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Sunday, the day after I consulted Togo-san about the Gate-hiding Magic Tools.

I have traveled to a town that was about 4 train stations away from my home. That said, it wasn’t until a bus ride later that I reached a certain Dungeon Store in the mountains.

This place was quite far from any urban area in the first place, but because of the dungeon, there was now an enforced 2-kilometer-radius no-man’s-land. It was a hard-to-reach place given all that, yet there were still quite a few adventurers in the Store.

The dungeon I was about to explore was given a C rank, but it would seem it was still popular despite that fact. Which was understandable, really.

By the way, the most popular dungeons were those where Yuki-onna showed up. Rather than through subjugation, the dungeon was thinned out, so to speak, through the Yuki-onnas becoming people’s familiars. Everyone was simply of one mind about those dungeons.

Which reminds me…an expert on countering the falling birthrate said on TV ‘sooner or later, the Awakened Ones of Japan will no longer wed other humans’ with a serious and worried expression on his face.

…surely though, the other Awakened Ones are going to marry normal people and have children!! Probably!!! But never mind that. I have to focus on today’s dungeon! It’s a C rank one, after all.

Focusing my mind, I headed to the locker room, got changed, headed to the reception, lined up for about 5 minutes, and then passed through the Dungeon Gate.

After I emerged on the other side of the Gate, I found myself inside a building made of stone. However, the windows were completely dark, as though painted black. There was also a strange heat flowing through the corridor. The wall—which looked like stone blocks stacked on each other—had something like a torch affixed to it.

I silently asked Layla and Yukine to materialize while drawing out my zweihander. The width and height of the corridor looked…wide and tall enough for me to swing my sword normally. Just as the information from municipal office said.

The corridor was wide enough to allow 2 lanes of foot traffic. The ceiling was about 4 meters away from the floor. So, yeah, as long as I didn’t fight close to the walls, my sword shouldn’t get caught in the walls.

“Layla, Yukine. We’ll be proceeding as planned.”

“Understood.”

“Consider it done.”

…internally, I worried a little about Yukine.

During the fire dragon fight, I came to understand that she was the kind of woman who would quickly and without hesitation sacrifice her life all for my sake. As a man, I had mixed feelings about that. About 40 percent of me felt happy at the thought that such a beautiful woman loved me to the point that she would do that, and another 40 percent of me got mad at the thought that she would go so far. The remaining 20 percent, I couldn’t quite put into words.

The difficulty of the dungeon this time was within our safety margin, so we should be fine this time. But in the unlikely event that something does happen, I feared that I would let things play out the same way as before. And if I did, I was sure I would be left traumatized.

But I was also filled with anxiety at the thought of quitting being an adventurer. Given the state of the world at the moment, being an adventurer allowed me to get more fighting strength while also giving me more money.

I was torn but there was one thing I was firm on: even though we might have no say on getting pulled into a scenario where the two would have to sacrifice themselves, there was no way I would be the one to create that scenario.

At any rate, I held my sword at the ready and walked at the head of our formation. After about 5 minutes of that, I heard a rattling sound. I glanced at Layla and she held up 2 fingers. I gave her a nod and turned my head to look ahead.

There was only the magic-filled flames from the torches on the walls to the light the corridor, so it was rather dim. But there, some ways ahead, I could make out two human-shaped silhouettes.

Well, saying they’re human-shaped is rather misleading. I mean, they are shaped like that, but they’re definitely monsters.

These were monsters called Empty Knights. As their name would suggest, they were knights without anything inside of them. Their whole bodies were basically their plate armor and they also held weapons in their hands. They were similar to Living Armors, but while Living Armors were categorized as D rank, Empty Knights were given a C rank.

The reason for that was incredibly simple: they were stronger.

One of the two figures ahead had a sword and shield, while the other held a spear with both its hands. With a noisy clatter, the two of them then charged toward us with great speeds. The one with the shield was at the front, and the one with the spear was behind as though it was using the shield-bearer as its cover.

In response, Yukine pointed her folding fan at them.

“[Glacial Wind Wall]!”

A wall of ice appeared in the middle of the corridor. Furthermore, a burst of wind with hail mixed in fell on them and slowed them down.

However, because her sorcery was slightly weaker due to the heat in this dungeon, the wall of ice wasn’t large enough to block off the pair completely.

