In theory, this stretch of desert shouldn't pose much danger if you simply walked across its surface—at most, you'd only need to stay wary of the monsters that emerged from beneath the sand.
But Isagi couldn't be sure.
Because when he'd passed through here before, he had let Riveria and Ryuu-senpai go ahead while he followed behind.
So no one had any idea what it was actually like to travel the surface route within this "special Dungeon," and Isagi didn't believe for a moment that the Dungeon would be kind enough to offer a route with zero danger whatsoever.
For all he knew, walking across the top might mean running into all sorts of "mirages," losing your bearings, or even getting hit by some absurd assault like a sandstorm.
Not to mention encountering some far more terrifying enemy.
On this very point, Ryuu-senpai had mentioned that during that previous time when she and Miss Riveria had waited here for him, they really had seen "phantom visions" appear at the very edge of the horizon.
So they might as well head down.
The pit before their eyes could be regarded as the entrance to some kind of Dungeon ruins.
It wasn't naturally formed; rather, it resembled the starting path on the Dungeon's first floor, with the whole thing presenting as a spiraling staircase descending downward.
How that pure-white stone staircase had even come to exist amid the sand pit was a mystery in itself.
There was no support either—it was as though it simply floated in midair.
In the middle hung scattered fragments of various kinds, suspended in the air, differing in size and almost all of them stone. Yet they weren't shattered pieces of ruins; instead, they looked like some sort of "ornaments" deliberately placed there.
Up on the surface, he hadn't noticed it.
But once they began to descend, he could see that the orb of light overhead blazed like a scorching sun, seemingly forming a thick pillar of light right at the center of the sand pit. Those stone blocks, bathed in the radiance, slowly rotated and drifted, even giving the illusion that they were transforming into something else entirely.
That pillar of light was not physical—Isagi knew this.
Because before, he had flown straight up from the bottom of the deep pit directly into that beam of light, so it was probably nothing more than pure "scenery," not a sign of anything in particular.
But down below, indeed—
—
Roughly ten minutes later, the group reached the bottom.
What appeared before them wasn't a doorway, but an enormous, partially crumbled city wall.
It was as if a fortress had abruptly "overlapped" with the desert—or perhaps a fortress had originally stood here, and the countless grains of sand falling from the sky had buried it, resulting in the scene now before them.
There was a breach on one side of the wall, and at the same time, several skeletal remains could be seen there. Isagi spotted a small glimmer of light at that spot, and when he walked over to look, it turned out to be, as expected, a "Plot Device."
[Bounty 01:
A city has appeared in the barren hunting grounds. The Administrator commissions hunters to go investigate and ensure it poses no threat to the Holy City.]
And the moment Isagi stepped into the breach in the wall.
The name of the map—which he hadn't had time to think over carefully before—surfaced in his mind.
[First Fortress · Golden Kingdom].
"Going by the earlier storyline, the desert should have been the very first place those hunters from the deep levels conquered. But it's called the [Barren Hunting Grounds]—is that because there's nothing here at all?"
"Very possibly."
There were a few more Plot Devices beside the wall that proved Lefiya's theory.
The desert had indeed been the first place those hunters set out to conquer, but supposedly there had been nothing here at all to begin with—only endless illusions and all manner of dreadful conditions.
Sandstorms, quicksand, and the dehydration brought on by prolonged exposure to the blazing sun.
This was a place where survival was impossible, which was why it had been named the [Barren Hunting Grounds]. Even the monsters from the deep levels had no desire to stay in such a place.
That is, until the arrival of this "Golden Kingdom" that overlapped with the desert.
Where it came from, what its interior was like, why it had appeared here—none of it was known.
The hunters believed it might be connected to the "Miracle" of the lower-level monsters, and so they had come to investigate—that was roughly the situation.
"According to the earlier intel, the news the Freya Familia obtained over at the [Hunter's Black Market] was that exploration of this area has already been halted—the hunters even regard it as a forbidden zone."
"And from the Loki Familia's side, when they conversed with the prey they could communicate with, this place called the [Golden Kingdom] was mentioned too, but they were tight-lipped about it—it seemed highly suspicious at a glance."
"By the way, what about Ray and Miss Marie? Even though they returned to the Dungeon and said they'd been summoned by the Dark Mother, they still haven't shown up so far—"
"As for the [Golden Desert] region, the Guild's original intel on it is also scarce—there's simply no way to make any judgment..."
The girls compiled the information they'd gathered earlier.
Ryuu-senpai's final remark had been right: even someone like Ais, who had explored the deep levels and once followed her Familia on an expedition down to the 50th floor.
The [Golden Desert] region from the 33rd to 36th floors was still quite mysterious.
Adventurers didn't like this place.
Even if they were heading to the deep levels, they'd skip past it by the fastest route possible, because there was simply nothing here—nothing in the most literal, physical sense.
Only the 36th floor was somewhat better; there it was "nighttime," and there was an oasis that could serve part of the function of a safe floor, where people could replenish supplies, water, and rest.
Under these circumstances, there was no point of reference whatsoever.
In the original Dungeon, this floor had been incomparably desolate, so what would it become once it turned into a special Dungeon?
And as someone who had been through it, all Isagi could vaguely recall was that there were a great many monsters within this Golden Kingdom.
§ §
As they stepped within the crumbled city wall, a frigid wind carried over an air of grim killing intent.
How could there be wind beneath the desert?
No one knew, but in the darkness, a pale blue radiance like a cluster of stars overhead illuminated the hazy outlines before them.
This place was just like an underground city.
The breach the group had entered through was high up on a section of the city wall.
Raising their heads.
They could clearly see the rise of the battlements even higher above, while ahead, some tens of meters below at a vertical drop, were houses rising and falling in undulating rows.
These houses were almost all of brick-and-stone construction, looking extremely "ancient"—like one swelling little oval-shaped hillock after another. Nearly all were a single story, with the occasional two, stretching ever onward, so far that there seemed to be no end in sight.
For some reason, this "Golden Kingdom" before them always gave off a familiar feeling.
"It looks like a city..."
"It does, a little."
In a moment of daze, it gave off the illusion of Orario.
Perhaps it was because Ais and Ryuu and the others had often trained atop the city walls before, so they'd grown accustomed to looking down upon a city from such a vantage point.
"Let's head in first."
Isagi said.
But in the very next second, along with a frigid wind that struck out of nowhere, a humanoid monster—its entire body wrapped in bandages, gripping a long spear, and sprouting a pair of wings—had already arrived before the group.
The attack came swiftly.
And what made it even more outrageous was that a rustling sound came from behind them as well.
Those hunter corpses that had been lying outside the breach in the wall had now risen, trembling, to their feet, seemingly turned into zombie-like beings—crooked and contorted, and likewise about to lunge at the group.
____
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