Three days after fulfilling Uoyama-kun’s request. It was still early June, a time when the sound of rainfall could be heard more often to signal the advent of summer.
Sadly, while thinking to myself that it was going to be another humid year despite it being night time, I heard from the TV that the rainy season was actually going to be delayed this time.
And then, my phone rang.
“Togo-san?”
I was confused by the name that my phone showed me, but I moved from the living room to the corridor regardless.
“Hello, Okawa speaking.”
<<Hey, Kyotaro-kun. It’s Togo. Sorry for calling all of a sudden>>
“Oh, I don’t mind. What can I do for you though?”
It can’t be because of that Sister Boobs…I mean, Hanazono Karen, can it?
<<Actually, I have a request. It concerns thinning out a dungeon>>
“Oh…”
<<I’d like you to accept a quest issued by our prefecture. It’s a dungeon where Orcs and Goblins show up, one that’s in the verge of overflowing.>>
A dungeon where Orcs showed up was, much like the Foggy Sea dungeon, also an unpopular kind of dungeon. To make matters worse, Goblins showed up in this dungeon too, apparently.
Orcs closely resembled humans in terms of skeletal structure and even had red blood, so many people apparently felt uncomfortable fighting them.
Moreover, their Item Drops were the [Orc Skull] and [Orc Hide]. Orc Hides had plenty of uses, but the demand for Orc Skulls were pretty much nonexistent. Supposedly, if you shave it down, it could be used as an ingredient in a beast-repelling magic potion, but…laws involving magic potions were complicated, to say the least. If memory serves, an Orc skull’s market price was around 50 thousand yen.
Given those reasons, people tended to avoid going to dungeons which mainly had Orcs.
But the dungeon Togo-san mentioned also had Goblins. While Goblins were weaker than Orcs, they were avoided for similar reasons plus the fact that were cunning. In fact, they were reportedly second only to Slimes in terms of how many adventurers abroad they had killed.
<<Travel expenses plus lodging expenses during the quest will be compensated and will not be deducted from your reward. As for what exactly we want you to do: it’s to kill Orcs and Goblins, at least 50 of each, in a dungeon that has been classified as a D rank dungeon.>>
“It’s somewhere in the prefecture, right? Alright, leave it to me.”
Even so, I accepted right away.
Perhaps not expecting my quick answer, I could tell even through the phone that Togo-san was quite surprised.
<<Are you sure? I’m grateful as the one asking the favor, but are you sure you’re not being hasty with your decision?>>
“You’ve already helped me out a lot, Togo-san, so I think this is the least I can do to pay you back.”
Seriously, I owed him a lot. If I didn’t make efforts to pay him back any time soon, my conscience might not let me sleep at night.
<<Oh, you don’t have worry about that. But I appreciate it. I’ll send you the details later over mail.>>
“Alright. Consider it done.”
And so, what I would be doing for the upcoming weekend was set.
* * *
Before long, it was Saturday. I came to a dungeon about four stations away from my home. The plan was to complete this quest within a 2-day, 1-night period.
I wouldn’t say this place was as rural as my town, but I couldn’t say it was an urban area either. It was a just-barely rural area. But from what I could gather from looking out of the bus going to the dungeon, there used to be a large shopping center and other commercial buildings here, so who knows, maybe this was a more bustling place before the [Return to the Age of Myths].
Enough about my musings though. Time for the dungeon.
This time, I was going to take on a D rank dungeon called the [Isolated Island Dungeon]. Given the dungeon rank, one might think I would have an easy time with this dungeon, but this dungeon was a bit different from others of the same rank.
Firstly, there were so many kinds of monsters that appeared here.
On top of that, this dungeon was considerably vast. The name [Isolated Island] might make you think this was a small place, but to begin with, a dungeon the size of an island was nothing to scoff at. In fact, just reading through the documents Togo-san sent made me think it would be such a huge pain to find the exit gate. So much so that I winced quite a bit.
My primary objective was mostly the subjugation of Orcs and the Goblins. I was asked to cull the other monsters too whenever I could, but those two kinds were given the highest priority.
My remuneration for this was 200,000 yen. That was a fairly standard reward for quests of this nature in the local area.
