h.e.l.lo everyone!
Jun here. I was supposed to leave this to Am I Undead Yet? But he"s been very busy in real life, so here I am again.
I don"t know how quick the next chapter will be done, but we"ll try to get it up at least within a month. Depends on whether the translation is done and decent progress is done on the other translations on this site.
Enjoy the read! Let us know in the comments if you find any typos or anything else wrong in the chapter.
Tl: SpecterZe
ED: Jun
Chapter 57 Dungeon clear & Best friend
It was when I was in front of the 10th floor boss room that I was convinced that this dungeon was made by my best friend, Azuma Akira.
Written on the boss room door was a picture, the number 10 and also letter-like things. These "letter-like things" are actually really letters. Moreover, they are letters that Azuma made himself. For his elementary school independent research…
My best friend, Azuma Akira is a genius. In addition to that, at an uncommon level… That sort of independent research of his wasn"t supposed to be normal, and so he called it an independent research for his fifth year elementary school summer vacation and created an original language.
That is an insane language that isn"t some magic characters br.i.m.m.i.n.g in chuuni spirit, is easy to learn if you have a certain level of knowledge and keeps affinity with existing languages while minimizing the number of letters …
I also ended up remembering those letters as his test subject. As a result, only me and Asai, who is another one of my best friends, came to be able to use this language. The teacher thought this is just a child"s joke and didn"t look at it enough to learn them from the looks of it, so only us three could handle this language.
The moment I saw that language on the boss room door, I was convinced that Azuma was the one who made this dungeon just like I had thought.
[“Just like you had thought” means that something beside this that reminded you of him, isn"t it?]
Mio asked me. It is because I hadn"t explained anything in full details when we were in front of the 50th floor door.
Right now, we entered the residence while guided by Carro and talked while sitting in the sofa in the parlor.
[Yeah, this country name, Estia. Its spelling is E S T A and when rearranged, E A S T. It turns into east(東), in other words, Azuma(東)"s name. In the first place, Estia is the default name of power he uses in games.] -(ED: Author made a oops in here in english I guess. He wrote エステア(esutea) as spelling for E S T A, which makes little sense in english. Change the country name to Esta?)
Using Estia army, Estia kingdom and such as default name was standard for him. I intuitively knew when I heard the name after coming to this world, you know.
[So that means that no matter how you look at it, it"s a message to someone close like Master right, …]
[There"s a part of it that I chose to come to this country thinking like that after all. Well, being a dungeon country alone is enough reason to come…]
[It"s perfect as a bait, right!?]
[Guess so.]
That said, it"s become a little complicated with after hearing that Estia kingdom is quite an old kingdom.
[Estia kingdom has been established more than 300 years ago. I wondered if it was a coincidence, because by all rights it should have nothing to do with Azuma.]
It isn"t like there is no possibility of it coincidentally having the same name attached if it"s just “Estia”. Seeing that I couldn"t judge so, I had no choice but to actually go and confirm it. Alta even answered that he didn"t know…
A: I"m really sorry.
[However, I know Azuma is related to it with the door on the 10th floor. This again changed the story now that it came to that.]
It didn"t mean that Azuma was transferred together with us members of the school in the first place. It is because that day, the day we transferred to another world, he was supposed to go overseas by plane for his paper presentation.
Precisely because he"s a genius, spending an ordinary senior high school student life was difficult, so it seems he had to raise some accomplishment once a year. I remember he talked about something bothersome like going to present artificial intelligence that he had made in his spare time while we were playing games.
I have no doubt about that, because I greeted him lightheartedly that morning before he went to airport. I saw him off to the airplane wearing a suit I"m not used to seeing him wear, oh, the same suit the dungeon master – replica wore.
In other words, Azuma ended up transferring to the other world in a separate case from us school students.
If it isn"t the case that Azuma crossed time with the world, then there is one possibility that I can think of.
[It seems that the flow of time in this world is different from the other world, isn"t it?]
[Yeah, I never would"ve thought that Mio is around the same age as me and Sakura either.]
