They reached the chute Finn had mentioned—the end of the current, the final destination of the Great Waterfall's source. What lay there was not a vast sinkhole but a waterway set into the wall, swallowing the falls into who-knew-where.
Dropping in would be a nightmare. Tsunayoshi considered it for a moment, then let it go. The Dungeon's secrets could wait; now wasn't the time.
He turned instead toward the safe floor on the 28th.
Beyond the oppressive blue gloom lay a wide, white-lit plateau. Only one path led to it. Between that broad platform and the cavern wall yawned a bottomless rift. Maybe that natural moat was why this counted as a "safe" floor.
Tsunayoshi and Finn stepped out of the sub-dimension.
"The monster-proofing here is a lot more… obvious than on the 18th," Tsunayoshi said.
"We didn't tour the 18th," Finn replied, "but no, there isn't a big open chasm there to stop spawns."
"It's obvious, yes," he went on. "But the deeper you go, the nastier the monsters. Sometimes the trouble doesn't climb out of the walls—it pours in from both neighboring floors."
He pointed back at the entry they'd just used, then at the exit on the far side.
"This central platform is great—until monsters pour from both tunnels. Then it's not safe at all."
"A pincer," Tsunayoshi said, eyeing entry and exit in turn. If they flooded from both sides, the "safe" platform was a dumpling wrapper around a filling of adventurers. Faster death than if the monsters just birthed from the walls.
"How often?" he asked.
"Eight times," Finn said.
He didn't have to concentrate to remember—that kind of memory didn't fade. A few of those had been the real brink.
"Won't missing that kind of 'experience' hurt you later?" Tsunayoshi asked, then winced at his own phrasing.
"You think we need to 'learn' from the Dungeon by nearly dying on a safe floor?" Finn snorted. "No Familia wants their rest to be unsafe. None of us wants to swallow the Dungeon's suffering on our downtime."
He glanced around. Green grass. A handful of trees. Nowhere convenient to anchor anything.
"No good spots to set it down," he said. "Can that thing be placed here?"
"It's fine."
Tsunayoshi nodded and pressed the zipper-space to the ground. One pull, and the earth parted like cloth.
"Even bare ground can be an entrance. It's just a little awkward to climb out."
Finn watched the soil loosen and ripple under the tool, impressed despite himself.
They entered—and found the whole Familia seated at the door, waiting.
"Captain!"
Everyone sprang to their feet.
Finn rubbed his temples. Overly worried, the lot of them.
"It's fine. Sit."
They sat.
"Tsunayoshi's ability is even stronger than we thought," Finn reported. "The puppet stayed invisible to the boss and slipped past the Great Waterfall safely. We're on the 28th safe floor now."
"Finn," Riveria said from the front row, lifting a hand. "About the Amphisbæna—did you confirm it with Tsunayoshi?"
"We did."
He summarized what they'd seen: the Amphisbæna matched their worst expectations—early refresh and mutated, just like the black Goliath, both under the Dungeon's influence.
"As expected," Riveria murmured. With that piece in place, she could sketch the boss's likely power.
"Using the Goliath as a reference," she said, "assume the Amphisbæna's base tier rises by one. In water, add another. You're looking at a floor boss effectively at Level 7."
A chill ran through her. And water? The Great Waterfall without water would be a joke. If the Dungeon could twist bosses, it would certainly give this one its home-field advantage.
"But why is the Dungeon's 'abnormality' this extreme?" Riveria asked, voice low. "Mutating floor bosses and refreshing them early… isn't that malice toward adventurers a bit much?"
Silence took the room. No one had an answer. No one understood why the Dungeon had lashed out so hard.
Tsunayoshi's gaze swept the faces around him as he thought.
The Dungeon must have a reason to mutate to this degree. In the "story," the black Goliath on the 18th had appeared because a god entered the Dungeon—an immune response to divinity. But this time, it probably wasn't the gods. The abnormality began a week ago; if a god had plunged in then, the Guild wouldn't be quiet about it now. Uranus—the one suppressing the Dungeon—would already have moved.
If not gods… then the Dark Faction.
Apart from the divine, only the dark Familias had the will and means to stir chaos on this scale. They had plenty of motives. But hadn't their main force been wiped out three years ago? What remnants were still kicking in the Dungeon—and what were they trying to do?
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[Thank You For Your Support!]