DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level Volume 2, page 3
Alty seemed positively delighted by this development. And so our newly formed party of five resumed its Dungeon dive. The challenge posed by the group’s exam was the acquisition of designated items. By gathering the items dropped by bosses that existed on each floor, they could provide proof of their exploits. The academy would only recognize them as “first-rate divers” if they made it back with all the items to be collected from Floors 1 through 10. And just as Alty had said, the party’s “exam” would be child’s play. Since the sentinel of the tenth floor was aiding us in secret, it could even be called a farce.
There were five of us, and that wasn’t including Alty. That meant I would shoulder only a fifth of the toil and face a fifth of the danger. Or at least, that’s what I figured.
How wrong I was. Reality was always a harsh mistress.
Our party’s dive commenced. How could I have known that being in a party of five meant I’d get five times as worn out compared to fighting alone?
◆◆◆◆◆
“And now for the finishing blow!” shouted Franrühle. Her splendorous sword cracked open the head of the giant bee boss monster, which began to lose its power of flight, dropping farther and farther down. As it lost altitude, more and more of its body disintegrated into light, expelling Franrühle, who’d been above it, into the air.
As Franrühle was my employer for this job, I ran below her so I could catch her. With my sword sheathed, I caught her carefully such that no pressure was placed on her. The scene was a rehash of our encounter with the kraken, and she blushed in exactly the same way. But I couldn’t focus on only her. I had to check to see if everybody else was safe too.
Liner was constantly backing Franrühle up, which left him totally exhausted. He was breathing very heavily, his shoulders moving up and down violently. As for Elna, I saw that she’d made quick work of the boss’s minions. Since the semifer valued her own life most of all, she never stepped out onto the front line of battle. Then there was the dragonkin scout in the back, and she...didn’t seem to want to do much of anything.
It was simple. These four weren’t functioning as a team in any way. Taken as individuals, their respective strength levels were weirdly high, but, presumably due to their driving motivations not aligning, they moved as disconnected units. The sheer amount of toil that acting as their go-between required dwarfed whatever fatigue came from fighting alone.
“We did it!” said Franrühle. “With this, we’ve cleared Floor 8! And we’re doing it incredibly fast thanks to Sir Sieg’s participation! That’s my knight for you!”
“C-Congratulations, Miss Franrühle. But please don’t forget that to make it happen, your brother’s always on the verge of death...”
Liner, who was so short of breath I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him cough up blood, drew close. “Hff... Hff... It’s okay, Mr. Sieg. An adopted noble like me has no worth outside of protecting my sister. If I can’t be of use here, then I’m so much trash. I’m like a garbage dump. Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha! Ha haaa...” he laughed with an I’m-dying expression.
He had let slip so much that provided a glimpse of his complicated home life that I was sick of it. But I refused to touch it. I wasn’t about to set foot in that mire, so I chose not to respond to any of it. I resolved anew not to ask any questions—as soon as this gig was over, I’d peace out of this party.
Before long, Miss Elna, who’d been fighting in the safe zone, joined the rest of us. I could instantly tell from her battles that she didn’t care about acing the test. Her stance was all about prioritizing her own safety. She helped the two Hellvilleshines only when doing so cost her nothing. Her indifference was proof that she was motivated only by calculations of what would butter her bread. I liked her stance itself, but she was the type you never wanted to trust to have your back.
“Phew... Nice work.” Snow had returned too, as listless as ever. She was the number one problem child out of the lot of them.
【STATUS】
NAME: Snow Walker
HP: 511/533
MP: 211/240
CLASS: Scout
LEVEL 14
STR 10.22
VIT 10.01
DEX 5.24
AGI 5.43
INT 7.91
MAG 10.84
APT 2.62
INNATE SKILLS: Draconic Protection 1.09, Optimal Moves 1.89, Ancient Magic 2.02
Mind’s Eye 1.07, Blood Magic 1.00
ACQUIRED SKILLS: None
She was the girl with the highest level and the most blessed with talents, and thanks to her being a dragonkin, her base abilities were relatively potent as well. Apart from Dia, she possessed the highest aptitude stat out of any of the Dungeon divers I’d encountered thus far. And best of all, her stats were comparable to mine at this point in time. I won’t lie. I wanted her on my side something fierce.
