arc4 · 066-ch66

Episode 66: Dungeon Sleepover

The rustling of leaves in the wind was mixed with the sound of clashing blades, echoing through the surroundings.

Darkness covered the area. District 4, which is a forest area, has branches and leaves stretching overhead that block sunlight and create shade. During the day, it wasn't dark enough to worry about, but by evening, the darkness increased dramatically, and the surroundings were rapidly enveloped in night.

And now. Suzuka was fighting a monster in an environment that could almost be called pitch black.

"Whew, that was close!!"

Suzuka narrowly avoided a sickle swung as if to cut off his arm, and counterattacked with a returning sword stroke, but it was deflected by the other sickle.

The sickle reflected the faint moonlight. If it were complete darkness, Suzuka would have already been sliced to pieces.

Thin-Blade Mantis: Level 57

This is one of the strongest enemies in the shallow areas of District 4, competing for 1st or 2nd place. Fighting this guy allowed Suzuka's swordsmanship skill to grow and reach level 5.

The Thin-Blade Mantis, which skillfully wields two gray sickles, cannot be easily defeated even by Suzuka.

Thanks to Evasion, Thought Acceleration, and swordsmanship skills, he's somehow managing to keep up, but it's the kind of monster he can only dodge if there's one at a time.

Yet even though the Thin-Blade Mantis was in an environment surrounded by darkness, it launched high-speed sickle attacks looking no different from daytime. Meanwhile, Suzuka, who relied entirely on vision, was at his limit just fending off sharp slashes.

He somehow managed to avoid by the skin of his teeth with the Evasion skill, but it wasn't that he was deliberately making it close—he was evading with all his might and still ending up close. It was a desperate situation where he could be cut open at any moment.

He knew dungeons had nights. But the darkness came faster than expected, and he had misjudged the darkness of the forest area. In this place where even the moonlight was blocked by trees and didn't reach satisfactorily, he couldn't properly see the Thin-Blade Mantis's attacks.

Even when twilight fell and darkness filled the surroundings, Suzuka didn't stop exploring. He wanted to explore until the last moment since he was staying in the dungeon overnight anyway, and he thought it might be good training for fighting in dark places.

Continuing exploration with such light thinking, he was now being cornered by a formidable enemy, the Thin-Blade Mantis.

"Dammit!! This guy is way too fast!!"

He wrapped a water blade around his sword and swung in a diagonal slash, but the Thin-Blade Mantis nimbly dodged. Their attacks were hard to see, while his attacks were easily avoided. A fierce battle continued.

Suddenly, a conversation with Yasu flashed through his mind.

(You're exploring District 4? Are you stupid? There the monsters are strong but the growth rate is bad and it's inefficient, so even the top guilds have stopped exploring—didn't you know?)

(I know, I know. But that's a weak person's thinking. Strength lies beyond efficiency, Yasu-kun.)

(Who's Yasu-kun? Seriously, District 4 is dangerous, so be careful.)

(It's fine, it's fine. Everyone overthinks things. Exploring with a light vibe makes things go better, you know.)

And the result of that light vibe is now. He wanted to punch his past self.

But this is precisely the kind of situation where people grow. Rather, this is a chance. It's a chance. If he holds his ground here, the dungeon should smile upon him.

Believing that, Suzuka poured mana into 'Calm Short Sword.' He also circulated mana throughout his entire body for body reinforcement, and through mana control, he kept the mana leakage to a minimum.

The Thin-Blade Mantis's attacks were gradually increasing in sharpness, so he judged that time was on the opponent's side.

No holding back. Take it down before it can respond!!

As the sickle came swinging down, Suzuka swung his short sword. Until just now, Suzuka had only been deflecting sideways, but with the mana-enhanced power he had now, he could deflect it head-on.

Returned with stronger force than before, the Thin-Blade Mantis made an unpleasant sound—you couldn't really call it a cry. The other sickle was immediately swung, as if daring him to try to deflect it with the mana-infused sickle. Without even engaging with it, Suzuka dodged by crouching and fired a water blade toward the abdomen, which had a relatively soft outer shell.

Until now, the Thin-Blade Mantis would have avoided the water blade. However, wary of having its attack strongly deflected earlier, it had put too much force into the swinging sickle, so it couldn't dodge instantly.

The water blade hit directly on the Thin-Blade Mantis's abdomen, which couldn't defend in time. But despite being a direct hit, it only lightly scratched the surface and pushed it back a little. It seems the water blade Suzuka fires still can't wound District 4 monsters, including Speckled Spiders.

