After entering the underground stables, Nirrnir took off the thick fur hat on her head and brushed aside the damp bangs stuck to her forehead with cold sweat.
She looked around the area, her delicate nose twitching twice before she frowned slightly and said:
"So this is the Korloy family's monster stable? What an eyesore."
She waved her hand around her nose and said with a stiff expression, "The environment is filthy, the management is sloppy—it seems like this place hasn't been cleaned or ventilated for quite some time."
Hearing Nirrnir's blunt and merciless criticism, Bardun—still on the spiral staircase—spoke in a seemingly indifferent tone, "Apologies, Nirrnir. You all came too suddenly. If you'd informed us a day earlier, the place would have been spotless."
"What a lazy excuse," Akimi muttered under his breath.
Kirito also commented with disdain, "If something like this had happened a day earlier, we probably wouldn't be involved in this mission at all."
As expected, Nirrnir didn't turn to face them.
Instead, she stared deeper into the stables and said impatiently:
"Bardun, spare us the pointless talk."
"Alright, alright," Bardun replied with a smile.
But clearly, it was a cold and insincere smile—there was a chilling edge beneath his grin.
He curled his lips and said to Nirrnir, "Since the match will begin soon, you only have two hours. Feel free to look around as much as you want. But I must warn you—there are quite a few monsters here whose control durations have expired. If you get injured while entering their cages, we won't be responsible."
"However, if you intentionally harm the monsters, I'll deal with you according to the rules."
Faced with Bardun's thinly veiled threats, Nirrnir simply crossed her arms and responded coldly, "Thanks for the warning. But I should also remind you—if you interfere with or obstruct our inspection, we'll consider it a breach of our agreement. And when that happens, you'll be the ones figuring out how to supply monsters for the match. Understood?"
Standing behind Bardun, Menden's face turned extremely sour.
He gritted his teeth and glared at Nirrnir viciously.
But Nirrnir ignored Menden's murderous look and shouted loudly, "If you understand, then get out! Go back to the staircase entrance!"
"Heh. Good luck to you all," Bardun said mockingly.
Though the words sounded like a blessing, there was not the slightest bit of goodwill in his tone.
He then led Menden and a few guards back to the entrance of the spiral staircase.
"The rest is up to you two," Nirrnir said, her tone softening slightly as she addressed Akimi and Kirito.
The two nodded earnestly in response.
Two hours—not a particularly long time to thoroughly inspect a stable of this size.
Still, Akimi felt something was off—why did Bardun specifically warn them not to enter the cages?
Could it be that they were hiding critical evidence inside one of the cages and were just trying to scare them off?
But no—that didn't make sense.
Bardun must know that mentioning the cages directly would only make them more suspicious.
Given human nature's tendency to do exactly what they're told not to do, his warning clearly had an ulterior motive.
Which meant the evidence wasn't in the cages.
Since they had already inspected the warehouse on the first floor, the evidence had to be somewhere within this underground stable.
With that in mind, Akimi began searching his memory—was there anything odd during their previous stealthy entry?
After a moment's thought, he raised his eyes to the far end of the stable—a gray stone-brick wall.
He seemed to recall that one of the gaps between the bricks was larger than the others—perhaps it concealed a hidden passage?
And the mechanism might be on that wall.
With a solid hunch forming, Akimi didn't hesitate.
He grabbed Kirito, who was still peeking curiously into the cages, and began walking toward the far end.
"...Eh?!"
Completely caught off guard, Kirito stumbled and let out a startled yelp.
Kirito stared blankly at him. "What are you doing?"
Tomioka didn't answer.
He just led Kirito to the wall and pointed at the not-so-obvious gap in the bricks, then gave him a meaningful look.
Seeing the gap, Kirito instantly caught on.
He gave an "I got it" expression and began searching the wall with Akimi, feeling for a hidden mechanism.
After about five minutes of a thorough, grid-like search, they noticed something unusual on the left side of the wall—a particular brick's surface looked nothing like the others.
While most were rough and weathered, this one was smooth and polished, as if it had been touched often—it was almost glossy.
The two exchanged a knowing smile.
Then Kirito pressed the brick firmly.
With a mechanical click-clack sound, the wall opened up—a hidden passage just wide enough for one person to walk through appeared.
Though pitch-black inside, a familiar, pungent and sickly-sweet smell wafted out, making them certain—Lulabium flower dye was inside.
Kirito raised his voice. "Miss Nirrnir! There's a secret passage here!"
He wasn't just shouting to alert Nirrnir's team—he wanted Bardun and his people to hear it too.
If the evidence was found without witnesses, they might be accused of planting it themselves.
Hearing Kirito's call, Nirrnir and the others couldn't hide their smiles as they hurried toward them.
Bardun and his guards followed right behind.
But once they approached, something about Bardun's demeanor struck Akimi as odd—he didn't look nervous at all.
Instead, he wore a confident, almost smug expression, even pulling out a pocket watch and checking the time leisurely.
Akimi frowned slightly.
He looked around but didn't see any signs of traps.
To the right was a cage with a goat-sized monster.
To the left was the Storm Hound's cage.
But the cage was now empty—just a strange pile in the corner resembling one of those classic anime-style poop swirls.
But in the very next moment, that "pile of poop" began to squirm—transforming into a creature roughly one and a half meters long.
Its glowing marker, red to the point of nearly black, indicated that it was extremely dangerous.
Its name was "Argent Serpent", the serpentine monster that was originally locked in a cage of fine iron wires.
Why was it inside the Stormhound's cage?!
Why didn't it move earlier when they passed by, but waited until everyone had arrived before making its move?!
Akimi was both shocked and suspicious.
The serpent, of course, offered no explanation.
It slowly swayed its body and slithered straight through the bars of the cage.
Under the dim oil lamp, its body shimmered with a silvery glow.
Akimi immediately shouted, "Snake!"
Without hesitation, he drew his Nichirin Blade and slashed toward it.
But at the moment his blade made contact with the serpent's body, a loud metallic clang rang throughout the underground stable.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
The unexpected resistance made Akimi's pupils contract sharply.
He raised his Nichirin Blade and, using a sword form, launched a second strike at the serpent.
With the sword form applied, the attack was far stronger than before and cleanly sliced the snake in two.
Kirito reacted just as swiftly, using his sword skill to lop off another segment of the snake.
But the serpent continued to squirm, moving with alarming speed straight toward Nirrnir.
As it got close, it astonishingly leaped into the air, mouth wide open, ready to bite her.
What greeted it, however, was a sword skill from Kio—a one-handed sword's upper stance technique: Lightning Thrust.
As her blade cut through the air, a terrifying sonic boom erupted.
Kio's attack had already exceeded the expected power level for this floor.
One-third of the serpent's body was instantly shredded to bits.
But the remaining head and a small portion of the body still shot toward Nirrnir with tenacity.
Its speed was so fast that Huazo, Luje, and the others nearby couldn't react in time.
At the critical moment, Nirrnir suddenly reached out and grabbed the remainder of the serpent's body.
Everyone around her let out a breath of relief—
But then, the serpent coiled back and bit deeply into her wrist.
Moments later, its HP dropped to zero, and it shattered into glowing fragments.
The sudden incident left everyone shocked and pale.
"Miss Nirrnir!"
Kio let out a wail.
She dropped her longsword without a second thought and rushed to embrace Nirrnir with both arms.
Nirrnir seemed stunned for a second, then she let out a bitter, self-deprecating smile and murmured:
"Bardun… you really got us."
The moment she finished speaking, she collapsed into Kio's arms.
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