"Whoa... I don't even know what to say... whoa..."
Rei muttered as he gazed out over the scene of destruction Reliu had left behind.
The Rock Plants' most effective attack was firing off their stone leaves in rapid succession. With a huge number of them all doing the same, the volley of leaves was considerable.
But that kind of assault was only possible when the distance between the Rock Plants and Rei's party remained above a certain threshold. In other words, if someone closed to within the enemy's range like Reliu had done, only the Rock Plants in the immediate vicinity could attack—those farther back were left with no angle.
For Reliu, evading such a sparse barrage was effortless. And so he had gone on slicing through one Rock Plant after another...
"Listen, Reliu. I said I wanted to secure some Rock Plants alive, didn't I? Is it possible you didn't hear me?"
"Ugh... s-sorry."
At Marina's words, Reliu obediently bowed his head.
If it had been anyone other than Marina, he never would have submitted this meekly. But to Reliu, Marina was someone who had looked out for him in his youth. Even though she had stepped down as Guild Master, he couldn't so easily change his attitude toward her.
In contrast to the scolded Reliu, the others were keeping watch on their surroundings. Meanwhile, though surprised by the state of the area, Rei went about storing the Rock Plant debris into his Misty Ring one piece after another.
Since they didn't know exactly what kind of existence a Rock Plant was, he decided to stash them all for now. There was a chance they might prove useful for something later.
There was also a chance they would be completely useless down the line, but keeping them inside the Misty Ring took up no space, so it wasn't really a problem.
(Besides, as rocks shaped like plants, they'd probably unleash devastating power if I tossed them into a Fire Whirlwind.)
Thinking along those lines, he also reflected that if they had needed to keep the Rock Plants alive, they would likely have had to return to Golts. Even as peculiar an existence as a Rock Plant, if it was alive, storing it in the Misty Ring would probably be impossible. And carrying one through the dungeon would be difficult; handled poorly, they might end up shattering it in combat despite going to the trouble of keeping it intact.
From that perspective, not having to return to Golts was, in a sense, a stroke of luck for Rei.
"Gruu!"
Set let out a cry as he deposited debris from a Rock Plant a short distance away next to Rei. Set was voluntarily carrying them over, wanting to help out as much as he could.
Naturally, if the goal was to destroy them, it would be no issue at all for Set. But carrying them to Rei without breaking them required holding them carefully in his beak. Against the monsters around here, Set possessed the power to kill in a single strike. If he exerted that power fully, the Rock Plants would shatter without question. To prevent that, he had to grip them gently enough to keep them intact.
"Thanks, Set."
Rei voiced his gratitude to Set as he placed the Rock Plant on the ground, then immediately stored it in the Misty Ring.
Fortunately—though calling it that might be a stretch—Reliu's strikes were cutting the Rock Plants rather than shattering them. In other words, rather than gathering shattered fragments of rock, they could store the Rock Plants as reasonably intact chunks directly into the Misty Ring.
By the time Marina finished lecturing Reliu, the majority of the Rock Plants in the room had been stored away.
"Well, there are no stairs going up or down here after all... what should we do? Though I suppose going back is our only option."
No one objected to Vihera's words. After all, this was merely a spacious room—a complete dead end. Given that, their only choice was to return to the floor above—the forest.
...Or so they had thought.
"Nn!"
Byune's voice rang out through the room as she investigated it. For the usual Byune, such a thing would be entirely out of character. In other words, there was something she needed to do that required it.
Byune stood near the wall on the exact opposite side from the stairs where they had descended, motioning for Rei and the others to come over. She radiated an unusually happy atmosphere for someone like her. Though the fact that her expression hadn't changed at all was par for the course.
Once everyone gathered at Byune's location, Vihera spoke on their behalf.
"So, what is it? Did you find something?"
The fact that it was Vihera rather than Rei, the party leader, who asked was surely because she was the only one who could accurately interpret Byune's intentions and words.
Rei and Elena had known Byune for a fair amount of time as well. And yet, for some reason, they couldn't read what Byune wanted to say as well as Vihera could. In this regard, Rei felt it might not be a matter of simple familiarity but something else entirely. Of course, even if they couldn't grasp the finer details, they could understand the general meaning, so communication wasn't a problem.
"Nn!"
With the gazes of Vihera and the others upon her, Byune gently touched the nearby wall. As she gradually applied pressure, the section she was pressing finally gave way inward.
That was clear evidence that some kind of mechanism was built into the wall.
As the wall pushed in, a rectangular section within this dead-end room slid sideways, as if the wall had turned into a side-opening door.
"...Well I'll be."
The one who muttered almost involuntarily was Reliu. He surely hadn't expected such a mechanism to exist in this space. For starters, Reliu was a warrior who wielded a longsword. He lacked the skills to spot traps or find hidden passages like a thief would. Ordinarily, such an adventurer would form a party to cover their weaknesses, but Reliu rarely challenged dungeons to begin with, having always managed somehow with his high physical abilities and sharp instincts.
