Chapter 15 - Two Discoveries
Normally, even in a vast space like the 9th floor, exploration would be manageable if you could just plant tall flags or markers along the way.
However, dungeons have this characteristic of absorbing and converting any foreign objects left inside after a few days into points. This means you can’t leave markers behind.
"Who would bother exploring this garbage-tier 9th floor!? Let’s just stick to the 8th floor!"
If explorers made this rational decision, what could we do?
Well...
We could just place the staircase to the 10th floor in an obvious spot, letting them skip the 9th floor entirely.
Easy, right?
The 10th floor would be a standard, mappable dungeon layout.
This would allow the knight corps to resume their usual exploration methods.
"Hmm, the queen was surprisingly rational.
Every time a new hot spring was discovered underground, she’d bring a ridiculous army to bathe in it. I half-expected her to issue some insane order like, 'Deploy ten thousand soldiers to the ninth floor! We must find that hot spring at all costs!'
But I guess even she isn’t that reckless."
"Ahaha~ Ahaha~ The 10th floor... Already at 10 floors... We finally made it~ We did it~.
Now I’m part of the double-digit, large-scale dungeon club~ Ufufufu... Uhehehe..."
Peta-chan’s face melted into a blissful smile every time the dungeon grew larger.
Honestly, since my soul is shared with Peta-chan, I can somewhat understand that feeling.
The desire for expansion—a craving I never had as a human—now drives me.
The mission to endlessly expand the labyrinth is deeply ingrained in my heart.
...Well, back when I was human, I did have that urge to push things to the limit whenever I played city-building games. So I get it.
Anyway, at this point, I don’t really feel like stopping the dungeon from expanding either. Which means I need as many ‘guests’ as possible to keep coming in.”
The staircase to the 10th floor appeared in an obvious spot.
Did Queen Yuzha actually pay the bounty to the thief who found it?
Of course, she did.
The female thief, who had been drowning in debt with no way out, wasted no time after receiving her reward and immediately paid off her debts.
Then, she went and bought a prime estate in the heart of the castle town.
When her ex—who had dumped his debts on her and ran away—came crawling back, asking for a second chance, she beat him to a pulp.
Feeling utterly satisfied, she indulged in shopping for luxurious furniture and fine clothes.
In a single night, she had joined the ranks of the newly rich.
As Queen Yuzha put it:
"If I didn’t pay, no one would bother searching that godforsaken plain for the spring, right?"
A perfectly reasonable argument.
The day after one lucky soul struck gold—
People began to wonder, *Maybe the hot spring is actually closer than we thought!*
Fueled by that hopeful optimism—
A flood of eager explorers once again swarmed the previously desolate 9th floor.
The official female knight corps also began preparing to explore the 10th floor.
Given the state of the 9th floor, the 10th floor was expected to be even more challenging.
One could say that the dungeon had begun baring its fangs, demanding sacrifices at an alarming rate. You could never be too prepared.
And so, fully equipped and prepared as if challenging an ultra-high-difficulty dungeon, the exploration of the 10th floor began.
However, they found it to be just an average 10th-floor dungeon.
With 500 personnel mobilized, the search was completed in less than two days.
After going all out with excessive preparations—
The female knights charged in with a resolute "Onward!"—only to find themselves utterly underwhelmed.
What the hell was up with the sheer absurdity of the 9th floor??!!!
"...So? What’s the effect of this floor’s spring?"
"Unknown... Just like the 5th floor, the effect is unclear..."
"Again... This is the most frustrating part."
Currently, the effect of the 5th-floor spring is unknown.
Even after bathing, you have no idea what’s happening to your body.
But does that make it unpopular? Not at all.
While the 1st, 2nd, and 6th-floor springs, which visibly improve skin texture, are undoubtedly the most popular—
The 5th-floor spring is a close second.
"Maybe it slows down aging."
"Perhaps it helps maintain the effects of the other springs longer."
People imagine all sorts of wonderful effects while soaking in it.
Unlike the scar-removing or wrinkle-smoothing springs, which you only need to visit once in a while—
No one truly understands what’s happening, but the belief that something good must be occurring leaves room for imagination. This element of hopeful anticipation is precisely what has created a devoted following for the hot spring on the fifth floor.
Even if nothing is actually happening, people will keep bathing in the 5th-floor spring.
It’s the classic faith will be rewarded mindset at play.
As the knights soaked in the 10th-floor spring, they chatted.
"Ahh... Even if the effect is unknown, it still feels great... I hope something good happens."
"Ugh... I can’t stand this. My body hair’s out of control."
"It took us two days to get here... and we've spent another two days exploring this place."
"Fufufu~ I made sure to take care of that during the camp."
"Why even bother...? It’s not like anyone’s going to see you in this dungeon."
"It’ll just grow back halfway by the time we return. I’ll just have the maid take care of it later."
"Ugh... I really don’t want to report this to Her Majesty... ‘We found the spring, but we have no idea what it does.’ How lame."
"But still... We can’t ignore springs like this."
"Right... If it turns out to halve the rate of skin aging, we’d regret not bathing in it."
"Speaking of the 9th floor, a lot of adventurers are going in now. Do you think they’ll find the spring there?"
"No way... That place is a nightmare. You’d need insane luck to find anything."
Just four days after the flood of adventurers began searching the 9th floor, news arrived that the spring had been discovered.
The discovery was made by a small team of six.
Under the guidance of their planner, they found the spring just hours after arriving on the 9th floor.
The planner’s name was...
Auf Nausa Otrolu.
The third daughter of Duke Nausa of the Kingdom of Sepans.
The same young lady who had secluded herself in her room, studying dungeons while her skin healed thanks to the 1st-floor spring.
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