Chapter 35
“……”
“…A, are we here?”
The expedition members looked around at a world completely different from the previous floors.
The dull colored sky made the silence of the city feel even stronger.
Yet there were no magic beasts nearby.
That was the greatest difference from the previous ten floors.
Perhaps because of that, the people walking through the city looked fairly peaceful.
Seeing them reminded the Imperial Expedition members of their trauma from the first floor.
Danforth confirmed that everyone, including Yohan, had safely arrived together.
He released a quiet breath.
“Phew… I think this is the first time all of us arrived together without anyone being separated. Even if we’re still grouped by faction.”
“We’ll have to wait and see whether the other races are in the same situation.”
Dexter called loudly toward someone walking along the distant road.
“E, excuse me! Over here! Sorry, but when did you settle here? You’re not from the Empire, right? Could you tell us where you came from… Mmph!”
Danforth urgently covered his mouth.
“Where do you think we are? Why are you yelling? We don’t even know what god that person worships.”
The human in the distance turned his head after hearing Dexter.
Without even blinking, he simply continued walking.
Once Danforth released him, Dexter complained.
“But they might have once been our comrades! What’s wrong with asking that much? You didn’t complain like this in the Black Magic Cult village…”
“Do those people look like comrades to you?”
“No… but… if they aren’t, then how can humans be living here?”
“……”
Other than Yohan, Danforth was the only person with Dungeon experience beyond the tenth floor.
But even he did not know everything about this world.
Yohan stepped in when Danforth looked unsure where to begin explaining.
“We’re uninvited guests.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“The great Inner Gods are desperate to show their magnificent existence to lesser creatures. They talk about influence and faith, but in reality, they’re little different from lunatics starving for attention.”
Yohan briefly glanced at the goddess sleeping inside his clothes.
He swallowed a sigh.
“Yet those same beings are desperate to kill every member of the Four Great Factions. Strange, isn’t it? If everyone dies, there’ll be no creatures left to wet themselves in terror after seeing their horrifying faces. No one left to hear their grand and disgusting schemes and become fanatical believers.”
“That… is true.”
“Someone is worshipping them in our place. Those are the residents here. Thanks to them, the gods can freely spread death among us. And they’ll keep doing it.”
Yohan now glanced toward a group of elves appearing from the opposite side.
“Still, there’s no reason to hate the residents. These people are pitiful too. They didn’t come here because they wanted to. They don’t serve those beings because they wanted to either.”
“……”
“But you must remain careful. They may look similar to us, but the natives here are completely different creatures.”
A god only held meaning because someone believed.
Fear only held meaning because someone existed to feel afraid.
“Don’t forget that.”
Dexter closed his mouth after Yohan’s simple explanation.
Now it was time to act.
“All right, what should we do now? The conditions for clearing the eleventh and twelfth floors are relatively loose… Should we reorganize here first?”
Danforth nodded and added his opinion.
“I’ve only reached the fifteenth floor, so maybe I’m not the best person to say this… but before we reach the twentieth floor, we need to train these idiots mentally. If we can keep the Apostles under control, this is one of the best places to build resistance against the mental attacks of the Great Old Ones.”
“…You think surprisingly like I do, Danforth Corsi.”
From Yohan, it was close to the highest praise possible.
Danforth smiled faintly.
Then he looked bitterly across his subordinates.
“You can’t clear the deeper floors without becoming a little insane.”
“That’s true.”
“The Were faction has the War Maniac’s blessing, which protects them from mental attacks to some degree. The elves have spirits doing something similar. But we have nothing. We’ll have to build resistance ourselves, won’t we?”
“If that’s the plan, I’ll gladly help. Sounds entertaining.”
The expedition members’ faces immediately darkened.
Yohan seemed to enjoy their reactions.
He lightly grabbed Dexter’s shoulder.
“Then why don’t we start with something simple… and go sightseeing?”
“…W, where?”
Yohan’s gaze moved toward a river district faintly visible to the northeast.
“The museum.”
Drip, drip.
Drip.
Drip…
The sound of falling water in the distance slowly stopped.
“……”
A man had been tied tightly to a pillar.
He listened carefully to the sounds around him.
Where was he?
How had he ended up like this?
Who had done this to him?
He remembered nothing.
Come to think of it, the man had always been unusually weak at remembering things.
Everyone had at least one entertaining childhood memory.
He had none.
He did not remember who his parents were.
He did not know whether he had siblings.
He could not remember whether he had ever married.
He only knew a few things.
He was a healthy man who looked to be in his thirties.
He lived in this city by hunting magic beasts for survival.
He had companions named Mr. ■■ and Mr. ■■■.
That was almost everything he knew.
He remembered carrying magic beast meat back to his home.
Then something struck the back of his head with tremendous force.
He lost consciousness immediately.
He guessed that he had been hit with some well made blunt weapon.
