Lifre hummed lightly to herself as she skated along the icy tunnel on the sixty-second layer of Fyor. Her right arm had changed into the shape of a sword, which she was using to cut down any monsters that tried to intercept her path.
While the other worlds were dealing with their memetic crisis, Fyor was essentially unaffected by this news. Instead, they were still focused on boring a giant tunnel through the ice, wanting to uncover the next layer’s gate. By this point, they had long since made a secure Gate’s Rest on this floor, with numerous layers of defense against the monsters swimming through the ice.
However, it was not as easy to secure the tunnel itself, as it was constantly expanding. For that reason, several gods and high ranking adventurers were tasked with regularly patrolling the tunnel and slaying any monsters that emerged. On the bright side, the machine used to create the tunnel had been significantly improved, and the people divining the location of the next gate said that they should reach it any day now.
For Lifre’s part, this was rather boring, and she would have rather been running off on an adventure through the stars. Despite her urge to explore uncharted lands and fight spectacular monsters, she was aware of the inherent dangers when it came to fighting against memetic creatures. For that reason, she had chosen not to give in to her intrusive thoughts.
She let out a low yawn as she skated at ever-increasing speeds through the tunnel, her sword arm occasionally slashing out to strike at an unfortunate monster. She had lost track of how far she had gone in the tunnel, barely noting that the angle of the slope had changed just slightly. This must have been one of the checkpoints where they confirmed the location of the portal.
Thinking that, she leaned forward, speeding up. Far ahead, she could begin to see the machine, as well as numerous people crowding around it. Squinting her eyes, she thought that they might be in a defensive formation, as if a dangerous monster had appeared.
Her legs tensed, and she kicked at the ground to accelerate even more, turning into a blur that quickly traversed the remaining distance. Soon, she skidded to a stop next to the machine, kicking up a cloud of shaved ice. “What’s going on?” She asked in concern, readying her sword arm to attack.
“Lady Lifre!” One of the Dovah workers looked at her in surprise. “We found it!”
“Found it?” Lifre blinked, her brain momentarily lagging as she left ‘alert mode’. Once she realized what they meant, her eyes went wide. “We’ve got the gate? We can get out of this frozen tube!?”
The workers chuckled when they saw Lifre’s reaction, nodding their heads. They led her off to the side, around the machine, and Lifre saw the black gate standing tall, covering the way forward. “We were just about to request a transport unit to send us back to base camp, so that we could report the findings.”
“No need!” Lifre shouted excitedly, her sword arm returning to normal as she ran forward. “Everyone, come here!” As she said that, she held a hand forward, creating a golden portal. The workers smiled, recognizing this as the work of a Priestess of Aurivy.
With thankful nods, they walked forward, leaving Lifre alone within the tunnel. Once the portal closed, Lifre gave a playful grin. Now, she was along with the gate. “Now now, Lifre, you can’t just charge in all willy-nilly. What would you do if there is a memetic effect on the other side, or some kind of super dangerous monster, or some corrosive mist like the last floor?”
“You’re right, Lifre, but! I wanna do it!” Lifre talked to herself, going so far as to create a clone to converse with. “Besides, worst case scenario, I get zapped to the boss’s place, right? It’ll be fine.”
“No, bad Lifre!” Her clone scolded, clearly playing the role of the ‘voice of reason’. “You can’t just risk your life like that. You know the boss would say the same thing. That insurance policy is a last resort only. There are procedures to follow! In times like this, you should create an independently functioning clone, sever the mental connection, and send the clone through. Then, after letting the clone operate, allow it to return and write a report about the other side of the gate. Take that report, screen the information for memetic influence, and then, if it is safe, you can enter yourself.”
Lifre stared at her clone for several long seconds. “You just want me to send you first.”
“W-what? No, that’s definitely not true! It’s just standard safety procedures! That’s right!” The clone nodded her head rapidly, causing Lifre to let out a small grin.
“Really? Then, I suppose you won’t mind if I create another clone to handle that job, since it’s such an important and hazardous task? I wouldn’t want to put you in danger.”
The clone’s already pale face somehow went even more white. “W-What? But, I mean, if it’s for your sake, I would gladly sacrifice myself. There’s no need to go through the trouble of making additional clones.”
Lifre simply rolled her eyes. “Alright, this one-slime comedy routine is starting to get old. You’ve got five minutes before I go in after you.”
The clone’s eyes sparkled, and she jumped through the gate without giving Lifre any time to regret her decision. As the gate opened a portal for her, Lifre briefly saw what looked like a smooth, stone surface on the other side, and flashing lights.
Immediately, she began to tap her foot, pacing back and forth in front of the gate. She had to resist the urge to just jump through, as the new protocols had been put in place for a reason. Even if she was reckless, she wasn’t just going to throw her life away for nothing.
