Chapter 3: New Companions
Chapter 3: New Companions
With the joining of Kinouchi Mari, the establishment of Dungeon Busters had taken another step. The rest of the world, however, was not going to wait. On Friday, one day before when Mari would be showing up for her new part-time job for the first time, the seven developed countries that had attended Nagoya G7 released a joint declaration regarding the dungeons.
The topic of the 2019 G7 conference had been almost entirely about the dungeons. To be more exact, President Ronald Howard of the United States of America had kicked the meeting off on the topic, and then the topic had remained on the table for pretty much the entire rest of the conference.
“Gamerica asks that all countries release information about the dungeons all at the same time, and we ask that the UN set up a separate authority whose task would be to manage and oversee all of the dungeons in the world. As I’m sure everyone already knows, the black stones that can be gathered from the dungeons have the ability to extract hydrogen by breaking water down. The biggest challenge facing each of our countries’ research into hydrogen energy is the cost of the hydrogen itself. This black stone can resolve that problem all at once, possibly bringing about a worldwide energy revolution. Now is when all of us should join hands and work with each other.”
The first one to agree with the US president’s words was the Japanese leader, Prime Minister Urabe Seiichirou.
“Japan expresses our full-hearted support for President Howard’s suggestions. The existence of the dungeons is far too large for countries to deal with on their own. We believe this to be an issue that requires the cooperative efforts of the entire world.”
The leaders of Kanada and the European Union nations of Reich, Franze, Bryten, and Itali all nodded cautiously, as if to indicate that they weren’t entirely against the idea. The representative of Reich, Chancellor Adele Helgen, also spoke up.
“When you talk about an authority to manage the dungeons, what do you have in mind specifically? The one that has appeared in our country has very powerful monsters inside, and our special forces are struggling to make headway against them. On the other hand, we hear that the monsters in the Gamerican dungeons are relatively weak, such that they’ve already discovered stairs that lead further down. With the disposition of the dungeons in each country being so vastly different, trying to manage them all would invariably lead to unfairness, would it not?”
“In regards to the authority, our country has a suggestion.”
Prime Minister Urabe’s words gathered the other countries’ attention. Japan had a booming otaku subculture within which a great many novels aimed at young adults — commonly referred to as “light novels” — were published and regularly consumed by audiences numbering in the millions. Within these light novels was a genre that specifically explored the emergence of unnatural phenomena. In light of this, it was probably the Japanese who would adapt fastest to the current dungeon outbreak phenomenon.
“There are light novels from our country that depict the simultaneous worldwide appearance of dungeons. We summoned those authors as experts and asked their opinions regarding economics and governing policies. According to them, the uncertainty of how long this phenomenon will last could possibly cause unease and anxiety to build up among the populace which, if handled badly, might even lead to riots down the road. The way to curb this is to sway global opinion against rioting by releasing information strategically and showing the guise of the entire world standing against the dungeons in a unified front. In exchange, as a way for the public to vent its worries regarding the dungeons, our experts further proposed the establishment of a new occupation specialized in the exploring of the dungeons and for this occupation to be supervised by an international authority.”
“A new occupation? What do you want to call it? ‘Dungeon explorers’ or something?”
The country that President Hermann Maison represented, Franze, had already suffered the appearance of three dungeons despite having less than half of Japan’s population. To make matters worse, one of them was located right in the middle of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a major artery running through the capital. Voices within the country demanding the recalling of all troops stationed overseas to deal with this seemingly domestic threat were mounting day by day.
“The participation of civilians is an absolute necessity for this new occupation. Aside from the black stones, there is the possibility of as-yet unknown medicines and technologies being unearthed. I believe there is a certain word in the English language that perfectly describes such ‘explorers of the unknown.’”
“I know this one. Ind*a*a Jo*es, right?” joked President Abraham Thornell of Kanada, evoking a roar of laughter.
President Urabe also smiled in amusement, but then shook his head and said simply, “It’s ‘adventurers.’”
◇ ◇ ◇
With Wave 3 almost on the horizon, the latest G7 summit kicked off in Nagoya. The leaders fiercely debated together until late into the nights, never even bothering with entering closed door bilateral talks. As major developed powers of the world, they had to think not only about the citizens of their own countries but also about the entire world at large.
<A ‘Dungeon Adventurer HQ’ will be established within the UN headquarters, with branches being set up in each country in due time. The duty of adventurers would be dungeon exploration, which includes the subjugation of the monsters that appear within and the retrieval of the black stones and cards that those monsters would drop. Normal civilians may also apply to become an adventurer. However, as it is impossible to bring weapons inside dungeons, the suggestion has been raised that perhaps an exam should be set up to confirm the fighting ability of applicants. Further details have yet to be finalized.>
“So it’s finally begun...”
While listening to the announcement on the news, I thought about what was to come.
I had expected the dungeons to be opened to the civilians sooner or later, but this is faster than I’d expected. But then again, even if the governments begin moving now, it would still take them quite some time to actually get things set up. Just because the G7 countries have reached an agreement doesn’t mean that the UN will just follow along. In the first place, I can’t imagine all the member countries agreeing to this. Within just East Asia alone, I expect the Oriental Republic of Sina, the Rushian Federation, and the Kingdom of Ko in the north of the peninsula to express their opposition. The Republic of Woori in the south would probably be on board, which only leaves the Republic of Sina. I’ve heard that dungeons have appeared there as well, but it’s not a member nation of the UN. If this Dungeon Adventurer HQ acknowledges their participation, the Oriental Republic of Sina would very likely refuse to participate.
As I listed down everything that I needed to do, I found myself getting rather sleepy, perhaps due to not having spent this much time up aboveground for quite a while. Tomorrow was going to be Mari’s dungeon debut. I turned off the TV and headed towards my bedroom.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Wow, you remodeled everything!”
On Saturday afternoon, Mari came to my new apartment near Mizue Station, after which I promptly brought her to Abyss. As she had pointed out, I had indeed remodeled the Safety Zone on Floor 1. The single bed that had been here previously was now gone, replaced by three adult-sized bunk beds hidden behind their own partitions so that the space could be shared by both genders without issue.
“Mari and Emily, you two can choose one of the beds and sleep in the top and bottom bunks. I’ll take the one on the far side, leaving this middle one free for now. As for Akane...well, you can do what you want.”
“In that case, then I’ll top Kazuhiko-sama...” replied Akane suggestively while leaning into me.
Thinking it a bit inappropriate before a teenage girl in her impressionable years, I softly rebuked her and cleared my throat.
“About the toilet, it doesn’t matter where it is done inside the dungeon. It would help if you could learn to get used to it, but if it really bothers you, just say so. I’ll teleport us back aboveground.”
“Ah......i-it’s fine. I’ll learn to get used to it!”
“Lastly, make sure to tell me when it is your time of the month, as monsters are attracted to the smell of blood. Also, the dungeon unfortunately does not absorb sanitary goods, so make sure that you take care of those yourself.”
Mari nodded with a red face. It was probably an embarrassing topic, but this kind of thing needed to be clearly laid out ahead of time. After all, what lay behind the dungeon doors was adventure with our lives on the line.
“All right then, we’ll start from Floor 1. Mari, you don’t have to do anything today. Just watch and learn. But make sure to wear the cut-resistance shirt and safety boots that I’d prepared in advance. And...this, too. It’s a five kilogram weighted vest. Just by walking around with this on, you will be training your body. I don’t know in which direction you’ll be developing towards, but all adventurers need to build their stamina up.”
After one last check of all our equipment, the four of us finally stepped foot into Floor 1 together.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Eeek!”
I couldn’t help but let out a small shriek when seeing one of those creepy, grey-brown creatures running towards us. However, Kazu-san, who was leading our procession, merely slapped it once, and it turned to smoke. Although they look scary, could it be that these ‘goblins’ are weaker than I’d thought?
“There’s no need to be afraid, Mari. Master is in front, I’m next to you, and Akane is protecting our rear. Even if a hundred goblins rush at us at the same time, not a single one of them would be able to reach you.”
“Thank you, Emily-chan.”
Emily-chan really was like a friend to me. She had a bit of a forceful personality, but I really enjoyed talking with her, and she was very reliable. For some reason, when monsters in this dungeon were defeated, they would drop money. The first time I saw it happen, I was really surprised. To think that one goblin would equate to five hundred yen! Kazu-san easily defeated the five hundred yens — I meant, goblins — one after another. At this rate, gathering several hundreds of thousands of yen was just a matter of time. No wonder the hourly wage is so high!
With everything that was going on, the first thirty minutes went by like a normal walk.
“Huff...huff...”
Slightly after the thirty-minute mark, however, I started being out of breath. The five kilogram vest started weighing on me, and my legs were feeling swollen.
“Hold in there for just a little longer. For every hour we do this, we’ll take twenty minutes of rest.”
Kazu-san, however, looked entirely unfazed. I couldn’t believe it. Despite wearing a twenty kilogram vest, three kilogram wrist weights on each hand, eight kilogram ankle weights on each leg, and a ten kilogram diving weight around his waist, he continued slapping away the goblins as if he were merely taking a stroll. Is he really human?
“Don’t even think about forcing yourself to do what he’s doing, all right? Apparently even Master suffered serious muscle soreness at the start. You’ll be fine, Mari. You’re much younger than him, so you’ll surely rank up much faster.”
I felt a bit sorry for him having his age being brought up, but Emily’s words did make the going a little easier. I continued chasing Kazu-san’s back, sweating buckets all the way.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Ughhhh, my feet are killing me...”
Only an hour had passed, but when we got back to the Safety Zone, Mari had immediately collapsed onto the couch. I was fine because I could use Recovery Magic on myself, but she would probably need a potion. Just when I was trying to take a Potion Card out, another card that had gotten caught also fell out. It turned out to be a monster card of the rabbit-like monster that I had picked up in Yokohama Dungeon. When it slowly floated before Mari, she suddenly grabbed it with astonishing speed.
“Th-This...this is so cute!!”
Judging by how closely she was staring at the card, apparently it had struck her fancy. Which reminds me, Mari’s not keeping any pets at her home, right? I should probably refrain from bringing her to Yokohama Dungeon.
“That’s the monster that appears on Floor 1 inside Yokohama Dungeon. I just happened to be in the area when it emerged, so I tried diving into it and fighting a few of the monsters inside.”
“Kazu-san! Monster cards are summonable, right? There’s no problem if it’s inside a dungeon, right?”
“...Just saying, but you can’t use monster cards as pets just because they’re cute, all right?”
I drew my brows together into a frown while issuing a warning. At the very least, I had no intention of using any monster cards — rabbit or otherwise — at the moment. The way I saw it, we needed to train ourselves up first before relying on summoned monsters.
“There shouldn’t be much of a problem, Master. Rank F monsters can also get stronger by absorbing Enhancement Element. And this monster is pretty cute. Mari, go ahead and summon it.”
“Hold on a —”
Before I could say anything else, however, Mari must have already thought “Summon.” The card in her hand disappeared with a poof and was replaced by a roughly fifty-centimeter-long rabbit with white fur.
“Myu?”
“AAAHHHHHH!!!”
Mari let out a shriek of delight, then enveloped the rabbit in a bear hug and started furiously rubbing her cheek against its fur.
“Myuuuu!”
The surprised rabbit desperately tried to escape, but apparently Mari’s strength was greater. As Mari continued blissfully enjoying the monster’s fluffiness, I dropped a hand chop onto the back of her head.
“Mari! I didn’t say you could summon it. Return it right now.”
“Just a little bit more! At least let me name it! Your name will be... How about Myu-chan? What do you think, Myu-chan?”
“Myu? Myuuu...”
The rabbit stopped struggling as if it had resigned itself to its fate. Just when I was at a loss for how to handle the situation, Akane offered her opinion.
“Kazuhiko-sama, I also think you can let them be. In addition, I believe you have yet to gather data on summoned monsters, including how fast they grow, in what way, and to what extent. How about thinking of this as another experiment?”
“That’s right, Master. Mari’s also really happy about it, and we’re going to be staying on Floor 1 for a while, right? If Myuu comes along, it could serve as good competition for her.”
I did not have enough grounds of an argument to refute the opinions from both of the Stars of Destiny.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Myu...mimyuu...” cried the rabbit while hopping alongside Mari. In expectation of even the goblins on Floor 1 being too much for it to handle, there was no choice but to assign it the same menu as Mari of just walking around for now.
“Myu-chan, here’s your food!”
“Myu!”
The rabbit happily hopped onto Mari’s knee and began digging into a plate of beef stew. That’s strange. Have rabbits always been carnivores?
“Generally, all monsters are omnivores. They can eat both vegetables and meat. But when looking at it up close like this, it really does look adorable. I can’t help wanting to pat its head.”
When Akane reached a hand out, Myu obediently let itself be stroked. Clearly it had already won the mascot position among the three girls. I took out a card case from a drawer.
“This is a card case for that rabb— for Myu. Make sure you take good care of it, all right?”
After accepting it, Mari happily resumed rubbing her cheeks against Myu. Well, no matter. Life down here in the dungeon is monotonous and dull. I suppose a pet would help alleviate that to some degree.
