The crimson grass rustled across the wild field.
"Left side!"
A massive rat leapt out without warning, its sleek, streamlined body somehow as huge as a lion's, jaws splitting open to reveal blood-red fangs as it lunged at Ryuu.
But it never reached her.
Midair, Ais intercepted it. A frenzy of wind wrapped around the rat's elongated body, wringing it like a twisted towel. As it let out a ghastly shriek, countless invisible blades sliced through its flesh.
Foul blood sprayed everywhere, but the fight wasn't over yet.
The giant rat's corpse crumpled to the ground like a discarded rag, and Isagi and the girls simply tightened their formation once more.
They stood in a circle. At the center were Heith, the healer, and Haruhime, the support mage. Next came Lefiya, the arcanist, and only after her came Isagi, Ais, Ryuu, and Tiona.
The tall grass stretched out like an ocean.
Dense and endless.
From time to time, it shifted color in unison with the "sky ceiling" above.
It wasn't until they'd pushed deep into this region that Isagi realized the grass had no color of its own.
It looked almost transparent, like plastic or something similar — it only reflected whatever light fell from "above."
Only light from "above" worked, though.
The flame in his own hand, or any magic light cast nearby, couldn't change the grass's color at all.
And every so often, the sky itself kept shifting through different colors.
Crimson, azure, gold, violet... even pure white and ashen black — the colors cycled endlessly, transforming the whole landscape along with them.
Beyond the sheer sensory spectacle of it all, the real headache was that this opaque sea of grass made it nearly impossible to spot any Monster hiding within.
Maybe it was some built-in mechanism, or maybe the field itself simply worked that way.
Every Monster only revealed itself the instant it leapt out from point-blank range.
It was only because Isagi and the girls were high enough level that they managed.
In those fractions of a second, they had just enough time to react and strike back.
An ordinary adventurer wouldn't be able to take a single step here.
Time passed.
Eventually the piles of Monster corpses around them grew taller than the grass itself, poking up visibly from within the pale blue sea of blades.
Only then did Isagi have Lefiya and Ryuu start gathering Magic Stones and materials while the group kept moving.
"This is pretty inefficient."
Even now, they could still make out, off in the distance, the passage they'd left behind — the one leading back up to the safe floor above.
But there was no sign of Freya or Loki anywhere.
Maybe they'd already moved far ahead. Or maybe...
was this just how the map worked?
[The World's Entrance].
Not long after stepping into the grass field, Isagi and the girls had simply known this place's name, deep in their own hearts.
Still baffling, honestly.
Fortunately, just as they'd guessed at the start, the boundless field wasn't entirely without landmarks. In the distance, the rising mountains and the huge standing stones planted atop them pointed the way like signposts.
Especially that one point, far off at the very edge of sight, wavering and indistinct — a mountain that seemed to rise even higher than the sky ceiling itself, still standing tall.
That was where they needed to go.
"Would it be faster if we just flew there?"
Ais asked.
But Isagi didn't take the girl's suggestion. She could easily carry everyone else through the air now, sure, but there was no way the sea of grass held nothing at all.
Plenty of clues — maybe even the boss itself — could be hidden beneath this field.
Flying straight over would mean missing all of it.
Same as always, then.
They hadn't come here to rush to the next floor. They'd come to train themselves, hunt for bosses to earn Excelia and rare materials, and forge or upgrade their gear — anything to grow stronger.
"Let's just keep walking, then."
Neither of them could say how much time had passed.
Maybe from day to night. Maybe a full day had gone by, maybe more.
Within this [World's Entrance], there was clearly no concept of a "day" — only the endless shifting of colors, from red to blue, blue to white, white to ash-gray—
until the clock Isagi used to track time showed that seventeen hours had passed since they'd arrived on this floor.
That was when, for the first time,
they reached the base of the first hill — a small rise poking up out of the sea of grass, no more than a dozen meters tall, easy enough to climb.
Both up and down the slope, stone pillars of varying heights jutted from the ground, some standing straight, others leaning at odd angles.
Every single one was carved — either with a human face or with strange symbols.
