The two of them proceeded down the dark tunnel that steeply led them into even greater depths. While twirling and contorting around as it drew them deeper into the dungeon. Rui had long come to accept and even disdain the dungeon's tendency to have tunnels that curled around extremely as it led them around. The reason for this was that it made it impossible to move around at their top speed, or anywhere even near it.
The same limitations that prevented humans from running at their top speed, when on a proper sprinting track, while climbing and trekking through a cave maze were the same limitations that prevented adventurers from traveling across the Shionel Dungeon at extremely high speeds.
They simply couldn't due to how much the tracks turned and curled around. There were also security concerns with moving that fast in such a dangerous and risky environment even if Rui could sense his environment thoroughly using Riemannian Echo. Thus the two, like all Martial Squires, had to move somewhat slowly and steadily.
Still, it wasn't long before Rui ran into something.
"An ant corpse," Rui noted as he descended to the ground. "This is definitely not the work of a Martial Artist unless Nel became a Martial Squire and has been in the Shionel Dungeon all this time."
The corpse was a mess, and most of its insides had been disemboweled and extracted. There was simply no need for any Martial Squire to go to this length against a monster. That, along with the previous injuries that he had seen from other ants led him to be more certain that he was probably onto something in this space. The two of them began traveling further before Rui's eyes lit up.
"It's plundering time," Rui grinned. "I was right, there was a floor in this part of the dungeon."
"This time we managed to avoid searching like crazy for hours," Kane remarked happily.
"True," Rui nodded.
The two of them hurried forward before Rui began being able to sense a greater portion of the dungeon the closer they got to it.
"It has a lot of vegetation," He frowned. This wasn't unheard of, Some of the earliest floors discovered in the dungeon had some amount of vegetation, furthermore, Rui and Kane had discovered the dungeon with the largest tree that they had ever seen before. Thus it wasn't exactly unprecedented even if it was unusual.
"Like, normal vegetation?" Kane asked with a raised eyebrow. "No freak-sized trees or anything?
"Well it is big, but it feels like an enlargened version of pretty standard vegetation. Like grass, shrubs, and trees," Rui explained.
"What about the monsters?" Kane asked. He cared more about the threats than the scenery.
"About that…" Rui's eyes narrowed. "I… I think there might be more than one kind of monster."
"Huh." Kane frowned. "That's new."
Rui nodded as he considered his senses more deeply. "It's hard to tell for sure from this distance. But I can definitely send distinct creatures across the entire floor."
Rui had to admit that it was a little strange that there were different species of creatures on the new floor. There were very few ways in which such creatures could coexist. One of the reasons that there was no infighting between monsters of the same species within the Shionel dungeon was because of the fact that there was an in-species tribal instinct.
This was an evolutionary trait that was baked into most species since species with a tendency to not cooperate and even fight would not survive in the long run.
However, this tribal trait did not exist between different species. Different species were usually in conflict with each other, thus peaceful harmony was never impossible.
('In that case… the obvious answer is…') Rui paused as they finally reached the floor as he was able to sense it in its vast entirety. ('…an ecosystem.')
He grew immensely curious as his Riemannian Echo washed across the entirety of the floor at once, picking up all of the details.
('Birds, snakes, rats, insects, and various kinds of flora,') He mused.
This was a surprisingly normal and generic form of ecosystem. He had expected something far beyond the norms of normal with the Shionel Dungeon. However, it seems that tried and true paradigms in nature were prone to recurring.
"Except this is a monsterified version of them," Rui murmured.
"Hm?" Kane glanced back at Rui.
"This is quite incredible," Rui said out loud. "This is the first time that we have ever run into a floor that contains an ecosystem of monsters. This is definitely one of the most complex floors that we have ever run into before."
"Uh huh," Kane perfunctorily replied. "What of the esoteric ore deposits? That's why we're here, you know."
"They're everywhere," Rui muttered. "We got ourselves a real bounty this time. We won't be able to drain the entire dungeon in a single go this time. This is definitely one of the largest floors that we have ever come across."
"Damn," Kane grinned. "There aren't that many floors that we haven't been able to clear in a single go, you know."
"I suspect that this will continue being the norm," Rui speculated. "It generally is a trend that floors are getting larger, barring a few understandable exceptions."
"Good for us," Kane shrugged. "Let's get started."
"No, wait, I want to do some basic recon on the floor. This may be a little more complicated than the other floors, that's for sure," Rui narrowed his eyes as he began collecting more information on all the creatures in the dungeon.
He had been under the impression that monsters were nothing more than unviable mutations of existing creatures whose sustenance and survival were deeply flawed and distorted. He had thought that it was impossible for such creatures to have sophisticated lives amongst fellow mutated creatures of their species and others in a complex ecosystem, but he had begun changing his mind on that particular topic with recent events.
