Basement Dungeon ~Poor Siblings become the Strongest and Enjoying Exploration~

“Good job.” (Haru)

“Woooo!!!” (Wolf)

　The wolf howled with its large mouth raised. Haru swiftly jumps toward the mouth of that wolf, large enough to eat people.

　She waved her favorite Tonfa and smashed the wolf’s mouth as it howls.

　The wolf was the 10th-floor boss, also known as the Black Wolf. Defeating this monster is such a feat that one can be called a mid-rank explorer.

　Incidentally, in general, those who have just started exploring are called Beginners, those who have defeated the 5th-floor boss, the Hobgoblin, are called Beginner Explorers, and those who have defeated the 15th-floor boss are called Intermediate Explorers.

　The Black Wolf, the proof of being an Intermediate Explorer, was bashed from below with its mouth gaping. The impact reverberated through its brain.

　The next moment, it turned into black mist and disappeared.

　It only took five seconds from the time the siblings entered the Black Wolf’s room to this point. Even the Black Wolf, the proof of an Intermediate Explorer, could not fight properly against the siblings, whose abilities far surpassed those of Intermediate Explorers.

“OK, let’s go to the next one.” (Haru)

“I’ll have to find the stairs from here. I’m not sure what the Black Wolf’s drop is. It’s huge.” (Kei)

　This is the first time I’ve seen a Black Wolf drop that I’m not familiar with.

“Hmm? It’s not the usual fur. It’s more like a pelt.” (Kei) [T/N: Pelts are untreated skin (hide) and fur coat. Furs are treated coat w/ or without the skin (hide). Well according to Google-sensei.]

　The fur that dropped was bigger than the usual fur. Usually, the furs we drop are about a meter square, although there is a margin of error in size. However, the one that fell here was…

“It looks like a tiger pelt that a rich man would display in his house.” (Kei)

　That’s exactly what it looks like. The color was the usual shiny black, but the pelt was still in the shape of a wolf as if it had been stripped from a wolf.

　However, the fur was not the size of a black wolf; it was about four meters square when laid open.

　It was much smaller than the size of the original Black Wolf, but it was still bigger than a normal tiger.

　Normally, I don’t remember what monsters drop what kind of items, even though I keep a record of it, but I do remember what the bosses drop. I’ve never seen anything like this. Maybe they were on the market, but I hadn’t done much research on the regular drop items.

“I’ll have to check it out when I get back to the surface. Maybe it’s a tremendous rare drop.” (Kei)

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ll check it out when we get back.” (Haru)

　I lifted the heavy, large pelt with ease and shoved it into my item pouch.

　I follow Haru who had already started walking as if nothing had happened.

　From our point of view, we’ve already experienced many drops from the dungeon that we didn’t know about, so we didn’t have to worry about any of these.

　The only thing that bothered me a little was that the Black Wolf, which we had defeated so many times before, suddenly produce such a rare drop that we had never seen before. Moreover, it happened when we have just come to the dungeon in Tokyo and defeated it. What if it does?

　How much of a coincidence would that be?

“Oh well.” (Kei)

　After exiting the 10th floor, we quickly descended to the 11th floor.

　The two siblings were very open-minded, despite what they might say.

“Brother, tired.” (Haru)

　We’ve been walking on the 11th layer now. It’s been about an hour.

　Killing monsters and walking has become a hassle, so now the two of us are walking hand in hand, activating our stealth.

　Thanks to our high status, we don’t get tired. Physically.

　Naturally, our minds are tired and stressed. Yeah, I’m having some kind of déjà vu about this situation.

“I wonder if a staircase will suddenly appear in front of me. Then I can go to the shrine and give a thousand yen.” (Kei)

“A thousand yen? If I’m going to spend it on money, I can eat out, so I want to eat out. The ingredients may not be as tasty as Minotaur, but I think the cooking skills are different.” (Haru)

　We are gradually becoming less and less poor by selling the dungeon drops. Now we can even go to high school.

　However, even if we can escape poverty, it is not easy to escape the habit of being poor. The feeling of not wanting to spend more money than necessary, which had been ingrained in Haru after living in poverty for half a year, was still firmly rooted in her mind.

　Suddenly Haru stops.

“Brother, the monsters disappeared simultaneously in the distance. It looks like there are some pretty strong explorers. Maybe they’re high-level intermediate explorers?” (Haru)

“If they’re that strong and roaming around these levels…” (Kei)

“Yes. They’re strong, but they haven’t reached the fifteenth level, so they haven’t vanished.” (Haru)

“I guess. That means…” (Kei)

　I headed in the direction of the explorer with Haru pulling me by the hand. A few steps later, the explorer’s presence vanished.

“They got to the stairs.” (Haru)

“I guess we’ll just have to follow them.” (Kei)

　If they were that strong, they would at least know the way out of this level. If that’s the case, we should just follow them.

　Well, they were giving directions without knowing realizing it. Also, we aren’t bothering the other party.

