Chapter 09
Dungeon Break.
A phenomenon where monsters inside a dungeon burst out through the gate.
It was a unique occurrence that happened when the monster saturation level inside a dungeon rose above a certain threshold.
If not properly contained in the early stages, the surrounding area would be overrun with monsters, causing uncontrollable damage.
It was nothing short of a disaster for civilians.
And now.
BOOM! Monsters started bursting out from the dungeon before my eyes.
A thunderous sound accompanied by spreading smoke and heavy air.
The shadows of monsters looming behind it.
“Ahhh! R-Run away!”
“Waah, Mommy!”
Screams of panicked people.
Another dungeon gate in front of me.
If I just went in there now, I could be safe from all this chaos.
I could safely enter the subspace.
Just one step. An opportunity like this wouldn’t come again.
It’s just an F-rank dungeon break after all.
The Dungeon Management Department building was right nearby, hunters would arrive soon.
It would be cleaned up in no time.
I didn’t need to concern myself with it.
I just needed to focus on my situation.
But.
But you know.
How could I ignore that expression…?
A woman running toward a fallen child. Despair casting over her pale white face.
That desperation mixed with fear and tears.
I knew that expression. I’d been through it all myself.
Hadn’t I just experienced it recently too? Desperately hoping for anyone to save me.
In front of just an F-rank.
[Subspace Branch
: Long and sturdy!]
When I came to my senses, I was standing in front of the child.
Holding the branch I took from my inventory, I stared at the hazy form of the monster visible through the smoke.
I swallowed hard. I was scared.
I had no proper attack skills, combat experience, or weapons.
My legs were shaking and my hands kept sweating. I felt like I might drop the branch I was holding.
But even so, it should be fine.
Things were different now. I was an awakened one. And an E-rank at that.
If it’s monsters coming out of an F-rank dungeon, I should at least be able to hold out until others arrive.
Ranks are absolute in this world after all.
I took a breath and raised the branch. I wanted to end this in one hit if possible.
Whoosh— The wind blew. The thick smoke cleared away.
And the creature that revealed itself through the smoke.
“Kyu?”
It cried.
[Squishy Medium Slime (F-rank)
: It’s squishy.]
Sq-Squishy?
Its true identity was that most famous for being the safest during dungeon breaks.
The one that moves slowly and is even safe to touch briefly…
A slime.
A large pink mass.
Squishy squishy~
The tension suddenly deflated completely.
The woman belatedly approached and retreated with the child. I couldn’t hide my embarrassment at the sight.
“……”
While it’s fortunate, it wasn’t dangerous.
Really fortunate.
But who’s going to compensate for my determination just now?
I ran here really hard, you know? I was all prepared to fight?
I felt somehow wronged.
I became even more dumbfounded at the slimes popping out through the gate.
Their visuals were too cute.
Even though there were multiple gathered together, they looked completely harmless.
…Ah, this is ridiculous.
I lowered my arm with a defeated feeling. I turned my steps toward the dungeon I was originally heading to.
Fortunately, the surroundings were still chaotic. It seemed I could still enter now.
But what’s this?
“Kyuu.”
A pink squishy slime with a serious expression was blocking my path while squishing about.
When did this one get here?
“Take this!”
Swoosh!
Though it was cute, no matter how cute it was, it was still just a monster. I dealt with one of the culprits of this incident without hesitation.
The subspace branch easily pierced through the slime, and the impact shattered the core inside its translucent body.
The slime melted away with a deflating “squish” sound.
Truly slime-like defense.
[You have killed 1 Squishy Medium Slime (F-rank).
▸ F-rank magic stone.
▸ Squishy liquid (useless but squishy!)]
When I killed the slime, items automatically followed. Both hands were now holding these byproducts.
Useless but squishy?
Why even give this?
Splat! I threw the squishy liquid that landed in my hands onto the ground.
[Subspace Branch Special Bonus!
