Unlimited leveling up was so fun, I lost track of time. When I left the dungeon, the sun had set completely, so I hurried home.
“I-I’m home,” I said, cautiously opening the door.
“You’re late, oniichan!”
“Whoa!” I yelped. The adorable girl who’d been waiting for me glared directly at my face. As she loomed in closer, her sleek black ponytail bobbed with irritation.
“Sorry, Hana,” I said. “I lost track of time in the dungeon.”
“Fine! I’ll heat up dinner for you. Go wash your hands.”
My sister Hana, three years my junior, spun on her heel and returned to the living room. I immediately went to wash my hands, then sat down for dinner. Despite the late hour, she’d set the table with a full spread of food. I immediately dug in.
“Thanks for making this,” I enthused. “It’s delicious. You’re the best cook in the world!”
“Where’s that coming from? You’re being weird…”
Her sharp response made me clutch my chest as if wounded. Across the table, she gave me a gentle smile.
“So, did something good happen?” she asked.
“What makes you think that?”
“You’re talking all strange and you came home late, so it made me wonder if something happened today.”
“Hmm…well, you’re not wrong. Something good did happen.” Something awesome, actually.
“Does it have to do with dungeons?” she asked.
“Yeah! Something so good that it validates my decision to put the effort into becoming an adventurer.”
Her expression eased into relief. “That’s great. I’m happy for you.”
Hana knew I was a talentless adventurer. She often asked me how things were going in the dungeons, probably out of worry. I was grateful to have a little sister who cared so much about me. I was grateful to have her at all.
After all, Hana was my only family.
A few years back, our parents were caught in an accident during a vacation overseas and went missing. They left enough money for us to survive on, but we weren’t exactly living it up. Since I became an adventurer, I had earned us some spending money, but I also needed to buy equipment for adventuring. In E- and D-rank dungeons, those earnings only went so far.
Hana respected my selfish childhood dream of becoming a top-tier adventurer. I couldn’t hold anything against her in light of that. Once I made some real money, I wanted to repay the favor tenfold.
“Now, did this good thing make you strong enough to take on C-rank dungeons?” Hana asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. She smiled teasingly: she must’ve known I only just surpassed level 200. C-rank dungeons jumped dramatically in difficulty; an adventurer needed to be level 500 at a minimum to take them on. She had to be pulling my leg.
With the way things were going, it had taken me a whole year to get to my current level. I knew she was kidding, but thanks to Dungeon Teleportation, I could level up much more effectively. I might be challenging C-rank dungeons in a month.
“Listen to this. What happened was—”
I quickly cut myself off. Should I really tell her this? The power I’d obtained enabled me to bypass the Span, an obstacle that barred the growth of every adventurer in the world. I doubted anyone would take kindly to me leveling up that way. Heck, people might get jealous or angry enough to attack me. Hana wasn’t the kind of person to run around telling everyone my secret, but there were lots of ways information could leak. This secret needed to stay with me.
“What’s the matter, oniichan? You spaced out.”
“It’s nothing. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before I can try out C-rank dungeons.”
“Well, I knew that.”
“Then don’t ask. Jeez…”
Hana snickered. Seeing her smile, I quickly forgave her for teasing.
After that, we chatted about everything and nothing while we ate. Casual moments like this were more important than anything else.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, I made a list of the nearby dungeons I’d beaten before and considered which one I should go to first. In terms of which dungeon was most effective for leveling up, Yunagi Dungeon was my top choice. I could beat it in about two hours. Plus, the level-up reward was five levels. If I beat it five times in one day, I’d gain twenty-five levels. One problem: out of all the D-rank dungeons, Yunagi Dungeon had the most resources to gather, which meant a lot of money-seeking adventurers would be there. Often, I was one of them. The Return Zone saw a lot of foot traffic too. If I used Dungeon Teleportation, people were bound to see me vanish. Not to mention the possibility of someone noticing my return via the dungeon’s teleportation spell multiple times in one day. I couldn’t draw attention to myself like that.
I needed a less populated place like Shion Dungeon. I could defeat that one in one hour, but the level-up reward was only one level. Compared to Yunagi Dungeon, it wasn’t as effective to train in. Not to mention Shion Dungeon didn’t offer as much loot, so the only profit would be gathering a few levels.
“This one, then.”
The D-rank dungeon—Yumemi Dungeon.
The recommended level to beat it was 120, but in the grand scheme of D-rank dungeons—where recommended levels could range from 100 to 500—this one was pretty low difficulty. The catch was the vastness of its floors. It would take three hours to beat Yumemi. Considering the level-up reward was five levels, the time wasn’t as bad as it sounded, but it was a little worse than other options. In one run, I would harvest enough magic stones to make around 10,000 yen. If I beat it three times in one day, I’d move up fifteen levels and make a 30,000 yen profit.
Usually, the size of the dungeon wouldn’t be enough to keep people away from a decent profit, but Yumemi Dungeon was also known for giving few experience points. There wasn’t much merit in gathering its resources to sell without other benefits. For my purposes, that downside was actually an upside. Hardly any adventurers challenged it, which meant fewer prying eyes on me and my skill.
“Yeah, this is the one for sure!”
Once I finished getting ready, I hopped on the train and headed for Yumemi Dungeon.