Chapter 25
Didn't you ever wonder?
This 〈Beginner Dungeon〉 is a field-type dungeon.
And yet, only the boss room is inside a building.
Other dungeons aren't like that.
In cave-type dungeons, the boss is at the very back of a cave, while in castle-type dungeons, it's in a room at the very back of the castle.
In other field-type dungeons, the boss appears out in the field.
And yet, for some reason, only the 〈Beginner Dungeon〉 has its boss inside a building. It clearly doesn't fit. It's incredibly jarring.
Back in the game, I immediately realized there had to be something here.
But no matter how hard I searched, I found nothing.
The tutorial dungeon was used by lots of students, and all the treasure chests had already been looted. Naturally, hidden rooms had been searched, too, and nothing remained. That was how it was supposed to be.
There was no way anything had been overlooked at this point.
But that didn't matter to gamers.
I made sure to search with both the 'Hidden Room Discovery LV10' Skill and the 'Intuition LV10' Skill.
And yet, I couldn't find whatever I was sure had to be there.
I was about to conclude that perhaps they'd built a building just to make the first dungeon feel special, and that a door with the 'Hidden Room Discovery Nullification' Skill wouldn't be used in such an early dungeon.
Doors with the 'Hidden Room Discovery Nullification' Skill I just mentioned are hidden doors often placed in advanced dungeons. They can't be found with Skills—even 'Hidden Room Discovery LV10' won't reveal them.
Then how could anyone find them?
You might think that, but they did provide a proper countermeasure.
A unique Skill that can identify only doors with the 'Hidden Room Discovery Nullification' Skill.
The only countermeasure was 【Chuunibyou】's 'Nothing Escapes My Evil Eye.'
Incidentally, 【Chuunibyou】 was an incredibly crappy Job that won first place in the unofficial crappy Job rankings, thanks to an endless parade of awful Skills aside from its unique one.
On the forums, some players passionately defended 【Chuunibyou】, saying, "What's wrong with being a chuunibyou?!" "Evil Eye-chan is the best, right?!" and "Evil Eye-chan just hasn't awakened yet!" But they were all ignored.
What's more, that unique Skill...
Though it was arguably the only strong Skill 【Chuunibyou】 had, it became completely useless after the strategy site posted 'Complete Collection of Hidden Doors: Every Dungeon Laid Bare.'
It probably wouldn't ever fall in the rankings again.
Anyway, back to the point.
So, to cut to the chase, when I used 'Nothing Escapes My Evil Eye' to look, there it was. A hidden door.
I remember thinking I couldn't believe there really was a door with the 'Hidden Room Discovery Nullification' Skill in a tutorial dungeon. 'Nothing Escapes My Evil Eye' could only be learned at LV40, so of course no one had found it.
Normally, you'd use a Skill meant to open hidden doors from here, but this is real life.
Maybe I could use a method that wasn't possible in the game.
In other words, I figured, couldn't I just force it open?
I went around behind the pink-glowing teleportation circle and knocked on the wall...
It made a hollow clunk, clunk. This had to be the spot.
"Is there something here?"
"Yeah. When I touched the wall earlier, 'Intuition' whispered to me."
I gave a casual answer, since there was no way she'd find out, and drew my short sword from my waist.
Now then, will this work?
"Why didn't you tell the teacher?"
"You'll understand when you watch."
Hannah was complaining that I hadn't reported it to Phyllis-sensei during the previous lesson, but sorry, I couldn't tell her what was coming next.
"Hah! 'Brave Slash'!"
With a flash of blue, the 【Hero】's unique Skill activated, and the hidden door blasted away with a booming crash.
As always, the feeling of exhilaration was incredible.
It was a complete success!
"Whoa! What's this?!"
As the dust scattered, the whole thing was revealed.
In games, there's always a rare treasure chest behind a hidden door!
And here, too, a splendid chest gleaming gold sat in place.
"Zephyrus-kun, there's a treasure chest! And it's a gold chest!"
There are three types of treasure chests.
Wooden chests, silver chests, and gold chests. The closer to gold, the rarer the contents.
In other words, it was already a given that this gold chest contained a big prize.
Hannah was ecstatic.
"Hey, can I open it?!"
"Don't be ridiculous. I found it, so obviously I'm the one opening it."
Hannah made a brazen attempt to leap at the gold chest, so I stopped her.
Hannah... I'd been thinking this for a while, but she's pretty interested in money, isn't she?
I kept Hannah, who was poised to open the chest at the first opportunity, in check as I opened it.
This was the 〈Beginner Dungeon〉, after all. I didn't need to worry about traps or anything.
This was a heart-pounding moment! A real treasure chest—and a gold one, at that.
Damn, this is exciting! Even though I know what's inside!
When I opened the chest and took out its contents, I found eight items that would be important in the future.
This was exactly what I was after.
This was what I'd wanted so badly that I went back into the 〈Beginner Dungeon〉.
Unlike treasure chests dropped by monsters, the contents of placed chests are predetermined.
I knew what was inside, so this was the one thing I absolutely had to get my hands on.
Inside were:
・〈Sky Sword〉
・〈Sky Shield〉
・〈Sky Armor〉
・〈Item Bag (Large Capacity)〉
・〈Performance Limit Orb〉×3
・〈Advanced Job Change Ticket〉
First, what caught my eye were the sword, shield, and armor from the 〈Sky Series〉.
They weren't exclusive equipment for 【Hero】, but they looked like a cool set of high-quality gear befitting a 【Hero】, with white as the dominant color.
Their performance was just as impressive as their looks. After all, the chest was in a place that should have required a LV40 【Chuunibyou】 to discover, and it was a gold chest, too.
They were powerful enough to be used in upper-mid-tier dungeons even as they were, and with 〈Performance Enhancement〉, I could keep using them all the way through mid-tier advanced dungeons.
They were equipment truly befitting me as a 【Hero】. I equipped them right away.
Next was the 〈Item Bag (Large Capacity)〉.
In 〈Dan-Katsu〉, the amount of gear you could carry wasn't unlimited. So, you had to store things you weren't using in a guild home or somewhere similar, and manage your dungeon runs with whatever you could carry.
And the 〈Item Bag (Large Capacity)〉 was a very useful item that increased that capacity.
Incidentally, the school had given us a 〈Item Bag (Small Capacity)〉, so we'd been putting our drops in that until now.
This one gets swapped in, too.
Next, the Performance Limit Orb. It's an item used to enhance weapon and armor performance, and lets you further improve equipment that has already reached its enhancement limit.
If 〈Short Sword +2〉 were the enhancement limit, this would let you upgrade it to 〈Short Sword +3〉.
It's an item that becomes more and more important as the game progresses.
I eagerly put it into the 〈Item Bag (Large Capacity)〉.
And finally.
My main reason for coming here.
The Advanced Job Change Ticket.