arc1 · 024-ep24

Episode 24: The Glowing Pebbles and the Beetle

The morning two days after their first accompanied dive, Fukazumi Iori and Kirise Fumino were once again diving into the same dungeon.

After taking on several four-legged beasts and small monsters in the shallow-layer corridors leading from the entrance, the two of them went straight on down the long stone stairway at the far end of the shallow layers—stepping foot, for the first time today, into the 『middle layers』.

Once through the stairway, the number of magic lamps on the ceiling thinned out considerably, and the scenery shifted to a refreshingly cool passage where white shelves of calcareous rock terraced on and on like stepped fields.

A thin water channel ran along one side of the passage, its clear, cold spring water flowing with a soft burbling sound, while the glow moss growing along its lip cast a pale blue-white light down onto the water's surface.

Fumino, walking just diagonally behind Iori, glanced restlessly around the surrounding passage, her right hand resting on the hilt of the dagger at her hip.

"We've only come down a single stairway from the shallow layers, and yet the atmosphere changes so much. And also, we haven't passed a single other explorer's party this whole time—is it always this quiet here?"

"Yeah, this place only goes as deep as the middle layers, so it's not a particularly popular one. Newbies do sometimes come to the shallow layers, but there aren't usually many people who come down as far as the middle layers."

When Iori turned back to answer, Fumino tilted her head a little, looking mildly puzzled.

"That reminds me, senpai—why did you choose this dungeon for my newcomer training? I want to become able to earn money solo in the middle layers as soon as possible, so last night I did some prep study on the features of the dungeons around here, and it said not many people come to this one, so I'd been a little curious about that."

"Ah, well, at the popular places, there are waiting lines at the entrance sometimes. And when there are lots of people inside, even if you take the trouble to work along a passage, the monsters get snapped up by other parties before you know it, so you can't take your time and look around. This place is close by and quiet, and it has lots of different monster types—a really great spot."

"'Taking your time and looking around'—that kind of sounds like a field trip."

As if let down by the answer, Fumino let her shoulders relax a little.

Down the passage where the water channel's murmuring echoed, from behind the two of them, a white tracking drone quietly trailed at their backs.

『Onee-sama's dungeon-selection criteria really are just "no people and quiet," huh lol』

『The middle layers of famous dungeons are nothing but spot-grabbing wars these days, so this one seems way better suited for training』

『Newcomer-chan properly doing her homework on the nearby dungeons the night before—good on her』

『Unlike that first-person camera last time, the drone picks up the water channel's blue glow moss so nicely』

『Also, is Onee-sama out here walking while admiring the moss on the walls again?』

『I always pictured middle layers as dim and damp and gross, but this place is somehow like a limestone cavern—looks nice and cool』

And in fact, Iori was walking along in high spirits, gazing at the blue water moss covering the water channel's edge and the patterns in the white rock face.

Walking while breathing the cool, clear underground air, with nobody hurrying him along—it really did feel good. And since he had his junior walking alongside him anyway, he might as well show her the interesting parts of this layer too—thinking that, Iori lightly pointed at the water channel beside the passage.

"Look, Kirise-san. Back in the shallow layers, the smell was like dry earth, but once you come down this far, that slightly sweet scent of cold spring water and water moss gets mixed in, see? Go on to the sections farther ahead, and the quality of the spring water changes, so the smell changes too."

"You're right, there's a cool, sort of green, plant-like smell. Um, senpai—if I memorize these kinds of environmental differences, will it come in handy someday, when I'm earning money in the middle or lower layers, for scouting out monsters or something?"

"Eh? Hmm, I don't know whether it's directly connected to earning money. But when the air and the smell change from layer to layer, it kind of feels like you've come to someplace different—isn't that fun?"

"Honestly, senpai, you have far too much composure! Here I am desperately memorizing everything so I can become a full-fledged explorer even one month sooner!"

Fumino sighed, lowering her brows in mild exasperation.

The very next moment, from behind some rocks a little way ahead, a boar-type monster of the middle layers burst out—a Fang Boar with tusks a size thicker than the shallow-layer kind.

Fumino tried to sidestep it just as she'd learned the day before yesterday, reading the load-up of its hind legs—but she reacted a fraction late to the heavy initial burst peculiar to middle-layer monsters, and its snout came within a whisker of grazing the shoulder of her armor.

"That lunge just now was half a step deeper than the shallow layers'—get out another step to the outside!"

"—Yes!"

At Iori's calm voice cutting in from the side, Fumino instantly re-planted her left foot half a step farther outward, and riding the momentum of letting the charge slide past, drove her dagger deep into its unguarded flank.

After the fallen monster scattered into mist, a magic stone slightly larger than the shallow-layer kind was left sitting there with a dry clatter.

