Nathan grunted as another rock slammed into his shield. They had already spent much of the last two days exploring the first floor and completing challenges. Now they were taking on the first floor boss before moving on to the second floor. While he was taking the aggro of the boss [Monster], an emperor rock slime, his wife was doing her best to take it down solo.

"Get ready for it!"

Amelia shouted before running and ducking behind him. Nathan braced for impact as the slime burst into pieces, rocks exploding everywhere. His wife had made short work of it, using a mace to smash the exterior to pieces, staying behind it the entire time, while using an acid mixture to further deteriorate its armor and cause it to explode. As high-ranking adventurers, they were used to having to adapt to different types of [Monsters] during their many years of dungeon delving. That was why they both had magic bags with a whole arsenal of different gear to draw from. If they had only brought sharps, like his sword, then they wouldn't be able to defeat undead or rock [Monsters], like this emperor rock slime. That would be a rather stupid way to die when they could just come prepared for a variety of situations.

"Good job, love. Shall we move on to the next floor and then take a break?"

Nathan asked. Amelia's eyes were alight with excitement as she replied

"That wasn't even enough to wind me. Besides, I don't want to waste time that could be spent completing challenges."

Nathan laughed as he replied

"Fair enough."

His wife had been particularly loving the fun puzzle in this dungeon and got excited every time they earned a new reward. The abundance of sweets on the first floor had resulted in them spending more time than they had initially expected to spend on the floor. Of course, many of the puzzles were also different from what they were used to, but they could easily afford to spend a few hours on each since there was more than one floor in the dungeon. Many of the adventurers and locals were also quite friendly and more than willing to explain what they knew of each puzzle whenever they were asked.

Walking through the dimly lit hallway, Nathan kept his eyes out for any [Traps] or signs. The first floor hadn't had anything even remotely dangerous, besides the boss [Monster], but that didn't mean the second floor would be the same. Seeing a strange-looking section of a wall, he pulled his wife behind him.

"That part of the wall looks different. We should be careful."

Amelia nodded, taking out a small object that she tossed forward, triggering the [Trap]. It was a special magic object that would trick even proximity [Traps], meant to only go off when living creatures passed by, to trigger. When a mass of colorful pink, purple, and blue butterflies were released, Amelia laughed in amusement. Nathan furrowed his eyebrows as he asked

"Are they poisonous? Surely it wouldn't make sense otherwise..."

The butterflies looked very artificial, nothing like the ones you could see in the wild. Yet, they were very realistic, suggesting they might be real. After a moment, Amelia replied to his question

"My skill says they're non-lethal. Should be safe to pass through."

As an assassin class, she had the ability to identify poisons, among other things. As a B-rank, she had unlocked most of the class skills available to her. Only the truly OP abilities that were reserved for A-rank and S-rank were out of her reach. After so many years traveling together, Nathan easily trusted his beloved with his life and walked forward confidently, smiling in amusement as his wife acted like a kid, giggling as she held her hands out to the butterflies in wonder.

Nathan made a mental note to himself that they should come to the local dungeon more often. He liked seeing his wife so happy and carefree and it would be good to keep tabs on what was happening with such an important resource for their town. Hopefully, one day, it could grow into a large city like Elesfield City, even if that would likely come with its own problems.

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Nathan received a system prompt as soon as they walked into the first room of the second floor. It seemed this was a challenge room. Behind him, his wife notified him

"Looks like the door is locked. Neither of us are a strength-based class, so we will have to be careful moving forward."

"Well, this one should be easy enough. It just wants us to collect the flowers in the correct order and then present the bouquet to one of these altars. With the colors available, I'm guessing it’s the same deal as that wooden ball puzzle on the first floor."

Amelia nodded, immediately getting to work collecting the roses. Nathan found it tempting to collect some for his wife as well, but he didn't even want to risk messing up the challenge by picking the roses alongside her. There was no point in messing things up for them, even if it would be nice to get more than one set of the reward. Before too long, Amelia placed the bouquet of roses on the stone altar next to the door and they were stepping through the threshold. After accepting the reward, she smiled as she declared

"I got something called a wild violet and honey lollipop. Seems like a nice tie in with the flower-themed challenge we just completed."

Nathan smiled in response to his wife's words. He was happy she was enjoying herself. They'd likely end up earning a second one when they went to leave the floor, but he'd happily let her take both. It was more important to him that she had some for later. Besides, they had been able to enjoy plenty of other rewards together like the walnut fudge, which they had received a decent-sized box of on the first floor after completing a rather annoying slime parkour challenge. That's what the map at the adventurer's guild had called it, anyhow.

Honestly, if it weren't for his more than a decade of experience as an adventurer, Nathan would be more nervous about this second floor. There wasn't much information about it and there wasn't a map available for it yet either. Unfortunately, he had learned that the dungeon had recently been mapped out, so it wouldn't be possible again for several seasons. There was even talk about waiting until the next spring in order to allow the map making group more time to do their job before wintertime came around. Apparently, the job had taken longer than expected the last time due to how quickly the dungeon was growing, how unusual the challenge rooms were, and the timing since it was nearly winter when they first arrived.

Nathan was relieved as he found this second room was a [Monster] field, but that joy didn't last long as the next room was highly problematic. The challenge required them to place the correct plant on the correct stone altar and the doors were once more locked. The good news was that they could attempt it as many times as necessary and they had brought plenty of rations, but their odds didn't look good.

With some teamwork and a good dose of good luck, they managed to make it out of the room. Amelia befriended some pixies named Briar and Moss who offered to help them complete the challenge in exchange for some of their sweets. Having four individuals to switch the plants out, instead of just two, made things go a lot faster. Unfortunately, the pixies either didn't know the answer to the puzzle or they were unwilling to share the answer. Still, they were so grateful for their help that they left the two a small pile of the sweets they had earned on the first floor.

None of the other puzzles on the second floor provided nearly as much difficulty, allowing them to easily complete them all before the week ended. There were a lot more rooms to travel through on the second floor than the first, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. Besides, most of the pixies were friendly while the others tended to avoid them. There were a few who seemed to enjoy singing creepy nursery rhymes about violence that seemed aimed at them, but they didn't really pose enough of a threat to worry about them.

The boss room on the second floor had been fascinating with a huge castle that sat in ruins with a moat around it. However, it had been almost comical when they had found such a small boss [Monster] within. The strangely feminine mushroom had put up a decent fight, even despite how much of a power difference there was between them. Nathan had to put a bit more effort into blocking the fast and accurate swipes it made with its scythe, but he had still made it out without a single scratch on him. His wife had stood back, merely watching as he took the boss [Monster] down on his own. The threat wasn't enough to need the both of them and she had done most of the work on the first floor, which they'd soon have to go back through, so he was fine with her taking a break.

While they had seen a route to the third floor, they had chosen not to continue forward. Despite the dungeon, thus far, being child's play for them, they didn't want to bother the Dungeon Master. While Nathan certainly wanted to meet the rumored young woman in charge of the dungeon, he didn't want to worry her. They were far stronger than most adventurers and it would be best not to make her worry they were coming for her dungeon core. If the opportunity ever presented itself to meet her on one of the lower floors, though, he was certain he'd happily take advantage of it then. Perhaps, they would have better luck next time, but that was bound to be a while since they'd have paperwork to catch up on when they returned home.