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Thanks to how cooperative Rosen's party had been, Senshi volunteered himself to join them.
Part of it was because their team had a good balance of members, but the real reason was that they didn't turn their noses up at monster cuisine.
He'd tried tagging along with other adventuring groups before, but every single one of them refused to touch monster-based meals.
Once everyone had rested up, they set out again.
Rosen and the others didn't bother hiding their intentions from the dungeon locals.
"Look, story or no story, just because things have matched what you've seen so far doesn't mean it'll stay that way. If the red dragon's stomach acid is stronger than you expect, it could digest Falin completely—nothing left behind."
"If we can't find even a scrap of her body or bones, then resurrection magic won't work, right?"
That sent Marcille into full-blown panic.
"W-wait, what are we supposed to do then?! Falin can't die—I still have to save her!"
Flustered Marcille babbled on, while Fubuki glanced toward Laios and Senshi, who were busy happily hunting monsters in the forest ahead.
"You know, the biggest flaw in your party is that you have zero sense of danger. You're experienced adventurers who've gone deep into the dungeon multiple times, but the way you handle monsters is… honestly, like total newbies."
"In the anime it's the same, right? You're supposed to be rescuing someone, but you're constantly wasting time on random distractions."
Frieren, listening nearby, nodded in agreement.
"Obvious traps that you still blunder into. Monsters you've fought several times, yet you still can't finish them quickly or cleanly."
"Exactly. If it weren't for resurrection magic, your whole team would've been wiped out by now."
That blunt observation came from Saeko Busujima, who'd lived through the apocalypse.
Marcille shrank back, chastened.
"…Is… is that really true?"
She had no real respect for death before joining the chat group—and her very first dungeon run ended in the embarrassment of being killed by a slime suffocating her face.
"Realizing it is enough for now," Rosen said calmly. "But let's get back to the point."
He glanced toward Gabriel, who was also enthusiastically catching monsters with Laios and Senshi.
"Getting to the lower levels of the dungeon isn't hard."
He'd mastered Godspeed Step.
As long as he knew the precise location, he could instantly take people straight into the depths of the maze.
The women around him were reminded of Gabriel's unique ability in the previous world.
"So next step is just heading down and finding Falin, right?"
Fubuki frowned in thought, then turned toward Marcille.
"Still, getting there isn't enough. We need to pinpoint the dragon's location first. Do you have a way?"
"Uh… well…" Marcille scratched her head.
"Dragons don't stay put in one place. They hunt back and forth across several dungeon levels. But since it's only been a day since we escaped, it probably hasn't wandered too far. If we start searching a few floors above where it usually roams, we'll likely pick up its trail."
"Then let's skip straight to the highest floor where it hunts. Once we find it, we kill it fast and clean. No dragging things out." Rosen proposed.
No one objected, though Frieren did sigh in disappointment.
"…We might miss some treasure chests."
"That's fine. After we revive Falin, we can always hang around here for a while. We'll have plenty of time to explore properly."
"…Alright, I'm on board then." Frieren lifted her head again.
Just then, Gabriel and the others returned with their haul.
Compared to the first floor, the second floor of the dungeon spread out wide—more like a forest than underground tunnels. With so much space, monsters thrived everywhere, and the group had managed to gather quite a pile of prey in just a few minutes.
Gabriel dragged along a giant walking mushroom in one hand, while in the other she clutched a bunch of mandrakes—plants shaped almost like people, roots and all.
Pulled from the ground, their shrieks could drive anyone who heard them insane. The only way to avoid that was to cut off their heads with a knife first, but that dulled some of the flavor.
"Everyone, I'm planning to take these back and cook them later! Uncle Senshi even showed me how to prepare them!" Gabriel said proudly.
Rosen had serious doubts about Gabriel's cooking skills, but he himself had been planning to bring back some dungeon ingredients anyway.
"This girl's got a real interest in monster cuisine," Senshi rumbled. "And she says she'll gift me a bunch of modern spices. Hard to believe you people are really from another world."
He rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "Still, I can't wait to see what kind of flavors those seasonings will bring out."
"Oh, right—what do you want for your next meal? How about goblin?" Laios chimed in, holding up the freshly severed head of a green-skinned humanoid, blood still dripping from its neck.
"Absolutely not! No humanoids, no demi-humans!" Marcille shot back instantly. "Walking mushrooms are already delicious enough! Why would anyone want to eat that kind of thing?!"
What she really craved wasn't weird dungeon meat at all, but cakes and sweets.
She turned back to Laios, exasperated. "More importantly, aren't you worried about Falin? If the dragon digests her completely, she'll be gone forever—we won't be able to bring her back!"
Having been reminded by Rosen's group, Marcille was starting to realize just how serious things were. But honestly, that kind of complacency was common among adventurers.
Laios froze at her words, scratching his head awkwardly. "…Yeah, but even if you say that, all we can do is keep moving down one floor at a time. If there was some way to jump straight to the deep levels, I'd want that too."
A minute later, Rosen warped the entire party straight onto the red dragon's hunting grounds.
Laios, Chilchuck, and the other dungeon natives gaped, jaws hanging open.
They'd seen teleportation magic before—but only short-range, and usually limited to inanimate objects. Otherwise, there was only the "Escape Spell" that dumped you out of the dungeon entirely.
Teleporting freely inside the dungeon itself? That was unheard of.
"..."
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