The Ruins Area

I wonder if its because the scenery had completely changed. My dull thoughts that’s clear of any uncomplicated things had regained its color.

[Those ivies… are they edible…? Hmm?]

Something is coming.

[Booohh… boohh, bo hiyyooooohhh…]

Something spherical is floating towards me. It’s a monster that look like an eye. An enormous golden eyeball. It’s deep golden pupils, which is proportional to the size of the eyeball, is moving about restlessly. Suddenly, many arms grew out of its spherical body. The appearance of the arms resembles to those of a human.

Busshuuuu…!

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Acid is spouting from the tips of the protrusions scattered around its body. As expected, the monsters here also spouts acid like that, huh.

[Hiiiioooohhh, ggiiyyooooooohhhh—!]

Suddenly, the monster released a high-pitched scream. It looks like it’s howling. Or is this just how it cries? The eye looks like its having some little twitches every few seconds. In those multiple arms that sprung out of its body, magic circles in the form of rings that were clad as they formed. Those magic circle seems to look like bangles as they perfectly fit in its arms. It’s similar to what the goddess was clad at that time when she stopped the quarrel of Oyamada and Yasu.

[<Paralyze>]

I took the initiative on attacking.

[<Poison>]

Pzzzzztt! Bachichichi!

[Booyyyuuoooohhhh!]

The eyeball is continuously hit by paralytic shocks throughout its body. It seems that the premature discharge of magic backlashed towards him. It’s like that time when that lizardman back then blew up its own head because of backlash.

[Gggii, ggiiyyuuuuiii—]

The monster’s gigantic eye is opened wide as smokes fumed out of the white part of the eye.

[Ooouuggguueehhh…]

I’m patiently waiting for this monster to die. The <Paralyze> gauge I used earlier is about to be emptied out.

[<Sleep>]

The monster’s gigantic eye closed. After waiting for a while, the monster finally died out of poison.

<Your level has increased.> <Lv 957 → Lv 961>

My level is still increasing.

[This is…]

If the level limit is not 999, would I be able to exceed Lv 1000? I look around my surroundings.

[I guess I should look around the area for the time being.]

I start searching the surrounding area while being vigilant for any danger that may show up. I don’t know how far I should travel until I reach the upper grounds. It would be good if I could secure a base for me to stay at for the time being. I found some door-like objects along my search in this ruins. However, all of them were tightly closed. It won’t open even if I push or pull them. There’s also no handle for it to be a sliding door.

[Hmm? This jewel—]

I have just noticed something. I recalled the jewel in the leather bag I have.

[Does these doors require for me to inject magic energy on them?]

I decided to inject magic power in it. The gauge in the jewel started accumulating the magic energy. Ah, now that I think about it…

[Status Open.]

Displaying my current status.

MP: + 31345/31713

With this, I can confirm the decrease of MP as I’m injecting it to this door. I can now also keep track on how much magic energy I need for the gauge to fill up. The gauge is now full. Looking at how much my MP has decreased— about 1500 MP is the required magic energy to be injected. The door then started to vibrate subtly. It opened from the middle as the door split open to the left and right. I went inside while keeping being cautious for any surprise attacks.

[This room should be… around 8 tatami mats wide?]

My eyes came upon a table and some chairs made of stone. I can also confirmed some furniture-like objects here and there. There’s also some kind of crude cloth that’s spread around the floor. Was the a former resident of this place used to sleep there? The place looks like it’s uninhabited. I sit in one of the chairs.

[Ahh… this feels great…]

I feel like it has been ages since I last “sat down on a chair”… Once again, I realize that I’m a child raised in a modern civilization.

[Well then.]

I get up from my seat and went to the door. The jewel had already lost its color. I display my status again in preparation. I will try injecting 1500 MP into the jewel in the door again. The door closed along with its subtle vibrations.

[I see.]

It’s necessary to inject magic energy for opening and closing of the door. I inject magic energy to the door again. As the door opened, I went out of the room. I want to check how the other rooms look like. The second room I went to was empty. There are only crude furniture made out of stone similar to those in the first room. The third room was also like that. The rooms’ appearance were all same and it continued even when I have reached the seventh room. But, the eighth room was different. I’ve found them. Humans — that is. No, to be exact, two human skeletons.

[These skeletons should also be from disposed people, right?]

Both of the skeletons were wearing light armor. These light armor looks quite old. Guessing by how these two are dressed, I think they should be a man and a woman. How long has it been since they were disposed? The two skeletons were sitting side by side with the wall behind their backs.

It’s as if these two were quite close to each other.

I’ve also just noticed it but they were also holding the hand of the other. They have probably taken refuge here as they run for their life. There were brutal monsters roaming about outside. They would be killed if they were to go outside. They couldn’t go out of this room. Having neither food nor water, They have chosen to die in this place together. There is no traces in this room that they have been in conflict at all. They had simply accepted that they would die together.

[…that’s quite amazing of them.]

After I voiced out my thoughts, I checked out in search of what they have.

rustle, rustle

This and that are different things. There’s no place for sentimental things in this kind of situation. I have to search for something I can still make use of. Even I might die in this place. I have to search for something that may seem even a little bit useful. The sword leaning to the side already had its blade chipped and cracked. When it comes to the staff, the crystal part on the head of the staff is already broken.

