chapter02 · 056-ep50
Episode 50: Floor 150
Past Floor 146, it was raining.
Inside a dungeon, no less — rain.
From somewhere far beyond the ceiling, a fine drizzle came pouring down onto the black paddies. Across the water, ripples spread, dot by dot.
"Whoa — rain? Seriously?"
Skoll gave his whole body a shake. Spray flew off the golden coat.
Through the rain, I moved along beside Skoll, hanging in the air. Me, I ran, throwing up splashes, from one small earthen island to the next.
Floor 147. Floor 148.
The rain kept getting harder.
Almost no monsters came out.
Less "didn't come out" than "avoiding something," it seemed. Now and then I caught small shadows fleeing through the water — every one of them moving away from the floors below.
On Floor 149, the rain turned into a downpour.
The view hazed over white.
The sound rising from the bottom of the stairs had grown unmistakably louder.
Gohh, gohh.
Water, winding into one enormous whirlpool.
"Skoll."
Skoll was pressed tight against my side. Any other day he'd be racing ahead — right now he wouldn't take a single step out front.
But his tail swayed, slow.
Not scared.
Waiting. For me to say go.
"All right. Let's go."
Down the stairs.
Floor 150 was a lake.
Not paddies. No levee paths, no rice.
Black water stretched as far as the eye could reach. The ceiling hung too high to see, and from it the downpour went on and on.
At the lake's center, the water turned in one enormous whirlpool.
Gohh, gohh, gohh.
Out of that whirlpool's heart, something rose, slow.
A head.
Flattened, and absurdly huge. Black, slick skin packed solid with warts — and on every one of those warts, a tiny puddle had pooled. Raindrops ran streaming down the slick hide.
The pouch below its throat swelled — bwuh — slow.
That alone lifted the lake. The pushed-out wave rolled in to where I stood on the shore, and cold water seeped into my shoes.
The head alone stood about three stories of a building high.
The rest of the body was still underwater.
Rain-Calling Great Toad Difficulty: D (higher · deepest-floor boss)
"A toad?"
The Great Toad. From the old tales — a frog grown as big as a monster, said to call the rain.
Well, of course. A dungeon of paddies crawling with frogs — of course the one waiting at the very bottom is the frogs' big boss.
The Great Toad's eyes turned this way.
Golden pupils, long and horizontal.
My breath caught.
Huge.
Strong.
And then—
"Whoa. That's cool."
It came out of my mouth on its own.
Skoll barked — wan. Apparently in agreement.
The Great Toad opened its mouth.
Deep in its throat, water gurgled — gobo, gobo.
Water came spewing out.
Not just water. A torrent like a waterfall knocked over onto its side.
"—!"
I leapt sideways. Skoll caught me by the collar and hauled me up into the air.
The spot I'd been standing on was scoured clean by the rushing water. A doonn of sound rang through to the pit of my stomach, and the thrown-up spray lashed my face right along with the rain.
"That saved me!"
In midair, I clung to Skoll's neck.
Skoll, me on his back, began circling the Great Toad.
I drew the string.
Loosed a lightning arrow at the Great Toad's head.
The arrow struck the black skin.
Bzzt — it flashed.
No effect.
The lightning ran along the surface of the skin and slipped away into the lake.
"You're immune to lightning too?!"
The Great Toad's head turned toward us, slow.
Its mouth opened again.
Over the lake, Skoll and I ran for our lives.
The torrent comes. Skoll leaps right. A pillar of water roars past our flank — the wind pressure alone nearly peeled me off his back.
I grabbed the golden fur again with both hands.
The second shot came from the left.
The third aimed for where Skoll was about to land.
It's reading us.
Skoll twisted in midair and dove under the water pillar. The pillar's belly grazed right over my head. My ears filled up with the roar.
Huge as it was, its aim was dead-on.
Fleeing, I shot. Forehead. Back. The base of a foreleg.
