CH 1

~3rd Person Perspective~

Now, in the hall of this huge cave, a cow-headed giant about 3 meters tall, is deftly swinging a huge ax at a young man, which is disproportionate to even the cow-headed giant.

The name of the cow-head giant is a Minotaur. The 15th floor boss of this dungeon. It has the power to easily destroy four SDF members that had already captured another dungeon.

However, the ax’s swing could not even scratch the young man in front of it.

The man in front of it is able to dodge the slashes that are being wielded at a frightening speed. The ax has the strength to instantly kill the young man. However, by using the daggers in his hands. He strikes from the side while the swing slows down. It’s unclear how much force he puts into it, but sometimes the minotaur is pushed back with the same momentum as it swings its weapon.

The young man sways on the spot as the Minotaur goes into a rage. He is hitting the side of the ax with the dagger in his hand and ducking just enough to avoid the ax. The young man’s expression is quite relaxed, while the overwhelmingly large Minotaur is showing signs of fatigue.

“Let me, brother!” (Girl)

When he hears a girl’s impatient voice from behind, the man throws a dagger at the eyes of the Minotaur.

“[Impact]!” (Girl)

The girl’s voice reverberated as she chanted within the cave. Then an explosion between the Minotaur and the young man. It instantly blasted the young man and the Minotaur with overwhelming firepower…

The owner of the voice just now used one of the types of magic that pursue only firepower compared to other magic, it is known as Explosion Magic.

The explosion destroyed an arm of the Minotaur, and by the time the smoke subsided, the Minotaur was completely enraged. However, there is still no sign of it dying. Perhaps it was angry due to the pain it received. It swung its ax towards the girl who cast the magic.

However, a magic circle sprang up on the ground blocking it, and thorny vines sprouted and entangled the Minotaur.

It is called [Bind], it is a skill that temporarily stops the movement of weak enemies, and it is clearly insufficient in strength to stop the Minotaur’s movement. However, it is enough to stop the movement of the Minotaur.

The next moment, a sharp blade came, and the Minotaur’s neck was separated from its body.

The decapitated Minotaur leaves a huge ax and a kilo of meat, before disappearing in a burst of black mist.

Behind where the Minotaur once stood a scythe wielder stood. He was the young man who was supposed to have been blown up with the Minotaur.

“Thanks, brother. Subjugation complete! Today’s monster quota has been achieved!” (Girl)

The girl who used [Impact] earlier said in a bright voice without her facial expression changing. In addition, in her hand, she held a weapon with a stick-shaped handle and a spiked iron ball attached to the end. She has a morning star and she then approached the young man with the scythe.

“So tired. What’s with the boss’ drops. Who wants meat and an ax? Also, this is such a ridiculous ax. I already have one. If the Self-Defense Force clears it, many people will cry. It’s a waste to risk your life when the reward is just a stupid ax and meat. Moreover, the ax is plain iron. I don’t know how it would compare to other metals.” (Young Man)

“Well, at least you get a weapon that suits you for the first time. Let’s go home early. We’re having Minotaur beef again today. It tastes better than regular beef, so you won’t get tired of it. So, did your level go up?” (Girl)

“Yeah, it went up. The government has decided that there are should be four people with double the boss’ level to defeat said boss. The boss still didn’t give enough. That’s why it’s hard to level up.” (Young Man)

“ hat’s because our class is bad. Huh, I’m getting frustrated thinking about it. Brother, let’s hunt some more. I’ll be the vanguard. My level is not getting any higher.” (Girl)

“ Geez, seriously. Geez, I really want to go home since I won’t be able to raise my level again by the end of the day anyway.” (Young Man)

Although the young man complained. He lifts the meter-long ax while giving an “okay”. Before putting it in a small pouch on his waist. The ax, which by all accounts should be impossible to fit through the mouth of the pouch, is completely contained within the pouch, and no one questions what happened.

Even though they were in a dungeon, the two of them joked and talked casually, before eventually going down to the lower level.

The door to the dungeon room where the fierce battle had just taken place naturally closed, and nothing was left after the two were gone.

On the 1st of August, something suddenly happened on planet Earth. Many holes simultaneously appeared in countries around the world.

All the ordinary people who went inside never returned, and police investigations were conducted.

What was inside was something like a green-ish child, a translucent moving puddle, and something that looks like a robot made of soil.

Moreover, when they went inside, they could not use anything that used electricity such as communication equipment. In the midst of this situation, something, which had probably never existed on earth before, somehow assaulted the police, who could no longer use their guns.

As a result, most of the people who went into the hole disappeared, and only a few people that could be counted on one hand made it out alive.

In response to this, the government immediately took action and the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) decided to conduct a cleanup operation. [T/N: Self-Defense Forces = SDF.]

It turned out that modern weapons and electronics were suddenly disabled, so 10 SDF personnel with excellent close combat skills attempted to scout the cave, but none returned.

While the government is taking action, the cave suddenly turned its fangs against them.

UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal), a hundred or so emerged from the cave, attacking the citizens and the SDF on stand-by.

