A Story Only I Don't Know 3

After passing through the gate into the 30th floor, we ignored the Blind Snakes that had returned once the boss-fight event ended and the Giant Worm vanished, and pushed straight through into the 31st floor.

Whatever anomaly had struck seemed confined to the 35th floor alone — nothing out of the ordinary awaited us on the 31st. The purple poison pools still bubbled and seethed, and in the swamp thick with paralyzing mud, undead lounged as leisurely as hippos taking a mud bath.

"Looks like trolls spawn on the 31st floor too. Should I take it out with an arrow? …Though if I blow it up now, the poison's going to splash everywhere."

"Judging by how it's flailing, no need to bother. The swamp must be deeper than it looks — it can't climb out."

We passed the troll that had spotted us, charged straight through the swamp, and then sunk beneath the mud, making for the 32nd-floor passage marked on the lantern. Nothing of note happened along the way, and Han ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Se-ah's quest window didn't update either.

"So the main quest kicks off on the 35th floor, then? The quest window still hasn't changed. Still, everything flipping around so suddenly is making my head spin. I miss the days when I could just casually smash a boss monster's skull without thinking."

Han Se-ah pulled up the main scenario window that had started after Elise's briefing at the guild. Come to think of it, arriving on the 31st floor had felt like a whole cascade of events crashing down at once.

The swamp field itself had transformed into a plague zone, and the monsters had turned undead to match. Named monsters that should have been on the 40th floor were appearing from the 31st onward, the Temple forces had declared a Tower assault, and something that seemed to be a mid-boss had already shown up on the 35th.

And from Han Se-ah's perspective, Irene's and Roland's character quests were running concurrently on top of all that — so yeah, it was a lot.

Ignoring the sluggish monsters as best we could, we reached the safe zone on the 33rd floor. No matter how thoroughly you try to bypass every monster, you can't shake them all, and it was about time we took a rest.

"Hello, Brothers. Might I ask whether you've managed to make contact with the 35th floor?"

"Regrettably… we still have not, Sister. Are you on your way to assess the situation there?"

Temple knights stood squarely in front of the safe zone, surveying the surroundings as if to say the incident was confined to the 35th floor alone. Word of what had happened must have reached them too — worry was thick in their voices.

They clearly wanted nothing more than to rush up and rescue their brothers and sisters, but guarding the Sanctuary was equally vital, so they couldn't move. That was why they bowed their heads to Irene and then turned the same intense, pleading gaze on the rest of our party.

"If you consider the harshness of the journey ahead, rest is every bit as important as combat. Please rest well, and extend a helping hand to the brothers and sisters who may be in distress. Ah — the safe zone will appear if you keep going right from the 35th-floor passage."

"Of course. It's only natural, Brother."

Inside the safe zone, nothing unusual awaited us. A handful of adventurers had claimed a few tents and sat at ease, tending their weapons. Some scowled as they scrubbed armor surfaces that had blistered from an accidental hit of corrosive poison; others scraped spear shafts and blade edges clean. It was a familiar sight.

Gear that damaged on the 33rd floor… so they weren't Upper-grade adventurers. We had no reason to interfere with each other, so we claimed a few empty tents of our own, settled in front of them, and sat down.

With me holding the undead at bay and Irene's Protective Holy Art layered on top, none of our party's armor was corroded or damaged. Still, after walking dirt paths for so long, there was no stopping the boots and greaves from getting filthy.

"The terrain's contaminated, so even dry dirt feels kind of nasty."

"At least Hanna knows Earth Control. Without that, we'd be washing toxic sludge off our ankles and purifying it instead of just brushing dirt away."

The party flopped down in front of the tents and started tending their gear. My armor was coated in Holy Power, so a little dirt on the boots was all I had to deal with — but the others couldn't do that, so anything below the calves was bound to get dirty.

Even when we raised earth to make flat ground every time a fight was unavoidable, facing undead that had crawled up dripping with toxic sludge meant the dirt floor inevitably mixed into a mud pit. It was a different environment from the narrow but dry caves we'd come through, so everyone pulled off their boots and clustered around Han Se-ah. Judging by the faintly toxic mud, they were planning to rinse it off with water magic.

