chapter03 · 061-ep61

Episode 59: Group Dungeon Lesson

The weekend. Shinagawa First Dungeon.

A crowd had gathered around this beginner-friendly dungeon, which only went as deep as the lower layers despite being in Tokyo.

Children aspiring to become explorers who were turning fourteen this year—and parents who had come along just in case.

It was a dungeon lesson led by veteran explorers to help the children gain their first levels. The annual event, held in various places for interested students from multiple schools, had attracted a fair number of participants this time too.

(There seem to be more parents than last year. The Black Shell affair caused quite a stir; perhaps that's why.)

Mitsuki Shijou, one of the lesson's guides, surveyed the gathering and checked their numbers once more. Around fifty aspiring explorers. Close to eighty people including the parents, perhaps.

During a group dungeon lesson, they had to protect all these people while helping the children defeat monsters and gain levels. To that end, they'd assigned what might be called excessive force.

Four veteran explorers at level 900, capable of solo exploration in the lower layers, led by Mitsuki. Even if a monster horde or an enhanced variant from the lower layers showed up, let alone anything in the upper layers, they could reliably protect the participants.

Even so, most of the first-timers were nervous. So the guides began by explaining the lesson and demonstrating their strength to ease that nervousness... though some children seemed too thick-skinned to need the reassurance.

"Whoa! It's the real Mitsuki-chan! We're seriously on her stream!"

"Ugh, the mosaic is in the way! I don't mind showing my face! That automatic selection AI is so inflexible!"

A rowdy-looking group had secretly pulled out their phones and were whispering excitedly over Mitsuki's lesson stream.

(...That type tends to die young.)

Mitsuki narrowed her eyes. At level 900, her senses had picked up everything.

(I'd rather not, but perhaps I should give them a little scare later.)

With a somewhat extreme thought befitting her warrior-family upbringing, she addressed the group.

"Now then, everyone. As I explained earlier, we'll protect you inside the dungeon, but you mustn't let your guard down. Most upper-layer monsters can be beaten even by people without a level, but irregularities can occur in any dungeon. In the dim light, you might miss a pitfall leading to a lower floor. Stay alert!"

Repeating the precautions for entering a dungeon, she explained today's lesson schedule. This was a job involving other people's lives, so Mitsuki tried hard not to think of Karin as she continued instructing her juniors with a serious expression.

　　　　　　〇

"Oh? There are an awful lot of people here, aren't there?"

Karin tilted her head in puzzlement. She'd come to Shinagawa First Dungeon to stream, only to find an unusually large crowd in the construction-restricted area surrounding it.

She wondered what was happening, until—

"—as explained beforehand, today you'll fight monsters and gain your first levels. Your opponents are upper-layer monsters, but underestimate them and you could be seriously hurt. If you have concerns about the weapons distributed to you, or anything isn't working properly, don't hesitate to—"

"Is that Mitsuki-sama...? Oh, right. It's dungeon-lesson season."

Seeing Mitsuki addressing the group at the front, Karin immediately recognized the annual event.

"Come to think of it, there was a program like that. I found the whole thing rather bothersome, so I never participated and completely forgot about it. They flatly refused to let me wear a dress, too."

She remembered her teachers and guild staff looking at her like she was crazy back in middle school and felt a little dejected.

"Still, to meet Mitsuki-sama here of all places... I want to talk to her properly, but I never got her contact details. I'd like to say hello while I have the chance, but... no, I must restrain myself. She's working, and if I showed up, things might get rather rowdy."

She wasn't being conceited, but more than seven million subscribers meant she had that kind of influence. Mafuyu had only just told her to be more aware of it.

So Karin quietly erased her presence altogether.

"Lessons may overlap with my visits to other dungeons for a while. I shall have to take care."

With that, she snuck into the dungeon unnoticed by anyone but the guard. Maybe she'd find a chance to speak privately with Mitsuki-sama after her stream. Thinking that, she transformed into her dress and ojou-sama hairstyle and headed for the lower layers.

　　　　　　〇

"—Report. Subject Karin Yamada is moving deep underground at high speed. Based on her coordinates, she appears to have entered Shinagawa First Dungeon."

In a prime area of Tokyo, a matter-of-fact voice echoed through the headquarters of Black Tiger, one of the country's strongest clans.

The speaker was Toko Dodomeki, an impassive adult woman with the air of a professional. Her unique skill let her continuously pinpoint the coordinates of anyone she had marked once, even through a screen. At her report, clan master Kuroi's eyes widened.

"Well, I'll be. I never expected her to pick that place, and so soon."

He sounded genuinely astonished. But the emotion behind his words wasn't fear or alarm—it was delight at a development beyond his hopes.

"Dungeon lessons are common this time of year. I also gave things a little indirect push so more streamers would be present at them. The more eyes on this affair through their streams, the better. But to coincide with the very first day of lessons, and with that samurai girl, one of the most watched streamers of all... Between the dungeon collapse and the Black Shell affair, that girl certainly has a knack for being in the right place as a streamer."