But the Thin-Blade Mantis slowed its movements as if paralyzed.

"Hah!! One shot!! Because you took attacks so easily just because they didn't work, you idiot!!"

Thanks to Suzuka's poison magic, he succeeded in putting the Thin-Blade Mantis in a paralyzed state. Paralysis and poison sometimes require multiple hits to take effect, but this time it was a random magic that could cause status abnormalities with a single hit.

He heard that the probability increases if there's a difference in ability or if the skill level rises, but since Suzuka's level 1 meant he thought he'd need at least 10 hits, having paralysis occur with just one hit left him feeling like he'd dodged a bullet.

Suzuka's poison magic is at skill level 1, so it can only grant poison or paralysis effects to weapons. However, the water blade released from 'Calm Short Sword' is a weapon effect, and he discovered that the granted poison magic also rides on the water blade. The paralyzed water blade that directly wounds and invades internally only ended up lightly scratching the Thin-Blade Mantis's surface, but it properly invaded inside and exerted its effect.

Not enough to completely stop movement, but the Thin-Blade Mantis's movements clearly slowed. No matter how hard the outer shell was, it couldn't take Suzuka's all-out attack without injury.

"Taking attacks with a light vibe is how you get screwed!!"

When the Thin-Blade Mantis tried to open its wings and create some distance, Suzuka instantly closed in and slashed with 'Calm Short Sword' wrapped in a thin water blade. He wouldn't give it time to recover from paralysis. He'd take it down here.

The Thin-Blade Mantis staggered backward and swung its sickle in desperation. But there was no way the sickle swung while jumping could be infused with full power. When Suzuka infused mana and intercepted the sickle, it was deflected high, exposing a large opening.

'Nagi's Short Sword,' flowing as it was swung, was sucked into the Thin-Blade Mantis's neck, and with an expressionless face that made it impossible to know what it was thinking, the Thin-Blade Mantis's head flew through the air. The Thin-Blade Mantis that lost its head turned into a large amount of smoke and was sucked into Suzuka.

"Ooooh! A treasure chest!! Nice!!"

After the Thin-Blade Mantis's smoke was sucked into Suzuka, a single wooden treasure chest had fallen there. Treasure chests don't just fall in areas; they also sometimes appear separately from dropped items after defeating monsters like this.

There's no difference in the items that come out, but weapons and armor dropped from monster treasure chests have that monster's design applied, and unified items like the Gale Rabbit and Green-Yellow Wolf sets appear.

Suzuka immediately opened the treasure chest, smoke was sucked in, and at the same time, the box disappeared too.

"I wonder what'll come out... wait, 'Ingredients (Fish)'!!"

However, what came out was just an ingredient item. It's not that he's unhappy, but for a treasure chest that appeared from a monster he defeated, he wanted a weapon or armor.

"Damn it. Not yet. I still have skills left!"

The battle with the previous Thin-Blade Mantis was a close call. The more a skill is pushed to its limits, the more its growth is stimulated. In that case, having won a battle in darkness where a single mistake could have caused serious injury, it wouldn't be strange if one or two skills had grown.

Thinking that, he displayed his status, but neither his level nor his skill levels had gone up.

"Hah!? Seriously? I thought I did pretty well..."

Suzuka was depressed that his hard work didn't pay off. Since he had been able to grow effortlessly in the dungeon until now, the slowdown here felt even more prominent.

"Sigh. Can't be helped. Guess I'll go back."

And so, in the darkness, Suzuka returned to the boundary with District 3.

◇

"Finally... got out..."

At the point where he crossed the boundary between District 3 and District 4, Suzuka collapsed onto the ground as if crumbling. Exhaustion and hunger had pushed Suzuka to his limit.

"I shouldn't have... fought monsters like that."

After fighting the Thin-Blade Mantis, he had been fighting monsters he found as well. He thought fighting in the dark might awaken his skills, so while he didn't actively search for them, he deliberately didn't avoid them either.

As a result, it was now well past 20:00. Having moved around until this time without having had dinner yet, his body was craving nutrition and a riot was breaking out in his stomach.

"...Yeah. Anyway, move. I'm moving. Do your best, me."

Somehow encouraging himself, he stood up and began preparing for camp.

What he took out of storage was 'Sekitori's Paulownia Trunk.' It's about the size of a wardrobe case, an excellent item that can hold its contents while stored inside storage.

What he took out of that was a folding chair. It's the type of chair used in camping where the height and angle can be adjusted by how the legs are opened. It's expensive, but he liked this one because of its sturdy construction, compactness when folded, and above all, if the angle is set deep enough, it's almost like lying on one's back.

