š¦šŖš¢š¢š¦š!
Multiple Dire Rats were sliced in half horizontally in one go. The one who caused it? The Warrior.
"This is it?" Enrid asked, putting his axe's long handle on his shoulder as he removed the remains of slimes from him.
"Shouldn't we be happy that we haven't encountered another large one? We're trying to farm on the fourth floor, not at a rat nest!" Esther mockingly replied, located at the rear alongside Cliff who is guarding her and attacking the small dire rats for her.
"Aye Esthy! Don't overwork the kid! Just because you unleashed a big spell doesn't mean you can slack off, you spoiled princess!"
"Ha?? Who are you calling a princess, you old fart! H-how dare you!" Esther retaliated, rushing towards Enrid but got interrupted by the cloaked man.
"Guys, let's not, please? What happened to the 'Oh, let's show the rookie how it is done!' act that we agreed on?" Riyu interjected silently, being the voice of reason of the group.
"Shut up, you owl!" Both Esther and Enrid shouted at him, straight up telling him to be quiet.
"WHO?!" Riyu immediately shatters the image of him being the voice of reason, by falling for such an obvious trap set up by the mage and warrior.
On the other hand, Cliff is just laughing in the background. Enjoying the tomfoolery that is happening right in front of him. At this point, this is just a comedy film and he's the audience, doing nothing but laughing at their shenanigans. However, he wasn't just doing nothing. He kept shooting arrows at enemies that weren't paid attention to by others, and also collecting them so that he wouldn't run out of arrows that quickly. So far, two arrows are broken. Not a big deal, especially with his brand-new weapons in his arsenal.
Unfortunately, I leveled up abnormallyā¦ Couldn't even enjoy getting exp fighting these low-leveled monsters.
Cliff sighed, letting the three experienced adventurers have their fun.
"You seem to be bored. Don't worry, we won't have to stay here any longer." Esther reassures the young adventurer, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Not to be rude, why did we fight most of the slimes earlier and Dire Rats here? Shouldn't we conserve our energy?" Cliff tilts his head in confusion.
"The crimson moon increased the numbers of monsters in the dungeon, so we were sent here by the guild leader to cull most of the monsters in the first three floors for rookies to safely hunt and kill monsters," Esther replied, as she spun her finger in the air for no absolute reason at all.
"I-i see. Y'all must be paid a lotā"
"Nah. Despite being experienced, we're not being paid a lot! That's just how it is for us.." Enrid interrupted Cliff's sentence, and the atmosphere became weird.
"Enrid, your impulsive mouth," Riyu replied as he covered the warrior's mouth with his hand. The warrior attempts to escape but struggles instead.
"Don't mind them. They're pissed off because we, as an official experienced party, aren't being rewarded despite always cleaning these floors for the rookies. Makes sense though." The mage blatantly revealed their shared secret, even Riyu couldn't cover her mouth fast enough.
"It's such a repetitive task, why aren't they paying you?" Cliff couldn't comprehend what they were saying, nor the reason why they weren't being paid by the guild. Every adventurer should be paid, especially if it's a tedious task that keeps the rookies safe.
"We're criminals." Despite the mage and warrior spilling everything, it was the rogue who concluded the conversation by revealing who they were.
Cliffā Or Nash couldn't believe it. But since it came from them, none of them disagreed. He can only assume that their silence is their confirmation of the fact that they are criminals.
"..."
As soon as they reached the stairs that led down to the third floor, everything became quiet. Esther used her knuckle to bop her other party member's head except Cliff's. From the sound of it, they're being scolded by Esther, the mage because they easily reveal who they are to a rookie who is getting escorted by them.
"You Neanderthals, do you guys like befriending people and also shoving them away by revealing our identities? How is he gonna trust us now when we're still escorting him? He'd run away from us, and we'd get scolded by the leader again!" The mage continued to scold the two members of the party, yet they didn't complain. They knew what they were doing from the expression on their faces.
"If you think I'm afraid, y'all got it wrong." Suddenly, Cliff's behavior changed. He became more informal and his body gestures became more sassy and unrestrained.
"Wha?" All three of them were left confused by the sudden shift of attitude.
"Criminals? I don't care about y'all's past. All I know is that I'm being escorted and guided by a group of experienced adventurers. Stop bringing unrelated shit to the dungeon, got it ya fools?" Cliff smirks, showing off his overconfidence like he is manspreading to everyone without any shame at all.
"Ha! This young one is quite bold! Haha!"
All of the tension from earlier immediately dissipated as if it wasn't there in the first place. The energy he brought to the conversation changed the atmosphere for the better and made the three experienced adventurers feel relief.
The bald warrior wrapped his arm around the red-haired archer, developing camaraderie and building trust over time despite their time being short. The rogue and the mage sighed out of relief, looking at each other before smiling and chuckling.
What Cliff didn't know is that for the first time in these people's lives, somebody has accepted who they currently are and not judged them for who they were before. Finally, they found a person who wasn't afraid of them.
...ā¦.
After going down to the third floor, they arrived at the entrance. There's a vast difference between the first two floors and the third floor inside the Infinite Dungeon. For example, the terrain. The first two floors were ordinary caves with nothing to mine at, just stones that could collapse at any moment.
