Chapter 265 - Bug (4)

“Sorry for taking up your time.”

Once I returned, I offered a brief apology. After all, they had never met Dwalki. I thought it was only right to apologize for taking time out of our exploration for something personal. Of course, my companions were understanding.

“What do you have to apologize for? What kind of people do you take us for?”

“Yes, Raven is right. What a strange thing to worry about. Any of us could end up like that friend of yours someday.”

Uh, I didn't think he should be saying things like that...

As I was thinking that, Raven spoke to Mister Bear on my behalf.

“... Mr. Urigfried, could you please not say things like that? You'll jinx us.”

“Raven, you don't even believe in superstitions.”

“I'm an explorer now, too.”

“Ah, that's right.”

Mister Bear chuckled, lightening the somewhat somber mood.

‘Was she making a joke on purpose?’

“What are you looking at?”

‘... Probably not.’

I smirked at Raven's insolent look, then got down to business.

“All right. If everyone's rested enough, let's take a look around the island.”

It was time to start exploring.

* * *

Raimia, the Island of Beginnings.

No matter which route you took on the fifth floor, this was the first island you reached. But that symbolic significance wasn't the only reason Raimia was called the Island of Beginnings. It held the basic materials needed to explore the sixth floor.

Well, in theory, at least.

“It's already been picked clean.”

A mountain stood prominently in the center of the island. Having climbed to its summit, we surveyed our surroundings in dismay.

Normally, a special kind of tree grew here. Its wood was about as hard as tier-three metal, yet light enough to float easily.

But...

“Well, no matter how fast a tree grows, it wouldn't reach full size in a month.”

All that greeted us at the summit were thousands of stumps. Not that there weren't any trees that had grown back somewhat...

“Most of these are unusable.”

“Still, some have grown enough to use. Let's at least take those.”

We took out the axes we'd brought, then cut down only the trees large enough to process into materials, neatly stowing them in subspace.

It took about thirty minutes, I think.

“With any luck, we could get this much next month, too.”

“Yes. If it's as deserted then as it is now.”

Sigh. If only the sixth floor reset every month, too. That was a shame in more ways than one.

No matter what you did on floors one through five, everything reset when the Labyrinth opened again the next month. The sixth floor was different. Time here ran continuously, as evidenced by the assorted marks carved into that large rock over there, which never disappeared.

“Wow, there's something written on the rock! It looks like letters... What does it say?”

“Weren't you going to the sanctuary every day to learn to read?”

“Haha! I gave up on that ages ago!”

After a brief sigh at Aynar's utterly unwarranted cheerfulness, I walked over to the rock and read the inscriptions.

Most were just nonsense. So-and-so was here, please let me make lots of money, so-and-so, I really like you, and so on.

‘People here are just the same when it comes to graffiti.’

I chuckled and turned my gaze toward the vast sea stretching below. We hadn't gotten much wood, but at least the height let us spot an island that hadn't been visible from below.

“Oh, that must be Parune Island.”

Parune, the second island, lay north of the Island of Beginnings. It was also our next destination.

“Avman, just in case, can you sense where the portal is?”

“No. Only the one on this island.”

“I see.”

When I nodded, Raven spoke up as though defending Mister Bear.

“Don't be too disappointed. It's just because this floor is so vast. I've heard he'll be able to sense its location again once we're close to the portal.”

Disappointed? Hardly.

Unlike on the lower floors, there wasn't much a Guide could do on the sixth floor to begin with. Especially when you'd only just arrived.

“Anyway, we've gathered everything we need. Let's head down.”

With my business at the summit finished, I returned to the shore with my companions and headed toward the island we'd seen from above.

The standard strategy was to gather wood on the Island of Beginnings a few more times and build a boat, but...

‘Everyone knows you can skip the grind by spending money.’

I took the boat I'd prepared out of subspace and set it afloat. We'd bought it with the money we'd each contributed to our shared funds as soon as we founded the guild. It had used up most of those funds, but...

