SpiralBaka

Level Down 20

Volume 1 Chapter 20 - Eric's Visit

RAW

After finishing his meal and taking a break to cleanse himself, Allen thought about going to bed just like that, but thinking ‘could it be’, he changed into Nera's appearance and left the house.

The area around Allen's house near the slum to the west is pitch black at night. Under the cover of that darkness, Allen began walking toward the center of the city.

The sight of a clown walking in the darkness was a kind of horror that if a child saw it, it could have traumatized them, but fortunately there were no children out at such a time.

After walking for a while, he got closer to the center of the city, and the road was lit up by street lamp magic tools, and although not many, he started to see people.

Some people looked surprised at Allen's appearance, and some people were on the verge of screaming, “Hih!”, but Allen hurried forward, trying not to think about it as much as possible.

The place Allen arrived at was his own workplace, the Adventurers' Guild. It had already been some time since the gate was closed, and the guild's bar had already closed for business, so there were only a handful of people there, including the employees.

Without hesitation, Allen headed to the guild counter and faced the night shift male employee. Even when the man saw Allen's queer appearance, he didn't lose his customer service smile. That’d make you think ‘as expected of a pro,’ but the truth was that Allen had come here as Nera many times at night, so he had just gotten used to it.

“Welcome, Nera-sama. The fourth payment is ready, but would you like to receive it? The items you ordered have arrived today, so you can also receive them.” (Employee)

It was a bit different from a face pass, but the male employee informed him before he even identified himself as Nera, so he almost cried out loud, but he managed to hold it back.

While grinning under his mask, Allen held out his empty palm to the employee and clenched it. And then he opened that fist and there were two tallies on his palm. The male employee’s expression was dyed with surprise at the tallies that appeared out of nowhere. Allen was secretly satisfied with that.

* (T/N: it was tickets before, now it’s tallies, I guess a tally is a ticket that’s torn off? 割符 - tally; check; piece of wood or paper split in half and given to each party as a form of proof (e.g. of a transaction).)

‘I’m dressed up as a clown anyway,’ thinking so, Allen decided to do this kind of surprise once in a while. ‘It's more interesting that way after all,’ and that's his only reason.

That said, Allen is not a professional clown, so there are limits to what he can do. What he did earlier too, it seemed like those had suddenly appeared to the guild employee, but in reality, he just moved so fast that he couldn't see him take out the tallies.

“I-I've confirmed the tallies. Well then, I'll be bringing you the payment and items, s-so, please wait a moment.” (Employee)

As Allen watched the male employee scurry towards the office in the back, he wondered if he had made a slight mistake, but he still waited excitedly for the male employee to return.

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(Geez─, I finally got it) (Allen)

Allen was looking at a bag about 50 cm squared that was attached to his waist; the magic bag, as he walked home in light gait.

The magic bag that Allen obtained was a dark brown thin leather bag in appearance, and was the type that could be closed with a string attached to its opening like a drawstring bag.

Of course, magic bags come in many different shapes, and there are even ones that really look like ordinary bags.

Allen immediately put the gold coins he received at the Guild into his magic bag, and the sight of them being sucked in as if it was a miracle was so moving that he almost cried out.

For an adventurer, owning a magic bag is proof of first-class status, and Allen was no different in that he longed for them.

Allen walked in that happy mood for a while, but when the street lights were disappearing and he got closer to his home, he noticed an abnormality.

(Footsteps, 4 people? No, 5 people, huh?) (Allen)

Hearing the slight sound coming from behind, Allen frowned as he analyzed them. It wasn't just footsteps, but it was blending in with the sound of his footsteps, they were following him. Allen couldn’t think of this as anything other than a harbinger of something bothersome.

(Robbers? Well, there were people at the Guild who were watching me receive it. Alright, let's shake them off.) (Allen)

With that decision, Allen veered away from the direction of his house and into an alley, and as soon as he was out of the line of sight of his pursuers, he kicked off the ground and jumped up. As Allen silently landed on the roof several meters above him, he heard rustling voices searching for him.

Allen was relieved that he had managed to shake them off, and tried to return home along the roof, but...

“Above?!” (???)

That voice sounded familiar to Allen, but a sound like a kick against the wall approaching him made him turn around in a panic.

That intuition that allowed them to draw the correct answer from the slightest evidence in the midst of this darkness even though there was almost no evidence that Allen had jumped upwards is terrifying.

(People with sharp intuition are troublesome. I’ll have to run away before they confront me.) (Allen)

Allen began to run as fast as he could and immediately disappeared from the scene, and by the time his pursuer landed on the roof, there was already no shadow or form of him.

When the man found just the slightest trace on the roof, “Tch,” he clicked his tongue and jumped off the roof to resume his search.

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The next day, Allen woke up at his usual time, stretched out slightly, and headed to the kitchen from his squeaky bed. Although yesterday's pursuer put a damper on his mood, Allen was still happy to have obtained the magic bag and started preparing breakfast in a good mood.

Today was Allen’s day off and he didn't have any special plans, and he was in a good mood too, so he thought about making a slightly more elaborate breakfast and started cooking when it happened. There was a knock at the door to his house.

(Who is it, this early in the morning?) (Allen)

Wiping his wet hands while thinking about that, Allen heard a voice coming from behind the door.

“Aniki, are you there? It's Eric.” (Eric)

“Ooh, wait a second.” (Allen)

When Allen hurriedly ran to the door and opened it, there was a soldier with masculine face standing there. He was somewhat younger than Allen, and had sharp eyes that didn't give any sign of opening, but the man had some similarities with Allen, like in his mouth.

Allen welcomed the soldier with open arms.

“I’m glad you come, Eric.” (Allen)

“I’m back, Aniki.” (Eric)

The two laughed as they hugged, celebrating their first sibling reunion after a long time.

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“Wait a bit here. I'm preparing breakfast now.” (Allen)

Saying this, Allen added Eric’s share and began preparing breakfast. Eric was a little surprised by the new dining table, but the scene looked the same as when he was young, so he watched nostalgically.

Eric is Allen's younger brother, and currently works as a soldier in this Lilac City.

Although he splendidly passed the test with the sword made in Dolban's workshop and got a job as a soldier, he was forced to live in a barracks when he first joined them, and even after that, due to certain circumstances, he did not have many opportunities to return to his parents' home, that’s why it’s been a long time since they met like this.

That said, from Allen's point of view, they sometimes passed each other when he was patrolling the city, and his other younger siblings have already moved away from the city, so Eric is the one closest to him.

After quickly preparing breakfast for two and putting it on the desk, Allen sat down facing Eric. After saying their usual prayers, the two began eating.

When Eric took a bite of his breakfast and stopped with his eyes wide open, Allen smiled widely.

“Delicious, isn’t it?” (Allen)

“Yeah, it’s delicious.” (Eric)

“Now that I've become a guild employee, my life has stabilized, so I've been studying various things a bit. Cooking is one of them. I wish I could have fed you guys while you were here.” (Allen)

Seeing Allen bad-manneredly playing with the food with his fork while talking happily, Eric smiled.

Half of the reason Eric came here was because he was worried about Allen, and from the way Allen looked now, he knew that his worries were unfounded.

Whether or not he knows Eric's inner thoughts, Allen continued talking.

“By the way, are you all right over there? Uhh, what about that matter with Julia-sama?” (Allen)

At Allen's words, which he seemed to have a hard time asking but his worries won out, Eric nodded his head with a wry smile.

“Julia is doing very well. If I can get a little more achievement and be nominated to knighthood, I should be able to get her back into nobility. She says she is happy as she is though.” (Eric)

“I see... you sure are loved.” (Allen)

Allen's expression softened at that answer. Allen and Eric, now free of worries, proceeded with their meal while reporting on their current situation, and finished eating everything.

Smiling and satisfied with the interaction with his brother after such a long time, Allen was about to get up to clean up. But was stopped by Eric's words.

“By the way, Aniki. Do you know someone called Nera?” (Eric)

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Level Down 19

Volume 1 Chapter 19 - Discomfort Regarding Iseria

RAW

Allen stealthily watched from the shadows as Iseria held her sword at the ready while facing the monster. That is because, when one is fighting monsters, a basic rule is that other adventurers are not to unnecessarily interfere.

The official reason was to prevent the one fighting from getting distracted, leading into a pinch, but everyone understood that in reality, it was to avoid trouble.

(Looks like a treant. It doesn’t feel that strong, either.) (Allen)

Allen thought as he observed Iseria fighting a monster that seems to be treant. Allen thought that if her life was in danger or if there was some special situation, he would try to help her even if it meant ignoring the rules, but then he saw Iseria's condition; her breathing was a little rough, but she was not injured.

“Ha!” (Iseria)

While evading a sweep from the branch of the monster in the shape of a treant, Iseria swung her sword and caused the branch to fall to the ground instead.

Allen was relieved that there seemed to be a lot of leeway in her attacks and defenses, but as he continued to watch, he began to feel a sense of discomfort. That is...

(The way she fights is amateurish. Judging from her movements, she seems like she has better stats than the old me though.) (Allen)

Allen tilted his head as he thought about this. In Allen's estimation, Iseria's speed and strength exceeded 1000. That’s above the old Allen, on par with that of a skilled adventurer who is active on the front lines.

If she had that kind of stats, she should have no trouble defeating a treant, but Iseria still hadn't even been able to do any decisive damage to it.

(Training? Doesn't seem like it) (Allen)

After a while, all its branches had fallen, and the treant, unable to do anything, stopped moving. Iseria tilted her head at the sight of the treant not attacking her at all, and she started carefully closing the distance.

Although Iseria seemed to be a little tired, Allen saw that she still had a lot of leeway, so he decided to leave the place. Because he didn't need to watch over her anymore.

(Still, what a strange girl.) (Allen)

Allen hurried back to Nick while thinking about Iseria, but he slowed down when he clearly heard the sound of metal regularly hitting something.

And then, as Allen walked back normally, what caught his eye was a fine dining table and chair set.

“What the hell are you making?” (Allen)

“Nn, you're back? That was a long shit. Was it a lot?” (Nick)

“No, no way. More importantly, those.” (Allen)

Following where Allen pointed at with a surprised look on his face, Nick grinned.

“I was waiting too long, so I tried making them. They’re made of treant wood, so their durability is perfect. I'll give them to you, Allen.” (Nick)

“No, I appreciate that, but... am I going to carry this with me all afternoon? We’re still raising your level, you know.” (Allen)

“Ah!” (Nick)

As if he had just realized this, Nick opened his mouth and froze, then he noticed Allen's gaze and made a face saying that nothing was wrong.

“It'll be okay. If it’s Allen, you can carry it. I believe in you.” (Nick)

“Believe you say, you just forgot didn’t you?” (Allen)

“It’s your fault for shitting too long!” (Nick)

“Like I said, that ain’t it!” (Allen)

The unproductive argument between the two continued for some time after that.

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In the end, Allen let his stats dictate and spent the afternoon exploring while carrying around the dining table and chair, and successfully finished raising Nick's level. Thanks in part to the fact that they fought until right before the gates of Lilac City closed, they managed to raise Nick's level until 45.

If he’s an adventurer, he’d be in the upper-lower or maybe lower-middle. That is to say, he’d be someone who just got out of being a beginner toward the mid-level in terms of level.

His stats, like his dexterity, were already over 300, and the difference from before he leveled up was so obvious that when Nick tried adjusting his strength on the last treant he defeated, he smiled with satisfaction.

“Thank you, Allen. I think this will help me with my work from tomorrow on.” (Nick)

“Ou, see you. Give my regards to your wife and daughter.” (Allen)

“I won’t hand...” (Nick)

“No, enough with that already.” (Allen)

Since they returned carrying the dining set, the gatekeeper looked at them suspiciously as they entered the city, and then, at the crossroad where they’d be heading to their respective homes, the two exchanged those words with smiles.

Allen then returned to his house and replaced the worn-out dining table and chairs he had been using with the ones he had brought with him.

“Phew.” (Allen)

The chair didn't make any unpleasant noises or wobble even when he sat on it, and Allen let out a deep breath and smiled at that.

Allen knew that his stats had risen and that it was impossible for him to fall behind the monsters in the lower floors of Lilac Dungeon, but he was still nervous because he was taking Nick, a civilian, into a dungeon.

“Going to the dungeon with Nick was surprisingly fun.” (Allen)

Allen smiled as he reflected on his thoughts. Exploring the dungeon with a trusted friend without worrying about money or rewards was more fun than he expected. So much that he’d be happy to go again if he was invited.

‘Still’, Allen switched his thoughts. What bothered Allen was Iseria that he saw on the 9th floor. ‘Even though her stats were high, her ability to fight monsters was amateurish’. That kind of distortion stuck somewhere in Allen's heart.

Allen thought about that for a while, but shook his head and shook it off.

“Ah, enough already. Nothing good comes from getting involved in other people's affairs. Rather than that, it's about my own adventure. The thing I ordered should come soon.” (Allen)

Allen thought about the thing he had requested from the Adventurers' Guild, and then he grinned.

It was Allen's once-in-a-lifetime purchase, using most of the 17 million zenny he earned from selling the ogre king's magic stones and horns three times.

When that thing comes, Allen's adventures will be much more efficient than before. Allen's face loosened at that thought, but then, ‘fuu’ draft came in through the crack, his body trembled a little from that, and his expression returned to its usual one.

“The money from the fourth sale should be coming in soon anyway, so from a security standpoint, I guess I'll repair this. Fortunately, I have some money left over.” (Allen)

Deciding to do so, Allen stood up and headed to the kitchen.

Allen fully demonstrated his cooking skills he gained by watching the owner of a restaurant cook when he ate out, quickly prepared dinner, and smacked his lips in satisfaction of it.

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Level Down 18

Volume 1 Chapter 18 - Treant Floor

RAW

“Uwah, those ‘ding’ ‘ding’ are so noisy!” (Nick)

“Aa─h, well, I guess that's what happens if someone with a single-digit level defeats a treant.” (Allen)

Allen laughed as he watched Nick wince at the continuous sound in his head.

Treant is a monster that mid-level adventurers who just come out from being beginners deal with. As for its strength, a party of around level 70s can consistently defeat it. Nick just defeated it, so it was only natural that his level would continuously rise.

As the sound stopped, Nick called out his status and his eyes opened wide.

“...Level 16? Are you for real?” (Nick)

“Ooh, it's risen quite a bit. It would have been easy if I had been able to raise my level like this.” (Allen)

While taking a sidelong glance at Nick, who was impressed by his own status, Allen recalled his old days with a distant look in his eyes.

Allen became an adventurer at the age of 12, but there was no way any adventurer would be crazy enough to try to recruit him as a companion, so Allen worked alone to steadily raise his level by taking on goblins and the like. The number of times he almost died at that time can’t be counted even with all his fingers in his two hands.

(Well, I guess you could say that's why I've gained so much experience as an adventurer. This method only increases your level after all.) (Allen)

While thinking that in his mind, Allen waited for Nick to calm down, and when Nick excitedly said, “Let's go to the next,” he smiled wryly as he watched him, and started walking.

As the two of them walked through the forest looking for a treant, Nick calmed down a little and opened his mouth.

“Still, if the treant’s that weak, why did my level rise?” (Nick)

“That guy’s only attack method is swinging around its branches. So if you get rid of all of them first, it'll become just a tree that can't attack or move. Normally, it's a pretty strong monster, so don't get too complacent.” (Allen)

“O-ou.” (Nick)

Nick couldn't help but choke on his words when Allen pointed this out while facing him with a sharp gaze. Seeing this, Allen was relieved, thinking that ‘if he’s like this, he should be okay’.

It was because, even though it's safe now, it’s because Allen has set it up perfectly, if Nick tried to do it alone he would definitely die. Nick is not an adventurer, and he had easily raised his level, so it’d be meaningless if he became complacent and died as a result.

After a while, the two found another treant and defeated it in the same way as before. Nick's level steadily rose together with the satisfying sound his axe made.

Just as Nick begins to think ‘isn’t this just a woodcutting now?,’ it was time for lunch, so the two sat down in a slightly open area and began preparing a simple meal.

“Hmm, it tastes bad. I shouldn’t have left it to Allen and get my lunch box made as usual.” (Nick)

“Don't complain. It's got nutrition.” (Allen)

While looking at Nick who was putting the portable food that caters to adventurers into his mouth as if it really tastes bad, Allen also put it into his mouth as well. The reason he doesn't mention taste is because Allen himself thinks the same.

That said, this portable food also has its advantages. As Allen said, it's rich in nutrients and has a long shelf life. Because you can eat less, you can reduce the number of trips to the bathroom where it’s easy to let your guard down, which can be fatal.

The only flaw it has is that it tastes bad.

“Still, I’m already level 32, huh. My stats have risen quite a bit too, now I understand why Allen doesn't recommend the level-up trap.” (Nick)

“Well, only when you're at a low level though. Once you reach a certain level, you won't be able to do something like this. Also, your stats have increased drastically today, so you might not be able to use the right amount of force, be careful.” (Allen)

“Really?” (Nick)

Allen nodded with a solemn look on his face as he heard Nick's words. His nod was accompanied by a sense of reality, as his experience of failing repeatedly due to not being able to use the right amount of force was fresh in his memory. At that reply, Nick scratched his head while looking a little troubled.

“Carpentry is a service business after all. Even if I want to check it out beforehand, I'll have to wait until I get home... Aah, there’s some good stuff around, isn’t there?” (Nick)

Tossing the remaining portable food into his mouth, Nick stood up and started walking while Allen followed him with his gaze. Nick stopped right in front of the treant he had cut down earlier. Nick tapped its trunk with his fist and smiled in satisfaction.

“It’s like I heard, after you defeat it, it really loses all its moisture. I won’t have a problem with this guy. Allen, I'm going to practice adjusting my strength on this guy, so give me about an hour.” (Nick)

“Roger.” (Allen)

When Nick took out the carpentry tools from the backpack he was carrying, Allen thought in his mind, ‘are you for real?’, but he didn’t say it out loud. Because he remembered that he actually told him what to bring, but he didn't say he couldn't bring anything else.

This was because Allen assumed that he wouldn't bring anything they didn't need for exploration, ‘Without realizing it, my standard sure has become adventurer's one,’ Allen keenly realized

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Nick was concentrating on carpentry work, so Allen has had some free time. The only monster that appears on this 9th floor is treant, and no other monsters exist. Treant is a monster that doesn't move, so if you stay where you are, this floor can be said to have very little danger.

Well, there is a possibility that troubles related to other adventurers may occur, but that is the same on any floor.

Allen watched Nick work while sitting in a log chair made from the cut off end of a treant trunk. At first, he seemed to be a little perplexed by the difference in his senses, but Allen noticed that he had already corrected his movements to be no different to the one he had seen before, or rather, his movement had already become better than that.

The peaceful time passes, with only the sound of Nick's work being heard. Perhaps, that's exactly why.

(Sound of fighting?) (Allen)

Allen's ears picked up the faint sounds of battle. That in itself is not strange. Even on the unpopular 9th floor, there might be adventurers who, like Allen, were helping someone raise their level, and there might be others who were taking advantage of the fact that there were few people around to train.

However, what bothered Allen was not the fact that he heard the sounds of battle.

(Long. Are they struggling?) (Allen)

What bothered Allen was the duration of that battle. It's already been about 30 minutes since he started hearing the sound. Allen couldn't imagine that a battle against a treant would go on for such a long time.

Judging from the continuous irregular sounds, it was clear that the battle was continuing normally, and it wasn't just that they were taking a long time cutting it down.

(If they’re having a hard time, they could just run away, do they have some circumstances? No, maybe it's a unique monster!?) (Allen)

Treant is a stationary monster. Even if one fell into danger, if they just get out of its attack range, they could safely escape. But the sound of battle is continuing. So there must be a good reason for this, that’s the only thing Allen could think of.

The unique monsters that came up in Allen’s mind are monsters that are not supposed to be on that floor, or monsters that have unique strengths even if they are of the same type.

Allen had never heard of a unique monster appearing on this 9th floor, but considering the current situation, he judged that it was not impossible.

Looking at Nick who was continuing to process the treant, Allen reconfirmed his surroundings, then quietly stood up.

“My bad, I'm stepping out for a second. Definitely don't move from here until I get back.” (Allen)

“Bathroom?” (Nick)

“Something like that.” (Allen)

Without even looking at Allen, Nick waved lightly, and told him to go. Allen lightly waved back, and quietly moved away.

After confirming that he was far enough away, Allen increased his speed all at once. He kept running at such a speed that a treant he passed by couldn’t react, and he soon arrived at the scene.

What Allen saw there...

(That’s, was that Iseria?) (Allen)

Was the figure of the female adventurer he met when he cleared the Demon Dungeon as Nera.

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Level Down 17

Volume 1 Chapter 17 - Lilac Dungeon

RAW

A party of five adventurers came out of the Lilac Dungeon that Allen was about to enter, and at the head of the party was a man with the appearance of a veteran warrior, with many scars peeking out from his body. He was approaching the two with an unpleasant smirk on his face.

“Oi, what the hell did you...” (Nick)

“Calm down, Nick. He's still one of the best adventurers in Lilac.” (Allen)

Nick was about to argue against the provocative words, but Allen stopped him in a whisper. As expected, Allen’s words stopped Nick from speaking further.

That was because Nick also realized that a normal person would not be able to compete with a leveled up adventurer in terms of strength, and when it was one of the best in Lilac, just thinking about the possibility is foolish.

Allen took a step forward as if to protect Nick, a smile plastered on his face.

“Oh my gosh, aren’t you all from [Lionel], a rising star in the local area? Are you on your way back from the dungeon now?” (Allen)

“Yeah. We're not half-assed people after all, we're busy with a lot of things.” (Man)

All members of the adventurer's party [Lionel] burst into laughter as if agreeing with the man's words. Still with a smile plastered on his face, Allen watched, trying not to let his cold inner feelings leak out.

(It’s ironic how they’ve always been a rising star, never a true star.) (Allen)

While thinking about that, Allen ignored the boasts and belittling words of the man in front of him, Lionel, who named his party after himself.

Things like this often happened when Allen came to Lilac Dungeon when he was an adventurer, and he had already understood that there was no point in minding them.

