How on earth did things end up like this?
Was it because the moment I grabbed the tiller, it bent sideways and turned into something just like a motorcycle grip?
Or was it because I had memories of riding a motorcycle from my past life?
Or was it because, even though the grip was like a motorcycle's, the accelerator and brake were down at the bottom like a car's?
Or was it because I stepped on the accelerator and brake in the wrong order?
Or was it because, the moment I gripped the klibb, it launched at full throttle from the very start and demolished the shrine?
I kept barreling down the great river at breakneck speed, felt "this is bad," and slammed on the brakes.
Or was it that, the instant I thought that, it was actually the accelerator?
Even when I realized and panicked, hammering the brakes with everything I had, for some reason they didn't work at all.
If anything, it only made me speed up even more.
Or was it because I was careening down the river at outrageous speed, blasting aquatic monsters out of the way one after another?
From the outside, it must have looked like a black bullet shooting through the water. I thought that with remarkable composure. Just pure escapism on my part.
Or was it because it was a yellow light? I feel like I haven't caught a single decent break lately.
And then the black boat took flight through the air.
When I came to my senses, I was lying on the ground, rolled up like a log.
Something was tapping my face. Pat, pat, pat — who was it?
"Naa!"
Dagaar was staring down at me, his red eyes wide open.
"Oh. It's you."
"Na!"
"...Glad I made it. But where... am I?"
I pushed myself upright.
"Haa... haa... oh, ugh, I-I really thought I was gonna die...!"
Looking toward the voice, I could see Bid lying on his side a short distance away.
He'd screamed, so he seemed fine.
"...An island?"
It smelled like dirt. The only place you'd find dirt on the Great River was an island.
Bid pushed his upper body up. He stretched, his modest chest shifting, and looked at me.
"Wof. You okay?"
"Y-yeah. Somehow."
"Good that we're both alive... What about the boat?"
"Um, I don't know."
"Then let's go find it."
Bid stood up.
"You're going to look for it?"
I was a bit surprised.
"Of course we are. That was an incredible Legendary. You don't see one of those every day. It's our chance to strike it rich!"
"True, but..."
I was starting to worry. That thing's brakes had been completely shot.
Not only that, both of them had the accelerator jammed.
Something like that was way too dangerous.
As if reading my thoughts, Bid said:
"Don't worry about it! We're not gonna ride them, just take a look. Besides, you're curious too, right, Wof?"
"Well, yeah, but..."
There were plenty of things to worry about.
"Alright, let's go exploring!"
"Um, by the way, do you have any idea where on this island we are?"
Bid looked around the surroundings.
He flashed a confident grin.
"Nope!"
"I see."
Well, I guess we'd just have to explore and figure it out.
And so we set off in search of the black boat.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
Suddenly, an explosion shook the island to its core, and a shockwave swept over us.
"—?!"
My body went airborne and slammed into the ground, sending me tumbling.
The pain knocked the wind out of me.
"Wof!"
"Na!"
Thick smoke blanketed everything before the wind carried it away.
What the heck happened next...?
"Wof. You alright?"
"I-I'm managing... What about you, Biddo?"
"Managing."
"Na!"
"You okay too, huh."
Probably fine, yeah. I slowly got to my feet.
Every joint in my body ached. But it didn't look like anything serious.
No bruises, no sprains either.
"What was that, d'you figure?"
Biddo jerked his head toward the scene.
Black smoke was billowing upward in thick, churning plumes.
The surrounding trees had been flattened, and several had been blown clean into the river.
"...Shall we go have a look?"
"Let's."
Probably. Most likely, that thing had exploded.
That was the only explanation that made sense.
Getting there was easy. We ran into some monsters along the way, but nothing worth worrying about.
A water-spitting lizard. An Aqua Edge Wolf. And three Water Spirit soldiers.
"Amazing. Those Water Spirit soldiers got sliced apart like they were made of meat."
"But... the feeling was kind of unclear."
I dodged an attack and countered with a diagonal slash. That's when I noticed it.
If I had to describe it, it felt like cutting through a thick, heavy jelly.
Water Spirit soldiers were part of the Water Spirit Doll series. Their entire bodies were made of water.
"Na!"
"Don't just hit my head because you've got nothing to do..."
She'd been like this for a while now, perched on top of my head and tapping at my forehead.
