I made my way through the Dungeon, gradually taking down slimes as I headed for the stairs to the second floor. Along with Magic Stones, they sometimes dropped marble-sized orbs, but even when I brought them to the Guild, nobody could tell me what they were.
The sizes varied, and inside each orb swirled patterns like tiny star systems, which I found oddly drawn to. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away, so now I had four cardboard boxes full of them sitting in my room at the orphanage. I wondered if I could sell them as decorations, but I had no connections.
As I neared the stairs to the second floor, something about the wall felt off – I’d passed this spot many times, but this was the first time I’d felt anything like it. Ever since I’d learned to cloak myself in Gaia Points (Gaia), I’d started getting faint senses of monsters nearby or the feeling of an incoming ambush, and while there was no official information on Earth about anything like skills appearing, I had a hunch this might be what people called Presence Detection.
I focused, wrapping more Gaia Points (Gaia) around my hammer, and slammed it against the odd wall, which broke apart to reveal a small room beyond. I peered in, being careful, and there it was: a slime shining with golden light.
Every slime I’d faced so far had been blue, so this golden one was probably what you’d call a rare monster – it was likely stronger than the usual slimes, but I had my town-factory-made hammer. I had no idea where that certainty came from, but I wasn’t questioning it.
”Drop your EXP and loot already!!” I shouted, swinging the hammer down.
My hammer let me direct power on the downswing, but winding up from overhead left me wide open since I’d get hit in the gut, so instead I swung in a diagonal slash.
The golden slime was fast and kept dodging, and five minutes into the fight, even with Gaia Points (Gaia) wrapped around me, swinging a hammer nonstop was wearing me down. However, the slime seemed to be burning energy too from dodging those rapid strikes, so its movements were starting to slow.
I adapted, swinging like a cricket sweep upward from below, and landed a clean hit. The slime twitched and jerked, so I brought the hammer down from overhead with one final blow, and it faded into mist.
”Hah… hah…” I gasped, chest heaving. “My arms are completely wrecked. That was the toughest one yet.”
I slumped onto the floor, trying to catch my breath, and where the golden slime had vanished, a golden treasure chest appeared.
”Huh? Wait.” I blinked, staring. “A treasure chest? I’ve never heard of this happening…”
I’d never once heard of a treasure chest dropping from a defeated slime – if the government had any information about treasure chests appearing, they would’ve made it public since the officials wanted as many Awakened as possible to dive into the Dungeon, and there was no way they’d hide such valuable info.
And of course, when there’s a treasure chest, you open it, because that’s what any guy would do. I didn’t sense any traps, so I decided to go for it, and just in case, I stood to the side rather than directly in front before opening it carefully.
Creeeak…
Inside were two small bottles filled with a glowing blue liquid, and a longsword resting in a plain, plain sheath.
The moment I pulled them out, the golden chest faded into mist and disappeared.
”Ah-! No!” I reached out automatically. “My golden treasure chest!”
If that thing had been solid gold, I’d have been rich, but before I could dwell too long on that letdown, a intricate symbol appeared at my feet – circles, pentagrams, triangles, all carved with unknown characters. It began to glow, and then it surrounded me.
Summary:
The protagonist ventures deeper into the Dungeon, hunting slimes and collecting mysterious marble-like orbs that even the Guild cannot identify. He discovers a hidden room, battles a rare golden slime, and earns a treasure chest that vanishes after he claims its contents. Just as he mourns his lost fortune, a mysterious glowing symbol appears beneath him and consumes his world.
Trivia:
- The protagonist has accumulated four cardboard boxes of unidentified marble-like orbs in his orphanage room.
- His ability to sense monsters and ambushes only developed after he learned to cloak himself in Gaia Points.
- The golden slime is the first non-blue slime he has ever encountered in the Dungeon.
- Treasure chests dropping from defeated monsters is an unheard-of phenomenon, even according to official Guild knowledge.
- The treasure chest contained two glowing blue potions and a longsword in a plain sheath.
- The golden treasure chest dissolved into mist the moment its contents were removed.
- A complex summoning circle composed of circles, pentagrams, triangles, and unfamiliar writing appeared at his feet after the chest vanished.