Interestingly enough,
the girls discovered that touching certain stones caused their surface color to shift. At first the stone showed the ashen gray it should naturally have, but the moment a hand touched it, the color would change to red, blue, green, purple, or something else entirely.
"Is this some kind of puzzle?"
"Could be..."
"Maybe we're supposed to turn all these stones the same color?"
"Let's write it down first, just in case!"
After all this time adventuring together, the girls had clearly grown quite "sensitive" to details like this.
Isagi watched Lefiya and Ryuu huddle together, pulling out a little notebook and scribbling away.
Meanwhile, off to the side,
Haruhime, Ais, and Heith started a fire and began cooking.
At their level, an adventurer could go days without eating or drinking and be fine. It was uncomfortable, sure — but manageable.
Still, whenever there was a chance to eat, they took it.
Isagi gulped down water while keeping an eye on their surroundings.
The hillside was bare, nothing but the standing stones and a few scattered bare rocks. The wide-open view gave the place the feel of some kind of designed "safe point."
After all,
the sea of grass below was far too dangerous to camp in.
From what they'd seen so far, the Dungeon still seemed to retain some degree of "humanity," or maybe "balance" — it wasn't out to craft some unbeatable trap just to torment them.
So—
judging by the trip so far, they hadn't gathered much new information.
Maybe they were still too close to the edge of the region.
After walking for over ten hours, the massive volcano in the distance — [Crimson Mountains] — still didn't look any closer.
If they kept going like this, how many days would it take to reach it?
Still.
Going by Riveria and the others' experience, crossing an entire [the Volcano] region in the deep levels could easily take ten days to half a month.
And that was without accounting for the fact that this was Isagi's own special Dungeon.
This was an extremely dangerous place — it had taken Loki Familia several years just to break through it and finally reach the safe floor at level 50.
In truth, given the group's current pace, they were already moving at "lightning speed" by comparison.
[Let's just call it good for now].
Isagi thought to himself.
Once Lefiya cast her barrier magic over the entire hillside, everyone gathered to eat.
Dinner was simple chicken curry and stew.
In the Dungeon, that was about as good as it got. While they ate, Isagi started organizing the night watch — sleep was essential, but they needed at least two people rotating through shifts.
Fortunately, they had plenty of hands to spare, and could even bring the Soul Teardrop out to help, which made things much easier.
And so,
once the sky ceiling shifted again from its bleak ash-gray into a beautiful deep violet,
the group, lit by the campfire, huddled together on blankets spread over the ground and settled in to rest.
The first watch fell to Ryuu and Lefiya.
Four hours later, they went to sleep and Tiona and Ais took over.
Four hours after that, it was Isagi and the Soul Teardrop's turn, while Haruhime and Heith woke up too, though they busied themselves preparing breakfast instead.
By the time everyone had slept through a full cycle,
the sky ceiling had shifted again, from deep violet to a pale green, blending with the deep green glow of the elf girl's still-active barrier magic in a way that was almost dazzling to look at.
A faint breeze drifted past,
cool and pleasant. Nearby, Haruhime and Heith were debating whether the mushrooms and bird eggs they'd gathered earlier — up on the safe floor, from that great bridge — were safe to eat.
They used to be edible.
The real question was whether Isagi's ability had transformed this into a "special Dungeon" and caused some kind of mutation in the process.
Back when that safe floor had been called [Ash Bridge],
several kinds of birds unique to the Dungeon had nested along the bridge or on the cliff walls on either side. Both the birds themselves and their eggs were quite delicious. On top of that, rare mushrooms grew along the cliff faces, too — prized ingredients.
Sold up in the city, they'd fetch a good price — deep-level goods, after all. Even an adventurer determined to harvest them specifically would need at least Lv.5 strength to make the trip worthwhile.
When they'd crossed the bridge earlier,
Haruhime and Heith had gathered quite a bit, but now they hesitated, unsure whether it was actually safe to eat.
Isagi figured it was worth trying. Even if it turned out to be poisonous, it hardly mattered — he could just revive himself if needed...
Right at that moment!
While they were still puzzling over breakfast with the girls,
suddenly—
out of the corner of his eye, Isagi caught movement far off in the grass field.
A rustling sound — something was "running" through the grass.
