Water Magician

The fifth and final day of the dungeon beginner course.

Questions and answers were held in the lecture room in the morning, and all the students were scheduled to explore the first layer of the dungeon in the afternoon.

By the fourth day, all the basic information needed to dive into the dungeon had been given.

Dungeon structure, traps to watch out for, enemies to watch out for, tools needed for exploration, etc.

Incidentally, for the hands-on training in the afternoon of the fifth day, the guild would provide the minimum tools necessary for exploration, such as potions and antidotes.

That was very much appreciated by the dungeon beginners.

After all, many dungeon beginners were also newcomers as adventurers.

Aside from adventurers from other countries and cities, those who register as adventurers in the City of Rune first hone their skills in the upper floors of the dungeon.

While selling the magic stones and materials from the dungeon to the guild and accumulating money and achievements, they would also receive requests from the surface to raise their adventurer level.

In a way, raising adventurer level by doing both dungeon and surface requests was the mainstream adventurer activity in the City of Rune.

For example, Niles and Etho, who were in the same room as Ryo, have a schedule of entering the dungeon on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and completing surface requests on Tuesday and Thursday, with the weekends as rest days.

It was inevitable that one would gain practical experience in the dungeon.

Thus it was said that adventurers in the City of Rune were better at fighting than adventurers in other cities because they could do it repeatedly from an early stage.

And once they reach a certain adventurer level, they would be in a position where many rewarding requests would be open to them on the surface and they would no longer delve so much into the dungeon.

Since there were rewarding requests on the surface without needing to explore deep into the dungeon, there was no need to take the risk.

As a result, the depths of the dungeon were not explored.

The deepest part on record was the 38th layer.

Considering that after the dungeon layer exceeds thirty, even a B-class party would start to struggle, it was unavoidable that the exploration did not proceed any further.

“We’re finally entering the dungeon in the afternoon. I’m feeling nervous.”

Amon whispered to Ryo quietly.

“It’s still morning. Amon, if you’re nervous from now, you’ll be exhausted by the afternoon.”

Ryo answered with a bitter smile.

“I know but …”

The questions and answers continued even as they had their conversation in quiet voices.

Students would raise questions on matters that were not mentioned in the lectures so far and the guild staff instructor, who was a former adventurer, would answer the questions.

However, no one asked about the information that Ryo wanted to know.

(Hmm, do I have to ask myself? It’s embarrassing but … better to ask and be embarrassed than not ask and never know.)

“Are there any other questions?”

Ryo raised his hand.

“Yes, Ryo, do you have a question?”

“Yes, it may not be related to the dungeon in the City of Rune, but is there something like a transfer function to the floor that has been cleared before?”

When he asked that question, everyone except the instructor was surprised.

Next to Ryo, Amon was also surprised.

Yeah, it was an expected reaction.

“Oh, Ryo, I’m surprised you know about this. There are certainly dungeons like that. To supplement Ryo’s question, there are dungeons where, for example, if you clear up to 10 floors, you can proceed with the exploration from the 10th floor the next time you enter.”

The students were uniformly surprised to hear that.

That was natural.

With such a function, they could go home every day, refresh themselves, and continue exploring.

No other feature would be more useful to a dungeon adventurer.

But …

“But unfortunately, the dungeon here in Rune doesn’t have that function. It seems that it can be found in the dungeon of the Western Nations … but I’ve only heard about it so I don’t know the mechanism or details.”

“That’s all right, thank you.”

(As expected, there is no such function in Rune’s dungeon. Well, I just want to delve a little into the dungeon and am not aiming to conquer it.)

While he had that thought, Amon whispered to him.

“Ryo-san, you know something so amazing! As expected of a D-rank adventurer.”

The day Ryo moved into the dormitory, he told his three roommates, Amon, Niles, and Etho, that he was registered as a D-rank adventurer.

That said, since Niles and Etho were his seniors as adventurers, he didn’t put it in a way that would make them lose face.

“No, I just heard about it from somewhere …”

Ryo felt under pressure from Amon’s glittering eyes.

Then, in the afternoon, all the students moved to the dungeon.

The dungeon in the City of Rune was in the center of the city.

To be precise, the city was built around the dungeon.

The city was surrounded by walls, but the entrance to the dungeon was also surrounded by two layers of bulwarks.

“I believe I explained in the lecture that there may be monster outbreaks in the dungeon once every few years, but they may even come out to the surface. This double layer of bulwarks was built to prevent them from exiting into the city center.”

The city walls were meant to prevent attacks from the outside, but the bulwarks at the entrance to the dungeon were for trapping monsters that overflow from the dungeon.

Beside the entrance to the dungeon, there was a branch office of the Adventurer’s Guild.