That said, that's just Allen. Hearing a click of tongue from behind him, Allen sensed Nick's irritation and interrupted Lionel.

“My apologies, but we have plans as well, so please excuse us.” (Allen)

“Haa? Are you guys planning on diving into the dungeon? Brother, if you follow along that half-wit, you'll just die. Quit it, quit it.” (Lionel)

Lionel's comrades behind him also voiced their agreement one after another. Lionel felt better when he heard those voices and stood in a position to block Allen's path.

As expected, Allen's expression changed when he saw that, and he let out a big sigh, thinking it’ll be troublesome.

“Oi, you don't have the authority to restrict the right to enter the dungeon.” (Allen)

“I'm just trying to save someone who is about to waste his life.” (Lionel)

“Haa─, enough. I was the stupid one for trying to be polite to settle this quietly. Let's go, Nick.” (Allen)

“O-ou.” (Nick)

Allen glanced at Nick who was behind him, then started walking toward the dungeon while avoiding Lionel. And then Nick followed after him.

“Didn’t I say that it's forbidden to pass through here?” (Lionel)

Lionel's big hard fist swung towards Allen's abdomen. It was so fast that ordinary people couldn't see it, and even if he wasn't serious, it was clear that it contained more than enough power to cause injury.

The adventurers surrounding them at a distance thought that Allen would be blown away just like they had seen before, but...

Smack!

Such a sound rang out even though Allen did not make the slightest move.

“The Guild tolerates a fight between adventurers, but if it’s against a civilian, if you’re unlucky, you'll have your qualification revoked. I'm currently a civilian guild employee, but Lionel, have you forgotten about that?” (Allen)

As he said that, Allen tried to grab the fist with one hand, but he was unable to do so as Lionel immediately pulled his fist back.

“You damn coward misusing power.” (Lionel)

As Lionel left behind those parting threats, he left the dungeon, Allen saw him off, thinking ‘look who's talking,’ as he let out another sigh.

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Allen and Nick smoothly went through the procedure and paid the 5,000 zenny entrance fee at the Guild cabin in front of the dungeon, and immediately entered the Lilac Dungeon as if the trouble earlier didn’t happen.

While looking at the faces of new adventurers wearing beginner's equipment, who seemed to be returning from the depth immediately after entering, the two slipped past them.

“Aa─h, I knew there would be a lot of people.” (Allen)

“It is?” (Nick)

“Yeah. Well, it's a popular dungeon after all.” (Allen)

In addition to what was reflected in his line of sight, Allen's ears also picked up the sound of someone fighting something. And not just in one place, but in multiple places. The two left the city at 6 a.m., right when the gates opened, so it was still morning. However, the fact that there’s this many adventurers fighting even at this time showed the popularity of this dungeon.

That said, that too, was within Allen's expectations. He did think it would be troublesome if he got involved with something like earlier, but he also thinks it can't be helped.

“Then, let's quickly move on to our destination.” (Allen)

“Ou.” (Nick)

Allen guided Nick through the vast expanse of grassland, choosing an unpopular direction. All while avoiding traps and defeating monsters they encountered on the way.

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About an hour and a half later, the two reached their destination; the 9th floor of the Lilac Dungeon. With Allen's current full speed, it would be possible to get there faster, but this time Nick was with him, so he chose a route that would avoid meeting other adventurers, and as a result, they had to take somewhat a detour.

That said, from a beginner adventurer’s point of view, reaching the 9th floor in an hour and a half is fast enough. There’s probably not that many adventurers would be able to accomplish that while safely bringing an amateur who is not an adventurer.

Not showing any signs of being particularly tired, ‘Fuu’ Allen let out just a single deep breath to steady his breathing, and shook his head from side to side, surveying the sight spread out before him. There were no adventurers in sight, nor any sounds of fighting he could hear.

“As expected, this is an unpopular floor.” (Allen)

“Haa, haa. Is that so? Let me take a break.” (Nick)

Allen smiled wryly as he looked at Nick, who lowered his hips to the ground with a thump. On the way, even when he asked him if they should interpose some breaks, Nick said, “No problem,” but from Allen's point of view, it was clear that he was overdoing it. If it really was really bad, Allen intended to force him to take a break, but seeing him pushing through stubbornness until the end made Allen think, ‘He sure hasn’t changed.’

Allen watched the surroundings while waiting for Nick to recover. He didn’t feel any danger, but he knew that a dungeon is a place where you don't know what's going to happen.

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The environment of Lilac Dungeon changes every five floors, and the monsters that appear also change accordingly.

1st to 5th floor are grassland fields, containing goblins that also appear in the Demon Dungeon, one-horned rabbits with a single horn on its head that is convenient as edible meat, and elt snakes whose liver can be used as an antidote. Most who hunt them are new adventurers who are raising their level and earning money by converting the materials into cash to make ends meet.

One-horned rabbits and elt snakes can be defeated even by low-level adventurers, and there is a reasonable demand for them, so if you fight seriously here, you can make enough money to get by. In fact, when Allen was just starting out as an adventurer, he also hunted them to provide for his younger brothers and sisters.

The next floors, 6th to 10th, are forest fields. By this point, most of the completely new adventurers have disappeared. That was because, unlike the grassland field, the danger level of the monsters that appear, such as ash wolves who have gray fur and paraspiders that attack from above with paralyzing poison, jumps up to the level where you can die if you are not careful.

Of course, there are times when newcomers get carried away and come here, but these people usually suffer severe losses and retire from being adventurers. Of course, there are some exceptions.

This forest field has increased difficulty, but here you can collect medicinal herbs and wild fruits that are ingredients for magical medicines called potions that heal wounds, and even the dangerous ash wolves are in demand for coats and the likes, and even other monsters, you can obtain some kind of useful material from most of them. Moreover, since the risk is high, the selling price will also be high.

Therefore, adventurers who have reached a certain level and have the minimum equipment come to this forest field to raise their level again and earn money to sort their equipment. All in order to advance to a new field from the 11th floor, which has a different rank.

Although the forest field has such various demands, there is an exception. That is the 9th floor that Allen and Nick are currently on.

On this floor, the monsters that have been appearing in the forest field disappear. In its place, a new monster appears. And that monster is the reason why this floor is unpopular. That monster is...

“Oh, there it is. So, Nick, if I say ‘it’s fine now’, you start attacking.” (Allen)

“Leave it to me.” (Nick)

As Allen was walking in the forest, he spotted the monster ahead of him and started running. As Allen ran at the same level of speed as the old Allen towards a tree towering ahead of him, the tree suddenly started swinging its large branches in an attempt to crush Allen.

The name of the monster is treant. It is a monster that mimics a large tree.

There are several reasons why treants are unpopular with adventurers. They are large trees, so trying to bring them down will put a considerable strain on your weapon; they are tough; and since they mimic trees, they can also hit you with surprise attacks; and their attack of swinging their branches is heavy; the reasons are multitude. Well, the biggest reason they are hated is a different one though.

However, as for why Allen chose this floor...

“Shh!” (Treant)

Allen dodged the branch, exhaled and jumped up, then cut the treant’s branch in two from the base. Grinning a little at the fact that the sword he prototyped was able to cut more than he expected, Allen chopped off branch after branch of the treant, until the treant lost all its branches.

“Okay, it’s fine now.” (Allen)

At Allen's signal, Nick approached the treant while firing himself up. If Nick, a civilian who has not even leveled up, takes an attack from a treant, there is a very high possibility that he will die. Despite such a dangerous circumstance, without any wariness, Allen made no attempt to stop Nick as he approached.

Nick approached the treant and widely swung the axe in his hand.

“Heave-ho.” (Nick)

‘Ko─n,’ that satisfying sound echoed around the area. The blade of the axe was firmly embedded in the trunk of the treant. But the treant’s only reaction to this was to move its own trunk and roots slightly.

The axe swung down towards the treant again and again at a good tempo. After a while, the treant fell to the ground with a loud thud.

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Level Down 16

Volume 1 Chapter 16 - Relationship with Nick

RAW

The orphanage was more severely damaged than it appeared, and its restoration could not be completed in one day, and it took three days for the work to be completed, with Allen going out to buy additional materials that were in short supply. The place that was obviously leaking just from the appearance had completely changed, and although it couldn't be called splendid, it regained enough sturdiness for living.

“Truly, thank you very much. Come on, everyone too.” (Director)

“““Thank you very much!!””” (Children)

After the work was completed, the Director faced Allen and Nick and told them that, and following him, the children of the orphanage loudly expressed their gratitude. Seeing that, Nick’s face turned red and he turned away, while Allen returned a smile, overlapping the images of the children with the image of his own younger siblings.

Judging from the previously damaged state of the orphanage, it was clear that the orphanage was by no means wealthy. However, the children were not overly thin, and their eyes sparkled with joy. It made Allen feel that the teachings of the previous director had been inherited.

Allen bent his knees, matched his gaze with the children, and gave them a smile.

“If you ever want another toy, tell that uncle. He lives in the neighborhood, so I'm sure you'll see him around.” (Allen)

“““Un!””” (Children)

“You idiot! What the hell are you talking about? They aren’t fancy stuff like toys. They're just scraps of material.” (Nick)

“No, they’re fine toys, with the corners carefully shaved to prevent children from getting hurt, and made in various shapes. Or rather, you don't deny making them, I see.” (Allen)

“A─h, geez, I don't care anymore. I'm going.” (Nick)

Saying that, Nick turned his back to Allen who looked at him as if saying ‘he’s hopeless’, and continued speaking to the children who were tilting their heads at the two’s interaction.

“He said he'd make those blocks.” (Allen)

The children cheered at these words. The blocks the children were holding in their hands were blocks that Nick had started making while killing time because he felt it was a waste to have scraps of material. Allen also helped out, but for something to kill time, it was comparatively demanding, there was no doubt that the toys were masterpieces of his skill as a carpenter.

* (T/N: I think ‘masterpieces’ is an exaggeration, but I don’t know any other fitting word.)

Because they were made in a variety of shapes so that both big and small children could play with them, what’s more, the corners and surfaces were carefully smoothed.

After saying goodbye, Allen approached Nick, who was walking rapidly. Then Allen tapped Nick on the shoulder, and Nick glared at Allen.

“You, you better fix that meddling personality of yours.” (Nick)

“No, if you honestly say how you feel, I won't need to meddle. Or rather, even that time when you said you wanted to tell your wife that you love her...” (Allen)

“Idiot, that has nothing to do with it!” (Nick)

Nick hurriedly covered Allen's mouth when he tried to blurt out something unnecessary. Nick and his wife are now a close couple, but the process from their meeting to his confession was nothing but a source of embarrassment to Nick.

And Allen knows that too. After all, he was a little involved with it. Or rather, he was just meddling.

“More importantly, leveling up is amazing after all, I felt it for real this time. If you can gain that much physical strength, I get why the level-up trap becomes popular.” (Nick)

“I guess so. For me, I think it's easy to level up to some extent if you're at a low level, so I think it's a waste to use level-up traps at the start.” (Allen)

“But I’ll be fighting monsters, you know. Just thinking about the worst case scenario would make normal guys shrink.” (Nick)

Even as he smiled wryly at Nick's sudden change of topic, Allen replied. In fact, Allen knew that Nick had a point. Because he had almost died more than once or twice after becoming an adventurer.

In Allen's case, he was young and had no contacts, connections, or skills, so no one would hire him, so he had no choice but to become an adventurer to provide for his younger siblings. And that's not a particularly rare reason. Among adventurers, there are many who suffer from poverty and become adventurers as a result.

They can be said to be adventurers who make money by using their own lives as chips.

“Well, depending on the monster, it's possible to raise your level to a certain extent. Of course, you'll need someone to guide you for safety.” (Allen)

“The money needed to get that someone is... hm? Come to think of it, Allen. Didn’t you say that the amount you paid this time was too small, so you wanted to pay it back in some other way?” (Nick)

“I did. The scale was larger than I expected too, I didn't expect it to take three days. It can’t be...” (Allen)

Allen had a bad feeling and looked at Nick’s face. As if to prove that his bad feeling was correct, Nick had a grin on his face. And it's made perfect by Nick's next words.

“Alright, help me raise my level.” (Nick)

“Geh! Like I said, I'm a guild employee and not an adventurer anymore.” (Allen)

“There’s a thing called ‘skill learned in one's old days’. Besides, I’m not planning to go that far into danger. I have a family after all. So I don't mind if it’s just within the range where you can keep me safe, Allen.” (Nick)

Nick repeatedly gave Allen a hearty pat on the shoulder, and Allen smiled wryly at that, sensing that he's trying not only to raise his level, but also being considerate so that Allen won’t have to spend money to return the favor.

“Alright, I got it. But only on my day off and when it's convenient for me.” (Allen)

“Sure. I'm looking forward to it. See you, Allen.” (Nick)

“Give my regards to your wife and daughter.” (Allen)

“...I won’t hand over my daughter.” (Nick)

“Are you an idiot?” (Allen)

After exchanging such words, Allen parted ways with Nick as he turned down the road to return to his own home, and Allen proceeded to the Adventurers' Guild to report the completion of the request.

All while thinking about which dungeon and where in it should he level up Nick efficiently and safely.

.

.

.

One of the reasons why Lilac City is so prosperous is that there are four dungeons around it. To the north is the Slime Dungeon where Allen usually works as a guild employee, and to the west is the Demon Dungeon that he was conquering as Nera until recently.

That said, these two dungeons did not have much to do with Lilac's prosperity. Things seem to be a little different now though.

“Seems like you’re ready. Then let's go.” (Allen)

“Sure.” (Nick)

The dungeon to the south that Allen is currently heading to, accompanied by Nick wearing the beginner's equipment Allen prepared, is the dungeon that has the most positive influence on Lilac out of the four dungeons.

It attracts many adventurers, and the monster materials produced there become the backbone of Lilac's industry, and the products made are traded at high prices. It is the source of such a virtuous cycle.

This was evidenced by the fact that when Allen was an adventurer, when he went to dungeons alone, he mainly went to the Demon Dungeon, but when he was in a temporary party, he almost always went into this dungeon.

“It's been a while. Since I went into the Lilac Dungeon.” (Allen)

Allen was looking at the entrance to the dungeon that gave the city its name from the story that was passed down about how the founder conquered this dungeon and became the feudal lord that managed this Lilac City with deep emotion when it happened.

“What’s this, if it isn’t the half-baked leftover picking Allen? What's the loser who ran away from being an adventurer coming here for?” (???)

The one who called out to the two of them with such a scorn was,

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Level Down 15

Volume 1 Chapter 15 - Start of the Restoration of the Orphanage

RAW

“Yo, Allen. Can we get right to work?” (Man)

“Wait, wait. I'll explain it to the director in a bit. Or rather, introduce yourself. You're more or less the boss this time, you know.” (Allen)

“Uhee, what a bother.” (Man)

The one who familiarly called out to Allen was a man about the same age as Allen, with short red hair and a well-built physique, and Allen frowned at his blunt response. Then, slightly scratching his nose in embarrassment, he faced the director and began to introduce himself.

“I’m Nick.” (Nick)

“Haa?” (Director)

Nick's introduction, which began abruptly and ended instantly, left the director asking: ‘So?’ and a question mark appeared above his head. Seeing the situation, Allen roughly scratched his head, and began to add.

“You, you really are an idiot. There are other things to talk about, right? Like you’re a carpenter who belongs to the Brandt Workshop, or that time when you collapsed from hunger when the previous director...” (Allen)

“Shut up! A real craftsman knows when to zip it. Less talk, more work, got it?” (Nick)

Nick, blushing a little, kicked Allen's leg. Judging by the pretty good sound it made, it was clear that Nick was half-serious when he kicked him, but Allen's expression didn't change in the slightest. On the contrary, Nick was the one who grimaced.

Allen decided to leave Nick, who became somewhat sulky, alone, and resumed adding the explanation to the director.

“Umm, well, they're professional carpenters. This time, I called them here with the intention of having them repair the building. The damage to the orphanage is pretty bad after all.” (Allen)

“I would be very grateful for that, but unfortunately the money is...” (Director)

The director spoke ambiguously, as if finding it hard to say, but Allen nodded with a smile on his face, as if he understood.

“Of course, I'm not going to have the orphanage pay for it. I'm going to pay it out of my own money, and the request fee is extremely low, so there's no need to worry about it. All of these guys, including me, are indebted to the orphanage, or rather to the previous director after all.” (Allen)

“That's... um, thank you very much.” (Director)

“Aah! Enough, enough with that. Allen, we’re going to get to work right away. Hey, you guys, stop laughing and get to work!” (Nick)

When the director bowed his head with tears in his eyes, Nick's face flushed even more, and the young craftsmen, who seemed to be younger than Nick, in their late teens to mid-twenties, laughed at the sight and left the place like scattering baby spiders at the sound of his angry voice. Despite being yelled at, their faces looked happy.

Nick, who had been bitterly watching this for a while, also began to move to confirm what he had to do, and Allen followed behind him.

.

.

.

“Here, is around here okay?” (Allen)

“Ou.” (Nick)

Allen easily lifted up a bulky squared timber that is longer than he is tall, placed it where Nick instructed him, and supported it as it is. Nick fine-tuned the square timber, worked its edges, and then quickly fixed it in place.

By the time it had finished fixing to a certain extent, Allen had already moved away from the area, and then, he brought a new timber and headed towards Nick who had also moved. The process, which had been repeated many times, was so smooth that it could be called A-un's breathing.

* (T/N: A-un's breathing - synchronized breathing.)

“Next is around here, right?” (Allen)

“Ou.” (Nick)

Inwardly, Nick was astonished that Allen was placing the timbers exactly where he wanted them even without any instruction. It’s one thing if he’s a fellow carpenter who’s regularly working, but Allen is an adventurer and should be nothing but an amateur when it comes to carpentry.

“Hey, Allen. Want to be a carpenter?” (Nick)

“No, what’s wrong all of a sudden? I'm a guild employee, you know.” (Allen)

“It’s because you... nah, forget it. Still, you're an idiot too, you know. Even though you've finished taking care of your younger siblings, now you're taking care of the orphanage.” (Nick)

Nick stopped mid-sentence, then changed the subject and laughed at Allen. Allen himself smiled wryly at those words.

Allen and Nick were close in age and lived close together, so they had often played together since they were little, they were childhood friends. Unlike Allen, Nick had parents, but there was no difference in the fact that they were living in poverty, so in that respect it could be said that they were in similar circumstances.

So Nick knew what kind of life Allen had lived. But so did Allen.

“No, you're the one who's the idiot. Even though you finally gained the ability to be independent, you went out of your way to stay behind and teach orphans and others skills under the guise of human resource development, and even arrange for them to find employment.” (Allen)

“Shut up! I'm just doing it because it's easier to stay on the bottom. I don't even have to greet anyone there anyway.” (Nick)

Nick’s face turned red and denied it when Allen pointed it out. However, it was obvious to Allen that this was not his true feelings. Seeing Allen grinning ill-naturedly at him, Nick clicked his tongue and scowled at him.

Despite having such a conversation, the two never stopped their work. When Allen was about to leave the area after confirming that it was quite fixed, Nick spoke to his back.

“Thank you for this time.” (Nick)

“Nn?” (Allen)

Allen turned around at the abrupt words of gratitude. There, he saw Nick scratching his head and looking away.

“I couldn't have done it alone. Even though I knew I should have done it, I put my family first. It's thanks to you, Allen, that I managed to repay the favor back to the orphanage.” (Nick)

Nick also lived nearby and had grasped the current situation at the orphanage to some extent. But Nick already had a loving wife and daughter. Nick is a skilled carpenter, so his income is not small, but this was still more than he could afford considering the cost of materials and labor.

Nick has been following the previous director’s teachings, trying to help people living in poverty with their livelihood even just a little bit, but this was still a concern.

Allen smiled back at Nick, who’s still averting his gaze and refuses to look at him.

“It's the other way around. Thanks to you and your friends who took on the contract just for the cost of materials, I was able to repay the favor. I'm the one who should say thank you.” (Allen)

In fact, the amount Allen paid Nick and the others was unbelievably low compared to the average carpentry market rate. Allen had only talked to Nick, and he didn't know the exact number of people who would be working on it, so he was surprised that nearly 10 people showed up.

Allen himself has done some home repairs, so he has some idea of the cost of materials. Considering that, it seemed that the amount Allen paid might not even be enough to cover the cost of materials if things didn’t go well.

That's why Allen was grateful. There was a little bit of gratitude in other ways, but most of it was about that.

“Aa─h, shut it! Hurry up and bring the materials. Time is limited.” (Nick)

“No, you’re the one who started it.” (Allen)

“Like I said, uh... enough already! You damn idiot!” (Nick)

Laughing at Nick's poor attempts at deception that’s like a child’s, Allen turned around and started walking to get the materials.

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Level Down 14

Volume 1 Chapter 14 - Repayment of Favor to the Orphanage

RAW

Allen let out a big breath as he returned home, his heart still beating loudly.

“Seriously?” (Allen)

When Allen unwrapped the luggage he was carrying, what came out was a single steel sword. It was of the same shape as the ones that were lined up in Dolban's workshop just a moment ago.

“I’ve actually done it. Even though it's my first time making a sword, even Shishou couldn't tell it apart, that’s really.” (Allen)

Allen stared at his hands and made an incredulous look. However, there is no doubt that the sword in his hand was the one made by Dolban, and the one that Allen made instead was among the swords that was to be delivered. Allen himself, being the one who had done it, was well aware of that.

Allen was able to make the sword exactly as he wanted, and the result was exactly like the one made by Dolban. However, Allen thought it was only because he was not a professional that he didn’t see a difference, and that it would be different if Dolban saw it.

But, however, Allen could not let go of the thought that ‘if I really made that, then’, so he secretly switched them. He knew that if it was found out, Dolban’s fist would definitely fall on him and he’d be scolded, but the thought won out over him.

“It's definitely because of my high stats right?” (Allen)

Allen continued to think while clenching and unclenching his hands. But Allen couldn't think of any other reason.

No, maybe he originally had the talent, and through his past experiences and seeing Dolban’s work this time, he had completely mastered it. Moreover, with such skill that not even Dolban could understand it.