‘If it weren't for the current situation, we'd never have gotten it at this price.’

The timing had worked out well in several ways. Any wood we gathered from now on could go toward upgrading the boat, or we could sell the logs to help pay for a better one.

“Bjorn... Th-this won't sink, will it?”

Seriously? She'd even gone fishing in a boat back at Gnometree.

‘... Oh, right. That boat capsized.’

“Don't worry. We already tested it thoroughly in the city. As long as you don't move around too much like last time, we'll be fine.”

“B-but... Aah! It's r-rocking! Isn't something wrong with the b-boat? This is nothing like last time!”

“That was a lake. This is the sea.”

Though the biggest problem was probably that this boat was only half the size of the one we'd ridden then.

Anyway, after all that commotion, we boarded one by one.

And then...

“All right. Let's set sail!”

We rowed hard against the waves, just as we'd practiced with the boat sitting on bare ground in the city.

Our boat didn't have a sail, after all. If we'd bought one with a sail, there wouldn't even have been room for four of us, and we couldn't afford a bigger boat.

Being a newbie had its own special charm, didn't it?

“I-isn't the boat going backward, nyah...?”

“You're imagining it! Keep rowing!”

“One, two! One, two!”

Since this was our first time actually rowing on the water, there was some trial and error. But as explorers who forced the impossible to work through sheer grit, we soon got the hang of it.

“Oh, the island's getting closer!”

Perhaps the sailing experience stirred something in Raven; she reacted to every little thing with uncharacteristic excitement. That excitement didn't last long, though.

‘This is taking a lot longer than I expected...’

It hadn't looked that far from the summit, but now that we were in the boat rowing, we were advancing at a snail's pace.

Or was that just me?

I never imagined we'd hit a crisis so soon after entering the sixth floor.

“Urgh.”

“B-Bjorn? What's wrong?”

“S-seasick...”

Bjorn Jandel was not made for the sea.

* * *

Watching me waste away from seasickness, Misha asked worriedly,

“M-motion sickness? Doesn't that only happen in carriages, nyah?”

I wondered how she could even ask that, but that was only from my perspective. It made sense for someone who'd spent her whole life inside the walls.

Even Raven seemed to know about it only in theory.

“Motion sickness refers to dizziness caused by a discrepancy between your vision and your sense of balance. It doesn't only happen in carriages.”

“Oh, I see, nyah...”

Misha nodded, her voice making it clear she hadn't understood a word.

“No wonder my stomach's been feeling a little queasy for a while... now...”

Misha was relatively better off, but Aynar, a born-and-bred barbarian warrior, was in worse shape than I was.

“M-move! Uuurgh!”

Forgetting all about rowing, Aynar grabbed the gunwale and began emptying her stomach.

“Eek!”

“S-stop! Aynar! You can't move around like that!”

She was throwing up so violently that her movements kept tipping the boat from side to side. Violently enough to make me genuinely worry we'd capsize.

“Urp, uuurgh!”

“... S-stop!”

The boat was so cramped there wasn't even room to stand up and walk properly, so we couldn't physically restrain Aynar.

And four of us couldn't swim. Everyone except Erwin and Misha, in fact.

We were far enough from the island that even [Gigantification] wouldn't let me touch the bottom like last time.

Wait, weren't we in serious danger here?

“Raven! Knock her out with magic!”

“Oh, right!”

The moment I realized this wasn't just some harmless mishap, I quickly assessed the situation and issued an order.

“Seretara Vairon!”

“U-urp, hmm...? Mmm...”

Thankfully, Aynar hadn't properly built up her Mana Resistance yet, so a single spell sent her quietly into unconsciousness.

And then...

“U-um, Mister... I-I think I'm going to die.”

“Uh, me too. I need to do it, too.”

Unable to withstand the tempest that was Aynar, my companions fell out of action one by one.

“Still, Mr. Urigfried, you're surprisingly all ri—”

“... Urp, bleeeurgh!”

“Uh, um... Mr. Jandel, are you all ri—”

No. Of course I wasn't.

