Chapter 29 The Lonely Island’s Exploration
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
I thought I had a handle on myself.
Rebuilding my state of mind after everything wasn’t easy. But thanks to some time with Trash-san beforehand, I woke up feeling a spark of energy.
Yeah, I get it—what I did might sound awful. Call it low if you want, but I’d like to think it was a calm, calculated choice. I needed to feel alive. That half-asleep, grief-dodging haze I was in? No way I’d survive a dungeon like that.
”Even though I passed out right after we started, I woke up feeling amazing,” I said.
”Ahem, well… I-I mean, I didn’t mean to push you when you were exhausted, Young Master,” Trash-san stammered, her cheeks flushing. “You were tossing and turning, so I just… shook you a bit. And, well, when you made that… content face every time I moved, I—I have my limits too!”
”Hey, no worries. I mean, I’m the one who used you like a blanket, so we’re even,” I said with a grin.
What did we do, anyway? In this world, women’s desires run as strong as men’s. Even someone as composed as Trash-san must have her own urges, right? If the roles were reversed—me, a younger girl, left in that state, moving and feeling even while half-conscious… yeah, I guess it makes sense.
”The exhaustion’s hitting hard now,” I muttered. “We definitely went at it a few times, didn’t we?”
”Please, forgive me,” she said, eyes downcast. “It was a moment of weakness.”
”Hmm, what should I do with you?” I teased.
She’s at that age, so I decided not to mention the dampness between her thighs. The sunset glowed as always, and we finally got to serious matters.
The twilight sky and water level never changed. This floor had no ceiling or walls, not like the mysterious forest’s first layer. It was an open, enigmatic space, like standing in the wild.
Our talk turned to escape, as expected. I didn’t sense danger here, but Trash-san stayed cautious.
”Could this just be an undiscovered dungeon?” I asked.
”It’s possible,” she replied, not dismissing me.
She went on. “But if it’s not in Kazusa Province’s records, this is a no-return dungeon. We don’t know if breaking some condition or waiting too long triggers danger, but we have to assume it does.”
”A no-return dungeon?” I echoed.
”Yes, one where no one comes back,” she said. “No one brings out information, so we know nothing about what’s inside.”
”Got it. Even the Imperial Guard doesn’t know every dungeon.”
”Among explorers, unknown doors are said to lead to hell or the gates of the underworld,” she added. “Silly rumors, but they avoid them.”
”Huh,” I said. Still, you’d think they’d lock those doors or slap a warning on them, especially in a place students might wander into. Then again, that oversight probably saved us, so I couldn’t complain.
I asked about that too.
”Likely a door that appeared by chance,” she said. “It’s common outside official routes. Even stable, regular doors only last a few years with constant anxiety.”
”So doors pop up and vanish all the time?”
”Exactly.”
They say dungeons are like spiderwebs. Entrances dot the real world, like the web’s outer edges, with paths crossing and meeting at the deepest point. But the threads are rewoven constantly by the dungeon’s will, shifting, growing, shrinking. That’s why doors appear and disappear.
Kazusa Province’s dungeons vary on their first floors, but deeper down, they often blend into the mysterious forest type. Like a spiderweb—different branches or rocks at the edges, but the center’s structure stays similar. Still, doors to entirely different dungeon types pop up often, like another spider’s web crossing at a weird angle. It’s a chaotic mess when that happens.
That’s why dungeon catalogs detail every scene’s appearance. If this place wasn’t listed… well, that spoke for itself.
”Dungeons come in two types,” Trash-san said. “Dangerous monsters or dangerous environments. The mysterious forest is the first kind.”
”Yeah, those Horned Owls were brutal, but the forest itself was kind of fun,” I said.
She hesitated. “This place… might be the second kind.”
”Maybe so…”
When we woke again, everything had changed. The sea stretched 360 degrees around us. No threats loomed—no terrifying monsters, no traps springing from walls or floors.
But a path had appeared on the shore ahead. The tide had pulled back, leaving a narrow strip of white sand cutting through the shallow sea, like a comet streaking across a starry sky, leaving a glimmer on the emerald water. A path of stars.
At its end stood a door to the next floor, perched on a small sandy island. A hundred meters of clear walking, and we could reach it. No obstacles in sight—too easy.
We stared in silence. A creeping unease stirred in me, and I leaned closer to Trash-san.