After repeating the cycle of walking for one hour and resting for twenty minutes a total of five times, I decided to call it a day. Just as I was about to return Mari back aboveground, to my surprise, she expressed the desire to stay overnight down here.
“I want to get stronger faster and become helpful to Kazu-san. My mom has already given her permission, and I’ve also brought clothes to change into. So, um...please let me stay here a while longer.”
Apparently inside her Magic Pouch she had underwear and pajamas to change into that she had bought using the preparation money that I’d given her.
“All right. In that case, then after this lunch is over, we’ll be doing cycles of two hours of walking before twenty minutes of rest. After three cycles, then we’ll actually call it a day. I’ll send you aboveground so you can bathe, then I’ll be fetching you to sleep down here.”
I ladled more beef stew onto Mari’s plate, then handed it back to her.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Fire Arrow!”
Flames took on the shape of a spear, then shot forward to pierce a goblin’s abdomen. In order to confirm Emily’s capabilities, I was purposely standing in the back. Despite being merely Rank F, she was a Legend Rare character card. There was no way that she would lose to a mere goblin. The girl continued spamming her overkill attacks left and right.
“If possible, I’d like to fight more worthy enemies, though...” grumbled Emily with a sigh.
As for Mari and I, however...the two of us were speechless witnessing the power of magic for the first time.
“This...is much more than I had expected. It looks like magic is going to come in really useful indeed.”
“Hehe, of course! After all, I am the genius mage of the 108 Stars of Destiny!”
“Emily-chan, you’re amazing! Would I ever be able to use magic, too?”
“It’s just my intuition, but I’m sure you’ll be getting a magic skill when you rank up. When that happens, I’ll teach you.”
Although my original instructions had been for Emily to lead our procession, before I knew it, it had turned into the two of them walking in front, chatting happily the whole way. In addition, Mari had also grown completely used to Emily’s walking pace. That’s weird. She was panting heavily just now, wasn’t she? Why is she already all right? Is this youth? Is this the so-called power of youth?!
“Kazuhiko-sama, please don’t let it get to you. Emily and Mari growing stronger is to your advantage, so...”
Akane tried her best to comfort me. You’re my only source of healing.
◇ ◇ ◇
Although this wasn’t quite a sleepover, I couldn’t help thinking about how long it had been since my last one. After borrowing the shower at Kazu-san’s apartment, I had come back to the dungeon to find Emily-chan waiting for me in a matching set of pajamas. Even though we had gotten a bunk bed, we got into the same bed together so we could talk more.
“I’ve erected a simple barrier. We won’t be able to hear sound from the outside, either, but this is a Safety Zone, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Thanks to Emily-chan, we didn’t have to worry about bothering Kazu-san and Akane-san on the other side of the partition. I talked a whole lot about my school, my family, and what had happened inside the dungeon.
“I’m sorry, Emily-chan. It ended up with me doing so much of the talking...”
“Don’t worry about it. Because all of my memories were wiped away, I don’t have much to talk about. I think I’ve talked a lot with a lot of people before, but I don’t remember any of it.”
“Are you going to forget about everything we talk about, too?”
No matter how close we got, no matter how many fun memories we made together, everything was still going to be completely wiped away with the destruction of the world. I couldn’t help feeling really sad for Emily-chan. She fell silent for a short while, then let out a lonely laugh.
“If this world doesn’t get destroyed ten years from now, I have a feeling that I won’t have to forget everything. I really don’t want to forget you, Mari. I want to make many, many more memories with you. That is why I’m helping Master.”
“Me, too... I hope that we can remain friends for ever and ever. That’s why I will also fight.”
We probably talked for a bit longer after that, but somewhere along the way, I ended up falling asleep from exhaustion.
◇ ◇ ◇
On the second dungeon day, I swapped out Mari’s five kilogram weighted vest with a ten kilogram one. The reason was simple: her growth was incredibly fast. In just one day, she had already gotten used to the five kilogram weight. I had clearly underestimated the potential of a teenage body. She had practically changed into an entirely different person in a single day.
For the first six days, the focus was going to be solely on building up stamina. The potions proved dramatically helpful for recovery, being able to dispel muscle soreness in a second and even helping to build muscle. With a well-balanced diet centered around protein, plenty of sleep, and a means of letting out stress, it was now proven that even a high school girl could withstand the conditions inside a dungeon.
“Mari, you want to have a try? Even you should be able to easily defeat these goblins.”
On the third day, Mari borrowed a sword from me upon being urged by Emily. As she had yet to rank up, she did not yet possess any skills, which meant she was limited to close-quarters combat using either her bare hands or a weapon.
With a cute “Ei!”, she swung her sword, and the goblin turned into smoke. She was quite anxious before her first one, but after that was easygoing. With the rate at which she was mowing down goblins one after the other, she was going to reach Rank E faster than I had thought.
“Ah, a card dropped. This makes my tenth one. I can pull the gacha!”
“If you collect one hundred cards, you’d get eleven pulls. Akane, what would happen when someone reaches their possession limit?”
“Then cards would stop dropping for them. However, even I’m not sure what would happen if someone were to hand them more cards than their limit. How about testing it?”
“A h-hundred cards? I can’t even imagine collecting that many...”
“Don’t worry, Mari. Even without using the gacha, you have most everything you need. Then again, Master, don’t you own several thousands of Rank D Skeleton Knight Cards? How about letting Mari gacha with those?”
“Goblin Cards would be one thing, but Skeleton Knight Cards are definitely out of the question. If she doesn’t gain the habit of gathering her own cards, she’d grow dependent. Things like this are important from the get-go.”
After that, Mari and Emily continued killing goblins without any mishaps. Before long, Emily and Myu both leveled up.
Name: Emily
Title: Saucy Mage
Rank: E
Rarity: Legend Rare
Skills: Esoteric Technique (Lvl. 2), Summoning (Lvl. 1), Alchemy (Lvl. 1)
Name: Myu-chan
Title: Kinouchi Mari’s Pet
Rank: E
Rarity: Common
Skills: Myu-chan Punch (Lvl. 1), ______
“The fact that Emily’s Summoning and Alchemy hasn’t gone up needs some looking into, but before that...there’s the word ‘pet’ in the rabbit’s title. Furthermore, ‘Myu-chan Punch’? There’s a proper noun in the skill name! And when talking about rabbits, isn’t it normally ‘kicks’?! Why did it gain a punching skill?!”
“Myu!”
Myu jumped up, then unleashed a quick jab that made a quick whoosh. It’s strange. The reach of that punch is strange. However, Mari seemed entirely unbothered by all of the points that I had raised. Instead, she simply clapped her hands in delight.
“That’s amazing!! Myu-chan, you’ve gotten so strong! Now you’ll be able to fight the goblins, too!”
“Myu myuuu!”
The rabbit had on what looked like a “Leave it to me!” expression. By this time, I had lost all intention of retorting. Instead, I turned towards Emily. It seemed like talking to her would prove much more constructive.
“As a general rule, skills won’t level up if they’re not used. I don’t have any of the materials I’d need to use Summoning and Alchemy: Summoning Stones for Summoning and ores and specific alchemic equipment for Alchemy.”
“How can we get the materials and tools that you need?”
“Even I don’t know. But they’d probably be somewhere in the dungeon, I suppose. If not, then the gacha.”
“Hmm, I haven’t gotten anything of the sort from the gacha system so far, though...”
However, one thing I knew was that so far, nothing that the Dungeon System had thrown at us had been a waste. Even the magic stone that I didn’t understand was now the focus of an energy revolution. In the same vein, Emily’s skills were surely going to come in relevant somewhere along the way.
“In any case, we’ll continue lapping Floor 1. Guess we need to give Myu an opportunity to practice its new skill, too.”
Myu’s appearance was that of a cute rabbit less than fifty centimeters long. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t sure it could win, not even against goblins. That said, I was forced to reconsider my opinion soon enough.
A roughly one-meter-tall goblin ran towards us, gibbering menacingly. In response, Myu hopped forward and, when the two of them were roughly two meters apart, shifted into action.
“Myu!”
With a powerful kick, it launched itself into the air, darting forward with great speed and closing the remaining distance to the goblin in a blink of an eye. It landed right before its enemy, hopped up so that it was level with the goblin’s face, and then...
“Myu!”
Bam!
...threw a punch that sent the goblin flying several meters before turning into smoke.
“WHY?! The acceleration is fine. At this point, I’m even willing to let the punching go. But how did a fifty-centimeter-long rabbit send a goblin twice its height flying for several meters with a single punch?! That makes no physical sense!!”
I would like to think that I was not in the wrong for instinctively retorting in response to the scene that had just unfolded before my eyes. However, Mari glared at me while patting the head of the rabbit that seemed to be proudly puffing out its chest.
“Kazu-san, Myu-chan is no ordinary rabbit! It is my cute partner!”
“Master is really smart, but sometimes a bit too constricted by logic. Accept what you just witnessed with your own eyes.”
“Kazuhiko-sama, this is a dungeon after all...”
That doesn’t explain anything, though! What, can the single phrase “because it is a dungeon” send logic and common sense out the window?
Afterwards, Myu continued jumping cutely while beating monsters to death. I told myself that I wouldn’t be surprised even if it suddenly started walking on two legs.
◇ ◇ ◇
“There has been quite a lot of surprises today, but we’ve managed to confirm quite a few things, including the details regarding Myu’s skill. I’m still struggling to accept the concept of a rabbit using martial arts, but well, ‘because it is a dungeon,’ I suppose. Once Mari reaches Rank E, we’ll fully deck her out with equipment from the gacha and then head straight to Floor 3. Any objections with this plan?”
Everyone nodded. Mari was using her own comb to brush Myu’s fur. The sight of it holding a pistachio with both hands and nibbling on it completely evoked the image of a normal rabbit.
“I myself reached Rank E while in the middle of killing five thousand goblins. However, I only had Akane with me at the time, and I was fighting with my bare hands. It would probably be faster for you, but it’d likely still take quite a bit more time.”
“F-Five thousand...that sounds like something for far, far in the future...”
“Don’t worry, Mari. You are steadily growing stronger. After all, remember how you were all out of breath just walking around with light weights at the start? Now you’re wearing twice the weights from before and it’s not fazing you at all. That’s proof more than anything that your stamina and strength have gone up dramatically.”
“Mm, I suppose so. Thank you for the encouragement, Emily-chan.”
When I looked at them together like this, they really seemed like friends, almost as if they were classmates attending the same high school. Clearly, Mari’s presence had also largely affected Emily, too. This pairing really was the right call after all. Once Mari grows strong enough, let’s transfer ownership of Emily’s card to her.
Speaking of cards... I took out forty Goblin Cards.
“Mari, take these cards and try opening your Status window. I want to see how your possession limit and the Card Gacha skill will react.”
After all, if she could only hold thirty cards at any given time, that would mean that I was the only person who could take advantage of the extra roll from ten-consecutive rolls. Worrying about how that would affect the running of Dungeon Busters in that case, I passed a card case with forty cards inside to Mari. Thankfully, she was able to accept it. Then she opened her Status screen.
Name: Kinouchi Mari
Title: None
Rank: F
Possession Limit: 40 / 30
Skills: Card Gacha (4), ______, ______
“I see. So the possession limit only affects drops rates and otherwise has no bearing on the Card Gacha skill. All right, here are sixty more Goblin Cards. Try rolling the Card Gacha with these.”
When Mari accepted the additional cards, the number next to the Card Gacha skill on her display changed to “11” without issue. Things like potions and unenchanted accessories came out. The ratio of Common to Uncommon was the same as what I’d experienced. In other words, the rank of the person apparently had no bearing on the rarity of the gacha rewards. Just like when she’d seen it the first time, Mari’s eyes were as wide as saucers while looking at the sight of cards coming out from her Status screen.
“I’m glad to see that the rarity ratio of gacha is affected only by the rarity of the cards used and not the rank of the person pulling the gacha. Going forward, let’s pass out a Lazybones Bag to each new Dungeon Busters member and then consolidate all the cards gathered.”
I immediately jotted down the new findings. There was still much about the dungeon and the Status screens that were unknown. Whenever a question came up in my mind, I would memo it, then look into it whenever I had the chance. Although it was slow going, this was the only way to deepen our understanding of the dungeons.
After the break was over, I added to Mari’s weights once again before we headed back into the dungeon.
◇ ◇ ◇
While Kazu-san was in the restroom, Emily-chan and Akane-san asked me for my first impressions of the dungeon. I told them that although it was a bit tough getting used to it all, things didn’t seem as difficult as I’d feared.
“Thanks to you joining us, the burden on Kazuhiko-sama’s shoulders has grown lighter. His face has also grown brighter, and he’s started joking around. I really cannot thank you enough.”
Akane-san thanked me with a big smile on her face, but I didn’t quite understand what she was saying. The Kazu-san that I knew was a slightly overweight, middle-aged uncle who would drink at clubs near Koike and Mizue and then go home drunk. In other words, he did his work properly, but was otherwise just an ordinary middle-aged man in all other aspects.
