Chapter 8: Junkyard Restart ①: An Impossible Light

It’s already been eleven days since I officially became a witch’s apprentice.

Mineha-san is still illegally occupying the tower as usual.

Well, Axe-san said he would return home when he got the chance to meet his mother. Apparently, his mother is currently out on a request, according to the letter he received.

The reply came from a servant at Axe-san’s house. A servant… that means his family home is a mansion. No surprise, considering he’s a renowned Rank II Explorer.

Axe-san, despite being a commoner, seemed to have lived a wealthy life.
But just because someone is wealthy doesn’t mean they’re happy.

Speaking of explorers, Mineha-san works solo.
She leaves money for meals when she’s out.

Apparently, she sometimes teams up with Torquetum.
Pakira-san told me that she often gets into arguments with Lupinus-san.

Also, the party Bid-san belonged to, Zan Brave, has disbanded.
I wonder what happened. But party dissolutions aren’t that uncommon, it seems.

That was when Pakira-san informed me:

Lupinus-san would be discussing something soon.
And I already have a pretty good idea what that’s about.

As for my work, or rather, my training, I’ve been regularly going to the witch’s house.
I am now formally studying under her.

She teaches me potion-making, how to read ancient scripts, and even self-defense.

I learned something shocking.

Some Legendary relics can actually be repaired.

The witch is famous as an expert restorer.
Even the most complex and difficult repairs can be done by her. She says it’s thanks to her Relic.

When I asked what kind of Relic it was, she told me:

“God Doesn’t Roll Dice Three Times: Successfully performs even the most difficult tasks three times a day.”

…It’s a cheat ability. No wonder she’s a Rank I Explorer. Or rather, no wonder she’s The Witch.

I got to watch her repair something, and to be honest, it looked a lot like appliance repair.

In fact, Legendary relics can be bought in the royal capital.
The cheapest ones start at around 50 gold coins. That’s five million.

But most of them are basically just high-end home appliances.
And the ones requesting repairs are mostly nobles and merchants.

That’s why the repair fees are expensive.
A large part of the witch’s income comes from these repairs. The rest comes from medicine.

And then there’s self-defense.

She can throw people off balance while being grabbed.
She can grab someone’s arm with one hand and flip them over.
She can even throw people without touching them.

It’s basically Aikido.

She told me she mastered it because her Relic and OOPArts are too powerful to use without restraint.

She said it casually, but some dungeons contain mid-tier gem-class monsters that can nullify relic abilities.

She trained for those.

Wait—such monsters actually exist?!

Apparently, there’s also a Cyclops that shoots lasers from its eye.

What the hell? Cyclops can do that?!

…Well, I’m definitely never going to fight those things, so it’s fine.
No, this is not a death flag.

Self-defense is really useful.

It doesn’t require much physical strength, so even a kid like me can do it.

That said, the witch is a total Spartan.
I’ve already been thrown more than a hundred times.

Now that I think about it, back on the day I became her apprentice—
When I grabbed the witch’s arm, I felt an immense strength.

Was I this close to getting thrown?
I’m trembling just thinking about it.

Oh, and there’s also a rule that if I grab her tail, I win.
That just seems wrong somehow.

Not that I’ve even been able to touch it.

But… always aiming for her tail means staring at her butt, right?
Is that really okay…?

She invited me to move in with her since I’m her apprentice now, but I politely refused.

There’s no way I’d be able to relax in a mini version of a non-human hellscape—
plus a witch living there.

Besides, I like my current home.
Walking from town to the forest is good training too.

As for the forest investigation, it still hasn’t started.

The witch sent a letter to Grandmaster Abramirin, stating that she would begin the investigation soon.

Now we’re waiting for a reply.
Until it arrives, we can’t proceed.

Speaking of training, Axe-san and the Thunder Fang party are being trained by Agaro-san.

It’s only temporary, until Agaro-san gets his next designated request and has to leave town.

