Gacha Kingdom Building

Depending on which of the numerous paths you take, you may find stronger monsters earlier or reach dead-ends, but each turn you take almost always leads to several new options to follow, making a floor an essentially gigantic labyrinth.

And while there are dungeons that don't follow a cavern-like structure, due to their infinite span, the chances of meeting someone else will surely decrease as long as you venture farther and farther.

I can only think of two explanations that might increase the odds of meeting these guys again.

First, curiosity might've been at fault here. We took a chance at a path that wasn't on the maps, knowing it would probably lead to a settlement. Best case scenario, this was the same for them.

Otherwise... this was intentional.

I can't read their Gifts, but I can still see their status. Judging from their builds, the girl accompanying them could be a scout. The only problem with this theory is that she's carrying a crossbow, so almost definitely an archer. It doesn't mean she doesn't have a Gift for tracking, but...

They also seem surprised to find us here, which unless a very well-prepared act. seem to indicate that this was just a coincidence after all.

I'm willing to accept that since our levels are pretty close, but...

Why are Roy and Sam with them?

That's just a bit too far for me. I mean, they shouldn't even be here in the first place.

I couldn't help but check their status, and to my surprise, their levels were 17 and 16, levels lower than that of the boss from the previous floor.

While it's not uncommon for high-rankers to form big parties and defeat a floor boss to farm monsters with higher levels, if the difference is just one or two levels it's just not worth it.

Even ignoring the boss battle, they now face a bigger risk on this floor since there's a wider gap between them and the strongest monsters around.

Sam: "Miwen! It's been a while!"

While tensions were up, her genuine excitement disrupted every thought I was having.

I should've expected this from Sam... but her being like this also means I can probe a bit.

Miwen: "It sure has... If you had mentioned that you were on the fifth floor we could've met earlier."

And under better circumstances too.

Sam: "Ah, but that's..."

Roy; "That's because we still haven't defeated the fourth-floor boss legitimately, we are here just to quickly get a few level-ups."

Miwen: "Hm? What do you mean?"

It's pretty easy to tell what he's saying. But I still tried to pretend I didn't get what he was talking about so that he could explain everything in minute detail.

I may not be too good of an actor, but if it's just about acting dumb, I'm pretty confident in my skill.

As such, Roy never really stood a chance and ended up telling the story from the beginning.

He and Sam joined a party and proceeded without us. But they disbanded just two days ago since half of the party members were struggling too much with the fourth floor and decided to quit.

They then decided to look for a new party and encountered these guys who said they would help them get strong enough to explore the sixth floor together.

And that stuck with me.

It might be because I had a bad impression of them from before, but something wasn't clicking for me.

To begin with, they were pretty bad for wear. I can understand that they have to look out for Roy and Sam, which probably means they can't focus completely on the enemy, but if I add that to the display they showed before, forget about the sixth floor, it's already hard to believe that they're fit for the fifth.

Not only that, but in every dungeon the fifth floor has a feature that threatens most parties that challenge it.

It's simply referred to as "Altar", and while the name isn't flashy, it does something jaw-dropping.

When you enter through the doors that lead to the boss room, you'll first find yourself before the Altar. In the form of a whisper, it will ask if you're ready for the sacrifice.

Right in front of it, there's a hole whose bottom cannot be seen by the naked eye.

If anyone falls down that hole, it will close itself, and the door to the boss room will turn golden. If you pass through the golden door, you'll be granted access to the next floor without having to fight the boss.

It was thought that any living being would serve as a sacrifice, so people tried bugs and small animals, but the golden door didn't materialize. It seems to require a human, but I guess demons, demi-humans, and whatnot might also work.

As long as it's not bugs and small animals like some people have tried before.

If I ask the Merchant, he'll probably know why only certain living beings count for the sacrifice, but I'd be more interested in what happens if he was the one to fall down the hole.

Well, going back to the other people who I'd like to see falling down the hole, knowing this super fun fact about the fifth floor, I can't help but feel like they're probably having not-so-super-fun ideas of their own.