The pair would probably get through it rather easily. They might charge from the left and right, heck, they might even jump from the wall. But because they couldn’t see the other side of the wall, they could also tear the wall down and then charge together.

Whichever they choose to do though, I was sure to “see” it.

And so, having seen the future, I ran to the left side and slashed at the shield-bearing Empty Knight that emerged from there. My attack crushed its right knee. With that enemy falling down, I turned my back to it and swung my sword using only my left hand at the wall.

With perfect timing, the spear-wielding enemy jumped out of the wall and had its helmet smashed with my slash. It was only a one-handed slash, but it was enough. Enough to send the spear-wielder’s head flying from its body. The now-headless body crumpled to the ground.

While I confirmed its defeat with my peripheral vision, I placed my right hand on the ricasso of my sword and thus held the sword in a reverse grip. I then stabbed the tip of my sword down at the chest of the other enemy, the shield-bearer who was using its shield as a cane to stand up.

From the chest to the back, the blade passed through easily. When I gave it a twist as I pulled it out, the armor cluttered to the ground.

Much like with Living Armors, attacking Empty Knights through the gaps in their armors did nothing, yet if you break the armor itself in a way that would kill a human, it would stop moving. In this scenario, one Empty Knight’s helmet was damaged to the point it was caved-in and blown away and the other’s chest was pierced through.

Other than that, Empty Knights could also be defeated by exorcising them through White Magic as well as high-purity Holy Water.

“Any more of them around?”

“There doesn’t seem any.”

As I waited for the Empty Knights to disappear, I asked so to Layla—who has been keeping an eye on our surroundings—and felt relieved at her answer.

Unfortunately, the pair didn’t drop anything. But, well, I knew I wasn’t lucky enough to have anything on the first try.

“We have to get a full set of armor somehow. If we can’t get that though, I’d at least like parts that will cover the most vital spots.”

This monster dropped armor parts as well as weapons.

Even if it was as simple as a bracer for the right arm, or just a helmet, it was still a piece of equipment imbued with magic power. Each part could sell for quite the price. That was why this dungeon was relatively popular.

However, we didn’t come here to gather those Item Drops so that we could sell them off. Instead, Layla wanted those parts so that we could use them as equipment for the soon-to-be-completed Golem she was making.

Naturally, Golems didn’t have a Magical Attire of their own. As such, it was necessary for us to prepare their equipment. However, when it comes to buying the stuff, it apparently got horribly expensive because they were bought out by nations and corporations.

Even low-rank Item Drops normally fetched 100,000 to 200,000 yen. And when it was a C rank Item Drop—which was the highest rank a civilian could get—it fetched a price of 500,000 to 1 million yen.

The size of the armor pieces was a concern, but…I had a solution for that. I was reluctant on using that solution, but at least I had one.

“Let’s go. Layla, please continue mapping the area.”

“Understood.”

After we resumed walking, I cast a glance at the black-painted window. What lied beyond the window was…apparently nothing. There were dungeons which looked like it had its own sky, but it was just parts of the dungeon painted blue. The window here was probably that sort of thing too.

If I wasn’t mistaken, after breaking the window’s glass, you would bump into nothing but a sturdy wall. It wasn’t viable as an alternative route. But that applied to the Empty Knights too. That meant the monsters here—the Empty Knights plus that other one—would never launch surprise attacks from the walls and ceilings.

It was probably perfect for when people were recuperating.

Straining my ears and surveying our surroundings, I continued to walk on until the sound of footsteps on something in armor reached my ear.

This time, Layla raised up 3 fingers. They should be right around the next corner.

Yukine readied her fan and Layla pointed her staff at the corner. I too did something: I slowly extended my left hand. A few seconds later, my Future Sight activated and I withdrew my hand.

“[Fireball]”

“[Ice Fang]!”

Those directly hit the one that had rushed ahead of the others. That one, unable to even raise its shield, got struck by the Fireball in its right shoulder. Right when it lost its balance, a spear of ice pierced its torso.

And then, before that first one fell down, I rushed out. I kept my body as low as I could and when I passed the corner, I slid down on the cobblestone ground, even scraping it.

