"Well, I'd like to head out and explore today as usual... but... Clo, do you know those three people outside?"

The day after OriGami and I had toured the first layer.

After eating breakfast, Jeanne went to open the front door to head into the labyrinth, but immediately stepped back and said.

Peeking out carefully, she saw a trio of unfamiliar people standing in front of the house.

They weren't doing anything in particular—just standing there, staring intently at the front door. It was unsettling.

"I don't know... I've never seen them before. What about you, Refleia?"

"I've never seen these people either. I wonder what they're doing here?"

There was one man and two women. The man had brown hair, while the two women had dark brown hair. In fact, one of the women looked Indian. Their facial features were unlike anyone seen around here.

Are the remaining two of European descent? Their facial features are deeply set, clearly not Asian.

"Could they be transmigrants? What do you think, Jeanne?"

"No doubt about it. Transmigrants usually have gear that differs from locals, and their overall demeanor just doesn't fit in. Of course, exceptions like Kuro exist, but..."

"Why am I the exception?"

"You blended in a little too well, honestly."

Did I really blend in...? Well, I've been using the black market since day one, so maybe it just looks that way. By the way, how's that old guy doing over there?

"They must have something for us. Kuro, what do you want to do?"

"What do you mean, what do I want to do? What's your plan, Jeanne?"

"Of course I don't want to get involved. You know, despite appearances, I'm actually quite shy around people."

"I knew that."

I don't want to get involved either.

I could manage interacting with locals who didn’t know me, but transferees—especially those from the second wave—were a different story. It’s unsettling and creepy when they know all about us, even coming to our home like this. I feel nauseous just thinking about it.

"Should we have Layya drive them off?"

"H-Hold on, Jeanne. I'm not going to do something like that! If I harm someone who hasn't done anything, I’ll get caught. Especially explorers—our punishment is much heavier."

"They’re transferees, so they probably can’t act aggressively toward locals… I think. If Layya just gives them a warning, they might scatter."

"But how would we know that? You always say they might be carrying some incredibly powerful weapon!"

Reflair, our last resort, was unpleasant.

Their intentions are unclear and they’re downright eerie…

We occasionally discuss measures against transfer agents.

Among those discussions, it was often emphasized that we must pay special attention to anyone who might have brought in weapons—more precisely, firearms.

While it's unlikely that those three would suddenly start firing, we can't be certain. This isn't a place governed by Earth's laws. In a world without guns, a gun is invincible. The opponent wouldn't even be arrested due to insufficient evidence.

"……Let's exit through the back door. Good thing the message was frozen."

This house has a back entrance.

It leads to a narrow alleyway, a hurdle too high for new transfer agents. Besides, new transfer agents probably don't even know this exit exists. The door is hidden behind trees, and even we, as residents, only recently discovered it.

If we're called out by the guild, it'll be troublesome, but we can just ignore it.

We slipped away from home smoothly, stopped by the guild, hired Grapeflow, and then entered the labyrinth.

On the first floor, Orikami was fighting skeletons.

Still avoiding armed opponents, focusing solely on gathering experience from unarmed skeletons. Reliable and steady. Given how composed she looked, she seemed capable of handling it alone.

We passed through the second floor and moved on to the third.

Hunting on the third floor was already quite familiar to us.

Refreia had been specializing in the third floor for over half a year, and from my own solo explorations, I didn’t feel I’d lose to the monsters here.

While not exactly humming a tune,

everyone silently felt it was time to move on to the next floor.

We wouldn’t descend to the fourth floor until we had defeated the Garden Panther.They had continued their three-layered hunt according to Jeanne's strategy, but it was about time to move on, perhaps.

Not that they were thinking such thoughts, but around noon, the monster finally revealed itself.

"Nyanyanya, nyanyanya. I hear it, I hear it, nyaa. Garden Panther! Coming from the right, nyaa!"

"Finally appeared! I've been waiting forever!"

Jeanne's eyes gleamed with excitement as she rotated her shoulders.

The Garden Panther was a monster that emitted mist from its white, massive body, taking the form of a feline predator, far larger than Earth's panthers.

The labyrinth was filled with humanoid creatures who wielded weapons, but their movements were human-like, giving them a relatively predictable weakness.

But the Garden Panther is a literal beast of prey—fundamentally stronger than humans.

Moreover, even within the darkness of the Darkness Fog, it can pinpoint its opponent's location.