>
When we brought up the topic on the 50th floor, we casually confirmed Mio"s date of birth and, why, we were the same age. It"s no wonder I thought we were excessively on the same wavelength.
The date when Mio died from an accident matches with the date we were transferred.
However, there were some gap in time and so I was thinking whether or not that had 8 years of impact, which is Mio"s current age.
Ah, this isn"t very important, but we also shared the details of our conversation with Sakura and Sera by telepathy. I thought maybe this conversation will end in a little, but it seems to be taking quite some time. Being left out is not good.
[The rumor of the world being made 5 minutes ago becomes plausible, doesn"t it?]
[That has a somewhat different meaning. Well, there"s no doubt that this is at least quite a new world.]
There is this "5 minutes before the world hypothesis". It is a supposition about whether or not this world is born 5 minutes ago with the memory of its past. It"s normal to think it"s impossible, but it"s a troublesome hypothesis that you can"t completely deny in theory.
In this case, it"s not like history is quickly born with just a difference in flow of time, so the meaning of it is different, or is supposed to be.There"s also the case with the Tyrannosaurus rex, so I"m not very confident about it. I guess you could say that the possibility of it really being born from some level of civilization is not non-existent…
[A part of what Azuma experienced in this world was written down on this door. It is gut-wrenching in various ways.]
[I cannot read those letters either. Could I ask what sort of things he had written? Pyon.]
Carro asked. It seems her plan is to add "Pyon" at the end of sentence even though I"m ignoring it.
[Huh? You couldn"t hear it from Azuma directly?]
[I became a keeper at quite a late stage, pyon. I hadn"t really been given the opportunity to speak with Azumsama, pyon.]
[Come to think of it, are there other keepers?]
I haven"t caught sight of other keepers other than Carro until now. Could they be at work?
[No, there are no other keepers beside me as of now. I named myself chief, but there is n.o.body other than me alone so there is not much meaning, is there pyon.]
If she"s alone, then she would be top regardless of ability. Oh, nr 2 if I recall.
[But since you said at a late stage, there must be predecessors right?]
[Yes, but all keepers with the exception of me have pa.s.sed away together with my former master.]
[What do you mean?]
Do the keepers die together when dungeon master dies? No, Carro is still alive, so…
[First, if you touch the dungeon core and become the dungeon master, you will become immortal, pyon.]
A dungeon core is the heart of the dungeon and the source of all of its energy. Moreover, the person who touches it would seemingly become dungeon master (immortal at will, max 1 person, replacement possible).
[At the very least I won"t become immortal for a while. I still haven"t decided to spend the rest of my life in this world.]
[There"s no spending the rest of your life if you become immortal though.]
[Oh, Mio, you said something good there.]
[I know right~]
[May I return to topic? Pyon.]
[[Oh, please do.]]
Carro took us back on topic.
[Azumsama became dungeon master. But there was also an immunological rejection towards Azumsama. Pyon.]
[Yeah, it was written too. From what I understand, people from another world without a gift would cause an immunological rejection when coming to this world, the blood vessels in their entire body will be damaged and they would die in the near future.]
You could say "the world does not fit them" so to speak. He wrote that your whole body, meaning from head to toe, would start to hurt and that you"re resigned to die, hardly being able to move from that place.
[Eh, what is that, so scary.]
Mio is feeling afraid. Come to think of it, Mio is also a giftless person from another world. If I say that, then Sakura and I fall under that too…
[It looks like those who hold special powers and reincarnated people are different. I guess it"s connected to "the case when ordinary people are summoned".
[Yes, Azumsama was of the same opinion. There were Heroes and reincarnated people at that time as well…]
[I see.]
Just as I thought, Mio doesn"t seem to be the only one reincarnated.
[Let"s return to the topic. Pyon. Azumsama became dungeon master by touching the dungeon core just before he died from the immunological rejection and so he was able to survive, pyon.]
He wrote that he fell off a cliff and coincidentally touched the dungeon core at the bottom of the spring that was there at the end. He was really lucky.