“Blaaaargh!”

As I held the gunwale and vomited as carefully as possible, I heard a sigh behind me.

“... Why isn't a single person among us all right?”

Surprisingly, Raven wasn't seasick.

* * *

The sixth floor's concept was simple: sail across a vast sea, passing through various islands on your way to the seventh floor. That made a navigator essential from this floor onward.

Someone specialized in the sixth floor, who could handle a boat, chart sailing routes, and even absorb Essences that helped with seafaring.

‘Well, once we have a decent ship, applicants will come flocking. No need to rush.’

I climbed out over the bow and pulled the boat by hand to shore, then put it in the subspace backpack so we wouldn't lose it.

That was an option only while we were using a small boat. Crossing becalmed waters, frozen seas, and all the other shitty stretches of ocean would inevitably require larger and larger ships.

‘That's why exploring as a clan is recommended from the sixth floor onward in the first place.’

Ships were so expensive that exploring the sixth floor was a heavy burden for a mere team.

“Whew! Dry land! Dry land!”

The sun was beginning to set in the distance. Only then did we finally reach Parune Island, looking half-dead. We ate a quick meal and immediately began setting up camp.

“So a sunset can look like that, too...”

“I know. Today was the first time I thought I was glad I became an explorer.”

My companions, who'd only ever watched the sun disappear behind the city walls, were deeply moved by the sight of it sinking beyond the horizon.

Honestly, I felt the same. Just being here on the sandy beach made it feel as though I'd come to some island on Earth.

Well, not that I'd ever vacationed on an island like this.

‘Why didn't I ever go...?’

For the first time, I regretted spending my life holed up in my room playing games. Back then, I'd lived in a much bigger world, one without walls.

“Aynar, go to sleep now, nyah. I'll wake you for the last watch.”

“A-are you sure?”

“You did have the roughest time, after all, nyah...”

“Thanks, Misha!”

We gave Aynar the last watch after her ordeal with seasickness, then decided the order for the rest of us.

“I don't think we need two people on watch at once. I've heard this island only has monsters of rank eight or below.”

“Right. Let's take turns one at a time and wake the others if anything happens, nyah.”

“But wouldn't it have been better to sleep on the island we were on before? It didn't seem to have any monsters.”

“We didn't know we'd get here this late.”

“That's... true enough.”

It was comfortably warm, so we simply spread our sleeping bags on the beach and lay down. We'd brought tents, since it sometimes rained from this floor onward, but...

“Pretty, nyah.”

“Yes, it really is.”

With the Milky Way stretching across the sky all around us, we unanimously decided to sleep under the stars.

“... My wife would have loved to see this, too.”

“You make it sound like she's dead. You know I'm going to tell your wife you said that, right?”

“... Wh-what are you talking about? I-I meant it's a shame she quit being an explorer! That's what I meant!”

“Enough chatter. Get to sleep. We're exploring the island as soon as it's light tomorrow.”

Was it because this was our first night on the sixth floor? My companions seemed too restless to sleep until quite some time had passed.

Then came the next morning.

“Before we head inland, I plan to follow the coastline all the way around.”

We rose early, packed up camp, and set off around the island. There wasn't any grand reason for it. I just wanted to see for myself how much its size differed between the game and reality.

‘The island's much bigger than I expected.’

I was thinking that as we reached roughly the halfway point when...

“Oh, Bjorn! There's a boat over there!”

We spotted a boat moored along the shore. It wasn't a large sailing ship, but it was at least three times the size of ours and neatly equipped with everything it needed.

“This could handle not just the becalmed waters but even the frozen sea without trouble. Oh, and of course, it has an ownership engraving, too.”

“Huh? Does that mean we can't pick it up and take it?”

At Raven's explanation, Aynar tilted her head, her eyes innocent.

Just then...

“You there, barbarian. What are you doing in front of our boat?”

The boat's owner appeared from inland.

“Wait a minute. Aren't you that barbarian from back then?”

“It's been a while.”

It was a face I remembered.