After a half-day of riding in a carriage provided by Cell, Neptune and I arrived at Tennessine.
In the dusky wilderness, a tall tower cast an extremely long shadow. I couldn’t see the top; it continued all the way up to the clouds.
“Is this Tennessine?”
“It sure is.”
“And it goes upward?”
“Is this your first time in a dungeon that doesn’t go underground?”
I nodded back in response.
“I see. Well, yes, some of them go up,” he explained.
“Huh.” I wasn’t particularly surprised.
All the ones I’d seen had gone underground, yes, but dungeons didn’t necessarily need to do that. It’s only natural that some would go up.
I looked around us. “Nothing around. There’s no village or town nearby?”
“Not yet. A whole bunch of different factions are involved, so ownership rights will depend on the investigation.”
“Okay… By the way, what are the enemies? And the drops?”
“We don’t know the drops.”
“You don’t?”
Neptune chuckled bitterly. “I said it depends on the investigation, remember?”
“But you must at least know the drops, right?”
“The monsters here are stronger than me. I almost had one the first time, but I missed my chance.”
“Stronger than you? Wait… Only the first time?”
“Go in, and you’ll understand. Remember, now: they are stronger than me.” He repeated those words again. The look on his face was serious. “Don’t let your guard down.”
“…Got it.”
I knew Neptune’s strength, along with his fame and the public’s opinion of him. Even he had been put on the back foot by this dungeon.
I steeled myself and made my way toward it.
“Watch the carriage for me,” I said. “For now, I need to return to Cyclo after I clear the first floor.”
I had to keep my promise with Plumbum.
“Roger that. Leave it to me.”
Neptune sent me off, and I entered the first floor of Tennessine.
It looked like a tower from the outside and the interior looked much the same.
The inside was made of stacked stone bricks, with windows that let in the sunlight. It was the brightest dungeon I’d been in so far.
Not a bad vibe, overall.
Now, let’s see those monsters…
Suddenly, someone briskly approached from the other side of the floor.
“Huh? Neptune, what’s going on? I thought you weren’t coming along. Wait, is there an entrance over there, too─”
I quickly reacted and jumped to the side─because he’d balled up his fist and went for a punch. It tore through the air with a boom, just barely grazing the tip of my nose. It struck the ground where I’d just dodged, causing some kind of explosion that shattered the floor.
“Neptune, what the hell are you doing?!”
“…”
“Is that…not the real you?”
While I was confused, he stepped forth again and went for another punch.
I faced him head-on with my own punch. An indescribable explosive sound shook the tower.
Shockwaves rippled through the building, and we both took three steps back.
Evenly matched.
I recalled the restaurant where we’d first met. The way we traded punches was like reliving that moment; hell, the way we moved was almost exactly the same.
“But we’re evenly matched…”
I’m much stronger now than I was back then. But he’s been a famous adventurer for years now. Common sense says that his level would’ve been capped at that point. Why is he stronger now, then?
He’d matched my SS-rank strength.
The word “imposter” crossed my mind. He moved the same as the original, so he must’ve been a doppelganger or something, but his power was overwhelmingly beyond the original’s.
The fake Neptune attacked once more.
I fired a barrage of normal bullets, got away from him, and set up an eternal flame round trap, but the faker smoothly evaded it and charged at me at ferocious speed.
BANG!
I crossed my arms to protect myself from the powerful punch. As it launched me away, I grabbed his arm and used the momentum to throw him. He flew into a tower wall with such force that he was embedded in it for a moment. Amidst smoke and falling debris, he calmly approached again.
“Not a scratch?!” I was a little horrified. He had sand and dust on him, but not a single wound to be seen. “In that case!” I roared as I shot an acceleration round into myself.
The world slowed down around me as I charged at him. I evaded his slow-motion heavy punch with ease, grabbed his throat, and rushed forward with my hand tightly clenched around it. Then, I pushed him against a wall and fired growth rounds and limitless lightning rounds at point-blank range.
“Is it working?!”
A normal dungeon master would’ve died several times over at this point. Even after all that, the faker had only sustained minor wounds. He even counterattacked.
I was getting tired of how hardy he was, but it wasn’t as if it wasn’t working.
I didn’t need to do anything special. He was just many times stronger than Neptune, one of the strongest adventurers in the world.
The acceleration round was still active.
In slow motion, I grabbed his arm and threw him at the ground. His limbs were splayed now, so I fired trash rounds into each at point-blank range.
The trash rounds moved ever so slowly; even my power couldn’t push them forward. Since I’d fired them into each limb, he’d been pinned to the ground.
He struggled, but he could not move. I straddled him and fired more point-blank gunshots at him. This went on until the acceleration round was about to wear off.
Finally, the fake Neptune died and dropped something.
“Matsutake mushrooms? Geez, this world’s dungeons really are all about primary production.”
The faker, easily one of the five strongest monsters I’d ever fought, had dropped a luxury food item. It was impressive, yes, but I also couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t worth the effort.
Very typical of this world, indeed.
When I picked up the mushrooms, the fake Neptune I’d struggled so much to defeat was replaced by three more approaching from afar.
“More of them, huh?”
When they reached a certain distance, all three began mad dashes toward me. Normally, this three-pronged attack would prove fatal.
“Repetition!” I fired off my favorite spell.
All three of them died with ease, and they all dropped good-looking matsutake mushrooms. Repetition had worked─more proof that there was no trick to these monsters beyond being ridiculously strong.
“Hmm… This is looking like another tricky one.”
Why was it Neptune, though? I decided to ask him after I left.