We leave the beach house, and head straight to the northeastern gap. Along the way, I use Hawk Eye to try to update the map, but visibility on beaches is so good, that I feel like I’ve l already seen everything there is to see. There’s no new information to update the map on the northern side.
And just like they said, this place is nothing but white dots. There’s not a red or green dot to be found.
Outside, spring is almost over, but the weather is mild and not quite summer yet. But here on this floor, it’s an eternal summer. Even during winter, people can enjoy the summer season beach experience here.
It’s nice and all that we can have fun regardless of the season, but I feel like my intuition is bugging out.
“Halt. Regular beach goers can’t go that way.”
Says one of the association guards dressed like a lifeguard, while getting in our way.
Oops, I took off my armor because it’s too hot, but I had Aira put my adventurer badge along with it.
Let’s go get it.
“We’re an A rank adventurer team. Didn’t Youko tell you about us?”
I look at his face, but I don’t recognize him. I didn’t see him during that mess with the Golden Worms, so I guess different guards are stationed on different floors?
“Yes, the branch manager talked about you… Excuse me, go ahead.”
“Thank you. By the way, do people usually come here?”
“Most people don’t, because it’s well known what the monsters up ahead are like. Sometimes clueless adventurers do, but you have to be C rank or above to pass by here, so you’d have to be a real weird… Ah, excuse me!”
“No no, it’s okay. I’ve never been here, so if I think it’s dangerous, I’ll come right back. Good job out here.”
I say, and the guard lets us pass, so we walk into the sealed off cave.
I say cave, but the other end is immediately visible, and the sunlight illuminates it, so it’s easy enough to…
Woosh.
“…?”
The moment I get through the cave, I feel something strange.
It’s like I just passed through a thin, invisible air wall… I remember this feeling, it’s like when I enter a dungeon or move to a different floor…
But why did I feel that here?
I turn around, and see everyone else looking at me with puzzled expressions.
“What is it?”
“I feel like there was a weird film just now… Like when I enter another floor…”
I reach out, and feel there’s something between the cave and beach, but I can’t see it or grasp it. It’s like I’m trying to grab a cloud.
“Yeah, I felt something weird. Not as much as you thought.”
“I see… We don’t really feel anything when we go to a different floor… But here there really was something…”
It’s not just me, Aki and Maki feel it too.
They keep touching it and letting go, but it looks like Aira has something in mind.
“You are most likely feeling the area borderline.”
“Ah, that! So the northern area really is a safe area!”
Aki claps like it makes sense to her.
“Safe area?”
“Dungeons have spaces like the northern beach where monsters don’t spawn, or approach for any reason. It’s said that they are separated by barriers that can’t be seen, but can be felt by adventurers with strong intuition. If they can find these areas, they can run to them, and monsters will turn back.”
“Eh…”
So dungeons generate safe areas?
I’ve heard that monsters can’t move from their floors, but apparently these borderlines are in the staircases too. And here on the second floor, the northern beach also has those borderlines…
“You have sharp senses master, so you can clearly feel something is strange.”
“That’s amazing darling!”
I pat Ayane’s head when she jumps at me, and continue.
“Hm… And Aki and Maki somewhat felt it because they have enough Luck?”
“Most likely.”
“But this means that since the northern beach is a safe area, no monsters will spawn there no matter how many we hunt here… Correct?”
“That should be the case. But since it cannot be detected, that explains why its safety is not on record. But since master clearly felt it, that should establish the northern side as even safer than before.”
“But there’s no way to prove it, is there?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Then there’s no point. Well, this time I’m not going around checking rare monsters like on the first floor, so it’s fine.
“And the walls surrounding the safe area won’t disappear?”
“They should lose their function during a dungeon break, but I assume there won’t be an issue any other time.”
“Understood. That’s reassuring.”
We keep heading towards the eastern beach.
I can see clearly to the other side, so the whole beach is written on my map. Just as I was told, the red dots that symbolize monsters are focused on the southern side, and I see some in the water too.
They’re too crowded to really count, but there are fewer in the water. Still, I would guess there are about a couple of hundred on the beach, and between eighty to a hundred in the water.
Are they different monsters on land and water? I can’t tell. In any case, we’re too far from the ones on the beach for me to see what they look like, let alone the ones in the water.
And apparently it’s true that they’re not a problem unless we get close.
“Master, you can change there. Your swimwear is inside.”
Says Aira while pointing to a tent.
“Wait, when did you…!?”
“She put that together really fast while you were thinking.”
“Aira really can do anything.”
“Aira is just that talented!”
“You flatter me.”
Aira says to the three girls.
It’s not just my tent either, there’s another, bigger tent for the girls to change.
I was deep in thought, but that was only for two or three minutes. How did this maid put two tents together in that time?
The girls enter the tent with happy expressions, and I turn back to mine. It’s big enough that I could sleep in it.
…Depending on what the rare monsters here are like, I feel like I could actually sleep here.
I’m getting lost in my thoughts again.
“Let’s just get changed.”
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Thanks for the treat.