Chapter 3: School Life and Dungeon Delving

School was in session for four out of the six days that made up each week, with the remaining two days off. In light of this, Allen and his friends took to buying daily necessities on their way back from school on school days so they could dedicate two whole days each week to go dungeon delving.

Allen footed the bill for everyone’s starting gear. He was shouldering the initial investment, but they expected to get their hands on better gear from the dungeon itself. This was not meant as an exchange, but he did ask whether he could use the money they earned from the dungeon for buying magic stones to train his Skill Levels. Everyone readily agreed.

On the first day of school, the group of four headed to the board in front of the school building. The examinee numbers that had been posted the other day had been replaced with class rosters. They looked for their own numbers, then headed to their classrooms.

Looks like about three thousand students got in.

In terms of college exams from Allen’s previous life, getting enrolled at the Ratashian Academy was about as difficult as a moderately high-tier university. There were thirty students per class and a hundred first-year classes.

Only three thousand out of twenty thousand applicants. They sure whittled down the numbers.

The signatories of the Five Continent Alliance were hardly one monolithic force. Each country within each continent had their own designs and considerations. The ones feeling the greatest sense of crisis were, understandably, the three countries that had been directly attacked by the Demon Lord Army: the Empire of Giamut on the Central Continent, the dwarven Empire of Baukis to the northwest, and the elven country Rohzenheim in the northeast.

Conversely, there were many countries located on those same continents but not on the front lines, with the Kingdom of Ratash being one example. The two southern continents had yet to see the banners of the Demon Lord Army firsthand, though it was not clear if this was because this world was not a globe or if the Army did not know how to cross over into the southern continents.

Consequently, it was difficult to expect every country to feel the same sense of urgency regarding the threat. The nations that felt the safest were the most hesitant to send their Talented citizens to contribute to the war effort. After all, those with Talents, especially battle-related ones, were valuable assets. Powered-up monsters threatened cities regardless of borders, and extracting magic stones and items from dungeons was as vital to national interest as excavating precious metals and oil was on Earth. Understandably, countries wanted to hold on to their Talented as much as possible.

Due to the insistence of these southern and central countries—excluding Giamut, of course—the Alliance had eventually settled on conscripting only members of royal and noble families. It was their duty to protect the common people in the first place, or so the argument went. If commoners were conscripted too, that would mean drafting tens of thousands of Talented; if just the aristocracy, then only hundreds. The preferable option was obvious. Naturally, sending only a few hundred commoners instead would be out of the question. Such an exception would render the moral justification for sending fewer people moot.

As Allen settled into his seat, the Five Continent Alliance on his mind, his classmates-to-be also grabbed their own. Everyone had their own way of waiting for the lesson to start. Some seemed to have come from the same village and were merrily chatting away. There was even one student who appeared to be fighting off sleep.

Suddenly, the sliding door clattered open. A man, most likely their teacher, walked in. He looked to be in his forties and had a crew cut. The phrase “rough and tumble” seemed insufficient to do him justice—he was so muscular, he seemed at risk of bursting through his uniform.

“You’re all here. Good,” their teacher said as he stood at the podium and scanned the room. “The name’s Carlova. I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the next three years. I’ll kick things off by telling you a bit about myself.”

The man’s appearance was so impressive that all the students listened attentively without interrupting.

“Normally, I’m the guildmaster of the Adventurer’s Guild in the royal capital. My Talent is Sword Master. When I was still an adventurer, the highest rank I reached was A. The Academy hired me because they heard a Sword Lord was enrolling this year.”

Carlova scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders. Apparently he had been transferred to this post for the next three years on Krena’s account.

So, the Guild makes arrangements like this too. I heard that it’s supposed to be independent of the kingdom, but what about the Five Continent Alliance? If the Guild obliged a transfer request like this, that means they’re at least cooperative, right?

Allen thought back to the courteous attitude of the Guild staff who had handled their adventurer card registration.

“Me being your homeroom teacher means that I’m responsible for you now. I also teach swordsmanship, so if you’ve got a sword fighting Talent, I’ll see ya in your practicals.”

Carlova then went on to give a simple rundown of the coming year’s curriculum. The students would have general education classes in the morning, while practical lessons geared toward developing their respective Talents were during the afternoon. That meant spear training for Spear Users, sword training for Swordsmen, and so on and so forth. He then passed out copies of a parchment that listed instructors and training grounds by Talent.

