Chapter 9: Rank A Dungeon

Hell Mode — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 9: Rank A Dungeon

September arrived, signaling that half of summer break had passed. Allen and his companions had begun progressing through their very first Rank A dungeon.

They had three main goals for their dungeon raids: to level up, to obtain more powerful items, and to find an MP Recovery Ring. Despite how smoothly they had gone through Rank C and B dungeons, however, they were finding the Rank A dungeon significantly more time-consuming. The original plan had been to check out the Auction starting in September, but now they were focused on clearing their current dungeon.

Info on Rank A Dungeons

Filled with Rank C, B, and A monsters
There are 4 of them in Academy City
Contain 15 to 20 floors
Takes at least 24 hours to go through each floor

One of the biggest issues for Allen’s group was the last point—the time needed to traverse the dungeon. Each floor was unbelievably expansive. The estimated travel time of twenty-four hours was based on the average human walking speed of five kilometers per hour, meaning a distance of 120 kilometers. As if the distance alone was not enough, the paths themselves were complicated and labyrinthian.

Even though Allen was sending Bird Es to scout ahead, the passages branched off often, and even the wrong ways and dead ends continued for a significant distance. If, once they had gained a general idea of the starting area, they had not simply picked a direction and started walking, Allen’s party probably would have been overwhelmed by the number of options and not have been able to take the first step. In spite of Allen’s efforts, however, they still found themselves on the wrong path and had to retrace their steps every so often. All together, the pathways on one floor of the dungeon came to more than a thousand kilometers in total.

To make matters worse, there were several new kinds of traps. One of them was the Teleport Trap. When someone stepped on it, everyone within the magic circle the trap generated would be sent to a random location. Of course, it was entirely possible for someone to suddenly find themselves teleported into a group of monsters; that was not the worst thing about this trap, though. The real issue lay in trying to regroup with party members who were all scattered throughout the giant maze. The No-life Gamers did not have access to a virtual map in their minds that they could rely on while making their way through the dungeon. Allen was indeed drawing a map in his grimoire as they went along, but if their group ended up scattered, they would have to find their way back to each other the same way any other adventurer had to. This was why they had been at this same dungeon for several weeks now.

“Good morning,” Allen said aloud.

“Mm, morning,” Dogora replied, sitting up from where he had been sleeping next to Allen.

The two had been sleeping side by side not because they had moved into the same bedroom at the base, but because they were camping out on the twelfth floor of the dungeon. After the party realized that they could not clear a whole floor in one day, they had started to camp out overnight in small chambers in the dungeon. This being the twelfth floor meant they were already more than halfway through. The goal was to gain at least one Rank A dungeon under their belt before summer break was over.

Naturally, Krena, Cecil, and Keel were also present. Although they referred to this place as a small room, it was actually the size of a swimming pool. As such, there was plenty of space. Allen’s Storage held plenty of firewood, foodstuffs, and everything else they needed to sleep outside. The group had no need of anything that was too large to fit through the Storage opening, such as bulky tents. Because they usually only camped out one night at a time—two at most—they could make do with just the bare minimum luggage.

“Did any monsters attack while we were asleep?”

“Only a few, Master. They were dying to be killed.”

This room was a dead end, but the monsters were constantly on the move, ready to pounce on any adventurer they found. This deep into the dungeon, monsters were mainly Rank B and possessed the intelligence to attack together in groups. Allen recalled the agent at the Real Estate Guild mentioning adventurers forming large parties of twenty, even up to fifty members—that latter number most likely taking into account rotating guard shifts during the night as well.

Although Allen’s party only had five people, five Spirits Cs always remained on lookout whenever they slept. As Summons did not need to sleep or eat, they did not need to take shifts. Allen still wanted to get his beauty sleep at night, so thanks to the Summons, the entire party could sleep without a care.

“Pretty quiet night, then.”

“Quiet as the dead, Master. None of the Wallys blew up.”

Hmm, so when our defense is perfect, we don’t get attacked. I feel like there’s a bit of ebb and flow to the frequency of monster encounters.

Maria’s words caused one of the Stone Es to swell up with pride. By now, Allen had largely finished analyzing the new Stone C Summon, as well as the Awakened Abilities of the other Stone-type Summons.

