Chapter 71 – The Dungeon’S Secret
Once again, with the surrounding floor collapsing, I fell downwards.
And the sight I saw while falling was the eleventh time I had seen it.
Around me were the remains of the dungeon floor, crumbling and falling with me.
And below, there was a huge magic circle that looked like a barrier, and in the middle of it, a large hole that I probably made.
“Oooooooooh!”
“What is this…!?”
From above, I heard Mr. Kelvan’s shout and the Guild Master’s surprised voice.
I flipped my body over and looked up.
Mr. Kelvan and the Guild Master were staring with wide eyes, surprised.
Noah, having experienced the same thing several times, was used to it and just smiled.
Elsie had her eyes tightly shut, her left hand pressing her hat to her head, and her right hand clenched into a fist on her chest.
And it seemed like she was muttering something small with her mouth.
Was she praying to Solishin?
Then, a very important scene appeared.
As I fell, Elsie’s priestess robes fluttered violently in the wind.
Elsie’s apprentice priestess robes were like a cheongsam, with a thigh slit, a very desirable outfit.
What happens when that outfit flutters violently in the wind?
Yes, you can catch a glimpse of Elsie’s white panties.
In the words of the country of origin of manga, it’s a phenomenon called “Pantsu-ra.”
Last night, before having sex, I clearly saw Elsie’s underwear with my own two eyes.
Seeing underwear is exciting and increases sexual desire.
But seeing underwear in an unintentional situation like this further increases sexual desire along with a feeling of happiness at hitting the jackpot!
First, let’s thank Elsie, even if it was by chance.
Thank you, Elsie!
Thank you so much!
Using the high-speed thought process I use when fantasizing, I fully enjoyed Elsie’s panties and shouted to Mr. Kelvan and the Guild Master.
“If you go through that hole, you can see the next floor! And the debris disappears the moment you pass through the hole!”
“Is that really true!”
“Amazing…”
With my body flipped over, I passed through the hole.
And I learned a new fact.
When I was saving Elsie, I was only looking down, so I didn’t know, but the hole I made had a rather surreal sight when viewed from below.
A part of the blue sky was split as if glass had shattered, and inside the hole, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen.
When I widened my eyes in surprise, Mr. Kelvan, the Guild Master, and Noah also looked up.
“There’s a hole in the sky…”
“Wow, so that’s what it was like!”
“……”
Mr. Kelvan was surprised, Noah was impressed, and the Guild Master didn’t say anything.
Elsie still had her eyes tightly shut.
Cute.
But if she keeps her eyes shut like that, she might not know when to deploy her parachute.
I shouted to the Guild Master,
“Guild Master! Can we deploy our parachutes now!”
“Yes, deploy them now!”
I shouted to Elsie.
“Elsie! Pull the cord!”
Elsie opened her tightly closed eyes at my voice.
“R-Rent! Kya, kyaaak! I-I’m falling!”
“Elsie! Pull the cord! Pull the cord attached to the parachute!”
“C-Cord? Ah, okay! If I pull this…”
Elsie pulled the parachute cord.
Whoosh!
As she pulled the cord, the parachute unfolded and opened.
“Kyaaaah!”
The parachute opened, suddenly changing the speed of her fall, and Elsie screamed.
As the parachute opened, Elsie’s falling speed began to slow down.
“Alright! Then me too! Hup!”
Noah also pulled the parachute cord and deployed his parachute.
And in turn, Mr. Kelvan and the Guild Master also deployed their parachutes, and I also turned my body back downwards and pulled the cord.
Whoooosh!
As the parachutes opened, we slowly descended to the ground on the third floor.
It wasn’t bad to leisurely descend and see the scenery of the third floor.
Then, from below, someone was waving their hand at us.
“Guild Master~! Over here!”
A male adventurer was calling out to the Guild Master.
“Rent, let’s go down there.”
“Yes, I understand.”
But even if we go down, we’ll end up just falling.
I’ve never learned how to change direction with a parachute.
Fortunately, we were able to land near the adventurer who was waving.
However.
“H-Help me!”
Elsie’s parachute unfortunately got caught in a tree.
Elsie, struggling and with her panties peeking out again and again.
Cute. And thank you!
“Noah, I’ll catch Elsie. Take the inventory and store the parachute that’s caught in the tree.”
“Okay!”
Noah put the inventory I gave him on his waist and quickly climbed the tree.
