"Now, the desert on the eleventh basement floor?"
"Grull?"

　Seto croaks his head at Elena's words with a small smile.
　On his back, Yero was also leaning his head, wagging his equally small tail.
　Facing Elena, Ray looks around with a wry smile.
　The first thing you see is the earth's ground and falling stones. The ceiling is covered with stalactites, which glow faintly along with the walls.
　It's not a desert, to all appearance.
　No wonder. This is the tenth basement level of the dungeon. The hierarchy of deserts that Elena spoke of was only from the 11th basement, and in order to do so, we must first capture this 10th basement.

"You may look forward to it, but the desert is down here."
"Well, of course I know it. But I really don't care."

　Lei nods like Seto and Yero at Elena's muttering as she walks out of the staircase with the wizards.
　I've been thinking about it since the day before, because Elena looked strangely excited about the desert.

"Why do you care so much about the desert hierarchy?"
"It's not that unusual," But I've never been to a desert. Even though it's not a real desert, it's good to see it with your own eyes."
"...I don't think it's that good."
"Huh? If that's the case, has Ray ever seen a desert?"

　The Lays naturally stand out because they are talking. Towards Wind Butt, who was about to attack the conspicuous Ray from behind, he takes the skewer of Lizard Man from the mistling and throws it today.
　A wooden skewer, which was not very suitable for a weapon, was thrown by Ray. The skewers, which had been cut open, pierced the body of Wind Butt, who was about to open his mouth and let loose Wind Arrow, and stitched into the wall of the cave.
　Wielding a death-size blade, Ray responds to Elena, holding the enemy's breath like a task.

"I don't know first hand, either. I don't think it's accurate because I've heard it from people and read it in books, but it seems to be a very severe environment."
"Is it a sea of sand? It's a magnificent view."
"Oh, what about that?"

　When Ray was in Japan, he saw not only deserts but also deserts that Elena had mentioned, but also deserts that come to mind when they were called deserts are rare, with more soil and rocks.

(However, there is no way that the dungeon can understand the world's common sense.)

　The sun exists in the dungeon in the first place, as if it were a magical world. The notion that desert is a sea of sand is not necessarily a mistake.

"Roll-roll-roll-roll!"

　As Ray moves on thinking like that, Seto suddenly barks high.
　Two water poloes are released at the same time. They fly away and hit the Mad Puppet they were about to emerge from the corner, scattering mud around them.

"All right, Seto. You did a great job."
"Grull".

　a sweet throat in one's stroke of the set
　Just as he gathers the mud and packs it into an empty barrel, pulls out the magic stone and tries to store it in a mistling, Ray looks around him as if he had noticed something.
　Only myself and Seto, and two and two of Elena and Yero are here. Fortunately, there are no other adventurers around, and I think it's time to absorb the magical stones.

"... Elena, I'm sorry I'm looking forward to the desert, but wait a minute."
"What's the matter? What happened?"
"I want to finish absorbing the magical stones before long."

　Hearing the words, Elena also looks around. Of course, however, there is no sign of anyone but themselves.

"Well, surely we ought to finish absorbing the magical stones before long." Especially from now on, there is a possibility of encountering another species of anomaly."
"What a strange species? Come to think of it, we haven't met since Stone Puppet."

　muttering in Elena's words, he took the magic stone out of the mistling. Ray now has two magical stones in his hand: the Seal Worm, the Stone Puppet, the Mad Puppet and the Wind Butt.
　I took out one of Wind Butt's magical stones and gave it to Seto as a trial."

"Glu".

　fail to master skills and let out a despondent cry
　Ray also cuts and absorbs the magical stones in death size, but similarly does not acquire any skills.
　Furthermore, this was not the only. Seal Worm, Stone Puppet, and Mad Puppet's magical stones, Set and Death Size had absorbed a total of four magical stones, but could not master any skills.

"...Really..."

　muttered Ray leaning against the wall in shock.
　It seems to have been a great shock that he could not master any of the eight magical stones in total.

"Glu".

　As soon as she says sorry, Seto rubs her face against Ray, making a small sound.
　Even Seto wanted to please Ray by acquiring skills if possible. However, as far as absorbing magical stones is concerned, I don't know if I can acquire skills until I actually absorb them. As a trend, a powerful monster's magic stone is easy to acquire, but that's not necessarily the case either. And if you think you've learned skills from rare goblin magical stones, you can also learn skills from less powerful monsters.

"No, don't worry. There's nothing wrong with this matter. I dare say what is wrong with you is that you happen to happen."

　Ray, who is healed by the healthy appearance of Seto, scratches his head.

"Grull".

　He must have understood that Ray had recovered. Seto also purges happily and pushes his head against him as if he were scratching more.

"Squeak!"

　He must have been envious of Seto's appearance. Yero also lands on Seto's head flapping his wings.
　She looks up and cries out, "Pat yourself."

"Well, indeed, I've been too concerned with Seto. Thank you."
"Squeak!"

