Episode 9: The Nightmare Returns
The next morning, Mamezou’s loud barking woke Yuma. It was the same as always, but Yuma frowned as he opened his eyes.
“…That’s strange. I should have filled the hole.”
He sluggishly got out of bed, threw on his down coat, and headed to the backyard. Mamezou was, as expected, glaring at the spot where the hole had been and barking.
“What’s wrong, Mamezou? Is something—”
At that moment, the sight that entered his eyes made Yuma involuntarily grimace. The hole he had filled was gaping open again.
“Hey! Why?!”
He hurriedly peered into the hole, and there it was in the darkness. A trembling Metal Slime.
“Does that mean the hole resets the next day even if I fill it?! What the heck? I went through so much trouble to fill it…”
Yuma hung his head and squatted down. If filling it was pointless, then this Dungeon would stay like this forever.
He picked up the constantly barking Mamezou and took him inside. But he wouldn’t stop barking. Even in the living room, even when taken to Yuma’s room, Mamezou showed no sign of quieting down.
Even when taken to the garden on the opposite side of the backyard, he still kept barking towards the backyard.
Could that Slime be emitting some kind of evil aura?
Finally, his mother, who was making breakfast, scolded him, “What are you doing! You’re disturbing the neighbors!” and Yuma tearfully returned to the hole to defeat the Metal Slime.
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“Damn it!! Why do I have to defeat that unprofitable Slime every single day!”
Yuma slammed his face on his desk, venting his anger, but he couldn’t think of a way to stop Mamezou from barking.
While lamenting the unfairness, he happened to glance at the drawer of his desk.
He took out the Demon Ore that the Metal Slime had dropped from inside the desk and brought it up to his eyes, examining it closely.
It was about two centimeters in size, not a perfect sphere but an oval-shaped, glossy black metal.
“I think it’s supposed to strengthen the body… If I can’t sell it, maybe I should try using it.”
However, he didn’t know exactly how to use it, so he Googled it on his phone as usual.
“…So, I just have to swallow it normally? It says, ‘Please disinfect well before eating,’ but is that really okay?”
It seemed that Magic Gems and Demon Ores could be broken down in the body by swallowing them, allowing one to use magic and such.
But Yuma’s eyes were drawn to a sentence written below.
※ However, humans who swallow Magic Gems must have higher “Mana” than the Magic Gem.
If “Mana” is insufficient, the Magic Gem will not be broken down in the body and will be excreted through feces.
“Mana”… I’ve heard it a few times, but I don’t really understand it.”
Yuma scratched his head and searched again with “Dungeon, Mana.”
“What’s this, ‘About the Formation of Dungeons and the Discovery of Mana’?”
It was a site written about Dungeon research, with long sentences listed.
Yuma skimmed through it, skipping parts here and there.
To summarize what was written—
Seven years ago, Dungeons appeared in various parts of the world, and the military forces of each country were investigating the interior.
There were various creatures inside that did not exist on the surface, and they were very belligerent. They often clashed with the military and engaged in combat.
What was learned from a year-long investigation was that when unknown creatures were defeated, their bodies crumbled into fine sand and disappeared.
And they rarely left behind “Gems.”
The creatures could not leave the Dungeon.
The deeper one went into the Dungeon, the more powerful creatures appeared.
What was considered particularly important was the physical changes in the soldiers who had been active in the Dungeon for a long time. Their bodies emitted a small amount of electromagnetic waves similar to radiation.
Since the electromagnetic waves were also present in the Dungeon, it was thought that prolonged stays in the Dungeon had affected the human body.
However, further investigation revealed that there was not necessarily a correlation with the length of stay in the Dungeon. What was related was the number of creatures defeated.
Soldiers who defeated more creatures or stronger individual creatures were confirmed to be emitting electromagnetic waves at higher concentrations.
When this was made public, it caused a great reaction, mainly on the internet, with comments like, “It’s just like experience points in a game.”
But in reality, whether the electromagnetic waves were high or not, they had no bad or good effects on the human body. When it became clear that it was meaningless, many people were disappointed, but an event occurred that completely changed the situation.
That was three years after the discovery of the Dungeon.