chapter4 · 081-ep81

Episode 81: An Anomaly in the Dungeon

Two days had passed since I entered the dungeon.

"Yeah, this is a completely different experience."

The clearest change since day two started was in how the tiredness hit me.

【Battle Armor Acceleration】

【Increases movement speed during Battle Armor Form and reduces fatigue caused by movement.】

【Battle Armor Sustain】

【Reduces bodily fatigue from maintaining Battle Armor Form for long periods.】

These two, grabbed on day one, had been more useful than I expected.

Part of that was being chased around for three hours on the first day, but by the end of it, even just walking back to base camp had been a real slog.

Now I could wander around in battle armor from morning on and still have room to spare.

My movement speed had ticked up too, so the time between spotting a monster with Interference Eye+ and closing in on it was shorter than before.

"Stuff like this, I'm grateful for."

I'd come here planning to spend a whole week moving through this dungeon, so tiring out slower was a straight-up lifesaver.

On top of that, the Stagnation I'd learned on day one had gotten a lot easier to handle over these two days.

Stockpile could take not just roars and slashes, but the momentum of incoming arrows too.

Dispersion, meanwhile, wasn't limited to dumping everything in one blast like at first — I could manage spending just a little of it.

"Changing the shape is still tricky, though."

I'd aim for a thin stream and it would fan out partway through, or try to widen one and it wouldn't spread nearly as far as I wanted.

Well, mastering everything within two days of learning it would be too easy, honestly.

Even so, being able to take what an opponent gave me and spend it on a different monster was plenty useful already.

"So, my Level..."

I opened my Status while taking a break.

【Level: 22】

"Twenty-two."

I'd been sixteen when I entered the dungeon.

Six levels in two days.

"That's a solid climb."

Maybe it was only natural with this many kills behind me, but seeing it in numbers still felt good.

My body moved clearly differently from day one, and I figured a big part of that wasn't just battle armor — my base physical abilities themselves had gone up.

"How's the kill count looking?"

I pulled up the achievement list.

【S: Defeat 1000 monsters during a single dungeon clear without using a combat Skill even once】

【In progress: 203/1000】

"Two hundred and three, huh."

More than I'd expected.

But.

"Seven hundred ninety-seven to go?"

Laid out in numbers, it looked far.

A little over two hundred in two days.

At this pace, even a full week wouldn't get me to a thousand.

"Yeah, this is pretty unreasonable, isn't it?"

And lately, something had been nagging at me.

I spread my awareness outward with Interference Eye+.

"...They really are thinning out."

The monsters within my current range barely reached a handful.

Early on day two, even when none were close, widening the range a little always turned up several.

Kill those, look for the next.

That loop had carried almost the entire hunt.

But today, finding the next one was starting to take longer.

"Is the count just dropping by however many I kill?"

It was a dungeon, so I'd assumed they'd come back on their own eventually.

I had no idea how the mechanism actually worked, but the two hundred I'd felled over these two days definitely didn't look like they'd all come back.

"A dungeon that puts out a kill-a-thousand Achievement ought to have at least a thousand in it, I figured..."

They might be packed into areas I hadn't visited yet.

Interference Eye+ couldn't see the entire dungeon at once, after all.

"Well, might as well start with whatever's nearby."

No point standing here thinking.

There were still signatures close by.

Just as I moved to head toward one, a display suddenly popped up in front of me.

【Battle Armor Proficiency has reached 5】

"Oh?"

I stopped walking.

"Five already?"

I'd been in battle armor nearly nonstop except when sleeping, so some progress was expected.

Still, seeing the actual number felt nice.

【Proficiency Level Reward will be granted】

"There it is."

Proficiency five.

What would I get?

【Enchant Swap Acquired】

"Enchant Swap?"

From the name alone, it looked like an ability for switching enchants around.

I opened the description right away.

【Enchant Swap】

【Allows you to change the configuration of your fixed Ability Grants without canceling Battle Armor Form】

"...Wait. This—"

The moment I read it, that three-hour escape on day one flashed through my head.

"This is exactly what I wanted so bad!"

Back then I'd known I could run easier by leaning harder into Agility, but changing my enchants meant canceling Battle Armor Form first.

The six-hour Achievement was progressing too, so in the end I'd had no choice but to flee on that original setup.

"And now I can change it?"

Without even canceling the form.

"Yeah, obviously I'm testing this."

Right now I had one enchant each fixed into Strength, Agility, and Endurance.

To start, I focused on the share going into Strength, intending to move it to Agility.

"Enchant Swap."

Battle Armor Form itself hadn't vanished.

But the feeling of what lay over my body had changed.

"Oh — it really did change."

I tried a short run.

"Whoa, light—!"

My body surged forward more easily than before.

Then what if I leaned everything, Endurance included, into Agility?

"Enchant Swap."

All three into Agility this time.

I'd barely kicked off the ground, yet my body carried far past where I'd expected.

"Fast—!"

I scrambled to a stop.

"Oh, this is fun."

Next, everything into Strength.

The lightness from the run was gone, but I could feel the power gathering inside my body immediately.

"Which means I can do this mid-fight too, right?"

If so, that changed my whole approach.

Agility when closing in.

Strength right before striking.

And if an attack I couldn't dodge was coming, maybe I could shift into Endurance just for that instant.

"I wanna try that."

There happened to be a monster signature nearby.

"Okay, let's go."

I put all three back into Agility and headed for the signature in view through Interference Eye+.

Clearly faster than before.

"Oh, this is nice!"

