25. Unexplored Area

Beyond the wall that had nearly crumbled from the explosion of the Gambler's Staff, a passageway of some kind was clearly visible.

"Hmm, just as I thought. It’s not on the map," Sally said, looking up from the parchment. "Doesn’t look like there are any other paths running nearby, either."

Beside her, Rei’s eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"A hidden passage! That means everything past here is an unexplored area...!"

Rei was usually the level-headed one, but whenever treasure chests or unknown adventures were involved, his boyish side tended to leak out. Well, there was a certain romance to it, I had to admit. I totally got it.

"It’s definitely a hidden passage, but that doesn't necessarily mean it’s unexplored," Mil pointed out coolly.

I had a feeling she was intentionally playing the "responsible adult" role just to keep Rei in check. Probably.

As Mil said, just because it was behind a hidden wall didn't mean no one had ever been there. Dungeon walls had a habit of repairing themselves before you even noticed. I wasn't sure if the walls blocking a hidden passage worked the same way, but there was no guarantee they didn't.

Still, I felt the odds of it being truly unexplored were pretty high.

"If it had already been mapped out, there’d be no reason to keep it a secret," I offered. "It wouldn't be strange for it to be recorded on the official maps."

"True enough," Sally added with a nod. "Conversely, if someone is hiding it, that means there’s something back there worth hiding."

That was an intriguing thought. If there was a secret someone wanted to keep, I definitely wanted to know what it was.

"Anyway, let’s just go see for ourselves! We’ll find out soon enough," Halfa chirped.

She was right. There was only one way to know for sure.

We proceeded through the hidden passage at a measured pace. Without a map, we had no idea where the traps might be. It wouldn't be a laughing matter if we walked right into one just because we were trying to make time. We had to be cautious.

Searching for traps while you walked was more exhausting than I’d expected. It wasn't so much physical fatigue as it was mental. We were constantly on edge, straining not to miss the slightest anomaly. At this rate, we’d be worn out before we even found any monsters. I knew I should probably try to relax a little, but I figured I just needed more experience before I could manage that.

"Ah, wait. Stop."

"Oh? A trap?" Rei asked.

I brought the party to a halt. Just as Rei suspected, I could see a trap further down the passage. I wondered if the others had spotted it yet.

"Can you tell where it is?" I asked.

"I mean, it’s pretty obvious," Rei said. "It’s that tile, right?"

"I think so, too!" Halfa agreed. "Nothing else looks even remotely suspicious."

Rei was pointing at a specific flagstone on the floor. Since the entire floor wasn't tiled, this single, solitary stone stood out like a sore thumb.

"Hmm. Isn't that a bit too blatant?" Mil asked, sounding skeptical. "I doubt we’d be able to spot it that easily if it were a real threat."

"True," Sally said. "I mean, you might trip it by accident during a fight, but otherwise..."

Mil and Sally were clearly suspicious because of how obvious it was. Those two tended to be the cautious thinkers of the group—well, except when magic tools were involved. Then Sally usually went off the deep end.

I looked at the group and smiled. "Actually, you’re both right."

This was a classic dungeon trap. There were variations, but you could find something like this in almost any dungeon.

"It’s a two-stage setup," I explained. "If you step on that obvious tile, it triggers arrows or something from the walls. But there’s a second part. A little further away, there’s a tiny depression with a switch that looks exactly like a pebble. That's the real trap. It’s usually something nasty, like the floor falling away to drop you into a pit of spikes."

It was a spiteful little mechanism designed to catch people who thought they were being clever by sidestepping the obvious threat.

"Whoa! You're amazing, Tort!" Halfa cried, her eyes shimmering with admiration.

I was a bit embarrassed, but it felt good to be praised. "Thanks. It’s my job, after all. But you’re doing great too, Halfa. You’ve been a huge help with your bow and your singing."

"Ehehe, you think so?"

Halfa gave a bashful smile, her white wings twitching happily behind her.

"Huh. Can you really see it?" Rei asked, leaning in.

"If I know what I'm looking for and stare really hard, I can see it," Mil admitted. "But otherwise? No way."

"Yeah," Sally agreed. "If I didn't know it was there, I'd never guess that pebble was a switch. Not in a million years."

The three of them huddled around the "pebble" switch. It seemed they’d concluded it would be nearly impossible to spot on a first pass.

To be honest, that went for me too. Even though it was my first time seeing this specific trap, I only noticed it because I had the prior knowledge and was specifically looking for it. I really had to thank the great explorers of the past who had documented these things for the rest of us. It was thanks to them that we could explore in relative safety.

Fortunately, even in this hidden area, we were still on the Third Floor of Cygnil. The traps here followed the same logic as the ones I’d studied in the guild lectures. If this had been a completely unique, unknown type of trap, I probably would have been in trouble.

"Are you going to disarm it?" Rei asked.

"You can't really 'disarm' dungeon mechanisms like you can with treasure chests," I said. "Our best bet is to just mark it or use planks to bypass it. In this case, there’s enough room to just walk around."

The passages here were wide enough that avoiding pressure-plate traps wasn't much of a challenge.

We encountered a few more monsters and traps after that, but they were all standard for the Third Floor. The monsters were no match for us, and as I got more used to identifying the traps, our progress sped up significantly.

Eventually, we came to a stop in front of a door decorated with an incredibly gaudy design.