In the end, Torquetam never showed up even when morning came.
Bid-san kept insisting he was fine, but he had to be worried sick on the inside.
"Sorry, but we need to move fast."
"I know that."
Bid-san nodded at Garado-san's words.
We had to defeat the dungeon anomaly in the Forbidden Land as soon as possible.
"Those three should be fine, right?"
"They're strong."
"Ah, come on! I already know that!"
Having been told the same thing by Hoss-san and Nabel-san, Bid-san barked.
Everyone knew it was just him being embarrassed.
"Alright. You've got your spirit back. Let's move out."
"Ugh. This is exactly why I hate men."
Bid-san stuck out his tongue.
We laughed.
On good terms, we set out from the Delver Village.
After we'd gone a short distance, Garado-san spoke from the front.
"Stay sharp. The forest feels different from yesterday."
"Is it a Second Wave?"
"It's not like that premonition."
"Something's off. This uneasy air…"
"There's a strange smell."
Nabel sniffed the air sharply.
I'd felt it too, same as everyone else. The forest's atmosphere was different from yesterday.
There was a combative edge to it, somehow.
"Wof. Any hostiles?"
"Not at the moment."
My Danger Discernment showed zero.
"We proceed with caution. No telling what might jump us."
Everyone nodded at Garado-san.
With a tension none of us had felt the day before, we made our way through the Heisen Great Forest.
The air was heavy, but oddly enough, we didn't run into any enemies.
Eventually, we reached a rocky area.
Massive boulders were gathered and piled up in the middle of the forest.
Garado-san stopped there.
"Hm? What's up?"
"Garado, what's wrong?"
"Yeah, over here."
Garado-san looked around, approached the largest boulder, crouched down, and swept the sand from the ground with his hand.
As he cleared away more sand, a faint green glow became visible.
Could that be...? When Garado finished clearing the sand, a teleportation circle appeared.
Everyone except Garado gasped.
"Is it a teleportation circle?"
"Who knew they had one hidden here."
"Now that's a surprise."
"Garado-san, could this teleportation circle lead to the Forbidden Land?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Did you set it up?"
"...Yeah, that's right."
Upon hearing that, we all looked stunned.
Garado, on the other hand, wore a complex expression.
"I know what you're thinking. That there were better places to install it, right?"
"Well, yes, that's true."
"Exactly. It should be in the Expedition Village, that's the proper place."
"I think so too."
"They're misusing it. What a waste."
Yes, a waste. Even a basic teleportation circle costs around a hundred million.
If it's a permanent installation, it easily exceeds a billion.
To use something so expensive on a place like this... it's baffling.
"I think so too, but this is coming out of the Poor Man's Club's private coffers."
"Private funds, huh?"
"That makes it even more exasperating, honestly."
"Ha ha ha ha, as expected of the patriarch of the Three Great Houses..."
"I thought the same thing. Still do."
Even Garado was letting his true feelings show.
"W-well, anyway, having a shortcut is good news."
I chimed in casually.
If the mood within the party—or rather, the subjugation team—started going south, that would be trouble.
"...Yeah, on foot, it'd take close to a week..."
"Th-that distance dropping to zero is definitely something to be happy about."
Nabel jumped in to smooth things over as well.
Bid and Hoss heard that and at least seemed somewhat placated for the moment.
Using the teleportation circle, what greeted us was a town built of stone.
So this was the Forbidden Land.
Bid was the first to speak.
"Looks a lot like Heizen."
"Yeah. Has that Heizen feel to it."
"I thought the same when I came here. Apparently, the Poor Man's Club says it's the prototype of Heizen."
"But it's ruins, isn't it? Well, it is a dungeon, so I guess that's to be expected..."
There was something melancholy about the place.
Now that I thought about it, the hostile vibe I'd felt in the forest was gone here.
"Is there any treasure?" Hoss asked.
"There isn't. Nothing worth noting."
"I see. Hey, Wof?"
He looked up at me with sparkling, expectant eyes.
I gave a wry smile at his blatant curiosity, but since I was wondering too, I used Fortune's Circle.
Hmm. Not completely empty, but only a small amount of green. And it was scattered around, which was a pain.
Oh, there was a single blue. Blue!?
"There's one item of extraordinary value."
"Really!?"
"What is it? I searched every corner."
"It's in that temple-looking building."
Maybe it was the distance, but the glow was faint.
"That place, huh..."
Galad squinted toward where a massive, half-destroyed structure loomed.
I'd called it a temple-looking building, but I wasn't sure if it actually was one.
Well, Galad's reaction told me everything I needed to know without asking.
The dungeon's anomaly was in there.
"That said, it's quiet, isn't it," Hoss remarked.
"There are no enemies."
My Danger Discernment gave zero response.
"Well, let's head in."
"There's treasure too!"
