The Floor of Eternal Night (2)

It all started with a slip of the tongue.

When Zion brought up the girl who had come looking for her late at night, Ifrit and Rin both shook their heads. Impossible, they said. And they had a point — not a single NPC still lived on the Floor of Eternal Night. Every last one of them had left long ago.

"Didn't you say you have to kill the boss to climb to the next floor?"

"That's right."

"Then does that mean all those people killed the second-floor boss and went up?"

"Unnie, there is no boss on the second floor."

Oh, crap.

Stay quiet and you'll at least get by. She had never imagined that ignoring that age-old wisdom would come back to haunt her like this.

But unlike Zion, who was convinced she'd been found out, the other two didn't suspect her in the slightest.

Wait a second. Zion mentioned a boss monster... does that mean...?

There was a boss monster on the second floor hundreds of years ago?!

Rin, who owed Zion her very life, went without saying — and Ifrit trusted her more than anyone alive. After witnessing Zion's transcendent power firsthand, doubting her would have been a feat all its own.

So what was the most reasonable conclusion? Simple enough. There was a boss on the second floor. One that nobody knew about.

And as if that weren't enough, a hidden quest had appeared on top of it all. The two of them couldn't have suspected Zion even if they'd wanted to.

Zion, who didn't even have a status window, had no idea a hidden quest had popped up at all. She was still sweating bullets, completely in the dark.

Unfortunately, they couldn't come along on this adventure. They had to prepare for the Wild Hunt that would soon descend.

"A Floor Manager has a duty to protect and manage their floor. I'm sorry, but it looks like you two will have to go without me this time."

"Heh heh. Jealous? I'm not a Floor Manager, so I can go on a date with Unnie all I want!"

"Can't exactly argue with that... well, what can I do? I am the manager."

Perhaps because she'd had it out so openly with the Ice Emperor, Ifrit seemed to have let go of a good deal of her obsession with power. That said, she still made her disappointment clear — she wouldn't get to set off on a new adventure with Zion.

Zion shook off her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wandering thoughts and swung her steel prosthetic. CRACK! The vampire bat's body shattered into pieces in an instant.

"Unnie! Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

Ever since they'd set foot on the second floor, the two of them had been under constant assault from monsters. Zion clicked her tongue.

It wasn't particularly threatening. Their opponents were kobolds and vampire bats at best — nothing especially strong. The problem was that they had no idea what was causing these attacks. Even Rin couldn't get a handle on it.

"Something's definitely going on in the Eternal Night. This has never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠happened before."

There was no boss monster on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠second floor, the Floor of Eternal Night. In other words, if you simply reached the gate in one piece, you could move on to the third floor. But while that might be simple enough for a veteran adventurer, it was no easy feat for rookies who'd only just graduated from the Floor of Beginnings. At its worst, more than forty percent of novice adventurers had lost their lives here. The numbers had dropped a great deal since then, of course.

Siblings, darkness, and a wolf... wait.

Meanwhile, Zion kept turning over the words the girl had left behind. Thanks to that, she finally managed to recall something — a myth she'd once skimmed past on the internet. She hurriedly looked up at the sky.

"...Rin."

"Yes?"

"Look at the sky."

"What are you talking about...?!"

"Grrrrr...!!"

A world of eternal night, where the sun had died. Rin looked up without thinking, and her eyes filled with horror. At the same time, Fafnir, who had been standing guard beside them, bared his sharp fangs and growled in warning.

The full moon — the only light that still illuminated the darkness. And a colossal shadow, closing in as if to devour that sacred moon whole. The bizarre, overwhelming sight of a giant shadow chasing the full moon froze Rin in place.

I'm starting to understand. What the Eternal Night was modeled after...!!

But there was no time to think. The shadow that had been hot on the full moon's heels finally opened its enormous maw. The shadow's fangs, trampling across the cold outline of the full moon, began to shred the moonlight to pieces.

Zion moved first. Her instincts were screaming. Get out of here. Now.

