ch361-ch380 · 365-ch365

Chapter 365: Trembling to Get into the Dungeon

January 4th.

The dungeons at every branch, closed for fear of the old dungeons vanishing with the new dungeons' appearance, open again starting today.

This morning's news said almost all of the new dungeons have been found.

Fuyumi-san was on the live morning broadcast, looking tense.

(This used to be all Kuwashima-san's work, but I suppose they'll split it from here on.)

Still, it's not all good news where the new dungeons are concerned.

The matter of those foreigners intruding into the new dungeons, you see.

Only three cases were caught nationwide, apparently.

Guns and drugs came out of it, and it turned into a bigger deal than expected.

That was on this morning too—footage of Mizuki's father being interviewed.

A 'new Dungeon Gate' appeared at his home and his daughter was put in danger, and so on.

There was plenty more about the rights to the land where 'new Dungeon Gates' appeared, too.

Some people are rightly troubled at suddenly being told to hand over land that's been in the family for generations, and then there's talk of how if a branch opens nearby, public safety will suffer, and so on.

Well, that's unavoidable given the rumors about the B-grade license—the one for minor offenders—and dungeons.

Then there's the SDF coming and going, and how if something like a base goes up nearby, it becomes a target for attacks or terrorism from other countries.

(Inside a dungeon you're cut off from the weather outside and earthquakes alike, so if anything it seems like it'd make a good shelter.)

And so the negotiations over dungeon land are going nowhere, apparently.

Some of them are surely digging in their heels just to drive the price up.

Fuyumi-san was run ragged by those kinds of questions.

Fortunately, no news has aired linking me or Soushi to the Mizuki's-house matter, and nothing's been said online either.

Online, the one who caught the culprits is apparently a masked hero.

(A mask? There's no such fella......)

No—if I'd known from the start that something like this was going to happen, I could have prepared a mask too and slipped away before the police arrived.

That goddess never tells me the useful parts......

Should I prepare a ninja costume for next time, just in case something like this happens again?

'Spring Shadow the Ninja''s debut may be near.

(Come to think of it—maybe that should be my epithet?)

Domestically, things look to settle down where the new dungeons are concerned, but overseas, not so much.

The land disputes are an even bigger problem than in Japan—people have actually died over the rights.

And in worse straits than any of that is America.

The number of dungeons added this time was a mere ten.

And every one of those ten is in an exclave like Hawaii or Alaska.

America's central states never had dungeons to begin with.

The cause: nuclear tests conducted inside dungeons, which cost them 'Dungeon Gates' across a considerable swath of territory.

So aside from the dungeons the military occupies, only a handful remain on the east and west coasts.

With the adventurers concentrated there, no dungeons vanished this time at all, apparently.

Zero dungeons vanished, so the number added in the American mainland is zero as well.

Well—four years ago, foreign agents and the like, mafia included, seized 'Dungeon Gates,' and by the mainland's count alone they went negative.

(Better than back then, I'd say?)

There were rumors that the dungeons lost to those nuclear tests might come back this time, but no such luck.

The whole world's internet is wall-to-wall new-dungeon talk, and America's been left behind.

Japan's new-dungeon surveys start today, but overseas plenty of countries can already enter.

Can enter—or rather, countries where an adventurer's Association functions fully, like Japan's, are the minority.

Many do nothing but buyback and policing of incidents like murder.

At any rate, the video sites are already flooded with new-dungeon footage.

And the hot topic among them: a dungeon where a huge tree is visible in the distance.

In the distance—meaning beyond the dungeon's invisible wall.

A huge tree that exists only as scenery, somewhere you can never reach.

(A huge tree......)

As for how big—eyeballing it, over a thousand meters.

A tree that big has people clamoring that it has to be a World Tree.

It's been witnessed at the new dungeons all over the world.

Even at the fastest-conquering spots, they've gotten no further than Floor 20 at most.

And yet from Floor 11 onward, that huge tree—visible from Floor 1—is apparently unmistakably closer.

The talk is that past Floor 30, it might be INSIDE the dungeon's walls.

A World Tree whose leaves have healing effects is a fantasy staple.

Or the ingredient for an elixir that revives the dead, or something that lets you brew a panacea......

The dreams just keep expanding.

(Not that I get to go to any new dungeon.)

Which brings me to my home sweet home.

The Chiba branch, that is.

Right now I'm in line waiting for the 9 AM opening.

From the look of it, though, I don't see a single adventurer planning to dive today.

They're all shop staff from the Floor 1 shops, I'd say.

The shops get to open for about a week first.

I wonder if they can reopen today?

"Hey—the news was doing a whole segment on Saori's house. Did Kasumi-san say anything to you?"

Mixed in among those shop staff are me and Aikawa.

Soushi's still down with his cold.

Aikawa's apparently going to visit him once she's dropped off her change of clothes and a week's worth of luggage.

"No, nothing in particular. She didn't say anything last night on the phone either."

She knows I entered the new dungeon to help a classmate; all she said was 'please don't overdo it.'

Well, that's trust for you—inside a dungeon, there's no way I'd come out second.

"Really? She's got to have seen the news. Honestly, that's the scary part...... Ah, speak of the—!"

Kasumi-san was just coming out of the dungeon.

"Effective now, the Chiba branch dungeon is open! Everyone, please enter calmly and in order!"

We've been on the phone every day, but actually meeting—that's the first time in four days, I think?

And a week since I last entered the Chiba dungeon.

I haven't gone any deeper, right?

I don't think I've advanced in two months.

Hyahhah! Dungeon, here I come—!