Antagonist Protection Service

We progressed through the 15th Floor at a steady pace.

To be honest, I found the gradual advancement up the intertwining crystal walkways to be a noticeable amount more exhausting than both the cave and dungeon previous, mostly due to the varying inclinations of the different crystals, but at the same time, the surrounding environment made it a whole lot more interesting.

Not only was this cavern brightly illuminated, save for the lower section down below, but whether you were to look up or down, it couldn't be denied that the scenery was breathtaking.

That, and, it seemed like there were even more new monsters than I was first aware of.

'Oh. Here's more coming up.'

Just as we were about to arrive at another rock and crystal outcrop, a section at the rim of the cavern walls that functioned as solid ground until we made it to the next walkway, I spotted movement in the distance behind some smaller crystal clusters, acting like a sort of parapet for a section of the platform.

Getting closer, I began to sense their presences, counting about a solid half-dozen of them.

Diminutive, furry-bodied creatures that stood on two hind legs like humans, with faces akin to the fusion of a rat and a dog.

According to the shared information from Cassano, they were Kobolds, and as we steadily approached, two of them jumped atop a crystal cluster and began pointing and shouting something incomprehensible at us.

"Kiigaaaigah--!"

Thwack-wack-!

While I was absentmindedly watching them, two arrows whizzed past the side of my head, impacting the two that were screaming in the chest at the same time, instantly knocking them to the ground in a pool of blood, dead.

Right after, two of the four that remained peeked their heads around the corner of the wall or over the top of it, wielding what looked like tiny slingshots.

"..."

"Kigaaagii--!"

Simultaneously, a third came charging at me with a pickaxe, and though it only took a mere snap of my wrist to sever its torso in two, violently interrupting its battlecry and painting the crystal beneath it a sheer red, it was obvious what the attempt was for.

Effortlessly knocking down the pellets of small rock they fired towards me, I continued my slow advance towards them, walking slowly up the rest of the bridge while those two pesky ones likewise got their heads sniped by our own ranger before they could even realise it.

Ultimately making it to the outcrop platform, I stepped onto the stone and turned to see what was hidden behind the wall of crystal.

'Oh... These guys had quite the haul. Shame.'

On the ground were a few discarded pickaxes like the one the other Kobold wielded, but aside from that, there was even a small cart filled to almost the brim with an abundance of crystal shards they had evidently mined.

They weren't the same mana crystals I was used to, but I was sure they could be refined to be used for the same purposes.

Either way, it was impressive for them, but for me, there wasn't much point in taking it.

The quality of the shards were far too low to begin with, and even if they were high, it's not like I knew the correct refinement process to do anything substantial with them.

In the distance, the last of the Kobolds was seen hastily fleeing up the next crystal bridge with a second cart of crystals before him, but it's not like there was any reason to give chase.

'He'll probably get killed by a lizard before we reach him anyway.'

Dismissing the roach, I spared a single glance to the corpses of the other five creatures, watching Nina crouch down at each of them to recover her spent arrows before continuing forward as usual.

Though our encounters with these monsters seemed to be becoming less and less frequent the higher we climbed, it wasn't exactly a mystery as to why that was the case.

Looking down from above, it was apparent that many more of them could be found the deeper into the cavern you ventured, and in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of Kobold Area Boss at the very bottom, or at least some kind of civilisation or society down there, however haphazard it may be.

Regardless, although the crystal lizards and radiant butterflies were blatant predators of the furry little creatures, the reason they took upon the risk of journeying this far up the cavern was simple.

To harvest the crystals growing here.

See, it only seemed like a subtle indication of the environment shifting as we progressed through the Floor, but as we climbed, the hues of many of the crystals naturally growing in the area changed to include more colder colours like white, blue, or purple.

In fact, Cassano pointed it out before I realised it, but if you were to look at the typical colours of the crystals throughout the entire cavern, it appeared to be split into roughly seven layers, coming together to form the same spectrum of light observed in the pattern of a rainbow.

Having started from the spider tunnel's exit on the lower side of the layer with primarily light blue crystals, we had managed to climb up to what would then be the 'indigo layer' after a few hours of travel.

To me, that simply went to show how effective of a shortcut the Broodmother's route really was, as well as how far deep the cavern must have gone.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised the amount of hidden loot there surely was, hidden and buried in the distant depths of the 'yellow, orange and red layers' near the bottom, where the Kobolds reigned.

It wasn't just my own presumptions, either, as Cassano seemed to have a penchant for reading through the files of his prior gathered information and yapping about it without end as we ascended the crystal bridges.

In any case, it was because the colours of the crystals commonly found up here were far rarer down the bottom of the cavern that they were taking such large risks.

Even though I wasn't really sure what they needed the crystals for in the first place, since I doubted they could refine them and use them for magical or alchemical purposes, I guess it didn't matter.

Regardless, we continued ascending the cavern, at some point stumbling across a horribly mangled Kobold carcass with a tipped cart a certain distance after it.

Evidently, it was the rat that had previously fled, but that wasn't all.

Surprisingly, the culprit of the creature's pitiful demise was still present, and just as I had predicted, it was a crystal lizard.

"..."

Crunch, crunch~!

Seemingly ignorant as to my or my party members' presence, it was busy munching on all the crystal shards that had fallen from the cart and spilled onto the surface of the bridge, stuffing its mouth greedily and vacuuming up all of the splintering crumbs.

I paused for a moment, finding the raw display of this place's natural hierarchy and law of the jungle rather interesting, but once the monster had had its fill, I realised I should probably act before it turned around and attacked us.

So, I swung the Villainous Blade, crushing the dense, hard crystal hide of the lizard like glass, pushing the edge through to sunder the rest of its body in twain, the same as I had done to every one of its kind that had blocked our path until now, and the same as I would continue to do.

'Not far now.'

Looking up, there was only a short distance remaining between our current location and the final 'violet layer', where a large hole could be spotted presumably leading to the next Floor.

Casting a brief glance back to the others following along, it certainly seemed to be the case that the long hours of exertion were catching up to them, and they would likely require time to rest once we had reached the end of the Fifteenth Floor.

I also needed time to deactivate my divine energy and let it recover before I ran out mid-climb, so perhaps I might as well continue to let these two tag along for a while.

The usefulness of having teammates with long-range attacks couldn't be denied, but more than that, the information they each brought about what to expect on the upcoming Floors and how to clear them in the fastest way possible was also invaluable to me.

In fact, that alone might make up for the time lost by having to take more frequent rests.

'Anyway, I guess it's not as bad as I thought it'd be...'

Ascending the Tower in this way, collectively... I couldn't deny that I was reluctant to think so, but it was also true that part of me found it fun.

At that moment, for just a split-second, a vision flashed in my mind.

Something that could have been possible, perhaps in some alternate reality.

A patently fabricated mental image―a picture of climbing the Tower together with Ella.

"..."

She had certainly made such an offer in the past, but I requested her to never Challenge the Tower.

Of course, I didn't regret it.

I had to remind myself why I was here in the first place.

...How long has it been since they all had last heard from me? I wonder if anyone was worried.

"Ah, h-hey, is everything okay...?"

Hearing Cassano's voice emanate from right beside me, my trance was broken.

"...Let's go."

Muttering just those words, distorted wildly by the Villain's Vizard, I stepped forward.

There was still a ways to go until I could afford to rest proper.