The problem? She was fatally checked out.
Despite her faculty for magic, she didn’t use any at all. Her attacks were perfunctory, leaving everything to her muscles. Clearly, she wasn’t taking her assignment terribly seriously. Upon asking Franrühle about Snow, she told me she was there to satisfy the number requirement. Then I asked Snow herself.
“Hope we get a death,” she replied. “Then I can go home.” She didn’t elaborate.
A pampered princess who rushed headlong into danger. A boy knight obsessed with his sister. A semifer warrior who was out for herself. A dragonkin with zero motivation. As far as I was concerned, on the whole, this was one disaster of a party. Could there be a worse one? My opinion of this unseen academy was only sinking. An academy had people who taught things. Did those teachers see these four and think nothing of the group? If it had been me, I would’ve stopped them. By hook or by crook. Yet now that I’d agreed to this sellsword shtick, I couldn’t just quit midway through.
Franrühle finished collecting the boss drop items, and I listened to her give her orders to the rest. “Excellent work, everyone. Now then, let’s hurry on over to the ninth floor. You know, at this pace, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for us to break first place!”
With that, my employer moseyed on her merry way. For their assignment, they had two objectives left: defeat a boss on the ninth floor and obtain the forever-flames on the tenth floor. According to Franrühle, since the tenth floor lacked a boss, they only really had one goal left to tackle. And since a boss was currently stifling a laugh near my ear, I knew she was probably right.
Laying into a boss on the ninth floor shouldn’t have been a problem, considering the strength levels of the party’s members, but I had no doubt the strain of the constant anxiety would pile up inside me.
Compared to the efficiency of how I played RPGs back in my world, and to the ideal teamwork Dia and I displayed with our two-man team, this disconnected party’s lack of coordination was Stress City. Honestly, I wanted to bail. I super wanted to bail.
No, man. Calm down. There’s virtually only one goal left. One more, and I’m home free. I focused on the positives to soothe my spirit. You know what? I’m doing great.
This dive was much more worthwhile than getting to the tenth floor by myself would have been. Once this was behind me, it would definitely serve as a good experience to have had. I was way off course compared to my initial plans, but this had turned into a tribulation that was even harder than soloing the first ten floors. In fact, since one didn’t come into an opportunity like this every day, I ought to be delighted.
Thus psyching myself up, I started walking at the head of the line. I suggested that since I was a deft hand at enemy detection, I should take the lead position alongside the party’s scout.
“All right, shall we proceed? Let’s lead the pack, Snow.”
A pause. “Sure.”
Snow was walking next to me now. I stole a glance at her face. She was a dragonewt, yet her appearance wasn’t all that different from a normal human’s. The only differences I could see were the small horns poking out of her bluish-black hair and her scaly tail. Her horns were decorated with an exotic head ornament, so I couldn’t help but see her horns as an extension of that. As for the tail, she was wearing clothes with a low hem, so it was easy to ignore. Were it not for her listless, relatively small-irised eyes, she would have looked like your typical beautiful maiden in native dress.
“What is it?”
Snow noticed me sneaking a look. That’s a high-level diver for you. Her personality left a little to be desired, but she was the juiciest asset out of the lot, so I figured I’d try talking to her.
“I was just wondering, why are you taking this test? You don’t seem very up for it.”
“I need the credits.”
“Credits?”
“Uhh, credits are, err...eh, whatever. Ask me some other time...”
Okay, her personality left a lot to be desired.
“Well, I can’t say I know too much about what credits are, but they’re necessary for your academic life, right? So, you don’t have enough credits, but if you pass this exam, you will. Is that the gist?”
