We go down the mountain and back to the forked path that leads to the fourth floor, and then towards the valley from there. When we reach the hanging bridge, we don’t cross it, and instead go to a side path. But this one isn’t well maintained like the rest, so we’re just walking through the forest.
“So there was a hidden cave here.”
“The path is complicated and unexplored. Generally speaking, people work under the assumption that there are no paths other than the ones provided by the dungeon, so this wouldn’t have been found.”
We keep going for about ten minutes. The forest opens up, and this time we see bare rocks all over, and it turns into a gravel path. Judging by the reaction on the map, we should be close…
‘Popo!’
Enril raises its voice like it was tired of waiting for us as we arrive.
“Thanks for waiting, Enril and Iris. And good job.”
‘Po, popo.’
‘Pururun’
“Is this the place?”
“Uwah, it’s totally dark.”
“It’s because of the large rocks. It really is in a hard to find place.”
“Even knowing it’s here, it’d be easy to miss.”
“From what I could see in Enril’s vision, there’s a gentle slope in the cave, so it should be fine if we go slowly.”
I activate the map, and some of us hold lights as we advance. There is only one path in the cave, and since there are no monsters, there’s no trouble either, and we reach the bottom of the valley. The river extending from the lake is close by.
“That waterfall is upstream of this river.”
“Then where does the river go?”
“From what I saw in Enril’s vision, it disappears into the dungeon wall. I’m guessing it’s like rivers found in other dungeons.”
Like the one on the second floor of the Beginner Dungeon. That one appeared out of nowhere, not even from a dungeon wall, and just stopped in the middle of nowhere too. Looking back, the water flowed, but no one knew where it came from or where it went. Incidentally, there are records of experiments, but when water is sucked into dungeon walls, beings are repelled by it.
That’s kind of a boring result, but it might be better than the accidents it might have caused otherwise.
“Then it’s a waste of time to care about it. Are you curious about that, Shouta?”
Asks Aki.
“I guess. I’d like to know the principles behind it, but it’s low on the priority list.”
How about thinking about that once all the dungeons in the country have been conquered?
I don’t know how long that will take, and there might be more in the future. I’m also going to be approached by foreigners, so I might not be limited to conquering dungeons in this country anyway.
“This valley has enough space for people to walk.”
“The flow of the river is gentle too, and the scenery is nice. It could be another date spot.”
“If that monster wasn’t here.”
“Darling, is the red dot still not moving?”
“Yes, there’s no reaction. If it’s territorial, it would be even more dangerous to make this a part of the date course, but I wonder…”
I suddenly look at the river, and see all sorts of beings.
Strangely enough, like the deeper parts of the sea on the second floor, there are regular fish here. There are relatively normal fish and ones that are clearly not from Earth. But they aren’t monsters, and I don’t see them on the map, so even if they die, there won’t be a magic stone or smoke.
Even stranger, it seems they are considered part of the dungeon, and apparently revive if killed.
“What is the matter, Shouta?”
“I was just wondering if they’re edible.”
“The fish? You shouldn’t. Apparently it varies, and Appraisal doesn’t work on them. There was this glutton adventurer, and when he ate something that looked like salmon, it turned out to be poisonous… Wait, poison?”
“Wouldn’t poison be okay? It would be different if it was a crazy poison, but we have Poison Antibodies!”
“That’s true, Ayane! And I heard things with poison are tasty!”
“Ooh!”
I guess we do have that skill.
We don’t normally encounter monsters that use poison, so I forgot about it despite the fact that we just got it.
“…Ah, big brother, the stock of Poison Antibodies…”
“Yes, I meant to take care of it in one go when I distributed it, Haru, but do you want to learn it sooner? There’s no downside to having more resistance skills.”
“Yes please, older brother!”
I provided ten base, one II, and one III to the laboratory to be researched for free. That leaves… Or left four II, but I compressed them. Add that to the four III I had, and that makes five. Everyone aside from Kasumi’s party has Poison Antibodies III.
“I wonder how much Poison Antibodies neutralizes poison.”
“I asked the lab to look into Freak Eater too, but apparently that one is easier to experiment with, so although both are being studied, there’s a gap in progress. As an interesting experiment, prisoners learned Freak Eater of various levels, and were fed oilfish.”
“It was a success. Freak Eater Lv3 digested some of it, and from Lv5, all of it.”
Oilfish? I’ve heard of that…
“Yes, isn’t that the one where the fish meat turns into indigestible oil?”
“Yes yes. Wax ester. If you eat it normally, all of it comes out, so you need a diaper.”
“It was a talking point because even adventurers that leveled up couldn’t digest it.”
“I see…”
Scary.
“…Wait. Then shouldn’t we assume that that fish in dungeons could have not just poison but oil too?”
“Ah… True.”
“Dungeon fish should be analyzed by people with Freak Eater too.”
“Too bad.”
‘Pururu?’
“Well, Iris has Freak Eater LvMAX and Poison Antibodies IV, so it can eat anything.”
‘Purun?’
With those fears in mind, we give up on it. Later, I’d use Eye of Truth to check the information of fish in the dungeon, and grab ones that look good, but that’s a different story.
“Well then, we reached the lake… It’s so clear.”
“I can see the bottom.”
“The red dot is definitely at the bottom.”
“Even if it’s clear, I can’t see it very well because of the bubbles and stream from the waterfall.”
“How do we fish it out?”
“I mean, the level of safety of this place depends on what makes it react, right?”
“Should we try entering the lake?”
“If that doesn’t work, let’s try skipping stones.”
“Then can I practice archery too?☆”
“Yes. Let’s try different things.”
Worst case scenario, we’ll have to charge in with bubble armor, but I have Sea Part. Let’s just go ahead and try it.
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