The stairway entrance leading from the dungeon's first floor to the second floor appeared, plain and unassuming, at the end of one of the passages.
There was no door barring monsters from passing through, nor any BOSS guarding the entrance.
The stairway entrance was even somewhat low — so much so that Professor Nini had to stoop slightly to step inside.
But just as the walls of the dungeon could in fact be broken through, this stairway leading down to the lower floor presumably could be widened, too.
The party filed into the stairway one after another, and after a full five minutes of descending, they finally arrived in the area at the second floor's entrance.
This area was shaped like a roughly circular hall, with a toad in the very center spewing a green liquid up into the sky as a "fountain" — apparently the magical marker for the second floor.
After Professor Nini stepped out of the stairway, she flared her nostrils and gave a sniff, then announced after a moment, "Dismissed on the spot — it's lunchtime."
"Yay!"
The students, who had been looking forward to this very moment for ages, burst into excited cheers.
Then, in clusters of three and five — boys and girls alike — they quickly scattered throughout the hall.
After more than an hour of long-distance trekking, both their legs and their stomachs had long since been complaining nonstop.
To sit down at a moment like this, chat a bit, and have a meal — that was simply the height of bliss.
Dark took out the "Mana Needle" and recorded the magical signature beside the Toad Fountain, then made his way back to Diana and Rose.
The three of them sat in a circle and began eating their meal, like they were camping out.
"Heave-ho——"
Diana set down the big pack she'd been carrying on her back and shook out a huge pile of bits and pieces of snacks.
Rose hurriedly stepped forward to right the backpack again, then began tidying things up with a troubled look on her face.
Dark beckoned to DemiDevimon, who then flew down and set the multi-tier lunchbox on the ground.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Gatomon had already obediently sat down by Dark's side, the picture of well-behaved sweetness.
"What did you bring?" Dark asked casually.
Rose fished a square box out of the snack pile and said in a small voice, "I made my own sandwiches with bread, sausage, and jam."
As she said this, she lifted the lid, and a sweet, fragrant aroma of jam came wafting out.
Inside the box were not only homemade sandwiches but also a number of cutely-shaped little cakes.
These cakes had all been fixed in place within the box, so they hadn't been jostled apart either.
After Dark had given his admiring praises a few times, he opened up his own lunchbox and took out the tiers one by one.
The exquisite dishes and rich aromas instantly drew everyone's attention.
Diana couldn't help covering her mouth and saying, "Amazing!"
Dark smiled. "If you'd gone to the Canteen as well, you could've gotten these too."
"The Canteen?" Rose said softly. "You mean you asked the Halfling Cooks for them?"
Dark gave a shrug. "That's right."
Then he took out three sets of cutlery from the compartment of the lunchbox — nothing fancy, just three small plates, three forks, and three little spoons.
He divided the cutlery into three portions and handed one each to Diana and Rose.
Following that, he took out three pairs of thin disposable gloves from his bag and passed them over.
Diana lifted up her own grubby little paws and gave them a look, then pouted as she accepted the gloves.
Of course, she still gave them a bit of a rinse with water first.
The three of them then shared their respective food and drinks, eating happily.
"Ahh——"
DemiDevimon had been standing off to the side for a good while when it suddenly remembered something, and so it sidled up to Dark with eager little steps and opened its mouth wide at him.
Dark was caught off guard for a moment, then gave a wry smile and turned the fork — already halfway to his own mouth — around, using the soy-glazed duck on the fork to stop up DemiDevimon's mouth instead.
"Chomp chomp."
DemiDevimon began chewing away contentedly.
Gatomon, beside them, couldn't help going wide-eyed.
"Ahh——"
The same sound rang out again.
Gatomon, with unusually keen senses, whipped her head around — only to see that the utterly shameless young lady going by the name of "Diana" was, in fact, imitating the equally thick-skinned DemiDevimon by opening her own mouth wide!
Dark was once again struck speechless.
Rose covered her mouth and gave a soft laugh.
Dark, helpless, picked out a big piece of meat from the lunchbox, speared it with the fork, dabbed it lightly in some sweet sauce, leaned in just a touch, and stuffed the big piece of meat into her mouth.
"Wow."
Diana took a big bite of the meat into her mouth and shot a smug look at the utterly bewildered DemiDevimon.
DemiDevimon: You're a human — what are you doing fighting us familiars for it?
The picnic atmosphere gradually rose to a high pitch.
...
But not everyone was as happy as Dark's group of three.
