part1 · 063-ep63

Episode 63: The Dungeon Appears in the World

—Three years since Ren had entered the dungeon.

Around that time, out in the outside world, a great upheaval was taking place.

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Japan.

It appeared without warning in one corner of the city. A place where nothing had been the day before. And there, a giant black hole had opened.

"...What's that?"

People walking the street stopped in their tracks. No one knew what it was.

It wasn't a building. It wasn't a construction site. Just a massive cavity, gaping open in the ground.

Police rushed to the scene and sealed off the area.

"Please stay back!"

"What is this thing?"

"Does it lead underground?"

In no time at all, the site was overflowing with people.

But—

no one had an answer.

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Around the same time. And it wasn't just Japan.

The same phenomenon was occurring all over the world.

America. China. The United Kingdom. France. Germany.

And other countries besides.

Near cities. In the mountains. On open plains. Along the coasts.

The locations and sizes differed. Even so, one thing was shared by them all.

In each and every place, without warning—

an unknown space had appeared.

"The same phenomenon is occurring all over the world!"

"What's the cause?"

"An investigation is underway!"

"Is it not a natural disaster?"

"That possibility is considered low!"

Governments around the world scrambled to respond. The military deployed; police sealed the areas off. Scientists and researchers were gathered to the sites.

But no matter how they examined them, the cause remained unknown.

And then—

the first survey team was to enter one of the spaces.

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Dark. And more spacious than it had looked from outside.

It was supposed to lead underground, yet inside, a space unnaturally vast spread out before them.

"...Is this underground?"

"I don't know."

"It doesn't match the terrain data."

Walls. Rock. Unfamiliar plants.

Nothing here existed in the outside world.

"Collect plant samples."

"Roger."

They moved deeper.

That was when it happened.

"...Wait."

One of the survey team stopped in his tracks.

"Something's there."

In the darkness ahead. Something moved.

"All of you, on guard!"

The next instant, a black beast came charging out.

"Whoa!"

The team fell back as one. The beast growled low, glaring at them.

"...A dog?"

"No... it isn't."

Clearly not an ordinary animal. Sharp fangs. A body developed to an eerie degree. And in its eyes, as it looked at the humans, unmistakable hostility.

"Open fire!"

A team member raised his gun. Gunshots rang through the dungeon.

But—

"...It's not working?"

Only the faintest wounds marked the monster's body. The team members' expressions changed.

"Again!"

Gunshots rang out once more. Even so, the monster didn't fall.

"What the hell... is this thing."

Bullets that should have carried more than enough power. And they were barely working at all.

Right after that, the monster leapt at them.

"Aagh!"

The team members scrambled back desperately. Then one of them swung the knife in his hand.

—Slash.

This time, the blade bit deep into the monster's body.

"...!"

Every one of them held his breath.

The guns had barely worked. But the blade went through.

"What's going on...?"

At this point, they didn't yet know.

That inside a dungeon, weapons the outside world used as a matter of course would lose most of their power.

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After killing the monster, the survey team examined its corpse.

"...What on earth is this thing?"

A creature none of them had ever seen. A body that had kept moving after taking bullet after bullet.

Clearly different from an ordinary animal.

"We'll have to take it back and study it."

"Yeah. But first, let's check its insides."

One of the team crouched down. And picked up the knife he'd used earlier.

He set the blade into the monster's body and began cutting it open, carefully.

Then—

"...Wait."

The man's hand stopped.

"What is it?"

"There's something here."

He widened the wound a little. Deeper inside.

Something was embedded in the monster's body.

"...It's glowing?"

A pale blue-white light.

Using the knife, the man cut carefully around it.

And then.

He drew it out of the body.

"...A stone?"

A small stone, just big enough to fit in a palm. A faint blue-white glow rising from its surface.

"What is this...?"

No one could say. Why such a thing should exist inside a living creature.

The only thing they did know was—

that this, too.

was something never seen in the outside world.

Later, it would come to be known as—

a magic stone.

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The day's news raced across the entire world.

'Mysterious giant spaces appear around the world'

'Governments seal off the sites'

'Unknown creatures confirmed inside'

'Firearms may be ineffective'

'Substance resembling unknown mineral also discovered'

People were thrown into confusion.

What was happening? Why had they appeared so suddenly? Where did those spaces lead?

And—

what were those monsters?

All manner of speculation flew about the world.

But with this day as the turning point, humanity's world would begin to change, little by little.

Unknown spaces. Unknown creatures. Unknown resources.

In time, people would come to call those places by a certain name.

—Dungeons.

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And no one knew.

That on the day the world first learned of the dungeon's existence, far, far deeper within—

a boy had already been living there for three years.

Kurose Ren. Eighteen years old.

He, at this very moment—

was on the thirtieth floor.