B4 - Chapter 16 - Sandy Shells

Judging by the orange sun setting on the horizon, it was very late into the afternoon, meaning they had spent a lot more time in the dungeon than they realized. They would have only a bit of time to explore the new floor today, and, more importantly, they needed to locate one of the exits.

"Maybe we can find one of the older students, and they can point us in the right direction?" Hana suggested.

"I can't imagine they will be too happy to see us," Lotte chuckled. "Our appearance means they will have limited access to this floor."

"I guess it depends. Does this floor have a lot of rare resources?" Lily asked, looking at the crystal clear water. "I'm assuming it's plants, coral, things like that in the water, and not everyone can exactly harvest that with ease."

Hana nodded. "Water mages would love it here, and I guess alchemists too since they can make a fortune selling potions."

"What about enchanters? We saw several magic items in class that help you stay underwater," Lotte pointed out.

The pair turned to Lily, who could only shrug. "I haven't learned anything yet, but I can certainly do research," she answered and patted the shrunken grimoire in her pocket. "Until then, potions are definitely our best bet."

"Speaking of magic items… Did we not get a reward for beating the second floor?" Hana asked.

The trio looked awkwardly at each other before all of them frowned. Yes, they had received plenty of resources from the unclaimed deep forest, but what about beating the floor? Had they missed something hidden in the vines outside of the door?

"We got cheated!" Lotte shouted, stomping her foot in the sand. Her action caused something buried in the sand to come flying out, nearly striking her in the head as she yelped, ducked, and fell to the ground.

"Lotte!" Lily and Hana cried out, terrified their friend had been injured.

"I'm okay, I dodged in time… What the heck was that?"

While Lily was helping her friend up, Hana investigated and pulled out what appeared to be a flat piece of driftwood. She was about to declare it junk and throw it away, until she noticed peculiar etchings on it.

"Is this a map?" Hana wondered.

"A treasure map!?" Lotte shouted in excitement, jumping up and rushing over.

Lily sighed as she patted the sand off herself before joining the pair. Indeed, the piece of wood appeared to be some kind of map, as it closely resembled a particular collection of islands, with one marked with an "X".

"So is this map our reward? Or did we just get lucky?" Hana asked.

"I suppose we can ask Alice… Or maybe even Rose?" Lotte suggested.

"It might be one of these for everyone, though, like maybe they leave these at the entrances?" Hana replied.

"Oh yeah, I suppose that could be the case," Lotte agreed. "But what would stop others from just repeatedly searching one of the starting islands?"

"Yeah, it's not like the entrances are hidden," Hana agreed again.

"Uhh… About that," Lily replied, pointing at where they had come from.

The other two glanced in the direction and saw that there was nothing there. The door they had exited was gone, as if they had somehow teleported onto the island.

"Wait, where's our door!?" Lotte shouted, rushing over and frantically feeling around for it.

"It's gone. Like really gone," Lily answered, her eyes glowing with the power of Magesight.

The other two copied her and saw that there was nothing; the door had mysteriously vanished. They knew the dungeon could change and shift, but removing an entire door while they weren't looking felt like a step too far.

The girls, however, didn't panic too much and instead began to put their heads together to speculate about their circumstances. Judging by the lack of students mingling around the entrance, there was a good chance this floor had multiple entrances spread across random islands.

This also explained why nobody could've taken their map, since it might have been created upon their arrival. Nobody knew where and when an entrance would spawn, so it wasn't something that could be easily repeated. Since they had their Magesight active, they also saw that the map they had found was glowing, and nothing else was hidden in the sand around them. One map per door was the conclusion drawn.

However, the big question remaining was how they would get out.

"We could use our returns… But that feels very wasteful," Hana sighed.

"Do you think the map shows our exit?" Lily suggested.

"I hope not. It's supposed to be our treasure reward!" Lotte declared, unwilling to accept any other outcome.

"Does it have any other markings?" Lily asked. "Maybe it shows an exit too, or something?"