“Before you two joined us, Emily and Mari-san, it was just Kazuhiko-sama and myself against the dungeon, day in and day out. At the time, Kazuhiko-sama was in a terrible state. Without saying a single word, he would mechanically massacre thousands and thousands of monsters as if it were just a chore. He had no one to consult or talk to and was all alone for the longest time. Mari-san, I just want you to know, you joining really has helped to free Kazuhiko-sama’s heart.”
When she put it that way, I may indeed have seen signs of what she mentioned. Even I could tell that Kazu-san had turned into a somewhat different person as of late. Every once in a while, he would get a dark look on his face and seemed to be thinking about something. Surely that was because he couldn’t tell anyone about the dungeon and had been bottling everything up inside himself.
Emily-chan also nodded. “I did not expect Master to be someone capable of throwing retorts and making jokes like he did today. You’re probably more important to him than you know, Mari. So, thanks for joining us!”
Supposedly, an endless flood of monsters would be overflowing from the dungeon ten years from now, ending all life on Earth. In order to change this future, Kazu-san was fighting with everything he had. If it had been me who had been forced to go through what Kazu-san did without being able to share the burden with anyone else, I would surely have been crushed by it all. I was weak, so I could only take on a tiny bit of Kazu-san’s burden. But if that was enough to make things just the slightest bit easier for him, if that was enough to save him, then I wanted very much to do everything within my power, too.
◇ ◇ ◇
My first day at work ended up being four aboveground hours, which was about one hundred hours down in the dungeon. I fought a lot of goblins, but sadly, I didn’t manage to reach Rank E. Apparently this was within Kazu-san’s expectations, though, and he even praised me for growing so quickly. However, he did preface it with “I guess you youngsters really do have it different.”
“It was your first day, but what with Myu having already ranked up and all, I’m skipping through the probation period and starting you off straightaway on the full ¥2,000 hourly wage. Here is ¥200,000. The sun has already set, so I’ll drive you home.”
Within the thick envelope that Kazu-san handed me were twenty crisp ten thousand yen notes. I wanted to buy something for my mom in celebration of my dungeon debut, so I asked Kazu-san to stop at a cake store on the way home.
“Will you be going into the dungeon again tomorrow, Kazu-san? Even though it’s a Sunday?”
“Hmm, I guess it would be a good idea to work out our schedules two weeks ahead of time. I’ll be going in tomorrow, but only starting in the afternoon. The morning will be for watching TV, which I can only access aboveground.”
If it’s TV on Sunday morning, could it be variety shows? When I asked him, though, Kazu-san laughed and shook his head.
“Now that you’re involved, you have a right to know. Today is the thirty-sixth day since the appearance of Yokohama Dungeon. In all likelihood, more dungeons will be appearing around midnight tonight. This is definitely going to be plastered all over every single news channel tomorrow. You should probably stay home tonight.”
I reached home with Kazu-san’s warning still ringing in my ears, unable to decide whether or not to believe him. Mom was super happy when I handed her the cake. After talking it out with her, it was decided that I would get to keep ¥10,000 as my allowance going forward. Thanks to this part-time job, our family’s finances were going to become a lot easier. Grandma had even made a full recovery. I thought again how great it was that I had agreed to help Kazu-san out.
That night, for the first time in a long time, Grandma also joined us for dinner. Mom did not ask me about the dungeon, but she did once again remind me to not push myself.
I wasn’t aware of it, but apparently I had been quite drained mentally. When I burrowed into my bed around 10 p.m., I immediately went out like a light. The next morning, when I turned on the TV over breakfast, a news flash came onto the screen. Just as Kazu-san had predicted, more dungeons really had appeared all over the world.
◇ ◇ ◇
The theory that the simultaneous worldwide dungeon outbreaks were appearing in intervals of thirty-six and a half days had been bandied about, but with the third wave of appearances, this theory had been confirmed as fact.
“So, thirty-six and a half days makes for a tenth of a year, doesn’t it? Since this is the third time, does it mean that we’ll be seeing this phenomenon seven more times?”
This special TV program that I had tuned in to early on Sunday morning happened to have a light novel author and an opposition party Diet member on as commentators. I took another bite of my breakfast as the light novel author replied to the host’s question.
“It is indeed true that the intervals are tenths of a year, but I think it is too early to assume that we won’t be seeing an eleventh or a twelfth time. This phenomenon is something supernatural that humanity is experiencing for the first time ever. There is a lot that defies what we had understood to be unshakable fact.”
“It’s practically fantasy, isn’t it? And one such example is the black stones that are being called ‘magic stones’ on the internet. It has been determined that these have the ability to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen. Many people are nursing great hopes of this sparking an energy revolution and resolving the problem of global warming. In that aspect, I suppose the dungeons can’t be entirely written off as a catastrophe, can they?”
“Many physicists appear to be really puzzling over this stone, but I personally think we might as well just accept them as a fact of the dungeons. What is more interesting to me is the ‘access to civilians’ part of the joint declaration released by the G7 members the other day. An enormous number of people — much more than the JSDF and the entire police force combined — would be needed to secure a steady harvest of the magic stones. I do agree that there is a need to set up a new occupation that is specialized for magic stone gathering.”
Parts of what the light novel author said were indeed insightful and thought-provoking. The existence of the dungeons directly affected each country’s national security. The Japanese government had apparently already set up a council of experts to consult regarding this phenomenon.
“We will now be going to Maruyama, who is currently standing in front of Odori Park in Sapporo, Hokkaido, where the third dungeon in Japan has appeared. Maruyama-san?”
“This is Maruyama, currently in Sapporo. Unfortunately, this year’s Snow Festival might have to be canceled, as...”
I turned down the sound but continued staring at the screen. Behind the announcer, there were police redirecting traffic and JSDF creating a perimeter with tarps. The dungeon entrance wasn’t visible, but going off of all the information I had so far, it would be safe to assume that it was the same as the others.
“So now Japan has a total of four dungeons in Sapporo, Edogawa City, Yokohama, and Osaka. In the end, there will probably be a total of ten or eleven all over Japan. It would make sense to start off clearing the ones in Japan, but there’s probably going to be a lot of politics involved, isn’t there? How troubling...”
The real world was different from the worlds inside light novels. Things smoothly progressing like “Dungeons appear. They become open to civilians. Please go inside and gather magic stones. We’ll buy them off you at a high price. Oh, wow, you’ve gathered so much. You must be Rank S!” just wasn’t going to happen in real life. Just one casualty, and it would be a political issue. That very sequence of events had played out during that time when a Japanese volunteer entered a conflict zone and ended up being kidnapped. That incident had turned into one big political issue, too.
It would be easy to claim that because it was practically a whole other world inside the dungeons — with a different time axis and all — the constitution and laws of Japan no longer apply and that anything that occurs inside is one’s own responsibility. However, this would undoubtedly cause the government to be blasted with censure for so-called “abandonment of responsibility.” However, the Japanese people have a strong tendency of being weak to pressure from outside, so our government will most likely wait for international bodies to announce their stances first. In other words, it’ll probably be at least a whole year until the dungeons are finally opened to civilians.
The conclusion that I had drawn had been based on logic and reasoning. However, it did not take long for my expectations to be completely overturned. As it turned out, I had completely underestimated the love that the Japanese people had for everything fantasy.
◇ ◇ ◇
“So then, we are all in agreement? We will be hosting the first round of testing to grant licenses for civilian dungeon access at Yokohama Dungeon, and media presence will be allowed. Any final input?”
Despite it being a Sunday, the Security Council was in full attendance at the Kantei. They had to move quickly after this latest round of dungeon appearances to avoid getting bashed by the mass media for lack of leadership. But even without that, they did in fact need to have this meeting in the first place.
“JSDF members who’ve reached Rank E have already entered Floor 2 inside Yokohama Dungeon. It’s been confirmed that weapons and tools can be called forth through the ability called Card Gacha. The ability can also produce something called a ‘potion’ that the pharmaceutical companies are taking great interest in.”
“It can supposedly cure colds when you drink it. What’s more, it works instantly. Whoever manages to analyze and manufacture it would be guaranteed a Nobel Prize.”
Finance Minister Souma’s words prompted the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to nod in agreement.
“However, we do not have nearly enough samples. We are currently on the cusp of a worldwide race into a whole new frontier of magic stones and as-yet-unknown technologies. There’s been reports of the Oriental Republic of Sina already sending tens of thousands of People’s Liberation Army troops into the dungeons. It isn’t too hard to imagine the Kingdom of Ko doing the same thing. Time is not on our side. From the point of national security, Japan needs to take swift action as well.”
“Our expert council has raised several suggestions in regards to the running of the adventurer organization. As a general rule, we will be buying all the magic stones but allowing the adventurers to do what they want with the cards. There will be people who’d want to gacha for equipment and other such things with their cards, but we should also set up a trading facility for people who wish to sell off the extra cards that they don’t need. As a countermeasure against counterfeits — which will definitely circulate, as we’re dealing with cards here — it might be a good idea to consolidate all buying and selling of cards to the organization.”
Light novel authors from the relevant genre spent all their days constantly thinking about what would happen should dungeons appear in the modern world. Due to this, many of their suggestions proved to be extremely constructive. That said, not all of the suggestions seemed as helpful as the others, though.
“The party registration system, I can sort of understand. But I think we should probably shelve this ranking system idea for now, as it seems like it would cause quite a bit of issues on the personal information privacy front. And we will need new legislation. Even if monsters can’t be materialized aboveground, that’s not the case for equipment and tools, right? There could very well be dangerous tools that could be used to commit crimes. Wouldn’t it simplify everything if we simply outlaw usage of Card Gacha and set up a system for the adventurers to purchase the cards they need from HQ? This would prevent dangerous cards from getting out and leave records of who bought what cards. I’m sure this would help greatly with keeping crimes under control.”
“Such a system would be in direct opposition to the concept of democracy. And regardless, somebody is bound to use the Card Gacha skill, considering how everyone possesses it. Think of it this way: someone with a gifted tongue can either become a con man or a lawyer. Instead of controlling the adventurers’ usage of their abilities, perhaps we should instead pour our efforts into not allowing those who would misuse this power from becoming adventurers in the first place.”
“In order to handle all that, we would need an even bigger organization. We are currently setting things up to expand the Special Dungeon Countermeasure Department under our Ministry of Defense into a bureau, but depending on how things unfold, we might eventually have to make it its own separate ministry.”
As the heated discussion continued, Japan’s administrative organization for civilian adventurers slowly but surely started taking shape.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Has the Japanese government gone mad? Or am I the one who misread the situation? They’re already starting with the arrangements for licensing civilian access to the dungeons?! I had expected it to be a year from now!”
I found myself in dumbfounded astonishment while staring at the TV. Sitting diagonally across from me was Mari, who was equally glued to the broadcast. The news announcer was delivering her report as footage of demonstrations played in the background.
“As can be seen, there are demonstrations every day calling for the opening of the dungeons to the public. The Japanese cabinet has met and decided to move towards opening up Yokohama Dungeon on a trial basis, as the monsters within are supposedly weaker than the monsters in Sapporo Dungeon and Osaka Dungeon. The Special Dungeon Countermeasure Department currently under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense is expected to be scaled up to become the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau in the near future.”
“I understand the importance of procuring magic stones as a promising new source of energy and items like potions that can unlock as-yet-unknown technological breakthroughs. That’s why I had thought that it would only be a matter of when, not if, the dungeons are opened to the public. But this is way too fast. They’re going to open up Yokohama Dungeon now, when there’s yet to be any public information about Floor 2 of the place?”
“On Floor 1 are rabbit-like monsters like Myu-chan, right? I...don’t think I want to go there.”
Apparently Mari had a strong aversion to killing other monsters that shared Myu’s appearance.
“I thought you would say that... Ah, is this perhaps the government’s intention? Publicizing that the first monster to kill is a rabbit-like monster would indeed be effective, to some degree or other, in repelling a large percentage of potential female applicants. When down inside the dungeon, everyone has to start off fighting with their bare hands. Although they’ll be opening the dungeon to the public, it’s not as if they’ll be letting absolutely anyone inside. There’ll probably be a really strict selection process. Could it be that releasing this information is already part of the process as an effort to turn away most female applicants?”
Displayed on the screen were photos of the rabbit-like monster on Floor 1 of Yokohama Dungeon that had been publicly released by the JSDF.
“Do the demonstrators understand that entering the dungeons means killing creatures like these with their bare hands? Do they truly have the resolve?”
I found myself of the same mind as the commentating editorial staff of this conservative-leaning channel. In all likelihood, the large majority of the demonstrators knew almost nothing about the dungeons.
“Once the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau is officially established, they will probably start hosting adventurer license exams immediately. If they’re smart about it, they will include both a practical part and a written part. I’m going to go take it, but Mari, there’s no need for you to join me. It’s only a matter of time until the dungeons in Sapporo and Osaka are opened up as well, and Japan is going to see quite a few more in the future. For now, focus only on ranking up inside Abyss. Going to other dungeons is only for after you reach Rank C.”
“I understand.”
