MTLNOVEL Chapter 6
I had planned to enter the dungeon for personal reasons, but as usual, the Explorer Association sent a request, so I ended up diving into the dungeon anyway.
My name is Kisaragi Tsukasa.
Explorer registration name: “UNKNOWN.”
Nice to meet you.
By the way, the reason his registered name is “UNKNOWN” is because when he got his explorer’s license in April of his first year of high school, he left the name field blank on the application.
That was incredibly stupid of him.
Normally, if someone submits it blank, they just register them under their real name.
But for some reason, the staff at the time thought it would be “helpful” to fill in “UNKNOWN” instead.
Now, he was stuck with it.
He’d love to change it, but since everyone in the Association already calls him by it, it’d be too much of a hassle.
“Hey.”
“UNKNOWN-san, that was fast.”
“Well… I just changed after coming home from school.”
Shibuya Dungeon was located deep inside the station, but since he took the train to school, it actually felt pretty close.
“About the request—”
“I heard it’s about Frost Wyverns.”
“Y-Yes, that’s right. Two or more Frost Wyverns have been spotted on the 42nd floor.”
“That’s unusual… Frost Wyverns aren’t common, even beyond the 60th floor.”
Frost Wyverns were technically classified as lower-floor monsters, but they were far more common in the deeper levels.
Even then, they were rarely seen.
They were medium-sized dragons, and in terms of raw strength, they were just on the edge of what a B-Rank explorer could handle solo.
They controlled ice at will, and their bodies were below freezing temperature, making them incredibly difficult to touch.
How something that cold managed to stay alive, he had no idea but reality didn’t care what he thought.
“Alright, I’ll get going.”
“P-Please be careful.”
The Explorer Association staff saw him off as he entered the dungeon.
As always, the upper floors were crowded with both monsters and explorers.
Shibuya Dungeon was probably the most visited dungeon in Japan, and since half of all explorers never progress beyond the upper floors, it was always filled with people.
Because of that, he preferred not to summon his shikigami in this area.
They could easily be mistaken for monsters, and he would rather not cause a panic.
So, until he reached the middle floors, he stuck with just a sword.
“Gyaaah!”
The moment he stepped down the stairs, a black-skinned goblin came charging at him, wildly swinging a cleaver-like blade.
Goblins were often portrayed as weak, low-level enemies in games, but when seen in person,
they were nothing short of disgusting.
Bloodshot eyes darting around, drool dripping from their mouths, and the way they sprinted while waving their weapons, it was honestly terrifying.
That said, explorers had far superior physical abilities compared to regular people.
For him, all it took was one clean swing of his blade.
“Ghiik—!?”
The goblin’s small frame, barely half his height was cleaved in two.
Since his sword was forged from deep-floor materials,
it could effortlessly slice through a goblin.
Normally, goblins tended to attack in groups, but with so many people in the dungeon today, they had probably been hunted down already.
Truly a pitiful existence.
As the goblin’s corpse turned to ash, it left behind only one thing— a magic stone.
Monsters in dungeons disintegrate into ash upon death.
Sometimes, certain body parts remain, but with goblins, the only thing left behind is their magic stone—
a crystallized form of magic energy.
“Huh… Goblin magic stones are this small?”
It had been a while since he’d bothered to kill a goblin, so he was surprised by how tiny the stone was.
Since magic stones were an essential national resource,
the government bought them by weight.
Prices weren’t fixed they fluctuated based on supply and demand.
But still, even if someone collected hundreds of these tiny goblin stones, they wouldn’t make enough to live on.
Honestly, if someone stayed in the upper floors just hunting goblins,
they’d be better off getting a part-time job.
It was safer too.
That said, if they were strong enough to efficiently hunt goblins, they’d eventually qualify as an F-Rank explorer and gain access to higher-paying upper-floor hunts.
“Hah!”
“Incoming!”
“Three goblins approaching!”
As he continued walking through the upper floors, he saw plenty of other explorers his age.
Most of them needed a group just to handle a few goblins.
It made sense.
For high schoolers, this level was still a challenge.
Magic develops over time, and like a muscle, it strengthens the more it’s used.
Some people’s magic grows rapidly, while others develop it gradually over years.
There were even cases where someone who couldn’t qualify for a license in high school
later became a C-Rank explorer in their 30s.
Of course, that didn’t mean early bloomers stopped growing either.
The upper floors were mostly populated by goblins, but as he neared the 10th floor, other monsters started appearing.
One of them was the Steel Ant, a large, metal-bodied ant.
Despite being called “large,” it was actually smaller than a goblin, only around 40 centimeters in size.
But its shell was incredibly tough.
That said, it was all defense.
Its bite was weak, and while it could spray acid, it only caused mild skin irritation.
For explorers with enough magic, Steel Ants were more of an annoyance than a threat.
“Oh, an ant.”
As he walked across the 10th floor, two Steel Ants scurried ahead of him.
They hadn’t noticed him yet, but they had good sensory perception and would react once he got within 10 meters.
Then again, for him, 10 meters was nothing— a distance he could close in under a tenth of a second.