[In exchange, he could not become immortal, perhaps because the strong reaction had offset it. He was healthier and aged slower than normal people, but he gradually became older, pyon.]
[So, did Azuma die of old age?]
That is what I"m worried about. Whether or not Azuma died happily.
[Yes, he did. He had been living for 260 years I heard.]
[I see…]
[At that time, the keepers except me had chosen to follow him to his death. All the keepers are people whose lives were saved by Azumsama. Those who became keepers will have eternal youth. The dungeon keepers who were there at that time had already lived more than a human lifespan and had sufficiently accomplished life. Saying they did not want to let Azumsama who granted them such happiness to pa.s.s away on his own….]
[…]
Leaving aside whether or not Azuma desired that, being surrounded by family and dying together with family must be better than dying in solitude in this parallel world.
[So Carro, why did you remain?]
[I was the youngest among the keepers and I was told to wait for next dungeon master, pyon.]
[You didn"t know whether something like the next dungeon master would come, right? There"s even that stupid-like condition like the hidden route too…]
The method to fight the hidden boss that was written on the 50th floor door was "to bring companions, let them wait in front of the door and challenge the boss alone". I doubt there"s anyone who would have companions and just purposely make them wait in front of the door and challenge the boss on their own. Even if someone who"s strong solo would come, they won"t fulfill the conditions. It should be difficult to fulfil the conditions if you can"t read them.
[I had been told I can be free if n.o.body comes after waiting for 100 years. Azumsama seems absolutely convinced you would come…]
[I did come, so I guess it means Azuma"s expectations were correct…]
I don"t understand Azuma"s thinking after all. There"s also the fact that I was able to guess it thanks to the various things that was written on the door though.
[We went quite off-topic. Then, how about we talk about what was written on that door?]
[If you please, pyon.]
From then, explained the things the writings Azuma left behind on the door.
The fact that he had become a dungeon master just before he died. The fact that he could not have a child due to the immunological rejection towards him, so he adopted a child and made him king of Estia. That he opposes the G.o.ddess and Heroes. That he decided the things he left on door for when his close friends come. That and he wrote other various stories.
However, he didn"t write anything about "Why he opposeed the G.o.ddess and Heroes". It seems his habit to keep essential parts to himself and cutting explanations short didn"t seem to have been cured even after 100 years.
And what was written on 50th door were just 2 things; "Live freely" and "Please make her happy if possible".
I didn"t understand it when I was on the 50th floor, but I guess the latter must"ve meant that he entrusted me with Carro.
[Thank you very much. Pyon.]
Carro bowed down gave me her thanks when I finished talking. It seems she had some tears in her eyes.
After a small pause, I asked something I"ve been worried about.
[This is my selfish expectations, but there aren"t anything you have to do just because you became a dungeon master right? Because it doesn seem like that guy would leave something troublesome behind to me.]
Of course, I intend to finish the troublesome things even if there are any. But considering Azuma"s personality, I think that"s highly unlikely. Azuma has the personality that would make it easy to be self-sufficient. If anything, he"s someone who would not rely on others and try to do everything himself. It doesn"t appear likely that that kind of guy would let me do something troublesome while leaving behind "Live freely".
[…Yes. You can manage the dungeon if you wish to and there is no problem if you do nothing if it is just to maintaining the status quo. If I have to say, then it isn"t like even keepers are entirely necessary, pyon. Well, there is a chance that the dungeon would collapse if the dungeon core is being fiddled with in that situation though…]
The line at the end was one I can"t overlook.
[The dungeon would collapse?]
[Ah, yes. A dungeon core in a state of no keepers or dungeon masters would be a naked heart as it were. The dungeon would collapse if unlucky. Of course, with the dungeon master"s authority you are able to let the dungeon collapse immediately, pyon.]
It looks like you are able to let it collapse after all. No, I won"t do it though…
[The humans of that era should decide the existence of the dungeon, is what I have heard him say, pyon. If the humans of that era consider the dungeon to be unnecessary, then you should bring into view the possibility to destroy it, is what I"ve heard too… It is possible to safely destroy it without damaging the country above, so be relieved.]