The Soul Teardrop noticed it too, but instead of chasing after it, it simply shifted its right hand into a massive bow—
darting swiftly outside the barrier, planting itself at the foot of the hill, and opening fire toward wherever the noise had come from.
A silent breath of dragon fire shot forward, riding the arrow.
Like laser cannon fire, it tore through the grass in an unbroken stream, wiping out huge swaths of the field entirely — but the Dungeon regenerated fast. As one patch of grass vanished, another sprang up in its place immediately, endless and unceasing.
As for whatever had made that noise in the distance...
Its speed was unbelievable!
In that brief flash of light, Isagi only caught a glimpse of the thing — a short, stocky figure, its body a solid, deep green, bulging with muscle amid the pale green grass.
"..."
Something about it felt oddly familiar.
By the time it had already fled far away, Ais and Ryuu, who'd been sleeping, jolted awake and rushed over.
"It's nothing. Go back to sleep."
Just now,
the thing really had been approaching their camp, and only fled once it realized it had been spotted.
Was it the boss?
That kind of "intelligence" wasn't something an ordinary Monster should have.
Isagi thought to himself.
He was about to go try a spoonful of the mushroom soup Heith and Haruhime had been cooking — it did smell wonderful, and if it turned out edible, it would be perfect drizzled over noodles or rice.
Even if it meant one revive, it'd be worth it.
But right at that moment, suddenly, from the grass field below the hillside, the same rustling sound came again.
"Who's there!"
A gust of golden and black wind kicked up together, flattening the tall grass beneath it.
And out from within it emerged a face Isagi and the girls knew well.
"?"
"Huh?"
Xenos.
Both sides stared at each other in disbelief.
Stepping out of the pale green grass were Lyd, the red-scaled Lizardman, and Ray, the Siren, who looked injured.
"Isagi?!"
"And Ais and Ryuu too..."
Since Ray spent so much time on the surface, she was naturally more familiar with the group than Lyd was.
"I see... this is what you meant by a special Dungeon, right? How could this—"
"..."
Could it be a shapeshifting Monster in disguise?
At first, Isagi and the girls weren't certain the Ray and Lyd in front of them were really Xenos — though it wouldn't be strange for Xenos to appear in the deep levels at all.
Xenos regularly came down to the deep levels to "train," after all.
Even as Monsters, they were treated as some kind of outcast by other Monsters, and would often be attacked on sight.
At the same time,
they could grow stronger by consuming Magic Stones.
Lyd and Ray, leaders among the Xenos, had originally been Lv.5. Word had it they'd recently reached Lv.6 — which explained things.
It was precisely because of the special Dungeon that the Xenos leveled up so much faster than ordinary adventurers.
Ais and Ryuu grilled them seriously with a few questions — the kind of "little secret" only the real Ray and Lyd would know.
Meanwhile,
they noticed Lyd and Ray were both carrying Eye Crystals given to them by Fels — useless this deep down, sure, but once they reached the mid-levels or so, they could use them to contact the surface, and even transmit image and sound back if necessary.
That was why Fels had handed out so many Eye Crystals to the Xenos.
This way, they could act as the Guild's eyes and ears within the Dungeon, keeping watch for anything unexpected, or confirming other situations as needed.
For instance...
if an Enhanced-Species ever showed up, the Xenos would go check it out, and take it down on the spot if they could.
That way, there'd be no repeat of the old days, when an Enhanced-Species could quietly grow in some low or deep floor, hidden from the Guild for months or even years, until it finally sparked some disaster.
"So it really is you two."
Isagi found it hard to believe himself.
Once their identities were confirmed, Isagi invited them both inside the barrier magic.
Isagi was curious, too, about how they'd ended up here. According to the Dungeon's original "design," Xenos who entered his special Dungeon were supposed to be acting as NPCs or something...
...
____
⚡ BONUS CHAPTER MILESTONES
✍️ 5 REVIEWS = +1 Bonus Chapter 💎 100 POWER STONES = +1 Bonus Chapter 🔥 P@TREON (Walnut-chan): Read +40 chapters ahead & unlock 60+ exclusive stories!
🔥 New history: Food Wars: The Interception System, Starting with Mana Nakiri — posted on The_Mikudayo