Beyond the teleportation circle was... a stone wall. Naturally. We were inside a shrine.
When I stepped outside the shrine, mountains, forests, and a cloudy sky spread out before me — a natural landscape that looked just like the outside world.
I suddenly spotted a small, round pool.
It was a perfectly circular little pool — unnaturally so.
And there wasn't just one. Countless others dotted the area at even intervals.
In the center of each pool, a rod jutted upward, so tall you'd crane your neck to see the top.
The rods came in various colors — black, red, white, yellow, and more.
Looking up, the sky above the tips of the rods shimmered and wavered unnaturally. What was that?
"Six-Color Pool. The healing spring is nearby, boss."
"Um, this place is..."
"The bottom of the Great River, boss."
"Then that sky is..."
"The Great River, boss."
"...We're not... underwater, are we?"
"That part's beyond me. Such are the mysteries of the dungeon, boss."
"Ah..."
Fair enough. Well, I guess there's no point overthinking it.
But I do understand that we're at the bottom of the Great River.
The Great River's great waterfall drops down to the floors below, so it's not wrong, per se.
When I looked, I spotted delvers scattered around the six-color pond. They held rods in hand, with lines dangling down.
Could they be fishing?
"So, can you actually catch anything here?"
"You can catch attribute fish. Up to six attributes worth, though."
"Attribute fish?"
"Like fire fish or water fish — the attributes themselves become fish. They have a pretty fascinating taste, and they're delicious. It's a specialty of this water dungeon. Though it's been verified and proven that eating an attribute fish matching your own attribute boosts your power. Just a tiny bit, though."
"That's incredible. I had no idea fish like that even existed."
"Right? See, attribute fish can't be taken outside the water dungeon. If you try, they lose their attribute."
"Huh…"
Ingredients unique to the dungeon. So that kind of thing exists too.
The recovery spring was located in a grove. It was the same shape as the others.
No delvers resting there.
I checked it with the survey kit. Yep. No anomalies.
"We're done?"
"Yes. I just need to submit the report to the guild, and the request will be complete."
Every single recovery spring turned out to be free of problems.
Whether anyone was using them or not, they could be used without worry.
"Then, I'm going to need you to come with me for a bit."
"Sure. Where are we going?"
"The 20th floor."
"…Um."
Isn't that a bit sudden? But Bid-san picks up on it from my expression.
"No worries, ssu. We'll be using a few teleportation circles, so there's no hassle, ssu."
"What kind of route are we taking?"
"Right, ssu. First we go down from here to the 7th floor. There's a teleportation circle on the 7th floor, so we move to the 13th. From there we descend to the 15th, step into the circle, and that puts us on the 20th."
"That's quite a bit of moving around."
I suppose it's still way better than walking there in person.
Still, it really is like a puzzle.
"With me and Wof-kun, it'll be a piece of cake, ssu."
Bid-san grins and gives a thumbs-up in her Jumper swimsuit.
Oh, right, that reminds me.
"Hey, Bid-san."
"What is it, ssu?"
"How long are you planning to stay in that swimsuit?"
"Huh—…"
Bid-san looks down at herself and freezes. Her face turns bright red.
She hadn't even noticed.
"Hyaaa! H-h-how embarrassing, ssu!"
She crouches down as she says it.
She really hadn't noticed… Bid-san stays crouched, pulling the Jumper snug over herself.
And looking around, she hurriedly ran into the nearby thicket.
When she came back, she was properly dressed.
Still red-faced with embarrassment, she fidgeted and spoke to me.
"I showed you something unsightly, ssu. I-I didn't notice… ssu."
"A lot happened back there."
A lot really did happen.
I only just noticed it myself.
"W-well then, let's pull ourselves together and get going, ssu."
"Sure."
And so, the twentieth floor.
"…How should I put it. That was surprisingly easy."
"That knife of yours is basically cheating, ssu."
"Well, yeah, true."
I look at the knife — Agaro's knife, modified — gripped tight in my hand.
The water spirit dolls we encountered up to the twentieth floor.
Humanoid monsters made of water. The most despised creatures in this water dungeon.
Water is liquid. Cutting it or stabbing it does nothing.
So the only options against water spirit dolls are burning them with fire magic or destroying their cores.
And since they're made of water, they regenerate as long as water is around.
Given enough time, even the core itself will regrow.
And this is a water dungeon.
You don't need me to explain why water spirit dolls are the most hated monsters in this dungeon.
