Seeker 62

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Chapter 62. The Secret Small Room

We arrived at what I thought was my destination.

It was at the northeast end of the 7th floor of the map.

The end of the passageway is a dead end.

Now, would a monster or the snakes appear?

I looked at Kodachi-san and Yuzuki, and after making sure they nodded, I placed the pendant on the ground.

Is this okay ......?

When I put the pendant on the ground, nothing special happened at first.

Was that wrong?

Or was I being conspired against?

And just when I was getting worried, it happened.

First, the pendant began to glow with a faint glow.

Second, the forest dungeon, which was supposed to be a dead end.

The trees and plants that had formed the dead end moved on their own and opened to the left and right, creating a new passageway there.

Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say the earth itself moved, rather than that the plants and trees moved.

A fantastical scene unfolded in front of our eyes that we, modern children, could not help but be stunned by.

"Wow, ...... that's amazing. ......"

"Wow, ......!"

"This is indeed astonishing."

The dungeon fairies were strange, but this phenomenon must be pretty much the same.

But there was no point in stopping here.

I nodded to my two companions again and made my way through the newly created corridor.

We turned several corners and followed the pathway through the forest for a while.

Soon, we arrived at a small hall.

The most noteworthy items in the hall were four treasure chests placed at the four corners of the hall.

The shapes are the same as those dropped by monsters.

The boxes are three small box-shaped and one larger medium box-shaped.

Kodachi-san calls out to me, looking disheartened.

"This is the first treasure chest that wasn't dropped by a monster. ...... We'll open it, right?"

"Well, I guess so. We've come this far, and I'm not sure I have a choice but not to open it."

"It could be a mimic. If you try to open it, the treasure chest will bare its fangs and attack you.

"I heard that such a thing can be found on the lower floors. So, do we give up and go home?

"I don't think so."

"I heard you need a skill called [Trap Detection II] to spot mimics. But I don't see such a skill on the list of available skills. I guess I'll have to play it by ear. "

Kodachi-san attempted [Trap Detection] on the four treasure chests one by one.

The result was a response that none had any traps, she said.

"Then, let's open them."

I represent her and open the first one.

I was prepared to respond if something happened, but as it turned out, I didn't have to.

"Looks like a seed ......."

Inside the treasure chest, for posterity, was an item that looked like a plant seed.

When I took it out, it was a seed.

But speaking of Seeds, there is one thing that seekers will remember.

"Seed is it? That Seed of Power or Seed of Agility."

"That seems likely. I won't know until we use [Item Appraisal]."

"[Item Appraisa]l, we have it on our list, but didn't take it."

"It would be better to bring it back and ask oyaji-san at the armory to use [Item Appraisal]. I'm sure he'll charge an appraisal fee, but I don't think it's a good idea for Yuzuki to take [Item Appraisal] for this."

Very Rare Item Seed.

This is a ton of items that can permanently raise the value of a specific ability by 1 point.

However, we don't know at this stage whether it is that or not, and even if it is the Seed, we don't know what kind of Seed it is.

I decided to store the Seed in Kodachi's [Item Box] and take it home.

Incidentally, Yuzuki also has an [Item Box], but when I insisted that I didn't want to put it in hers because it looked dangerous, she protested very much.

Now, the second treasure box.

I opened the lid, still keeping my guard up, and found...

"It's a scroll. A Skill Scroll?"

In the second box was a scroll.

I would have to use [Item Appraisal] to find out what it was, but I knew it was an item that seekers would associate with.

I would associate it with a seeker.

"It's an ultra-rare item Skill Scroll, just like the Seed."

By opening the scroll and looking inside. You can learn a specific skill for free.

Of course, that is only if this is a Skill Scroll.

However, with the Seed and all the conditions in place to raise expectations, it would be difficult to assume otherwise.

It's only natural that expectations should be high.

"Okay, then, let's open the next one."

I continued to the third treasure chest.

The third box was slightly larger, about the size of a wardrobe case.

I open the lid of the third box without letting my guard down.

"Black Clothing ...... armor?"

Inside was a garment that could be called Black Clothing.

The design is reminiscent of ninjas in fiction works.

Since it was in a treasure chest in the dungeon, I assume it must be some armor, but I don't know how effective it is.

"I guess I'll have to oyaji-san to use [Item Appraisal]. I don't think 'try it on' is an option out of the blue. I think it would look good on Kodachi-san, though."

"Oh, is that so ......?"

Kodachi-san was a little confused after hearing my thoughts.

Since I couldn't tell her that she sometimes moves in a way that reminds me of an assassin, I smiled vaguely.

So I put it in the [Item Box] and went to the last treasure box.

This one was back to its original size, a small box.

When I opened the lid.

"Hmmm... ......? Another pendant. And is this a tablet ......?"

Inside the treasure chest was a pendant like the one I received from the Dungeon Fairy, and a small stone tablet.

I picked up the tablet, looked at it, and saw it was carved with words.

The letters are in Japanese.

The contents were.

"9th floor, southwest end? Again, it's trying to make me think."

"Oh, is that all it says?"

"Yes, that's all it says. It may seem unkind, but I guess that's what it means."

The only words written on the tablet were a short '9th floor, southwest end.

Without any other information, if we had saw only the contents of this treasure chest, we would not have understood what it was talking about.

But we had a story that led us to this place.

If we had followed that path to the contents of this treasure chest, we would naturally associate it with something.

There must be a hidden room similar to this one on the 9th floor.

The key item that leads to the hidden room is the second pendant in this treasure chest.

There seemed to be nothing more in this small room.

Incidentally, each treasure chest had disappeared in a black haze when we took out the contents.

We took out our lunch boxes in this small room and had lunch.

After finishing our meal, we left the small room and followed the path we had taken to get out of the dungeon.

By the time we reached the exit, Kodachi-san and I were almost out of MP, but somehow we could go out without using the Pearl of Return.

It took us about 4 hours one way from the relay point on the 5th floor, so including a lunch break, our round-trip time for today's search was a little over 8 hours.

After leaving the dungeon using the transfer magic circle, we walked under the early summer sky, which was still bright in the evening, and headed immediately for oyaji-san at the armory store.