After some back and forth that left me feeling a headache, I was brought up to the 9th floor. The holes that I had broken through to get quickly through the dungeon were already repairing. The one above my head was already half-closed and if I looked up the top ones had already sealed, meaning I couldn’t quickly get out of the dungeon. Since I hadn’t bothered to register at any of the safe room transportation arrays, I realized my mistake. I’d need to repent and make sure in the future I didn’t lock myself in such a one-way trap.
While I had the leverage to break through a floor or a door with a solid strike, it was quite different breaking through a ceiling. I wasn’t confident I’d be able to do it. Either way, it would have been inconvenient if I had ended up getting stuck for whatever reason and needed to return to the surface.
The little boy and his big-breasted attendant stopped where they were on the 9th floor. The dungeon master closed his eyes and then waved his hands. I noticed the lore in my hands flashing brighter for a bit. It looked like even in my hands, he was still able to make some use of the lore. The fluttering light stopped, and after a minute or so passed with him still standing there with his eyes closed, I was just about to demand to know what was going on. That’s when a familiar person walked into the room from the floor above.
“It’s Miki!” Celeste cried excitedly.
It was none other than Miki. However, there was something off about her. She was see-through! She also had a blue tinge to her, and she seemed slightly off. Some of her features weren’t exactly what I remembered. Her face looked a bit off like it was someone who only saw her once trying to draw her face from memory rather than someone who knew her intimately like me.
She walked into the room, looking around cautiously. She didn’t look at us at all. It was like we weren’t even there. She saw the puzzle on this floor and slowly approached it. Her fluffy fox tail wagged slightly as she examined it thoughtfully.
“It’s… a memory?” I asked.
The witch-woman nodded. “This is a dungeon, after all. Everything that happens in a dungeon is recorded in that dungeon. This is one of the reasons dungeons become more powerful the longer they live. They do not simply collect mana and souls… they also collect knowledge. If you ever use a skill in a dungeon, that dungeon will subsequently learn how to use the skill. Weapons? Items? It can only create what it has seen.”
She spoke about a fundamental truth when it came to dungeons. Perhaps, she opened up given the current conquered status. Perhaps, they already assumed I knew. In a way, I already did guess this. It was like when I had to fight my doppelganger as a boss. It was a perfect copy of me, but whenever I used a skill I hadn’t seen, it wasn’t prepared. As soon as I used the skill though, it could use the skill too.
That wasn’t just a part of that fight, but all dungeons entirely. The combat proficiency of any monster made by the dungeon could only be as smart as the combat it had seen within its walls. That’s why larger dungeons were so difficult to deal with. The monsters weren’t just more powerful, but they had a richer lore to pull from, making them far cleverer. That’s how you went from bugs and skeletons to fully functional knights.
“What are we waiting for?”
“Shhh…” The boy shushed me.
I opened my mouth to say more, but then Miki spoke, her voice coming out crisp.
“I could feel you when you entered the dungeon. What do you want?” She looked at me.
I jumped at her suddenly addressing me. Had I been mistaken? No, she was looking past me. I turned to see the door leading to the final safe room being pushed open as three people stepped out. They had teleported down to it to cut her off. I was seeing something that happened sometime in the past. This was what I had come here for. What happened to Miki?