DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level Volume 2 (Light Novel) (eBook)

Tarisa Warinai (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
250 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-1-7183-7350-1 (ISBN)

Infos

'I want to make an unrequited love not so unrequited.'

Such is the wish of the Guardian of Floor 10, a boss monster of flame and romance-obsessed 'girl.' And to Kanami, it's a way to get rid of this thorn in his side without having to engage her in mortal combat. He has a Dungeon to clear, and if finding Alty a young girl in love is what it takes to advance, then so be it.

Meanwhile, during his misadventures, Kanami encounters a cast of colorful characters, including the slave girl Maria and the enigmatic powerhouse Lastiara, who quickly become his comrades in arms. They begin making progress in the Dungeon, soon reaching undiscovered territory together! The Seven Celestial Knights, however, are all too quick to get in the way. They're hellbent on recovering Lastiara, who's fled their stifling clutches. Now Kanami finds himself having to duel them, but can he beat the elite? The wheels of fate turn ever faster in the second installment of this epic saga!

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"e;I want to make an unrequited love not so unrequited."e;Such is the wish of the Guardian of Floor 10, a boss monster of flame and romance-obsessed girl. And to Kanami, it s a way to get rid of this thorn in his side without having to engage her in mortal combat. He has a Dungeon to clear, and if finding Alty a young girl in love is what it takes to advance, then so be it.Meanwhile, during his misadventures, Kanami encounters a cast of colorful characters, including the slave girl Maria and the enigmatic powerhouse Lastiara, who quickly become his comrades in arms. They begin making progress in the Dungeon, soon reaching undiscovered territory together! The Seven Celestial Knights, however, are all too quick to get in the way. They re hellbent on recovering Lastiara, who s fled their stifling clutches. Now Kanami finds himself having to duel them, but can he beat the elite? The wheels of fate turn ever faster in the second installment of this epic saga!

Textauszug

The rats set their tiny limbs in full motion as they ran through the dark Dungeon corridor. Alty, moving with a speed that reminded me of the boss monster I had fought not so many days prior (the Thief of Darkness’s Essence, Tida), extended a sword of flame from behind the rats and slashed at them. I was a little worried the fire would ignite her clothes, but then again, this was the Thief of Fire’s Essence we were talking about. She exercised flawless control over the intensity of her flames.

Cloven by the fire blade, the Grain Rats burst into light and faded away. Dead monsters left no corpses in the Dungeon. All they left behind were crystals called magic gems. Alty picked up the gems that had dropped to the floor in their wake and tossed them to me with a boastful look on her face. It wasn’t hard to tell she wanted compliments. She was just like a cat that had brought home some prey.

“Yeah huh, you’re so amazing and strong. Give it a rest and get a move on.”

Alty pouted a bit. “Hmph. Aren’t you being a bit cold to a well-meaning ally? Would it kill you to throw me some genuine praise?”

“I just did. And it goes without saying you’d be amazing, given you’re a Guardian and all.”

“You can never just be straight with somebody, huh, Sieg?” She stooped with an expression that screamed good grief and started down the corridor as she was told.

I didn’t let my guard down, staring at her as she walked ahead. Alty was being cooperative. She was a bit of a chatterbox, sure, but she was contributing her services to my Dungeon exploration, demonstrating goodwill through her actions. But that didn’t mean I could discard my suspicions so readily. Everything about her was too shady for that.

This morning, when I had bumped into Alty, I’d heard her wish, and it was a vague one: to “make an unrequited love not so unrequited.” Afterwards, I listened to her speak on that more—it wasn’t that she had some special crush. That being said, if Alty could fall in love and see that love requited, it would apparently be ideal, according to her. Yet she put herself down by stating, “I’m not the kind of entity that can fall in love.” It seemed she’d given up on something in life. That was why she’d settled on a compromise; she wanted me to introduce her to someone who was in love. From the sound of it, if she witnessed that infatuation, felt it vicariously, and saw it requited with her own eyes, her attachment to this world would finally be severed.

It was humdrum stuff. And it was dubious at best. I had my doubts that the whole story was true. Not that I could turn her down anyway.

When Alty spoke of love and romance, she seemed as young as her appearance would have one believe. Her eyes sparkled like a young lady in love with love itself. And if I declined to humor her, she’d likely take it pretty bad, and I had no idea how she’d react. Offending a monster of a power level comparable to Tida’s was a minefield and a half. As such, after giving it quite a lot of thought, I’d decided to pretend to take on her request. After all, so long as she claimed to come in peace, postponing a battle with her was the best call. And then there was the fact that thrusting a sword at a monster bearing the face of a little girl was not that easy on the conscience. Finally, the calculating side of me figured that the more time passed, the safer I was thanks to my level rising.

All of this meant that, reluctant though I was, I had my reasons for walking through the Dungeon alongside Alty.

Aiming to earn my trust, Alty led the way, bopping along in fine spirits. Ever since entering the Dungeon, she had talked about herself during much of our time together in an attempt to close the emotional distance between us.

“So in other words, Sieg, I’m always thinking, I’d hate to have never known romantic love, you know, being a girl and all.”