Though I managed to win our last encounter, it's by no means a foe to be underestimated. This creature possesses a strength that sets it apart from the other monsters in the third layer. That is the Garden Panther.

"Dark Sense! It's coming from there! Jeanne, block the first attack!"

"Leave it to me."

The Garden Panther's initial strike, lunging out at high speed from the fog, is devastating. If caught off guard, it could result in an instant kill, just like that explorer before.

The Garden Panther burst out of the fog right where I had pointed, almost immediately after giving the command.

The Garden Panther, blending almost perfectly with the fog, appears so seamlessly that even when you know it's coming, it seems to materialize out of nowhere due to its exceptional camouflage.

Without Dark Sense, properly responding to it might be difficult.

The Garden Panther lunges at Jeanne, clad in full armor and wielding a large shield.

I prepare Shadow Bind and take up a position behind her.

The trigger for activating spirit magic is clearly speaking the name of the spell, but there's a significant difference in activation speed and power between using it with firm intent and simply uttering the words.

A loud crash echoes, like a car colliding head-on, yet Jeanne is not knocked back—she deflects the Panther's massive strike with her shield.

"Shadow Bind!"

Binding wasn't so much a technique aimed directly at an opponent as it was akin to a placed trap—useless if the target was moving at high speed or flying through the air

. The Garden Panther was normally a difficult foe to pin down.

But once it had been stopped by the

vanguard—“Gaaau!”—the

shadowy tendrils wrapped around it, struggling to escape. A massive feline

predator, its entire body seemingly made of muscle. The binding's effective duration was barely a few seconds, but that was more than

enough.

“Hah!” “Thou!”

The vertical slash from Reflair and the thrust from Jeanne’s single-handed

sword, both heavy and deep, inflicted fatal wounds. In just one clash, the Garden Panther transformed into a large spirit stone.

"This should be easy. They're definitely stronger than the other three layers of monsters,"

"No, that's because Furuu spotted them right away. If we'd been caught off guard at first, we'd have had a much tougher time."

"Huh, you're right about that."

Fighting monsters... well, probably all battles are like this, but fighting from a position of advantage is extremely important. Conversely, that means surprise attacks are a highly effective tactic. My spirit magic is specialized in surprise attacks, so actually, as a supporting technique for physical combat, it might be quite powerful. I've been reconsidering that lately.

Of course, every element has its pros and cons, but darkness isn't inherently bad either.

"Thanks, Furuu. If you hadn't noticed them, I might've taken that first hit. I'm grateful."

"Just doing my usual job, nya!"

Grapeflour pretends to be modest, but puffs up proudly with a smug face.

Cat smugness is adorable.

"You're great, Flour-chan! Amazing, amazing. Fuzzy, fuzzy!"

"Nyanyanya nyanya! Don't twist my face like that, nyaa~!"

Before she can even react, she's already being petted by Jeanne.

Though she usually restrains herself in daily life, when a chance to touch arises, she doesn't hesitate at all, leading to her recently being a bit on guard.

"Anyway, we've cleared three floors. There's still time, so let's head to the fourth floor."

"Eeeh~? Now? The fourth floor is wet, dark, cold, and the monsters are strong. You really need to prepare properly!"

"I know. I've already studied. I've got the map too. But I want to see what it's like firsthand, even just a little."

So, onward to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor is called "Rain Dragon Great Waterfall." It's a maze-like layer surrounding a massive waterfall.

Almost everywhere is soaked from the waterfall's spray, and even the air is damp, with a slightly chilly temperature and dim lighting throughout the entire floor—making it a rather unpopular map.

Even common creatures like giant crabs and lizardmen possess strength comparable to mantises, causing the difficulty level to jump sharply from the third floor. This is the usual rule in the Meltya Great Maze.

Descending a long staircase.

On the third floor, many explorer parties are active, and there are usually several groups around the Frog Plaza, but on the fourth floor, active explorers suddenly become scarce.

That means, if anything happens, the chance of getting help drops significantly.

"Hikaru came here alone before, quietly, leaving me behind, didn't you?"

Refray emphasizes the part where I was left behind.

"Yeah. I was desperate back then. Though I only took a quick look around near the entrance."

"Did you fight? Alone?"

"I did. Slimes are no problem—just one hit with spirit magic. But crabs and lizardmen are quite dangerous."

"Hmm... Without spirit magic, I might actually need to watch out more for slimes."

