Chapter 44

Perhaps it was because we didn’t have to worry about poison as much as we did above the fifth floor, or maybe we had simply grown accustomed to the dungeon after our rest, but descending further from the camp felt easier than the journey thus far.

The real problem wasn’t the dungeon’s path, but the dark cloud hanging over the party since the incident with Brad—in other words, paranoia.

Everyone maintained their distance. That said, this wasn’t the kind of dungeon you could breeze through without teamwork, so we cooperated out of necessity. However, beneath that thin veneer of cooperation, it was obvious that no one trusted a soul.

Well, everyone except Kijiitsu. He remained standing apart, radiating a sense of detachment.

“So, we’ve already reached the eighth basement floor,” Hunt murmured, as if confirming it to himself.

“If we want to get back to camp from here, we have to use a different staircase, right?” Mora asked, likely recalling yesterday’s explanation.

“That’s what Brad said, but… well, what should we do now?” Jin groaned.

When you really think about it, losing Brad was a massive blow. He was the only survivor to have ever gone past the fifth floor—our pilot for the descent to the tenth. It was enough to make anyone groan.

“Regardless, our policy of mapping each floor before descending remains unchanged. It’s the only way forward,” Watch said, readjusting his grip on his spear. “Fortunately, if we work together, we can handle the monsters around here without much risk.”

“I agree. No need to stress over venom anymore. It’s not a huge deal even if we can’t trust the Medic,” Henya remarked sarcastically. Shirona merely spared him a glance.

“Knock it off with the attitude,” Mora interjected, but the atmosphere remained foul.

Our teamwork was abysmal, but perhaps because everyone’s individual specs were so high, we managed to descend rapidly without much struggle. Before we knew it, we had reached the tenth floor—the point that only Brad had ever reached and returned from alive.

“The monster lineup hasn’t changed,” Jin analyzed. Hunt nodded in agreement.

“In most dungeons, the monster types usually swap every four to six floors. We should assume that once we go deeper than this, even stronger foes will appear.”

Hunt looked pale, but he was clearly pushing himself to make calm judgments. He was a man of considerable grit, after all.

“The problem is, if we believe what Brad said, the stairs leading further down won’t be easy to find.”

“Shouldn’t we focus on conquering this floor and finishing the map first anyway?” Henya asked, sounding slightly unsure of himself due to his lack of adventuring experience.

“True enough,” Jin agreed. It was a perfectly rational suggestion.

We began scouting the tenth floor, but the exploration ended quickly. It wasn’t because we cleared it faster than usual; it was simply because the area we had to explore was significantly smaller than the floors above.

“Hmm. No path, let alone stairs,” Jin grunted. “There must be some kind of gimmick, but there’s so little space to investigate. This floor is way too cramped. I bet there’s a hidden passage.”

“Either way, we’ll just have to search this floor inch by inch,” Henya said with a look of resignation.

“Wait. It might not be this floor,” Shirona interjected.

“What do you mean, Shirona?” Hunt asked.

“It’s simple. There might be a hidden staircase on one of the floors above that leads to a different section of the tenth floor. We might not be able to go deeper until we find it.”

The group fell into a stunned silence at Shirona’s suggestion. I see, that’s a possibility. As expected of an adventurer.

“I see… so if we find absolutely nothing here, we have to go back and search the upper floors inch by inch?” Hunt’s face twisted with bitterness.

“Why don’t we just split up?” Mora suggested.

“What?”

“I mean, honestly, for the floors we’ve already cleared, we don’t need the whole group. If we split into teams of three or four, this lineup is strong enough to be safe. Wouldn’t that be more efficient?”

“But…” Hunt hesitated, but Mora pressed on.

“We’ve been moving as one giant group because this was an ‘unknown’ dungeon, but there’s nothing unknown about the areas we’ve already cleared. Let’s be efficient.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re right.” Hunt looked over the rest of us, seemingly swayed. “What do you think?”

No one offered an opinion. I couldn’t say anything either.

Mora was technically right—if we assumed there were no unknown dangers on the path we’d already walked, splitting up made sense.

However, there was one thing no one was pointing out—and though I knew it, I couldn’t bring myself to say it either. There was an unknown danger.

Brad had died a mysterious death.

I felt that if I voiced that fact, the precarious balance holding this party together would shatter completely. So, I stayed silent. Everyone did.

“How do you plan to split the teams?”

