In the Land of Leadale - Volume 5 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - The Arrival, a Dungeon, a Gimmick, and a Trap

Cayna ended up staying with Cloffe and Clofia for two nights. The siblings were just returning from a long mission when they ran into her, and this gave them time to rest and prepare. Although Cloffe had immediately asked to join her in the dungeon, his exhaustion was obvious. When Clofia icily explained this, Cayna suggested they take a break first. She tried to show consideration to the hostile werecat girl by finding an inn, but Clofia said her brother absolutely insisted on hosting her.

The siblings’ home in a corner of the capital was actually a treehouse. It was much larger than most dwellings, and the pair rented out their spare room as a sort of rest stop. Cayna’s temporary lodging was small, but she installed a simple hub item and was back in her own village by nightfall.

Roxilius and Roxine woke upon sensing Cayna’s return. She explained what was going on and gathered any available Guardian Tower items that seemed useful in a dungeon. Then, after treating herself to a silent peek at Luka’s sleeping face, she flew back to Otaloquess.

When Cayna got back, she gave Clofia a whooping when the werecat sneaked into her room to harass her. This unintentionally sparked a petty war of retaliation, and the thoroughly enraged Clofia returned the next night for revenge. The fact she was chased out of her own home by the Lightning Spirit’s auto-counterattack system is a small detail best omitted.

Cayna heard the journey from the capital to the dungeon village would take about five days on foot. The village was officially called Lekti, but she figured this was a one-time deal and forgot almost instantly. The trio decided to take a public carriage that frequented the town regularly. They would arrive in about three days.

A pack of goretigers attacked the carriage en route. Cloffe and Clofia swiftly eradicated them rather than Cayna.

Along the way, Cloffe provided mostly useless facts about Otaloquess. Cayna thought most of the country’s citizens lived in trees, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, most of the people who fancied treehouse-living were in the capital. Cayna didn’t see how the location really mattered.

In addition, the queen was a surprisingly compassionate and well-respected figure who occasionally set her title aside to wander the castle town and observe the goings-on.

“You shouldn’t share classified information with outsiders!” Clofia shouted angrily. “What if Her Majesty was harmed?!”

The werecat girl looked at Cayna each time she voiced her displeasure, which gave everyone in the carriage the wrong idea. They shot her death glares, and Cayna concluded Clofia had no idea she was the queen’s relative.

“Why are some people dying to be monkeys? It’s weird.”

“Don’t call people monkeys just because they live in trees! Should we call those who prefer the ground something similar? ‘Crabs,’ maybe?”

“I guess the two of us will have to throw persimmons at each other later, huh?”

“What are you even talking about?!”

The reference to a famous folktale flying right over her head, Clofia snapped at Cayna’s casual quip. The werecat’s hotheaded comments fueled the high elf’s teasing. The two would be teaming up in the dungeon soon enough, so it’d be troublesome if they hated each other too much. Cloffe smiled pleasantly from behind, and the three entered Lekti.

Since the village was built around the dungeon, there wasn’t a treehouse in sight. The architecture mostly reflected the remote communities of the old White Kingdom. Most of the buildings were reserved for lodging, and the rest were tool and equipment shops for adventurers, as well as a tavern. The brothel was an added bonus. The locals just ran businesses while a majority of patrons were adventurers.

When the dungeon was first discovered, rumors claimed it was the tomb of an ancient royal family or other influential figure since the entrance and inner walls were laid in gold. However, the relatively powerful monsters on the first subterranean level made exploration extremely dangerous.

Cayna’s expression soured when she heard this. The dungeon was supposed to be an absurd, stupid joke, so hearing it be taken seriously sent an unpleasant chill down her spine. After all, Opus said it was “a hazing dungeon for newbies.”

In most games, beginner players were below level 10. However, in an MMORPG like Leadale, the ultimate goal was to become an almighty level 1,000. Naturally, the term beginner was adjusted accordingly.

Beginners were considered level 200 or below. Levels 300 to 500 were intermediate. Levels 600 to 800 were advanced. And players like Cayna, who reached level 1,100, were addicts. Many concluded you could get the most out of the game and enjoy the various acts of warfare if you were between levels 600 to 700. Needless to say, the nation of addicts who deviated from this norm were as popular as scorpions.

