First of all.
At the edge of the platform at the bottom of the pit, Lefiya discovered a cave that seemed to lead to another place.
The inside was also full of traces of artificial excavation.
Not only was the ground paved with the same pale stones, but the walls on both sides and the ceiling, about two to three meters high, showed obvious signs of finishing. It was not the rough, naturally formed pitted caves of the Dungeon seen before.
Small clusters of fluorescent light were packed into glass bottles and placed high on the walls to serve as light sources, filling the interior with a cold, pale blue hue.
On both sides of the cave.
From time to time, doors and windows could be seen, though most were somewhat dilapidated.
Inside were places that looked like dormitories, with rows of three-tiered bunk beds, many of which still had the corpses of Goblins lying on them.
There were also larger areas that appeared to be warehouses.
Inside were stacked barrels of some viscous liquid. Filvis took a glance and said this was "food" produced from a Pantry.
[Pantry].
A special type of "terrain" existing in the Dungeon, usually appearing in the deepest parts of a floor. Generally, it is a huge and deep cavern containing towering quartz columns that secrete a liquid of particularly high nutritional value—it is said that Adventurers can eat it too.
But no one would probably want to eat that kind of thing.
It is said that all Monsters on the entire floor rely on this stuff to "feed."
"Monsters eat people too, right?"
"Yes."
Monsters consuming the bodies of Adventurers is a long-proven fact. Besides that, Monsters also eat Magic Stones, which leads to the creation of so-called "Enhanced Species."
This not only greatly increases the individual's strength but also raises their intelligence level, even allowing them to actively command other Monsters to hunt Adventurers.
Some Enhanced Species appearing in the Lower or Deep Levels even require the Guild to specifically commission powerful exploration Familias to dispatch parties of at least Level 3 or Level 4 Adventurers to deal with them. If they are not exterminated for a long time, it is very easy to cause extremely serious casualty incidents.
"[Monster Feast] combined with [Enhanced Species] is the nightmare Adventurers are most likely to encounter in the Dungeon."
Filvis murmured.
The so-called [Monster Feast] is a malicious act of the Dungeon against Adventurers. It manifests as a continuous acceleration of Monster spawn rates around the Adventurers, as well as gathering other surrounding Monsters.
Using sheer numbers to drive Adventurers to a dead end, leaving them absolutely no time to breathe.
And in this process.
Because the Magic Stones inside the killed Monsters cannot be harvested, the Monster corpses and Magic Stones left in place are very likely to trigger the birth of an "Enhanced Species," thereby causing a chain reaction "secondary disaster."
Speaking of this.
Filvis seemed to recall something, and for a split second, her face became incomparably hideous.
The [Nightmare on the 27th Floor] from two years ago. That was a past far more terrifying than the total annihilation of the Astrea Familia in the Dungeon one year ago.
Because Astrea almost lost all members of a single Familia.
Whereas the [Nightmare on the 27th Floor] saw hundreds upon thousands of Adventurers lose their lives in that mountain of corpses and sea of blood.
Even the Floor Boss located on the 27th Floor at the time, the [Monster Rex: Amphisbaena], was disturbed. A suicide-style super-large-scale monster offering planned by the remnants of the Dark Familia gathered almost all the Monsters on the entire floor to one spot, which in turn triggered a continuous [Monster Feast] and the appearance of [Enhanced Species].
This caused the subsequent rescue troops to also fall deep into it.
Filvis was one of the "survivors" at that time. All of the Elf girl's Familia companions, including the former captain of the Dionysus Familia and the seniors who had guided her to become an Adventurer and grow to this day, all perished in that disaster.
She was also told to survive and run away.
But what Filvis would never have imagined was that she herself, and her Deity, had actually been on "their (Dark Familia's)" side from the very beginning.
Thus, distortion and collapse began to take root and sprout in the girl's heart.
"Are you alright, Miss Filvis?"
"N-No... I'm fine..."
The girl's abnormality caught Lefiya's attention. In response, Filvis, coming back to her senses, could only quickly turn her head away. For a moment, she even wanted to run away; she absolutely did not want her compatriot to see such a filthy side of herself.
Fortunately.
Lefiya did not press further, because Isagi stopped her with a look.
The boy was obviously the type who knew how to use silence to comfort others. For this, Filvis was grateful to him from the bottom of her heart.
The three continued to explore.
This was probably the true interior of the border fortress. It was mostly filled with dead silence, though occasionally they would encounter a few Kobold Monsters like the ones found in the pit earlier.
As they reached the end, Lefiya, while digging for Magic Stones, also incidentally made another "major discovery."
