Chapter 52: 52

Chapter 52.

They were at the end gate of the sub-dungeon.

The four of them were there: Mizue Katsunari, Rikka Tachibana, Tenji Amagi, and Fukuyama Yohito. Kusatsu had left after the second boss area, leaving the team short of a member.

"Wow! Endgates are smaller than I thought."

Rikka muttered hoarsely as she looked at the end gate up close.

"Yes, I think we usually go through one at a time. Come on, let's get on with opening this route too. Who wants to?"

Fukuyama answered appropriately but asked who would open the gate.

Rikka looked at Mizue and produced an agonizing appeal that she wanted to open it. Mizue shook his head, defeated by the adorable eyes of a woman who was older than he was.

"Great, I've already opened the door to the boss area plenty of times."

"Yes! So, I'm going to open the door."

Cheerful Rikka's voice echoed through the cave, and she vigorously placed her hand in the indentation of the handprint on the end gate.

As she did so, the end gate began to push open with a massive gurgling sound, and the two watched in amusement.

When the end gate was completely open, Fukuyama coughed and said, "I'm going to stay here just in case there's a monster."

"I'll be here just in case a monster attacks from behind, so please go back first. I think I'll be back in the tent at the entrance after, so please get further instructions from Mr. Godo there. Okay?"

"Yes!"

Fukuyama gave a fresh smile to the three, who responded cheerfully.

The two who had been mainly engaged in combat entered the endgate. Between the doors, they stepped into an oil slick that looked like black ink.

Finally, Tenji goes under the end gate.

Rikka Tachibana, Mizue Katsunari, and Tenji Amagi.

The three members of the twenty-sixth group had gone under the endgate without pause.

[What?]

Tenji uttered a surprise in his mind when he passed through the end gate.

Usually, when they pass through the gate, their vision is pitch black, and a warm, raw liquid clings to the body for a few steps. Further through there, they would return to the gate on the ground, where the light would shine through.

But this time, the feeling was a little different.

Tenji had already walked more than fifteen steps, and still, no light came into his vision.

[What? Wait a minute! This is...]

Tenji's body was blubbering and goosebumps.

The warm, fresh liquid was still clinging to his body, but for some reason, he felt cold.

They walked and walked but couldn't see the light on the ground. They walked in pitch darkness.

Tenji, who had never walked in the black space between the gates for such a long time, felt a sense of urgency.

[Something... Something is wrong! What the hell?!]

Tenji thought it was weird but, he wanted to get out of this creepy space as soon as possible.

He walked quickly through the darkness.

At first, he could feel that he was stepping on something...Something hard that looks like a floor but, he couldn't see the exit.

Naturally, he gripped the Iron Sword in his hand tightly.

[No way! Isn't this a sign of... la-da-mu-transition?]

Tenji had little memory of this phenomenon.

Of those caught in the random transition, those who survived and returned have all had these words to say.

---I wandered around in the dark space for a long time.

The phenomenon that Tenji was feeling was terribly similar to that phenomenon.

Tenji's walking speed gradually increased, and he found himself running. He could not see anything, not even his own body, but he kept running, hoping to find the exit.

He just kept running in a world where he couldn't hear any sound, and his vision was pitch black.

He was breathing, but Tenji couldn't even hear the sound of his rough breathing. He could only tell his lungs were making loud movements, and his senses were severely dulled.

For five minutes, he wandered and ran in search of a light.

And then--- there was a light in Tenji's eyes.

"Whoa!"

Before he knew it, he was out of that dark world, and Tenji could see the lights of the dungeon in his eyes.

The familiar old temple columns and the rickety cobblestone floor.

Seeing this, Tenji let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, I was so scared. What the hell happened to--"

"Thank god, you're okay."

As he was muttering to himself in relief, he heard Mizue's familiar thick voice coming from right behind him.

"Ah! Mizue-kun!"

"Oh, it's just Mizue. But, what the hell happened? It doesn't seem like we're outside, and we're obviously still in the dungeon."

Mizue was surprisingly calm and analyzing his surroundings.

For some reason, Tenji's quickening heartbeat subsided when he saw someone who had calmed down and slowly began to check his surroundings.

"Yes, it's still a dungeon within here..."

"I knew it. Maybe it's random transition... I've been running in the dark world for a long time, Tenji you too?"

"Yeah, I'm the same way. I've been running in the dark world and the next thing I know, I'm on my ass right here."

"I see you've been caught up in the same phenomenon."

Tenji takes the offered hand and slowly stands up, exchanging information with Mizue.

He was checking his surroundings again, slapping off the dust that had settled on the butt.

However, no matter how often he looked at it, this place seemed to remain the same inside the dungeon.

It was just a slightly different scene from the previous sub-dungeons.

"That earlier dungeon was warm, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was. But this place seems to be dotted with white light balls floating around. As I thought, experienced people have a keen eye for observation, I didn't notice it until you told me." Mizue said.

The two unexpectedly calm people were facing each other and talking - that's when it happened.

"Noooooo!!!"

Suddenly, a woman's voice rang out from the heavens.

A sudden shout made them both look up reflexively.

The dungeon's ceiling was a black hole-like whirlpool, from which a woman's pretty ass was approaching.

They backed away as quickly as they could when they saw that ass falling from above.

The woman landed on her butt on the ground and cried out in exaggerated pain. Her eyes were almost breaking with tears.

Finally realizing that she had made it out of the dark world, she sat up as a girl and began to look around her.

