arc1 · 006-ep6

Episode 6: The Perfect-Fit Gatekeeper

Once he was through the section of standing stone pillars, the air in the passage turned dry again, if only a little.

Walking along at a steady pace, Fukazumi Iori wore a wry smile at the pouch swinging heavily against his side, jostling and thumping with every step.

――Eighty percent full really does make it a bit of a nuisance to walk with. I want to cash these in soon and travel light again.

He'd gotten a good long look at the blue crystals formed along the stratum boundary, too—today's objective was already more than thoroughly accomplished.

If he headed back up to the surface now, it would land right on dinnertime. Once the Explorer's Association counter bought up his magic stones, he could stop by the set-meal diner by the station on the way home and have himself some nice hot ginger pork. Just thinking about it lightened his steps without his meaning to.

Before long, a circular hall with a high, open ceiling came into view ahead.

It was the boundary hall linking the end of the middle layers to the "lower layer" that lay still further down.

Except, planted dead center in that hall's entrance was a squat, enormous shadow, settled solidly on its haunches.

It stood about two and a half meters tall: a hulking humanoid monster covered in rugged gray hide, with arms as thick as logs—a great rock ogre. Catching the sound of Iori's footsteps, the massive body slowly rose to its feet, snorting through its nose.

On the far side of the screen, viewers—now swollen to nearly fifteen hundred—reacted all at once.

『Whoa, there's a huge one blocking dead center of the passage!』

『That's a Rock Ogre—even alone, that thing is middle-layer gatekeeper class. The kind that blows away a vanguard even through a raised shield』

『Onee-sama, taking that thing head-on with just a single one-handed sword is far too risky, you know!』

『She hasn't fired a single flashy spell this whole time, so maybe this is where the magic ban finally lifts?』

Iori stopped just short of the hall, eyes flicking between the chest of the rising Rock Ogre and the pouch at his own hip.

――Oh, at that size, its magic stone should be about the size of a clenched fist, hmm. Which means it would slot into the last gap in my pouch just perfectly.

It had kindly planted itself right in his path, after all—so he'd take it as a final souvenir.

Without a trace of tension, Iori drew his sword and started casually forward, straight toward the long-striding Rock Ogre bearing down on him.

Letting out a low "guooh" of a roar that rumbled from the bottom of its gut, the Rock Ogre swung both loglike arms high above its head.

Its thick chest swelled, and it unleashed a magnificent, no-room-to-run overhead smash meant to grind its prey into the flagstones along with everything else. Even with the giant fist descending upon him along with wind pressure like crushed air, Iori did not back up.

Just before the fist battered through the floor's flagstones, Iori slid his body half a step to the left to slip past the direct impact, flicked the faintest thread of wind mana off the sole of his foot, and hopped lightly up onto the wrist of the Rock Ogre's thick right arm, which had buried itself in the floor—as light as a small bird alighting on a branch.

Catching the hard, craggy ridges of its rocky hide under his soles, he ran two light steps, tap-tap, up from the loglike forearm onto the upper arm.

By the time the Rock Ogre—its own arm turned into a stepping-stone—flung its face up with a wide-eyed "Gah!?", Iori was already vaulting over that massive shoulder, sweeping his one-handed sword, layered with a thin blade of wind, horizontally through without a flicker of hesitation.

The sharp edge passed clean and silent through the vitals of a neck thick as bedrock.

Right after Iori landed softly on the flagstones behind the Rock Ogre and sheathed his sword, the two-and-a-half-meter bulk listed heavily sideways and crumbled away into black mist.

Rolling on the floor was a moist, deep-green magic stone, one size larger than the rest—exactly as he'd called it.

Delighted it was precisely the size he'd hoped, he picked it up, lightly brushed the grit off its surface with a fingertip, and pushed it firmly into the final gap in his hip pouch.

He cinched the drawstring tight; the leather bag bulged fit to burst, with room for not one more pebble, and a pleasant weight settled against his hip.

Raising his head in satisfaction, Iori stepped straight on into the boundary hall.

At the far end of the hall gaped the big descending stairway down to the "lower layer", leading on into even deeper darkness. And carved into the floor right beside it was a geometric-patterned magic circle giving off a pale blue-white glow—a return spot, able to teleport him back to the vicinity of the ground-level entrance.

Would the mysterious explorer who had handled the deep-middle-layer monsters like children up to now at last take on the lower layer?

The viewers on the far side of the screen braced themselves for it—and in that very instant, Iori, without so much as a glance at the stairway down, gave his stuffed-full hip pouch a light pat.

"Yep, pouch is full too, so let's call it here for today and head back."

He murmured it through the muffled mic, then walked over to the return spot's magic circle alongside, his steps without hesitation.

At that withdrawal declaration, delivered so offhandedly, the comment feed started buzzing in every direction at once.

『Huh!? Did that fist that came smashing down just now get used as a stepping stone!?』

『In the end, since joining this stream she hasn't fired a single spell, and she just one-shot the gatekeeper with the sword alone......』

『Eh, and she's leaving without even going to the lower layer!?』

『Well, she's solo, so the lower layer's a no-go, obviously. Monster strength is a whole different dimension down there』

『I mean, the reason for heading home is "because my pouch is full"—what is she, an elementary schooler on a field trip lol』

『And anyway that hip pouch is TINY!! Load up with a proper huge rucksack already lolol』

『Onee-sama...not once, to the very end, did you favor us with even a single glance......』

『Own-pace and blank-faced start to finish, but the sword was the genuine article—guess I'll follow the channel, just in case』

Amid comments streaming down like a waterfall however they pleased, Iori, standing at the center of the return spot, poured his mana into the magic circle at his feet.

The next instant, a soft white light wrapped around his vision, and the scenery switched in a single beat.

The cool, damp underground air vanished; in its place spread a dry, bright stone-built space, the evening's western sun slanting in through high windows.

Standing on the stone floor of the return lobby built near the dungeon's surface entrance, Iori felt the outside air drifting in through the propped-open side door against his cheek.

"Mmmh...outside air really does feel good."

Iori stretched both arms out in a good long limbering, then propped the heavily weighted hip pouch up with one hand and reached for the old body camera clipped to his chest.

Without ever once checking that the concurrent viewer count on the terminal at his hip had swollen to nearly two thousand, he snapped the power switch off with a fingertip.

The little red recording lamp on the side of the unit went dark, and with a soft pop, the stream screen faded to black and ended.