Chapter 6 – Reward Room

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My whole body was wrapped up in a pillar of light. I shut my eyes due to the brightness, and when I opened them again, I was in a completely different place. Just as it had happened when I was hit by the light from my smartphone and transferred into the dungeon. Although I had vaguely expected as much, I was still shocked after experiencing it.

I had thought that I’d be sent out of the dungeon or get transferred to a reward room, which would be another very game-like feature, after defeating the boss, but this place didn’t give me the impression of being either.

I was inside a gloomy space. It was quite dusty, causing me to sneeze. Afterwards, I noticed that this space was teeming with the scent of mortar. Contrary to the dungeon from before, this seemed to be the interior of some other building made out of earth walls and wood.

Various items were strewn all over the place. It was overflowing with daily necessities such as brooms, broken pots, and so on. But, all of them used designs I had never seen so far, so it took me some time to realize the items’ nature.

A light bulb was hanging down from the ceiling. Its weak light illuminated the room. Further past the heaps of random junk, I saw a ladder leading up to a second floor. Right behind me was a huge double door, but I could tell that it was locked.

Is this possibly…a godown? Or a storehouse?

Confused by the development which I hadn’t anticipated at all, I opened 『Dungeon Seekers』, hoping to find some sort of clue. A big Escape button was shown beneath the “In Raid” text.

That’s good. It looks like it’ll be possible to get out of here.

However, next to the Escape button was another button of the same size. It read 『Store』.

I wonder what this 『Store』 could mean in this context. Believing that I’ll never know unless I try, I picked up an oddly-shaped teacup from the ground and pressed the 『Store』 button. At once, I witnessed something impossible.

How to describe it?

At the same time of me pressing 『Store』, the cup turned into light, before being sucked into my smartphone. Afterwards the cup was displayed in what seemed to be a stored items list.

Its value was estimated to be 100 points…15 million in Japanese Yen? Huh?

Even though it’s a bit late, I regret not having read the explanation properly. Anyway, it probably means that this room, which doesn’t look like a reward room at all, is actually a treasure trove and I’m allowed to choose my items through my smartphone, or something like that.

But, it’s not like I could simply nip everything in here either. My smartphone is showing a volume gauge, and storing the teacup has filled that gauge somewhat. In addition, upon closer look, the screen is also displaying a time limit of two minutes.

You gotta be kidding, right? Isn’t that like any moment now?

At a first glance and feel, everything on the ground looks like trash. I suspect they’ll all be around as much worth as the cup, so I wonder whether this place doesn’t hide some nicer stuff. I’m going to ignore all this trash here.

I climbed the ladder to the second floor, trying to reach the part I couldn’t see from down there. And unlike the cluttered, messy first floor, this floor was extremely clean and sorted.

Surprisingly, various weapons such as spears, halberds, swords, shields, and battle-axes were piled up over here. Each of those weapons clearly appealed to their ability to butcher people with their profound, thick blades.

In the middle of the stacked weapons I spotted an oblong box as if it was being worshiped and cherished by all the weapons. Intuitively I grabbed that box.

Afterwards I slowly descended the ladder while carrying the box in both hands. Taking the smartphone out of my pocket and looking at the screen, I realized that I only had 30 seconds left.

I opened the box to check its insides. It housed a single sword sheathed inside a deep indigo blue scabbard.

“━━━━━━”

Only a few seconds remained. I absorbed the katana into my smartphone by tapping the Store button. And then, in the next instant, my visual field was dyed by a dazzling, white light.

｡ ₊°༺🫀༻°₊ ｡

The cooing of doves and the rustling of trees assailed my sense of hearing. Ahead of me stood the telephone pole which had led to me diving into a dungeon. The sun was long gone beyond the horizon, giving way to the pay being illuminated by street lights. The QR code with its eerie presence was still where I’d seen it last.

Quite a lot of time seems to have passed, but I came back to the residential area. And just as I got back here, I heard several notification sounds from my smartphone. Maybe there’s something else going on besides me being messaged about level-ups.

Once I cast a glance at my smartphone, various messages such as 『You leveled up!』, 『You acquired a title!』, 『You have new messages!』, and so on were displayed in a column.

I took a deep, long breath. Until just a little while ago, I had definitely fought for my life. However, this hadn’t planted fear but joy in my heart. That thrill which had enveloped my body, my own accomplishments that had been visualized and displayed, and the many unsolved mysteries; I still want to go into that place a lot more.

But, for now I’m pretty much wasted. I’d like to catch a break.

I turned around and went on my way back home.

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