After doing my routine prep, I entered the dungeon. Upon entry, I found myself in a forest full of trees. I had been to forest-type dungeons before, but unlike those places, the weeds here were quite tall—about knee-high—and the trees here were so close to each other. It seemed like fighting here would be a bit tough.
“Alright, let’s do our usual formation. Let’s all be careful.”
“Yes!”
“On it!”
Layla who was dual-wielding her staff and wand answered so at almost the same time as Yukine who had a fan in each hand. Meanwhile, I proceeded to hold my zweihander by its ricasso, almost like I was wielding a spear.
We carefully marched forward, but because it was hard to see underfoot and also because of the uneven ground, our march was rather slow. Plus, Yukine’s Magical Attire or whatever it was called was close to a kimono, so we had to go even slower.
Even this early on, I realized that we would have a tougher time exploring this dungeon than expected.
Things might go smoother if we had a Golem, but unfortunately, we couldn’t build one in time. It was rather uncompromising in the materials it needed, so it would still be a while before we could finish it.
While I was thinking of that, my Magic Eye reacted to something.
Something will hit my foot…?
When I stopped and gazed at my foot, I noticed a fine thread stretched below and hidden by the weeds. Following the thread, I saw a small crossbow stealthily set up in a tree. My intel did say Goblins set up traps, but seeing one for myself still shocked me. A monster that schemed and laid traps precisely because it was weak, this was my first time dealing with such a thing. This dungeon really was a departure from what I’ve experienced before.
“There’s a trap. The enemy might be nearby.”
““Understood.””
I looked around but saw no enemy. Just as I was thinking so, Layla lightly poked me in my side and whispered.
“Master, above.”
…ahh, I see it now.
In an effort to not give away that we knew of the trap, we tried to sidestep around it. Before we could though, my Magic Eye activated again, this time showing a vision of a creature falling from above.
“Yaa!”
“Gii!?”
I thrust my zweihander upward and stabbed the Goblin descending from a tree’s branch in its chest.
Goblins were creatures with large round eyes and yellow pupils. They also had long, pointed noses and ears. This green-skinned, little imp wore nothing but a simple loincloth and wielded only a short sword. With my sword through its chest, it spurted out fresh blood.
It was an E rank monster, so it could be called a weak monster, but the problem was that it belong to the type of monsters that were fairly shrewd.
I proceeded to twist my sword as I gave it a light swing to fling away the Goblin’s corpse. And at the same time, I also looked up at the branches.
“Gii!”
“Gie!”
There were two others. One of them nocked an arrow in its bow while the other placed a horn-like object in its mouth.
“[Oh, Earth]”
“[Ice Fang]”
However, the branches of the tree the archer was on began to coil around it and strangled it to death, while the other Goblin got skewered by spears of ice. The skewered Goblin froze, unable to blow air into its horn.
Both soon became particles of magic power and vanished. At that, I breathed a sigh of relief under my helm.
Goblins employed traps, did ambush attacks, and even worked in groups of 3 or more, so they were troublesome monsters. But the worst thing about fighting them definitely was related to that horn. After all, if that horn was blown, two kinds of things could happen.
In the first case, Goblins nearby would approach and attack together. This one wasn’t really a problem to us. They were weak, so there was no risk of us dying even if they came in larger groups.
It was the second possibility that was the problem: if the Goblins hid themselves instead. In this possibility, they would not come near an adventurer again. Of course, exiting out of the dungeon would reset things, but another way of putting that would be you have to exit before seeing another Goblin.
That ran counter to our quest, so it really would be a huge pain for that to happen. Well, we were the ones invading their turf, so I guess I shouldn’t complain further. That wouldn’t stop me from culling them down though. After all, it would be a bigger pain if they increased their numbers and caused the dungeon to overflow.
At any rate, we began moving again. As we did, I thought to myself that we could use someone who could play the scout role, so I made a note to ask for a feature like that be added to the golem.
Maybe it was because the dungeon was close to overflowing, but not long after we resumed our exploration, we encountered our next enemies. They were at the edge of my vision and making use of their skin color to make themselves harder to see, but my improved vision thanks to my Magic Eye allowed me to confirm their presence.
“We have Orcs, two of them.”
