Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 23

 Chapter 23: Social Skills Strengthening Month

Three days after I'd learned society's common sense off the internet.

After thoroughly enjoying my Saturday and Sunday off, I rode up to the Hachioji Dungeon Guild by taxi as a fully socially-aware Explorer.

Despite how confident I looked, Shimotsuki-san sighed at me for some reason.

I'd even bought a chocolate bar at the shop to show off how motivated I was. Why?

Setting that minor detail aside.

I'd made it to the entrance of Floor 20 without any trouble.

I'd entered the Dungeon a little past ten and it was just before noon now.

I was fully prepared in terms of food-wise too.

A quick check with my Skill showed several presences in front of the Floor 20 boss room.

Probably people waiting their turn for the boss fight.

Last time, I'd turned back right here.

But today was different. I had something extra going for me.

"Alright, let's go."

"Got it!"

I made my way down the stairs leading to Floor 20.

Stepping onto Floor 20, I found an open plaza.

Beyond it stood a massive stone gate with no door and past that, the space opened up into something like an arena.

Beyond the gate, in a space choked with swirling dust, the boss was swinging a massive axe in battle with an Explorer party that had entered ahead of us. Even from outside the gate, we could clearly make out the massive Minotaur.

This particular boss fight came with its own local rules.

Solo Explorers or whole parties entered through the gate in the order they arrived, each taking their turn challenging the Minotaur. 

The fight remained fully visible from outside, allowing everyone waiting their turn to watch.

Since there wasn't an actual door blocking the entrance, so if things started going south, a challenger could simply retreat through the gate and forfeit the attempt.

In the worst case, they could even call for help from the Explorers waiting outside, who were free to rush in and join the fight.

Of course, the moment anyone else intervened, the Guild no longer recognized it as a legitimate clear.

To earn a promotion to C-Rank, you had to defeat the Minotaur alone or as part of a party that had been registered beforehand, without any outside assistance.

Whenever it was a successful solo clear,  the Minotaur was guaranteed to drop a "Nose Ring."

Turning it in at the Guild counter served as proof that you'd earned your place as a professional Explorer. ...What an unpleasant way to prove it.

With that in mind, I looked around.

Just before the gate, I found people who'd arrived ahead of me. A party of three girls who were so visibly tense that anyone could tell at a glance.

* * *

"Ah! It's the little fairy!"

One of the three, a ponytailed girl, lit up the moment she spotted Lapis.

She gave off an energetic, cheerful vibe. Somehow, she and Lapis seemed like they'd get along immediately.

"Hello, I'm Lapis! We're here to challenge the boss. Are you waiting for your turn too?"

Without a hint of hesitation, Lapis flew right over and struck up a conversation.

Honestly, I had to admire how effortlessly she could talk to complete strangers.

"Yep! It's our first attempt!"

"Ours too! Then I guess we'll wait behind you!"

"Okay, okay! The group ahead of us only went in a little while ago, so it'll probably be a bit of a wait."

"Perfect! Then we can watch and learn while we wait!"

In the span of a few seconds, they'd already hit it off and even sorted out the queue between themselves.

Watching the exchange out of the corner of my eye, I walked over and greeted them myself.

"Hello. Sorry about my fairy barging in on you like that."

The moment I spoke, one of the three, a long-haired girl with a strong-willed look about her, gave a small twitch of a reaction.

"Um... are you the 'fairy's friend'?"

The long-haired girl asked that with a wary look on her face.

So that nickname was actually well-known, huh...

"Yeah, that's me. I'm her owner."

"You just said 'it'!!"

Lapis cried out, thunderstruck.

Seeing that, the long-haired girl looked somehow relieved.

"Ah, you really are just like the rumors said."

"What rumors, exactly?"

I would meet slander and defamation with the full force of the law.

"Blunt and doesn't want to get involved with other people."

"And sharp-tongued!"

Even the pony girl raised her hand to chime in.

...Great. Nothing in there I could actually deny.

"And yet you spoke to us so politely and pleasantly... it kind of surprised me."

Of course I'd use polite speech with people I was meeting for the first time.

"It's Social Skills Strengthening Month."

I was working on picking up some common sense of my own.

All for the sake of a comfortable future.

At that declaration, the two girls and the fairy looked at me like I was something to be pitied.

Anyway, you and I are going to have a conversation once we get home, little bug.

"...Heh heh."

Amid all that, I caught a faint voice.

It belonged to the last of the three girls: one with shoulder-length, light-colored hair.

She had a small-animal sort of vibe, quiet and unassuming.

The type who looks like she always ends up drawing the short straw.

"Ah, sorry. I just mean... social skills really do matter, don't they?"

I decided this girl was a genuinely good kid.

* * *

With the Minotaur's roars echoing from beyond the gate, the little conversation around Lapis just kept growing.

By this point, nobody seemed to be paying much attention to the life-or-death boss fight anymore.

Even the three girls, who are tensed at first, had relaxed under Lapis's easygoing manner. One after another, they began to smile.

"Oh! So you three are classmates? High schoolers who are Explorers, that's amazing!"

"Ah, well, it's not that big a deal... or maybe it is?"

From what they'd told us, the three of them attended the same high school and had been exploring together as a party for about a year.

Considering they could probably only enter the Dungeon on weekends and during school breaks, I guess this is the pace you'dto expect?

I compared it against what I'd learned about ordinary Explorers.

On top of that, coordinating three different schedules couldn't have been easy. So for a party of high school students, they were probably doing pretty well. Plenty of parties never even made it this far.

While I was thinking about it in my head, the ponytailed girl shifted the conversation toward me.

"You're solo, right, Friend-san? How'd you make it all the way here by yourself?"

"You can drop the 'Friend.' Suzukaze's fine. As long as you know how to handle groups of monsters, going solo isn't much of a problem."

That wasn't just bravado.

I'd based my approach on the experiences of solo Explorers who'd made it this far without any cheats. After fighting groups of monsters myself, I'd come away with a healthy respect for just how accurate their advice and firsthand accounts had been.

"Whoa, that's amazing. It took us a while to get used to it, at first."

"That's because Saki never looks around her."

"Ahaha, sorry, sorry~"

The long-haired girl shot an exasperated look at the pony girl now revealed to be named Saki.

Saki just laughed it off without a care suggested that the two of them got along well.

Watching the exchange with a quiet smile was the small-animal girl, or rather, the bob-cut girl.

She'd barely said a word the entire time, contented to sit back and nod along.

Looks like she was another one who'd given up on sociability too. Made me feel a certain kinship.

"Still, you've already made it this far, so being a professional Explorer is right around the corner!"

Lapis's innocent remark made all three of them stiffen.

"Ah, well, about that..."

The pony girl scratched her cheek, her words trailing off.

The long-haired girl quietly picked up where she left off.

"Actually... depending on how this boss fight goes, we might be breaking up the party."

...And just like that, out of nowhere, someone's personal story was starting.

Wait, I didn't sign up for this?