Book 2. Chapter 3
Chapter 3 : Path of Escape
“Damn it, why isn’t it there……”
It has been three days since he killed the Talon Bear. Hajime had been searching for the route leading to the upper floors and had already finished exploring eighty percent of this level. Eating the Talon Bear caused his status to jump again, and there was no longer anything that exists on this level which could threaten Hajime now. This allowed him to hasten his search of the vast area in a quick pace, but despite that, nothing was found.
No, it is wrong to say that nothing was found. More precisely, it is the path “upstairs”, the path “downstairs” had been discovered two days ago. The Dungeon’s structure which consists of many floors will definitely have a path leading up, but no matter what he did, it simply couldn’t be found.
Furthermore, ignoring the strange dungeon, the method of directly creating a path upstairs through transmutation had already been tried. In the end, no matter it was upwards or downwards, he found out that after advancing a certain extent, somehow the walls become unresponsive to transmutation. There were no limits as to how much he transmuted within the level, but it might be covered in some sort of protection in regards to upwards and downwards. This 【Orcus Great Dungeon】 is a dungeon created since ancient times, and full of mysteries. It is hardly surprising.
That’s why, he could only honestly search for a path up, but a decision has to be made should the path not be found. That was, to dive even deeper into the Great Dungeon.
“…… Dead end huh. The branches have all been searched. What the heck is this. Sigh~”
Hajime let out a deep sigh while resigning himself that a path up couldn’t be found. Then, he headed towards the room where he discovered the stairs leading down two days ago.
That staircase was extremely poorly constructed. It might be more accurate to call it an uneven hill road rather than a staircase. From that point on, there were no longer any Green Light Stones, plunging the area ahead in complete darkness and oozing an ominous aura. It was like looking into the mouth of an enormous monster. The feeling of “It’s impossible to leave once you’ve entered’ naturally arose.