Hana looked closer at the piece of wood, using Magesight as well, and while there wasn't anything else marked specifically on the map portion of the wood, there were two tiny words scrawled at the bottom.

"Rainbow shell?" Hana murmured, running her finger along it.

Lily and Lotte both looked at what Hana pointed out and agreed that that was what it said. They then quickly looked around, but saw no shells at their current location.

Lotte pointed in the distance. "Well, I guess we should look at the beach; maybe it's something the tide brought in?"

This chapter was published by its author somewhere else entirely; wherever you're reading it now picked it up without their say-so.

"It's either that or trying to blindly find someone or a structure," Hana agreed.

The pair began walking to the water, and Lily slowly followed after, using the opportunity to ask for help.

{Any ideas, Arakil?}

[The door is indeed gone, so looking for another exit is the only other option. Unfortunately, I don't sense any other people nearby that you could question. Perhaps it's intentional that the dungeon scatters people around this floor.]

Lily sighed and then quickly jogged to catch up to her two friends. Now that they were closer to the water, they could see how clear it was, with the underwater biome on full display. Coral, fish, and all sorts were in great abundance, and it genuinely looked more beautiful than she could imagine.

"I've never seen the ocean before…" Lily whispered in awe.

"Can you swim?" Hana asked.

"Uh… I can float," Lily replied, blushing.

"That's good at least. I feel sorry for anyone exploring here who can't."

"Maybe we could build a raft?" Lotte suggested. "Cut down trees, go, full island survivor."

"What would be the point?" Hana asked. "Someone could steal it, or it could disappear when we return."

"True… I just had the feeling we might be far away from others."

"Lotte might be right," Lily replied. "This floor might be massive, and everyone gets spread out to do their own exploring."

"I suppose once we find the exit, we could try leaving a mark and seeing if it's here when we return. I just hope we aren't put on a random island every time we come here."

"That would certainly make things difficult…" Lily agreed.

The trio continued searching the beach, cautious to avoid the water. It was clear that the water would be where the monsters were, and while they hadn't spotted anything that looked threatening, there was always the chance it was lurking around.

They found plenty of random shells, stones, and ocean debris, but it was only after maybe almost half an hour of searching that they found what might have been their target.

"Is this a rainbow shell?" Lotte asked, picking up what looked like a conch shell.

The reason Lotte was unsure was that the shell's exterior looked very unadorned and practically unremarkable, but the inside was indeed like a shimmering rainbow. If she hadn't been picking up almost everything, it would have practically blended into the beach sand.

[I'm sensing Mana from it.]

Thanks to Arakil chiming in, Lily quickly confirmed it. "I think that's it!"

Lotte smiled, but now that they had found it, what were they supposed to do with it? They tried touching it to the map, but there was no reaction. They tried holding it up to their ears, but aside from the sound of the ocean, there was no response. Honestly, the group was feeling stumped.

"Do we break it?" Hana reluctantly suggested.

In an immediate response, Lotte tried to punch it, only to wince in pain and start shaking her hand. It was extremely clear that she had lost that exchange.

"Well, that was dumb," Lily giggled.

"Sorry… I should have thought about it more," Lotte agreed.

"It's my fault for suggesting it," Hana sighed.

They tried a few more things, including Lily trying to imbue it with Mana since it was something she was very used to handling. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from anything, and the trio was now grasping at straws.

"Okay, I can think of one more thing, but it might be a bit dumb," Hana said.

"Dumber than punching it?" Lotte asked, with a defeated smile.

"Good point."

"What's the idea?" Lily asked.

"What if we blow it…? Like a horn," Hana said, pointing at the spiral-pointed section.

Lotte looked at it carefully and saw that there was actually a hole at the tip, making Hana's crazy idea actually somewhat feasible. Of course, she didn't jump at it this time; instead, she asked Lily to wash it for her first.

