Volume 1 Chapter 12 Tutorial Dungeon
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
After the break, they led us to the back of the training grounds and into a warehouse piled high with all kinds of equipment. I wondered if they were asking me to appraise some special tool.
”Not quite,” Naruse-san said. “Well, there are some items I want you to appraise, but there’s something I need you to see first.”
In one corner of the warehouse, beneath a mountain of gear, a floor hatch sat hidden under it all.
”Risa?”
”It’s fine, Yurina,” Naruse-san replied.
”…I see. No objections here,” Kibe-san added.
After that strange exchange between Naruse-san and Kibe-san, they cleared away the cargo on top of the hatch. Naruse-san heaved it open, revealing stone steps that dropped into the dark. The steps looked old enough to belong to another era, but electricity seemed to be wired down there, and bright light lit the way.
”Down here,” Naruse-san ordered. “Bring your weapons.”
She went down first, and Chifumi and I followed while Kibe-san guarded the rear.
After about ten meters, the stairs ended in a small cave-like space, about the size of a ten-mat room. The air was cold.
”Looks like this was originally a natural cave used as an underground storage cellar,” I said.
”…”
But Chifumi and I noticed it at the same time.
Part of the cave wall was unnaturally black. It was like someone had gathered shadows, plastered them onto the stone, and made them swallow every bit of light.
”I found this while exploring with Yurina a long time ago,” Naruse-san said.
She pointed at what looked like a dungeon entrance.
”A dungeon, huh?” Chifumi murmured.
”That’s right. Watch.”
Naruse-san pushed her finger into the shadow. Her hand sank into what should have been solid stone, and when she pulled it back out, her finger was perfectly fine.
”A dungeon in the middle of a residential area?” I asked. “I would not call it impossible, but…”
”They say there used to be a small shrine here a long time ago,” Naruse-san explained. “Maybe this dungeon has been here since then.”
Looking at the age of the cave and the stone steps, I could see how that might be true.
”We’ve actually gone inside before,” Naruse-san said.
”Seriously!?”
”Dead serious. We’ve been in a few times. Apparitions show up, but nothing major. Want to try going in?”
I exchanged a glance with Chifumi. It could have been a trap, but even if they shoved us in and ran, they would be the first suspects. The mana residue alone would give them away. No one would throw away their future for a stunt that obvious.
”It really isn’t a big deal. Look.”
Naruse-san dipped one foot in and out of the entrance to prove it was safe.
”Well then, I’ll go first,” Chifumi said.
”Really? Since it’s your first time, let’s go together.”
Naruse-san led Chifumi into the wall, leaving me alone in the cave with Kibe-san. The air between us turned awkward, and nearly thirty seconds passed before anything happened.
”Hm…”
At the sound of that voice, Chifumi and Naruse-san came back out of the dungeon.
”Seems safe, Minoru. Everyone, let’s go in,” Chifumi said in her usual tone.
There was no sign of any hidden plan. It really did seem fine.
”All right, I’m heading back in,” Naruse-san said.
She reentered the dungeon, and Kibe-san followed.
”Shall we hold hands?” Chifumi asked.
”…No, I’m good.”
I could not show that much weakness, so I forced down my pounding heart and slipped into the dungeon entrance beside her.
My eyes closed on instinct. When I opened them again, I was in a cave with the other three. I looked back and saw the black wall behind us. The exit was still there.
As I took in my surroundings, I realized the place looked like the cave we had just left, but it was not the same. There were no stairs. Instead, a single door made of some strange material stood ahead of us. No lamps or torches hung anywhere, yet the walls gave off a faint glow, so it was easy to see.
”This is… a dungeon…”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
”Apparitions don’t come near this room by the entrance,” Naruse-san said. “What I want to show you is farther in.”
She placed her hand on the heavy-looking door, and it swung open with a faint creak. It was a push door that opened inward.
”It’s basically a straight path, with Apparitions spawning here and there,” she continued. “Look, here’s one already.”
Following Kibe-san’s gaze, I saw something hopping toward us from down the hallway. It was a frog with a body almost thirty centimeters long, and it only had one eye.
Disgusting.
”Yurina!”
Before Naruse-san could even finish calling out, Kibe-san lunged forward and split the frog in two with her blade.
”Gwehh…”
I had no idea how it could make a sound after being cut in half, but the frog let out what sounded like a cry of regret before vanishing into smoke.
Wait. Did that smoke just move toward Kibe-san’s chest…?
”Things like that frog or caterpillars pop up,” Naruse-san said. “And when you exorcise enough Apparitions, sometimes power surges into you.”
”That’s strange, isn’t it?” Chifumi said.
Chifumi and the others did not seem to notice the smoke at all. Was I the only one who had seen it?
”Hey, what was that left behind after you exorcised the frog…?” I asked.
