The attackers didn't even notice Roman's movements.

Was it complacency?
No.

From the moment Roman pinpointed the exact duration of their expedition, they had dropped their guard. And once they realized that Roman was gathering mana, they too prepared to give their all.

And yet, they missed him. They couldn’t keep up at all.

"Illusion magic?"

The most plausible answer instinctively came to the regular-ranked explorer, proving that he wasn’t a complete amateur. He immediately took action.

"It's an illusion! Dispel it!"

At his shout, one of the mages in the rear began chanting.

"O Eye of Truth! Pierce through these false illusions!"

The well-known dispel magic Eye of Truth activated, clearing the vision of the two frontline fighters.

However, what they expected to see—Roman—was nowhere to be found.

"Dammit! It failed! Try again!"

"W-What? That shouldn’t have happened..."

"Shut up! Do it now!"

"You won’t need to."

The invaders froze at the voice, chills running down their spines. The eerie sensation climbed up their spines, paralyzing the mage’s thoughts.

How...?

Why was the voice coming from behind him?

"Why?"

Squelch!

A cold blow shattered his mana shield and ended the spine-tingling sensation, snuffing out the mage’s life without answering his final question.

"You bastard!"

Was that anger over a comrade's death?
Or was it fear for his own life?
Fueled by an inexplicable emotion, the remaining two mages cast their respective spells.

Roman’s eyes, enhanced by magical sight, quickly analyzed the flow of their mana structures.

"One’s channeling lightning magic. A lightning-elementalist. The other is using telekinesis, huh?"

Both were impressive classes.
Lightning elementalists were among the strongest elementalists, and the utility of telekinetic mages made them equally popular.

But that’s where their threat ended.

The lightning spell flared wildly in all directions, lacking focus. The telekinetic magic, despite being invisible, was clumsy enough that it was easily spotted by Roman's magical sight.

A highly skilled mage could easily disrupt such a poorly constructed spell or even turn it against its caster.
Roman wasn’t at that level yet, but dodging them was simple enough.

Roman’s brain received the precise coordinates calculated through his Axis, and his body moved.

"Again!"

The regular-ranked fighter who specialized in sword and shield, already on high alert after Roman's first strike, strained to keep up. And yet, Roman disappeared from his sight once again, eluding him completely.

In response, he instinctively released the power he had been storing within his body.

Aura.
Though it shared a common origin with a mage's mana, its refined usage was entirely different. The force pushed outward, encasing the fighter and repelling anything nearby.

A pure, defensive outburst of aura, born from sheer survival instinct.
But of course, Roman wasn’t even there.

"Guh!"

Why bother dealing with the frontline?
It's far easier to bypass them and eliminate the backline first.

Roman's mobility, darting through space, made it impossible for the frontliners to protect the rear. He had no intention of attacking systematically from the front.

Why would he? He wasn’t some monster mindlessly attacking a tank while ignoring the healers and damage dealers in the back.

Roman’s plan worked flawlessly.

Thud.

The third and final mage crumpled to the ground, and only then did the two regular fighters have a chance to properly face Roman once again.

Black hair, black staff.
His hooded cloak fluttered in the night breeze.

To the regular fighters, he looked every bit like the grim reaper.

"Is this... really a novice?"

Even elite Expert explorers would leave a trace, something to hint at their movements. Even Master explorers left behind faint afterimages.

But this guy...
What the hell was he?

He moved through space without any sign or residue, completely untraceable.

"You bastard!"

The fighter with the sword and shield lost himself in the fear of the unknown.
If I don’t kill him, I’ll die.

That simple thought pushed his body into action.

With a crazed shout, he charged at Roman. Despite his wild movements, his mind was still racing.

'Where will he move next...?'

To the side? Behind? Maybe even above?

'I’ll block with my shield and counter immediately. He’s still just a mage. Even if he’s using body enhancement, it won’t be as fast as aura…!'

Unlike the novice explorers who couldn’t react and were easily taken down, he was different.
He braced himself, ready to strike back at any moment.

But Roman didn’t move.
He stayed right where he was.

'A head-on fight?'

He laughed inwardly.
So, he really was just a novice after all.

Killing three opponents so easily had probably filled Roman with overconfidence.

This is what happens when you’ve only fought other mages and never faced a true warrior.

Roman fired a magic bullet at him, but he was prepared to take the hit.

I’ll let him hit me.
In exchange, I’ll take his life.

"I’ve got you!!"

"No, I’ve got you."

The adrenaline from battle and the surge of dopamine from the thrill of a comeback must have clouded his mind.
He failed to notice that Roman was the one closing the distance, not him.

"You’re the one who’s caught."

Thud!

Roman’s final magic bullet hit the fighter who had frozen in place.
His aura shattered, and the bullet pierced through his body.

Instant death.

"And the last one..."

"D-Don’t move!"

The final attacker, who had thrown away his morningstar, was now holding a dagger and shouting desperately.

"Oh no."

Roman muttered as he sized him up.

Is he... trying to take a hostage?
How pathetic and cliché.

"Bad luck for you."

"H-Huh, yeah! Just my luck..."

