＜ 6. Unexpected Companion (2) ＞
Andrea thought that if she left Trisha and Arpan alone, they would continue fighting meaninglessly. Because of this, he reluctantly decided to take on the role of mediator.
Everyone in the waiting room was now sitting in a circle on the table that Arpan had summoned.
“So, to sum it up, I thought trials didn’t have much function, but I heard from someone I met in the dungeon that if you explore the dungeon without trials, you won’t be able to advance to the 50th floor. Is this correct?”
Trisha nodded her head after hearing Andrea’s words. Andrea continued to interrogate.
“And you mean you don’t know the identity of someone you met in that dungeon?”
“Yeah, I had no idea who it was, because the hood was pulled down and we had met in a dark hallway. Judging from her body shape and voice, she seems to be a young woman… but why did she bother to tell me about it…”
Trisha looked at Arpan with her tail blurred. If the name is the guide of the dungeon, he seems to know that much. Arpan shrugged.
“I know who he is, but I won’t tell you. It is none of my business.”
Trisha glared at Arpan as if to kill him. But Andrea got a little hint from that word alone.
‘Seeing that Arpan used the term ‘he’, it means that at least he wasn’t a foreign being who broke the rules of the dungeon like the dark merchant. If so, at least the resident NPCs or challengers in the dungeon… or maybe…?’
Andrea’s speculation didn’t go further than that. It was more urgent to stop them because Arpan and Trisha were on the verge of getting back together.
“Come on, calm down a bit. Once Arpan. Why didn’t I tell you that you have to accept the 25th level ordeal to be able to explore the dungeon without restrictions? I didn’t ask because it was obvious that I wouldn’t answer, but I’d like to hear the reason for that?”
Arpan hesitated to answer while fiddling with his thick chin. After thinking about it, the answer that came out was this.
“Because that’s what the original challengers have to find out for themselves. The guide’s role is not to explain everything about the dungeon.”
“Yeah, I understand that too. But if so, how can you find out? No, and if you find out, isn’t it normal that you should be able to adjust the stages of the ordeal midway through?”
“that’s···.”
Arpan was at a loss for words at the valid argument. Andrea nailed it.
“Or am I correct in my guess? I’d also like to hear about how in this dungeon, if a challenger dies, they lose everything and start over in some way.”
Marco and Trisha opened their eyes wide and looked at Andrea. Arpan is silent. Andrea covered her mouth so that it could only be seen facing Arpan and moved her mouth.
‘Like a roguelike game.’
If it’s a game, it’s understandable that they don’t tell you about the function of the ordeal. Players who know that the game is over when their character dies on the 50th floor anyway will raise the ordeal and continue the next challenge.
However, in the reality of having only one life, I couldn’t understand his words and actions. There were two possibilities. Arpan is lying to hide something, or if this place dies, you can start a new challenge.
Suddenly, Arpan lowered his head. Intermittently, his shoulders shook. As if forced to hold back a laugh.
After a while, Arpan raised his head and threw a question in reverse with a crooked smile on his chin.
“It must have been a question you asked knowing that you couldn’t answer it, right?”
“How do I know that? I’ve never asked this question before.”
“Then let me tell you that I can’t tell you everything because it’s such a big leak. However, I am concerned that your attitude will be lax, so I will tell you this for Andrea-sama.”
The blue eyes of the goat-headed guide gave a more ominous feeling than ever. Arpan continued with a decisive tone.
“Don’t be complacent about the next opportunity.”
In fact, it was an answer as if he had given the correct answer. Andrea glared at Arpan. Arpan did not back down and looked at Andrea intently.
However, Arpan soon avoided his gaze with a sly expression. Andrea let out a deep sigh. There was no point in arguing with the guide here.
“Yeah, anyway… I think it’s too cruel to not be able to control the ordeal. Isn’t it different from saying that if you reach the 50th floor, you will definitely die?”
“Every problem in a dungeon has a solution. Even if you started without trials, there are ways to go beyond the 50th floor.”
Every word he said was contradictory. Trisha listened harshly to Arpan, as if asking what the hell he was talking about.
“You f*cking swindler! He said it was true that he could never go beyond the 50th floor without suffering until just now!”
“When did I say, ‘You can go beyond the 50th floor without trial’? You said, ‘Even if you start without trials, you can go beyond the 50th floor.’”
To Tricia, those words sounded like those words. It was obvious that the street was going wild. Seon dialogue and answer that give you headaches. Andrea was lost in thought.
And soon I realized what Arpan was talking about.
“Even if you start without trials, is it possible to go beyond the 50th floor if you accompany a challenger who has accepted the 25th level of trials?”
Arpan smiled and drew a circle in the air with his index finger.
“That is the correct answer.”
“…”
“…”
So, Trisha ended up with Andrea and the others.
The word ‘multiplayer’ passed through Andrea’s mind.
Events where characters encounter each other are all about simple conversations and transactions. Like the present case, they had never experienced an event where they decided to climb a dungeon together and accompanied them.
Perhaps the developer couldn’t win against the flood of players’ requests, but the developer had put the phrase ‘multiplayer to be added’ in the update plan. After the update was cut off, it became an impossible wish.