”Rarely, they drop things that look like magical items,” Naruse-san replied. “Nothing dropped this time, though… Are you sure you didn’t just imagine it?”
”That’s not what I mean. Didn’t that frog disappear in a weird way?”
”Weird…?” Naruse-san tilted her head. “It got cut in two, croaked, and poofed away. That’s it, right? Isn’t that how Apparitions vanish?”
Chifumi looked just as confused, which made it clear that no one else could see the smoke.
”Well, whatever,” Naruse-san said. “Let’s head deeper.”
I followed Naruse-san down the path. Two frogs appeared, then three more came at us later, but Naruse-san and Kibe-san exorcised them all in single strikes.
”I think this is the first time three have appeared at once,” Naruse-san said.
”Is that right?” Chifumi asked.
”Yurina? Do you remember?”
”No, I do not remember that happening either,” Kibe-san replied. “…Perhaps the number of spawns changes based on how many people are here.”
We kept talking as we moved deeper. About one hundred meters from the first room, another door appeared at the end of the corridor.
”This is the goal,” Naruse-san said. “There’s a slightly stronger Apparition in this room.”
When she touched the door, it opened by itself again. Beyond it was a wide hall. A slightly larger frog sat in the center. Maybe fifty centimeters long? It had grown, but it was not especially fast, and Kibe-san swiftly exorcised it with her sword.
”Done,” Naruse-san said. “Usually something gets left behind, but… nothing this time…”
As she tilted her head in confusion, a mass of black shadow rose behind her.
A bad feeling ran through me. Chifumi seemed to sense it too, because she raised her staff beside me.
”Risa!” Kibe-san shouted.
”Eh?”
The shadow lunged at Naruse-san.
”Huh. Safe,” Kibe-san muttered.
The floor where Naruse-san had been standing a moment ago was dented as if something heavy had slammed into it. Apparently, grabbing her and pulling her away on instinct had been the right call.
”Ah, thanks…!” Naruse-san gasped.
”Don’t mention it.”
Right in front of us, an Apparition formed from the shadows. No, four Apparitions: one centipede and three moths. We had never seen either type before. The centipede was nearly two meters long and stood upright in a way that looked all wrong, while the moths, each almost fifty centimeters across, fluttered around it. Their strength was clearly on a different level from the frogs. The centipede even had something like an aura around it.
”A ‘slightly stronger Apparition’?” I asked.
”No way!” Naruse-san cried. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
”…Either way, we have to exorcise them,” Kibe-san said.
”Right. Leave it to me!”
The battle began. Naruse-san fired first, but her magic bullet struck the centipede with a light clink and bounced away. It did not look damaged at all.
”No way!?”
She panicked and unleashed a barrage of magic bullets, but the shots skidded off as if they were pebbles, leaving the centipede’s movements unchanged. Naruse-san barely dodged a bite and kept firing.
Meanwhile, Kibe-san swung her sword at the three moths, but they slipped around her strikes with quick, nimble movements. They seemed able to use their wings for wind sorcery, and blades of wind sliced through the air toward us.
”Ugh!?”
Once we saw the two of them struggling, Chifumi and I stepped in. I closed the distance to the centipede and detonated a shock-type sorcery right in its face. Since it had shrugged off the magic bullets, it must have trusted its own defense too much, and because it did not even try to dodge, my point-blank blast blew its upper half apart.
Chifumi created freezing wind around the moths and slowed their movements. With their dodging sealed off, Kibe-san cut them down one after another.
After we exorcised the four Apparitions, we checked the room. A low rumble sounded from the back, and part of the wall turned into a door.
”Eh…? What…?” Naruse-san panted.
Naruse-san was still gasping for breath and could not move, so I approached the door in her place and gripped the handle. With a heavy grinding sound, it opened to reveal a small hidden room. In the center stood a pedestal, and on top of it sat a black orb the size of a fist.
”What is this…?”
The orb was strange. As I stared at it, I felt as if something were pulling me in.
”Minoru!” Chifumi cried.
Her voice snapped me back to reality.
My hand was already gripping the orb.
Oh no, I thought, and in that same instant, something flowed into my body. The moment lasted only a heartbeat, yet it felt like an eternity.
The orb turned into smoke and sank into me.
”Are you okay!?” Chifumi asked.
”……”
”H-hey, what was that just now…?” Kibe-san asked.
Chifumi looked worried, Naruse-san stood frozen at the unexpected turn, and Kibe-san stared in surprise. Three people, three different reactions.
”I’m fine,” I said. “I’m fine. There’s no problem.”
”But…”
”It’s probably a dungeon conquest reward,” I said. “I suppose I received it as our representative.”
”A reward? Do you even know what that thing was?” Naruse-san asked.
”I don’t.”
”Minoru!”