Surprisingly, it was Jin who seemed most on board. Being an experienced veteran, he had probably been fed up with the inefficiency of a large group shuffling around together.

“Right. One leader will be Jin; he’s experienced and versatile. In exchange, I want Jin to take the members with less adventuring experience.”

“So that’s the detectives and Henya? Fine by me,” Jin accepted easily.

“Ah, wait,” Hunt groaned, knitting his brows. “That might be risky if something goes wrong. Let’s put Eni and Watch on your team as well.”

“Then your side is just you, Shirona, and Mora?”

“Yes. We intend to investigate the upper floors, so Shirona is essential.” Because of the Poison Lizards, no doubt.

“That sounds shaky. At least take Van with you.”

“Hey.”

The way I’m being treated like a disposable extra is starting to grate on me.

“He’s no adventurer, but his magic is solid, and more importantly, he’s a detective—he’s got a sharp head on his shoulders.”

“O-oh.”

Being praised so suddenly makes me a little bashful.

“Fine, let’s do that,” Hunt concluded after a moment’s hesitation.

And so, the party split into two.

The first group: Hunt, Mora, Shirona, and me.
The second group: Jin, Henya, Watch, Eni, and Kijiitsu.

Since Kijiitsu is basically non-combatant, it’s effectively four people per side. We were tasked with heading back up to investigate, while Jin’s team stayed to scour this floor thoroughly.

The flow was actually quite good. Hunt’s sword reliably shattered the slimes I froze, and Mora’s pickaxe crushed Metal Crabs while Shirona distracted them with magic.

An hour after splitting up, we had climbed back to the ninth floor to continue our search.

“Jin’s recommendation was spot on. Have you considered a career change to adventuring?”

I gave an ambiguous smile to Hunt’s blatant flattery.

“Still, we haven’t found a single new thing,” Mora sighed, exhaling wearily.

“Yeah. Let’s head back as far as the camp for now,” Hunt suggested, and we all nodded. That seemed like a natural stopping point.

“Van, a word.”

Hunt beckoned me over. I approached, wondering what was up.

“What do you make of the Brad situation?” he whispered.

Mora and Shirona cast curious glances our way, clearly wondering what we were discussing.

“As a detective, do you have any leads?”

“No, I’m sorry, but nothing so far,” I whispered back honestly. I truly didn’t have a clue.

“It’s certain there were no external wounds. Regardless of Shirona’s diagnosis, wouldn’t you agree?”

“That much is true.” No wounds were found.

“Whether it was poison or something else, do you know who is the most suspicious in terms of having the means to kill Brad like that?”

“Er, you mean…” I guessed the name he wanted me to say. “Shi… rona?”

“Exactly. She has the most knowledge of the human body. I want you to keep a discreet eye on her.”

“I see…”

I followed his logic, but…

“That’s impossible,” I pointed out. “Hunt, you and I are whispering right now; Mora and Shirona are obviously suspicious of us.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

With that, Hunt stepped away from me and called out, “Mora, a quick word?”

He started a private chat with her next.

Aha. I saw his intent. He was going to have “secret” talks with everyone in plain sight. They say the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest, but this was a pretty blunt tactic. All he was going to achieve was making everyone suspect everyone else.

True to form, he moved on to whisper with Shirona next. I couldn’t help but wonder what he was saying to the others, but I couldn’t exactly ask. Not like they’d tell me.

As we continued exploring, perhaps to steer the conversation away from the secret talks, Hunt started rambling about how he became an adventurer.

“My father, Bent, is a merchant and a noble. His shrewdness is known throughout the country. If I did something ordinary, I’d never beat him. Whether it was making money or political maneuvering, I didn’t think I could ever do it better than he could.”

“So, that’s why you became an adventurer?” Shirona asked, sounding intrigued.

“It wasn’t just to be eccentric. Because of my father’s business, I had plenty of chances to interact with adventurers as a child. When I told him I wanted to apprentice under Brad and help with the business as an adventurer, he was overjoyed. Beyond that, though, adventuring is charming. Conquering dungeons filled with danger, defeating monsters, finding treasure… what man wouldn’t dream of that?”

“Well, true enough,” I agreed, being a man myself. You can’t really argue with that. Boys just naturally gravitate toward that kind of thing.

“See, that’s where your perspective is different from a girl’s,” Mora cut in with a chuckle.

