Huh... I don't know what kind of creature I just defeated, but now, how am I supposed to return to the surface?
Should I walk up from this floor to the upper floors and defeat every floor boss on the way?
If I do that, I'll die before those monsters do.
I also can't ask Cyve for help, so what can I do?
If only a notification would appear on my status screen and give me a reward that could let me ascend to the upper floor—
Tring.
Oh, it appeared immediately.
Click.
On my status screen, a new reward just arrived, and I could use it right away.
"Press this button if you want to return to the central floor of this dungeon, and this reward can only be used once, right now. Use it quickly, or it will expire in one minute."
W-what kind of special privilege is this…? Even a reward like this has a time limit??
Well, whatever the dungeon creator wants, I don't want to dig into it.
——
Without thinking twice, I pressed the button, and suddenly my body felt like it was floating, and then I vanished somewhere.
Ah right, my original goal for coming here hasn't been fulfilled.
Our party came here to find Mithril ore and add it to my iron sword.
But after defeating the boss on the final floor, I didn't get anything except this teleportation reward.
This is… not worth everything I went through and everything I did, right?
——
Rustle.
The transfer didn't take long, in fact it was extremely brief.
Before I knew it, I was already standing in an upper corridor which seemed to be on the fortieth floor.
—
I kept walking through this corridor, and I didn't find a single monster.
If there are none, that means the two of them managed to defeat the monster that caused me to fall.
——
Yukito finally arrived at the room where he had fallen earlier; he still remembered the place because of the opening in the floor.
He originally didn't expect to meet Hime and Yuu again anytime soon.
But when he entered, Yukito instead saw another room inside what used to be an empty chamber.
He couldn't see it from where he was standing, so he walked into the new room.
Inside that room, the walls looked like they were naturally formed from earth, and it felt like they were inside a cave.
And of course, Yukito met his two companions inside the cave-like room, and for the umpteenth time, they reunited again.
But… something was different about their reactions when they saw Yukito.
——
"Ehmm…" I murmured.
"Yukito-san? Thank goodness you're safe~" said Hime as she walked toward me, followed by Yuu-chan behind her.
"How did you get here so fast? We thought you fell to a very deep floor," Yuu-chan added.
Wait… I think something's different about their reactions when they saw me again… what is it?
"I fell to the last floor… but, somehow I managed to defeat the boss there, and I could use teleportation to return to this floor," I answered.
"Then… what is this room? Why does it look like a cave?" I asked.
They were definitely the first ones to discover this room.
Honestly, I felt relieved that both of them were safe and had defeated the floor boss.
"You're going to be surprised… look at this~!" said Yuu-chan, pointing at something in front.
My eyes widened, surprised by what I was seeing.
Several bright light-blue stones were glowing, plenty of them, attached to the walls and ceiling of this cave.
Some had fallen off and were scattered across the ground. Without a doubt, this was the material we had been looking for from the start.
"How is it? Cool, right?" asked Yuu-chan.
"I'll explain later, but we've found what we came for, Yukito-san," said Hime.
—
I immediately ran forward and grabbed one of the Mithril ores scattered on the ground.
The metal felt slightly cold, but its texture was hard like any normal metal.
"Can I take all of these?!" I asked the two of them.
"Fufu~ Yukito-san, you look like a little kid right now~" Hime said with a small laugh.
… I couldn't deny that… I was too excited after seeing this valuable Mithril.
"We'll only take as much as we need. If we need more, we can just come back here and get some," said Hime.
The three of us started gathering some Mithril and putting them into Hime's Alter Box.
We only took the small and medium-sized ones.
Most of the large ones were still stuck firmly to the walls, so we didn't take them.
Besides, Hime said that if her Alter Box got too full, her body would feel a bit heavy.
And if it became too heavy, she might even pass out for a while.
Well, I couldn't force things, and I shouldn't be selfish by trying to take all the Mithril.
I didn't want to empty and strip this cave; who knows, maybe Mithril could grow back in the same place.
Rather than damaging the cave, we decided to take only what we needed.
"Yosh… this should be enough, let's go back up," said Hime.
Wait, is Hime thinking of walking all the way back to the first floor? Eh… whatever, I'll just follow whatever they want to do.
"Yukito-sama, what are you doing? Let's go back," said Yuu-chan, who saw me spacing out a little.
I approached the two of them, but why were they standing so close together like this?
"What are we gathering for?" I asked, still confused.
"Well, we're going back to the upper floor, what else?" said Yuu-chan.
"Aren't we going to walk?" I asked.
Hearing my question, the two of them chuckled, as if they had just heard a joke.
"Yukito-san, we can travel to any floor we've already passed through simply by teleporting," said Hime.
"Since we've already passed through floor 1, we can instantly return there," she continued.
—
… I no longer understand how this dungeon works.
All I know is, after the three of us stood close together, Hime said a single word that instantly transported us back to the first floor.
It seems whatever Hime said was the requirement needed to use this teleportation technique.
But back when I was on the last floor and got a special privilege that allowed me to travel to floor 40… Does that mean I was being messed with?
"Oh right… or is it just me… but when I fell, it felt like you two treated it as something normal?" I asked, lowering my head.
I knew the question sounded a bit strange.
But I couldn't hold it in anymore… I had to ask them this, because it felt like they didn't really care about me.
As if, when I fell and returned, they weren't worried at all.
"Yukito-san, you want us to cry and hug you, don't you?" Hime asked.
"Who knows, maybe he just wants to be pampered by you again, Hime," said Yuu-chan.
"When the two of us couldn't find you, you didn't feel afraid of losing yourself, Yukito-san," said Hime.
I looked at her, wanting to know what she really meant.
"What do you mean?" I asked again.
"That's because… we trust you, Yukito-san," Hime answered.
… I guess I really do have companions who care about me.
They didn't think I was lost or in danger, they simply waited, convinced that I would return.
"…Well! I think I'm a little dizzy from falling from such a height, but… I'm glad to hear that!" I said, smiling at the two of them.