Episode 85 – Dungeon Experience (2)

Dungeon Experience (2)

“……”

“……”

In a corner of the dungeon room, we stood side by side.

“……”

“……”

Neither of us had anything to say.

“……”

“……”

Neither I, nor she.

Ah, I wonder how the drama practice is going.

“Is the drama practice going well?”

“You’re asking about something you didn’t even attend.”

“……”

I looked away again. Elise crossed her arms.

“……But why are you a guard? You’re quite small for a guard.”

“I can be a guard even if I’m small, you know? Don’t you know about shift guards?”

Guards are divided into shift guards, masher guards, and so on. Mashers refer to guys like Kain, and shifts are fast types like me now.

“Sure. Think whatever you want.”

I tapped my wrist twice. My ID information appeared before my eyes.

[Dungeon System]

[ID: 5092]

[User Grade: F]

[Hunted Entities: 0]

[Party Members: 1]

─EliseEEEM

“Your ID is EliseEEM? Wow, you’re creative.”

I decided to pick a fight for no reason.

“You monkey!”

She suddenly exploded. I was taken aback.

“That was surprising.”

“……”

Elise bit her lip. After glaring at me for a moment, she cleared her throat and regained her composure. She elegantly swept her hair back.

“……You should look at your ID. Before pointing out others’.”

“What’s wrong with my ID?”

[ID: 5092]

[User Lv: 1]

It’s a random ID.

“What’s wrong with 5092? It’s like a license plate, and I like it.”

Elise sighed.

“That’s why you’re not good. From the very trivial things-”

“It’s better than EliseEEM, okay? If it’s EliseEM, it should be EliseEM, what’s with the EEM? Is it a typo? Are you unable to correct your typo?”

“……”

A vein popped on her forehead. She cracked her neck from side to side.

─Well, we’re about to enter soon.

Fortunately, the director spoke.

A loose tension seeped in just as things were about to get heated.

─Before we enter. Has everyone chosen their weapons?

I flicked the real sword in my hand. It was a broadsword given to me at the office. On the other hand, Elise was empty-handed.

─Including me, ten administrators, and the college board members will be watching from inside the dungeon, so don’t worry. I’ll open the portal now.

Whiiii- Portals opened here and there in the dungeon room. One opened right near us. I gestured towards it.

“You go first.”

“……Shouldn’t the guard go first?”

“You’re the one who said I’m too small for a guard.”

“You really lack manners.”

Elise sighed and went in. I followed right after.

[Entering Tanveli Dungeon]

[Dungeon Grade: D]

[Area: 3.5㎢]

[Participants: 88 / 900]

Along with the information window, the scenery of the dungeon that came into view was… collapsed buildings, toothless roads, and the moss and vines that seemed to be devouring them.

It was like a world after the apocalypse.

Ding-

[This is the dungeon-wide message from the manager ‘CHEDRIC’.]

[Today’s task is simple. Kill as many monsters as possible and obtain loot. The cut-off is 5 PM, with a minimum of 10 kills.]

“Voice support is available.”

I swiped my hand to close the notification. Elise glanced at me.

“You seem to know how to use the system.”

“Eh.”

It’s simple. Tap your wrist twice, and the status window appears. In fact, it doesn’t have to be your wrist; you can tap any part of your body. But my old master did it this way.

If you don’t like your vision being cluttered with status windows, you can use the [Dungeon System] app on your smartphone or smartwatch.

Like how Elise wears a smartwatch here.

“Let’s try to kill as many as we can.”

I stretched my shoulders. Thud-! Suddenly, there was a pain in my joint.

“…Hey. But I can’t do much.”

Elise narrowed her eyes as I quickly changed my words.

“What do you mean?”

“My condition isn’t great. But I can help find the monsters.”

Even before my regression, I didn’t really have a position.

I was more of a guide, porter, scout, treasure hunter, rather than a guard, forward, or supporter.

Elise tilted her head and squinted at me.