At any rate, the gimmick behind the Knight Sanctuary was that anyone below level 200 could tackle it. Modern locals obviously didn’t have a snowball’s chance. Cayna reckoned Caerina could have probably kept up the pace, but she didn’t expect a loyal knight to abandon her duties to travel this far south.

At level 80 and level 70 respectively, Cayna thought Cloffe and Clofia could make it halfway. Maybe they were even the ones who reached the thirteenth floor.

“It was not us, I’m afraid. Two-person teams are at a great disadvantage when traversing dungeons.”

“Is it a matter of skill, or can you manage with enough people?”

“If anything, I would say the former. Larger numbers send groups into disarray. The two of us often serve as vanguards.”

“I see…”

Cayna glanced over at Clofia. It would be tough trekking through a booby-trapped dungeon with a hothead like her.

“Hey! What was that look just now?!”

“Oh, nothing.”

Cayna’s secretive grin set Clofia off like an angry teakettle, and the werecat went in for the kill. The elf parried her as if swatting a pesky fly, and Cloffe couldn’t hide his amusement.

“And you, Brother! Why are you smiling, too?!” Clofia wailed. And thus ended the fight.

Her high-pitched shrieks were hard to miss, and a crowd of adventurers stared around them. But perhaps it is more accurate to say they were shocked by only two of the three.

“H-hey… Aren’t those two…?”

“Yeah. They’re those siblings Cloffe and Clofia…”

“What’re they doin’ way out here?”

“The Adventurers Guild ain’t fed up with this place already, right?”

“Whoa, hold up. That’s gonna hurt our wallets…”

The three caught disgruntled whispers from every direction, and Clofia sniffed with obvious contempt. The adventurers immediately flushed with rage, and a dangerous aura permeated the air.

“I don’t think they like you very much,” Cayna pointed out.

“There’s little point in worrying about it,” Cloffe replied.

Making no attempt to admonish his sister, he said, “Right this way,” and led the group to a tidy little inn. The innkeeper noticed Cloffe and tossed the werecat a key.

“Second floor,” the innkeeper said before immediately dismissing him.

Cayna tilted her head quizzically at the odd interaction, but Cloffe gave her an amused smile and insisted the two were good friends. Cloffe apparently stopped by this village often for non-dungeon matters.

The elder werecat led them to a spacious, comfortable room. Clofia put away their luggage and leaned against a window apathetically. The room was empty except for a safe; there were no beds or chairs to speak of. Cloffe informed Cayna that large groups slept in huddles here.

“Huh, you don’t say.”

“Shall I reserve you a private room, Lady Cayna?”

“What, why? It’ll be like a field trip where everyone sleeps in the same room. We’ll be bonding in no time.”

“…‘Feel trip’?”

Clofia scowled at the word bonding. The fact she kept her complaints to herself was impressive enough.

Cayna never had the chance to experience a school trip, but the ones in books and dramas fascinated her. Nonetheless, she was aware her present situation wasn’t even remotely the same thing. She giggled privately to herself while Cloffe tried to wrap his head around this newfound vocabulary.

“Maybe I should craft a bit before we leave. I’m sure it won’t get in the way.”

“What will you make, exactly?”

“A little somethin’ for our dungeon search.”

“I see.”

Cloffe gave a clueless nod, and Clofia didn’t express the slightest interest. However, they both turned around in astonishment as Cayna’s Craft Skills began to glow. She took out several ingredients from her Item Box, lined them up along on the floor, and cast her skills with an air of nonchalance.

The pair hadn’t witnessed any of Cayna’s lost arts—that is, her skills—since her cooking demonstration back in the remote village. Clofia attempted to feign disinterest, but her eyes were wide as saucers.

Cayna crafted items meant to raise Cloffe’s and Clofia’s chances of survival. She obviously didn’t expect these to save anyone from their own slipups, but she wanted to give the siblings something that would prove handy as long as they followed her instructions. Cayna could only hope Clofia didn’t embarrass herself by jumping the gun out of spite.

Perhaps Cloffe had lectured Clofia beforehand, because the werecat girl was quiet as a mouse despite everyone sharing a room together. Cayna curled up in a blanket for her first huddle, and as far as she was concerned, morning dawned without incident.

After leaving the inn, they arrived at the dungeon entrance and began to inspect their equipment and supplies. Meanwhile, all three fell under intense scrutiny from the adventurers around them who were eager to earn a little extra cash. By their merciless, hateful looks, they clearly regarded the group as nuisances.