Virt and Robert, for their part, were still fretting. They munched on dry, crumbly biscuits, their gazes drifting over the other students from time to time.
The two of them were looking for classmates who carried "Mana Needles."
But aside from a handful of boys, those carrying "Mana Needles" were largely the more meticulous girls.
And for two boys to find a girl to group up with was, in fact, rather difficult.
Even though one of the two of them was the "Son of the Hero."
The girls had, in truth, already formed their own circles long ago.
After several active overtures all ended in failure.
Virt and Robert's gazes finally settled on Emma.
As more and more students completed their groupings, Emma seemed to become the only option.
Virt couldn't help saying, "Robert, what do you think of Emma?"
Robert couldn't help rolling his eyes. "If she weren't Emma, she'd be a pretty decent choice."
Virt: "Then shall we go find her?"
Robert was instantly stunned. "No, hey, Virt, did you actually understand what I said? I said if she weren't Emma…"
Virt: "It can only be Emma."
With that, he walked straight toward Emma.
Among those who had a "Mana Needle" and hadn't yet formed a group, there was no one more suitable than Emma.
As for Emma Metis, at this very moment she had already pretty much given up on the idea of "free activity."
She didn't want to force her two deskmates into it, nor was she willing to just casually pick any two people to group with — she'd been thinking she might as well just give up.
Following along with Professor Nini, she would still get something out of it just the same.
Even so.
When Virt came over to her on his own initiative, her heart still skipped a beat.
...
Beside the Toad Fountain.
Professor Nini sat all by her lonesome at the edge of the fountain, one enormous paw dipped into the water, raking aimlessly through it.
She had brought a lunch of her own — but she'd finished it in just a couple of bites.
Who could blame her, when those bits of food were so small they couldn't even fill the gaps between her teeth?
And so, sitting there for a while, she'd gotten hungry again.
If she hadn't had students in tow, she would probably already have gone out foraging for food.
But as a professor, she had to stay here and protect the students.
"Slurp——"
Professor Nini hastily pulled her gaze back from Dark's lunchbox and sucked back the drool that had nearly dripped down.
If she hadn't still been holding onto her dignity as a professor, she would absolutely have pounced on it already.
"This is hard."
...
After enduring with great difficulty until about one o'clock, Professor Nini saw that most of the students had finished their lunch and hurriedly clapped her hands. "Any students wanting to act freely may come over here to apply now. The activity range is limited to the first and second floors, but try not to stray too far from me, and you must return here before nightfall."
The students who had already been waiting for ages instantly grew excited.
Sarah Swati, with Heidi Euphemia and another girl from Magic House in tow, was the first to come up before Professor Nini.
After the three of them presented their "Mana Needles" and completed the registration formalities, they received permission.
Then more people came filing out one after another.
The remaining students discussed things in low voices, most of them speculating about what kinds of results these small groups might bring back.
"Time to set out."
Dark gave Diana, still engrossed in her pile of snacks, a tap and began gathering up the trash.
Diana finally lifted her head and looked with some regret at the snacks she hadn't yet finished — but she still gave her cheeks a little slap, prying herself free of the temptation.
Dark couldn't help smiling. He bagged up the trash, then looked up in the direction of Professor Nini.
Virt and Robert just happened to be walking out of the crowd at that moment — and trailing behind them at a distance of about two meters was an expressionless Emma.
"They formed a team together?"
Dark felt mildly surprised, but didn't think too much of it.
From his standpoint, on the contrary, he was a little worried that the three of them might end up at odds with one another.
But with the "Dungeon Escape Device" on hand, nothing too serious would happen.
...
Once Virt's three-person group had finished their registration as well, Dark led Diana and Rose over.
Professor Nini sneaked a casual glance at the pack on Diana's back, then said, "Your 'Mana Needles' — have you been recording the magical signatures properly?"
Dark replied with a smile, "Of course."
Professor Nini handed over the clipboard. "Sign your names."
The three of them completed their registration in turn, and with that, they set off.
...
"Which floor are we going to?" Rose asked, once they'd walked a fair distance away.
Dark thought it over, then said, "The first floor is safer, but I want to go to the second floor. What do you two think?"
Diana abruptly shot up a hand. "No objections here."
"If you've got no objections, why are you raising your hand so high?" Rose pressed her hand back down, then said, "Then the second floor it is. In a little while, I'll summon my familiar out — it can scout ahead for us too."
Diana: "Then I'll also…"
Rose: "Mm."