[…it’s no use.]

The clothes I’m wearing now, the school uniform and the cloak I’m wearing over it should be enough. Moving in clothes I’ve already grown accustomed to is easier. Most of all, the skeletons’ clothes was just as damaged as the other equipment they have. I also don’t want to change into it, hygienically-speaking. Hmm? I noticed some kind of small pouch in the pocket of the skeleton’s clothing. I can feel its weight as I take it out of the pouch. Confirming the contents of the pouch…

[Are these… jewels?]

The pouch is crammed with jewels that glitter blue. After looking around the contents of the pouch, there were some silver coins mixed in. It may be possible to turn these coins to money when I’ve finally reached the ground above. It would be nice if these silver coins were the currency used above ground though… Anyway it is, I’m quite thankful I’ve acquired something worth of money. Because no matter which world it is, money would always be necessary. I went to the two skeletons and spoke.

[I’m sorry, but I’ll be taking these.]

I put the pouch of jewels inside the pocket beneath my uniform. But… I’ve discovered one important thing. That perhaps, this room can be a safe zone when it’s closed off by injecting the door with magic energy. It seems like the monsters here in this area can’t inject magic energy towards the doors. Or is it that the monsters just don’t know that the doors would open if they do it? Anyway, I could finally secure a bed for me to sleep peacefully in. Thanks to my leather bag, I’ve also got an stable supply of food and water.

[With this place as my base, leveling for some time should not be a bad idea…]

I resumed my exploration in this ruins area while I was arranging my plans for the near future.

v

During my search in the nearby area, I’ve encountered another one of those spherical eye monster again. It seems that I have not been noticed by that guy yet. I target the eyeball and release <Paralyze> from behind a building of this ruins. I followed up with <Poison>. And when the gauge for paralysis is about to run out, I released <Sleep> towards it. Before I could even repeat the combo for a second time, the monster had already died.

<Your level has increased.>

Great, my MP is fully recovered again. It would be better to understand that I’m jumping levels because of the monstrous amount experience of I’m gaining from the monsters here. Therefore, I want to raise my level as much as possible before I would leave this place and reach the ground above. However, my skill level doesn’t increase that easily. Well, the skill is exceptional even with the current skill level, so I can give up on leveling them. In the first place, I’ve never thought that my skill level would rise again by how slow it’s increasing. I’m under the impression that my abilities would quickly rise as I just increase my level.

I resume my exploration of this ruins. The number of rooms I had confirmed had reached a total of 24 rooms. You could see some regularity by how the rooms were arranged. If the pattern on how they arranged rooms were followed, this should be all of it. I choose one of the empty rooms and decided to use it as a base. I need to take some rest. When I have finished resting in the home base, I stand up.

[Now then, shall we start?]

Leveling up.

And thus, I started leveling up in this ruins. It seems that this area is where those eyeball monsters had made its nest. I continued killing the eye monsters in the area even if it’s just me alone.

About half a day has passed since I have started hunting monsters. I can’t see any eyeball monsters any longer. I went back to my home base and checked the jewel in my leather bag. The original yellow-green color has not returned yet. After confirming it, I proceed on leaving the room and went down to one of the areas where there are monsters left. I kill the monsters in the lower area with the usual skill combo of mine. After a while of doing that, monsters in that area also ceased to appear. I returned to the base again. This time though, the color of the jewel in the leather bag has returned.

The meal of the day is a block-type nutritional supplement and oolong tea in a PET bottle.

I’m quite grateful for the nutritional supplement. The food’s packaging is the same as the ones I saw back in my previous world. It makes me forget that I’m in a different world for a moment.

[Fruits flavored, huh…]

I unexpectedly quite like this. (T/N: not specified.)

[Chomp…]

First is to chew it lightly with my molars. I feel like I bit something like a moist cookie.

[Nyom, nyom… chomp, chomp…]

The block was broken down in my mouth. A unique fluffy sweetness spreads out of the block. I could still feel the faint sweetness it’s releasing through the scent it gives off. However, I feel that just having this feels quite dry. Without delay, this is where I drink the oolong tea. (T/N: Hazure Waku is not a food novel.)

[Gokun, kokkunnn… muu… pfuhhaaa!]

I could feel the astringent sweetness in my mouth stiffened. It’s not bad. The cookie-like dough flavor I had tasted in that nutritional supplement was easily swallowed away by the rushing liquids. I may be far from what you can call a gourmet. But, I can say that I unexpectedly like this kind of meal.

Having finished my meal, I chopped the paper box of the nutritional supplement into a thousand pieces. It may be just a temporary way on dealing with things, but I’m now able to brush my teeth, even if the brush is hard to brush with. I’ve installed one of the dragon’s bones in front of the door just in case that someone approaches. I don’t think it would happen, but the possibility of a monster intruding here is not really zero. Well, that bone alarm device I made is meaningless against that floating eyeball monster. However, I think if it’s just against that eyeball monster, it’d be fine. If it can really get in, some of the doors in this ruins would have been opened already. Or so, I explained to myself as I fell asleep.

After a long time, I was finally able to sleep without worrying about anything.