The dungeon entrance, awash in morning sunlight, revealed a golden pathway bursting with nouveau riche flair.

“Wow, this sure takes me back.”

“You forgot it even existed.”

Cayna glowered at Kee’s pointed comment but held her tongue. After all, flying off the handle in public would only make her look needlessly weird.

Incidentally, only the first three floors were made of gold. While creating the dungeon with Opus, the pair went overboard and bought every scrap of the gold they could find in shops and auctions across the seven nations. Gold prices within the game instantly skyrocketed, and rumors spread that the Skill Masters were sitting on a mountain of it. No matter how renowned the Skill Master, one’s abilities were not proportional to the nature of business. Cayna and Opus eventually ran out of money, and their gilded efforts came to an end.

“Here, wear these. I made you hair accessories.”

“You call these ‘hair accessories’? Pretty shoddy if you ask me,” Clofia cracked.

Cayna handed each sibling an item she made the day before. They were indeed hair accessories, but the main body resembled a fountain pen. In truth, these rhymestone-infused items were also working floodlights that activated with the phrase Gods, light a path before me. The oddly formal wording prevented the magic from canceling out with a snap of the fingers or in the middle of a normal conversation.

Cayna also handed over several potions she’d concocted. She had warned Cloffe earlier of the grave dangers ahead, so Clofia obeyed her brother and accepted them without complaint. The transaction was apparently more palatable coming from Cloffe instead of Cayna.

The group then entered the Knight Sanctuary, and Cayna introduced them to Kuu as soon as they were out of the public eye.

“…M-my goodness.”

“No way. It’s a fairy…”

As Cayna predicted, the siblings’ jaws dropped in shock. She looked alarmingly like Opus, beaming as if she’d just pulled off the most spectacular prank.

“Kuu is Kuu!”

Clofia watched the floating fairy give a tiny bow, and her gaze turned menacing. Kuu seemed to sense this and hastily backed away. The werecat’s expression fell sharply; her poker face probably could have used a bit more work.

The inside of the Knight Sanctuary (or dungeon, rather) was remarkably quiet. The hallways were wide enough for three people to walk alongside one another, but Clofia, insistent she had the best search instincts, pushed ahead to the forefront. Cloffe followed right behind her, and Cayna brought up the rear. Although they sensed other living creatures, there was no sign of any monsters.

This came as no surprise, considering the spawn planks on each floor thus far had been smashed to pieces. Enemies couldn’t spawn otherwise, which explained the current silence. Anyone who caught monsters popping out of the wall would destroy the plank and cut enemies off at the source. You couldn’t raise your level without beating baddies, though, which meant adventurers were typically on the weak side. The ones who trekked the Knight Sanctuary seemed in no rush to get stronger.

“Well, that’s a shame…”

“What is?” Cloffe asked naively as Cayna mumbled at the sight of the damaged spawn planks. She glanced behind her and briefly explained their unique function.

“Their job in this dungeon is to keep pumping out a certain number of monsters.”

“Yes, I have heard similar reports. More than a few succumbed to their might when this place was first discovered.”

“If destroying those plank things got rid of the monsters, what’s there to complain about?” Clofia argued with understandable relief as she wiped the thought from her mind.

She wasn’t wrong, considering how their absence saved lives. Nonetheless, even the constant spawn of new monsters played a vital role.

“I’m guessing you didn’t realize defeating the monsters also drops loot.”

“What?”

“…Huh?!”

“Are you saying treasure will not appear unless we eliminate an enemy?”

“That’s right.”

Unlike in Admins’ dungeons, players were free to decide the location and drop rate of their own treasure chests in great detail. Cayna and Opus had scoured the continent for useless items most would label junk and a waste of space and piled them up high in spare rooms of the dungeon. These were later transferred to monsters who would drop them as loot, but destroying the planks obviously meant no more free goodies.

Too little too late, the mind-boggling revelation left Cloffe and Clofia speechless. They stood dumbfounded for some time but returned to their senses when Cayna outpaced them.

“…Brother.”

“Yes. Once we leave here safely, we must inform the others on the surface.”

“Can we really believe everything she says?”

“We have the chance to overthrow the assumption this dungeon is almost dry, and more importantly, we’ve established why the once-abundant chests have disappeared alongside the monsters. There’s no harm in testing this theory. If we defeat a monster and a chest appears, then we’ll have definitive proof.”

