Chapter 3: The Day I Met a Monster
Side: Kasahata Rumi
We failed.
We had gone to subjugate monsters on the 95th floor of an A-rank dungeon, a field known as the Diamond Cave, and ended up encountering a Diamond Dragon.
A Diamond Dragon wouldn’t be out of place as a final boss.
So why was it wandering around the field?
“Gyaooooooon!”
The Diamond Dragon roared.
“Battle positions!”
“Backline, target the head with magic!”
“Frontline, attack the legs!”
“Watch out for the tail!”
Orders flew from our leader.
“Don’t hold back.”
“Infernal Flame.”
A fireball, infused with an immense amount of mana and heated to an extreme temperature, shot toward the Diamond Dragon’s head.
Beside me, another mage from our party launched a fireball as well.
The Diamond Dragon didn’t even try to dodge.
The spells struck their target and did nothing more than scatter sparks.
“Tch… if you’re made of diamond, at least burn!”
The moment the spell hit its head, the frontliners moved in.
They were kicked away by its leg and sent tumbling across the ground.
The healer rushed over to treat them.
The battle continued.
Even my magic couldn’t leave a single scratch on the Diamond Dragon.
Naturally, the frontliners’ attacks couldn’t harm it either.
After exhausting all five of our Elixirs, the leader gave the order to retreat.
Can we really escape?
Maybe my life ends here.
As I turned around to flee, I saw someone completely out of place standing there in a daze.
He wore faded work clothes and work gloves on both hands.
His weapon appeared to be an iron pipe.
That outfit had no place in an A-rank dungeon.
I ran past him.
Then I looked back to see what would happen to him.
He seemed frozen in fear, crouching down.
I felt sorry for him, but there was nothing I could do.
I could only pray that his sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
At that moment, he suddenly stood up and raised his iron pipe overhead.
He should have been running away.
Then I witnessed something unbelievable.
The Diamond Dragon shattered into pieces from a single strike of that iron pipe.
Wait.
What?
My mind couldn’t keep up.
One hit.
With a weapon like that.
Had an S-rank adventurer been pretending to be a beginner?
Nothing made sense.
Absolutely nothing.
Then he apologized to us.
What kind of joke was that?
I exchanged contact information with him.
Someone that strong was worth getting close to.
There was nothing but advantages.
As the party’s negotiator, I had to do my job.
We escorted him to the Adventurers Association.
When I tried to give him a reward as a gesture of gratitude, he refused.
It couldn’t be helped.
So I recorded it as a debt instead.
If he was truly a higher-ranked adventurer, he probably wouldn’t make unreasonable demands later.
After parting ways with him, I searched for his name.
To my surprise, nothing that looked relevant appeared.
Was it a fake name?
He’s a mysterious person.
Now I’m getting excited.
I’m going to uncover his true identity.
I watched the oldest video on his channel, titled [My First Slime Subjugation].
The contents were simply a beginner hunting slimes.
He attacked a slime with an iron pipe.
It dealt no damage at all.
Then the slime ran away.
So this was the beginning of his adventuring career.
Looking at the upload date, it was fifteen years ago.
Somehow, that made sense.
If someone had been an adventurer for fifteen years, reaching S-rank wouldn’t be impossible depending on their talent.
The next video…
Was uploaded a year later.
[First Successful Slime Subjugation.]
He beat a slime repeatedly and finally managed to defeat it.
Wait.
It took him an entire year to get this far?
You’re kidding.
Maybe he’s the type who blooms late.
The next video was [First Successful Goblin Subjugation.]
That one took another two years.
I get it now.
These videos are fake.
There must be some reason he’s uploading fabricated footage.
Then another four years until he successfully defeated a Petit Wolf.
Another eight years until he successfully defeated a Giant Lizard.
The videos were so absurd they felt unreal.
Why would anyone do this?
Maybe it’s a joke side account.
No matter what, I have to find information on him.
His channel has already surpassed ten thousand subscribers.
If attracting attention wasn’t his intention, he might change his email address, phone number, and start over with a new account.
I’m not letting this opportunity slip away.
I looked at the profile section of his channel.
Let’s see…
His parents passed away when he was in middle school.
After that, he graduated from high school while working part-time jobs.
An F-rank dungeon appeared in the backyard of his home.
He spent every day mining iron ore there.
What is this?
It’s the profile of someone living at rock bottom.
His finances are at rock bottom.
His adventurer ability is at rock bottom.
It seems he’s thoroughly committed to hiding his true identity.
I took a screenshot of his face from our Diamond Dragon subjugation stream and hired a private investigator.
I’m certain he’s S-rank.
Information has to surface eventually.
“Leader, we should establish friendly relations with Saikyo.”
“I want to know the source of that power.”
“Our party has hit a plateau recently.”
“Exactly.”
“If we can learn his secret, I wouldn’t even think twice about paying ten billion yen.”
My phone started ringing.
The number belonged to him.
But the caller was a young woman.
She told me that from now on, negotiations should go through her.
Just as I thought.
He’s an S-rank adventurer.
Of course he’d have someone handling negotiations for him.
This is going to be a difficult negotiation.
Now then, what should I start with?
He already refused money.
Maybe inviting him to join our party would be better.
I know one million yen isn’t enough to catch his interest.
We used five Elixirs worth one hundred million yen during this battle.
We’ll have to sell the Diamond Dragon materials for as much as possible.
Since every part of a Diamond Dragon is literally diamond, the total value will probably reach tens of billions of yen.
However, if we flood the market all at once, prices will crash.
Besides, materials from the Diamond Cave monsters contain fine impurities, making them unsuitable for jewelry.
They’re mainly used for industrial purposes.
It’s frustrating that we can’t sell them all at once.
Anyway, I’ll try inviting him to join our party for a reward of around one hundred million yen.
I need to do my best in these negotiations.
Things are about to get busy.