Stone E’s Awakened Ability: Explode

Causes the Summon to explode when a specified target comes within 5 m
The explosion’s shock wave expands out for 10 m
The Summon dies upon activation and its card disappears
Multiple copies can be Summoned at the same time
Can explode on Allen’s command
Cannot move while this Ability is active
Disappears automatically 24 hours after activation

Stone D’s Awakened Ability: Protect

Endurance stat is multiplied by 5
Can be disabled on Allen’s command
Effective for 1 hour
Cooldown: 1 day

Stone C’s Ability: Substitute

Can take damage on behalf of one target within a 50 m radius
Can move while this Ability is active

Stone C’s Awakened Ability: Sacrifice

Can take damage on behalf of all party members within a 50 m radius
Can move while this Awakened Ability is active
Effective for 1 hour
Cooldown: 1 day

Stone E’s Awakened Ability, Explode, contained enough destructive power to kill even Rank B monsters, making it dangerous to the party if it were to go off too close by. Therefore, Allen had left a few of them in the passageway outside the room the party had chosen to spend the night in. Their main purpose was to kill all approaching monsters, but the ensuing explosions also served as especially effective alarm clocks.

Stone D’s Awakened Ability, Protect, made it great as a decoy. Although its Attack stat was nothing to write home about, its overwhelming Endurance made it very hard to kill. It could help serve as an additional target to tank a group of monsters’ attacks.

Stone C could be tasked with protecting the party members with lower Endurance, such as Cecil and Keel, during battle. Now that they were facing Rank B monsters, the party was contending with attacks that dealt much higher damage.

Soon, everyone else had woken up and begun bustling around, packing up their belongings. Allen Summoned eight Frans—five for riding, three to scout ahead and set off any traps in their way. There was no way to perfectly circumvent all the traps, but this strategy at least proved useful against Teleport Traps.

“Two orc kings and one cyclops ahead!” Allen warned.

“Dogora, don’t let any of them through this time!” Cecil shouted, receiving a brusque “I know!” in reply.

The three Bird C scouts made first contact with the approaching monsters as Krena and Dogora charged forward, weapons tightly gripped in their hands. With how long they had spent in this Rank A dungeon, their levels had gone up quite significantly. Not even Rank B monsters scared them anymore. Their respective Attack Skills—Flying Slash and Full Might—had reached Lvl. 4, growing increasingly powerful with each level up. The two damage dealers now started spamming those skills, steadily whittling down the HP of the monsters ahead.

The orc king that Krena was fighting was the first to fall, soon followed by the other that served as Dogora’s opponent. Because Krena’s Attack was the higher of the two, Cecil directed her magic attacks at Dogora’s target, prioritizing reducing the number of enemies. They had gotten their cooperation down to a science.

“All right! Only the cyclops is left!”

Allen rallied everyone as they surrounded the monster that towered even higher than orc kings. Many Rank B monsters easily reached seven meters in height, making for very large targets. They then began raining attacks on it. Even Maria joined in the onslaught, firing off Psychokinesis over and over, gouging out sizable chunks of the cyclops’s health in the process. It was not long before it was on the verge of dying.

“ROOOAARRR!”

The giant monster’s club whistled with the speed of its swing. Dogora managed to block the attack using his ax, but was thrown off his mount in the process.

“You okay, Dogora?!” Cecil called out anxiously, seeing as he had been sent flying all the way back to where she was standing in the rear. Keel started making his way over to cast Healing Magic on him while Allen checked Dogora’s Status through his grimoire.

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.” Dogora immediately grabbed his ax and ran back to the front line. Just as he took his first step, however, a click sounded. “Huh? What’s this?” Before anyone could react, a magic circle expanded from underneath his foot. The next moment, both he and Cecil disappeared.

The two of them had been teleported. They were now somewhere out there in this expansive maze, without a healer, where Rank B monsters wandered freely.

“Dogora! Cecil!” Crap! Of all people, it had to be those two!

Leaving Krena to finish off the cyclops, Allen immediately Unsummoned all the Summons he had out remotely gathering XP and magic stones, then sent his grimoire into overdrive replacing the holder slots with Spirit Cs.

Our top priority is finding those two and delivering them recovery items.