Today, too, we were going to lap Floor 1. My calculations told me that Mari had gotten so close to Rank E that she should reach it within the day. Due to the Enhancement Element, Mari’s appearance had also turned a lot more grown-up. She was at the age where such changes could be chalked up to puberty, but it would probably be a good idea to have her properly registered as an adventurer sooner or later so as to provide an explanation for all further changes that she would undergo.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Hah!”
“Myu!”
Myu-chan and I stood in front, defeating all the goblins that showed up before us. The five hundred yen coins and cards that fell to the ground were automatically being picked up by the Lazybones Bag that Kazu-san was shouldering. This way, the dropped cards apparently wouldn’t count towards my possession limit, so they just kept on coming. However, the bag had no other effects aside from the automatic collection, which meant it would get heavier and bulkier the more coins we gathered. Plus, it had a limited storage capacity. These were the only complaints I had with the item.
Over the span of four hours, we killed several hundred goblins. Then the rank-up that I had been waiting for this whole time finally came.
Name: Kinouchi Mari
Title: None
Rank: E
Possession Limit: 0 / 30
Skills: Card Gacha, Holy Magic (Lvl. 1), ______
“Yay! I became Rank E and even gained ‘Holy Magic’!”
“Nice going, Mari! Holy-element magic is especially effective against undead monsters, which means Floor 3 is going to be your place to shine. And the skill also includes a lot of support-type spells, which would be a great help.”
“Congratulations, Mari-san.”
“Myu! Myu!”
Emily-chan, Akane-san, and Myu-chan all heaped me with their blessings. Kazu-san jotted down the time taken and the number of monsters that I had defeated, then reached out for a handshake.
“Congratulations. Time for a salary raise, then.”
“Eh? But I’m already receiving more than enough...”
“That won’t do. I’ve been thinking about determining salary based on rank for quite a while now. We can’t have Rank As earning the same as Rank Fs, can we? All right, how about I raise the hourly rate by ¥100 for every rank up?”
“An hourly wage of ¥2,100 as a high school student?! That’s incredible...”
I was overcome with surprise. But at the same time, I was also extremely happy. On my way back to the Safety Zone, I found myself actually considering the idea of being an adventurer full-time in the future, now that I knew how lucrative it was.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Well then, now that Mari’s ranked up, and we’ve collected so many Goblin Cards, it’s time to do some gacha!”
After updating my records with details like the number of monsters killed and time passed, I took out several card cases filled with monster cards. The most I had were Skeleton Knight Cards, of which I already owned more than ten thousand. I also possessed more than one thousand Goblin Cards and Orc Cards each. I put the two hundred Goblin Cards that my Lazybone’s Bag had picked up during Mari and Myu’s latest few runs into a case, then handed the case together with another case filled with one hundred Skeleton Knight Cards to Mari.
“These Goblin Cards are yours, Mari. Feel free to use them up or save them as you like. However, all I ask is that you not take them out of here, as it would be a big problem if someone else were to see them. Also, these Skeleton Knight Cards are a bonus. It’s from a Rank D monster, but you’d be almost guaranteed one Rare card for every eleven consecutive rolls. Gacha them whenever you want. By way of preparing for Floor 3...”
I took out another one thousand Skeleton Knight Cards.
“...Time to gacha 110 consecutive times!”
Name: Virgin Maiden’s Holy Garment
Rarity: Rare
Description: A garment to protect a chaste maiden. Provides resistance against physical attacks and grants a magic boost. Effects are nullified when worn by a non-virgin.
Name: Holy Mage’s Staff
Rarity: Rare
Description: Boosts the effect of holy elemental spells. The staff itself is also sturdy enough to be used as a blunt weapon.
Name: Mage’s Cloak
Rarity: Rare
Description: A cloak enchanted with the effect of reducing the wearer’s mana usage.
Name: Archmage’s Staff
Rarity: Rare
Description: A powerful magic staff embedded with a Divine Core fragment. Greatly boosts the effect of Esoteric Technique magic.
Name: Beast’s Gloves
Rarity: Rare
Description: Gloves to protect the hands or paws of a beast using striking attacks. Size automatically adjusts to the wielder.
Name: Shoes of Speed
Rarity: Rare
Description: Boosts the wielder’s movement speed. The higher the velocity, the more power needed to stop.
Name: Ifrit’s Summoning Stone
Rarity: Rare
Description: Grants the power to summon Ifrit, the Spirit of Fire. Can be used only by those with the Summoning skill.
Name: Mithril Ore (5 kg)
Rarity: Rare
Description: Raw ore of mithril, a metal with high magic conductivity. Can only be processed by those with the Alchemy skill.
Name: Magic Ring
Rarity: Rare
Description: A ring enchanted with the effect of slightly reducing the wearer’s mana usage.
Name: Power Ring
Rarity: Rare
Description: The wielder will feel power welling up from within. Slightly increases the damage dealt through physical attacks.
Name: Extra Potion
Rarity: Rare
Description: The most potent potion, capable of healing incurable illnesses and restoring lost body parts. Tasteless and odorless.
Name: Brush of Fluffiness
Rarity: Rare
Description: A brush for brushing fur. Provides much more fluffiness than any normal brush.
Name: Orcish Stimulant
Rarity: Rare
Description: Draws forth and helps maintain sexual vitality. Even after the effect wears off, Esteemed Customer’s member will remain slightly thicker and bigger than before.
“Quite a lot of pretty useful things came out, it seems. The mithril ore we’ll just entrust to Emily... Why is there ‘Esteemed Customer’ in the description of Orcish Stimulant? What is this, a sales pitch? And what on earth is Brush of Fluffiness supposed to be for?”
The moment it hit the desk, the Brush of Fluffiness card was immediately swiped and materialized by Mari. She immediately plonked Myu onto her knees and started giving it a brushing. Just like that, huh? No “can I have this card,” huh? Wow. Unbelievable.
“Master, there’s something that I’ve noticed about the gacha skill.”
My little bit of internal grumbling was interrupted when Emily spoke up.
“I don’t think the gacha rewards are entirely random. After all, it’s giving you what you need exactly when you need it. I’m almost sure that when rolled enough times, it will give the roller just what he or she needs. This is probably the skill’s real purpose, isn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it...”
There were a lot of repeat cards. However, the Rare cards were all things that matched our current circumstances perfectly. For example, if I’d gotten a Brush of Fluffiness before Myu had joined us, I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea what to do with it. It was specifically this moment that it had come out.
“Is this something that happens only for me? Or is it this way for everyone...?”
“Mari herself will also be using the skill sooner or later, right? You can examine the results at the time. This Card Gacha skill has never before appeared through the Dungeon System; neither Akane nor I had ever heard of it before coming to this world. That’s why I’m really curious about it, too. This skill could be a really huge hint.”
“A hint? To what?”
“Isn’t it obvious? To the entity that made the Dungeon System, of course.”
After saying that, Emily fell silent, staring intently at the cards.
◇ ◇ ◇
I, Yamaoka Shingo, am a high school first-year at Tokyo Metropolitan Matsue High School. And in my Year 1 Group B class, there was an idol. Though when I say “idol,” I don’t mean the kind that appears on the TV and belongs to an agency. This classmate of mine was a girl who was cute enough to match — no, even surpass — those who actually did appear on TV.
“Hot damn. Kinouchi-san is seriously cute...”
All of the boys in our class — no, our year — no, our whole school — felt the same way about Kinouchi Mari. Her rise in popularity was a rather recent occurrence. To be more exact, she had been cute this whole time, but there had been a sort of gloominess around her that made her seem very hard to approach. Lately, however, she had become really bright, to the point where her smiles even seemed to give off light.
“Mari’s almost like a different person lately. It’s definitely a boyfriend, isn’t it?”
“Met during summer break, most likely. But who could it be? She turned down the confessions from both Sawagi-kun from Group A and third-year Okada-senpai, didn’t she?”
This change was a hot topic among the girls, too. Matsue High strictly forbade makeup and dyeing hair, but about a month ago, this classmate of mine had suddenly turned extremely beautiful, like a flower that had bloomed all of a sudden. Despite not wearing any makeup, her big eyes, cherry-blossom-colored lips, and unexpectedly big chest gave her a presence that stood out among every other girl in my class.
“You’ll probably get approached by talent agencies soon, Mari.”
“Really? But I’d just turn them down, though. I’m not interested in that sort of thing at all.”
It was lunch break, and Kinouchi-san and a few other girls in the class were eating their lunch together over their grouped-up desks. It was sort of unexpected, but she actually was quite a big eater. The stainless steel jar that she was using as her lunch box was packed with enough rice, miso soup, and sides to match the menu of a guy from a sports club. That said, the sight of her elegantly making her way through it all at a healthy pace only served to add to her charm more than anything else.
“You sure about eating so much, Mari? Aren’t you worried about getting fat?”
“Lately, I feel hungry all the time. It’s probably because I’m growing, I think?”
“That could be it...but it’s probably more the other thing, right? All the things you’re doing with your new boyfriend?”
“Hm? Boyfriend?”
“Isn’t that why your aura’s changed so much lately? All the guys are grinding their teeth with envy. You didn’t notice?”
“Boyfriend? No, that’s not it! Kazu-san’s not my boyfriend!”
“Oho, so his name is Kazu, huh.”
“Ah...”
Kinouchi-san turned red. Shit! So there IS a guy! I felt my heart filling up with vexation. What kind of guy is he? Who’s the bastard who’s monopolizing the angel that is Kinouchi-san?!
◇ ◇ ◇
Phew, that was close. It would have been a big problem if the school found out that I was doing a part-time job. I somehow managed to gloss over things, but I needed to be more careful in the future.
That said... “Boyfriend,” huh? The thought had never even crossed my mind back when we had no money, and I was looking at Mom’s exhausted face everyday. Now, we had money, but I still couldn’t bring myself to think about getting a boyfriend. The dungeon was the only thing in my head at the moment.
“Kinouchi-san, right?”
When I biked home after school, I found a man wearing a suit standing in front of my house. He looked around thirty. Which makes him around Kazu-san’s age, right? Oh, wait, no. Kazu-san just looks young, but he’s actually forty.
“How can I help you?”
“Ah, I’m Yoshiki from Areuse Productions. Kinouchi-san, do you have any interest in becoming an idol?”
“Absolutely none at all. Goodbye.”
What nonsense. Did he think that I’d jump at it if he just said the word “idol”? If I became an idol, I wouldn’t be able to enter Abyss anymore, and Kazu-san would be left to fight on his own again. And I wouldn’t be able to meet Emily-chan or Myu-chan anymore, either.
“Oh, wow. You’ve put me in a rather difficult situation, I’m afraid. Could I at least tell you abo—”
Of all things, the man grabbed my shoulder. I clutched his wrist half out of reflex. There was an almost audible creak.
“Uargh!”
“Isn’t it normal for a girl to retaliate when an absolute stranger grabs her shoulder? Please don’t show up around me ever again. I will call the police.”
With that warning hanging in the air, I finally let go of the man’s hand. Apparently I had used a bit more strength than I had expected. The man who had called himself Yoshiki left in a fluster. Now I’m in a bad mood. Can the weekend come faster? I can’t wait to get healed by Myu-chan’s fluffiness.
◇ ◇ ◇
Matsue High had classes on every other Saturday in addition to the usual weekdays. This week was an off week, so I went to pick Mari up at her house in the morning.
“Ha ha ha! Sounds like you had a pretty tough time. But don’t underestimate talent production agencies; you just might have given the agency you just chased off the idea to market you as a ‘super-strength idol’ or something along those lines.”
Inside the car, Mari told me about how someone from an idol agency had come to scout her. It was true that Mari’s aura had grown much more pronounced due to the Enhancement Element. It was to the point where she could probably break into the performance industry very easily if she ever felt like it.
“Ughh... I’m not sure how I feel about being called ‘super-strength.’ I’ve even gotten heavier lately...”
“That’s because of the Enhancement Element that’s strengthening your muscles and bones. When you fight inside the dungeon, not only do you gain more muscle, but the very quality of those muscles also gets altered. In spite of your dainty appearance, Mari, you already possess the same physical capabilities as a professional martial artist. Be extra careful when you get into fights, all right?”
Soon enough, we were back at my apartment building in East Mizue. After I parked the car, we went into the apartment lobby. Mari went in first, and I was just about to follow her when I suddenly felt a gaze. It turned out to be from a boy wearing what I thought to be a high school uniform, leaning on his bike from roughly fifty meters away. He didn’t pose any significant threat to us, so I left him be and proceeded to enter my apartment building.
◇ ◇ ◇
It was pure coincidence. It was a rest Saturday, and I was in the middle of heading to a friend’s house by bike. When I was waiting for a traffic light, I saw a white sedan passing by. Normally, I wouldn’t pay it any mind, but this time was different. Someone who looked very similar to Kinouchi-san was riding shotgun. I had only caught a quick glimpse, but there was no doubt in my mind. So I decided to ditch my friend and pedaled as hard as I could.
“Haaa... Haaa... Why is... Kinouchi-san...”
Where were they going? Who was the man who was driving? The car was a cheap-looking white sedan. Why was Kinouchi-san inside such a car? Roiling, dark resentment boiled inside me.
