very edge of the floor, including the time spent encountering monsters, it would probably take a considerable amount of effort.

The team was waiting for their captain to make a decision when Asphie spoke up.

"Head towards where the monsters are."

"?"

"If we just head in the direction the monsters are coming from, we should be able to find the cause nearby. Since the food depot is the cause of the monster surge, we just need to follow the direction the monsters are telling us."

Asifi's explanation enlightened Ais.

Ais and the others have already learned that the monster surge originated from the food depot, so there is no need to investigate all the suspicious locations. As long as they deduce the direction, they can find the candidates from the three locations.

Lulu and the others suddenly realized what was happening, and looked up at the corpses of the monsters that Ais had annihilated.

They had just swarmed in from one direction of the crossroads in large groups...

"...North?"

As Luluni whispered, everyone stared at the continuous, moss-covered glow of the north passageway.

After the support personnel finished dealing with the situation, the group changed direction and headed north towards the grain depot.

"But speaking of which, the food depot... I think that's where all those monsters spawned. What do you think, [Sword Princess]?"

"I don't know...but..."

"but?"

"I think...it might not be that simple."

Ais continued on her way, talking with Luluni and occasionally receiving a few words of advice from Asfi.

It seems choosing to go north was the right decision, as hordes of monsters frequently swarmed out from the depths of the passage. Asphie, wanting to avoid chaotic battles and exhausting her mental energy, mostly had Ais deal with the hordes of monsters.

Seeing Ais continuously fighting, the young (human) supporter couldn't bear it any longer and gave Ais a elixir. Ais recovered her strength, and it was at this moment that the dungeon began to change.

Like the bark of a large tree, the ceiling and walls gradually developed an uneven, rocky texture starting from a certain point. The color also turned pale red, and the road became completely like a cave.