Comprehensive Manga: The Master is not here today.

On the first day of exploring the maze, they spent a lot of time on miscellaneous things, and ultimately they were unable to go deep into the third underground floor. Instead, they stayed on the second underground floor to rest for a night.

Although they were looking forward to meeting the crazy magician, the two of them did not rush forward recklessly. After all, they came here to travel, and it would be bad to put the cart before the horse.

So the next day, they continued their journey at a moderate pace, just like tourists sightseeing in a maze, which of course was indeed the case.

……

It took half a day for the two to leave the forest on the second underground floor and enter the huge spire connected to the kingdom castle. This is the transition area between the second and third floors.

There are no monsters on this section of the road, but there are all kinds of traps on the seemingly endless spiral stairs and platforms, and the positions of the traps will automatically change every once in a while.

Therefore, this is not only a famous killer section for newcomers, but even veterans will fail here from time to time.

"It doesn't look interesting, um... let's just pass it quickly."

Ritsuka Fujimaru stood at the edge of the stairs and looked down. After thinking for a moment, she made a decision that went against her own will. She took out the druid's staff and cast several layers of defensive magic on Mashu and herself.

"That should be all right. Let's just jump in."

"Yes!"

Without any hesitation, Mashu and Ritsuka Fujimaru jumped down from the hole in the middle of the circular staircase.

This scene happened to be seen by a group of adventurers that came later.

Different from ordinary adventurer teams, not only are most of the members of this team women, but they all wear distinctive and unique costumes, such as samurai armor, kimonos, and ninja tights... There is no doubt that they are a team from the Eastern Islands.

"Hey, what happened? Two people just jumped down from here?!"

One of the female trolls wearing warrior armor exclaimed:

"suicide?!"

"But there's no need to come to the maze if you want to commit suicide, right?"

“Could it be that I saw it wrong…?”

"Don't worry about them, just keep going."

The team members couldn't help but chatter about the matter, and at this time, the only tall man in the team wearing a samurai costume suddenly spoke up and ended the topic.

The other person's face looked a little ugly, and his physical condition did not look very good. Although he tried to remain calm, he still revealed some anxiety that was difficult to conceal, as if he was nervous about something.

"...Yes, Master!"

The atmosphere of the entire team became quiet again. After looking at each other, the team members followed orders and continued to move deeper.

Behind the man, a beautiful woman in kimono frowned slightly and looked at his back with an unshakable worry in her eyes, but she could only take a step forward to keep up.

-

In the speed pass tower top area, when you reach the bottom, there is a group of powerful monsters - mobile armors guarding the door to the third underground floor.

Here you need to walk forward carefully and try not to make any noise, otherwise you will be surrounded by groups of active armors that cannot be killed by physical means, or you will have to use force to break out.

However, Fujimaru Ritsuka chose to take Mashu and fly silently over their heads, and then entered the third underground area very smoothly.

The third underground floor is the upper part of the Golden City. Very few new adventurer teams can go all the way here, but they usually stop here because the types and dangers of the monsters active here are much higher than those on the second underground floor, including active armor, skeleton soldiers, ghosts, zombies, golems, treasure chest monsters, etc.

Not only that, after six years of exploration, most of the treasure chests and treasures on this floor have been looted by previous adventurers. Only a few new treasure chests will appear every once in a while when the maze changes, but more of them are treasure chest monsters.

For most adventurer teams, the three underground floors are now a very dangerous, low-cost, but very uncomfortable area that they have to go through.

The most important thing is that for Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mashu, there are neither unique scenery nor new things here, not even any monsters worth eating.

Therefore, they quickened their pace again, started the speed pass mode in the same way, and reached the fourth underground floor in one breath.

……

...

The fourth underground floor is the lower half and courtyard of the Golden City. The danger level increases again and the level of development decreases suddenly. Only a few veteran adventurer teams can reach here, but at the same time, the probability of obtaining rich treasures is also greatly increased.

After reaching the fourth underground floor, they rested for a night, and then finally slowed down their pace. Instead of going deeper, they stayed here for two days.

Today is the third day since they arrived at the fourth underground floor, and the fifth day since they began exploring the maze.

"Why is there another treasure chest monster..."

Fujimaru Ritsuka's tone was full of disgust. Seeing this, Mashu beside him smiled and comforted him:

“Maybe the next one will be a real treasure chest.”

"... Let's stop here. I've almost faced reality."

Hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed and said:

"Let's continue exploring."

One reason they stayed for so long was that there were many interesting monsters on this floor, and another reason was that when they first arrived, they accidentally found a treasure chest. Although they found out it was a treasure chest monster when they got closer, it accidentally aroused Fujimaru Ritsuka's interest in opening the treasure chest.

So they set a small goal:

Find a real treasure chest containing treasure.

However, so far, all the treasure chests they have found are treasure chest monsters. It is just a small wish, but it seems so far away to realize it.

"The treasure chests on this floor have already been looted, right?"

While complaining, Fujimaru Ritsuka pulled the body of the treasure chest monster out of the treasure chest and began to process the ingredients.

Treasure chest monsters look similar to hermit crabs, and they also taste like crab meat, especially the claws and legs. However, I encountered too many treasure chest monsters in the past two days. It was okay at first, but after eating too much, I couldn't stand it.

However, adhering to the principle of 'not wasting food', Fujimaru Ritsuka still removed the claws and legs of the treasure chest monster and stuffed them into [Minister's Treasure] for storage. It would be the same if he took them out and ate them later.

After dealing with the treasure chest monsters, they gathered themselves and prepared to set off again, continuing to explore deeper.

But this time, they were a little surprised because halfway through the journey, they actually met a group of acquaintances -

"Hey, senior, look, it seems to be Mr. Kabul and his group over there!"

Mashu exclaimed in surprise.

However, at this time, the opponent's condition did not seem to be very good. To be precise, all of them were neatly arranged on the side of the road close to the wall. It seemed that they were wiped out for some reason.

But when they got closer, they quickly discovered that they were not actually dead, but just in a coma.

"Did we encounter some kind of monster...?"

Mashu was a little confused, because they had not yet encountered a monster that could cause such an effect. Fujimaru Ritsuka scratched his cheek and said:

"Anyway, let's try to wake them up first, and then we'll know if we can just ask them directly."