Chapter 26: 26

26 : Dangle Fern – 3

“What a terrible experience……”
“Chuuuu……”
How should I put this, it feels like I’ve just been shown the amount of chaos that numbers could cause.
I was floating around in the safety area with my arms and legs outstretched, a posture which had already become a customary practice for whenever I would respawn and contemplate over what points I needed to improve or reflect upon.

“For now, until I can piece together a solution, let’s stay away from the blooming dangling meat fern flowers and leave them for later. I couldn’t do much with the current hand I was dealt anyways”
I had realized this before I even respawned, but I was completely powerless against that many enemies.

The effect of『Taruwiveno』was single target. Supposing if the appearance of the small rats matched their level of resilience, each one could be taken down with just one evil eye. But even so, regardless of their lack in physical strength, if they swarmed me while I was firing off my sorcery, it’ll be over right then and there.
No matter how I much struggle, I still wouldn’t have enough eyes to deal with them.

It was the same situation when it came to the tooth knife.
This might’ve been better since I could attack in a line, but the rats were low on the surface so it’s bound to fail.
Rather, if I went with attacks from the tooth knife, my arm would have to reach towards the ground.
During that instant, I wonder how many of those rats would come biting at me…… The thought alone was just dreadful.

“Hmm, at the very least, it has to be a AoE attack. If possible, I’d like to have something that could thoroughly defeat the enemies that came near me. This is where I’d definitely want a way to attack continuously…… That meant I would have to fight without running away though.”
I guess currently, its impossible to take down that horde after all.
Apart from flying off or clinging onto a vine, the only other choice I could take was running away.

“Alright, let’s go one more time.”
I’ve also already thought up of a counter-measure for the escorting Poison Spitting Rat so that shouldn’t be a problem.

If I didn’t neglect on attentively checking my surroundings, my response time wouldn’t be delayed.
With that reason, I dropped the dangling meat fern flowers that I’d previously obtained before dying and set forth towards the 3rd layer once again.


———-


“Right, check. Left, check. Then let’s head over to the end first.”
I arrived at the 3rd layer and resumed my exploration while keeping vigilant of my surroundings.
This time, the first area I was going towards was at the end of floor.
I’m certain that the place had expanded due to a curse, so I was curious as to what had become of the perimeter.
Which is why I kept on moving straight ahead as far as I could go.
Even when the pathway curved, I would walk straight in the direction of the next turn.
Along the way, I also collected any dangling meat fern flowers that were acceptably around 2 meters in length.

“No door?”
And so, while I was exploring, I noticed a few things that were out of the ordinary.
For instance, something was off about the other side of the wall I was touching now.
Judging from the reverberation of sound when I knocked on it, there was a vacant airspace behind this wall.
Even based on the layout of the other passage ways, there should’ve been space for at least one room here.
Despite this, I went through and made a circle around the area, but there was no signs of any doors that could’ve connected to the room within the wall.

“There’s nothing I could see besides Poisonous Bite Rats.”
As I was regularly exploring, the fact that I couldn’t find anything aside from the Poisonous Bite Rats that were seemingly appearing out of nowhere was another strange point.

I couldn’t see any form resembling the flock of smaller rats, let alone hear their squeaks. I really didn’t catch sight of anything but the figure of Poisonous Bite Rats.
What exactly was happening here?

“No structural damage either”
It was unusual how the 3rd layer was different from the 2nd layer in a sense that there was utterly no physical damage seen on the floor or walls.
I understood that the dangling meat fern flowers were a valuable source of food that shouldn’t be gnawed at and the vines were too hard to chew through, but that doesn’t really explain the reason behind the scratch-less walls and floor.

“Hm….. Seii!”
I stabbed the tooth knife into a nearby wall as a test.
In doing so, the blade slightly enters the wall and chips it.

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“Ahh, I see.”
Then, the slit immediately returned to how it was before and mended itself as though nothing ever happened.
It appears that the curse in the 3rd layer wasn’t just limited to distorting the area, but also had an ability which maintained its labyrinth-like structure.
I might be able to get through to the inside of the wall if I found a spot somewhere that perhaps was easily breakable and had slower regeneration, but it seems like I should pass on that kind of thinking for now.

“Though at any rate, I still haven’t reached the end of the path……”
I gave up on trying to figure out what was beyond the wall and headed towards the end of the floor to resume my exploration.
However, I had already walked around for 1 hour in game time and I’ve yet to see the so-called end to this passageway.
Since it’s come to this, should I regard the entirety of the 3rd layer as a structure that possibly loops?

“Sooner or later, it might be worth it to create a map.”
If it was truly arranged as a maze that would loop, you could regard this a first-rate nuisance.
Even if you damage the floor or walls on the 3rd layer, it had an attribute of instantly repairing itself, so it wouldn’t be feasible to leave behind marks in various spots either to indicate whether or not you’ve been through the place once before.

“Aside from that, maybe I should consider climbing up the other staircase and breaking in through the opening within the ceiling.”
In addition, there was another staircase on the 2nd layer besides from the one I had ascended on and there was a part in the ceiling that seemed to have had a hole.
If there’s an area that couldn’t be accessed through anywhere else including those options, that is to say, then exactly how long would it take for me to traverse through the 3rd layer on foot?
It’s not like I considered the dungeon awfully welcoming towards new players, but…… I guess that would be another example of why you needed to sign the contract, accepting whatever happened.

“And there’s a small room here, isn’t there.”
At this time, I managed to find an entrance leading to a small room.
It didn’t have a door and I couldn’t hear anything like the voices of rats in there.
Also, I couldn’t see any buds or petals from the dangling meat fern flower around either.
That being so, I positioned my back against the side of the wall next to the door and only stuck out my right hand to peek into the small room.

“An ascending stairway, huh……”
Inside of the small room was a single staircase which went up.
There weren’t any signs of enemies, nor could anything dangerous be found.

“It’d take some time to probe around the 3rd layer, so let’s check out the 4th layer first.”
I entered inside the room and climbed up the stairs.
Then, I stopped for a moment on the stairway’s landing.
There were hardly any walls around the steps ahead at top and I started to hear the cries of several rats. Moreover……

“Isn’t the curse a little thin here?”
It was only my intuition, but I sensed as if the curse concentration had been lowered.
Of course, since it was nothing more than a suspicion, I followed up with a proper inspection via the 『Appraisal Loupe』

△△△△△
Tower of Mice

A dungeon in the shape of a tower, filled with large rats mutated by a curse.
Anything that catches their attention will be bitten, cursed and devoured. They will not stop until their stomachs are appeased.

Curse Concentration : 10
▽▽▽▽▽


“As expected, it’s decreased. Ahh, I see…… So it’s like that, isn’t it.”
Just as I perceived, the curse concentration had lightened.
At the same time, I had a single guess as to why that is.

“The core of the『Tower of Mice』likely existed somewhere in the 3rd layer.”
I didn’t know what kinds of methods the『Tower of Mice』was using, but it’s probably within the realms of possibility to say that the dungeon was accumulating all the curses around it and containing them.
Which means, the curse would be more condensed in its central area.
In other words, the place storing the most abundant amount of curse concentration was located at the center of the dungeon and it was highly conceivable that the one commanding all of the rats would be at that spot as well.

“Yeah, in that case, an investigation of the 4th layer was up before all else.”
If so, then the 3rd layer’s search would be best left for later.
First, let’s look around the 4th layer and see if I can find anything.
After I head that way, I should surely be able to find out more about the 3rd layer.

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