The descent through the lower floors of the Dungeon was usually a grueling marathon of attrition, a slow crawl through monster-infested corridors that could break the spirit of inexperienced adventurers.
But for Draco and Tsubaki, it was a sprint.
Upon reaching the twenty-fifth floor, their pace shifted from a steady march to a blur of motion.
They moved quickly, their combined strength allowing them to bypass the traditional caution required of lower-tier parties.
Beyond the "second line"…..the unofficial boundary where the Dungeon's true lethality began....the primary danger was rarely just the raw power of a single monster.
Instead, it was the treacherous terrain and the sheer, overwhelming weight of numbers.
The Dungeon sought to grind adventurers down, bleeding their stamina and resources until they were hollowed out, leaving them easy prey for the deeper, more malevolent floors.
Time, however, was their most pressing enemy.
They had lingered too long on the upper levels, and the deadline of dusk was a shadow looming over their shoulders.
They needed to make up ground if they intended to reach their objective and return to the Orario surface before the day transitioned.
An agreement had been struck during the descent: the thirty-sixth floor, the vast, arid expanse known as Sand-land, would be their furthest point.
This was the absolute limit Draco had set for Tsubaki's weapon field tests.
It wasn't a matter of capability; both were more than capable of surviving deeper.
However, the thirty-seventh floor and the abyss beyond harbored a renewed threat.
Intelligence from some adventurers they encountered had confirmed that Udaeus, the monster-rex, had re-spawned only the day before.
Confronting a Level 6 monster-rex was no casual undertaking.
For Draco, the temptation of testing his mettle against such a foe was a persistent itch, but the warnings of Aasterinian echoed in his mind.
She had been explicit about the risks of aggravating his "condition" through unnecessary high-intensity combat.
With a mental sigh, he dismissed the thought of it; the mission today was for Tsubaki.
....
In a short time, Draco and Tsubaki pushed through the Under-Resort, the humid, water-logged labyrinth of the mid-twenties, and soon reached the Under-Garden.
This narrow passage, a rare safe zone, was a riot of bioluminescent flora and exquisite, otherworldly flowers.
It offered a brief, fragrant respite from the stench of sea-monsters and damp stone.
They rested for only a few minutes….just long enough for Tsubaki to adjust the straps on her heavy traveling pack…..before plunging into the jungle ravines of the twenty-ninth floor.
Floors twenty-nine through thirty-two were a primal domain dominated by saurian monsters. Dinosaurs ranging from Level 2 to Level 4 prowled the dense foliage.
For Tsubaki, it was an ideal proving ground.
As they traversed the humid canopy, she rotated through her experimental blades, slicing through scaled hides with the ease of a master smith observing her work.
Draco acted as the vanguard that reduced any creature that ambushed them to a shower of ash and magic-stone.
At their level, these monsters were more of a nuisance than a genuine threat, yet Draco found himself growing increasingly irked.
The issue was logistics.
Their bags were overflowing.
In a rare twist of fate, the Dungeon was being unusually generous with "drops"….claws, hides, and rare parts that were essential for high-level crafting.
These materials were far too valuable to leave behind, forcing Draco to make a difficult choice.
"Another one?" Tsubaki asked, glancing back as she heard the clatter of another magic stone hitting the cavern floor.
Draco sighed, shifting his pack.
"No more room. I'm having to discard the upper-level magic stones to make space for these more valuable drops. It's a waste of Valis, but we can't carry it all."
He paused, a look of genuine annoyance crossing his features.
'I really need to look into spatial storage magic or magic items,' he mused internally.
'I've spent so much time relying on my own limited knowledge that I just assumed such conveniences didn't exist here. When I get back, I'm scouring the markets.'
He shook off the distraction and resumed sorting the spoils while Tsubaki meticulously cleaned a serrated great-sword she had just used to decapitate a bloodsaurus.
With their inventory reorganized, they pressed on, finally arriving at the threshold of the thirty-third floor: the gateway to Sand-land.
The transition was jarring.