But this knife cuts right through that water.
It severs it cleanly, and no matter how much water gathers back at the cut, it won't heal.
It's the same as how flesh that's been sliced apart doesn't just stick back together on its own.
"Nah!"
"Daga agrees it's cheating, s-senpai."
"Nah!"
Yeah, she does seem to be saying that. Well, I'll test the knife out properly when we get back.
"...So this is the 20th floor?"
"That's right, s-senpai."
"..."
The 20th floor of a water dungeon. Nothing particularly interesting here.
It's the same stone-walled maze that every dungeon has.
Bright stone corridors stretching on endlessly, branching off in layers.
Along the way, dead ends, small rooms with no doors, and small rooms with doors.
Traps like pitfalls and flying arrows. The ceiling, though, is a water surface, and every so often droplets fall down.
Here and there are what look like rest areas, with springs, fountains, and small waterfalls.
I follow after Bid.
It's strangely quiet—no monsters or other delvers in sight.
"――Do you and the others know that Wof is a delver, Pakira?"
She asked me out of the blue.
"Not yet. I'd like to report it soon."
"Then we'll keep quiet about it too."
"Thank you. By the way, it's quiet here."
"It's always like this around here."
"There are no monsters, either."
"There are, but water spirit warriors and water spirit swordsmen show up once in a while. This 20th floor isn't popular, you see. All the treasure in the small rooms has been taken already, so there's nothing left — you get lost, it's boring, and it's plain. That's why not many delvers use this floor. Oh, and there's a shortcut from the 19th floor to the 25th."
So that explained it. I understood now why the floor was unpopular enough that not a single delver was around.
Well, I'd sort of sensed it already.
"Could it be that the water dungeon isn't popular?"
When you enter the water dungeon, the hole in the water's surface is large. The descending staircase is the same.
And yet there were only a handful of delvers.
On the 1st floor, I'd frequently run into monsters before meeting Bid.
On the 3rd floor shore, there were plenty of boats but most were left abandoned, and few delvers bothered to board them.
On the 6th floor, too, you could count the delvers fishing on one hand.
Even along the route to the 20th floor, delvers — I hardly saw any.
However, the bar and general store in the fortress ruins near the entrance were reasonably bustling.
Well, "popular" was probably a stretch even then.
"...It really isn't popular, is it."
Biddo gave a wry smile.
"It's, like, the second-least popular."
"Which one's the least?"
"The fire dungeon. You can actually die there."
"Ohh... By the way, which one's the most popular?"
"The earth dungeon. You can dig up ores there."
"Oh, do they sell for a lot?"
"That's part of it. The other reason is the earthen dolls."
"Wait, are those in every dungeon? Those elemental dolls?"
Biddo nodded. So that was why earth was popular.
"Why it's popular — well, I think you get it, but even though they're pretty tough, your attacks actually go through. That's the main thing."
"It's definitely better than fire, water, or wind. Oh, what about wind?"
"Blowing them away is your best bet."
"So you fight wind with wind, huh..."
I only knew about the dungeon in town. So exploring other dungeons...
That was something I'd promised myself I'd definitely do once I became a delver.
So this sad reality stung a little.
"We're here."
In front of her stood a stone wall.
Small stone blocks were stacked tightly together like bricks, with no gaps between them.
That's all there was to it. A dead end, as they say.
"…?"
Then Bidd crouched down and got flat on the floor.
Watching in surprise, wondering what she was doing, I saw Bidd position herself at the very bottom of the stone wall.
She put her small hands on the biggest, heaviest stone block and shifted it.
It moved.
That massive stone block — the kind that looked like it absolutely wouldn't budge with one hand — was removed.
And a hole opened up. Just big enough for one person to crawl through.
"Surprised? This stone block. It's lighter than it looks."
"A hidden passage?"
"Yep. Follow after me."
"Okay."
With that, Bidd crawled into the hole and moved forward.
That's when I saw it. Her rear nearly got caught on the edge of the hole.
"Over here."
"Okay."
I crawled into the hole too. Slipped right through.
Beyond the hole in the wall was… what is this place?
First, there was damp air hanging about.
Then I spotted stone pillars further in. A space. A fairly spacious one, at that.
Rusted swords, rusted armor, and cracked leather shields were piled up all around.
Like a mountain of them — wait, this is... While I was struck speechless, Bid laughed.
"Welcome to the hidden Junkyard of the Water Dungeon!"
"...Wh...what..."
What even is a hidden Junkyard?