　Realizing that he is comforting himself, Ray caresses Yero on the throat.
　That feeling must be pleasant. Yero rejoices with Seto.
　After about five minutes of caressing Seto with his right hand and Yero with his left hand, Ray's hand stops to release them.

"Now, shall we move on?" I'd rather play with Seto and Yero if I could, but that would only make the road to the desert on the 11th basement a long way."
"Glu?"

　He gently caresses Seto's head, asking if it's all over, and opens his mouth to Elena, who was watching over them.

"I'm sorry, I've shown you something pitiful."

　For Ray, he says so, somewhat ashamed of his depressed appearance, but somehow Elena shakes her head with a small smile around her mouth.

"Don't worry. To show a pathetic appearance would mean that you are being so considerate of the other person. Then I would welcome him, and I wouldn't hate him.""...I'm ashamed to see him in such a pathetic way."

　Ray murmured with a sigh, but Elena reached out without worrying about it.
　Elena caresses Ray's red hair without a hood, just as Ray caresses Seto.
　A few seconds later, perhaps satisfied, Elena's hand leaves Ray's head.

"Well, my energy has fully recovered from my interaction with Ray, so let's move on to the bottom right away. If you go straight down this passage, you will find a number of small rooms, one of which leads further into the back."
"In other words, what about the other rooms?"
"It's a dead end, according to the map." ...and perhaps a trap or something."

　Ray frowns slightly at Elena's suggestion.
　I wasn't particularly offended by what Elena said. The reason why I frowned was that the map didn't show where the trap was, even though I bought it for a certain amount of money to buy it.
　Even if it's a trap set up in the aisle, if it's something like a monster, it's better to map the trap that's been set from the beginning as a dungeon.
　But there was also Ray's misconception about this.
　It's not known why, but the traps set in themselves sometimes move randomly. There is disagreement among adventurers as well, but it is said that it is probably the strategy that the core of the dungeon is taking for adventurers.
　Research has not progressed because it is only seen in dungeons that have grown to a certain extent, and it has become huge... that is, it is very difficult for the core of a deep dungeon to reach a certain point.

"Well, it's no use doing this. Let's just head to the 11th basement for now. I'm looking forward to Elena, too."
"Yes. I'd love to see the magnificent view of the desert."
"...I don't think you should expect that from Dungeon."

　Elena casts a somewhat sulky glance at Ray, who shrugs his shoulders slightly.

"Isn't it all right?" I've never actually seen a desert, so I'll look forward to it a little."

　Elena herself doesn't notice, but as much as Ray shows weakness toward Elena, Elena sometimes makes some sort of spoiled gesture.
　Both actions can be done only because they trust the other person, and if there was someone who knew Elena or Ray by the nickname of General Hime and crimson, it would be a sight to doubt.
　Two Lays and two others go down the aisle, creating a sweet atmosphere like that.





"This little room?"
"That's what the map says," You must be careful, of course, of the maze, which is rather complicated even beyond this little room."

　With many doors lined up around him, Elena warns Ray in front of the door, which is marked as having a passageway to the back.
　In fact, by the time we got here, there were several traps, most of which we had avoided by disabling.
　Knowing this, Ray also nods to Elena.
　It's a must-pass place to get to the 11th basement. With that in mind, there is no better place to set a trap.

"Well, I'll open it,"
"Glu".

　Elena nods silently to Rey's words, and Seto beeps vigilantly.
　Yero is also sitting on Elena's left shoulder, ready to fly out of the way if something happens.

(Ninety-nine out of ten, you think you have a trap, but you have to fall for it to move on. If I could use a golem or something like that which I could throw away at times like this... or a slave? No, but I wouldn't buy a slave just for that.)

　a muttering ray
　Ray was born and raised in modern Japan, but now that he has lived in Elgin for more than a year, there is nothing more repugnant about slavery.
　However, Ray did not take the option in the end, given that even buying slaves would add to the burden.
　I was prepared to respond to whatever happened, and I opened the door in front of course.

"What!"

　At that moment, he instinctively senses something flying toward him from inside the room and wields his death-size.
　A high-pitched metallic sound echoes around, and something flying in two drops to the floor.
　Still alert, watch the surroundings carefully... and finally release the alert after making sure nothing happened for about 10 seconds.
　That said, it's not entirely understood. with minimal care to respond to monsters or new traps.
　I cut him down with a death-size sword, and look at the existence that fell to the floor.
　There was an arrow left there. However, considering that not only arrowheads but the whole arrow is made of metal, it can be said that it is a very deadly trap.

"...it seems safe,"

　Elena, who was ready to attack at any time, drew down the point of her connecting sword and breathed a sigh of relief.
　No matter how much I trusted Ray's fighting power, I was still worried.
　But Ray doesn't seem to have noticed Elena's feelings like that, picking up two amputated arrows and storing them in a mistling.

(For something?)

　That's how Elena thought, but now she thinks it's time to get out of this room, so she goes along with Ray, Sett, and Yero.
　He walked on, intercepted monsters, or avoided traps, and the inevitable traps were deliberately caught and forced to destroy by force for about an hour... until he discovered the steps leading to the 11th basement.