The humid, claustrophobic greenery of the jungle floors evaporated, replaced by a sudden, searing dry heat and a horizon of undulating golden dunes.
As was his custom when entering a new environment, Draco closed his eyes and sent a pulse of magic outward….a ripple of energy designed to scout the terrain and pinpoint the signatures of hidden predators.
He recoiled slightly, his brow furrowing.
The feedback was wrong.
Usually, his pulse acted similar to a sonar, returning a vague image of the surroundings.
Here, the energy seemed to hit a series of invisible walls.
Certain patches of the desert simply swallowed the magic, assimilating the energy as if it were never there.
"What's wrong?" Tsubaki's voice was sharp, her hand already hovering near the hilt of a massive nodachi strapped to her back.
"My magic is being disrupted," Draco replied, his eyes scanning the dusty air.
"The pulse is being absorbed or refracted. I can't get a clear read on the floor."
Tsubaki relaxed slightly, though her gaze remained wary.
"It's likely the magic-infused mirages. Sand-land is famous for it. The very air here is saturated with the Dungeon's mana to create illusions. It plays hell with sensory abilities."
Draco nodded.
'So this is Sand-land' he thought.
He considered sending out a more powerful burst to overwhelm the floor's natural interference, but he hesitated.
A surge that large would be like lighting a signal fire in a dark room; every magic-sensitive monster for miles would descend upon them.
"Heh, looks like it's finally time for me to show you the value of experience," Tsubaki declared with a smirk.
She reached into her bag and pulled out two pairs of peculiar, brass-rimmed goggles fitted with smoked glass lenses.
She tossed one to Draco, and said.
"Follow me closely."
Draco caught the goggles, inspecting them with a skeptical tilt of his head.
"What are these?"
"Perception-stabilizers," Tsubaki explained, sliding her own pair over her forehead.
"Almost everything in this desert is warped by the heat and the mana. Adventurers die here because they lose their sense of direction and walk in circles until they die. These lenses filter out some unnecessary things."
Draco fitted the goggles over his eyes.
The world turned a dull, amber hue.
"I'll be honest, Tsubaki….I think I see better without them. The tint is distracting."
Tsubaki laughed, a hearty, boisterous sound that echoed off the sand cliffs.
"They also keep the grit out of your eyes during a sandstorm. Unless you've developed dragon-scales on your eyeballs, give them a chance."
Draco conceded the point with a silent nod.
He looked up at the "sky" of the floor.
Hanging from the ceiling was a massive red crystal, pulsing with rhythmic waves of heat like a literal sun.
It was the source of the floor's oppressive climate.
While the heat was beginning to make Tsubaki's skin glisten with sweat, Draco felt perfectly at home.
His dragon-kin heritage and high level granted him a great deal of resistance to high temperatures, so the searing air felt more like a warm breeze against his scales.
'I wonder if those crystals can be harvested on the way back,' he thought, his eyes glinting with curiosity.
'A concentrated heat source like that... it could be an incredible catalyst for fire-based crafts and enchantments.'
As they began their trek across the dunes, the desert proved itself to be more than just a passive obstacle.
The sand beneath their boots was loose and treacherous, shifting with every step.
Tsubaki, despite her veteran status, found the footing difficult.
She had to constantly shift her weight to avoid sinking, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Suddenly, the sand ten feet ahead erupted.
A Sand Scorpion, the size of a small carriage and the color of sun-bleached bone, burst from the dunes.
Its chitinous armor hummed with a low vibration as its barbed tail lashed out with blinding speed.
Draco reacted before the creature could fully emerge, his own tail whipping around to deflect the strike with a sharp clang.
Tsubaki lunged forward, swinging a war hammer.
However, as she brought the heavy weapon down, her lead foot slid into a hidden pocket of soft sand.
The blow lost its momentum, grazing the scorpion's head instead of shattering it.
"Careful, Tsubaki! The footing is as dangerous as the stingers!" Draco warned, stepping in to shoulder-check the beast and give her space to recover.
