Chapter 10 - The Ninth Layer
――The ninth layer.
It is a legendary layer that the party of the First King of Grandsword entered five hundred years ago.
Since then, many adventurers have tried to follow in their footsteps, and have lost their lives.
Perhaps there are a few others who have descended to the ninth layer.
But not a single one of them made it back alive.
The name "Labyrinth of No Return" is not an exaggeration.
Even if you don't make it to the ninth layer, it's safe to say that not a day goes by without someone dying here or there.
Even so, adventurers who are attracted to the dungeon by the enormous treasure that is said to lie there dive in.
Gold or honor? Dreams or treasures? Or is it a sense of accomplishment?
Everyone's desire may be different.
But the goal is to reach the lowest layer.
Someday, surely.
With such faint hopes in their hearts, all adventurers start out fighting goblins on the first layer.
It was the same for us.
"Hey, Alec. How's the Infinite Corridor?"
The man standing guard at the entrance to the labyrinth, a soldier who has become a familiar face, asks me.
"I don't know what to say. The "Infinite Corridor" is as the name say the "Infinite Corridor"."
I'm can't say that I've cleared the corridor yet, so I answer plainly, trying not to show it on my face.
If I were to say that I'd cleared it, I'd have a lot of adventurers clamoring to know how to get there and what to do.
Besides, it wouldn't be good if the A-rankers got impatient and started fighting for the lead.
The current windless state is the best.
"Oh, come on, I don't get it. I've never been there before."
"But I'm sure you've heard a lot about it from the other A-ranked adventurers."
"Yeah. But I wanted to hear what you think. You've never been uptight or in a hurry to get ahead, and you've always been so matter-of-fact, even after being ridiculed so much in the first layer. You know what I've been thinking? I knew this guy was a big deal."
"Don't lie to me, tell me what you honestly think of me."
"Haha, to be honest, I thought you were going to die soon until you came back from the fourth layer. Because you looked like a nobleman with your beautiful slaves."
"These guys are capable. I didn't choose them just for their looks."
I looked back at my fellow Meena and said.
"I'm sure you do. Well, let me know if you find anything interesting."
"I will. See you around."
I raised one hand lightly to the soldier guarding the gate and walked on by.
"Oh, this is bad! I want to talk about it!"
"Me too! Me too!"
Jouga and Lily start to make a fuss as they descend the stairs, but it can't be helped.
But we're still near the entrance. There are a lot of other adventurers coming down the stairs, so it's not good if they hear us.
"When this is over, I'll let you talk all you want, but for now, keep quiet. There are other adventurers out there."
"Oops!"
"Oh, no."
The two of them hurriedly kept their mouths shut, but that made them look even more conspicuous, didn't it?
"What's up with you guys, got something interesting to say?"
A voice came from behind me at an inopportune moment. It was Ralph's party, a dog-eared race with white hair and blue beehives. They seemed to be following right behind us.
"There's nothing here."
I denied it with a straight face before anyone else could say anything.
"Doesn't look like it, though."
Ralph shrugged his shoulders with a stern expression.
The first time we dove in here, this guy got involved, and he's a pain in the ass.
"It's true even if you can't see it. By the way, Ralph, what would you do if someone cleared this dungeon?"
"Well, if the monsters don't go away, I'm going in, right? Of course I'll dive. I'm in it for the treasure."
"Of course."
"Besides, Alec, if you want to keep earning money, you shouldn't aim to lower layer."
"Depends on how you make your money. That's none of your business."
"Haha, you're still the same as ever Alec. See you later."
"Yeah."
Ralph has a point. The lower you go down a layer in this dungeon, the more dangerous it gets.
The lower you go, the more high-level enemies you'll encounter, and even with a small fry can't let their guard down.
But that also means that the lower you go, the more enemies with high point skills you'll encounter.
As I have both skill copies and reset reductions, I can use them to earn huge amounts of skill points.
However, you can't copy skills unless it's a new enemy. Once copied, even if I reset and deleted the skill, I could not copy it again.
So, I risked going down.
To get stronger.
Of course, I'm not aiming to be the strongest, so I'll probably stop going down at some point.
But for now, there is no problem.
I can still go down there.
*******
I came to the place I was looking for. It's the passage behind the head of the giant warrior statue on the first layer. It's right on the ceiling, and from below it just looks like a dented wall, but if you float up, you can see that the passage leads to it.
"It's okay, darling. No one's coming. Now."
Saki said while keeping an eye on the passage below.
I'm sure we're not the only ones who know about this place, but it's best not to draw attention to it anyway.
If an A-rank party has been in and out of this place many times, that alone would be suspicious information.
"All right, Letty, let's go get it."
"Yeah."
We use Letty's levitation magic and my levitation skills to carry the whole party up.
"Ugh, this place is so small!"
The first time Lily went up, she had to bend down to get there.
This is the case for the small Lily, so the taller Jouga, Luka and Serina would have to crawl on all fours to get around.
"Nice view!"
I muttered to myself as I saw the white fabric peeking out of Serina miniskirt.
"Hey, the men, go first."
Oops, I should have said something else.
"You pervert old man, you're really pervert all the time, aren't you?"
"You're being a jerk, Lily."
What's wrong being pervert?
"Fuu~, I can stand up in here. All right."
Jouga stood up.
We passed the low-ceilinged passage and returned to the normal passage.
If we go a little further and make a turn, the passage will end there.
A dark blue magic circle was painted on the floor of the dead end.
"Then, everyone check your gear and items before you board."
The place we're going to might be the ninth layer, so we'll check our preparation carefully.
"Okaaay."
"All right."
"I'm good."
"All right."
"I'm good."
Everyone nodded, and after I made sure everyone was checked out, I stepped onto the magic circle.
"Huh? Nothing's happened?"
The color of the surrounding corridors instantly changed from gray to black and purple when Jouga said that in a dumb voice.
"Here it comes, the ninth layer."
I said with certainty.
Like the color of the passageway, this sense of pressure and tension is similar to the eighth layer.
"It looks like it."
Serina nodded and immediately took a step out of the magic circle.
"Searching for the enemy, how's it going?"
I ask Meena.
"It's okay, Master. There are no enemies nearby."
"Good. We don't need to worry about being seen from here. We'll go as usual."
""" Roger that """
The search for the ninth layer has begun.
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