As soon as each new Spirit C was made, she would fly out, passing through walls, holding several Fronds of Life and Seeds of Magic. Although normal recovery items could not pass through walls, the ones made from Grass-type Summons were able to.

Krena, who had already killed the cyclops, ran over with Keel. They both wore distraught expressions.

“What should we do, Allen? Should we go look too?” Keel asked.

Allen shook his head. “No, there’s no point in us all getting lost. Let’s wait for Maria to find them first.”

Thankfully, I gave them some recovery items to hold on to earlier. And they just got buffed too.

As a precaution, Allen had given every party member ten Fronds of Life and Seeds of Magic each, which fully restored HP and MP, respectively. There were no guarantees in adventuring; these were meant as insurance in case Allen left them for any reason and they had to make their way back out of a dungeon on their own. Furthermore, right before they engaged the cyclops in combat just now, he had buffed everyone four times using the Abilities and Awakened Abilities of all of his Fish-type Summons.

Fish D’s Awakened Ability: Disperse

Gives a 10% chance of Evading physical and magical attacks
Effective for 1 hour
Cooldown: 1 day

Fish C’s Ability: Shark Oil

Increases critical hit rate
Effective for 24 hours

Fish C’s Awakened Ability: Shark Skin

Gives a 10% chance of dealing a Critical Hit
Effective for 1 hour
Cooldown: 1 day

There was a certain probability that attacks could be “Evaded”—basically, nullified—in this world, with that exact number depending on a variety of factors, including the Agility and relevant skill levels of both attacker and evader. Magic was harder to Evade than physical attacks, likely working off of a different calculation.

Fish D’s Ability, Spray, gave a noticeable boost to the chance of Evading both physical and magical attacks regardless of the attacking monster’s stats. The Summon’s Awakened Ability, Disperse, brought this up to a hard ten percent chance. No matter how fast or how powerful a monster was, one in ten of its attacks—both physical and magical—would be completely nullified. Even considering that this buff lasted only an hour, this was an incredible boost.

In addition to Evasion, this world also had the concept of Critical Hits, which were attacks that dealt twice the normal damage. The rate for this also depended on both sides’ Agility and skill levels, but it was possible to further increase the chance of triggering this phenomenon by attacking an opponent’s weak spots. Allen recalled being on the receiving end of many such attacks when Dagrah was trying to kill him. Fish C’s Awakened Ability, Shark Skin, guaranteed a ten percent chance of landing these Critical Hits.

Thirty harrowing minutes passed after the Spirit Cs had flown off in all directions.

“RAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Flame Lance!”

I found them! That way!

Allen finally spotted, through his Shared vision with one of the Spirit Cs, a blood-soaked Dogora standing protectively in front of Cecil at the entrance of a dead-end room. They were engaged in combat with three Rank B monsters—two king basilisks and one ogre. Judging by the situation, they had fled to this room and were now trapped.

The blood running down Dogora’s face indicated that they had used up all of their health recovery items within the past thirty minutes. While he exchanged furious blows with the seven-meter-tall ogre, blinded in one eye from the blood, Cecil desperately provided cover fire from behind.

The situation’s critical. Maria, use Poltergeist!

“Time to kill them all! Poltergeist!”

When Spirit C activated her Awakened Ability, dozens of gray, volleyball-sized orbs appeared in midair and shot straight at the monsters. This was an Area of Effect attack that cost a hundred MP and had a cooldown of one day, with each projectile packing as much destructive damage as a single Psychokinesis.

In no time at all, the three monsters were dead. Dogora and Cecil used the recovery items Maria had brought to heal themselves back up.

“Are you okay?” Allen asked through Maria.

As he tried to get his breath back, Dogora panted, “That...was a bit close...for comfort. Thanks...for coming...in time.”

The No-life Gamers normally had a pretty large safety margin when going through the dungeons, but that was possible only because they stuck together and had the help of the Summons. Things were much harder when it was just Dogora and Cecil alone.

“We’re coming to rejoin you soon. Stay here and don’t m—”

Heavy huffing interrupted Maria’s words, immediately followed by two huge boars coming into view.

Cecil gripped her wand. “In the meantime, we’ll continue fighting.”