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Now, Andrea was to experience the first historical multiplayer of ‘Dungeon of Infinity’.
Strictly speaking, in fact, it might be unreasonable to see it as a real multiplayer. You are accompanying a character in the game, not a player from the outside world. However, it was hard for Andrea to think of Trisha as nothing more than an AI who acts according to her will.
In the waiting room, there was only silence, without a word, as each other looked at each other.
First of all, she said she would accompany her because there was no other way, but Trisha looked at Andrea strangely as to how she could blindly choose the 25th level of ascension.
Andrea was still struggling with how to deal with this sudden accompaniment. Marco thought he should say something to dispel the awkwardness.
But the topic was the worst.
“Are you a slave too?”
Trisha hastily covered her throat. On the nape of her neck was the mark of two snakes strangling each other. However, it was not a complete stigma with a knife scar on it.
Andrea, knowing all of Tricia’s backstory, couldn’t help but sigh when she heard Marco’s words.
‘Tricia, a girl who lost her parents when she was young and was sold into slavery and escaped after killing her master. After escaping and wandering through the woods, he was picked up by hunters in the Eastern Forest, and grew up learning how to shoot a bow and how to track prey.’
The days spent as slaves were a huge complex for Trisha. Tricia shot at Marco in a sharp voice.
“If you were born as a slave, what are you going to do? Are you going to tell me to go to the government office and take it back?”
“No, me and this friend are also from slavery. Both oarsmen slaves escaped from galleys. I’m sorry if this was an awkward topic to talk about.”
Marco showed his stigma to Trisha. Trisha softened when she realized that she wasn’t bringing it up to mock herself.
“Ha… you two must have had a pretty rough life. Sorry for being a bit harsh. I grew up like this naturally because I grew up among hunters who had nothing but hunting and cursing on their heads.”
“I did. He used swear words that were very impressive to Arpan.”
“When hunting, the patient wins, but when they fight among themselves, the one with a loud voice and good swearing wins.”
Marco laughed. But Trisha was looking intently at Marco for something.
Marco asked.
“Why?”
“No, uncle. something is familiar Haven’t we met before?”
In fact, Marco was the first face he had ever seen in his life.
“No, since I was a rower slave, I didn’t have much contact with hunters like you.”
“Your outfit looks like a soldier?”
“…the story is a bit complicated.”
Trisha didn’t ask further. Everyone has at least one complicated story to tell.
Instead, Trisha suggested that we introduce ourselves, since we’re going to explore the dungeon together anyway.
“I’m Trisha, and my class is a hunter, just like my main job.”
“I am Andrea. There is no class…”
Considering that the reward cards differ depending on the class, it didn’t make sense to say that there was no class.
‘Could it be that only neutral cards are being received as rewards?’
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Neutral cards are usually low-performance melee cards, so receiving only those cards was a huge penalty. It was a natural thing for Andrea, but it was hard for Trisha to understand.
However, compared to Marco’s self-introduction, the saying that he had no class was good.
“My name is Marco. I don’t know what class it is, but now it’s a summoned beast.”
Tricia was dumbfounded by the bizarre self-introductions.
“No, crazy. Aside from not having a class, what about you, a summoned beast?”
“Yes. Andrea asked for it, and Arpan turned me into a card.”
Trisha’s expression of incomprehension. Andrea explained the situation step by step.
After hearing all the explanations, Trisha couldn’t help but look at Andrea with even more strange eyes.
“What are you? It’s a bit suspicious from the fact that you went through the 25th level of the ordeal, but you asked me to make a card for the person who came in with you? What are you doing outside?”
‘game···.’
Andrea swallowed the words that were still in her throat. To be honest, the situation would be too complicated, so I needed something to cover.
“Uh… um… I have a strong spirit of experimentation and challenge.”
It was an excuse that was too poor to even think of on its own. Trisha looks at her suspiciously.
“So you gambled on the trials even though your life was at stake?”
“Actually, I have a situation, too. It’s a very complicated situation to tell you.”
Both this guy and that guy were full of secrets. Tricia was beginning to question whether it was really okay for her to accompany these people.
But there was no choice. Tricia decided to compromise with herself. There are circumstances that you want to hide yourself, but there is no such thing as someone else.
“Ah, well, that would be it. It’s fine unless you have a mental problem. Anyway, thank you for agreeing to accompany me. Even if you look at it like this, it won’t help because you shoot a little.”
It wasn’t to the point of being unhelpful. For Andrea, who had no long-distance means of attack, Trisha’s joining was like the first rain of a drought.
But Andrea couldn’t erase her embarrassment. Somehow, it seemed that someone behind the scenes had manipulated the situation to make it happen.
Most likely, the person who told Trisha about the ordeal.
‘If only I knew that I could go down the dungeon without restrictions only by adding trials…’
One more thing to do while exploring the dungeon. Andrea was determined to uncover the man’s true identity.
‘…That person might be someone from reality, like the real me.’
＜ 6. Unexpected Companion (2) ＞ End
If there is multiplayer, there will be deranged teammates…