“Ah, that’s right. You’ll have end-of-semester exams in July and February. If you make lower than a forty, you fail. Make sure you study.” Carlova looked around. “You. You’re Allen, right?”

Hm? He knows of me? Well, I guess it’s hard to mistake black hair. “Yes, sir.”

“Apparently your exam score broke records. You made history. Good on you.”

“I’m sorry?”

The entire class turned around to look at Allen, who was sitting in the back.

“Don’t you go studying all by yourself. If you wanna graduate with the rest of your class, you better spend some time teaching your friends too.”

Uh...he’s talking about Krena, isn’t he? Hold on, so they did pad her grades to make sure she got in?!

Krena, who was sitting next to Allen, gave him a look of pure respect. She clearly did not catch the implication behind what the teacher had said.

“O-Of course, sir. I’ll do my best.”

“Good. Now, as I’m sure most of you have caught on, there are serfs, commoners, and nobles together in this class. Your social statuses may be different, but here at the Academy, you’re all students. So, drop the formal speech when talking with each other. Learn to get along.”

In this school, both aristocratic students lording their nobility over others and commoners or serfs acting obsequious would be reprimanded. The class, which had been quietly listening until now, burst into a low buzz of whispers.

Cecil was currently sitting behind Allen. Without turning around, he said to her, “So, Cecil, looks like we’re to drop the formalities.”

The way Allen immediately complied without any hesitation whatsoever left Cecil at a complete loss for words. Her silence prompted Allen to ask, “Hm? What’s the matter, Cecil?”

Krena joined in.“What’s wrong, Cecil?”

“Eurgh!”

Upon being repeatedly addressed without a title, Cecil leaped up without warning and snaked her arms around Allen’s neck into a choke hold.

“How can you switch to speaking to me so casually that easily, Allen?! Does this mean you haven’t been mentally respecting me all this time?!”

“Huh?! Ughh...”

Th-This is a self-defense move she learned at the mansion, isn’t it? It’s just like her to suddenly use it without warning. Th-This is pretty rough. C’mon, do your thing, Endurance. I know you can do a lot better than this.

Although Allen had leveled up and raised his Endurance, he had a feeling the stat was not quite pulling its weight in his everyday life. In fact, he thought Attack also seemed somewhat low; perhaps this was an effect to prevent stats interfering with normal life.

“Go on, say it. What have you been calling me inside your mind all this time? Just ‘Cecil,’ right?” Cecil whispered furiously.

Carefully choosing his words, Allen forced his words out through the chokehold. “It’s been ‘Lady Cecil,’ o-of course. How could you suspect otherwise? I respect you from the bottom of my heart every moment of every single day. It truly pains my heart that the school is forcing me to do this.”

Carlova cleared his throat and said wryly, “Uh, you two back there. I know I said to get along, but I didn’t mean for you to get that close...”

＊ ＊ ＊

When Carlova finished explaining everything, the class moved to the auditorium where the entrance ceremony would be held. This school had, among other buildings, several auditoriums and open squares, all of which were remarkably spacious. The students from the second and third years were also present at the ceremony, both groups wearing slightly different uniforms. As it turned out, the design changed with every year.

Allen had not seen the Hero or the headmaster, who had mentioned the Sovereign of Spirits or some such, since exam day. He figured that they would summon him or seek him out of their own accord if they needed him for anything.

One thing that Allen had learned from the Appraisal Ceremony was that the Hero was in Normal Mode. Furthermore, the headmaster, who had supposedly seen the Appraisal results of tens of thousands of students, had never seen anyone with all their stats ranked “E.” In other words, it was highly likely that Allen was the only person in this world who was in Hell Mode.

And with that, classes began. The first course was called Monster Studies, which started off covering the ecology and behaviors of goblins and orcs. It was truly a class befitting a fantasy world. The teacher went on passionately about each monster’s weaknesses, how to kill them, and what to watch out for while fighting them.

Afternoon classes were based on each student’s Talent. Naturally, there was no Summoner course. When Allen consulted Carlova, he was told there was no curriculum by which he would be tested, so he was free to join whichever class he was interested in. He decided to check all of them out, starting with swordsmanship and magic. There were classes only four days each week, which Allen thought was a rather leisurely schedule.

