"Fuck… Fuck… Don't tell me that was why I ended up on the second floor…" Arnold let go of Arthur's collar and paced around the room, "Do you have a transmitter on you? Can you contact the others?"
"Fecius has the transmitter. He isn't here right now but I think he'll be back soon. Transmitters don't seem to work down here, though. We only received an outside signal when we were on the first floor. But no one had contacted us so far."
The door suddenly opened, revealing the two that Arthur was talking about before.
Fecius and Hofir looked at Arnold with slightly widened eyes.
Fecius quickly recovered and bowed his head in greeting.
"You must be Arnold von Berkley. My name is Fecius, the Royal Guard of Her Highness Shirley Renara Eidard. I heard about your valiant deed of saving Arthur. I'm grateful for that. He is a very important friend of mine."
"…I didn't step in to save him. Where were the two of you anyway? Your precious classmate almost lost his life due to his stupidity."
"Hofir and I couldn't accompany Arthur to the battlefield because we had to guard the royal family. This kingdom doesn't have a lot of capable fighters so we had to step in."
"…." The tigerkin, Hofir wordlessly nodded.
"The two of you should join us," said Arthur, "Where is that woman you came with, Arnold? Should she join us as well?"
"No, I left her in my room down the hallway. She won't know what we're talking about anyway."
"I see."
Arthur hadn't seen the woman yet but he heard that the woman was an Elf with angel wings. She's apparently one of the angels who frequently pass through this world. The citizens of this kingdom weren't that shocked to see an angel.
The low-ranking angels are servants of the disciples that guided Arthur and the others. All of them were female and wore very short dresses for some reason. Was the Sky God a pervert or something?
"Arthur tells me that you have a transmitter. Give it here for a second."
"Hm? What for?"
"I have a way for you to contact the others on the first floor."
"Seriously!?" Arthur grabbed Arnold's shoulders, "Then please see what you can do! I need to hear if my sister is okay!"
"That is a relief to hear. Can I call you Arnold?" Fecius smiled when Arnold nodded, "I would also like to know how my classmates are doing. Here it is."
Fecius gave Arnold a black box the size of his hand. Fecius spoke again:
"The distance is far too great between the worlds so we weren't able to contact the others. We've tried countless times but to no avail."
"I can fix that. All I need is this." Arnold took out a small crystal that resembled the crystals that Arthur had seen on the first and second worlds. They were nearly everywhere on the second world—even in trees and rocks.
They didn't have a particular color but they had rough edges and looked similar to glass.
"Hold the transmitter near the crystal and try calling your classmates."
"Eh? Will that really work?" Arthur was doubtful whether that was the case.
"It won't work if you hold the crystal too far away from the transmitter. But otherwise, yes. These crystals are on every world in this dungeon. This is because the worlds are connected by a common element: space. Every world links to the other which causes these crystals to form regardless of the environment. They typically form near the entrance of each floor because the space is the densest there. This is due to the presence of a portal that's created using space. They can connect to the outside world as well in certain conditions."
Arthur didn't know that. No, maybe none of his pupils or professors knew this. They had been wrecking their brains over how they were going to contact each other. The transmitters worked fine near the entrance of the first floor but not so much further away. Was this because they were close to the entrance where the crystals grew?
"I thought these were just regular magic crystals." Arthur smiled wryly after he took the crystal.
"Don't use common sense from outside here from now on." Arnold said with a shrug.
The transmitter changed from a brick to a flat shape. A green light appeared on top of the device.
"It's working!? How is this possible?"
"Radio waves."
"Radio waves? What is that?" asked Fecius on all their behalves.
"Think of it like sound that travels a certain distance to be heard by another person. For example if you stood on a large river's bank and tried to shout to a person on the other side of the bank then the wind will carry your voice over so that the person on the other side can hear. In place of wind, we have these crystals which acts like antennas. They hold the signal and transmit it to another crystal then another until the transmission reaches the target. Everything happens in a split second if the target is close so there's only delay if they are very far from your position."
"…."
'I know Arnold is smart but how does he know all this…? What's an antenna and radio waves anyway…?' Arthur couldn't understand it all but he got the gist of it from the lake explanation.
Magical technology wasn't something that Arthur majored in so he couldn't understand all the concepts.
'Hm, Anais should know so I should ask her to explain it to me.'
"It's blinking. Someone got your signal."
Arthur nodded at Arnold's words.
A feeling of exhilaration filled his body but tenseness accompanied that feeling.
Was Anais okay? Were all his classmates safe?
He gulped before pressing the button on the bottom of the transmitter.
All three of them looked at Arnold. No one was answering.
"Give it a second." said Arnold with a poker face.
-"Big brother! Is that you!?"
"Anais!?"