And so the two of them each summoned out their respective familiars.
Diana's familiar was a panda only the size of a basketball, with a round head and short little legs.
Since it had just been summoned out, it hadn't been forced into a little dress yet.
Rose's familiar, on the other hand, was a snow-white rabbit.
If you didn't look closely, you'd think it was no different from an ordinary domestic rabbit.
But in fact, on its forehead there was a tiny little bump concealed beneath the long fur.
— It was a Unicorn Rabbit in its juvenile stage.
But for a familiar, race and attributes were actually unimportant — size, strength, and speed were the points that really mattered.
After all, familiars weren't aggressive by nature; their main function was the day-to-day delivery of messages.
Being used to scout ahead now, well, they could manage that too.
DemiDevimon, on the other hand, looking at those two adorably guileless familiars, couldn't keep the corners of its mouth from ticking up.
Every time it saw other people's familiars, a sense of pride would well up in it.
Since the food inside the lunchbox had already been emptied out, Dark had stacked it back together and put it into the backpack, so at this point DemiDevimon was without a single burden to its name.
Dark: "DemiDevimon, don't forget your day job."
DemiDevimon: My day job — isn't it being a delivery man?
Dark gave it a flat look.
DemiDevimon: Yes, sir! I am Scout Vanguard Junior!
...
As the three familiars headed off to scout ahead, the atmosphere in the passage gradually went quiet.
Dark stopped his idle chatter, and Diana and Rose grew cautious along with him.
When they had come from the first floor to the second floor, they had hardly encountered any monsters at all — but everyone knew that was because Professor Nini was leading the group.
Now, without Professor Nini and her built-in "Intimidation Aura" along, the danger level of the dungeon would leap up several notches in an instant.
Monsters would no longer be those poor little things that fled at the sight of humans — they would transform, the very moment of encounter, into fanged, sharp-clawed beasts!
Less than five minutes' worth of travel down the road.
The familiars scouting ahead suddenly stirred up something.
The three of them felt a thought stir at once, and exchanged a look.
Dark immediately picked up his pace, with Gatomon following close behind.
Diana, meanwhile, forcibly held back her own impulses, and walked carefully forward together with Rose.
Just a brief moment later, Dark arrived at the scene.
And then he couldn't help breaking into a slight smile.
For he saw a monster shaped like a vicious dog being thoroughly humiliated by three familiars…
Despite being a monster famed for its ferocity, it was completely no match for the three "non-aggressive" familiars.
Rose's Unicorn Rabbit, which looked all docile and meek, had in fact clamped firmly down on the monster's foreleg.
And as for Diana's little panda — somehow it had pulled off pinning the monster by the throat. The whole bear was just hanging off its neck like a pendant, completely restraining it.
The monster, with one foreleg and its head both sealed off, had only its other foreleg left to attack with.
Meanwhile, DemiDevimon was using its aerial advantage — each pounce a quick strike-and-retreat, never overstaying its attacks, very nearly raking the monster's scalp to shreds.
"So this is what an ordinary monster on the second floor is like?"
Dark slipped the Magic Guide Card in his hand up his sleeve, drew "Pride I" from his card pouch, and performed a Normal Summoning.
As the dark-gold orb of light sank into the space between DemiDevimon's brows, the look in its eyes changed in an instant.
It suddenly spread its wings and let out a furious bellow.
A shark-headed syringe then materialized in front of its wings and shot out at the monster.
"Pft!"
The needle of the "[Small Shuriken]" pierced the monster's forehead with pinpoint accuracy, and the thick, long syringe rapidly filled up with fresh blood.
The monster gave one wail, and no longer had the strength to struggle.
By the time Diana and Rose arrived, Dark had already started harvesting the monster's materials.
All of the magical power in its body had gathered, at the very moment of death, into one of its canine teeth, which gave off a faint white glow.
But judging by the fact that it could be polished off by DemiDevimon, this canine tooth probably wasn't anything particularly valuable.
"What kind of monster is this?" Diana asked as she came jogging over.
"It should be a Little Devil Hound."
Dark gave that reply, and was just about to stand up when, beside him, Gatomon suddenly tugged at his sleeve and pointed ahead.
He couldn't help looking up.
At the end of the passage ahead, it forked off in two directions.
But at this moment there was nothing there.
However, once one focused one's attention, one could faintly hear sounds.
"A large group of monsters is approaching!"
Diana's voice suddenly rang out behind him, her tone laced with a trace of panic — though more than anything, with excitement.
...
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