Oh, crap! Marias, all of you, go help them!

While ordering all twenty Spirit Cs that had been scattered in various directions to change course, Allen told his companions, “Dogora and Cecil are both fine.”

“Really?!” Krena sighed with relief.

“Yep. I know where they are now, so let’s head over!”

“Okay!”

“Krena, Keel, we’re using Idaten, so hold on to your Fran tightly!”

With a higher-pitched “Kweee!” than normal, the Bird Cs mustered more strength than they ever had in their thighs, then blasted forward. Krena’s yelp of surprise overlapped with Keel’s scream.

“This is too faaast!”

Idaten was Bird C’s Awakened Ability. It enabled the Summon to run at three hundred kilometers per hour for one hour and had a cooldown of one day. The birds ran with their heads extended and parallel to the ground, not slowing down in the slightest even when going around sharp corners. Everyone grabbed on to the feathers of their mounts tightly to not get thrown off by the inertia of those turns.

Keel screamed, “We’re gonna die!”

“It’s fine. Just hang on!” Allen shouted back while guiding the Bird Cs. As before, three other Bird Cs went ahead of them to trigger all the traps. They encountered monsters along the way, but there was no time to deal with them. A few monsters reacted in time to take some swings at them, but by then the group was already out of sight, having ducked or dodged as needed.

Please let us get there in time!

Even though Allen knew where Dogora and Cecil were located, he and his companions could not phase through walls. They ended up taking a few wrong turns and had to detour, but the speed of Idaten proved more than enough to make up for any lost time.

There they are! Phew.

“RAAAAAHHHH!”

Slightly under an hour after they had set off, Allen’s group finally reached the room where Dogora and Cecil were holding out. They arrived just as the boy dealt the killing blow to another ogre. Twenty Spirit Cs floated in the air surrounding them, all holding Fronds of Life and Seeds of Magic.

“What a relief,” Allen said breathlessly while dismounting. “Are you two okay? I’m sorry I missed that one trap.”

Dogora waved a hand dismissively. “Nah, I’m the one who stepped on it.”

Allen was apologizing, but Dogora thought he was the one in the wrong. After some back-and-forth trying to take the blame, they agreed to just let bygones be bygones, and everyone celebrated their reunion.

“Still, things got pretty dicey this time. Should we recruit a Scout who can detect traps?” Allen asked, verbalizing what he had been thinking on the way over. If there had been a Scout with them, chances were high that this incident might have been avoided entirely.

“I mean, we’ve made it this far without one,” Keel replied, not sounding very enthusiastic about the idea.

That’s true. And if we invite another student, we’d have to start all over from the Rank C dungeons again.

“I think it’s more an issue of Keel and me standing too far in the back during battle,” Cecil said. “Going forward, let’s position ourselves right behind Allen.”

After the group discussed several more ways to take precautions against traps, they agreed to put the idea of adding a Scout to their party on hold.

“Well then, shall we get back to it?”

Krena huffed with gusto. “Let’s find the next floor today!”

With that, the No-life Gamers resumed going through the Rank A dungeon.

＊＊＊

It was now nearing the end of September, and summer break was coming to a close. After the incident where Cecil and Dogora had gotten separated from the party, they never got cut off from each other by a Teleport Trap again. Everyone stayed close enough together to all be within range of any that might trigger, while Allen continued sending his Summons ahead to set off as many as possible beforehand.

During their discussion that ended with the conclusion to not add a Scout to the party, the topic of what roles they would want to recruit came up. Allen fervently made a case for some form of buff support. Although both Allen and Keel had ways of casting buffs, this was by no means their specialty. Allen argued that the abilities of a support Talent could greatly bolster the strength of the entire party. That said, this group also lacked a dedicated tank, someone who could withstand enemy attacks while the others dealt damage. In the end, the No-life Gamers shared the understanding that their party still had a lot of room for growth.

Info from Viscount Granvelle revealed that it was common for former classmates at the Academy to be posted together on the battlefield. The situation at the front lines often changed drastically at the drop of a hat, but more often than not, those who had been in the same class and in the same year would end up being dispatched to the same fortress.

