Live Dungeon!

Ealdred Crow’s main party had hit a wall on the ninety-sixth layer. Day after day, they plunged into God’s Dungeon in search of answers, but though they’d uncovered some hints, they still hadn’t managed to find their way through.

The structure of the ninety-sixth layer was deceptively simple. It featured a wide, circular corridor within the Ancient Castle’s interior, spacious enough for a full party to walk side by side with ease. The looped passage resembled the shape of a doughnut, and precisely at the midpoints of both the north and south arcs was a particular structure, which stood out even from the distant vantage of the ninety-first layer.

[There’s no doubt this Dragon is the key,] Stephanie thought, her gaze fixed on the stone-carved monster protruding from the castle wall, its head broader and tougher-looking than even that of a Fire Dragon. She nibbled on a cookie, one of Ealdred Crow’s custom field rations, never taking her eyes off the creature.

It was embedded in a panoramic platform midway through the layer’s circuit, visible even from afar. At first glance, the statue seemed decorative, but up close, it was clearly breathing. Most likely, it was a creature that only looked like stone, same as the type of monster they’d seen before in the Light and Darkness set of layers.

There were two of them: one at the north midpoint and one at the south, as if deliberately placed to signal their significance. Naturally, they’d tried attacking the Dragons, assuming they were the trigger to proceed, but there was no resistance. It felt as if they were striking the castle itself, resulting in neither any reaction nor effect.

The passageways themselves were uninspired. Occasionally, standard monsters would appear, but nothing particularly strong, and not even a single one they had never seen before. Nothing offered a clue, either; hoping for a hidden passage, they had spent five days painstakingly examining every inch of the castle walls, but that too had proven fruitless.

At the end of the day, the greatest obstacle was the lack of information. For this particular layer, Absolute Helix had imposed a strict information embargo, which even the general public found suspicious. Ealdred Crow’s informants had returned empty-handed. The Monitors had only shown Hannah battling monsters solo in the corridor, then before they knew it, Absolute Helix had already cleared the layer.

Even on previous layers, Tsutomu had expertly masked key information, and the informants had struggled. But here, he had enacted a full-scale blackout. With only vague hints and red herrings to go on, Ealdred Crow’s main party found themselves fumbling in the dark.

With barely any progress being made, morale had begun to wane. Their main party now split their efforts: two members remained on the ninety-sixth layer to investigate, while the others focused on leveling or supporting lower-ranked teams. Currently, Sova was monitoring the layer through the God Eye, absently fiddling with a magic tool that spat tiny sparks as he muttered to himself.