Lily identified the knife as a dagger knife, and given its sharpness compared to my sword breaker, it may possess special qualities beyond a mere ordinary knife.
I took a sip from my pet bottle of cola and pulled out the skill books from my item box, laying them out on the blue tarp. "How do you think we use these?" I asked Lily.
"They don't look edible, and there's nothing written on them—no words at all," she replied, tilting her head as she examined one of the skill books.
"In games, we usually use items like this by selecting 'Use' as a command," I explained.
"'Use'?" she echoed. "Use, use..."
As she said this, Lily shook the skill book, but of course, nothing happened.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to store them for now," I said, taking the skill book from her and putting it back in the item box alongside the other one.
After finishing our meal and taking a short break, I suggested, "Let's get going. But I doubt we'll find any stairs leading down if we keep moving forward like this."
"It seems we'll have to search systematically," she replied.
"Should we head back to the first stair room, or keep going straight?"
"Since we're here, let's press onward."
"Got it."
And so, like in the morning, we moved straight ahead in the afternoon, but all we encountered were rooms surrounded by walls with doors in the middle, leading nowhere.
I put away the corpse of the giant bat that I just knocked down with my rod and shared my thoughts with Lily.
"Lily, have you heard of a torus?"
"No, I haven't."
"You know how there are donuts?"
"Yes."
"Well, imagine a donut floating in the sky, and there's an ant crawling on top of it."
"Okay."
"The ant starts walking either left or right, but eventually it makes a full circle and ends up right back where it started. Then it decides to walk down, only to find itself going around the donut vertically and returning to the same spot. That's how all the maps in old games worked."
"I get that. In this dungeon, if you keep walking straight, you might eventually come back out from the other side."
"If we get close to the room with the stairs, at least I can confirm it on my map. But who knows how it really is? There could be endless rooms like this."
"What if we end up back at the start?"
"In that case, it might be worth heading back up and exploring properly. There could be a staircase leading to the third floor up above. We think of this level as the second floor, but it might actually be the third."
"Considering there were 300 steps from the first level to this one, there might be another true second floor somewhere."
"It seems likely," I thought as I descended into this level. I had an inkling that something incredible might be hidden here, but perhaps that was just my imagination after all.
As I kept moving straight ahead, I finally noticed an upward arrow on the edge of my map indicating stairs. It dawned on me that we had circled around.
"We're back at the starting point. The room with the stairs just showed up on the map. If we move forward about ten rooms, we'll complete the loop. How many rooms have we passed through so far?"
"Ninety, I think?"
"So that means there are either 99 or 100 rooms per loop. If we're going to explore every room, given that we're heading east-west right now, there should be another 100 rooms in the north-south direction as well, totaling 10,000 rooms. That's a bit much, isn't it?"
"Let's give up on this layer and seriously explore the upper floors instead. That's it for today. We'll continue tomorrow."
"Okay."
We abandoned our exploration of the second layer and transferred back to the mansion. Our day's haul included:
- About 300 gold coins.
- Skill books:
- Bludgeoning Weapons x2
- Shield Techniques x2
- Martial Arts x1
- One-Handed Weapons x2
- Two-Handed Weapons x1
- Dagger x1
- Longsword x1
The longsword came in an impressive sheath, and when I drew it, even I could tell it was a remarkable piece of craftsmanship. Since neither Lily nor I use longswords, it would go to waste for now, but it might be useful someday.
After changing into my casual clothes, I began preparing the bath while Lily checked the generator.
We took turns bathing, enjoyed dinner, and after the cleanup was done, Lily emerged from the bath with Lisa. That day, I treated everyone to cake. The kids chose strawberry shortcake, while Lily opted for rare cheesecake and Lisa went for Mont Blanc. They all leaned in seriously to examine the pamphlet of cakes, but I suspected they'd end up trying every type.
While rummaging through the material box in the alchemy workshop, I noticed we were almost out of milk. Given its components, I thought milk could be easily synthesized in the workshop, but something felt off about that, so I decided to stock up on it soon.
The next morning, after finishing my usual morning routine, I sent the kids off on their delivery jobs and told Lily, "Once you're changed, we're heading to the dungeon again." "Okay," she replied.
In about ten minutes, we both transferred to the first layer of the dungeon, landing in a room with stairs.
Meanwhile, a reconnaissance team entered the third pyramid that had appeared on the outskirts of Narashino City, Chiba Prefecture, and began their investigation. The team members quickly set up floodlights, illuminating the cave brightly. Near the entrance, a makeshift table served as the team's headquarters, laden with equipment including a laptop connected to communication devices.
Among the team members, there were individuals responsible for filming, capturing video footage of the various activities. Next, several team members set up a 3D laser scanner in the middle of the Sky Cave, creating precise three-dimensional survey plans of the area. The data was transmitted via a wired connection to the headquarters of the First Platoon. Collected rock samples were placed in specimen jars and positioned outside the pyramid's exit to be delivered to the platoon headquarters by team members. Subsequently, the samples were transported to a research facility in the city for analysis.
