The party ascended to the 40th floor via the teleportation circle and was now walking toward the 38th floor, where the next teleportation circle was located.

After taking a short break and walking for over two hours, even Mika started to feel tired and slowed her pace, falling into step beside Gatt and Zurah.

“The caves are bright everywhere—is this also magic?”

“Yeah. Probably. It’s said that the mana in the air reacts to some kind of magic covering the entire dungeon, causing it to emit light,” Gatt answered. No matter how many times she looked at him, his face always made her feel at ease.

Mika quickly tensed her cheeks to stop herself from grinning.

As they advanced, the others explained the monsters and humans they encountered along the way. This area of the dungeon seemed to have a lot of insect-type monsters. They resembled creatures Mika knew—dragonflies, grasshoppers, bees—but all were slightly larger, with thin, translucent wings shimmering beautifully in various colors.

“Insect-type monsters glow faintly because the mana passing through their wings interacts with the dungeon’s system. Fairy wings shine for a similar reason, so be careful not to mistake them,” someone explained.

From the shadows of the trees, a giant butterfly with wings spanning about 50 centimeters approached, scattering glowing scales.

“That’s… a monster, right?”

“It’s a monster! Be careful—its scales are poisonous!”

With a psst, Mika sprayed insecticide, weakening the monster before Gatt finished it off.

Little by little, Mika and the three party members were starting to sync up.

Takayuki watched them with a smile.

After facing monsters multiple times, Mika had initially struggled to distinguish between fairies and flying insect-type monsters with wings. But by the time they reached the 38th floor, she had gotten used to it—so much so that she even helped a fairy fighting an insect-type monster.

“Th… thank you…”

A fairy boy stammered his gratitude, trembling slightly.

“You’re welcome. You even thanked me properly—what a good boy.”

Mika’s tone was motherly. But then—

“To an ogre, he might look as small and cute as an insect, but he’s actually a full-grown adult—more like a middle-aged man, if anything. Please stop talking to him like that.”

After Gatt’s words, Mika stared intently at the fairy boy. Fairies stood about 30 centimeters tall, with human-like features but beautiful, translucent rainbow-colored wings on their backs. This one carried a staff embedded with pretty stones, suggesting he fought with magic. When she leaned in close to examine his small yet lovely face, she noticed faint wrinkles around his mouth.

“Mika, you’re scaring him. Please step back a little.”

“Oh…”

She would’ve liked to observe him a bit longer. But with that thought, Mika obediently retreated.

“It’s surprising that fairy boy was middle-aged. I wonder if Dada, Gatt, and Zurah are also different from what I imagined.”

As she muttered this quietly to herself, Zurah, walking beside her, chuckled and asked,

“By the way, how old do you think we are?”

“Hmm… It’s hard to tell by appearance, but going by the way you talk, Dada seems about 35, Gatt around 28, and Zurah… 22, maybe?”

“22… 22 years old?!”

Zurah looked ready to jump for joy. Waiting for confirmation, Takayuki turned around and explained.

“If we assume a lifespan of 100 years, you’re roughly correct. But humans here have vastly different lifespans depending on their race. Dada is a little over 30, Gatt is under 20, and Zurah is past 50, I’d say?”

“Takky-sama, you’re absolutely right. Birdfolk usually live between 80 to 120 years, and Dada is indeed 32—Mika was spot-on about him. Kobolds have a shorter lifespan, at most 60 years, but their childhood and old age are brief. Gatt has been an adult for nearly ten years, so he’s around 18. As for lizardmen, there are rumors of ageless longevity, but they typically live vigorously for about 200 to 300 years. I’m 63 this year, but I’m still quite young! Though 22 is too much of a compliment. Gya-ha-ha!”

I see.

…Then, what about my age…?

As Mika listened to Zurah and tried to recalculate based on human lifespans, she decided, “Maybe I shouldn’t think about this too hard.” At least she wasn’t the oldest—Takayuki was there for that.

From the 38th-floor teleportation circle, they ascended to the 22nd floor, then jogged to the final teleportation circle on the 20th. At these higher floors, only weak monsters appeared, which Mika could instantly defeat with her insecticide.

Without slowing their pace, they rushed from the last teleportation circle up to the 2nd floor, then climbed one more set of stairs to reach the dungeon’s exit.

The exit on the 1st floor led into a 100-meter-long side passage just tall enough for Mika to walk through without crouching. At the end was a bright light, clearly different from the dungeon’s illumination.

Once outside, as her eyes adjusted to the dazzling light, the first thing that caught her attention was this world’s sky. A yellowish hue, like the transition between a cloudy day and sunset, covered not just the horizons but the entire sky.

“Is it… evening here? Or is it still daytime?”

“No, it’s roughly noon.”

So the sky is just a different color…

Checking her phone, Mika saw that—as expected—there was no signal, but the time read 11:30 AM, close to noon. Even with full use of the teleportation circles, they had cleared the dungeon in just three and a half hours since entering Warehouse No. 4.

Backward.