DUNGEON DIVE, page 1
Chapter 1: The Part of the Brain That Judges What’s Insane or Not Is Burnt to a Crisp
The battle with Mr. Hine was over. When Lastiara came to, Mr. Hine had sensed he was on the back foot and escaped. Thanks to that, I was now back on my feet. However, the sheer fatigue and a nasty headache had me tottering, and I was going through a bad case of the shakes to top it off. Had Lastiara taken just a little bit longer to wake up, these legs of mine might have gotten chopped off, and the terror and confusion flooded my brain, which refused to return to my normal modes of thought.
Upon seeing me in such a state, Lastiara shouted, “Sieg! Sieg, are you okay?!” She walked over to me even as she held her broken arm. It was bent in a gruesome way.
“I’m okay,” I said, using a hand to stop her from straining herself on my behalf. “Don’t shout about me... I’m more worried about you.”
Judging by the way her arm was dangling, she was more grievously wounded than I was.
“More about me... OWW! Look at that; it’s straight-up broken. Blestspell: Full Cure...” Immediately, her bone fracture was no more. “So, where’d that Hine go?”
“Mr. Hine? I managed to drive him off.”
“You did? Phew... Gotta say, though, like, ugh. The heck was Hine doing?!”
Now that the spot of danger had gone away, Lastiara seemed relieved, though she did vent her anger about having been subjected to that horrendous turn.
“Beats me. Mr. Hine said nothing but shit that flew over my head before running off, so...”
“It flew over your head? So what did he tell you, then?”
“For starters, he wanted us to leave the Dungeon Alliance if he won the duel.”
At that, Lastiara frowned.
“Also, he called you fake.”
“He called me fake? Duh, of course I’m fake. It’s like, c’mon, really? After all this time?!” She scratched her head with her newly restored arm. It wasn’t often she showed her irritation so openly.
“Uhh...hold on; you admit you’re fake?” Clearly, she didn’t take umbrage at the term.
“I told you already. My body was created to be identical to Saint Tiara’s. So of course I’m fake. I don’t deny it.”
But that wasn’t the kind of “fake” Mr. Hine was talking about.
“I don’t think that’s what he meant by ‘fake.’ He didn’t mean it as in your body is artificial. He meant something more like your personality is. Like, your thoughts and feelings.”
“My personality? My thoughts and feelings? Artificial? I mean, I’ve been influenced by the people around me, sure, but so has everyone. I’m me, full stop.”
“Sure, I guess, but...”
In the face of her firm insistence, I couldn’t consider how she acted pure affectation or totally fake. But I also couldn’t ignore Mr. Hine’s words, given how vehement he had been. An anxiety I couldn’t express in words started pooling in the pit of my stomach. I told her the remark from Mr. Hine that had sparked the most anxiety of all in me.
“And to cap things off, he said that at this rate, you would die.”
“I’ll die?” She looked befuddled.
“That’s what he told me, anyway.”
“I’ll die...” Lastiara’s eyes were trained on the ground. “That’s what my Hine said?” she murmured.
Slowly, she raised her gaze and looked my way. All I could do was give a little nod of assent. The dark depths of her eyes deepened. I got the feeling the madness that had quieted down as of late was leaking out again.
“I really have to wonder why, after all this time...” she whispered under her breath, her hand on her brow as she brooded, “even though it’s not long now...though I suppose it is like him...”
She was weirding me out. Normally, nobody would be so calm after being told they’d die, but it was even more than that. To be in such deep thought after being told she would die without being given a reason for it... It was as though she had an inkling of what that reason might be. I drew closer to ask her what it was, but before I could get close enough, she noticed me approaching and fretfully resumed our conversation.
“Ah, whoops, sorry, Sieg. I was just a bit taken aback, that’s all. It’s nothing. It’s all because of that silly Hine going around, saying strange stuff.”
Her face had returned to normal, devoid of discomposure. She wanted me to pretend the brooding hadn’t happened, and I didn’t know what to think. Should I pry into Mr. Hine and Lastiara’s state of affairs? Or should I respect her will and pretend I didn’t see that?
It took me some time to find an answer. Too long, since Lastiara was back to talking, her expression a cheery one.
“Anyways! The real problem is that dummy Hine putting the ends before the means. We need to go back to Whoseyards and have a chat with someone about his rash behavior,” she said as she walked towards the Connection portal.
Apparently, she was giving up on diving any further that day. She wanted to return home to Whoseyards and get some info on today’s odd episode.
“Shall I come with you down to Whoseyards?”
“Nah, that’s okay. It’s an internal issue. And let me apologize. The duels—they were supposed to be entertainment...”
That did little to dispel my worry. “But Lastiara, shouldn’t I be with you in case Mr. Hine attacks again? That’d spell trouble.”
“Nah, that only happened because I let my guard down after seeing one of my own. Normally, I’d trounce him, so it’s okay. You can tell by looking at our stats, can’t you?”
It was true. If it was purely a question of stats, Lastiara beat him hands down. Almost all of her numbers exceeded his, and there was a gap regarding the skills they possessed as well. If they battled without any extenuating circumstances, she would definitely win.