”However, I do know one thing,” I said. “That thing was not malicious. If anything, it will probably help us in the future. I’m sure of it.”
”That’s so vague…” Chifumi sighed.
She looked exasperated, but she was truly worried. Thank you. But I was fine. I understood now.
There was a high chance this world was based on some kind of game.
Because—
(Man, thanks for that,) a voice said.
A centipede, shrunk and twisted down to about the size of a smartphone, floated in front of my eyes.
And it was talking. Fluently, too.
Since Chifumi and the others did not react, I was probably the only one who could see it. It had to be connected to the Apparitions from earlier and to the black orb. If this was a curse, it was going to be a pain, so I decided to deal with it quickly.
The moment I formed a small shock sorcery in my right hand, the centipede’s tone changed.
(W-wait, wait a sec, big bro. Can’t you just hear me out?)
”Speak.”
(Ah, saved, man. You’ve got a short temper, haven’t you, big bro…)
I silently increased the mana in my right hand.
(Alright, alright! My name is Hinoki. I’m a centipede Apparition, as you can see. I was unlucky enough to get hit by some bad energy and got sealed away, but you helped me out by releasing me, big bro. Thanks, aye.)
The centipede bowed its head in a strangely comic motion.
(Man, I thought I was done for, but I’m glad it was a big bro who’s into Apparition subjugation. How about it? Why don’t you make me your Shikigami?)
”Don’t need one.”
(Huh!? Wait, what!?)
The centipede chirped, its voice gratingly high.
(Why are you doing that?! I’m useful, I swear! You want my power, don’t you? The power that made that land deity quake in its boots? You do want it, right? I’m offering a bargain today only, proper cheap—a real steal, innit?)1
”…”
What kind of back-alley salesman hawking fake charms was this thing?
A thousand questions rattled around in my head, but one came first.
”You. How the hell can you talk?”
(Well, I mean, I was a high-level Apparition once, even if I’ve fallen on hard times.)
That was not an answer.
”You’re not trying to scam me, are you?”
(I literally just got blown away! Why would I do that? Besides, I can’t manifest, so I’m basically a powerless Apparition right now.)
”You can’t manifest?”
(Not at the moment. The seal weakened me, and then your ‘brother’ blew what strength I had left to bits. Being an imaginary friend is about all I can manage for now.)
”Fine… whatever. We’ll talk later.”
(Gotcha, boss. Thanks, big bro. I’ll keep quiet until you’re alone. Don’t forget about me!)
With that last squeaky note, the centipede hanging in the air vanished.
”Are you okay? Maybe you should see a doctor?”
Naruse-san was looking at me like I was a total freak. I had managed to raise her opinion of me by saving her from the centipede, but apparently, that was not enough to change how she saw me that easily.
”Yeah. I’ll do that. …Anyway, what was up with those centipedes?”
”I don’t know. We’ve been here plenty of times, but we’ve never seen anything like that before. I didn’t even know a room like that existed.”
”Which means there was a trigger. Maybe we had to come as a group of four.”
”Maybe. What about that orb at the end? It vanished, right?”
”Beats me…”
That was the only honest answer I had.
”Well, then! Shall we head back to the first room?”
”Right. Let’s go.”
The landscape warped the moment I nodded to Chifumi, and suddenly we were back in the dungeon’s entrance room.
”Wait… so does this mean we’ve cleared the dungeon?”
”Huh? We usually walk all the way back here every time.”
”I’m tired~. Come on, let’s get out of here~”
Ignoring Naruse-san’s confused look, I followed Chifumi as she started to phase through the wall. Kibe-san and Naruse-san came out of the dungeon after us.
Once we climbed the stone stairs and returned to the training grounds, we finally started talking through what had just happened.
”I wanted to show you what gets left behind when we exorcise a frog in that final room, but because of that weird Apparition, I completely forgot. Usually, it’s just a small pebble. But very rarely, this happens.”
Naruse-san handed me a dull, teardrop-shaped stone.
”Majo’s Tears…” Chifumi murmured.
It was an ultra-rare item said to raise its owner’s mana capacity, and it was worth a fortune.
”Yurina and I have one each,” Naruse-san added.
”You should not go showing that around,” I warned. “Some people would kill to take that off your hands.”
”…Seriously?”
”Seriously.”
Naruse-san and Kibe-san snatched the stone back from my hand and backed away from us on instinct.
”Look, I want one too, but I am not going to steal it from you. If I were planning to do that, I would not have warned you.”
”I guess that’s fair.”
”So that’s why your mana capacity was so high.”
”…So it really does have that effect.”
”Obviously… Wait, you two did not know? It’s a famous item, even if it almost never hits the market.”
”We don’t really have access to that kind of information.”
Right. Which meant this dungeon had a boss or some enemy capable of dropping Majo’s Tears at that level of difficulty.