The enemies, upon seeing their ally fall down, also rushed out. In the middle of my slide, I grabbed the sword belt of the fallen monster and used that monster as a shield. Being monsters, they attacked without hesitation, but even then, they were too slow. I blocked a spear with my shield and then pushed that shield at the attacker. That seemed to have sealed off any movement from the attacker for the meantime. Moreover, the other spear-wielder at the back was forced to take a step to the side.

Empty Knights were one of the intelligent kinds of monsters. Because of that, this group thought to move in a line along the wall. That slowed their movement though. In that formation, if an enemy jumped at them and made the guy in front of them stop moving, the one at the back would essentially be made to waste an action. In this case, the step to the side.

And that was more than enough.

Before the 2nd spear-wielder could thrust its spear, I stabbed it in its helmet. With a clang, the visor part rose out of place a bit. The monster lost its balance and I gave it a front-kick to knock it down fully.

Meanwhile, the first spear-wielder seemed to have chosen to abandon its weapon in favor of grabbing me. I struck it in the face with the pommel of my sword. When the monster was pushed back and bumped into a wall, I delivered another pommel strike. The monster’s helmet was so damaged it seemed like the helmet sunk into the torso. The monster no longer moved.

And when I turned to the one I front-kicked and knocked down, I found it about to get hit by an ice spear.

“Are you alright, dear?”

“Yeah, and thanks.”

As I thanked Yukine, I scanned our surroundings and confirmed the defeat of the monsters.

…as I expected, nothing dropped. It was looking like we wouldn’t be able to accomplish our goal in a single day and might have to visit this dungeon a couple more times.

But then again, we could afford to be patient. We were not in a hurry anyway. Besides, this dungeon was on the larger side, meaning we were less likely to bump into other adventurers. With less worry about accidentally hitting other people, we could even employ a, well, maybe not an attack on first contact tactic, but something along those lines.

At any rate, we resumed our exploration. And in 30 minutes, we had fought 6 times and defeated a total of 19 monsters. Still no Drops.

At this point, I felt the temperature in our surroundings had risen. Which probably meant that guy was nearby. As though to prove that premonition of mine, a large door came into view. The door was as wide as a building all by itself, and it completely closed off a corridor just as wide. From the other side of the door, I could sense some especially fiery heat.

“Yukine, you doing alright?”

“Yes. Although, I would probably be slower in launching my sorceries.”

“Noted. Layla, give me some backup too, please.”

“Of course.”

I adjusted my grip on my sword and approached the door until I was about 5 meters away from it. And then, I dashed forward with all my might. Holding my zweihander at the waist, I kicked the door open with my left foot. If I ran without loosing momentum, I knew I would soon be trespassing into a certain place: a [Blacksmith’s Workshop].

Sure enough, I found a hearth with fierce flames, a wooden tank filled with water, and even an anvil with a tong on top. Despite all that though, the place was vastly different from what I knew through TV shows. I mean, no matter how I looked at the place, everything was gigantic. But then again, the one to use the place and everything within it wasn’t a human.

“GAAAA!!”

I wasn’t sure if that bellow was meant to be a threat to its enemies or if it was made simply out of rage toward those who dared to enter the creature’s territory.

Either way, a one-eyed giant, a [Cyclops], bared its teeth our way.

Except for its peculiar one-eye and its mouth lined up with fangs, its fairly curly hair and facial hair covered its face. As for its dark brown body, the only thing to cover it was a dirty loincloth. Its limbs were muscular and its torso was as thick as a barrel. It held in its right hand a gigantic hammer.

The Cyclops stood at about 3 meters high. It could be said that the corridors of this dungeon were tall and wide precisely because of these monsters.

Still glaring at me, it thrust its left hand into its beard. At almost the same time, I took one leap to close the distance and thrust my sword at the pit of the monster’s stomach.

The monster’s pained cry reached my ears as I twisted my sword. And as I gave the Cyclops a kick in the stomach, I also swung my sword diagonally upward. The Cyclops staggered backward due to the damage, but before its back hit the floor, it extended its left arm out. It opened its large hand and 4 steel helmets flew out.

The helmets scattered on the ground and then made a high-pitched sound. The sound only happened once. In the next moment, each helmet gained bodies. And with their armored arms, they pointed their weapons at us.

