Ch.93Same, Same, but Different

“Wow… this is quite nasty.”

“What is?”

“Look here. This Y-shaped junction.”

After defeating the Rumbling Centipede and exploring the dungeon for about an hour, we stopped in the middle of a junction and listened to Mina as she clicked her tongue.

“Doesn’t this place look familiar? Two protruding rocks on the ceiling, and that cracked depression on the right side of the floor at the junction.”

“Ah, you’re right. That’s where Phyllis almost tripped when her heel got caught earlier.”

“Did we just go in a circle and return to where we started?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Look at the map.”

Mina spread the map on the floor and pointed to our current location and the place we had just discussed.

“This is where we are now, and this is the junction where Phyllis almost fell. They must be at least 50 meters apart in a straight line.”

“They’re clearly far apart on the map… how is this possible?”

“Hard to believe, but these two places are identical in form. The angle of the passages, the unevenness of the walls, even the parts that look naturally damaged—everything is exactly the same.”

“Perfectly identical? Is that even possible?”

“Without a doubt. If you didn’t notice the subtle curve in the passage, you’d think you’d returned to the original junction. In reality, they’re completely different places, with nearly a 5-meter difference in elevation.”

“Indeed, this is as devious as Mina says.”

Normally, one wouldn’t expect multiple perfectly identical locations to exist in a natural cave.

This place was designed to exploit that assumption, making people lose track of their position.

In the worst case, even someone who had carefully mapped their way here might be fooled by this trick and revise their map incorrectly.

‘If that happens, safely escaping this dungeon would be impossible.’

It was already difficult enough to create an accurate map due to the subtle curves and slopes that would be hard to notice without a dwarf’s perception. If even that map became unreliable, there would be nothing left to guide us through this dungeon.

Of course, that would be the case for an ordinary adventuring party. Thanks to Mina’s dwarf mapping skills, we could continue our investigation without being deceived by the dungeon’s appearance.

While following the left path from the problematic junction, we encountered another Rumbling Centipede, which Phyllis instantly dispatched with her Lightning Bolt.

After collecting the magic stone and exploring for about five more minutes, we arrived at a dead end with a treasure chest.

“Ah, a treasure chest!”

“It’s the quintessential treasure chest. Looks completely out of place in these surroundings.”

“Well then, let me check for traps…”

“Wait! Above you!!”

Just as Mina was about to check for traps, Phyllis quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Immediately after, something black and sticky dropped from the ceiling where Mina had been standing.

“Flame Lance!”

*Whoosh!*

After confirming Mina was safe, Jessica fired a Flame Lance. The flames instantly engulfed the black object, incinerating it in the blink of an eye.

“That was dangerous. A Black Slime was hiding in the shadows of the ceiling.”

“Black Slime?”

“As the name suggests, it’s a black mucous monster that suffocates its prey before slowly dissolving them. Very dangerous.”

I shuddered at the thought that if Phyllis hadn’t noticed, our legal loli dwarf would have become a horrifying puddle of soup on the dungeon floor.

“Th-thank you, Phyllis… you saved my life.”

“Don’t mention it. I was just repaying my debt from the Demon Rose incident.”

“Ah, your tights…”

As Mina stood up while expressing her gratitude, her gaze fixed on Phyllis’s thigh.

When Phyllis had lunged to pull Mina away, her tights had torn, revealing her snow-white leg.

Realizing this, Phyllis turned her back to me, quickly sat down, and blushed.

“Nngh!!”

“Are you okay, Phyllis?”

“I-I’m fine. It’s just torn clothes, but…”

“I understand. You don’t want Will to see your legs, right? Do you have a spare?”

“…In Ancestor’s bag.”

Phyllis’s face was filled with embarrassment as she answered.

She couldn’t suggest turning back just because of torn tights, but she was clearly troubled by the elven custom that forbids showing bare legs to men.

“We can’t mend it right away… should we wrap some cloth around it to cover it?”

“Since we’ve reached a dead end anyway, let’s take a short break. Seti and I will keep watch at the passage, Jessica can help Phyllis, and Mina can check the treasure chest for traps.”

“I’m sorry. I know it’s hard for other races to understand…”

“It’s fine. When traveling in a group, everyone has different concerns. Understanding and accepting those differences is what makes us a team.”

“Since Will is being so understanding, don’t worry too much, Phyllis. Can you show me the torn part more clearly?”

“U-um…”

While Seti and I silently kept watch at the passage, Jessica examined Phyllis’s torn tights and began whispering something to her in a voice too quiet for me to hear.

Was it just my imagination that Jessica seemed to exchange whispers with Phyllis quite often, like that time at the inn?

As I pondered this while keeping watch with Seti, Jessica’s voice called out.

“All done. You can look now.”

“Did you find something suitable to cover—wow.”

When I turned around, I saw Jessica with her bare legs fully exposed under her skirt, and Phyllis wearing Jessica’s garter stockings, revealing the “absolute territory” between her short skirt and stockings.