"Rin, Fafnir. We have to get out of here, immediately."

"W-what?!"

"Kraaang!!"

"...This is bad."

Zion grabbed Rin's hand, tucked Fafnir under her arm, and broke into a run — then suddenly clicked her tongue, as if she'd realized they weren't going to make it. In the next instant, she hurled Rin and Fafnir with everything she had. And then the moonlight that had illuminated the Eternal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Night vanished completely.

KRAAAAAANG!!

A massive explosion engulfed them.

What just happened?

Rin was back on her feet in an instant. Zion had thrown her roughly, but it would take far more than that to hurt her. The moment she gathered herself and looked up, however, an abyss of darkness blocked her vision. She couldn't make out a thing. The moonlight, even the countless glittering stars — every light in the night sky had gone out in a single instant, swallowed along with the blast.

A flicker of light.

"Fafnir...?"

A novice adventurer might have panicked, but Rin was a High Ranker through and through. She'd been through this countless times. She calmly pulled a magic lantern from her bag and lit it, revealing Fafnir whimpering just ahead of her.

She didn't even need to approach him. Rin looked up. The first thing that caught her eye was beast fur.

"...Ah."

In the distant darkness, a colossal nightmare of a shape crushing the earth beneath it. A beast as vast as a mountain stood before her.

Rin's lips twitched. It wasn't fear. She'd finally understood Zion's intent. Too late, though. Something began to crumble inside her chest. But instead of despairing, Rin chose to draw her sword.

KRAANG!!

Screaming, Rin kicked the beast with all her might. But the beast didn't so much as flinch, as immovable as a mountain. As she prepared her next attack without pause, the system window that appeared before her eyes only drove her further into despair.

"You've gotta be kidding me...!!"

Rin was stunned by the unimaginable stat. Sure, there were High Rankers with four-digit numbers to their name — but that kind of Strength was only possible for a tiny handful who specialized in it, like the Fist King. Rin fell far short.

But a High Ranker was still a High Ranker. She immediately changed tactics. Kill the beast as fast as possible.

Even if it's a hidden boss... it's still just the second floor. If I take it down fast enough, I can still save her!

"Kkyaung!!"

THUD!

In that very moment, Rin couldn't believe her eyes. The mountain-sized beast's body had staggered, if only for an instant. At first she thought she'd imagined it. Then she saw the mountain of a beast being slowly lifted off the ground, and she understood.

"Unnie...!!!"

There was only one person here who could do that. Zion. And amazingly, Zion wasn't dead. Not only was she unharmed — she was lifting the mountain-sized beast with a single hand.

The reason Zion had lifted the colossal beast was simple. She needed space to swing her fist.

"Hah!!!"

KWAANG!!

The overwhelming force imbued in her steel prosthetic sent the mountain of a beast flying in the opposite direction in an instant.

Rin and Fafnir rushed to Zion's side. Zion brushed the dust off her clothes and spoke.

"Is everyone all right?"

"Of course we are, thanks to you!! More importantly, what about you?!"

"I'm fine. I got lucky."

"I don't think 'lucky' covers this..."

"Kkyaung!!"

Unlike Fafnir, who was overjoyed that his mother was back and simply licked Zion's cheek, Rin couldn't contain her shock. Never mind that she'd swatted away a beast that required 1,500 Strength with one hand. She didn't have a single scratch on her?

It was so absurd that Rin's brain started cobbling together the most plausible explanation it could.

The lack of wounds can be chalked up to Recovery healing her, and if she enhanced herself with Battle Aura when she threw that beast...

THUD. THUD.

But there was no time to think. The enraged beast was closing in, its massive body in tow. White fur blanketed its enormous frame, and its fangs were razor-sharp. There was no mistaking the shape — it was a wolf.

A crushing, mountain-like pressure bore down on them, and still Zion spoke as if none of it concerned her.

"Come to think of it... I forgot to use my buffs."