Chapter 4: Ryo and Dia and Sharkdiles
After photographing the Sharkdile’s sleeping form to his satisfaction, Ryo slowly left the area while maintaining his sneaking state.
“I want a plushie.
I’ve got plenty of reference material.”
He muttered softly while checking the Sharkdile photos on his phone.
He wondered if there might be a service somewhere that would make something like that.
In a slightly buoyant mood, he returned to the upward staircase and headed back to Floor 5.
But the moment he finished climbing the stairs and stepped onto the fifth floor, he frowned suspiciously.
“…The atmosphere feels off?”
Running into other explorers was not rare.
But today’s vibe was strange.
“Is someone fighting?
No… are they running away?”
Inside dungeons, the environment and monster spawns generally followed fairly fixed patterns.
Which floors monsters appeared on, their placement, and so on.
In that sense, it felt very similar to a game.
However, those rules were not followed one hundred percent of the time.
There were irregularities.
Rather than a single phenomenon, the term referred to any events that deviated from the previously understood floor rules.
“Ah.
The Sharkdile I ran into here was an irregularity?”
After saying something that his troublesome childhood friend would probably scold him for not realizing sooner if he were here, Ryo started running.
“If someone got attacked while off guard, that could be bad.”
Even veterans responded differently depending on whether they were mentally prepared for danger or not.
As Ryo ran while scanning the surroundings, he heard a woman’s voice.
“Dia!
This way!”
“Jeez… that Sharkdile is persistent!”
So they really were being attacked by a Sharkdile.
“Voices—this way…!”
Ryo was generally only interested in fried chicken and rare things found in dungeons.
He was not very proactive about things that did not interest him.
But—
As he ran, two women burst out from a side passage.
“There!”
“Huh?!”
“Another explorer?!”
Lightly stopping the two women who were about to warn him of the danger, Ryo spoke rapidly.
“I know about the Sharkdile!
So come this way!
Run straight ahead!
There are a lot of paths branching right, ignore all of them and take the first left, there’s a staircase!”
Hearing his rapid instructions, the two women exchanged glances and then moved.
“Um, you are—”
“Go.
I can handle a Sharkdile.
You’ll be in the way.”
Depending on who heard it, the words could sound blunt or even cold.
Still, the women correctly understood what Ryo meant.
They bowed lightly and ran.
Before he could even feel their presence leaving behind him, the irregularity appeared.
“You’re way too eager.”
Saying that to the Sharkdile that burst out from the alley, Ryo threw a knife.
Ryo was certainly indifferent to things he had no interest in.
But he was not so heartless that he could calmly watch someone die right in front of him.
“Having someone die in a dungeon I love—
Especially when it’s within my reach—leaves a bad aftertaste.”
In a sense, it could be called selfishness.
There were probably countless people dying somewhere he did not know about.
Even so—
Or perhaps because of that—
“If it’s within the reach of my eyes and hands…
I’ll reach out, grab them, and pull them up!”
Confirming that the knife pierced the Sharkdile’s left eye, Ryo voiced something close to his personal creed.
“Gyoaaah?!?!”
Because it was a surprise throw, it landed before the tough eyelid could close.
If he had thrown it plainly, the monster likely would have shut its eyes in time.
“It’s cute when it’s sleeping.
But scary when it’s rampaging.”
Muttering casually, he pulled out another knife and took aim.
“Martial Art: Poisonous.”
The knife he held became wrapped in a sticky-looking purple aura, and Ryo threw it toward the writhing Sharkdile’s mouth.
“Go!”
It pierced into the mouth, drawing another pained cry from the Sharkdile.
Listening to it, Ryo prepared the next knife.
“Martial Art: Paralysis.”
This time, a crackling yellow aura wrapped around the blade.
“There!”
Because the pain in its eye and the poison made it lift its head, the Sharkdile exposed its weak point—its soft belly.
Ryo hurled the Paralysis-imbued knife straight into it.
As the Sharkdile spewed large bubbles from its mouth and writhed in agony, the knife lodged into its abdomen.
Then it began to twitch violently.
Watching closely, Ryo put away the throwing knives and drew two large daggers for close combat.
“Martial Art: Massive Stab.”
Ryo applied a skill to himself that temporarily increased attack power against targets suffering from poison, paralysis, and similar effects.
“Alright then.
Good night.”
And with dance-like consecutive strikes, he carved up the Sharkdile as it writhed in poison and paralysis.
“…Phew.”
Looking at the Sharkdile lying on the ground, Ryo let out a small breath.
If dismantled before it turned into black haze, scales, meat, and fangs could be collected.
Apparently, touching the ground for a long time caused monsters to haze out, but cutting them apart and lifting them off the ground prevented that.
However, Ryo had no interest in such things, so he left it alone.
If he needed them, he would enter the dungeon for that purpose, but today was not such a day.
“I guess I should at least say something.”
After confirming that the Sharkdile was completely dead, Ryo turned back toward the staircase area—
Or rather, he was about to.
“That was amazing!
You beat it solo!
That was incredible!”
A woman who had apparently been watching ran up to him.
“You’re welcome.
You two okay?”
“Yeah.
Thanks to you.”
After answering, the woman turned to the cool, beautiful glasses-wearing woman holding the camera and asked, “Right?”
The woman with glasses bowed deeply to Ryo as well.
“As long as you’re safe.”
Just as Ryo started to walk away like his business was finished, the energetic woman grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“I want to thank you, but…”
“No need.”
“I-I see.”
He had not helped them to receive thanks.
When things were dangerous, explorers helped each other.
That was how Ryo saw it.
In other words, it went both ways.
“Um… even so… you did save us.
Ah!
How about food or something?
Rather than something that sticks around, that feels cleaner, I think.”
“Well, if it’s that kind of thanks, I’ll gladly accept.”
He had no objections.
Delicious food was always welcome.
“Do you have any favorite foods?”
“Yeah.
Fried chicken, fried chicken, chicken tempura, yuringchi, chicken nanban, chicken cutlet, chicken tatsuta, yangnyeom chicken…
Big Taiwanese fried chicken would be good too…”
Ryo listed dish names dreamily.
An immediate retort came in response.
“That lineup is a fried-chicken fever dream.”
“If I have fried chicken, no other food is necessary in this world.”
“If there are no other foods, fried chicken won’t have anything to shine against.”
“That would be a problem.
Let’s pretend I didn’t say that.”
“Then next time, I’ll treat you to some really good fried chicken.”
“That gives me a reason to live until then.”
“On the short-lived side?”
“I think I’m pretty normal.”
“You’ve got a unique rhythm…”
“I get that a lot.”
Thinking back, that childhood friend of his never really said things like that.
With that thought, Ryo’s evaluation of his troublesome friend went up slightly.
“When I treat you, I’d like to contact you, so do you use Linker?
Can we exchange IDs?”
“Mm.”
And so, while giving brief self-introductions, Ryo exchanged Linker chat-app IDs with the women he had helped.
For that, he shook his phone with the app open.
“…Shaking phones to exchange IDs at the riverbed…
This really is a dungeon-exclusive, brand-new experience!”
“Normally, you don’t exchange IDs underwater.”
Now that it was pointed out, it really might be a rare experience.
As she laughed and muttered that—
“Right?”
Ryo smiled a little smugly.