"Ta-da~." - Noire

  "Fine. I'll order beef for tonight..." - Garami

  While grudgingly agreeing to Noire's selfish request for dinner (goddamn expensive beef. Order sushi like anyone else with money sense in this freaking LAKE country!!), I had an overview of the room we had discovered.

  There are a lot of furniture, tools, and other items here. My conclusion is that this is the "main hub" of whoever is building these tunnels. Mostly because this place feels like the resting spot for workers making a building.

  "Impressive work, Lady Noire." - Iron

  "Ehem~. It is not that difficult to understand. It is a design method used in Solomar to use faint details on walls and the ground that act as waymarks and signs in labyrinthine locations." - Noire

  "So that is what those red rocks in the walls were..." - Iron

  "Nice little trick there, and from the look of it, it seems like the designer has been living here until recently." - Garami

  "How can you tell?" - Noire

  "Come on, can't you see how clean this place is? There's no way this is due to natural courses." - Garami

  There's not a trace of dust on the floor or the furniture, and no rotten food is left either. However, there's no food left at all in what seems to be the kitchen area, so maybe they've moved out of this room for the moment.

  Adding to the proof that someone's been here recently, there's a batch of recently-created explosives here too, crafted out from materials harvested from the volcanic ground of this island. I know since I trained my alchemy creating something similar just yesterday. Though my bombs were no better than firecrackers, this stuff here can break apart the hard bedrock. Whoever is using this room as their base must be using these bombs when they're digging the tunnels.

  There are not many clues on WHO is doing the digging. While this place is stuffed with tools, there aren't many copies of each item. One bed, one chair, one hammer, and so on. The only thing there's an abundance of here is a ton of detergents...

  "Craaaap. I think we've stumbled over Springwood's hiding place." - Garami

  One of Springwood's classes is the [Janitor] class and he's ill-rumored for being too much of a neat freak. That would explain the overly clean environment, to the point of feeling sterilized, of the tunnels. I didn't have any information about him being a tunnel digger, but considering that he qualified for the Seven Virtues skill [Humility], it might have just been him never considering telling people in his modesty.

  Besides, if what Noire said is true, then the tunnel digger is someone with knowledge obtained from Solomar. That, plus all the other stuff here that can't have been brought by one person unless they used a rare storage-type skill, leads to that the most likely conclusion is that Springwood survived his fight with the giant snake and went underground. The reason why he did the last part is still up in the air at the moment.

  "In that case, we should prepare to escape-" - Iron

  "Whoaaa!! You two, look what I found!" - Noire

  Noire was standing in front of an open crate that was hidden behind a large desk and some other furniture in the middle of the room. That little-!

  "Don't touch anything!" - Garami

  I shouted to Noire who flinched right before she was about to pick something out from the crate.

  "Wh-what is wrong?" - Noire

  "Didn't you listen to me? This place is the nest of that neat freak Springwood! If even half of the rumors about him are true, then having just 1 item out of place will notify him that there's been somebody messing around with his stuff!!" - Garami

  Before we left for Isla de Mina, I had Blot give me a bunch of documents about this Springwood fellow. And boy is he far from something we could ever have a chance of defeating. [Humility]'s effect alone, negating all skills within a certain radius except for the user's skills, is enough to put the checkmate on all of us.

  That, along with Springwood's unnatural sense for details that I mentioned before, is the main reason why I have started to doubt Filyn's sanity lately. How did she expect me to assassinate something like that!? Sure, I defeated a Disaster, but this guy's a whole different cup of tea! Rather, we're comparing a cup of tea with a pressure washer. Completely different dimensions, folks. Glavras was an idiot, so he was easy to sabotage~.

  Well, I could do it if I used the Hydra Poison I got stuffed in my Storage nowadays. There was a robbery in the bank I used to store them while we were in Tir na Nog, so now I'm not letting them out of my sight. Speaking of storing, what is that humble janitor kee-iiioooooiii!!

