「Now then, I guess it’s finally time to start on the desert levels from the 11th floor.」


  「Gurururu~?」


  Set tilted his head in confusion when Elena said that with a small smile.

  On Set’s back, Yellow also tilted its head while waving its tail.

  Looking at Elena, Rei glanced around with a wry smile.

  The first thing he could see was a dirt ground with rocks scattered about. Stalactites grew from the ceiling and gave off a glow that, along with the walls, illuminated the surroundings.

  No matter how you looked at it, it was not a desert.

  That was of course. This was the 10th floor. The desert that Elena was talking about only started from the 11th floor, so they had to conquer the 10th floor first.

  「I’m looking forward to it, but there’s still another floor to go before the desert.」


  「Yes, I know that of course. I know that, but I can’t help thinking about it.」


  Like Set and Yellow, Rei was also confused by Elena’s words as they walked out of the small room where the magic circle and stairs were.

  Rei had been thinking about the desert for for the past two days as well, but Elena seemed to be strangely looking forward to it.

  「Why are you looking forward to the desert floors so much?」


  「It’s nothing strange. I’ve never been to a desert before. It would be nice to see it with my own eyes, even if it’s not a real desert.」


  「……I don’t think it will be that good.」


  「Hm? If you can say that, have you seen a desert before?」


  Because they continued to talk as they walked, Rei’s group was naturally conspicuous. Rei took out some Lizardmen skewers, which he had eaten before entering the dungeon, from the Misty Ring and threw them at a Wind Bat that had been trying to attack him from behind.

  The skewer was made from wood, which wasn’t very suitable as a weapon. That said, Rei was the one throwing it. The skewer shot out and tore through the air before piercing the body of the Wind Bat, which had been about to release a wind arrow, pinning it to the cave wall.

  Rei replied to Elena as he swung his Death Scythe, killing the Wind Bat.

  「I haven’t seen one in person myself either. I’ve only read or heard about it from other people, so it might not be accurate, but it seems like it’s a harsh environment.」


  「It’s a sea of sand, right? It should be a magnificent view.」


  「Yeah, I guess so?」


  When Rei was in Japan, he had seen on TV that not all deserts were the ones Elena had just described. The deserts that came to mind when people talked about deserts were rare, most were just dry soil and rocks.

  (That said the common sense of another world can’t be applied to a dungeon.)

  After all, this was a world with magic, in the first place, the sun could exist within the dungeon. Considering that, Rei supposed that thinking of a desert as a sea of sand wasn’t necessarily a mistake.

  「Gurururururu~!」


  As Rei was thinking about that, Set suddnely gave a loud cry.

  Set shot out two water balls at the same time. Flying out, they hit a Mud Puppet that had just rounded a corner, scattering mud everywhere.

  「Good job, Set. You did well.」


  「Gurururu~」


  Set gave a happy cry as Rei stroked his head.

  Taking an empty barrel out of the Misty Ring and collecting mud into it after storing away the magic stone, Rei looked around, as if suddenly thinking of something.

  Only he, Set, Elena, and Yellow were here. Fortunately, there weren’t any other adventurers around, so it seemed like a good place to absorb magic stones.

  「……Elena, I’m also looking forward to the desert, but could you wait here a moment?」


  「What’s wrong? Did something happen?」


  「Nothing’s wrong, I just want to absorb the magic stones I have now.」


  Hearing his words, Elena also looked around. However, of course, there were no signs of any other people aside from themselves.

  「Well, it certainly would be good to absorb the magic stones now. Especially since we might encounter more abnormal species in future.」


  「Abnormal species, huh. On that note, we haven’t met another one since the Stone Golem.」


  While responding to Elena’s words, Rei took out magic stones from the Misty Ring. There were now two each in Rei’s hand, one from a Seal Worm, a Stone Golem, a Mud Golem, and a Wind Bat.

  First, he gave a Wind Bat’s magic stone to Set as a test……


  「Guru~」


  Set gave a disappointed cry when he didn’t learn any new skills.

  Rei also cut and absorbed one using the Death Scythe, but similarly he didn’t get any new skills.

  Futhermore, that wasn’t the end of it. Set and the Death Scythe both absorbed the magic stones of a Seal Worm, Stone Golem, and Mud Golem, but even after absorbing four different magic stones, neither of them acquired any new skills.

  「……Seriously?……」


  Rei muttered as he leaned against a wall in shock.

  It seemed that it was quite a big shock to him to absorb eight magic stones and not learn anything from any of them.

  「Guru~」


  I’m sorry, Set seemed to say as he gave a cry and rubbed his face against Rei.

  For Set, if possible, he had wanted to learn new skills to please Rei. However, even Set would have no idea whether or not he would be able to learn a new skill until he absorbed a magic stone. There was a tendency to be able to acquires skills more easily from magic stones belonging to powerful monsters, but that wasn’t absolute. Also, considering that he had managed to learn a skill from the magic stone of a Goblin rare species, it was possible to learn skills from less powerful monsters.

  「No, don’t worry about. None of us are in the wrong in this case. If I had to say what went wrong, we were just unlucky.」


  Rei was healed by Set’s good attitude as he scratched his head.

  「Gurururu~」


  Set probably realised that Rei had recovered. He gave a happy cry and pushed his head against Rei to be scratched more.

  「Kyu!」


  Yellow seemed to be envious of Set. With a hop and flapping of wings, Yellow landed on Set’s head.

  Yellow looked up and gave a cry, asking to be stroked as well.

