After correctly answering the multiple-choice quiz, Tatsuro and the others made it through the tunnel to the next room.
However, what awaited them there was an identical empty room, exactly like the previous one.
Moreover, it seemed they weren't allowed to go back, as once everyone had entered the room, the tunnel sealed shut, trapping them again in a ten-meter square room.
"Hey, hey. There's a button over there this time."
"Again? Don't tell me we'll have to keep doing quizzes endlessly?"
"Ehhh. That's so boring~"
While Athena was complaining, Ai discovered a round switch on the back wall this time.
When she pressed the switch, just like before, a signboard with a question written on it and a pillar with four colored buttons emerged from the floor.
"This time it's 'How many leaves does a Spurac have? Red: 2 leaves, Yellow: 4 leaves, Green: 20 leaves, Blue: 40 leaves'"
"Again with these incomprehensible proper nouns. Since it's asking about leaves, it must be some kind of plant... We've seen a few things so far, so I might have an idea.""Wasn't that fish from the second floor a plant monster? Could it be that?"
"Did that thing even have leaves?"
"Could it be that each scale was actually a leaf? Or maybe each individual one counts as a leaf?"
"That's... we didn't check. But if so, it would be either green or blue. With such a wide range between the upper and lower limits, we can't narrow down which plant it might be from this question."
"The quiz maker's mean streak is showing!"
Even after discussing it, they still couldn't figure out what a Spurac was.
So they decided to assume it was that fish-shaped plant monster and press the blue button.
"Alright, I'm going to press it~"
"Yeah. Go ahead whenever."
"Here we go─"
"─────!"
The moment Ai pressed the blue button, the floor began to glow blindingly white, illuminating the entire room.
Although they had been prepared for anything, this caught them off guard and they instinctively closed their eyes.
However, Tatsuro quickly switched to [Spirit Eyes] to remove the intense light from his vision, and he could see something similar to, but slightly different from, what they saw when going to the next layer seeping up from the floor like rising water.
Then everyone, including Tatsuro, was absorbed into it.
When the light faded from their vision and everyone looked around, they were standing in another empty box-shaped space surrounded by blue walls.
While this might seem like just a sudden flash of light followed by darkness, everyone remembered clearly experiencing that strange sensation similar to when they had crossed to the next layer.
However, if asked what had changed, none of them could answer.
So for now, they put that thought aside and searched for another button in this room.
Then Ai discovered a button installed in exactly the same place as in the first room.
"Found it... but isn't it just a little bit smaller?"
"Hm? Ah, you're right. It does seem slightly smaller."
"Could it be that it gets smaller each time we get a wrong answer?"
"...Since this button only seems to have the function of displaying questions, I can't determine that even with my eyes."
"Well, we have no choice but to press it anyway. Better get it over with quickly."
"Yeah."
As Athena said, standing around talking wouldn't get them anywhere, so they pressed the button to make the signboard and four colored buttons appear.
But as for the question written there...
"'What does Ruyaji react to when attacking? Red: Vibration, Yellow─' Hey, this is the same as the first question!"
"When the button was in the same position, I had a feeling this might happen... Don't tell me we've been sent back to the beginning?"
"Eh!? Do we get sent back to the start every time we're wrong? That's so annoying!"
"In that case, we should probably take notes of the answers and button positions from now on."
"Since we can't afford to go back through places we've already passed, let's do that."
After discussion, it was decided that Leah would be in charge of taking notes, so she first wrote down the question and quickly sketched the button positions on paper.
Then they pressed the green button to open the tunnel to proceed, and assuming they would just end up in the same room again, they hurried toward it.
However, that place was different from before.
The surfaces on all sides were covered in dirt, from which densely grew spiral-shaped grass-like springs they had seen before.
Thinking "What's this?" and not wanting to have their feet tangled in it while walking, Tatsuro tried burning it all with fire magic before entering the room.
However, new grass sprouted immediately where it was burned, so he realized it was futile and gave up.
"Can't be helped. Let's go in as is."
"I wonder why it's like this this time. Maybe we came out in a different place?"
While saying such things, they pushed through the clinging grass to search the back wall where the button had been in the second room, but there was no button there.
Since they couldn't see it visually because of the grass, they carefully examined the room's surfaces with dispel magic and found it in the left corner of the ceiling.
So they had Ai extend the Robot Hand of Gundari Myoo to press it, and they read the question written on the signboard that appeared.
The question turned out to be the same as before, asking about the number of leaves.
"So it is the same room after all? ...Or rather, I guess this must be what Spurac is?"
"Then we just need to count the leaves on this. Let's see, two leaves... maybe?"
When Ai crouched down to check, there were two small leaves attached to the spiral stem near the base.
When Tatsuro looked at others in the same way, they all similarly had two leaves attached.
"So the answer to that question is red for 2 leaves."
"...No, it's yellow for 4 leaves."
"Eh? But they all only have two leaves?"
"Try tearing one off and rubbing it like this─ between your fingers."
Ai and Tatsuro also tore off the small leaves at the base of the grass growing below and tried sliding them between their thumb and index finger in opposite directions as Leah demonstrated.