The Thunder Fang’s next goal is Rank III.

After their recent dungeon exploration and anomaly extermination, they’ve earned a lot of promotion points.

Mineha-san told me that the Rank III test is all about combat power.

The guild assigns candidates a lower Silver-class monster to hunt within a set time frame.

Or they can wipe out an entire Silver-class lower-ranked monster nest.

That’s the general idea.

For Mineha-san’s test, she had to defeat a specific monster:

A Wind Big Boar—a giant boar with a wind-attributed Relic.

For the past two days, Thunder Fang has been in Mazan, working on a subjugation request with Agaro-san.

The Mazan mountain range stretches across the north of Hydrangea.

It runs along the border of a neighboring country, but the mountains themselves are neutral territory.

Their target is the Demon Blade Rhino, a mid-tier Gold-class monster lurking in the foggy Mazan Valley.

It’s a massive rhino with a gigantic horn shaped like a blade.

And that blade? It’s an OOPArt.

It’s fully adapted to its relic power.

I definitely don’t want to fight that thing.

They said the soonest they’d return is a week. At most, ten days.

I hope they come back safely.
Agaro-san is with them, so I’ll just stay optimistic.

As usual, I pass by the dungeon entrance.

The day after I handed over the ring, Gauro-san scolded me.
But he did accept it.

Alifa-san is already appraising it.

Apparently, the ring is complicated, so she asked for more time.

Was it really that special?

Well, it was Super Rare.

Hmm?

There’s a crowd in front of the entrance.

Explorers and children.

The others are standing back, watching.

What happened?

“Back off! Back off!”

“It starts tomorrow, not today!”

The gatekeepers are driving away the explorers and children.

“And this special exception only applies to the junkyard!”

“The rest of the dungeon is still under investigation. Now move along!”

A special exception?
Junkyard?

What is this about?

One of the gatekeepers walks toward me.

It’s Gauro-san.

“Yo, Wof.”

“Gauro-san, what do you mean by ‘special exception’?”

“Ah, the junkyard is being specially reopened. The investigation team already checked it and found no issues. Also… I shouldn’t say this too loudly, but it’s about Coon Hunt.”

“Coon Hunt?”

“Those bastards have been rounding up kids and using them like slaves. They call them ‘hired cubs’.”

“They’ve always done that, haven’t they?”

“Yeah… but this time, some kids died.”

“…What?”

“They’re calling it an accident.”

“…………”

“It sucks, but the big shots in town are ignoring it. So, to stop Coon Hunt from recruiting kids, they decided to open just the junkyard. It’s a desperate move.”

“Can’t they issue an official warning or something?”

“That would mean going against Coon Hunt’s top brass.”

“A Rank I Explorer…”

Gauro remains silent.

Like me, the children who work aren’t just orphans.
Many have parents—either both or just one—but still, they work.

There’s an issue in the explorer community regarding unattended children.
Parents who are explorers take on commissions and don’t return for days.

In the meantime, these children survive on their parents’ advance payments.
But if their parents don’t return and the money runs out, they go to the dump.

For small children or first-timers, Gauro and most of the gatekeepers let them in for free.
They cover the cost themselves, and their superiors and the guild turn a blind eye.

The ones who prey on these kids—whether they’re working or not—are the Coon hunt party.
They call them “hired kids” and exploit them for dirt-cheap wages, treating them like slaves.

With the dungeon closed, this was the perfect opportunity for them.

Coon hunt… They’re a completely corrupt party.
Is their clan master really a Rank I explorer?

Then again, just being Rank I doesn’t mean someone’s a good person.
It was only Alexander and the Witch who were exceptions.

Still, Coon hunt’s boss… Now I’m curious.
Maybe I should ask the Witch about them, just in case. Information is power.

I’m happy the dump is reopening, but the situation is complicated.
I wish there were a way to fix it, but it’s probably impossible.
There’s only so much the authorities can do, and this isn’t something I can change.

