The young girls' adventure soon became joyful.
Even though this world looked incomparably dilapidated, giving off the feeling that normal life had long ceased to exist—with its gray, hazy sky, overgrown mountain forests, and a depressing, sticky scent of death permeating everything.
Very quickly.
Passing through this ruin-like [Firelink Shrine], they followed a passable mountain path along one side and continued forward.
Riveria, together with Ais and the others, arrived at a place named the [Undead Burg].
The appearance of the small town was very sudden.
Following the narrow hillside, it was as if they took a sudden turn and entered directly between passageways that looked like city walls. The surrounding environment changed abruptly; the original mountain forests had long vanished, replaced by crowded, chaotic, and disorderly towers and stone houses of varying heights.
It was called a small town, but in reality, it was as narrow as the caverns of the Dungeon.
There were corners, doors, and rooms everywhere.
Crisscrossing like a maze, it was dazzlingly confusing. Most importantly, one's line of sight was easily obstructed. Many times, they simply didn't know where to go and could only blindly charge forward.
Fortunately, the 'monsters' inside weren't too difficult to deal with. Most of them were dry corpses like the ones before.
They moved slowly. Although they wielded reasonably decent weapons, and there were ranged enemies who knew to stand on high ground, as well as those who hid behind doors or in blind spots—even clinging to the outside of railings on both sides of the corridors, hiding, waiting for the girls to pass before climbing up to attack from behind.
Too insidious!
Luckily, Ais and Ryuu—and especially Lefiya—had accumulated simply too much similar combat experience. Thus, they were able to discover them in advance every time and solve them smoothly.
Clearly, such 'difficulty' was not quite enough to challenge a rather luxurious adventurer party like the girls' current group.
Compared to these monsters, the intricate and complex terrain was actually more of a headache.
Cecil, who hadn't been to the Dungeon much, and Tiona, who always liked to rampage straight through, were already starting to feel a bit dizzy.
Then.
They ran headfirst into a fully armed Black Knight standing deep within a straight corridor.
"!!!"
Everyone suddenly stood in 'solemn awe'.
This guy, who appeared suddenly and was completely different from the dry corpses just now, looked strong at a glance. But after getting close, no 'name' appeared above it. They wondered, could it be some kind of Elite Monster?
"No way? Is it even more powerful than that big fatty from before?"
"I don't know."
"It's too narrow here; it's hard to make a move."
"Let's just use Magic—"
"Wait a minute! Using Magic is too boring, watch me!!"
Tiona rushed forward hurriedly, shouldering her small wooden shield and hand axe—equipment she had found earlier in the Undead Asylum.
But the result...
Clang!
There was absolutely no way to break its defense!!
The combat power of the Black Knight before them was simply inconceivably strong, even much more powerful than the Boss they encountered earlier, that big fatty called a Demon or something.
At the very least.
When weapons chopped at it, they wouldn't be bounced back. But looking at it, it seemed like no damage was caused to it at all!
Tiona was dumbfounded.
Fortunately, although the passage was narrow, the young girl still used her agile posture to dodge the counterattack of the opponent's longsword.
The result was that, in the end, the Amazon girl simply threw her weapon away. She used her fists to slam the tall knight before her onto the ground, and then threw a flurry of punches at it, going bang bang bang.
"Atatatatatatatata..."
Her mouth was still emitting sounds that no one could understand at all.
The outcome was that, relying on her own 'Ability Scores and Level', she successfully 'elbowed' the Black Knight before her into submission with her fists.
"Phew..."
These things were still the most useful.
The monster also dropped its weapon. Tiona picked up the black longsword to take a look, feeling it wasn't comfortable to use, so she simply threw it to Ais.
Subsequently.
The group continued to explore, and amidst the towering city walls, they saw a gray, hazy Fog Gate.
After walking inside, they encountered a Taurus Demon wielding a greataxe.
After defeating it.
Not long after, they saw a crimson Great Dragon spread its wings and fly past. Between another stone bridge that seemed to lead to a certain castle, they saw it lying on the ramparts—
This scene, inexplicably, felt extremely familiar to the girls, leaving them a bit unable to hold back their expressions for a moment.
They went up to test it, and sure enough.
As long as they approached the stone bridge, the Great Dragon would breathe out fire, burning everything on the walls to ashes.
It was exactly the same!
It was simply exactly the same as the situation in the [Goblin Kingdom]!!
Speaking of which.
Those magical beasts that always hid in various insidious corners, coming out to sneak attack at the drop of a hat; the traps that suddenly appeared in your face; the doors that 'Does not open from this side'; and even the winding paths where, suddenly, after lowering a lift, you realized you had returned to the previous bonfire point, and so on.
