83-106-[Dungeon]: Nostalgic prison
-- "The [Goddess Blessing] has been activated by the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "The [Goddess Blessing] has been activated by the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "With the defeat of Walker
-- "Please choose your loot."
The Wave of Erosion has invaded the eight zombies in the bathroom, and the entire bathroom has been invaded.
Then an announcement rang in your head.
It's the sound of the bell that announces level up.
-- "You have leveled up from Lv:909 to Lv:972 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lvl: 972 to lvl: 1032 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from Lv:1032 to Lv:1072 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lvl: 1072 to lvl: 1130 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lv:1130 to lv:1150 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lv:1150 to lv:1174 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lvl: 1174 to lvl: 1206 by gaining experience."
-- "You have been leveled up from lvl:1206 to lvl:1221 by gaining experience."
'Nem? What's your level?
It's 34!
Yes!
Nem is slowly but surely getting stronger as well.
Lv:34 means........wasn't Toa about that much too?
Hey, what's the level of the Toa?
Me? I'm 42, you know?
What about Sufilia?
I'm 26.
So Nem is the next strongest player after Toa at this point.
And my level has gone up a lot.
They said the dungeon is the graveyard of the fool who dreamed a dream, but honestly, there's no way to describe it as a treasure trove of experience.
It's as if there's a bug in the game, and the levels go up and up and up.
None of the zombies had magic, except for one.
Instead, they had skills, but of the nine zombies in total, most of them had the same skills and were covered with them.
In the end, I was able to acquire the magic "Infection" and the skills "Binge Eating," "Auditory Sensitivity," "Odor Sensitivity," "Bite Strength Increase," and "Leadership".
It is said that the "Infection" is a magic unique to zombies that can turn a person into an undead walker if the person has their own blood ingested into the target's body.
It is said that 'binge eating' means being able to eat all kinds of things as one's own sustenance.
You want to go upstairs for now?
If you go down these stairs, you'll find yourself in front of the first-floor shoe cupboard, where a number of slimy creatures had overflowed earlier.
But it's just too much trouble to deal with that many.
More importantly, I'm glad they haven't come under my control.
In my case, all I need to do is deploy the wave of erosion and I'll be able to wipe them out.
But if I want to clear the ground floor, I'll need to expand the waves to cover more ground.
At that point, there was no guarantee that the waves wouldn't come into contact with the three of them.
The zombies in the bathroom were few and far between, and their range was limited, so there was no need to adjust.
Part of the reason is that he hadn't bothered with it before, but fine-tuning the range expansion is difficult for the senses.
You should avoid taking as many risks as possible.
Otherwise, you'll make the same mistake again.
'What floor are you on now?'
Toa asked.
'Upstairs, though,'
So next stop, the third floor? What's on the third floor?
I have a classroom.
I don't know what it is, but this is all classrooms, isn't it?
Well, it's a classroom building...
What's next?
I've never walked around the school with such high expectations.
But there was one thing that bothered me.
First the minotaur appeared, then the sludge. Then the zombies appeared.
That's where I was feeling uncomfortable.
That slimy monster was probably a slime.
I'm familiar with these three monsters because they are familiar to me.
When I was in Japan, before the Otherworld Summoning, I used to play RPGs and zombie survival games.
Whenever a minotaur or slime appeared, I felt like I was in another world, even though it was a game.
I was just happy to be smashing zombies with a bat.
In other words, these three monsters are monsters that I have a strong emotional attachment to, and that kind of guy showed up three times in a row.
-- then it's only natural to feel uncomfortable.
I walked up the stairs with that uncomfortable feeling that wouldn't be resolved.
I walked up the stairs with three people in tow.
I reached the third floor.
A bleak corridor with no change in appearance.
Dilapidated, the corridor and walls were dirty and dull.
Each of the teacher's windows facing the corridor is fully mirrored, giving me a full view into the classroom.
Now that I've left the "school", I have a thought.
This was a school with strict school rules....
Even bringing in a cell phone was prohibited in these days.
Well........depending on how you look at it, it could be because of these times.
And then? Which one is Masamune's classroom?
Toa asked.
Up the stairs, a corridor led across the front of it.
That means we're going left or right.
Thinking about it, it's odd that the three of us are here.
"I was always alone at school.
I didn't have any friends for 2 years.
And now I have three friends.
And they're beautiful women.
Nem is still pretty, but.....
When I look at the three of them next to me now, I think.
--I've been looking for a friend.
But they are my friends.
Well I guess we are friends, aren't we?
If we were friends, would we ever be friends again?
Why didn't you say so? What's going on?
Hmm? Oh, no I wish I'd brought Sierra with me, or so I thought.
I had too many things on my mind and I didn't have time to talk.
Would Sierra be my friend, too?
I wanted a friend.
Maybe that's why I accepted Ichijou.
'Well Sierra, I hope you're okay?'
I don't know...
I can't say it's going to be easy.
"I can't leave the lives of my friends in the hands of something as insignificant as hope.
If I had had friends, would I have been able to avoid vowing revenge?
Either way, would I have sworn to kill that guy?
Come on.
We turned to the right.