There were currently only three border fortresses under Ratash’s jurisdiction. The large majority of fortresses were manned by Giamut, with the remainder being protected by the other countries on the Central Continent. Generally, each fortress was run by one specific country so as to keep the chain of command simple and clear. After all, there was little point in, say, assigning a Ratashian soldier to be under a Giamutan general’s command where he would feel like a stranger and lose morale. Having forces from different countries work together in cooperation was good enough; there was no need to mix the forces themselves. Past attempts at this forced integration had resulted in several fortresses falling.

The Bird F that Allen had used to consult Viscount Granvelle about Keel had remained at the mansion for communication purposes. Although Allen had not had a proper sit-down with him since, the fact that the viscount later made several trips to the royal capital indicated that he was indeed working on Keel’s situation. He had asked Allen to entrust him with the matter, so Allen decided to stay put until told otherwise.

Today was a special day for the No-life Gamers, because it was going to be their very first battle against a Rank A dungeon final boss. They ate breakfast at their base, chatting with the servants who by now had gotten thoroughly used to living there, before heading over to the dungeon. Winning the day’s battle was going to bring them one step closer to an MP Recovery Ring, which Allen was convinced was in the potential loot pool for Rank A dungeon bosses.

The party entered the dungeon building and teleported to the deepest floor. They opened the giant double doors and stepped through. Waiting for them in the middle of the boss room stood a huge suit of armor around ten meters high, surrounded by ten orc kings.

Oh, yay, an armor-type monster! A beast-type would have been even better, but this was definitely my second choice.

There were several kinds of bosses that could show up in the deepest floors of Rank A dungeons. The Adventurer’s Guild had sorted them into several major classifications.

Types of Rank A Dungeon Bosses

Dragon: The most powerful. Most difficult to fight. Spits AoE breath attacks.
Ghost: Uses high-level magical attacks. Might be impervious to physical attacks.
Armor: Very resistant to physical attacks. Incredibly high HP.
Beast: Almost no resistances. Incredibly high Attack.
Insect: Uses debuffs.

The boss that spawned was randomized each time. Allen would have preferred getting a beast-type as it was the easiest to fight, but the type that specialized only in Defense did not sound all that bad either.

“Hold on, guys. Gimme a minute while I swap out my cards.”

Insect-type Summons wouldn’t be able to do much against this boss, so... Yep, this looks about good enough. And the Poppo at the Granvelle mansion is about to run out of time, so I might as well Unsummon it too.

Allen was switching out the cards in his grimoire to better match the opponent he was facing. The monsters in the center of the room would attack only once someone got within close enough range, so he stayed near the entrance of the room while the pages in his floating book flipped furiously.

Name: Allen

Age: 12 Class: Summoner Level: 49 HP: 1,240 + 1,300 MP: 1,940 + 70 Attack: 682 + 1,000 Endurance: 682 + 1,250 Agility: 1,273 + 250 Intelligence: 1,950 + 1,270 Luck: 1,273 Skills: Summoning {6}, Creation {6}, Synthesis {6}, Strengthening {6}, Awakening {6}, Expansion {5}, Storage, Sharing, Deletion, Sword Mastery {3}, Throwing {3}

HolderInsect: Beast: C x 20 Bird: C x 5 Grass: Stone: E x 10, C x 4 Fish: C x 1, D x 1 Spirit: C x 19

After the past four months of dungeon delving, Allen was now Lvl. 49 and his four companions were Lvl. 56. All of them began to cautiously inch toward the boss in the center of the room.

“Okay, stop. If we get any closer, it’s gonna trigger the fight.”

In response, all five Frans stopped in their tracks. Right after that, four Stone Cs—suits of steel armor holding giant shields and spears—materialized. Although they could deal damage, these Summons’ specialty was in protecting a target. Living up to that reputation, they immediately used Substitute on Keel and Cecil.

“Okay, just as we planned, I’ll launch the first attack,” Allen said. “Once it’s over, Dogora and Krena—you two jump in there.”

The two gripped their weapons and nodded to show their acknowledgment.

Allen then turned to their magic user. “Cecil.”

“What?”

“Sorry, I’m gonna borrow your spell’s name again.”

“Oh gods. I keep telling you, you don’t need to apologize every time.” Cecil sighed and added under her breath, “What are you, a little kid?”

