"Hm?"
I suddenly turned around.
"Is something the matter, Master Lloyd?" Grimo asked.
"No, I thought I heard a sound..."
"It’s likely just the impact of Sylpha-tan and the others’ attacks."
Now that he mentioned it, that made sense.
If I listened closely, I could hear intermittent thuds echoing from the wall to the left. But on the other side... what was that? A massive gouge?
Now that I thought about it, that soldier had mentioned a monster or something carving a giant hole. These must be the remnants of that.
It was a wound that wouldn't heal even with the World Tree’s regenerative power. Honestly, it piqued my curiosity, but there was no telling when Sylpha might break through the wall and catch up to us.
I didn't have time to loiter. It was a shame, but I had to press on.
"You're keeping up, right, Fiona?"
Fiona nodded and followed close behind me at a light trot.
...I wasn't sure what it was, but her vibe felt a bit different than when we had first met.
Grimo and Jiriel leaned in to whisper to me.
"But are you sure about this, Master Lloyd? For her to follow you all the way here on her own—she’s suspicious no matter how you look at it," Grimo said.
"Indeed," Jiriel added. "Moreover, her behavior has been particularly strange since we arrived here. Perhaps she is regaining fragments of her lost memories... Carelessness is forbidden."
Those two were such worrywarts. If something happened, I’d just deal with it then. Besides, it was always like that anyway, and I actually welcomed a bit of trouble.
Regardless, we headed for the depths....How far had we walked? Suddenly, Grimo cried out.
"Master Lloyd! L-Look up!"
I summoned a globule of magical light into the air, vividly illuminating the ceiling.
What I saw there were countless people... no, dolls. Dozens of them were entangled in the branches.
"How truly eerie..."
"Let's see. I'll take a look."
I snapped my fingers and activated Levitation. I rose toward the ceiling to observe them closely.
The figures hanging there were dolls crafted to look exactly like humans.
They didn't breathe, nor did their hearts beat. Their skin was hard; they were definitely dolls. They were so sophisticated, however, that those were the only ways to tell.
"Good grief, what morbid taste," Grimo muttered. "But why are there so many dolls hanging in a place like this?"
"And they all have the same face... wait, these dolls look like someone..." Jiriel noted.
I’d been thinking the same thing.
We all turned our gaze toward our companion.
Yes, they looked exactly like Fiona.
Elves generally had similar features, but even accounting for that, these dolls were the spitting image of her.
"Mumu... the more I look, the more identical they are. From the texture of the hair to the luster and firmness of the skin—even the shine of the nails—"
"Hey! What are you doing touching them all over in the middle of all this!?"
"Gebu!?"
As Grimo sent Jiriel flying, Fiona murmured softly.
"...Now that you mention it."
Everyone nearly tripped at her nonchalant remark.
"You can tell just by looking! Honestly, stop being so spaced out. Get it together, woman!"
"She’s what they call an airhead," Jiriel commented, rubbing his head. "An airheaded, well-endowed elf girl... I'm definitely feeling a 'fave' vibe here, but she needs a little something more."
"At any rate, we have no choice but to move forward."
Regardless, we resumed our trek.
After a while, a faint light became visible in the darkness ahead.
"Oh, is that the exit?"
"Let's go find out."
What lay beyond was a massive hall roughly a hundred meters square.
The floor and walls were composed of intertwined vines, making it feel as if we were inside the belly of some colossal creature.
"Is this the end of the line? That was pretty anticlimactic," Grimo said.
"There have been zero countermeasures against intruders up to this point..." Jiriel added.
Normally, a dungeon should have monsters or traps to protect its Nucleus.
Even a friendly type should be the same. It was hard to imagine they’d focus entirely on the outer walls and nothing else.
Yet, the reality was a single path that practically invited us in... Rather than being a letdown, it was actually a bit unsettling.
"Maybe Master Lloyd’s automatic Magic Barrier was just erasing everything? Remember that time you entered a dungeon so excitedly that the whole place blew up the second you stepped inside?"
"Ah, the tragic incident where the shockwave from the Magic Barrier annihilated the dungeon’s guardians along with the Nucleus," Jiriel recalled. "Since Master Lloyd has become even more of an outlier lately, there’s a high probability he’s been crushing traps without even realizing it."
"How rude. I'm making sure to hold back this time so that doesn't happen."
I was finally inside a dungeon as interesting as the World Tree.
To ensure I didn't ruin the experience, I was keeping my Magic Barrier to the absolute minimum.
It might seem surprising, but I was actually being quite considerate. Even if I did occasionally go overboard.
So, for this trip at least, nothing had actually happened. However, surely after coming this far, something would—
"...Please be careful," Fiona interrupted. "Something is coming."