chapter2 · 026-ep26

Episode 26: My First Dungeon Expedition

By the way — about dungeons: I had done my homework. More or less.

"More or less" makes it sound lazy, but it was fairly serious.

This is a state-managed expedition, after all.

Blundering in knowing nothing with a "whoa, looks fun" is properly bad form.

I mean, I have a feeling day-one me did something pretty close to that.

Let's file that one under youthful folly.

Last night, I watched some of the publicly available basic lectures for Awakeners.

The titles were dead serious.

Awakener Basic Course.

On Gates and Dungeon Interior Environments.

Safety Management During Exploration.

Return Conditions and the Existence of the Core.

A lineup a little too heavy for right before bed.

Summarized roughly: a dungeon was defined as an other-space existing inside a Gate.

That said, the government hasn't unraveled all of it either, apparently.

Enter a Gate, and some kind of environment spreads out inside.

Cave-type.

Forest-type.

Ruins-type.

Waterside-type.

Those confirmed so far are apparently joined by a few other types.

And the interior environment very likely changes depending on the number of Awakeners entering and their Level band.

Few people, and it trends shallow and simple; many people with high Levels, and enemy density and interior scale shift too.

In other words — when I first entered alone and the place was wall-to-wall Greyfish, probably that.

The dungeon had tuned itself for beginners.

Think of it that way, and it's almost considerate.

And what the videos treated as most important of all was the existence of the core.

Something core-like exists at a dungeon's deepest point, apparently,

and destroying it spawns a new Gate that serves as the exit.

So: reach the core, destroy it.

Return through the exit Gate.

That's the basic flow of a clear.

But of course, you don't push to the very depths every run.

If anything, for ordinary surveys, the standard right now is to explore up to a certain point, then retrace your path out the entry Gate.

The thing is, the inside of a dungeon is genuinely easy to get lost in.

Forest- and cave-types doubly so.

So apparently you set small GPS units near the entrance for position checks, then explore.

But isn't that wild?

GPS works by catching radio waves from artificial satellites up in space, right?

How does it get position data inside a dungeon?

The question surfaced, but this particular video didn't cover that.

It bugs me.

It bugs me like crazy.

Well — no use fixating on the mechanisms.

To sum up everything above:

the policy, apparently, is to advance surveys at each Gate, find and destroy cores where possible, and close the Gates themselves.

Naturally.

Black spheres just hovering there all over the country? Straight-up awful.

That said, forced clears aren't recommended.

The interior structure changes with headcount and Level band.

Monster types and spawn conditions aren't fully understood.

It's unknown how far the environment itself matches outside common sense.

For reasons like these, the current basics are survey, record, and explore within safe limits.

In short.

The state wants this solved fast.

But it also can't have people dying from overreach.

So — investigate, bit by bit.

Extremely realistic.

In a game, this is where the hero's party charges to the deepest floor, flattens the boss, roll credits — reality wasn't that sloppy.

Frankly, not being sloppy saved us.

If the top of Japan had been patriotism-stuffed, banzai-charge-for-the-nation types, us Awakeners would've long since marched hand in hand down the road to ruin.

"Himura-kun. We're going."

Mibu Iroha.

Before I knew it, expedition prep was complete — everyone present and ready to go.

Me included, of course.

Properly dressed in expedition gear.

It was lighter than I expected — I was shocked.

"R-right."

Looking at it again — yeah, still unpleasant.

Less "there's black in front of me," more "the space right there is missing."

I seriously went into this thing alone, huh...

"Then — we proceed."

At Takamiya's signal, Natori Saku — combat, vanguard duty — stepped into the Gate.

Then the man in charge, Takamiya Seiji.

The Enchanter, Gokō Nanami.

Me.

Behind Mibu Iroha came Rio in the rear.

Apparently this is the optimal formation for a clear.

And now, at last, the Gate loomed right before me.

The instant I touched the black, membrane-like thing, a cold sensation ran through my whole body.

Not like diving into water.

But there was a strange resistance, like breaking through a thin film into somewhere else.

And the next moment.

The ground underfoot changed.

Not hard pavement — slightly damp soil.

What reached my nose was trees and grass and post-rain humidity.

Ahead of me, a forest spread out.

"Whoa..."

It slipped out.

There's actually a forest.

I'd heard there could be stuff like this,

but actually standing in it hits completely different.

Trees to the right.

Trees to the left.

Trees up ahead too.

Looking back, the black sphere we'd entered through floated, shrunk down somewhat.

And — of all things — there's a sky.

Thin blue.

Fallen leaves underfoot.

Tree roots.

Damp soil.

Just walking, a soft give comes back up through the soles.

Completely different from when I came in alone.

That time, everything was simpler.

An open, cave-ish feel to the view, and nothing but Greyfish for enemies.

This time's different.

The forest is thick.

There seems to be a path, and there isn't.

Sightlines are bad too.

This — you could genuinely get lost.

If I came in alone, I'd probably be lost within thirty minutes, confidently.

"Checking our surroundings."

Takamiya, briefly.

The vanguard, Natori Saku, edged out ahead.

Mid-twenties, maybe?

Short hair with the sides shaved, narrow eyes, a slightly scary impression — but his movements are dead quiet.

Barely any footfall.

Makes you suspect he was one of those infiltration-type pros, somehow.

Also, he doesn't talk at all, which is kind of scary.

I get the feeling we will not be bonding.

And Takamiya a little behind him.

Positioned to see the whole team.

Nanami and I, near the center of the group.

Presumably so that everyone stays inside her Enchantment Domain range.

Mibu a little behind us.

Rio a little to her side, ambling somewhere between rear and flank.

Not a strict single-file column.

In a forest, spread too wide and you lose each other; too single-file and you react slow to the sides.

So — a slightly loose spread.

That's the meaning of the current formation, apparently.

"Hey. Nervous?"

A voice from beside me.

Gokō Nanami.

"Ah — yes. Normally so, at least."

"Mm. For a first time, that's about right. Someone weirdly used to it would be scarier."

"Is that how it is?"

"That's how it is."

Nanami smiled a little.

"You seem pretty used to it yourself, though, Gokō-san."

"Seem" nothing — when someone's strolling beside me practically humming in an insane space like this, that's genuinely the only conclusion on the table.

"Well, I've been in a few times now. Got used to it, honestly."

She says it like "not that I ever wanted to get used to it," but she's smiling easily the whole time, so I can't read her at all.

"Oh, and — I don't much like being called Gokō. Feels like there's a little distance in it, somehow."

"Um — Nanami-san, then?"

"Mm-hm. That works."

Nanami nodded, satisfied.

She's close.

The jump to first names came so fast that an ordinary, garden-variety high school boy simply ends up with a racing pulse.

But if she says so, so be it.

"Since we're here anyway, I was hoping to walk you through the Enchanter stuff as we went, but—"

Nanami said it, half sighing.

And she cast her gaze a little ways forward.

"Halt, please."

At the same time, Takamiya's voice rang low.

The whole team's feet stopped.

The air, a touch loosened until then, pulled taut in a single instant.

The brush ahead.

Deeper still, between the trees.

Something's there.

No shape visible yet.

"Contact ahead — monsters."

At Takamiya's voice, everyone shifted into combat readiness.

"Ren-kun — don't drop too far back."

Nanami said quietly from beside me.

"Huh?"

"This is the Enchanter's spot, remember?"

Before the meaning of those words could land, something moved beyond the brush.

"Watch closely now. This is what Enchanter fighting looks like."

And with that, Nanami flashed me a soft smile.