Chapter 337: Shortcut
“Seriously?”
I couldn’t help but exclaim as I gazed at the text displayed on the tablet.
“What is this?”
“Does the dungeon really have such a function…?”
While Rio tilted her head in confusion, El stood frozen in shock at the astonishing revelation. The menu displayed was as follows:
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Dungeon Expansion
Monster Summoning
Item Summoning
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Wow. It seems like everything here is something a Dungeon Master could do. In fact, could it be that Dungeon Masters actually exist?
“By the way, this sword is amazing.”
I never expected my predictions to be accurate. The longer one is involved with the dungeon, the more information they can glean from the tablet. I had no idea what kind of authority this sword possessed, but for now, I had no choice but to try out all the menu options. With anticipation, I touched the Dungeon Expansion option with the hilt of the sword. Unfortunately, a message popped up saying I lacked the necessary permissions, preventing me from proceeding further. The same was true for Monster Summoning and Item Summoning.
“Hmm, so I could only advance one step…”
“Next is Status.”
Prompted by Rio, I touched the Status option with the sword’s hilt, and this time, I was able to view its contents.
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Name: Machina Raise
Age: 2689 years
Level: 1087
DP: 5624500813
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The first parameter must be the name of the dungeon. It seems I was right about it being Machina Raise. However, I was puzzled by the age parameter. Is a dungeon considered a living entity? When appraising a person, their age doesn’t show, but perhaps dungeons are different.
Still, 2689 years is quite old… I have no information on other dungeons, so I can’t make any comparisons. Level must refer to its level. As for DP, I’m not sure, but it might be Dungeon Points. Regardless, that amount is excessive.
“That’s an incredibly long lifespan…”
“I wonder what Level and DP mean?”
As we speculated back and forth, we were merely guessing, and nothing progressed. Phonia and Nil seemed bored and had fallen asleep together in a corner of the room.
The remaining options were the map and monsters, so I decided to check the map first, touching it sequentially with the sword’s hilt. Until now, I had only seen the map of the first layer, but I was able to view the second layer and beyond.
“Oh, I can see it!”
“Whoa, that’s amazing… Wait, the fifth layer is cramped.”
From the first layer to the fourth layer, the dungeon remained vast as ever. However, the fifth layer was incredibly narrow—there was only one room.
“…Just one room?”
“Could it be the lowest layer?”
It appeared that there was space below the fifth layer to display the sixth layer, but nothing was there. There didn’t seem to be a button to switch to the next page either.
“That might be a possibility.”
After thoroughly checking the map, I reached that conclusion. It seems to be a dungeon that is wide due to its long lifespan, but shallow in terms of layers. The difference lies only in being wide or deep, but the time it takes to reach the innermost part might still be considerable, just like older dungeons.
I casually traced the map backward from the fifth layer.
“Hmm?”
The transition from the fourth layer to the third layer was immediate. The second layer too…
“Wait, the fifth layer is closer than I thought…?”
“Really? Are you serious?”
Since Rio asked with a hint of disbelief, I handed her the tablet and the sword. According to the map, there were several spots that appeared to have doors leading to adjacent corridors separated by thin walls, suggesting potential shortcuts. While taking the conventional route would mean a long detour, the stairs to the next layer were located very close in a straight line.
“Hmm…”
“Look, here and here…”
It seemed she could read the map, but since Rio was pondering, I decided to help her out.
“Eh? I can’t make sense of this.”
She didn’t seem convinced, but it couldn’t be helped since that’s how I interpreted it. …Could it be that the Map Skill is also a factor? I shared my findings with El and Ivan, but they too couldn’t figure it out. It seemed like skills might play a role after all.
“Well, for now, let’s head to the dungeon again tomorrow.”
“Right… That way, we can confirm if we can really reach the fifth layer.”
“Yeah, good luck with that. I’ll just wander around the shallow waters of the Forest with Phonia.”
“Got it.”
I replied to Ivan, who shrugged his shoulders. After that, I tried the Monster menu on the tablet, and a complete list of monsters was displayed. Since only robot-type monsters appeared, it seemed likely that this list showed the monsters present in that dungeon. I couldn’t determine their strength since their statuses weren’t visible, but they still had names like TYPE something.
“Just to be safe, I should stop by the Adventurer’s Guild first thing in the morning.”
“That might be a good idea. We just reached Alert Level 2 today, so there might be some updates.”
With our plans for tomorrow set, Rio’s smartphone suddenly rang. Come to think of it, mine was still tucked away in the Dimensional Box… I needed to take it out or I wouldn’t receive any calls.
“It’s Jushiro-san. I wonder what it is.”
Rio and I exchanged glances, puzzled. Could it be that preparations for the commercial shoot were finally underway? Given that we just hit Alert Level 2, it might be a bit tricky.
“Hello?”
As I pondered this, Rio held the smartphone to her ear and answered.