Minutes passed, and Lifre looked as if she was about to charge into the gate to ‘save’ her ‘unfortunate’ clone. Surely, she must have been in some grave danger to not immediately report back. However, before she could step forward, the gate opened, and the clone stepped back. Only, there was something different about her now.
The clone wore what appeared to be sunglasses, and held a large bucket of some glowing snack in one arm. Additionally, she had a black shirt over her torso instead of Lifre’s usual blue and white armor.
“…What happened?” Lifre asked, and the clone grinned.
“That… was… awesome!” She threw her free hand up. “It’s like a whole city over there! You’ve gotta try it out! Oh, also, these little popcorn energy kernels are great! We’ve gotta get the recipe!”
Lifre paused, before suddenly raising a hand to say something. However, the clone took one of the snacks from the bucket and threw it into Lifre’s opening mouth, causing her eyes to widen. She let out an unconscious gasp of glee. “Okay, spill! How’d you get this stuff!? There’s no way that you have the local currency for a new culture!”
The clone simply snickered. “They use basic energies as a secondary currency. I just had to get the local language off of some random passerby, and then I went shopping!”
“You were only gone for five minutes!”
“There were nearby shops? The black gate’s apparently some kind of tourist attraction.” The clone snickered.
Lifre let out a long sigh. “Let’s report back to the others. Petra will want to visit herself, and you know the boss definitely wants to hear about this place.”
I let out a small sigh, closing the chat window that had appeared. The new month passed over, and so Bellarose noticed that I was his next opponent. He sent me a message, greeting me and letting me know that he had a list of trade offers, if I wanted to browse through them. I didn’t see any reason to immediately refuse, so agreed to look it over if he sent the list.
“Daaaaale!” A familiar voice broke me out of my thoughts, just as I was thinking about looking through the list. Blinking, I looked at the door of my office, which was soon flung open by an energetic slime wearing a pair of sunglasses.
“Lifre? What’s going on? Please tell me that there hasn’t been another disaster…”
“Huh? Oh, no! No disaster, good news! Very good news!” Lifre said, and I sat up just a bit straighter to listen. “The sixty-third floor of Fyor is unlocked! Also, it’s an inhabited area, with a great big city surrounding the gate!”
I furrowed my brow, looking at Lifre. “You already explored it?”
“Huh? No, no! I sent a clone in, like you said! She didn’t go far, just spending five minutes, but she got these cool sunglasses there. Get this, they regulate the level of light you see with mana, so whether it’s super bright or dark out, you see things just as clear.”
I blinked, nodding my head. I thought I had heard of something similar in my own world at one point, but it wasn’t exactly an incredibly innovative invention, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. “Well.. what are the local life forms like?”
Lifre paused, blinking. “Oh, right!” She stretched out an arm, summoning a clone of herself wearing a black shirt. “I haven’t absorbed her memories yet, just in case, so she can tell you!”
The clone nodded her head. “They looked like elves for the most part.” She answered with a bright smile. “But… a lot of them had glowing eyes. I wasn’t there long enough to ask what they called themselves, since that would have meant explaining that I wasn’t a local.”
“…How did you get anything from them, then?” I couldn’t help but ask, since five minutes wasn’t long enough to do anything.
“I used Terra’s Stories domain to learn a random guy’s life story, including the local language! It’s pretty neat, because they talk through a mix of mana and spiritual energy.”
I gave a small nod when I heard that. “I’m heading up to check the new map.” I said, before ascending to the Admin Room. I fully expected that Lifre would be joining me soon, so I took my time heading to the couch.
“What’s up, Dale?” Accalia asked, having been watching a movie when I appeared.
“Sorry, mind if I hijack the television for a moment? Fyor’s new floor was just unlocked, so I need to check the map.” I asked, to which her eyes widened. Nodding her head, she handed over the remote.
Just as I grabbed it, the door opened, and Lifre jumped through. “Don’t forget about me!”
I rolled my eyes, aiming the remote at the television and focusing to change the screen to a world map of Fyor’s sixty-third floor. I stared at the screen for a few moments, processing what I was seeing. There was a complete map, filled with black, white, and silver in organized clusters with rapidly moving lights.
“Huh…” Accalia blinked. “It’s an ecumenopolis. I never thought I’d see one this big.”
“Ecume-whatnow?” Lifre tilted her head in confusion, staring at the screen. “I just see a really big city!”
“That’s it. An Ecumenopolis is a city that covers the entirety of a planet’s surface. It looks like the race that inhabits this layer has completely urbanized their floor.” Accalia pointed out, and I hit another button. “In… three sections?”
That’s right, it wasn’t just a single worldwide city. Rather, there were three cities layered on top of one another. The city that Lifre’s clone entered would have been the central city. The lower city was built underground, containing vast mining networks that linked together the various districts. Finally, the upper layer was built more than a hundred thousand kilometers above the central city, held in place by what appeared to be advanced engines that controlled natural energy to maneuver.