Cloffe’s unusual loquaciousness and high spirits surprised Clofia, but she couldn’t stomach the fact that woman brought him such joy. The nauseating yet curious situation sparked her jealousy and sounded like a tall tale more than anything else. An elf making a dungeon? Clofia thought even a dwarf would be more believable.

“Hey! What do you think will happen if an amateur walks ahead and leads us right into a trap?!”

And so, she firmly chose not to believe it. Without realizing how much this would come back to haunt her, she yelled at Cayna to quit walking ahead.

“Hmm. There’s no way a boss-room plank could be broken, right?”

“You mean to say there is a plank here? I wasn’t aware.”

Standing before an enormous door on the periphery of the fifth floor, Cayna tilted her head while Cloffe looked back at her in bewilderment.

Although there was a designated boss room every few levels, the Knight Sanctuary only had a grand total of two located on the fifth and thirtieth floors. This was, of course, the will of the dungeon’s master.

According to him:

“Keh-keh-keh. First, we’ll put one on the fifth floor. Everyone who dives farther down will expect the same exact thing on the tenth floor, but we don’t play by the rules! When they realize the boss room isn’t there, they’ll think it must be every ten floors. Then, when it’s not on the fifteenth floor either, they’ll assume there aren’t any more bosses, crash from the mental gymnastics, then decide to head home and try again later. The player will step on a warp point thinking it’ll transport them right back to the surface, BUT it’ll actually be a trap that sends them back to the fifth floor! Keh-keh-keh. They’ll beat the boss again and start getting nervous. They’ll wonder, ‘Can I step on a warp point?’ Some will make the right gamble and walk back to the entrance on their own. Others will choose wrong, step on the warp point, and end up on the thirtieth floor! If they beat the boss, great. If they don’t, they’ll die and suffer the consequences. A trap will set off and force the losers to walk allll the way back to start! Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh! I can see it now! The pain of all those newbies deciding whether to die and respawn outta there!”

This was followed by a burst of raucous laughter.

As one might have guessed, only the warp points on the fifth and fifteenth floors were capable of sending players back to the surface. However, even these were traps unconnected to the outside world. In short, if you beat the boss on the fifth floor, reached the fifteenth floor in hopes of taking down the next boss, then decided to warp back to the entrance, you would be taken to the fifth floor. And using this warp point did nothing more than whisk you away to the final floor. A player’s only cruel option was to backtrack. There actually was a spell that could transport you out of a dungeon in an instant, but no beginner was advanced enough to know it.

Moreover, Opus was a man who relished watching the little fledglings suffer. Yes, he was that type of person. The suffering of others was nectar to him, and there was nothing sweeter than a newbie player. His dungeon, the Knight Sanctuary, was a ploy meant to lift them up before slamming them back down. Well, Cayna was also party to the dungeon’s development, so she didn’t really have the right to point fingers.

As she pondered all this and tried to recall what the first boss was…

“More importantly, it seems another issue will require our attention first,” Cloffe remarked.

Cloffe and Clofia whispered to each other and glanced back. Intrigued, Cayna followed their gaze. Needless to say, she didn’t miss the figure trailing from a fixed distance.

She assumed it was a run-of-the-mill adventurer hoping to leech off their victory, but the werecats seemed to think otherwise. Unsheathing the sword at his side, Cloffe stepped in front of Cayna protectively. Clofia nocked an arrow.

“Huh?”

“Honestly, get a clue already. You’ll make life way easier for yourself,” Clofia muttered with a weary sigh as she stared down the passageway.

The thin rhymestone lights on the werecats’ heads exposed the clumsy intruder from head to toe as they approached the open area in front of the boss room.

“Tch! So you caught me…”

The youthful-looking elf man before them tsked. His race made it difficult to pinpoint his actual age. He was joined by werecats and kobolds, and the sinister group numbered about ten in total. They stood in front of the trio and blocked their path. Seven were dressed in adventurer garb and carried swords while the other three wielded bows and arrows. The air around them warned this was no accidental run-in.

“I’m quite certain I know the answer, but I shall ask anyway. What is your business?” Cloffe questioned, taking the initiative.

The hostile group seemed to regard him as the trio’s leader. This was solely their opinion, of course. After all, none could have guessed that, out of the three, it was the defenseless, goofy-looking elf girl you least wanted to antagonize.