　If we go to the place where the explorers disappeared, we will find a staircase.

　We went down the stairs and grasped the explorers’ presence. It seems that they are still moving forward at a steady pace, killing all the monsters around them.

“Well, let’s go.” (Haru)

“That’s right. Let’s chase after them quickly.” (Kei)

　We’ll go from this floor to the 14th floor. We continued stalking the explorers who were walking steadily, without letting them detect our presence. As a result, we were able to safely reach the 15th floor.

　By the way, the search for the stairs on the 14th floor was luckily finished in about 30 minutes.

“We did it!” (Haru)

　Haru smacked the door of the boss room as if to relieve stress, and the door slowly opened.

“Gugaa!” (Minotaur)

　It was a Minotaur that appeared.

　The Minotaur in the Tokyo dungeon was not sitting on a rock but was standing with its ax on the ground like a cane.

　I wonder if Minotaurs are unique to each dungeon.

　Seeing the Minotaur lift its ax and screams, this is my carefree thoughts as it happens.

“Well, you’re next, right? Nice to meet you.” (Haru)

　Haru crossed her tonfa behind her back and walked lightly to the wall. She leaned against the wall without hesitation.

“Well, I’m going.” (Kei)

　I approach the Minotaur with my bare hands not touching my sheathed sword. The first attack will come soon.

“Gaaarh!” (Minotaur)

　The ax swung down and glowed as the Minotaur screamed. The impact sends a shockwave heading towards us.

“You are looking quite impatient this time.” (Kei)

　I muttered, but I easily dodged it by taking a step to the side and walked straight to the Minotaur.

　As I walk leisurely along, it raises its ax again.

　The ax is glowing, but the flow of magic power is a little different than before. I’ve seen this kind of flow many times. I’ve actually used it myself, so there’s no problem at this point.

　The last time I looked at the strength of a Minotaur, it was 160. Minotaurs are considered melee skills-type, so their Strength is about two-thirds of their Fighting Power.

　It’s probably on par with what I have now. And I have proven myself from the two battles recent battles and my status has also improved. If so.

“[Power]” (Kei)

　The glowing ax swings down at my unprotected head, and I raise my hands toward it. I raise my hands toward it, putting all my strength into one moment, using the ground as a firm foundation. I bring my hands together above my head.

　Bam!

　There is a smacking sound.

　Of course, it wasn’t the sound of my head being split open. It was the sound of a man grabbing an ax that had been swung down. It was a serious sword fight.

　The impact of the ax swinging down created a breeze, and the hood of the jacket I was wearing fell off.

　The ax stopped about ten centimeters above my head and didn’t move.

　Speaking of which, I open my mouth.

“Hey, Minotaur. Do you know what nuclear weapons are?” (Kei)

　When we first defeated the Minotaur, they knew what a bomb was. The Minotaur should have never come into contact with humans.

　So I decided to ask him again. It wouldn’t be interesting if I asked the same question about bombs as last time, or maybe an intermediate explorer had just learned to say such things in battle.

　That is why I said “nuclear weapon”. Last time it was a bomb, so this time I’m going to up the scale. There is no particular meaning. There’s a reason why no one would say “nuclear weapon” in the middle of a battle.

　And.

“Are you flustered?” (Kei)

　I could sense a hint of agitation in the Minotaur’s somewhat human-like behavior.

“Thank you for your silent confirmation.” (Kei)

　I pulled and twisted the ax, which had loosened because of the Minotaur’s agitation, and removed it from its hand.

　The head of the Minotaur flew through the air so smoothly that you could almost hear the sound of it swooshing.

　With the same momentum that I had used to rip the ax out of the Minotaur’s hand, I slashed it into the Minotaur’s neck. It was a clean-cut, no blood spilled, and it disappeared into a black mist.

“It was a little interesting reaction.” (Haru)

　Haru casually walks from behind me.

“It still knows about bombs, but also nuclear weapons. That was unexpected.” (Kei)

“There were some theories that the dungeons were from some fantasy world that has moved to Earth. I thought that theory was quite strong, too.” (Haru)

“I agree with you, but I don’t think there are any nuclear weapons in that world, because magic is enough and it’s not powerful enough to be used in a dungeon.” (Kei)

“In addition, electricity is not available in dungeons, so even if there is a world where dungeons existed originally, I don’t think nuclear weapons can be activated there. It’s not that you can’t use electronic devices in the dungeon, but that you can’t use electronic devices in that world. Something like that.” (Haru)

“Well, that theory turned out to be wrong when the Minotaur knew about the nuclear weapons. After all, there are a lot of unknowns in dungeons.”

“Yup. That’s right. Well, let’s check the drops for the time being.” (Haru)

　We sat near the items dropped by the Minotaur and began to check those.

　And the siblings had forgotten. They forgot that they had come here to get a sword and tonfa Treasure Tool. It would be some time before they remembered that.