I was drawing on my knowledge of how things worked back home. It couldn’t be far removed from college credits.
“Wow. Impressive. That’s exactly it. You know a lot for someone who doesn’t attend the academy.”
It seemed I’d hit the mark. Snow looked surprised.
“I see. So you’re only taking the test because you’ve got no other choice. And that’s why you’re, well, unenthusiastic about it...but are you going to be okay doing so little? If you don’t clear the test, you won’t get your credits, will you?”
“It’s okay; just taking the challenge has significance...apparently. If I participate at all, I’ll get the credits.”
“Ah, that explains it...”
That explained why she had zero motivation. Honestly, she reminded me of the college students in my world. They attended lessons and lectures and the like for the credits, but since they had no interest in the content, they just slept through it all. I got the feeling her situation was similar.
Then Franrühle’s voice interrupted our conversation from behind. “Sir Sieg! We don’t need you and Snow both at the front, so do come over here!”
I turned around, to find her sulkily beckoning me. I couldn’t afford to hurt her feelings, so while I wanted to learn a little bit more about Snow, I did as I was told and fell back in line. I started walking beside Franrühle so I could protect her specifically. I was at her left, with Liner at her right. Elna was at the tail end, on the lookout for danger coming from the rear.
“Say, Sir Sieg,” said Franrühle, after a moment’s silence, “is there anything about me?”
“Huh? Anything about you?”
“Anything about me that interests you. Such as, oh, I don’t know, something you’d like to know? What I do with my time?!”
She’d raised her voice so suddenly. I was flummoxed. It looked as though a silent dive was not to her liking. However, to tell the truth, there was nothing I wanted to talk to her about. The only person in this party I was interested in was Snow. Sure, Franrühle’s talents were also a cut above your average Joe, but she compared unfavorably to Snow in that respect.
That said, if I kept this up I’d be asking for trouble, so I started humoring her. As we shared our pastimes and special skills as if this were some interview for a prospective marriage, we cleared our way through the eighth floor. Though I was a mite distracted, I was more than fine as long as I battled weakling monsters. For all its faults, the party’s suite of talents did tick all the boxes. Even if nothing else did.
Around the time we descended the stairs to the ninth floor is when I ran out of silly little small-talk topics. With the end of the exam drawing near, the party’s jitters were intensifying. Since they’d done their homework, they knew the whereabouts of the boss they were targeting. Still at the head of the pack, Snow moved towards the boss area without missing a step. Little by little, the corridor grew darker and the footing trickier until we were heading down a scraggy stone path not unlike the inside of a cave.
The name of the day’s last boss was “Legion Bats.” We’d be facing multiple giant bats, and they possessed an annoying ability. If one struck a fatal blow against one of them, the other bats joined together to heal it. As the battle took place in the darkness, it hinged on how well the party could handle several monsters while making sure their light sources didn’t get extinguished. Or at least, that was what was written in the conclusion of the academy lesson on the subject.
In reality, with Dimension on our side, it’d be no sweat. If it was darkness of the non-magical variety, my spatial perception powers rendered it meaningless.
Sure enough, the Legion Bats fight ended in short order. The bats attacked us once we entered a limestone cavern-style pocket, but through Dimension’s enemy detector function, we could counterattack without issue. All that was left to do was fight it by the academy textbook. So long as the group’s individual shortcomings didn’t send them into a downward spiral, the bats had no hope of victory.
The strain of it all was piling up, but we were able to clear the ninth floor in next to no time. After some scattered high-fives, we headed towards the tenth floor. We went down the Pathway, staying on our toes as we descended.
I turned my attention to the flame by my ear.
We finally made it to the tenth floor. I’m ho-ooome!
Floor 10 was brimming with a luminance unbecoming of the dingy, dreary Dungeon. Everywhere one looked in the massive chamber was fire and flames. That was the entirety of the floor. These flames weren’t hot enough to burn visitors, but even so, they made a guy think twice before setting foot inside.
