"Mayuri and the others are in what looks like some kind of ruins-type dungeon!!"
"Hinata-chan is with them too!!"
"The monsters spawning are undead Lamias!!"
"They're all running away together right now, but...!!"
"The Hinata Channel is streaming Leveling Junkie Bro!"
"Looks like he's all by himself in a desert!!"
"Whaaat?!"
"Oh crap! A massive swarm of monsters just showed up!!"
"Worm Drakes, Lord Killers, and all sorts of crazy stuff!"
"Lamias! There are Lamias too, not undead ones!!"
Through the comments streaming across DungeonTube, Saito pieced together what was happening to Hinata, Takeo, and Mayuri's group after they had been scattered by teleportation.
(Lamias in both places... Which means, even if the terrain looks different, it is highly likely that Junkie-niki-dono and Hinata-dono's group are on the same floor, de-gozaru.)
Reasoning through the clues, Saito kept moving.
This was no longer the Audience Chamber. Beyond the far door of the chamber lay the staircase leading down to Floor 2.
After driving off Sakura and Jackson, Saito had decided to press forward alone without wasting a single second regrouping with the Professor and the others.
Fortunately, having previous conquest experience with "this sort of dungeon," Saito already knew the stairs to the lower levels would be situated near the Dungeon Core and found them immediately.
Right now, Saito was flying down that very staircase using Gravity Magic.
As the descent continued, the stone steps eventually faded away, giving way to a rough, exposed cavern. Deeper still, a faint light began filtering in from up ahead.
Saito cleared the long cavern in a matter of seconds, bursting out into the open with unabated momentum.
Beyond the cave mouth stretched a dense, suffocating forest.
(—?! It cannot be...!!)
Seized by a grim premonition, Saito didn't let a foot touch the ground, immediately soaring upward upon breaking into the open air. Piercing through the high canopy, Saito climbed higher and higher above the treetops.
Higher, even, than when scouting the terrain from the sky back on Floor 1.
Only after ascending several hundred meters did Saito finally halt to take in a sweeping panoramic view of Floor 2 of the Sendai Castle Ruins Dungeon.
"Is this Floor 2?"
"All I see is trees."
"Wait, where's the desert?!"
"Hey, Saito! Junkie-niki and the others are somewhere on this floor, right?!"
"No..."
Unable to match the breakneck flight speed on its own, the drone clutched in Saito's left hand continued spitting out viewer comments.
Saito's face twisted into a grim grimace before finally answering.
"From this vantage point, most of Floor 2 should be in plain view, de-gozaru. Yet there is no desert to be found anywhere, de-gozaru..."
Nowhere in the vast vista below was there a trace of sand. In fact, unlike Floor 1, there was nothing but an endless sea of trees.
Floor 2 of the Sendai Castle Ruins Dungeon was covered entirely, from edge to edge, in dense forest.
The bad feeling had taken root the instant the cave exited into woodland.
Even in "this sort of dungeon," it was extraordinarily rare for biomes to shift drastically within the same floor. Such transitions only occurred on much deeper, far vaster levels. In short, on a shallow level like Floor 2, "forest" and "desert" simply could not coexist.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"...Are you serious?"
"Then where the hell are Hinata-chan and Junkie-niki?!"
By now, the truth was obvious to everyone. At the very least, they weren't on Floor 2.
"Most likely, they are on Floor 3 or deeper, de-gozaru."
Offering the grim assessment, Saito's thoughts raced.
(Given how recently this dungeon appeared, and the inherent limitation of Teleportation Magic restricting jumps to line-of-sight or previously visited locations, they shouldn't have been able to banish Junkie-niki-dono's group too deep... Even if Sakura-dono and Jackson-dono had other collaborators, it's temporally impossible for them to have charted past Floor 3. Which means, if it isn't Floor 2, Floor 3 is the most probable destination, de-gozaru. But still...!!)
Saito gritted teeth so hard they creaked.
The staff in the right hand was gripped with white-knuckled force.
(Setting aside the matter of MP consumption—conquering Floor 2 alone without waiting for the Professor is the fastest route. Having let Sakura-dono and the other escape, proceeding alone risks being ambushed when exhausted, which is hardly ideal, de-gozaru... but this is no time for hesitation. Yet, even so... how long will it take to conquer Floor 2 and break through to Floor 3...?!)
Could Takeo and the others truly hold out that long?
"...!!"
There was no need to run the numbers. Saito's razor-sharp mind already knew the answer.
It was impossible.
Even so.
"—I have no time to spare waiting for the Professor and the others, de-gozaru!! I shall conquer Floor 2 entirely on my own and rescue Junkie-niki-dono and the rest, de-gozaru!!"
Mind made up, Saito surged forward at blinding speed. Flying would burn through precious MP, but every second shaved off the journey to Floor 3 mattered.
"Wait, what?!"
"Solo?!"
"Can you even do that?!"
"Didn't you bring a whole raid team specifically because it couldn't be cleared alone?!"
Hearing the flood of doubtful comments, Saito offered a faint, confident smirk.
"Bringing a large force was merely a safety buffer mandated by the Japan Explorer Association to prevent any unforeseen accidents, de-gozaru. If I go all out—clearing a floor like this by myself is child's play, de-gozaru!!"
"Wait, for real?!"
"Are you serious...?!"
"Damn, if someone of Saito's caliber says so...!!"
The latter claim was true, but the former was a calculated lie.
What the government, the Japan Explorer Association, and the Dungeon Master had truly been guarding against wasn't the Sendai Castle Ruins Dungeon itself. It was infiltrators like Sakura and Jackson.
Under normal circumstances, clearing Floor 1 of this dungeon required only one person among Saito, Zenichi, or Kurage. However, facing the threat of an ambush by the masterminds of Dungeon Terrorism, padding their overall numbers had been unavoidable.
Even then, if conquering the dungeon had been the sole objective, the three of them would have been plenty. While there was always the risk that one of the three might be a turncoat, keeping the team strictly to three would have minimized collateral damage.
Yet the real reason so many explorers had been deliberately brought along—was to spring the Dungeon Master's trap.
Before setting foot in this dungeon, when receiving the cube containing the Black Obelisk from Tona, Saito had been let in on a secret. The nature of the Dungeon Master's trap, and how it was meant to play out.
(They must have thought their Teleportation Magic would grant them an effortless escape from this dungeon... but there is no running now, de-gozaru. As I suspected, they should have struck before the Black Obelisk was fully anchored, de-gozaru.)
Silently recalling the briefing from Tona, Saito's conviction hardened.
Sakura and Jackson—or rather, whoever had stolen their identities—were undeniably finished.
(—With those two arriving on the scene, escape is out of the question, de-gozaru. Even more so now that the trap is already sprung, de-gozaru.)
However.
(Those two cannot divert their attention to save Junkie-niki-dono and the others. Neutralizing the traitors will take absolute priority, de-gozaru. Which means right now, the only person alive who has any chance of saving Junkie-niki-dono's group is me...!!)
The odds of reaching them in time were astronomically low, but that was no excuse to give up.
(All that's left is to believe in their raw grit as explorers, de-gozaru...!! Please, hold out and survive until I get there, de-gozaru!!)
With that silent prayer, Saito pushed the flight magic to its absolute limit, streaking across the sky.