"Look, the stairs are right over there."
"Thanks, Roro. You’ve been a huge help."
With Roro as our guide, we cleared the Second Floor in record time. Personally, I would have liked to spend a bit more time exploring and gathering medicinal herbs, but the state of the floors from the Third Floor onward weighed on my mind. I decided to prioritize our investigation over harvesting.
"It was no trouble at all. But make sure to show your face in the Fairy Realm once in a while, okay? Everyone is waiting for you!"
Roro waved and flew off. I had a sneaking suspicion that what the fairies were actually waiting for wasn't us, but the sweets we carried. Still, whenever I gave them treats, they gave me precious medicinal herbs in return, so it was a fair trade. Thinking about it that way, there might not be much need to bother with tedious herb-gathering on the Second Floor anyway.
Setting that aside, it was time for the Third Floor. As we began our descent, the sound of upbeat, lively music drifted up to meet us.
"I wonder what that music is?" Spira asked, tilting her head.
Halfa, on the other hand, was grinning ear to ear. "I don’t know, but it sounds like fun!"
"Music in a dungeon...?" Lowell muttered, his expression one of pure suspicion. "I've never heard of such a thing."
"Ah—yeah. But I have a feeling I know what's going on," I said. "The next floor is probably modeled after a casino."
『Umu. You are correct,』 Garna confirmed, though she looked like she was sucking on a lemon. 『It is a floor where Rulaina's influence is particularly strong... Well, it will be faster for you to just see it for yourselves.』
I had been imagining something like the Luck God’s Divine Realm I had seen once before. Garna’s reluctant nod suggested my intuition was right, but her refusal to explain further made me a little uneasy.
When we finally reached the Third Floor, the scene that greeted us was slightly different from what I had pictured.
The floor was made of wooden planks covered by a plush red carpet. At a glance, the surrounding walls appeared to be made of wood as well. However, if I was expecting a grand casino like the one in the Divine Realm, this wasn't quite it. It was more like an Indoor-style Labyrinth—a dungeon layout composed of interconnected small rooms and long corridors.
"It’s actually more normal than I expected..." Halfa said, sounding a bit disappointed. I couldn't help but wonder what exactly she had been hoping for.
『Hm? Something is approaching! Is it a monster?』
Before we even had the chance to survey the room, Shiroru barked out a warning. She sounded a bit hesitant, likely because she couldn't quite make sense of what she was sensing. A moment later, the creature heading toward us from the far end of the corridor came into view. It was... eccentric, to say the least.
"That's another strange one," Lowell said, glancing my way. His look clearly screamed, Is this your influence again? but since he didn't say it out loud, I decided to pretend I didn't notice.
Though, deep down, I knew it was almost certainly my fault.
『That would be a Slot Mimic,』 Garna explained. 『It should be reasonably tough.』
Just as she said, the monster that appeared was the spitting image of a slot machine. The only reason I knew what a slot machine was was because I'd seen them in the Luck God's Divine Realm—which, ironically, had been modeled after my own memories.
The enemy was a lone, mechanical-looking monster. It hopped and skipped toward us with surprising agility.
"What a weird monster," Spira remarked.
"Does it bite?" Halfa wondered.
The Slot Mimic’s "head" consisted of rotating reels that spun rapidly. Below the reels was a horizontal slit that opened and closed like a mouth, revealing rows of jagged teeth. A bite from that would definitely leave a mark.
"Alright, leave it to me! Wahh!!!"
Following her declaration, Halfa let out a piercing shout—her Shock Voice skill. The Slot Mimic was already quite close. Normally, a low-rank monster would have been blown away or stunned by the blast, but this thing just kept coming as if nothing had happened. The only change was that one of the three reels on its head had clicked to a stop.
"Whoa, it might actually be strong."
"I'll stop its movement!"
Following Halfa's lead, Spira launched an attack. Her Ice Vines surged forward, ensnaring the Slot Mimic. The machine thrashed violently, shattering the frozen stalks, but Spira simply generated more, keeping the creature pinned in place.
"Hmm. I can keep it still, but I don't think I'm doing any damage."
Spira’s vines were supposed to deal continuous ice damage to anything they bound, but against the Slot Mimic, the effect was negligible. It simply didn't have enough punch to break through.
『Alright! In that case, I'll take a crack at it!』 Shiroru declared.
『Wait! Don't do—!』
Garna tried to stop her, but she was a second too late. A powerful Lightning Strike arced from Shiroru’s horn, slamming into the Slot Mimic with a deafening crackle.
The moment the bolt hit, the Mimic began to emit a frantic, high-pitched buzzing. Its entire metal casing began to vibrate and shudder with an ominous intensity.
『This is bad! Fall back! It's going to self-destruct!』
"What!?"
Garna’s warning sent us scrambling, but the room was narrow. We had no choice but to retreat back up the stairs to put some distance between us and the monster. A few seconds later, a heavy boom echoed through the corridor. When we finally cautiously returned to the room, the Mimic had vanished without a trace. There wasn't even a drop item left behind. It seemed that if they self-destructed, you got absolutely nothing for your trouble.
『Phew... that gave me a heart attack! Why did that thing blow up?』 Shiroru asked.
『The Slot Mimic self-destructs if it is defeated by any means other than the "official" method,』 Garna explained. 『And that particular creature is extremely weak to the lightning attribute.』
I see. So Shiroru’s attack had been too effective.
"So, what is the 'official' way to beat it?"
『You must locate the core hidden somewhere in its body and strike it. Strike the core five times, and it will be defeated properly.』
Garna gave up the answer quite easily. Normally, we would have had to figure that out through painful trial and error, so having a guide who knew the mechanics was a huge help.
Find the core and hit it five times, huh? It sounded a lot like the strategy we used against the silver abominations. Granted, the silver ones were much harder since their cores never stayed in one place, but this felt like it could be good practice.
Wait a second...
Is the Luck God's floor actually... surprisingly normal?