Defense specialization and crystal caverns.
I apologize for the delayed update, caused by illness and urgent matters.
I am sorry.
"Now then... whether there is a safe zone or not..."
Sally murmurs.
She feels her focus beginning to fray.
A fatal mistake could happen at any moment.
And if Sally, who bears the full burden of reconnaissance, errs, it could mean death for everyone.
"I must push on..."
She slaps her cheeks sharply to regain composure, then strains to listen.
"A faint sound comes from the left path. Right side is clear."
The others strain their ears too, but the rumbling beneath masks the noise.
They cannot rely on their hearing.
"Let's hurry. If something appears on the right, that will be bad."
"Ah, I understand."
"Yeah, let's go!"
The three move quickly down the right passage.
The shape of the snail was absent there. They could proceed deeper.
Had the three moved left, they would have been discovered by the snail.
Sally’s reconnaissance had barely maintained its effectiveness.
After moving for a while, they struck a dead end.
Yet it was not entirely unfavorable.
“Something’s here!”
At Kasumi’s pointed direction stood a single, large amethyst.
Inside it, enclosed as if trapped, was an old key and an earring shaped like cherry blossoms.
When the three drew near and looked closely, the amethyst bore a health bar.
It was breakable, then.
“The key seems necessary… we should take it.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“Then… I’ll do it.”
Kasumi drew her blade and assumed stance.
“[Fourth Sword Technique: Whirlwind]!”
Two upward cuts. Two downward slashes.
The four rapid strikes vanish into the crystal.
The crystal cannot withstand the assault. It shatters with a sharp, glass-like crack.
Kasumi lifts the key and earring from the ground. Examines them.
“The key… no note attached. The earring… merely equipment. Nothing suggesting escape.”
She offers them for confirmation.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Where… is the key meant to be used?”
“Who knows…? For now, this earring belongs to Kasumi.”
Sally hands the earring to Kasumi.
After a brief discussion, they decide to give the key to Kasumi as well.
“Then… let’s return to the search.”
There is no way forward. No escape.
The three turn back quickly.
The three, having turned back, explored for a time before finding a side passage near the ceiling.
It lay in the middle of the corridor—something unlike anything they had seen before.
It was natural they thought something might lie within.
“Can we fit through that?”
“Hmm… I don’t think [Leap] will reach…”
The side passage was ten meters high—too far for [Leap] to reach.
As the three pondered, the silence broke.
“…Wait. Quiet… It’s coming… From both sides…”
Sally’s ears caught the unmistakable squelch of wet footsteps.
The sound approached from both flanks.
“An ambush… I’d prepared for that!”
They had avoided ambushes entirely until now—had barely encountered one—because Sally had read the terrain with full attention.
She had judged distance and position by the tremor of the ground, the weight of each step.
That calculation had failed here for the first time.
A misjudgment of movement, no more than that of a single snail.
"Only way in... through that side tunnel!"
"Sally, [Leap]! I'll handle the rest!"
There was no time to ask what Kasumi intended.
Snails emerged from both sides.
"[Leap]!"
Sally clung to the faint hope that it might reach, but the added weight of two bodies proved insufficient.
"[Third Sword Style: Lone Moon]!"
Kasumi's body accelerated mid-air.
The system propelled her upward, launching her into the sky.
Of course, both were pulled along.
Kasumi's body spun once in the air, leaving a cutting effect behind, moving forward and descending.
It was aimed directly at the side tunnel's entrance.
The three tumbled into the side tunnel. Sally immediately checked below for the snail.
The snail had spread its slick, glistening slime, but had not reached that high.
“Seems no way up… maybe.”
Sally sat back with a sigh, leaning her spine against the crystal wall.
“Haha… glad that worked out…”
“Thank you, Kasumi. My [Leap] alone couldn’t have reached it.”
“Yeah! That was amazing!”
“It was a long recovery time after missing the crescent moon… if I hadn’t hit, I’d have been stuck, helpless—eaten by the snail. It was a gamble.”
A gamble of one in eight had succeeded perfectly.
Thanks to that, the three could now rest—something long overdue.
This side tunnel was too narrow for the snail to enter.
“Resting’s fine… but should we peek ahead first? We can’t be sure there aren’t other monsters…?”
………That’s true. That might be best. I’d thought the monster here was only the snail.
Yeah, I think that’s best too.
The three agree.
They rise and move toward the inner end of the side tunnel.
The tunnel opens into a circular chamber.
Six passages branch from the room, five meters above the ground.
Even from a distance, the height is clear—large enough for a snail to pass.
Directly opposite the side tunnel the three occupy stands a single door.
About two meters high.
Not the massive door of the previous Boss Room.
Could that be the exit?
Wait a moment. [Far Sight]…… There’s a keyhole. Likely the key from earlier. There’s something here. No doubt.
Then… shall we go? No snail sounds come from any passage.
Really?
Are you certain?
Sally strained her ears again, at their words.
No sound came from any passage.
She listened for several minutes. Eventually, the sound of a snail was not heard.
“It’s fine. Nothing at all.”
“Then… shall we go?”
“Yeah. Let’s.”
The three descended to the ground.
Maple and Kasumi trusted Sally’s reconnaissance ability.
Sally had absolute confidence in her own ability.
And the answer drawn from that ability was never wrong.
No snails were in any passage. Not even a single monster.
But if the conclusion must be stated first—
They should have rested in that side tunnel after all.
Their thinking had indeed declined, without their noticing.
Yes.
They had not noticed at all that the environment might change after stepping down.
The crystal grew rapidly, blocking the side tunnel.
From every passage, that unpleasant sound began to emerge.
That squelching, nauseating sound.
"Damn it—!"
"What do we do!?"
"Run through it! That's all we can do!"
Maple is fully equipped now.
But there is no time to remove her gear and carry it. Snails are already crawling out from the passage.
The distance to the door is twenty-five meters.
A distance that would normally mean nothing feels painfully far to the three of them.