The morning of the fifth day, Allen and his friends departed bright and early to head to their very first dungeon. As they were still Rank E adventurers, they could only choose a Rank C dungeon. As they approached the entrance, they saw a whole line of adventurers already out front. Apparently it would get crowded at this hour. Some groups were pulling carts loaded with their luggage. In contrast, Allen and his friends had all their hands free, thanks to the Storage function of his grimoire.

“It’s the dungeon!” Krena exclaimed excitedly.

“It sure is!” Allen replied, the grin on his face equally as dazzling as hers.

Cecil stared at them in turn. “What do the two of you look so happy for?!”

Dogora, as usual, merely looked on in silence.

This looks like a three-story building...which seems quite short, considering the lady at the Guild said that Rank C dungeons usually have four to six floors. That’s a rather awkward height if the dungeon is going up...so does that mean it’s underground?

After a while, it was finally the No-life Gamers’ turn in line.

“You appear to be students. Do you have your adventurer cards with you?” the staff member on duty asked, to which all four children then produced their cards. He nodded and said, “Looks like you’ve got yourselves proper equipment too. That’s good. You be careful in there.”

All together, it had cost two hundred gold to gear everyone up. A hundred went toward a mithril ax and greatsword—Krena had gotten really excited at seeing the giant sword—leaving the remaining hundred for Cecil’s Ancient Wood Wand and three sets of protective gear. Now, Allen only had two hundred gold remaining.

Allen told the staff member, “It’s our first time here today. Do we just go straight in?”

“Oh, first time! In that case, go to Room 205. You can ask all your questions there.”

“Y-Yes, sir. Understood.”

“Room 205”? What, is this actually an apartment building and not a dungeon? And what does he mean by “ask questions”?

Allen had figured that they would be fine with adequate gear and a general idea of the strength of the monsters they would encounter. As it turned out, however, there was more that he had yet to learn.

The second floor was accessible both by stairs and by ramp. Allen and his friends followed behind another group that was pulling a cart along. When they reached the landing, they walked down the corridor until they found the door labeled “205.” They pushed their way inside and, to their surprise, found a cube roughly a meter across floating in midair in the middle of the room. It was blinking red, green, yellow, and other colors while giving off soft mechanical clicks.

“Please close the door after you come in,” said a robotic voice like the kind featured in older anime.

Krena jumped and exclaimed, “Whoa, it talked!”

The group obediently closed the door after themselves and gathered before the cube.

“Please present your adventurer cards.”

There was no point in staying surprised, so Allen held out his card, prompting his friends to follow suit.

“Rank E adventurer Allen, Rank E adventurer Krena, Rank E adventurer Cecil, and Rank E adventurer Dogora. Is this correct?”

“Yes,” Allen said on behalf of his party.

“Welcome to this Rank C dungeon. I am General Dungeon Operating System C205.”

Interesting. Still haven’t the faintest idea how this works, but it sure is a fancy setup.

“Do we enter the dungeon from this room?”

“That is correct. I will transport you to the dungeon, which is in a separate dimension.”

“A separate dimension? You mean the dungeon’s on a different server?”

In Allen’s previous life, he had often played games hosted on multiple servers that players could freely move between. For example, if a certain town, hunting area, or dungeon was particularly crowded, players could access the same area through a different server. This term suddenly popping up in Allen’s mind gave him the uncanny feeling of living within a computer game in person.

“A server, is it? I’m afraid that word is not in my data bank.”

“I see. Don’t worry about it; I only meant to say that I understand the thing about different dimensions. Please send us to the dungeon, then.”

“Understood. However, according to your adventurer cards, this seems to be your first time entering a dungeon. Would you like me to give you a brief explanation beforehand?”

Since I’m here with everyone else, I probably ought to listen, just in case there are things I should know.

“Yes, please.”

As Allen and GDOS C205 continued their conversation, Krena watched excitedly while Cecil visibly struggled to understand how he could talk with a cube as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“The dimension you are sent to changes depending on who you are with and the number of the room you are entering from. Other adventurers will be unable to follow you. This also means help cannot arrive, so please prepare thoroughly beforehand.”

“That sounds exactly like going to separate servers! More like, these are instanced dungeons!” So I can use my Summons as much as I want! Thank you so much, gods!

“S-Seriously, what’s been with you all this time?!”

“Do you not get it, Cecil?! The cube is saying everyone’s playing on different servers! Different instances!”

“Oh no... I’ve always thought you were a bit strange, but it looks like you’ve gone completely mad...”