"Ahaha, seems like you've upset her."
"Na!"
"I said, stop hitting me."
It didn't hurt, but it was annoying.
Lately she'd started developing this strange pride as a blade of some sort.
Bid lifted Daga off my head and hugged it to her chest.
With such a large marker, finding the spot was easy enough.
Halfway up the island, there was a small crater.
Black smoke was rising from it.
Scattered around the center were familiar black remains.
A broken grip. Shards of a display crystal were visible too.
Bid started to rush over, sensing something, but I stopped him.
"What's going on?"
"If you go there, you'll die."
"What!? Why would it be... is that a Relic?"
"Yes."
Just to be sure, I activated the Relic [Crisis Detection].
That crater was pitch-black. Black meant death.
"Let's get away from here. It's dangerous around here too."
"...Understood."
The area around here was red too. Red was dangerous. You'd get hurt. Take damage.
Gas or something—I didn't know what it was, but we left.
After that, we found a boat on the opposite side of the island.
A plain white boat, rowed with oars.
We boarded the boat and set out onto the wide river.
We sat facing each other. Bid rowed carefully.
Somehow he seemed to lack strength. I spoke up.
"...That explosion was probably our boat."
The wreckage spoke for itself as conclusive evidence.
Bid let out a sigh.
"So you really think that too, huh..."
"Yes."
"Man... striking it rich..."
"There'll be another chance."
I tried to console Bid, who had slumped forward dejectedly.
I'm no good at this kind of thing. Still hanging her head, she mumbled under her breath.
"There's not much chance of that. Haaah, our party 'Zan Brave' falling apart and all... we really haven't caught any breaks. And on top of everything, the dried meat I ate yesterday was rotten, so my stomach's been through the wringer too."
...Did those two things even relate to each other?
Still, hmm. Well, I guess this one's on me.
"Bid."
"What do you want with a down-on-her-luck delver like me?"
"Down on your... Do you know about the 'Eye of Fortune'?"
"Sure I know about it. What about it?"
"I happen to have a Relic that's an upgrade over it."
Bid raised her head. She looked surprised.
"Ah, so that's how you figured out that strange boat? I was sure it was hidden deep in the forest..."
"You were sure?"
Deep in the forest?
"N-never mind. But why would you give that to me?"
"Consider it an apology, I guess. That water spirit dancer thing caused you some trouble, so, um, something of roughly equivalent value? A treasure, or..."
"Really!? Uh, are you sure about this?"
"That's fine."
"………In that case, actually, I found it. In this dungeon."
"You found it?"
"——But first, the recovery spring."
Bid smiled softly.
"Ah."
I caught myself. I'd forgotten.
"We'll pick this up after you finish your first quest, Wof."
"……Got it."
Checking the map, the island with the recovery spring was about two islands away.
We moved slower than before but ran into fewer monsters, and made it safely to the destination.
It was a spring not much different from the one on the first floor.
I used the survey kit the same way as before. Nothing unusual.
"It's a rest area, but there's nobody here."
It was completely deserted. Come to think of it, the first floor only had Bid, too.
"Well, it doesn't really get used."
"Is that so?"
"Even though it's called a recovery spring, it's still just a spring. And it's not like monsters don't show up."
"So not many people come here."
"There's plenty of water around, after all."
It's a pretty far stretch, yeah.
"Well, I wouldn't say my request was entirely pointless."
"Wof, why did you take on this request?"
"Partly for the exploration, and partly because it sounded interesting."
"Interesting, huh. Well, it was definitely fun in various ways, I guess…"
Bido-san had a faraway look in his eyes. I gave a wry smile.
"It's not over yet. Let's head to the sixth floor. There's an island from here that leads to the sixth floor, right?"
"There is. We came back to the third floor from there."
"So the sixth floor?"
"Even lower than that, actually. Forty floors down is definitely not doable solo for us."
Well, I figured there'd be something like water-demon dancers around there.
Once again, we boarded the white boat and rowed down the great river.
We encountered some small fry aquatic monsters, fought our way through, and kept going. No need to finish them off.
We arrived at the island with the sixth-floor shortcut.
On that island stood a stone shrine.
It was clearly different from the last one — this one had a much more welcoming feel to it.
Inside the shrine was… ah, I see.
"A teleportation circle?"
"Yep."
There it was, glowing white and green.