"Phew, that takes care of that."
Elena exhaled a breath of relief as she flicked her whip-sword, sent the blood clinging to the blade flying, and returned it to its sheath.
She scanned their surroundings, but the emerald wolves that had ambushed them were now nothing more than a collection of carcasses. Some had their heads pierced, some had been cleaved in two by Ara, some were decapitated by Rei, and others had been charred by Set's Fire Breath. While their ends were varied, they all shared the commonality of no longer breathing.
"A roar, huh? If not for that skill of Set's, this wouldn't have been settled quite so easily."
To begin with, wolf-type monsters prioritized speed and coordination over raw power. Set's roar—King's Intimidation—reduced their speed by approximately ten percent. Ten percent. Whether one viewed that as a mere ten percent or a significant ten percent, the answer was obvious from the scene spread out before Elena.
She turned her gaze toward her party members and gave a small nod upon seeing that everyone still had plenty of stamina to spare. She judged that it had indeed been the right decision to take a proper rest after descending to B6F.
The fact that they had defeated the attacking emerald wolves without much of a struggle thanks to Set lightened Elena's heart, even as it made her feel the sheer weight of the duo's power once again.
(No, now is not the time for idle thoughts. We must find the stairs to the lowest floor as quickly as possible. Whatever his reasons, Rei is my... no, our ally. That should be enough.)
She gave her head a light shake to clear away the stray thoughts and brushed back her golden hair, which had been slightly tousled during the combat.
"Rei, collect the monsters. Once that is finished, we resume the exploration immediately."
"Yes, I understand."
Following Elena's instructions, Rei began storing the mangled emerald wolf corpses into his Misty Ring. Even the ones killed by Set's Fire Breath, while their pelts were useless, still had salvageable magic stones, meat, and fangs.
"Alright, Set. Good job. Everything except the pelts is in good condition."
"Guruuu."
Set let out a happy cry from the back of its throat as its head was patted. Set understood that Rei was happy when they could harvest many monster materials, so it had shown some restraint where it would normally have burned the meat and bones to ash. Set's happy cry was likely because it had been praised by its beloved Rei, but also perhaps because it had successfully moderated its power.
A few minutes later, after Rei had performed a rough blood draining and stored all the emerald wolves in the Misty Ring, the B6F exploration resumed.
"Ara, don't say anything unnecessary anymore. I feel like we end up in a pinch every time you mutter something."
"Hey, isn't that a bit much?! It’s just a coincidence that the timing happens to overlap with me talking!"
They continued through the dungeon while listening to Kyuste and Ara’s bickering... or rather, their playful banter. And then...
"Whoa, stop. It's a pitfall trap."
Vel called out to stop everyone and fixed his gaze on the ground in their path.
"Hmm, it's not even worth disarming. I don't sense any connected traps, so it shouldn't be a problem if we just trigger the pitfall with something suitable. Rei, do you have anything in your Item Box? Anything with a decent weight and size will do."
"Give me a moment."
Responding to Vel’s request, Rei displayed the Misty Ring list in his mind.
(I can't use spears since I use them for throwing, and the other weapons are... oh, right, there was that sword Ara used that was about to break.)
Recalling the longsword he had extorted from the Falcon's Claws, he selected it from the list in his mind and handed the seemingly useless weapon to Vel.
"Here, this should work."
"Hmm, it feels a bit light. I wonder if it’ll trigger the pitfall. No, I guess I just need to throw it hard enough."
"Lord Rei, that’s a bit..."
Vel hesitated for a moment but soon nodded and took the longsword. Ara seemed to recognize the weapon she was handed; having used it for a time, she likely realized its origin. It was only natural, as it was the sword she had nearly ruined through her own lack of skill. Vel cast an amused glance at Ara as she muttered somewhat sulkily, a smirk playing on his lips.
"I see, come to think of it, this is the longsword Ara borrowed. Well, it couldn't withstand her rough handling, though."
"...Vel, if you'd like, I could use you as a sacrifice for the pitfall instead of that sword. What do you say?"
"Ah, ahahaha. Just a joke, just a joke. But really, this sword is only good for throwing at enemies now, right? Then I think using it here isn't exactly wrong."
"...Fine, I get it."
With Ara’s reluctant consent, Vel threw the longsword sharply at the target spot. While not as fast as a thrown dagger, the sword was launched with considerable force. It struck the ground... and immediately, a hole about two meters in diameter opened, and the sword vanished into the depths.
"It was wider than I thought."
Vel muttered as he peered into the pitfall, his face involuntarily twisting in a grimace.
"Ugh, how nasty."
At the bottom of the pitfall, where Vel was looking, were countless one-meter-long metal spikes—what could only be described as a bed of spikes. If one were to fall into this pitfall, unless they were equipped with exceptionally high-quality armor or some kind of magic item that boosted defense, their feet would have surely been impaled by the spikes at the bottom.
Perhaps imagining the scene, Elena furrowed her brows in displeasure.
"Anyway, we were saved by the fact that it was an obvious trap."
Vel said so, but the pitfall itself had been quite cleverly hidden. If Vel hadn't been there, there was a high probability that someone would have fallen in.
(Well, I could discover most traps of this kind if I used Faint Flame.)
The magic Rei had used to escape the infinite loop space came to his mind. Faint Flame was truly a spell meant for exploration; it was a spell that would be indispensable if he were to challenge a dungeon alone... or rather, as a duo with Set. However, even with Faint Flame, it could only search floors, walls, and ceilings. It was impossible to detect other types of traps—such as triggers suspended in mid-air.