Even so, watching Byune demonstrate her thief skills, he genuinely felt she was amazing. The fact that even while feeling amazed he had no intention of ever forming a party with a thief was very much like Reliu. He honestly thought it was impressive, but with him, that was where it ended.
"So? What's the plan, party leader?"
At Reliu's expectant look, Rei spoke up immediately.
"We keep going. Even if we return to the forest, we don't have any other leads on stairs. In that case, it's better to press on through this hidden passage."
As his personal opinion, Rei was drawn to the forest above by the likelihood that unknown monsters still roamed there. But considering the overall conquest of this dungeon, pressing forward was the better choice. What's more, since they had come here under the pretext of conquering the dungeon, he couldn't exactly say he wanted to hunt unknown monsters in front of Reliu.
If the concern was not knowing about Beast Magic, Byune was in the same boat—but in her case, if Vihera said she wanted to fight unknown monsters or wanted their meat, Byune would accept it without complaint. The presence of Reliu, whom Daskar had attached to them out of goodwill, was nothing but a hindrance right now. Of course, it was also an undeniable fact that they had been helped in various ways thanks to Reliu. Vihera in particular was using her mock battle with him as a basis for trial and error, attempting to create a new skill. Naturally, it wasn't solely thanks to Reliu; it was surely also a conclusion drawn from the accumulation of all the battles Vihera had experienced up to now.
"Does anyone want to go back to the forest?"
Rei asked everyone for form's sake, but the one who most wanted to return was probably Rei himself.
The others said nothing, and they proceeded into the hidden passage.
"There might be traps, so we move in the same formation as we did on the first floor."
Byune nodded at Rei's words and took the lead. The others followed in the same formation they had used on the first floor.
Observing the passage, which resembled the room where the Rock Plants had been, Rei judged that it was probably constructed much like the first-floor corridors.
(Does that mean it'll branch into a Y-fork again? ...Surely it's not identical to that extent.)
They advanced while keeping a close eye on their surroundings, but suddenly Byune, who was leading, came to a stop.
"Nn!"
She signaled those behind her to halt, crouched down, and carefully examined the ground, which looked much like the first-floor cave. After performing some kind of action, a few seconds later a sharp spear thrust out from the side of the passage about five meters ahead of Byune's position.
If they had triggered that trap without noticing, they would have been skewered by a spear from point-blank range at precisely the right moment.
Of course, for Rei's group, dealing with the trap the instant it activated would have been possible, so there likely would have been no casualties. Even so, having a trap disarmed was undeniably a relief for anyone advancing through a dungeon. Even if they could handle it, triggering a trap was never an enjoyable experience.
"Looks like a rather vicious trap has been set here."
As Elena murmured while eyeing the spear, the others nodded in agreement.
If Golts adventurers had challenged this dungeon, they most likely would never have detected this trap. And falling for it... several of them would undoubtedly have been skewered. Of course, there was also the question of whether Golts adventurers could have safely navigated the forest on the second floor, dealt with the massive horde of Rock Plants in the large room, and on top of all that, found the hidden passage Byune had discovered.
Considering they would have to overcome all that just to reach this point, it could only be called too heavy a burden for Golts adventurers.
"Byune, be careful up ahead. If anything happens, retreat to us immediately. ...Though it's not like you'll be that far ahead."
At Elena's words, Byune gave her usual "Nn" and nodded. Elena, seemingly satisfied, said nothing further and turned her gaze toward Rei.
Understanding the meaning behind that look, Rei spoke up again.
"Then let's press on. Like Elena said, we'll advance carefully. Surely that wasn't the last trap."
No one objected, and they resumed their progress through the hidden passage.
There was no particular moisture in the air, and while the temperature was slightly cool, it wasn't cold enough to make them shiver. The ground, however, was far from flat—raised sections jutted up here and there, and numerous stones were scattered about, making it very difficult to walk.
Given the trap they had just encountered, it was only natural to suspect that similar traps might lurk beneath such stones and raised areas. In fact, Byune had already discovered and disarmed several traps in just such locations, so it was far from mere paranoia.
"Nn? ...Nn!"
And now, once again, Byune noticed a thin thread set near the ground, called out a warning, and began disarming it.
"There've been a lot more traps since we entered this hidden passage."
Reliu muttered in an annoyed tone. For someone without trap-detection skills, being in a place riddled with them was extremely unpleasant. One careless step could easily set one off.
In Reliu's case, though, even if a trap did trigger, he could usually brute-force his way through it. Even that spear trap near the cave entrance would be no difficult task for him to block, evade, or slash away with his longsword after it had already sprung.
Hearing Reliu's complaint, Rei found himself wondering whether it would be better to simply use his magic to disarm every trap at once.