Allen’s bitter smile deepened at that thought. The chance of that happening was zero. Dolban's skills are cultivated through his talent and experience. There is no way he could create the same thing with just talent.

The only reason he could think of for this was his overwhelming stats achieved through the level up and down traps.

“To think I can reproduce a movement just by seeing it, it's crazy even if I say it myself. Huh? If it’s like that, can I imitate other things too? Things like cooking or carpentry for home repair would be convenient. Alright, let's verify it while I’m at it.” (Allen)

Having made that decision, Allen took a bath to cleanse himself while thinking about what he should do for that, and then he went to bed. It didn't show on his face, but his fatigue had accumulated from working all night for two days, and a short while after Allen collapsed on his bed, his regular breathing could be heard.

.

.

.

After that, Allen continued his life as usual; escorting people to the Slime Dungeon for using the level-up trap, and on his days off, assisting Dolban with his smithing and stealing his skills. In addition, Allen took up one more job.

“Aren't you overdoing it? It doesn't have to be you, you know.” (Matilda)

“There are no stupid adventurers these days, so there’s no one doing it. Well, half of this is like repaying the favor. The previous director took good care of me, you see.” (Allen)

Matilda looked at him worriedly as she handed over the request form, and Allen laughed lightly in response as he checked the request form he received. Written there was a request for [voluntary service at the orphanage].

That request form was special. This was because what would have been written if it were a normal request was not written.

That was the reward amount.

Normally, when a request received through the Guild is completed, the adventurer is paid a corresponding reward. Of course, there is also income to be earned by cashing in on materials other than those requested, such as materials stripped from defeated monsters and medicinal herbs collected, but the first thing adventurers check is the reward amount.

Adventurers compare the amount of money they will certainly receive if they complete the request and decide whether it is reasonable or not. The reason they don't rely on those other sources of income is because the purchase of materials not requested is subject to large fluctuations.

Adventurers also have their livelihoods at stake. It may go against their name, but that’s probably natural.

There was no way this request for [voluntary service at the orphanage] that has no reward amount written on it was an ordinary request.

To put it bluntly, this request was meant as punishment for adventurers who receive bad evaluation for poor behavior in the Guild. Meals will be provided, but they will be monitored by the guild employee who will be dispatched with them, and what’s more, they will receive no reward. This is the final line for adventurers who are on the verge of being expelled from the guild if they do not complete the request seriously and raise their evaluation.

However, putting it the other way around, if there were no such adventurers, it would be a request that no one would be willing to accept.

Of course, the orphanage doesn't rely on such adventurers, even so, it was true that there were jobs that could be done with the help of adventurers who had leveled up and had high physical abilities. And since they accepted such misbehaving adventurers from the Guild, there was no way the Guild could just completely ignore them just because there were no misbehaving adventurers, that’s the situation.

It had been a topic of conversation within the Guild for some time, but it had been put on the back burner as the Adventurers' Guild itself became busy with the appearance of the level-up trap, and that’s when Allen volunteered to do it himself.

And since Allen is a former adventurer, he would be a good fit for the orphanage, they thought, so the matter progressed rapidly, and it was decided that Allen would be dispatched today.

Allen waved lightly at Matilda, who was looking at him worriedly, and left the guild, heading down the familiar road towards his house. This is because the orphanage is located just a short walk from Allen's house, just before the slums in the western district.

It’s not like it was in his path to the guild, so the route wasn't exactly the same, but the general direction was the same.

Allen went straight around the corner he would normally turn, and after a while, the orphanage he was heading for came into view.

The orphanage was originally attached to a church, so it was a fairly sturdy wooden building. However, after the church was relocated and only the orphanage remained, they could no longer afford to spend money on maintenance of the building. As a result, it was now in a rather dilapidated state.

As Allen got closer, he could clearly notice the emergency measures they took to pull through, such as the different colors of the roof boards and the rough cuts, and he secretly smiled at that sight.

(Well, I'm glad it's just as I remembered, but it's probably not a good thing from the orphanage's point of view, but it's convenient for me.) (Allen)

While thinking about that, Allen passed through the gate of the orphanage and knocked on its aged door. After a while, the director of the orphanage, a kind-looking man in his late 40s, came out.

After exchanging the standard greetings, Allen followed the man's guidance to a corner of the orphanage. Then, in front of a small stone standing in the corner of the garden where an offering of wild flowers that seemed to have been picked from the garden had been placed before it, he knelt down on one knee and bowed his head.

(It has been a while, Baa-chan. My younger brothers and sisters are independent now, and a lot of things have happened recently, but I finally have some free time. I really wish I could have returned the favor sooner.) (Allen)

Allen spoke in his heart to the person sleeping in the earth in front of him. Although there was a hint of regret in it, his expression was a very kind and gentle one.

The person Allen calls Baa-chan in his heart is the old woman who was the previous director of this orphanage. She was originally a sister of the church, and when the church was relocated and the church staff left for the new church, she was the only one who remained behind for the sake of the orphans, she was a really kind person.

That kindness extended not only to the orphans she was protecting, but also to the people living in the surrounding area and the residents of the slums, that included Allen's family. When she saw the young Allen patiently providing for his siblings, it weighed on her mind, so she kept telling him to rely on her if he had any troubles. And she, in fact, had actually helped Allen, and not just once or twice.

Above all, Allen was especially grateful that, thanks to her teachings and recommendations, one of his sisters was able to undergo training to become a sister at the church headquarters in the royal capital.

A while after Allen spoke to the previous director, he stood up.

“My bad. I took up so much time.” (Allen)

“No, I was also saved by the director after all.” (Director)

Allen abruptly laughed at the current director’s words. From those words, he felt the man in front of him felt that the former director was still the director. Feeling a sense of kinship with the director, Allen began to talk about his purpose today.

“I think it was explained in advance, but since there were no delinquent adventurers this time, a guild employee will be acting in their place.” (Allen)

“Yes. We apologize for the inconvenience to everyone in the Adventurers' Guild.” (Director)

“No, this is a give-and-take, so you don't have to worry about it. That said, there's only so much I can do by myself. That's why I called for backup.” (Allen)

“Backup?” (Director)

Smiling in response at the director who parroted him, Allen looked back to the entrance to the orphanage. There, nearly ten people were standing side by side.

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Level Down 13

Volume 1 Chapter 13 - Allen’s Premonition

RAW

Early the next morning, Allen visited Dolban's workshop again. The reason is of course...

“So you came.” (Dolban)

“Well, if you say that much, of course I’ll come. It's an important sword to me too anyway.” (Allen)

“I see. I won't hide anything from you, but I won't teach you either. Skills being stolen is something that's supposed to happen after all.” (Dolban)

“I know.” (Allen)

Yesterday, when Dolban unexpectedly suggested to Allen to repair the sword himself, he hesitated. Of course, he felt attachment to the sword that was his partner which he has been using for many years. However, Allen knew all too well how difficult it would be to repair it, thanks in part to his experience working as Dolban's assistant.

Seeing Allen like that, Dolban threw provocative words at him one after another. “Was that the extent of your feelings for your sword, Boy?” like that, “Even though you have the time and money, you’re not even going to try it? Even a disgrace of an adventurer would... No, you’re already a guild employee, aren’t you, Boy? My bad, my bad. Well, I guess you'd rather have stability than adventure,” or that.

Allen couldn't help but react to those words. In particular, the words “rather have stability over adventure” was unacceptable to Allen, who thought he had finally become able to go on an adventure. The result is this current situation.

“For now, I'll get things ready. Is there anything different from before?” (Allen)

“None, I guess.” (Dolban)

“Understood. Hmm, today is steel short swords huh. The number is... 50? Seriously? Who the hell ordered this?” (Allen)

Even as he grumbled and complained, Allen proceeded with the blacksmithing preparations. Seeing his unhesitating movement, ‘Hou’ Dolban let out a small but impressed sound at him. This was because the preparations Allen was making were not even the slightest bit different from what he wanted.

Back when Allen worked as his assistant, Dolban himself gave instructions and told Allen about what to do for the preparation. What was to be made, what material it would be made from, their numbers, and various other conditions changed what had to be prepared, and even the furnace to be used.

Allen's current unhesitating movement can only be due to him remembering the knowledge that had been instilled in him.

(I thought about it before, but Allen Boy might surprisingly have a talent for blacksmithing.)

With a grin on his face at that thought, Dolban watched Allen for a while, and then began to focus his mind for the blacksmithing that was about to begin.

.

.

.

A day and a half after the blacksmithing began, 50 beautiful short swords with a uniform shape, as if they had been pulled out of a mold, were lined up on the wall of the workshop. Precisely because they are simple work with no unnecessary ornamentation that Dolban’s skill as a blacksmith was clearly shown.

Also, the fact that he was able to complete this number in such a short time also shows the level of his skill. Because while processing metal becomes easier by channeling magic power while blacksmithing, maintaining it and achieving uniform quality is difficult even for skilled craftsmen

“I'm going to sleep. Do as you like, Boy. The leftover materials too.” (Dolban)

With sunken cheeks and wobbly head, Dolban finished his blacksmithing, told Allen that and left the workshop.

Allen was fully aware that this would happen to Dolban after he poured his whole energy into blacksmithing. That’s why, even though he didn't say it out loud, Allen was secretly surprised. That Dolban called out to him.

That had never happened before when Allen worked as his assistant. The only thing he could think of that could be conveyed from that fact was that Dolban was seriously trying to get Allen to repair his sword.

“I’m grateful.” (Allen)

Allen sniffled slightly. Allen was used to worrying about others and following up on them, but he didn’t have much experience of being cared for by someone. Dolban's kindness touched his heart.

“Now then, he told me I was free to do what I like, but...” (Allen)

Allen looked around the smithy again and started thinking. He had more than enough materials from the sword job.

That was because, for Dolban, this job wasn’t really difficult in terms of skill, only the number was big, so he didn't waste materials because of mistakes, and the portion that was prepared as a reserve was wholly left over.

If those were made into similar short swords, it would probably be possible to make about five. It should have been worth a reasonable amount of money if sold, but it was clear from Dolban's tone that he had no intention of doing so.

“There's no way Shishou would have prepared such a wasteful quantity, so he probably brought them on his own.” (Allen)

While making such speculation, Allen picked up a lump of steel in front of him. Its quality was not the highest, but it was quite high.

There are quite a few people who bring materials to Dolban's workshop. But the majority of them do so in order to reduce the production costs. However, Dolban is never satisfied with half-baked materials, so this plan rarely succeeds though.

‘However, in this particular case, they’re probably not trying to keep the price down’, Allen was convinced. Steel swords with the amount of 50, the emphasis on practical design, and above all, the high-quality materials, considering those, it is easy to predict what the purpose of bringing in the materials was.

Well, since Allen knew that the client written on the order form is the lord of this city, it might be obvious that the swords produced by Dolban are for the soldiers who protect the city, that is why they wanted the swords they ordered to be of high quality and uniform, so they brought in materials.

“Now then.” (Allen)

Allen placed the lump of steel down and, ‘fuu,’ let out a breath.

The environment for blacksmithing was ready. It would become somewhat noisy, but Allen knew that Dolban who was just finished wouldn't be woken up by that level, so he wouldn't need to be reserved. There were enough materials too.

“Let’s do it.” (Allen)

After saying only that, Allen started preparing for smithing. At the time Dolban gave him permission, Allen had already decided to try his hand at making a sword himself.

Of course it was also partly because practicing was necessary for his future goal of repairing his sword that was his partner, but the most important reason that made Allen decide that was something else.

Allen was doing as Dolban had told him to; he was seriously observing Dolban while helping with the work in order to steal his skill. Then, as he did, an idea was born within him, and it gradually grew bigger.

‘Huh? I feel like I can do that somehow.’ that idea.

Even though he had never made a genuine sword before, that idea gradually grew stronger. Now that Allen had looked at Dolban as he smith for 50 swords, he didn't feel like he was going to fail at all.

‘I want to ascertain that’. Allen, excited by that curiosity, with a lump of steel in one hand, headed towards the furnace. In his head, Allen had completely recreated Dolban's appearance just now.

.

.

.

The next morning.

“Shishou, I used the materials as I liked. Thank you. The food is already prepared over there. Ah, also, can I have you do a final check on the swords I made before I deliver them? I more or less did it, but it's been a while, so I'm a little worried.” (Allen)

“Hmm, check, you say? You sure are saying something grown-up.” (Dolban)

Dolvan frowned when Allen said that to him first thing after he woke up. Giving Dolban a wry smile as a response, Allen shrugged his shoulders.

“Even like this, I'm still a guild employee after all. The Guild is strict about things like that. Besides, the delivery destination is the delivery destination, isn’t it? There's a possibility that my younger brother will use this sword too, so of course I’ll be careful.” (Allen)

“You’re the same as ever. Well, if that's the case, it can’t be helped.” (Dolban)

Dolban got out of bed and headed to the workshop while rotating his shoulders to loosen his body. Looking around the workshop, the fire was put out and the tools were properly organized, and when Dolban noticed that the steel that was used to make the sword was missing where it should have been, he grinned.

Then, Dolban continued his steps and examined the neatly arranged swords one by one. His expression was so serious that all of his nerves were focused on the swords, and Dolban didn't notice that Allen was making a similar face behind him.

Dolban finished examining the last sword and returned them to their original place. Then he slowly turned to Allen.

“Allen, you...” (Dolban)

“...” (Allen)

Dolban stopped speaking and narrowed his eyes, piercing Allen with his sharp gaze. Although Allen tried to feign calmness so as not to reveal his inner thoughts, he was sweating profusely in his mind.

Then, just before Allen's facial muscles reached their limits, Dolban grinned widely.

“You should leave your brother be. They’re swords I made. There’s no way there’d be any problems.” (Dolban)

“I know, right. It's Shishou’s work after all. But as an older brother, my younger brother will always be my younger brother. Well, I'm going to go home and sleep. I’ve got work in the evening anyway.” (Allen)

Allen scratched his head as Dolban slapped him on the back, then he put his luggage on his back, turned his body around, and waved as he left the workshop. On his face, which was no longer visible from Dolban, was an indescribable expression that was the result of a mixture of many emotions, including surprise and happiness.

────

(T/N: this chapter is kinda confusing, but only when I translated it, when I edited it, it didn’t seem as confusing.)

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Level Down 12

Volume 1 Chapter 12 - A Man Called Dolban

RAW

Allen, who had worked as a servant for Dolban for a while, knew what the current situation in the workshop was. Yesterday, on his way home after receiving money as Nera, he glanced at the situation and judged that he would be able to talk to him today, so he resolved himself and came.

Dolban's blacksmithing method is special; once he starts, he won’t rest at all until it's completed. Without even eating or drinking water, he just continuously and single-mindedly pours everything into his blacksmithing. No matter how many times Allen fell down as he went along with him, his style never changed.

After the production is finished, he goes to sleep like a dead person, and only the next day when he wakes up could one talk to Dolban.

The day after that, he starts a new blacksmith job, so if he missed today, he wouldn't know when the next one would be, Allen knew this very well from experience.

In front of the door, Allen let out a deep breath and prepared himself. Without knocking or calling out, he put his hand on the doorknob, opened it, and stepped inside.

At that moment, a strong smell of alcohol wafted through the air, as if a barrel of liquor had been overturned, Allen couldn't help but grimace at that and turned his attention to its source.

Countless empty bottles were lying on the desk and sofa that were supposed to be used for reception. To the dwarf in the center of them who was wholeheartedly eating and gulping down alcohol.

“Shishou, it’s been a while.” (Allen)

“Oh, if it isn’t Allen boy. It's not like it's been that long. Didn’t you do some maintenance some two years ago?” (Dolban)

“To the human senses, even two years is quite a long time.” (Allen)

“Ha, ha, ha. Guess, that’s my bad.” (Dolban)

The dwarf, Dolban, laughed cheerfully at Allen's words. His appearance had not changed at all from the one Allen saw two years ago. No, even compared to ten years ago when he first had a sword made, he had hardly changed at all. Of course his clothes and the like had changed, but Allen couldn't detect any physical changes.

It's not because Allen had bad eyes. This was because dwarves, Dorban's race, are a so-called long-lived species.

Basically, humans have a lifespan of around 60 years. Even if one lives a long time, the normal limit is around 100 years old. However, dwarves live to be around 500 years old on average, and some lived to be over 1000 years old.

Two years is no different for humans than it is for dwarves. However, the way they see it is completely different, as evidenced by the fact that Dolban still treats the 29-year-old Allen like a boy.

“So, you need something?” (Dolban)

“Aa─h, well, yeah. Before that, this is a drink that Shishou likes.” (Allen)

While slurring his words, Allen placed on the desk a bottle of liquor that he had gone out of his way to take a detour to buy before coming here. The next moment, Dolban grabbed it as if to snatch it away, forcibly pulled out the cork that would normally require a special tool to be opened, and gulped it down.

Allen watched with an indescribable look on his face as the high-class liquor worth half a month's salary of a guild employee disappeared in the blink of an eye. After drinking it all, ‘Puha─’ Dolban said deliciously and he let out a breath that smelled like alcohol.

“So, what did you do?” (Dolban)

“No, what are you talking about...” (Allen)

“For the money-hungry Allen boy to go so far as to buy such high-class alcohol to please me, you have a reason that’s as important, right?” (Dolban)

Allen could not continue to speak as he heard those words filled with such conviction. Because he can only say that he is exactly right.

Allen's plan was to please him with some high-class liquor, make small talk while tidying up the room, and naturally turn the conversation to his sword, then tell him that he had broken his sword and apologize with his whole heart. That plan fell apart right from the start.

Allen was hesitant for a while, but he quickly made up his mind. Or rather, he knew that if he didn't hurry, Dolban would be in a bad mood.

“I broke Shishou’s sword. I'm really sorry.” (Allen)

Allen pulled out the sword that was hanging from his waist, complete with its sheath, and held it out to Dolban. Dolban, who took it with a furrowed brow, slowly pulled out the sword and ran his eyes over its broken blade. Allen waited, watching him in an upright position.

Only a few minutes passed, though it felt like a very long time for Allen, before Dorban slowly turned his gaze to Allen. Feeling his sharp gaze, Allen gulped.

“You, how did this break?” (Dolban)

“Eh?” (Allen)

Allen, who had expected to be reprimanded, let out a stupid voice.

Before, when Allen was working for Dolban as a servant, he saw Dolban beat up an adventurer who had broken his sword in the same way. The adventurer who was beaten up was a much higher-ranking adventurer than Allen, but he was unable to even fight back and was thrown out of the store like a rag.

That image was so strong that, while Allen could hear Dolban's question, he couldn't comprehend it right away.

“I was the one who taught you how to take care of your sword, Boy. I know when I saw it two years ago that you were taking good care of it on a daily basis, and you also didn’t handle the sword poorly. Even now, when I look at this broken sword, I know that nothing has changed.” (Dolban)

“...” (Allen)

“There shouldn't have been any problems with the sword’s durability. It's more than enough for you who knows your stuff, Boy.” (Dolban)

Hearing Dolban's words, Allen fell silent, unable to even utter a word. Because Allen himself knew that Dolban's words were absolutely correct.

Before Allen used the level-up and level-down traps to raise his level, the only monsters he was fighting were ones that could not even be described as strong even as flattery. This was because he thoroughly avoided risks and prioritized his safety in order to make a living.

Dolban was well aware of this, he felt that there was no sign that the blade had been smashed by cutting into something hard, far from it, the sword had broken even though there was no sign that it had been used to cut anything after it was maintained. There was no way he wouldn't feel something out of place at that.

“Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve heard that you became a guild employee, Boy, but, it can’t be...” (Dolban)

Seeing Dolban stop his word, Allen resolved himself. Allen wants to keep people from knowing that he has become stronger as much as possible. However, if his benefactor Dolban realized Allen's strength, he thought it ungrateful for him to cover it up.

Well, he had calculated that if it was Dolban, he would keep quiet if he asked him to.

“Shishou, actually, I...” (Allen)

“You increased your level with the level-up trap in the Slime Dungeon that was discovered the other day, didn’t you?” (Dolban)

Allen's eyes widened at Dolban's words that he said with a knowing look on his face, and his expression gradually changed into an indescribable one.

“Aah...” (Allen)

“Come to think of it, I’ve also heard that the person who found the trap was an employee who was a former adventurer, I guess you reported it after raising your level to the maximum huh, Boy. You probably got carried away by the hugely improved stats and swung your sword around until you started swinging in a weird way.” (Dolban)

“...It’s as you say.” (Allen)

“You stupid idiot!” (Dolban)

If he left out the fact that he used the level-down trap and that the increased stats was higher than expected, Dolban's prediction was almost correct, so after thinking for a while, Allen nodded his head in affirmation.

Immediately after that, Dolban's fist fell on Allen's head. Allen crouched down, holding his head as the pain brought tears to his eyes, even though his increased stats should have made him more resistant to pain.

As Dolban looked down at Allen, he flapped his hand.

“You got a stone head before I knew it.” (Dolban)

“Hmm, did you say something?” (Allen)

“Nothing! But because of that, I can't repair it. In the first place, it was broken at the base, so even if I repair it, it won't keep its strength. It would be faster to remake it from scratch.” (Dolban)

Dolban yelled back at Allen who responded to his small murmur. Then, as he returned the sword he was holding to Allen, he informed Allen of his judgment as a first-class blacksmith, that the sword could not be repaired.

Allen's expression contorted at these words.

“If it’s money...” (Allen)

“That's not the problem, you know it already, don’t you, Boy?” (Dolban)

“I guess so.” (Allen)

When Allen tried to push back again, Dolban firmly denied it. As a blacksmith, what Dolban is looking for is not money. It is the quality of the weapon. There was no way that Dolban would produce a defective weapon.

Dolban stared intently at Allen, who was plain depressed. And then, his mouth quickly loosened into a grin.

“I won't repair it. But if you really want to...” (Dolban)

“You’ll do it?” (Allen)

“Like I said, I won't do it. If you really want to repair it, try doing it yourself. You have enough money anyway, and since you're a guild employee, you should have the time, right?” (Dolban)

Allen looked back at him with his mouth wide-open at the sudden suggestion, and Dolban burst into laughter as he grabbed a bottle of alcohol on the desk and began drinking it in a good mood.