That was a parchment scroll written in Common, held in the hand of a certain dead Goblin Knight found on the platform at the bottom of the pit earlier.
The Elf girl realized it was a "Drop Item" only after she dug out its Magic Stone and found that the Monster's corpse had turned to ash, but this thing remained.
Besides that.
After entering the fortress interior, they found two other parchment scrolls of a similar type in some corners.
The text written on them was Common, but it was crooked and illegible, requiring Isagi to activate his [Fragmented Narrative] magic.
[Border Report I: The birth of the King also brought the faith of the Blue Moon. Therefore, the Knights always take the Saint to the border and go to the upper layers for pilgrimage. This is to satisfy the foreign Saints' illusory dream of chasing light, and it is also an important ritual that arose in the Kingdom only after the arrival of the King and the Pale.]
[Border Report II: The soldiers of the border occasionally perform sorties. They need to go to the camp on the upper layer to guard the important holy ground where the Knights and Saints hold rituals, though they do not know why only the Knight always returns bathed in blood.]
[Border Report III: The soldiers of the Kingdom also want to become Generals, but before that, they must first become Knights. Only Goblins who understand what "love" is can become strong. This is the holy law left by the King.]
"Hmm..."
"Hmm..."
"..."
The two Elf girls leaned in, listening to the "information" Isagi translated for them, and fell into deep thought.
"I've got it!"
Lefiya used her little brain and immediately thought of what was going on!!
Connecting it to previous encounters, and the quest item called "Saintess's Sigil" along with its description, there is only one truth!!
"Could it be that the Goblin Knights sent the Saints they protected to be eaten by that Two-Headed Lizard?!"
"This is the so-called pilgrimage ritual. And the Knight who lost the Saint locks away his heart and love from then on, allowing him to become a General and a true powerhouse!!"
The [Glimmer Knight] we encountered on the 2nd Floor earlier.
He must have been a guy who, after learning the truth, was unwilling to do that. So he fled there with the Saint, but was eventually hunted down by other Goblin Knights. In the end, the Saint still died, causing him to lose his faith!
What a pair of star-crossed lovers!!
You don't say, you really don't say.
Isagi felt that Lefiya's guess might actually be spot on!
Meanwhile, Filvis had already given up thinking. After all, Goblins had even established a kingdom, so what if there was some love and hate? Isn't that normal... Normal my foot!!
Watching Isagi and Lefiya's serious expressions of "it must be so," the Elf girl fell into skepticism about the world.
For a very brief moment.
She wondered if she had been under too much pressure for too long and was having a completely absurd dream.
"By the way, that Goblin [Pale King] is too wicked."
Lefiya was still muttering.
Making the Knights fall in love with the foreign Saints first, respecting and protecting them incomparably, only to make them personally send them to be eaten by that Two-Headed Lizard in the end.
Isn't this just like those villain organizations in stories that make two people help and support each other, becoming intimate like family, only to force them to kill each other in the end to cultivate a "strong warrior"?!
The Elf girl critiqued the Dungeon's "plot."
Not long after.
The three finally left the interior of the fortress and saw the exit in that long cave full of forks.
This was also the bottom of a pit.
Except it was much smaller than the previous one, about the size of a basketball court. In the center of the ground, there was a circular iron door that looked like a sewer manhole cover.
And the moment the three walked inside, a colossal object descended from the sky once again.
————————!!!
It was not a BOSS.
Because neither Isagi nor the two Elf girls had the opponent's name surface in their minds.
Moreover, Isagi realized the guy in front of him was actually an "old friend."
By the light of the Magic Stone lamp.
A body huge, exceeding two meters, covered in layer upon layer of messy armor plates, wrapping itself up like an iron ball with a big stomach. Holding a thick spiked club, it roared and climbed up from the ground just like that.
It was the "Goblin Guard" that blocked his door on the 1st Floor! Only this one, by the looks of it, should be a "Kobold" variant?!
After all, that dog head full of dirty fur didn't look like a Goblin no matter how you looked at it.
Sure enough, was the guy I killed at the very beginning really just an elite mob? Thankfully, the Dungeon at least swapped the model instead of just repainting it and using it again.
"Three minutes."
Isagi stated a time.
He had already seen that in the left claw of the "Kobold Guard," it was holding the corpse of a Kobold Saint wearing beautiful robes. And hanging around its neck was exactly the "Saintess's Sigil" he was currently missing to complete the set.
Then the next thing to do was very simple.
Kill this guy, then go open the BOSS behind the Fog Gate on the 4th Floor, and conquer it!
___
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