I went to the tree where Elsie was caught and moved directly below her.
“Elsie, stay still. Rent will catch you.”
“Yes, Noah. Thank you.”
“When I say one, two, I’ll put the parachute in the inventory.”
“Yes.”
“One!”
Whoosh!
Noah only said one and immediately stored the parachute.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
I caught Elsie, who was falling, in a princess carry with both hands.
“Are you okay, Elsie?”
“Rent…”
Elsie blushed slightly, put her hands together on her chest, and looked at me warmly.
What should I do?
The Guild Master, Mr. Kelvan, and one other adventurer are here, but I want to kiss Elsie.
Should I do it secretly?
Then, Noah quickly came down from the tree.
“Ooh~ To get a princess carry from Rent. Elsie, I’m jealous~.”
Noah put his clasped hands behind his head and chuckled.
Elsie puffed out her cheeks slightly and glared at Noah.
“You’re, you’re too much, Noah! I, I was really surprised!”
“Hehehe, sorry, sorry.”
“Really…”
“Elsie, I’ll put you down.”
“Ah…”
When I tried to put Elsie down, she tightly gripped the leather of my Rage Fang.
“C-Could we stay like this for just a little longer?”
Not just a little, I could do it for an hour.
It’s a problem because I really want to kiss her.
“Elsie~ I understand how you feel, but there are other people here, so let’s get down?”
“Ugh… Yes, yes! R-Rent, please put me down!”
It seems that she forgot that the Guild Master and Mr. Kelvan were there when she fell.
I think that Elsie is cute too!
After putting Elsie down, we walked towards the Guild Master, Mr. Kelvan, and the male adventurer… probably Mike, who the Guild Master mentioned when we were running.
“Guild Master, who is that person?”
“This man is Mike, who has been cooperating with me for this dungeon destruction observation. Mike, what did it look like from your perspective?”
“Yes, Guild Master. With a loud roar, the sky split open, and it looked like the Guild Master and the others were coming out of a black hole.”
“You didn’t see the second floor at all?”
“Yes, that’s right, Guild Master. Are you sure you destroyed the dungeon in the direction the explorer pointed…?”
“Yes, that’s right. It started when this explorer pointed directly below.”
“Then, that hypothesis must be correct.”
“Yes, I think so too. Kelvan, what did that magic circle look like to you?”
“It was such a high-level magic circle that I couldn’t understand it at all. The only things I knew were that it was related to space magic and… it was something that was impossible for a human to create.”
“Hmm… We’ll need the cooperation of the Mage Guild for that.”
The Guild Master, Mr. Kelvan, and Mike were having a serious conversation.
My role was over with destroying the dungeon.
“Um… Guild Master.”
“Hmm? Ah, why is that, Rent.”
“Is my job all done now?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you so much for your cooperation this time, Rent. Thanks to you, it seems like one of the dungeon’s secrets has been solved.”
“The dungeon’s secret?”
“Yes. You said that you destroyed the floor in the direction the magic tool was pointing and arrived at Elsie’s side, right?”
“Yes.”
“But don’t you think it’s strange? To go to the next floor, you have to travel a long distance on each floor. But you went straight through the dungeon, destroying it all the way to the 13th floor, which should have been much further away.”
“Ah…”
Now that I hear it, it was indeed strange.
To go to the next floor, you definitely have to go a long way.
When I was saving Elsie, I thought that since it was a dungeon, it would be straight and I could save her quickly, but… if I think about it calmly, that was an absurd thought.
“It’s impossible if you think about it logically. But… this is a dungeon. A den of infinitely generated monsters full of mysteries, to the point that it’s said that the god Bane created it. And thanks to you, one of the many mysteries of the dungeon has been revealed.”
“What is that mystery…?”
The Guild Master said with a very serious expression.
“The moment adventurers go down the stairs to the next floor, they are moved by space magic. When you go down to the next floor, it’s not a straight path… it’s just a different vertical position, and you end up moving to the location of the warp device on the upper floor.”
“Ah…!”
Certainly, if that’s the case, it explains how I was able to destroy the dungeon in a straight line and save Elsie.
If the dungeon is divided into several spaces of the same area, and every time you go to the next floor, you only change vertically and go to the initial position, then it’s natural that the magic tool on the third floor points straight down.
“This explorer’s reaction of pointing straight down. And the huge magic circle you saw when you destroyed the dungeon… Because we discovered these two things, we were able to get a near-certain guess that high-level space magic is being used in this dungeon.”