'Don't tell me she's been checking the transmitter for a transmission regularly…'
But he knew his sister was only worried about him. That warmed his heart knowing his little sister still cared about him just as much as he cared about her.
He didn't know what he might end up doing if he lost his little sister.
"Anais… it's me…"
He could hear a loud wail on the other side which almost ruptured his eardrum so he held the transmitter away from his face.
-"Big brother! Big brother! I! I!"
"She's so damn loud." Arnold complained from the side.
"C-Calm down, Anais…" Arthur tried to calm his sister, "I'm okay. We're still in the middle of something but I'm fine."
-"Hiik! Hiik! Bwather! Bwather!"
Arnold grabbed the transmitter out of Arthur's hand, "Can you stop crying already? We need to talk. Get everyone to listen in on what I'm about to say."
-"E-Eh? W-Who*sniff* ish these?"
"Arnold von Berkley."
-"…."
Anais suddenly went quiet. All they could hear was heavy breathing.
"Did you hear what I said, Anais?"
-"I… I did… How are you here—"
"Just go call everyone."
Anais went quiet again.
Arthur spoke into the transmitter, "Please do what he says, Anais. We can explain everything later on."
-"Mm, okay…"
◇◇◇
Ten minutes passed by. The four of them waited in silence.
The light blinked again. A different voice came through this time.
-"You're still alive."
"Shirley…" Arthur said the person's name softly.
-"Yeah, it's me. We arrived on the first floor this morning. We're getting ready to advance to begin grinding right now."
"You didn't attempt to fight that thing again, did you?"
-"Of course not. Even the A class couldn't do anything against that fetus monster."
"Fetus… monster?" Arnold looked at Arthur with a questioning gaze.
"That was the boss we encountered on the first floor." Arthur whispered.
"….." he went quiet.
'Shit, don't tell me… it's one of the offspring…'
-"Who is that? I've never heard his voice before."
"Oh, that's my great-uncle's nephew's eldest son. His name is Arnold."
-"How the hell did this Arnold guy get in this dungeon when the entrance is gone?"
"The outside entrance is still there. I just landed on the second floor." said Arnold, "I need to come up with a plan to get you guys out of here since there's no first floor entrance anymore."
-"What? Why should we do that?"
"Please listen to him, Shirley."
-"…."
"Something happened in the empire just a few weeks ago. I'm sure all of you know what a monster wave is, right?"
Arnold looked at Fecius, Arthur and Hofir. The three nodded simultaneously.
"Your arrival in this dungeon caused something like that to happen. Thousands of monsters attacked every kingdom and city under the rule of the empire. I'm not sure what happened to the other nations, though. The adventurer guild released an article to explain why it happened. Their conclusion was based on many theories and observations. The monster wave was as a result of thousands of monsters being spooked out of their natural habitat. This dungeon."
"How is it possible for that many monsters to be released out of the dungeon…?"
"All of you are the cause of this. You mercilessly killed the monsters you encountered on the first floor for sport, right?"
"…."
"…."
"…."
-"…."
They couldn't retort to that.
The reason they hunted the monsters was probably so that they could become stronger to be able to fight against that fetus monster. Of course, they still weren't strong enough.
In conclusion, they killed the monsters for nothing. That was what Arnold wanted to point out.
"What would you do if a strange new species came to your home and killed your kind mercilessly? You'd be frightened, right?"
"Wait, then what about the angels and disciples that are human-like?" Fecius asked, "They should also be held accountable since they travel to every world. Not all these worlds have human populations, right?"
"They didn't kill monsters left and right, did they?"
"…No."
Arnold spoke into the transmitter, "Did all of you hear that?"
-"….If what you say is true then how are we going to escape the dungeon?"
It was a perfectly logical question. The fact still stands that the entrance on the first floor was gone so there's no way for them to escape.
"You guys don't know a lot about high class dungeons, do you?" Arnold sighed, "The first floor isn't the only floor that has an entrance to the outside."
"!?"
The developers made teleportation using magic impossible in dungeons. This is because they wanted to amplify the difficulty of dungeons, thus making it harder for mages to teleport their party out of danger.
To make up for the restriction of teleportation, the devs created places that players can use to escape the dungeon if they feel that they are too under levelled.
-"What…? So where can we find another entrance that leads outside?"
"I'm not going to tell you yet. Just make sure you come to the third world."
-"—Excuse me, may I ask a question?" a different voice came through. It was a mature woman.
"And you are?"
-"I'm a professor of class A, Castacia Refeld. Is it possible for there to be more exits to the outside?"
"I'm not sure if there's another entrance besides the one I'm talking about."
Of course, Arnold was lying. There were lots of entrances but not all of them led to their world. He was keeping it a secret from them because it was likely that they'll risk it and take one of those exits.
