arc3 · 201-ch201

Chapter 201: Floor Thirty-Five

With Sieg's help, Kokushi Musou defeated the Lich, Soul Eaters, Death Knights, and more, breaking through not just floor thirty-three but thirty-four as well, finally reaching floor thirty-five. The viewers were beside themselves over the record no one had ever touched before.

Incidentally, I couldn't hold myself back — with Parallel Thinking running at full tilt, keeping my attention split between it and the exploration, I emailed President Yamamoto. The reply came right away: as far as anything off the top of his head went, the choices were either another medium drone like Shiden to simply bulk up our fighting strength, or an ultra-small like Gekkou to divide up the roles. If we went for fighting strength, he'd want long-range attacks; if we went for divided roles, a recovery-focused build.

But unless the situation turned truly desperate, he'd like some time to think it over first. Yeah — I'd been thinking the same thing, though if push came to shove I might summon it anyway. I'll treat his answer as reference for when that moment comes.

"Whoa whoa — floor thirty-five? Just how far can they go?"

"I wonder how many floors this dungeon even has..."

"Dungeons haven't been fully cleared anywhere yet, right?"

Dungeons have appeared all over the world, but to this day there's never been a single word of one being conquered. Nobody knows what floor the deepest floor of any dungeon is. Whether every dungeon has the same number of floors, or whether it differs dungeon to dungeon — nobody knows that either.

But at floor thirty-five, monsters this strong were coming out. It wouldn't be strange at all to think the final floor might be close. After a short rest on the stairs, we at last set foot on floor thirty-five.

"The highest point I ever reached in America was floor thirty-five too. If we can get past this floor, we might just set a new world record."

Almost as soon as we stepped onto floor thirty-five, Sieg muttered it under his breath. The types and strength of the monsters that appear vary, but past roughly floor thirty, S-rank monsters start showing up. Could it be that every dungeon has the same number of floors?

"You mean, in that American dungeon, a monster even you couldn't beat appeared on floor thirty-five?"

Having watched the fighting all the way up through floor thirty-four, Shinonome-san must have figured they could dive even deeper — he threw the question straight at Sieg.

"Yeah. There was a monster there in a league of its own. We call them Gatekeepers. The one in that dungeon was a terrifyingly strong angel."

Going by Sieg's story, the makeup of the dungeons is apparently quite similar. A floor boss every ten floors, free-roamers from floor thirty-two onward — if this floor had a Gatekeeper too, you could almost say dungeons were built on the same basic blueprint.

And judging by how careful Sieg had gotten from this floor on, there must be monsters besides the Gatekeeper worth watching out for.

Then Sieg's worry seemed to become reality.

"Sieg-san — two Soul Eaters and a Death Knight."

I reported the monsters my Mana Detection Radar had caught to Sieg. And for the first time, Sieg's feet stopped moving.

"Well now. This isn't something we can just stroll into with a 'let's go.' Depending on how it goes, we could take casualties. What'll it be, Mr. Shinonome?"

"If Sieg's hesitating, this must be seriously bad."

"Two Soul Eaters at once has gotta be rough, no?"

"What'll you do, Kokushi Musou?"

Seemed the viewers had caught on to how dangerous this combination was too. Instant death and teleportation, two of them at the same time — if one teleported in mid-fight with the Death Knight, would anyone be able to deal with it?

"Sieg-san, is there a plan that can win?"

Even in this situation, Shinonome-san still had the will to push forward. And not just Shinonome-san — Nishikyo-san, Kitora-san, even Kannami-san were all waiting on Sieg's answer with serious faces.

"Well now. Winning — that much shouldn't be a problem. The question is how we do it without anyone dying..."

There Sieg sank into thought. He was working out how to fight with the strength we had to raise the odds of winning without casualties. The Kokushi Musou members weren't leaving it all to Sieg either, trading ideas back and forth to hammer the plan into better shape.

"Um — shall I go in and stir things up for you?"

There was no doubt that lives came first. But there are times you can't move forward without risking something. The air of the moment told me this was one of those times — and with something I could do right there, there was no way I could sit back and do nothing.

"That's a welcome offer, but will you be alright?"

"Yes, no problem at all. I can summon them as many times as it takes."

"Heard the rumors, but you really are somethin' outside the rules..."

The plan was set. I charge in, drag them into a melee, and carve out openings. At the key moments, Sieg drives in his sure-kill strikes to thin their numbers. After that, everyone fights with their full strength.

"Alright — heading in!"

"We're countin' on ya!"

"All yours."

"Please give it your all!"

Nishikyo-san, Kitora-san, and Kannami-san all cheered me on.

"SS-san, I'm sorry to hand you the dangerous role. But we can't let this chance slip away. We want to see what lies beyond — because we are explorers."

The normally gentle Shinonome-san wore an expression sterner than any I'd seen from him. In that moment, I saw the resolve of an explorer. I had to answer it in kind.

"...What is this feeling? I'm tearing up here."

"Everyone's way too cool!"

"Go, Sieg! Go, Kokushi Musou! Go, SS!"

The viewers, it seemed, had felt Kokushi Musou's resolve too.

I formed a triangle formation out of Shiden, Hayate, and Asahi and headed for the monsters. The monsters here ran heavy on the dark attribute. If so, what I had to do was already decided.

【Summoning Medium Drone. Please assign a name】

【Summoning Unit Four: Kyokkou】

"Come on, Kyokkou!"

I summoned the new medium drone and immediately went about selecting its Attack Unit. Points on hand: 590. I spent 200 on the Magic Sniper Cannon, then another 300 points to obtain the light-attribute Light Bullet Sniper Cannon. Now I was all set.

"Oh my? Or is it my imagination? Feels like there are two Shidens..."

"Hm? Are the drones... multiplying?"

"Huh? How many drones could SS summon again?"

I opened up with the Wind Bullet Machine Cannon on one of the Soul Eaters.