────

(T/N: I thought about just using ‘shishou’ for ‘master’, because ‘master’ can also be ‘goshujin-sama’ or plain ‘master’ in katakana. In the end, I did use ‘shishou’ instead of ‘master’)

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Level Down 11

Volume 1 Chapter 11 - Benefactor Blacksmith Dolban

RAW

Allen had conquered the Demon Dungeon alone, but he had a problem. That was...

“What do I do with these?” (Allen)

What Allen was troubled with was the 600 gold coins worth 6 million zenny on the table in his living room, these were the proceeds from selling the ogre king's magic stone and horn that he received from the Guild as Nera last night.

By the way, this was the amount for one time, so, having conquered it five times, Allen will have five times this amount, in other words, he will gather about 3,000 gold coins on hand.

It's possible that the number will be lower because it won’t necessarily sell at the same price, but there's no doubt that it will be a lot of money.

By the way, Allen's annual earnings during his time as an adventurer were around 3 million zenny. A guild employee’s salary is currently exactly 3 million zenny, so his income hasn't changed much from his adventurers’ days.

In other words, Allen had earned the equivalent of 10 years worth in just one month.

‘Having money is a good thing’ Allen thought. It's only natural since Allen himself has struggled a lot to raise his younger siblings. But when he suddenly had a lot of money, Allen had no idea what to do with it.

This money was earned as Nera, so if Allen used it ostentatiously, those around him would become suspicious of him. Allen himself would like to go on adventures with his increased stats, but he has no desire to live a life where he is trapped in troubles and fetters due to becoming famous. In fact, it’s because he didn't like that that he’s hiding himself.

“There’s also a problem with how to store it, but first...” (Allen)

Allen glanced toward the corner of the room. Laying there was Allen's partner, the sword that he had shared joy and suffering with for many years, quietly placed in its sheath. Of course, its blade was still broken from the practice swing he did in the Slime Dungeon.

Allen slowly approached the sword and lifted it into his arms as if holding a baby. The sheath had been used so much that there were thin scratches all over it, each one a trace of Allen's life so far.

“I've got to fix this guy. I've just gotten some money anyway.” (Allen)

Allen furrowed his brows in trouble as he said that. It is no exaggeration to say that he has no plans to use this sword as he will be going on adventures as Nera. However, the choice of not repairing his sword doesn’t exist for Allen. That’s how important this sword is.

However, the reason he has been putting off repairs until now while making excuses like he doesn't have enough money is...

“Oyassan. He’s going to get mad.” (Allen)

He just didn't want to get scolded by the craftsman who made his sword, that's all.

.

.

.

Allen mulled it over for a while, but in the end he decided to resolve himself and take a short detour before heading to the workshop of a blacksmith he knew. However, his steps were not light. In fact, as he approached his destination, they became noticeably slower.

However, he did not stop, and after some time Allen arrived at his destination workshop.

“It's been a while since I came here. About two years, I guess.” (Allen)

The eastern district of Lilac City. This is the district where many so-called craftsmen live. Blacksmiths, pharmacists, seamstresses, and other craftsmen compete every day and improve their skills here. This is because this city, with four dungeons surrounding it, is a treasure trove of materials, and since many adventurers venture into the dungeons, there is a high demand for weapons, armor, and medicines.

However, not many people live in this eastern district for long. Although there are a good number of craftsmen, many of them are apprentices, and once these apprentices reach a certain level of skill, they move to another city.

This is because even if their skills are sufficient in other cities, they are treated as half-baked by this city's standards. On top of that, many of them have their ambition crushed by the work of craftsmen at a far higher level than they can actually see.

As a result, the only people left are skilled craftsmen who were born into the industry and promising people who greedily aim for the top.

The blacksmith workshop in front of Allen was relatively new among them. Although it was new, it had been here for 50 years, and the same person had been smithing here since then, so there was no doubt as to its competence.

Allen looked at the light brown brick workshop that still didn't make a sound even though the surrounding workshops were working, and smiled wryly.

(It sure hasn’t changed) (Allen)

While holding those impressions in mind, Allen slowly walked towards the workshop.

While many workshops are partly stores, Allen knew very well that his destination workshop is almost entirely a blacksmith workshop, with only one room just inside the entrance as a living space.

Allen stood in front of the entrance door and looked at the sign posted there with a wry smile. It hadn't changed at all since 10 years ago when Allen had his sword made.

[Dolban’s Workshop]

A simple signboard with only the owner's name on it. If that's all there is to it, there are other workshops that are similar. What made Allen smile wryly was the sentence posted next to it.

[If you have any business, just get in and wait.]

It was as if that sentence indicated an unwillingness to accommodate the customer's convenience. Moreover, Allen is well aware that this is not a metaphor.

In the past, Allen, who had no money at all, had to go to the store many times to ask for a sword to be made, and after being worked hard as a blacksmith's helper, or rather, servant, he finally received a sword, and that was the one he was planning to request for repair.

.

.

.

Allen was 19 years old at the time. He was just starting to gain weight as an adventurer, and he happened to be blessed with good fortune and was able to work as a support role for high-ranking adventurers, so he had gotten some leeway if he just lived a normal life.

But that too, didn't last long. Those high-ranking adventurers disappeared, and at the same time, a situation occurred in which he needed money.

Even though he needed money, it wasn’t because of anything bad. Eric, the second son of a family of three boys and two girls, led by the eldest son, Allen, was recommended for the recruitment examination to become a soldier in this Lilac City.

Soldiers are usually chosen from people of solid background, so although they have citizenship, it would normally be impossible for people like Allen’s family, who live near the slums and have no parents, to be approached.

At that time, they happened to be recruiting a lot of soldiers, and the recommendation quota was so wide that Eric barely got one. Putting it the other way around, that was an opportunity that, if they let it pass, it would never come again.

Allen noticed Eric's talent with the sword when he attended a swordsmanship dojo with the dream of becoming an adventurer like Allen.

Excellent memory that can absorb his instructor’s teachings like a sponge, sharp intuition that allows him to react to unexpected attacks. The sight of Eric overtaking his seniors and steadily improving his skills, he was so good that you could even call him a true heaven-sent child of the sword.

However, no matter how talented he was, the only path ahead of him was that of an adventurer, which is fraught with the danger of death. Allen didn't want his precious younger brother Eric to go down that path.

That is why Allen jumped at that story. Being a soldier is by no means a safe job either, but compared to adventurers in terms of mortality rates, it is a world of difference.

That is because, if soldiers get injured, they will be treated, and what's more, compared to adventurers whose income tends to be unstable, soldiers are paid a salary, so their stability is different.

However, the problem was how to get equipment to be used in the exam. Eric was merely recommended for the recruitment exam, which included an actual serious match.

Of course, Allen, who was active as an adventurer, also used a sword. However, it was a battered thing that had been used so many times that he had to find some way to keep it from breaking. It was not something that could withstand a match against a sword user who would be recommended as a soldier.

That's why Allen scraped together all the money he had except for the bare minimum living expenses, and asked Dolban, who was rumored to be obstinate but first-class and not hard to talk to, to make Eric's sword.

After much struggle, he was able to successfully get Eric’s sword made, and Eric, who used the sword to take the recruitment exam, was splendidly recruited as a soldier.

By the way, the true identity of Allen’s sword that he broke is just a sword Dolban made just as a follow-up to Eric’s sword.

By the way, Allen didn’t pay for it. That's because Dolban stubbornly refused to accept it. Such a sword has saved Allen's life many times.

Due to these various circumstances, Allen couldn't raise his head in front of Dolban.

Thanks to the sword that he gave to Allen as if it were something he didn't need, he was able to easily fight monsters that he had struggled with before. Thanks to this, he was able to find leeway from his bare minimum living expenses, and his other younger brothers and sisters didn't have to live a hard life.

For Allen, Dolban is truly a benefactor.

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Level Down 10

Volume 1 Chapter 10 - Making the Round on the Ogre King

RAW

Recently, a certain rumor has been spreading among adventurers of Lilac City. Rumor that there is a mysterious person who is so powerful that he can traverse the Demon Dungeon on his own many times.

One said that that person sent a cyclops away with a single blow with his bare hands. Another said that he annihilated his enemies with magic so fast that it’s invisible to the naked eye. Another said that even though he was just standing there, his enemy fell down. Another said that if there is a dead monster left lying on the ground, it’s his doing, et cetera, et cetera.

The content of the rumors varies, and most adventurers don’t believe that all of them are true, but there is one thing the rumors have in common. That is...

.

.

.

Allen's happy double life was going well. His night exploration of the Slime Dungeon was, frankly speaking, boring, so recently he started practicing attacking inconspicuously after collecting his quota of slime magic stones.

This is so that if Allen were to confront any fight trouble as a guild employee, he would be able to deal with it secretly without his ability being noticed.

He was at a loss as to how to do that, but after about a month of trial and error, he had decided on the simple method of flicking a pebble with his fingers. As long as he is not in a very special place, materials will be available, and even if they fell, it won’t be particularly strange.

At first, the pebble shattered into pieces when he fired it, but as a result of continued research applying his ingenuity, he discovered a way to cover the pebble with magic power to strengthen it, and he managed to make it fly without breaking.

While working as a guild employee, he continued to visit the Demon Dungeon every week as Nera. Although rather than continuing to visit, it would be more accurate to say that he defeats the ogre king every week.

This is not merely for money. Up until now, Allen had only accepted requests with a considerable margin of safety, and he was aware that he would end up using too much force when facing a powerful monster, based on his previous common sense at least.

Thanks to visiting every week, he can now defeat everything normally, except for the boss, the ogre king. When he faces the ogre king, he still gets scared somewhere in his heart and ends up overdoing it.

However, Allen had already fought the ogre king four times, and was confident that he had gotten used to its habits and movements. That's why he decided that the battle this time would be the stopping point.

The ogre king's club attacked Allen. He could have dodged this club easily if he wanted to, but Allen went out of his way to block it with his recently obtained stick, and was literally blown away by its force.

Allen managed to stop himself from hitting the wall by stabbing his stick into the ground, then he rolled forward to avoid the crushing blow of the ogre king that had charged toward him. At the same time, he hit its right foot, which was full of openings, as hard as he could with his stick.

A dull thud sounded, and the ogre king roared with rage in its face, but it was clear that the blow was not fatal. Covering his ears, Allen took some distance from it.

“Eat this, Waterball.” (Allen)

Five water balls about 30 centimeters in length appeared, and he launched them one after another. The water balls were aimed at the ogre king's right arm which was holding the club, and once hit by the five water balls, the arm let go of the club, and the club rolled away.

“UOoooOO!!” (Ogre King)

The ogre king who dropped its club, as if to clear away its irritation, ran towards Allen with all its might. Then, once a few meters in front of him, it jumped as hard as it could.

Allen just calmly watched the giant body of the ogre king that was coming to crush him. Then, he twirled his stick and aimed it at the ogre king.

Their crossing was instantaneous. A moment passed with Allen with his stick thrust into the air while the ogre king was kneeling on one knee on the ground.

Then, the giant body of the ogre king slowly fell to the ground. Allen looked down at its figure as he put his stick back.

“This’s good. No waste in my attack. Actual combat is important after all. I know I’ll be okay, but if I don't get used to it, I'll end up going overboard.” (Allen)

Allen muttered while remembering the battle this time. Then, as usual, he collected its horn and magic stone and waited a while to see if a treasure chest would appear.

Of the four times Allen had already conquered this Demon Dungeon, the time when a treasure chest appeared after the boss battle was only the first one was when the clothes appeared, and the third one when he got the stick he used in the previous battle.

By the way, the clothes doesn't have high defense power, but even if it gets torn, it automatically repairs itself and doesn't get dirty, making it a very pleasant piece of equipment for diving through  dungeons. Also, the stick has been able to withstand Allen's blows so far, so there is no doubt that it is a useful piece of equipment.

Allen knew that he might be able to find out more about their other abilities if he had an appraiser from the Adventurers' Guild or the Merchant's Guild examine them, but if he did that, it seems like it’ll turn troublesome, so he was satisfied with the status quo for now. He was dissatisfied with their design, though.

“Oh, my luck is good. Another treasure chest, huh?” (Allen)

Since this is the third time, Allen had gotten used to it, so he examined it thoroughly and opened the lid without hesitation. What was inside was...

“A bag?” (Allen)

Allen took out a polka-dot patterned drawstring-sized bag from the treasure chest. Then he opened its closed mouth and thrust his hand into it, and casually pulled out something that was inside.

What came out was a red ball about 10 centimeters in diameter.

Allen placed the ball that had a unique feel like a hardened slime on the ground. Then he noticed that there was still a bulge in the drawstring pouch that looked like there was a ball in it, so he put his hand into it again. The next thing that came out was a yellow ball.

Allen continued the process of putting his hand into the pouch and pulling out balls for a while, but after the first few attempts he noticed that there were clearly more balls than the pouch had capacity for.

Allen thought of one possibility and tried to stuff the tools he had brought into the pouch, but they couldn’t get in at all. The only thing that went in was the balls he took out.

“A bag that can take out and put in a lot of balls? Why only things like this...” (Allen)

Allen slumped his shoulders and let out a sigh.

What Allen wished was something called a magic bag, it was a treasure that could hold more stuff than it looked. Although it is a very famous treasure due to its usefulness, it is rarely discovered, and only the true first-class adventurers possess it.

It was an item that Allen would definitely want if he were to continue diving into dungeons alone in the future, but there was no way things would work out that way.

Allen was disappointed, but when he saw the balls of all colors rolling in front of him, he thought of something.

Allen himself had seen clowns juggling with balls and other objects in the plaza. How much would he be able to do if he tried it now? That kind of interest welled up within him.

Wanting to change his mood was probably part of it, though.

“Yo, ho, ha.” (Allen)

Allen threw the balls that were on the ground into the air one after another and started juggling them.

Three, four, five, and so on, the number of balls in the air increased. As the number of balls increased, the time they had to be in the air to make up for it also became longer, and sweat began to pour from Allen's forehead due to the greater difficulty than he had imagined.

“Fourteen, fifteen, ah!” (Allen)

The moment Allen was about to throw the 16th ball, a red ball and a blue ball collided in the air. Just as he grimaced, something unbelievable happened. The red ball and blue ball that collided turned into a single purple ball.

Allen had an indescribably bad feeling about the falling purple ball and lightly kicked it away. The purple ball flew towards the wall while drawing a parabola, and when it collided with the wall, it cracked with a popping sound, releasing a pungent odor all around with the sound of something melting.

“UOooOh! This is definitely a bad one if you get hit by this.” (Allen)

Allen rubs his leg many times, thinking, ‘I’m glad it didn't break when I kicked it away’. Then, he started putting the balls away one by one in the bag, determined never to play with the tool that makes such dangerous items again.

As a matter of fact, Allen was a little scared to even touch the balls, but they didn't seem like they would break at all when he touched them.

After a while, Allen finished collecting all the balls and then let out a breath while taking a pose of wiping sweat from his forehead, he wasn’t sweating though.

“Well, I'll do the investigation of this dangerous object later, but it looks like I should be okay with the Demon Dungeon for now. Now, what should I do next?” (Allen)

While saying that, Allen got on the magic circle and was teleported to the first floor, and left the dungeon after which, he went to the Guild's branch office, and as usual, handed over the ogre king's magic stones and horns to the guild employee who looked like he was thinking ‘how troublesome’, and applied for consignment sale.

.

.

.

Allen doesn't know. That Allen's Nera disguise had gained an alias before he knew it. And that, rumors are spreading that there is a weirdo who explores dungeons alone while dressed as a clown.

Teardrop Nera.

That the tears may not be due to the design of the mask, but is shed by the guild employee at the branch office over his hardship at dealing with Nera.

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Level Down 9

Volume 1 Chapter 9 - Encounter With Iseria

RAW

After taking a short nap in the dungeon’s boss room, Allen decided to use the magic circle that appeared after defeating the boss to return to the first floor.

In fact, this would be the first time Allen has used this magic circle, since such things do not appear in the Slime Dungeon. Because of that, he was nervous inside, but since he was wearing a mask, no one else would know about it. Allen is the only one here anyway.

When Allen stepped into the center of the magic circle, the magic circle began to emit light, and the moment the light reached its peak, his form disappeared from the boss room. He had been transported to the first floor.

“Eh!?” (???)

Allen was inwardly surprised by the sudden change in his vision, but then he suddenly heard a voice in front of him, and he froze in that posture.

It was late at night when Allen entered the Demon Dungeon, but a day and a half had passed, and the current time was almost noon. This was the time when ordinary adventurers often came to explore, and the current situation was that Allen appeared before the eyes of an adventurer who happened to be exploring the first floor of the dungeon.

A young female adventurer, barely in her teens or early twenties, who seemed to be exploring alone when Allen suddenly appeared, stared at him.

“Kyuu─” (Woman)

“Ah, oi!” (Allen)

The female adventurer lost consciousness after letting out a mysterious voice and was about to fall when Allen hurriedly supported her.

Allen never thought she’d suddenly pass out, so he was also shaken up, but thinking that she would be in danger if she fell down like this and hit her head, his body promptly moved.

The moment he supported her, a flower-like scent wafted from the female adventurer, and Allen was shaken up in another way.

‘Fuu’ Allen let out a breath to calm his heart down, laid her down on the floor for the time being, and repeatedly patted her cheek, but there was no sign that the female adventurer would wake up.

“Haa, no choice. Guess I’ll take her to the branch office outside.” (Allen)

Giving up on easily waking her up, Allen picked up the female adventurer in a princess carry and began walking out of the dungeon.

Allen had been a long time adventurer in Lilac City, but he didn't recognize the female adventurer.

(Maybe she came from a different city recently.) (Allen)

Thinking of such things in order to cover up the soft feeling on his arm, Allen continued walking towards the exit, kicking away the occasional goblin.

.

.

.

Once again, Allen was in the Guild's branch office. Last time, partly because he came late at night, he had a sword pointed at him, but this time it was daytime and Allen was optimistic that there would be no problem. He was but...

“You, let go of that woman quickly!” (???)

“...” (Allen)

Allen had a sword pointed at him again.

It might have been settled quickly if it had been the guild employee Allen met that night, but the one who was currently pointing his sword at Allen was a completely different guild employee.

Allen secretly let out a sigh, making sure the other person wouldn't notice. ‘Not again’, he thought inwardly.

At this rate, they won’t make any progress, so Allen tried to put down the female adventurer, but he was immediately told, “Don't move!” and he was at a loss.

‘First, you tell me to let her go, now you tell me not to move, what am I supposed to do? Should I just drop her here?’ Allen thought, but the unconscious female adventurer is not responsible for the current situation.

It was precisely because Allen knew this that he was stuck.

“Nn, unn~” (Woman)

At that moment, the woman in Allen's arms lets out that voice. Then, as she was about to stretch her body, her eyes snapped open.

And then, even though it was through his mask, Allen's eyes met the female adventurer's.

“Hiih!” (Woman)

Allen was slightly hurt by the woman's obviously frightened attitude, but he was relieved that the situation would finally be over.

As Allen was putting the woman down, he heard the woman's small voice as she looked around, perhaps trying to grasp the situation.

“It’s my first time being princess carried.” (Woman)

She most likely didn't intend for anyone to hear those words, but because Allen’s stats were so outrageous, he could hear them, so his face inadvertently turned red.

No one else could tell because of the mask, though.

“Are you okay?” (Employee)

“Eh? Yes.” (Woman)

Without a moment’s delay the guild employee quickly pulled the confused woman away from Allen, and Allen couldn't help but smile bitterly at that attitude. ‘Certainly, that’s probably what I would do if I was in that position’ he thought.

Even Allen himself was well aware that he looked suspicious.

‘It would become troublesome if I stayed too long,’ Allen thought ‘For now, let’s get away from the place’ and he started walking toward the entrance. However, there was someone pulling Allen's hand.

Of course, it wasn’t the guild employee, but the female adventurer that Allen had brought here.

“I'm sorry. You were the one who brought me here, right? Thank you very much.” (Woman)

Allen was a little lost on what to do seeing the woman bowing as she said that, so he waved his hand, signaling her not to worry about it.

Allen wasn't used to people honestly thanking him. Seeing Allen like that, the woman smiled.

“My name is Iseria. I recently came to Lilac. May I ask your name?” (Iseria)

“...” (Allen)

Allen was perplexed when he heard that. Allen didn’t intend to speak in front of people when he’s in this appearance. If there’s someone who knows him, there is a possibility that he will be found out just by his voice.

It might not be a problem in this place where there were only Iseria whom he met for the first time and the guild employee who he’s not particularly close with, but he didn't want to make too many exceptions.

“Is that... no good?” (Iseria)

Iseria's face was distorted with sadness. Iseria is quite beautiful, not just among female adventurers, but among women in general.

Many female adventurers, like male adventurers, are muscular or have a masculine personality, but Iseria has a slender body and coupled with her blonde hair, it gives her the atmosphere of a young lady raised in seclusion, at least when she’s quiet.

Allen, who had never had anything to do with such a woman before, was already in the throes of confusion.

‘Isn’t there a good way to do it?’ Allen thought as he looked around, and in an instant he moved to the desk for the guild employee, and in the blink of an eye, wrote on a piece of paper and showed it to Iseria.

“Nera-sama, is it?” (Iseria)

Iseria's face opened up like a flower when she learned the name. For a moment, Allen thought that ‘maybe Iseria likes me?’ but then he remembered how he looked right now and immediately denied it.

This is the result of habitually reminding himself that there is nothing more sad than a nearly 30 old man who gets the wrong idea.

“You are very strong, aren't you, Nera-sama? You must have defeated the boss of the dungeon.” (Iseria)

“Eh, you defeated the ogre king? And by yourself!?” (Employee)

Allen nodded his head at their words. Then, he took out the ogre king's magic stone and horn that he had put in his bag and placed them on the guild employee’s desk.

The guild employee stared at it intently.