"You grabbed the wrong one."

In a moment of twisted fate, the attacker had chosen the smaller of the two women, Ray.

Ray had intentionally allowed herself to be grabbed. And while her body was pressed close to his, she dislocated his arm, twisted it, and landed a crushing blow to his jaw, knocking him out instantly.

She tossed the unconscious man aside and glared at Roman.

"Bad luck, huh? He’s lucky. If he’d grabbed Leif, his head would’ve been blown off before he could even react."

"I wasn’t going to go that far..."
Leif, who had summoned Undine to float beside her, protested mildly.

Roman thought to himself.
'Not that far, but something close enough.'

Yeah.
That’s what it takes to survive as an explorer.

"You did well. I was going to leave one alive for questioning."

"Of course. I sent the other three off, so I had to keep at least one."

Roman couldn’t shake the thought of the bugbears the attackers had mentioned earlier.
Even if that wasn’t an issue, he still wanted to find out which faction they belonged to.

"Shall I wake him?"

A large water droplet floated above the unconscious man's head.

"No, leave it to me."
Leif dispelled Undine, allowing Ray to handle the interrogation herself.

But as Ray leaned in to wake the man, she noticed something strange.

"...Huh?"

Ray frantically slapped the man’s cheek.

"Breathe! Come on! I didn’t hit you that hard! Don’t die on me now! Breathe!"

Despite her desperate pleas, the man didn’t stir.

"...Forget what I said earlier."

The Signpost Tree.

It wasn’t just a figurative expression.
On the wide plains of the 1st layer, where flat land was rare, stood a massive tree.

But what earned it the name Signpost Tree were the countless wooden signs hanging from its branches.

"Are all those signs... maps?"

The tree was covered in wooden planks, like ripened fruit, each detailing the locations and distances to various points of interest.

It all started with one explorer who used the tree as a base and recorded his findings.
Later, other explorers followed suit, turning it into a tradition.

Information is an incredibly valuable asset.
On the 4th layer and beyond, only those who had either ventured there themselves or paid a fortune for the data knew the geography.

But the 1st layer was different.
For the sake of novice explorers, the geography of the 1st layer was shared with everyone—through this tree.

It was a beautiful tradition.

Just the sight of this magnificent tree was enough to make me forget the scum we dealt with the previous night.

"There’s a lot of people here," Leif remarked, pulling her hood tighter, clearly uncomfortable with the crowd.

Ray, on the other hand, completely ignored the attention her lion beastfolk appearance drew.

"Even from far away, I could tell this tree was massive. It looks like a World Tree or something."

After marveling at the size of the tree, Ray suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh, sorry. Isn’t that a taboo for elves?"

"No, it’s fine. I’m a half-elf, so I don’t really care... I mean, I don’t care."

Leif was still struggling with speaking informally, a habit likely ingrained from her past.

Ray and I had experienced similar hardships, but our responses had been the opposite.
We had only dealt with it for a short time, and since we were already adults, we rebelled against it, embracing casual speech.

But Leif had endured it since she was a child, so formality had become second nature to her.
It wasn’t easy to break a lifetime’s habit.

"You didn’t know it was a taboo to mention the World Tree?" Ray asked.

"I didn’t have a chance to really talk to elves," I replied.

Back when I was a slave, my interactions with elves were limited to commands like, ‘Go fetch the merchant.’
The only elf I’d ever really spoken to was Ellowen, my fellow trainee.
But we hadn’t talked long enough for me to learn much about elven culture.

"The World Tree withered away when the gods disappeared," Ray explained.
"For elves, it was like their god died. They tried all sorts of things to save it, but nothing worked."

After a long time, the elves eventually gave up on reviving the tree.
Without the World Tree as their center, the elves, who had once formed a unified nation, scattered.

"But the belief in the World Tree still remains, so they just avoid talking about it."

"I see."

So it was something like an unspoken taboo.

"It’s not that serious," Leif added.
"It’s more like an old story that’s a bit uncomfortable to hear."

While discussing the World Tree, we finally reached the Signpost Tree itself.

Seeing it up close, I understood why Ray had brought up the World Tree.
It was massive.

"Too many signs. It’s a mess. How are we supposed to find anything in this chaos?" I complained.

"We’ll have to check them one by one," Ray said. "But that one over there’s obvious."

She pointed to a sign marking the location of the passage to the 2nd layer.
That sign had a special border around it, making it easy to spot.

The passage to the 2nd layer, like the transition points on the 1st layer, was constantly shifting.
Keeping the information up-to-date required signs like this.

"Hmm... Is there no sign for the Floating Island?"

"Would there be? It moves all the time," Ray replied.

"And none of us can use flight magic," Leif added.

That was true, but still...

"Looking for the Floating Island?"

Our conversation was suddenly interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"Whoa, three novices? Fresh meat. You guys have guts," said one of the two men approaching us casually.

"It’s like looking at a younger version of ourselves," the other one added with a grin.

"How about it? We’re heading to the Floating Island too."

"We’re short on people, and we could use the extra help."

What the hell...?
These guys reeked of trouble.