Part of me still wished I'd had this on day one, but I'd have it from now on, so that was plenty.

A little ahead, a sword-wielding armored Greyfish waited in the passage.

"Let's test it on you."

It noticed me and raised its sword.

Normally this was the range where it would fire off a slash, but right now all three of my enchants sat in Agility.

I kept running straight in to see how close I could get.

"Whoa—"

Faster than even I expected.

By the time the armored Greyfish started its swing, the gap had already shrunk to almost nothing.

"Swap here!"

The enchants leaning into Agility moved into Strength.

"Enchant Swap!"

In an instant, the feel of my body changed.

Onto the frame that had gone light for speed, power meant for punching settled in.

"Ohh!"

I plunged in and swung a fist through with the full momentum behind it.

The armored Greyfish's body sailed backward, and the moment it hit the ground rolling, it dissolved into light.

"It worked!"

Exactly as I'd imagined.

Lean into Agility to close the gap, switch to Strength right before the punch.

Until now I'd had to fight on whatever setup I fixed at the start — now I could change it on the fly.

"This is crazy good!"

Then I wanted to try leaning into Endurance only for the instant before taking a hit.

I searched for the next one with Interference Eye+.

"There."

One a short distance away.

This time I went in with two in Agility and one in Strength.

"Even this setup's plenty fast."

Not quite like having all three in Agility, but easier to handle than the all-Strength run.

What I found was one of the beast-like monsters I'd fought several times.

It spotted me, lowered its body, and lunged.

"Perfect timing."

Dodging alone wouldn't be hard.

But this time I wanted to test Enchant Swap.

Right before impact, I moved the Agility share into Endurance.

"Enchant Swap."

I took it on both arms.

"Ngh—!"

Heavy.

The momentum shoved me back a step.

But it was far lighter than what I'd imagined watching that charge before.

"It really does change things!"

Then Strength next.

The share sitting in Endurance moved straight over.

"Enchant Swap!"

I closed the distance before the shoved-back beast could turn around again.

My fist, easier to load with power than before, sank into its body, and the beast went flying sideways.

"Man, this is fun!"

Even I could tell I was getting a little worked up.

Battle armor had always been a use-what-you-fixed-at-the-start deal.

With Enchant Swap, I could adapt it to the opponent and the moment.

"Two Agility and one Strength handles nicely too, and going all-Strength on a punch must hit way harder."

There might even be moments for all-Endurance.

Just theorizing over which combination was best made me want to test everything.

"If five gets me this, maybe there's something waiting at ten?"

I'd only just hit five and I was already curious about what came after.

"Well, that's a treat for when I actually get there."

For now, I wanted to put my shiny new Enchant Swap through its paces.

I looked for the remaining monsters.

Heading for the nearby signatures in view, I practiced changing configurations mid-run, and tested the timing for shifting into Endurance while reading an opponent's movements.

At first it took a flick of conscious focus to swap, but a few uses in, the feel of it started coming.

"Once I get the hang of this, it'll be seriously useful."

Which combination next?

I was pondering that as I widened Interference Eye+ when it finally hit me that something was off.

"...Huh?"

No signatures nearby.

I widened the range a little.

"Nothing?"

I looked a little farther.

Still nothing.

"Huh?"

I swept a different direction.

There should have been at least a handful left just moments ago — even those signatures were gone.

"Right, I just killed that one."

Fair. Obviously.

Was there anyone else?

I stretched the range further.

"......Seriously?"

Nothing.

For days now, Interference Eye+ had always shown monster Magic somewhere.

Today had been sparse, sure, but a little searching had always turned something up.

Now there was genuinely not one signature in view.

"Did I actually clear them all out?"

Could that even happen?

My kill count wasn't even at two hundred yet.

"Then how am I supposed to get my thousand?"

The Achievement was on the board, so I'd assumed the dungeon was set up so it could be done.

But with no opponents, there was nothing to be done.

"Do they respawn after some time, or...?"

I only had a week; burning days waiting for respawns was not an option.

"...Okay. What now."

I checked again with Interference Eye+.

Still nothing.

"Genuinely zero, huh."

And right after I'd learned Enchant Swap and been thrilled about all the testing ahead.

"Do you even intend to let me get this thousand-kill Achievement?"

That was when the ground under my feet trembled, faintly.

"Hm?"

At first I thought I'd imagined it.

But it came again right away.

Stronger this time.

"Huh?"

And not just under my feet.

The rock walls around me had started groaning too.

"What?"

An earthquake?

In here?

That was when a huge crack split the rock wall in front of me.

"Hah?"

The place that had been a plain wall seconds ago crumbled away, and open space showed beyond it.

"No, no, no!"

I hurriedly swept my surroundings with Interference Eye+.

"...Huh?"

The very shape of the dungeon I held in my head had begun to change.

Dead ends were opening up at their far ends, linking into new paths.

Corridors I'd just walked were bulging shut with rock, and below them, spaces that had never existed were spreading open.

"What is this!?"

And it wasn't just the paths changing.

The Magic flowing through the dungeon had started moving in a big way too.

"Hold on a second—!"

Into spots where nothing had existed moments ago, other Magic was now gathering.

One signature appeared, then another near it.

Then more, deeper in.

"Huh?"

Seconds ago, there had truly been nothing there.

Within Interference Eye+, the signatures were multiplying by the moment.

"No, seriously, what is going on!?"

The ground was still shaking.

The routes I'd memorized were already almost unrecognizable.

Bracing myself as best I could, I watched the dungeon transform around me.

"What the hell is going on!?"