“Ain’t it obvious, young man? We followed the smell of money.”

“Huh. Oh yeah?”

“At least show a little concern!”

Clofia yelled at Cayna, who stood there freely nodding as if to say, I see. Some people really are like hyenas.

“We’re sick of this dried-up dungeon, but there’s gotta be somethin’ good in it for us if we dive down with pros like you.”

“Heh-heh, play nice and spill your secrets. We’ll pay you ladies back very generously.”

Ten lustful pairs of eyes slithered over Cayna’s and Clofia’s bodies. The werecat girl shuddered in disgust, but since Cayna considered herself naturally scrawny (with the weight loss from her hospitalization not helping), she just gave the men a blank stare.

“So you are desperate for more than information. How pathetic.”

“We don’t need your damn pity!”

Cloffe gave the group a sorrowful look, and their enraged leader drew his sword. Quickly following suit, the others brandished their own swords and bows. When Cayna used Search on them, she found the average level of their attackers was slightly less than 20. At this rate, Cloffe and Clofia wouldn’t suffer more than a few light scratches.

“We’ve got the numbers. Surround ’em. They’ll be singin’ like canaries once we show ’em a little pain.”

“Hee-hee-hee, me and the girls are gonna have lotsa fun later.”

“It’s first come, first served, man!”

Cayna wearily stared at the bandits, who were already confident in their victory, while Clofia, too angry to even speak, simply bared her fangs. It was unclear whether this vitriol was directed at the men’s character or the severity of their actions.

“You brutes will never be half the man my brother is! Prepare yourselves!”

Clofia pulled back a single arrow as far as it could go, and it pierced the foul-mouthed elf’s shoulder faster than the eye could see.

“Gah?!”

“Keh. Drawin’ first blood, eh? Get ’em, boys!”

“““YEAAAH!!”””

Cayna’s group was apparently to blame for this mess.

Arrows flew, and the men charged at the three with swords raised. Clofia shot a second arrow at record speed and pierced the foot of a kobold on the front lines. He pitched forward with a howl, gripping his foot as he rolled on the ground. Those behind the kobold wasted no time stampeding over their fallen comrade. They truly were barbaric.

“Can I jump in now?” Cayna asked Cloffe quietly.

“Please exercise restraint,” he urged.

“Half kill ’em, then. Gotcha.”

Magic Skill: Ruby Iyah Zors

This brief chant produced a giant fiery spear over Cayna’s head and stopped the approaching mob in their tracks. The spear rivaled the height of an adult human and was fiendish enough to make anyone who saw it catch their breath. Even the shower of red and orange sparks above her dampened the men’s earthly desires.

“H-hey… What’re you gonna do with that?” a man at the forefront asked in a reedy voice as he pointed at the flaming spear.

Cayna only gave a wide grin.

The man suddenly paled, and he spun on his heel to escape. However, nothing said he could dodge the spell by escaping the caster’s line of sight.

“Hee.”

“Huh?”

It was not Cayna who pulled the trigger, but Kuu who sat silently upon her shoulder. Well aware no one besides the caster should have been able to manipulate the spell, Cayna couldn’t hide her concern.

At any rate, the burning spear burst forth and struck the back of the retreating man. A typical Flame Lance would have either pierced through the target or burned a hole, but this Ruby Iyah Zors was a different beast entirely. The moment it came into contact with its victim, the spear unraveled, wrapped around the entire body, and consumed everything.

“AGHHHHHH?!”

The flaming man let out agonizing screams as he burned in a continuous pillar of flame without ever actually dying. The spell was absolutely atrocious but set an excellent example.

Cayna planned to call off the spell as soon as the others became too mentally broken to continue the fight. At that point, the ordeal would end with no more than a few singed clothes and light burns.

“D-don’t kill us, pleeeeease!”

“W-we give up!”

“H-h-help! I’m sorry! Forgive me!”

The men tossed their weapons in short order.

“It seems like they bit off more than they could chew,” commented Clofia.

“Well, their opponent is Lady Canya, after all…”

The little girl the men had marked as the weakest link nearly destroyed them in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable. Who could blame them for shaking in their boots?

“I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to this, though,” Cayna said.

“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have it in the first place?”

“Clofia.”

“…Yes. I’m sorry, Brother.”