Normally, a bike wouldn’t be able to catch up with a car. Fortunately for me, however, the car that I was chasing was getting stopped quite often by the traffic lights, such that I barely managed to not lose sight of it. Crossing National Route 14 was the hairiest part. When I rushed it while ignoring the traffic lights, I got honked at like crazy. It was almost a miracle that I hadn’t gotten run over.
“Just who is this guy?”
Eventually, the van turned into the parking area of an apartment located in East Mizue. The person who looked like Kinouchi-san went in first; I was too far away to tell if it really was her or not. But I got a good look at the man’s face. He looked to be in his thirties, and his features were the kind that were more aptly described as masculine rather than handsome. With his suit jacket and slacks, he looked the very image of an adult man. He was the complete opposite of me in my well-worn jersey.
It almost felt like the man was telling me, Mari is mine. You should just go play somewhere else like the brat you are. Dark jealousy welled up from inside me. My phone vibrated. It was a call from my friend. I apologized and told him I wouldn’t be able to make it today. Then I proceeded to stake out the entrance of the apartment building.
◇ ◇ ◇
“It’s so embarrassing...”
“What are you saying? It suits you just perfectly, Mari. So turns out, you’re the type who looks slimmer in clothes. Your boobs are even bigger than mine! Don’t you think so, too, Myu-chan?”
“Myu...”
Here within the Safety Zone of the Rank A dungeon, Abyss, Mari was in the middle of putting on her new equipment with Emily’s help. After the lively chatter continued for a while from behind the partition shielding their bunk bed, the two girls appeared, with Mari wearing the Virgin Maiden’s Holy Garment.
“............”
I didn’t know what reaction to have. Just what was the intention behind the design of this outfit? The large majority of it was snow-white cloth embroidered with gold thread; this was fine. But the first issue was that there was simply way too much exposure around the chest area. And not only was the area far too exposed, it even seemed to be purposely emphasized with how the cloth helped to deepen the cleavage.
In addition, the upper and lower parts of the outfit were entirely separated, leaving the midriff almost entirely bare, revealing the perfectly tucked-in waist and well-toned abs that Mari had gained thanks to the previous month of training.
Then there was the lower part itself. The skirt, which was layered in red and white, had a large slit on the left side that exposed Mari’s bare thigh almost to the base with every step she took. I turned around to avert my eyes.
“Good for you, Mari! I told you that Master would love it!”
“Emily-chaaaan...”
The sound of Mari’s teary voice prompted me to clear my throat loudly.
“I seem to remember also getting a Mage’s Cloak Card just now, right? Go ahead and put that on. Or else I wouldn’t know where to look.”
“Whaaaat? Can’t Mari stay like this? This outfit totally helps her pull off the ‘holy virgin’ look! That cloak doesn’t suit her at all.”
Despite her vocal complaints, however, Emily still did as I ordered. She had a point; the jet-black cloak almost seemed to obfuscate Mari’s “Mari-ness.” It really didn’t suit her at all.
“Mari is a Holy Magic user, so she would look perfect in a pure-white cloak. That’s right! We can just get one from the gacha! Master, I’m sure something perfect will come out if you gacha maybe one thousand times!”
“You idiot! Like I can use our precious monster cards for something so trivial! For now, give Mari the Holy Mage’s Staff and the Magic Ring. Oh, and the Beast’s Gloves, too, I suppose.”
Upon receiving the cards, Mari promptly materialized the Beast’s Gloves and put them onto Myu’s front paws. The gloves immediately shrunk until they became a perfect fit. Red gloves on a white rabbit... Seriously?
“They look perfect on you, Myu-chan!”
“Myu, myuu!”
Myu leaped into the air and did a quick spat of shadow boxing, delivering a one-two combo with perfect form. So when did you pick up boxing, pray tell?
“As for you, Emily, you get Ifrit’s Summoning Stone, and Akane gets the Shoes of Speed. I think I’ll use the Power Ring myself. All right. We’ll now head for Floor 3, but our focus is to help Mari get used to using her Holy Magic. To that end, we’ll be bringing a lot of magi potions. Emily, it’ll be up to you to teach Mari how to use her magic.”
“No problem! I’ll keep an eye on her mana and make sure that she takes a potion before she runs out.”
“Thank you, Kazu-san, Emily. I’ll do my best!”
“And as for you, Myu. The skeleton knights on Floor 3 carry swords, which means you’ll be fighting armed enemies while remaining unarmed yourself. It’ll be a lot tougher than before, so stay sharp.”
“Myu!”
The rabbit responded to me by throwing a corkscrew punch. You know what? I’m just going to stop making retorts.
◇ ◇ ◇
“You with me so far? As I was saying, the key to magic is the visualization. The Fire Arrow that I’m going to show you is created by me shooting out magic in the imagined form of an arrow made of fire. Magic is a mass of power that needs to be given form. In your case, Mari, since you’re using Holy Magic, you should be thinking of something along the lines of ‘cleansing’ or ‘purifying.’ When you get used to it, you should be able to use the power of a spell like Purification to even strengthen or reinforce the rest of us.”
Emily raised her staff and shot out a Fire Arrow as an example. The attack hit a skeleton knight in its torso, with the fire quickly spreading to envelope the entire monster. Mari raised her staff, too, and closed her eyes. A white light emitted from the tip of her staff, eventually turning into a thick ray of light that collided with another skeleton knight and instantaneously reduced it to nothing.
“That was ‘Turn Undead,’ the spell to purify undead monsters! You really must be talented to stumble upon it on your first attempt. When you get used to this spell, you’ll be able to shoot out several of them at the same time.”
“Huaahh... It feels weird, like there’s power draining out of me...”
The remaining two skeletons were summarily finished off by Akane. Despite the large number that she and I had killed on this floor, she was still stuck in Rank C. Considering how skeleton knights were Rank D, chances were that it simply wasn’t possible to rank up by fighting lower-ranked monsters.
“All right. Next is Myu. We’ll finish off three skeleton knights and leave the last one to you. Your opponent is a Rank D with a weapon. It might be quite tough for you as a Rank E, but do your best.”
“Myu!”
After proceeding a little, we came upon another group of four skeleton knights. Akane and I quickly took care of three of them, then stepped back. The skeleton and the rabbit closed in on each other, the former clattering with each step and the latter hopping the entire way. When the two got close enough, Myu changed its footwork and leaped straight up to deliver a punch. In response, the skeleton knight brandished its sword, managing to land its blade directly onto Myu’s torso.
“Myu-chan!” shouted Mari in alarm.
At the same time, however, I thought I heard a strange sound. To my surprise, Myu’s body continued flying up until it reached the height of its opponent’s face, not deviating in the slightest.
“Myu, myu!”
A perfectly delivered uppercut pulverized the skeleton knight’s jawbone.
Did I imagine it? I thought I heard a “fluff” sound...
After shooting a side glance at the smoky remains of the skeleton knight, Myu hopped back over. Mari and Emily immediately rushed over to check the place where it had received the skeleton knight’s blade.
“It looks like the fluffy fur helped to absorb the force of the attack. There isn’t even a scratch,” concluded Emily after a thorough examination.
Uh, what? What is she saying? The fur’s fluffiness...absorbed the force of the attack? If that is possible, then why do we have shields and armor? How did a fifty-centimeter-long rabbit send an adult-sized skeleton knight flying in the first place?
“Myu-chan, that’s amazing! It looks like you’re both strong and well-protected! You’re the best!”
“Myuu...”
“No, no, no. Hold on a moment. How is all this happening?! Damage absorbance with fluffiness?! I was expecting it to evade the attack to land a counter!”
Mari glared at me sharply. “Kazu-san, how could you send Myu-chan into such a dangerous situation! If it wasn’t for the Brush of Fluffiness, Myu-chan might have died from that!”
Without waiting for my reply, she then immediately took the brush out and started grooming the rabbit right then and there. Mari, you do realize that we’re still inside the dungeon, right? Why are you even walking around with the brush in the first place?!
Emily nodded in understanding. “I was wondering why a mere brush was given the Rare ranking. So it turns out that beasts given a brushing with the Brush of Fluffiness become fluffy and gain resistance towards physical attacks.”
No, that’s not normal. That logic flies in the face of biology and the laws of physics.
“Kazuhiko-sama, this is a dungeon after all...” said Akane in a sympathetic tone.
I guess we’re just going to use this to explain everything going forward, huh?
◇ ◇ ◇
We changed up the way we fought on Floor 3. Our goal was still to kill three hundred skeleton knights in three hours, but at the moment, we were only barely reaching two hundred. The reason was because we were testing out various ways to incorporate magic into our teamwork. Projectiles like magic carried the danger of friendly fire, and so we needed to get our positioning and timing down pat.
“Yes, I’ve reached Rank D!”
Emily had reached Rank D and, not long after, so did Myu.
Name: Emily
Title: Saucy Mage
Rank: D
Rarity: Legend Rare
Skills: Esoteric Technique (Lvl. 4), Summoning (Lvl. 1), Alchemy (Lvl. 1)
Name: Myu-chan
Title: Kinouchi Mari’s Pet
Rank: D
Rarity: Uncommon
Skills: Myu-chan Punch (Lvl. 1), Fluffy Block (Lvl. 1)
“Emily’s Summoning, we can work on any time, now that we have Ifrit’s Summoning Stone. Myu’s skills, however... You know what? I’m not even going to comment.”
“Myu!”
Myu’s cry almost sounded like an indignant “What do you mean by that?!”, but I was learning. After all, this is a dungeon, right? That aside, the fact that its rarity had gone up was a matter of some interest to me.
“Akane and Emily. Just confirming, but is it possible for Rank F monsters to become Rank S?”
“Theoretically, it is,” replied Akane. “However, I cannot attest to whether there have been precedents or not in other worlds.”
Emily added, “Most Rank S cards are already Rank S at the start, with the few exceptions almost all being Rank A jumping up only one rank. Rank F monsters are weak, so there wouldn’t be many people who would go to the trouble of training one up. This doesn’t apply to us Legend Rares, but in general, the rarity of a monster card is linked with the strength of the monster itself. Rank C is considered Rare, Rank A is Super Rare, and Rank S is Ultra Rare.”
Mari practically leaped with joy. “Which means you’ll eventually become Rank S, Myu-chan! Let’s work hard together!”
“Myu!”
The rabbit closed its eyes in enjoyment of Mari’s excited neck scratching. I, for one, had difficulty imagining a Rank S rabbit. Can it even get stronger in the first place?
“With this, it seems like Myu’s skill slots have been fully maxed out. That means it won’t gain any more skills from future rank-ups, right? Guess we can only hope to get our hands on an item that can expand skill slots.”
I’m almost 100% sure that such an item exists. To not have it would be even more peculiar. If something like the Brush of Fluffiness exists, then a slot expanding item has got to exist!
◇ ◇ ◇
I continued waiting for Kinouchi-san outside the apartment. However, an hour had passed, and she had yet to come back out. Just what was she doing inside the man’s house? With nothing else to occupy me, my imagination went wild. Damn it! How dare that man do whatever he wants to my angel! I ground my teeth while staring daggers at the entrance of the building.
“You there. What are you doing?”
“How about you mind your own goddamn b—”
The irritation that filled my head spurred me to respond in a less than polite manner. When I turned around, however, I found myself facing two police officers straddling bikes.
“We’ve received reports from residents of this apartment about a suspicious individual. Do you have any ID on you? Would you like to accompany us?”
“What? I’m not...eh...that’s...”
As I had left my house in the morning originally planning on going to my friend’s house, I naturally had not brought my student ID. I tried to explain myself, but the officers did not seem interested in listening. In the end, I was made to go along to the police box in front of Mizue Station. The stares from all the passersby hurt.
It was only when my parents got off work in the evening and could be reached on the phone that I was finally released. Shit! It’s all because of that man!
◇ ◇ ◇
The specific location of Yokohama Dungeon was on the Yokohama Shindo Road on-ramp, close to Tammachi Station on the Toyoko Line, passing through Kanagawa Ward of the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture. The Japanese government quickly moved to seal off the entire block and set up a detour. What with all the routes — school, bus, and otherwise — that used to run through the area, there was indeed quite a bit of confusion at the start.
There was a silver lining to the situation, however. Fortunately, the block being sealed off only had parking lots and old residences. Not having to deal with commercial offices and eateries made it that much easier for the government to negotiate and buy up all of the land. Soon enough, the entire block then became converted into the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau Yokohama Dungeon Branch.
“Within the past five months, we have had dungeons appear in Sapporo, Yokohama, Osaka, and as discovered the other day, Sendai as well. These dungeons seem to be appearing within major metropolitan cities all over the world in roughly thirty-six-day intervals. We have even seen incidents of religious leaders preaching about the end of the world being arrested in Gamerica just the other day. However, the governments of the world are not merely twiddling their thumbs. After the joint declaration released by the G7 members, the proposal of establishing an institution for managing dungeon adventurers is being fiercely debated within the United Nations. Japan, however, has already gone ahead and formulated one such system and is implementing it with incredible swiftness.”