Wherever it hit, the same. A bzzt of light, and the lightning died into the lake.
So I aimed for the mouth.
The open mouth, mid-torrent.
The lightning arrow was swallowed by the water pillar before it ever reached it. One blue flicker inside the white water — then it was shoved downstream and scattered into the lake.
Mid-spit: no good.
Switch over to Nameless, like with the eel?
One moment's thought, and I dropped it. The head alone is three stories. Drive a katana in, and all I'd do is shave off one wart. Inside that torrent, I couldn't even get close enough for the katana to reach.
The bow, then. Nothing else.
And lightning doesn't work on it.
—No.
It worked on the herons.
Their armor was far harder than this skin. It worked anyway, because the lightning got in through the gaps in the armor.
Hitting it from outside — that's what's wrong.
I need to shoot it inside.
Gaps, in that body—
There's one.
The mouth.
When the Great Toad spits water, it opens its mouth wide. Just that one instant, and the way into its body stands open.
But mid-spit, the torrent washes my arrows aside — like a second ago.
Before it spits, then. Or after.
Right after.
The instant between the torrent ending and the mouth closing.
"Skoll!"
Skoll looked at my face.
"Circle around to its front for me. As close as we can get!"
Skoll wavered — just for an instant.
Its front is the most dangerous place there is. Square in the path of the torrent.
Even so.
Skoll barked — wan — one short note, and ran for the Great Toad's front.
The Great Toad's front.
Those golden eyes fixed dead on us.
The mouth opens.
I could see the water spiraling deep in its throat.
"—Skoll, up!"
The instant the torrent burst out, Skoll leapt straight up.
Too late.
The pillar's edge raked Skoll's hind legs.
The golden body spun, whirling. Up and down lost all meaning. Finger by finger, my grip on his fur came loose.
The black lake surface rushed up, right there.
Falling.
A hair before impact, Skoll kicked the sky.
He righted himself a whisper above the water and skimmed across the surface like he was sliding on it. The tips of my shoes slit the water — basha.
By the time I looked back, the Great Toad's mouth had already closed.
Didn't make it.
Skoll gave himself a shake. The fur on his hind legs was plastered down flat, soaked.
"Skoll, you okay?"
In place of an answer, a low growl came back.
He was glaring dead ahead at the Great Toad.
His tail whipped — once.
Saying: still good to go.
My heart was loud.
We'd nearly fallen, but that wasn't fear making it pound. We'd been this close. Next time, it reaches.
I caught myself grinning.
"Once more. This time, we jump sooner."
Skoll sank low.
This time, no hesitation.
Straight for its front.
Those golden eyes fix on us again.
The mouth opens.
The water begins to spiral deep in its throat.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Before I could say it, Skoll had already jumped.
A hair sooner than the torrent burst out. Straight up.
The water rushed away directly beneath us. Rain and spray whited out my whole view.
And still, I saw it.
The Great Toad's mouth — the torrent spent — still, open.
Inside the mouth. The red-black depths of its throat.
Not outside the skin. That far place is inside its body.
I drew the string.
The hardest draw of the day.
Lightning raced down the string. Crackling — the numbness crawled up to my arm. The lightning arrow swelled thicker than it had ever been.
I leaned out over Skoll's back.
"—Pierceeeeeee!!"
Loosed.
The lightning arrow dove straight down into the Great Toad's open mouth.
For an instant, nothing happened.
Then—
Deep in the Great Toad's throat, a pale-blue glow.
The light lit the throat pouch from inside and raced to every last wart.
The Great Toad's whole body lit up from within.
The Great Toad raised a voice that wasn't a voice.
The enormous head sank, slow, into the lake.
The spray climbed all the way to the ceiling.
The rain stopped.
Stillness came back to the lake.
The Great Toad's body crumbled away into grains of light.
The black water shifted, bit by bit, into a clear blue.
