As Riezel and the others approached the northern edge of the 24th Floor, the ceiling and walls that had once resembled tree bark began to lose their original form.
Unlike the labyrinth's central area, the northern edge had walls, ceilings, and floors that gradually turned uneven and rocky, their colors shifting from brown and green to a pale red, making the surroundings now look more like a cavern than a forest.
Needless to say, this was because a Pantry was nearby.
Even though there might be variations, the Dungeon's Pantries were usually structured like caves, with a massive quartz-like stone pillar at their deepest point—a pillar from which a highly nutritious liquid oozed.
Monsters sustained themselves by drinking that liquid to replenish their strength and energy.
To create such Pantries and the caves where the quartz pillars stood, the Dungeon would alter the surrounding environment to make it suitable for their existence, which was why the closer one got to a Pantry, the more the surroundings resembled a cave's environment, regardless of the floor.
For this reason, the changing scenery was not a bad sign.
On the contrary, it proved that Riezel and the others were nearing the Pantry—or rather, about to reach it.
However, none of them expected that, before they could even see the Pantry, the sight awaiting them would be so horrifying.
"...What's this?"
Asfi, feeling stunned, spoke with a voice that had unknowingly turned hoarse.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Hermes Familia were just as stunned.
Some stared in disbelief, while others swallowed hard, their throats tightening as they struggled to speak.
Riezel and Ais exchanged a glance—one's eyes flickering, the other's filled with a subtle shock few could detect.
It couldn't be helped, for the scene before them was enough to leave anyone speechless.
A colossal wall stood blocking the only path to the Pantry, sealing off the passage completely, creating a dead end, and denying entry to anyone who reached this point.
And worse, the wall's appearance was grotesque and terrifying.
Its swollen surface resembled a green wall of flesh, completely different in structure and texture from the surrounding walls, which clearly indicated that it didn't belong here from the beginning.
As though alive, the wall twitched faintly from time to time like a creature breathing, or perhaps a plant teeming with vitality—the sight reminded Riezel of the inner environment of the Underground Demon Beast Yarakulon.
"A… A tumor?"
Lulune Louie, a female chienthrope from the Hermes Familia, muttered, earning silent nods from the others.
Indeed, the fleshy wall looked like a tumor growing out of the Dungeon itself—disgusting to the point of nausea.
"…Was there ever something like this near the 24th Floor's Pantry?"
"No idea…"
"I've never been here before."
"There was nothing about this in the reports either."
Every member of the Hermes Familia began talking all at once, each wearing a trace of unease, clearly shaken by the revolting sight.
Even Ais, a First-Class Adventurer who had ventured deep into the Dungeon countless times, frowned slightly.
"…I've never seen anything like this in the Dungeon before." Ais muttered confusedly.
Riezel, on the other hand, remained calmer than the rest.
He wasn't frightened by the wall's appearance—if anything, he felt a faint curiosity and stepped forward to inspect it.
However, as he neared it, a pungent stench immediately struck him, making him grimace and stop in his tracks.
"Smells awful..." Riezel remarked with a frown.
"Fuck! It really does stink!"
"I didn't even notice it earlier…"
"Holy shit… this smell is so unbearable…"
Drawn by Riezel's words, the beast-humans finally caught the scent too—their noses twitched, and they recoiled with groans, clutching their snouts as they stumbled backward.
For beast-humans, whose sense of smell was extremely keen, that foul odor was as bad as a biological weapon—some of their faces even turned pale and green in turns.
"Hmm..." Asfi cautiously approached, sniffing the air, and a sudden realization flashed through her mind. "Yeah, this smells like rot… It seems the cause of the irregular monster outbreak on the 24th Floor lies right here."
Her statement made everyone freeze and turn toward her.
"Well, the monsters on this floor are mostly biological types, so they need to eat. Which means they rely on the Pantry for nourishment." Riezel said in a calm voice. "But if that Pantry is blocked off by this wall, then they can't get the nutrients they need to survive. In that case, the monsters would gather here, unable to feed, their numbers building up until hunger drives them mad—eventually going on a rampage."
Riezel's explanation hit everyone like a revelation.
"Exactly."
Asfi nodded in agreement, glancing at Riezel.
"Apparently, because the monsters that come to this northern Pantry can't enter, they starve, then either turn on one another or go berserk, attacking adventurers to feed on them—some even head toward the other two Pantries, creating a mass migration."
"In other words, the so-called monster outbreak on the 24th Floor was really just the starving monsters rampaging and migrating together."
"They didn't appear out of nowhere—they were the same monsters wandering around the 24th Floor, drawn together by hunger."
Clearly, that was the reason behind the sudden surge in monster numbers.
Given that there were only three Pantries on this floor and those heading to the northern one had been stopped by the wall, the monsters naturally either gathered here or moved toward the remaining Pantries, forming massive hordes and indirectly causing their population boom.
Adventurers traveling this floor who ran into them met disaster—attacked by the starving monster hordes, suffering heavy casualties.
