Where are they?
Looking around, there was no sign of the girls.
Isagi looked at the mess outside the garden and quickly realized that while he was trapped in the "Little Black Room" just now, Ryuu-senpai and the others must have also experienced a battle.
Judging by the results, some accident must have occurred, causing them to leave.
Were they surrounded by monsters?
Or perhaps they encountered some powerful monster and had no choice but to slip away first?
Amidst his thoughts.
Isagi picked up all the equipment that the Red Spirit had just exploded out. After a casual glance, he stored it all inside his cloak—fortunately, he had sought out Miss Asfi to reinforce it before coming; otherwise, there wouldn't have been enough space.
Only then did he take another tour around the area, but he didn't find the "mark" he had agreed upon with the girls earlier.
Thinking that either they left too hastily, or...
It couldn't be that the monsters were so smart they picked it up, right?!
That would be a bit too ridiculous!!
Next.
Isagi decided to actively search for his missing teammates rather than wait in place.
Because if the situation wasn't urgent, and they had left voluntarily thinking they would come back to find him, it was impossible for them not to leave a mark.
In this situation, some accident must have occurred suddenly.
Lost in thought.
Isagi left the garden and continued to explore forward while holding a notebook in his hand, conducting rough map drawing.
Overall, the [Central Tower] before him really seemed like the interior of some gigantic castle.
It was composed of massive rooms and corridors extending in all directions.
Between the corridors, there were staircases connecting up and down, as well as plazas and courtyards that seemed to serve as public areas, along with a large number of elevators—but they were all destroyed and completely unusable.
Every now and then.
Isagi also found some "special" buildings.
For example, a bar room that looked like it had a wide dance floor; a place full of luxurious booths and sofas, similar to a high-class clubhouse or salon; a hall surrounding a huge stage, though who knows if operas or something else were once performed here;
There was even a swimming pool!
As well as a church where statues of the [Pale King] and a giant [Blue Moon] stood tall.
It was just that in these places now, there wasn't a single Goblin.
What entered his vision were still the Goblin arms, legs, and torsos that had been neatly severed and stacked together, devoid of heads.
The surroundings were always dead silent.
More than half of his field of vision was swallowed by darkness. The pale fluorescent light always appeared in clusters, separated by far distances, barely illuminating the small areas around them.
And as he continued deeper, slowly, a faint white mist began to emerge around him.
Isagi knew this was the original "characteristic" of the Dungeon. Such pale mist permeated the 12th Floor, greatly affecting the senses of adventurers.
And at any time and place.
Within the mist, monsters would suddenly appear and attack him!
Zzzzt!
Deep purple lightning flashed past.
At this moment, Isagi held the [Twin Thunder Hammers] dropped by the Goblin General previously in his left hand. In the blink of an eye, he smashed the head of a monster that had been pulled in front of him by the purple lightning.
Squelch!
The short monster made a somewhat disgusting sound as its head exploded directly under this hammer blow, and it fell to the ground.
There were already several corpses of this type of monster around.
Their entire bodies were wrapped in sky-blue fabric, even their heads, looking just like rabbit dolls sewn from expensive cloth. At a glance, those long ears were truly beautiful and cute.
They held short weapons, mostly daggers or small knives.
There were also short crossbows.
Like Goblins, they always swarmed in groups, their speed quite agile, always launching attacks at him without knowing fear.
So troublesome. Much more troublesome than dealing with Goblins.
Because these guys didn't fear death at all. Sometimes, even if they let their heads be smashed or chopped off, they would still strive to land a cut on him.
Isagi knew.
This was also a monster that would appear in the Middle Floors, named "Almiraj," or perhaps "Rabbit Person." Its habits were indeed somewhat similar to Goblins; the individuals were very weak, but if they were in a group, they would become quite troublesome.
As he went deeper, the number of these rabbit monsters increased.
Occasionally, they would appear together with the Hellhounds encountered previously, commanding them to launch attacks at him.
After dealing with several waves of these guys.
Isagi suddenly discovered a good number of monster corpses scattered in the corridor ahead.
Most of them had poison arrows sticking out of their bodies. The corpses presented a distinct greenish-purple color, appearing as if they were about to melt, with flesh and blood turning into puddles of slime. A small portion had their throats slit by daggers.
Wait.
The air was also filled with a certain very familiar stench. Isagi quickly discovered traces of scattered Dung Pellets among these monster corpses.
Clearly, this was not the girls' masterpiece.
Isagi continued forward, and subsequently saw the guy sitting among many monster corpses, resting.
"Ah... long time no see, adventurer."
The Goblin wrapped in gray rags spoke with a hoarse voice. Those purulent, filthy eyes full of bloodshot veins hidden under the hood looked over at him simultaneously.
Pal.
After Isagi had subjugated the [Lightless King], this guy had followed along to the [Management Layer] and helped open the shortcut leading to the [Kingdom Core], after which he disappeared without a trace.