"I've got it!" she grunted, teeth bared in an aggressive grin.
She adjusted her stance, pivoting on her heel to bring the hammer around in a wide, sweeping arc.
The fight was a chaotic introduction to the floor's ecosystem.
The mirages weren't just visual; they seemed to mask the vibrations of the monsters until they were practically beneath their feet.
Waves of scorpions followed the first, a sea of snapping pincers and venomous barbs.
Draco held the line, his strength acting as a literal anchor for Tsubaki as she methodically tested the durability of her hammers and axes against the creatures' rock-hard carapaces.
After several minutes of sustained violence, the last scorpion dissolved into dust.
Tsubaki wiped a bead of sweat from her lip and inspected the head of her hammer.
'The sand gets into the joints of the weapons,' she noted, her voice professional.
'I'll need to adjust the seals.'
They continued, the desert falling into an eerie silence.
But Draco's senses remained on high alert.
He could feel it…a rhythmic, subterranean thrumming that was far too large to belong to a scorpion.
"Something big is coming," he announced, dropping into a low crouch.
The dune ahead didn't just shift; it collapsed.
A colossal, serpentine head rose from the earth, reaching a height of five meters.
It was a Worm Well…..a rare, apex predator of the deep floors.
Its skin was a vibrant, toxic blue, clashing violently with the golden sand, and three sets of amber eyes fixed on them with cold, predatory hunger.
Its maw was a nightmare of eighteen heat-sensing pits and rows of serrated teeth capable of swallowing a full-grown Orc in a single gulp.
"A Worm Well this far up?" Tsubaki breathed, her eyes wide not with fear, but with the thrill of a rare opportunity.
"It must have tunneled up from the thirty-seventh floor."
"Unexpected," Draco agreed, a sharp, dangerous smile crossing his face as his claws extended. "But a blessing. The hide of a Worm Well is likely worth more than half of what we have collected so far."
The beast let out a low, hissing roar that shook the very air.
"Usual plan," Draco commanded, his voice projecting a calm authority.
"I'll keep it pinned on the surface so it can't dive. You use it as a whetstone."
Tsubaki didn't need to be told twice.
She drew her largest nodachi, the steel singing as it left the sheath.
The battle lasted over thirty minutes….a grueling test of endurance.
The Worm Well was a Level 4 threat, but its ability to burrow made it notoriously difficult to kill.
Draco was forced to use his raw physical power to literally hold the beast's midsection above the sand, his muscles bulging as he wrestled the ten-meter titan.
While he locked the monster in a desperate struggle, Tsubaki became a whirlwind of steel.
She cycled through her remaining arsenal, testing the edge-retention of her blades against the rubbery, reinforced hide of the giant serpent.
The beast thrashed, its tail whipping the sand into a blinding gale, but Draco was an immovable object.
Finally, sensing the monster was nearing its end, Tsubaki delivered a devastating overhead strike that cleaved through the creature's skull.
The Worm Well let out one final, shuddering hiss before its massive form began to dissolve.
A torrent of sand rushed into the void left by its body, leaving behind a pile of valuable drops: thick, blue hide segments and a magic stone the size of a adult skull.
Tsubaki leaned on her sword, huffing for breath, her face covered in a fine layer of dust.
She looked at Draco, who stood over the spoils, barely winded, and gave a weary thumbs-up.
"Tests complete," she rasped.
Draco nodded, looking toward the horizon where the thirty-sixth floor awaited.
"Then let's finish this. We have a sunset to beat."
The remaining stretch to the thirty-sixth floor was less eventful, the creatures they encountered proving to be no match for their combined strength.
A/N: Honestly, I don't know where I was going with this part, initially the idea was for some kind of incident to occur that would pull them closer, but I soon got another silly idea and went with it.
Although, Tsubaki is crazy about her craft, I don't think that she has a completely reckless character.
I mean, she doesn't seem crazy enough to tackle a monster-rex like Undeus with just Draco to test her weapons right?...