Allen held out both his hands toward the monsters, his excitement clear from the look on his face.

Let’s goooooo! “Meteoooor!”

Suddenly, ten Stone Es appeared directly above the boss and entered free fall. The monsters started moving in reaction to the Summons’ descending approach.

“All right! Wallys, Explode!”

The gray forms that looked like mortar-covered walls abruptly turned bright red. Before the monsters had time to turn around, molten fragments of the Stone Es and the resulting enormous shock wave tore through their formation.

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The sight of destruction before his eyes and the shock wave he felt through his body convinced Keel of victory. “Did we get them?!” he asked excitedly.

Allen shook his head. “Nope, the boss is still ali— Incoming!”

The giant suit of armor burst through the cloud of dust, pounding toward Allen’s party. Even though all ten orc kings had died from the carpet-bombing just now, this massive moving hunk of metal still had a lot of fight left.

“Let’s go!”

Krena cried out as she led the charge on her Bird C. Dogora bellowed in response and followed closely on her heels. The two approached the monster at three hundred kilometers per hour, but it managed to keep up with their movements as it brought down its weapon, a giant greatsword several meters in length.

CRAAAASH!

“You okay, Krena?!” Keel shouted frantically.

Although Krena had blocked the boss’s attack with her own greatsword, the shock wave from the attack had created a fissure on the ground that ran for hundreds of meters. The Bird C that she had been riding was buried up to its feet.

“I’m fine! YAAAAAH!”

Krena’s great sword glowed red as she activated a skill. She blasted the boss’s weapon back with such force that it stumbled backward a step. Krena’s Fran also turned out to be entirely unhurt, its powerful hind legs having entirely absorbed the blow of the previous attack.

Dogora took advantage of this opening to get in a few full-powered swings of his ax. With the target being so large, Allen also directed his Summons—and Cecil her spells—to concentrate on the upper torso of the monster.

Good, Krena can block the attacks. The fight’s started settling down into a steady rhythm.

The fact that the vanguard could properly withstand the boss’s attacks meant victory was in sight. It was only a matter of time before the monster fell. Its resistance only meant that it’d take a bit longer than usual.

And sure enough, about half an hour later, the giant suit of armor wordlessly collapsed onto its back.

<You have defeated 1 great warrior. You have earned 480,000 XP.>

“Heck yeah, we did it!” Dogora roared, bleeding all over from the numerous wounds he had received. Keel cast Healing Magic on the entire party as everyone celebrated in their own way. Before long, the boss’s body disappeared, leaving behind a purple magic stone the size of a softball.

As I’d thought, we can totally handle a Rank A monster if we work together. Looks like armor-type bosses are a good match for us.

On a whim, Allen decided to take a look at his companions’ Statuses once again.

Name: Krena Age: 12 Class: Sword Lord Level: 56 HP: 2,280 + 900 MP: 890 Attack: 2,280 + 900 Endurance: 1,600 + 900 Agility: 1,540 + 900 Intelligence: 910 Luck: 1,115 Skills: Sword Lord {5}, Slash {5}, Flying Slash {5}, Pyroblast {5}, Thunderous Sword {3}, Toughness {1}, Sword Mastery {5} Extra Skill: Limit BreakName: Cecil Granvelle Age: 13 Class: Wizardess Level: 56 HP: 960 MP: 1,620 + 600 Attack: 615 Endurance: 1,006 Agility: 951 + 600 Intelligence: 2,230 + 600 Luck: 896 Skills: Wizardry {5}, Fire {5}, Earth {5}, Wind {5}, Water {3}, Wisdom {1}, Sparring {2} Extra Skill: Petit Meteor Name: Dogora Age: 13 Class: Ax User Level: 56 HP: 1,234 + 300 MP: 668 Attack: 1,625 + 300 Endurance: 1,069 Agility: 676 Intelligence: 450 Luck: 731 Skills: War Ax {5}, Full Might {5}, Flying Hatchet {5}, Explosive Strike {5}, Avalanche Smash {3}, Ax Mastery {5} Extra Skill: Heart and SoulName: Keel Age: 13 Class: Cleric Level: 56 HP: 735 MP: 1,399 + 300 Attack: 558 Endurance: 785 Agility: 895 Intelligence: 1,233 + 300 Luck: 1,123 Skills: Cleric {5}, Healing {5}, Solidity {5}, Cure {5}, Magic Wall {3}, Faith {1}, Sword Mastery {3} Extra Skill: Drops of God

“Whoo! A treasure chest appeared!” Keel whooped. “A Rank A dungeon boss chest! It’s... Aww, it’s wood.”

