Chapter 9: You Can Just Call Her Dark Lord
After the whole motivation thing and the crowd quiet down, the students from the other school who volunteered in helping with the summoning started distributing items to the summoned students: gears suited to the class we received, sets of clothes and ten gold coins. They're sending us to war in the future, to fight for their country, so this is the least they can do... at least, that's what they want us to think.
Apparently, these gears and clothes automatically adjusts to the wearer's size, very useful if I say. I don't know where to use these gold coins but I don't think this is a small amount of money either, I should learn how the currency works in this world if we were given free times.
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Head: None
Arms: White Mage Gloves (+20 INT)
Body: Leather Armor (+20 DEF)
Legs: Black Leather Boots (+15 AGI)
Weapon: Wooden Staff (+50 INT)
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Wearing this gear over my school uniform isn't making me uncomfortable at all, I think I can even move better than before. Shouldn't this feel stuffy and tight? Is there a logic behind this?
As I was trying the gear they gave me, following the instructions of Sir Elias and moving around, Captain Brand decided the agenda for the day and it is battling monsters in the dungeon. Second day in another world and we're already gonna start dungeon crawling. The reason is simple enough, to level up our class enough to withstand training, how hard is their training that we need to level up first? Sir Elias said that a level twenty to thirty class would be enough but isn't that like already near the middle.
Since there is no point in complaining inside my mind, I just followed what everyone's doing, only reckless people fight the waves. The teachers didn't do anything to stop the knights' decision either so I guess the kingdom and the school faculty reached an agreement, enough for them to cooperate with each other but... why am I sensing tension between the knights and the teachers, or is it just me? Our homeroom teacher isn't with us either, where did that happy-go-lucky guy go again? Don't tell me he's lost even in another world.
After the knights divided which class will go to which dungeon, everyone started getting ready for the departure. In this world, if everything is going according to the game, dungeons are supposed to be beings who lives by absorbing mana but for some reason they can't absorb the mana existing in the air, that's why they need other species who have the ability to circulate and hold mana in their body, like humans and animals, to enter inside them. Just from that, they can live for years and grow infinitely day by day. Creatures dying inside the dungeon is just a bonus for them, that makes them more dangerous. The danger level of a dungeon is based on how many people died, consumed by its body and how long it has been alive.
Despite that, dungeons are not monsters, they're more closer to celestial beings like angels, devils and gods because they have the ability to create something from nonexistence, like monsters and traps. Dungeons can also create incredible treasures and resources, that's why there are a number of people who thinks dungeons are gifts from gods, but most people think of dungeons as a target for extermination. I kinda agree with that stance since in the sixth visual novel released by the Days/ series called Days/ Before the Light Shines, the last boss is a gigantic dungeon that has been alive for centuries who started walking. Dungeons can be normally destroyed by removing the dungeon core found on its deepest floor, but the dungeons in this place has grown enough to the point that it's impossible to destroy it by normal means.
Labios City, the capital of Teabisnia Kingdom is also called the dungeon capital. Home to five centuries old dungeons, four of them has more than 200 floors. If a party want to clear a dungeon with large number of floors, they'll need to stay inside the dungeon for years or maybe decades, needs a lot of resources including foods, weapons that are unbreakable and doesn't deteriorate and etc. The last one dungeon in Labios is a dungeon labyrinth and the most difficult one, it is different from a normal dungeon in a way that it has only one very wide floor, but the dungeon core moves from time to time and the inside of its body changes every month. In other words if someone's trying to explore a dungeon labyrinth and they decided to rest for a month, if that someone enter that same dungeon labyrinth again, they'll see a completely different place.
The dungeon labyrinth in this place in particular is famous since it's too large, any people from inside the capital can see it. Void Worm is what it's called, is made up of castles connected to each other, composed of dark-colored stones, it serves as the capital's wall... no, it's better if I say they're using it as a wall. It is mentioned in the in-game lore that the dungeon is formed thousand years ago, slowly growing like a worm crawling in circle, the first king of Teabisnia thought it would be good to build the capital behind this dungeon and be protected. Like a moth to a flame, when the king noticed one of the castle isn't changing like the others, they grab that opportunity, use it as the entrance and slowly built the capital where we are right now. Yeah, if he's still alive I would like to ask him why and slap him in the face.
Maybe he was tempted, aesthetically speaking it's beautiful, but menacing at the same time. If I were to describe it, it's similar to those walls on that popular manga 'Attack on Giants', with the walls made up of connected black castles atop of each other. There are castles that are normally standing, some tilted to the left, some to the right, and others upside down, I wonder if it's realistically possible to build something like this, such is the wonders I have of dungeons. We're in the timeline before the first visual novel starts, so I guess the dungeon has seven layers of castle walls spread widely, since at the start of the main story it has eight. With the largest castle remained unchanging and serving as the capital's entrance, that's where we entered after being summoned and the place where I fight Sir Elias.