We picked the road where the flames died owing to the Pathway’s barrier and walked through the tenth floor. Snow chose a random spot, took out a bottle, and stored some of the fire inside it. It was a strange spectacle; the fire was sucked in as if a clump of it had been torn out, and it continued to burn within the bottle even though there was nothing in there to burn. This was no normal fire. It was more like a will-o’-the-wisp filled with a deep-seated hatred.
But with this, their assignment had been completed. I was finally free of the party.
“All right, looks like it’s clear sailing from here. Congratulations, everyone,” I said, hoping to lead into a farewell.
“I’ll say, mister, you really helped us out,” said Elna. “We’re lucky we got to join hands with a diver like you, let me tell ya. I honestly thought one of us would get hurt and force us to go home at some point! Ah, here’s your money, just as promised.”
She handed over my pay.
“Sir Sieg! As long as we have you, may I ask you to escort us back to the surface?! Oh, I know! Since we have you, you might as well escort us back to Hellvilleshine Manor! And then I’m thinking we can treat you to dinner as thanks! We always wanted a bond of kinship with a young, strong, honest, and kind diver like you! What do you say, sir?!”
Picking up on people’s feelings wasn’t a strong suit of mine by any stretch, yet even I could tell that Franrühle was infatuated. If I’m honest with myself, I was happy that a girl with her face and figure liked me that way. However, I was pretty sure that if we grew closer, it’d only add to my troubles.
“I’m sorry, Franrühle. I have business farther down. I unfortunately can’t escort you back up.”
“Oh... Oh, I see... I can hardly twist your arm after you saved us like that. Just know that we Hellvilleshine siblings welcome you to our home with open arms! And feel free to turn to us for help whenever you might need it.”
“Wait, me too? Well, I guess if it’s you coming over to hang out, Mr. Sieg, then I’m happy to have you.”
Franrühle had decided without consulting Liner that he too would welcome me.
I forced a smile and bade them adieu. “Thank you very much. If the chance presents itself, I’ll take it.”
“By all means! And if you ever get the chance, visit us at Eltraliew Academy! Ah, the Hellvilleshine Manor is in District 3 of Whoseyards! If anything ever comes up, don’t hesitate to call on us!”
Ever reluctant to part ways, she kept on promoting herself. If I’d crossed paths with her back in my world, I’d probably have thought her hardworking and likable. But here and now, I coolly concluded she was of no use to me. To round things off, I said my goodbyes to the other two.
“Ya look gullible, mister,” said Elna, “so take care not to get bamboozled. See ya!”
“You’re not cut out for the Dungeon,” said Snow. “I suggest you look for another vocation. Well, bye then.”
For reasons I didn’t understand, her parting words were quite harsh. Seeing as we’d dived together as comrades, however briefly, I wanted to think she said that out of concern for me.
And thus did I part ways with the party of academy students. Franrühle alone kept looking over her shoulder and waving. It was charming. When the four fell out of view, I was the only one left on the tenth floor. The flames that spanned one side of the room had me sweating.
I spoke to the chamber’s master. “They’re gone.”
Looks like it. Wait a sec.
Part of the flames in the room started morphing into the shape of a person. Then bandages came out of nowhere and wrapped around the fire. With nothing concealing her but those bandages, it was almost like she was in her underwear, so I took out a spare article of outerwear from my inventory and tossed it her way. Alty swiftly donned the clothes.
“Whew-ee! My flesh-and-blood form’s preferable, right? That way, we match!”
“Well, yeah, I guess I’ll take that over you whispering in my ear.”
The scorching heat and her voice right next to my ear. That shit was right out of a horror movie.
“Plus, I’m definitely cuter this way, right?”
“Ha ha, you’re still mostly fire! Become actual flesh again and then we’ll talk.”