A chest had appeared slightly behind where the giant suit of armor had fallen. Unfortunately, it was a wooden chest this time. Four months of dungeon delving had confirmed that the probability of getting a wooden chest was around ninety percent and that getting a silver chest was around ten percent. This whole time, the No-life Gamers had yet to see a single gold chest. Allen suspected the probability was around a hundredth of a percent.

“Wow, it’s a hihiirokane ax!” Krena exclaimed.

When the group opened the chest, an ax that was clearly larger than the space inside the chest came out. How this worked was a complete mystery, but apparently the loot was not limited by the size of the chest.

“An ax? Then it goes to Dogora,” Allen said emphatically. “Congrats on moving up from mithril, man.”

“What?! Are you sure?!” Dogora asked even as he was already reaching out for the weapon. He had zero intention of turning the offer down.

A hihiirokane weapon this size was guaranteed to go for more than three hundred gold. This gave the party reassurance that the rewards from the dungeon boss in Rank A dungeons would be worth at least a hundred gold.

“We did agree to improve our equipment using dungeon drops, after all. If a greatsword appears, it’s Krena’s. If it’s a wand, then it’s Cecil’s. A rod goes to Keel, and a rapier or normal sword are mine.”

In this world, the power of weapons was dependent on the toughness of its material: from weakest to most powerful, it was copper, iron, steel, mithril, hihiirokane, adamantite, then orichalcum. The No-life Gamers were all currently using mithril, so they had discussed beforehand that if anything better appeared, it would go to the person who could use it. It held true even if something made of adamantite or orichalcum was to show up.

Another reason why the Allied forces are losing to the Demon Lord Army could also be their equipment.

There was no point in gathering a large number of fighters if their gear was not up to scratch. The reason why the fight just now took so long could also be chalked up to the No-life Gamers having weak weapons. Allen’s aim was to outfit everyone in adamantite before they headed to the battlefield. Orichalcum even, if possible.

Suddenly, something appeared in the room with a bzzt, interrupting Allen’s thoughts.

“Oh, it’s the cube!” Krena exclaimed. She was not on her guard, as what had appeared looked exactly the same as the cubes that always helped transport them around the dungeons.

“Congratulations on clearing your first Rank A dungeon, No-life Gamers.”

Hey, it’s been a while since we were called by our party name. Hearing it again makes me a little embarrassed.

“I am the Executive Dungeon System. I am here to issue all of you your Rank A dungeon clearance card.”

A jet-black card the size of a business card appeared in front of Allen. It was decorated by a symbol that he did not recognize.

“Clearance card? What’s that?” Cecil asked dubiously, peering over Allen’s shoulder at the card in question.

Wait, I’ve seen something like this before. Is this what I think it is?

While Allen was thinking about something else, the cube that had identified itself as the EDS continued its explanation.

“The card now has one mark to represent the Rank A dungeon you just cleared. Once you have obtained five marks, you may exchange this card for the right to challenge a Rank S dungeon.”

“I knew it! This is a stamp card!” Allen suddenly shouted, startling Cecil.

While everyone was surprised at learning of the existence of a dungeon even more difficult than Rank A, Allen’s unique response prompted Cecil to then sigh, “Ah, he’s at it again.”

In his previous life, Allen had played games where he could change his character’s class into an even more powerful class following the same chain of progression by completing several quests and challenges; in a way, it was a stamp rally where he was basically getting a stamp for each item on a list. He had no idea why game developers liked using this format. Some major theories among players included that it was because the stamps were a way for the job changes to feel more deserved, or because the developers were stalling for time to work on the next update. Allen suspected that the reason why his memories of his past life kept coming back when he was dungeon delving lay in the similarity in how both worlds worked.

And so, the No-life Gamers had finished clearing their very first Rank A dungeon and obtained their first mark to gain the right to enter a Rank S dungeon.