While hiding ourselves in a nearby tree, I said so to two in a low voice.
Orcs were D rank monsters. Much like the Goblins, the Orcs were well-known monsters in Japan. They were big fellows with pig-heads and with deep green skin. They had low intelligence, but in exchange, they were rather durable for a monster of that low rank.
Like the Goblins, these monsters wore nothing but loincloths, but for their weapons, they had gigantic clubs. If I saw something wielding those weapons before I became an Awakened One, I would probably have soiled my pants.
I mean, look at the thing, it was easy enough to imagine what getting hit would do to you.
As the Orcs shifted their glazed eyes and twitched their noses, Layla, still hidden, swung her staff.
“[Oh, Earth]”
In the next moment, multiple arms made of earth rose from the ground and grabbed the Orcs.
“Bugii, go, ooo…”
“Bugyaaa…!?”
The Orcs’ limbs and mouth were restrained, and the arms wrapped around their heads were tightening. After a few seconds, rather than screams, what I heard were the sounds similar to thick branches being snapped.
I kept watched of the surrounding as I verified the disappearance of the two Orcs. Unlike with the Goblins, we didn’t have to worry about the Orcs going into hiding, but all the same, we would rather have an easy time taking them down.
After giving a thumbs up to Layla, we resumed our exploration once more.
“Ohh”
It took us about 3 minutes after that to find our next Orcs. This time though, they noticed us too and we locked eyes for a moment.
“Bugooooooooooooooo!!”
With a ferocious cry, the three Orcs made a run for us. In response, I also charged at them, my sword still held like a spear.
I was faster than them. I closed the distance between myself and one of them in no time and thrust my sword at that Orc’s neck. I then twisted the sword as I kicked the Orc in the belly with my left foot. As one could guess from the thick layer of fat protecting its body, the Orc weighed nearly 200 kilograms, and yet it still flew easily enough from my kick.
I wasn’t able to fully control the trajectory of that flung Orc—which traced an arc of blood as it flew by the way—but with the trees limiting the course and the fact the others were charging straight ahead, I still managed to hit one of them.
I watched that and the slow transformation of the first Orc into particles of magic power unfold in the corner of my eye. All the while though, I pointed my sword at the yet-untouched Orc.
“Bugoo!!”
That Orc had slightly changed its course but was still headed for us, so I was thankful for at least that. Saved us the trouble, you know.
I plunged my sword at the pit of its stomach and continued to do so up to the part that served as the ricasso’s guard. However, even then, the Orc didn’t stop. I could see the monster turning into particles of magic power and slowly vanishing, but with the last of its strength, it still tried to hit me in the head.
I foresaw its action with my Magic Eye though, so I responded by putting strength into my foot and lifted the still-stuck sword up.
“Ooraaaa!”
“Bogaa!”
The Orc screamed but that was cut short when I arced my sword down and its head hit the ground. With the same momentum, my sword passed through the monster’s chest and lopped of its head.
“[Oh, Earth]”
At the corner of my vision, I saw the remaining Orc, which had pushed aside the vanishing corpse of its comrade, was being impaled by a spear made of stone.
I kept watch of the surroundings as I waited for all three monsters to vanish completely. However, I soon caught a glint about 20 meters away.
“Archer!”
At the same time I raised that warning, I stepped in the trajectory of the arrow as foretold by my Magic Eye. By the time I swatted the arrow that was targeting Yukine, she had launched an ice spear as a counterattack, skewering the Goblin archer, along with the tree it was hiding in.
But Goblins didn’t act alone. There were sure to be others.
“[Oh Earth]!”
“Gii”
“Gie”
The ground around the skewered Goblin rippled. As that strange spectacle unfolded, 2 Goblins got pushed out from the tree they were hiding. I dashed as fast as I could toward one of them and used my momentum to give it a mighty kick. The other one was impaled by another ice spear.
Thankfully, the one I kicked parted its lips from the horn it held and died without blowing it. We were in the clear.
“Dear, you didn’t have to protect…!”
“I mean, I’m more or less the vanguard of our group, right?”
Among the 3 of us, Yukine was definitely the least durable. Even a Goblin’s arrow posed some threat.
“Master, are you alright?”
With a worried expression, Layla asked so.
