arc01 · 004-ep4

Episode 4: Is It Really Impossible?

All spring break I'd gone to the dungeon as much as humanly possible, grinding out experience to level up—and then, mercilessly, the clock ran out.

"Haah… yeah, I should probably call it a day here…"

It was already 9 p.m. Show up too late and even the guild reception gives you an earful.

I cut my floor-3 exploration short and decided to head home.

Tomorrow was my high school entrance ceremony. Better get back early and sleep properly.

◇

The next morning, changing into my uniform in my room at home, I let out a deep sigh.

I'd grinded my face off in the dungeon, but the level I reached by the end of spring break was 『8』. Just two short of level 10's skill slot expansion, and the day of my high school entrance ceremony had arrived.

If I went and introduced myself at school with "I'm Kobayakawa, I've got Plunder, nice to meet you," then exactly like the internet wisdom says, I'd get instantly iced out as 'a dangerous freak who targets his allies' skills'—or end up under watch. So my stance was simple.

『Stay completely off the radar. Play the harmless loner to the hilt.』

After my first trip to school, I got through the entrance ceremony without incident, took my seat in my assigned classroom, and, pretending to scroll through my phone, tuned my ears into the conversations around me.

Sure enough, chatter about dungeons and skills drifted over from clusters of guys who were clearly already tight.

"What'd you get for your starting skill?"

"Mine was 『Strike (Minor)』! Gives a little bonus to strike-type attacks!"

"Whoa, seriously? Lucky! You know what I got? 『Ember』. It puts out a lighter-sized flame at my fingertip. Seriously zero situations where that's useful."

"Gyahahaha! But you did register as an adventurer, right? Let's party up and hit floor 1 sometime!"

The boys were whooping it up gleefully. Envy and jealousy pricked at my chest, but I didn't so much as twitch—only my ears stayed locked on.

Then, right then—I caught what a group with some girls in it was saying near the teacher's desk.

"So over spring break, I asked my big brother to take me to the dungeon, and it was totally impossible!"

"Oh, you already went?"

"Yeah. I mean, I was curious about my starting skill, right? But it wasn't even about that—the giant centipedes on floor 1 were so disgusting I was just like, nope, absolutely not."

"Ugh, hearing that makes me not want to go… Maybe I'll just confirm my skill and dash right home."

Yeah, those things are nasty. Seen up close, they genuinely make your skin crawl. Like, don't put a freak-show monster on floor 1, come on.

Still, I'm jealous. Gushing about dungeons, forming parties—if I'd actually made friends back in middle school, could I have had that too? Then again, I died at 25 in my past life, so my mental age makes talking to them kind of awkward, or… something. Well, whatever, it's too late now. Either way, I can't let 【Plunder】 come out, so I'll just keep grinding as a loner.

The second school ended, it was straight to the dungeon to continue leveling. I'd made steady progress up to floor 3, and thanks to my rising stats—or maybe just plain experience—my hunting kept getting more and more efficient. Another few days and I'd reach level 10.

From my seat, fully isolated from the cheerful chatter all around, I quietly turned things over in my head.

◇

School was only the entrance ceremony and homeroom, so it wrapped up by noon. Which meant my whole afternoon was free for a serious dungeon dive. With that in mind, I bolted out of the still-buzzing classroom before anyone else and blazed home at top speed.

Maybe because I'd been showing up every single day, the adventurer guild receptionist had memorized my face, because—

"…Didn't high school start for you today?"

"Ah… yeah. It was morning-only, so I blazed home and came straight here."

"So you're not skipping, then. You're a high schooler now, so I won't nag you too much, but you really should keep going to school properly."

"You're… right. I do plan on attending properly, so don't worry."

"Alright, I've confirmed your guild card—you're good to head into the dungeon. Take care again today."

"Thank you. I'm off."

We'd gotten to the point of trading little bits of small talk like this. She was actually pretty worried about me, what with how obsessively I dive into the dungeon. It felt a touch meddlesome, but honestly, a kid fresh out of middle school spending dawn to dusk in dungeons is bound to get comments like that. Not that I planned on stopping.

Once inside floor 1, I decided to run the experiment I'd been mulling over all morning.

Within the next few days I'd hit level 10 and gain an extra skill slot. At that point, my options would be 'learn a new skill with SP' or 'gain a new skill through Plunder.' With Plunder, as long as I had an open slot, I could pick up a skill without spending any SP. The catch is, the only monsters around here are horned rabbits and giant centipedes. I already know the skills those two use, so Plundering them should be doable. Honestly, though, neither skill is anything to brag about: 【Charge】 and 【Bite】. Charge, fine, whatever—but Bite? Absolutely useless. Maybe buying one with SP really is the safer bet…

Well, that debate can wait. What I wanted to know—before hitting level 10—was whether 【Plunder】 really can't be used without an open skill slot. That's what the internet said, but I'd never tested it myself. Who knows, maybe it actually lets you stockpile skills. And even if it does activate, right now I'd lose nothing by clogging my slot. Worst case, whatever I grab can just swap places with 【Plunder】—that'd be fine too. Either way, I figured I'd better try it now.

"So, with that said—keep me company for a little while, yeah, bunny?"

Bare-handed, I squared off against the weakest horned rabbit around.

I was level 8 now, so even if one of these rabbits landed a hit, it wouldn't hurt anywhere near as much as before. Not that I won't be dodging everything, though.

"Fshaaah!!"

I gracefully sidestepped the charging horned rabbit and tapped its side with a bare hand.

(Plunder!)

I willed 【Plunder】 to fire in my head. Fizzle. Nothing happened.

I sprang clear, then took my place in front of the rabbit once more. Kind of a matador feeling, honestly.

Charge. Dodge. Touch. Plunder.

Nothing happens.

I repeated this hundreds of times, but in the end, 【Plunder】 never showed the slightest sign of activating.

"Hmm. So it really is like the internet said—no open slot, no activation…"

The horned rabbit that had humored my experiment for so long looked, if anything, thoroughly worn out. I felt a little bad for it, so I decided to let it live. Not that it won't get offed by someone else right away, though.

In the end, the experiment was a failure.