Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 16

 Chapter 16: A Summer Mystery, and a Wicked Fairy

A month had passed since I first hit the pity cap.

Three months since I became an Explorer. Time really does fly.

The calendar had turned to August, and a scorching sun beat down mercilessly on the ground. Lately, I'd started to feel like the commute between home and the dungeon was rougher than actually being inside it.

I was seriously considering introducing a summer vacation. At the very least, I figured I'd lift the ban on commuting by taxi.

My exploration could be called nothing but smooth sailing.

Right now, I'd unlocked the Floor 16 teleportation magic circle and made Floor 17 my main hunting ground. Colloquially speaking, this was the deepest point of the beginner area.

Let me take a moment to explain the Hachioji Dungeon here.

Hachioji Dungeon had sixty floors in total. It was designated a B-Rank dungeon by the Japan Dungeon Association (JDA).

The floors were mainly divided into four zones.

Floors 1 through 5, the "Shallow Levels", where freshly registered Explorers operated.

Floors 6 through 20, the "Upper Levels", where I currently was, is considered the beginner area.

Floors 21 through 40, the "Middle Levels", where full-time Explorers mainly operated.

And Floors 41 through 60, the "Lower Levels", an advanced area where veteran Explorers worked in parties or clans.

One of most distinguishing features of Hachioji Dungeon was that it had everything from the Shallow Levels all the way down to the Lower Levels. Hence it attracts a wide range of people, from beginners to veterans.

And the fact that the Guild released maps of every single floor for free was also well regarded. If you download them to your phone ahead of time, you wouldn't get lost inside the dungeon.

Unless you had a terrible sense of direction.

Lastly, there was the fact that from Floor 1 to Floor 41, a teleportation magic circle was installed every five floors.

The inside of the dungeon was fairly spacious. Just cutting through five floors by the shortest route took only close to two hours.

Apparently some dungeons only had one installed every ten floors, so it made sense that Hachioji Dungeon had become so popular.

I was truly grateful that the dungeon closest to my home happened to be Hachioji.

* * *

Keeping strictly to my full three day rest week, I was diving into the Hachioji Dungeon again today.

I was currently on Floor 17 where mixed parties of "Goblin Warriors" and "Kobold Lancers" appears.

While already stronger in combat than Goblins or Wolves on their own, here they used teamwork to attack Explorers.

Goblins with an axe and Kobolds with a spear. Four monsters in total, split into front and back lines, closed in while half-surrounding me.

Against them, I activated my Active Skill, "Slasher."

This skill is an area-of-effect version of the single-target slash skill "Slash". Its power was a step below Slash, but its range covered a three-meter half-circle in front of me.

The swing carried a shockwave with it, mowing down the enemies in an arc. Without any way to fight back, the monsters turned into pale blue particles and vanished.

Mm. Wiping out a group with an area attack feels great, no matter how many times I do it. The sight of drops scattered all around afterward never gets old either.

Ever since that day I got "Triple EXP Gain," my combat strength had shot up at an accelerating rate.

I'd already done about 24 ten-pulls. I'd hit the pity cap two more times on top of the first. At this pace, that worked out to about 6 ten-pulls for every 4 working days a week.

Considering it used to take nearly two months to reach the pity cap, it really shows just how insane this pace was.

My current Status, at Lv1, looked like this.

――――――――――――――――――

[Name] Suzukaze Touya

――――――――――――――――――

[Lv] 1

[HP] 266/266

[MP] 229/229

[STR] 10+84

[VIT] 8+78

[AGI] 10+81

[DEX] 8+78

[INT] 11+99

[MND] 12+108

――――――――――――――――――

The stats boosted by the orbs now averaged over 80. For a normal Explorer, that was the kind of stat total you'd see around Lv 40 to Lv 50.

For Hachioji Dungeon, that would put me at the right level for around Floor 30 to 40. That was around the point where full-time Explorers started to have some real financial breathing room.

And on top of that came the huge stockpile of Skills I'd gotten from all that SP.

Around here, there is no one left that is a match for me. Actually holding back enough to look presentable in front of other people was actually the hardest part now.

"Touya-san, there's no sign of anyone around!"

A cheerful girl's voice rang out from above my head. My partner Lapis, who'd really gotten the hang of keeping watch over our surroundings lately.

* * *

At about twenty centimeters tall, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. A girl wrapped in a white-based traditional outfit, with wings on her back.

The look of the girl who called herself Lapis was the very picture of a storybook fairy.

For whatever reason, my Unique Skill "Gacha" had sent this fairy to me as a navigator. Personally, I suspect it's some kind of elaborate harassment.

After all, items exclusively for Lapis kept coming out of the gacha. Probably a dud there to keep power creep in check.

Just imagine the disappointment of having the guaranteed from a ten-pull — a precious SR slot — go to some leisure item exclusively for Lapis. When the massage chair came up, I genuinely felt a spike of murderous intent. What is she, some kind of bourgeoise?

"Huh!? Why am I suddenly getting glared at!?"

Oops, guess some of that murderous intent leaked out.

Lapis flailed both hands around in a fluster, startled. That childlike little motion of hers was pretty adorable.

"Pulling out a crowd-pleasing reaction like that, huh."

"That's a totally unfounded insult!?"

Lapis shouted, thoroughly shocked.

I don't think it's exactly unfounded, though, judging by how doted-on she is by other Explorers.

This one had such a friendly personality that she'd basically become the Hachioji Dungeon Guild's mascot by now. She was great friends with the female Explorers and receptionists, and often gotten snacks etc.

I can't exactly call myself sociable, after all. This personality of Lapis's was actually essential to keeping my reputation within the Guild from tanking.

Well, it's also because of her that everyone knows I have a Unique Skill in the first place.

Because of that, there'd been a period when I was annoyed by persistent questioning and invitations to parties. Politely turning all of it down had somehow made my reputation drop even further. Can't make sense of that.

"No, come on, think about it. If you just push people off with nothing but 'I'm good, thanks' over and over with zero lead-in, of course people are going to end up disliking you."

I was just clearly getting the main point across, though. The world's full of way too many troublesome things, honestly.

Or rather, my reputation drops because of Lapis, and then gets made up for by her own sociability.

Isn't this just her lighting a fire and then putting it out by herself?

"You wicked little fairy."

"You called me a wicked fairy!!"

Lapis let out an extra-large shocked reaction. Her reactions are so over-the-top so they're fun to watch.

Well, in one way or another, we get along just fine. Being alone in the dungeon would be lonely after all.