When I wake up in the morning, I see Chris with a tired expression.
“What’s wrong, Chris?”
I ask, and it turns out she didn’t get enough sleep.
‘Sorry.’
And Calotos apologizes. By the way, only I, Mia, and Chris can hear his voice outside the dungeon.
Since he’s, I guess possessing her staff, Chris is the one who has to deal with him. And he’s apologizing because he’s so curious about the outside world, that looks completely different to him, that he was talking to Chris up until not long before the sun came up.
“So Sora. I want to go to the dungeon today… Apparently he picked up a reaction on the twenty-fifth floor.”
‘Yes, let’s go. I’m curious.’
He says right away, agreeing with Chris.
“The twenty-fifth floor…”
He says it’s that statue next to the staircase to the next floor.
Yes, that statue looked similar to the one in that small room, but what is the significance of that?
The issue is the monsters that appear on that floor. Orcs and orc zombies aren’t that much of a threat, but it’s tough to move forward when there are so many.
‘Don’t worry, the monsters won’t get near.’
Calotos answers as if he read my mind.
We discuss this with the others after breakfast, and we all agree to go, but it’s just going to be our party.
Siphon is too hungover to move, and Jin and Geitz are staying in case something happens with Elsa and Alto. They say that because they think there’s a chance someone might try to kidnap them because they live with us.
“You’re famous, for better or worse. Who knows if someone might take them hostage to force you to gather materials for them. It might be hard without someone watching out for you at a time like this.”
Jin says that ever since clans started going deeper than the forty-fifth floor, a lot of merchants have been coming here from outside.
Merchants who have been here for a long time probably won’t come after us, but he says that some merchants who came here to get rich might try to do so no matter what.
I should probably talk to Will about this. In any case, this is something we’re going to have to think about after doing what Calotos wants.
But before we go to the dungeon, I stop by the merchant guild to receive the message from the beast king. I’ll probably forget it if I don’t take care of it first.
When I get to the merchant guild, they hand me a letter, which I store in the Item Box, and we head straight to the dungeon.
We enter through the twenty-sixth floor, and go to the twenty-fifth floor from there.
Map shows me reactions from monsters and other people.
I think most people who were partying last night are taking today off, but there’s a good chance the people here right now haven’t even heard about it.
I would assume at the very least that’s the case for the people in the center of the floor.
We head straight to the stone statue, but strangely enough, no monsters approach us.
‘I told them to buzz off.’
Says Calotos after I tell everyone what I see on Map.
Apparently the others can hear him too, so his voice really is still audible in the dungeon.
We reach the statue without facing a single monster, but it’s getting dark by the time we do.
‘Yes, it’s strong. No doubt about it.’
The light coming from Chris’ staff starts flying around the statue.
“It really does look like it.”
“Yes, like the statue in that small room.”
Rurika says, agreeing with Sera.
‘Hit that with your staff.’
He says when he returns.
Chris holds her staff high, and lightly hits the statue. And much like yesterday, it crumbles, leaving a thinly transparent woman on the pedestal.
She looks like the statue.
“A-a ghost!?”
Mia jumps towards me with surprise, but aren’t you a saint?
“Ah, no, hum, I’m not afraid of the undead or anything. Hum, I was just surprised about seeing a cute girl.”
She says when she notices everyone’s eyes are on her. Let’s leave it at that.
Rurika is looking at her with a lukewarm expression, but unless I’m imagining it, she’s trembling a little.
Meanwhile, the girl comes down from the altar, and reaches towards the light next to Chris with a surprised expression.
‘Yes. It’s been a while.’
She’s opening and closing her mouth, so she’s probably talking with Calotos.
We don’t know what she’s saying, but we can hear Calotos’ side of the conversation, so we wait until they’re done.
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Thanks for the treat.