“It is said that the impetus behind our government’s swift action lies with the black stones — commonly referred to as ‘magic stones’ — that can be obtained from the dungeons. Hopes are that these magic stones, which possess the ability to break water down into oxygen and hydrogen, could help make up for the scarcity of fossil fuels in Japan and resolve our acute energy crisis.”
“Our government and the relevant academic circles are all working together to push through research of the magic stone and construct brand new hydrogen power plants, with an experimental one already running in the city of Tsukuba inside Ibaraki Prefecture. It has been confirmed that these magic stones can be crushed into a powder and mixed with a certain amount of water to provide a steady source of hydrogen and...”
“The one hundred men and women who passed the first-stage examination held by the Ministry of Defense the other day have just entered the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau Yokohama Dungeon Branch! All of them have all signed contracts agreeing to not hold the Japanese government or the JSDF responsible should they suffer any injuries or even lose their lives inside the dungeon. The government has officially declared — to very vocal criticism from the opposition party — that the inside of the dungeons are beyond Japanese sovereignty and therefore not subject to the Japanese constitution, which means that rescue efforts will not be arranged for anyone who does not return. Under such harsh conditions, just how many officially licensed adventurers will we see born today? The second-stage examination will be starting very soon!”
◇ ◇ ◇
I was currently inside the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau Yokohama Dungeon Branch set up right next to Yokohama Dungeon. As I had expected, the first-stage examination had been conducted with two parts. First was an online test on fundamental knowledge about dungeons and the adventurer occupation, clearly meant as a preliminary assessment to weed out those who weren’t actually serious. Naturally, I passed it with flying colors. After all, I had first-hand experience.
As the adventurer license would include the license to handle weapons due to the nature of the occupation itself, applicants had to fulfill the three requirements of “at least eighteen years old,” “must not have a criminal record,” and “must have Japanese citizenship” just to qualify to take the online test. This ended up being around eight thousand individuals, according to the announcement by the Ministry of Defense. The mass media called it “lower than expected,” but I personally thought it higher than expected. And in the end, only about the top 20% actually passed the online exam.
If I had to guess, a large percentage of those who had failed the test had been under the mistaken assumption that they only needed knowledge about the dungeons to pass. How was one supposed to report income gained through the dungeon? How much income tax and municipal tax would one have to pay? What was the process to apply for the opening of a business? Knowledge crucial for operating a sole proprietorship business and knowledge about the details of the Japanese government’s civilian adventurer policy had actually taken up half of the exam. Although the test was online, the time limit was so strict that there was hardly any room for cheating. Those who had failed the test had probably only just begun realizing what becoming an adventurer truly meant when facing the test itself.
All 984 of us who had passed were then gathered together in a sports ground for physical tests. Our times for running a ten-km marathon were measured, as were our grip strength, back strength, lung capacity, jumping power, quickness in the side step test, and much more. I passed everything while keeping myself within the top thirty. Of course, I could have placed first in all the fields if I’d done them seriously, but that would have attracted too much attention. Thanks to a certain female liberal from the opposition party raising her voice about gender equality, it was supposedly decided that seventy of the one hundred final passing slots would be for males and thirty would be for females. Consequently, what I had aimed for was to be placed within the lower spectrum of the top half of the male applicants.
“Wow, you’re amazing, Ezoe-san. You’re on top.”
“I’m sorry? I’m not sure I follow. Aren’t there dozens of applicants with results better than mine?”
“No, no. When I said ‘on top,’ I was referring to the list of the applicants sorted by age. Just looking at your results, I would have a hard time believing you to be forty,” responded the proctor of this second part of the first-stage examination with a laugh.
He had a point; the large majority of the rest of the one hundred successful applicants were in their twenties, with the person second oldest after me still in his early thirties. I was the only one in the forties bracket. Turned out that I had drawn attention anyways, in spite of my efforts otherwise.
After having gotten through the entirety of the first-stage examination, all one hundred of us were now standing right before Yokohama Dungeon.
◇ ◇ ◇
“We hereby begin the second-stage examinations. You have been assigned to groups of ten, and we will conduct the examination with each group in turn. As I’m sure all of you already know, time inside the dungeon flows 144 times faster. As such, those of you aboveground will not have to wait too long. Before we get on to it, one final warning: the Japanese government and JSDF bear no responsibility whatsoever for any and all injuries and death suffered within the dungeon. Death is a very real possibility. Those who are not mentally prepared, this is your final opportunity to turn back.”
This was meant to be the very last confirmation from the examination-issuance side. This was the same message that had been repeated countless times over the TV, radio, and videos on the internet: everything that happens inside the dungeon is our own responsibility. The Japanese government and JSDF bear no responsibility whatsoever. Anyone lost inside a dungeon is considered dead. No search efforts will be arranged.
Having also been asked for confirmation multiple times throughout the whole examination process, those among us who would rethink being here just from being reminded would have dropped out ages ago.
“Well then, starting from Team 1!”
A group of ten people wearing the same outfit followed their proctors through the stringent security measures that isolated the Yokohama Dungeon Branch from the entrance of the dungeon. Although there had yet to be any reports of retroviruses or any other as-yet unknown pathogens discovered within the dungeons, the first step of protocol whenever a new dungeon appeared was to test for bacteria and viruses. Even so, there was a disinfection room set up, and anyone coming back from Floor 2 was obligated to use it.
“So, five minutes aboveground is twelve hours down under, right? Adding in the time needed to go in and out, I suppose that means we’re looking at around fifteen minutes per team? Well, let’s take it easy for a while, then,” said one of the younger guys in my group while grabbing a seat in the waiting room.
The groups were decided based on our respective rankings in the physical tests. As I had ranked between twenty-first and thirtieth, it meant my group would be the third to go inside. There were TV crews and journalists on-scene to provide media coverage, currently on standby in a separate room. Our room had several TVs on the walls, some showing the feed from cameras trained on the dungeon entrance, some turned to channels providing live coverage.
<Finally, the adventurer candidates have stepped inside the other-dimensional space referred to as ‘dungeons.’ Due to the difference in the flow of time, it seems to us as if they had disappeared in the blink of an eye.>
<The West is also currently reviewing programs for introducing civilians to the dungeons, but it is our country that is the first to finalize and officially implement one such system. Surely the entire world is currently keeping a close eye on what’s happening here today.>
During the waiting time, reporters passionately described every tiny detail and commentator panels on the live broadcasts talked up a storm. About ten minutes later, Team 1 came back out. Their condition set my room all abuzz. I, however, had entirely expected this outcome.
“What on earth had happened in there?!”
There, on the security camera feed, was the sight of female applicants bawling their eyes out and male applicants bleeding from places all over their bodies.
◇ ◇ ◇
The entire room was dead silent as everyone held their breath, eyes glued to the screens.
“Wh-What is this? Why is everyone in that state?!”
Triggered by this hysteric screech from a young woman whose body had the build of someone doing some kind of sport, the rest of the room erupted into a commotion. I stayed seated, my head propped up on my fist and my eyes closed. I slightly regretted forgetting to bring earplugs.
“Guys, guys, guys! Let’s calm down, all right? Quiet, please.”
Upon hearing a young male voice and several sharp-sounding claps, I opened my eyes. Once he confirmed that he had everyone’s attention, the rather well-built twenty-something flashed a smile.
“It’s not like we are the ones that got hurt, right? So let’s calm down first. What we are taking is a test inside a dungeon. We have all been forewarned about the possibility of being injured and all that, right?”
“How can we calm down after seeing that?! Half of them are wounded, and the women are all crying!”
“In regards to that, I’m sure that Ezoe-san, the calmest and most senior one out of all of us, could provide a better explanation than I can. Ezoe-san, you know something about why the applicants were in that state, right?”
Kid, why’d you suddenly throw me into the spotlight? I’m just here to get my adventurer license. I don’t really care what happens to the rest of you...but well, if explaining can help me regain my peace and quiet, then I guess I have no choice.
“Looks to me they were lacking in resolve. How many of you here have strangled a dog or a cat with your bare hands before?”
Understanding dawned on everyone’s faces. The government was glossing over things by using the words “defeat” and “take down” to describe our job’s duty, but we were all here to kill otherworldly creatures, plain and simple. And of course, the creatures we encountered would be equally eager to take our lives.
“The monsters on Floor 1 are rabbit-like in appearance, right? And we’ll be killing them with our bare hands. We’d grab their heads and slice their throat, step on their bodies and open their entrails, deliver the killing blow as it bleeds from every orifice, whimpering from the pain. If you don’t have the resolve to do this, you’d either end up a crying wreck, or you’d freeze with hesitation at a crucial moment and end up taking an attack in turn. How ready are your hearts?”
I heard an “Ugh” from someone who was probably suppressing back a gagging reflex. With my head still on my fist, I slowly looked around the room of — from my point of view — mere youngsters.
“If you are entering the dungeons expecting things to turn out like the depictions in light novels, I’d advise you to go back home. Those are written for entertainment, while this here is cold, harsh reality. Only those ready to kill and be killed can become dungeon adventurers. This criteria is most likely what’s being tested in this second-stage examination. Though I personally think there could have been better ways of going about it.”
When I directed my eyes towards one of the silent proctors, he met my eyes for a brief moment before turning away. Silence returned to the room. But before long, laughter rang out. It turned out to be the young man from earlier.
“Hahaha... HA HA HA! I knew it! You’re the best, Ezoe-san! When I first saw you during the physical test, I knew immediately that you’re the real deal. You have the aura of someone who’s truly strong. In fact, it’s emanating from every part of you. You were purposely holding back during the physical tests, right?”
“And who are you? It’s hardly fair that you know my name, and I don’t yours.”
“Wait, you don’t recognize me? And here I was, thinking that I had made quite a name for myself... But never mind. My name is Shishido Akira. Nice to meetchu!”
What a frivolous-seeming person. I don’t have a client by that name, and I don’t know any “Shishido Akira.” Just as I was about to say so, someone else spoke up before me.
“Hold on, you’re that Shishido Akira? The worldwide Shinmyoukan-style karate open kumite division champion?”
“I knew I’d seen his face somewhere! He’s ‘the world’s strongest martial artist,’ with six worldwide championships under his belt and also a master of the Brazilian martial art of Vale Tudo!”
Everyone burst into a commotion again. Good grief, there goes the serious atmosphere that I was aiming for. And here I was, hoping to convince those who weren’t ready to turn back.
I stood up. “All right, then, Shishido-san. It’s almost time for Team 2 to get back, so let’s get ready ourselves.”
◇ ◇ ◇
I, Okayama Ayuko, joined a certain student organization several years ago that protested the so-called “reinterpretations” of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and participated in demonstrations against the rise of right-wing politics in Japan. In the end, however, the security laws were still passed, and my group disbanded. Even so, I had remained in contact with everyone and, three months ago, we had gotten back together again to form the Group for the Protection of the Dungeons for Freedom and Peace.
Using the emergence of the dungeons as a pretext, Prime Minister Urabe had suddenly directed a large amount of the national budget towards defense and started deploying the JSDF all throughout the country. Whenever a dungeon appeared, it would be sealed together with the surrounding area in direct violation of the property rights of Japanese citizens. The creatures found inside the dungeons were labeled as “monsters” and slaughtered in large numbers, overhunted for the resource called “magic stones.”
Upon reflecting over the previous demonstrations, the conclusion that my group arrived at was that we needed to provide easy-to-understand proof if we were to convince the population at large. To this end, this dungeon adventurer license exam was the perfect opportunity. During the second-stage examination, I was going to prove that the so-called “monsters” were no threat to us. The Japanese government was conducting a military invasion of these other dimensions within the dungeons and cruelly massacring the native animals. The far-right cabinet needed to be pulled down in order for constitutionalism and pacifism to be reinstated.
The questions regarding how to open a business and report tax returns on the online test had taken us by surprise, but we had managed to pull through somehow by distributing the burden of online research thanks to having been in the same room at the time. The physical tests were a cinch, because I had been quite sporty back in my day. In fact, I had even experienced fighting with boys before. As expected, I got ranked within the top thirty. Going by my numbers alone, I would have probably been lower on the list, but apparently us women had been given a different curve so that we wouldn’t end up all clumped together on the list.
Everything had gone smoothly, and the day of the second-stage examination had finally come. When I come back out of the dungeon, I will shout it to the world: the government is deceiving you!
◇ ◇ ◇
The JSDF-issued equipment that the ten of us were wearing while stepping into Yokohama Dungeon was largely the same as what I had provided for myself when first entering Abyss. The cut-resistant shirt, vest, and pants were a matter of course, and the reinforced plastic helmet and goggles were understandable. In expectation of combat, we also had on safety boots and protectors on our elbows and knees, and our fists were wrapped in athletic tape. The only difference was that we were not equipped with knuckle dusters. But then again, I no longer needed them. Against Rank F rabbits, a single punch was enough.
“Well then, we’re heading in! Keep your guard up!”
Our proctors led the way as we made our way into Floor 1. Unlike me, who was used to the sight, the other members looked around curiously, taking in the sight. Before long, we had a guest approaching from the left.
