The Guild's door was a massive double door — four meters tall and three meters wide. Its thickness was six inches, made of unknown wood. At a glance, I could tell its toughness was far beyond ??? Level.
In fact, everything about the Guild's Main Building, Pantheon, was far beyond ??? entirely.
I could feel the entire building, Pantheon, was alive — which was normal for a Living Construct.
As soon as I entered, a vast space greeted me. There were counters where you could inquire or request guild services, exchange booths for Magic Stones, small meeting boxes for private transactions, and a small library in the corner. All of these were contained within this 100-by-100-meter space.
With curiosity, I extended my magic sense to the extreme and discovered that this space — or rather, the front lobby — was just an extremely small fraction of the building's first floor. To the sides and in front of my line of sight, there were four hallways leading deeper into the Pantheon.
Each floor alone had a size that surpassed ??? entirely.
I extended my senses endlessly, yet I never reached the end of the first floor. When I saw no hope of reaching its edges, I extended my senses downward and upward to check the next floors, but still, I couldn't reach the end. I asked Anastasia for assistance, but it failed. No matter how hard she tried, it was hopeless.
Even if John used all means, he would reach the same result.
"Anastasia, try to find any public floor plan."
"Understood," Anastasia responded quickly.
After a moment, she found one.
"John, I found one, but there's a problem." Anastasia.
"What is the problem?"
"I don't know what kind of measurements they were using." Anastasia
"There's only one answer?" I asked.
"Yes. The number and size of each floor are beyond ??? entirely." Anastasia.
"Based on what we observed, there are still hidden parts concealing its true scale."
"Affirmative." Anastasia.
"By the way, the number of floors I talked about earlier was just a part of the first floor, not the total number of floors. Apparently, each floor has its own layers, and the number was ??? — and that's not even the total number of layers within each floor." — Anastasia
While I was talking to Anastasia in my mind, I was dragged by Miss Flott to a counter handled by a handsome man.
"Max, I'm here," Miss Flott said energetically.
"You're finally here. Why are you so late? I ended up working overtime," Max said helplessly.
"I saw a cat crossing the highway. I got baited by its cuteness, so I helped it cross," she said while bonking her head, giving a wink, and acting cute.
The man only sighed. He was already used to this girl's antics.
"I'm leaving," Max said as he tapped his phone on the device below the counter, successfully checking out from his shift. Then he left without saying a word.
Flott slipped from John's arms and went behind the counter to check in, starting her shift and replacing Max.
With a smile, she spoke to a seemingly dazed John, who was focused on chatting with Anastasia in his mind.
"So, what can I help you with, John?"
As soon as she spoke, John said goodbye to Anastasia and turned his attention to Miss Flott. Even though he was deep in conversation earlier, his awareness of his surroundings hadn't decreased.
"I want to register as an adventurer."
"Have you joined a Familia?" Miss Flott inquired.
"No."
"In that case, you can't register. You need a Familia to become an adventurer. Guild rules," she said bluntly, her face serious.
"I can't register, huh? That rule was placed to prevent death, am I right?"
Hearing this, Miss Flott nodded in agreement.
"I'm surprised you figured that out. Most new adventurers just complain about the rule's existence."
"Do you have any recommendations for a good Familia?"
"I can only recommend middle- or lower-ranking Familias — they're easier to join. But if you want abundant resources for growth, pick a high-ranking Familia. And if you want the best, go with the twin kings of this city: the Loki and Freya Familias. If you want more details, go to that small library in the corner. There's a magic book recording the active Familias in real time."
"Thanks. I'll see you later, Miss Flott."
"Just call me Misha," she said, with a bright smile.
I smiled gently.
"See you later."
John walked away, vanishing from Misha's sight. Misha kept staring in the direction he walked, lost in thought — failing to notice the silhouette creeping up behind her.
The silhouette gently stretched out a hand, tapping Misha's shoulder, pulling her from her thoughts.
Misha turned around and saw a beautiful Half-Elf. She had shoulder-length brown hair, green eyes, fair skin, a slim body, and wore glasses. She was also a Guild employee — and Misha's friend.
"What are you doing, Misha? Your line is getting longer. Do you want to stay overnight?" asked Eina.
"?" Misha blinked.
She looked at the queue she was in charge of and saw a long line. Her face filled with panic as she rushed back to work. Seeing this, Eina shook her head and returned to her post.
I walked toward one of the room boxes in the corner, where the small library resided.
This library had only six bookshelves, all containing the same four books: Familia Encyclopedia, Monster Encyclopedia, Almanac of the Entire Old World, and Dungeon Maps from the 1st to 30th Floor.
I took all four and sat on a sofa in the corner, reading unhurriedly.
The first books I read were the Monster Encyclopedia, Almanac, and Dungeon Maps, committing all to memory.
There were many interesting things in those books, but what interested me most was the Dungeon Maps. According to the book, each floor was endless. They didn't put measurements because no one could understand them. After all, each floor was far beyond endless — beyond ??? entirely. The Guild employees couldn't explain it to ordinary people, so they simply called it endless.
Each floor had that size or more, expanding the deeper you went.
To reach the next floor, one had to find a Boss Stair — the only stair on each floor. Each stair was guarded by a Boss. The deeper you went, the stronger those bosses became. The Dungeon Map didn't explain this deeply — it only showed the explored areas of each floor. Each explored zone stretched between hundreds of millions to tens of billions of square miles.
Each floor had a monster limit — a system that restricted how strong the spawned monsters could be, based on depth. The deeper you went, the stronger they became.
The first floor was populated only by monsters with strength equivalent to normal humans. The stair boss was at the level of a superhuman.
The second floor didn't change much, but it added a new monster. This system continued the deeper you went.
After a few minutes, I finished reading the Dungeon Maps and moved on to the Monster Encyclopedia, which recorded monsters from the 1st to 50th floor.