It seems he really had prepared it for me to live freely…
[I"m not going to destroy the dungeon. This country is revolving around with the dungeon at the center after all. The country won"t be able to carry on if I destroy it. Besides, Azuma took all that trouble to leave it behind. I want to leave it behind as proof that he lived.]
[…Understood. Then, we should go to dungeon core"s room and register you as dungeon master about now, pyon.]
[Yeah, please lead the way.]
[Uhm~, what"s about us?]
Mio raised her hand and ask.
[I"m really sorry. I cannot bring anybody with me with the exception of the one who had cleared the dungeon, pyon.]
[Right~]
[…Ugh.]
Mio gave up immediately, but Maria reacted to it somewhat.
[I will be fine.]
[…Yes.]
It seems this time she gave up immediately as expected.
If Maria were to say she would come along, then she would have to defeat the Dungeon Master – Replica too. Huh? It feels like it"s nothing that difficult for Maria, you know?
[Well then, this way.]
When Carro raised her hand, a pillar of light appeared in front of her.
Teleportation was invoked when I went inside it, and my field of vision changed.
[Again a pure-white room…]
[The control room being pure white seems to be Azumsama"s hobby, pyon.]
[I do understand his feelings though…]
The room there was a room where the floor, walls, ceiling, everything was pure white like the boss room and the residential area. It"s a roughly 10m cubic room and at center of it was a pedestal and a a shining blue sphere floated on it.
[Is this the dungeon core?]
I asked a question where the answer was almost decided.
[Yes, please touch the core with your hand, pyon.]
[Understood.]
I touch the dungeon core with my hand like Carro told me.
> Acquired the t.i.tle "Dungeon Master" t.i.tle.
> Learned the skill .
> Avatar has become LV3.
> New ability has been unlocked.
Added dungeon management function. Relocated the dungeon core"s functions directly under
The instant I acquired the t.i.tle of "Dungeon Master", information related to the dungeon was flowing into my head.
Oh, I see, you sure can be a dungeon master even without any explanation if you do it like this.
All the information necessary for dungeon management instantly entered my head, including Information about this dungeon, abilities and authority of a dungeon master, if I were to say it, the effects of the skill . It had a somewhat strange sensation, but it"s not like it"s harmful.
A: If there are harmful effects, I will block them.
Yeah, you would.
On second thought, this is the first time I acquired a new t.i.tle.
Majority of the t.i.tles only indicates my position. An extreme portion of the t.i.tles have those that lets you learn skills. The t.i.tle “Dungeon Master” seems to allow you to learn the skill. Well, it is in a meaning natural though…
On a side note, about the I stole from the Dungeon master – Replica. I wasn"t able to attach it to me immediately after I stole it. Now, having become the dungeon master means I"ve earned the rights to attach the skill for the first time.
Furthermore,
A: That is correct. With this level up, it has become possible to access/control the dungeon core through
Originally you would have to shut yourself inside dungeon if you want to manage it, but thanks to this special powers, that"s not necessary. Well, it"s that. Not only Azuma, my special power is telling me to "Live freely" I guess.
A: Yes.
[Jin-sama, how are you? Pyon. I"ve heard that you will be able to understand everything just by touching it though…]
Carro asked me. Even if she had heard the story, it must"ve been her first time seeing it in practice.
[Yeah, I"m fine. The entire knowledge concerning the dungeons flowed into me.]
[Is that so. That is good, pyon.]
[Can I ask you a question?]
[What is it, pyon?]
[There"s this information among the information that flowed into me where keepers are property of the dungeon master, but…]
The impression I have from keepers are those who you employ and entrust with the management, but the information that flowed into me was completely different, and is "Dungeon keepers are properties of the dungeon master and completely submit to their orders". In other words, they are slaves, aren"t they.
[Yes, that is correct. The ownership rights over me is also yours after you become the dungeon master, Jin-sama. Furthermore, that was the role given to me including my role until now, pyon.]
