Accepting The Dungeons
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The dungeon was a huge underground cavern. It had been carved out of the earth by an unknown force, and it seemed to be filled with all sorts of monsters that were ready for battle. There weren’t any adventurers in sight — just the corpses of people who’d tried their hand at exploring this place before them. They hadn’t made it very far…
“This is where we’re supposed to go?” asked Keima as he looked around inside. “I don’t see anything.” He took his time looking over every inch of the room, but there wasn’t even so much as a single monster hiding behind some rocks or something.
Even if they did have one here somewhere, how would you tell? You couldn’t exactly ask anyone about it since no one else knew what went on down here either. Not only that but there didn’t seem like any way to get back up from this floor without dying first.
Keima thought maybe he should leave now while he still could, then decided against it when Neko’s eyes lit up upon seeing him look away. She immediately started running towards him. That girl sure likes me, huh? I mean, she does love adventure games after all!
But seriously though, why do I need her help again…? Well, whatever, let’s give it another shot.
He followed along behind her and soon found himself standing right next to the entrance to the dungeon proper. “So…” said Keima, “how are we going to get past these walls?”
Neko turned around and stared at the wall in front of them. Then she closed her eyes tightly and concentrated hard enough that Keima felt like she might actually break through the stone itself. After several seconds passed, she opened her eyes again. “…Huh?” she muttered.
Her gaze fell onto Keima, who was staring expectantly into space. “Oh,” she finally realized, turning back to face forward. “You want us to climb over the wall instead of breaking through it?”
“Yeah. If we try climbing straight up, our hands slip off halfway up, which means death.”
“…Okay. So what do you think will work better: using magic or not?”
“Well, I’m thinking we can use a combination of both. We’ve got plenty of mana left, so let’s start by casting Magic Hand on ourselves. And then… Oh yeah!” Keima remembered something. He pulled out his smartphone and called someone up.
There was silence for three whole minutes. Finally, the other person picked up. “Hello?” came a voice. A woman’s voice. Wasn’t expecting that, given how late it is.
“Hey, I wanna talk to the guild master! Can you put me through to him?!” Keima shouted loudly enough that everyone nearby heard him.
After a momentary pause, the man answered. “Who am I speaking with?”
“It’s Keima! From Akane’s party! Remember?! The guy who beat the boss!?”
“Ah yes, I remember you well. What can I do for you?”
“What!? Why aren’t you excited? This is your chance to make some easy money!! How many times has someone come calling trying to sell dungeons lately? Like, ever? Never! Okay, fine, once, but that doesn’t count because nobody bought it! You know what I mean!
Anyway, I’m gonna buy this dungeon, okay? Don’t worry; I already have the cash.”
“Hm. Very well. Please wait a few moments until I contact my superiors…”
A short while later, Keima received an email. Apparently, he had permission to purchase the dungeon. Now all that remained was figuring out how best to spend his money.
“All right, so I’ve got two options here. One, I could hire a bunch of adventurers and send them down here, hoping they find a path to the exit. Or two, I could just pay you guys to lead me through the dungeon. Which sounds more fun?”
“Hmm… Hiring adventurers seems like a good idea, but I feel like it wouldn’t take long for them to run out of mana, especially considering how big this dungeon is. Also, I doubt they’d be able to defeat all those enemies without getting hurt themselves.
On top of that, it takes time to train newbies, so I imagine it won’t happen anytime soon. In fact, I bet it’ll never really happen at all. Plus, it costs money, too.”
“That makes sense. Alright, then let’s go with option number two. Let’s see… I guess I can split the cost between all of you. That’s fair, isn’t it? I mean, I’m paying for everything anyway.”
“Sounds great to me! I don’t mind helping you out since you helped us out earlier today. Besides, if you’re willing to pay, there must be something worth finding inside, right?”
“Yep. There definitely is. It’s just a matter of whether or not we’ll be able to figure out where to find it.”
