Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 180
“…There are still a lot of other explorers around the shallow floors. The monsters are pretty sparse too—want to move ahead?”
“Yeah, sounds good. This floor’s basically just a hallway, huh? It’s humid, but honestly pretty comfortable.”
The dungeon the two of us were tackling—“The Death Sea that Devours the Earth.”
Just as we’d heard, its interior was a vast spiral corridor that stretched endlessly down into the depths of the earth.
Its sheer scale was astounding—the width of the corridor alone was easily over 50 meters.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check the time it would take to walk one full loop using the clock function on my menu screen.
“There are more explorers than monsters, huh? Maybe the environment doesn’t change as long as someone’s around?”
“Yeah, I think that’s probably it. The real danger is for the explorers advancing on the front lines.”
So, while avoiding any fights with monsters and keeping our distance from other groups engaged in combat, we continued descending through the lower floors.
After testing it out, it turned out that walking one full circuit to reach the next floor took about an hour.
That’s an incredibly long corridor. If it takes an hour just to walk, I can only imagine how bad it would be if combat or environmental obstacles got in the way.
Naturally, anyone aiming to conquer this dungeon would need to camp inside at some point.
We weren’t planning to go that far today, but once the number of other explorers started thinning out, Melt tied the birdcage she’d bought at the market to a stick and began checking the safety of the next floor.
“…Okay, Pitch-chan’s all good! Still round, still plump, still looks delicious.”
“You gave it a name…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! I already think of it as food, so no attachment here!”
…You sure about that? Well, Melt can be surprisingly cold-blooded when she needs to be. Let’s just believe her.
About three hours after we’d entered the dungeon, we reached the seventh floor.
What? The math doesn’t add up? Yeah, we started sprinting together halfway through.
“I think we’ll start running into monsters soon. When that happens, let’s prioritize speed kills. Forget about coordination—just move to finish them off as fast as possible. We’ll just call out our targets.”
“Got it. Hehehe… finally, I can test my new dagger against monsters. During guard duty, I had to keep it sheathed for safety.”
“I’d love to hear how it actually performs. I put a lot of work into that one.”
“Sure thing! The magic activation feels super smooth too…”
Melt drew the dagger from its pure white sheath. Its black blade gleamed, and in the next instant, a golden light pulsed through it—then a film of water enveloped the blade.
“I tried coating it with water using magic. It activates so easily, and I can maintain it without even focusing! This is amazing—it’s a first-rate magic conduit!”
“Ohh… so that’s water-attribute enchantment.”
“Exactly. It keeps the blade from getting dirty, and prevents blood or fat from dulling the edge. Plus—look.”
The water film on the blade began to vibrate finely, emitting a faint high-pitched sound—like a high-frequency hum.
“This strengthens the cutting power. Hard monsters, rocks… even iron, I think this blade could slice right through.”
“Seriously…? Nature magic can go that far?”
It’s basically an ultrasonic cutter. She probably doesn’t even realize the scientific principle behind it, but somehow, she reached that concept on her own.
…Or maybe her grandmother passed down that kind of knowledge.
Either way, it seems that this “Nature Magic” is something common among the Silver Fox tribe.
“But first, let’s just try it out normally! Okay—let’s dash to the next floor and cut down every monster on the way!”
“Bring it on. My combat build is all about speed too—I’m not losing this race.”
I’m built for high speed and evasion, same as Melt.
And above all… I’ve inherited a portion of Rue’s battle knowledge.
My stats have improved noticeably since before:
HP: 5581
Strength: 1901
Magic Power: 136
Spirit: 671
Agility: 1755
[Full Reflection]
[Blessing of the Silver Fox]
[Divine Eye]
[Basic Universal Magic]
[Warrior’s High]
[Feaster’s Link]
[Super Strength] ← New
[Blacksmithing] ← Master
[Performance Lv3]
[Cooking Lv4]
[Crafting Lv8] ← New
[Sewing Lv1]
[Swordsmanship Lv9] ← New
[Archery Lv4] ← New
[Magic Lv2]
[Martial Arts Lv7] ← New
[Hunter’s Instinct Lv3] ← New
[Scholar’s Insight Lv1]
[Thief’s Instinct Lv3] ← New
[Swordsman’s Instinct Lv8] ← New
[Warrior’s Instinct Lv7] ← New
[Mercenary’s Instinct Lv6] ← New
[Dancer’s Instinct Lv8] ← New
[Saint’s Instinct Lv2]
[Brutal Fist Instinct Lv6] ← New
[Mage’s Instinct Lv2]
[Astrologist’s Instinct Lv1]
[Sword Saint’s Instinct Lv1] ← New
It was clear that by gaining knowledge and skill in martial arts, my understanding and techniques in combat had greatly improved.