“If I don’t come down hard at times like this, then someone who didn’t learn the first time will plot their revenge. I’d hate to pile up cold bodies in an alleyway.”

A chill ran down their attackers’ spines as Cayna delved into graphic and horrifying detail.

Her merciless methods and ability to cast powerful magic with hardly a chant were enough reason for the men to surrender. However, if Cayna went any easier on them here, she had a feeling they’d jump from the shadows for revenge. That was the last thing she wanted.

Among the injured, the one Clofia shot in the foot got the worst of it. The man extracted the arrow himself and bandaged it to stop the bleeding. But despite the botched robbery attempt, it wasn’t like Cayna’s group could let their attackers off scot-free.

“What should we do?” Cayna asked.

“I suggest we leave them tied here and continue ahead.”

“Isn’t that a bit lenient, Brother?”

Although this was only the fifth floor, they weren’t about to just turn back around. The three decided to leave the men there, and Cayna knocked them out with Intimidate and Glare for good measure. There were no monsters on this floor, so the crooks were perfectly safe even in the depths of sleep. She started to write “Pedo” and “Animal” on their foreheads, and in this alone did Cayna and Clofia find common ground. Gleefully joining in, the werecat added “Coward” to the list of insults. Cloffe alone solemnly observed the men and clasped his hands in prayer.

Incidentally, the boss of the fifth floor was a level-50 ghoul. Cloffe, who wasn’t given a chance to shine in the previous battle, vanquished it with one swing of his blade. A treasure chest materialized, but Cayna was disappointed to find it was only a low-level potion. Cloffe and Clofia, on the other hand, were all over it.

“Brother! We’ve…we’ve come upon these before.”

“Yes, it’s a high-level potion.”

Her knees buckling, Cayna dropped to the ground. She gripped her head with the agonizing realization that the lost techniques of the past were giving birth to terrible, terrible misunderstandings.

It’s barely even a potion…

“Perhaps you should tell them that?”

But they look so excited. I’d hate to rain on their parade.

There was no way she could walk up to the delighted siblings, look at their little test tube of potion and say, Yeah, that was nothin’ back in the day!

“If it’s not especially pertinent, perhaps it’s best to let the matter drop.”

You’re the one who said I should say something, Kee!

While Cayna mentally conversed with Kee, Cloffe and Clofia calmed down and suggested they press forward.

“Let’s continue, Lady Cayna.”

“Comiiiing.”

“Where is your enthusiasm?! You’re the whole reason we’re down here!”

“Comin’ right up…”

“Are you insulting me?!”

Clofia’s shrill voice echoed emptily across the dungeon.

Not much happened between the sixth and thirteenth floors. All the spawn planks were broken; Cayna would put each one she found in her Item Box. If she ever managed to meet up with Opus, they’d have to decide whether or not to keep this dungeon. Knowing him, the demon wouldn’t spare a second thought for the many adventurers intrigued by it, so he’d probably toss it. In that case, the outcome would depend on Cayna’s opinion as well.

She’d be a sitting duck in a war of words, and she contemplated how to deal with him as they sank to the fourteenth floor. Sensing a disturbance farther down the passageway, Clofia held out an arm to stop Cloffe.

“What is it?”

“There’s something up ahead.”

She shot an arrow, and a sharp, metallic echo rang out. Their foe was seemingly impervious to arrows. The three got into battle position, and a light sluggishly emerged from the dark hallway. They were silver rhinoceros beetles. Each was about the size of a grown pig, and a trio of them advanced as a unit.

“Blitz beetles, huh? They’re slow but tough as anything.”

As Cayna offered intel on their enemy, the siblings raced forward in unison. Clofia’s consecutive hail of arrows bounced right off their glowing silver exoskeletons.

As if finally registering Clofia and the others as a threat, the three blitz beetles picked up the pace and rushed toward Cayna and the siblings. But despite having six legs each, they were as slow as anything.

Cloffe moved ahead of Clofia and swung down his sword on the foremost beetle, but a loud clamor rang out as the carapace halted its destruction.

“Ngh, they’re tough…”

“Yeah, I told you so.”

Although blitz beetles were only level 40, their hard shells alone could give a level-100 monster a run for its money. Moreover, it was a frustrating enemy that wasn’t worth a newbie’s time. Back in the game, players usually had to either stop a blitz beetle with something like a paralysis ball and gang up on it or temporarily leave the active area before striking from behind.

