Chapter 359: Back to Think

———Wiina———

<2: 32 pm>

***Zoom***

Everyone is teleported back to the entrance. Thankfully unlike last time there was interruption for any of us, it seems. Everyone is teleported back by the agreed upon time. Emmie’s team is the one with by far the most awkward atmosphere, and it’s not hard to tell why.

“Well well well… Now that I think about it, how much did any of you contribute?” Kenni quickly tries to rile things up.

“…Shut it.” Jeyst said, having none of her shenanigans.

“Time for a status report. How far did each time go? I’ll start with my group, thirty four floors.” Rico spoke up, and that number is…

“My group hits thirty six floors.” I said that and some of the members from my team have a slightly smug look to them while staring at Kenni’s dissatisfied face.

“...Ninety one.” Walsuna answered and most people had a brief expression of shock before they quickly composed themselves.

“And how much of that was Emmie carrying?” Kenni said with the intent to rile up that group even more.

“Let’s all get back to the ship first.” I said before any arguments could break out, and everyone silently agreed to follow along.

Soon enough we were all back in the lobby and the flying ship took off. Now the return trip has begun, everyone has taken their seats in the lobby, started to relax, and pull out their phones.

“So? How much of it?” Kenni said with a very visible smirk on her face.

“...It was like seventy floors.” Nicks reluctantly answered. He knows that she is going to keep pestering them about it, best to just get that out of the way.

“Oooh! That’s like over three quarters of it!” She said with glee. “You all are seriously getting thrown around hard!”

“Shut it, it’s not like you wouldn’t be in the same position if our place was swapped.” Jeyst argued with a pained face.

“And that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for your skill issue. You should know that I wouldn’t be left so badly behind like that.” Kenni said while maintaining her smirk. She is truly rubbing it in.

“Alright, that’s enough, let’s not try to cause any problems now.” Karra chimed in, probably not wanting to hear more of Kenni’s condescending comments with how much she has been spewing nonsense just on the initial trip alone. “Also, I don’t want to hear that smug tone from someone in dead last.”

“What? Don’t come at me with that godly team comp of yours!” Kenni turned her attention to Karra instead. “It was all rigged from the start anyway! Don’t try to play moral high ground now!”

“What moral high ground? I’m just saying like I see it. You don’t have the privilege here, also-ran.” Karra said, clearly feeling feisty over not being part of the lowest floor count team. If it was in front of anyone else it would seem unwarranted, but Kenni hasn’t made herself particularly sympathetic.

“So what does your team look like in practice?” Malk asked Kenni, clearly not wanting to keep this particular topic going if she’s going to keep yapping and ragebaiting.

“Pretty even, I would say.” Gregori answered. “Obviously Kenni and Jennla are stronger than us, they are doing more work by default, so it’s nothing special.”

“In our case Jass and Seni stayed as support for the most part. Everyone else is fighting and getting in the thick of it.” Qyunda chimed in. “Of course, you probably figured that out before we even entered our respective instance.”

“No plot twist or anything, just kinda boring and predictable.” Kenni spoke up. “Wasn’t there a big incident last time? Why is it going smoothly this time around?”

“Simply put, the nuisance has been dealt with beforehand.” I answered, and they were surprised by my sudden participation in this conversation. “We made sure nothing could cause a problem like last time.”

“...So what even happened anyway? Karra, I think by this point you can spill the beans, right?” Kenni asked.

“Why me? Ask the person with all the details!” She quickly deflected the question back at me.

“It’s not something I can divulge.” I explained. While no paradox would occur if I were to explain the situation wholesale, just by doing that it would have caused a lot of questions coming our way as well, even if I were to omit many important details.

They are a curious and capable bunch, if I give them an inch they’ll take a mile. The only reason they aren’t suspecting me is because I didn’t let them know about very crucial info to figure me out, only out of context hints at best.

“Boring.” Kenni quickly complained.

“What about what the floating island actually is? Can’t you tell us that by now?” Orrel asked.

I turned to look at Rico and Walsuna who quietly nodded in agreement.

“I suppose that is fair. Its sudden appearance and mysterious nature would cause a lot of worry and baseless speculation to you lot.” I said before taking a brief pause to build up some tension. “We have figured out the rough origin of that floating island. It is not of this Earth, and it is not even something from our time.”

A few of them reacted with their eyes widened as if realizing something.

“We cannot pinpoint where it came from, but in terms of time period we can at least confidently say that it was from at least ten thousand years in the future. It was made by someone who has figured out the mechanic behind the dungeon that exists at this moment, which either means the dungeon persists in the future and perhaps exists on other planets, or it is created by someone who lives in this era and persists for that long.” I explained with a tidbit for them to chew on. I expect them to even narrow the list of suspects. “It is unknown if it was made by one person or a large group, but either way it takes great power to construct something of this nature.”

“That’s quite a grand scale…” Orrel remarked with a clear display of interest.