But a moment ago, Lastiara had been defeated precisely because there were extenuating circumstances. If their fight had been one-on-one, Mr. Hine would have shut her down completely with his first move. With the right materials to make Lastiara drop her guard, he could functionally blank her, and that was a fact. My unease was failing to evaporate.
“It’s okay,” she insisted. “I won’t get so careless again. Promise. So just wait for me.”
With that, she stepped through the magic door, and I followed her into our home, where we were met with the sight of our living room, as well as the black-haired girl standing in our kitchen, Maria.
Maria got quite a jolt from our abrupt return, which was only natural, seeing as not even ten minutes had passed since we’d entered the Dungeon.
“Wait, what happened, you two? Aren’t you back too soon?”
Maria stopped washing the dishes and came over to us.
“Oh, I just realized I forgot about something I have to do back where I’m at,” said Lastiara as she neared the window. “I’m hitting Whoseyards today, so you two can hang out while I’m gone. You can, you know, go monster hunting or shopping or something.” She waved goodbye before hastily popping out. “See ya later!”
She didn’t leave us any time to reply. Maria regarded the way Lastiara was acting with suspicion and asked me if something had happened. I could only answer evasively and say it was no big deal. I didn’t want to worry her. In fact, what I really wanted was for her to live her days divorced from rough stuff like Dungeon diving.
Now that the noisy one was gone, the house fell totally quiet.
“Miss Alty called me. What are you planning to do, Master?”
“Alty called you? Did she come here?”
“No. Early in the morning, while I was cooking, she called out to me through the fire of the burner. And now it’s about the scheduled time.”
“That girl’s everywhere. You can go, sure. I’m still diving, after all.” I wasn’t going to go with her to what I assumed was another magic lesson. I’d have nothing to do.
From the look of it, Alty was in contact with Maria through the fire in the kitchen. Once again, it sunk in just how overpowered Alty’s abilities were.
“Okay,” said Maria. “In that case, I’ll take my leave.”
“Yep. See you.”
With Maria stepping out, the house grew yet more silent. All by myself amid that quiet, I sat at the living room table and soothed my mind. The unexpected assault had left me reeling on the inside, so my first order of business was setting that straight. I took a whole lot of deep breaths—which resulted in a peculiar sense of isolation. I’d been left to my own devices for the first time in a while. As of late, I always had someone or other by my side. Right after I was dropped into this world, I was tormented by loneliness, but that crushing solitude had eased off at some point. And while I chastised myself for my selfishness, I also figured it was only human nature to covet what they didn’t have and find what they did have a chore. It made me painfully aware of how immature I was.
Basically, I’m just a kid. A kid who’s got his hands full thinking about himself.
If I were an adult, I’d have an adult’s emotional elbow room, and I’d have no excuse to keep putting off coming to grips with Maria’s feelings of infatuation indefinitely. And to bring up something that just happened, I’d have no excuse not to accompany Lastiara to Whoseyards. There’d be no rift between me and Lastiara, I’d be able to understand Mr. Hine’s desperate pleas, and Dia would never have gotten so grievously hurt...
But all of that was in the past. It was all immutable. Owing to my inexperience, I couldn’t deal with it aptly. I didn’t for a second think I’d made all the most optimal choices. For one
You know what? It’s simple. I just don’t have the power or the leeway to assess things properly. And as such, I need to get stronger.
I was determined. Instead of lamenting the past, I’d grow as a person, even if only a little. I passed through Connection and returned to Floor 20. Not that I was planning to explore floors this deep on my own, obviously. It wasn’t that I thought I wasn’t equal to the task, but it couldn’t be denied that the danger factor went up compared to diving as a duo. And more than anything, if I ventured too deep without Lastiara, she’d give me an earful.
Accordingly, I decided to go monster hunting.
I wanted to get stronger. I couldn’t resolve my mental immaturity in a day, but in this world, I could solve my physical weakness in a brief span of time. So of course, I’d start thinking about compensating for my inadequacies by training up my body. It couldn’t hurt to use the time on my hands to level up so that I could make the best decisions—and so I wouldn’t be creating yet more regrets to lament.
The first step was to select a suitable hunting ground. The strongest monsters I could hunt by myself without issue were the Furies on Floor 21. That didn’t, however, make Furies the most efficient monsters for level grinding. They did dispense a lot of EXP, but they also enjoyed high natural bulk. Taking into account the amount of time it required to kill one, I couldn’t say it was the most time-effective enemy.
The ideal monster was one I could kill with a single swing of my sword. In addition, the brevity of the time it took to find the monster and how many of them appeared at a time were important. Lastly, the less that was irregular about the monster, the better.
Through the experience I had cultivated back on Earth playing video games, I racked my brain for the best candidate. Thinking back upon the monsters I’d fought thus far, I concluded that the floor that struck the right balance was Floor 15, so I headed there.
As expected, it proved to be the ideal hunting ground. There, I tore through various monsters without reprieve, amassing more and more EXP and magic gems. I turned off my soul and just killed, killed, killed. Since the enemies died in one sword swing, I didn’t expend much MP to speak of. By leveling up, my max MP went up, which increased the amount of MP I recovered passively. Perhaps that was why I was able to keep hunting semi-permanently.
