Chapter 263: Chapter 263 Bug (3)

A cave where crystals embedded in the walls emitted a brilliant light.

It was a place I had been to countless times, but it felt unfamiliar today.

Well, it was only natural since it was my first time entering in two months…

‘But there must be another reason.’

I clicked my tongue in disappointment as I looked around.

First, there were only three of us, unlike usual.

And although it wasn’t as bright as daytime, it was bright enough that we didn’t need torches.

In other words…

“It’s not a dark zone.”

…the experience point duplication bug was patched.

It meant we could no longer use the dimensional instability phenomenon to start at the entrance of the 2nd-floor portal.

“Do you know anything?”

Raven cautiously offered a guess as I pretended not to know and asked.

“I heard the royal family made a big request to the Magic Tower recently. I didn’t know the details since I’ve been outside, but… now that I see it, it might have been a portal stabilization project.”

Phew, so the bug was really patched because of that.

But I was able to accept it quickly since I was mentally prepared thanks to SoulQueens.

Well, what could I do? I had to play the classic way from now on.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

I had enjoyed enough honey for the past few months.

“I’ll be going now.”

I quickly took out my compass and started navigating after briefly observing the terrain from the starting point.

After all, there weren’t many people who entered this time.

Maybe I could get portal opening experience points even without the bug.

“Avman, summon Iron Bear. I’m planning to move faster than usual.”

Raven got on Iron Bear’s back as soon as the bear-like man summoned him.

“It would be nice if Miss Ainar was also this soft…”

Geez, these mages.

They’re always thinking about mounts.

“Wooooong—!”

Anyway, I took the lead and ran, and Raven and the bear-like man followed.

It was a formation where the bear-like man, who had a sturdy body for a ranged attacker, was in the rear.

Although goblins were no longer a threat…

…you never know.

The most dangerous thing in the labyrinth was always humans.

‘At least there don’t seem to be any Noark bastards…’

I initially ran through the cave cautiously, but I soon lowered my guard.

Although I encountered several explorers while increasing our speed, most of them were low-level explorers with low-grade equipment.

And there weren’t many of them.

‘Maybe I can really open the portal?’

That’s when, as my hopes started to rise…

“It seems like there’s someone ahead of us.”

…they were dashed as soon as we reached the entrance of the dark zone.

A 9th-grade magic stone was lying on the path we were going to take.

There was no way Misha’s team had passed through here.

Even if Erwen had, Misha and Ainar wouldn’t have done that since I didn’t teach them to.

“…Why are you picking that up?”

“A 9th-grade magic stone is still a magic stone.”

I couldn’t just leave a magic stone behind, remembering the time I had to crawl through this long passage on three legs.

Back then, this small magic stone was my hope—

“No, I meant I can retrieve it with magic.”

Hmm, that’s true.

Wait, then there wasn’t a single mage in the team that passed through here?

I thought they would be a top-tier team at this speed.

“Liate.”

We continued running, illuminating the darkness with light magic instead of torches.

The portal appeared after about 40 minutes.

As expected, it had already been opened.

「Entered 2nd Floor Goblin Forest.」

I dismissed my regret and entered the portal.

We had promised to wait for each other on the upper floor, regardless of who arrived first.

“…It’s strange, just like in the cave earlier.”

“Yes. It was so intense back then.”

The Goblin Forest, where a fierce battle had taken place between Noark and the Lafdonian explorers.

The surroundings were quiet, and there was no one in sight.

“It seems like Misha’s team isn’t here yet, so let’s wait for a bit.”

I looked around while we were resting, and I found traces of people nearby.

“It seems like they were here before us. But why are you looking so closely?”

“I just feel a bit uneasy.”

“Uh, I suddenly feel anxious when you say that…”

What is she talking about?

“Everyone, sit down and rest. We don’t know when the other team will arrive.”

We then took out our personal chairs from our subspace pockets and sat down.

Although goblins occasionally approached from afar, they didn’t interrupt our rest.

Iron Bear took care of them.

___________________

“Hey…”

A woman, seemingly in her early twenties, spoke in a whiny voice in the moonlit forest.

“We’re already on the 2nd floor, and there’s no one around, so can’t we summon Yongyong?”

“No. He’ll definitely leave traces with that size.”

“Come on, sis. Why not? It’s not like we’re the only summoners here. Right?”

“Carmilla, stop it. Lady Rainwales said no, didn’t she?”

“Hey, are you just going to stay quiet?”

“Then don’t talk to me in the first place. And what’s so hard for you? You were just sitting on my shoulders the whole time on the 1st floor—”

“No, but you smell like a widower. It’s getting on my clothes. It’s bad for my nose!”

“……What?”

The warrior carrying the woman stopped for a moment at her sharp words, but he just sighed and continued walking, as if he was used to it.

“Right, why would I even bother talking to you.”

“Then don’t talk to me in the first place!”

“Carmilla, I know you’re sensitive these days, but stop acting like a child. Even if I don’t care, there are other people here.”

“Geez, the nagging…”

The woman, called Carmilla, pouted and muttered.

She was dissatisfied with the whole situation.

