Chapter 1:
Awakening Dungeon Teleportation
YUNAGI DUNGEON, Classification: D-rank, floor fifteen. That was where I took on three goblins at once.
“Haaa!”
I whipped my short sword over my head. The tip caught one goblin’s throat and ripped it wide open. From the corner of my eye, I saw it choke on its own blood and collapse as I went after the other two. They ran at me with a combo attack, but—
“Too slow!!!” I shouted.
The goblins that spawned in Yunagi Dungeon were level 120; I was level 194. Sure, numbers mattered, but the massive difference in our levels squashed any advantage. I lightly parried each goblin’s club and struck back with two strong swipes of my short sword. They both collapsed with a bloody gargle.
“Subjugation complete,” I said to myself. At the same time, the familiar sound of the level system dinged in my brain.
“Gained XP. Level increased by 1!”
“Sweet! Here it comes. Stats, open!”
At my command, the stats screen appeared in front of me.
AMANE RIN
LEVEL: 195 SP: 300
HP: 1,600/1,600 MP: 350/350
Attack: 390 Defense: 290 Speed: 400
Intelligence: 290 Resistance: 290 Luck: 290
Skills: Dungeon Teleportation LV 9, Enhanced Strength LV 3
DUNGEON TELEPORTATION LV 9
Required MP: 3 MP × distance (meters)
Conditions: Teleportation can only occur inside the current dungeon. → Teleportation Distance: Maximum 20 meters.
Activation Time: 2 seconds × distance (meters)
Scope: User and user’s belongings.
Like the system sound indicated, my level grew from 194 to 195. My stats increased a bit too. Unfortunately, a look at my stats did nothing but depress me.
“My level is increasing nicely, but that doesn’t change the fact I could still end up a bottom-of-the-barrel adventurer. The top-ranked adventurers in the world surpass 100,000. Compared to them, I’ve got a long way to go.”
It had been twenty years since dungeons first appeared in our world. The front-runners had a huge head start. Considering I only had a year of experience, maybe it was presumptuous of me to try to catch up to them.
Oh, yeah. I think Yunagi Dungeon’s level-up reward is five levels, I recalled.
That was crucial information. The lowest floor of every dungeon possessed a boss room where the dungeon boss lurked. Defeating the boss and taking down the whole dungeon offered all kinds of rewards. The total rewards varied with each dungeon, but every dungeon had a level-up reward. We adventurers could level up according to the figures set by the specific dungeon, regardless of our individual experience.
E-rank dungeons gave one level, A-rank dungeons gave a hundred levels, and so on. The number depended on the dungeon’s difficulty. In this case, Yunagi Dungeon—a D-rank dungeon—rewarded five levels.
Back when people were first figuring out the dungeons, there was a theory that defeating the dungeon itself over and over to gain levels would be faster than defeating monsters. But that theory died soon after it was formed.
Why? Because there was something that made it impossible.
After an adventurer defeated a dungeon, they had to deal with a Span—a week-long waiting period before they could try again. No one knew what caused the Span to exist but based on the information adventurers had gathered from around the world, all dungeons were linked together. That link meant we couldn’t storm a different dungeon to get around the Span. That was why adventurers who arrived late to the game were basically screwed.
“I still can’t wrap my head around this absurd setup…”
I mean, I’d spent the last year fighting monsters ranked higher than me, but the people who spent the last five years safely beating lower-ranked dungeons were higher level than I was! How unfair was that?
Not to mention, when it came to a full party, the dungeon gave level-up rewards to everyone, no matter how many assisted. If five people took down Yunagi Dungeon, they’d each gain five levels. It was completely separate from the experience points—XP—split among a party killing monsters together. That was why most adventurers partied up with people close to their skill level and undertook whatever dungeons would give them level-up rewards. Everyone did it that way, but it was so frustrating!
I admit, I understood why no one wanted to form a party with me.
“Well, it’s not against the rules to go solo.”
I didn’t need other people to close the level gap. I just needed to center my actions around exterminating monsters. Sadly, that strategy meant I had to dungeon dive every day, which was the least time-effective method. Despite knowing the disadvantages and obstacles, I still soloed and adventured without defeating dungeons.
Little did I know, my circumstances were about to radically change.
“If I get the level-up reward for this dungeon, I can jump straight to level 200.”
