Chương 65: Chapter 66: “Digging Season (2)”

The World Floors were called as such for a reason. Floor 11 was a frozen wasteland. The documentation had described it in utilitarian terms: low visibility, sub-zero temperatures, terrain consisting primarily of snowy or uneven patches of ice. Additionally, there was almost nothing here worth having. The monsters that populated this floor dropped hides, claws, fangs, bones, and magic stones, all of which was not worth the amount of effort for the profit.

The terrain offered little shelter beyond shallow depressions in the ice and the occasional caves leading underground or rock formations. If someone lost their footing on the wrong patch and went through, the water underneath was deep and cold enough that could basically spell out death. Floors 11 through 15 were floors that everyone wanted to be through as quickly as possible. The risk outweighed anything the floors offered. Normally, nobody stayed on Floor 11 by choice. Slam!

The white wolf hit the ice face-first and did not get up. Paimon stood over it, both gauntlets raised, her breath coming out in short clouds. The wolf was large, shoulder height on most adults, and it had come at her from the left while she thinking about several things regarding her mistress. She had turned in time and brought the right gauntlet down across the side of its skull. The impact had traveled up her arm to the shoulder.

She flexed her fingers inside the metal, happy that this equipment that her mistress had commissioned for her worked in the cold. The gauntlets had been her choice. Jade had raised an eyebrow when she had presented her preference during the equipment selection, and had spent a few minutes attempting to suggest alternatives. However, she declined each one. She wanted to be able to serve her mistress at any time, and drawing a weapon took time. With the gauntlets, her hands were always her hands.

As for her aura, she had naturally awakened it on Floor 10, though, what her elemental attribute was, she did not know yet. Footsteps behind her. Paimon turned and saw Celestia come out of an opening in the ice, an entry to one of the cave tunnels they had been working through since morning, and straightened to her full height. The winter dress-armor she had commissioned for this Floor was beautifully made and helped with the cold temperature by quite a lot.

She looked at the wolf on the floor, and then told Paimon, "Let's move on to the next."

"Understood, my lady." They had been on this floor for three days. Paimon did not know exactly what Lady Celestia was looking for, but she had a general understanding, something about locations that needed to be prepared before the other group arrived, but the specifics had not been shared, and Paimon had not asked. After all, her job was to follow orders, handle anything that came at them while Lady Celestia was occupied. Thankfully, camping had not been a problem.

The provisions they brought with them were sufficient for months. There was even cookware, and the sleeping equipment was for temperatures well below what Floor 11 had managed to produce so far. On the first night, Paimon had set up the camp while Lady Celestia reviewed available maps she had gotten from the Adventurer's guild. The cooking, however… It was naturally Paimon's responsibility to prepare, and she had done her best. She had thought it went reasonably well.

But after Lady Celestia had taken one bite, she set her spoon down slowly and looked at the bowl. Then after looking at Paimon, "I will handle the cooking from this point forward," she said.

"When we return to the office, take proper cooking lessons. Is that understood?"

"... Y-yes, my lady." Paimon's face had gone red and stayed like that for the better part of an hour. She was still thinking about it now, three days later, as she walked right behind her mistress, moving toward the next area. She swore that she was going to learn to cook something edible if it was the last thing she did. A brutal cold gust swooped in and found the gap at her collar. She pulled it tighter and kept walking. * The search was not going well.

The original novel had given her almost nothing to work with. The minor character who found the cave had not been searching for it. He had rested somewhere and woken up to walls of crystal, and the story had moved on without giving any detail about where that cave actually was. Hiring additional help was not an option. The location had to stay unknown until she had enough of a foothold in Summit. Even the slaves were a risk…

one loose word, one person who decided that the information was worth more than what Celestia had provided them, and the head start she was working toward would be gone. She had weighed this when she made the decision to use them at all. It was why she had treated them well, given them a path out, and shown them that the choices she offered were real. Everything would change once she had planted her foot firmly in this city. Until then, she worked with what she had. Celestia sighed and kept walking.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The snow was shin-deep in some patches and ankle-deep in others, and the difference was not always visible until a foot went in. Her toes had already gone numb, and her fingers were close behind.

She was not in danger, her stats and pain resistance had climbed far enough that the cold was manageable, but numb fingers on a spear were a practical problem, and she had been moving her fingers around to keep the blood moving. The sun was low. Another hour before the light became unreliable. The next cave on her map was close. She had marked it that morning based on the topography. It would almost certainly be empty, the same as the last ten, but it needed to be checked.