"By leaving this pitfall open like this, it will be easy for anyone coming after us to find it. ...Assuming it isn't repaired by the monsters, that is."
The group nodded at Elena’s mutterings and resumed their exploration.
After that, monsters continued to appear, but they were mostly small fry like goblins or fang wolves appearing at a moderate frequency. However...
"Stop. I've found a hidden switch on the floor ahead."
"Again?! The person who built this dungeon must have a seriously twisted personality!"
"Hey now, it's the dungeon core that makes the dungeon, not a person. Well, I guess if you say that’s why the personality is twisted, I can't really argue with that."
"...Vel, enough with the bickering. Just show us where the switch is."
Kyuste urged Vel while looking exasperated by the exchange between Ara and the scout.
It had been several hours since they found the first pitfall. Aside from the emerald wolves at the start, the monsters that appeared were mostly weaklings, but in their place, traps were laid everywhere. Initially, Elena and the others had disarmed every trap as they went, but they realized it was taking too much time. Now, they only disarmed traps that seemed likely to trigger chain reactions, opting to simply bypass the others without setting them off.
The switch Vel found this time was the same color as the floor and only slightly raised; it was hidden cleverly enough that someone in the group would likely have stepped on it and triggered the trap if they hadn't known it was there.
"It looks like there aren't any other traps around that switch, so I think we're fine as long as we don't step on that one."
Following Vel’s advice, they avoided the switch and moved deeper. As they proceeded, they came upon a crossroads. From their perspective, the path split into three: left, right, and forward.
"Now, what shall we do? Well, since we don't have a map, we have nothing to rely on but intuition... wait."
Vel gave a sniff and turned his gaze toward the right. Rei also caught the scent that Vel had picked up. It went without saying for Set, whose sense of smell was even sharper than theirs.
"The path to the right smells like beasts. It's almost certain there’s some kind of monster there."
"That leaves left or forward... Rei, I'll leave it to you."
"Me again?"
"Since we have no guidelines anyway, it's better to rely on an adventurer's intuition when diving into a dungeon."
"...Well, this is actually my first time diving into a dungeon, though."
Despite saying that, the fact remained that they had no reliable guidance, so they ultimately had to decide on a path by some means. He looked forward, then looked left. On both paths, the walls glowed faintly, making it impossible to see more than a few meters ahead. In the midst of that, Rei chose...
"Let's go left, then."
He chose the left path, following his intuition almost entirely.
"Very well, let us proceed. But before that, we shall change the formation. It seems this floor focuses more on traps than monsters. Ara in the vanguard and Vel in the rearguard will swap. Ara, watch for surprise attacks from behind. Vel, focus more on the traps."
The group changed their formation according to Elena’s instructions and proceeded down the left path Rei had indicated. And then, in less than ten minutes, they found another trap. Vel felt that it was linked to other traps, so while he disarmed it, everyone took a break while staying alert for attacks.
"But still, I wonder if the monsters in the dungeon don't get caught in these?"
"I'm sure the dungeon core that summons them takes that into account. ...Well, even if you told a goblin where the traps were, it’s doubtful they could remember. In that case, it’s only natural to think the traps are designed not to react to the dungeon's own monsters."
"...Isn't that a bit cheating?"
"Hey, don't tell me. If you want to complain, don't say it to me—say it to the monsters."
Vel disarmed the trap while talking with Ara, and the group continued on while listening to their usual banter. And then again...
"Okay, stop. Found another trap."
"Where is it?"
At Kyuste’s fed-up question, Vel, who was at the front of the party, looked toward the ground about five meters away.
"...I don't see anything like a switch?"
Kyuste looked where Vel was pointing, but to his eyes, it looked like a perfectly normal corridor. But Vel nodded as if that were only to be expected.
"Of course not. It's not a switch; the corridor itself is the trigger that activates the trap. Stepping on a certain part of the passage ahead acts as the trigger. ...Probably."
Unlike his usual self, Vel muttered somewhat tentatively.
"What's wrong? That doesn't sound like you."
"Well, it seems to be a pretty sophisticated mechanism. I'm honestly not sure if I can disarm it completely."
"...Then what do we do? Should we head back to that crossroads and try another path?"
In response to Kyuste’s question as he surveyed the surroundings, Vel shook his head slightly.
"It's probably best not to. Given the structure of this dungeon, there's a high risk that the other two passages are rigged with similar traps. If that's the case, I think it’s better to try and disarm this one and move forward rather than wasting time going back."
"But your claim that the other passages have traps is just your intuition, isn't it? Then it might be worth trying..."
"Kyuste, I'm not just saying this based on intuition. I’ve inferred this from the structure, the locations of the traps, and the timing we've experienced so far on B6F. ...Yeah. It's a bit harsh to say, but it's like the dungeon is saying if you can't disarm this trap, you don't have the right to proceed..."
Vel fell into thought while replying to Kyuste. Watching the two of them, Elena made her decision.
"I see. This is the opinion of Vel, who has seen through and disarmed every trap so far; it is worth listening to. ...Vel, are you able to disarm this trap?"
"If I do it carefully, I think I can manage. But it’s probably impossible to do it quickly like before."
"...Understood. Then do it surely, even if it takes time. Also, since we don't know what lies ahead, one person will stay on alert while the rest of us take a break to recover our strength. That said, we have Set with us, so you don't need to be quite so strained. Rei, I’ll leave the first watch to you."
"Understood."
Nodding at Elena’s words, Rei stood watch with Set, ready to react at a moment's notice should anything happen.