The fake lil' thing Neptune had penetrated disappeared and a blue apple was dropped.
　Neptune picked it up.

'I guess the carbon first floor is the apple.'
Apparently so. Any pattern of different things dropping on the same floor?
A rare monster.
Oh, I see.

　It's not on every floor, but every once in a while a dungeon will reveal a rare monster that's different from the main monster on that level.

'So it's only the rares that change the drops, right?
That's what I mean.

　Neptune nodded and chuckled.

'What's wrong with you, you look so weird.'
Sort of. It's kind of weird.
"Egregious?

　Lil tilted her head in a strange way.

'What do you mean by egregious?　It wasn't strong, was it?

　Ran asked Neptune with the same curious look on his face.
　Both of them had just seen Neptune kill the fake in the blink of an eye.

　And it wasn't a combination that the three of them were good at, they beat Neptune individually.
　Not strong enough, of course, to judge.

''We'll find out soon enough.''
"......?

　Ran and Lil look at each other and crane their necks.

　What's going on?　We started walking again.
　For now, we explore the dungeon, trying to go around the basement floor a little more.

　After walking for a while, more than one monster appears.
　As soon as they encountered them, they changed their appearance in almost no time.

　The one that appeared in front of me was Emily, and Celeste's fake.

　I glanced at Neptune, he thrust his hands palms upward.
　A gesture that meant, "Go ahead.

　I raised my gun and headed towards Emily and Celeste's fakes.

　Emily's fake intercepting me, swinging a hammer at me.
　Behind them, Celeste's fake chants a spell while fluttering her long hair.

　She catches the hammer with one hand and fires a series of growth bullets.
　The bullets pierced straight through the two of them, each dropping a blue apple.

　It's not that strong, it's just that it's about half the strength of the person himself.
　I still didn't understand the meaning of the word "egregious" that Neptune calls it - that's as far as I could go.

　I put my gun away and turned around and was startled.

　There were two vanadiums there.

　Two girls in a row.
　Their appearance, their clothes, and even their expressions were all two halves of the same person - they looked exactly the same.

　My hand reached for my gun, but it didn't slip out.

"...... egregious.

　I understand what Neptune said.

　I don't know what the criteria are for changing to fake.
　If it's someone who isn't here, there's no problem - no, that's also something I have to be careful about when I'm doing actual laps, but at least I don't have to worry about it this time when it's just me and Neptune and the others here to investigate.

　But it's a different story when you turn into one of the people here.

　If they look exactly the same, I don't know which one to attack.

"--No.

　Surprisingly, it wasn't a problem.
　Two vanadiums, one of them cringing and the other one attacking me.

　I knock down the fake vanadium that was trying to attack me with a growth bullet.

　I take it down in one shot and drop a green apple.

'And that's why,'
All right, so that's how it goes.
What? You mean you can't tell us apart?
Sing it to me and I'll understand. Even if they could sing it, I'd recognize your songs. I'm not so sure about the looks.
"...... hmm.

　Lil, who had seemed disgruntled earlier, turned away, but didn't seem to be unhappy.

　That's the important thing, between them.

'That's fine, but it's still egregious here.
If we can't make a move on him, we'll have to intercept his attacker.
'I think it's a solo recommendation. You could wear something on your entry and have them identify you by it.
'That's dangerous. At least Emily's hammer was the latest model. You'd better see that the equipment can be mimicked as well.
Yeah.

　Me and Neptune, we're going to have a debate about the carbon basement.

What about you?
"There's only one way to identify it at 100% for me personally. But it has zero versatility.
What do you mean?
It's a--

　While I was saying that, the monsters showed up again.

　I was talking to Neptune, and it was a good thing I was taking my eyes off of Vanadium, and now there were five of them - a group of Vanadiums.

'Wow. These guys are learning, aren't they?

　Neptune was right.
　Earlier, one of them had attacked me, so all I had to do was intercept it.
　But this time, Vanadium total of five, all of them were surprised and confused.

''I see, so the monsters here are learning types.
'A learning curve?　There's no such thing.
Sometimes. It's a nasty type of dungeon.
I know,
So, will your 100% identification work in this situation?
Yeah.

　He nodded and held out his hand to the five vanadiums.

'Repetition,' he chanted.

　I've never defeated a vanadium, but I did defeat the monster on the first floor of Carbon earlier.
　The ultimate magic that instantly kills an opponent once defeated, but has no effect on those who aren't.

　Four vanadiums out of five vanadiums disappear in an instant, leaving me with four green apples.

''It goes like this.''
That's great. Yeah, and you've got that magic.
'We can get out of this for now, but we'll have to come up with something.
Yeah.

　Me and Neptune laughed at Carbon's egregiousness, even though we were still on the ground floor.