Allen then continued to ask a few more questions, such as how to return, whether they needed to watch out for traps, how to head to different floors, and what the conditions for clearing the dungeon were. As it turned out, the boss of a Rank C dungeon was, as could be expected, a Rank C monster. Aside from the boss, all other monsters within were either Rank E or D.

When the cube finished explaining, Allen asked it to go ahead and send them to the dungeon. It wished them luck and obliged.

All at once, the appearance of the room shifted. Its size remained the same and C205 was still there, but a path had opened up.

“Is that the entrance to the dungeon?” Krena asked.

“Most likely,” Dogora answered, hefting his ax.

“All right, everyone,” Allen said. “Let’s go.”

Everyone nodded, then stepped out into the dungeon.

＊ ＊ ＊

The party of four proceeded through the first floor of the dungeon while taking care to remain in formation. Krena and Dogora led the way, Cecil stayed in the middle, and Allen brought up the rear. They had discussed and worked out this formation at their base beforehand.

Soon, they came upon a fork in the road.

“Which way do we go?” Cecil asked.

“The right leads to a dead end. Let’s take the left,” Allen replied. This is quite the labyrinth, even though it’s just a Rank C dungeon.

The moment they had stepped inside, Allen had sent out four Bird Es ahead for scouting. Thanks to them, the group could confidently push ahead without worry of getting lost.

Krena, who did not quite get what was going on, cried, “Allen’s amazing!”

This specific dungeon was composed of lots of small rooms connected by winding passages. In order to head to the next floor, they had to find the cube managing the floor and have it teleport them. Just like with armored ant nests, Allen was currently creating a map of this dungeon floor. He wanted to find the shortest way through.

“Let’s only fight monsters when we’ve got no other choice and ignore the treasure chests altogether,” Allen suggested. “We’re better off prioritizing clearing three Rank C dungeons so we can enter Rank B dungeons as soon as possible.”

The cube had told them that some treasure chests were actually monsters in disguise, while others could fire arrows or spray poison when opened. No one in this party knew how to disable traps, and drops from chests in Rank C dungeons were likely nothing impressive anyway. Given all this, Allen decided to just pass everything by. Everyone indicated their agreement.

There were several things Allen wanted to accomplish in these dungeons. He wanted to raise his and his friends’ levels, of course, plus earn some cash and magic stones. However, the monsters in Rank C dungeons were so weak that trying to earn money or levels from them would be just plain inefficient. Furthermore, he wanted to get his hands on an MP Recovery Ring, which could, supposedly, only drop from a Rank A dungeon boss. As he had no idea which specific dungeon, he wanted to earn the right to challenge the Rank A dungeons as quickly as possible. This would also widen the range of monsters the party could encounter. For all these reasons, he was now focusing solely on completing speedruns of Rank C dungeons.

All right, let’s first take a good look at everyone’s Statuses.

Allen looked through his grimoire while walking on. The moment the party had been registered, he had gained the ability to see his party members’ info.

---

Name: Krena
Age: 12
Class: Sword Lord
Level: 21
HP: 880
MP: 330
Attack: 880
Endurance: 620
Agility: 595
Intelligence: 350
Luck: 415
Skills: Sword Lord {1}, Slash {1}, Sword Mastery {5}
Extra Skill: Limit Break
XP: 2,850/3,000

Skill Levels
Sword Lord: 1
Slash: 1

---

Skill Experience
Slash: 0/10Name: Cecil Granvelle
Age: 12
Class: Wizardess
Level: 1
HP: 25
MP: 25
Attack: 10
Endurance: 16
Agility: 16
Intelligence: 30
Luck: 16
Skills: Wizardry {1}, Fire Magic {1}, Sparring {2}
Extra Skill: Petit Meteor
XP: 0/10

Skill Levels
Wizardry: 1
Fire Magic: 1

---

Skill Experience
Fire Magic: 10/10Name: Dogora
Age: 12
Class: Ax User
Level: 21
HP: 464
MP: 248
Attack: 610
Endurance: 404
Agility: 258
Intelligence: 170
Luck: 276
Skills: War Ax {1}, Full Might {1}, Ax Mastery {4}
Extra Skill: Heart and Soul
XP: 2,850/3,000

Skill Levels
War Ax: 1
Full Might: 1

Skill Experience
Full Might: 0/10

---

Allen had long finished analyzing his companions’ Statuses. First, as he had deduced, all classes had a fundamental skill tied to their class, the equivalent of what Summoning was to him. He personally called these “class skills.” For Krena, this would be Sword Lord, whereas for Cecil, it would be Wizardry.