The five of them walked together through the dungeon. They didn’t encounter any monsters, nor did they notice anything particularly strange about the environment. As such, their progress went smoothly and quickly.
Eventually, they reached the first floor. Here, the walls were made from large blocks of rock that looked rather sturdy. However, the ceiling was low enough that even Neko would need to crouch to pass under it. At least, that seemed to be the case until Keima cast Magic Hand on himself.
Suddenly, the entire room became much higher than before—the same height as a normal human being.
“Wow…” said Neko in surprise.
“I told you it worked, didn’t I?” replied Keima.
“Y-Yes. But why did it suddenly get so tall…? Is it because you used magic on yourself?” asked Neko.
Keima nodded. “Right. By changing the size of the room, I changed its volume. Volume changes when you change the shape of a box. Think of it like that.”
“Gotcha. Well then, let’s keep going.”
They continued onward, passing through another set of doors. This one led to the second floor. Once again, the walls appeared to be solid stone, though the ceiling was lower. The floors here were also covered with thick carpeting.
“This place sure looks fancy,” commented Rokuko.
“Indeed. It feels like a hotel lobby or something. Maybe it’s supposed to look nice for guests?” suggested Kana.
“Maybe? Not exactly the kind of thing you expect to find underground, huh?” added Neko.
“True, true. Still, I wonder what sort of people live here. Are they nobles? Or maybe merchants? Hmm…” pondered Keima.
“So, uh, should we call ourselves back yet?” asked Rekka. He was still holding onto the rope tied around his waist.
“Nah, I think I want to explore a little longer. We haven’t found anything weird yet, after all.”
“Mmm… Yeah, you’re probably right. And besides, I’m curious to see what happens next.”
Kirika agreed with her master. She wanted to continue exploring.
After walking along the hallway for a bit, they came across a door. Naturally, it opened up into a room. Unlike the other rooms, however, this one wasn’t decorated. Instead, it was filled with shelves overflowing with books.
“Huh? Books?” asked Kirika.
“Yeah. I thought a library might be somewhere in here, so I figured I’d check it out. And hey, look at that!”
There was a book titled Dungeon Master’s Guide sitting on the table.
“What do you suppose this means?” wondered Keima.
“Dungeon Masters’ Guides are pretty common, aren’t they?” answered Rokuko.
“Oh yeah, I remember reading about these things online once. Basically, it’s a guidebook written by someone who has been playing dungeons for years, explaining how to play them safely and efficiently. You know, stuff like ‘how many floors does your dungeon have?’ and ‘are there any traps?'”
“You read that online?” asked Rokuko.
Rekka shrugged. “It showed up in my recommended articles feed. Anyway, it says here that this dungeon has three floors. So far, nothing suspicious.”
“Hmhm. What else?”
“Uh, well, apparently there’s a monster called the Slime King that lives here. Apparently, he’s strong enough to kill adventurers easily, but only appears every few months. Oh man, I wanna fight him already! Wait, no. No fighting.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to die. Also, I’ve got a feeling that if I fought the Slime King, I wouldn’t make it out alive.”
“Hmm. Then let’s take a closer look at the rest of the guidebooks. If there’s anything useful in those, we could use it to help you beat the Slime King.”
“Wait, hold on. Why am I gonna be doing all the work?!” complained Keima.
“…Well, I guess that makes sense. After all, you’re the dungeon master, right?”
“That’s right. In fact, I kinda feel bad making you guys go all the way down here just to defeat some random slime guy. I mean, I can handle myself against most monsters, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to win against the Slime King.”
“Is that so? That sounds like a problem to me. How will we manage without you?”
“I dunno. I guess we could leave the job to you a lot since you’re stronger than me anyway.”
“No thanks. I’m too scared to face off against the Slime King alone. Besides, I really need to train more before I try tackling an encounter as tough as the Slime King.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s just focus on finding clues to defeating the Slime King instead. There must be a reason why he seems to appear every few months. Something to do with the time of year or the moon cycle, perhaps?”
