At around the same time two days later, Isaac teleported onto the staircase leading to the 18th floor. During these past few days, he had explored all the previous floors and found a secret entrance on all of them. They were always in about the same vicinity, so after around half an hour of searching and slaying monsters in the meantime, he found the all-too-familiar doorways. Nothing unusual happened and it was now time to take a look at the 18th floor.
Compared to the previous floors, the 18th floor seemed very tiny, as it didn’t follow the usual formula. All other floors grew in size the further down one went - besides the 18th one. Most adventurers would brush this aside or point out that it was a special floor to begin with. After all, the 17th floor was the only one to have a dedicated ‘boss room’ housing a Monster Rex, regularly and directly impeding adventurers’ progress. All other Monster Rexes could be skipped, so it was reasonable to assume that the place this monstrosity guarded was a little special.
But was that really the case? Isaac was inclined to believe his own theory over all these other baseless assumptions. Nobody had ever explored the entirety of the 17th floor. In fact, the vast majority of it wasn’t explored. What the adventurers had glimpsed of it didn’t even amount to more than a single drop in an ocean - so it would be sheer idiocy to assume that there was only one ‘boss room’ leading to an 18th floor. Yes, ‘an’ 18th floor, not ‘the’ 18th floor.
What was called the 18th floor was just a massive, singular cavern with a huge tree housing the staircases to the 19th floor and beyond in the center of it. There was no reason to assume it was the only cavern like this on the 18th floor. What if there were many of them, all leading down to different parts of the 19th floor? It was quite likely.
The one argument against this would be that nobody had ever found another boss room on the 17th floor or found a staircase leading up to a different cavern on the 18th floor. Still, that didn’t really mean anything. The vast majority of adventurers would never risk their lives by stepping past the trodden path. They wouldn’t face unknown danger for nothing. After all, monsters spawned everywhere, there was no need to go somewhere that nobody had stepped foot in before when the explored regions were more than sufficient. If something unforeseen happened, it was always important to know exactly which way to go to reach relative safety.
But what about the spirit of adventure and exploration? That hadn’t died out, but most people with aspirations like that tried to venture to new floors, not to explore the ones others had already been on for many years. After all, it would be very unlikely to find an as of yet undiscovered monster species or anything else of note there.
In the end, the only way for Isaac to prove his theory was to take a look himself. Still, with the ever-increasing floor sizes, he would have to figure out a way to explore them without physically running through the hallways. Until he did so, he could only put it aside for later.
He had actually already arrived at the 18th floor yesterday but as he was short on time, he had teleported back to the campsite. With only half an hour left, he couldn’t really explore the entirety of this cavern - and that was exactly what was planning to do today. Sure, finding the secret entrance was his priority, but now that a floor was actually so much more reasonable in size, he couldn’t hold back from wanting to map out every inch of it.
While glancing at the system map and taking an educated guess, he quickly ran all the way to one of the far ends of the cavern. The walls were made of stone until about twenty meters from the ground where the blue crystals emulating the sky started to sprout, so the method with which the entrance was hidden should be the same as before. Unless it wasn’t at ground level.
“This should be the general area…”
Mumbling to himself, Isaac slowly and carefully strolled past the wall, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
An hour later, he came to a halt, showing an intrigued smile on his face.
“Nothing at all? That can’t be. Let’s try something else.”
There hadn’t been anything that stuck out as weird to him all this time. Everything looked exactly as it should, not even the colour of the rocks was off in the least. There were no seams that he noticed either. So where exactly could the hidden doorway be?
This time, Isaac decided to rely on sound to locate it. Every few centimeters he knocked against the wall and listened carefully, trying to make out whether there were any cavities behind it.
A couple of minutes later, he suddenly stopped his monotonous routine and glanced at the stone wall, trying to find something in particular. And although it took him a while, he finally found it - a ‘lever’ enabling him to open the secret passageway. Like before, it had been made to look just like any other small rock sticking out of the wall. If he hadn’t already grown used to this design on the previous floors and was therefore able to reference the general position the levers were usually found in in relation to the door, he would have taken a lot longer to discover it.
