Dungeon Clear: Destruction and Escape

(So the way to beat Rider is a magic-spam barrage, then a frontal breakthrough…!)

"Th-that's the secret art Narikin-sama showed us in the duel!"

"Three Judgment Rays… all at once!"

"What a master…!"

"…Magnificent, Kyou-sama. Although, that was the magic Narikin-sama was using, wasn't it?"

"I'm the one who raised Narikin. There's no way I can't use it too, right?"

"As expected of Kyou-dono."

By the time it was over, no one was injured; by the time it was over, it had been a short, decisive fight.

Still, the opponent was no pushover. …Without the firepower to finish him quickly, we'd have been worn down by his steady recovery, and that ridiculous Gravity Bomb scatter-breath would have hemmed in our movement and cornered us besides.

That's a Leona-enhanced dragon for you. He was probably still going easy on us, too. If we hadn't taken his head off at this stage, he might've had a second form lined up.

In any case, we'd won, safe and sound.

I tucked the dragon's head away into [Storage]. The rest of his body, of course, wasn't going to fit.

…Well, the [Storage] dungeon could hold it without issue, but since ordinary [Storage] can't, we were going with "can't."

Narikin, for his part, sliced off the wings, folded them up, and stowed them in his own [Storage].

"Grab some yourself, Alka. Rare dragon materials, there's plenty of uses for them."

"Ugh, my [Storage] isn't big enough… If I leave it, it'll just vanish, so let me take the back and the magic stone."

The three of us hurried to dismantle the dragon.

We were on schedule.

"All right. While the Saintess strips the body, we'll check the back. If it's the core room, smashing the core clears the dungeon!"

"Indeed. Alka-dono, if there's a core we'll be breaking it right away, so hurry with the collection."

"Narikin-sama. Please drop the honorific. You promised Kyou-sama earlier, didn't you?"

"…Narikin. Drop the honorific."

"Ahh. Alka. Hurry up."

"Yes! I'll hurry!"

"Saintess-sama, so cute"

"Good girl for remembering the promise"

"Narikin-sama's totally henpecked by Kyou-sama. Kyou-sama's clearly the higher-ranked one at home"

Ignoring the viewers' commentary, we headed to the back of the boss room.

There it was: a proper little core room. A white-glowing Dungeon Core — a Dummy Core — sat on a pedestal.

"Behold, everyone. This is a Dungeon Core, the heart of a dungeon."

Narikin stood behind it, then in front of it, giving the stream a sense of scale.

"So the white pot at the park really does look just like a Dungeon Core, huh"

"Heh, exactly the size I'd imagined"

"Mm. There's a Dungeon-Core-smashing attraction at the back of the Dungeon Ruins Park, and as you can see, those pots are modeled on the actual size and color of a Dungeon Core. Cores themselves do show some individual variation in size, but more or less, picturing that pot will do."

So went the fluent commentary from Narikin, by now thoroughly used to dungeon-explanation streams.

"The core-smashing attraction's going to be crazy crowded tomorrow, huh."

"True enough. …Well, more profit is no bad thing. The line may get rather long, so do listen to what the staff tell you. If you'd rather not queue, going another day is also fine. Understood?"

"I went and smashed one today for clear-prayer!"

"I'm going tomorrow! I'll line up no matter how long it takes!"

"Me too!"

"…Tell the staff to stock up on plenty of pots, would you. …Right then, shall we break it? It's simple, really. It's not quite as light as a pot, but the procedure's the same. A good hard whack with your weapon, like so, and it breaks."

Bakin — Narikin smashed the Dummy Core.

"Ah. Narikin, wait a sec, cut the stream!"

"Eh? Ah. S-sorry, the stream's on hold! We have to evacuate in a hurry!"

"Hm?—"

"The light's so pretty—"

The stream cut out. At the same time, the light leaking from the Dummy Core poured into me.

…Yeah. [Super Transformation Lv 8]… yeah. Went and leveled up by accident, didn't I.

Fortunately, with about half a year having passed since the last time, soul corruption or the like shouldn't be a concern.

"Whew, close one, close one. We very nearly got that on the broadcast."

"Hahaha, that was a close one indeed."

"…Um, Kyou-sama? What was that just now… what was that!?"

Damn. The Saintess had already finished the dismantling. Looks like she saw it.

"What was what?"

"Light flowed from the Dungeon Core into you, Kyou-sama, didn't it!? That was unmistakably a Hero's…!?"

…But, I'd play dumb!

"You're imagining things. You were watching from the entrance, so the angle was bad and it just looked weird, that's all… Anyway, we'd better get out before the dungeon collapses. Move."

"Ah! Please answer me properly, Kyou-sama! Narikin-sama, you're curious too, aren't you!?"

"Hmm, not particularly. Come, let's go, let's go. A dungeon isn't cleared until you've escaped, after all!"

Gura, the dungeon shook conspicuously. We hurried out of the core room, which promptly collapsed and was buried behind us. Nice work, Rokuko.

"Ah, Narikin. You can switch the stream back on. …The mana disturbance had the magic tool on the verge of breaking. It would've been dangerous if we hadn't cut!"

"Oh, is that so. Then I'll resume the stream. …Ahh, everyone, can you hear me? Apologies, the aftermath of destroying the dungeon threw the mana into disarray, and the magic tool was about to break."

"Ah, what a shame! So that's what happened!"

"Nooo! But I guess that means the sight of a Dungeon Core actually being broken belongs to those who were there… I'm going to become an adventurer too!"

So, from here it was the dungeon-escape stream. Non-stop sprinting all the way back to the entrance.

…Naturally my stamina wasn't going to hold, so once again I rode out on Narikin's back.

Meanwhile, Saintess Alka had gone quiet and was watching me with narrowed eyes.