Cayna had been betting on such methods and sighed as she watched the werecats jump the gun and struggle for victory. After all, the monsters weren’t coming after her thanks to the huge level difference. So the enemy targeted the go-getter duo instead.

Most insect monsters were weak against magic, so spells did the most damage. Since dark magic capable of eroding the soul would be super effective, Cayna chose Magic Skill: Blind Shot. Several hundred shadow needles suddenly formed around Cayna and thoroughly skewered the blitz beetles. With their souls torn to shreds, the monsters were swiftly eliminated. Only untouched corpses were left behind, and even those soon dissolved into visual noise and vanished.

“Th-that was magic.”

“Darn, no treasure chests this time?”

The dense thicket of needles sticking out of the ground quickly disappeared as well. Looking rather bored, Cayna went ahead of Cloffe and Clofia as the two stared at the spot the monsters had just been.

The siblings were so shocked because they had never seen monsters disappear like that before. In this dungeon, enemies only dropped experience points and the very occasional treasure chest.

“Hey! Don’t walk ahead!”

Cayna was a considerable distance ahead when she heard two pairs of feet. One complained all the while. No, it was more like she was trying to pick a fight.

“Why do you keep trying to lead the way?!”

“…‘Why,’ you ask? Because you couldn’t even scratch those pip-squeaks, that’s why. What are you gonna do if we’re attacked by some horde?”

“Ngh! I—I was just monitoring the situation! Next time I’ll take them out before you can get in my way!”

Clofia’s face burned with rage, but she managed to keep herself in check. Cayna narrowed her eyes and murmured a quiet “Oh?” before stepping aside for the werecat girl. For whatever reason, Clofia sniffed derisively and nodded in self-satisfaction. This time, however, she proceeded with caution. Cloffe passed by Cayna with a small bow and a look of apology before catching up to his sister to act as support.

“Not particularly dependable companions, are they?”

Just give it to me straight, Kee.

“They are getting in the way, aren’t they?”

Cayna cringed at Kee’s brutally honest opinion. She shrugged and followed after the siblings.

Another condition had been established when Cloffe and Clofia decided to join her. They were to ignore any small rooms they came across during the trip. This was in order to save a portion of the spoils for potential adventurers in the future. If Cloffe returned home and shared what he knew about the treasure chests, the spawn planks were less likely to be destroyed as well.

And so, they ignored every small room and forged straight ahead. Clofia occasionally glanced at the doors and let out a heavy sigh. Incidentally, Cayna had tacked on this condition after witnessing the attitudes of the adventurers on the surface, but she told the werecats she’d probably retract the clause if it “became too much of a hassle.” This exasperated Clofia, but anyone who knew Cayna understood that’s just who she was. Being too soft is not always a good thing.

Soon enough, the three found a flight of stairs and descended deeper to the fifteenth floor. Kee had memorized every floor; Cayna only had to warn their guide, Clofia, whenever she was about to make a wrong turn. For better or worse, the werecat didn’t offer any sass or refuse her help.

Clofia’s thief intuition was the real deal, and Cayna herself had forgotten many of the dungeon’s details. These gimmicks in Leadale’s game system could essentially be bought via micro-transaction for several hundred yen and included traps like Whoever steps into a given area will set off a gimmick that does [blank]. Players could either use skills gained in offline mode, like Passive Skill: Intuition or Sense Danger, to sidestep the trap, or they could intentionally set it off and dodge the incoming threat.

In other words, there was no need to pull or step on every little hidden switch. That was why having someone like Clofia, whose thief skills of trap detection and defusal were unrivaled (at least in her own mind), walk in front of them seemed like a pointless suicide mission.

Clofia’s floodlight washed over the labyrinth ahead, revealing a T-shaped intersection.

There was nothing unusual about the corridors on either side, but a suspicious switch jutted from the wall between them. It looked like an on/off switch designed to flick up and down. When Cayna approached it from the back of the group, the Danger Radar in her head set off alarm bells.

She mistakenly believed the two in front of her felt the same danger.

Lacking Cayna’s skills, Cloffe and Clofia blindly walked straight into the hazard zone. A bulky stone akin to a roofing tile (thirty centimeters on each side and two centimeters thick) suddenly dropped from the ceiling and struck them.

…Or at least Clofia, who led the way.