  「I see, so Set wasn’t the only one worried. Thank you.」


  「Kyu!」


  Rei realised that Yellow was also trying to cheer him up as he stroked Yellow as well.

  It seemed like it was quite comfortable. Both Yellow and Set gave happy cries.

  After stroking Set with his right hand and Yellow with his left hand for five minutes or so, he eventually stopped and took both his hands back.

  「Now then, I guess it’s time to move on. If I could, I would like to continue playing with Set and Yellow like this, but that would only make our trip to the desert on the 11th floor more difficult.」


  「Guru~?」


  Is it over? Set seemed to ask as he tilted his head. Rei gently stroked Set’s head as he spoke to Elena, who had been watching them closely.

  「Sorry for showing you such an embarrassing scene.」


  It seemed that Rei was a little embarrassed to show Elena his depressed state. However, Elena just had a small smile on her face as she shook her head.

  「Don’t worry about it. To show such an appearance means that you’re willing to let your guard down around me. I don’t mind if you do that. 」


  「……It’s still embarrassing to show such a pitiful appearance though.」


  Rei gave a sigh as he said that, but Elena just reached out to him without worrying about it.

  Elena stroked Rei’s red hair under his hood, just as Rei had stroked Set.

  A few second passed before Elena removed her left hand in satisfaction.

  「Now then, I’ve recovered enough energy from you Rei, so let’s get back to it right away. If we go straight down this passage, we’ll find a place with many small rooms, one of which leads further on.」


  「Then, what about the other small rooms.」


  「According to the map, they’re dead ends. ……I think there are probably traps.」


  Rei frowned at Elena’s words.

  He wasn’t angry with what Elena has said. The reason he frowned was because they had paid a certain amount of money for the map, but the map didn’t even show where traps were.

  For traps set up by monsters in passageways, that was fine, but traps set up by the dungeon should have been indicated on the map.

  However, this was just Rei’s misunderstanding.

  The reason was unknown, but traps set by the dungeon would sometimes randomly shift. Opinions between adventurers were split, but it was said that it was probably a countermeasure against adventurers set up by the dungeon core.

  Research about it hadn’t progressed much because it was a phenomenon that could only be seen in dungeons that had grown to a certain size, where the dungeon core would be very difficult to reach.

  「Well, it can’t be helped. Now then, let’s head for the 11th floor. You’re looking forward to it Elena.」


  「Umu. I definitely want to see the magnificent scenery of the desert.」


  「……I don’t think you should expect that much from a dungeon.」


  Elena looked at Rei sullenly, who had just shrugged his shoulders lightly.

  「Isn’t that fine? I’ve never actually seen a desert, so I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.」


  While Elena herself had yet to realise, just as Rei had showed his weakness to her, she would sometimes make spoiled gestures towards Rei.

  Both of them could only do that because they trusted each other. If someone else who only knew the two of them by their titles, Crimson and General Princess, were to see them, they would not believe their eyes.

  While creating a somewhat sweet atmosphere around them, the four of them continued down the passageway.

  「Is this the small room?」


  「According to the map, yes. ……Given that there is a rather complicated maze after this small room, we should stay alert of course.」


  With many doors lined up around them, Elena warned Rei as she indicated the door on the map with a passage at the back.

  In fact, they had run into several traps on the way here, avoiding or disarming most of them.

  Rei understood Elena’s words as he nodded.

  After all, this was a place they absolutely needed to pass through to get to the 11th floor, there was no better place to set a trap.

  「Okay, are you ready to open it?」


  「Guru~」


  Elena nodded silently at Rei’s words while Set gave a cry as he kept an eye on their surroundings.

  Yellow also perched itself on Elena’s left shoulder, so as to not get in the way of Rei and the others. Yellow was ready to take off the moment anything happened.

  (Even though there’s likely a trap, we’ll still have to deal with it to proceed. If I could use something I could throw away like a golem or something……or a slave? No, it’s no good buying slaves just for this.)

  Rei thought to himself.

  Rei had been born and raised in modern Japan. But, after living in Elgin for over a year, he no longer had a reluctance towards buying slaves.

  However, considering that buying slaves would just increase the amount of troublesome tasks, he decided no to bother with it.

  He was ready to respond, no matter what happened, as he opened the door in front of him.

  「-!?」


  The moment he opened the door, he instinctively sensed something flying towards him and swung his Death Scythe.

  Kiin-, a high pitched metallic sound echoed out and something fell to the floor after being split in two.

  Continuing to stay alert, Rei carefully searched for any other signs in the surroundings. Confirming that nothing more happened after 10 seconds, he finally lowered his guard.

  That said, he didn’t completely drop his guard. It was a good idea to keep his eyes peeled for any monsters or new traps.

  Rei turned his attention to the object he had cut down using the Death Scythe.

  It was a single arrow. However, considering the entire arrow, and not just the tip, was made from metla, it could be considered a very deadly trap.

  「……It looks like it’s safe.」


  Elena gave a sigh of relief as she lowered the tip of her sword whip, that she had been ready to attack with at any time.

  Although she trusted Rei’s strength, she had still be worried.

  However, Rei didn’t seem to notice Elena’s thoughts as he picked up both parts of the arrow and stored them into the Misty Ring.

  (Is he planning to use it for something?)

  Elena wonder if Rei had plans for it, but decided to leave the room first after entering with Rei, Set and Yellow.

  Walking on, killing monsters, avoiding traps where possible, and destroying the traps they couldn’t, they continued on for about another hour. ……Finally, they reached the stairs to the 11th floor.