There was only one method he knew of that could get them outside with the highest probability. It was one of those "places" the devs created.
"How many monsters escaped the dungeon exactly?" Fecius asked a question of his own, "There isn't a lot of life on the first floor to begin with. Or rather, not anymore."
All three of them looked at Arnold. The transmitter was also silent.
"Probably hundreds. However, the guild concluded that the monster wave had thousands of monsters. This many was reported because it's likely that the monsters from this dungeon scared them out of their territories. That created a chain reaction."
'I'm getting sick of trying to explain this so that it doesn't sound made up. I hope no one finds what I say fishy.'
"The weaker monsters were also tamed by the stronger ones. That increased their overall numbers."
"Oh?" Fecius seemed to catch on, "I think I've heard about something like that. In fact, my ancestors did this as well. You know about this too, right, princess?"
-"Yeah." Shirley's voice came through, "A leader is chosen based on their strength. They dominate the masses to gain control of them. It's like a one-rules-all policy."
"Oh, yeah, uh, I remember there being three S-class monsters," Arnold suddenly said.
"I see! So that's what happened!" Arthur exclaimed.
-"Indeed. That sounds plausible." The teacher spoke again.
'…..' Arnold looked at them dumbfounded.
Did they really believe him?
It felt like they were following a script or something.
"Ahem." Arnold cleared his throat to avoid smiling. If he did then they'll think he's playing with them, "When can all of you come to the third floor?'
-"We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning," the teacher spoke again, "We're short on provisions so we want to hunt for food on the second floor first. Our journey will be stalled, though."
"Don't worry about food!" said Arthur enthusiastically, "We're living in a palace and are given luxurious food every day! You guys will love it here!"
-"R-Really? Are there humans there, Arthur?"
"Yes, professor. Can you believe it!? The dungeon connects even humans worlds together! The air smells just like home!"
-"This… This will surely change dungeon science forever…"
Dungeon science was basically the study of different dungeons through observation and trials. These trials have to do with hunters or explorers going dungeon diving to study a dungeon by making notes about what differs it from the next dungeon. They compare dungeons and their functionalities to see what the differences are between every dungeon recorded in history.
"If you want to study this dungeon in the future then I suggest bringing professionals, not students. At least they won't kill any monster in sight."
The professionals will know to avoid the tentacle monsters even if Arnold doesn't mention them. Humans are curious creatures but they're also wary of the unknown. Those offspring are of the unknown.
-"….Yes, I will remember that. We will make a formal apology to the entire empire once we get back."
'Things are going well. Well, that's one thing sorted.'
Arnold gave the transmitter to Arthur, "I'm going back to my room. Remember that this crystal's signal won't last long since it's a small type. You'll have to find more tomorrow. Tell them to bring some along as well."
"Ah, right," Arthur looked away from Arnold, "Hi, it's me again."
All Arnold heard before he left the room was Anais' loud mouth.
◇◇◇
Arnold walked down the hallway. He was heading to his assigned room.
'Fuck… Fuck…'
The king was grateful to Arnold and Arthur for fighting for them so he invited them to dine with his entire family tonight.
It was supposed to be a light-hearted feast but Arnold felt every negative emotion a human can experience right now.
Fear was probably the strongest emotion he was feeling right now.
According to what he heard from them, they fought against a fetus-like monster on the first floor. Fetus-like monsters aren't a thing in the game itself or the entire category of the downloadable content of the game.
The fetus was obviously the young of the Star Beast that was unable to grow past its fetus state.
Arnold merely told them to get ready to leave the first floor and come straight to the third floor. They'll need to wait for the rescue party to arrive though. The reason for that was because the dungeon couldn't be traversed with less than a hundred people.
Unlike Arnold who had an ample amount of knowledge about the game, they were travelling around this dungeon blindly. If they had more people—like experienced dungeon divers, retired veteran adventurers and explorers—then their chances of survival skyrocketed.
The first few worlds might seem like a walk in the park. You'd be mistaken to assume every world would be the same.
'There's nothing I can do about it if they encountered that thing.'
Killing it was the most obvious choice but Arnold didn't know if he was strong enough to do that. They were basically demigod-level monsters. How could a level 49 swordsman take them on? Things would be different if he could ask Ceru for help, though.
"You're back."
Rafaela greeted Arnold when he entered his room. The door was open so he just walked right in.
"Why are you wearing a maid uniform…?"
"I always wanted to try one on. It looks cute on the humans of this world." Rafaela looked at herself in the mirror as she lifted the dress.
'Despite having such a serious personality, she's oddly fond of cute things.' Arnold smiled wryly.
"The tailors of the palace sent you that," Rafaela pointed towards the bed. On it was formal attire which was a three-piece suit.
