Chapter 108.1

108 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 108

Let’s Venture Into The Secret Passage!

“A magic circle!? Step back, Karen!!”

“Yeah–”

Karen hurriedly stepped away from the stage.

The next moment, the magic circle started to shine brightly.

The magic circle’s light illuminated the dungeon wall behind the stage.

Then, the magic circle transferred itself to the wall.

The magic circle on the stage lost its light.

However, the one on the wall was still shining brightly.

After a while, the magic square was sucked into the dungeon wall as if water had dropped onto dry ground.

“That… It’s the first time I see anything like it, what on earth just happened?”

“I don’t know… I haven’t seen anything like this before either– Huh!?”

“Wha-!?”

A cracking noise, as if something hard had begun to break apart, startled both Haruki and Karen.

Suddenly, the wall behind the stage came crumbling down.

Making a dull noise, a hole began to appear on the wall.

“No way… A hidden door?”

What appeared in front of Haruki was an open discolored door.

There was an ordinary staircase behind that door.

The stairs seemed to go upwards.

Were they some kind of escape route?

“I wonder if they mention these stairs anywhere in the Wiki…”

Haruki always gathered the information he needed in order to tackle a dungeon in the Wiki pages.

However, he always looked for the minimum amount of information needed.

For example, in Kamuikotan’s case, all he searched for was its location and a map of the dungeon. The only other thing he looked for later was how to defeat those dark tree roots.

Looking into anything more than that would ruin the fun of his exploration.

Haruki gathered just enough information so as to avoid taking away the pleasure of adventuring.

It’s the same as when watching a series.

Even if you look for info about its plot and characters, if you look into it with too much detail, it would ruin the fun of watching it.

He had to be moderate with his research.

That was the best way for him to enjoy life.

Of course, exploring a dungeon wasn’t like watching a series, so he still had to be careful.

Besides, even if Haruki didn’t know anything about this door or the stairs behind it, it didn’t mean that no one else would know about them.

“Do you know anything about this, Karen?”

“No… I’m sorry. I haven’t checked the Wiki thoroughly…”

Karen apologetically shook her head.

Haruki looked at the door, then at the stairs, and then returned to the stage.

The magic circle that was there had completely disappeared.

“Could it be that some time had to pass for that magic circle to appear?”

“We have been talking here for a while, haven’t we?”

After defeating the Giant Dark Tree, Haruki had spent some time looking at the Skill Board’s new feature.

While they remained on that 10th floor, the magic circle appeared.

Could it be that the magic circle would have appeared after some time even if an adventurer leaves immediately after defeating the Giant Dark Tree?

— It’s not very likely it’s just time, isn’t it?

Haruki tilted his head and crossed his arms.

— Could there have been some other conditions?

Haruki carefully looked around.

Then, he found a wood splinter of the Giant Dark Tree on top of the stage.

This wood splinter was placed there earlier by Chep when she was cleaning Rhea.

— Could this be it?

“Maybe it’s something like ‘by offering a splinter of the Giant Dark Tree atop the stage, a door will be opened and a new road will appear’, don’t you think?”

“Ah, I see! There’s a sense of unity between this and the appearance of those stairs.”

A sense of unity…

Haruki nodded.

Defeat the Giant Dark Tree and place a piece of its wood on the stage.

Then, as a result of a piece of the Giant Dark Tree being offered at the stage, a new path had opened.

It made sense.

“In that case, what could be waiting beyond these stairs…?”

Haruki squinted and stared into the other side of the stairs.

“Maybe there’s a reward for defeating the Dungeon Lord!?”

“Waahh!”

Excitement ran wild throughout Haruki’s body.

His body felt sweetly numb.

That was definitely possible.

Haruki and Karen quickly checked their equipment and approached the gate.

“Okay, let’s go!”

“Yes!”

Even though the two of them were excited about the possibility of finding the dungeon’s greatest treasure at the end of the stairs, they remained alert.

They were still inside the dungeon.

They couldn’t allow themselves to be careless.

Haruki and the others went up the stairs while resisting their impatience.

The stairs spiraled upwards.

Haruki climbed the stairs one step at a time, checking for traps.

100 steps, 200 steps.

How far up would it go?

300 steps, 400 steps…

“So these must be just for heading back above ground, huh?”

“Maybe…”

Karen dropped her shoulders, probably because she was getting tired of going up those stairs.

Just before reaching 500 steps, the space above them started to become brighter.

It didn’t seem like it was coming from the dungeon. It was natural light.

“So we’re back on the surface?”

Haruki got disappointed, thinking that the chance of them finding some kind of treasure chest at the end of the stairs had been significantly reduced.

Still, it was the first time Haruki climbed these stairs.

The excitement of not knowing where those stairs would take him made up for the lack of treasure somewhat.

Ten steps later, they came out of some kind of exit.

“A wall?”

“There’s a road next to it.”

As they came on the other side of the exit, they found a wall in front of them.

There were roads going left and right next to the wall.

They seemed to lead towards the woods and mountains.

It looked like a scenery one would see above ground.

Apparently, the place where they came out was higher than the entrance to Kamuikotan. The scenery they saw seemed to be high above ground, since they could see far off into the distance.

“Oh-!”

“What a beautiful view…”

As Haruki carefully looked at the landscape…

“Huh!?”

It was exactly as he remembered it.

— No way…

A cold sweat ran down Haruki’s spine.

“What’s wrong, Karaboshi?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

“…”

Hearing Haruki’s shaken voice, Karen turned her gaze at him.

Her look seemed as if she was about to ask “What on earth did you do?”

— It wasn’t me!

Haruki wanted to say that, but he couldn’t deny it.

In order to escape Karen’s gaze, Haruki climbed the wall.

Then, he reached a plateau.

“Is this really Kamui Rock?”

Below him lay a vast forest and a river flowing between two walls of rock. It was Kamuikotan.

The place they had arrived at after climbing up the spiraled stairs was the top of Kamui Rock.

And the place where Haruki and the others emerged was in the fissure Haruki was a bit too familiar with.

There was no way he could say “I didn’t do anything!”