Although Cecil had earned some Skill XP, her skill had yet to level up. The magic tutor had said that in order to use more powerful magic, one had to overcome Trials of the Gods. Allen planned on observing her Status to figure out exactly how base level and skill level were connected.

Why Krena and Dogora’s skill levels had remained at Lvl. 1 was likely because they had not expended their MP at all during their playing knight sessions. It could also be said that, until now, they had not been in an environment where they could use their skills.

Allen had shown everyone his grimoire. When he told Krena she had a skill named Slash, she had said she thought she could somehow imagine it. Allen was hoping that everyone’s afternoon classes would help them activate their skills.

“Cecil, slime up ahead.”

“I see it. Fireball!”

Even while in the middle of thought, Allen was still scouting ahead. When the slime he had spotted earlier came into sight, Cecil attacked it with her magic.

<You have defeated 1 slime. You have earned 8 XP.>

“Yay!” Cecil cheered after killing her very first monster.

“Thanks,” Allen told her. “You’re doing great.”

Just like Krena and Dogora, Allen now spoke more casually with Cecil. She had gotten used to it by this point and had not brought it up since that first day.

Half of the slime had been blown away by Cecil’s spell. The remaining half gave off some smoke, then disappeared altogether, leaving behind only a small magic stone. This was just as the Guild staff had said—dungeon monsters only dropped magic stones, no materials. To save the time and effort of picking the magic stones up, Allen assigned a Bird G with the task.

I’ve gotta stock up on Rank E magic stones too, for making Leaves of Life.

The party had agreed to let Allen manage their magic stones. As for his current stock, he had 2,746 Rank E stones; 6,953 Rank D; 9,157 Rank C; and 4 Rank B. Although he used to have over twenty thousand Rank D ones at one point, he had spent the majority of them making Crops of Magic. Since many of the Rank D Summons were quite useful, he held on to the remaining stones as insurance.

At the moment, Allen had two hundred gold on hand. Two more quests from the Adventurer’s Guild to gather twenty thousand Rank D magic stones and he would be pretty much penniless. It would be a while before he had a stable source of money flowing in, and no matter how many Rank E magic stones he gathered, they would never count as Rank D stones.

And so Allen had turned his attention to his Rank C magic stones.

• The Value of Each Rank of Magic Stone
• Rank E magic stone: almost worthless
• Rank D magic stone: 1 silver
• Rank C magic stone: 10 silver
• Rank B magic stone: 1 gold
• Rank A magic stone: 10 gold

The monetary value of magic stones increased tenfold with each successive rank. This was in proportion to their energy output, with a higher-ranked stone providing ten times more energy than the previous rank. While monsters were often much more than ten times stronger than monsters one rank below them, the price of magic stones was apparently tied to how much energy they could provide when powering magic tools.

Currently, Allen owned more than nine thousand Rank C magic stones. He was planning on selling them in batches of one thousand each to fund his Rank D magic stone gathering. Although he would undoubtedly need Rank C magic stones in the future, his top priority at the moment was leveling Summoning up.

With a few breaks in between, the No-life Gamers finally reached the cube at the other end of the floor before the end of day.

“There it is!” Cecil cried out happily. “Now we can go to the next floor!” Despite having taken ten hours to reach this point, her exhaustion had cleared away after each level up, meaning she was still feeling quite energetic. Due to being in Normal Mode, she had been leveling up quite quickly only fighting Rank E monsters.

“I am Floor Operating System C328-01. Do you wish to exit the dungeon? Or do you wish to go to the next floor?”

“Would we be able to return if we go to the next floor?” Allen asked.

“Floor Operating System C328-02 is on the next floor. It can take you out of the dungeon. Furthermore, should you choose not to continue on to the next floor, you will not be able to start from Floor 2 the next time you enter this dungeon.”

Ah, so it basically saves our progress and lets us start where we left off. That’s helpful.

“Please send us to the next level, then.”

“Understood.”

The appearance of the room changed instantaneously. Apparently this was now the second floor.

“Welcome. I am Floor Operating System C328-02. Do you plan on staying in the dungeon? Or do you wish to exit?”

“Please return us— Ah, hold on.”

Allen took out a stick of firewood from Storage and threw it to the floor. Then he Summoned a Bird G and ordered it to stand by in the room.