You’re overreacting, Layla.
“Yeah. A Goblin’s arrow can’t hurt me.”
“I’m asking more about your heart.”
“…ah”
Somehow understanding what Layla wanted to say, I scratched the back of my head through my helm. Yukine didn’t get it though and reacted by tilting her head.
“Your heart? What does your heart have anything to do with Orcs and Goblins?”
“They kinda resemble humans, plus their blood is red too. Layla’s worried about that affecting me.”
“Indeed. It happens only every now and then, but adventurers supposedly suffer emotional distress because of those kinds of things.”
I recalled the Goblins and Orcs we took down earlier.
“While I can see their resemblance to us humans, to me, they’re just your regular monsters.”
Maybe I was just a tad unsympathetic in that regard. I could see myself be uncomfortable if it was something like a Yuki-Onna that we had to fight. But I had been playing games and watching anime where monsters were enemies meant to be defeated ever since I was a little kid, so honestly, even now that they had become real, I still felt like they were just things to be defeated. If anything, because they caused harm to people, I felt like my desire to kill them had only grown.
As for the sight of blood, well, I grew up in an almost rural town where rat and bird corpses were not an uncommon sight. Just because their blood was red didn’t mean they were related to us humans.
All that said, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed killing them either.
“I do hope that is the case. However, in the event you feel unwell of any kind, please inform us so that we can stop our culling activity for today and make going back our top priority.”
“Alright. Thanks for worrying about me.”
“It’s nothing. After all, ensuring your well-being and happiness is my life’s purpose.”
Layla declared so with a smile.
Just like I imagined, having a beauty worry about you was the best…!
“Dear. If it ever gets too rough, know that you can always bury yourself in my bosom.”
With a fond smile, Yukine told me so while spreading her arms. Even through her kimono, it was easy to tell that hers were big. Probably G, or maybe even H cups.
I should measure them later.
“Thanks a lot, Yukine. But I’ll hold back on your offer until we get back home”
“Geez, Dear~.”
It wouldn’t have been surprising if she noticed I had been staring at her chest.
She looked like she was embarrassed when she tried to hide her chest with her hand, but the expression on her face said otherwise.
Ahh~, my wives are just the best!
But I had to restrain myself for now. Even if we made our way out of dungeon right away, we wouldn’t be able to do it anyway. Togo-san referred us to the hotel we were in, so I obviously couldn’t do anything to besmirch his reputation.
For now, I should devote myself to the completion of the quest.
But since the dungeon was on the verge of overflowing already, there were many Orcs and Goblins to fight and finding them wasn’t too hard. Add in the fact that there was a large gap between our strengths, I figured that we could achieve our target kill count in a single day.
Or maybe we already got there? I kinda want to go back and check.
In order to exit a dungeon, one must first search and go through the gate within. In this pointlessly large dungeon though, finding the exit would be hard, like seriously.
“…if we happen to find the exit gate, let’s call it a day, shall we?”
“Agreed. We have already subjugated 72 Goblins and 57 Orcs anyway.”
“Oh, you kept count. Great job as always, Layla.”
“Thanks for the praise.”
“Indeed, great work, Layla-sama! But if that’s the case, then we really should head back. I didn’t think we would be done in a day.”
“It’s been…3 hours since we entered the dungeon, huh.”
I took out a watch from my Item Bag and saw the time. Our usual was to explore for 2 hours in the morning and for another 2 hours in the afternoon. So, to explore for this long and still haven’t found the exit, man, this dungeon really sucked.
I stopped myself from sighing and instead continued moving forward.
“At any rate, let’s prioritize finding that exit. To that end, we should let the Goblins blow their horn before defeating them this time.”
“Agreed.”
“Understood.”
We had culled enough of them, so if they wanted to hide, we should just let them.
As we walked though, we encountered another set of Orcs. Physically, the three of us had more than enough strength left, but mentally, we were running low on energy.
“Bugoo!!”
“Buaa!”
I closed the distance between us and the 2 incoming Orcs in an instant and made a horizontal slash. One Orc got cleaved in half, while the other, I only managed to cut halfway through its belly.
“Goa!?”