[Meaning an a.s.sistant from the viewpoint of a keeper, huh …]
[Yes.]
There weer no traces of hesitation in Carro"s eyes as she said so. She is resolved, no, it is more correct to say that she accepted that such is life…
By the way, the moment I become dungeon master, I finished confirming that "Jin"s possession" was added to Carro"s t.i.tles.
[For now, this isn"t the place to talk about things, so let"s go back to where everyone is.]
[Understood. Should I take care of preparing the transfer point? Or will you try it as a test, Jin-sama? Pyon.]
[Let me try it out.]
By learning , I came to be able to cast teleport that Carro had cast. As I put up my hands and thought about it, a pillar of light appeared like the one Carro made.
[Well, let"s return then.]
[Yes.]
Carro and I entered the pillar of light.
[Ah, welcome back~]
>
[Jin-sama, thanks for your hard work. …It seems you have safely become the dungeon master.]
Mio, Dora and Maria greeted me. Sakura and the others seems to have temporarily cut off their telepathy.
[Carro has become my my subordinate at the same time I became the dungeon master,.]
[Your property to be more precise. Pyon.]
[Well, it"s kind of similar. And so, Mio…]
[Okaay~]
Omitting Mio"s easy to understand explanation.
[I see…, I did think you were indeed quick with its capture. I can understand if you have that sort of power.]
[Uhm…, you don"t think it"s unfair or against the rules or something?]
Sakura asked Carro. By the way, I"ve summoned Sakura and Sera too this time. Carro is my subordinate, so I don"t have to hide it anymore either…
[Oh, that won"t be a problem. Azumsama told me to make it so you can"t violate rules from the beginning if I hate it, or something. Not being able to prevent it would be the same as a failure on our side he said, pyon.]
It was one of Azuma"s principles. To be honest, there was also a part where I did a lot of self-restrain when it came to exploring the dungeon, because I knew that the other side was Azuma.
[H-He is quite an extreme person…]
[Azuma is that kind of guy after all.]
[Yes, he was that sort of person.]
Sakura was taken a back a little, but Carro and I agree with her.
[So, what are you going to do from now on, master? Are you going to succeed your best friend"s dying wishes and start managing this dungeon? In that case, leave it to me!]
Mio asked with eyes filled with some expectations. No matter how I look at it, Mio does seem to like domestic affairs and managing etc more than combat.
[Sorry. Dungeon is basically maintain status quo. There hardly anything I have to do personally.]
[How unfortunate!]
Mio struck her forehead. Seeing that her mood didn"t really change, it doesn"t seem like she wanted to do it at any cost.
[I want to hear from you about your future, Carro. What do you want to do for a living from now on? There is also Azuma"s will, so I do intend to let you do things freely to some extent, you know?]
I did get told to "make her happy please".
[I want to continue being the keeper, pyon.]
[Is that okay with you? I won"t mind it if you want to do something else?]
[It is fine. I have hardly been able to do a keeper"s work for a long time until now, so I at least it has at last become my performance, you know pyon.]
She is surprisingly motivated it seems.
[It is because it is plenty worth doing compared to the routine work without any superiors or subordinates…Pyon.]
It looks like she just neglected too much the things that had been worth doing until now .
[Got it then. I will leave all about the dungeon to you Carro.]
[Yes, please leave it to me, pyon.]
Carro nodded full of confidence.
[First would be the supplementation of keepers, pyon.]
[Oh, so it will come to that then.…]
Even when she said keepers are unnecessary, she added the proviso that that was if you would not care about the dungeon deteriorating. Normally a few manpower is necessary just for maintaining the satus quo. And those manpower becomes keepers.
By the way, since keepers cannot increase without a dungeon master, Carro ended up having to manage it on her own until now.
[Jin-sama, is there something wrong?]
[Yeah, how do you think I can increase the amount of keepers?]
[……I"m sorry. I cannot imagine how.]
I tried asking Maria, but she doesn"t seem to know. It doesn"t look like there are people who know even if I look around me.