  "What the **** is this treasure chest?!" - Garami

  "About time you noticed. Is this Springwood character doing part-time as a treasure hunter when he's not working as a double agent or a janitor?" - Noire

  After seeing this, I'm starting to think so too. The damn crate is filled to the brim with rare materials, flawless gems, and even Magic Stones!! Is this the result of Springwood digging out these tunnels? What a guy! He hit the motherload!!

  And holy ****! These scales, aren't they from the boss snake!? Yeah, they are! I can never forget the appearance of that menace even if I tried! I sometimes have nightmares about that guy from the days when I tried to sneak out from the 9th floor!

  "Hey, Guild Master~? You did not forget what you told me, right~?" - Noire

  Guh-!? Crap, I was about to snatch all the goodies from the box! But that's gonna warn Springwood and put him on our trail! Snap out of it, Garami! Looking around, there are more boxes here, some of them containing way more scales of the boss snake than what could have fallen off during a battle with it.

  Then, that freakshow of a janitor defeated the snake and had enough time to dismantle it for materials? Springwood, what a fearsome cleaner...

  "Come on, we need to get out of here. The signs tell me it's this way. Iron, pick up that greedy Guild Master before those kleptomaniacal hands of hers stop listening to reason." - Noire

  "Acknowledged." - Iron

  *Sniff*, my treaaaasuuureeeees!! And you two, why are you putting away genetic rivalry just to mess with me!? I'm not that bad! I can withstand leaving behind top-class materials that I could use for my alchemy, along with a potential Magic Stone for my Dungeon.........

  Okay, I can't. But you don't have to be so hard-handed about it, you heartless wrenches!!

  ---

  After we left Springwood's resting place, we ventured deeper into the tunnels until we found some crudely made wood and stone walls. It didn't take much effort to dismantle them, but what we were greeted with made it easy to understand why the old janitor had placed these walls.

  It's a hive. To be exact, it's a huge natural cave with lots of holes in the ground, walls, and even the ceiling. One of them is so big that it reveals the sky outside.

  However, all these holes are the homes of gigantic crab-type monsters known as "Ogre Crabs". And as their name suggests, they're quite the belligerent race. Enough for them to fight each other to death when they're bored. The remains of the defeated crabs' shells spread around the cave is what's telling us (through [Identification]) what creature we have to deal with here.

  "If it isn't one thing, then there's another..." - Garami

  "Garami, have anyone told you that your luck is incredibly fickle?" - Noire

  "You mean, restricted to today? Not until now..." - Garami

  "Is this the only path?" - Iron

  "If there are any others, then Springwood must have concealed them, or not have marked them with signs." - Noire

  Tch. This complicates things. I could perhaps sneak out from here, just barely, but the risk of being spotted is too big. Not to mention I'd leave behind Noire and Iron. They wouldn't do that if they were in my position, so-

  "Okay, I will fly out of here for now. Good luck getting out~." - Noire

  Thank you for erasing my doubts, you filthy angel!

  "Stop there!" I demanded as I lassoed the cowardly bag of feathers with a webbing lasso. The "Ghueh-!?" sound coming from her when I pulled her back by her neck was satisfying enough that I wouldn't give her much more hurt.

  "Lady Noire, there is nothing preventing these 'crabs' from having projectile-shooting skills." - Iron

  "Ugh!? I did not think of that..." - Noire

  Well, at most those guys could do is throw rocks at her. Ogre Crabs are infamous for their defense and strong pincers, not their sniping abilities. Not to mention that they never let a target flee once they've put their sight on them...

  "You two, I might have an idea on how to handle this problem." - Garami

  If this works, we might get the cat and the bag here! Not that it doesn't contain some risks, but whatever! You can't be an adventurer if you're not willing to take some risks! Wait for me, Dungeon and Alchemy levels! I mean, the outside world!!!

  ---

  Skill List:

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  Arcane Chant]