“Again, neglecting your duties?”

“What neglect? The goal is to kill as many as possible, right? So a guide like me is important too.”

“…….”

While Elise was dumbfounded, I activated the SZX-9500. My vision expanded instantly. A monster was detected inside a collapsed building.

A fire-breathing lizard monster. About the size of an adult alligator.

“Salamander. Can you handle it?”

“…Where is it?”

Elise peered in the direction I was looking.

“Just follow me.”

I ran towards it. Or, I tried to.

My knees kept wobbling, so I slowed down. Even so, I kept my alert level high, but Elise followed at a walk.

She asked me as she walked like a princess.

“Are you sure it’s not a worm?”

“Quiet. Over there.”

I pointed at the collapsed building. There was a Salamander in the window.

“…It’s really there.”

Elise looked slightly surprised.

A notification popped up.

[Lv.3 Monster: Normal Salamander]

[Discovery ID: 5029]

[Discoverer’s Gain: EXP 3]

“Well, what should I do? Should I draw its aggro?”

“No need.”

Elise gathered her magic. Some Magic Spell rose like a tattoo on her arm. Of course, it’s not a real tattoo, but a usage of Magic Body—One Belt, Four Lines.

She twisted the ‘line’ completed inside her body to finish the Magic Spell and fired it immediately.

The Magic Spell she’s about to deploy is….

Boom──!

The Salamander was squashed. An overwhelming telekinetic force crushed its body from all sides.

The hunt ended in 3 seconds.

I approached the spot.

There was no corpse left. Instead, there was a colorless bead.

This was also part of the dungeon system. Familiar terms like [Inventory] and [Drop Item].

In the days before this system, it was laborious to butcher the corpse and carry it outside.

I picked up the bead. It was gray.

[Acquisition: Low-grade Gray Bead]

“Hey.”

I turned to look at Elise. She was standing as if intoxicated by herself.

“Don’t be surprised-”

“Next time, kill it more moderately. There’s nothing left.”

“…What?”

In the dungeon system, the corpse of a mob is replaced with a ‘bead’ according to its grade.

The more difficult the mob you kill, the more colorful the bead, and the more useful parts on the corpse, the higher the grade.

Therefore, if this salamander was hunted in the best condition, I would have obtained a [High-grade Gray Bead].

This bead is the only ‘form’ that can take dungeon items to the outside world, so it’s very important.

“Look.”

I threw the bead on the ground with a thud. Then the corpse of the salamander reappeared. It was a grotesque shape, with bones protruding between the skin and leather. Elise quickly turned her head.

“…I get it, so put it away quickly.”

“Once you take it out, you can’t put it back.”

If you drop the bead on the ground, it turns back into the original corpse, but you can’t put it back in the inventory.

“Then why did you take it out? You’re stupid.”

“Let’s discard this and go for something else. It’s not worth anything anyway. Follow me.”

I guided Elise. Elise followed with a sulky face.

______________________________________________________________________

Elise was engrossed in hunting. In just 3 hours, she caught a whopping 20 creatures. Salamanders, Asphalt Golems, Crescent Bears, Harpies, and so on…… It was quite fun thanks to her.

It’s not that, when she first encountered the dungeon, it wasn’t this arcade-like. It was a job just to find a mob. It was a level where it was fortunate to find two in an hour.

“I have to admit. You find them like a dolphin.”

“…Don’t you have a good radar or something? Why a dolphin?”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry to the dolphin.”

“Are you crazy?”

Perhaps because she was so engrossed in hunting, Elise was quite hungry.

Grrrr——

She was startled. She thought it was from her stomach, but fortunately, it was Shion.

He was rubbing his stomach and mumbling.

“Oh, I’m hungry.”

“Hmph.”

Elise snorted as if she wasn’t.

Grrrr──!

The sound of the stomach growling got louder. Elise’s gaze went down sharply. Did he hide something in his stomach? The sound is so dirty and vulgar.