“I don't really get this, but if it's this big, I'm convinced it's the ogre king’s. And that horn. It'll be quite expensive, you know.” (Employee)

“That's amazing, Nera-sama. You must be a famous adventurer. I'm sorry, to think I’d faint due to my ignorance, how rude of me.” (Iseria)

Seeing Iseria looking like she's going into apology mode again, Allen hurriedly shook his head. Then he tried to convey something with gestures, but gave up halfway through and started writing on the paper again.

[I'm not an adventurer. I'm just diving into the dungeon to test my ability.] (Allen)

“Eeh, is that so?” (Iseria)

[That's right. That’s why there's no need to mind it.] (Allen)

“Fufu, Nera-sama is so kind.” (Iseria)

Allen's face turned red when Iseria smiled at him. Allen thought once again that he was really glad that he was wearing this mask that hid his facial expressions.

Despite the exchange between the two, the guild employee who was left alone looked a little troubled.

“However, if you are not an adventurer, purchasing them will be a hassle. Nera, was it? Won’t you become an adventurer?” (Employee)

[I refuse. I have no intention of becoming an adventurer.] (Allen)

In response to the guild employee’s proposal, Allen moved the pen, and refused right away.

It's true that there are perks to being an adventurer, such as easy selling of materials and free entry to dungeons, but on the other hand, there are also many fetters that come with socializing with other adventurers and being a part of an organization.

Allen knew all too well that he might be half-forced into trouble as a result.

Now that he had just started a free and fun double life, there was no way he would have bothered to register as an adventurer.

In the first place, the person called Nera is fabricated, naturally, he has no identification. The Adventurer’s Guild card is something that can be used as official proof of identity, so identification is required to register. In other words, it is impossible for him to register.

“Then what’ll you do with these materials? You could bring it to the Merchant Guild, but I think they’ll beat down the price.” (Employee)

The guild employee’s advice was reasonable. Adventurers can sell monster materials at a reasonable price because they go through the Adventurers' Guild.

It’s not impossible for an individual to sell directly to a store or to the Merchant Guild, but it is common knowledge that unless such a person has great bargaining ability, they will be taken advantage of and their material bought for a much lower price than the appropriate price.

But Allen had already thought of a countermeasure to that problem.

Allen took out a document from the shelf next to the guild employee’s desk where various documents were placed. The name of that document was “Consignment Sales Application Form.”

This was an application form for an outsider who is not an adventurer to request the Adventurers' Guild to sell on their behalf. It was a procedure so rarely used that not many people, even guild employees, know of its existence though.

The Adventurers' Guild takes 15% of the sale price as a commission for consigning to them, but it will be less time-consuming than negotiating on your own.

Besides, if the material is as rare as the ogre king’s, the selling price is often higher than if an individual sold it on their own, even after deducting the commission.

After Allen finished filling out the application form with Nera's name, he handed it to the guild employee.

The man examined the document handed to him intently, then slapped his forehead with his hand.

“Now that I think about it, there was a system like this. I forgot about it because no one used it.” (Employee)

[I’ll leave it to you.] (Allen)

“Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's around here... oh, here it is. I'll give you this profit ticket. The payment will be in one week at the earliest. Don't lose it.” (Employee)

As Allen casually shoved the profit ticket he received into his clothes pocket and left, the guild employee watched him as if he had given up. Then, remembering the troublesome procedure that was about to begin, he let out a little sigh.

Beside him, Iseria looked at the door where Allen had disappeared to, murmured, “Strange person,” and smiled slightly.

────

(T/N: Allen being flustered and moving quickly when a girl talked to him is kinda funny, I thought he’d look stupid because of that, but no one probably saw him move.)

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Level Down 8

Volume 1 Chapter 8 - Demon Dungeon Conquest

RAW

Looking at the huge door in front of him, Allen was lost. On whether or not he should turn back?

Allen was currently in the lowest floor of the Demon Dungeon, the 30th floor, in a square in front of the door leading to the boss room.

He tried fighting cyclopes and great ogres on the 25th floor and beyond, but he felt so little resistance that he just kept advancing forward, and before he knew it, he had descended to the 30th floor.

“No, if you think about it normally, I should turn back. But now that I’ve come this far, just going home is.” (Allen)

If he opens this door, he can fight the boss of this Demon Dungeon. This wouldn’t be the first time the Demon Dungeon was conquered, but the number of adventurers strong enough to defeat the boss, if Allen remembered correctly, can be counted in two hands.

Moreover, they defeated it with multiple people fighting together, so when it comes to defeating it solo, it would be nothing short of a spectacular feat.

Having thoroughly fought cyclopes and great ogres before coming here, Allen had become accustomed to their huge bodies, and he wasn't feeling tired or sleepy at the moment.

It should have already been twenty hours since he started diving into this dungeon, but his physical condition is strangely perfect.

Once he thought so, his desire arose. ‘Unlike the toothless monsters so far, I'm sure the boss will be somewhat strong’ he thought. ‘Isn’t this the perfect monster to measure my own strength?’

However, when it comes to conquering bosses, it is natural to do so after making sufficient preparations in advance. It is not something to do during a normal exploration like Allen is currently doing.

Such common sense made Allen think twice.

A few minutes of pacing about in front of the gate. Allen made up his mind. From the start, he came to this Demon Dungeon this time to test his ability. But as it was now, rather than testing his strength, he’d be coming here just to annihilate them.

‘I want to at least fight an opponent where I can measure my abilities even a little’. He thought as he remembered his feelings during the days when he couldn't go on an adventure even though he was an adventurer. Those feelings pushed Allen’s back.

Rather than thinking about the consequences, don’t you want to go on an adventure? Go and try it.

“Alright. Here I go!” (Allen)

Slapping his face with his palms to fire himself up, Allen put his hand on the giant five meter door.

Despite its size, the door moved very smoothly and it barely required even much effort to open. Gradually, the door opened and the boss's room spread out in front of Allen.

The boss room was a circular arena that looked like a colosseum. It had a radius of about 50 meters, and there was no obstruction other than the high wall surrounding the outside.

It was a place that seemed to show the boss's desire to ‘leave out the petty trick and come at me from the front’.

With a slightly nervous countenance on his face, Allen walked into the room.

At the same time, the door he had entered through began to close, and with a heavy thud, it completely closed.

Once you enter the boss room, the door will not open until the battle is settled. In other words, the only way to get out of here is to defeat the boss.

“Now, COME!” (Allen)

At the same time as Allen shouted that, a hole opened in the ground about ten meters in front of him, and a monster slowly appeared from there.

Height of five meters. Flaming red body so strong that you'd think it was all muscle, and arms so thick that Allen could fit right in. Its whole body was wrapped in shiny black armor, and it carried a barbed club that was probably 4 meters long in one hand, its appearance gave off the scent of a solemn military officer.

It was wearing fist-sized spheres joined together around its thick neck, and from its forehead its racial characteristic single horn protruded straight out.

And its eyes, they looked down at Allen as if they were looking at trash.

The name of that monster was ogre king. Outside of the dungeon, it is the kind of monster called a calamity that brings together an army of ogres and sometimes destroys a town.

“GUOOoooOOoo─!!” (Ogre King)

“Guh, my ears...” (Allen)

Allen covered his ears and grimaced at the loudness of the ogre king's voice. Seeing this, the ogre king grinned, took a big step forward, and swung its club as hard as it could.

The distance that was supposed to be ten meters became meaningless with just that one action, and Allen, who was slow to react, was blown away and crashed into the wall of the colosseum, causing a thick plume of dust to rise around him.

The ogre king slowly walked towards the direction where Allen was blown away. It was not to pursue him, but merely to confirm the result of its own actions.

Then, seeing Allen buried under the rubble, the ogre king let out a roar again. It's a roar of victory.

“So shut the fuck up! You goddamn idiot!” (Allen)

Seeing Allen get up while blowing away the debris, the ogre king was taken aback for a moment. That was too much of a fatal gap in the current situation.

With a dull sound, the ogre king was blown away to the opposite wall, as if it was in the opposite position from earlier.

The ogre king's body kept its shape as it sank into the wall, and with a cough, green blood flowed out from its mouth as it took the full force of the impact.

The ogre king didn't know what happened. The ogre king wasn't smart enough to understand that this situation was caused by a simple kick from a person not even half its size.

“Aa-aah, now my robe is ripped.” (Allen)

Toward Allen who was wearing a pierrot mask and approached it while cursing at it, the ogre king felt fear. This was because there was no disturbance in his movements at all.

The attack that it had made with all its might should have been a clean hit, but it didn't seem to have any effect at all. This had taken away the ogre king's inherent fighting spirit, or perhaps its emotion called instinct, by the root.

Shaking his head and brushing away the dust, Allen turned his palm towards the ogre king.

“For now, I guess I’ll try this. Waterball.” (Allen)

Unable to even move, the ogre king caught sight of the water sphere, and the moment it thought it had moved, the ogre king’s consciousness ceased.

.

.

.

‘That was a much easier victory than I expected’. That was Allen's impression after fighting the ogre king.

Although he was surprised by the initial surprise attack, he did not suffer any apparent injuries as he was able to guard himself with his arms. When the attack landed, he thought he’d get at least one arm injured, but in the end, he didn’t get even a single injury in his arm.

The biggest damage was just his ringing ears from the ogre king's roar.

Allen dismantled the defeated ogre king and took its horn and magic stone. As might be expected from the Demon Dungeon’s boss, the size of its magic stone was about the size of Allen's head.

Allen knew that if he sold that magic stone, he would make several years' worth of money compared to when he was an adventurer, and that its horn is also sold at a very high price because it becomes stronger when mixed with metal.

The other materials that he could take was the armor it was equipped with, but the selling price is not that high considering its bulk. ‘Considering that I’d be carrying these home alone, these two would be best,’ Allen thought.

After a while, the ogre king's corpse was absorbed into the dungeon, and in its place, a treasure chest about the size that can be carried in his arms appeared.

Allen couldn't help but cheer when he saw that.

“Ooh, it really came out. I thought it was just a dubious tale.” (Allen)

‘A treasure chest will appear when you defeat the boss monster at the deepest floor of a dungeon’ that was one of the plausible rumors circulated among adventurers .

Allen knew that something like this had happened because it was written in the documents he had researched at the Adventurers' Guild before.

That said, as someone who had defeated the boss in the Slime Dungeon many times without getting anything, Allen was skeptical, no, he even thought that ‘weren’t those just mostly lies?’ However, now that a treasure chest actually appeared, he had to admit that the rumors were true.

“Now then, I should at least be careful when opening it.” (Allen)

Some treasure chests in dungeons had traps set in them, and sometimes the treasure chests themselves were monsters. There is also a story that can’t be laughed at about how some people were excited thinking they had found a treasure chest, but the moment they opened it, everyone lost their lives to a trap.

Allen had never heard that the treasure chest that appeared after defeating a boss had such specifications, but he examined the treasure chest as carefully as possible.

Allen himself has fulfilled such a role in a party, so he has more knowledge than a normal adventurer, but even so, he is not an expert.

After examining the treasure chest for about 10 minutes and finding nothing, Allen prepared himself and decided to open it.

Putting his hand on the lid, Allen opened the treasure chest, prepared to run away immediately if something happened. Despite his noisily pounding heart, nothing happened and a few moments passed by.

“Phew, I'm so relieved. Now, I wonder what the treasure is.” (Allen)

While feeling relieved that nothing happened, Allen looked into the treasure chest. What was in there was...

“Clothes? It's kinda eccentric though.” (Allen)

Allen took out the top and bottom set of clothes inside, and tilted his head as he looked at it. The top is a jacket that was red in one half and black in the other half, and vice versa for the arms. The trousers had a distinctive design of black diamond shapes lined up on a white background.

As a courtesy, it even included a black top hat, shoes, and white gloves.

Allen felt as though the lineup seemed to be telling him to wear them and was a little hesitant, but since his robe was ripped, it might be just a good timing, so he reconsidered and put them on. Those equipment strangely matched Allen’s mask.

When Allen moved around in his new clothes, he found that they fit perfectly, as if they were custom-made for him, and above all, they were easier to move in than anything he had ever worn before.

“As expected of a treasure chest in a dungeon. The design is a little weird though.” (Allen)

Despite some dissatisfaction, Allen was generally satisfied with the contents of the treasure chest, and decided to take a break for a while in that outfit.

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Level Down 7

Volume 1 Chapter 7 - Demon Dungeon Exploration

RAW

As the name suggests, the Demon Dungeon is a dungeon where only horned humanoid monsters, commonly referred to as demons, such as goblins and ogres appear.

As you might have guessed from the fact that they are humanoid, demons are more intelligent monsters compared to other monsters. They’d use weapons stolen from defeated adventurers, and ambush them in groups. They’re quite troublesome monsters, and this dungeon was characterized by being inhabited by such monsters.

For that reason, it would be best to form a party with at least a few people if you were going to take on this dungeon, but there is no way that Allen, who is in the midst of hiding his true identity, can do that.

However, Allen's purpose is to ascertain his own strength, so he was actually looking forward to seeing how far his strength would go against such opponents.

On the first floor, where the cave-like bare earth passage continues, a group of goblins immediately attacked him, and Allen fired small Fireballs at the same time at them, piercing their brains and defeating them.

“I've been able to defeat the shallow floors before anyway, so I guess I’ll just go to the deeper floors.” (Allen)

While mumbling to himself, Allen headed towards the stairs heading down, relying on the map and his memory.

This is not the first time Allen himself has entered this Demon Dungeon. In fact, he often came here when he wanted to solo a dungeon.

Honestly, Allen wanted to go to the most popular dungeon in Lilac City, but he avoided it because he often got tangled up with adventurers who knew about his stats.

And so, Allen easily took the shortest route to the 10th floor.

Along the way, hobgoblins and lesser ogres appeared, but even with Fireballs and Stoneballs that Allen consciously suppressed in power, naturally, he defeated them in one blow.

It was obvious that such monsters would not even test his skill.

“Alright, should I start fighting seriously now? I want to see how strong I've become.” (Allen)

After saying that, Allen started exploring by walking carefully instead of jogging like before.

The Demon Dungeon was famous for its conquest level that changed dramatically from the 10th floor onwards.

It mercilessly beats down adventurers who got carried away up to the 9th floor. That's the 10th floor of the Demon Dungeon. That world was so different that it gained an alias called the Beginner's Graduation Examination Floor.

The reason is...

“Uggaaaa!!” (???)

“Oh, it’s here, it’s here.” (Allen)

What came from the end of the passage that Allen was walking through was a monster about two meters tall with a muscular green body, the so-called ogre.

‘That impact sure was overwhelming when I first came here,’ Allen fondly recalled as he waited for the ogre to approach.

However...

“As I thought, it was too slow. I guess an ogre is just at this level.” (Allen)

Even though he had half expected it, Allen was discouraged when the situation turned out exactly as it did.

Because while it doesn't bother him when he’s relaxed, when he’s concentrating on something like a battle, he can feel the enemy's movements several times slower than usual.

In fact, it was so slow that Allen had enough time to think about what kind of situation would make this attack hit.

He narrowly dodged the ogre's lunge, which seemed to be moving slowly on purpose, and then swung his fist down on the back of its empty head.

At that moment, the ogre's face sank into the floor as if it had been sewn into the ground, and then, it twitched and stopped moving.

“Uwah, this level in just one hit. I guess a bit weaker for ogres~. I better hold back quite a bit when I fight in front of people without a disguise. Okay, next. Next.” (Allen)

Allen stepped over the ogre he just met. Of course, the ogre has magic stones and materials that can be harvested from it, and they were worth a good price, but it was more trouble to dismantle it, so he left it as it was.

Allen himself thought that ‘if I had that kind of time, I’d rather test my power more’, and for several other reasons, he had decided a long time ago that it would be better to leave them as is.

After dealing with several more monsters, Allen realized that there was no point in staying on the 10th floor, and in search of a stronger enemy, ran towards the deeper floors in what he himself felt was a jog, but if other adventurers saw him, they’d thought that he was running as fast as he could to dive deeper.

.

.

.

The Demon Dungeon has 30 underground floors. And the floor Allen had been to was the 24th floor.

Of course, Allen didn't come alone then; he was in a party, what’s more, when he came to the 24th floor, which was the deepest he'd ever come, it was not as a combatant, but as a carrier.

The 25th floor and beyond were dangerous places even for a first-class adventurer, and it wasn't a half-baked place that the old Allen would be able to go to.

“Hmm, what do I do now? As expected, going there all of a sudden feels like it’d be bad. But from what it feels until now, it shouldn’t be a problem.” (Allen)

Sitting staring at the stairs leading to the 25th floor, Allen grimaced as he ate a stick-shaped portable food, which tasted bad but was nutritious and easy to carry.

Allen’s original plan was to spend about two days exploring around the 20th floor of the Demon Dungeon by himself, but the enemies were surprisingly weaker than he expected, so he ended up getting this far in about half a day.

Even though Allen had been fighting monsters and moving around in a jog, he didn't feel tired at all.

Of course, Allen himself knows from experience that when he gets excited during a battle, he feels less tired. However, on the floors until now, to put it bluntly, he didn’t feel excited at all, so Allen judged that he probably really wasn't tired.

Standing up and then hitting his hand to remove bits of food, Allen did a small nod.

“Alright, I'm neither tired nor sleepy. I'll just go in for a bit and if it seems dangerous, I'll think about a lot of things then.” (Allen)

Muttering that as if to persuade himself, Allen washed away the remains of the portable food in his mouth with water and descended the stairs leading to the 25th floor.

.

.

.

The size aspect of the Demon Dungeon changed dramatically from the 25th floor onwards. The previous cave-like appearance changed to a passageway made of bricks, and the height of the passageway was over ten meters.

Allen was overwhelmed by the sight he was seeing for the first time, feeling discomfort at the huge difference compared to before, it was as if he was the one who turned smaller.

“It's really as the Guild's data says. That means the monsters that appear are also...” (Allen)

Allen was about to continue speaking when ‘thump, thump’ he stopped because of a tremor that shook the floor.

As the tremor approached, he also heard the sound of something being dragged along. While feeling a little nervous, Allen waited for the owner of the footsteps to approach.

What appeared from around a corner about 30 meters in front of Allen after a while was a giant over four meters tall with one eye, a cyclops

“Haha, it’s seriously huge.” (Allen)

Allen muttered as he looked up at the gigantic body that was inconceivable to humans. It was unknown whether the cyclops heard that whisper, but it turned its one eye towards Allen, and glared.

Then, the cyclops opens its mouth wide enough to swallow Allen whole, showing off its sharp fangs.

Its big eyes were filled with joy at finding prey.

With a bang, the Cyclops approached Allen while swinging its club that was three meters long and as thick as a tree trunk it was dragging.

Its intensity exceeded any monster Allen had ever seen.

“Uooh, Fireball!” (Allen)

Inadvertently, Allen casted a Fireball with all his might. And a ball of fire about a meter in diameter appeared in front of Allen, flew toward the cyclops while leaving a whooshing and roaring sound behind, and then, leaving half of its body charred, crashed into the wall behind it.

Unable to comprehend what had happened to it, the cyclops looked at its halved torso, and just like that, its eye rolled back, and it collapsed.

The huge club it was holding bounced on the floor, making a clanking sound similar to that of metal as it rolled around.

“Ha?” (Allen)

Allen doubted his own eyes at the too short of the ending. However, the scene unfolding in front of his eyes would never change.

Just to be on guard, Allen tried kicking the cyclops lightly with his foot, but there was no sign of it moving at all.

“Seriously?” (Allen)

According to Allen's knowledge as an adventurer, even a single cyclops was a formidable enemy that required first-class adventurers over level 200 to fight together. However, when he looked at the result, it was no more than an enemy that could be defeated with a single Fireball.

Allen felt his common sense crumbling away.

“No, it's because I reflexively fired with all my might. There's no way it's that weak.” (Allen)

After making excuses to himself for some reason, Allen went to take on the cyclopes that frequent this floor, but in the end, it only proved that his own common sense had changed.

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Level Down 6

Volume 1 Chapter 6 - Start of Double Life

RAW

Three days later, Allen returned to the Adventurers' Guild stifling a yawn, and as usual, handed the slime magic stones to Matilda, who had come to work, and headed home.

By the way, because the number of his working days has decreased and the hours per day have increased, the quota for slime magic stones has increased to 200, but Allen was able to do it with plenty of leeway, so there was no problem at all.

Reservations for the level-up trap are already full six months in advance.

It is true that a level-up trap itself is a rare trap, but the fact it is located in a dungeon so close that it can be reached in an hour from the city, and that the only monsters that appear there are slimes, which are hardly dangerous, has led many people to take this opportunity to raise their level to the maximum.

This has conversely made it difficult to raise the level to the maximum, and no one has yet to reach level 500.

In other words, it's a kind of bubble.

Moreover, there are many people who want to raise their level, so that bubble won’t burst anytime soon. For the Adventurers' Guild, it can be said that they can't stop laughing because they are able to make profits with almost no investment.

That said, for Allen, it’s not like this will reflect his salary, so it is more important that this work pattern continues for a while.

Allen returned to his home in the west-northwest of the city, near the slums, closed the windows and took a long nap.

It was hard for him to fall asleep as he was thinking about what was to come, but perhaps due to the exhaustion of walking around for thirteen hours, after a while the sound of quiet sleep echoed in the room.

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And then, in the afternoon, Allen woke up, ate a simple meal, and grinned as he took out the outfit he had prepared.

It was a full-body robe and, the only treasure Allen had discovered when he went to a dungeon alone a long time ago, a clown mask. Allen put them on, lightly looked around his body, and nodded his head.

There is no doubt that Allen looked like a suspicious person because he is completely covered with a robe and wearing a clown mask with tears flowing from its eyes, but Allen himself was only concerned about hiding his true identity, and was pleased that he would not be discovered.

As the sun set, Allen, who had long since changed his clothes, sneaked out of his house with a set of luggage he had prepared in advance, and began walking west.

With each step, the smell of stale food and the trash and people lying on the street become more and more noticeable.

The houses built on both sides of the street were originally there, but the people who lived there had remodeled them on their own, so the streets were messy and lacking a sense of unity.