…These guys never change.

After spending a night in the 33rd-floor safe zone, we rose early and set out again. Being inside the Tower, we couldn't see the sun rise — but the morning prayers of the priests and nuns, along with Han Se-ah's login schedule, let us keep time with clockwork precision.

From the 33rd floor to the 34th, and from the 34th to the passage leading into the 35th.

"Thanks to Hanna's magic, we got here faster than I expected."

"Right? Mana Wedges — no matter how many times I see them, they're amazing."

Grace murmured as we arrived at the place we'd marked on the lantern last time before turning back, and Katie chimed in agreement. We weren't exploring new territory — just returning somewhere we'd already been — and with the minimap available, it hadn't even taken two full days.

Sensing that another round of praise for the genius mage Hanna was about to start, Han Se-ah hurriedly sidled up, grabbed my forearm, and started nudging me toward the passage.

As if the grip of a mid-tier mage could actually push me — but for now, I figured I should play along and step forward. Watching Han Se-ah get teased was pretty entertaining, but my curiosity about my glitched system window and her main scenario was stronger.

"I'll go in first again. But we have no idea what might have happened, so don't follow right away. Something could be wrong near the entrance, like with those trolls last time… give me a five-minute head start."

"Mm, that sounds good. After that, Irene unnie — who can cast Protective Holy Art — goes through, then Grace unnie, then me, and Katie last. If anything happens on this side, Katie can handle it on her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own. That okay, Katie?"

"Obviously."

Watching Katie thump her breastplate with a fist, I took a step forward toward the passage. The reason I wasn't particularly worried was the camera that had naturally stuck itself to the top of my head — Han Se-ah's. I'd said five minutes, but with the camera letting her peek ahead, she could invent any excuse she wanted to control when the others entered the 35th floor.

It wasn't the kind of setup where you plant it at a fixed location and use it like a map hack — it just rides on a specific person's head — so it was useless in maze-like cave ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terrain. But in a situation like this, being able to scout the next floor was a fair trade-off.

I glanced back one last time to check on the party, raised my shield to chest height, and stepped into the passage.

…What the hell is this?

My vision went dark for the barest instant, as if someone had forced me to blink, then brightened again. What spread before me was the same contaminated swamp as ever. Purple poison pools and ash-gray trees as far as the eye could see — I nearly let the tension drain right out of me.

If not for the grotesque vines coiled around those ash-gray trees.

The trees, withered and twisted like a forest after a wildfire had swept through the contaminated swamp, were ash-gray and skeletal. The vines wrapping them looked less like plants and more like animal tendons or muscle. Translucent grayish-white, smooth and damp-looking — thoroughly unsettling.

"Ugh, what is that? I think I've seen those in a zombie game I played. You follow the stems and there's this giant flesh mass that controls the zombies."

Aside from the unidentified vines coiled around the trees, the area around the passage was fine. No undead monsters buried in the paralyzing mud swamp in front of the passage, and nothing spotting me and closing in across the open view beyond.

That left me free to study the mysterious vines for the full five minutes, until the party started coming through the passage one by one.

"Ugh, what is that?"

"Eugh, gross…. Is that what caused the trouble on the 35th floor?"

They, too, frowned the moment they arrived, glaring at the vines wrapped around the trees. Between the paralyzing swamp and the poison pools, the vines coiling thick around the towering trees were always going to draw the eye first. Still, Han Se-ah wasn't opening her quest window, so it hadn't updated yet.

"Let's head for the safe zone first. The Temple knight said to go right… so if we skirt around this pool a bit and head that way, we should get there."

"That sounds wise. Something terrible may have befallen our brothers and sisters — or it may simply be that communications have gone dead."

Even after Katie, the last through, had joined us in front of the passage, nothing happened. I'd half-expected the tentacles to sense living beings and lunge like snakes — but apparently they really were just vines.

So after staring at them a moment longer, everyone fell in behind Grace without complaint as she set off to guide us to the safe zone.