These feelings of déjà vu were simply very similar to Isagi's previous adventures in the Dungeon.
Riveria and Ryuu might not have felt it as strongly.
But.
Lefiya and Ais, who had discovered it first and even had contact with Isagi, realized something. Why, when facing that mutated Dungeon, did the boy act so proficiently at the very beginning? It could even be said he was so proficient it made one's heart ache.
This guy, could it be that he was adventuring in this kind of place before?
It's not strange, this isn't strange anymore!
[Could it be, this is the path Isagi took to get here?]
But it was also too strange.
The other girls who came to this [Dark Hall] for the first time might still only half-understand, but Riveria and Ais, who had already experienced much here, both thought of the previous Tiger Vanguard and such.
Regardless of how one put it.
That big tiger full of foul language like 'Motherf*cker' seemed completely out of place with this dilapidated, massive city before their eyes that seemed to have completely turned into a domain of death, right?
The art style is completely different, hey!!
So why would such a situation occur? Did Isagi's past experiences involve completely different environments between floors, similar to the Dungeon?
So that means...
Isagi actually fought against such monsters in these places, and that's why he is so strong?
Not simply referring to the superficial things like the Skills and Magic the boy possessed.
But something more internal. Something that had attracted them from the very beginning—whether it was Ais, Lefiya, or including Riveria, Ryuu, and the others.
In everyone's hearts, the moment they first saw Isagi surfaced.
The first time they saw him fighting against magical beasts, that certain indescribable feeling he presented.
That beast-like gaze;
The thirst for battle and victory;
The indomitable spirit of never giving up.
The girls all felt that, at this very moment, they seemed to have gotten a few steps closer to Isagi. Even if it was just a little bit, it was still a very, very good start.
And on the other side—
After Isagi woke up from that trance-like dream, he realized he was in the [Dark Hall].
It was still that world full of myriad stars, hazy and indistinct. The cold, soft tactile sensation of the young girl still lingered on his hand.
It seemed.
As long as he turned his head, he could still see that hooded girl whose appearance he couldn't see clearly, who wouldn't speak, but simply accompanied him silently.
[Ah...]
He turned his head, but saw nothing.
Isagi thought that, sure enough, it was his hallucination. But the dream just now was truly too realistic. Including, at this very moment, that even more definite 'tactile sensation' connected to the Dungeon.
This absolutely existed.
Including the Divine Power obtained from that person.
Amidst the myriad stars, Isagi could feel the golden Divine Power lingering at his fingertips. It was no longer the 'specks of light' of the past, but had gathered into a tiny thread, winding around, much, much more definite than before.
Thus, following the feeling in his heart.
Isagi lowered his head and quickly discovered that within the floating continent, which originally seemed to be composed of many, many different regions of the Dungeon, a materialized, incomparably familiar 'World' had appeared.
Or rather, a Hakoniwa.
It was a completely enclosed existence. From the inside, one probably couldn't see the outside no matter what, but Isagi could see inside. He could see Miss Riveria and the others conducting an adventure he was incomparably familiar with within it.
At some point, the Dungeon seemed to have 'copied' a portion of the scenes from his memory and placed it here.
Just like the Tiger Vanguard and such that he had placed here before. Now, it wasn't just a simple Boss battle, but the 'Entire World' had been materialized.
Interesting, it can actually do this?
While Isagi felt it was inconceivable, he quickly discovered that something was wrong.
The most obvious point.
Was that Riveria and the others still maintained their Adventurer 'Status'. Whether it was Ability Scores, Magic, or Skills, their 'performance' was simply far too powerful compared to the Undead or whatever!
Under these circumstances, they were truly having it simple and easy right now. No, this certainly won't do!!
But Isagi had no way to influence them, such as reducing their Ability Scores or preventing them from using their Skills or Magic.
At least, he couldn't do it currently.
But it didn't matter, because he could strengthen the monsters!
The Dungeon, this idiot, had only created a 'World' that looked impressive but lacked substance based on his memories.
It still doesn't understand anything, huh—
Thinking this.
Isagi quickly began to 'operate'.
He would just have to increase the intensity for Miss Riveria and the others.
Thus, not long after. The girls, currently located in the Hakoniwa world, quickly passed through the Undead Parish and the Bell Tower. As if guided by some power in the unseen, they continued downward and arrived at a place named the Thieves' Street, where they defeated a Capra Demon.
Subsequently, they continued downward until they discovered that place located below the Undead Burg, always permeated by thick fog.
[Blighttown].
For some reason, the sharp-sensed Riveria and the others quickly discovered that inside here, there seemed to be quite a few unusual existences...
____
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