Going down the diagonal tunnel that was like a slide, they finally reached an empty room.
When everyone entered the room, as usual, the tunnel closed behind them to prevent return.
Since it seemed the monster from earlier couldn't follow them here, they sat down on the floor to catch their breath.
"Earlier, there was a button here... the question was... then the answer was..."
"That's really easy to understand!"
"Is it? Thank you very much."
When everyone peered at Leah's hands, they saw a map showing the relationships between the rooms so far, with button locations, questions, and answers, all organized in a way anyone could understand.
It was almost like reading a strategy guide.
With this, they would never make mistakes on paths they had already taken.
"However, even with proper observation, being tricked like this is unbearable. From now on, can we leave the investigation to Leah? I'll guarantee your safety during that time.""Yes, that's fine."
And so they ended up leaving the answer-finding to Leah, while Tatsuro and the others took care of everything else as they pressed forward.
And now, they had arrived at the sixteenth room.
They had failed here once before, so this was their second visit.
Getting here required solving problematic questions that felt like harassment, but all of them had been based on things they had seen before.
However, that seemed to end here.
This time's question appeared to be plant-related. But the plants growing throughout the room had circular leaves similar to that, with parts as hard as iron and edges as sharp as blades... carelessly stepping in would likely result in shredded feet.
"I don't know this plant... So they've finally started using things we haven't seen before."
"If we haven't seen it before, there's no way we can solve it!"
"So how do we get in here?"
"Hmm, well. Rather than entering, I thought we could press the question button from here and answer─────but... It seems the button won't appear unless we fully enter the room."
When he tried to locate the switch with detection magic, there was no response anywhere in this room, so it seemed they couldn't answer without entering.
So Tatsuro and the others were stuck in the tunnel connected to the previous room, unable to enter.
It was obvious that even if they cut or burned these plants, they would immediately regenerate.
"If we can't cut or burn them, should we try burying them with dirt?"
"That might work!"
Figuring it was worth a try, Tatsuro used earth magic to generate soil and began filling the floor.
At first, it seemed to work, but the stems grew taller to match the added height, with leaves proudly emerging adjusted to the new level.
"That was meaningless..."
"If anything, they just got bigger."
"Ah... well then, how about water?"
"Water, huh. Let's try it."
Tatsuro removed the dirt, and after Jeanne wanted to collect some of these plants, he turned the rest to charcoal before letting them regrow.
Then following Ai's suggestion, they blocked the tunnel exit with earth up to the height of the plant leaves and filled the inside with water using water magic.
The plants neither grew nor withered, but remained quietly growing in their current state.
Though the water was gradually being absorbed by the ground below and to the sides, so it seemed they would need to continuously use water magic.
"I thought they might grow if given water, but they seem fine without that happening. Alright, in that case, next is"
Tatsuro took out boats he had obtained on the first floor from his [Infinite Item Field] and floated two of them.
Then they carefully boarded them to avoid falling.
While using water magic to continuously add water wasn't too taxing for the current Tatsuro, to conserve energy he decided to maintain the water level using a water pump powered by return stones.
After everyone had boarded in two groups, they used water magic to create a current and entered the center of the room.
Then the tunnel closed, completely trapping them in this room.
And the button that was initially ten centimeters had gotten smaller each time they failed.
Now reduced to about three-quarters of its original size, they found it buried among the plants on the left wall and pressed it.
"Well then, Leah. We're counting on you!"
"Yes, hmm~ the answer is the yellow button."
"Yellow it is. Here we go, click!"
And so, Tatsuro and the others proceeded to the next room once again.
From there they continued clearing various difficult questions about monsters they had and hadn't seen before, plants, minerals, terrain, and more... until Tatsuro and his group entered the hundredth room.
Though they had some lucky guesses getting to the hundredth room, they had accumulated even more wrong answers, so the initial button they needed to find was now less than one centimeter.
At this point it was becoming difficult to find even with detection magic without intense concentration, making it hard to continue both making mistakes and answering more quizzes.
"Found it. Left wall, lower left... a bit more left, ah a bit more up──there."
"Is this it? So tiny... here goes!"
The button had become hard to see even when they knew its location, so Ai just hit the spot they had identified.
Then the familiar signboard and four buttons appeared.
Being closest, Tatsuro read the question aloud.
"Let's see, the question is: 'How many centimeters is a Grandpressac's egg? Red: 20 centimeters, Yellow: 20.5 centimeters, Green: 21 centimeters, Blue: 21.5 centimeters ... Half-centimeter increments, give me a break. Aren't there any individual differences?"
"Hey, what happens if we get this wrong? Maybe the room will be filled with eggs?"
"If so, we could make lots of egg dishes."
While chatting casually, since thinking about it wasn't helping, they took a majority vote.
This time they decided on green for 21 centimeters.
Since there was no point in hesitating, they pressed it immediately and the floor began to glow.
They hadn't expected to get one out of four choices correct so easily, but the feeling of futility at having to go back through ninety-nine rooms again made everyone sigh as they were returned to the first room.
"Ah geez, how much further do we have to go?"
"Going back and forth on the same path, wandering without knowing where the goal is... In a way, this might be the toughest one yet."
"And it's hard that we can't even use brute force to clear it."
"With this group, we can usually push through most things with pure strength."
"Jeanne, stop!"
"Neigh?"
Even in her [Child Form], her defense ability was still high enough that she continued serving as the vanguard, but Tatsuro immediately stopped Jeanne and pushed back what was coming in from the hundredth room with wind magic.
"It's poison. The next room is filled with poison. It was seeping into the tunnel."
"Poison!?"
"Neigh"
"Poison?"