Since he couldn't bring a tent due to storage constraints, he intended to use this chair as a bed.

"It'd be nice if the carry bag the chair is in could serve as an ottoman. That's awesome stuff."

Thanks to the dungeon, outdoor goods sell to explorers, so product development had progressed like during the camping boom of the corona era, and products he had seen in his previous world were already on sale.

Suzuka set up the chair, then prepared a fire desk. He placed the fire desk near the chair and took firewood out of the backpack on his back.

Yes. Suzuka had brought firewood to the dungeon because he wanted to have a campfire. That's why he carried this large backpack and fought all day.

The backpack only had firewood inside, and if he had endured without firewood, Suzuka, who has 'Sekitori's Paulownia Trunk,' wouldn't have carried such a large load. However, in camping, a campfire is absolutely essential. Having one or not makes a huge difference in satisfaction with camping.

Originally, it's like he's camping just to have a campfire. If he's not going to have a campfire, he should just go straight home and sleep in his own bed.

After finishing taking firewood out of the backpack, he arranged it on the fire desk. Right nearby is District 4, so trees are growing thick, but it's difficult to have a campfire with green wood, and for Suzuka, who isn't used to it, the hurdle was high.

That said, probably only Suzuka is doing dungeon exploration while carrying firewood that becomes luggage.

"If I could use fire magic, I could probably do it with green wood too. Wonder if I'll learn fire magic."

While wishing for things he didn't have, he arranged the firewood and lit the fire starter. Starting a fire requires practice, but since he purchased long-burning fire starters, if he puts in three of them, it should catch fire even if left alone.

After finishing preparing the campfire, the next thing to do is monster countermeasures. Suzuka took out a container that looked like weed killer, removed the cap, and sprinkled liquid around the camp. The mysterious liquid that faintly glowed when coming out of the container didn't glow by the time it hit the ground and was absorbed.

The liquid Suzuka was sprinkling is a product used as a monster repellent. It's said to have the effect of absorbing surrounding mana, and monsters won't approach for about half a day.

Suzuka was currently near the boundary between District 3 and District 4. Originally, monsters don't come near the boundary, but if he sprinkles this liquid, it will almost certainly keep monsters away. It's a product many explorers use when camping, and it has trust and a track record.

Since it's made using dungeon items, it's expensive, but for the current Suzuka, it's not a cost that hurts that much.

After finishing monster countermeasures, the campfire was burning nicely too. Once it got to this point, all that was left was to eat.

Tonight's dinner was the meat of the Drunken Sheep that his brother Sugō defeated and got. He sprinkled outdoor spices on it, skewered it, and cooked it wild-style over direct fire.

When he thought of explorer camping, the style that came to Suzuka's mind was skewering fish or meat and slowly cooking it over a campfire. He had admired that, so this time he decided to challenge wild cooking.

But...

"Ugh, how do I skewer the meat... My hands will get dirty."

"Ah, one skewer won't fix the meat. It keeps spinning around. Damn. Now I have to get my hands dirty again to use two skewers."

"Eh, the surface is burning. Can I eat this now? ...Mmm! Tasty! But it's almost raw, isn't it."

"How far should I hold it from the fire to cook this? Or am I putting in too much firewood?"

"Holding it by hand the whole time is tiring too. I should have bought a grill. Failed."

"I guess this is it. Oh! Delicious! Meat is tasty after all, aaah!! The meat juice dripped! This is the worst, I like this outfit and all..."

"...It was tasty. But it's not enough. I should have made two from the start... Making it again is a hassle."

"Ah, forgot. I brought soup too. ...Wait. How do I boil water? I didn't think about anything."

"That's right! I bought a cute enamel mug! This should be fine to put directly over fire! It's a comeback move!!"

"Hot!! Hot!! Eh!? The handle is too hot, isn't it!? It's not direct-fire OK!? It's hot though!! I'm gonna get burned!!"

"Hah, hah. Somehow, managed to boil the water... Maybe I'll drink soup while grilling meat..."

And so, Suzuka's first camping meal ended successfully, albeit in a busy manner. It was a little different from the ideal smart meal he imagined, but that's a good memory too. The meal he ate was tasty. Just that alone makes today's camping meal a huge success.

"Amazing starry sky. I thought I'd be bored with nothing to do, but this is fun in its own way."

Leaning back in the reclining chair, gazing at the beautiful starry sky he had never seen in his life, Suzuka eventually surrendered to the sleepiness that came visiting and fell asleep.