“Myu? Myu!”
The rabbit made little hops towards us. The sight seemed to melt the female applicants’ hearts.
“What are you standing around for?! It’s a monster!”
The proctor’s shout only prompted the applicants to exchange glances, seemingly asking each other, “Are we to kill this with our bare hands?” Seeing the clear lack of resolve, I was about to step forward when suddenly, a woman shouted, “Leave it to me!”
◇ ◇ ◇
I, Shishido Akira, am a martial artist. Having devoted myself to karate ever since I could remember, I had earned my black belt at the Shinmyoukan school at unprecedented speed. As a general rule, children could only earn a junior black belt, but an exception was made for me when I was eleven years old, in Grade 5. After all, I was a genius. I only had to see a technique once to absorb it, improve upon it, then turn it into something that exceeded the source. I then went through puberty, and at eighteen, I won both the Japanese National Championship and the World Championship, the latter of which I then proceeded to take five more times in succession. During the ten years between thirteen and twenty-four, I had never once lost a fight, be it in the ring or on the streets. In short, I had just grown far too strong.
When the dungeons emerged, my heart pounded with excitement. Long ago, in my pursuit of strength, I had tried fighting a dog slated for culling that had been starved to a frenzy. The thrill of that fight was something that I could never forget. In modern society, opportunities to fight a wild creature acting on instinct in a no-holds-barred setting was almost impossible to come by. Within the dungeons, however, I would presumably fight to my heart’s content. I could grow even stronger and reach even greater heights. That is what had spurred me to apply for a dungeon adventurer license. The online test? That was nothing for a genius like me.
Upon hearing that there was a forty-year-old middle-aged man during the physical test, I decided to check on him for shits and giggles. When I actually laid eyes on him, however, I got goosebumps all over. The aura emanating from his back was just not normal. It was blatantly obvious that he was holding back in all of the tests. He was a monster that was possibly as strong as myself. I found myself wondering how long it had been since I’d last met someone that I wanted to fight for real. With my curiosity piqued, I decided to also hold back in order to join the same grouping as the man named Ezoe.
Ezoe’s appearance was that of a thirty-year-old, but his presence was on a whole other level — not that most people would understand. This was why I tried getting him involved when things got a bit noisy during the second-stage examination. His response proved my suspicions; he clearly knew what it was like facing something primal that was coming for his life. Furthermore, he properly understood what it was that a real warrior truly needed. Now I really want to fight him!
Just when I was excited about being able to see him in action inside the dungeon, however, a woman raised her voice with a “Leave it to me!” and stepped forward.
Although she didn’t seem all that strong, I was impressed with her show of resolve. Or at least, that had been my impression, up until the moment she turned back towards us with a scary face and, of all things, began berating us.
“How can such a cute creature be a monster? You guys call it a monster, but you’re the monsters! From their point of view, we are the invaders! We are barging into where they live and massacring them. Any animal would retaliate in response! We need to maintain an anti-war stance. If we approach them with love, I’m sure we can come to an understanding!”
I couldn’t understand what the woman was saying. The monster is going to kill us, and we have to approach it with love? Maintain an anti-war stance? Does she truly think that we can avoid fighting just by declaring that we won’t fight? Is she an idiot? Or is she actually suicidal?
“Um, you...”
Just when I was about to stop her, the woman dashed forward to the monster’s side, squatted down, and opened her arms wide. The rabbit made a “Myu?” sound while tilting its head. My confusion at what was happening made me want to tilt my head, too.
“Come here, don’t be afraid. We are not your enemies. We are here to be friends with you.”
I couldn’t see her face as she had her back to us, but I could bet that she was making a really big smile. You serious, lady? I somehow doubt that that’s going to work.
“Myu, myu!”
The rabbit hopped closer, then onto the woman’s knees. Wait, it’s seriously working?
“Oh, who’s a cutie? You’re a cutie. Don’t be scared, all right? I’ll protect y—GAHHHHHHH!!”
It was a full-throated scream. And understandably so, as the rabbit had abruptly dropped its cute expression to adopt a face that looked like a hannya demon mask and clamped its teeth onto the woman’s nose. With a sickening squish of meat tearing apart, off came the nose, and the rabbit began chewing noisily.
“NOOOO!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” cried another female applicant on our team.
What do you mean by “what just happened”? How else did you expect things to go, being so defenseless in front of a monster? While retorting internally, I observed each teammate in turn. The woman who had just lost her nose was now busy having her cheeks bitten to shreds, and everyone else was looking on with varying degrees of shock and fear. What about Ezoe-san? What is his reaction? I quickly spied him standing behind the ashen-faced applicants. The moment I laid eyes on him, however, a shiver ran through me. I knew it. This person really is the real deal!
Ezoe-san was completely ignoring the screaming woman under assault. Instead, he was keeping an eye on all the passages around us.
I can’t believe it. He’s not expressionless or uninterested; he’s checking for other monsters being attracted by the screaming. He’s already thought that far ahead under these circumstances?!
“You idiot! Just what were you thinking, getting close to a monster in such a defenseless manner?!” asked the proctor while hurrying to the woman’s side and using a short sword to lop off the rabbit’s head.
“IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO BADDDD!”
The wounded woman was still screaming at the top of her lungs while rolling about in agony. Just when the proctor was about to tend to her, Ezoe-san walked over. I could tell by his aura that he was quite pissed.
“Other monsters are being drawn in by the commotion. What should we do? Are we going to continue this exam?”
“But in this situation...”
“If you’re worried about the woman, I say we leave her be. Within the dungeon, everything that we do is our own responsibility. She approached a monster based off of absurd delusions, got herself attacked, and is even now drawing more monsters over with her screaming. Pretty much everything that she’s done has worked towards sabotaging this exam. You there, crazy delusional woman. This is what you get with your anti-war nonsense and display of love. You want to be friends with them, too?”
Ezoe-san jerked his chin towards where five more rabbits were hopping our way, with even more behind them. Ohhh boy, looks like we won’t be getting out of this fight. Guess I should lend a hand.
◇ ◇ ◇
I, Okamura Takeshi, am a Leading Private of the JSDF Eastern Army currently assigned to the Yokohama Dungeon Engineer Brigade. Together with Private First Class Yamamoto, I served as one of the proctors for the second-stage of the dungeon adventurer license exams. The aim of this stage was not to see the applicants’ fighting ability, but rather their resolve towards killing and being killed within the abnormal environment of the dungeon. In my eyes, only two of the applicants in this round possessed this crucial characteristic.
“Yamamoto, you bring the rest of the applicants back to the entrance! I’ll hold the line here!”
“You can’t, Okamura-san! Holding that number of monsters back is impossible!”
“Just GO!”
I thrust my subordinate away and yelled at him to run. Although the dungeons were officially “beyond Japanese sovereignty,” as a JSDF member, I couldn’t very well leave my countrymen to die without doing anything about it.
With a dagger that I had gotten through the Card Gacha in my hand, I stepped up to face the monsters that were hopping our way. There were five of them in front, with ten not too far behind. If I got surrounded, I would surely be eaten alive.
So this is where I die, huh...?
“Is the exam still going on, by the way?”
Just when I had accepted my fate, I heard a voice from my left. It turned out to be Shishido Akira, the karate world champion. Then someone else addressed me from my right.
“As the oldest person here, I’ve got to act the part, don’t I? Furthermore, the exam isn’t over yet.”
It was Ezoe Kazuhiko, the man who’d spoken cold-heartedly of the woman who had gotten assaulted just now.
“Okamura-san, right? You should head back as well. There are probably even more monsters on the way. I believe the retreating group will need at least two people who can fight in order to retreat while taking care of someone injured. Leave this place to me. Shishido-san, you don’t have to force yourself to stay, either.”
“Are you kidding me? How can I let such an exhilarating situation slip through my fingers?!”
What on earth is with these two? But I’m grateful for the backup. Now that there are three of us, we might actually stand a chance.
Eventually, one rabbit lunged at Shishido. He lifted his leg up high, then dropped it like a hammer with a loud “Haiiiii!”
With its head crushed beyond recognition, the monster promptly turned into smoke. It had been a perfect axe kick.
“Interesting. So blood comes out, but even that turns to smoke when the monster dies. Guess I won’t have to worry about getting my clothes dirty. How’re you doing, Ezo— WHAT?!”
I had also seen what had surprised Shishido-san so much. With a dry bang, four rabbit monsters had simultaneously burst apart and turned to smoke. I felt a chill run down my spine. Just who is this man?
◇ ◇ ◇
I had been bored out of my mind for the past ten years. Whenever I’d entered a tournament, I would walk back out with the trophy as a matter of course. Without putting in much effort, I had already earned the highest dan possible from Shinmyoukan. Everyone called me a genius, but when I could accomplish anything with one hand tied behind my back, nothing managed to truly grab my attention. I couldn’t get passionate about anything, and everything seemed dull and uninteresting. I had ended up standing at the top of the world. Or so I had thought. Turns out, I had been a frog inside a well.
“Hold on. What you just did was impossible to pull off! If it was the Four Opposing Corner Consecutive Punches move that Miake Hiroyuki is known for, then I would have understood. But what you did was punch in four different directions at the same time! No human can do that! Just who on earth are you?”
No matter how much a human practiced, there were biological limits that could not be exceeded. With masterful control over one’s joints, it was possible to throw one punch at a pretty fast speed. To punch four times so fast as to appear simultaneous was physically impossible. Not with the way the human body was built.
“You’ll be capable of doing the same thing soon enough, Shishido-san. You won’t last long down here in the dungeon if you stop to be surprised every time you see something of this level.”
Holy shit, he sounds really convincing. But why is that? Isn’t today his first day inside a dungeon, too? How can he make such a definite claim?
However, I didn’t have much time to dwell on the matter. With a “Chestoooo!”, I sent another rabbit flying with a straight punch. Yep, it’s not much stronger than an actual rabbit. We’ll manage.
“Okamura-san, you can leave this to the two of us. Please go help the other applicants instead.”
More like, am I even needed here? I kind of feel like Ezoe-san by himself would already be more than enough.
◇ ◇ ◇
<Team 3 is coming out this very moment. Oh my god, all the blood! It appears that one of the female applicants is bleeding quite profusely. Whatever could have happened inside?>
<The victim is Okayama Ayuko-san, twenty-six years old. According to testimony from another applicant in the team, she had suddenly shouted ‘Monsters should be protected’ and approached one with her arms outstretched, which then led to her getting attacked. Could it be that she had been subjected to some form of mental attack that befuddled her judgment?>
<The retreat of Team 3 was made possible thanks to the famous Shinmyoukan-style karate world champion, Shishido-san, staying behind and holding the monsters back. In addition, it appears that one other person also stayed behind to fight alongside Shishido-san, earning enough time for the whole team to return alive.>
At the moment, Shishido and I were sitting in the same room, absentmindedly staring at the TV. What had happened to our Team 3 today was pretty much the only thing that all the evening news channels were talking about. Supposedly, the report that a female applicant had almost gotten bitten to death after approaching a monster in a fit of madness was going to be brought up at the next National Diet meeting.
<Just what on earth were the JSDF members doing when a Japanese national was so close to being killed right before them?>
<That’s a fair question. However, we must keep in mind the multiple warnings that everything that happens within the dungeons are one’s own responsibility. Every single one of the applicants had also signed a pledge to not hold the Japanese government nor the JSDF responsible no matter what happened to them, even if they were to lose their lives. It’s a pity, but there are no legal grounds for the female applicant to stand on.>
<Even if there isn’t a legal obligation, don’t all humans have a moral obligation to each other? If the government had not toyed with the idea of recruiting civilians as adventurers like a child playing with fire in the first place, then such a tragedy wouldn’t have —>
“Self-serving assholes, the lot of them,” scoffed Shishido. “It was the citizens who demanded for the dungeons to be opened. Look at this complete 180 now that they finally realize how dangerous it is. Did you hear? The exams for the other seven teams have been postponed indefinitely.”
I was of the same mind, but I couldn’t afford to care about the all babbling of the riff-raff. In order to clear all 666 dungeons, we were going to need a lot of high-rankers. Every day that this dungeon adventurer initiative was on hold was another day that our world was marching towards doom.
“If only I, at least, could be granted the adventurer license...”
“You meant to say ‘If only we could be granted the license,’ right? I want to enter the dungeons, too! Life-or-death fights sure are fun, aren’t they? It had been quite a while since I had last tasted this thrill. And furthermore, I’m quite interested in you as well, Ezoe-san.”
“You swing that way, huh?”
“Like hell! What I’m interested in is your strength! It’s my first time meeting someone who’s stronger than me. Where did you train, Ezoe-san?”
We applicants had been strictly forbidden from touching Yokohama Dungeon’s doors during the second-stage examination, as it was only those with an adventurer license who were allowed to obtain the ability to call up a Status window. In other words, Shishido did not have a chance to see my stats. Even so, he had probably gained a small idea of my strength through the way I fought. And from my estimations, Shishido himself was either already Rank D or at least a very high Rank E. Although there was a certain frivolous aspect to his personality, he could prove to be a great asset to Dungeon Busters.
