The two of them emerged from the deep, shadowy passage, and the view suddenly opened up before them.
If the Second Floor had offered only the occasional glimpse of scattered architectural ruins, the third floor was an entirely different sight.
Everywhere they looked, there were crumbling walls and shattered buildings.
Fallen stone pillars lay across the road. Half-buried foundations peeked through the gray-white dust, and broken paving stones stretched crookedly into the distance. Both sides were crowded with the wreckage of houses. Some still retained the outlines of doors and windows, while others had nothing left but a single wall on the verge of collapse.
The architecture resembled the ruins on the Second Floor, with the same decorative motifs of hourglasses and gears. But everything here was much larger and more densely packed. There were clear signs that this had once been a thriving human settlement, perhaps a town of some kind.
"So this is the third floor..."
Greg stood at the passage's exit, surveying the scene before him as a strange feeling welled up inside him.
When he had played the original game in his previous life, he had only fully cleared the first two floors of the Academy Dungeon. Once the novelty wore off, he had never ventured any deeper.
Now, however, he had set foot in an area even his past self had never reached, giving him an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.
"Heh. This place really has changed quite a bit."
Nightmare's voice suddenly sounded in Greg's mind. There was an elusive complexity to her tone, making it impossible to tell whether she felt nostalgia, wistfulness, or something else.
Greg paused briefly and asked inwardly, You seem pretty familiar with the Dungeon. Have you been through all of it before?
Nightmare fell silent for a moment before