Enki hardens sand into rock in the sandy area, turning it into two weapons for itself, which Aira then puts in her bag, and we go down to the third floor.
This is like the Aokigahara forest near Mount Fuji. There’s moss growing on the ground, and the trees have vines wrapped around them. There’s plenty of space between the trees, meaning Enki will have no problem passing between them, but they’re all around ten meters tall. I think I’ll have to use Hawk Eye while on top of Enki to map this place out.
It seems the center of this map is mountainous, and its strangeness is visible right from the entrance to this floor. It’s not like a field made up of the dungeon walls, it’s an actual mountain you can climb in the middle of the dungeon. It’s a strange sight.
But it also feels like we could get lost easily in here without a map.
“Isn’t this a steep difficulty spike for the beginner dungeon?”
I jump down from Enki, and everyone does the same.
“It’s okay, this floor isn’t that dangerous.”
“How come?”
“Aira, please do it.”
“Yes.”
Aira unfolds a map, and we all look at it.
It roughly shows the floor’s safe areas, and the path to the fourth floor. There are a lot of twists and turns, but a lot of left and right turns seem to be small paths to avoid the mountain.
“These lines are the boundaries of monster territories, meaning adventurers don’t have to worry about being attacked by them as long as they follow this route. Also, there are several open areas along the way. They have good visibility, so they’re ideal for intense hunting.”
“I see, so it provides places that are just right for fighting. And what about hunting in other forest areas?”
“They say your sense of direction will fail you if you go too deep. It’s very easy for adventurers who get carried away to get lost. Thankfully, no one gets near the areas where dangerous monsters live, and they won’t die if they end up in other places, but…”
“Hm… By dangerous monsters, you mean regular monsters. How many kinds live here?”
“Three. Ah, there’s one right over there, see?”
Aki points to a snake with a patchy pattern. I’m surprised she managed to find it, considering how well camouflaged it is on the ground. That’s right, Aki has the Presence Detection skill.
That snake is clearly looking at us… But it doesn’t look like it’s going to attack. Is it because it’s its territory?
It seems to be about two meters long…
＊＊＊＊＊
Name：Green snake
Agility：60
Intelligence： 80
Luck：None
Equipment: None
Skills: None
Drops: Green snake skin, green snake spotted skin
Magic stone: Small
＊＊＊＊＊
“Snakes in a dungeon? It’s my first time seeing one.”
“Monster territories on this floor are all clearly divided. There is virtually no danger of fighting multiple types in the forest.”
“On the other hand, those open areas we mentioned before are all in the borders of two types of monsters, so those aren’t gonna be good for you, Shouta.”
“I see.”
It’s nice to have a receptionist of the beginner dungeon and the branch manager of a nearby dungeon with me. They know a lot about this dungeon, and being able to hear about this while in the dungeon is a big plus.
“What about the other two?”
“One’s a boar.”
“A boar… Sounds like the Murder Rabbit.”
“Well, you’re used to that, so it’s not a problem. If we ignore how weird it is to be used to rare monsters.”
“Fufu, yes. And the last one is a bear.”
“B-bear!? I feel like the difficulty level just shot up… Is it dangerous?”
Bear monsters.
I was just thinking that I’m used to wild animals like rabbits and wolves, but I feel like we just went up to a more vicious grade. I’m picturing something pretty strong.
“It is pretty dangerous, but it being a bear means everyone is careful about it. This means there aren’t that many injuries caused by them.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Also, they only live around the mountain over there. If you don’t get near it, there won’t be a problem. That is why the paths avoid the mountain.”
Looking at the map again, I see this floor is about as big as the second, it’s just that there are a lot of turns to avoid going through the center. It looks like it takes quite a bit of time to get to the fourth floor, the main hunting area of the beginner dungeon. Is that why there’s a camping area at the entrance of the fourth floor…
There are places where people can hunt on the third floor, but there isn’t much incentive like skills or something like that. Most monsters live in the forest, and the hunting areas aren’t that wide, fitting only one team.
Conversely, the fourth floor is like the second, open and easy to fight in. There are also monsters with skills like general goblins, so it’s seen as a good place to make money.
This place puts adventurers at risk of getting lost if they stray too deeply, and doesn’t have much in the way of prizes, so it’s mostly just a passage.
“Poor floor… But didn’t someone say something about treasure chests here?”
“Yep, but that’s in the middle of the forest. Sometimes they appear in corners of open areas, but that’s super rare, so the rate is like one treasure chest found per day, maybe two.
Sometimes teams who are confident in their sense of direction and power stray off into the side paths a bit and find them.”
“Apparently that’s how First Magnitude Star find them.”
“Eh…”
So we might bump into them or other teams while hunting here.
Congrats on the 200th chapter! 🎉㊗
Thanks for the treat.