Then it seemed there had been a thin leaf stuck to the back, apparently making it double-layered like toilet paper.
"It's a trick! How sneaky!"
"Even with the actual thing in front of us, they try to trick us in places like this. This will be tough if it happens every time."
"But if this is the Spurac from the question, we know the answer now, so let's try pressing it."
"Yeah. Let's do it."
So this time Nana floated over to the yellow button and, as if taking out her frustration, smacked it with her small hand to press it.
Then a tunnel appeared in the ceiling where the button for displaying the signboard had been, and a ladder came clattering down.
Apparently, they were meant to climb up there.
"Up this time, huh. Leah, did you note down the answer and button location?"
"Yes, perfectly!"
"Alright then, let's go to the next one!"
As Ai was about to go, Jeanne pressed her nose against Tatsuro's leg as if trying to communicate something.
"What is it, Jeanne?"
"Neigh─, neigh─, neigh─"
"Ah─ Looks like she wants to collect this grass. The seeds if possible."
"Seeds? Ah, I see. This could be useful with wood magic."
"Neigh!"
As if saying "That's right!", Jeanne happily rubbed against Tatsuro's leg.
While saying "What a good idea," Tatsuro also stroked her body in return.
When they had Leah investigate how to collect the seeds, it turned out that pea-like seeds were packed inside these tough spiral stems.
Apparently, when these fully mature, they burst and scatter their seeds around.
However, if taken out before then, the seeds would still be immature, so they cut out an entire section of the wall and stored it in Tatsuro's [Infinite Item Field] along with the soil.
They advanced time to let the seeds emerge and sent those to Jeanne.
Tatsuro decided to cultivate the remainder himself.
Once they had settled that, Tatsuro and the others climbed the ladder, Cardina flew up, and Jeanne skillfully climbed up using wood magic to manipulate plant vines.
When they reached the next room, it was the familiar place surrounded by blue walls, just like the first room.
Since there was nothing obstructing their view this time, they quickly found the button on the left wall and brought up the question.
"'What color are Brush's eyes? Red: Red, Yellow: Yellow, Green: Green, Blue: Blue... Who's Brush?"
"Brush, huh. Almost every monster has eyes. There's no way we can know."
"Besides, we don't remember the eye color of every monster we meet!"
"That's normal, right? Should we just decide by majority vote?"
"Wait a moment................. Hmm─ it's not in the monster encyclopedia either, so I guess we have no choice."
Even after checking the monster encyclopedia bought in Obsul just in case, there was no monster called Brush listed.
So they took a majority vote like before and decided to press the red button as it got the most votes.
When they pressed it, the floor began to glow blindingly bright again.
"Ah... Wrong answer..."
The moment Tatsuro muttered those words, they were forcibly sent back to the first room.
Since they knew both the button locations and answers for the path they'd already taken, they proceeded quickly without even reading the questions.
When they pushed through the grass of the second room and returned to the third room, it had transformed into yet another space.
This time the walls were covered with high-pressure water walls they had seen before, and familiar monsters were lurking there in swarms.
And they weren't just lurking.
The moment they spotted them, they all rushed out at once.
"Aren't these the guys with that Magic Hand skill or whatever from the fifth layer?"
"Ah, so this thing was called Brush─ whoops!"
"This much is easy with my pole arms!"
Combat began the moment they entered the room.
Everyone immediately took battle positions and started mercilessly beating them down.
However, no matter how many they defeated, they spawned endlessly and their numbers never decreased.
It was just like the centipede from the fourth layer.
"Peewee─"
"There's a button on the floor to the left! That's what she says!"
"Over there, right? I'll go press it!"
"Please do! I'll check this thing's eye color!"
While these monsters had large, thick arms, their bodies were thin like poles.
Therefore their eyes were small, and the color couldn't be determined just by looking.
So while deploying magic and shooting down monsters, Tatsuro pulled over a fallen corpse with his foot.
Then upon examining it, he found what appeared to be eyelids at the tip of the pole, so he pushed them up with his finger to check the color.
"The color is green─"
"Wrong! It's blue!"
"Eh? This is wrong too!? But this is clearly green no matter how you look at it..."
"Try peeling back the nictitating membrane under the eyelid too!"
"Nictitating membrane!?"
When he touched the small, squishy eye part under the eyelid, there was indeed a nictitating membrane, and when he peeled it back horizontally in the opposite direction from the eyelid, there was a blue eye hidden behind it.
When he investigated why the color changed, it seemed the nictitating membrane had a yellowish tint, so the blue and yellow mixed to appear green.
"Athena! Press the blue button!"
"Got it! Here we go!"
When Athena pressed the switch with the back of her scythe, a tunnel appeared on the floor where the button was, sloping diagonally downward like a slide.
Since they couldn't calmly take notes in this situation, they decided to proceed for now.
"Everyone, jump in there!"
"Yeah!"
"Pewee!"
"Neigh!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"Roger!"
While scattering the still continuing fierce monster attacks, only Tatsuro jumped into the tunnel-like slide while storing corpses in his [Infinite Item Field].