From time to time, Lastiara’s and Maria’s faces flashed through my mind. So too did the face of Alty, the one who wanted me to grant her wish. Even so, I kept on hacking and slashing. I had to go back to my world. My Great Return. And the best way to make it happen was the hunting that I was doing now. That was what I told myself as I devoted my time to level grinding, my headspace reverting to video game-mode.
I did it all the livelong day, as though what I was actually slicing up were my doubts and apprehension...
◆◆◆◆◆
Having completed my hunt for the day, I returned home. In a day’s time, I’d acquired more EXP than ever before. And needless to say, I’d met the required amount to level up. If Lastiara had been around, I’d have asked her to level me up, but to my chagrin, she wasn’t back yet. I reckoned that since she’d made her way down to Whoseyards, she wouldn’t be able to return that quickly.
Next, I looked for Maria, but she wasn’t home either. Was it taking her that long to learn a new spell?
There’s nobody here but me.
I looked out the window, wondering if I’d gotten home too early. The sun was beginning to set, the red afterglow beautiful. Oddly enough, a weird melancholy impelled me outside. In order to turn the EXP into an actual level up, I made use of my time and headed towards a church, as it made sense to level up as soon as possible. Also, since I’d picked up a wealth of magic gems, I had to convert them into money.
After that, I’ll go shopping for a nice change of pace, and then I’ll round things off by visiting Dia.
The plan coalesced as I walked. I went down the hill and entered the townscape of Vart. Ambling down a main avenue during the nice sunset, I was assailed anew by a strange wave of depression. The road was decorated with magic gems on the edges, and they were twinkling red. Those faint lights stirred my heart, and I picked up my pace as if to run from my own sadness. In time, I reached the church.
Conveniently, when I entered, I saw a priest chanting, and various citizens were offering their prayers. They were already in the middle of the service. I didn’t know if it’d still work if I didn’t start praying from the beginning of the mass, but I sat at one of the pews in the back and prayed by imitation.
It was quiet, peaceful. I did look at my menu from time to time to see if I’d leveled up, only to find that I hadn’t and resumed praying. Compared to Lastiara’s level up spell, the process at a church took way longer. I killed time by checking my stats and looking at the windows. The stained glass of the winged women was so gorgeous as to be gaudy. I used Analyze on it, as an experiment, and was shocked to find it was all made of magic gem material.
While I was looking around the church, examining various things, the priest finished his chanting and bowed. The parishioners who’d been praying also bowed, then got up sporadically and started making for the exit. I remained seated and looked at my menu.
【STATUS】
NAME: AIKAWA KANAMI
HP: 345/372
MP: 221/653-200
CLASS: None
LEVEL 13
STR 7.82
VIT 8.02
DEX 9.35
AGI 12.01
INT 11.73
MAG 29.78
APT 7.00
EXP: 20235/35000
I had leveled up, but how to use my bonus points? Up until now, I’d felt compelled to spend them on HP and MP, but it was high time I considered other options. What was the next most necessary ability after durability and staying power? The firepower to kill monsters, I surmised. And thinking about it in simple terms, STR or MAG were probably connected to that.
【STATUS】
NAME: Aikawa Kanami
HP: 345/372
MP: 221/657-200
CLASS: None
LEVEL 13
STR 7.82
VIT 8.02
DEX 9.35
AGI 12.01
INT 11.73
MAG 30.08
APT 7.00
EXP: 20235/35000
My MAG increased by 0.30, and MP also increased, albeit slightly.
I was hoping for a sudden 1.00-point bump. Whether the other stats also changed in increments of 0.30, I wouldn’t know until I allocated bonus points to them. I figured that next time, I’d try sussing out the rules by tossing a point or two into STR.
After my stats deliberations, I got to my feet, happy that I was stronger now. Then, just as I was about to exit the church, I froze in my tracks. A familiar knight was outside the door. I could sense it with Dimension.
It proved fortunate that I’d been on my guard, pouring power into Dimension, which itself was due to Mr. Hine attacking me that morning. Thanks to that, I was able to notice him before stepping outside.
【STATUS】
NAME: Palinchron Regacy
HP: 311/312
MP: 42/62
CLASS: Knight
LEVEL 22
STR 7.90
VIT 9.87
DEX 11.89
AGI 5.67
INT 7.34
MAG 4.78
APT 1.80
INNATE SKILLS: Observant 1.45
ACQUIRED SKILLS: Swordplay 1.89, Holy Magic 1.23, Martial Arts 1.87, Spellrite 0.54
I delved into my memory and recalled the knight named Palinchron. I’d met him at the slave market. He was the sort of aloof type who liked getting a rise out of folks, so, no one I liked.
I searched the church for a different exit through Dimension, but the door suddenly opened and there the tall “knight” stood.
As before, he didn’t look the part of a knight. His attire was something a merchant would wear and definitely wasn’t easy to move in. The only thing one could point to as being knightlike was the sword at his waist.
Palinchron drew nearer, his dull brown hair swaying as he came over. “Well hello, Sieg, my lad. Fancy meeting you here.”