"Hm, white isn't exactly my taste."
The coat was a milky white while everything else was black. It will definitely accentuate his handsome face since if was such a catchy colour.
"I'll just leave the coat." Arnold threw the coat aside.
"I have to ask…" Rafaela looked around the room, "…why is there only one bed in this room?"
"What? Do you have a problem sleeping with others because of your wings?" Arnold asked as he looked at her puffy white wings.
It will definitely be difficult for anyone to sleep with another person with wings.
"No… I can make them disappear at my will…. I'm talking about having to sleep next to you… A man…"
"That's the problem? Do you realize that this kingdom barely has enough of anything besides food after the barbarians raided them in the past? The kingdom had to accept refugees from the other destroyed kingdoms so there's barely enough housing for everyone. The king even has to let his nobles stay in the palace because they have to let the common folk stay in their mansions."
"…It seems I've asked something unnecessary…" Rafaela had an uncomfortable expression on her face.
"I'll just sleep on the floor. Enjoy your bed, O' divine being."
"T-That's not necessary," said Rafaela with a small tint of red on her face, "The bed is big enough for the both of us so… we can sleep on it together. It's only temporary, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then it's fine."
'I don't get why women fuss over this. If I wanted to force myself on her then I would've done it already when we were alone.'
He was far stronger than her so there was nothing she could do to stop it.
'Well, the matter is dealt with so I'll stop thinking about it.'
"So…" Rafaela spoke again, "Those three humans you just spoke to are from the same world as you?"
"That's right."
"Why are they here alone? I heard from one of my friends that there are more of them on the first floor."
"They're apparently looking for something. The three of them came alone because they didn't know what was waiting for them beyond the void."
"So they sacrificed themselves?"
"I guess so."
"Admirable but stupid. How would they have gone back? The void was a one-way trip to this world. There are only a few other entrances in this world but normal humans won't be able to reach them even if they tried. The disciples are tight-lipped about how they travel between floors without making use of teleportation portals."
"I haven't told them that it's one-way. That'll cause unnecessary panic. They'll assume that it's possible for them to get stuck on a world. Panic causes humans to do stupid things."
All they needed to know was that they could leave the dungeon using a method other than teleporting outside using entrances.
There are towers on the higher floors called Midrad Towers that connects to different dimensions. It was possible for them to change the tower's coordinates to go back to their own world.
Midrad Towers were structures that no one knew the origin of, not even who built them. All players knew about these towers was that they can teleport you to any location depending on the coordinates you use.
Only Arnold knew their world's coordinates. He told Anais and the others that he'll only tell them how to get back when they get here. This is to make sure none of them wander around the dungeon and end up encountering another fetus monster.
The one on the first floor didn't seem interested in them. It probably only saw them as toys or food. It didn't even chase them.
However, not all of the Star Beasts children are that innocent. Some of them are relentless when it comes to catching their prey.
"Let me fix your tie." Rafaela noticed that Arnold had been struggling to put on his tie.
He was so deep in thought that he only noticed now that he had finished putting on the suit.
Rafaela stood in front of Arnold and began fixing his tie.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. By the way, how long will we stay on this world?"
"I said this before but I want to get that cursed item first. If it's a powerful item then I can add it to my collection."
"There are relic tombs on the other worlds so why not attempt entering one of them?"
"Do all of them have level requirements? I'm in my level 50s. The lowest level requirement I've ever heard about was level 60."
Rafaela finished fixing Arnold's tie. She put her finger on her chin in thought.
"I can't seem to recall any."
"Haa… If the only relic tombs in this dungeon have level requirements then I will have to grind once we leave this world."
Rafaela looked at him with a frown, "That will slow us down. I have somewhere to be, you know? I serve a disciple. If I'm late then I'll be punished by her."
"You can always try and go there by yourself."
"….."
Rafaela went silent.
"…We'll wait for Arthur's classmates to get here. I'll go get that cursed item in the meantime. We'll leave after that. Let's see… That might be a while since the generals of this kingdom haven't come up with a solid strategy for the next battle yet."
The barbarians were given mercy but it was obvious that they won't stop attacking the kingdom.
"So that's it. But how long do you think it will take for that human's classmates to get here?"
The space pocket that they used to cross to the second world was closer to the void than the place where Arnold was teleported. Unlike Arnold, who had to travel three days, they only took a few hours to get there.
Taking all that into account…
"We should expect them tomorrow at the earliest."
"I see. Fine, I'll wait then."
"Alright." Arnold looked out the window, "I should get going. The king invited me to dine with his family along with Arthur so I should join the feast."
Arnold headed towards the door.
"See you later. Warm the bed for me, okay?" he said with a smirk.
The last thing he saw was an annoyed expression on Rafaela's face.