The slum is spread out in the western part of Lilac City, near the defensive wall. It may be more correct to say that they were gathered there where they would be less visible to outsiders, since there are gates to the north, east, and south, respectively.

In the past, there were movements to eliminate the slum, but before they knew it, it returned to its original state, so the current situation is that they are left as is.

Occasionally, travelers who wander into the slum are extorted of money, but since there are no murders against people outside the slum, the residents recognize the area as dangerous but not a problem as long as they do not approach.

Through the streets which were almost completely dark because there were no lights like in the center of the city, Allen moved smoothly. It wasn't because Allen had good night vision, but because of the clown mask he was wearing.

A pure white face that looked like it had been smeared with white powder, a red nose, and black diamonds piercing through each eye, from which black tears were flowing. The clown mask Allen was wearing looked like it was cursed.

However, the effectiveness of the mask is higher than it appears; even when he is wearing the mask, it does not obstruct his vision, he can see in the dark as if it were daytime, he can even eat through it, and the mask won’t come off unless he takes it off himself. It was quite a good item.

When Allen himself obtained it, he cried, wishing it had a decent design, and wondered whether to equip it or sell it. In the end, thinking he might use it someday, it ended up sleeping in the back of his house without him using it, not knowing when it would be useful.

Allen moved smoothly through the slum. He felt a little suspicious since normally, a hoodlum would call out to him, but, as long as everything was going well, it wasn’t really a problem and he didn't really care.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Allen never learned the truth that even the slum people avoided contact with the suspicious person who hid his entire body in a hooded robe and even wore a clown mask.

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Arriving at the western defensive wall without any particular incident, Allen looked up at the thing that is the linchpin that protects Lilac City.

Its solid appearance of more than 10 meters in height gives residents a sense of security and intimidates foreign enemies. Although this might be due to the government of Lilac City, which has continued to repair and protect the city since it was founded.

That said, for Allen now, it's just a wall to pass over.

“Now then, shall we go?” (Allen)

As Allen muttered that, he ran towards the defensive wall. Then, he kicked the ground and jumped up, at about 6 meters, he kicked the wall once and used that momentum to jump even higher.

Allen hung his hand to the top of the wall with plenty of leeway, looked around to the left and right, and after confirming that no one was patrolling there, he climbed up and dove straight to the outside.

After floating for a moment, Allen lightly landed on the ground outside the city and without making a sound. No one noticed that he had jumped over the protective wall.

Allen ran without a sound, occasionally looking back at the receding wall as he realized once again what a threat his stats was.

It was a well-known fact that the wall had an anti-magic barrier that prevented magic from being used in its vicinity to prevent magical intrusion.

That is why it was possible to break in illegally if one did not use magic but only physical abilities, and there were plausible but baseless rumors circulating that there were spies who had been breaking in using such methods.

Allen himself thought it was nonsense, but now that he's actually been able to do it, he realizes that the rumors may be true.

And at the same time, he thought that ‘shouldn’t they increase the patrols?,’ which in a sense was butting in their business, but he was also fully aware that if they did that, he would be the one who would be in trouble.

Shaking his head to erase the meaningless thoughts, Allen decided to concentrate on getting away from the city and continued running.

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Allen's goal is to get to one of the four dungeons managed by the Adventurers' Guild in Lilac City, the Demon Dungeon to the west.

Due to the lack of a gate nearby and the monsters that appear there, it is the second least popular dungeon around Lilac after the Slime Dungeon in the north. That said, it is a dungeon that is popular among those who don't want to get into trouble with other adventurers, and the level of adventurers who dive there is by no means low.

This means that enough monsters and treasures will appear to satisfy those people.

In other words, it was the perfect dungeon for Allen, who wanted to test his skills without attracting too much attention.

Unable to contain his excitement, Allen ran the entire distance to the dungeon, which normally would take about two hours by walking, in merely ten minutes, not even out of breath.

And then, he enthusiastically entered the cabin that was the branch office where an employee of the Adventurers' Guild, who manages access to the Demon Dungeon, was permanently stationed.

“Uwaa! What the hell are you! Are you a robber? There's no money here!!” (Employee)

“...” (Allen)

A guild employee who was sitting at his desk, perhaps doing some paperwork, jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of a suspicious person wearing a clown mask. At the same time, the man pulled out a sword from his waist and unleashed it.

Allen was a little shaken up when a sword was pointed at him by a guild employee with whom he had little contact but whose face he knew well, but unlike the Slime Dungeon, which had been completely neglected, other dungeons require him to obtain permission to enter from the branch office at the entrance.

Although the dungeon was managed by the Adventurers' Guild, it was originally the property of the town's feudal lord, the count. There was no way it could be lawless.

Allen fully understood this and tried to approach the guild employee in order to resolve the issue peacefully.

Allen took a step closer, and then the man took a step away.

Another step closer, then another step away.

After a long battle, the guild employee's back finally hit the wall.

The man's face was pale, and sweat was dripping down his body. He did have the pride of being a former adventurer, so he did not drop his sword, but his mind was dominated by fear and he was on the verge of going into a state of panic.

It’s partly because of his odd appearance, but also because the man wearing the clown mask casually approached him without any opening. No, to be more precise, he had an opening, but the man had a premonition, almost a certainty, that no matter where he attacked, he would be counterattacked.

That’s an intuition that has saved the man many times during his time as an adventurer. And that intuition is telling him.

That this guy is a monster.

Allen put his hand inside his robe. Even though it was the perfect opportunity to attack, all the man could do was close his eyes.

He had given up, thinking that there was no point in resisting. ‘If so, at least let me die without seeing myself killed’. It was with that in mind that he did that.

One second, two seconds, and even after ten seconds passed, the moment the man expected never came.

The man fearfully opened his eyes slightly.

And what the man saw in front of his eyes were letters that even he was familiar with. It was a document with the words “Dungeon Entrance Application Form” written in large letters.

“Huh? You want to enter the dungeon?” (Employee)

Allen nodded in response to the man's question. Then he presented the application form and the application fee of 1,000 zenny to the man.

“Errr, so your name is Nera. Paying the application fee means you're not an adventurer, right?” (Employee)

Allen once again nodded.

When entering a dungeon, those who are registered with the Adventurers' Guild can enter by simply presenting their Guild card, but those who do not belong to the Adventurers' Guild must pay a predetermined amount of money if they wish to enter.

In the case of this Demon Dungeon, it was 1,000 zenny.

‘Apparently, there was no danger’ the man's head cooled and calmed down little by little as he realized that. Then he remembered his job.

“Do I need to explain the dungeon?” (Employee)

Allen shook his head. Then, just like that, he left the cabin, leaving the man behind.

The man left in the cabin felt as if he had been bewitched by something, but the 1,000 zenny and the application form that remained with him proved that what just happened was real.

Feeling the discomfort of his sweat-soaked clothes, the guild employee made up his mind that ‘if this is going to keep happening, I’ll apply for a reassignment in the near future’.

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Level Down 5

Volume 1 Chapter 5 - Changes in Work

RAW

The day after Allen reported the change in the structure of the Slime Dungeon, a dedicated counter was established in the Adventurers' Guild, and a request was posted in the most prominent place on the Adventurers' Guild's bulletin board to inform the whole town about that matter.

Since they can receive a reward twice as much as a request to subjugate a weak monster just by spreading a rumor, the new adventurers scrambled to accept the request, and just as the Guild planned, the rumor was spread throughout the city within the same day.

The Adventurers' Guild has decided to place restrictions on the use of the level-up trap that appeared in the Slime Dungeon, and has established a new department to manage it.

In accordance with this, the use of the level-up trap in the Slime Dungeon requires a prior reservation at that department of the Adventurers' Guild.

Officially, the Adventurers' Guild, being the manager of the dungeon, established the dedicated department as a measure to prevent conflicts from occurring over the level-up trap.

However, the truth was that they had created a department to take money from people who wanted to raise their level by using the level-up trap as bait.

Level-up traps are hated by adventurers.

And yet, this can still stand because, from the point of view of residents who do not fight monsters like adventurers and soldiers do, having their stats increase, even if the increase in value is all 1, is appealing.

The maximum level for a normal person is 500. In other words, if their current level is 1, their stats will increase by 499 points. That is equivalent to level 100 for an adventurer who levels up by defeating monsters.

There are ways to improve your stats without leveling up through training and practice, but the rate of increase cannot be said to be good. And above all, it requires a lot of effort.

It was natural that there was demand for this method of increasing one's stats without much effort, simply by stepping on the level-up trap.

Of course, not everyone is like that. In particular, nobles and very rich people raise their levels by independently hiring adventurers, they won't rely on the trap to level up quickly, and there are also many people who are not dissatisfied with their current lives and don't feel the need to do this.

That's exactly why the Adventurers' Guild set the price for one hour use of the level-up trap, or a maximum of 20 level ups, at 5,000 zenny during the day and 4,000 zenny at night. That price was about the same as one night's stay at a normal-ranked inn, it was a perfect amount that someone with a little leeway in their livelihood could afford.

In other words, it would take 100,000 zenny for a person at level 1 to raise their level to the maximum level of 500, if only at night. Whether they see it as cheap or expensive probably depends on the person.

At the very least, the price is not meaningless since the dungeon won’t be bursting at the seams with the slum dwellers who can't even afford it and are likely to cause problems if they level up.

“Haa, I never thought I’d be sent back to the counter as well.” (Matilda)

“It can't be helped, isn’t it? With this many reservations, it would be better to have someone with a lot of experience to make adjustments and such.” (Allen)

“Sorry for being so experienced.” (Matilda)

Matilda said as she glared at Allen, who realized that he had made a slip-up, and quickly turned his head away. Matilda's expression softened a bit as she saw Allen's expression, and she let out a deep sigh.

Then, looking at the schedule lined up in front of her, she frowned and let out another sigh. Her  sigh was much heavier than the one before.

“When you let out a sigh...” (Allen)

“Happiness runs away, right? I know that. Even so, this is a little harsh.” (Matilda)

Matilda brushed her hair up and massaged her head. Seeing Matilda's troubled state, Allen apologized to her in his heart. In fact, Allen is also part of the cause for Matilda's troubles.

After all, Allen could have chosen not to report the change in the structure of the Slime Dungeon, and even if he reported it, he could have omitted the level-up trap.

But it was unmistakably Allen who chose not to do so.

In fact, no one found out for over two months after the change occurred, so there was a possibility that it could be kept a secret. Even after understanding this, Allen went out of his way to report this in order to be doubly sure, and to fulfill his own aspiration.

Considering this, Allen felt that he was somewhat responsible for the hardships that Matilda was suffering. That said, he doesn't regret it.

Spread out in front of Matilda was a reservation list for the level-up trap. It was divided by day and hour, and a month's worth of reservations had already been filled just today, when the counter just opened and the reception just began. And that's for all 24 hours of the day, including the middle of the night.

It was obvious that even more people would come to apply from tomorrow onwards, and it was expected that there would be frequent troubles over the reservation times.

Matilda, being a veteran former receptionist, was selected for the counter to handle such troubles.

“In the first place, spreading rumors all at once is strange. That damn tanuki~.” (Matilda)

Allen took a step back as Matilda let out a voice of resentment. The words, ‘the spirit you do not approach will not curse you,’ were running through his head.

In front of Allen who looked at the situation with a slight pull back, ‘Fuu─’ Matilda exhaled deeply. She closed her eyes for just a few seconds, and when she opened them, Matilda's face returned to normal, as if her expression before was an illusion.

Her change was so great that Allen began to feel nostalgic.

Allen remembered something like this happening a long time ago when Matilda was working as a receptionist and dealing with unreasonable adventurers.

Matilda is extremely good at switching her mood. No matter how unpleasant the previous adventurer was, she never showed a single tired look to the next adventurer.

Such a scene from the past came vividly back to Allen's mind.

“Allen, you seem to be having a good time, but you’ll be in charge of the night, you know. Will you be okay?” (Matilda)

“Yeah. The hours per day have become longer, but in return I get more days off. Well, I’m sure it’ll be okay.” (Allen)

“Take care of your body, okay?” (Matilda)

“Yeah. You too, Matilda. Then I’m off.” (Allen)

After looking at each other and giving each other a wry smile, Allen raised his right hand and left as Matilda saw him off.

And then, Matilda continued to stare at the door that led to the back door where Allen had disappeared to, smiled a little, and went back to work. In order to reduce her overtime hours, as could be guessed from the large amount of documents left on her desk, as much as possible.

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“Well, I guess it went just as I expected.” (Allen)

In the intervening time between the evening air, when diners are busy, and the night, when the streets are less crowded, Allen was heading toward the north gate of Lilac City, muttering such words.

That is because the north gate is the closest city gate to the Slime Dungeon, and that location was the designated meeting place for those who have reserved the level-up trap at night.

The gates of Lilac City close at nine in the evening and open at six the next day. Those who arrive in between that time will not be able to enter the city unless there are special circumstances. Conversely, those who are inside the city will also not be able to go outside.

Therefore, Allen's job was to go to the north gate at 7 p.m., take the people who had booked the level-up trap for the night, head to the Slime Dungeon, and bring them back to the city the next morning.

Allen had predicted that if he reported the level-up trap, he would be given this job instead of managing the Slime Dungeon.

This is because they thought that during the day, they could just post a request to an adventurer and there would be some who would accept that job, but fewer would accept a request at night.

The old Allen was special, but most adventurers become adventurers because they wish to go on an adventure somewhere.

Jobs such as guiding and escorting to the Slime Dungeon may bring in steady money, but there's almost no thrill and no way to level up. In other words, it is the most boring job ever.

Allen knew that while there may be adventurers who take on requests to earn pocket money during their breaks from work, there are very few adventurers who take on requests at night that will disrupt the rhythm of their lives.

And the Adventurers' Guild is well aware of this, and in such cases, the people they turn to are guild employees who are former adventurers like Allen.

Due to these circumstances, Allen's job was changed to meet the reservationist at the north gate at 7 p.m., take them to the level-up trap in the Slime Dungeon, hand them over to the guild employee there, and then go on to defeat slimes as usual, and then take the reservationist back to Lilac City at 8 a.m. the next day.

Allen would be working for 13 hours straight, but up until now he had worked five days a week for about seven to eight hours and one day off, but it was changed to three days a week and three days off, as Allen had planned.

The difference in working hours was only about one hour, so it makes little difference, but the three days off he got was what Allen hoped for.

In fact, it's not like there aren't any precedents where a level-up trap was found and something similar was done.

During the past half a month, Allen had been investigating how such precedents had been handled while sorting out documents. And following those precedents, Allen predicted that his job would most likely change to that of a night guide.

The problem was that, that miser of a Guildmaster might reduce his days off, but as expected, he didn't go that far. Allen secretly patted his chest in relief to that fact.

(Okay, so far it's as expected. Let's move on to the next step during my next three days off.) (Allen)

While secretly thinking that, with light gait, Allen headed towards the north gate to complete his boring work.

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(T/N: I started adding the name of the speaker after the speech. Just wanted to try it, to see if it would hinder my reading, it probably won’t. It’ll probably improve it instead.)

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Level Down 4

Volume 1 Chapter 4 - Dungeon Change Report

RAW

While looking at his own status board, Allen saw the words ‘Level 500’ shining brilliantly there, and when he saw his stats that exceeded 5000, he remembered the hardships he had gone through and shed tears.

For the past month and a half, he had given up his days off and frequented the Slime Dungeon just to see this sight.

By the way, thanks to the long hours he spent in the dungeon, he was able to easily meet his daily quota of 150 slime magic stones every day, in fact, if you include the ones he picked up on his days off, Allen had already accumulated more than 1,000 slime magic stones that he can’t use in his house.

“What now? For the time being, should I try it?”

Ever since Allen started increasing his level using the level up and down traps, he had never purposely used his full power.

The status values are just the maximum values, and have little to do with how you live a normal life. In other words, Allen had no idea how much he was currently capable of doing.

Seeing his status values increasing day by day, there were many times when Allen was tempted to test it out.

However, he thought it might affect his growth of stats when leveling up, and more than anything, he thought about testing it when his level reached its highest, so he kept holding it off.

This time was just right when the huge slime was about to revive.

Allen didn't even try to hide his buoyant mood as he headed straight for the boss's room.

In the boss room, as Allen expected, was the huge slime jiggling its body.

Although it is a boss, it is the weakest class, and to be frank, it is a boss that can be defeated by a single person with a level of 5, but even so, this is the strongest monster in the Slime Dungeon.

Allen looked happy as he thought about how he would defeat it, but since he was going to do it anyway, he thought about defeating it with magic that he doesn't usually use.

Then, he shifted his consciousness to battle and held out his hand towards the huge slime.

“Fireball... haa!?”

For Allen, he intended to just normally shoot a basic spell of fire magic, Fireball.

A normal Fireball is an attack magic that shoots out a ball of fire with a diameter of about 10 centimeters.

However, what appeared before Allen's eyes was a mass of fire over 1 meter in diameter, and the instant Allen felt surprised and launched it, it flew at such a speed that a normal Fireball appeared to stop, burning up the huge slime to nothing.

Not only that, it also hit the dungeon wall behind it, sinking in with a sizzling sound.

After a while, the Fireball's effect ended, and Allen timidly went to see its trace.

There was no shadow nor shape of the huge slime’s magic stones that would normally be there, and the dungeon wall that had received the Fireball had become a hemispherical-shaped cavity that was as smooth as glass.

Dungeon walls are unfathomable things, they are usually tough, and even if they are damaged, they will return to normal after a while. However, the splendidly deformed wall in front of Allen showed no signs of being repaired.

This condition was clearly abnormal.

A bead of sweat drips down Allen's forehead.

“Nononono, it's just a Fireball, you know.”

Allen stared at his hands. Then he raised his hand on the spot, but he reconsidered and moved a considerable distance away before once again readying his hand toward the wall.

“Fireball.”

The exact same scene from before was repeated. The two hemispherical-shaped cavities left on the wall have just been joined together to form a gourd-like shape.

Allen looked at his hands again.

“Seriously?”

He had repeated it twice. It couldn’t be wrong. Allen himself was well aware of this, but he still couldn't believe what he had done.

Because that was a Fireball. It is the weakest fire magic, if it’s a skilled magician, with its power, they would only be able to use it to keep their opponent in check.

Allen grimaced and held his head in his hand.

“Come to think of it, that's how it was, right? My stats were more than six times the previous ones after all. Uwa, if it’s like that, it can’t be...”

Allen pulled out his sword from his waist and did a single slash with all his might. With just that, a shock wave was generated from the sword and it left a clear line on the wall that it shouldn’t have reached.

Following that, ‘snap’ that high-pitched metallic sound echoed in the area.

“Ueh!?”

The sword Allen was holding snapped off just above the hilt, and tumbled on the ground with a ‘clank clank’ sound. Allen's sword could not withstand the strain of his practice swing.

Allen couldn't help but cry out at the unbelievable sight.

And then, Allen looked sadly at his beloved sword, which snapped at the base and was no longer useful.

This sword was an item that Allen had a deep attachment to, having worked hard to raise the money, even worked as a servant for a while, to have it forged at a blacksmith's shop in the city.

Allen was shocked, almost to the point of despair, that it had been broken with just one swing.

“Haa, let’s just go home today. Seems like I won’t be able to fight anywhere else other than this dungeon until I get used to it.”

Allen let out a big sigh and slumped his shoulders.

Even though it was an auspicious day for him to reach level 500, Allen carefully put his beloved sword that had snapped into its scabbard and left the Slime Dungeon with a slow and sluggish gait.

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And then, after half a month...

“Alright, I’m getting pretty good at holding back.”

Looking at the huge slime which had splendidly withstood a normal-sized fireball, Allen made a gesture to wipe away the sweat that wasn't even there.

Ever since that day when he reached level 500, Allen had been training on holding back every day. Because if he went to a dungeon where there were other adventurers with that power, Allen could have accidentally killed the other adventurers.

After receiving the fireball, the huge slime rushed over me to attack him, and he cut down it with a cheap sword he bought second hand.

Of course, it doesn't generate a shock wave, and the huge slime wasn’t blown to pieces with a single blow. Allen looked relieved at the result.

In the first place, there is usually no need for training on holding back. This is because people’s level increases little by little, so their body naturally learns the appropriate amount of force.

However, in Allen's case, his level reached 500 in a very short period of time, and his stats value became far different from before.

This wouldn't be a problem in a daily life where status had little effect, but it was self-evident that if he tried to fight in the same way as before, it would end up just like the first time.

“Thanks for going along with me.”

Allen swung his sword down at the huge slime, aiming at its magic stone. The huge slime melted into the ground and disappeared, leaving behind a magic stone that was cut in half.

Although it was only when it comes to slimes, Allen was convinced that he had become able to use the perfect amount of force.

“Alright, now I don't need to train here anymore. Now then, I guess it's time to start the plan.”

Saying that to himself, Allen took a quick glance at the very difficult to find hidden passageway with the level-down trap before leaving the boss room.

For the past two months, while endlessly raising his level and training to hold back, Allen had been thinking about what he would do if his level up went well.

For that reason, Allen had done all the preliminary investigation on the Adventurers' Guild. He had a clear plan for the future drawn in his mind. All that's left is follow it and implement it.

When Allen exited the Slime Dungeon, he was bathed in the dazzling sunlight shining from directly above him and he smiled. Then, in high spirits, he started walking toward Lilac City.

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Allen arrived back at the Adventurers' Guild at around three in the afternoon. Since only a few adventurers return at such a half-hearted time, many guild employees use this relatively free time to rest and eat.

Allen looked around the room for a moment, confirmed that the person he was looking for was there, and walked towards her.

“Oh my, you're early today.”

“Yeah, I’ve got something a bit urgent. I brought over 150 magic stones, so there's no problem with the quota.”

Matilda tilted her head at Allen's words and waited for his next words. Toward such Matilda, Allen placed a bag containing slimes’ magic stones and a handwritten revised map of the Slime Dungeon in front of her.

“When I was working there today, the structure of the Slime Dungeon changed, so I quickly did an investigation of just the traps. There are no changes to the floors or anything like that, so there's nothing particularly new.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Is there anything concerning?”