Whoever created these passages truly did their best to hide this particular one. The most likely reason for this was that quite often when adventurers would be on this floor, they would relax. On the floors above, they wouldn’t have the time or mind to pay attention to much more than the monsters in front of them and their general surroundings but here at the Under Resort, any one of them would be able to notice a peculiarity should the entrance be as shoddily hidden as before.
Before Isaac opened the secret doorway, he paid particular attention to the ground in front of it. It was, conveniently, one of the places where only dirt and rocks could be found, no grass grew anywhere near it. This was definitely a part of the design as well, as grass growing in front of the entrance could very easily give it away. Over a long period of time, if people stepped on it repeatedly, the grass would show signs of it and its unusual sparseness might attract unwanted attention. The rocks and dirt around here wouldn’t have any of these problems. Even footsteps wouldn’t appear as the bit of dirt in between the rocks had long since hardened.
All this secrecy only made Isaac more excited about exploring the manmade labyrinth and finding out who created it. Still, he didn’t forget the mission he had been given - he was only responsible for locating the doorways and surveying them, making sure they could be used. The familia would take care of anything beyond that sometime after the expedition, so there was no need for him to venture in there alone. While he had many ways to avoid any and all forms of danger, he had agreed to this plan before, so he wouldn’t go behind his allies’ back now without a reason.
After making sure that the lever worked and the hidden doorway opened without any problems, Isaac closed it again and relaxedly stretched. Thankfully, he still had far more than enough hours left to explore the entirety of this floor.
The way he planned to do so was to follow the walls and move around the cavern on the edges, then slowly moving inwards from the sides. He would end up at Rivira and the towering tree it was located next to at the very end.
Without any further ado, he sped off into the distance. Trees, rivers, mountains, lakes and crystals flashed past at a breakneck speed. Right when he had been about to circumnavigate the cavern for the third time, moving ever closer towards the center, the ground below him suddenly gave way.
It happened out of nowhere. He had paid impeccable attention to his surroundings and hadn’t noticed anything weird about the ground he was stepping on. Now he realized… that it was a carefully hidden pitfall.
While falling, he stayed perfectly calm and used his Anemoi Steps Magic to create footholds in midair. Intrigued by this trap, he proceeded to make his way downwards, occasionally breaking his fall by creating more platforms. This hole was about seventy meters deep, which was enough for most Level 2 adventurers to die on impact. Even most Level 3 adventurers would be badly battered after having an intense and passionate rendezvous with the floor. Thankfully, Isaac could basically ignore such dangers - well, as long as his mana didn’t run out.
The bottom of the pit was about thirty meters wide and filled about ankle-deep with a water-like, clear fluid. Instead of stepping into it and getting the outside of his boots wet, Isaac decided to continue stepping on self-created footholds above it. The reason for this was that many partially decomposed bones and pieces of equipment were strewn across the floor, sticking out of the liquid. As he couldn’t be sure about what exactly it was, he didn’t want to risk damaging his boots - or Loki forbid, his feet.
Judging by how there were no complete skeletons around no matter where Isaac looked, the bodies must have been ripped apart by something. And there honestly wasn’t much need to search for a culprit, as Isaac had long since noticed the elephant in the room. Or rather, the plant in the room.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
It was red and grew from the ground in one of the pit’s corners and was fifteen meters tall, so it was one of the most massive lifeforms that had appeared up to this floor of the dungeon. It looked just like a pitcher whose opening was closed by a flap. Long leaves grew out of the plant’s back and were protectively hovering around it like tentacles. A single glance at them later, Isaac was sure that they would be able to hit anything at the bottom of this pit should they be able to stretch out like the octopus-appendages they closely resembled.
A somewhat solemn look appeared on his face, while his eyes still showed a sparkle of interest. In his past world, he had come across pitcher plants, so he knew a thing or two about them. They were mostly carnivorous so it was likely that all the ones who had died here had been slain by its hands… or rather, leaves. Anyone would be able to tell this. It also was obvious that this plant was a monster, which begged the question: How did it get here?
Was it just an undiscovered part of the dungeon, a monster that spawned on the 18th floor - in a safety point? Had all its past discoverers been killed by it, enabling it to still be shrouded in mystery after all this time? Or had someone deliberately placed it here?
