May 15th, Saturday, 6:27 AM.
“Brother, you don’t look very well. Do you want Hill to give you a massage? It’s very effective for relieving eye strain.”
“Thanks… I’m fine. I’m just in a bad state because I stayed up too late playing games with you last night. My skills were so bad that it made me too frustrated to sleep.”
“Hehe, you still need to practice diligently to surpass a player like Hill, who’s in the top 100 of the ladder rankings. Gurgle, gurgle… Ptu!”
Siloque and Hill, the two siblings, were brushing their teeth.
Siloque glanced at himself in the mirror.
He did indeed have some dark circles under his eyes, and he had dyed his hair back to black yesterday afternoon before Hill returned.
Losing twenty consecutive rounds of Metal Gear to Hill was only one reason for his state; the other was anxiety.
‘A woman’s intuition is truly terrifying.’
Last night, Siloque had tossed and turned in bed, unable to figure out how Kersey had seen through his identity.
The only possibility he could think of was that one moment of close contact when he moved the goods to protect Kersey; she must have noticed something then.
Yesterday, after Kersey asked if he was the Teacher, what else could Siloque do besides play dumb, reply with “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and immediately slip away?
‘She’ll probably gradually forget about it (at least, I hope so).’
However, it was a relief that she recognized him as the Teacher and not as Siloque.
The cross-dressing disguise was still useful… right?
***
There was a reason for waking up so early; they had to head to the Dungeon at 7:30 AM.
First, they would go to Asmodi’s shop to purchase special teleportation Sacred Tools.
Then, they had to hurry and reach the vicinity of the Boss Room in D Area, Floor 2 before 8:15 AM.
Siloque and Hill stayed far away from the road leading to the Boss Room.
They climbed a dirt slope and found a thicket of bushes about the height of an average person, then hid under the shade of the trees there.
This was an excellent position to observe the road below from above.
What Siloque needed to do was wait for someone.
Or rather, wait for a Strategy Group.
The plan was simple.
At 8:30 AM, a frontline Strategy Group would head to the lower floors.
With Siloque and Hill’s current levels, they naturally couldn’t defeat the Boss of the third floor.
The only exception would be using the [Pure Black Annihilation Ray] skill, but that would not only “paralyze” him but might also change the Dungeon’s terrain again.
Therefore, they needed to scavenge an opportunity.
They would wait for that team to defeat the Boss and, before the Boss could respawn, slip into the third floor.
This was the reason for the early start.
‘Plan complete.’
“Ugh… Brother, Hill is so sleepy…”
Hill yawned slightly, dressed in light armor and durable trousers—her usual outfit for entering the Dungeon.
“Just think of it as a limited-time bonus reward that you have to wake up early for.”
“What bonus? Brother, you’re such a big liar.”
“Didn’t you insist on coming along yourself?”
When Siloque explained the plan to Hill a few days ago, her eyes had immediately lit up as she agreed.
Even if Hill hadn’t volunteered to follow him, Siloque would have asked her anyway.
The execution of the plan would go much more smoothly with Hill’s help.
“I can’t help it. Hill has to protect her brother, after all… ah.”
Hill suddenly noticed her clothes.
Her white and silver equipment was very conspicuous among the green bushes.
“Brother, Hill didn’t bring any change of clothes.”
“I brought some, but it’s too late now.”
Siloque could already hear the footsteps of several people approaching.
They should be within visual range soon.
“Sorry…”
Siloque opened the front of his leather coat and wrapped it around Hill, who was crouching beside him.
She gave Siloque a mischievous grin and leaned in close, hiding her entire body inside the coat.
However, the light armor she was wearing was still quite hard; Siloque felt it poking him painfully.
“This counts as a benefit… wait, maybe not. There’s too little skin-to-skin contact…” Hill muttered to herself.
Siloque simply held her a bit tighter, and the girl finally settled down.
“If you think our concealment isn’t enough, you could just activate .”
“Shh, they’re here!”
After whispering, Hill placed a finger in front of her lips.
The two of them immediately crouched lower.
At that moment, they could hear faint, rhythmic footsteps approaching.
Shortly after, the silhouettes of the team appeared on the winding path ahead.
Every member was a Warrior.