“There's one level-up trap on the third floor. It's rare to find one on such a low floor.”

“level-up trap, huh. Hmm, we might get a little busy.”

Allen shrugged his shoulders in response to Matilda's troubled words.

The map that Allen gave Matilda has the locations and types of traps that Allen investigated added to it. Of course, it mentions neither the hidden room in the boss room nor the level-down trap.

That’s not surprising, though, since he was reporting it with the intention of hiding it.

The reason why Allen went out of his way to report the changes in the dungeon’s structure to the Guild was to prevent whimsical adventurers from going to the Slime Dungeon and discovering the differences with the Guild's map.

If another adventurer noticed, no one would think that Allen, who enters the Slime Dungeon every day, didn't notice the change.

Of course, there might be some who think that Allen was slacking off on the report. However, as a former veteran adventurer, Allen's personality is generally known to Lilac City’s adventurers as being serious and solid.

In short, there would be few people who would think that Allen didn’t report for no reason.

That's precisely why Allen needed to report as soon as he finished his preparations. In order to avoid them suspecting him and discovering the level-down trap.

‘Phew’, Matilda let out a small breath and stood up with the map Allen had brought in her hand.

“Then I'll go report this to the Guildmaster. How about you, Allen...?”

“I'll be on standby, right? Well, I'll just sort out some paperwork while waiting. Call me if you need anything.”

“Please.”

Allen quietly watched Matilda go to the Guildmaster's room after she said that.

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Level Down 3

Volume 1 Chapter 3 - Reset Marathon

RAW

“Ara, Allen. Aren’t you a little late?”

“Yeah, I was running some errands while I’m at it, you see.”

As the sun went down and the adventurers finished their work and started making noise at bars to eat and drink, Allen returned to the Adventurers' Guild in Lilac City, to which he belonged.

Lilac is a city located in the southwest of Eliard Kingdom, which is said to be one of the top three countries in the Central Continent, the largest landmass in the world.

If we compare only the population, there are several cities in Eliard Kingdom that are larger than Lilac, but if we compare them in terms of economic scale, there are only two or three large cities other than the Royal Capital that are on par with it, that’s how big a city Lilac was.

Also, Lilac has four dungeons in its vicinity, and the Adventurers' Guild where Allen works as an employee is also the second largest after the Royal Capital.

Beyond the Guild counter, adventurers who have finished their work are lined up to meet their favorite receptionist, and at the bar in the back, adventurers who have received their rewards are wasting all the money they earned that day vigorously drinking alcohol and making noise.

The hall was filled with such adventurers and was chaotic, to the point that even walking was difficult for those who were not used to it. Allen looked at such a scene while feeling a little nostalgic.

Allen came in not through the front entrance where adventurers go in and out, but through the back entrance used by employees. Allen, who has already quit being an adventurer, doesn't use the front entrance.

Leaving that aside, the one who called out to Allen when he returned to the Guild was Matilda, a former receptionist.

She is a beautiful woman in her late twenties, about the same age as Allen, with shoulder-length light brown hair that is gently wavy and a straight nose.

She started working as a guild employee apprentice around the same time that Allen registered as an adventurer, so in a sense, they are like in the same generation.

When Allen was an adventurer, he often lined up at Matilda's reception because of this kind of familiarity, but he never thought until just recently that he would become a guild employee and become Matilda’s colleague.

“You’re late too, Matilda, what's wrong? The working hours should have ended by now.”

“Mine is this. There were a lot of people coming back from dungeons today.”

Matilda flapped the documents in her hand, showing them to Allen.

Those were important documents that neatly rewrote the number and condition of the materials the adventurers brought, and calculated their contribution points to the Guild.

Allen also didn't know this when he was an adventurer, but the documents that are used to hand over rewards to adventurers are temporary. They are collected from the receptionist, and guild employees in the back like Matilda make a clean copy of them and calculate their contribution to the Guild.

By the way, receptionists are not involved in this work at all. A receptionist’s job is to interact with adventurers, they don't evaluate them or anything like that.

As for why they do it like this, it is to quickly deal with the adventurers.

After all, if it takes a long time to create the documents and it ends up making adventurers wait, if they’re unlucky, the adventurers might become irritated and cause a commotion.

Or rather, even with this current method, there are people who occasionally cause problems, so it would definitely cause a commotion.

It’s for this reason that the calculation of the reward became the top priority, just hand the money to the adventurer, and the proper documents will be prepared later.

“That's a lot of work. Should I help?”

“It’s fine. Reviewing them will be hard later anyway.”

“I see, my bad. Aah, I'll leave today's quota here. There should be 176.”

Allen took the bag from his waist and placed it on the desk. Without even looking at the contents of the bag, Matilda put it on a scale to see how much it weighed, and smiled at Allen.

“You're still as diligent as ever. You don't have to count them, you know.”

“The quota is supposed to be 150 per day though. Then, I’m going home.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Be careful.”

“You too Matilda, don’t push yourself too hard.”

Raising one hand and saying those words, Allen left through the back door of the Guild.

Matilda watched his back profile until he disappeared, narrowed her brown eyes, and muttered with a slightly happy expression on her face.

“I wonder if something good happened to him. He looked like he did back then... Now then, I also have to try a little harder.”

Matilda straightened her stiff spine and went back to working on the documents in front of her.

.

.

.

The next day, Allen came to the Slime Dungeon early in the morning. Of course, no one else seemed to be here except Allen, but seeing it the same as usual, Allen felt relieved.

Then, instead of rushing straight to the hidden room in the boss room, he ran around as fast as he could, stomping the slimes and collecting their magic stones.

Yesterday, Allen used the level-down trap and his level had dropped to 120.

It was sad for Allen to see his level that he had worked so hard to raise drop so quickly, but if he thought of it as an unavoidable sacrifice for his bright future, he was able to endure it.

Traps are reset in about 3 minutes, so the maximum amount of level that can be lowered in 1 hour is 20 levels. If he continues to do this for 6 hours, he can lower his level to 1, Allen calculated.

It was currently just past 6:30 in the morning, so if he continued to step on the level-down trap starting now, he should be able to return to level 1 around noon.

But unfortunately, Allen is a guild employee. The Guild has a quota of 150 slime magic stones that must be delivered on days other than holidays. And as his level goes down, his stats will of course also go down, so his stamina and speed will also drop, and the speed at which he can defeat slimes will slow down.

That's why Allen was planning to stock up on magic stones now while his level was still high. He would be killing slimes to raise his level, so he should be able to make it, he thought, but he’ll still do it to be absolutely sure.

That whole day, Allen devoted himself to defeating slimes, even eating meals while walking, and obtained over 600 slime magic stones.

He submitted 160 of them to the Guild with a nonchalant look on his face, and his one day of preparation came to an end.

Returning to his home, Allen realized that exterminating slimes, which normally was so unpleasant, wasn't a pain at all that day, and he smiled bitterly at that.

.

.

.

And so, he finished his preparation.

.

.

.

The next morning, Allen headed to the Slime Dungeon and headed to the hidden room in the boss room at full speed.

While feeling a little worried that the trap might have disappeared, Allen stepped into the center of the hidden room.

A red magic circle floated on the ground, and a ‘ding’ sound rang out in his head.

“Alright, Status.”

The level displayed there was 119.

“Good, good, good, all that’s left is to just repeat this.”

Allen waited patiently. If he defeated slimes during this waiting period, he wouldn't have to worry about today's quota, but the moment he defeated it, his level would rise, so he wouldn’t do it.

The Slime Dungeon itself wasn't completely dark, but it was dark enough to be on a level of dusk, so Allen couldn’t even read a book and just waited patiently for the time to pass.

Even while he was eating lunch, he continued to step on the trap every three minutes, and at around 11 o'clock, the boss, the huge slime, revived and he went up one level, but Allen wasn’t discouraged and continued leveling down.

And about 6 hours after the start...

“I did it. I finally did it.”

Allen smiled as if he was clenching his teeth and clenched his fists.

What was written on the status board displayed in front of Allen was the word level 1 and shabby stats. Allen finally dropped his level from 180 to 1.

“Ugh, as I thought, the weapon is heavy.”

When Allen pulled out his favorite sword that was strapped to his waist, his arm trembled as if he were holding a greatsword.

He was unable to swing the sword to his satisfaction even though he had been able to wield it easily just a few moments ago, but Allen couldn't help but feel happy about that fact.

“Then, shall we go?”

Allen placed his sword on the floor. It was an important partner that he always carried with him at any and every time for self-defense, even after he retired from being an adventurer and became a guild employee, but in the current situation, it would only become a hindrance, he thought.

Allen went outside the room and stomped on a slime. A ‘ding’ sound sounded in his head, telling him that he had leveled up.

“Status.”

Allen looked at his status board. His level became 2, and his status values increased by 7 across-the-board.

“No good. I’ll start over.”

Allen shook his head and returned to the hidden room.

Normally, an increase of 7 across-the-board would be an extraordinary number, but Allen had no intention of compromising even a bit.

Because he knew that every category could go up by 10 if he was thoughtless, there was no way he could compromise on any other value, he thought.

Allen returned to the hidden room and stepped on the level-down trap, and his level became 1 again.

And then, Allen quickly turned around and went to step on a slime, leveling up to level 2 again.

His stats went up by 3 across-the-board. Sighing, Allen returned to the hidden room again. To step on the level-down trap.

Allen single-mindedly repeated the task that can hardly be called a battle.

Although stepping on a slime to level up would uniformly increase the number of all his status values, the probability that all of them would increase by 10 was low. It might or might not happen once every twenty times.

But Allen didn't give up.

The idea that he might be able to recover from the hardships he had endured and go on a real adventure as an adventurer strengthened Allen's resolve.

When all of his stats went up by 10, Allen went to step on the level-up trap while dancing in joy.

Once he stepped on the level-up trap, his level would go up by 1, but all of his stats would only go up by 1.

But that was fine. Because the only reason Allen stepped on the level-up trap is to raise his level. This was to cut down the time when he would normally have to defeat multiple monsters.

He didn’t need to worry about all his stats going up by 1 at all, because he would immediately step on the level-down trap and return to the values he had before he leveled up.

Allen stepped on the level-down trap and defeated a slime. And every once in a while, he went to step on the level-up trap. He simply repeated it over and over again.

As a result, although it was gradual, Allen's level rose.

.

.

.

And then, a month and a half later...

“I did it. I finally did it.”

Allen had raised his level to level 500, which was the upper limit for a normal human. Of course, all his stat increases were 10. In other words, all his stats values had increased by 4990.

The average basic stats of a level 1 adult were around 100, so Allen's current stats, that was, his attack power, defense power, vitality, magic power, intelligence, agility, and dexterity all exceeded 5000.

Most likely, the strongest man in human history was born here.

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Level Down 2

Volume 1 Chapter 2 - Level-Down Trap

RAW

The hidden passage wasn’t mentioned on the map Allen was carrying.

“Uwa, did they miss it in the investigation? It might have changed just now, but I can't judge that.”

Allen slowly and carefully walked forward.

He could see that there was a room a few meters ahead. However, this was a passage that is not shown on the map, what’s more it was hidden and was difficult to find. Allen had high expectations for what lies ahead, but at the same time, he also judged that he has to proceed with caution.

When going to an unknown place, it's best to be overly cautious.

That's what an adventurer specializing in scouting who once taught Allen the basics of scouting said time and time again.

Allen proceeded through the hidden passageway, and when he came to the entrance of the room at the end of it, he carefully looked around to the left and right, making sure not to go inside.

He didn’t see any traps, and there were no treasure chests either.

“The disappointment is as high as the expectation, huh. Haa~. No, I didn't have any expectations for the Slime Dungeon though.”

Allen entered the room with a complicated expression on his face while muttering an excuse to no one in particular. Just in case, he tried walking around the four corners of the room and hitting the walls, but he didn’t find any more hidden passages.

Letting out a sigh, Allen stopped investigating the wall any further, and the moment he reached the center of the room, a red magic circle different from the one before appeared at his feet. Then, once again, the ‘ding’ sound resounded in his head.

It was Allen's first time experiencing this trap, but having an idea what it is, Allen's shoulders slumped in disappointment before he even saw the result.

“Status.”

The level written on the status board in front of Allen was 167.

His level that should have increased due to the level-up trap earlier has returned to his original level, and all his stats that had increased by 1 due to the level up have also returned to the values they were before he stepped on the level-up trap.

“Haa, this even has a level-down trap? So pointless~”

Allen's grumble echoed in that small room.

As the name suggests, the level-down trap erases all the experience points you've earned since reaching the level when you stepped on the trap. It was a brutal trap that drops your level by 1.

To explain this in terms of Allen's current situation, he has lost the experience points he gained from the several slimes he has defeated since reaching level 168 after stepping on the level-up trap, and his level has become 167.

However, although his level went down by one to 167, he still has his accumulated experience points he had until just before his level went up to 168. In other words, if he defeats some monster, his level will immediately return to 168.

In effect, you could say it's a trap that causes you to lose all the experience points you earned during the level you stepped on.

Due to these characteristics, the damage will be small if you are a low level adventurer who needs only a few experience points to level up, but to high level adventurers who need a lot of experience points to level up, it’s a trap that is hated like a snake.

After all, if you step on it just before your next level up, all the experience points you've worked so hard to earn will be lost, so it's only natural.

What’s more, this trap, like the level-up trap, cannot be discovered at first glance. In other words, without information, there is no way to avoid it.

“Haa, let's just go home.”

Allen let out one sigh and walked out of the room. Once the boss was defeated, it wouldn't appear for 24 hours, so he didn’t need to fight the huge slime again. Allen's face looked a little better until just now, but it had already returned to the unmotivated look he had before the dungeon change.

Allen headed for the exit with slow steps. He thoughtlessly held such high expectations for the final hidden room that he ended up feeling even more tired.

“I've more or less finished investigating the traps, but I haven't found the location of the monsters’ initial appearance yet. I'll just report back and finish the map at a later date.”

As he was walking while muttering that, a slime appeared in front of him.

Without thinking of anything in particular, Allen stomped it half out of habit, but when was about to pick up the magic stone, he heard a ‘ding’ sound echoing in his head and he stopped.

“Now that I think about it, I got hit by a level down didn’t I? Heeh, it's amazing that even a slime can make it go up. Status.”

Allen straightened his bent waist and casually pulled up his status board, as was his usual habit when he levels up, and when he saw the screen, he stopped moving at all.

The level written on the status board was 168. There's nothing strange about that in itself. level-down traps reduce the experience points gained after reaching that level to 0, and only lower the level by one, so if Allen, who reached level 167 due to the trap, defeated a slime, it was natural that he would become level 168.

The reason Allen stopped moving was the increase in his own stats as he leveled up.

All his seven stats; attack power, defense power, vitality, magic power, intelligence, agility, and dexterity, had increased by 10.

“HAA~!?”

Allen's shouts echoed throughout the dungeon, but no one paid any attention to it as there was no one else but slimes in the dungeon.

.

.

.

Allen was running lightly through the dungeon at the speed of a jog.

The time from when a trap in a dungeon is activated until it is reset is approximately 3 minutes. The distance between the level up and level-down traps is a 3 minute light jog. That was just the right distance for verification.

Allen leveled up through the trap, then leveled down by stepping on the trap in the hidden room, then leveled up by defeating a slime on his way to hit the level-up trap again, and repeated this process.

The verification continued until Allen's level reached 180.

“Phew, so it's not like it will absolutely go up by 10. I guess I was just lucky the first time.”

That was Allen’s conclusion after repeating the routine a total of 13 times.

The stats value that rose when he defeated a slime can be 3, can be 9, and of course even 1. What they have in common is that all stats categories increase by the same value.

There was just one exception, but Allen had some idea of why.

“As for why all the stats categories go up by the same value... Hmm, maybe it's because I didn't do anything special to defeat the slimes? When everything went up by 10, I was so happy that I couldn't help but run seriously, so when I leveled up, I specialized and my agility went up. I bet it's the little things that make the difference.”

* (T/N: I don’t think my translation is wrong, but why did he say the opposite of what happened?)

In fact, all Allen did when he defeated the slime was place his foot down. That was, rather than trying to defeat a monster, almost no different than walking.

In particular, Allen wasn't conscious of any power, so wasn’t that why everything rose evenly? So Allen made that prediction.

“I've never heard of anything about this though. Hmm.”

Allen was hesitant. If this fact is made known, not only adventurers but also ordinary people will flock to this Slime Dungeon in droves. Their level and stats will rise effortlessly. Even if the Guild charges a lot of money and tries to put restrictions on it, they will probably come, Allen predicted.

However, if that happens, the city will be filled with people who have acquired great power without any effort. That seemed dangerous to Allen.

This would be fine if this was just a level-up trap.

Even if one were to raise their level to 500, their status will be around 600 if you add in the average level 1 status of 100. If you think of it to be equivalent to a level 100 mid-level adventurer, that’s quite a level of strength, but that's about it.

It could be said to be a level where a well-trained soldier could easily take them down.

However, if you combine it with the level-down trap and stepping on slime to level up, it becomes possible to obtain many times that stats.

That’s the stats that exceeds even that of the highest-ranking adventurer, known as an inhuman, and the head magician of the royal court, who is said to have mastered magic.

As an adventurer, Allen has steadily raised his level. Because he knows how difficult it is to face danger and raise one’s level, he won’t get drunk on power and hit the residents too strongly. It's similar with most other adventurers.

However, Allen knew that sometimes people who suddenly acquire great powers become completely different people. And that it would end with an unfortunate outcome.

This is true even for adventurers who are accustomed to increasing their power by leveling up. So what would happen if an ordinary person, who is not used to it, obtained such power? At the very least, it would almost never end in a good way, Allen predicted.

“Besides, it's a pain in the ass.”

That murmur that he added was also Allen's true feelings.

It would be better if it was just a level-up trap. There may be a rush of people who’d use it for a while, but they’d mostly be people living in the city, and eventually the demand will subside.

There won’t be many people who would come here from other cities and take the risk of being attacked by monsters, Allen thought.

However, if they found a way to significantly increase their stats, people from all over the country, no, all over the world, might start coming to this dungeon.

If the Slime Dungeon is flooded with people from all over the world, Allen, who was a guild employee and knew about the Slime Dungeon more than anyone else in the Guild, would definitely get dragged into it. If he’s unlucky, it might continue for the rest of his life.

As expected, Allen didn't like that either.

“All right, let's just pretend I didn't know it. Fortunately, unless you're a veteran scout, you won't notice the room with the level-down trap, and those guys won't come here either.”

Having come to that conclusion, Allen tried to return to his daily life as if nothing had happened.

However, his feet stopped one step before climbing the stairs leading to the surface.

He felt like he heard a voice from inside his heart. ‘Isn't this a chance?’ That voice.

A teenager who worked recklessly for his much younger siblings. A man in his twenties who has gotten used to his job, but has not been able to form a fixed party, and has been laughed at by his peers of the same level for his noncommittal stats.

Frankly speaking, Allen has never gone on an adventure as an adventurer. More important than that, was to earn a steady income, support his family, and above all, desperately survive.

However, Allen is already 29 years old. His younger siblings are also independent and are out of Allen's hands. ‘If that's the case, won’t it be fun to start living like an adventurer from now on?’ he thought.

“No, no, no, I’ve already returned my Guild card and am the guild employee to begin with.”

Even as he said this, Allen's legs made no attempt to climb the stairs. That fact proves more than anything that Allen's true feelings are not what he says.

Fuu~, Allen let out a long breath. He closed his eyes and stood still for a moment, then he turned around and opened his eyes.

Those eyes were no longer those of an unmotivated guild employee, but had changed to the sparkling eyes of a newcomer becoming an adventurer for the first time.

“Should I try doing it over? Just one more time.”

After saying that, Allen turned around and headed towards the hidden passage in the boss room again.

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Previous | Next 

Level Down 1

The Omnipotent Life of a Man in His Late Twenties That Begins With a Level-Down Trap

Author: Zirco (ジルコ)

RAW: レベルダウンの罠から始まるアラサー男の万能生活

Allen, who became an adventurer at the age of 12 and desperately worked hard to support his very young siblings, quit being an adventurer when they became independent and started working as an employee at the Adventurers’ Guild right when they were recruiting.

However, his job was a humble one; managing the Slime Dungeon that adventurers did not care for.

“Damn it, that Guildmaster. Always using us so hard. This is definitely the reason why my predecessor quit!”

After a month of continuing to stomp slimes while feeling depressed, the dungeon suddenly underwent a change and the monsters and traps were completely changed.

Allen investigated alone, but he stepped on a level-down trap in a hidden room he discovered.

Allen's shoulders slumped in disappointment at his own misfortune, but he was blindsided by the unbelievable events that followed.

“Huh, won’t this thing make me incredibly strong?”

New omnipotent days of adventures, encounters, and repayment of favors have begun for Allen, the Guild's chore employee.

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(T/N: release rate will be 5 chapters per week, I should be able to keep that up, but if I can’t, I’ll lower it to, at the slowest, 1 chapter per 2 days.)

Volume 1 - The Guild’s Chore Employee’s Omnipotent Life

Volume 1 Chapter 1 - The Guild’s Chore Employee and The Slime Dungeon

RAW

“Haa~”

A man with brown hair so uneven that it’d make you say ‘it’d be too bothersome, so cut it’ was walking as it swayed, letting out a deep sigh as he stepped on a jelly-like monster in front of him; a slime.

Despite the normally disgusting splatter sensation, his almost black brown eyes did not waver, and his expression did not change at all. Well, even if it didn’t change, that face of his is an apathetic one that doesn't seem to have any motivation though.

The man took out a magic stone the size of the tip of his pinky finger from the crushed slime and put it into a well-used bag he wore on his waist.

The magic stone of a slime that even a child can defeat by stepping on it has no value, but he has to take it with him as proof that he did his job properly.

“I wonder, why is this?”

The name of the man who is muttering to himself in a dimly lit cave while stepping on slimes to defeat them is Allen. He is a 29-year-old former adventurer and currently a new employee of the Adventurers' Guild.

The Adventurers' Guild is a union that brings together adventurers who hunt monsters that are harmful to people, perform escort duties, and sometimes run errands, in a sense, they are a sort of jack-of-all-trades shop.