After a quick wash in clean water from a quickly drawn glyph, Lotte finally tried blowing on it. Admittedly, nobody was really expecting anything, but against their judgment, the shell let out a deep, single tone no matter how much Lotte blew. When she stopped, you could still hear the resonating tone vibrating in the air and the shell.

"Did that actually work?" Lotte asked in surprise.

"I mean… Did it do anything besides make a weird noise?" Hana replied, clearly unsure.

Lily was about to say something when the shell suddenly cracked, causing the trio to yelp in surprise and Lotte to drop it. Before reaching the ground, the shell cracked more and broke into countless fragments. The trio was staring at the shattered shell in shock, but it was short-lived as soon as they found themselves no longer on the beach but instead standing in a familiar hallway.

"Did we just get teleported?" Hana asked first.

That was when Professor Elius walked up to them, clearly on duty at the entrance and looking both pleased and surprised. "Did you three just come from the third floor?"

They nodded in unison, causing the professor's smile to widen. "Excellent! Ha, I knew this year was going to be a good one. Wait till Alice and Fabrelis hear about this."

"Um…" Lily began to speak, but the professor quickly raised a finger to his lips, signaling for silence.

"Don't spoil it for others. Come, we can speak in the office," he said, and gestured to one of the rooms to the side.

The trio nodded again and followed the professor. He closed the door behind them and was still chuckling to himself, visibly in a very good mood.

"First, let me say good job on solving the way out. Not all students manage, and then Alice has to go fetch them. As you might have noticed, the third floor is quite special."

"That's an understatement…" Lotte replied with a small smirk.

"What happens if we can't find a shell?" Lily asked.

"They usually aren't too hard to find, and since one shell can exit an entire group, you can stock up on them if you wish. Some students even choose to sell them. Be warned, though, that they crumble to dust if they spend more than two weeks away from the third floor, so don't get any bright ideas to hoard them."

"Is that the only way to leave?" Hana asked.

"No. There is a more permanent solution, and the professors have access to it as well. You'll get to see it when your lessons with Alice progress to the third floor, so I won't say more."

"Are the starting locations random?" Lotte asked this time.

"Kind of. The floor tries its best to scatter everyone as much as possible, with the only exception being if you enter with a professor. When you enter again, you'll be on the closest island to where you blew the conch."

Lily tilted her head. "Why'd you say it like that?"

"Hmm? Oh, because you can use the conch underwater as well. Some students have used it to leave in an emergency, and reappearing underwater would be impossible."

"That's good to know…" Hana sighed with relief.

Elius smiled. "As you can imagine, the third floor comes with more risks than normal. Your Wards can only protect you from so much…"

"You mean… Drowning?" Lotte asked with a gulp.

"Thankfully no," the professor replied. "The third floor is special, as I said, and if you were to drown, you would be ejected. But don't think, even for a second, that it means you can be reckless. Anyone who gets kicked out this way is banned from the third floor for a month. Repeat offenders will be banned for even longer."

The girls nodded in understanding. They were glad that there was still some safety involved, and a month ban was more than reasonable considering the alternative.

"Uh… We didn't get a reward for beating the second floor. Or is this map our reward?" Hana asked, showing the piece of wood.

"Yes. That is your reward," Elius replied and explained no further.

The girls had more questions, but unfortunately it looked like they had exhausted what the professor was willing or allowed to share. Still, they were surprised by the amount of information they had received, and, as the pioneers of the floor, they were excited to explore it some more.

"We've successfully defended our title," Hana said proudly.

Lily and Lotte joined the celebrations, and the group continued the celebrations over dinner together. Since they still had another day, they agreed to do some minor exploring in the morning and, at Lily's request, not to start so early this time.

"You're seriously going to study the stars tonight too?" Lotte asked.

Lily nodded. "I don't want to miss a single night if I can help it."

The group finally separated, and Lily washed up and began her preparations. As exciting as that all was, and as alluring as her bed appeared, she was determined to continue her attempts at embracing the stars.