“My, was that exclamation for my legs? Or for Phyllis wearing my stockings?”

“…Let’s just say both.”

I was well aware of how beautiful Jessica’s legs were, with their perfect curves and just the right amount of flesh.

But seeing her in a corset dress with bare skin instead of the familiar combination with lace garter stockings created an entirely new appeal.

And beside her stood Phyllis with her slender legs—a different charm from Jessica’s sensual curves—now wrapped in the familiar lace garter stockings.

The strange sight of Phyllis borrowing Jessica’s familiar stockings gave me a somewhat sinful feeling, as if our intimate relationship was being superimposed on Phyllis—

“P-please don’t stare like that. It’s embarrassing with my thighs slightly exposed.”

“Ah, yes. Sorry.”

“…Will. You’re drooling.”

“Huh?”

I quickly wiped my mouth after Seti’s comment, but found no saliva on my hand.

Realizing I’d been tricked, I looked at Seti, who stuck out her tongue and winked before scampering off to Jessica’s side.

It seemed to be Seti’s way of showing jealous affection.

“Hey, guys? I finished checking the treasure chest for traps a while ago. If you’re done with the fashion show, can we open it now?”

“Ah, right! The treasure chest, let’s see it!”

“Why is Will so flustered… Alright, I’m opening it.”

With a click, the chest lid opened, revealing a large quantity of crystals that beautifully reflected the lantern light.

Crystals, widely used as materials for magical tools and magical ink, are among the most easily convertible loot along with magic stones.

“Both the purity and size are above average. If we sell them all, they’d fetch at least 700… no, more than 800 gold.”

“That’s about 80% of the quest reward just from this. Quite a windfall.”

“When this quest is over, I’m going to buy an expensive bottle of whiskey to stock up~”

“Don’t say things like that until we’re out of the dungeon. You’ll jinx us and something dangerous will happen.”

“Hehe… okay. I’ll be careful~”

Mina smiled sheepishly at Jessica’s warning and carefully began transferring the crystals from the chest into her bag.

~ ~ ~ Hector’s Party Perspective ~ ~ ~

“This round chamber is the one we passed earlier. Have we gone in a circle?”

“It seems so. We’ve now explored all the passages following the left wall from here.”

“Then the only path we haven’t taken yet is… around the corner and right at the next T-junction.”

“Things have been going smoothly since the giant centipede.”

About an hour and a half after the battle with the Rumbling Centipede, Hector’s mood had improved considerably.

He had destroyed two Black Slimes hiding in a dark passage with his finest attack magic, and discovered a fountain of drinkable water.

Even trapped corridors were easily navigated by improvising simple magic combinations.

‘Barring any unforeseen circumstances, my victory is all but assured.’

Hector had no genuine interest in spending a night with Jessica.

He could barely view that big-breasted, stupid, and arrogant Codex Mage as an equal human being, let alone as a woman.

He merely wanted to use this opportunity to humiliate her so thoroughly that she would abandon her adventuring career.

The glory of uncovering the secrets of the West and claiming wealth and fame should be reserved only for Staff Wizards who had revealed the origins of magic.

Outdated Codex Mages had no place in the West, or anywhere in Grantis for that matter.

‘First, I’ll plunge Jessica Walter into despair, then I’ll have to deal with that rude gunslinger somehow…’

William J. Kim, was it? The only man who had ever thrown mud on Hector Jones’s pride.

Though he would have liked to pass judgment himself, he couldn’t risk tainting his Frontier License by killing such a man.

If he contacted the right outlaws and paid them, disposing of a rookie adventurer who had just escaped F-rank wouldn’t be difficult.

‘For that, I need an overwhelming victory in this contest.’

He wanted to present a result that would be undeniable not only to the client acting as judge but to Jessica Walter herself.

In this quest, he planned to sweep up all valuable items before Jessica’s party could find them and submit a perfect map of the dungeon interior.

Though the dungeon had too many branching paths relative to the frequency of meaningful discoveries, a thorough search might yield an artifact or two.

Imagining such an optimistic future, Hector continued through the dungeon with his two party members.

“If we turn at this corner, we should reach the second T-junction we passed earlier, and then we’ll go right.”

“Good. The other party must be making progress by now, so we should pick up the pace.”

If there had been a dwarf in this party, they might have noticed that the “round chamber” they had just passed was not the same place they had visited an hour ago.

If so, Hector Jones—setting aside his personality and pride, but with his intelligence and talent as a mage—might have questioned why “identical places” existed in what was supposed to be a natural cave.

But how could the absence of a dwarf be considered their fault?

They had done their best and, in most cases, made efficient choices with legitimate purposes and reasons.

“…Huh?”

“This isn’t a T-junction. What’s going on?”

Therefore, the subtle measurement errors that had accumulated between their map and the actual terrain finally bore fruit.

The scene that appeared around the corner was not the familiar T-junction but an unfamiliar corridor stretching ahead.

And at the end of that corridor, a large man with a bull’s head and glowing red eyes waited for the intruders.

It could only be explained as “bad luck.”