”That path wasn’t there before we slept, right?” I asked.
”No,” she said. “It seems our arrival changed this floor’s structure. Is it… trying to push us out?”
”Doesn’t it feel… off?”
”It’s like bait,” she said. “If we could just walk through that door to the next floor, it’d be simple, but…”
”Let’s make that our last resort,” I said.
”Agreed. Let’s explore this island first. We might find a clue.”
We wandered the tiny island, hoping for hints. It was barely twenty meters across—beautiful, but we saw everything in minutes.
”Hey, Trash-san, look!” I called.
”What is it?”
”I found a mystical object in the shallows—oh, whoa!” I stumbled.
”Careful, you’ll hurt yourself,” she warned.
Right at the shoreline, where water lapped an inch deep, I spotted a bandage. I picked it up, nearly tripping again.
”Let me see,” she said.
”Yeah, but why’s a bandage out here?”
”It’s… just a bandage,” she said, inspecting it. “No mystery to it.”
”And it’s brand new.”
A pristine bandage, sealed in plastic, perfectly clean. No magical aura, just… ordinary. The mystery deepened. Still, it was useful for Trash-san’s wound.
”Nothing else here, huh?” I said.
”Really nothing,” she replied. “Just sand and saltwater. Stingy place.”
”It’s quiet, though. Nice in its way.”
She looked at me, worry creasing her face. I couldn’t stay so carefree—it’d only stress her out more. She was genuinely concerned for me. The sunset sky felt like it might summon crow calls any second. I couldn’t keep troubling this kind Elder Sister.
”What do the Exploration Squad do in cases like this?” I asked. “No clues, and the only path feels like a trap?”
She paused. “They send criminals ahead.”
…Shouldn’t have asked.
We kept wandering the empty island.
”Man, I’m starving,” I groaned.
”I’m so sorry,” she said, voice heavy. “If my pocket hadn’t burned… I swore I’d never let anyone go hungry again, but…”
”It’s not your fault,” I said. “You’re starving too, right, Trash-san?”
Hours passed with no new discoveries, and we lingered on the tiny island. It felt like we’d been shipwrecked in the South Seas. The sky burned red, the waves stayed gentle, and the scenery never shifted, as if time itself had frozen. We sat side by side, and Trash-san handed me the last of the water from her canteen.
”If only we could drink the water here,” I said. “Too bad it’s seawater. And dungeon water feels… kind of creepy anyway.”
”Young Master, I’m grateful, but…” Her voice trailed off.
Trash-san looked wilted, like a flower drooping in the heat. I scooted closer to comfort her, but up close, her lips were cracked and dry. The sun wasn’t strong enough to distill seawater, and water was becoming a bigger worry than food. If this kept up, she might start siphoning moisture from me.
”Guess we’ll have to move before we starve,” I said.
”Go forward or go back,” she murmured. “A ridge of sand dividing the sea.”
Yeah, we couldn’t stay here forever. If this place had been set up for a long stay, I might’ve been tempted to laze around and head back through the door we came from.
”Hm?” I said.
”Oh?” she said at the same time.
We both noticed it—a rice ball, wrapped in plastic, lying in the shallows. It was a bit deeper than where I’d found the bandage earlier.
”Another mystical object,” I said. “A rice ball.”
”I found something too,” Trash-san said. “A sasa dumpling.”
We stepped closer. The items rested on a slight mound of sand, barely touched by water. Still, I hesitated to pick them up.
”They just appeared out of nowhere,” I said. “Suspicious…”
”I’ll take a look,” Trash-san offered.
In the end, her sasa dumpling was just that—a plain dumpling. She tested it for poison and gave the all-clear, so now I was munching happily on the rice ball.
”Tasty,” I said, chewing. “This rice ball’s great.”
”But why would ordinary items appear so suddenly?” she asked, frowning.
”Maybe this beach grants wishes,” I joked.
”That would be lovely,” she said with a small smile. “If it did, no one would ever leave.”
She let out a soft sigh.
Her expression was a mix of fondness and exasperation, like she was looking at a troublesome kid. I gazed at her profile, lit by the sunset. But it wasn’t her beauty that caught me. Something else had shifted.
The color of the sunset on her face… it was different. Fainter. Had the sun started to set?
