From that moment onwards, I proactively took to “goblin hunting.” Even without offing their heads like Akane had been doing, they would turn to smoke after taking a certain amount of damage. This part, I thought, was very RPG-like. Thanks to there pretty much being an endless stream of goblins, I had killed more than a hundred of them in three full hours of hunting.
“What do you think, Kazuhiko-sama? I believe we’ve already gone over most of Floor 1 by now, so would you like to go back to get some rest?”
“Hmm, I don’t mind going back, but what do you think about taking a peek at Floor 2 first? Thanks to the layout being pretty much a grid, things were quite a lot easier than I’d originally feared.”
Floor 1 of the Rank A dungeon Abyss was basically a square — roughly eight hundred meters on each side — broken up into a grid-like pattern. There was absolutely no worry about getting lost. The two of us headed deeper into the floor, summarily finishing off all the goblins that showed up. Soon enough, we discovered the staircase that led downwards to Floor 2. Unlike the narrow one at the entrance of the dungeon, this one was as wide as one of the staircases leading up to train platforms in stations in Tokyo.
“If I may, Kazuhiko-sama, I wish to dissuade you from attempting Floor 2 at the moment. As I had said earlier, Floor 1 is akin to bait. Many dungeons use Floor 1 to attract invaders, get them off guard, and then feed on them by suddenly raising the difficulty on Floor 2. How about continuing to fight here until you reach Rank E at least?”
“Very well. Then let’s head back, doing a bit more fighting along the way. After resting up in the Safety Zone, we’ll come back again.”
“I believe that to be the wise thing to do.”
Before I knew it, I had already taken the leading position in our procession.
✦ ✦ ✦
My Master, Ezoe Kazuhiko-sama, was a bit of an eccentric person. After fighting with goblins for several hours, he then wrote something down on paper. I took a peek, and it turned out to be the number that he had killed and the amount of time spent. As it turned out, he had a very methodical personality.
“Interesting. So this is a ‘Goblin Card.’ Not that I have any need for it though.”
When a monster was killed, there was a certain probability that it would become cardified. According to Kazuhiko-sama’s records, killing a hundred goblins had yielded, on average, two such cards. When he had collected ten of them, he then brought up his Status window.
✦ ✦ ✦
Name: Ezoe Kazuhiko
Title: First Contacter
Rank: F
Possession Limit: 10 / ∞
Skills: Card Gacha (1), ______, ______, ______, ______, ______
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hm? A ‘1’ got added behind the Card Gacha skill. Does that mean I can activate it once for every ten cards I collect? What would happen if I used Akane for a roll?”
Did I hear that incorrectly? Did my Master just equate me, one of the 108 Stars of Destiny who stand at the very top of the Dungeon System, with the likes of mere goblins?! Depending on his reply, I might wring him out to the point where he turns into a paraplegic!
“Kazuhiko-sama...surely you are not thinking of sacrificing me in exchange for some unknown skill, are you?”
“I’m sorry. It was my bad for wording it in an easily misunderstood way. Don’t worry, I will never let you go. Not until I either die or until every last dungeon has been cleared. In any case, the fact that this ‘1’ appeared with the tenth Goblin Card probably means that you aren’t counted while materialized, right?”
“Separated only in death...ehehe...”
Kazuhiko-sama’s unexpected words caused my chest to grow warm. I was not such a child that my heart would be moved by a man’s superficial words. That said, we had been fighting together in the dungeon for several days already by this point, having also eaten and slept together during that time. It was not at all strange that I had begun developing an affection for him.
During this period of time, Kazuhiko-sama’s appearance had also started to show changes. His protruding belly and bulging chin had both shrunken noticeably. From merely having lost only a bit of weight, he was already starting to gain a rather desirable image. I couldn’t wait to see how attractive a gentleman he would become if he kept on fighting.
Oh my. It appears that Kazuhiko-sama has discovered something. Whatever could it be?
✦ ✦ ✦
Akane looked delighted with my superficial words. Although I was nearing forty, I was still very much a man. I had not dried up so much as to indefinitely keep on rejecting a woman’s advances, especially that coming from a woman with such outstanding looks and such a perfect body. It’s probably about time that I make a move, isn’t it? But before that, let’s take a look at this skill first.
The window before my eyes changed from the Status screen to a stereotypical screen associated with mention of an in-game gacha or loot box system. What I didn’t understand previously was what “in-game money” I was supposed to use to roll the gacha. At first, I had thought it to be the five hundred yen coins dropped by the slain goblins, but the system showed absolutely no reaction to them whatsoever. It was the same when I tried giving it my first card drop. Now, though, I finally understood. It was with ten cards that I would get one gacha roll.
“On average, the drop rate for cards is about 2%-3%, right? Which means in order to gather ten cards, I would need to kill about...five hundred goblins. The cost-performance doesn’t seem all that great. So then, what should I do with this? Do I just push these ten cards against the screen?”
When I touched the screen with the stack of Goblin Cards, the cards disappeared like bubbles. Then the screen changed to show four gacha capsule machines like the kind that small-time candy stores used to have. Above each machine was a label, reading “Character Gacha,” “Weapon Gacha,” “Equipment Gacha,” and “Item Gacha.” The first one, “Character Gacha,” most likely yielded monsters to “summon to fight for you.” “Weapon,” “Equipment,” and “Item” all seemed quite self-explanatory.
“Akane, take a look at this.”
Akane drew near, pressing her breasts against my left arm. Needless to say, I didn’t mind it. But leaving that aside...
“Just confirming, but can weapons, equipment, and items obtained within a dungeon be used aboveground as well?”
“Yes, they can. However, they need to be first materialized within a dungeon and directly brought out. The same holds true for returning them to card form,” answered Akane while asserting her very bountiful breasts.
I almost lost all self-control. Although I was doing my best to keep a level head, I was a man, and one with a rather strong sexual drive at that. After swallowing my saliva, I reached out to touch the Item Gacha machine with a finger. The lever on the right side of the machine turned by itself, then a card came out with a mechanic whirr. The card floated up and flew out of the screen into real life.
“...Was there any need to make it this elaborate?” I muttered while grabbing the card that had just appeared. On the front was the depiction of a vial filled with some sort of red liquid. Just one look was enough for me to guess what it was, but just in case, I flipped the card over to check out the back as well.