However, the third floor offers something else and those are magical crystals that naturally form around the area. Not only that, normal ores and rare ones can be obtained here as long as the adventurers do not use explosives.
"If only we could liberate the third floor from the monsters, we could've made the third floor a safe spot for adventurers. Considering how far and disconnected the fourth floor is from the first three floors of the dungeon, it's unfortunate."
Bitterly spoken, Enrid sighed as he walked in front. The Warrior is back at the front lines while the rest remain at the back. He looked around, observing the area for enemies.
"What's wrong?" Riyu asked, he was just talking to Cliff about something but got concerned about Enrid's expression when he was observing.
"Don't you think it'sā¦unnaturally barren?" He stated.
"Come to think of itā¦ it's unnervingly quiet either." Riyu put his guard up, which made everybody hold their weapons with caution. They all looked around in every direction, looking for enemies yet none were found.
"The trearios that we know of are intelligent, but not smart enough to place a trapā¦ Something is going on." Enrid stated he held his double-handed axe with a tight grip. Prepared to attack if ambushed.
True. The Tree-monsters had some sort of intelligence but they weren't smart enough to perform complex actions. Something must've happened here, there are no other cave entrances that they could hide atā¦ unlessā¦
"I have a speculation, mind listening?"
If my theory is correct, then maybe it's the "That" system.
[ Secret Rooms ]
In the game, secret rooms exist. However, it is randomly generated. A rogue-like game like Infinite Dungeon cannot have secret rooms on every floor, only one floor for each run.
What's inside the secret rooms?
Rare treasures and Gold. However, you must earn it by fighting a wave of enemies or a secret boss.
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"The groundā¦! It'sā¦!"
The ground shakes. It trembles, vibrates throughout the platform and affects all things inside the third floor. Esther fell to the ground due to the loss of balance, while Enrid supported himself by leaning on a wall. Cliff and Riyu crouched and remained still, staying balanced at all costs.
The earthquake halted.
"P-phewā¦! I thought the cave would come crashing down-! A natural earthquakeā¦?" Enrid let out a sigh of relief. However, something caught his eye, he squintedā¦
"Hey guysā¦" He points in a direction. Everybody looked at where he was pointing.
A large hole that wasn't there before opened up. There was light coming out of it, like sunlight.
"What the?! Did the dungeon suddenly break?!" Esther replied in shock. Everything she knew about the dungeon has been shattered.
"T-thatā¦ impossibleā¦!" With his jaw agape, Cliff couldn't believe what he was seeing right now.
As a veteran player, he has never seen the Infinite Dungeon open up to the surface. It shouldn't be possible for sunlight to exist here, especially when they are several countless feet below the surface.
"Let's scout it." With his daggers unsheathed, the Rogue moved forward without any signs of hesitation.
"Y-yo! Isn't that too risky?! We don't even know if that place is stable!" Enrid grabbed Riyu's shoulder, stopping him from moving any further to talk some sense into him.
"Y-yeah! Riyu, let's not?" The mage lifted herself, using her staff to support her body. She sweats like crazy, her nervousness can be seen by others.
"I'll go with him, you two stay here. Would that be fine?" Cliff walked forward, suggesting that both of them should go instead of all of them going.
"That's not what we meant, you twatsā" Before Enrid could even finish his insult, Riyu interjected.
"I said scout, we'll only be scouting from the entrance. We're not gonna go inside." Riyu gently removed his friend's hand from his shoulder before facing them, he closed his eyes and smiled underneath the mask.
"I promise." He held up his hand and lifted his pinky finger, a pinky finger promise shouldn't be broken. He knew the importance of it, which is why he did it.
"Oi." Esther looked at Riyu and Cliff.
"Y'all better stop each other if one of you thought up a funny idea."
And she's spot on! These two are the most likely candidates to do something that deviates from the plan.
"Ack-!" Both of them saw her glaring eyes and got terrified. Those pupils have something in them, like death.
"No promises for me, hehe." Cliff mischievously went ahead first. However, his caution is at a higher level than theirs. After all, he doesn't know what could happen inside that secret room. For now, he'll be cautious and follow Riyu's orders.
"I'll take care of him," Riyu stated before going ahead as well to follow the archer.
The ones who remained were the warriors and the mage of the party. They were unsure and decided not to go at all, it is also the best plan. If the rogue and the archer got trapped inside, the two who remained could help from the outside as backup reinforcement.
"I'm worriedā¦" Esther clasped her hands together, praying that they would return safely.
"They'll come back safely. They're competent enough to know if they can handle it or not." Enrid had no choice but to trust the two to protect each other and return safely. After all, those two are like students and masters at this point.
.....
The two went on ahead to scout the brand new area that had opened up thanks to the earthquake that happened earlier. They stand right before the entrance.
With their weapons drawn and ready, they slowly approached the entrance and looked around.
What they saw wasā¦unnatural, unreal.
A giant tree, surrounded by countless flower beds. On top of that tree, is a bed of soil with countless blades of grass.
This can't beā¦ a garden inside of a caveā¦?!