“What’re you doing, Allen?” Dogora asked curiously.

“Experiment,” Allen replied simply.

Dogora still looked confused. He studied the firewood as if trying to glean its significance.

Allen turned to the cube. “Okay, please return us outside.”

“Understood.”

Immediately, Allen and his friends found themselves in another room with a door behind them. No floating cube was in sight.

“So this is the designated exit room.”

“S-So it seems,” Cecil replied, somewhat on her guard after all the back-to-back teleportations.

The group walked down a corridor, then stepped outside to find themselves on the opposite side of the dungeon building from the entrance.

So ended the No-life Gamers’ very first day in a dungeon.

＊ ＊ ＊

Some time had passed since the No-life Gamers began heading to the dungeons regularly. During this time, Allen had made several major discoveries. One of them had been tied to the firewood that he had left behind on the first day.

When he first heard the cube say that the dungeon they were sent to was based on who was in their party and where they had entered from, and that other adventurers would be unable to follow or rescue them, Allen’s first thought was that he could use his Summons freely without worrying about strangers seeing. As he continued going through the dungeon, however, another possibility had occurred to him.

What triggered this thought was the small size of Room 205. Twenty people could fit inside if they really squished, but the real estate agent had mentioned adventurer parties of up to fifty people. This led Allen to deduce that it was possible for such parties to enter the room in smaller groups and regroup again inside a dungeon. This implied that when a party “logged back into” the dungeon, it was the exact same instance as before.

In order to test this hypothesis, Allen had left behind a stick of firewood and a Summon. Lo and behold, on the second day when he returned to the dungeon, both were waiting exactly where he had left them. In other words, the dungeon was generating an infinite number of dimensions for different adventurer parties and different rooms.

I’d heard that these dungeons existed from before the appearance of the Demon Lord. I wonder who’s managing them?

The General Dungeon Operating System had also given them two pointers:

• When entering from a different room, even if going to the same floor, it still counts as going to a different dimension.
• When a dimension is left unvisited for one month, it automatically disappears. No record or articles remain.

When he heard this, Allen decided to drop by before school and hopped inside to dispatch Summoner Squads. Groups of five Summons were left inside Floor 1 and Floor 2 and ordered to gather magic stones. This method was safe, inconspicuous, and was unlikely to cause anyone trouble.

The encounter rate inside a dungeon was higher than it had been in the wilderness outside Granvelle City. The squad on Floor 2 was securing around four hundred magic stones a day. Once this method was proven effective, Allen had multiple squads roaming about inside his party’s dungeon at all times.

On the No-life Gamers’ fifth time through the Rank C dungeon, they reached the sixth floor. Unlike on the previous floors, which had all had a corridor stretching out from the FOS cube room, here the group found a giant pair of double doors before them immediately upon being teleported.

“Hey, there’re some doors in the back over there,” Cecil pointed out.

“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Allen replied.

By now, the two were used to speaking casually with each other. Thanks to living together at their base, they were now much more in tune with what the other was thinking.

“Which means this is the last floor, right?”

“I think so. I mean, we were told that Rank C dungeons have a maximum of six floors. We can probably assume those doors open to a chamber with a boss inside.”

As the group had only just finished passing through Floor 5, it was very likely already evening outside. Although they had originally planned on returning straight after visiting this floor, since they were here already, they had decided to kill the boss first before heading back.

The heavyset doors inlaid with elaborate relief carvings promised a truly terrifying enemy beyond. When Allen touched one door, both opened automatically with an intimidating rumble. Inside was a massive, circular room roughly two hundred meters across. In the middle of the open area stood a goblin king and ten goblins lying in wait. They were surrounded by a magic circle at their feet that floated slightly above the stone-paved floor. The goblins were completely frozen, not moving even a muscle.

Are they supposed to start moving once we get within a certain distance? Allen thought before observing out loud, “I see. So the bosses of a Rank C dungeon are one Rank C monster and ten Rank D monsters.”

Everyone else nodded. As it turned out, the only Rank C monster they had encountered in this Rank C dungeon was the boss right before their eyes. Thus, in all likelihood, only the dungeon boss would be Rank B inside a Rank B dungeon.

Before the battle began, Cecil suddenly called out. “Hey, Allen?”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s best that we know just how powerful your ability is.”

“What?”

“Can you kill these monsters with your Summons for us to see?”

