Name: Ezoe Kazuhiko
Title: First Contacter
Rank: F
Possession Limit: 0 / ∞
Skills: Card Gacha, ______, ______, ______, ______, ______
✦ ✦ ✦
“And is this ‘Rank’ field what would normally be called ‘levels’ in those games? Would my rank go up from absorbing more Enhancement Element?”
“I am not familiar with the ‘RPG games’ that you speak of, but rank is an indication of strength. F is the lowest, and this is where the average person is at. From there, it goes up to E, D, C, and so on, all the way to SSS at the very top.”
“And this rank will go up as I kill monsters and obtain more Enhancement Element, yes?”
“That is not the case. It goes up when you become stronger.”
Our conversation seemed to be at odds with each other somehow, so I decided to probe a bit deeper.
“Hold on. I defeat a monster, and I gain Enhancement Element. My rank goes up. I get stronger. Is this not correct?”
“Ah, the cause and effect are the other way around. It’s not that you become stronger when your rank goes up; your rank goes up when you become stronger. When you kill a monster, your body absorbs the Enhancement Element it leaves behind. When you train in that state, your body improves much faster. To be more specific, that means the quality of your muscles going up, your reaction speed going up, recovery from illnesses, and youthening of your cells. Depending on the person, they might even discover magical circuits within themselves and become capable of using magic. Rank is nothing more than an indication of how strong you’ve become.”
After having things broken down in this way, I finally caught on. So in short, the mechanism was exactly like how reality worked. In games and light novels, characters would get stronger with stat buffs from level ups. But that was not how things were in the real world. Instead of “stat points” being accumulated inside someone’s body, it was only through slow and steady effort that someone got stronger. Then when they pass a certain standard, that becomes reflected in their rank. Enhancement Element was pretty much the same thing as a protein shake after a strength training session.
“In other words, the only path to getting stronger is through persistent effort?”
“I shall also help you to the best of my ability. I can teach you how to fight.”
“Thank you. But first, preparations. Not only do I need to remodel this room, but I also need to gather equipment for entering the dungeon.”
After reverting Akane to a card, I then went back aboveground.
✦ ✦ ✦
In the end, it took me a whole week to finish all my preparations. I attached handrails along the stairs using industrial-strength instant glue and carried the flooring with an electric stair-climbing trolley. I did attempt to run an electric line from my house, but it didn’t work out, and so I resigned myself to purchasing several household batteries with large capacities. Anything that I brought inside the dungeon would be undergoing a whole year for each month aboveground, so I needed to carefully decide what to bring. Precision equipment was probably a bad idea, but things like furniture, flooring, and wallpaper shouldn’t be much of a problem.
“I’ve attached the handrails with industrial-strength instant glue, so they should be fine. I decided to go with white for the wallpaper. The flooring is oak. Nobody counts service life for flooring in the first place, so I don’t expect any problems with it. The sofa and chairs are real leather, as they can last several decades if properly maintained with leather conditioner. Same for the desk. I’ll only be using it to work on my laptop or go over documents, so that’s why I didn’t go for a particularly fancy one. For illumination, it looks bright enough with the desk lights and floor lamps, don’t you think? It’s a bit of a bother having to bring in replacement household batteries every time I come down here, but at least I can do it in one trip, thanks to the electric trolley.”
Finally, the space had turned into somewhere I could relax. Before the doors leading to the dungeon was a large mud mat in expectation of whoever it was coming through to be tracking dirt and clots of blood. One week aboveground was two and a half years down here. As such, giving the floor a wax and the chairs and sofa some maintenance once per week seemed a reasonable schedule to maintain. If I got Akane to help, then it would make things that much quicker.
“You...actually went and remodeled the Safety Zone. This sofa also feels great to sit on,” exclaimed Akane. With a sensual chuckle, she then coquettishly leaned into me. “Kazuhiko-sama, do you wish for a...passionate time with me? I can give you service so good as to throw your back out.”
I loved women, and Akane was top tier as far as women went. I was not averse to losing myself in her glamorous body, but there were things I needed to finish up first before doing so. It might have been a different story if I was a young man in my twenties, but I was almost forty. I was no longer so young that I would put off what I needed to do in order to satisfy a momentary burst of desire.
“Ahhh, sorry, I have work to do, so please turn back into a card for now. I can’t concentrate with other people around.”
“My!”
Akane made an aggrieved face, but then immediately cardified the next instant. I picked her card up and put it away in a plastic card case, the kind used to store rare cards (I think?) from card games.
“This concept is probably going to be a huge hit with the Japanese populace. I can just see all the card collectors showing up in droves. Well then, how does this ‘Card Gacha’ work? Nothing happens regardless of how many times I press it in the Status window. Hmm, never mind for now. I suppose I will find out soon enough.”
The sound of my slippers echoed throughout the room that was now empty save for myself. I sat down on one of the chairs, turned on my laptop, started up a spreadsheet program, and then began planning out what I’d be doing going forward.
If things were left to run their course, the world would end with a Monster Stampede. Simply accepting that I only had ten years left and living it out was not something I could bring myself to do. As such, there was no other choice but to fight. The only guaranteed way to stop the Monster Stampede was to destroy all 666 dungeons.
However, getting around to all 666 dungeons by myself is impossible. I’m going to need to find companions with whom I can share the burden. However, notifying the public at large about the Monster Stampede is going to cause mayhem on a societal level. If more and more dungeons are going to continue appearing going forward, humanity as a whole is going to feel a sense of crisis, and there will be chaos enough. I can reach out and gather companions when that happens.
All the way until my battery ran out, I sat there, deeply pondering what was going to happen in the near future.