Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Hearing the powerful voice of the faction leader, Bert and the others regained their strength and, with the help of Ais and the others, began to deal with the remaining enemies.

The supporters provided excellent cover, turning the larvae and wyverns into corpses or piles of dust on the ground.

"Miss Ais, are you alright?!"

"Yes, I'm fine... How about you guys?"

"Thankfully, Grace was there; we barely made it through!"

After the monsters had been appearing for so long, they seemed to have entered a long period of rest, with no activity around them. The huge hole in the ceiling that the cannon dragon had broken through had also been repaired, and silence finally descended upon the 58th floor.

Ais, Lefia, and Tiona were able to reunite and share their joy hand in hand.

Finn and Riveria offered words of comfort to Grace, while Chun chuckled and patted Tione and Bert on the shoulder; the former wore a wry smile, while the latter looked annoyed. Raul, his eyes still wet with tears, and the other supporters put down their backpacks and quickly distributed supplies to everyone.

"Oh my! So this is the fang of the dragon that unleashed that ridiculous cannon attack!? And there are scales here!? Please, I absolutely have to take these back!?"

"Sorry, Tsubaki, let's talk about it later."

The blacksmith was incredibly excited to see the "Cannon Dragon Fangs," "Cannon Dragon Red Scales," and various other weapon materials (dropped items) among the monster corpses, but Finn's response was much colder. He seriously told Tsubaki that these things were too big and could only be carried on the return trip, and that they would hinder exploration.

The group moved to the south end of the floor and took a rest as instructed by Finn.

"Although the team was split in two, we still managed to conquer the 58th floor... I really don't know if it's a good or bad omen."

"Hmph! As long as it's not the first time I've seen it, there's always a way."

Hearing what Riveria said, Bert snorted, but it sounded a bit like he was putting on a brave face. "You were panting like crazy just now—" Tiona teased him. "That was you!?" Bert yelled, and around them, Lefia and Raul all laughed, creating a relaxed atmosphere in the team.

The group members slowly drank the elixirs and magic potions. Ais distributed all the rations that Luluni had given her to everyone. Chun took out a complete set of forging tools and smoothly repaired and repaired the adventurers' weapons.

The group sat on the floor, facing the floor they hadn't yet reached, and took a short rest.

"..."

"Commander? What's wrong?"

As Ais and the others were catching their breath, Tiony suddenly asked Finn a question.

The little man stood with his spear, his back to the resting squad. In front of him was a dark, gaping hole at the south end of the floor.

Finn kept a distance, facing the passage leading to the 59th floor, staring intently into the darkness.

"According to the records left by the [Zeus's Familia], the 59th floor onwards is the 'Glacier Realm'..."

"Yes, yes. It's said that glacial lakes flow everywhere there, making it difficult to move forward, and the extreme cold can make the body sluggish..."

"The fire and fire spirit protective cloths are ready. Although some of them were given to us by other factions, in short, we have gathered enough for everyone, including the supporters."

Upon hearing Finn and Tione talk about the 59th floor, Raul quickly stood up and took out a bright red garment from his backpack. This was a fire fairy armor with cold-proof properties.

Finn ignored the reactions of his bandmates, staring intently at the passageway with his lake-like blue eyes, and said:

"A terrifying chill that can freeze even a first-level adventurer's hands and feet... If that's the case, then why isn't the cold air blowing over from where we are now?"

Upon hearing his analysis, Thiago and Raul were startled, and their shoulders trembled.

Finn meant that the team was waiting in front of the passageway at the south end of the floor that led directly to the 59th floor, but for some reason, not a single wisp of cold air was coming in through the large hole in front of them.

Hearing their conversation, Ais and the others stood up one by one, weapons in hand.

"So, is there some kind of situation?"

"I don't know, but... I don't think the [Zeus's Familia] would exaggerate."

Bertie stared intently at the cave, and Grace put her helmet back on, saying something.

Faced with a situation that could not be ignored, everyone adopted the demeanor of adventurers.

"..."

When the team felt a sense of tension.

Ais remembered what someone had said to her on the 24th floor about twenty days ago.

— "Arya", go to the 59th floor.

—Now something interesting has happened, and you can find out what you want to know.

This is what the red-haired woman, who was not human, told Ais.

She said there was something on the 59th floor ahead.

There are things that Aisi wants to know.

Facing the cave that led to the abyss below, Ais quietly tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword.

The crystal attached to her waist brace by a chain seemed to have activated, emitting a faint glow.

"Commander, what should we do now...?"

"...No need for the Fire Essence Protective Cloth. Everyone, depart in three minutes."

Finn licked his right thumb, cast a sharp glance down the passage, and gave instructions.

The squad quickly prepared and ended their rest period. Ais and the others equipped themselves with weapons, lined up, and stepped into the large cave in front of them.

"Rather than saying it's cold..."

"...It's more like it's sweltering."

