Antagonist Protection Service

Following the pre-ventured path of the Challengers ahead of me and their presences, it didn't take long before I got close enough to hear them.

'Hm...?'

Their muffled voices resounded on the other side of the stone brick wall, but strangely, there didn't seem to be any entrance nearby to get where they were, nor was there any other exit for the last few minutes of travel.

This room was simply a dead-end...

At least, I thought as much, when right then, a sudden welling of magic energy occurred behind the wall, and the obscured sounds of a clash could be heard.

'Did they activate a trap...?'

Deciding to give it a second, I waited just a bit to the side until things died down on the other side. Soon after, alongside a brief rumbling of the surroundings, a section of the wall lowered to reveal the connected room.

"Ah, look! It's open!"

"Phew... I wasn't expecting that chest to be a trap..."

Hearing their growing voices and approaching footsteps, I realised they were exiting back out and hurriedly dove into the corner of the room, crouching down to lower my profile.

With both Sneak active and the Draconic Shadow equipped, they shouldn't be able to notice me unless they used a skill or magic specifically suited for detection.

'Should be fine... If they're down here, they're newbies. They wouldn't even think someone was waiting for them in a room they already cleared.'

Reassuring myself like so, I watched two figures―a man and a woman―exit the trapped room rather carelessly.

Incidentally, I wasn't sure if divine energy or divinity was counted in the 'magical and spiritual' concealment of Level 3 Sneak, if it was counted as something else, or if it wasn't counted at all, but either way, the two Challengers appeared completely oblivious to my presence, prompting me to believe that it worked in any case.

As they stood in the centre of the room, turning to look back at the trapped room they just escaped while gathering their breaths, I maintained my silence and observed them.

The man, a young-looking guy with shortish brown hair and dressed in simple, hardened leather armour with a standard steel longsword in one hand, seemed to be not much more than a basic warrior at first glance.

'Isn't that the same equipment you receive as a reward for the lower Floors...? Or, no, it's not exactly identical, but it definitely looks similar...'

Checking Storage briefly just to check if that really was the case, I found it to be true.

The man's equipment here was of a veritable higher quality, and I could tell that with but a glance.

As for the girl, likewise bearing brown hair, she also wore the same sort of hardened leather armour as the man, but aside from a simple dagger on her waist, her main weapon looked nothing more than a wooden stick about thirty to forty centimetres long―evidently a wand.

In other words, she was a mage.

"Still, this thing's pretty valuable, right? Seems worth it."

Putting a hand on his chin, the man lightly chucked a small crystal orb into the air, swiftly catching it back in his hand.

"Oh, I think so! That's what they use to record videos inside the Tower; you remember we saw one being showcased on the First Floor?"

"Hehhh... In that case, don't you think we could even make money by recording videos?"

Slightly furrowing my brows, my gaze fell upon the orb in his hand.

'Videos...?'

Honestly, I forgot that was even a thing.

"Maybe~ We have to try it and see what the video quality is like."

"Yeah, but at least it's bound to be better than the quality of something from the Tutorial Floors, right?"

'I see... So what, you can find these recording orbs anywhere, but the quality of the recording will be higher depending on the Floor you get it from? Makes sense...'

That also explained why the quality of all the pictures and videos I'd seen in the past of the Tower were so damn terrible―no one had gotten past the Tutorial, so there simply didn't exist any recording orbs that could offer much practical use.

I had never found any additional loot in my climb through the so-called Tutorial Floors, but those who had must've felt scammed.

Or maybe because there were less of them at the time, the value was still high.

"Anyway, let's keep going. You can hold it for now, so if you see something you think would be beneficial to record, go for it."

"Yessir~"

He passed the girl the orb, upon which the two started retracing their steps and going back the way we all came. Trailing them still, I listened to their voices as they so generously led the way.

"I think there was a path back here we hadn't explored..."

"Yes, I remember. It was a space that looked like we might have to crawl through. It's here on the map."

Apparently, they had also brought some paper with them to draw a map.

It only took about five minutes to retrace the steps thanks to the path already being fully cleared out of mobs and traps, and when we arrived, everyone's attention turned directly to one wall in particular, where a large piece of stained fabric was draped over a square hole in the top corner, like a ventilation shaft.

"Bingo."

For some reason, there were a bunch of shoddy tables and chairs in many of these otherwise empty rooms, the wood they were made out of looking so ancient that it was surprising they hadn't already fully rotted into dust―moving one of the only tables that was still standing into the corner, the man pulled the fabric off the wall and dumped it onto the floor, proceeding to pull himself up and into the hole.

"Leah, stay here. I'll make sure it's safe."

After he had fully entered, the girl followed by hopping onto the table, waiting for his signal.

Watching her, I belatedly realised something.

'Wait. That map... They didn't draw it? If they did, wouldn't they have only known the hole was here to mark down if they already took away the covering sheet...?'

Something didn't add up there... Or maybe it was just me,

Regardless, before I had the chance to think and figure out what it could've been, the male Challenger's voice called out from the other side, and before long, he crawled back.

The girl was slightly too short to climb up by herself, so he had to help lift her up, but they soon both made it through.

'Alright. Now it's my turn.'

Only when I was certain the two had fully gone through to the other side, I climbed up myself and entered the crawlspace.

"Tsk... How cramped..."

Muttering under my breath, I nevertheless continued. Thankfully, the shaft was surprisingly short in distance, so it didn't take long to reach the other end.

'Looks safe... Hm? Where'd they go...?'

Peering down into the room on the other side, which appeared completely empty, I subconsciously tilted my head.

Jumping down from the hole pretty much without a sound, I looked around, confirming the two were nowhere to be seen.

"Huh... Strange."

What was weirdest was that I couldn't even sense them anywhere.

It was as if they literally vanished.

'Hm...'

Turning to the only exit of this room, a single, surprisingly unbroken wooden door, I cautiously opened it, revealing an ancient, stone brick staircase on the other side.

Unexpectedly, it was heading down, its end tapering off into darkness.

Left with no other choice, I descended the staircase.

The fact the end of it vanished into darkness was extremely strange considering that I was supposed to be able to see through it, but maybe there was something I wasn't quite understanding.

Either way, I didn't sense anything dangerous, so I felt no need to be concerned.

And, the moment I descended far enough, I realised.

[Floor 12]

[Objective: Eliminate the dungeon boss and escape]

"..."

The Floors were connected in that sort of way too, huh.

Even though the dungeon boss hadn't been eliminated, the floor was cleared and it automatically advanced us to the next.

'Or rather, the Objective isn't just a Floor Objective, but a collective Objective for a number of Floors...'

Considering how it didn't mention the Eleventh Floor being cleared as it usually did, that probably meant all of these connected Floors would only be cleared once the Objective was completed.

In other words, it was an even more long-form version of those two-part Objectives, stretching across multiple Floors for a single goal.

'Well, I guess that makes it easier for me. I don't have to worry about anything else and can just hurry through all the Floors until I reach the boss.'

Able to sense the Challenger duo from before just a short distance ahead, I figured they would probably go about things slowly.

I did want to experiment and see if stealing the kill on the dungeon boss would count everyone as clearing the Objective, but seeing as it was likely still a ways to go, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go about things so slowly.

I was technically in a hurry, after all.

"Ah, whatever. I can just ignore them and go past."

'Not like they'd be able to catch me anyway.'

Quickly deciding not to make a big deal out of it, I followed the only path leading out of the chamber at the bottom of the stairs, the Villainous Blade grasped loosely in hand.