“I’m glad I was able to help the Guild Master. Then, we’ll be going now.”
Behind the Guild Master, Mr. Kelvan and Mr. Mike were having a heated discussion.
Clearly, even if we stay here, we won’t understand the conversation, and we won’t be able to help anymore.
Then, we can just make money by catching kobolds on the third floor as usual.
I bowed my head and said that we would leave.
The Guild Master smiled gently and said,
“Yes, take care.”
“Let’s go, Elsie, Noah.”
“Yes.”
“Okay!”
I said to Mr. Kelvan, who was having a heated discussion.
“Mr. Kelvan, we’ll be going now!”
“Oh, is that so, Rent! Take care!”
After receiving Mr. Kelvan’s greeting, I remembered something I almost forgot.
“Oh, right, Noah. Give me the inventory.”
“Okay, here.”
After getting the inventory back from Noah, I took out the parachute from the inventory.
“I’ll leave the parachute here!”
“Understood!”
After receiving Mr. Kelvan’s greeting, we were about to go hunt kobolds as usual.
“Wait a moment, Rent.”
Then, the Guild Master stopped me.
“Why is that, Guild Master?”
“Hehe, I guess I’m getting old, I forgot something.”
“Forgot something?”
The Guild Master nodded.
“Yes. Rent, it’s about your rank. You caught the newbie killers. And you have the ability to subdue the newbie killers, who were veteran B-rank adventurers, without a scratch. Just considering this, you are qualified to be promoted to A-rank. And the power you showed just now… If it’s about ability, you are already at or above S-rank.”
S-rank.
It’s definitely the highest rank an adventurer can reach.
“E-Ehh… S-rank…”
“What? What? Rent, are you getting promoted to S-rank?”
Elsie opened her mouth in surprise, and Noah’s eyes were shining brightly.
The Guild Master shook his head.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Rent, you know that you were promoted from F-rank to C-rank not too long ago, right?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, that was a very unusual case. Leni and Kelvan recommended you, so I was able to pass it. But beyond that… From B-rank, you need to achieve the same requests and achievements as other adventurers.
Of course, catching the newbie killers is also a great achievement, but… I’m sorry to say this to you, but it’s difficult to promote you to B-rank or higher right now.”
“Why is that?”
“Through this incident, the Adventurer Guild has decided to set the standards for promotion more strictly. The newbie killers were also veteran B-rank adventurers… In the end, they were people who passed the promotion standards. We plan to strengthen the promotion standards even more so that such people don’t appear in the future.
Of course, even if we consider those standards, your achievements are enough to reach B-rank. But you still don’t have enough successful requests or the difficulty to become a B-rank. Moreover, it’s difficult procedurally for you to go straight to B-rank when you haven’t been a C-rank for long.”
I could roughly understand what he was saying.
A rapid promotion from F-rank to C-rank.
No matter how many achievements I make, it would be strange procedurally to be promoted again in a few days, and above all, there would be a lack of credibility.
What shows credibility is the number of requests completed and the difficulty of those requests.
Even if I caught a heinous criminal, it’s difficult to jump over the standards of trust that have been built up so far and get promoted, as there would be a lack of public trust.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I don’t get promoted.
I can just get promoted gradually while adventuring…
Above all, it’s also a bit awkward to have too much of a difference in rank with Elsie and Noah.
“So, there will be no promotion for you this time. I’m really sorry.”
The Guild Master bowed his head and apologized to me.
“No, it’s okay, Guild Master. If that’s the case, it can’t be helped. Please raise your head.”
“……Thank you for understanding, Rent.”
The Guild Master smiled warmly and spoke to Elsie and Noah, who were next to me.
“Ah, and Elsie and Noah. Have you been promoted?”
“Yes, we did it once on the third floor.”
“We were able to do it quickly thanks to Rent!”
“I see… Then, Elsie, Noah. I acknowledge that you two, who have been promoted and have caught more than 60 kobolds in a day as a party, are capable of doing your part as adventurers. As proof of that, Elsie, Noah, I acknowledge your promotion to D-rank as the Guild Master here. You can get your identification tags from Leni tomorrow.”
“Yess!?”
“Eeeeh!?”
Elsie and Noah were promoted to D-rank by the Guild Master.
It was sudden, but… congratulations, Elsie! Noah!