Now that he thought about it, didn’t the Loki Familia have to fight against various plant monsters in the novels as well? Sadly, he had left his old world before he could find out much more about it. Still, even this small amount of information made him suspect that this pitcher plant had been put here by the enemy force he would undoubtedly have to face in the future. He wasn’t even deliberately putting on airs or trying to be mysterious by calling it ‘the enemy force’, as he truly had no idea what it was called or if it even had a name. Of course he had a few assumptions but until he could prove those, he wouldn’t make any overeager moves.
Luckily, due to him cushioning his fall and generally moving quietly, the plant had yet to notice him. The safest option would undoubtedly be to run away. But couldn’t he always teleport to safety once things got too dangerous? He would be able to gain some research data from this enemy even if he failed - and that was valuable.
With that in mind, he drew his sword and forewent his stealth, loudly charging at the red plant to attract its attention. In this manner, he would be able to see one of its possible reactions to an average adventurer’s assault.
Not even a second had passed before the flap of the pitcher plant opened and revealed what lay within. It was a yellow green… something. Honestly, Isaac couldn’t fully tell the shape of this part of its body, as it was still mostly hidden from view. He could only make out a few patches of vibrant colours and then there was the most disturbing part - an eye. This plant had an eye.
A stem grew out of the part of its body that had been hidden underneath its flap, at whose tip the eye was located. It actually had functional eyelids. Plant eyelids.
Suppressing the shiver that ran down Isaac’s spine inadvertently at this bizarre sight, he paid close attention to the crown-like appendage above the aforementioned eye, which was staring at him with no particular emotion. Did plants even feel emotions? And would plant monsters with eyes be able to showcase them using this unfamiliar sensory organ?
While Isaac was wasting time thinking about ‘important details’ like that, the pitcher plant quickly realized that new prey had appeared and launched a sound wave attack from the crown above its eye. At the same time, it positioned its leaf-tentacles to cut off any paths of retreat. There was no escape.
Because Isaac had only been trying to test it, he had never committed to his charge in the first place and the moment its flap had opened, he had already done his best to predict the plant’s movements. He was surprised to find out that just this casual movement was already far faster than his maximum speed! Just this single bit of data was enough to ascertain that he was totally outclassed - at least stat-wise. It was to the point that he wouldn’t be able to fight back at all. If he had to venture a guess, he would say that this plant was a Level 4 monster - it shouldn’t yet be at Level 5, not even close to that. After all, he could still follow its movements with his eyes quite reliably.
When he then saw the crown-shaped appendage vibrate and noticed the slight distortion in the air courtesy of its released sound wave attack, whose speed even vastly surpassed the plant’s other movements, he released a small sigh and smiled, before instantly teleporting to the top of the pit he had just fallen into.
‘Too soon, I can’t face it yet. My body isn’t even fast enough to react.’
Isaac was many things - but he wasn’t suicidal and didn’t particularly like pain. So why would he fight a battle he couldn’t possibly win? Well, if he blurred his existence and harmed the plant in that state, he would definitely be able to slay it - but what would even be the point of doing that? Wouldn’t he just be taking the cheapest of cheap shortcuts? It would be boring. He would rather come back later and face this foe head-on, researching it to his heart’s content.
Blissfully ignoring the rumbling and the high-pitched screeches below - does that plant also have vocal chords of some kind? - Isaac marked this location on his map before continuing onwards.
To his dismay, over the next half an hour, he fell into seven more pits with similar pitcher plants at the bottom. But as he had already faced one and failed, he knew better than to attempt battling it again. Before he could descend more than a couple of meters, he already used his Anemoi Steps to escape the pits. So besides that first plant, none of the others even noticed his presence.
After running into so many expertly crafted traps, he had also noticed something peculiar. Right after he fell into one of the pits, the vegetation at the edges of it already began to regrow, albeit slowly. There were only seemingly fragile roots at the bottom, stretching out into the pit, providing a stable footing for the pitfalls’ cover to regrow. Upon further inspection, Isaac finally managed to pinpoint the source of this phenomenon - or at least something weird that he didn’t fully understand yet.