Whenever a person enters the dungeon, their name, date and time would be recorded.

If they do not resurface after a long time, they would be treated within the guild as ‘life or death unknown’.

In addition, when they return from the dungeon, they could sell the magic stones and materials at this branch office.

“Today, all the students have already been recorded, so we will dive into the dungeon right away.”

Upon hearing the instructor’s voice, a wave of nerves spread among the students.

Ryo and Amon were no exception.

Amon was particularly stiff.

“Amon … I think you should relax a little more. Look, take a deep breath.”

Suha Suha

“I-I feel a little better.”

He doesn’t look like there was any change … Ryo thought so but he didn’t voice it out.

“Ah, yeah. Well, it’s okay because everyone is here.”

“Yeah.”

After saying that, they followed the very end of the group of students, passed through the double doors of the dungeon, and went inside.

“It’s pretty wide.”

They arrived at the first floor of the dungeon after going through the door and going down about 100 steps.

It was a fairly large hall. To the point that he couldn’t see the walls.

“As I said in the lecture, there aren’t many monsters on this first floor. You can move on your own but only move as far as you can see this hall. Two hours later, we’ll be heading out. If you do not return by then, we will head out without you and request the guild to rescue you. Once that happens, I don’t think you’ll be able to delve into the dungeon for a while!”

Ryo and Amon walked in a pair in the hall.

Amon was a Swordsman, but he just came out of his village yesterday, so his skill was not there yet.

Apparently, there was a retired adventurer who trained him in the village, but that was only for about half a year. Therefore, they explored as both side-by-side, instead of him as a Swordsman vanguard.

“Hmm? There is something.”

Ryo whispered to Amon.

“Hm? Where?”

Amon looked around restlessly.

“No, it’s ahead, but still a distance away. We’ll encounter it in about a minute. I’ll stop it with Water-Attribute Magic, and then Amon can attack with your sword.”

“Y-yes, I understand!”

Amon was so stiff that he could see it from the side …

(Well, if I stop the opponent’s movement completely, there will be no problem.)

And one minute later, they could finally see the monster.

“Soldier Ant. Unlike other ants, they do not spit formic acid. It is easiest to cut off their heads at the base of the neck.”

It was a beginner-level monster that appeared in the 『Monster Encyclopedia: Beginner’s Edition』 given by Michael (pseudonym).

Its total length was about one meter. It will also appear in dungeons.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Well then, I’ll try to stop it’s movements. <O ice, with your cold piercing power, penetrate the enemy. Icicle Lance 9>”

Nine ice spears were fired from Ryo’s left hand, drawing a trajectory and piercing the Soldier Ant from the sky.

Giiiiii

The screams of the Soldier Ant echoed.

Nine ice spears pierced the Soldier Ant’s six legs, belly, torso, and head and it was sewn to the ground.

“Amon, approach from the side and slice off the Soldier Ant’s head.”

“Yes!”

Amon pulled out his sword, drew an arc counterclockwise and reached the side of the Soldier Ant, and swung his sword down from the top with spirit.

“Ha!”

Jakin

The Soldier Ant’s head was brilliantly cut off from its torso and died.

“Well done!”

Ryo approached Amon, applauding.

“Fu, fu, fuu.”

Amon was still a little excited.

But he calmed down as he took deep breaths.

“We did it, Ryo-san.”

“Yeah, well done. Gathering the material is difficult so let’s bring the magic stone home. It’s Amon’s first monster commemoration of the dungeon.”

Ryo said with a smile.

“Eh? Is that okay?”

“We are adventurers. In the dungeon, the point is to earn money, right?”

Then Ryo thrust his Michael-made knife into the head of the Soldier Ant.

Animal-based monsters had magic stones near their hearts, but insect-based monsters often had magic stones in their heads.

And it was written in the Monster Encyclopedia that the Soldier Ant had a magic stone in its head.

Soon after, he took out a small magic stone about the tip of his little finger.

<O water, come out>

The magic stone that was washed with water and cleaned was pale yellow.

It seemed to be of earth attribute.

Ryo handed the magic stone to Amon.

“It’s a souvenir.”

“Yes.”

Amon who received it was almost crying.

It wasn’t an enemy that was particularly memorable and they didn’t struggle to defeat it, but for some reason his tear glands were warm.

However, he managed to resist crying.

“Now, let’s slowly return to the meeting place. In the dungeon, slimes would clean up this corpse. Dungeons are so convenient.”

Ryo commented and then walked next to Amon, who was elatedly looking at the magic stone.

(The best way to gain confidence is to have successful experiences)

Amon was stiff when he dived into the dungeon … but there was no sign of that anymore.