In other words, the Cyclops had summoned Living Armors. Cyclops, who were known to be master blacksmiths in the legends that survived to this day and age, held a special power. It was unclear how they could do so, but they could use helmets they had made as a catalyst to summon monsters.

Two of the Living Armors sprung at me. In response, I pivoted with my foot to spin horizontally and the swiped with my sword. Not skipping a beat, I proceeded to cut down the 3rd and 4th afterward.

In the meantime, the Cyclops had stood up—blood and foam overflowing from its mouth—and raised its gigantic hammer.

“GOOOOOOOOOooo!!”

“[Ice Fang]”

“[Flame Chain]”

But before the Cyclops could swing its weapon down, an ice spear pierced its right arm and a glowing-red chain wrapped around its head.

“Ga, A, a…!?”

I rushed toward the now-immobile Cyclops and swung my sword from below. I felt bones being crushed as I pushed toward the monster’s neck. After cleaving the Cyclops, there was a heavy thud. Whatever that remained of the monster collapsed to its knee.

I drew my sword closer and took some steps back, all while taking a good look of the whole, vast room. The Living Armors had all expired and the Cyclops was in the process of turning into particles. With no other threats nearby, it seemed the fight was over, at least for now.

“Thanks, you two.”

“Not at all.”

“This much is nothing for us!”

I rested my sword on my shoulder and looked around the area the Cyclops vanished. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any Drops this time either. Supposedly, its Item Drop was a lump of metal filled with magic power.

There was no need to bother checking the spots where the Living Armors fell. After all, when monsters brought forth with Summon Magic disappear, they leave nothing behind. Even the catalyst used to summon them would lose all its power and disappear. In other words, fighting summoned Living Armors was kind of a waste of time and effort.

However, the Cyclops’s Item Drop made up for it as the said Drop sold for quite a price. A Cyclops was classified as a C+ rank monster, after all. In addition, in the event that it does leave behind a fist-sized lump of metal, that could be turned into a good weapon…supposedly. I didn’t really know the details.

In any case, considering that we still had plenty of strength left and we haven’t found the exit gate anyway, we decided to continue our exploration.

* * *

After exploring the dungeon for a total of 4 hours, split between a morning and an afternoon session, we managed to get one armor piece for the right arm, one for the left leg, and 2 for the right leg. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any Item Drops from Cyclops.

I wondered whether to keep the extra armor piece for the right leg as a spare or to exchange it for a left gauntlet, but apparently, the Guild didn’t allow barters, only sales. That was a little vexing, but since I was able to sell that extra armor piece to a foreign company for 800,000 yen, I ended up quite pleased. Yup, being an adventurer was the best.

…it was enough for me to question whether I could even work in a “proper” job in the future. I mean, how could I when I already knew how to make this much money?

As I felt worried about my future, I got ready to go back home. But when I exited the locker room, I saw a man in a suit talking to someone who looked to be an adventurer. I wondered what was going on, of course. And when I happened to overhear their conversation, it seemed like the man in a suit was trying to recruit the other person. The man in a suit had the appearance of a European, yet he talked very fluently in Japanese.

Soon enough, they seemed to have agreed to head to some restaurant. Accompanied by the adventurer who didn’t look displeased, the man in a suit smiled as he proceeded to the parking lot.

It was my first time to see for myself a recruitment like that. Maybe there was some truth to the rumors about foreigners poaching Japan’s adventurers, I thought.

Realizing I had borne witness to a rare thing, I made my way to the bus stop.

Would I get recruited like that too? Well, who knows? Sure, I have B+ stats, but I’m still in high school. I probably shouldn’t worry too much about that stuff for now, I guess.

That aside, our Golem was going to be complete soon. I still didn’t know what the Golem would look like. Layla said she would announce that tomorrow though, so I was quite excited for it.

All the same, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Golem would have that traditional robotic vibe to it. But then again, maybe it would just be something simple. I had suggested, just casually of course, that the Golem should have a Wire Punch or a Beam cannon complete with a heat exhaust system, but those suggestions and more were rejected with a smile on Layla’s face. I hadn’t given up on those ideas just yet though, since there was a chance it could be used employ in any future remodeling efforts.

In a way not at all indecent, my teenager heart was so excited at the thought of this homemade Golem I was yet to see.

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