"Phew~ That was delicious. Every single one of them was great!"

"Yes, each one was incredibly tasty. With this, our dungeon exploration will go even more smoothly!"

"I'm glad you liked them. Now, as a final treat, please take one of these each."

After finishing most of the sandwiches I had prepared, I handed each of them a different kind of sandwich from the previous four types.

"Ah, it's sweet, nya!!"

"Whoa! This is amazing—I've never eaten anything this sweet before!"

"Hoo!"

The final sandwich I handed out was a fruit sandwich, filled with fresh cream and fruit.

At first, I thought fruit sandwiches were a heretical deviation from what a sandwich should be. But once I actually tried one, I realized that the combination of cream, fruit, and bread was truly delicious.

The only downside was that since it used fruit and fresh cream, it ended up being much more expensive than the other sandwiches.

Because of that, everyone only got one for today's lunch break. But as a final dessert, it was perfect.

"…Um, is there really only one of these?"

It was rare for Rurune to ask for seconds. She was usually the smallest eater in the party and tended to hold back. She must have really liked the fruit sandwich.

"I do have more, but those are for tomorrow and the day after. I'll also be serving sweets that are even sweeter than fruit sandwiches after dinner, so let's keep it to just one for lunch."

"!! There are sweets even sweeter than this!? Understood! This afternoon, I will move as much as possible to build up my appetite!"

"Rurune really loves sweet things, nya. But this was really sweet and delicious, nya!"

"Alright, thanks to Masayoshi, I'm feeling pumped! Let's give it our all this afternoon!"

"Ohhh!"

After finishing our lunch break, we resumed our dungeon exploration. Thanks to Rurune's enthusiasm, we made much faster progress.

I was a little worried that she might overdo it and run out of magic power, but she assured me that if it came to that, she could use an expensive potion to recover quickly. Though, I really don't think she needs to go that far…

As we descended further, the monsters gradually became stronger, but Lilith and the others still seemed to have plenty of room to spare. That said, this was a dungeon—one moment of carelessness could be fatal. We couldn't afford to let our guard down.

The deeper we went, the more the types of monsters changed. In addition to the rat- and bat-like monsters from before, we started encountering moths, caterpillars, and spider-like creatures.

…Honestly, they're all kind of gross. And none of them are edible or particularly useful for materials. No wonder this dungeon isn't very popular.

"Ugh! I-I'm no good with spider monsters! Please keep them away from me!"

"Nonoh is afraid of spiders, you see."

"Huh, that's a bit surprising."

Despite always carrying a large shield and standing at the front to protect the party, Nonoh had a fear of spiders.

Just like Lilith, she usually had a bold and strong personality. It was unexpected to see her so frightened. Watching her hide behind everyone else, afraid of the spider monsters, was kind of… cute.

"…Wait a second, nya. There's a trap up ahead!"

We had made it to the fifth floor without any major issues. As we cleared out the monsters in the area and prepared to move forward, Nena, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped everyone.

…Now that I looked closely, the floor ahead did seem slightly raised. Impressive—I wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't pointed it out.

"…Wow, you can tell just like that?"

"I have a trap-detection skill, nya!"

Ah, so there was a skill for detecting traps. The skills I inherited from the Grand Mage didn't include anything like that. Maybe my danger sense skill would activate if I was just about to step on one, though.

"So, from this floor onward, traps start appearing. We need to be even more cautious."

"Yes, we must proceed carefully."

"By the way, what happens if you step on a trap?"

I was a little curious. Surely there weren’t any instant-death traps, right?

"Oh, that's right—this is your first time in a dungeon, Masayoshi. In a dungeon of this level, most traps are things like bear traps, wooden arrows, or falling rocks.

But in deeper dungeons, you get things like alarms that summon nearby monsters, paralysis or poison gas, and even teleportation traps that scatter party members randomly across the floor."

…That's terrifying.

That sounds even worse than the traps in certain dungeon-crawling games. If a rear-guard member got teleported away alone, that would be pretty much a death sentence.

As we descended further, the dungeon itself became wider, and since we also had to be wary of traps now, our exploration pace slowed significantly compared to the earlier floors.

"Alright, let's eat and get some rest in this safe zone. Judging by the size of this dungeon, it probably goes down to about the 15th floor. There's a chance the boss could be on the 10th floor, but either way, we should take a break."

"I agree."

"I agree as well."

"I'm exhausted, nya."

We had gone down seven floors since we started, meaning we were currently on the eighth floor. Luckily, this floor also had a monster-free safe zone, so we decided to take an extended rest here. It seemed like the dungeon’s lower floors were divided into sections of five.

I still didn’t understand how it worked, but the dungeon always maintained a certain level of brightness, making it hard to tell what time it was. Sneaking a look at my phone, I saw that it was already past 7 PM.

A few days in here wouldn’t be a problem, but if someone stayed inside a dungeon for more than a week, their sense of time would probably get completely messed up.

Fortunately, no one had sustained any major injuries today. While there were a lot of monsters, Lilith and the others still seemed to be handling them with ease. That said, one moment of carelessness could be fatal in a dungeon. Taking the time to properly rest was just as important as fighting.