But every Adventurer present was at least Lv.2, and a change like this was like a lantern flaring up in the dead of night. Even if they had wanted to ignore it, they couldn't.
"The Dungeon... is having an earthquake?"
Kaguya lowered her center of gravity to steady herself.
She narrowed her eyes, her thoughts racing.
"An earthquake in the Dungeon is no good omen..."
"Stop right there!"
Ryuu's shout snapped her back to reality.
The utterly ordinary-looking man was bowing politely toward them.
"Well then, apostles of justice. Allow this humble one to take his leave first."
He straightened, that faint smile still at the corners of his mouth.
"I believe we will meet again."
With that, he was gone in a few bounds, vanishing at the edge of their sight without a trace.
"Damn it!"
Ryuu gave chase on the strength of her Agility, but after only a moment she was forced to stop.
Alise and the others arrived right behind her.
"Ryuu?"
She clenched her fists and bit her lower lip, her face full of frustration.
"Sorry. I let him get away."
As the man withdrew, the fighting in the rest of Rivira died down as well. The Evilus soldiers and believers were like the tide: they came fast and left even faster. In moments, they were gone.
All that remained were ruined walls and corpses in rivers of blood.
"So that guy was the ringleader of this Adventurer Hunt."
"Strange. Do any of you recognize him? Someone at Lv.4 shouldn't be a nobody in Orario, right?"
"I have no memory of him at all."
They exchanged glances and fell into a brief silence.
Then Lyra put away her short blade, her expression graver than ever before.
"Now's not the time to dig into who that guy is." She paused. "What matters more..."
"...is the anomaly in the Dungeon."
"We have to take this seriously and report it as soon as possible."
Alise nodded.
"Right. We notify Guild Headquarters right away, and Finn's group too."
"Let's go, back to the surface!"
"As for the mess in Rivira, Ganesha Familia and the Goddess Alliance can come down and clean it up!"
With that, Alise, whose initiative stat was maxed out, took the lead and headed straight for the surface.
Kaguya brought up the rear. Before leaving, she took a long look toward the depths of the Dungeon, recalling the information Asfi had let slip.
"On an Expedition, are you? Don't tell me this anomaly has something to do with you lot?"
"Tch. Mr. Scumbag, don't you go dying down there."
After that low murmur, Kaguya followed the group without looking back.
...
...
Floor 34.
Having pulled out of Floor 36, Leon and the others fought off the monsters of the minefields as they went, all while keeping watch on the Greatest Evil dogging their heels like a ghost. Whenever the monsters piled up to a certain number, Leon's group, chugging potions nonstop, would stop, find a sand dune, and farm a wave from the high ground.
As the saying goes: outrange them and don't hold back; take the high ground and smack the noobs.
Leon's group lived out this creed to the fullest. If these monsters could think, they'd probably be hopping mad and cursing right now: shameless, dirty Adventurers!
Whole swaths of monsters froze into ice sculptures with a string of cracks, locked in place on the dune's slope.
Leon lowered his raised right hand. The frost coiled around his palm flickered a few times like a shorted wire, then faded away.
"Phew..."
He breathed out a cloud of white, his face faintly pale.
It was a sign his Mind was about to run dry. Casting Super-Wide-Area Annihilation Magic again and again, while squeezing in Frost Armor refreshes and a few rounds of boofs for the party... even with Demon Lord's Crest and Arcane Ward as his two overpowered trump cards, pushing through like this all the way had finally started to wear on him.
"Here, a High Magic Potion."
Irisviel handed him the potion, her tone light.
"Stop wincing at the price. It's only a hundred-odd thousand. With your skills, a couple of Blizzards and you've made it back."
Leon: "..."
He curled his lip, took the bottle, tipped his head back, and downed it in one gulp. He licked the corner of his mouth, feeling the coolness rush from his throat straight to the top of his skull, and only after a moment opened his eyes and looked at the slope beneath his feet.
Jeanne, Persephone, Kureha, and the others were briskly clearing the ice sculptures.
Every throw of Rose's flying shield ricocheted among the sculptures, cleanly smashing a whole row, while Kureha's "Lightning Swordsmanship" swept the other side. To boost efficiency and save time, they pulled out every trick they had. Under the merciless demolition, the sculptures shattered in swaths into ice crystals that drifted in the air.
After all that, even the temperature of this small area had dropped a few degrees.
A low rumble rolled in as the sand beneath their feet began to tremble.
Leon raised his eyes and looked into the distance. At the horizon, yellow sand surged like a tide, and a black dot was closing in fast.
His expression changed in spite of himself.
"Retreat!"
The moment he spoke, everyone tightened formation in sync. Leon took the hastily filled Magic Stone Pouch, stuffed it into the Wonder Pack, and grabbed his stuff and bailed.
"Fuck! You just won't quit, huh?!"
In the middle of his headlong dash, he spared a glance back, thoroughly annoyed.
Jeanne seemed to see right through what he was thinking, and warned him gravely:
"We're not even at half our full condition right now. Don't get any crazy ideas. Margaret, Iri, Laurier, and Aura can't take another round of your stunts."
Leon nodded and gave her a reassuring look:
"I'm not the type to ignore the bigger picture. Let's go!" (There goes my money, dammit.)
With that, he stopped short at the entrance to the floor passage and raised his hand for another Super-Wide-Area Annihilation Magic. The Blizzard howled down, leaving a white barrier between them and the minefield horde and Greatest Evil hard on their heels.
Ice light flashed beneath his feet.
With a whoosh, his figure vanished deep into the passage.
A dragon's roar drew closer from afar, and a surging, terrifying presence swept out in every direction like a shockwave. The monsters of the minefields, ruled by the instinct of fear, were driven without hesitation toward the floors above!
As for why the monsters of Floors 36, 35, and 34 could leave their birthplaces and run upstairs?
Don't ask. If you ask, the answer is: Irregular.
In the Dungeon, no matter how strange or how rare something is, as long as it happens here, it can all be explained as an Irregular.
After all, the Dungeon is alive.
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