The walls of the Sky Cave contained a total of six openings, each leading into the cave. The reconnaissance squad designated these openings as H1 to H6, starting from the nearest one on the right. At 1 AM, a six-member reconnaissance team (First Squad) was dispatched to the H1 cave. Although not officially equipped for this purpose, a small drone developed for urban reconnaissance was sent ahead to inform the team of any potential dangers, following the reconnaissance squad into the H1 cave. The drone was operated by a member stationed at the platoon headquarters.
Within the cave, signals could reach visible areas, but would fade around corners. To mitigate this, the reconnaissance squad was deploying small radio relays at strategic points while tracking the advancing drone. These relays enabled two-way communication with the platoon headquarters, allowing them to control the drone remotely from there.
The reconnaissance squad members equipped themselves with night vision goggles, carrying rifles, large automatic handguns, combat knives that can be fixed to their rifles, and various grenades. They had also been ordered to swiftly neutralize any monsters they encountered and carried multiple thick, zippered plastic bags for collecting remains. Once packed, the bags would be left on site for recovery personnel from the squad headquarters to collect later. However, if the monster's carcass was larger than expected, the reconnaissance squad would assist in transporting it.
About ten minutes after entering Cave H1, the squad had advanced approximately 500 meters into the cave. A laptop monitor at the squad headquarters displayed footage from the squad captain's night vision goggles. The video feed was sent from all squad members to the headquarters and was also transmitted to the first company's command post stationed outside the pyramid for backup. The brightness of the night vision goggles was significantly muted due to the luminescent phenomena within the cave.
As the reconnaissance squad captain focused on the laptop screen, a voice interrupted, "Captain, there's a fork in the path 50 meters ahead. Additionally, four quadrupedal creatures are approaching from the front of Cave H1, currently 100 meters away from our position."
A report came in from a team member who was piloting a drone on a separate laptop.
The squad leader placed a voice call to the unit commander.
"There's a fork up ahead, 50 meters away. Further down, another 50 meters, four quadrupedal creatures are approaching our squad. First unit, engage the unidentified creatures as instructed."
"First unit, understood.
We have visual confirmation of four quadrupedal creatures ahead at a distance of 50 meters.
Prepare to fire! We'll open fire at 30 meters!"
"Fire!"
The sounds of gunfire echoed: ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba.
By the time the team had executed two bursts of controlled fire, all four creatures lay motionless on the cave floor. While some experts had raised concerns that modern weapons might be ineffective, those worries proved unfounded.
"Unidentified creatures neutralized.
We will now proceed with the recovery of the bodies."
The unit leader's night vision goggles displayed the slain creatures, and the images were also shown on the monitor of the squad's laptop, with live footage coming in from the drone.
"Are these large dogs? No, maybe they're wolves?
Regardless, it's a mystery how such sizable creatures can exist in an environment devoid of any plant life. Perhaps it could be attributed to it being a dungeon, but it raises unsettling questions for modern science. The implications of the autopsy results are downright terrifying."
The junior captain addressed the first squad leader:
"I'll send two members to recover the bodies. The first squad will assist them in retrieving the monster carcasses and retreating to the platoon headquarters."
"Understood, First Squad."
"We'll name that junction Cave H1-1. The current Cave H1 will be referred to as H1-0.
The second squad is to advance to the junction at H1-1 and take over the search for H1-0."
"Understood, Second Squad."
The six members of the second squad, awaiting orders at headquarters, headed toward H1-0. Upon the second squad's departure, the reconnaissance unit's junior captain requested reinforcements. In response, one Sky Assault Squad, consisting of thirty members, was dispatched from the first battalion and placed under the command of the reconnaissance unit.
After the Self-Defense Forces entered the third pyramid and received reinforcements, they took turns resting while sending a six-member reconnaissance team to Cave H1-1, Cave H2, and Cave H3. Naturally, each of these reconnaissance squads was preceded by reconnaissance drones launched from the platoon headquarters.
The second reconnaissance squad moved toward Cave H1-0, but when their radio communication faltered, they began to withdraw. On their way back, they discovered a partially melted radio relay device at the junction leading to Cave H1-1. After installing a new relay, they surveyed the surrounding area and found a slime creature moving toward the headquarters.
The slime measured approximately 30 centimeters in height at its bulging center and spread about a meter in diameter, slowly making its way toward the cave where the platoon headquarters was located.
The squad attempted to shoot the slime with rifles, but the bullets simply passed through without delivering any effective blow. In response, the squad captain ordered three of his subordinates to simultaneously throw MK3 grenades.
"Get ready to throw! Pin out! Throw!!"
The three grenades were thrown at once, striking the slime directly and exploding simultaneously, scattering it into pieces.
"We couldn't recover the remains, but there's no helping that."
Afterward, the second squad completed their withdrawal to the Sky Cave where the platoon headquarters was located. At the platoon HQ, they assessed that advancing beyond the junction posed risks of ambush and the destruction of communication equipment. They therefore instructed the subsequent squads to advance to the junction and then retreat.