There was a magical formation hidden within the bark of the trees surrounding the various pitfalls. As he was only a novice when it came to discovering magic that didn’t directly influence him, he hadn’t noticed that he had stepped into the bounds of a formation at all. But even though he knew about the presence of these formations now, that didn’t help him in the least. He couldn’t yet sense the surrounding elements and mana well enough to detect any of them before or after he stepped into them.
Fortunately, until about an hour later, shortly after 3 a.m., he hadn’t come across any more of these annoying pitfalls and continued his exploration of the floor successfully. But then, when entering one of the plentiful forests dotting the landscape, he suddenly felt that ‘something’ was trying to affect his mind, urging him to change course. He instantly recognized it as the effects of a formation which tried to subtly nudge anyone entering its bounds in another direction.
The vast majority of people would probably fall victim to it and avoid whatever it tried to distract from, thinking that they themselves had wanted to travel the way they were going. But now that the formation had tried to affect Isaac’s mind, it didn’t have any effect whatsoever. Instead, it made him wary and caused him to raise his guard.
Judging from his previous experiences with formations on this floor, nothing good would come of them. This made him slow his steps and carefully observe his surroundings. He advanced cautiously, waiting for something to happen. Seeing how none of the pitfalls had been accompanied by a mind-influencing formation, he didn’t expect to run into any of them. Rather, he assumed that some new kind of danger would head his way. But when absolutely nothing happened for tens of seconds, Isaac’s steps halted and all of a sudden, he remembered a particular place.
A grave in a forest on the 18th floor, usually only accessible by a single, particular person. A place no one else had managed to trespass since the day the grave had appeared there. It was a place that Bell had been led to in the DanMachi novels and could be said to hold quite a bit of significance.
Now that he had recalled it, Isaac’s tense shoulders relaxed a little and he continued forward. It couldn’t hurt to take a peek and pay his respects to the ones buried here now that he was already that close, right? It was a location he knew about and that he planned to personally take a look at anyway. It held quite a bit of symbolic value. And even if going there hadn’t been one of his minor goals, he still planned to map out the entirety of this cavern - no blind spots could be left behind!
Admittedly, Isaac felt a bit bad for just charging in here while the ‘owner’ of the place wasn’t present - without permission, no less - but it was very unlikely for him to ever interact much with her anyway. They were currently strangers whose paths would surely only occasionally cross. No matter what, she would never know that he had been here, so there was no need to worry too much.
Finally, Isaac had finished trekking through the forest and stepped into a moderately sized clearing. There was a mound with many weapons of all shapes and sizes sticking out of it at the very center. It looks like his assumption had been correct - this was the place.
Before he even got a chance to appreciate the scenery, a somewhat blurry figure rushed towards him. He could have attempted to dodge its charge or even teleported away on the spot, but instead, a wry smile played across his lips.
A fraction of a second later, the figure came to a standstill about a meter and a half in front of him, causing a strong gust of wind to assault him, messing up his already messy hair a bit further. The tip of a wooden sword was steadily pointed right at his heart, only tens of centimeters away from reaping his life.
‘Seems like a correction is necessary. She now knows that I’ve come here. This is troublesome…’
“Explain yourself. What are you doing here!?”
She had a cold but calm and melodic voice and was glaring at him with stern, sky blue eyes. Her light-green hair was slightly less than shoulder-length and couldn’t cover up her long Elf ears at all. If her height were to be compared to Ais’, she would be a couple of centimeters taller.
The rear half of her head was hidden underneath the flower-shaped green hood of her cloak, while the lower half of her face was concealed by a green mask. Judging from how messily it was put on, she had probably pulled it up in a hurry. She wore a sleeveless, white top and green shorts held in place by a white belt. A pair of elegant, long, brown gloves and boots covered most of her exposed skin.
There was no doubt about it, he had run into Ryuu Lion of the Astraea Familia, whose fellow familia members were buried here.
And he had just intruded upon this sacred ground right when she had happened to be here.
‘What are the odds of this happening? Especially at such a time… Such rotten luck!’