Day 23: To Continue or Not Continue
Holy Era 6102, Month of the Marsh Dragon, 6th day.
Weather: Probably rain

Uhhh… I had no idea that dungeons were so harsh.

And I didn’t think that we would have to actually camp out in one.
However, there is no such thing as a safe place here. …In other words, resting was a life-threatening endeavor.
We took turns sleeping, but all I could do was sit and close my eyes.
When I closed my eyes, I could hear all kinds of sounds clearly. The sound of something being crushed, the footsteps of ants, a scream… There was no way that I could sleep.
And yet I had to force myself to rest. But though my strength may have recovered, I feel that my spirit is even more exhausted.
The others seemed to be accustomed to it, and so they slept as if this was nothing… I wonder how long it will take me to reach that point?

We are currently advancing through the tenth layer.
At this point, even the worker ants are supposed to be quite strong… But Ms. El continued to cut them down with ease, so it was hard to tell the difference.
…I always thought that elves were all about magic and bows… And so watching her has completely destroyed those perceptions.
Ah, but she is a half elf, after all? …Maybe when we are better acquainted, I can ask her.

A little later on, Ms. El suddenly stopped.
She had a serious face as she glared ahead…
There was some kind of rumbling sound. But when I looked, I was shocked.
Water was flowing from somewhere. Not only that, but it was a pretty strong current!?
Surely we are not going to cross this…? No, it’s just not possible…
I was so anxious that I looked at Ms. Marga, but she was scratching her head and had a sour expression.

When I asked, the map had said nothing about there being running water here.
Then what was this in front of us?
Ms. Marga guessed that it must be raining heavily on the surface.
Dungeons were generally underground. And so if it rained, the water would, of course, flow down here.
And that was likely what had caused this…
…Such a thing… Ah, so that’s why!! Why Adventurers don’t work when it rains!? …It wasn’t that they were being lazy or didn’t like getting wet.

And then an emergency meeting began.
The problem was whether we should continue or not.
Both Ms. El and Ms. Marga had a very severe expression.
The biggest reason for this was that even if we could go forward, we had no way of knowing how the situation was on the lower layers.
At worst, the ants may have escaped from the upper layers and gathered in one place. It would be what they called a monster house.
However, if we wanted to go back, and it was still raining, then the current would be the most violent near the entrance.

After talking it through, we decided to return to the layer above us and check the flow of the water. And then we would make a decision based on that.

But before we set off, Ms. Marga said something to me as if it was nothing.
As we have to check some of the other routes, tonight, we would be camping out on this layer again or the one above.
…Ohh… To think that I had hoped we would be able to return today… It’s so hard.

Today’s earnings and expenses:
(Exploring dungeon)
————-
Balance: 49 bronze

(_ _;)…Collapse. I’m tired, I want to take a bath, I want to eat meat… I want to go home…

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Senpai boukenshasan ga tasukete kureru no de kitto daijoubu nano desu! Shinmai boukensha no nikki-chou