An agonizing clunk rang from the top of her head, and the stony culprit fell to the ground with a thud that could probably be heard throughout the dungeon. Clofia somehow remained conscious despite her lack of a helmet. Collapsing to the floor, the werecat gripped her head in indescribable pain and trembled as she stifled a scream. Judging by the sound it made on impact, the rock could easily break open the average person’s skull. Cloffe rushed over to pat her back and offer consoling words.

Cayna picked up the stone and looked at the ceiling. She had no idea where it came from. There wasn’t a single opening to be found.

“I see. I bet another one will drop if we stick around. Cloffe, please move forward a bit before you heal her. We’ll see round two otherwise.”

“R-right…”

Cloffe picked up his sister princess-style and took the corridor to the left. Incidentally, the switch was only a carving, and the stone tile had dropped two steps in front of it. Placing a trap where people expected to be safe was a reflection of Opus’s malicious nature.

En route to the sixteenth floor, a pitfall on the landing took Cloffe and Clofia by surprise. There was a square, ten-meter landing stationed halfway between each floor, and when they stepped on this one in particular, their feet disappeared from beneath them. It wasn’t just a trap door, either; the floor literally opened up.

The siblings had no time to jump back, and they vanished from Cayna’s sight in an instant. She heard something dry being crunched to pieces below, and dust rose up around her waist.

“Cloffe?!”

By this point, even Cayna was starting to wonder how either one could have taken the stairs without the slightest hint of danger. They surely had their own protective measures, so she had assumed they were just grabbing life by the horns.

At any rate, she could hear a man and woman violently coughing inside the hole. Cayna used Wind Magic to gather the particles into a dust storm and blow them away from the staircase. Once the twisted atoms dissipated, Cayna cast Additional White Light Level 1: Light over the ceiling to give herself a clear view. The source of the dust was cast in high relief.

“N-noooooooooo?!”

“…Uwagh?!”

“…Whoa.”

Stuck in the hole with a front-row view, Clofia screamed. Cloffe realized what was happening as well and couldn’t hide his own shock. Its repulsiveness made even Cayna break out in a sweat from her perch above.

Down below, the two were standing on the giant, desiccated body of a pale annelid. Or in laymen’s terms, a big worm. The organism was about eight meters long, and anyone who fell into this trap once could have expected a very slimy bath.

After two hundred years, the worm was dry as a bone and now looked more like a structure eroded by wind and the elements. The siblings had fallen straight through its body, but the worm had largely retained its original form.

Despite her adventurer status, Clofia let out a shrill scream and immediately fainted after realizing she had inhaled the dust of some disgusting creature. Cayna just thought it was kind of gross, but she wasn’t about to head down there herself. Instead, she used Pull to get them out.

Once the pair were out of harm’s way, a lid appeared out of nowhere and covered the hole. This was paved with cobblestones, and soon enough not even the faintest line betrayed the pitfall’s existence.

“He really knows how to push people’s buttons.”

“I shudder to think what would have happened if it were still alive.”

The three tested the landing again, but the floor didn’t disappear. Intuition and Danger Radar remained silent as well. The trap’s sole purpose seemed to be fraying people’s nerves. Cayna could only express her condolences to Clofia for suffering through the experience.

“Well, it’s almost evening. Why don’t we make camp for the night?” Cayna suggested.

As she started taking firewood and foodstuffs out of her Item Box, Cloffe sought constant validation that the floor wouldn’t drop out from under them again.

“It’ll be fine.”

“But there is always the chance it may disappear at night when we are at our weariest…”

Apparently under the impression Cayna was only trying to make him feel better, Cloffe hovered around the edges of the landing.

“The trap caught people like it was supposed to, so there won’t be a second time. The guy who came up with this stuff gets a kick out of a prank only on the first time. If nothing else, you can trust me on that.”

It wasn’t a very comforting thought, but Cayna would lose faith in everything up ahead if she allowed room for doubt. This was the best way to ease her nerves.

Cayna prepared dinner with her Cooking Skills, and Cloffe finally rejoined them on the landing.

Still, Clofia let out another scream the second she woke up, so it was safe to say Opus had achieved his objective.

If Opus was watching them, it was unlikely he’d activate the same trap twice. Cayna placed an Isolation Barrier over the entire landing for the night, but Clofia alone stubbornly refused to sleep there. She instead found a corner between the wall and stairs.