“C’mon, are you even young enough to be a ‘girl’?”

“Hm, well, I know I’m at least a thousand years old... I think?”

“So you’re an old biddy, then. It’s high time you rest in peace, granny. For everybody’s sake.”

“You’re just plain rude, you know that? You’re seriously gonna call a girl this charming and cute ‘granny’? That’s not how you treat a lady, Sieg!”

“No duh. I’m not treating you as a girl. I’m treating you as a monster.”

After a light round of self-introductions, we started calling each other by name. We put on the outward appearance of a regular party, or rather, we fulfilled the bare minimum requirements it called for. But I had no intention of continuing my Dungeon diving this way, seeing as I didn’t need a stomach ulcer in my life. I planned to expose Alty’s ulterior motives, and fast. And I’d already puzzled out a plan—soon, I’d deliberately put myself into harm’s way against a monster and make Alty save me. If Alty took that opportunity to try attacking me, then my plan would succeed with flying colors. She would fall for my trap, and I had but to land a grand counterattack against her. If, on the other hand, Alty swooped in to save me, then the plan would still succeed. I’d sing her praises for rescuing me and use that to feign total trust in her. After that, I’d suggest we split up temporarily to increase our efficiency and cast a wider net, and use that time away from her to level up.

As we walked, I considered the correct timing to spring my scheme. On our way through the Dungeon, two or three floors deep, I spotted a handy candidate.

“Huh. Never seen that creature before, Alty. It seems to move fairly fast, so let’s flank it.”

“Good idea. Let me go behind it.”

The monster was an agile-looking quadrupedal beast. Since it looked so nimble at a glance, Alty approved of my proposal without suspicion. We each inched closer and closer, creating a pincer formation in the process. Once Alty assumed her position behind the monster, we’d attack it at the same time. Or at least, I’d pretend to.

I knew full well that if we fought it for real, it’d die almost instantly. I was going to make the battle play out unfavorably by getting in Alty’s way and “inadvertently” helping the monster. Then, after making sure Alty distanced herself a little, I’d let it swat away my sword. Thus “defenseless,” my body would be prone to attack. Needless to say, I made it so that at any time, I could pull out a spare sword from my inventory by putting my right hand behind my back. That was how I would playact my embarrassing defeat.

“Agh! Oh no!”

I shot Alty a pleading look, taking care to examine what emotion she was exhibiting at that moment. But Alty’s reaction was as straightforward as they come.

“Sieg!” Fear written on her face, she dashed forward at full speed, but not at me. Thrusting her sword with all her might at the monster, she slammed into it with her whole body. Her assault allowed me to escape. While it tore at her with its claws, her fire spouted, burning the beast to death.

After rendering the monster into fading light, her gaze darted to me straight away. “Sieg, are you okay?!”

I sensed no malice, no hostility. These were the words of someone who was truly worried about my well-being. The only one who’d been duplicitous was me.

“I... I’m okay. Thank you, Alty. Needing to be saved...what a shameful display from me.”

“Phew... Heh heh,” she laughed, smiling even as blood ran from the tears in her bandages. “Don’t fret it. Allies help each other out. That’s just common sense, isn’t it?”

I felt nothing but mounting guilt. I wasn’t confident that I was returning her smile convincingly. Alty was a boss monster, and as long as that was true, I couldn’t afford to trust her. I knew that. But my determination to stay the course was fading the more I got to know her.

It was my menu-sight that categorized her as a monster, and she herself had professed she was a monster as well. Had that not been the case, I would have concluded she was some kind of demi-human peculiar to this world. Here, semifers—who, in my eyes, didn’t differ very much from monsters appearance-wise—were an integrated part of society. If I didn’t have my menu-sight, and if Alty didn’t call herself a monster, and if she had approached me with her current attitude of friendliness, there was no doubt I’d partner up with her without an ounce of suspicion or misgivings. That was just how human, or close to it, she was. She harbored human-level intellect, spoke and emoted like a human, and even looked near enough to one. Was rejecting her really the correct thing to do? Wasn’t I being a horrible person? Was I in the right for treating her as a monster? What if all I was doing was spurning a fellow human being, a person I could talk to?

No, stop thinking about it.

If I brooded too much over it, my “???” skill would trigger. Only a fool would activate it knowing the trigger conditions.

The monsters were all on their guard. Devoting my energy to that was the safest and most logical course of action. So, just as planned, I started pretending that I’d begun to trust Alty.

“Ha ha, it’s just common sense, you say... All right, fine, I believe you. I know now that you just want me to help fulfill your wish, and you’ve got zero hostility towards me.”

“Wait, what? You’re...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.1.2023
• Reihe/Serie: DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level (Light Novel)
• Reihe/Serie: DUNGEON DIVE: Aim for the Deepest Level (Light Novel)
• Illustrationen: Tarisa Warinai
• Übersetzer: Tarisa Warinai
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: action • Fantasy • Isekai • RPG • Strategy • Sword and Sorcery • Video game
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-7350-3 / 1718373503
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-7350-1 / 9781718373501