“Oh, I can’t stand it.”

Suddenly Shion took out a bead from his inventory. When he dropped it on the ground, it turned into the corpse of a Crescent Bear.

“…Are you planning to eat monster meat?”

“These are beasts. Beasts are good to eat. They’re also tasty.”

In the dungeon, self-sufficiency is the principle. Because you can only bring as much as is attached to the user’s body from outside the dungeon.

That ‘transportable area’ is strictly defined like a hitbox, so no matter how large a backpack you carry, the excess part is cut off. That’s why the dungeon bag specifications are strictly defined.

It’s not for nothing that many knight orders and mercenary groups employ ‘porters’ who are covered in wide bags all over their bodies.

“Turn your eyes away if you don’t want to see the butchering.”

Shion drew his sword.

Thud-! He plunged the blade into the carcass of the Crescent Bear.

Just like that, he pulled it out. He skillfully separated the skin and flesh by inserting the knife into the exposed skin. Shwish shwish shwish shwish-

Next, he scraped the surface of the bone, cleanly removing only the meat.

Elise, who was blankly watching, suddenly realized.

“……Well, you were a part-timer at a meat restaurant. Why didn’t you switch to that as your profession?”

“Start a fire. We’re going to grill it.”

Elise started a fire. Shion sharpened the bone of the Crescent Bear and skewered the meat like a skewer. He made six skewers like that and placed them on the campfire.

Sizzling-

Looking at the cooking meat, Elise whetted her appetite. Shion asked.

“Do you plan to eat too?”

“It’s the meat I caught, of course, I have to eat it, don’t I?”

She doesn’t bother to pretend. She tries to maintain her dignity in everyday life, even if it’s bothersome, but there’s no need to do so in the dungeon.

“……Ah, my shoulder.”

Suddenly Shion grabbed his shoulder. He grimaced with his teeth clenched. Elise just watched him.

It’s a bit strange.

No, it’s very strange.

He seemed to have been limping on one leg for a while, and it seemed like he was breaking out in a cold sweat.

It’s odd.

She kept thinking about [Aden Medical Center].

“……You. Do you have a problem somewhere?”

Elise finally asked him. However, her expression was slightly ambiguous. One side of her lips was slightly raised, and her eyes were calmly settled, making it hard to distinguish.

Shion asked back.

“What, are you laughing or worrying?”

“If you think I’m worrying about you, you’re a psychopath who has completely lost the ability to empathize and judge people’s expressions-”

“Anyway. Don’t you think it would taste better with some salt?”

Shion mumbled, looking at the skewered meat.

“I have some.”

Elise took out salt from her inventory. Shion’s eyes widened.

“……What. Where did you get that?”

“The guide brought it when I came to the dungeon before, I stored it in my inventory just in case. I also have pepper.”

She also took out pepper with her other hand.

In this way, the inventory of the [Dungeon System] is shared across all dungeons. This means that an item obtained in one dungeon can be retrieved in another.

Shion took the pepper and salt and sprinkled them on the skewers.

“Is your inventory okay? Yours is 3×3, isn’t it? It would be a waste to take up two slots with salt and pepper.”

“I’m at 4×4~”

“What? How?”

Shion looked slightly surprised. Elise smirked as if boasting.

“I once got an enhancement ticket.”

The basic inventory of the Dungeon System is 3×3. Although it can hold a total of 9 items, it can be upgraded using something called an ‘enhancement ticket’. This enhancement ticket drops in the form of loot when a monster is defeated, albeit at an extremely low probability.

Elise happened to acquire this enhancement ticket and upgraded once to 4×4.

She was really happy back then.

“I am… wait, I’m at 5×5?”

However, Shion suddenly said something strange. Elise snickered.

“What kind of delusion is that? You’re a newbie.”

“……”

He didn’t say anything. He was staring blankly into space as if he was looking at some system…

In fact, his inventory, which only he could see, was a bit strange.

[Inventory (5×5)]