Beside her, Paimon was moving without difficulty despite the wolves, foxes, and horned rabbits that appeared periodically, none of them had actually become a problem. They reached their destination as the sun touched the horizon. The cave entrance was low, they both had to duck to pass through, and opened into a wider space inside. The temperature dropped further the moment they went in. Then Celestia heard something large, growling from deeper in. The polar bear filled the back half of the cave.

It was large even by the standards of Floor 11's monsters, and it had heard them come in. Behind them, at the cave entrance, came the sound of paws on ice. Celestia did not look back. She pulled her spear from its strap. Beside her, Paimon slammed her gauntlets together, the metal ringing sharp in the enclosed space. She turned to face the entrance, putting her back toward the bear.

"My lady," she said, "I'll help you as soon as I'm finished." The wolves came through the entrance, and Celestia stepped toward the bear. In just a few short moments, the polar bear was dead. The first slash took it across the foreleg as it charged, the second attack was a thrust straight through its head. Behind her, she heard two impacts, a short snarl, and then several whimpers. Celestia turned around. Two wolves were down, and the remaining five had gone back at the cave entrance.

One of them took a step back, and the rest followed. Within a few seconds, they were gone. Paimon lowered her gauntlets, and then took a look behind her, at the bear behind Celestia. Paimon did not look particularly comforted at the thought that her mistress didn't need her help. And so, they set up camp in this cave. * The next days were the same. They moved during daylight, checked caves through the afternoon, and made camp before the sun went down.

They took shifts during the night, a few hours each, and whoever was off-watch slept without difficulty. The search did not yield any results. Cave after cave came back empty. Celestia marked each one on the map and crossed it off and moved to the next. The sections that remained unchecked were shrinking. She was also running into black doors, and signs of people camping around the area. They had both cleared their own individual Floor 11 trials some days ago. But they had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

More and more doors started appearing, and each time, Celestia marked their locations on the map and kept walking. By the ninth morning, Celestia was no longer sure.

'Did I read it wrong?' Celestia sat on a folded blanket near the camp's small fire, her map open across her lap. The text of the original novel came back to her in fragments,'Or did they patch it, just like the Demon Attack at the academy?' She closed the map. Across, Paimon was portioning out the morning's rations. She had been quieter for the last two days. Twice in the past day, Paimon had asked, "My lady, did you call for me?" But Celestia had not called for her either time.

She had just been in silence during both times, with the map open in front of her. She had answered "No" on both occasions, and Paimon had returned to her work with a slightly embarrassed bow. Too many variables hinged on this, the mining operation, the monopoly, the political leverage she needed before the imperialists decided to make a move. All of it rested on a cave she could not find.

'What's different?' She opened the map again. The topography wouldn't have changed that much from the future.

'Was it truly by chance that he found it?' She looked at the map without seeing it.

'Or—' Her hand stopped over the current section.

'Ah.' The novel was in the future. She had been searching a Floor 11 that existed now. The location might not have actually even existed yet.

"Paimon." Paimon straightened immediately.

"Yes, my lady."

"Come with me." Celestia stood, picked up the lantern, and walked deeper into the cave they had camped in. Paimon followed without a word. The tunnel narrowed past the campsite, opened into a smaller chamber, and branched into two passages. They had already cleared both passages and both were dead ends. Celestia stopped in the main chamber and raised the lantern.

"I want you to look along every wall," she said.

"Check for any section that sounds or looks hollow. Paimon paused for a fraction of a second, then nodded.

"Understood, my lady." They worked their way around the chamber. Paimon moved faster than Celestia, crouching along the base of the walls, pressing the back of her gauntlet against the ice in short taps. Celestia took the upper sections with the butt of her spear. The sounds of soft taps and duller thuds filled the chamber for the better part of a half hour. Paimon stopped near a wall.

"My lady." Her voice was careful.

"I think this section sounds different." Celestia came over. Paimon tapped the wall again, the metal of her gauntlet against the ice. Celestia reached into her bag and pulled out a pickaxe, handing it to Paimon.

"Break it open." Paimon took the pickaxe, raised it, and swung it down. The first two swings chipped and cracked the ice. Then the third broke through, and a section of the wall fell inward in several large pieces. The lantern light reached past the broken wall into the space beyond. The chamber behind it was deep. The lantern only caught the nearest portion, and that was enough. Magic stones embedded in the walls. Raw crystal dense along the ceiling; the light reflected off the surfaces at half a dozen angles.

Celestia stood still for a moment.

'This easily?' She stepped closer to the opening and looked inside.

'If I'm not wrong, then doesn't that mean this entire floor is a jackpot?' Behind her, Paimon was still holding the pickaxe. Her eyes were wide. Celestia turned to her.

"Good work," she said.