"While we still don't understand the Dungeon's 'abnormality,' we shouldn't engage floor bosses head-on. If a boss has mutated like the Goliath, things could get… very troublesome. Right, Finn?"
After laying out the situation, Tsunayoshi turned to Finn.
"Exactly. We avoid boss fights for now and switch to an evasion-first route."
"In that case, my puppet is all we need outside. Why did you follow me into the sub-dimension?"
"Because you don't know the floor routes as well. You need a guide."
"I need a guide?" Tsunayoshi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His personal stats were the issue, not his pathfinding. Finding a way to the next floor's entrance, he could handle.
"Or would you prefer Riveria to keep you company?"
"Riveria?" Tsunayoshi's expression went oddly complicated. Was Finn joking?
"With how serious she is, I feel like she'd sit down beside me and start reciting elven history. I'm sure it's glorious for elves, but to me it sounds like a lullaby."
Finn's mouth twitched. He couldn't deny Riveria did give off that severe, studious impression. As a long-lived race, elves naturally projected… a sense of history. Yes—best not let Riveria hear that phrasing.
"Then who in the Familia do you like the most?"
"Like…? Probably Loki."
"Loki?" Finn was surprised. He'd expected Tiona.
"Partly because she took me in," Tsunayoshi said. "She didn't blame me for dropping out of the sky into her bath—saw a few things—and still kept me. Though I could tell she was mostly… interested in the unknown that I represented."
"Gods are curious about anything unknown. Someone like you will always pique their interest—especially a god like Loki."
How deep did a god's curiosity run? Deep enough to seal their divinity and descend to the lower world. Faced with a man who literally fell from the sky full of unanswered questions, that curiosity wouldn't rest until it was satisfied.
"Lucky you landed in Loki's bath. If it had been one of the less… stable gods, your situation might be much worse."
"I think so too," Tsunayoshi agreed. When he imagined the other deities, most of them were, frankly, not normal. A rare handful were: Hephaestus, the blue-and-white-ribboned Hestia, the ever-righteous Astraea. Very rare. Among the 'abnormal,' Loki was the most normal.
Outside, the puppet had already cleared the Great Tree Labyrinth and entered the Great Waterfall region. In the sub-dimension, the two focused up at the same time.
"We're here."
"Mm."
The thunder of falling water drowned out most monster sounds, making the waterfall—the key feature spanning the 25th, 26th, and 27th floors—the first thing to command your senses the moment you entered.
But aside from the roar of water… nothing. That was strange. Finn's brows drew tight.
"No other noise. Are the monsters hiding?"
"Very likely," Tsunayoshi said. "We already know the Amphisbæna has refreshed. With a floor boss present, its pressure should drive the weaker monsters into hiding."
Finn stroked his chin and nodded slightly. "That tracks. Bosses sharing a floor with normal spawns is rare. Aside from the Amphisbæna roaming between these three levels, most bosses are confined to a single floor, so we seldom see how the lesser monsters react. But in the animal world, the weak hide from apex predators."
"In that case, the Amphisbæna is probably lurking in a corner of the Great Waterfall, jaws open, waiting for any adventurer who wanders in."
That conclusion made Tsunayoshi quietly grateful.
"Good thing I can send puppets ahead. If the whole Familia had marched in blind, who knows how many would've died."
"Agreed. Your puppet scouting saved us," Finn said. In conditions like these, any adventurer stepping foot here was in real danger. Only Tsunayoshi's puppet carried minimal risk—especially with that presence-dampening device he'd crafted.
The puppet padded to the cliff's edge by the left-hand cataract, peering down. The depth was staggering; from above, the lower view was little more than mist and shadow.
Each layer down, the Dungeon ballooned several times larger than the one above. Go past the 18th and you were already approaching Orario's surface footprint; a vertical stack like the Great Waterfall was worse. From the 25th, seeing clear down to the 27th was… optimistic.
Climbing down slowly would cost too much time. Watching the feed inside the sub-dimension, Tsunayoshi did the math. They needed a quicker way through.
"Finn, you know the exit route out of the 27th, right?"
"I do."
"Then let's use the simple method and get through fast."
A fire-red slime popped from the ground and bounded forward in quick, springy hops—fifty, a hundred, two hundred meters. Light began to bloom inside its body, rising past a threshold—
—and burst into a blinding flash and a concussive blast.
Boom!
The calm of the floor split like a curtain torn wide. A razor-edged roar answered from below, along with a deep, grinding tremor.
Climbing the falls from beneath, a massive, blue-scaled dragon—three heads, a body like a living avalanche—heaved up the cliff face and slammed into the 25th-floor causeway, sealing every forward route.
"Perfect! Jump!"
Tsunayoshi's eyes lit up. He made the puppet step off the cliff in a clean, committed leap—
—and drop straight toward the 27th floor.
(End of Chapter)
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