By the way, I still haven’t received my payment.

The guild explained when they summoned me—
They can’t issue payments until the dungeon is fully reopened.

Even they knew the delay was ridiculous.
So they added interest, which isn’t usually part of commission fees.

1,000 oro per day for a month.
They gave me 30,000 oro.

That’s a fortune for me. I put half of it into savings.

“That means you can use 300 oro starting tomorrow.”
“Got it. See you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, huh? I’m looking forward to it.

And today, I train with the Witch again.
I don’t know why, but—this might sound weird—I feel like I’m living in a shonen manga.

A slow but steady, slightly positive life.
That’s still my goal.

But lately, I’ve realized something. I’m not alone.

Maybe it’s because I told them everything.
Both my body and mind feel much lighter.

And I’ve come to understand—
I’d been carrying a tremendous burden all this time.

Well, even if I shared my secrets, they still exist—
inside me, and in my pouch.

But the relief of not having to bear them alone…
That’s something else entirely.

“Alright, let’s buy some scrap meat for today.”

And vegetables.
I should restock bread beans too, and get some tea leaves.

Yeah, life’s feeling pretty full.

The next day.

At the dungeon entrance in town,
I hand Gauro 300 oro.

“Alright, I know I say this every time, but stick to the second floor.
Though right now, it’s all closed off anyway.”

Physically closed, if I remember right.
With a Legacy item—Barrier Stone, was it?

[Vanish] could probably destroy it,
but I won’t do that.

“Understood. I’ll be going now.”
“Don’t be late. You can hear the bell, right?”
“Yeah.”

This exchange brings back memories.

I pass through the entrance, its rocky surface resembling the belly of some massive beast.

Suddenly, the surroundings shift into an artificial stone passageway.
Clearly man-made—yet not.

Dungeons are an enigma, a force beyond human comprehension.

I walk past the staircase leading down to the second floor.

A glowing membrane covers the stairway like a lid, with ropes carefully strung across it.

That shimmering membrane is the barrier.
The stones placed at its four corners are the Barrier Stones.

A barrier lasts for about a day, so before it disappears, gatekeepers stand by to replace it.

When the old barrier vanishes, they install a new Barrier Stone.
A thankless job, but essential.

At the dead end, I turn right and continue straight.
Suddenly, the space opens up.

Mountains of garbage are piled high.

These are the discarded remnants expelled from the dungeon.

The contents vary, but the majority consists of equipment from explorers who perished inside.

Then there are lost items, misplaced items, and forgotten items.

Organic waste is absorbed back into the dungeon.

It’s said to become raw material for the dungeon’s monsters.
A disgusting cycle of recycling.

This is my workplace.

The dungeon dump.

Several children are already scavenging through the piles.

This scene—it feels oddly nostalgic.

I feel a twinge of sentimentality.

As I scan my surroundings, I notice something unusual.

Some of the garbage mounds have collapsed.
Most likely the aftermath of Agaro’s battle.

It’s nothing major, but it catches my attention.
Still, it’s better than that massacre.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

I steel myself and take a deep breath.

A strange tension lingers in my chest—
Excitement, perhaps. It’s been a while.

I activate my relic: [Wheel of Fortune].

This relic reveals valuable objects by illuminating them with different colors.

Green is rare.
Yellow is super rare.
Blue is super ultra rare.

The Holy Egg of Elixir that I own glows blue.

With the relic activated, I scan my surroundings.

“Green. Yellow. Green. Green. Green. Yellow.”

No blue, huh?

“Green. Green. Yellow. Green. …Purple. Green. Green. Yellow.”

Not bad.
Pretty standard.

I chuckle at the usual state of the dump—

Wait.

Hold on.

Just now… I saw something strange…

What… was that?

I freeze.
My breath stops.

A bead of sweat rolls down my cheek.

My vision goes blank.

Only one thing remains visible—

That light.

Thin but unmistakable, it glows amidst the garbage.

A purple light.

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