The dark of the ceiling broke apart, and thin light came slanting through.
At the center of the lake, a single magic core floated.
Skoll came down slow, me still on his back. He scooped the magic core up in his jaws and set it, gently, in my palm.
A magic core glowing a clear blue.
In my hand, faintly cool.
The fingertips of my right string hand still had about half their feeling.
"We won......"
My voice was shaking.
"We won, Skoll!"
Out over the lake, Skoll howled — awooon — long, and long.
That voice went on ringing over the clear water, and kept ringing.
On the lake's shore, the transfer circle glowed.
I slid off Skoll's back and stepped into the light.
Held my Guild card over it.
Toda dungeon, Floor 150 — transfer circle registered
"One-fifty."
The designated dungeon, Toda.
Deepest floor — Floor 150.
The floor condition for C-rank.
Fulfilled.
"YESSSSSSS!!"
Out over the lake, I shouted with everything I had.
Skoll howled along.
Two voices' worth rang out over the clear lake.
Lv: 157 → Lv: 160
The Great Toad's XP had sent my level up in one jump, too.
Before sending Skoll back, we sat side by side on the lake's shore.
I broke the last rice ball in half.
Half for Skoll. Half for me.
Skoll ate his in one bite. Then stared, hard, at my remaining half.
"This one's mine."
Skoll wilted.
"Aagh, fine, I get it—"
In the end, I gave him the other half too.
Skoll, satisfied, laid his head on my knee.
I stroked the golden fur. Still a little damp — it smelled of a futon dried in the sun, and of rain.
"Skoll."
His ear twitched — piku.
"Thanks for today. Without you, I'd never have made it this far."
His tail wagged — patan — just once.
"Next time, you swap out for Hati."
Skoll's ears froze.
He raised his head and fixed me with a flat, unblinking stare.
"No, look — I can only call one of you at a time. It's turns. Purely turns."
Skoll snorted through his nose — hmph — and laid his head back on my knee.
He wasn't sulking. Probably.
At my feet, a magic circle rose.
Light climbed Skoll's golden legs, slow.
To the very end, Skoll kept his head on my knee.
Just before he vanished, one broad lick across my hand — just once.
Via the Floor 150 transfer circle, back to the surface.
Outside, it was late afternoon. Still light.
At the field office window, I cashed in my drops.
When I set out the Great Toad's magic core, the staffer's hands stopped.
"......This is—"
"It's the magic core of the Floor 150 boss."
"......150."
The staffer gazed at the core for a while.
Then, slowly, raised their head.
"......Congratulations. Arrival at the designated dungeon's deepest floor — confirmed."
"Thank you very much. I finally got here."
"......It's only been about ten days since your first visit during Golden Week, hasn't it."
"Yes. It was just too much fun — I couldn't help it."
"......"
The staffer started to say something, and stopped.
Instead, they smiled, just a little.
"Really — congratulations."
Walking the one paddy-flanked road to the station, I opened the screen on my Guild card.
The cash-in history.
And then, the number at the very bottom.
Cumulative taxes paid: 9,516,000 yen
"9.51 million, huh."
The C-rank condition is 10 million.
484,000 yen to go.
"Almost there!"
It came out on its own.
The Great Toad's core plus the deep-floor drops from 126 on had stacked up more than 2 million in one surge.
Next weekend is the last one before the tests. Sunday's for studying. But if I run Toda's deep floors on Saturday, that's probably enough to close the gap.
No, wait.
Next weekend is right on the eve of the tests. The moment that Monday comes, they begin.
Big sis's face floated up in my mind.
"I'll do it after the tests."
I muttered, and smiled, just a little.
A little more, and C-rank.
But there's no need to rush. One floor at a time, steady.
Dungeons, and tests, both.
In the paddies, the frogs were croaking — near deafening.
The sunset had dyed the paddies scarlet.
Today, the water of Toda — right at the very end — ran just a little clear and blue.