"Though it's just the one thing, I think."
And so, we made our way toward the temple-like structure.
We arrived without incident.
"There really aren't any enemies, huh."
"It's quiet here too... strangely so."
"No presence at all. Is it really here?"
The temple-like structure was completely silent.
No presence whatsoever. It was deserted.
"This is odd."
Galad tilted his head too.
The front area was a large space, perhaps a sanctuary, with broken and crumbling stone pillars standing out.
There was no sense of anything lurking. My Danger Discernment showed no reaction.
"The giant spider was back there."
"There are spider webs, though."
"But there's nothing else."
"Not a single spider in sight."
"Oh."
Nabel suddenly raised her voice.
"What is it?"
"I found a hidden room."
"Huh?"
"For real?"
"This way."
Nabel led us along.
For someone who'd found a hidden room, she was heading away from where we were.
Could it be one of those kinds of Relics?
I knew there were Relics that could reveal hidden rooms and areas.
They were just as prized by delvers as mine was.
And that reminded me — Colin had been going on about stumbling into hidden rooms all the time earlier.
Incidentally, the blue light was getting closer, so the hidden room must be that way.
Nabel stopped in front of a door at the end of the passage.
It sat deep in the right corridor of the spacious area.
"There's a hidden room entrance in the room beyond this door."
"It's locked, huh."
"What should we do?"
"We'll have to force it open."
"Then I'll open it."
I stepped forward and pressed a small Banish against the keyhole.
Click, and the door opened.
A small white space held a jar and a wooden box.
Looked like a storage room.
Nabel pressed his hand against the blank white wall.
"There's a room behind this wall."
"There's probably some kind of mechanism somewhere."
"It's pretty jam-packed, huh."
When I specified the range with the Ring of Fortune, part of the wall glowed green.
Behind it, a blue light.
The mechanism… was the large jar right beside me, now glowing green.
When I opened the wooden lid, there was a statue.
A statue of some deity, small enough to grab with one hand, sitting on a slender pedestal.
A statue inside a jar… suspicious as all get-out. I couldn't see the bottom well, so I lit it up with a light orb.
The slender pedestal was connected to the bottom of the jar, and there was a round groove to boot.
This was connected to the floor.
"…"
I tried pushing the statue. No good.
Then I tried pulling. No good.
"…Pushing and pulling both do nothing, huh."
So I tried turning it instead. Oh, it worked.
Half a turn clockwise, and it clicked into something.
Then the wall opened up.
"It really is a secret room!?"
"Wof. Did you do something?"
"There was a switch inside the vase."
"That's oddly overengineered."
"Treasure!"
The room had nothing in it except a box sitting in the center.
Inside the box was… a sword.
Well, not exactly a sword — it was blade-shaped but had no crossguard. I think the style was called kakuchigoshirae.
A white scabbard with dark mottled patterns and a smooth, amber-colored hilt — it was distinctive in a foreign sort of way.
"…This is the treasure?"
The blade was emitting a blue glow. This is it.
"Seems like it."
"A sword, then."
Galad took it in his hands.
"Doesn't look like anything special."
"It could be an OOPArt, though."
Right. "Did you check your soul vessel capacity before examining it?"
"I haven't, so I'm passing."
"I don't have a Relic, so I'm fine."
"I'm fine too."
"I didn't either, so please take me out of this."
"Got it. Then Hoss."
I handed it to Hoss.
"I'm out too."
Hoss passed it to Nabel.
"...Kumogiri... Bekkō Hassunji."
Nabel murmured under her breath.
Bekkō. Bekkō... that smooth, candy-colored stuff. So it's bekkō.
According to my past life memories, it was a material made from the processed shell of a hawksbill sea turtle.
Ornaments crafted from bekkō were luxury goods. Hairpins in particular were prized.
"What's Bekkō Hassunji?"
"Let me see... [Bekkō Hassunji: an iai technique. Slices through spider legs. And if you slash through all of a spider's compound eyes at once, you can kill any spider. However, in that case, Kumogiri will break.] —something like that."
"A spider-specialized Relic with conditions attached, huh."
"This one's powerful, I'd say."
The fact that it works on *any* spider is what's remarkable.
Even just for a single use, there was nothing else this strong among everything we'd fought to suppress the dungeon's aberrations so far.
The blue light makes sense, I suppose, but what's an eight-character inscription?
"Good work, Nabel. If this thing works out, we might be able to take it down easily."
"...Could it be that I'm the one who has to use it?"
Nabel said, looking troubled.
"That's about the size of it."
"I'll do my best! Nabel!"
"I'm counting on you, Nabel!"
Nabel glanced at the Spider-Cutter with a bewildered expression and tucked it at his hip.
We kept searching after that, but found nothing — no items, no sign of the dungeon's aberrations.
Where on earth did it go?