part1 · 035-ep35

Episode 35: The Path Downward

The next day. Spear renewed in hand, Ren was on his way to the places he hadn't explored yet.

His goal was set: find the stairs leading down — the ones that had to be somewhere on this floor.

"...This way, then."

Recalling the map carved on the rock wall, Ren pressed on. Different from the places he'd walked any number of times. Ground he had never set foot in before.

Ren advanced carefully, checking around him. Signs of monsters. What lay ahead. And whether there was anywhere he'd overlooked.

Checking, one thing at a time.

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After a while, the passage split in two.

"...Which one?"

The right path was narrow. The left, a little wider. He could see no stairs on either.

Ren thought a moment.

"...Right first."

He took the right path. Even after walking a while, it was a dead end.

"Not this one."

Ren backtracked the way he'd come. This time, he went left.

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He walked a while. Before long, the way ahead started to open up.

"...It's wide."

Ren advanced carefully. It was a far bigger space than any he'd explored so far.

He scanned the area. No monsters.

And—

"...That's—"

At the far end, he could see stairs built of stone.

"...Stairs."

Ren stopped in his tracks. He'd finally found them.

The stairs leading to the third floor.

"...Found it."

Ren approached the stairs slowly. Beyond them lay the third floor, where he had never once set foot.

There might be stronger monsters. Dangers unlike any before might be waiting.

Even so—

Ren tightened his grip on the spear.

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Before the stairs, Ren looked back once.

The places he'd walked to get here. He'd fought monsters again and again. Been wounded again and again. Run, sometimes, too.

And—

he'd won his rematch with the first monster that ever gave him a hard fight.

That experience had made him who he was now.

"...Let's go."

Ren set his foot on the first step. One step. Another. He descended slowly.

At last—

Ren's figure disappeared beyond the stairs.

The third floor.

There, a scene unlike any before spread out before him.