“A lot of stuff happened, much of which I can’t really go into. How about you, though? Why do you want to be an adventurer? As a world champion, I’m sure you already have all the money you want, right?”
Shishido laughed and shook his head.
“I don’t really care about money or the world championships. All I want is to get stronger. Then I want exhilarating fights in which I can wield that strength to my heart’s content. I can’t very well do that against human opponents, but monsters should be fine, right? I’ve made up my mind today, after seeing a mere rabbit try to bite a human to death. There are a ton more like them deeper inside the dungeons, right? Just thinking about it sets my heart racing!”
“So in short, you’re a battle junkie, huh? Interesting.”
“Why do you want to be an adventurer, then, Ezoe-san?”
“I’m not aiming to become a dungeon adventurer; I’m aiming to become a dungeon buster. If you want to hear anymore, though —”
“— you’ll have to join me” was what I was just about to say when there was a knock at the door. Without waiting for a reply, the two JSDF members who had served as our proctors, Okamura-san and Yamamoto-san, walked in, followed by a man in his fifties who was most likely their superior.
“I am Major General Katsuragi Masahiko of the JSDF Eastern Army, head of the Yokohama Dungeon Engineer Brigade. You gentlemen have been a great help today. We really can’t thank you enough. Accordingly, I am here to pass you gentlemen your licenses as Japan’s very first two officially licensed adventurers. You two were the only ones who passed.”
Shishido and I stood up to accept the cards being held out to us. My first impression was that they looked like driver’s licenses, what with the photo and all. After giving us a moment to check out the cards, Major General Katsuragi continued speaking.
“To be honest, the dungeon adventurer initiative is now in a limbo state. Due to the incident this time, public opinion might sway again. In order for support for the initiative to return, we need solid, irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of having civilian adventurers. I’m sorry for dumping this onto your shoulders, but this is a request coming all the way up the chain from Prime Minister Urabe himself.”
“Hey, I don’t mind. As long as I get to do more fighting, I don’t really care about the specifics.”
“My original intention in coming here was to acquire the license, so I have no complaints, either. However, please provide more specifics regarding exactly how we are to prove the effectiveness of this initiative.”
At a nod from Major General Katsuragi, Yamamoto-san passed us sheets of paper with numbers written on them.
“This number is how much magic stone we need in order to meet our national annual electricity consumption if we are to scrap all our non-renewable sources of energy — such as our fossil fuel and nuclear plants — and replace them with hydrogen energy plants. Our national annual consumption is roughly 1 trillion kilowatt-hours. Of that number, roughly 14% is being generated through wind, hydro, and solar plants. In other words, we will be aiming to swap out 850 billion kilowatt-hours of power with hydrogen energy plants. This is the direction that our government is moving towards.”
A laugh almost burst from my mouth. I mean, how could I not laugh? Were the two of us supposed to meet such absurd numbers all by ourselves?
“So the quota is an annual supply of more than three hundred tonnes of magic stone...for a single one million kilowatt plant. If you plan on converting literally all sources of energy inside Japan, including the smaller power stations and all, we’d be looking at several tenfold — perhaps even a hundredfold — of that number at least. Incidentally, how many grams do the magic stones dropped by the rabbits on Floor 1 of Yokohama Dungeon weigh?”
“Three grams.”
“In other words, over a hundred million rabbits would need to be killed per year. Are you expecting the two of us to achieve that by ourselves?”
“No, no, no, of course not. What we are asking is for you to procure enough magic stone to power the new hydrogen energy plant in Tsukuba. Unlike previous hydrogen energy plants, which had been generating energy through a hybrid hydrogen-natural gas model, we are developing new technology to generate energy using 100% hydrogen alone. Although the Tsukuba plant is still only a prototype, the civilian adventurer initiative would be gaining a powerful tailwind if it proves successful.”
“Specifically, how much magic stone should we gather? And how much time are we allotted?”
“Minimum of one hundred kilograms. In terms of the monsters on Floor 1, that would be more than thirty-three-thousand rabbits. And we’re hoping that you finish within two aboveground weeks.”
“Which means roughly five and a half dungeon years? All right, then. We’ll do it.”
“Wait, what? Hold on, Ezoe-san. You sure you don’t need to think about it lon—”
“Between you and me, if we kill four hundred rabbits each dungeon day, we’ll be done in eighty-four days. Even adding in time to take showers and replenish supplies, it won’t take us more than several aboveground days.”
“You say four hundred so easily...”
“Just trust me. Major General Katsuragi, we officially accept that request of yours. But in return, we have several conditions.”
“Let’s hear them. We will do our best to meet all the ones that we can.”
“Firstly — and this is one that I will not yield on — ensure that no one enters Yokohama Dungeon while we are inside. At least, not for the first three aboveground days. This includes the area before the entrance of Floor 1 as well. No exceptions.”
Katsuragi thought about it for a few moments, then nodded in acquiescence. Government employees were generally not allowed down in the dungeons without express orders in the first place, due to the issue of disparity in pay arising from the time difference. As such, allowing two civilians — the only two properly licensed at the moment — to monopolize the place for several days wasn’t really a problem.
“Secondly, I want confirmation that the magic stones we retrieve will be purchased at the standard rate. The unit price of 1 gram is ¥100, and so we will be paid ¥10 million for one hundred kilograms, yes?”
“I swear it in honor of the JSDF’s name.”
“Thank you. Lastly, I wish for you to keep secret everything that you will now see and hear. I want not only you, Major General, but the two behind you as well to sign a contract to that effect.”
“What do you mean by that? I’m pretty proud of having a rather tight mouth myself...”
I went to my bag and took out a Magic Pouch, from which in turn I took out several NDA agreements and Jointly Sealed Covenants. On the former was written “I swear to keep all information regarding Ezoe Kazuhiko a secret and to not divulge it to anyone else.” On the latter was “I swear to abide by the former agreement.” I passed out one of each to everyone present in the room.
“Shishido, you, too. That is, if you want to learn the secret behind my strength.”
At those words, Shishido happily signed both without hesitation. Once I had retrieved everything and confirmed that all was in order, I took out a card that I had been keeping on my person as insurance. The three JSDF members recognized it almost immediately. I placed the UC High Potion Card onto a nearby table in plain view, then adopted a serious face.
“Roughly thirty-six days before the emergence of Osaka Dungeon, the world’s very first dungeon had emerged in Shishibone, Edogawa City, Tokyo. It was the Rank A dungeon named Abyss.”
“Huh? Hold on, Ezoe-san, what are you...”
Paying the bewildered Shishido no mind, I turned towards Katsuragi. With a grave look on his face, he murmured, “So you are...”
I nodded, then revealed who I was.
“I bear the title of First Contacter. I am the very first human being who made first contact with a dungeon and activated the Dungeon System during June of this year. I am the reason for everything that has happened since.”
◇ ◇ ◇
I, Major General Katsuragi Masahiko of the Ground Self-Defense Force, am assigned as the head of the Engineer Brigade set up to oversee Yokohama Dungeon. This was a day that I would never forget the rest of my life. That was how shocking that man’s words had proven to be.
“This is the world’s first ever dungeon? It seems...”
“Like a normal room? Take a look at those doors. Same, right?”
The five of us had huddled up in a group and grabbed each others’ hands. The next thing I knew, we were somewhere else entirely. It turned out to be a rather spacious room with wooden flooring, partitions, and a big desk. However, the distinctive doors with attached doorknobs at the far end were a clear indicator that this was no normal room. That double door was of the exact same design as the one that led to Yokohama Dungeon.
“Above here is my house. It’s currently undergoing renovations, so I can’t take you guys around. When it’s finished, however, I’m planning on gathering companions here and setting up an organization that will specialize in the clearing of dungeons.”
“Do you have anything that can prove what you say? That this is the very first dung—”
Ezoe cut me off by calling up his Status window.
Name: Ezoe Kazuhiko
Title: First Contacter, Species Limit Breaker
Rank: C
Possession Limit: 0 / ∞
Skills: Card Gacha, Recovery Magic (Lvl. 5), Inducement (Lvl. 5), Teleportation, ______, ______
“Rank D is set as the limit for us as the human species. By absorbing the smoke that monsters turn into after they die, however, our bodies grow stronger much more quickly, eventually pushing us over that limit. Judging by feel, I suspect that Shishido is probably a Rank E that’s very close to reaching D. In other words, he’s weak.”
For some reason, Shishido looked really happy at being called weak. But that aside, it was indeed true that Ezoe’s Status window reflected the title First Contacter. I wanted to ask about him having six skill slots, but the wall behind the desk was of much higher priority. There were display shelves absolutely filled with cards inside cases.
“I’ve been fighting here for the entire time this past half-year. I’ve pulled Card Gacha more times than I care to count. Incidentally, the monsters in Floor 1 of Yokohama Dungeon are Rank F and on the weaker end of the spectrum at that. I believe most of what you got from the gacha system using those cards were of Common rarity, right?”
“Yes, but there were already quite a lot of items that have caused quite a lot of waves, with the most prominent example being the as-yet-unknown pharmaceutical called a ‘potion.’ To think that there was such a variety of cards...”
“What I have is still but a small sample. Oh, right. There’s something I wanted to hand you.”
Ezoe pulled out one of the drawers below the displays and retrieved a card.
“This is an Extra Potion Card. Its rarity is Rare. It is capable of restoring body parts. The woman from today has lost her nose, right? Please use this to treat her.”
I accepted the proffered card and turned it over to read the description on the back.
Name: Extra Potion
Rarity: Rare
Description: The most potent potion, capable of healing incurable illnesses and restoring lost body parts. Tasteless and odorless.
“If handled badly, this single card alone is enough to set off a war. I...can see why you went so far as to make us sign NDAs.”
“Incidentally, the contract that you signed together with the NDAs was also a dungeon item. Now that you’ve signed it, you wouldn’t be able to say anything about all of this even if you wanted to. Of course, it’s not that I distrust you, Major General. However, it’s the unfortunate truth that all humans are susceptible to slipping up.”
I nodded in understanding. It no longer mattered whether this place was the first dungeon or not. All I knew was that I simply could not let the man before my eyes go. For the sake of Japan’s very future, his presence was absolutely necessary. I resolved to do whatever I could to win over his cooperation with us JSDF and with the Japanese government.
◇ ◇ ◇
I had suspected that Ezoe-san was no ordinary person, but the truth turned out to shoot so fast beyond my expectations that it broke the sound barrier. So he wasn’t a human after all! Or I suppose, he wasn’t so much not a human as he was beyond a human. In any case, I had already made up my mind to join the “Dungeon Busters” organization that Ezoe-san was forming. If I follow this man, I will get to enjoy fights that give me thrills every single day, right? It’s a godsend!
“So, Ezoe-san, can I start training here, like, today?”
“Of course you can’t. Did you forget that we have to first gather more than thirty thousand magic stones?”
Ahhh, I was so excited that I had indeed forgotten. Ugh, we have to slowly gather those pea-sized stones one by one? Hm? What’s that shabby-looking pouch that Ezoe-san’s taking out?
“This is a dungeon item called a Lazybone’s Bag that automatically picks up drop items. Thanks to this, we won’t have to worry about the actual picking up of the magic stones. We will focus solely on hunting rabbits until we reach our limits, come back here to rest, and then go back out once we’ve rested enough. Don’t worry. If we keep this up, it won’t be long until you become capable of killing three hundred rabbits in three hours all by yourself. With two of us here, it’d be six hundred. We keep it up for fifteen hours, and we’re looking at three thousand rabbits in a day. Calculating with dungeon time, we’d be done in ten days.”
I could tell that my face was frozen with disbelief. You’re telling me that this man has been fighting like this for an entire half a year? No shit he’s gotten strong.
Soon afterwards, all of us returned back to Yokohama, and Ezoe-san saw off the JSDF people. I was given the option to wait inside the dungeon but was then reminded that “one minute up above equates to two and a half hours down here.” What the hell. Of course I’m coming along.
◇ ◇ ◇
I heaved a sigh of relief at the unexpected development. A major general was pretty high up in the JSDF chain of command. Having successfully gotten connected with one such person was an entirely unexpected windfall. And the man named Shishido also proved to be quite interesting. His reason for entering the dungeons was, in a way, entirely pure. All he wanted was to get stronger.
I temporarily returned from Yokohama to my apartment to grab a shower and prepare a few things. Shishido and I were going to meet up at the Yokohama Dungeon facility and delve into the dungeon together starting the next day. After also getting some food, I returned to Abyss to update Akane and Emily.
“Would you want us to help as well, Kazuhiko-sama?”
“No, not yet. I want to keep the existence of Legend Rares a secret from the JSDF for a while longer. With no way to 100% ensure that no one else comes down into the dungeon, I’m going to have to do this with Shishido alone.”
I stuffed my Magic Pouch with my usual equipment, including my knuckle dusters and athletic tape. Foodstuffs and water also went in, as did several copies of each tier of potion cards. If I ran out, I could always just gacha for more.
“Well then, time to go.”
I reactivated the Time Stop Barrier, then headed for Yokohama.