chapter3 · 048-ep48

Episode 48: Personal Achievement, Unlocked

The instant I passed through the Gate, the feeling under my feet changed.

It wasn't the asphalt outside.

A slightly damp stone floor.

The outside air vanished, replaced by cold air slipping into my throat.

A smell like dirt and iron.

And the sound of water dripping somewhere.

I reflexively looked around.

Segawa wasn't there.

Aizawa-san wasn't there either.

Kanzaki wasn't there.

I couldn't see the staff in work clothes either.

"...Huh?"

The word came out normally.

No, wait.

Everyone comes out near the same entrance after passing through a Gate, right?

At least, that's how it was at the Central Park dungeon.

And yet nobody was in front of me.

All there was was a cave-like passage stretching farther in, with something like moss clinging to the walls.

The ceiling wasn't that low, but with the walls close on both sides, it felt far more oppressive than outside.

I couldn't hear voices.

No footsteps either.

Don't tell me I came out somewhere different from everyone else?

That would be seriously bad.

Going solo inside a dungeon was straight-up the number-one thing you weren't supposed to do.

Well, I did do it alone my first time.

The indiscretion of youth, you know. Yeah.

I looked behind me.

There was the Gate.

The entrance back outside.

No, the exit.

At least I knew my way home hadn't vanished, but that didn't make me feel safe at all.

Because nobody was ahead of me.

Where were Segawa and the others?

Had they already gone ahead? Or had they come out here and then gone in another direction?

I looked down at my feet.

The stone floor was lightly wet, and several footprints continued across it.

They weren't sharply stamped in mud.

But there were faint marks where shoe soles had stepped across the damp floor.

And near the edge was a thin line, as if something had been dragged.

A box or a handcart.

Maybe they had carried something through here.

"Did they just go ahead...?"

I wanted to think so.

More like, please let that be it.

And on top of that, I had another problem.

【Personal Achievement: The achiever reaches a dungeon interior】

【Conditions met】

【Personal Achievement Reward acquired】

【Observer has been unlocked】

"No, now?"

The words slipped out.

No, I knew why it was now.

I had, in fact, just reached a dungeon interior.

Looking only at the condition, I couldn't have met it more completely.

I had met it, but.

Segawa and the others weren't here.

Maybe achievements had their own circumstances too, but I had circumstances over here.

Of course, there was no point asking an achievement to read the room.

Still, the words on display had enough weight to make me want to say it.

Personal Achievement.

Achievement Reward.

Observer.

There was no way this was an ordinary reward.

More importantly, what was an Observer?

Someone who watches?

A watcher?

Did it mean someone like me, sneaking after people?

If so, that was a pretty sarcastic name, wasn't it?

Even while I thought that, the display continued.

【Observer: Interferer】

One who interferes in the flows of forces and phenomena already occurring.

【Trait: Interference Eye】

Allows the user to visually perceive the flows of forces and phenomena in progress.

【Observer Skill: Stagnation】

Stagnates the flows of forces and phenomena touched by hand.

Interferer.

One who interferes in the flows of forces and phenomena already occurring.

Just going by the wording, that sounded pretty dangerous.

What kind of word was that to get after Enchanter?

Wasn't I supposed to be the one who put enchants on allies?

No, I got that they were different roles.

Enchanter was a Job. Interferer was an Observer.

They were probably completely separate categories.

I got it.

I got it, but what the hell was this Skill?

Stagnation.

Temporarily stagnates the flows of forces and phenomena by touching them with a hand.

It sounded like I could do something to whatever I touched.

That much I understood.

But I had no clue whether it could be used for attacking, for defense, what it worked on, or how far its effects went.

"...For now, I'll try it a little."

Actually, my vision had already been a little weird for a while now.

I could see something in front of me.

It wasn't light.

It wasn't smoke.

It wasn't water either.

But it was close to a current of water.

It looked as if something thin was moving slowly through the air.

Its density differed depending on the spot.

"This is... Interference Eye?"

The display said it allowed me to see the flows of forces and phenomena in progress.

A flow of force.

Something like energy.

Maybe that was what it meant.

It might be easier to understand if I called it magic or magical power, but whether things like that were even scattered around this world was questionable.

Then again, Mibu was supposedly a Mage, so it wouldn't be strange if they were.

For now, I decided to follow the current and continue down the passage.

The passage twisted and turned.

It was closer to a maze than a cave.

There were few places where I could walk straight, and corners came right away.

After turning right and going down a little, the path split again.

For the moment, I headed toward where this visible thing was denser.

I didn't know if I should trust it.

Were these traces Segawa and the others had left?

The dungeon's own current?

Or something else?

I couldn't tell the difference at all.

But it was better than guessing my way through an empty passage.

Further on, the passage split in two again.

Right and left.

Through Interference Eye, the right side was faint while the left was a little denser.

I couldn't tell anything beyond that.

"...Then left."

Still using this mysterious visual thing—this energy density with absolutely no basis—as a clue, I went down the left passage.

The passage narrowed further.

Broken stones lay around my feet.

Every step looked like it might make a small sound, and my stride naturally grew shorter.

The farther I went, the denser the current I could see became.

I wanted to think I was getting closer to Segawa and the others.

But my feet soon stopped.

Something moved in the shadow of a rock ahead, past where the path finally opened up.

Not a person.

A black shadow in a low stance crawled across the wall.

"...!?"

I held my breath without thinking.

The current I could see through Interference Eye clung around that shadow too.

Huhhh?

Something was off here.

This water-current-like flow of energy.

I'd completely assumed it was a trail people had left, but apparently I'd been totally wrong.

The black shadow moved.

A lizard.

A black lizard as tall as a person's knees was clinging to the wall, looking this way.

Its body surface was rough like stone.

Small spines ran down its back.

A thin tongue flicked out from the corner of its mouth.

Then I heard claws scraping stone from the ceiling.

Another shadow entered my sight.

There were two black giant lizards here.

I wanted to hurry up and catch Segawa and the others, but apparently it wasn't going to be that simple.