I’d waited for this moment since I became an adventurer. With our level system, every ten levels, an adventurer gained 100 skill points, or SP. SP was the fuel needed to strengthen skills. At that moment, I had 300 SP. Defeating Yunagi Dungeon would give me 100, boosting my total SP pool to 400. That was exactly the number of points I needed to raise Dungeon Teleportation from LV 9 to LV 10.
It varied by the skill, but plenty of skills gained a massive strength boost when they jumped to LV 10. I wanted to test it out immediately.
“Okay, I’m gonna lose out on a week of dungeon diving for cash but cracking eggs and making omelets and all that. Here goes nothing!”
With my mind made up, I traveled down to the twentieth floor of Yunagi Dungeon. That marked the bottom floor, where the boss awaited: a level 150 twin-tailed beast. With its agile dual-tail attacks, it was a tough monster to get a grip on. But this was my third time encountering it, and we had a big difference in levels now. I stayed calm and overwhelmed it.
Once it was dead, the system dinged in my mind.
“Dungeon Takedown Reward: Level increased by 5!”
AMANE RIN
Level: 200 SP: 400
HP: 1,640/1,640 MP: 360/360
Attack: 400 Defense: 300 Speed: 410
Intelligence: 300 Resistance: 300 Luck: 290
Skill: Dungeon Teleportation LV 9, Enhanced Strength LV 3
“Whew.”
I paused to take a breath.
Today, in this very moment, my life as an adventurer could change dramatically, I thought.
“So much happened this past year.”
After I graduated high school, I passed my adventurer’s qualifications and gained my unique skill, Dungeon Teleportation. People were shocked, at first, by the ability to defy the laws of physics and freely move within a dungeon. I had high expectations on my shoulders. But in practice, my skill carried many weaknesses. People started to write it off as a useless ability.
Damn, that memory really irritated me.
I kept stubborn faith in my skill, though: my desire to become as strong as the man I met that fateful day never disappeared. That was why, while the other adventurers who started around the same time as me leveled up, I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into leveling up even more. Now was the time to see if it was all worth it.
“Here we go.”
With my mind made up, I applied every last one of my skill points to Dungeon Teleportation.
Which part would change? Teleportation distance? Activation time? Scope? Or—
“Dungeon Teleportation skill LV 10.”
“Skill conditions have changed.”
“Teleportation can only occur inside the current dungeon. à Teleportation can only occur in dungeons that have already been visited.”
The system stopped sounding inside my head.
“Teleportation can only occur in dungeons that have already been visited…?”
It took a while for the meaning to sink in. Eventually, I understood that this wasn’t the result I hoped for.
“I should’ve known… Figures life wouldn’t be that easy.”
Not, Teleportation can occur anywhere in the dungeon.
Not, Activation time is reduced to X seconds.
Not, Scope includes other adventurers.
I’d imagined a variety of different outcomes, but none of them sucked quite as much as this one.
Well, not that I fully understood what this one meant. Even if I could teleport to dungeons I’d been to, at a minimum, they were separated by a whole kilometer. If I tried to ramp up my skill level to teleport even twenty meters, it would take so long I’d never actually get to put it into practice.
This change was completely pointless.
I let out a huge, disappointed sigh. One year of hoping and trying, crushed in a second. Nobody could blame me for being upset.
While I wallowed in my sorrows, a soft light enveloped my body, a signal that the dungeon’s teleportation spell was going to activate and teleport me outside.
“Ugh…I’d better hurry.”
I collected the magic stones from the twin-tailed beast’s corpse in a rush. These stones always existed inside monster bodies, and I never passed up the chance to gather them. Since they were such an excellent energy source, I could sell them for a high price. Besides, the dungeon would automatically absorb and destroy whatever I didn’t collect in time, so it was a waste to leave them. Man, when I stopped to think about it, dungeons were strange places.
Once I had my magic stones, I silently waited for the teleportation spell to activate. Truth was, I was so upset, I wanted to cry into my pillow for three days and three nights straight. But I still tried to think ahead, knowing I couldn’t sulk forever.
“The next time my skill can evolve in a significant way is at level 20. Who knows how many years that’ll take, but all I can do is try again.”
I slapped my cheeks with both hands to reenergize myself. At the same time, the teleportation spell activated.
“Guess I’ll go home…”
I carried my disappointment with me like a stone and left Yunagi Dungeon behind. But one hour later, I would learn something more.
The true value of Dungeon Teleportation.