Chapter 17

“Hah, hah…”

My shoulders rose and fell on their own, scooping up the surrounding oxygen into my lungs. The last skull centipede in my field of vision turned to smoke and vanished. All that remained was a fist-sized magic stone.

Hundreds of magic stones of similar size were scattered across the dungeon passage. Every single one of them belonged to the skull centipedes.

I picked up my briefs, walked over to my backpack, and pulled out my water canteen. My body was desperately craving water.

After gulping down half the canteen and steadying my breathing, I finally put my briefs back on. The drone camera looked down at me from mid-air.

“Whew… Who would’ve thought they’d come at us with that kind of sheer volume right off the bat? It’s not like I let my guard down, but the Somalia Dungeon is crazier than I imagined. Take a look at this.”

I picked up the longsword I had laid out on the ground and held it up in front of the drone camera. The blade was battered, with a massive crack running down the length of the sword body.

“This longsword was a drop from a certain dungeon, and up until now, it hadn’t even so much as chipped. The cutting edge was just so-so, but it was an undeniably sturdy and reliable partner. Still, if I hack up monsters with it a few more times, it’s completely gonna snap…”

“Nah. I’m going to look for the stairs to the seventh stratum as is. Sure, my weapon’s in this state, but there probably won’t be any major monsters showing up anymore. Viewers might not get it, but the magic element I’m feeling from the dungeon has gotten extremely thin. When it’s like this, the monster encounter rate drops. The sixth stratum was probably all about that pincer attack by the skull centipedes. So, heading back to the tent happens after I drop down to the seventh stratum.”

“There’s a spare, just in case. Though it falls way short compared to this one…”

“A friend is planning to come to this Somalia Dungeon in a bit. I left a longsword with them, so it’ll be fine.”

“No, not Akane. The friend is an old man. To begin with, I’m not even acquainted with Akane. I’ve never even watched their live stream once.”

Huh? Is this one Akane? Well… whatever. I’m too tired and it’s too much trouble to deal with her.

“Right then, time to look for the stairs down to the seventh stratum. It’s gonna be a plain stream, but bear with me.”

I hoisted my backpack and resumed exploring the sixth stratum while keeping my sword at the ready, just in case.

Even after walking for a little while, there was still no sign of any monsters. The maso remained thin as well. At this rate, I should be able to reach the stairs to the seventh stratum without any issues.

“Nah. Of course I’m mapping. Inside my head, that is. Smartphones these days are high-spec and rarely break down, but back in the day, that wasn’t the case at all. Getting hit by maso and having your mapping app data wiped out was a regular occurrence. Paper would become unreadable if it burned or got wet either. That’s why mapping a dungeon inside your head is the best way to go.”

A crazy story, huh… I fished through the threads of my memory as I walked.

“Back when I was operating in South America. A hidden stratum was discovered in a certain dungeon. It became a hot topic in the underground dungeon scene at the time, and adventurers gathered from all over the world to search for treasure.”

“In that hidden stratum, a young adventurer discovered a skill orb. A skill orb inscribed with strange patterns that weren’t even listed in the World Adventurer’s Association’s database. As it happened, there was an adventurer with the [Appraisal] skill, so that youth asked them to appraise it. The result came back as [Spring of Mana]. It was an item that caused mana to well up infinitely. The young adventurer jumped for joy, immediately used the skill orb, and—”

“—the entire hidden stratum blew up.”

“I somehow managed to survive thanks to the blast blowing all my clothes off, but everyone else was completely wiped out. Most skill orbs are beneficial to humans, but on very rare occasions, there are some that bring harm…”

After about two hours of exploring while telling stories from the past, I managed to find the stairs to the seventh stratum. I ended the live stream there, updated my cleared strata, and returned to my tent.