They wore uniform orange-yellow metal armor, though the rest of their equipment had its own unique characteristics.
Everyone was chatting happily as if they were on an outing.
Each piece of equipment was engraved with an orange pattern belonging to their Guild.
They were the “doormen” Siloque was waiting for.
They were members of the frontline Strategy Group, Orange Soda—the smallest Guild with only eleven members.
Under the breathless watch of the two siblings, the four heavily armed warriors walked past the path below, the metal of their armor clashing and their boots thudding.
Finally, they opened the door to the Boss Room.
Next, they just had to wait for them to finish the Boss fight, and Siloque and Hill could follow them down.
“…Brother, they look so funny…”
Hill, wrapped in Siloque’s coat, whispered.
“It can’t be helped. The Guild Master back then just liked drinking orange soda, so he started the Guild. The main members are all his friends. Don’t let their appearance fool you; they’re all good people, and the atmosphere is quite nice.”
“That’s so casual… Hill definitely wouldn’t want to join.”
Actually, they could have changed the name.
However, the Guild Master and the other members felt that ‘an Explorer’s mission is to explore; everything else is trivial!’
With their pure spirit of exploration, they were too lazy to change the name, so it stayed that way.
Compared to other chuunibyou-sounding Strategy Group Guilds like Corona Nightmare, K.P.A Knight Union, Blood Mourning Death, or Blue Rose, Orange Soda stood out like a Husky in a pack of wolves.
After waiting for less than a minute—perhaps not even thirty seconds—the sound of clashing weapons inside the Boss Room vanished completely.
Once they were sure there was no more movement inside, the two approached the Boss Room door and cautiously pushed it open to look inside.
“It stinks! Brother, it stinks so bad!”
Hill pinched her nose, the scent so pungent it made her eyes water.
“The way you’re saying that makes it sound like I’m the one who stinks.”
“Brother doesn’t stink! It’s this room… ugh… so disgusting.”
The moment the door opened, they were hit by a suffocating stench of rotten eggs and sewage-tinged fishy rot.
“Can’t stand it? …Put this on.”
Siloque helped Hill put on a gas mask first, then put one on himself.
“Mph… hmm? It doesn’t smell anymore, it’s just a bit stuffy. Does it look cool?”
Hill used the smooth, shiny surface of the door as a mirror to admire her look with the mask on.
The Second Floor gatekeeper Boss, Rotten Treant Deleus, had already been reduced to scattered chunks of wood and sawdust.
Before Siloque and Hill could get a good look at the remains, the Boss’s entire body turned to dust and disappeared.
Its specialty was releasing large-scale toxic fog attacks.
However, as long as one prepared enough Antidote, the Boss was just a clumsy health-bar monster—a giant punching bag.
The effect of the toxic fog had disappeared long ago with the Boss; the lingering smell carried no harmful effects, it was just incredibly foul.
Hill activated her skill and did a quick sweep of the room.
Finding nothing, she returned to Siloque’s side.
“Hill thought there would be something good in the Treasure Chest… but it turned out to be just weeds…”
Hill’s shoulders slumped as she kicked a small stone on the ground.
“That’s why I told you not to expect too much. We’ll open Treasure Chests later. For now, let’s head to the third floor.”
“Oh…”
The Treasure Chest in the Boss Room was a fixed chest that respawned after a certain period.
There were no traps, and the members of Orange Soda had no interest in opening it.
It was just that Hill’s luck wasn’t very good.
Of all things, she got the most useless weeds.
‘I feel like whenever Hill and I come to the Dungeon, our luck stat drops, even though she never has to hit the pity rate in her gacha games.’
In this hitchhiking fashion, Siloque and Hill passed through the spiral staircase leading down from the Second Floor to the third floor.
Hill ran ahead, her two long twin-tails swaying, casting faint specks of light in the dim hallway like an elf wearing a gas mask.
Hill ran all the way to the large door at the end of the spiral staircase.
“Brother, what kind of place is the third floor?”
“Let me think… It’s very humid, and thick fog rolls in at night. It’s quite inconvenient to travel between areas.”
“Hill doesn’t want to get her clothes wet…”
She placed her hand on the relief in the center of the door.
After pressing down, she opened the door to the third floor, where the recommended safety level for exploration was Level 20.