Along with that, the number of techniques and skills I could now use had also increased, and I was steadily becoming stronger—almost frighteningly so.
“Rapid Step!”
I activated the skill and dashed forward, chasing after Melt, who had sprinted ahead of me.
The two of us charged through the rugged, rocky corridor without slowing down. As we passed, I sliced through bat-shaped monsters that hung from the ceiling waiting to ambush us.
Glancing ahead, I saw Melt doing the same—cutting down the monsters as she ran. Neither of us even bothered to glance at the drop items; we were completely focused on reaching our goal.
We slashed through slug-like creatures the size of sea cucumbers as we passed, and even when a massive lobster-like monster appeared—just as expected—we cleaved through it, ignoring its thick shell entirely.
The corridor, which normally took an hour to walk through, we cleared in barely five minutes.
“Huff… huff… Full-speed running is exhausting! But I’m still faster!”
“Ugh, seriously? Even with my build, I still can’t beat you…?”
At the end of the floor—the point marking the end of one full loop—there was a faint, film-like boundary.
We stopped there and congratulated each other on a good run.
“There were tons of monsters! I saw a giant shrimp-looking one—with huge pincers!”
“That’s probably a lobster-type monster. They’re in the same family.”
“Wow! I wonder if the ones we defeated dropped anything? Let’s check that out, and then call it a day?”
“Good idea. We’ve tested plenty for today—let’s wrap it up here.”
At a walking pace, one full lap takes about an hour—roughly five kilometers.
With me and Melt running full speed, it only took five minutes.
Considering her stamina consumption and the need to check the drops, this isn’t something we could repeat outside of emergencies.
If we moved at a normal pace, defeating enemies smoothly as we go, then one floor would probably take around 30 minutes or so.
Of course, that might change with more people or tougher environments deeper down.
“Alright! Let’s head back, pick up any items we missed, and then it’s time to jump into that big hole! I’m scared, but I’ve been kind of looking forward to it! It’ll send us straight back outside, right?”
“Haha, yeah, it’s a little scary, but I’m curious too. Though it might just teleport us the instant we leave the corridor.”
“Ehh?! I was hoping we’d actually fall all the way down!”
“Isn’t that way too terrifying?”
“Ehh? It’s not scary if we’re totally safe!”
That’s basically bungee jumping without the cord! No thanks!
Trying to ignore the fear of what awaited us, we retraced our steps through the floor we’d just sprinted across.
I wondered, though—what kind of drops do monsters here even give?
“Hmm… here’s a bat fang left behind. This should be an alchemy material.”
“Oh? Let’s see…”
Cave Bat Fang
A relatively large fang commonly obtained from large bat-type monsters.
Not a vampiric fang, so it’s durable but not particularly rare.
Can be used as an “organic catalyst” in alchemy.
Looks like Melt was right. The item’s not very rare, though.
Rather than selling it, it’d probably be better to just keep it for crafting.
“Dungeons are so interesting! Back in the ‘Dreamhill Great Forest,’ monsters just dropped meat when defeated—nothing unusual at all. Probably because hardly anyone ever ventured that deep.”
“I see. That makes sense. That dungeon did look like it was under government supervision.”
Yeah… they were probably managing it for summons and magical experiments.
As we collected materials along the path, we spotted a large white, semi-transparent lump lying on the ground ahead.
It looked soft… what monster could’ve dropped that?
“Hey, hey—do you think this is some kind of meat? Maybe rare stuff doesn’t drop here either?”
