“I’m back.”
““““Welcome back!””””
After leaving the dungeon core room, I see everyone looking relieved to see me. Maki has big tears in her eyes. Well, from their point of view, I disappeared all of a sudden, so it makes sense.
I hug the three girls that jump at me, and Aira hugs me from behind. Hm… It feels soft… That reminds me, we were just supposed to be fighting slime today, so I don’t even have my armor on.
Normally it would be crazy to face something like that in this state, but that’s where Adamantine Armor shines. Do I even need armor? Would that be too cocky…?
“…”
It’s a happy time, being hugged by everyone, but it’s hard to really feel relaxed here.
Normally, there’s nothing but slimes here, but who knows if more big ones will appear. We don’t know the conditions to spawn them, so we can’t hang around here relaxing.
I’m getting the urge to investigate more, but let’s leave that for another day.
“Let’s leave and continue this outside…”
But they don’t let go of me. Especially Maki and Ayane.
…I guess I’ll carry them then.
“Hyan!”
“Hau!”
“S-Shouta, not there…!”
“It’s hard to carry three people in front of me. Bear with it.”
“And me, master?”
Aira presses her softness even more against me, as she whispers into my ear. I try my best to chase away dirty thoughts, and respond firmly.
“Can’t you walk?”
“If I must.”
I hold three of them in an even weirder position than usual, and we go outside.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
We get on the fully equipped RV we bought for this trip, and relax. Although Aira still has to drive to our destination.
I think that as I sit on a sofa, followed by Ayane sitting in front of me and Aki and Maki to the left and right. The same positions as usual, so it looks like they’re going to pamper me thoroughly to heal me.
They massage me, offer me juice, the works.
My tired body and mind relax, and they finally calm down too. And after seeing that tension leave their shoulders, I talk about what happened in that space.
Everyone is surprised when I talk about the mysterious thing called the dungeon core, but I need to confirm something before I get deeper into it.
“Hum, how long was I away?”
“Hn… About thirty minutes?”
“Eh? That long?”
“I was very worried, because there was no sign that you were coming back.”
No wonder Maki looked haggard.
“It felt to me like five or ten minutes. I thought I got through it pretty quickly.”
“Darling, I think that was a special place you were in, where time flows differently. Or maybe time passed while you moved to it and back.”
“I see. I’ll keep that in mind next time.”
“You say next time, so does that mean you need to keep going there?”
“Yes, Basically, that space that can be entered with keys is where you can access the dungeon’s systems. What I got today is that from now on, there won’t be any dungeon breaks in Unlucky Hall.”
““““!?””””
Everyone is surprised, even Aira, so the RV shakes a little.
“Aira, you can stop for a bit.”
“No, please continue.”
I tell them what happened in that room, and Maki realizes something.
“Shouta, mister dungeon core…”
“Mister?”
“Fufu. The dungeon core said it didn’t know about other dungeons, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then it should be able to tell you anything about Unlucky Hall.”
“Maybe. But there was nothing… Ah, about how to spawn those big slimes?”
“That too, but it probably knows about Level Gacha.”
“!”
True… It wouldn’t tell me anything about other dungeons, but it’s the AI that controls that one. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t know.
The only problem is…
“There’s a chance my level would be too low.”
“Well…”
“But it would be worth to check. Should we go back?”
Aira hears that, and stops by the side of the road. The highway is up ahead, so there’s no turning back after that.
“No, it’s okay. There’s nothing troubling me about this skill right now, and I’m pretty sure it would just tell me my level’s too low.”
“Understood. I will call you when we get there, so please relax.”
“I’ll do that.”
…Ah, I completely forgot about Level Gacha.
I’m still over level two hundred, and there are new things to check.
But let’s forget about that and relax.
We’re on a break, so I’ll do that when we get back.
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Thanks for the treat.