ch1-ch20 · 006-ch6
Chapter 6: Dungeon Privatization
"Now then, before I head back..."
I need to do something about the goblin corpse.
Monster bodies get absorbed by the dungeon after about five minutes if there's no one around.
The etiquette is to move fully harvested monster corpses somewhere out of sight, but this spot is in the shade of a tree on the side opposite the 'First Floor Gate,' so there shouldn't be any need to move it.
And the only valuable part of a goblin is the magic stone...
Apparently, the magic stone is on the right side of the heart, at the center of the body...
"Guess I'll do it..."
...I'll spare you the details, but I flipped the goblin corpse over with my spear and dug around the heart area with the blade to extract the stone.
"Time to head back and cash in my first haul, huh?"
Dungeons appeared on Earth exactly ten years ago from today—at exactly midnight Greenwich Mean Time on January 1st.
Since Greenwich Mean Time is nine hours behind Japan Standard Time, that would be 9 AM on January 1st in Japan.
What would later be called 'Dungeon Gates'—spatial rifts resembling tears in space—simultaneously appeared in the capitals of countries all around the world.
And on the other side of these 'Dungeon Gates' was somewhere entirely different.
In response, the Japanese government immediately sealed off the surrounding area and began investigations by the Self-Defense Forces.
The shocking facts that came to light:
The other side of the gates was nowhere on Earth...
The sky was visible, but GPS didn't work, and at night the stars were unlike anything anyone had ever seen or heard of, which led to that conclusion...
The environment resembled Earth, but there was unknown vegetation and extremely vicious unknown creatures.
The Self-Defense Forces fought back against the attacking unknown creatures to protect themselves.
Examining the corpses they brought back, they discovered magic stones existed inside these unknown creatures.
These creatures in the dungeons didn't eat food.
Earth's researchers concluded that these magic stones were the power source of these unknown creatures.
And soon, technology to extract that energy was developed.
Magic stones become just ordinary stones when taken outside dungeons.
But apparently, they can generate electricity while inside dungeons, and now the world's power—including electricity on Earth outside—can't function without these magic stones, thanks to magic stone power plants built at each dungeon.
It just so happened to be a time when oil prices were rising worldwide...
Magic stone harvesting began around the world.
Even small countries had dungeons.
They could now produce domestically the electricity they'd previously relied on foreign sources for.
Countries began competing to conquer dungeons.
In Japan too, seeking more resources (magic stones), dungeon management was privatized five years ago—in other words, dungeons were opened up to the general public.
"So this is a magic stone."
I wiped it clean with a towel I'd brought that was now stained with the goblin's blue blood and examined the thumbnail-sized stone.
This size goes for 100 yen each.
In terms of power, that's about four batteries' worth.
Apparently, if you go deeper into the lower floors, there are more powerful monsters that carry larger, higher-purity magic stones.
The more energy you can extract, the higher the selling price.
That's what puts food on an adventurer's table, so to speak.
"Come to think of it, they said you always level up when you defeat your first monster, right?"
Name: Kasugano Haruki Job: [None] Lv: 2 HP: 10/20 MP: 4/20 Strength: 2 Endurance: 2 Agility: 2 Magic: 2
Skill: [Gate]
Level 2.
All my stats went up by 1.
My max HP is now 20, but my current HP is still at 10.
Apparently, it's a 'feature' that you don't recover health when you level up.
"MP went down... I used [Gate] about six times, I think? If it's one per use, then I can use MP pretty freely."
Still, I could see my [Status] without having to say it out loud.
Thinking about why Hayashi-san made us say it aloud during the briefing, she was probably just confirming that we had checked our status.
By the way, other people can't see your status.
"So no one would know about my special skill unless I told them."
That's right—other people can't learn about your special skill without your permission.
It only comes from self-reporting by the person themselves.
(End of Chapter 6)