Only a few hundred of them attacked around the world at the same time, inflicting only minor damage on the developed countries. However, in developing countries, it caused so much chaos that their governments came to a halt.

But the damage was not the only thing they brought. The UMAs that were attacking the SDF were obliterated with the firepower of their modern weapons, and the frontline was pushed back inside the dungeon. However, that’s when the problem arose. Once they entered the dungeon, they were unable to fire their guns. The frontline that relied on guns could not go any further.

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While the SDF members were in a panic, the UMA pushed back and killed the SDF personnel who were fighting. The squad that entered the dungeon was wiped out, leaving a single person behind.

Since the member was an otaku, he soon reached a conclusion that modern weapons could not be used in the dungeon and physical attacks would are enhanced. He also understood the meaning of what was displayed in his mind when he entered the dungeon. He changed to attacking with just his bayonet attached to his gun.

At first, it was a harrowing battle, but as he killed more of them, it became a little easier for him to move. The more he killed, the better his movements become. While doing that, the UMA around the survivor disappeared. The survivor immediately left the dungeon and made a report. This was the first time someone survived, after diving into the dungeon.

No guns or electronics work in the dungeon.

Defeating UMA through traditional methods within the dungeon will give you strength.

That strength disappears when you leave the dungeon.

This information was immediately relayed to other countries, and a cleanup operation using batons and other weapons was launched against the UMAs that appeared, and the situation was brought under control.

In this way, the incident that came to be known as the “081 Disaster” was truly brought to an end.

After that, Japan cooperated with the United States to investigate the UMA and dungeons. The United States, which is at the forefront of technology, and Japan, which has mastered otaku culture, are successful in their partnership. In less than a week, various new pieces of information were discovered.

First of all, the inside of the dungeon was a long cave, but digging around the dungeon entrance did not lead to the inside of the dungeon. The entrance to the dungeon was built in such a way that it rested on an unbreakable pillar of about a meter in diameter that extended far underground.

They also found out that this small increase in muscle strength was a result of entering the dungeon, and that the increase was reduced by a factor of ten when they left the dungeon.

They confirmed that a person with a grip strength of 51, defeated UMA inside and the power increased up to at least three times. Moreover, when he tested his grip strength again, it showed 66. However, when he went outside, his grip strength decreased to 52.5. [T/N: The subject increased by 15 (66-51=15) units but was reduced to 1.5 (15/10=1.5, 51+1.5=52.5) units after going out to the surface.]

As a result, they realized that the only advantage of dungeons at that point is that muscle training becomes easier. It seems that muscle strength, which is not related to the status, does not change when they go outside.

However, the government decided that it was dangerous to manage several dungeons, blocked all dungeons except Tokyo. However, when the entrance was blocked with concrete, an explosion suddenly occurred from inside the dungeon, destroying the concrete seal, and the dungeon sucked in the surrounding objects with a terrifying force similar to that of a tornado.

As a result, the SDF personnel who were monitoring the dungeon went missing, and the entrance to the dungeon re-appeared, so it was judged that it was impossible to block the entrances.

However, since the cause of the explosion could not be determined, a building was constructed enclosing the entrance of the dungeon inside the building after several experiments. It seems that it is okay if there is a space leading to the outside of the dungeon. As a result of repeated experiments that exploded, it was concluded that if a person without special power has the intention to enter the dungeon, the entrance would be forced open by an explosion and the surrounding would be sucked in after a week if you maintain the blockade.

Therefore, the buildings we equipped with strong unlocked doors and guards present all the time. Soon, this building was named Dungeon Dam.

With this, the world was made safe again, and the world remembered it not as a great disaster, but as a supernatural phenomenon.

A cave where UMAs appear suddenly appears in the world. The government officially renamed them Dungeons, and the UMAs living in them were named Monsters.

In Japan, a total of 10 were found in Hokkaido, Iwate, Niigata, Chiba, Tokyo, Toyama, Osaka, Shimane, Kochi, and Kagoshima.

It was said that it was difficult to use modern weapons because the monsters wouldn’t feel that their lives were in danger, no matter how much they are gunned down, they wouldn’t stop from pain, and they would only continuously charge.

All electronic devices become unusable in the dungeon, but extremely weak electrical signals such as the human brain’s was not a problem.

When entering the dungeon, words appear in your mind and you can choose your class.

There are 11 weapon classes: Sword, Shield, Fist, Bow, Spear, Club, Trap, Hunting, Magic, Heal, and Enchant.

In the dungeon, stats and levels are given to individuals, and the power raised in the dungeon is reduced to a tenth when going outside. Moreover, the weight of the equipment you have is also reduced to a tenth outside the dungeon, so people are not crushed the moment they leave the dungeon.

Skills, however, cannot be used outside the dungeon.

Dungeon equipment has an appropriate level and cannot be equipped by anyone who does not meet it. To be precise, you will not be able to reduce its weight outside of dungeons, and you will experience symptoms such as dizziness, headache, and ringing in the ears that will not go away as long as you have it equipped.