"In that case, the same thing that happened on the 30th Floor must've been because of this too...?" Ais asked, turning to Riezel.
"Yeah, that's the only explanation." Riezel replied with a nod, knowing that the culprit was undoubtedly the wall before them.
"So what should we do now?" Lulune asked, raising her hand. "Since we've already figured out the cause, doesn't that mean we've completed the quest?"
"What do you think?" Asfi snapped. "Our quest is to find and solve the cause. We've only done the first part."
"Then we just need to destroy the wall, right?" Meryl Tear, a female pallum mage from the Hermes Familia, asked cautiously, raising her hand. "If we break it, the monsters can go back in, and the monster outbreak will stop."
"But how did this wall appear in the first place?" Asfi murmured, frowning. "Could the Dungeon have formed it on its own? It makes no sense."
Considering that the Pantries existed so the Dungeon's monsters wouldn't starve after being born, if the Dungeon itself created a wall to block them from feeding, then why create the Pantries at all?
"No, this isn't the Dungeon's doing..." Asfi concluded coldly. "Most likely, this wall was caused by human interference."
Hearing this, the members of the Hermes Familia fell silent, and beside them, Ais recalled the words of that mysterious magus.
They, too, had said the incident was likely man-made—the murdered member of the Ganesha Familia on the 18th Floor's Rivira Town was proof.
Someone, for their own purpose, had created these flesh walls in front of the 24th and 30th Floors' Pantries, triggering the monster outbreaks.
Meanwhile, a member of the Ganesha Familia had entered the 30th Floor's Pantry when the irregular monster outbreak occurred, taken something from within, and had later been hunted down and killed by the mastermind, murdered in Rivira Town.
If that was true, then perhaps the same mysterious item that had caused his death existed here as well.
"..."
For some reason, unease welled up in Ais's chest.
It felt as though a thorn had pierced her flesh, her blood stirring restlessly, an inexplicable discomfort rising from within.
What exactly lay behind this wall?
Even though she didn't know the reason, the more she thought about it, the stronger her unease grew.
"Ais."
Suddenly, someone took her hand—it was Riezel.
He looked straight at her, and only then did Ais realize she had unconsciously walked toward the wall, her hand resting on the hilt of Desperate at her waist.
"Sword Princess, what's wrong?" Asfi asked as she and her familia companions approached, startled. "Why are you making such a terrifying face and walking toward that wall alone?"
Hearing this, Ais's eyes widened in disbelief.
"...My face looked terrifying?" Ais turned to Riezel.
"Yeah..." Riezel nodded, meeting her gaze. "You looked like you were facing something you couldn't stand the sight of. If I hadn't stopped you, you probably would've drawn your sword and charged right through that wall alone."
At this, the others nodded in agreement, while Ais didn't know what to say.
Riezel watched Ais quietly, then spoke again.
"Let's go inside and take a look." Riezel declared, his tone calm, almost casual.
"Is that really wise?" Asfi asked, not objecting but clearly cautious. "We don't know what might happen beyond it. I mean, this is an unknown irregular in the Dungeon."
"Well, that's exactly why we should go, right?" Riezel replied coolly. "Otherwise, we won't uncover anything. Or, Ais and I can go ahead—you can wait here."
"...No, we'll all go." Asfi decided after a brief silence. "If the quest requires us to resolve the situation, we won't solve anything by staying here."
"Then how do we get through?" Lulune asked immediately. "Do we just smash this disgusting wall?"
Ais instinctively reached for her sword.
"I'll handle it." Riezel said calmly, taking Ais's hand and shaking his head. "Magic will be faster to crush this wall."
Right after saying this, he raised his hand toward the fleshy wall.
"Fireball."
With just a brief chant, the magic activated before anyone could even react.
*BOOOM!*
A massive fireball erupted from Riezel's fingertip, illuminating the passage with scorching light as it blasted forward and struck the wall, causing a roaring explosion, fire engulfing the wall in an inferno.
Seeing flames blaze fiercely, consuming the wall before everyone's eyes, Ais and the others widened their eyes in shock.
"Th-That magic?!" Asfi gasped.
"No chant...?" Ais muttered, her expression shifted in surprise.
""Magic without chant?""
Muttering the same sentence, every member of the Hermes Familia was stunned.
What had they just witnessed?
Riezel had cast magic without a chant—triggering it with only the magic's name.
Clearly, that was...
"Chantless magic...?" Asfi murmured the words blankly.
Everyone's attention turned from the wall to Riezel, who calmly lowered his hand.
Even Ais felt the unease within her vanish, blown away by the shock of what she had just seen.
'When had Riezel learned such magic?'
Ais, who thought she understood him, could only stare in confusion.
"Let's go."
Riezel spoke in that same calm tone, as if nothing extraordinary had happened, and stepped forward through the burning remains of the wall.
As he walked away, the others exchanged glances, then followed him into the ashes of the collapsed wall.
High above, a pale flower bloomed silently on the ceiling, gazing down at the scene, and beyond that flower, a pair of eyes slowly opened.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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