Chapter 265 Dungeon Clear/ Beast Dimension Trip End

Now that the Unofficial Beast Tournament was over, everyone was finally allowed to go home. The girl's group, Kuroe, Shiroi, Fuuka, Cherry, and their new friend Emma were gathered together as usual, while Satoshi was surrounded by Hiroshi, Midori, Siril, Kyou, and Aljier which consisted the entire boy's group. (Everyone except Kyou, Aljier, and Emma, are members of Class 3-1).

After Kim Jin Seok said his final words, the group headed into the Dimensional Portal out of the Beast Dimension. They found themselves once again by the foot of the Dimensional Portal wherein shops and stalls abound. Beasts and materials harvested from the Beast Dimension were sold here, and this is the usual gathering spot for beast tamers when they come looking for materials.

"Let's stop by a family restaurant. I'm famished after all that fighting." Shiroi suggested as she grabbed Fuuka and Cherry by the shoulders.

"That's a great idea! Let's go." Hiroshi agreed, glad that he brought some pocket money with him.

"I'm sorry guys, but I'd better— " Midori's voice trailed off but Satoshi cut him off by patting him on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs up. It was a gesture that he didn't have to worry about the money.

And before anyone could say anything, Satoshi then raised his voice a little bit. "Everyone, let's eat together. It's my treat." Satoshi called out, much to everyone's surprise. Cheers then erupted from the group before they followed Satoshi's lead. Since he was the one paying the bill, they unanimously decided that he'd choose the restaurant where they'll be eating.

"Heyyy! Wait up!"

Before they got out of the center where the Dimensional Portal to the Beast Dimension was located, they heard a familiar voice, calling out to them.

It was none other than Lydia Schwarz. She ran towards the group, panting as soon as she caught up to them. "Why did you ~haah~ leave me?"

"Shouldn't you be going back to Switzerland? What are you doing here?" Satoshi asked, confused.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm going to transfer to your school as an exchange student. In the meantime, I'm going to be staying here in Japan."

"Would you like to join us? We're going to grab some food." Satoshi then offered, to which Lydia nodded excitedly.

"Japanese food?! I'm in!" She enthusiastically cheered as she assumed her usual position beside Satoshi. "Oh yeah, you still haven't told me how you awakened your superpower... my dad said you only awakened it this year, right? How? What happened?

"Ah, er, about that..." Satoshi wanted to deflect the topic but it was too late to do so since everyone had already listened in to the conversation. 'I guess there's no getting out of this one.' Satoshi thought to himself.

.....

"Ah~ ahchoo~!" Aquaborne sneezed before he rubbed his nose in frustration. "Someone's probably talking about me."

"And who might that be? I'm the only friend you got, you know." Tatsuki pointed out, chuckling.

Aquaborne (the number one superhero in Switzerland, superpower: water integration) and Tatsuki (Satoshi's dad, also known by his superhero name, Plunder) were currently inside the Dungeon Spire, trying to clear the last five floors of the Dungeon. This was the last day wherein the Japanese would still have clearing rights to the dungeon. Tomorrow, the dungeon would belong to the Americans, and they'll try to clear it. With Aquaborne lending his aid, Tatsuki and his team of top-ranking superheroes will try to clear the dungeon today, but if they couldn't do it, then the Americans would help them.

The reason why they weren't rushing a bit too much was that the Americans had already come to the agreement with Japan— that they would divide the spoils they find at the bottom of the Dungeon. However, both the Japanese Government and the SAO would like to avoid that outcome as much as possible, that's why they assigned Tatsuki and his party to push through in hopes of clearing the dungeon today. It was a win-win for everyone though since either outcome would reward everyone, but Japan wanted to keep the dungeon all to itself since this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. It's not every day that a dungeon appears in one's backyard. It's basically free money delivered right to one's doorstep. It was only reasonable that Japan would keep everything in that dungeon.

"Do you think we'll be able to clear this Dungeon?" Aquaborne asked.

"Of course, we're already on the last floor, aren't we?" Plunder responded. "Have some confidence in yourself. We've made it this far with our team. We can do this before the day ends."

"Well, let's just hope we can clear it by then," Aquaborne muttered to himself.

The group, led by Plunder, held their breaths as they stepped into the last and final room. They were prepared for the worst, and they'd already activated their superpowers before they even reached the staircase that led to the one-hundredth floor. Would it be a huge golem? Or maybe an army of giant club-wielding orcs? Everyone thought of their worst experiences and worst monster encounters in order to mentally prepare themselves for what was to come. Tatsuki had it the roughest. As the leader of the group, he knew that he had responsibility over everyone in his team. What he feared the most was that one of them might die on this last floor, and their deaths will be under their name. 'I'm going to protect everyone no matter what. I can't afford to lose anyone here. We're already on the last floor... after this... we can go home to our families.' Tatsuki told himself as he nodded towards Aquaborne.

The one-hundredth floor was unusually quiet, but that was to be expected since the last room almost always had one boss therein. This is the section of the dungeon where the final boss resided.

"Staff-wielders! Illuminate the entire area!" Plunder commanded, and the staff-wielders immediately used their superpowers to brighten up the entire room.

"..."

"..."

Aquaborne and Tatsuki looked at each other. Every member of the party looked at each other in bewilderment.

Nothing.

There was nothing on the last floor.

"What on earth..." Tatsuki muttered to himself as his confusion aggravated. The more he looked, the more it became evident that there really was nothing on the last floor.

"Nothing... is this some kind of a sick joke?" Aquaborne asked out loud.

Unbeknownst to them, someone close to them had already cleared the dungeon, and right now, they're witnessing the aftermath of his actions, whether they liked it or not.