“Sounds good to me. Hey, is anyone hungry? I’m getting super-hungry from all this walking.”
“Me toooo! My stomach hurts!”
“Hey, now. Don’t complain when I’m trying to solve our problems.”
Keima sighed. His hunger pangs had gotten worse over the last hour. At least they hadn’t gone away entirely.
“Anyway, let’s get moving. We’ve gotta find something worth eating down here.”
***
The third floor didn’t seem much different from the first two. The main difference was that the walls were made of stone, rather than wood. It looked like the dungeon was built using earth magic, which meant the whole place was basically a giant labyrinth.
They continued exploring until they reached another door. This one led into a small room with a single chair. A desk sat beside the chair, and a lamp rested atop it.
“This looks like a study,” said Keima.
“Aye, it does. But what are ye looking at?”
“Some kind of paper. Looks like a map. Maybe it shows where the boss monster is…”
“Boss monster? Ye mean like, the king o’ slimes?”
“Yup. It’s probably a slime of some sort.”
“Then maybe there’s a trap nearby. Or a treasure chest. Either way, it’s worth checking out.”
“Alright then, I’ll go open it. Watch yourselves.”
With that, Rekka walked toward the desk and picked up the lamp. He turned around, ready to throw the lamp at whoever tried attacking him… Only to realize that nobody was behind him.
He spun back around to see that the door leading outside had closed itself.
“Wha—?! Dangit, that’s dangerous! Who did that?!” shouted Keima.
But no matter how hard he yelled, his voice couldn’t reach the other side of the door.
“Huh? What’s going on?” asked Rokuko, peering through the keyhole. She saw that Keima wasn’t alone; a girl stood next to him. Her hair was silver, her eyes blue, and she wore a white dress with black trim.
She also seemed familiar somehow.
“Who are you?” asked Rokuko.
“Oh, hello. I’m sorry for startling you. I’m a traveler who happened upon your party by chance. I heard voices coming from inside this building, so I came to investigate. You seem to have been having quite the conversation. So, uh, what exactly is happening?”
Rokuko explained everything that had transpired thus far, including the mysterious door closing on its own. When she finished, the traveler gave a sigh.
“So, you’re saying that someone intentionally locked you in a room full of traps? And you haven’t managed to escape yet?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“How unfortunate. Well, I suppose I should lend a hand after all. After all, it would be rude of me to stand idly by while my fellow travelers struggle to survive. If nothing else, I’d hate to hear them complaining about me later.”
At those words, the traveler produced a ring and placed it on the ground. Then, the door opened once again.
“Thank goodness,” muttered Keima. “You saved us. Thank you very much.”
“It’s not a big deal. Now then, shall we begin?”
“Begin…? Erm, yeah. Sure.”
Once the traveler stepped aside, Keima took a step forward. However, he immediately stopped himself and glanced at the door.
“Wait, shouldn’t we check the room first? Just in case?”
“What’s wrong with you? Are you afraid of dying? Come on, hurry up already!”
“Fine, but don’t blame me if anything happens.”
Keima shrugged and approached the door. Once he got close enough, the door swung wide open and revealed a large room filled with bookshelves. On top of each shelf sat a book, and the shelves themselves stretched upwards into the air.
There were hundreds of books lining these shelves. They ranged from thick leatherbound volumes to thin pamphlets. Some were bound together, others weren’t. Most of them appeared to be written in Japanese.
“Wow, there sure are a lot of books here,” commented Rokuko as she stared at the collection.
“Yep. There must be thousands of ’em. Probably more than any library could hold. Even a normal adventurer can read just a few dozen.”
“I wonder why they put so many books here…”
“Maybe they’re planning to use them against adventurers or something. Like, hey, let’s make an obstacle course, and fill it with books instead of monsters. That might work well since most people aren’t used to fighting enemies that attack with their minds.”
“That sounds pretty dumb. Why not just kill the enemy directly?”