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The instructors decided on what class would go to what dungeon using raffle, a jug with four balls inside numbered one to four, four instructors take a step and reached for the ball inside one at a time, the order on who's the first to pick is decided by rock, paper, scissors. They're doing this because it'll be crowded at the entrance, if thousand students enter only one dungeon. Sir Elias got a dungeon called Verdant Dream, one of the four dungeons in the capital, also mentioned in the game but exploring it is impossible aside from the dungeon labyrinth. The first dungeon that can be explored in the first visual novel is the Void Worm but when I was playing the game, there isn't any useful items I got from that dungeon and the enemies are too easy because I have Sir Elias in the party.
When I asked Fio why the dungeon labyrinth is not included in the raffle, he answered that the enemies inside that place is unpredictable, you might be fighting a low-level enemy at first but in your next encounter you'll suddenly meet a boss-level monster. He also added there are traps that can move and unknown things suddenly appearing, reason why eighty percent of the dungeon labyrinth remained unexplored. Information I haven't heard, I don't have any idea what the four dungeons looks like either. Days/ is pretty sloppy in that regard, creating a detailed location and beautiful background as a setting but they'll just use it once and never explain it again. In that terms, Paraia, the world where the events of Days/ happened is full of mysteries waiting to be discovered.
We walked for an hour and passed through the greeneries that covered the school, and arrived at a large cave with a very wide opening. There are two knights guarding the place but we easily entered because of Sir Elias, there's also other people that looks like your typical adventurers entering the dungeon. We descended from a naturally dungeon-made stone stairs... and at the end of the stairs lies a grassy plain with no end in sight, the reason why it's called Verdant Dream.
The students in our class started grouping up with each other just like what Sir Elias told us before we arrived in this place, it'll be difficult to handle 40 students at once after all.
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Party Members:
[Banana King]
[Dark Lord of the Everlasting Night, the Shadowless Raven]
[Kanzaki Yayoi]
[Taya is my Waifu]
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It seems you can party up with up to nine people, a total of ten people is the maximum for a party. Still why am I with these guys? I thought Haruka would invite me to her party but she didn't, did she forgot about me? Now I'm stuck with members who's always left out of the group.
"Done, I already finished setting everything up." I said after they accepted the invitation to join the party.
"Thank you, June." The angel smiled at me. "How about we start with introductions before we get ready?" Since no one is answering, Fio proceeded. "...I'll go first, my name is Felicio Tish Desvaya, a student of this kingdom's magic academy. Today, I'll act as your party's guide and guardian, feel free to call me with my nickname, Fio." Hands on his chest, he exhaled after his introduction.
"Perfect!" I said as I started clapping enthusiastically, the others followed suit.
"Hehehe." He laughed and blushed at my reaction, truly an angel.
"Then I'm next, Resha Baliac, a knight in training, my job here is to ensure your party come back safely... that's why I'm giving you a warning, don't fight any monsters you guys can't handle." The girl with long blonde hair wearing an armor said with a serious look, she looks like a strict person.
"I'm next! I'm next!" Our resident chuunibyou raised her hand..... finding the right pose for her introduction, she finally decided with a pose hiding her face with her right hand for mysterious appeal, after two long minutes. "From the darkness where I came, bringing chaos with my eyes, the war god... the emperor... the dark lord-"
"Too long." Why is she even changing her pose every word. "This is Watanabe Rika, you can just call her dark lord, raven, or Rika." I pointed to the chuunibyou.
"Eh? Wait, I'm not finished yet-"
"I'm June." Ignoring the protest of the chuunibyou, I continued with the introduction. "This guy is Keima, her fave is Taya." I pointed to the guy beside me, he's just your typical otaku.
"Thanks for the clarification." He said while shifting his glasses.
"Do you want to introduce yourself?" I asked the short girl behind me who's clinging to my shirt, after a few seconds, she eventually nodded.
"Uhmmm.......... Kanzaki Yayoi.........." That's it? After her introduction, she blushed and hid behind me again.
Well it can't be helped since Niina is not here today, she's always the one taking care of her and always by her side. I lower my body down to her level and fixed her hair, her bangs is hiding her eyes again.
After fixing her hair and standing up, I thought to myself..... one chuunibyou, one otaku, one introvert, and one genius, is this team gonna be okay with these members?
