Chapter 939 Descent into the Dungeon
The coat presumed to have been worn by Renatta's grandfather now drapes over the decaying body in the small room. After thoroughly cleaning the coat with magic to eliminate any odors or traces of rot, Renatta decided to keep it alongside her grandmother's garment.
Akira, Labo, and I examined the corpse carefully, trying to discern any clues about the body's identity, including its gender and whether it belonged to a human or an elf. Sora and Pandora wanted to assist but couldn't bear the sight of the body, so they opted to sit this one out. As for Alena and Pixie, they were busy examining the fine particles of hair found near the deceased. Initially, it appeared to be elf hair, but after a closer inspection by Alena with Pixie's help, that assumption was disproven.
At first glance, it appears as though the corpse stumbled into the room and remained there until it reached its final moments. However, upon closer inspection, we discovered a chain attached to one of the corpse's hands, with the other end secured to the wall behind it. We hadn't initially noticed this detail because the hand chained to the wall had already become detached from the deceased body, which eluded our initial observation.
"If this person is chained, does that imply they were a prisoner who met their end here?" Akira scratched his head in contemplation.
"It's a possibility, but it doesn't entirely explain how the treasure chest, currently resting on the corpse's lap, came to be here. Was it placed there by someone, or was it already present before the person's demise? And why did we find Renatta's grandfather's coat draped over this corpse?" I pondered aloud.
Alena approached, holding the remaining strands of hair we had collected from the floor near the corpse.
"My assumption is that Renatta-sama's grandfather passed through here and came across this deceased individual. Since the body had no clothing, perhaps as a sign of respect, he chose to cover it before continuing on his way. As for the treasure chest, I suspect it was positioned after Renatta-sama's grandpa had placed his coat. I can only assume that Renatta's grandfather himself is the one responsible for placing these chests."
"I see. Since we found a note inside a chest, they are using the treasure chests to lure and encourage anyone who enters to continue descending the dungeon. Since we couldn't find any good loot aside from these treasure chests, many dungeon divers won't have any sort of incentive to dive deeper without getting any chests," I immediately understood his mindset.
"Is that how most adventurers think when diving inside a dungeon and not because they want to get rid of the monsters living inside?" Labo was surprised by what I had said and how the mindset of adventurers works.
"Pretty much. Adventurers and players are not doing free work, and if they do, they are just grinding for levels, which is why they work without getting many physical rewards. That is also one of the main reasons they dive into a dungeon in the first place, to find treasures that will allow them to improve their gear. It's a perpetual grind for everyone," Akira further explained, knowing how the work of being a mercenary for players works.
In the end, we don't have much information to go on with just this many clues. We couldn't determine the identity of the corpse either, as we are not experts in human anatomy. Therefore, we decided it's best not to dwell on it too much. However, we do know that the corpse is not an elf, which brings a sense of relief to Renatta. At first, she had thought it might be her grandfather, but after the investigation, we confirmed that neither her grandmother nor her grandfather was the deceased person. All that remained was the coat covering the body which is one of the reasons she assumed the dead person as him.
We naturally took the available supplies and continued on our way. The same corrupted elves, now more numerous, began to appear more frequently. While they were not a significant threat, they did prove to be a rather annoying waste of time, to be honest.
Renatta's newfound determination transformed our descent into the dungeon into a seemingly effortless endeavor. With a pace reminiscent of speedrunners striving for record-breaking completions in their games, she moved swiftly and efficiently. I found myself utterly astonished by her skill in dispatching adversaries. However, considering that Renatta was well aware of the person awaiting her at the dungeon's depths, it came as no surprise that she would go to such lengths. After all, what wouldn't Renatta do to reunite with the individuals she sought? I couldn't help but empathize with her determination, as I had once embarked on a similar mission to rescue my traitorous fiancee from a different timeline. I understood firsthand the driving force behind Renatta's resolve.
As a result, we managed to descend floor after floor. What's interesting is that on every floor, we only encountered Corrupted elves. They have become entirely predictable, and we can defeat them without any trouble, whether it's ambushes or normal attacks. Despite their increasing numbers, they remain trivial obstacles in our descent.
Now, as for the clues, we continued to collect multiple clues from the treasure chests scattered throughout the dungeon. Each floor yields one chest for us to discover, and the deeper we go, the more luxurious the contents of the chests become. This is what I was referring to when I mentioned it luring us deeper into the dungeon. Apart from the occasional notes we find, which always carry the same message as before, the treasure chests keep providing us with incentives to venture further down into the dungeon.
Currently, we've reached floor 35, and we still have no idea how deep this dungeon goes.
One thing I've noticed is that as we continue to descend, the feeling of dread and the sense of corruption continue to envelop us. This feeling has grown even heavier now that we're on floor 35, and exhaustion has taken hold of everyone. It's also too late to turn back, as the ascent would require hours of climbing compared to our descent.
"How deep does this dungeon go? This is the first time I've ventured into such a deep dungeon, but despite its depth, the monsters here haven't changed. It's as if the difficulty level remains constant," Pandora frowned as she tried to analyze our situation while we took a brief rest.
"Indeed. Most dungeons usually become more challenging the deeper we delve, but we're already quite deep, and yet, the dungeon remains unchanged. It's almost as if it's trying to lull us into complacency, and I don't like it," Akira said as he tightly gripped his shield.
"We should rest here for the time being, replenish our strength until we are ready to continue moving. We can also have a few people scout ahead to see if the next floor remains a problem," Sora suggested.
"Then I will scout the next floor. I'm not that tired right now," I offered.
"Let me accompany you," Pandora volunteered.
"Are you sure? You looked a bit tired."
"I'm fine. Besides, I haven't done much right now, so it would be great to do something aside from fighting. A recon task would help alleviate my boredom as well."
We took a brief rest before embarking on our recon mission. We descended to the next floor, and since we wanted to avoid conflict, we activated stealth mode. Since Pandora couldn't enter stealth mode without the skill [Stealth], and she hadn't purchased it, I helped by lending her a magic scroll of [Stealth]. I had plenty of them on hand in case situations like running out of mana arose, and I needed a quick getaway. A scroll like this would be helpful in the long run.
There are plenty of Corrupted Elves here as well, but we didn't engage in battle against them. We are on a recon mission and not to annihilate them unless we really have to.
As we continued to move, we soon arrived on a single road that led us to a big room. It was a large dome-like room, and there was no other way forward, only the road from which we came.
"This is the boss room..." Pandora guessed.
"Which means this is also the final floor, then?" I frowned. We didn't know if this is the last boss, but seeing that we didn't have any areas that would let us proceed further meant we had reached the final floor after descending. No wonder Floor 35 is not as tedious as the previous floors; it is the floor that will let us prepare for the next battle.
"How about we take a sneak peek at the boss?" Pandora asked.
"Isn't that dangerous?" I frowned. Even in [Stealth] mode, there is a chance we might trigger the boss and awaken it.
"It is, but we need to ensure we can learn what our enemy is. We are doing this casually from time to time, right? We should also do this for this dungeon as well," Pandora suggested.
"Fine, let's check it out."
But as the saying goes, "Curiosity kills the cat," it seems we shouldn't have done that and should have waited for everyone to be there before we checked.
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