The thing is... when I brought that up to Roy and Sam, they said that there was nothing to worry about since these guys were already on the sixth floor and they weren't going to go near a boss room anyway.

What they're saying makes sense on some level, If they had already reached the sixth floor, then they didn't stand anything to gain with a sacrifice.

And if they agreed not to go near a boss room Roy and Sam should be safe since they can just carry a map and evade paths that lead to one.

Yet, as soon as we began talking about the sacrifice though, I could see the other party showing signs of agitation.

Was I overthinking it?

Trusting a party to help you out on any floor is already a hurdle, and the fifth floor just happens to pose the biggest reward for backstabbing others, but then again, you can't go far as an adventurer if you don't trust someone else.

Even Roy and Sam were strangers before entering the dungeon, but to keep advancing, they had to put their trust in other strangers many more times.

It was the case when they teamed up with me, when they formed the party that disbanded and it just so happens to be the case with this party now...

I want to warn Roy and Sam, but this feeling might only exist thanks to our previous encounter.

Above all, I couldn't find a reason for them to act in the way I was expecting.

Beatrice: "...Isn't a statement with purposefully misleading proof the telltale of a liar?"

She got close to me and whispered in a low and cold voice. Like the other girls, her eyes never left the people in front of us, and even while I was talking with Roy and Sam, it felt like a fight could break off at any moment.

It felt reassuring to me that she was also thinking there was something off, but the way she said it was a bit confusing.

This ended up helping though, as when I tried to make sense of her words, I had to narrow down which statements they had made with possible misdealing proofs.

And there was only one.

They said they were on the sixth floor already.

Proof of that is their levels, which are above the level cap of the fifth floor, meaning they must have leveled up after defeating monsters on a floor with a higher level cap.

Both of these are facts, but they don't prove each other. Even more, they purposefully rely on a misconception on the part of their victim.

It's true that the fifth floor of this dungeon only offers a level cap of up to 25, and to reach a higher level, you'd need to go to the sixth floor.

In this dungeon.

Which isn't the only one that they can enter.

There are not many options in this area, and this is highly seen as the best one for beginners since the level cap doesn't increase too much from floor to floor, making it one of the easiest dungeons you can explore.

But if you wanted to, you could find a dungeon where something like the very second floor has a level cap of 30. And you could most definitely get levels there if you were already around 20, you'd just have to deal with your level getting capped for the first floor.

As such, if you were a level 25 adventurer who hit the cap of the fifth floor, struggling with its monsters and knowing that it's impossible to defeat the boss and advance like this, you could try to get more levels in a more difficult dungeon, and then come back slightly stronger.

Your level would be capped all the same, but as long as you invest in skills that are beneath the level cap, you would still get a notable difference.

High-rankers do that all the time as they explore multiple dungeons and try to get any advantage possible.

But what if that wasn't enough? What if you still struggled after getting overleved?

If you were stuck on a normal floor, well, tough luck.

But on the fifth floor, it's a different story.

Like a devil on my shoulder, Bea continues...

Beatrice: "Trusting someone is scary, that's why I can only do it after scrutinizing their every word. Even then, this witch has chosen to trust you every step of the way. You only have to say the word and I'll see it done."

There was no reason to not believe her, those are the words of a woman who faced imminent death when asked to.

Even if I'm not that smart, she is. And if she believes something, it must be right, even if that something is myself.

I may have been very unlucky today, but since I'm surrounded by people like her I guess karma is just asking a fair price.

Claire and Licia seemed to be debating over why starting trouble in the dungeon was a bad idea, all the while, Claire seemed to be ready to strike down even the people she was familiar with.

A similar thing was occurring with Ellie as she had to ask Anna for help in holding Mia back so that she didn't jump on the guys who had talked shit to Ellie.

It's not only that Ellie and Licia are calmer, but it's that they, as veteran adventurers, better understand the rules of the dungeon.

In case we started a fight, we'd have to deal with becoming a target for other adventurers, and there's not many places to hide when that happens...

