Bermuda

Grasping the situation, Leonardo hoisted Ero over his shoulder and swiftly swam toward the hole.

The moment they reached the opening leading into the stamen tower’s interior, a sudden current swept them in. The water pressure was so strong he could not even stroke once. Thinking resistance might make him lose consciousness, Leonardo relaxed his whole body instead and held Ero tightly.

Carried by the rapid flow, they were pushed upward along the inside of the tower, which stretched like a pipe. With no view outside, he could not judge how high they had risen. Fortunately, just before his breath gave out, they finally reached an air pocket trapped inside the tower.

Leonardo climbed up first, braced his upper body on solid ground, and dragged Ero above the surface by the collar.

“Pwaah—! Hah, haaah—.”

Gasping inelegantly, Ero crawled up the slanted stairs and hunched over, coughing water from his nose and mouth for a while. The bag strap he had barely preserved still hung from his arm.

Leonardo, also breathing hard between coughs, glanced at Ero’s condition. Perhaps from the sudden brawl, his breathing was rougher than outside. The pressure also felt higher than outdoors; his ears rang and he felt dizzy.

Shoulders heaving, Leonardo stepped on the splashing stairway and barely stood. Squinting his reddened golden eyes, he slowly looked upward along the continuing stairs.

“What is this place...”

The ceiling was not very high. More precisely, the next level was not far away. After scanning around for a few seconds in a daze, he instantly dried his soaked clothes.

After checking his mask was properly attached through the drifting steam, he forcibly pulled the collapsed Ero upright.

“Hey. Get up.”

“Ugh, hah—.”

Groaning, Ero stretched his neck like a turtle and spat out water.

“This is inside the tower, right?”

“Cough—. Y-yes...?”

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Ero managed to stand. Staggering, he followed the direction Leonardo pointed.

Then he looked down at the floor beneath his feet. The pale yellow fibrous inner wall and stairs clearly suggested they were inside the stamen tower.

“...Ah, y-yes! I think so!”

“You knew and told me to come here?”

“No, but at the top there was no entrance no matter how much I searched. Then the only way into the tower had to be below...”

“There wasn’t one above?”

Leonardo asked in puzzlement. But only briefly— with a heavy rumble the ground and walls shook. Sensing the anomaly, Leonardo immediately pulled Ero and sprinted up the spiral stairs.

“For now, move.”

Grabbing his bag, Ero hurried after him. He had a talent for running, and despite soaked clothes kept nearly the same pace. Feeling somewhat better than before, he kept chattering even while panting.

“Boss, thank you so much for saving me! I never thought you’d come that fast! And wiping out that many in one go... wow, did you see the hole in the sky? I knew I had a good eye for people—”

“Quiet. What about the entrance?”

“Ah! I went around the tower once along the protrusions, but I couldn’t see any passage inside. There was a split groove at the exact top center, but it wasn’t open, and it was covered in transparent slime so it was hard to approach—”

According to Ero’s information, this place currently had no opening connected to outside air. That explained why the density inside kept rising and why pressure differed. After all, this tower was the inside of a living plant.

Then the hole in the lake they had stumbled into seemed to be the only path to reach the ovary.

“So others came in like us?”

“Wouldn’t they? Seriously, is the difficulty ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) allowed to be like this from the test match? Damn, how are we supposed to find an entrance hidden like that.”

Ero complained while wringing water from his clothes.

“Maybe the guy rampaging outside hasn’t found the entrance either?”

“Doesn’t look like he intends to pass.”

“Huh? Then why steal other participants’ crystals? He really is a sadist.”

“How would I know.”

Why did a guy like that charge me head-on...

“Oh, right, about the slime gathered near the tower. I thought about it carefully— I think it’s made from melted crystals.”

Leonardo turned toward him.

“Crystals?”

“You saw those flying things earlier? I don’t know where they picked them up, but they gathered crystals in groups...”

The beasts’ behavior was strange. They dropped Small Plarinus crystals from their claws onto the mound of slime, then poured water from their pelican-like beaks over it. When that happened, the crystal surfaces touching water melted and gradually softened.

“Later bubbles formed and it turned into slime. It felt warm and sticky on the skin... I think it’s one of the mechanisms blocking passage.”

“......”

Climbing clockwise, Leonardo suddenly stopped. The unprepared Ero slammed his face into his back, making him cry out as pain hit his already crushed nose.

“Boss! Ugh... warn me before stopping!”

“Give me the bag.”

Leonardo snatched it and opened it to check inside. The mention of water-touched crystals made him uneasy.

As expected, some crystals piled near the top had deformed from moisture. Ero, groaning, also looked in—and his face drained of color.

“H-huh! Boss, I-I definitely kept them safe...”

“Quiet and take them out. The inside ones seem fine.”

Panicking, Ero hurriedly removed the top crystals. Beneath them, intact ones remained. Fortunately at least one of each color survived.

Thinking he would have been dead if he failed to preserve them, Ero looked more concerned about Leonardo’s reaction than his own pass. Only after seeing his relaxed expression did he sigh in relief. Then his eyes shone proudly.

“Wow, they said it was waterproof and it really works! The staff gave it specially when they took my bullets before the match. I wondered what it was for, but it’s a total godsend. Other teams must’ve been screwed coming in here, right?”

Indeed. During the rule explanation, the Plarinus crystals were said to be composed of salt. Without the bag, falling into the lake might have dissolved them and lost every key to open the portal.

Maybe the slime floating in the lake too...

Some flowed from destroyed protrusions, but some might have formed from participants’ crystals dissolving. Thinking that, he could hardly imagine how many chances had turned to powder inside. Leonardo ran up the stairs, rubbing the back of his neck.

Joker, was it.

He recalled Ero’s League alias he thought unfitting. Becoming a decisive strike at unexpected moments did resemble a trump card joker. After all, his fall into the lake led them to this entrance.

Helpful or not, I can’t tell.

He suddenly realized there was something else to discuss.

“Hey. Right. You heard the announcement? Four hours elapsed, twenty-two passed.”

“Ah, yes! About that—”

At that moment, a sharp sound slicing the air struck the outer wall loud enough to be heard even inside the stamen tower. The following whip impact rapidly caught up to the two climbing the stairs.

Kwaaang—!

Sensing danger, Leonardo stopped and extended his arm to halt Ero as well.

“Whoa!”

He staggered from momentum on the railing-less stairs, but Leonardo grabbed his collar and prevented him from falling.

Before them, a whip pierced through the tower’s outer wall and sliced the fibrous interior like a blade. The stairs one meter ahead were brutally torn away. Cool outside air rushed in. Through the gap, the snake-like whip slowly withdrew.