Hard to believe she'd spent nearly a year buried among flash-in-the-pan streamers. But—

"Unfortunately for you, that extraordinary luck and those extraordinary abilities will be precisely what ruins you."

His 'intuition' warned him that Karin Yamada was a monster who might someday wreak havoc on Black Tiger's interests and position if left alone. This was the opening scene of the laborious plan to crush her. Kuroi smiled and gave the man waiting beside him the order to begin.

　　　　　　〇

"There, there, there, desu wa!"

Some time after entering Shinagawa First Dungeon, Karin had skipped the upper and middle layers and started her stream in the lower layers. With her new katana-shaped weapon, <Chupacabra>, she was chopping up monsters as they appeared.

【WHAAAAAAAA!?】

【The steel bullets, famous for being tough, are going down like BUTTER, desu waaaa!?】

【What was the point of minotaurs resisting blunt strikes and steel bullets resisting slashes...?】

【They're resistant, not immune...】

【Hit 100 resistance with 10,000 attack and of course they won't last...】

Most of Karin's targets were steel bullets: inorganic monsters resembling lumps of ore with legs. As their name suggested, their iron-hard bodies came at you like bullets. They were formidable. But though their slash resistance was often mentioned alongside minotaurs' resistance to blunt attacks, <Chupacabra> sliced them open with ease. Against a sword compressed from a hundred lower-layer drops, slash resistance might as well not exist.

"Good, good. A fine edge. These steel bullets hardly have any blood, though, so <Chupacabra>'s magical effect doesn't activate much. Its edge is starting to... Oh! A minotaur, just in time!"

"MOOH!? MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!?"

"Drink lots of blood and sharpen yourself, my dear~"

【She's using monsters with blood as whetstones lmao】

【That sword really IS a pet!?】

【Karin ojou-sama feeding and pampering Chupacabra-chan is so cute (dead eyes)】

【A barbarian beyond barbarians!】

【Chupacabra-sama: 'Gulp, gulp, desu wa! Blood is all I need to win, desu wa!'】

【A blood-dripping demon sword and a dress... How 'Elegant'! (dead eyes)】

【At this point she's basically Carmilla】

"Phew! That should do it!"

With hundreds of thousands of viewers cheering her on, Karin paused after chopping up the monsters.

"You all seem to have enjoyed yourselves, and I have enough material for a sheath for now. Let's move on to making it."

She poured the steel bullet drops she'd gathered out of her item box with a clatter and announced she would process them. She finished preparing the materials for one of today's goals—the sheath—at incredible speed.

【A sheath this time... Well, it'll probably just be sturdy】

【Isn't a sheath capable of holding THAT sword a threat all by itself...?】

【Sheath (ultra-hard blunt weapon)】

【This is the ojou-sama who killed a minotaur by hitting it with a picture frame, remember?】

【I'm terrified of what she's going to make...】

As the comments came in, Karin gathered mana to begin crafting—and then it happened.

DO—GOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!

"!? Wh-what!?"

Without warning, the entire dungeon shook. An enormous explosion sounded from the direction of the surface. The shock rolled all the way down to the lower layers like an earthquake.

【!?】

【What was that explosion!?】

【Yamada!? What have you done THIS time, Yamada!?】

【An explosion!?】

【Sounds like it came from a bit of a distance?】

【Karin ojou-sama, are you okay!?】

【An irregularity!?】

"Wh-what on earth was that...?"

Confusion swept through chat. Even Karin's eyes widened; she'd never experienced anything like it in the lower layers. She stayed alert for a moment, ready for whatever might happen—and an answer to the disturbance flooded into the comments.

【This is bad! REALLY bad!】

【Karin ojou-sama, that explosion—are you in Shinagawa First Dungeon right now!?】

【Seriously, it's bad!】

"Y-yes, this IS Shinagawa First Dungeon, but what has happened!?"

Ever since the incident with Kagerou, Karin had taken care not to reveal which dungeon she was exploring. But this didn't seem the time for that, so she answered honestly.

【I knew it!】

【Karin ojou-sama, it's dangerous there!】

【Something awful happened in the upper layers!】

【Apparently there was a blast-stone deposit and a huge explosion!】

【Dungeon walls collapsed across a massive area of the upper layers! The way to the surface is completely gone and the people on the dungeon lesson are buried alive!】

【Mitsuki-chan and the others are fighting, but it's only a matter of time before someone dies!】

【There are WAY too many monsters!】

【Rescue won't make it in time!】

【You can't just clear away collapsed dungeon walls!】

【They're too hard, and forcing them out will bring down more!】

"What...!?"

The information came in an inconsistent torrent, reflecting the chaos. Each comment made the urgency plain. Karin stood frozen, eyes wide.