In the dark passageway, Raul and the other supporters lit portable magic stone lamps, while Tiona and Lefia were slightly sweating.

The damp air, absent from the intelligence reports, silenced them, leaving them uneasy. They descended the steps leading far below, sensitive to every sound around them.

Crack, crack.

The sound of adventurers' footsteps descending the stairs could be heard one after another.

Deeper into the darkness, even deeper still.

Towards the light at the bottom front.

"Finn, this is..."

"Yes, what we are about to see..."

Riveria spoke to Finn from behind, and he nodded.

"It is something that no one... not even the gods have ever witnessed—the 'unknown'."

Then they arrived at the bright front.

Ais and the others walked up the entire passageway and entered the 59th floor of the unreached area.

“——————”

The scene unfolding before their eyes made everyone forget to speak.

There are no glaciers there at all.

There are no towering icebergs or streams of blue ice.

What Ais and the others saw was a horrifying view of the 59th floor, overgrown with vegetation and completely unrecognizable.

"...Dense forest?"

Tione, equipped with a kukri, looked around and muttered in amazement.

In the spacious "cave," even larger than the 58th floor directly above, a grove of green trees and vines grows. The space in front of the passageway is densely covered with tall trees, and the ground is a verdant meadow dotted with brightly colored wildflowers. Green walls rise in all directions from the walls of the enclosed space, with countless flower buds of various sizes hanging from them.

"This is... the 24th floor...?"

Lefiya held her wand to her chest and whispered with a trembling throat.

Seeing this scene, which looked exactly like the 24th-level pantry—the plant—that had been parasitized and transformed by the giant flower, Bert squinted his eyes.

Ais pursed her lips and looked around. At that moment, among the panicked supporters, Raul raised his head.

"There's a sound..."

Strange noises were coming from the front of the passageway, near the center of the floor.

It was a sharp, thin sound, like something was chewing, and then something broke, and something was trembling from time to time.

Hearing the mysterious sound coming from the depths of the dense forest that blocked their view, the team that had stopped all focused their attention on a little human.

Finn, wielding a long spear, quickly gave the order:

"go ahead."

The leader's words set the team in motion.

Led by Bert and Tiona, the team proceeded along a single path carved out of the dense forest.

Everyone's eyes swept across the dense forest to the left and right, ready to deal with anything that might appear, so as not to be caught off guard.

Looking directly upwards, the sky, tens of meters high, glowed with phosphorescence. Only a portion of the view above, not covered by the green flesh, allowed Ais and the others to know that this unrecognizable floor was indeed the underground city they knew.

As if lured by the increasingly loud noise, the group moved forward in a straight line for several minutes.

The dense forest vanished, and in the vast expanse of their field of vision, the adventurers saw it.

"...What is that?"

Holding the Great Double Blade (Ulga), Tiona parted her lips slightly and blurted out.

The forest disappeared, replaced by a vast, gray expanse of land.

In the center of the desolate building, there are countless larval and man-eating flower monsters.

A horde of repulsive monsters surrounds a female-shaped monster with the lower body of a giant plant.

"Is it the female form (monster) of 'Treasure Orb'?"

"Is the host... the 'Giant Flower Demon'...?"

Grace frowned as Rivera beside her uttered the name of some kind of monster.

She was referring to a giant plant monster that inhabits the deepest areas, also known as the "Corpse King Flower," which catches and eats anything, whether it's its own kind or an adventurer.

The larval form extends a tongue-like organ from its mouth and hands the "variegated magic stone" at the front to the female form of the giant plant (giant flower membrane). The carnivorous plant also opens its huge jaws, revealing the "magic stone" in its mouth.

The female figure greedily swallowed the "magic stone" offered to her.

The upper body, existing atop a giant plant, closely resembled the larval female monster the group encountered on the 50th floor. Countless tentacles devoured the colorful offerings one after another, and once the "magic stone" was absorbed, the larval form and the man-eating plant gradually turned into decaying dust.

"Has it been eating such a powerful monster all along?"

Chun opened her right eye wide and looked at the large amount of gray powder piled up like salt blocks around the female figure.

At the same time, Lefia and the others unfortunately also noticed it.

The gray earth beneath their feet was actually the dusty remains of an extraordinary number of monsters.

"Oh no...!"

As the group members shuddered, Finn's expression twisted into a grimace.

"Is it an 'enhanced species'...!?"

Bert also groaned, his face contorted with the tattoo.

"————"

As for Ais...

She was listening to her own heartbeat.

Listen to the wailing of a heart that is about to burst its eardrum.

Listen to the stirring of blood that has been awakened ahead.

The next moment.

Just as Finn and the others were about to respond, a change occurred in front of them.

"--ah……"

A female figure supported her upper body, and her extremely ugly head emitted a faint sound.

Just as it had devoured half of the monsters around it.

The upper body of the female figure began to tremble as if it were wriggling.

"Ahhh..."

The ugly upper body was shaking like a fool, and the skin and flesh were bulging all over.