Chapter 1 Prologue
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
There used to be this game called “Beyond the Deep Darkness.” It was an exploration-forging-romance SRPG—dungeon crawling for loot, crafting weapons and gear back at your base, and slowly strengthening your units and the base itself. The company behind it was small but had been around forever, with a tight-knit group of fans who supported every release.
”Romance” was kind of a lie, though. To be honest, it was an eroge. But the company had always been more into deep RPG and SLG mechanics, and their fanbase was the same. Every title tied into a shared world, sprinkling in cameos and references to past characters and incidents that made long-time fans grin like idiots. It was that kind of company.
”Beyond the Deep Darkness” ended up being their last game. The industry was shrinking, their money had run out, and they threw every bit of fan service they could into this final festival of a game. The old fans were heartbroken, but they bought it, played it, cried and smiled and laughed their way through one last ride.
Six months later, the former company president posted a farewell patch on social media—made by volunteer staff. That was the official end of all development.
And why am I going on about this game and this company?
Well… because I got tossed into that world myself.
”Stop zoning out and do something!?”
A husky-tinged girl’s voice rang out, followed by the sharp crack of gunfire and a chorus of ugly dying shrieks.
”I mean, I wouldn’t call this a pinch…”
”It’s obviously a pinch!?”
I swung my weapon as I answered her, smashing the head of a goblin-level thing that was about chest-high on a human kid, splattering it into a smear on the wall. The girl was too busy snapping back at my deadpan tone and pulling her trigger to stop.
We were stuck inside a so-called Dungeon. We’d come here for crafting materials, only to get caught in a Monster House trap—basically an endless swarm of weak monsters. Technically, their attacks couldn’t hurt either of us. Even a critical wouldn’t scratch us. But these things only end if you either outlast the timer or wipe them all out, and killing them just makes more spawn. It caps out at a certain number, so it’s clearly a durability-type trap. The girl, though, was going at it like she planned to wipe them to extinction.
Her weapon was an Arcane Gun, nicknamed a Mana Gun. It burned through mana every shot, which could tank your combat ability if you ran dry. She had a racial trait that let her passively recover about ten percent of her mana just by breathing for a minute, so in theory she could fire forever as long as she took breaks.
”Don’t run yourself out of mana with that Mana Gun.”
”Easy for you to say! These creeps see me and get all—uh—hard and charge right at me!?”
Right. This world was still an eroge. Every monster from lowly goblins to top-tier demon lords was pretty much led around by their lower halves. Dungeon mobs came in all sorts—male, female, sexless, hermaphrodite—but the classics like goblins, trolls, and orcs were basically always male. Lose to them, and the game triggered an erotic scene, and if you lost enough, you could even end up birthing their kids.
This particular Monster House was known as a Goblin Nest, and the resulting scene if she lost would be… yeah, not pretty. They’d rip off her clothes, stuff her mouth, front, and back full, finish inside her with zero mercy, spray her from all sides while she went blank-eyed, and just as the next group shoved in, it would all cut to black. That kind of eroge logic.
And for the record, there were plenty of female-type monsters too—succubi, alraunes—that attacked guys without mercy. Some skills even let you enslave them and turn them into allies, which was… handy, in a lot of ways.
”You’ve seen worse. And it’s not your first time.”
”Wanna get slapped?”
Her voice had a dangerous edge. Okay, fine, fair. I had taken responsibility for her. And yeah… the fact her first time had been with me didn’t exactly help me dodge that responsibility.
”Anyway, you’re the one who insisted on coming along when I said I’d dive solo for materials. And you’re the one who triggered this Monster House.”
”Wh—!? Ugh, shut up!!”
She shrieked in some weird pitch before yelling at me. Totally busted and getting defensive.
”Oh, level up.”
”Congrats, I guess!?”
I cut down three at once in a sweep of blood and mist, and the level-up fanfare rang just in my head. Only I could hear it—a so-called blessing from the gods.
Leveling up gave random stat boosts based on growth rate and completely restored all current HP and mana. Super handy during exploration. Honestly, the XP from these things was bottom-tier, so if I leveled, it meant I’d crushed at least a hundred already. She had to be close too.
”Yes! I leveled up too!”
”Then your mana’s back. Good luck.”
”Don’t you dare dump this on me!”
These goblins were so weak that even she could punt them to death if she wanted. And after about thirty minutes of nonstop slaughter, the Monster House finally ended.
”F-finally…”
”Sorry, but collect the mana stones quick. They’ll attract trouble if we leave them.”
”Yeah, yeah…”
I called to her as she panted hard, and slit open a goblin’s chest to pull out a small stone. Monsters carried chunks of raw mana inside them, aptly named Mana Stones.
They were basically fuel. Even a tiny one could power a household magic tool for a whole day. Leave them lying around, and wandering monsters would sniff them out to absorb their mana and evolve, becoming huge problems later. And if those evolved monsters caused havoc, the Dungeon Oversight Committee would trace it back to the explorers who left the stones and punish them. Even the lightest fine hit six figures. As a broke student, that would absolutely ruin me.
”Ugh… I’m wiped.”
”Then let’s call it. We got a decent haul of mana stones.”
We’d pulled about six kilos of small ones—enough that selling just two kilos would buy us a fancy dinner without worry.
”But… materials…”
”You think you can dive to the twentieth floor like this? What level even are you now?”
”…Fifteen.”
”Not near the safety margin. So we’re heading back, end of story.”
Safety margin was the recommended level for a given floor. It didn’t even factor in gear, stats, or skills.
Even if leveling fully healed our bodies and mana, it did nothing for mental fatigue. And she’d been an explorer for less than a year—still lacking experience.
”Fwehh…”
Tears welled in her eyes as I took her hand and started walking. I mentally ran through a list of good restaurants to cheer her up as I cracked a teleport crystal—the expensive kind with return magic—and warped us out of the dungeon.
This world ran on different rules from reality, a world like the game “Beyond the Deep Darkness.”
We dive as explorers, craft as artisans, build bonds of love and friendship, clash in hatred and blood.
And this is the story of me, living in the city of Whirlwind, and the one girl who walks beside me.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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