Then we passed one or two classrooms and my classroom was at the far end.
'Until the other day I was here every day.
Is this Masamune's classroom?
Yeah.
Yeah, this is classroom 2-3.
My classroom.
"What was Master Nito learning in here?
'Simply put, it's the counting, the history of the country, and then there's the other languages. Well, it's not that different from Heilkwaite.
Was there a whole world full of countries in Masamune's world?
Yeah, I barely knew the guy.
I walked into the classroom and walked to my seat.
Then I touched the desk.
Gently, as if to confirm something.
'I was ... sitting here.
Then Nem sat down in my seat.
I couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.
Why is that?
Has school ever been such a fun place?
I left my seat and stood at the podium.
'Then let me ask you, Nem-kun! Is this a dungeon? Or is it school?
Perhaps it was because I said that so suddenly, but Nem was startled and then fuming.
''Ne ... Nem doesn't understand.
'If you don't know what Mr. Nem, you don't know what you don't know!
The Toa and Sufilia laughed at the situation.
''Haha.......Really, where am I?''
Wasn't it a dungeon?
Toa was puzzled by my two or three different opinions.
But I was confused as well.
'I don't know ... was the dungeon a school before we entered it? For example, could you think of changing your appearance depending on the challenger?
'But if that's the case, why was this a school for Masamune? It would have been good in my home town, wouldn't it? For example, if you're a Sufiria, maybe the castle of Artemias?
'Well, yeah.... How was Nem? Did you see anything in particular that you could think of before you got here?
I didn't see anything.
Nem said happily as he dangled his feet.
That means it's just me.
This dungeon reacted only to me.
''Well I guess I can't help but think about it when I don't have an answer.
I took a seat next to Nem's.
As I recall, this seat belonged to a guy named Takagi or something.
And I stared at the blackboard.
Then I looked out the window at the setting sun.
No ... or did I have feelings for it ... but it was a prison for me. Yeah, Toa's right. It's just like the gulag.
I remembered what Toa had said earlier.
'What does that ... mean?'
The Toa softly questioned me.
"I'm here... day after day, I'm ostracized. Every single day, I was humiliated.
I looked at Sufilia.
I'm just like you, Sufiria, even though our situations are different. They tortured me too," she said. That's why I didn't kill you; I saved you. I'm sure he was thinking of his own situation... maybe...
Sufilia smiled and did not return the words.
But I can feel her feelings for me in her expression.
Maybe it's just me, though.
''Maybe I'm nothing compared to Nem, who was an orphan, right? But I think it's not a matter of scale or degree. It's not a matter of scale or degree, it's a matter of fact, whether or not it happened...
Then Toa raised a question mark.
'I don't understand, what does that mean?'
"When I lament, the world will say, 'There are worse people out there than you'.... But that's not the point. What matters is the fact that you were oppressed.
The fact that I was oppressed?
It's a complicated issue. Some people in my world said it was a misunderstanding. That's why 'he' used it to his advantage. To make sure he was never at a disadvantage...
I walked down the pew and looked down at the ground through the window.
Then Toa asked me if I was paying attention. He called out to me.
'I'm sure you're going through something hard, aren't you? But I have no idea what Masamune is talking about.
'I suppose so but that's okay. I'll tell you all about it one day. I just want you to understand that it's okay for now, just somehow. For Toa.........
...Yeah. Okay.
Toa, I said.
He smiled gently and said it slowly.
"Maybe they'll say that I'm still alive," he said, "but they'll still think I'm overreacting. "They'll say that you're overreacting... and they'll say that you're wrong. And he's gonna say. And then he'll say, "I wasn't bullied." "We're friends." And then he'll laugh again. ...
No........they've already forgotten about it.
Saeki may not even remember me........or what he did to me anymore.
That's about it.
But the oppressed party will always remember.
Time passes and they always remember.
No matter how much time passes, they will always remember.
Now I don't see him in front of me.
I'm not being tortured anymore.
But that's not true.
I'm still being tortured.
I'm still trapped.
I have tried so many times to get out, but I can't.
No matter how hard I struggle, I can't get those days out of my head.
It won't let go of me.
I'm in a different world....
I've come to a different world....
--I'm still in this classroom.
I think I understand now. The truth about dungeons...
"If I'm wrong, go back".
It makes sense.
But I guess it wasn't.
I turned back to the three of them.
"This is my...
I was about to tell the three of them the conclusion when I realized.
'Huh?'
There's someone in the front seat, away from the three of us.
'When? .....
It appeared suddenly.
I moved away from the window, slowly and stealthily, to the blackboard side.
Then I looked into the face of the person.
"How did you............come in here?
Suddenly, I heard a crow cawing from outside the window.
I was startled and reflexively turned around.
Then the setting sun came in.
-- the after-school sunshine.
I caught my breath and looked at the seat again.
Then I noticed.
"Toa? Nem? ........Sufilia?
The three of us are gone.
"It's just me and Hidaka-kun here."
Then my "girlfriend" who was sitting at the table spoke to me.
It's been a while, hasn't it, Hidaka?
She fluttered her long, black, shiny hair and turned around to face me.
''Shirakawa.........''
And there was my first love.