“Well, it’s still better than making a maze of traps, right? Anyway, come on, let’s get started. Let’s start with the lowest level books.”
“Okay.”
While Rokuko began searching for the proper books, Keima went over to inspect a shelf near the entrance. The books looked old and worn down, which meant that they hadn’t been touched in ages. But before he could pick one up, the shelf suddenly collapsed under his weight.
“Ow! Hey, watch it!”
The bookshelf fell on Keima, pinning him underneath it. As he struggled to free himself, several books tumbled off the pile onto his face.
“Gah… Geez, stop moving! I’m trying to pull myself out here.”
As Keima continued struggling beneath the fallen bookshelf, the traveler arrived beside him. He grabbed a nearby book and tossed it toward the floor. It landed on the carpeted area between the bookshelves, creating a small hole.
“Here, let me help you.”
With the traveler’s assistance, Keima finally freed himself from the pile of books. Upon doing so, however, he realized that the entire bookshelf had vanished without a trace.
“H-Hey, where did that go?!”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll find another bookshelf somewhere else.”
After leaving the bookshelf behind, the two-headed deeper into the labyrinth. While walking through the halls, Keima spotted a strange object sitting atop a desk. It was a stone statue of some sort. Its head resembled a human skull, and it had a long neck like a giraffe.
“Hmm, what’s that thing?”
“Looks kinda creepy, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed. Maybe it’s supposed to be a warning sign or something.”
“Let’s not touch it. Who knows how dangerous it is.”
They left the desk behind and kept going until they reached the fifth floor. This time, there wasn’t even a single trap waiting for them. In fact, the only things around were the bookshelves lined along the walls.
“This place has gotten way easier. What happened to the other floors?”
“Probably because we’ve made our way past this point. Sooner or later, we’ll reach the bottom floor. From there, it will probably take a while longer to climb back up to the surface.”
“Yeah, guess so. Well, whatever. Let’s keep going.”
Rokuko searched through all the bookshelves, looking for the ones labeled Level 1. She found them fairly quickly, though she didn’t know exactly what they were. These books contained nothing but blank pages.
“Aha! Found one!”
She picked up a book marked with a red sticker. After flipping through its contents, she confirmed her hypothesis: this was indeed a Level 0 book.
“Level 0 huh…? Guess I should try reading it.”
“You want me to join you?” asked the traveler.
“Nope, you stay here. You have your own job to do anyway.”
“Understood.”
Once Rokuko finished reading the book, she closed it and placed it inside her Item Box. Then, she opened another book titled “Level 2”.
“Huh. Looks like it’s gonna be harder than I thought.”
Unlike the previous book, this one actually had words printed on every page—though they were completely illegible.
“What does this say?”
“‘If you wish to learn magic, then first prepare yourself by mastering the basics.'”
“So basically, if you don’t know anything about magic, studying the fundamentals won’t help much.”
“Pretty straightforward stuff.”
Keima took the book and flipped through its pages. There was no writing anywhere except for the title and author names.
“Who wrote this?” he wondered aloud.
Upon closer inspection, the book seemed to be filled with drawings of various magical items. However, none of those objects bore any resemblance to the real world. They included such oddities as a glowing crystal ball that shot lasers at opponents, a giant scythe that sliced enemies cleanly in half, and more.
“It looks like whoever wrote this book really likes weird shit…”
“I wonder who it was written by. Probably someone important.”
“Makes sense. Magic can change everything, after all.”
He turned to the next page and read the following passage:
“Magic comes from mana. Mana is an energy that flows within living creatures. When used properly, it grants power beyond imagination. To use magic, you must obtain this energy from others. Do not waste it; instead, invest it wisely. If you fail to do so, you will die.”
“…Well, that sounds pretty ominous.”
There was also a drawing depicting a man wearing gloves. Each finger of the glove held a different colored gemstone, each corresponding to one color of mana. A large amount of mana flowed through the fingers, enabling the wearer to cast spells.
The End