The female adventurer Iris drank down the water he held out while crying, and Yukitaka watched her quietly.
Once she calmed down, Iris gave the cup back to Yukitaka, and then the two of them were quiet for a while, because things felt awkward.
"Um... so, I have a question..."
"Yes...? Oh, I forgot to say thank you for the water!"
The moment she was asked a question, Iris realized she had forgotten to say thanks, and her face turned red.
"What is this place?"
"Huh?"
At Yukitaka's blunt question, Iris tilted her head, confused. "Oh, sorry! I should have explained more. I broke a wall to get in here, so I don't know what kind of place this is."
From Iris's reaction, Yukitaka realized he had not said enough and added more.
"Ah... so that's what you meant. Wait, huh! You broke a wall to get in!? This is an unexplored Transfer Dungeon, you know!? There's no way you could destroy a wall..."
"Eh!? This is a Dungeon too!? It feels totally different from the Royal Capital Dungeon, so I didn't know."
Yukitaka had been in the Royal Capital Dungeon, but because the type was different, he hadn't noticed.
"Ah, so you meant the Royal Capital one. There are all kinds of Dungeons, and the Royal Capital one is a cleared Dungeon, so the mood is completely different from this unexplored Dungeon."
Iris had thought Yukitaka was a famous adventurer, but since he seemed to know nothing, she settled down and explained.
"I see... By the way, what is a Transfer Dungeon?"
"This Dungeon has magic circles all over the place, and when you step on one, you get sent randomly somewhere else. That's why it's called a Transfer Dungeon. Normally, destroying walls in a Dungeon is hard, but Transfer Dungeons have walls that are even harder. They say even top adventurers pretty much can't destroy them. Wait, you said you destroyed a wall earlier, right...?"
Iris remembered what Yukitaka had let slip about the wall.
"Yeah. Over there."
Where Yukitaka pointed, there was a spot where part of the wall was literally broken.
"Really!? Oh! By the way, where does that place lead to!?"
Iris realized there was a chance to survive, because until a moment ago she had not known where she was and had already prepared herself for death, so it was a natural reaction.
"What continues from there is the bottom of a cliff, you know? For me, this bright Dungeon feels way safer..."
Yukitaka smiled wryly at the difference between the dark place from before and this bright place.
"The bottom of a cliff? Is that the 'Valley of Naraku'1 that people say has no bottom!?"
"I don't know if it's 'Naraku,' but it's definitely scary deep. So deep that not much light from the surface reaches it."
"But we can get outside, right? Then let's go outside!"
Iris stood up with hopeful eyes, because she really must hate Dungeons.
"That's fine, but what about this?"
Where he pointed, the monster he had finished off was lying there, and Yukitaka figured it could be food.
"I don't have Magic Storage, so something this big is... Huh? I leveled up from that battle just now, and I remember it!?"
Iris checked her Skill and was shocked, because normally the person who finishes off a monster gets the Experience Points. If you're in a Party, Experience Points get split, but Yukitaka wasn't a Party member, so that possibility was almost zero.
"That's great. Then, can you collect this monster? I'm sure it'll be worth money, and let's split the share half and half."
Yukitaka only had a Business Backpack and a handbag to carry things, so he negotiated.
"...I can't believe I leveled up this much. But I didn't beat it, so a jump this big means... it was just that powerful a monster... Huh? Did you say something?"
Iris was so stunned she didn't hear Yukitaka's words.
"Half and half is too much after all, huh... Right, it's shameless to ask you to collect it and then take half... Sorry, then let's do three to seven..."
Yukitaka took it as being ignored on purpose and lowered his terms.
"No, you're the one who beat it. Mr. Goto3, was it? You have the right, and you saved my life, so I don't need a collection fee."
Iris felt a little fondness for the kind-looking Yukitaka.
"No, I just swooped in and grabbed the tasty last hit, so let's do half and half here!"
Yukitaka was happy just to meet someone, and the other person seemed nice, so he wanted to get along, and because of that he did not want to sell a favor but have an equal relationship, so he asked for fifty-fifty.
"...Understood. Then I'll collect it."
Iris first collected the stuff that had spilled out of her broken backpack, and then she tried to collect the monster, but she couldn't collect the monster.
"...Mr. Goto. With my newly learned Magic Storage, it looks like I can't collect the whole monster. At times like this, a Magic Tool with Magic Storage would be handy..."
Iris looked a bit like she was looking down on herself that she couldn't help her savior.
"A Magic Tool with Magic Storage? Now that I think about it, there was a guard person in the Royal Capital using one... A storage bag, was it? I think, for what you put in, you say 'Store'2..."
Yukitaka said this while holding his briefcase, and then the huge monster corpse suddenly vanished. No, it was stored into the bag in Yukitaka's hand.
"Eh?"
Not just Iris, but Yukitaka also raised his voice at the sudden thing.
"Mr. Goto, you have one after all, a storage bag!"
"No, I never thought it could do something like this either!"
At Iris's pointing out, Yukitaka was the most surprised.
"...Anyway, let's escape through the wall hole you broke, Mr. Goto. The details can wait until after."
Iris grabbed the hand of her mysterious lifesaver, went through the hole in the wall, and escaped outside.
Trivia:
- Yukitaka broke a wall to enter the Dungeon, which should be impossible, hinting his commuter gear has hidden divine artifact powers.
- Iris leveled up and learned Magic Storage even though she did not land the finishing blow, suggesting Yukitaka's presence or the unusual kill method shares Experience Points in a way normal Party rules do not explain.
- The Valley of Naraku connects to the outside, meaning the unexplored Transfer Dungeon has at least one exit that no adventurer has ever reported, which could make Yukitaka the first to discover it.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Literally "Valley of the Abyss" or "Valley of Hell." The word "Naraku" comes from Buddhist cosmology, referring to the lowest and most terrible level of hell. Iris uses the full name as a well-known death zone, but Yukitaka only reacts to how deep it is, showing he does not know the cultural weight behind the name.
2 ↩ The command word for storage magic items in this world. It is a plain everyday word for "storage" or "putting away," used here as a magical activation phrase. The casualness of the word is part of the joke, since Yukitaka accidentally triggers a powerful effect by treating it like ordinary luggage.
3 ↩ The honorific "-san" is kept as is. It shows Iris speaking politely to someone she sees as an equal or slight superior. Yukitaka's family name is spoken first in Japanese order, and the English keeps "Goto-san" rather than flipping to "Mr. Goto" or "Goto."
Notes:
• Yukitaka - First given name of Yukitaka Goto. He is a twenty-five-year-old salaryman summoned to another world without receiving a skill, who maxed out his level at 99 in half a day without gaining meaningful power, spent about three months at the royal palace before being pushed toward the frontier, and discovered that his black-rimmed glasses let him appraise objects.
• Goto - First given name of Yukitaka Goto. He is a twenty-five-year-old salaryman summoned to another world without receiving a skill, who maxed out his level at 99 in half a day without gaining meaningful power, spent about three months at the royal palace before being pushed toward the frontier, and discovered that his black-rimmed glasses let him appraise objects.