The following day, Shin’s party was once again standing before the gate to the Castle of the Depths .


    “I’d sure love to be done with this ce today . ”


    “That’s right . Let’s proceed while keeping time loss to a minimum . ”


    Probably because of what happened the day before, Schnee looked less concerned and more eager .


    All party members agreed with her; Filma and Shibaid looked in better shape than usual too .


    “… . hey, Shin . Are you really sure that nothing happened yesterday, before I arrived?”


    “I exined already, didn’t I? That we might find something rted to me . ”


    “But despite that, aren’t master and Filma acting kind of weird?”


    “No, I don’t think so . Really . ”


    “… . very suspicious…”


    Under Tiera’s inquisitive stare, Shin was in a cold sweat, trying his best to control his facial expressions .


    He had already told Tiera about what Schnee had felt . He couldn’t tell her, however, that he had also hugged Schnee and made her cry . Shin also wanted to forget about the fact that Filma and Shibaid had been watching .


    “Well, I’m not going to ask anymore…but don’t hide really important things from me, okay? I told you about my biggest secret after all . ”


    “I know, and I told you about the most important part . There’s something that Schnee seems to feel, but the others don’t . I don’t either . Can you feel something peculiar other than the miasma, Tiera?”


    “With all the miasma, I feel that my other senses are dulled, but…well, now that you mention it, other than feeling worried, I feel like…there’s something pulling me? Something like that, but just vaguely…”


    Tiera spoke while looking at the miasma lightly swaying beyond the gate .


    Shin trusted Tiera’s sharp senses, so he found her mention of feeling something pulling at her a bit strange .


    “Schnee feels like I might disappear, but you feel something pulling at you . Hmm…”


    If Shin was the one being pulled, Schnee’s sensation would be more realistic, but Tiera said that she felt like she was the one being pulled .


    Shin couldn’t make anything of it yet .


    “It’s pointless to simply worry about it here . We’ll know if we go . ”


    “Indeed, that is the only way . ”


    Shin was deep in thought, his head cocked to one side, but Filma and Shibaid prodded him . Thinking about it wouldn’t lead to any answers .


    “Right, we’ll just go and see what happens . ”


    Just like the day before, the group used the『Miracle Drug of Holy Skies』and entered the castle .


    Using the map, they proceeded quickly up to a certain point: then Shin and Schnee split up to explore and fill the remaining nk portions of the map, all the while maintainingmunication via Mind Chat .


    During the exploration of the dungeon, Schnee was the first one to notice something unusual .


    “There aren’t any Chimeras . ”


    “Right…we’re already pretty far into the dungeon, this doesn’t feel right . ”


    “I can’t find any miasma-infected monsters either . With this much miasma filling the dungeon, it’s  strange that the monsters are unaffected . ”


    The group was already past the midpoint of the dungeon, but had not yet encountered any monsters possessed or infected by miasma: Shin couldn’t rule it out as just their imagination anymore .


    Except for the miasma hanging heavily throughout, the dungeon seemed absolutely normal .


    “I guess this is different than all the dungeons we’ve explored before . Could that also be the reason why Schnee and Tiera feel something out of the ordinary?”


    “It could be . Trypophobia’s bizarre disy too could have been the product of something other than miasma . ”


    Even if affected by miasma, the 【Analyse】disy had never looked bugged before .


    Shin thought that the transformation from a game into reality might be a reason for the strange behavior .


    Judging from the condition of the dungeon’s monsters however, there was a considerable chance that something other than miasmay in wait .


    “Did something like this happen before?”


    “No, I cannot recall anything of the sort . ”


    Shibaid shook his head in response to Filma’s question .


    Schnee, Tiera, and of course, Shin shook their heads as well .


    “I thought something had happened while I was sleeping, but it looks like that’s not the case . Anyway, we can just go on and see, huh . It’s starting to feel like going to face a boss we’ve never fought before . ”


    “Yeah, now that you mention it, that’s it . ”


    Filma shrugged and Shin agreed with her assessment . The current situation wasn’tpletely the same, but prior to facing a boss for the first time he would also think about how it would act or what type of enemy it would be . The only way to know was to fight .


    Filma’s conclusion was not far from the truth .


    “Let’s go, we have to find the route to the boss chamber today . ”


    The party advanced deeper in the dungeon . Now well past the middle point, they descended to what they supposed was the lower area of the dungeon — if Shin’s memory was correct .  They could not detect any changes in the monsters they encountered though .


    Just like the upper and middle areas, miasma leaked from the walls and floor .


    Shin and Schnee led, followed by the rest of the party . Progress was time consuming, but they were not hindered by obstacles like the Trypophobia .


    After descending the stairs to yet another floor, Shin’s group faced arge, 5 mels tall, 4 mels wide door, intricately adorned with gorgeous, pompous decorations .


    “This is…ice?”


    The door, probably leading to Ishkar’s throne room, was covered by transparent crystal . Shin touched it warily and felt a cool sensation .


    “Should we try to melt it?”


    “No, it already took plenty of time to arrive here . Let’s go inside tomorrow . ”


    Considering who they were going to face, Shin prioritized keeping everyone’s condition in top form .


    The group teleported to the dungeon’s entrance with a crystal and rested in the magic-powered vessel . The next day, after making sure that no one was feeling unwell, they quickly navigated to the majestic door they had stopped at the day before .