“You’re a bit old to be calling yourself a ‘girl’—no, never mind.” Hunt caught himself and changed the subject. “What do you mean by a different perspective? You’re an adventurer too.”

“In my case, I dive into dungeons to touch the mysteries, the wonders, the unknown. The whole ‘conquering’ and ‘exposing’ thing… that aggressive, invasive mindset feels very masculine.”

“I think you just made an enemy of Van, whose profession is solving mysteries,” Hunt teased.

“Actually, a detective’s job is less about ‘solving’ and more about ‘convincing’ people that the mystery is solved,” I noted.

As we talked, we arrived at the staircase leading up from the eighth floor.

“Wait, this isn’t right,” Shirona murmured. We all stopped short.

“Ah, right. If we go up this way, we just hit a one-way wall,” I recalled. That was the layout. Since we were coming from the wrong side, going up here led nowhere. It was just a dead end.

“Right. We have to use the other staircase,” Hunt said, then fell silent.

“What’s wrong?” Mora asked suspiciously.

“No… we should check every nook and cranny. Let’s check the top of this anyway, even if it is a dead end.”

“Oh, you want to?”

As Hunt and Mora started to head up the stairs, Hunt looked back.

“Shirona, Van—you two don’t need to come. No point in all of us checking something like this.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” Shirona asked reasonably.

“Go on ahead. We’ll catch up in a moment.”

With that, Hunt disappeared up the stairs with Mora.

Shirona and I looked at each other. Left with no choice, we started toward the other staircase. Honestly, I wasn’t happy about it, but after that secret talk earlier, I figured this was part of some plan of Hunt’s and decided to comply.

Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any monsters.

We walked in silence for a while, but the awkwardness and a lingering sense of wrongness finally got to me.

“Um, Shirona?”

“What?” she answered without looking back.

I wondered for a second if Hunt had set this up so I could “investigate” her, but that seemed too convenient. If anything, what if I got killed while we were alone?

“Look, I’m not an adventurer, so I might not get it, but…”

“Yes?”

“Wasn’t Hunt’s order to ‘go on ahead’ a bit weird?”

No matter how I looked at it, it was a nonsensical order.

“Even if they’re going to catch up, splitting into two pairs is dangerous, right? It’s not like the two of us going ahead makes things more efficient.”

From my perspective, there was zero benefit to us moving forward without waiting. I wondered if there was some adventurer logic I was missing.

“You’re right. It is strange,” Shirona said, coming to a dead stop. “Tell me, Van. What was Hunt saying to you earlier? During the secret talk?”

“Eh?”

I obviously couldn’t just blurt it out, but…

“I… I can’t really say.”

“I thought so. Then I’ll tell you mine.”

“What?”

“He told me that you, Van—a famous detective—were behaving strangely by participating in this. He said he wanted to investigate something and asked me to keep you away from him.”

“Oh… I see. So that’s what he told you. But wait, is it okay to tell me that?”

“Normally, no. But I think his behavior just now was too suspicious,” Shirona said, looking troubled. “I came with you because he asked me to, but this really is bizarre.”

“Yeah…”

I didn’t know who to trust anymore, but something was definitely wrong. Even if he wanted to separate me from himself, there were better ways to do it. Why use an excuse that would immediately make me suspicious?

Wait.

Did he calculate that even if I became suspicious, I would still follow her because he’d asked me to “investigate” her?

Or maybe it was Shirona. Maybe she wanted to be alone with me? No, that’s not it.

What if Hunt and Mora wanted to be alone together? At that place, at that timing.

“Those two are late,” I noted. Checking that tiny space above shouldn’t have taken any time at all.

“You’re right.”

We looked at each other in silence. Hunt and Mora alone. Hunt’s secret talks. The two who hadn’t returned.

I had a terrible feeling. Hunt killing Mora? Or Mora killing Hunt?

“I’m worried. Let’s head back a bit,” I suggested.

“Yes, let’s.”

We both nodded and broke into a sprint. I kept telling myself it was impossible, but the dread in my mind was overflowing.

A monster blocked our path.

Not now!

“Move!”

Shirona and I unleashed simultaneous magic attacks, and I swung my sword with everything I had in the opening. We blew past the monster in seconds and reached the staircase—or where it should have been.

“What…?”

I stood there, jaw dropping, unable to comprehend what I was seeing.

Shirona froze beside me, utterly stunned.

In the place where the stairs had been, there was now a sheer, solid wall of what looked like smooth, exposed concrete.