He didn't expect him to suddenly appear here again.
"You are looking for your missing partners? Hmm... Pal thinks they might have gone further down. Those Witches of the Church master a power called Miracles. Among them, the Miracle named [Drop Shaft] can crack the ground open, causing Goblins to fall to the deeper lower floors..."
Pal provided a considerably important clue.
[Drop Shaft]?
Isagi naturally knew that this was a certain type of accidental event that would appear after the Middle Floors.
"However, the King's power has returned, so the Miracles of those guys cannot affect the 12th Floor. Pal believes your companions would have fallen to the 11th Floor at most."
"Just as well. The remaining nobles are holding a ceremony to resurrect the King on the 11th Floor. Pal wants to go down too. Let's go together, adventurer. What do you think?"
Of course, no problem.
Just like that, he gained an NPC teammate, and this guy was actually quite strong!
It seemed like he wasn't pretending anymore.
As a guide, Pal not only walked in front to lead the way, but the combat power he displayed after encountering monsters was also quite astonishing.
Isagi even found that he had to focus completely to barely capture the opponent's movement trajectory.
Pal's speed was very fast.
At least at the level of Lv.4, perhaps a bit slower than Ryuu-senpai and Anya—having frequently trained with the two girls, he could still tell.
He held a small knife in his right hand and a short crossbow in his left. His attacks were swift and fierce.
He would also throw poisonous Dung Pellets.
Just like some kind of poison gas bomb, the thick, foul aura spreading in the white mist forced even Isagi to avoid its brunt.
F*ck!
On him, one really couldn't see the upright and honest knightly spirit of the previous Goblins. On the contrary, this guy was as wretched and despicable as possible.
His means of dealing with monsters simply used every extreme method.
With a powerful teammate who also knew the way, the speed of advancement instantly increased quite a bit.
As they continued downwards, the surrounding mist became heavier. At the same time, Isagi discovered that the monsters they encountered also gradually began to become somewhat strange.
It was still Hellhounds and the rabbits named "Almiraj."
However.
These guys slowly transitioned from their original "Beast" appearance, gradually gaining a "Human Form."
The Hellhounds with the appearance of giant wolves gradually stood up, looking just like werewolves.
The Rabbit People were the same. Aside from still having long rabbit ears under the magnificent headgear, they had gradually become no different from humans.
Yet what was unsettling was that their bodies remained those of beasts, completely twisting their bodies forcibly to imitate the posture of humans.
Thus, it gave people an extremely grotesque feeling.
And with such changes, these monsters became much stronger, and also much crazier.
"Anthropomorphic."
Pal provided an explanation.
"The guys below worship the Church. Its Miracles can turn beasts into the appearance of humans—do not doubt, it is exactly adventurers like you."
"Therefore, they will imitate humans' behavior, speech, and everything else."
"And they believe that the closer they are to humans, the more they will obtain powerful strength..."
You know a lot.
Isagi realized that Pal seemed to understand the situation after the Middle Floors quite well.
Looking at the small Goblin currently completely wrapped in tattered cloth robes, he remembered the Lore Item he obtained earlier—
The [Pale King] had launched multiple expeditions towards the Middle Floors, all of which ended in failure, resulting in heavy casualties among the soldiers and knights. Only a minority of guys survived and returned to the Kingdom.
Speaking of which, the Pal before him wouldn't happen to be one of them, right...
...
Falling, falling, constantly falling.
Lefiya imitated Isagi, constantly utilizing the grappling hook to fix her body between the cracked rock walls, then slowly descended.
Finally.
When the three finally landed on the ground, they found that the surroundings were entirely filled with thick white mist.
Where is this?
It was definitely a deeper floor, so...
"Let's go up."
As the Familia senior, Ryuu took over the duties of the Isagi Squad captain and began to issue commands.
This was the only choice.
Because continuing downwards, they simply didn't know where they would go.
Thus, after a long, long time—
As the girls walked past several staircases leading upwards, Tiona seemed to sense something and looked towards one side of the corridor.
"Sister?!"
In the mist, several human figures appeared. Among them were the Dwarf uncle holding a greatshield like a steel fortress, the Werewolf youth covered in blood, and Tione, the Amazon girl who was also a twin but had a tall and voluptuous figure completely different from her own sister.
As well as the Elf older sister; they all appeared before everyone's eyes.
"Eh?!"
"Why are you guys here?"
"It's a long story..."
Gareth sighed. At the same time, his resolute eyes under the helmet were constantly observing the surroundings, and he quickly shouted loudly.
"Watch out for the guy in the mist first!"
"?"
It was also only then that the girls realized something existed in the dense fog.
That was.
A giant wolf standing upright like a tall, brawny man—
[Anthropomorphic Saint Vanguard].
____
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