When we tried to annihilate that horde with magic white bones and weapons of several adventurers rolled towards us from the middle of the room.
　How pitiful, it seems like they were attacked by those giant centipedes in this room and turned into clean bones by them.

“Oh my, how regretful. Though those are some good bones I can’t use them if they are burned to that extent. If the bones are burned they get brittle.”

　Kitora, the beautiful priestess of darkness, looked at the remaining bones before looking towards me.
　Even though I got rid of them don’t look at me with those blaming eyes.

“Aaah, they are all burned. Those would have been valuable as well, what a waste. Neither the weapons nor the armour can be sold if they are burned like this.”

　The masked female mercenary, Crescent Moon also sighed after she poked the burned things with her scimitar.
　Aaah, god damn it, what’s with you?!
　Be little happier that you won after all that hard work!
　Hey, look, doesn’t the cat-girl magician, Knopf wear an apologetic expression?

　However, even if you defeat those things you neither gain experience points nor do the monsters drop magic stones or something.
　That’s because this is my novel’s world and not a game’s world.
　I should have created a setting to gain some kind of merit after one defeats a monster.
　Can’t be helped, next time let’s not only think about winning but also about how to “make profit”.
　Can we afford that, though?

　This room seemed to be a dead end.
　Even though the female hobbit thief Pick checked all the walls in various ways she found nothings.
　As we didn’t have any other choice we returned to the crossroad from a while ago and turned right.⌈¹⌋
　We continued the right-hand-touching-wall strategy.

　This time’s path bend left then right and then continued straight.
　On the way, there were some doors and entrances to some empty rooms in the walls.
　When we entered the first room, for the time being, we encountered two large mice.

　Even if I call them mice they were huge rats the size of a dog.
　Their front teeth were correspondingly big as well and their bloodshot eyes were rather creepy.
　Though they were very aggressive and suddenly attacked us Pick and Crescent Moon calmly killed them.
　It was particularly good that no one got bitten.
　They seemed like they carried some disease-causing germs.
　There wasn’t anything special inside.

　The next room was completely empty but the room after that had something promising in it.
　That’s right, Slimes.
　A semi-transparent jelly like object was sticking to the back of the room while wriggling.
　Its size is about 1 meter in height and breadth and it had a yellowish colour.
　Though I was impressed by seeing a slime for the first time but the others didn’t really react to it.
　Though it was approaching us it could only move slowly and as it didn’t seem to drop anything valuable either we ignored it.
　Only Bass-senpai was noisy and said “It looks so soft, I kind of want to touch it!” but he got completely ignored.
　I kind of understand that feeling, senior.

　Incidentally, slimes can absorb damage caused by blades and they are resistant against various magic systems depending on their colour.
　Therefore they are a pain in the *** and everyone avoids them.
　But there are exceptions as well.
　It’s the “Metallic Slime” which has a metallic lustre.
　Among them are golden and silver ones as well as ones that shine in the colours of the rainbow.
　It’s popular among the adventurers because it drops precious metal like silver and gold according to its colour but it’s difficult to hit as it moves fast and will instantly escape.⌈²⌋
　……According to the setting of my novel.
　Though you might have heard that somewhere before it’s not plagiarism it’s admiration!
　By the way, the rainbow coloured slime drops Oricalcum the material which Carlo’s and the Hero’s sword are made of.
　That explains why it’s so expensive.

　We left the Slime behind and continued on.

“Please wait a minute”

　Pick who went ahead suddenly stopped and raised her voice.
　She was carefully checking the floor of the road ahead of us.
　When she knocked on it there was a rattling noise and then the floor gave in.
　The floor completely disappeared on a considerable scale and we weren’t able to move forward.
　That’s a rather large-scale trap.

“Uwa– That was dangerous. Good that you noticed that.”

　Crescent Moon exclaimed in admiration.

“Hehe, that’s my job.”

　Pick who got praised looked proud.
　Then my seniors came from behind.

“That’s right, this is a piece of cake for us.”

“That’s right, that’s right, we’re used to this so we can recognize those things with just one glance.”

I’m sorry but I don’t think I can leave the front to you, seniors.
　I feel like you’ll absolutely overlook a trap.
　I don’t feel like I can place my life in your hands.

　Still, it’s weird that the floor didn’t already collapse.
　Could it be that nobody fell into that trap before?
　If someone triggered it then the floor should have already disappeared.

“That trap wasn’t triggered so does that mean no one came this way before?”

　As I asked that I had a slightly puzzled expression on my face then Kitora answered.

“It may or may not be like that”

“Does that mean that the trap can be triggered again even if someone was already caught in it?”

　As Kitora gave a vague answer Knopf was listening again.

“As I thought you’re rather perceptive. It’s a possibility. Well then, let’s go back”

　After she said this Kitora proceeded to go back.
　Everyone else follows her in a hurry.
　We returned to the crossroad.
　We took the right and only remaining road.

　After following this path for a while the surrounding walls, ceiling and floor turned from stone into earth.
　A Rugged rocky surface was exposed.
　The former man-made feeling disappeared and it seemed more like a naturally formed cave.

“I see, so this was made with this natural case as basis after all. So, when everything else got changed then this is……”

　While holding her chin and lowering her gaze Kitora seemed to be lost in thoughts.
　Everyone looked at her in silence.
　Not wanting to disturb anyone I didn’t know what to say.

　Still, this sure is a dreary place.
　Everywhere you look there’s earth.
　The only thing moving is a little spider running over the ground.

“I think I got it.”

　Kitora who was lost in her thoughts raised her face.

“May we hear about it?”

　Even though I asked her Kitora shook her head.

“It’s just a simple guess and you’ll naturally come to a conclusion when we advanced a bit further. Let’s go”

“What’s with you? Tell me. This is awkward, don’t you think?”

　Even with Crescent Moon asking like this Kitora ignored her without changing her expression.
　That beautiful girl is more stubborn than her appearance may imply.
　Everyone was rather tense after listening to Kitora so we advanced slowly.

“Di, did you hear something?”

　Crescent Moon was whispering in a low voice.

　Rustle Rustle……

　As everybody held their breath and listened carefully one surely could hear a faint sound coming from the darkness.
　It’s obviously the sound of “something” moving.

“What’s making that sound, big sis?”

“How should I know?!”

“You two, keep quiet or it’ll notice us!”

　They kept on quarrelling in a low voice.
I got a feeling we’ll definitely get noticed.

　After we advanced for a while the cave suddenly became bigger.
　The ceiling got higher as well.

　Rustle……

　That sound was now clearly louder than a while ago.
　I can’t see it in this darkness but it seems to come from behind.

“Hey, you guys, go back there and check.”

“Why are you saying that again, big sis?! You made us go look back at the church, too!”

“That’s right, that’s right, that’s just too cruel, big sis. Don’t you think so as well, Head?”

　Are they still troubled by that incident back then?
　Please, don’t involve me in this.

“It can’t be helped, then let’s go together”

　We left the back to Knopf, Kitora and Pick then advanced with me and Crescent Moon between my two seniors who stood at both ends.
While we were approaching the sound we heard until a while ago suddenly stopped.
　Not being able to hear a sound enhanced the tension.
　As one would expect everyone is silent and slowly advanced.
　Then a cry suddenly broke the silence.

“Waah!”
　Didn’t that voice belong to Drum? What happened?