Jeanne seems poorly suited to fighting slimes. No matter how strong my defense, if one sticks to me, it’d be useless.

Still, such a situation won’t happen in our party anyway.

"Wow... I’ve been here before, but it’s really incredible."

As we finished descending the stairs to the fourth floor, a massive waterfall greeted us.

It's a waterfall with a drop of over 200 meters—something that seems absurd to find underground, but that's just how a labyrinth is. Each level is a separate

, isolated realm. "Incredible. I've

never seen a waterfall before. I'll take a photo with the camera mode. Can't we record this?" "You can't

record it. Wait, is this your first time seeing a waterfall?"

Jeanne takes a picture of the

waterfall with her camera. This camera mode transforms from an invisible "god camera" mode—where we're being filmed by a hidden camera—into a handheld manual camera, which suddenly appears in our hands when selected from the status screen

. It's a handy tool when you want to actively

capture something. The streamer Origami seemed to use it quite frequently.

"It's beautiful, has real power, and somehow... it's soothing."

"Yeah. I was overwhelmed when I came here before too, but no matter how many times I see it, it's still amazing. If this were on Earth, it'd be a tourist attraction."

"France doesn't have anything like this. Maybe somewhere in the Pyrenees, but I've never been there."

"Does France really have no waterfalls?"

"I guess so—kind of always pictured it as flatlands. Honestly, I don't know much about France at all."

"Japan has lots of waterfalls, and I saw one on a school field trip when I was a kid."

"I... was originally a shut-in, and I didn't have any family, so I've never gone hiking on vacation or anything. I've always wanted to visit Mont Blanc, though."

"No family."

"That came out casually, but it was new information—something unusual from Jeanne, who usually doesn't talk much about herself."

"I don't really want to talk about my family either."

As for her younger sister, she didn't get along well with her parents at all, and they were definitely not what most people would consider "good parents."

In fact, it's fair to say they were outright bad parents.

"I've never actually gone on a family trip myself. I've taken my younger sister around here and there, but never stayed overnight."

"Reya's parents seemed strict, but also kind-hearted."

"Wait, you mean my parents? They were like that only after my sister got better. Originally, they were cold toward me. I've never even gone on a family trip myself."

Refreia said that, but she could still sense her mother's affection toward her.

Even if they were cold, it was nothing like the coldness of her own parents.

"Well, whatever the case, it's an exploration. As Reya said, this floor doesn't seem very combat-friendly. I'd like to quickly defeat Scylla and move on to the fifth floor."

"Quickly... are you actually planning to defeat Scylla?"

"Eventually, yes."

Scylla is said to be the strongest monster in the fourth floor, a snake-woman-like boss accompanied by multiple lamias. According to the guild's description, it's hard to understand, but it has a lower body made of numerous writhing tentacles that can wrap around targets or lash out like whips, employing a variety of attacks.

It's reportedly massive in size, measuring about four meters in length, so we'll definitely need to prepare thoroughly before facing it.

We'll start the exploration after using Dark Sense.

Grapeflour can supposedly scout the fourth floor, but the floors beyond this point seem to be outside the usual domain of the hired Links.

"Sorry, I'm probably not much help at the fourth layer. I've only ever accompanied explorers who just wanted to see the waterfall a few times."

"Everyone has to start somewhere. You'll get the hang of it as we go. This level's noisy, so we might not notice monsters approaching."

"Understood! I'll stay focused!"

　

Grapeflour perked up her ears.

The guild's warning noted to watch out for sudden attacks by Sahagin and silent approaches by Lamias.

Especially Lamias, who are snake-women—surely they make no sound.

Even with Dark Sense, it can't be used constantly. If caught off guard by a silent attacker during combat, a single hit could be fatal. A free scout on alert is absolutely essential."

First, I walked a short distance near the entrance, defeated the slimes using the summon knight bug, and then took down the crab, otherwise known as the giant claw.

If Jeanne held it and Reflair attacked, it went down easily. It's a manageable opponent when there's just one, but the problem comes when multiple appear.

　

We called it a day on that day's exploration and exited the dungeon.

By the time we got out, having reached the fourth floor, it had taken quite a while, and it was already evening.

　

"Oh! They're out! They're out!"

"It really is Jeanne. She looks just like she does on TV—so cute!"

"I thought Hikaru would be taller."

The three of them were shouting excitedly as we emerged from the dungeon.

They were the same three who had been waiting outside our house since morning.