Thankfully, we have Roy and Sam here, so as long as we don't hurt anyone, we should be fine with a little scare.

The moment I called Claire and Bea's names, everyone shifted their attention toward me.

It was a bit scary to see how quickly they readied themselves for whatever decision I made, but knowing they had my back, I asked Claire and Bea for a smokescreen.

A giant ring of water appeared around both groups and as soon as it did, fire started raining on it, creating thick steam that started to move and hide everyone in it.

That's my reliable witch for you, not only can she act on command, but she even surpassed my expectations by being able to instantly take control of the steam and change it to provide better concealment.

Still, I didn't have much time to waste, so I quickly passed by Roy and gave him a warning.

Miwen: "For adventurers, the fifth floor makes or breaks them. Don't forget the death of the Steel Fangs"

I gave him a little gift to hammer home the point and proceeded to get away from there.

When I thought Bea was done with her tricks, I also noticed that she used wind magic to block most of the sound of our footsteps, this way, it was practically impossible to know which path we took, and we successfully managed to evade any trouble.

Since we didn't have many options and ended up choosing something on the fly, I got a bit lost on the map, but we managed to find ourselves and head toward the exit gate of the floor.

Licia: "You gave him the potion you've just bought and you also told him something, right? I couldn't quite catch what you said..."

Miwen: "It was about the Steel Fangs. If it's the same as back then, the potions will come in handy. And it's not like we really need them so..."

Licia: "I'm not mad about that. I think you did the right thing. I'm glad you're trying to help them out... Ah! But I don't understand this talk of Steel Fangs, so can you please explain?"

Since Licia now knows about most ordinary things I kind of forgot that there was no way for her to know about the incident involving the Steel Fangs.

It's a pretty old story, it took place at a time when high-rankers were close to our level.

On the fifth floor of another dungeon, a pretty strong party at the time was beginning to see its glory fade.

The Steel Fangs were at the forefront of magazines as one of the most promising and powerful groups, and they had helped the government to clear the first floor of many dungeons so that a dungeon rampage wouldn't occur, which contributed to them getting a good reputation on the surface.

But problems were starting to take over for the four-man party. Most of the top parties had already reached the sixth floor of a dungeon, but they had yet to do the same.

Some people were already starting to question their position, and they ended up choosing the worst possible route.

They invited more people to join them in the battle against the fifth-floor boss of a dungeon, a two-man party composed of high rankers best-known thanks to the support they provided for other parties and a scout that was beginning to make a name for himself.

In theory, it all made sense, everyone was a high ranker and the Steel Fangs just felt more comfortable challenging the boss with support from another party.

But the truth was different. The Steel Fangs took a break to poison the food with sleeping drugs and planned to throw the others out of the hole as a sacrifice.

Thankfully it didn't go like that. A man from the other party had more effects on his Gift than it was known at the time and managed to suppress the effects of the sleeping drug. He was also capable of healing everyone from the effect as well.

Then, a gigantic beatdown proceeded as a girl from the party managed to beat the Steel Fangs alone while the man and the scout defeated the boss.

This story is mostly remembered thanks to this last part, which was extremely impressive at the time, but given Roy and Sam's situation, I truly think they'll get the idea.

Licia: "That's a nice story... I especially like how happy you looked telling me it. Does it have a special meaning to you?"

I hadn't even noticed any change in my mood, but Licia always reads me like a book.

Miwen: "I don't know if I'd say it's special to me, but since it's one of the most famous stories about my parents I guess I felt a bit proud."

Licia: "Eh?"

The look of surprise on Licia's face was priceless. She wasn't expecting my parents to be the star of the story, and she also wasn't expecting Alex to be the scout who somehow got involved in a mess and ended up being saved by them.

After that, she asked me for my opinion on a bunch of stories about her time as an adventurer in her previous life in an attempt to find a story that might impress my parents when they inevitably meet.

I don't think they would really care about this, and it is not a competition to begin with, but it was nice to listen to some of her memories.

Even Apollo left my head to land on her shoulder and started to happily chirp.