"Poison... ah, I see"
"What a nasty place"
While listening to their five different reactions, Tatsuro and Cardina analyzed the poison, and based on that information, had Nana cast detoxification magic on everyone.
This poison was the worst kind that would cause organ necrosis if inhaled.
And there was something else different about the next room.
When Tatsuro and Cardina cast detection magic further ahead to see what was happening, they found what appeared to be dozens of three-meter creatures likely called Grandpressacs wandering around.
And furthermore, as if matched to their size, rather than a ten-meter square small room, it was a hundred times larger.
It had changed into a massive space one-kilometer square.
"This poison seems to be from the Grandpressacs as well. They have a poison-spitting skill and are unconsciously dripping poison from their mouths. Therefore they also have poison resistance."
"What a nuisance."
"Absolutely! Poison is my trademark!"
While it was indeed her trademark within this group, telling that to monsters seemed off... though everyone chose to ignore it without saying anything.
After creating temporary poison resistance, Tatsuro and the others entered the room where they could now see white gaseous poison faintly spreading like mist.
As quietly as possible, everyone entered the room, and the tunnel behind them was sealed, cutting off their escape route.
Then immediately, the monster at the very front spotted them visually.
It looked like a three-meter tall white chicken but with an even meaner look, and from around its chest protruded single-fingered hands about one meter long on both sides, with what appeared to be poisonous liquid dripping down sharp claws at the fingertips onto the floor.
When one of them tried to cry out loudly to alert others nearby, opening its beak, Ai shot an arrow through its throat to silence it.
The impact sound from its fall was suppressed by Tatsuro flowing in a slimy, jelly-like substance he created with mixed water and darkness magic.
"Nice one, Tatsuro"
"You too, Ai"
While conversing via telepathy, they stayed low to avoid being noticed by individuals wandering everywhere and pressed against the wall, having Leah use her smithing skill to gouge out wall material without making a sound.
Then they smeared it on a thin fake wall made with earth magic and hid behind it to avoid being noticed at first glance.
"Alright, Cardina and I will search for the button, please guard us during that time"
"Okay"
When they came here before, the question button was already less than one centimeter.
Now who knows how small it had become.
Moreover, this time the room was a hundred times larger than before.
Even using detection magic, it would likely take time to search.
So to search calmly, they created a fake wall the same color as the real one and hid behind it.
That strategy worked well, and they were able to find the small button without causing any disturbance.
From the position where they had entered the tunnel, considering that as the back, it was near the joint between the left wall and the front wall.
Of all places, it was almost diagonally opposite from their current location.
After writing this information on paper to silently convey it to everyone, they had Nana recast detoxification magic as a precaution to extend the duration of the effect.
Now the poison countermeasures were perfect and the button location was identified.
All that remained was to confirm the answer to the question, but the crucial eggs were nowhere to be seen.
Then Leah took out the paper and began explaining through writing.
(It seems they have pouches on their backs. They appear to carry eggs in there for transport. Since my eyes need direct visual observation, I can't determine the answer in this state)
Tatsuro gave an OK sign with his fingers and nodded, then slowly began moving the slimy water that was still keeping the defeated individual pinned, drawing it towards them.
Some noticed the fallen individual but either thought it was sleeping or were simply indifferent, as they showed little concern while the corpse was brought over.
Then Tatsuro stored it in his [Infinite Item Field] and took out just the eggs after sorting them.
This revealed eggs about twenty centimeters in size.
As far as he could confirm by directly radiating dispel magic, they were 21.5 centimeters.
Normally this would leave no room for error, but Tatsuro had been betrayed like this many times before.
So he could no longer trust such answers.
Therefore he checked with Leah, who gestured for him to hand it over, so Tatsuro obediently passed it to her.
As soon as Leah received it, she took out something from her [Item Box] and, being careful to make as little noise as possible, drove it into the egg to create a crack.
Then she inserted her small fingers into the crack and split it in two with a pop.
Inside was another egg. And when she cracked that one too, yet another egg came out.
"It's like a Matryoshka doll!" (T/N: A Matryoshka doll, also known as a Russian nesting doll or stacking doll, is a traditional Russian toy consisting of a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other)
"How interesting!"
It seemed to have a triple-layered structure, with the real egg being inside after cracking two shells.
As a result, rather than the blue answer of 21.5 centimeters, the real answer appeared to be the red option of 20 centimeters, 1.5 centimeters smaller.
Anyway, now they had the answer.
All that remained was to quietly press the roughly three-millimeter button diagonally across the room, then launch an all-out war heading to the center to press the red button.
So they began moving along the wall while slowly shifting the fake wall.
Whenever detection magic showed someone might notice them, they stopped and quietly killed any individuals that could obstruct their path with ranged attacks.
Though it took considerable time since they proceeded without rushing like this, they successfully reached the button's location without being noticed.
"Around where?"
"Near where the walls connect... a bit higher"
"──Found it. Alright, I'm pressing it"
"Yeah"
While confirming via telepathy, Ai pressed the tiny button smaller than a grain of rice, and a signboard scaled up to match the room appeared in the center of the wide space.
And because the four colored button pillars had also been scaled up a hundredfold to match the room, they had grown from fifty centimeters to five meters tall, meaning they would need to climb up there to press the red button.
And to make matters worse, the monsters began gathering around the suddenly appeared signboard and four button pillars with obvious wariness.
{They can't even tell the difference between inanimate objects and living things. As expected, they have chicken brains.}
{Hmm. But if we fight there while they're clustered like that, we might break the buttons.}
{We tend to be pretty overkill overall. In that case, we'll have to lure them away.}
{Well, looking at how they're acting, that should be pretty easy.}
{Ah...}
Tatsuro and Ai cut off their telepathy there and gave exasperated looks at the giant chicken-like creatures still crowding around the inanimate objects.