Chapter 281

Dungeon Fifth Floor: Guest Rooms in the Ancient Castle Area
The courtyard exploration yielded quite a harvest.
After all, we were searching areas that everyone else avoided, resulting in a bounty of treasure chests.
To be precise, we gathered five golden treasure chests and eight silver ones.

As evening began to fall, we decided to head inside the castle to find a place to rest.
According to Melanie, there was a guest room area.
Not only were there no monster spawns, but the rooms were also designed so that other adventurers couldn’t enter from the outside.
Truly a well-prepared camping spot.

Upon reaching the floor with the guest rooms, Melanie took the lead, guiding us deeper into the hallway.
Most of the doors had white gemstones embedded in them, but occasionally there were blue or red ones as well.
What could those mean?

"Oh, the gemstone colors indicate the room’s status. White means vacant, blue means in use, and red means the door is locked from the inside."

"I see. But wouldn’t it be meaningless if someone didn’t lock the door?"

"Well, that’s true, but there’s an unspoken rule not to enter occupied rooms."

Melanie scratched her cheek with an awkward smile.
So, people just trust this unspoken rule for safety? That seems risky.

Melanie walked to the far end of the hallway, checked that the room wasn’t in use, and opened the door.
The room was spacious enough to comfortably accommodate all of us. It even had a small kitchen—a truly impressive room.
Once we were all inside, Melanie shut the door and locked it from within.
This should ensure our safety.

"Phew, I’m glad this room was available. Since we brought ingredients with us, we really wanted a room where we could cook."

"Are there rooms where cooking isn’t allowed?"

"Ah, well..."

Melanie paused dramatically, as if to tease us.
Is there some kind of issue with the other rooms?

"In the standard rooms, fire is strictly prohibited. They’re made entirely of highly flammable materials, so if you use fire inside, it spreads rapidly. Even the door burns, trapping you inside with no escape, leaving you to burn to death."

Melanie shrugged, but wait a moment—can’t water magic put out the fire?

"Oh no, it doesn’t work. That’s likely another trap," she added.

Even the rest areas have traps? This dungeon has a truly wicked design.

Now for the fun part—opening the treasure chests!
From one of the golden chests, we obtained a Skill Crystal. The skill was "Paralysis Infliction," which creates paralysis traps.
However, by combining it with the mist magic we acquired earlier, it’s possible to create a paralyzing mist that activates upon contact.
This might be a valuable find after all!

As for the silver chests, they mostly contained summoning cards and magic weapons—worth noting but not as exciting.

What do you think about this chapter?