“By the way, why do we still have to do this mission? Everyone abandoned us and ran away, so what’s going to change even if we kill that explorer?”

“…They must have their reasons. We even received a message from them a few days ago.”

“Ah, right. That message where they just said what they wanted to say and then hung up after 10 seconds?”

Carmilla said sarcastically, and the archer also frowned.

“They apologized, didn’t they? They said they couldn’t talk for long because of the barrier. But they said they would find a way to get us out, so we just have to do our job—”

“How naive. Don’t you think it’s a lie?”

“…Then why did you follow us all the way here, Miss Carmilla? Why aren’t you in the city?”

“That’s…”

Carmilla trailed off and bit her lip.

How could she say it?

That she whined about not wanting to come, but then followed them because she was scared of what that woman would do.

‘Ah, what the hell is going on?’

She snapped at the archer, feeling irritated.

“By the way, Nebarche, what happened to the Ruin Scholar? You were the one who was with him until the end.”

“I told you, didn’t I? The Ruin Scholar had a conversation with ‘that guy’ and then disappeared—”

“Everyone, stop.”

The archer also stopped talking and changed his expression as the woman who was leading the way stopped.

“Amelia, is there a problem?”

“The trap we set near the portal is gone.”

“It means someone came up to the 2nd floor. Judging by the time, it seems like a high-ranking explorer… Maybe more explorers entered than we expected.”

“Nebarche, do you have any guesses?”

“I don’t know. But it wouldn’t be a team from a large clan. They wouldn’t move without being certain.”

“I see.”

Carmilla blurted out at their conversation,

“But does it matter who it is? I don’t understand why you’re curious about that.”

“…You’re not wrong.”

Amelia seemed to be lost in thought at her words and then muttered softly,

“But I’m curious for some reason.”

“Yes? What did you say?”

Amelia shook her head.

“…It’s nothing. Let’s move again.”

____________________

“Mister, did you wait long? I’m sorry. We started in the southern district, so it took a while.”

Misha’s team arrived on the 2nd floor after about 2 hours of waiting.

So we quickly resumed our journey.

After all, over ten teams had already passed through here while we were waiting.

‘It’s not as empty as I thought.’

The 3rd-floor portal we arrived at was, of course, already open, and it was the same for the 4th floor, which we reached after 6 days.

“At least we can eat properly now.”

We replenished our stamina and cleared the trials, having spent the entire journey running without even eating properly.

Although we were a 6-person party, unlike usual, our speed was actually slower.

Because the difficulty of the trials increased from 6 people onwards.

Although I didn’t mind the increased number of monsters, the mazes in the Wisdom Trials became larger, so it took much longer.

‘But maybe it’s because of her racial traits? She’s definitely better at navigating than me.’

Erwen, who had received scout training from her sister, was better at navigating than I expected.

If I relied on experience and knowledge, Erwen was the type to rely on her senses. Her night vision was also much better, so she could spot traps from afar.

“I think I can do it from here without Mr. Avman. This is the right door, right? I can hear mana fluctuations from beyond the door.”

Her senses were so sharp that she could even find the portal connected to the 5th floor without the Guide’s ability.

Her essences didn’t have any Hearing stats.

‘Is it just natural talent?’

Anyway, we arrived at the 5th-floor portal right around the beginning of Day 19.

‘It’s about a day later than usual.’

It would have taken much longer if there were seven of us.

Because the waiting time for each trial increased from then on.

Ah, for reference, it was proportional to the number of people.

There was a reason why large clans split into teams of five and met on the 5th floor.

“Aruru, why don’t we meet on the 2nd floor and hunt like this on the lower floors?”

“Because we would have to share the loot with one more person, and the unit price isn’t good enough on the lower floors. And besides, we need a navigator on each side if we split into two teams. There are many non-combat personnel among low-level explorers, right?”

“Hmm! I see!”

“I… I get it now! You were just nodding without understanding, right?”

“Oh, as expected of a mage!”

“Both of you, stop messing around and go to sleep.”

We rested on the safe 4th floor and then entered the 5th floor early in the morning since it was time to camp anyway.

「Entered 5th Floor Great Magical Forest.」

The 5th floor, which we had returned to after a long time, was a bit different from usual from the very beginning.

It was exactly what I was hoping for.

“It’s nice and quiet.”

The clans that were always there first, controlling the hunting grounds, were nowhere to be seen.

And…

“Oh! Look, look! It’s an Istoltos!”

…monsters that we couldn’t even see unless we paid the clans were roaming freely in the fields.

“So this place was originally full of monsters.”

The bear-like man muttered as if he was disappointed.

Well, he had been active on the 5th floor for a long time.

It must feel strange to him since he had a grudge against the clans.

“Yandel, what do you think? This won’t last forever, right?”

“Right, it probably won’t last long.”

I answered honestly.

The large clans would start entering the labyrinth one by one from next month onwards. And as more time passed, newly formed clans would fill the empty spots.

“So let’s stop sightseeing and move. This kind of opportunity doesn’t come often.”

There was a monster that would be difficult to catch if we missed this opportunity.