[There are several conditions to become a keeper. One, that they are of the opposite s.e.x of the dungeon master. This is, well, a common point.]
[Aah…]
Mio showed an awkward face.
[Oh, I am a virgin, you know. That is because the primary factors for being hated by the new dungeon master has been removed, pyon.]
[Azuma, don"t go reading too much into things…]
So she"s pretty much been raised with that intention from the beginning… Not really having any chances to meet, was that also so that she would not hold any such feelings for Azuma?
[Well, let"s leave that one aside and go for the second condition. This is simply one where approval from the person themselves is necessary. Forcing them would be…a little difficult.]
[It is not that it is not possible, but this difficult procedure is necessary, and you would not want such person close at hand, now would you pyon.]
A subordinate being against it does no good and a lot of harm after all.
[But, if you become a keeper, you would lose your freedom as the dungeon master property right? Would normal people approve of that? If I"m pushed to say, I think it"s the same as a slave contact though…]
Maria is right, this is practically a slave contact. You have do have a merit of eternal youth pretty much, but if pushed to say you would be "a slave for eternity" so it"s difficult to call it a merit.
[Yeah, that is why there is a recommended method in gathering keepers. That would be to "urge the option to people who are about to die in the dungeon".]
[That is…, they would have no choice but to approve, right?]
Meaning "Choose to die or become s slave". It is certainly effective.
[Oh, Azumsama could not use this method since the dungeon at that time was small-scale. Those who became Azuma"s dungeon keeper were girls who had been chased out of their homes or girls who had gone through a bitter experience. They were saved by Azumsama and their repayment was to become his keeper for a some time. I was an abandon child, so I was raised by the keepers. You could say it is inevitable for me to become a keeper.]
I guess Azuma"s life was quite full of ups and downs. He was quite heroic even with just a fragment of it.
[Well, in my case, I could instruct some of my subordinate to do this, it won"t do if I have to force anyone to do this. Beside, instead of make dungeon keeper, it is better to reduce number of dead in dungeon.]
[If you want to reduce number of dead, then can"t we just reduce the difficulty level?]
Sure, if we lower the difficulty level like Mio said, then it would reduce the amount of people dying.
[The dungeon core"s resources aren"t infinite. Considering the recovery and consumption, the present state is the best balance. Perhaps, Azuma must have adjusted it with all his strength.]
[I see. So it would become like that when it comes to decreasing the damage even a little. Then, what if you tell them regardless of being keeper?]
[That is not good either. The existence of keepers has to absolutely be kept hidden, it seems. It is forbidden to get it out in the public unless we are confined inside, or where the other party is very certain to die]
[What a bother…]
[Well, with the options we can pick, there"s not much to do but to leave it to Carro.]
[Yes! I will increase the number of keepersin full force!]
[Sure…]
That is about explorers who would be about to die in full force though…
[I plan to go to the Crimson Empire via Atto Union just as planned. The Crimson Empire will force a war with Estia if I leave them alone from the looks of it.]
It"s details that Azuma had written on the door in front of the boss room, but Azuma has a lot to do with the founding of this country. Furthermore, it"s a country that Azuma had founded. If Azuma, who"s the dungeon master, had founded it under the premise that there is a dungeon, then it is guaranteed that the ratio that the dungeon holds would naturally become bigger.
[Azuma didn"t tell me to protect this country, but it is the country that Azuma took great pains to be involved in its founding after all.]
[Then, we"re going to resume our trip, right?]
[Yeah, that"s right]
Our next place of destination will be Atto Union, and after that Crimson Empire.
Our number one objective in the Crimson Empire is to make sure they won"t cause a war with Estia.I will intimidate them if possible and if that doesn"t work, it"ll be the birth of empress Rouge.
[I"m panning on having Rouge and Minerva travel with us when we enter the Crimson Empire. They should be just right as a guide.]
[Master is the only one in this wide world who can treat an imperial princess as a guide…]
Sara let out a voice of amazement.
[First off, shall we decide on the specific schedule for a little longer, after checking Cynthia team"s growth tomorrow?]