"Yeah, that switch-up just now was really good. Middle-layer monsters are strong, so to start with, let's get used to moving like this—the two of us together."

"Thank you very much! Even with just one, the weight of the lunge is completely different from the shallow layers, isn't it. But the magic stones are a whole size bigger too, so I want to get used to this pace quickly and start saving up at my target pace!"

Stowing the magic stone she'd picked up into her pouch, Fumino nodded as if to steel herself, then began checking her dagger for nicks along its edge beside the nearby water channel.

A few meters farther on, at a low hollow in the white rock shelf, a small shadow could be seen scuttling busily about.

A small, round-bodied beetle-type monster, about ten centimeters long, with a glossy jet-black shell. A variety with none of the aggression to come at humans, it was deftly gathering up little stones that glowed blue-white in its short legs, one after another, carrying them to the entrance of its burrow in the shelf's hollow, and arranging them in a line.

"Ah, look over there. That little one's a small beetle monster you see a lot on this layer—its habit is to gather up pebbles charged with faint traces of mana like that and line them up around its nest. It works so hard carrying them, it's cute, right?"

"It really is a tiny monster. In the course materials, it said the magic stone is about the size of a grain of rice, not even worth exchanging, and there's no danger, so you're fine to just pass it by—but senpai, you go around looking at even monsters like this?"

"Yeah, when I'm not in a hurry. Ah—the stone it was carrying just slipped from its grip and rolled all the way to the edge of the water channel. Now it's scrambling off to pick it up again."

"Coming all the way down to the middle layers, and then stopping in her tracks to watch even a bug that tiny—I've never met anyone who'd do that."

Fumino let out a small, exasperated breath—but the tension in her shoulders from the fight with the Fang Boar slipped away of its own accord.

They went on deeper along the middle layers' gentle passages for about another thirty minutes—and that was when it happened.

Just as Iori had said, the white rock faces around them were little by little changing to smooth stone with a tinge of green, and the sound of the water flowing through the channel was deepening step by step.

Just as Iori, walking in front, was about to turn the next corner, the footsteps of Fumino following behind him abruptly stopped dead.

"Hm? What's wrong, Kirise-san? Tired?"

When Iori stopped and turned around, Fumino had halted by the wall on the left side of the passage—before a small crack in the rock at her feet—and was peering down into it intently, brow furrowed.

Around that crack, too, two small beetle-type monsters of the same kind they'd seen earlier were diligently rolling glowing pebbles into line at the entrance of their nest.

Stopping at the side of the passage, Fumino crouched down and stared hard at the little burrow, and at last raised her face and looked back toward Iori.

"Um, senpai? Those glowing stones that little monster over there is collecting—when we saw them in the section above, the light was blue-white, right? But the stones these ones are lining up now—they're all glowing kind of greenish, aren't they? They're the same species of monster, so why do the stones they collect come in a different color?"

It was a straightforward voice, pure and simple—she simply couldn't help wanting to know 『why the difference』.

Iori smiled, stepped over beside Fumino, and crouched down with her, pointing at the little beetle's burrow.

"Ah, that's because—only around this part of the bedrock, the minerals mixed into the spring water are different, so the glow moss that grows here is the green variety too. Stones lying near the green glow moss seem to soak up more of the mana those little ones love. —Here, take a closer look. The edges of the shells on their backs are tinged a little green as well, to match the stones around here."

"Eh—even the color of their shells? Ah, it's true. The one we saw earlier was jet-black, but these little ones have edges that are faintly emerald. Do you suppose they blend into the rows of stones they carry so that enemies can't pick them out!"

Fumino leaned in close—hard enough that she was practically down on her knees on the floor—and began observing the little monsters' backs.

Heads nearly together, the two of them watched quietly as the beetle adjusted the pebbles' orientation one grain at a time with its short forelegs and nestled its round back right up against the row of lined-up stones.

Once they'd watched the beetle deftly tuck a green pebble into the rim of the burrow, Fumino nodded with admiration—『So that's it, they're matching the color of the stones around them』—and stood up.

Brushing the sand from the knees of her armor, the instant her hand touched the magic-stone pouch at her hip, Fumino looked down at her own hands as if struck.

"......Ah. I went and peered in at a bug that doesn't drop magic stones. Again."

To Fumino, who lowered her brows with just a touch of embarrassment, Iori, standing up beside her, said, "It's fine, isn't it? You found an interesting difference, after all."

"Honestly, this is all your fault, senpai. You've been pointing out weird little things one after another, and now even I've gone and gotten curious about the color of stones that don't matter one bit!"

Fumino made a show of pouting her lips a little, but after sending one last, wistful sidelong glance after the green beetle as it slipped away into the depths of the burrow, she set off toward the far end of the passage, her footsteps clicking steadily along.