I’m challenging the dungeon yet again today.
But first, a status check.
I check the monitor by the cash register in the weapon section, and see I now have Healing Magic and Spatial Grasp. My level is also six now, so that’s a nice growth pace, isn’t it?
…
Let’s be realistic.
I lost all my equipment yesterday, and have to buy it all again.
That hurts my wallet. It really does.
Why did I decide to tackle a dungeon? To earn money, as a stopgap until I found my next job. So why am I spending more money than I make?
I’m just questioning myself.
Then I realize something.
I buy cheap equipment, it breaks right away, and I have to buy new stuff.
Isn’t it simple then?
I instead spend two hundred thousand yen on a iron club, shield, and breastplate.
The breastplate is because I learned from what happened yesterday. Those headbats charged against my torso because it’s a large target, and each time they hit it felt like my heart was about to stop.
From now on, I’m wearing a breastplate.
I really need to start making money, or I’m going to start living off bean sprouts.
◇ ◇ ◇
I’m on the fifth floor, and the monster called snapping turtle is added to the existing roster of monsters.
They look like regular snapping turtles, just twice as big, and they have tough venomous fangs. The venom isn’t deadly, and at most causes numbness, but the monster’s jaw is powerful enough to rip flesh clean off when it bites. I have to be careful.
I learned from yesterday.
There’s a snapping turtle in front of me, and it heads towards me to bite me. It’s slow, as you would expect from a turtle, but as I wait for it without a care, it suddenly stretches its neck to try and bite my leg.
I instantly pull my leg back, and the fright almost makes me piss myself.
The neck goes slowly back, unlike when it stretched.
I don’t let this chance get away, and hit the neck with my iron club.
All that can be sold from a snapping turtle is the shell, but it’s worth five hundred yen. That’s five times as much as everything that came before it.
I immediately try to pry it off, and quickly give up.
This is too tough. It won’t come off.
I could bring the whole snapping turtle back, but it weighs twenty kilos. I don’t want to walk around with that.
Maybe I could if it was just one, but after I hunt one or two more, I’m going to reach my limit.
Snapping turtles are a complete flop. It’s the least profitable of the bunch.
I’m sticking to horned rabbits and headbats.
I go back to looking for the staircase, and find it. Sure enough, there’s a bunch of snapping turtles in front of it.
I look at the over a hundred snapping turtles, and feel my excitement go down.
◇ ◇ ◇
I’m very unmotivated, but I start hunting them as safely as I can.
This isn’t a fight, it’s just a hunt.
I approach the snapping turtles, bait a few, and they try to bite me by stretching their necks. But I avoid them and smash them with the iron club.
I repeat this process, and hunt over a hundred.
This took so long. I started at noon, and it’s past six.
I even tried to attack the shell and other parts, but it dealt no damage.
I’m spent.
I look around to see if any are left, and fall after tripping on a shell.
I don’t know if my hand lands near a glass ball, but my Spatial Grasp skill says there’s something round.
Where did it go? Did it disappear?
I look around, but all I see are monster corpses.
Oh well, there’s no point thinking about what’s not here.
I head to the exit to leave for the day, but a sharp pain runs through my leg.
What!?
I look down, and see a snapping turtle biting my leg, despite its neck being crushed.
The pain distorts my vision, and in my despair, I use magic.
A few thorns pierce the snapping turtle, and finish it off.
Its grip on my leg loosens, but half my calf falls off.
I use my remaining magic energy to cast Healing Magic.
I feel languid halfway through, but I keep doing it. I feel like throwing up, but I keep using it even after I do.
My consciousness feels hazy, and once I notice my magic energy is all gone, I faint.
ーーー
Haruto Tanaka (24)
Level: 7
Skills: Earth Magic, Trace, Healing Magic, Spatial Grasp, Toughness
ーーー