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In her vision, she saw Tenji and Mizue.

"Ah! It's Mizue-kun and Tenji-kun!"

Rikka buried her face in Mizue's stomach and started crying, "I was so scared."

As expected, Mizue didn't want to be attached in this situation, so he pushed Rikka's shoulder back as if to push her and said coldly, "This is no time to cry, look at the situation."

"Oh, what's that? Isn't this a dungeon?"

With tears welling up in her eyes, Rikka began to observe her surroundings as she was told.

"Yeah, we're in a dungeon. Get up, and don't yell. It might attract monsters."

"Yes!"

Rikka felt uncomfortable being offended by a younger person and tilted her head.

However, she decided it was best to follow Mizue here and quickly stood up.

Mizue was slightly relieved to see that the spear was firmly in her hand. He was glad that Rikka wasn't the kind of person who would let go of her weapon in this situation.

None of the three had given up their weapons by luck or design.

"....."

"Has Rikka been wandering around the dark world all this time too?"

"What? How did you know?"

Because Tenji and I were in the exact same situation, so, it seems that we were both involved in random transitions at the same time... I've never heard of it happening."

Mizue sighed as he finally got a grasp of the situation.

First of all, no one had ever heard of three people being caught up in random transitions simultaneously. Every time an incident of accidental shifting is reported in the news once a year, it is said that only one person was involved in it.

They had never heard of two people at the same time. Three people, for that matter, was unprecedented.

"This is a possibility that we got separated from Fukuyama-san, isn't it?"

"You're right. I can't say there's no chance that Fukuyama-san could be transferred here, but you should consider that the three of us have to make it through this place together."

At Mizue's words, Rikka gulped and swallowed her spit. Her tension was rising.

[What should I do with this? No matter how I think about it, we don't have enough strength. And there's no food at all. It's all over.]

Tenji thinks that the hole left by Kusatsu and Fukuyama is too painful and wonders how they should act after this.

'Tenji, you're going to have to help us from here. But I have no idea how well you can fight. Can't you somehow put it into words?"

In this situation, relying on the unknown Tenji was the apparent action.

[Hmmm, what should I do? Well, we'll have to wait and see for now. Is this part of the test, or is it something... Something that happened outside of the test? Until I can determine that, there's nothing I can do.)

Tenji decided to be honest about only what he could talk about.

"I've already awakened to the calling of the [Swordsman], but unfortunately, Godo-san has sealed it for now. I'm not playing the role of a shield; I'm playing the role of an attacker."

Tenji excelled in defence, intelligence, and luck in his original status.

However, it is currently in a state where 50 additional values of Goblin were added, so attack power was the highest status structure. If only attack power was taken, it was at a level where it could be called monstrous.

While lying, Tenji tries to make his words true by mixing the truth exquisitely. In a sense, he was manipulating the truth.

"Well, yeah. If there was at least one shield player, it would be more stable... I will miss Kusatsu."

"What do we do? Proceed, wait here for rescue?"

"Let's wait for rescue!" Rikka said.

"No, wait Rikka. How can you be so sure this isn't part of the test?"

"What do you mean?"

Mizue had come to the exact guess as Tenji.

If this were made as a part of the test, choosing to wait for rescue here would be synonymous with failure.

On the other hand, if they were involved in an incident instead of a test, they could wait to be rescued.

However, none of the three had ever heard of anyone being able to intentionally cause a random transition in the first place. That's why they were wondering what they should think about this situation.

Was this Chariot's intention or just a coincidence?

"If it's a test, we'll fail if we don't proceed. On the other hand, if it is not a test, then waiting here for rescue would be the right thing to do. However, it is clear that the situation is more likely to improve in either case if we proceed through the dungeon."

"I'm with you. Waiting to be rescued is not a very praiseworthy behavior for an explorer. Statistically, you have a better chance of survival in a dungeon if you keep going and look for a way out."

"As expected of a student from Japan Explorers High School. You seem to know information that is generally unknown to the public."

"Yeah, I guess."

'I'm really just taking it from Godo-san', Tenji added in his mind.

Tenji was quietly plotting that perhaps now was the perfect time to examine the Goblins.

If Fukuyama were there, he would not be able to fool them. It's easy for one person to go astray intentionally.

Honestly, this was the perfect opportunity for Tenji.

"Yes, I see! Then let's proceed!"

The three decided to move on while being stunned by Rikka, who was persuaded more quickly than expected.

However, Mizue didn't even move a step from that spot.

"Well, let's see how things go here for the time being."

"What do you mean?"

"We should try to take a chance on the possibility that Fukuyama-san will come. The probability is close to zero, but if Fukuyama-san is there, the way we fight will be completely different."

"Yeah."

Thus, their policy was set.

As the three wished, they waited for Fukuyama to get caught up in the random transition and come here.

But--

No matter how long they waited, Fukuyama never appeared.

So, the three stood up as if they had made up their minds.

"I'm not sure I have a choice... We're going to move forward, and the three of us are going to attack from now on. You understand?"

"Yeah."

"Yes!"

The three of them decided to continue to the end of the dungeon.

The three have no calling, yet they barely have weapons in their hands.

In addition, both Mizue and Rikka had already been fighting for more than six hours and were physically and mentally exhausted.

Tenji was the only one with almost no sweat and tears in such a situation.

He ponders with deep resentment how he should behave in this situation.

[TLN: The pitch dark realm was scaryyyy.]

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