The Orc flinched from the pain and agitation it felt as I twisted my sword and this time swung it upward. The Orc’s blood sprayed all over but since it would disappear anyway, there was no problem.
As we did the usual waiting for the defeated monsters to disappear while keeping an eye out, I found something white among the particles of magic power.
“A bone, huh…”
I picked up the thing that was a mix between the skulls of humans and pigs. This was the Item Drop called [Orc Skull].
I would have preferred to get a hide though, since those could fetch 3 times the price of this.
But, well, better than nothing, I suppose.
“Mm?”
I was in the process of putting the drop into my Item Bag when all of a sudden, a large lump of ice appeared about 10 meters ahead. I turned to look at Yukine but she simply shook her head to say it wasn’t her.
There were no monsters in this dungeon that used ice, as far as I knew, so I thought it might have been caused by another adventurer. I didn’t think there would be another adventurer here in this unpopular dungeon, to be honest. Maybe they were here for some kind of request, I thought.
Regardless though, there was no need for me to go out of my way to greet them, not to mention I didn’t like the looks I get when people see me beside Yukine and Layla. So, I decided to just beat it.
Just as I was about to make a turn though, I saw a face I recognized and unwittingly spoke their name aloud.
“Aihara-kun?”
“Mhm?”
The young man, no, the boy who had been looking at the block of ice now turned toward our direction. He had a nice face, short and black hair, and slightly sharp eyes. He wore a black cape over a blue, altered military uniform.
I was sure of it, this guy looking back at us with a puzzled look was none other than Aihara Kensuke, a member of my class’s A group.
Well, shit.
“…who might you be?”
“Oh, are you a friend of my husband?”
A river of cold sweat flooded me beneath my helm as Aihara-kun continued to stare quizzically. But then, I heard an unfamiliar voice. Upon looking at the source of that voice, my own confusion intensified.
“I’m Michiru. Thanks to all the support you’ve given him!”
The speaker was a Yuki-onna who, to put in kindly, had a plump figure.
Huh…?
“Hey, don’t call me that when we haven’t even submitted a family register.”
“Which is what the convenient thing called common law marriage is for, so it’s alright!”
“Jeez…”
Aihara-kun reacted so in a not-at-all-displeased tone. In response, the Yuki-onna beside him, if she really was one, laughed quite heartily.
…haa, I think I get it.
“Give me some time to think please”
“Huh? Oh, sure…?”
I’m so confused. Just…what does he mean???
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
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Some info that doesn’t have much to do with the main story
Nations ordered according to how many dungeons they have:
Japan>UK>>>China≥USA>Other European countries>>the rest of the world.
Nations ordered according to the percentage of high rank dungeons:
UK>>Japan>>Other European countries>>USA and China>>the rest of the world
The state of each nation’s leylines and Awakened Ones
Japan: Ley lines are fairly active. The ley lines are also well-maintained to an extent, but it is outmatched by the volume of magic power present. As such, magic power leak in places and form new dungeons. Japan has many strong Awakened Ones but they are being lured out by foreign nations.
UK: Ley lines are fairly active. The ley lines are also overall well-maintained, but one portion has horrible control over its ley lines, so magic power there is just overflowing. The nation’s Awakened Ones are strong and are likely to stay. They do have a system in place where they can loan personnel out as mercenaries to other nations though.
USA and China: The ley lines are in disarray but not much magic power flowed through them to begin with, so there weren’t a lot of dungeons, relatively speaking. But since both nations’ territories were large, the actual dungeon count was quite high. Strong Awakened Ones were rather rare but they’re doing the best they could to gather more people.
European countries other than the UK: The ley lines in these places are in considerable disarray, so not many people have Awakened despite the dungeons being quite active. On the bright side, there isn’t much concentration of magic power in each of the dungeons. Strong Awakened Ones were rather rare but they’re doing the best they could to gather more people.
The rest of the world: to sum it up, the state of ley lines in other countries greatly varied. However, aside from a few extreme examples, ley lines were in a somewhat better state than those in non-UK European countries. There were countries which had well-maintained ley lines—like India—but such countries were also in danger of Awakened One uprising sooner or later. These nations understandably aren’t as interested in gathering more strong Awakened Ones, and if anything, their Awakened Ones are being poached by the USA and China.
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