“Let’s take a look…”
Killer Lobster Meat
Meat obtained from a large crustacean-type monster.
The exact part of the body is unclear due to its shape, but it’s extremely large.
Can be eaten raw; also delicious when boiled or grilled with salt.
“Oh! Melt, it says this is meat from the big lobster monster!”
“Really!? Even though it’s this huge!? It’s already peeled and ready to eat!?”
“Yeah, this size is crazy for peeled meat.”
The half-transparent, springy shrimp-like flesh was about as big as a pillow.
Honestly… it looked delicious. Supposedly fresh enough to eat raw, too.
“I’m not selling this! We’re taking it home to eat!”
“Hahaha, fair enough. Let’s grab it and head back, then.”
“Yeah! …But wait, when we jump, doesn’t some of our loot disappear?”
“Oh, right…”
Would it randomly pick from everything we’d gathered, or remove one of each type?
If it’s the latter, then so far, I’ve collected four types:
Killer Lobster Meat, Cave Bat Fang, Small Coral Fragment, and Large Salt Crystal.
“If the loss is determined by item type… then there’s a one-in-four chance we’ll lose this shrimp meat. Melt, there might be another one nearby—let’s grab one for you too. Even if it’s a 25% chance of losing it, if we both carry one, our odds of bringing it back safely double.”
“Yeah… you’re right! I’ll go look for another one!”
After a short search, Melt safely picked up her own piece of shrimp meat.
And then—it was finally time for our cordless bungee jump.
The rumor was that if we jumped from this corridor, we’d end up directly in the shallows outside the dungeon…
“Okay, I-I’m going… Shizuma, want to hold hands? Let’s jump together?”
“Nah, I’ll go at my own timing.”
“Ehh? Let’s go together!”
“What’s wrong, getting scared now?”
“Because—what if the shrimp disappears?!”
…Ah. So that’s the real concern.
We held hands and walked to the edge of the corridor, looking down.
Below us stretched a massive vertical pit, disappearing into darkness.
Strangely, we couldn’t see any of the lower floors that were supposedly down there—just bare rock walls.
Of course, the same was true looking upward too.
The corridors we had passed through—and the ones ahead—were invisible. Just a bottomless hole.
It really drove home that, no matter how natural it looked, this place had already become something beyond the normal world—a true dungeon.
“…Melt, let’s jump together. Three, two, one—”
“Zero!”
At almost the same instant, we leapt from the corridor into open air.
There was a fleeting feeling of weightlessness—of the corridor receding into the distance—
and then, in the very next instant, we were sitting on our butts in the shallows outside the dungeon, the water barely reaching our ankles.
The sun was beginning to tilt toward the horizon, and all around us were other explorers sitting in the same position, half-submerged in the sea.
We really had returned.
This was unmistakably outside the dungeon.
“W-wow, so strange! It felt like I was flying through the sky! And now I’m just sitting in the sea! Amazing, amazing! I kind of want to do it again!”
“If you’re doing it again, make sure to stash your loot somewhere first. Though… maybe once something’s brought outside, it stays safe?”
“Ah! The shrimp! Is my shrimp okay!?”
“Oh, right—I should check mine too.”
I could tell instantly by looking through my menu,
but Melt discreetly opened her magic storage tool—pretending to rummage through her pouch to keep it hidden.
“Oh, looks like I only lost the big salt crystal. The shrimp’s safe.”
“…My shrimp’s gone. My shrimp… my shrimp…”
“…Don’t worry, mine’s still here. And it’s huge—no way we could finish two of them anyway.
Cheer up, Melt. I’ll cook something delicious with it for you.”
Apparently, the dungeon master here was a bit of a prankster.
Though, honestly, I’m not sure if the dungeon master even had anything to do with it.
Either way, with Melt—heartbroken over her lost shrimp—we left the shallows and headed back to the hotel to change clothes.
“Once we’re changed, I’ll cook us something, so really, cheer up, okay?”
“Ugh… fine. But since it’s a huge shrimp, make lots of different dishes, okay?”
For the heartbroken Melt, what should I make?
Well, I do have Cooking Lv. 4, after all!
Time to serve up a full shrimp course!