<Achievement> Reward given for ‘First Hunt’ with the branch!]
And while I was roughly wiping my strangely sticky palms on my clothes.
Ding. An unexpected reward popped up.
Huh? So suddenly?
And what’s this about a branch special bonus?
Having special bonuses for something like this, it really was a unique system.
Still, since it was my first special bonus, I was secretly excited about what reward would follow.
Since it’s a reward through hunting, maybe it would be an attack-related skill—
[Reward:
Subspace ‘Slurp!’ skill activated~!]
Lame.
The name was lame.
What even is that? How does it even work?
It was a skill, but it didn’t seem like a proper skill at all.
[Slurp! Skill Details:
▸ Swallow it up in one gulp! ₊·◟(⌯ˇ ɞ ˇ⌯)◜‧]
Even the detailed explanation was useless, bordering on ridiculous. I almost found it endearing out of sheer absurdity.
My face twisted with disappointment. I had forgotten again—never expect anything decent from Subspace.
What does it even mean to “swallow it all in one gulp”?
“What are you doing here right now?!”
I was staring blankly at the system window when someone grabbed my arm.
“Gah.”
I, I didn’t expect them to follow me here.
It was that staff who had been listening to my nonsense in the bathroom earlier.
Surprisingly, it seemed they had run out of the building to find me. That was surprisingly meddlesome in many ways.
“Even if it’s just a slime, for someone who hasn’t awakened! How dangerous!”
I felt hands slapping my back repeatedly.
“Um, miss staff?”
“What!”
Why were her hands so harsh when she wasn’t even an awakened one? I grabbed the woman’s hands and delivered the belated truth.
The one who should be avoiding danger wasn’t me but her.
“Actually, I’m not crazy. I really am awakened.”
“Sure, sure. I get it, so quickly get away from here. It’s dangerous!”
She clearly didn’t believe me. Her eyes were full of skepticism about what I could do with just a branch.
“Let’s go already, okay? The real hunters will be here soon!”
“But I really am…”
This was troublesome in many ways.
I could see people in hunter gear gathering in the distance.
This really was the last chance.
But with her clinging like this, it wouldn’t be easy to sneak into the dungeon…
Wait a minute.
Feeling something oddly out of place, I looked around.
Strange? Were there always this many slimes?
When the slime blocked my path earlier, it wasn’t this bad. It had only been a very brief moment while I was arguing with the staff.
The number of slimes popping out had increased instantly.
It was visible at a glance. There was no room to even step anymore. We were completely trapped among the slimes.
“Huh? Why are there so many of them?”
The staff also spoke in apparent confusion.
She shuffled her feet, trying her best not to step on the slimes.
But shouldn’t she know better? Being from the Dungeon Management Department? I was the one who wanted an explanation for what kind of situation this was.
And that’s when it happened. Goosebumps ran up my arm.
[Warning: Monster count outside the gate has exceeded threshold!]
Beep—The system directly warned us.
[The Second Phase will begin soon!
Time remaining: 15 seconds]
Phase—the term meant the next stage was about to start.
It was several times larger than the usual system windows.
It was that message window unique to dungeon breaks, visible even to ordinary people.
Everyone here had their eyes fixed on that window.
The strength suddenly left the staff’ hand that was pulling me. Her eyes were trembling.
“There’s no way an F-rank dungeon could have a second phase. That, that’s impossible…”
I heard the staff’ trembling voice in my ear. It was an abnormal situation by anyone’s standards.
“What is this now.”
And the same went for me too.
As if there wasn’t much time left, the slimes started bubbling up.
I could see the ground melting away.
It was an ominous change.
The safe slimes no longer existed. It was as if we were standing in the middle of flames now.
A next phase suddenly here?
Just what on earth was happening?
[Second phase difficulty will be adjusted.
F-rank → S-rank]
My heart sank at the message that appeared next.
S-rank.
An impossible difficulty adjustment.
🌱
Thank you for reading! ♡