”It’s strange we didn’t see these things when we first looked around,” she said.
”Yeah, they definitely weren’t here before,” I agreed. “But I’m starting to like this place.”
”We shouldn’t stay too long,” she warned.
Her words sparked a thought. A small question, but it grew into a sharp unease.
”Hey, why haven’t we tried going back through the door we came from?” I asked.
”You forgot?” she said. “The other side’s probably still a sea of fire. We don’t know if the Horned Owl monsters are dead, either. It’s not safe to go back.”
”No, I mean…” I glanced at the blue-and-orange door we’d entered through, a flicker of doubt in my mind. If someone else had been here, wouldn’t they try the obvious path—the sandy trail—first?
They say no one’s returned from this dungeon. But couldn’t you just go back through the door you came in? At least try to secure an escape route.
”I get that we can’t go back because of the fire,” I said. “But why didn’t anyone else who came here just leave the way they came?”
The door shouldn’t be one-way. If it worked both directions, turning back wouldn’t be a strange choice.
”If they had, this place wouldn’t be called a no-return dungeon,” I said.
”True,” she said. “In an unknown dungeon, explorers prioritize scouting and retreat. Something must have prevented it.”
A chill crept over me. I turned away from the sunset, looking back.
There it was.
The door we’d come through, about ten meters behind us. A plain door with a knob, standing alone on the white sand. It looked almost comically out of place in this world.
”Is that… really the door we used?” I asked.
”Yes,” Trash-san said. “Our footprints lead right to it.”
But something felt off. The blue-and-orange gradient on the door… was it upside down? Or was I imagining things? If that wasn’t the door to the mysterious forest…
”Sorry, maybe I’m just getting paranoid,” I said.
”It’s understandable,” she replied softly.
When I leaned against her, she hesitated, then gently patted my head. Her hand moved slowly, tapping me lightly a few times, her voice warm and kind.
”Dungeons are strange places,” she said. “They play tricks on your mind and body, making you doubt what you see.”
”Yeah…” I mumbled.
”Your question makes sense, Young Master. Opening that door might be the worst trap of all. But that’s just the darkness of the unknown.”
We sat close, shoulders touching. Her warmth, mixed with the smell of sweat and soot, was oddly comforting. We were both ragged and half-dressed, but the feel of her skin against mine grounded me.
”Do we need to open that door?” she asked.
”Nope,” I said firmly.
”Then let’s not fear it,” she said. “We should focus on what’s ahead.”
In other words, don’t sweat the unknowns. Wisdom from someone who’d lived in this mystery-riddled world. I followed her gaze. The sandy path shimmered under the sunset, rippling with small waves.
”Ready to go?” I asked.
”Yes,” she said. “More exploration here is pointless. I’d prefer to go first and have you follow, but…”
”No way,” I said. “We go together.”
”Young Master, it could be dangerous.”
”What if a monster pops out of the sea and gobbles you up, leaving me alone? No thanks.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
I pleaded my case. Getting left alone in a place like this? I wouldn’t know what to do. I’m just an ordinary guy. I’d rather go down in one shot than be stuck here, slowly drowning in fear. Well, for the sake of the Imperial Guard, I probably should fight to survive, but…
I made up my mind. Before I could overthink it, we stood at the edge of the sandy path. Momentum was my friend—I didn’t want to second-guess this.
From the island’s edge, the sand bridge stretched out, inviting us forward, like Mont Saint-Michel revealing a path through the sea at high tide.
”Here we go,” Trash-san said. “It looks safe enough.”
”Uh, yeah,” I said. “Let’s hold hands, just in case.”
”Of course.” She paused. “I’ll draw my sword.”
A sharp shing rang out as metal gleamed in the light. She took my hand, and we stepped forward carefully. Each step sank into the damp sand with a soft crunch, the ground clinging to our feet. It felt heavy, like walking through a minefield. I tested each step, cautious, so cautious…
The path was about two meters wide. On either side, the water deepened gradually, though it stayed shallow enough to wade through, like a kiddie pool you could splash in. Nothing seemed likely to leap out from such clear, shallow water.
I started to relax—then I spotted something large bobbing in the waves.
Notes:
• Kazusa Province – A region cited in Chapter 29 dungeon records defining unreturnable dungeons. Serves as a geographic and academic reference for explorers.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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