The rewards were far too good.
If a treasure-trove dungeon like this became public, people would go to war over who owned it.
”Listen. Don’t say a word about the dungeon or the drop items. Not even a whisper. If this gets out, things will turn ugly.”
”Is it really that bad?”
”Even a rumor that the item drops here would turn you into a golden goose for every Sorcery user out there. People would go to war and tear your house down just to claim this dungeon. This country itself could become your enemy.”
”…”
”Who else knows about this besides the four of us?”
”Just us four.”
Then we could still keep it hidden.
”Keep those Majo’s Tears out of sight. If anyone ever finds out you have them, say you begged your dad, Naruse-papa, and he bought them for you. Tell them Kibe-san’s was a spare of Naruse-san’s that she lent her. That should not sound too suspicious.”
”O-okay.”
”Got it…”
Seeing them nod with their faces stiff with fear, I finally felt a little relieved. I had not expected things to turn into such a huge problem.
As Chifumi explained the finer details to the two of them, I shifted my gaze to the side.
The warped, chibi-fied centipede was still there, wiggling in the air.
(What? You done already?)
”Not yet.”
”Hm…? Minoru, is something bothering you?”
”Nothing. It’s nothing.”
I had to figure out what to do about this thing, too.
—
Summary:
Naruse and Kibe lead the group into a hidden basement beneath the training grounds, revealing an ancient stone staircase and a natural cave containing an anomalous black shadow—a dungeon entrance. Minoru and his party test the dungeon’s safety before entering, discovering a linear path populated by weak Apparitions and eventually a stronger boss monster. Upon clearing the room, Minoru inadvertently absorbs a mysterious black orb that manifests as a talking centipede-Apparition named Hinoki, who attempts to negotiate becoming his familiar.
The group exits a mysterious dungeon after encountering a strange centipede creature. They discover that the loot obtained, Majo’s Tears, is dangerously rare and valuable, sparking concerns over their safety. Minoru advises the girls to hide the items to prevent exploitation by powerful sorcery users.
—
Trivia:
The dungeon entrance is formed from gathered shadows that reflect no light.
Kibe’s blade seems to absorb smoke-like residue from defeated Apparitions.
The dungeon’s spawn rate appears to scale dynamically based on the number of challengers present.
Minoru is the only one who can see or hear the centipede Apparition, Hinoki.
Majo’s Tears are a known but rare item that increases mana capacity.
The dungeon’s rewards are significant enough to trigger wars among powerful users.
The centipede entity claims to have been a high-level Apparition before being sealed.
—
Translation Notes:
Notes:
• Naruse – A grumpy, wide-eyed female student and fiercely independent youngest daughter of the wealthy Naruse merchant family. A childhood friend of Kibe and dungeon explorer partnered with Yurina, she hosts training sessions at her estate. Guarded, analytical, and lonely, her ignorance of sorcery social rules leads to confrontational behavior. Skeptical of Minoru, she is his upcoming duel target.
• Risa – A student with shoulder-length brown hair and a grumpy aura. She is the second target for recruitment and has a confrontational personality.
• Yurina – A serious, disciplined dungeon explorer with long black hair tied in a ponytail. One of the target Free Girls, she is a stubborn but highly capable swordfighter who partners with Naruse to battle Apparitions.
• Kibe – A pragmatic, capable magic knight and female student from a struggling sorcery family tied to an old dojo. Naruse’s best friend, submissive companion, and rear guard, she follows her lead and acts as a mediator. Highly skilled with a bamboo sword, she dispatches multiple Apparitions in single strikes, possesses rare dungeon-dropped items, and stays behind to train while her party departs.
• Chifumi – Minoru’s 15-year-old childhood friend, classmate, and devoted J-cup Majo (witch servant) is a scrawny, long-haired, frost/water magic user who wields a staff. Cheerfully naive yet sharply-tongued, this well-rounded balance-type warrior hides deceptive strength. As a close, physically attracted confidante, she handles group discoveries, dungeon traversal, and his “Instruction” negotiations.
• Minoru – An athletic male student leader with 21st-century Japanese memories reincarnated into a world with reversed beauty standards. Cautious yet predatory, this “Strong-Male” hides a lecherous, dominant side, using shock-based sorcery and Apparition subdual to see hidden smoke remnants. He targets slim women and secures dungeons by placing his childhood friend and Majo under mastery contracts.
• Hinoki – A centipede-type Apparition that appears to Minoru after he absorbs a mysterious black orb. It is capable of speech and offers to become a Shikigami. A legendary-class Great Apparition who takes the form of a chibi-style centipede. It is strategic, seeking to restart its life cycle by serving a master.
• Naruse-papa – The influential father of Naruse who is used as a cover story for the acquisition of rare items.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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