The New Gate (LN)

The following day, Shin’s party was once again standing before the gate to the Castle of the Depths .

“I’d sure love to be done with this place today . ”

“That’s right . Let’s proceed while keeping time loss to a minimum . ”

Probably because of what happened the day before, Schnee looked less concerned and more eager .

All party members agreed with her; Filma and Shibaid looked in better shape than usual too .

“… . hey, Shin . Are you really sure that nothing happened yesterday, before I arrived?”

“I explained already, didn’t I? That we might find something related to me . ”

“But despite that, aren’t master and Filma acting kind of weird?”

“No, I don’t think so . Really . ”

“… . very suspicious…”

Under Tiera’s inquisitive stare, Shin was in a cold sweat, trying his best to control his facial expressions .

He had already told Tiera about what Schnee had felt . He couldn’t tell her, however, that he had also hugged Schnee and made her cry . Shin also wanted to forget about the fact that Filma and Shibaid had been watching .

“Well, I’m not going to ask anymore…but don’t hide really important things from me, okay? I told you about my biggest secret after all . ”

“I know, and I told you about the most important part . There’s something that Schnee seems to feel, but the others don’t . I don’t either . Can you feel something peculiar other than the miasma, Tiera?”

“With all the miasma, I feel that my other senses are dulled, but…well, now that you mention it, other than feeling worried, I feel like…there’s something pulling me? Something like that, but just vaguely…”

Tiera spoke while looking at the miasma lightly swaying beyond the gate .

Shin trusted Tiera’s sharp senses, so he found her mention of feeling something pulling at her a bit strange .

“Schnee feels like I might disappear, but you feel something pulling at you . Hmm…”

If Shin was the one being pulled, Schnee’s sensation would become more realistic, but Tiera said that she felt like she was the one being pulled .

Shin couldn’t make anything of it yet .

“It’s pointless to simply worry about it here . We’ll know if we go . ”

“Indeed, that is the only way . ”

Shin was deep in thought, his head cocked to one side, but Filma and Shibaid prodded him . Thinking about it wouldn’t lead to any answers .

“Right, we’ll just go and see what happens . ”

Just like the day before, the group used the『Miracle Drug of Holy Skies』and entered the castle .

Using the map, they proceeded quickly up to a certain point: then Shin and Schnee split up to explore and fill the remaining blank portions of the map, all the while maintaining communication via Mind Chat .

During the exploration of the dungeon, Schnee was the first one to notice something unusual .

“There aren’t any Chimeras . ”

“Right…we’re already pretty far into the dungeon, this doesn’t feel right . ”

“I can’t find any miasma-infected monsters either . With this much miasma filling the dungeon, it’s strange that the monsters are unaffected . ”

The group was already past the midpoint of the dungeon, but had not yet encountered any monsters possessed or infected by miasma: Shin couldn’t rule it out as just their imagination anymore .

Except for the miasma hanging heavily throughout, the dungeon seemed absolutely normal .

“I guess this is different than all the dungeons we’ve explored before . Could that also be the reason why Schnee and Tiera feel something out of the ordinary?”

“It could be . Trypophobia’s bizarre display too could have been the product of something other than miasma . ”

Even if affected by miasma, the 【Analyse】display had never looked bugged before .

Shin thought that the transformation from a game into reality might be a reason for the strange behavior .

Judging from the condition of the dungeon’s monsters however, there was a considerable chance that something other than miasma lay in wait .

“Did something like this happen before?”

“No, I cannot recall anything of the sort . ”

Shibaid shook his head in response to Filma’s question .

Schnee, Tiera, and of course, Shin shook their heads as well .

“I thought something had happened while I was sleeping, but it looks like that’s not the case . Anyway, we can just go on and see, huh . It’s starting to feel like going to face a boss we’ve never fought before . ”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, that’s it . ”

Filma shrugged and Shin agreed with her assessment . The current situation wasn’t completely the same, but prior to facing a boss for the first time he would also think about how it would act or what type of enemy it would be . The only way to know was to fight .

Filma’s conclusion was not far from the truth .

“Let’s go, we have to find the route to the boss chamber today . ”

The party advanced deeper in the dungeon . Now well past the middle point, they descended to what they supposed was the lower area of the dungeon — if Shin’s memory was correct . They could not detect any changes in the monsters they encountered though .

Just like the upper and middle areas, miasma leaked from the walls and floor .

Shin and Schnee led, followed by the rest of the party . Progress was time consuming, but they were not hindered by obstacles like the Trypophobia .

After descending the stairs to yet another floor, Shin’s group faced a large, 5 mels tall, 4 mels wide door, intricately adorned with gorgeous, pompous decorations .

“This is…ice?”

The door, probably leading to Ishkar’s throne room, was covered by transparent crystal . Shin touched it warily and felt a cool sensation .

“Should we try to melt it?”

“No, it already took plenty of time to arrive here . Let’s go inside tomorrow . ”

Considering who they were going to face, Shin prioritized keeping everyone’s condition in top form .

The group teleported to the dungeon’s entrance with a crystal and rested in the magic-powered vessel . The next day, after making sure that no one was feeling unwell, they quickly navigated to the majestic door they had stopped at the day before .