“And the whodunnit aspect of it…” Gregori chimed in. “Hmm… By the laws of time there is no risk of causing a reality-breaking paradox, so even if we miraculously figure it out, nothing will come of it. It’s certainly an odd mystery with no incentive to solve it, but nothing that prevents us from figuring it out either..”

“A mystery is always fun.” Kenni remarked, but her tone is noticeably stiff. I suppose she was going to figure things out faster than everyone else.

“Certainly, but the clues are all over the place, right?” Karra said while staring at her specifically. Some noticed the gazes but none of them dared to jump the shark. It’d be ridiculous even by their standards of quickly figuring things out.

“Ah, the food is here.” Wers remarked as multiple tables of food were rolled out for everyone to pick from, this time it was filled with a variety of noodle dishes… and British pork pies, one of Karra’s favorites for an obvious reason.

“Oooh!” Karra quickly shows her enthusiasm as she stood up to go grab as many of them as she could. The others are still quite enthralled by the idea of cracking the case of the future opened, but Karra already knows the answer, and Emmie just flat out doesn’t care.

There is a nonzero chance that she already figured it out with that enigmatic mind of hers…

“Hmm… It’s going to be hard to pin it on someone even with a strong hunch.” Gregori remarked. “Especially since we can’t know until it’s actually the time when it is constructed, which is…”

“...Can any of us even live that long?” Jeff asked.

“We need to learn more about those who have persisted to the present day. It would be a good idea to perhaps ask them about the feasibility of that.” Gregori replied while his eyes wandered towards Walsuna specifically.

She is quite a suspicious figure. Unlike me who came out after the Mythical Eclipse and Rico who does have a defined history from childhood, Walsuna came from nowhere and no one knows her origin. No one questioned it since she hadn't done anything that suspicious until that event rolled around, but at this point in time there are a lot of questions that can be thrown her way.

“Do we even know anyone like that? I sure as hell don’t.” Jeyst remarked as they close their eyes and ponder. “I got nothing on that. Would checking the aesthetic of the floating island help?”

“...By the way, we don’t even know for sure that it was from someone who is living in the present day, right? What if it really was just someone who was born way later?” Useph pointed out.

“Then we will simply hit a dead end. At most we can glean some sort of personality of theirs from how the dungeon is constructed and other factors.” Orrel explained. That would certainly make it an even more pointless speculation. “Say, Kenni, do you have any ideas?”

“Hrmm… Well, I bet they are someone super smart and strong, obviously.” She said while sounding rather noncommittal. “I don’t know. Very creative person, I guess.”

“Lunatic might be a good word to throw in there.” Gregori chimed in. “Still… There is something I want to know about the place…”

“What is it?” I asked, since there is more to discuss outside of who the creator behind it is like.

“If that floating island is something that has been time-displaced, it should be just as easily brought back to its own time. I’d imagine it was the creator’s power that led to it coming here, and yet it stayed even now.” Gregori pointed out. “Another point is if the creator can also just physically come here.”

“On both fronts, I can explain the situation somewhat.” I prefaced before summarizing the answer. “It is indeed something that could simply be brought back to its time, and usually an accidental time jump will cause everything to snap back to its original time period anyway. As it stands we have concluded that if nothing were to interfere with its current existence it will stay here for a few years. As for if the creator can simply call it back, that is also very simple. They choose not to, and in all likelihood they can just come here as well.”

“Hmm…” Gregori is lost in thought at my words while the others are still pondering about the earlier statement. “I really wish we know more about what each tier of powers are capable of. Even with all the books in the library it’s hard to make a complete picture.”

“Indeed.” Orrel added. “I suppose the only way to be certain is to grow stronger. We have more avenues for that than anyone else, so it’s best that we make use of it.”

“Looks like the nerds are going to start grinding hard, it seems.” Kenni playfully remarked before standing up. “You guys can keep yapping about it, but I’m famished.”

“I’m sure we all are with how exhausting it has been.” Malk said, having grabbed some food a while back. “How tired are you guys actually? I know she does most of the work but surely you all contribute.”

“Mostly the earlier floors. She let us deal with that.” Jeff answered truthfully.

“Hmm… I can see that.” Malk remarked as his eyes landed on Emmie who was focused on eating her meal at the moment, not participating in the conversation at all. “Anyway, the battle has been rough. They are starting to get to the point where one monster is stronger than all of us except for Karra.”

“The difficulty spike is quite brutal in this one.” Useph said as he walked back with multiple plates of food for both him and Orrel. “It certainly shows that we are probably still at the very bottom of the hypothetical power ceiling.”

…In the grander scope, that is true, but within the context of this planet and this time period they are all menaces to deal with even now. We obviously shouldn’t point that out, the last thing we should do is enable them to perhaps do something way more drastic than they should.

Still, getting them pumped up about the possibilities will make them more motivated and become stronger, which I am obviously in favor of.

After all, getting stronger is going to be why they continue to persist.