Both Krena and Dogora agreed with Cecil’s request.

“Yeah! Allen’s Summons!”

“That sounds good to me. Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen his Summons fight.”

The party had been mainly relying on Cecil’s magic to kill the monsters they encountered all this time. After she had reached Lvl. 10, the cap on her skill level had been removed, and her Fire Magic skill was now Lvl. 2. Because she could earn Skill XP again, and since long-distance attacks were much more efficient than close-quarters combat, she had been tasked with doing most of the killing.

Unfortunately, Krena and Dogora were having trouble activating their skills. The way they put it was that they felt like they were getting it but it was always just barely out of reach. Consequently, they had yet to earn any Skill XP. It was proving more difficult than originally expected.

Cecil does have a point... There’s been no need for my Summons so far because this is a Rank C dungeon, but once we move on to a Rank B or Rank A one, I’m definitely gonna have to call out my Summons. Revealing them here is a good idea.

Unlike Cecil, Krena and Dogora had only seen Allen Summon little birds and mice so far. It would make things easier for them if they understood the Summons’ usefulness sooner rather than later.

Now, behold the power of my Summons after reaching Strengthening Lvl. 6!

---

Name: Allen
Age: 12
Class: Summoner
Level: 42
HP: 1,065 + 180
MP: 1,660 + 600
Attack: 584
Endurance: 584 + 180
Agility: 1,091 + 36
Intelligence: 1,670 + 636
Luck: 1,091
Skills: Summoning {5}, Creation {5}, Synthesis {5}, Strengthening {6}, Expansion {4}, Storage, Sharing, Deletion, Sword Mastery {3}, Throwing {3}
XP: 3,016,226/60,000,000

Skill Levels
Summoning: 5
Creation: 5
Synthesis: 5
Strengthening: 6

Skill Experience
Creation: 3,636,038/10,000,000
Synthesis: 3,635,015/10,000,000
Strengthening: 1,220/100,000,000

Creatable Summons
Insect: D, E, F, G, H
Beast: D, E, F, G, H
Bird: D, E, F, G
Grass: D, E, F
Stone: D, E
Fish: D

Holder
Insect:
Beast: D x 14
Bird: G x 3, E x 3
Grass:
Stone:
Fish: D x 30

---

Last month, Allen had finally reached Strengthening Lvl. 6, which gave Summons +500 in their two relevant stats. After that, he moved on to leveling up Creation and Synthesis. He had taken thirty-five thousand Rank D magic stones—a combination of both those originally in his possession and those he obtained through the Adventurer’s Guild—and converted all of them into Crops of Magic. Each one gave 1,000 MP and cost five Rank D magic stones to make. That worked out to 200 MP per magic stone. Thirty-five thousand Rank D magic stones therefore equated to seven million Skill XP.

“Gimme a sec,” Allen said before setting his grimoire flipping busily Creating, Synthesizing, and Strengthening.

“What’s going on?!” Dogora asked, taken aback.

“It looks so cool!” Krena cheered.

Allen approached the boss with Dogora and Krena close behind and Cecil at the very back. Once he crossed the fifty-meter mark, the monsters began moving.

“Teddys, kill the monsters. Brons, protect us.”

Eight Beast Ds materialized in a circle around the monsters and promptly began making short work of them using Crush. In fact, the Summons were so powerful, they managed to kill both the goblins and the goblin king with a single attack each.

Krena’s and Dogora’s eyes were bugging out as they watched the fight.

“See?! Allen is amazing, isn’t he?!” Cecil crowed, acting proud for some reason.

“So amazing! It was over in the blink of an eye!” Krena cried.

Seeing the magic stones fall to the ground, Allen nodded. “All right, all done. Wait, huh?”

The moment the floor boss died, a new magic circle appeared up ahead. Allen braced himself for another monster, but it was a treasure chest that appeared instead. Oh right, the cube said that the rewards dropped by boss monsters are guaranteed to be safe.

As the party leader, Allen walked forward and opened the chest. The other three crowded around to peer over his shoulders. The lid opened up to reveal a steel sword inside.

“I guess this is our reward for killing the dungeon boss,” Allen murmured. “If I remember correctly, the boss only appears once per day, right?”

“That’s what we were told,” Cecil replied.

In other words, each adventurer party could challenge the bosses of all the dungeons they had cleared once every day. In this way, the No-life Gamers completed their very first run of their very first Rank C dungeon.