You don't need any special qualifications to become an adventurer, but the majority of jobs involve dangerous work such as fighting monsters. Since people in this profession are often unruly, it may be easier to understand that the Adventurers' Guild is an organization that manages and monitors such adventurers.

One of the jobs of that Adventurers' Guild was to properly manage dungeons.

A dungeon is a mysterious space that creates monsters.

Inside it, even if a monster is defeated, it will spontaneously appear again out of nowhere after a certain amount of time has passed, and not only that, there are also traps set up that will cause you to die even though no one set them.

This alone may seem like there’s not much benefit to it, but the fact that monsters continue to appear also means that materials such as magic stones and the skin and flesh of the monsters can be obtained from their bodies.

Monster skins are used for clothes and shoes, their meat for food, and their magic stones for fuel for magic tools such as illumination, enriching people's lives.

In other words, from another perspective, dungeons can be said to be a treasure trove of resources.

In addition, dungeons sometimes contain treasure chests, mainly in deep floors, and more than one adventurer has become a millionaire from the treasures found there. That was one of the charms that attracted people to dungeons.

Young people become adventurers while dreaming that ‘we’ll be like that one day too’, and most of them end up having their dreams shattered. That was the kind of place a dungeon is.

Allen is currently in one of those dungeons, commonly known as the Slime Dungeon.

Although this Slime Dungeon was a dungeon, it was such a deserted dungeon that there was no one else inside except Allen.

The reason for this is not because there are restrictions on its entry, but simply that it is too unattractive and unpopular.

As the name of the dungeon suggests, this Slime Dungeon only contains slimes.

It is a cavernous, three-floor underground structure that seems to have been created inside a craggy rock, but the slimes that appear are similar in strength, and their weakness is such that even a child can defeat them just by stepping on them.

Defeating monsters gives you experience points, and when you accumulate a certain amount of experience points, you level up.

However, the experience points that an adult could gain by defeating a slime that was weak enough for even a child to defeat were negligible, and the only materials that could be obtained were small magic stones that also had negligible value. In other words, it doesn't make any profit.

A dungeon that everyone recognizes as no longer worth coming to because the floors were so shallow that you couldn't expect to find any treasure chests, that was the Slime Dungeon.

The reason why Allen bothered to come all the way to such a worthless dungeon and defeat slimes was for one of the Guild's jobs; the proper management of dungeons.

A characteristic of dungeons is that if no one enters it and it is left unattended, a phenomenon known as a stampede will occur in which a large number of monsters flood out of the dungeon.

In the first place, dungeons are the property of the nobles who govern the territory, and their management is simply entrusted to the Adventurers' Guild. If that Adventurers' Guild were to neglect its management and a stampede occurred, the heads of the people at the top of the Guild would definitely fly physically.

This Slime Dungeon is no different. Although there may not be any human casualties, there is a possibility that crops and livestock would be damaged.

Normally, instead of having a guild employee go, they would have requested an adventurer to go, but it was so unpopular that no one would accept it.

So, they had no choice but to turn to Allen, a former adventurer.

“Damn it, that Guildmaster. Always using us so hard. This is definitely the reason why my predecessor quit!”

Allen, seeing the face of the Guildmaster, who used to be a renowned adventurer but is now a fat, flabby, thin-headed shadow of his former self overlapping with a slime, stomped on it over and over again in frustration.

He felt refreshed for a moment, but all that was left was his own messed-up shoes and magic stones, and the Guildmaster's face wasn't crushed.

“Haa, so empty.”

It was a month ago that Allen was lucky enough to get a job at the Adventurers' Guild after the previous employee resigned.

And from that day on, the days of crushing slime all by himself began and it started to eat away at Allen's heart. ‘Will I be okay as it is?’ right when Allen was thinking that...

Gogogogogogo!

“Uoh!”

The dungeon suddenly rumbled and Allen let out a voice of surprise as he put his hand on the wall. And almost at the same time, he frowned as hard as he could.

After a while, the shaking subsided and the dungeon returned to calm, but Allen's expression did not improve.

“Seriously? Uwaa, haven’t I got more work now?”

Allen took out the map of this Slime Dungeon from his chest. This map was created by the Guild several years ago, and it depicts the locations of traps and the locations of monsters' initial appearance.

* (T/N: I guess it’s ‘monsters’ spawn point’ or something like that, but I don’t want to use gaming terms for this sentence. Any alternate words?)

Creating things like this to reduce the death rate of adventurers and allow them to conquer dungeons more efficiently is also the job of the Adventurers' Guild though...

“Haa, I guess I’ll investigate again from the entrance.”

Allen roughly scratched his head and began walking toward the entrance.

The rumbling earlier was a sign that the structure of the dungeon had changed. In other words, the locations of traps and monsters' initial appearance drawn on the map that Allen was currently holding have already changed, meaning, it was no longer useful for anything other than checking the terrain, which was the only thing that remained unchanged after this sign.

.

.

.

If the structure of a dungeon changes, mapping becomes a top priority. As long as they had the ability to do it, it made no difference whether they were an adventurer or a guild employee.

In the first place, the structure changes only once every 10 years or so, so there are some lucky adventurers who have never been affected with it at all.

“But who needs a map of a dungeon like this that no one but me will enter?”

Despite complaining, Allen began his investigation from the entrance. His steps were much more cautious than before.

Even if the structure of a dungeon changes, the monsters that appear will basically remain the same, so only slimes will appear. In other words, there is almost no danger from monsters.

The problem was the traps.

Allen knew from experience that if it was the Slime Dungeon with only three floors, there wouldn't be many traps set up.

But a trap is still a trap. If he is caught unexpectedly, he could be seriously injured.

Allen is a veteran who has been an adventurer since he was 12 years old. During his experience, the amount of times he assumed the role of a scout wasn’t small.

As a result, Allen discovered the traps without much difficulty, set them off on purpose, and wrote on the map while checking what kind of trap they were.

When he was in a temporary party, he was dealing with more difficult traps in other dungeons. He won’t struggle with the traps in the Slime Dungeon, which only has three floors.

Allen finished investigating the traps on the first and second floors before noon, ate a simple lunch, and then set out to investigate the third floor.

The investigation of the third floor, the lowest floor, proceeded without problems. To begin with, the Slime Dungeon has three floors, but it's such a small and narrow dungeon that even if you went around all the routes, you could go around it in one day.

There were some traps, but they were all things that were discovered quickly. Wanting to quickly finish his investigation, Allen quickened his pace and entered a small room.

After confirming that there were no traps in that nondescript small room, Allen stomped the slime that was sitting in the center. The next moment, a magic circle shining white appeared at his feet, and a ‘ding’ sound echoed in Allen's head.

“Uoh, seriously? Status.”

A status board spread out in front of Allen that only Allen can see. Allen's status displayed there had changed as he expected.

Even though his prediction was correct, he didn't look happy at all, and on the contrary, Allen was troubled.

“Uwa, as I thought, a level-up trap, huh. Finding one in such a shallow place like this, that’s pretty rare.”

The level displayed on Allen's status board was 168. Up until now, it was 167, so the trap has raised his level by one.

That alone makes it sound like a lucky trap, but although this level-up trap poses no danger to your life, it has a pitfall. Because of that, if you exclude traps that cause death, this could be said to be representative of the traps that were hated by adventurers.

There are reasons such as the fact that the existence of the trap is not visible until it is activated, but the biggest reason why it is hated is that all the stats that increase with the level up are fixed at 1.

Normally, when you level up, your abilities increase by a value between 1 and 10. If all of them become 1, it means that even though your level has increased, there was almost no growth. It’s natural that it’s hated.

By the way, it is said that the values that increase when you level up normally are determined by your actions before leveling up, so if you are a warrior, your attack power and defense power will increase, and if you are a magician, your magic power and intelligence will increase.

The average increase in value is about 4 to 5.

Of course, research had been conducted to see if there were any conditions for increasing the value in order to maximize the benefits of level up, but even Allen, who has been an adventurer for a long time, has never heard of anything that has been found to be more than just a rule of thumb.

“Haha, maybe I’ll just raise mine to the upper limit.”

Allen said this while feeling like giving in to despair a little. This is because Allen's stats were low compared to his level, they were average and noncommittal.

* (T/N: why so contradictory? why?)

Allen, who became an adventurer to feed his much younger brothers and sisters, was unable to form a fixed party, because he could not leave home for long periods of time.

That was why he had been working alone or in temporary parties until he raised his level to this point.

When he was in a temporary party, Allen's role varied from warrior, magician, and scout, depending on the demand.

It was precisely because he was able to do that that he was invited to various parties, but on the other hand, from the perspective of people in his same level, Allen's stats were at best average, and at worst, half-baked and unusable.

And Allen was fully aware of this. In a sense, you could say that it had become a complex.

While half-seriously considering doing so, Allen continued his investigation, easily defeating the dungeon's strongest creature, a huge slime, in the innermost boss room, and completed visiting all the rooms.

No treasure chests appeared, nor new stairs to new deeper floors.

A little disappointed that the change was so unremarkable, Allen went ahead and investigated the boss room.

That said, boss rooms basically contain no traps. There are some bosses who set up traps by themselves, but the huge slime is not the kind of boss who does such things.

It was at that moment, when Allen was examining the wall while thinking about what he would eat when he returned home.

In the corner of the wall near the entrance, there was something so faint that even Allen couldn't notice it unless he looked carefully. The fact that Allen was able to find it was, to put it bluntly, a coincidence. It was at that level.

Allen examined the wall with a nervous look on his face, and carefully pushed on the working wall he found.

Once he did, with a rumbling sound, a hidden passage appeared in front of Allen, inviting him deeper inside.

────

Next 

CSA 104 - The Case Was Closed

“Now then, shall we go get revenge?”

I fixed my torn clothes with Repair Magic’s Repair, and also synthesized Lotorl alloy with it to strengthen it while I’m at it.

As for weapons... the only things I can use are the kitchen knives and frying pans, so let's just directly hit her with a straight right.

“A direct hit with a straight right!”
“Pabf!?”

I hit Magatsu Akehoshi with a teleported straight right hand to the face. There's no need to go all the way to that place, right?

Next is a belly punch.
Her abdominal muscles look tough, so I cast Body Strengthening Magic before punching her as hard as I can.

“ORA!”
“Guho!?”

Finally, how about I give her a smack on the butt?
In addition to Body Strengthening Magic, I also used Body Modification Skill to enlarge my right hand and give her a full swing.

“BACHIKON!!”
“Ogah!?”

Ha ha ha! Pleasant and exhilarating!
I was able to return the favor of being pierced in the chest three times, so this will be the finishing move.

I use teleportation to move behind Magatsu Akehoshi and touch her back.

“YOU! Since just now!!”
“I rather liked your face, you know.”
“Ha?”

I put Magatsu Akehoshi away in my Eternal Box and stopped time so that she can’t come out with her outrageous cheat.

“Phew, with this, case is closed.”

Geez, she was quite a formidable enemy, but all's well that ends well! I guess.

“My nosebleed won’t stop...”

Are you saying it hasn’t ended at all? If it’s just a nosebleed, I can just put up with it. Or rather, it seems like it's also dripping from my ears... ah, and from my eyes too... this might be dangerous...

“Be cured with a mega potion! ...I guess it's no good after all.”

The blood isn’t stopping.

My body is falling apart, not only because I’m using the perfected Skills that my body is not used to, but also because Magatsu Akehoshi is probably fighting back with her outrageous cheat.

That said, releasing Magatsu Akehoshi is too bad of a move, so for now, let's activate bleeding nullification and injury nullification.

“Goho!?”

What the? That’s weird? Even though I’ve nullified both bleeding and injuries, I’m vomiting a lot of blood, isn’t it strange?
Wait, I forgot that I also synthesized Universal Nullification Skill without lowering its level. What a blunder.

Let's temporarily turn off the Nullification Skill that I activated, then activate Constant Recovery Magic and endure it until my body gets used to it.

My magic power is being whittled away, but isn’t this perfect for raising the Level of my Magic Power Recovery Skill?

After cleaning my bloody body with Cleaning Magic, I teleported to where Sananouta was.

*

“Ah, you're back! As expected of Mama! You calmly do things that even the gods can't do! I'm enthralled with that and admire you!”

Sananouta hugged me with a big smile, so I hugged her back and reported on the current situation.

“Sealed in the Eternal Box, my body, danger, Magatsu Akehoshi, will come right out.”
“Why the broken language?”
“I don't have much leeway...”
“Ahaha, but it'll be okay! Thanks to Mama’s hard work, it looks like we can handle it up there! Good for you, Mama!”

When you say up there, do you mean heaven, the place where the gods live?
In any case, with this I can finally go back to sightseeing in Khizr Country. For now, I feel like relaxing at a hot spring inn.

As I was thinking about this, the sluggishness in my body suddenly disappeared.
When I checked my Eternal Box, Magatsu Akehoshi had completely disappeared. Phew...

“It looks like she was successfully disposed of.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Mama.”

Aah, is it because I’m letting my guard down, my tiredness is starting to come out...

────

(T/N: This is the end of my translation of this series. I can’t handle translating the rest. There’s just too much tension there. I'm sorry.)

Previous | Next

CSA 103 - I Leveled Up

Unfortunately, Lotorl died after having her heart ripped out by Magatsu Akehoshi.

“Kuh, uu...”

Yes, well, since I’m immortal, my body can't die unless my head is completely crushed. I apologize to those who had high hopes for my next life. I will try my best in this life just a little bit more.

Or rather, defeating a body made of aero adamantite with just physical ability, wasn’t that too much of a cheat?

I suppose further progress is needed in this area. I have just acquired that strength too, so as soon as I can move my body, I will start strengthening my body.

“Puu─, pii─?”

Oya, a deer-san has arrived. I can't keep you company because I won't be able to move until my heart regenerates naturally, you know.

“Puu─, puu─”

Deer-san nervously came closer to the collapsed me, and after sniffing me, it sank its teeth into my chest where there was a hole.
My whole body is made of aero adamantite, so your teeth will break, you know?

“Pii─”

Sure enough, after seemingly chipping its tooth, it flailed in pain for a while before running off.

Come to think of it, in this world, animals that were herbivores in my previous life are carnivores, and animals that were carnivores are herbivores, aren’t they? I don't know if every animal is like that, but at least the deer-san earlier is probably a carnivore.
Huh, now that I think about it, I feel like I read online information in my previous life that said deer sometimes eat meat, but my memory is a little hazy. If that was true, deer-san from my previous life would be scary too, isn't it?

“Kuh, uu.”

Part of my heart has started to regenerate and I can move my arms a bit, so I take out an ex potion from my Inventory and gulp it down.

“Nn... haa─, I'm coming back to life─”

Since I've been resurrected from the brink of death, I've powered up like a certain warrior race! Of course I actually haven’t... no, it seems like I have.

My Level is now 89.

Level UP Skill is supposed to be a Skill that allows me to gain experience points and level up when I defeat monsters and the like, and I can accept that Magatsu Akehoshi is treated as a monster, but far from defeating her, I was defeated instead, so my Level shouldn't have gone up, so what exactly does this mean? How about the miniscule possibility of deer-san earlier? As expected, that’s impossible...

“Could it be that, making her my follower was judged as defeating her?”

That’s the bigger possibility.
Even in the games I played in my previous life, I generally get experience points when I tamed the monster, so wasn’t that the case?

“Well, whatever. Now is the time to strengthen my body!”

Aero adamantite was easily pierced through, so more toughness is needed.

I transform a nearby boulder into metal and turn it into hihiirokane, kane, kane, into orichalcum first and then synthesize it with body, then, I transform another boulder into hihiirokane, kane, kane, into mithril while I’m at it, and synthesize them with me, then, I transform another boulder into hihiirokane, kane, kane, kane, just do it already! When are you going to do it! Now, isn’t it!?

At the 108th time, I was finally able to transform it into hihiirokane, so I synthesized it into my body and my body glowed for a moment, so I appraised it, and it was displayed as Lotorl Alloy.

“Lotorl alloy is an alloy created by Lotorl...”

I equip the appraisal ring and appraise it again.

Lotorl alloy is an unknown alloy invented by Lotorl. As for its performance, you can only check it for yourself. If you grasp its performance, I’d appreciate it if you could summarize it into a report and offer it to me. (by god in charge of Skill)

“...But I refuse.”

The fact that it has a performance that even God doesn't know about means that it must be that strong of an alloy, so I tried punching a rock made of aero adamantite and I was able to easily break it.

“Stwong!”

I think it’s also because my body was strengthened by the level up, but with this, even if I get hit by Magatsu Akehoshi, I think I can repel it, so I'll move on to the next strengthening.

Magatsu Akehoshi Potion.

A truly cheat item that contains a lot of rare Skills accumulated through a little over 1.7 billion years of study.

This is insanely rare, so I’d like to synthesize it into grape seeds and cultivate it, but I have to remove Skills that indiscriminately spread misfortune, such as Calamity Skill, Natural Disaster Skill, and Very Bad Luck Skill, with Compounding Skill, otherwise I don’t know what will happen the instant the grapes are grown.

I used my Compounding Skill to wipe out those misfortune source Skills without leaving a trace, then synthesized Magatsu Akehoshi Potion into grape seeds, planted them in the ground, and applied high fertilizer potion to them to make them bear fruit.

“Fuhihi, that's a lot of crazy Skills desuwaa! Gehehehe!”

I can't stop laughing as my cheat Skills mutate and even more cheat Skills come into fruition! Ohohohoho!

There are a lot of craazy Skills, such as time-type Skills, manipulation-type Skills, nullification-type Skills, and more that if even one of them appeared in the world, isekai would quickly become outdated.

For now, I synthesized Eternal Box, which seemed to be the highest level compatible Item Box, into myself, and consolidated all the items I had in my Storage Skill and Inventory Skill into Eternal Box.
The item list is easier to see than the Inventory Skill, which is super convenient.
It also has a lot of useful functions, such as being able to stop the time of items at will, being able to put creatures in them without killing them, and being able to combine, disassemble, and erase them inside the box, and more. This is really crazy, isn't it.

“The craziest thing might be that I can carry the items over to my next life even after I die.”

If I happen to accidentally die, the stronger new life+ will be certain, that's the craziest of crazy.
Well, but, if the little girl god says “you can’t♪” I think they will be forcibly confiscated, so let’s not expect too much. However, if she really confiscates them, I will at least throw a tantrum.

Next, I’ll synthesize the nullification-type Skills.

There are various types, but isn’t just Universal Nullification Skill enough? So I tried to synthesize it into myself.

This is not constantly active, but each of them can be switched to active at will, and it can nullify everything from physical, magic, and Skills, making you invincible with just this cheat Skill.

For example, if you nullify death, you will never die, and if you nullify hunger, you will never need to eat.

For now, I will activate death nullification and attack nullification. While I’m at it, let's also nullify stamina and magic power consumption. There are a lot of people who can die just by being teleported a little far away after all.

As for time-types and manipulation-types... I can only come up with bad things, so let's store them in my Eternal Box.

────

Previous | Next 

CSA 102 - I Looked Forward to My Next Life

“I thank you for saving my life, but I can't let that one live! I would like you to hand her over to me!”
“Go ahead, go ahead.”
“Oi! Desuwa! Kuuuh!!”

Lotorl, who saved the elves and dwarves who were mortally injured by Magatsu Akehoshi, is now asked by the elves and dwarves to hand over Magatsu Akehoshi, and she easily agrees.

“Well then, I'll be going.”
“Please wait! I would like to thank the person who saved my life with something!”
“I’m in the middle of a trip, so I’ll just take your feelings.”
“I see... Then I will continue to be grateful and pass on this favor to my descendants!”
“Ahaha, thanks...”

I'm sure it will grow tail and fins as it is passed down to future generations and turned into a weird legend, like in a telephone game, but since I haven't given my name, I don't think my reputation will be harmed.
Even if I told them to stop spreading the word, it's impossible to stop the rumors anyway, so let's leave this place quickly so that I will be as unmemorable as possible.

“...Just so you know, even the me right now, if I get serious, I can not only destroy these people, but also this entire island desuwa.”

Magatsu Akehoshi exerted a heavy pressure and my knees started shaking. So this is what killing intent feels like. Several elves and dwarves fell to their knees and started sobbing.

Even though I took away all her skills, isn’t she still as strong?! I'm against cheating!

“...Threats won’t work on me, you know?”
“It seems to be working well enough, doesn't it? Desuwa... I'd like you to stop with the desuwa for now desuwa.”
“The desuwa at the end of your word will be lifted.”
“Next, I would like you to correct my tone desuwa... you corrected my sentence ending, right?”
“I just told you not to use foul language, but not that you should speak in an ojou-sama language though.”
“...Well, that's fine. Could you please turn back the way I refer to myself?”
“For the way you refer to yourself, use either ‘watakushi’, ‘Akehoshi’, or ‘waga’.”
“...Why are you so particular about just that?”
“A beautiful woman using ‘ore’ is a big no.”
“I see... then, lastly, give me back the Skills you took away from me.”
“Think that I don’t have to give them back. This is an order.”
“...You, you're quite greedy, huh. Well, it's fine. Even if I don't have any Skills, I can handle myself one way or the other.”
“Gopf!?”

She pierced my body with her arm again! Hasn’t it become a bit of a habit now? Will you please stop me from developing a weird sexual fetish?

“How many times do you have to let your guard down before you’re satisfied?”

When I glanced at Sananouta, I saw that she was looking at me with a mysterious look of trust that said, “Mama can do anything!”

“Benefactor-sama!?”
“Benefactor-sama has been defeated!”
“Everyone muster up your courage! Now is the time to return the favor! Let's go!”
“OOH!!”

The elves and dwarves forced their trembling bodies to stand up, but I can only see a future in which they will be easily defeated by Magatsu Akehoshi, so let's teleport and leave this place.

“Gockh, T-Teleport...”
“Hn?”

I teleported to the sapling of the World Tree tree that had left an impression on me.

“This place is...”
“Gokh, gekh, I’m dying... I’m going to die...”
“Ha, it’s because you’re being reckless with a body like that... ooh, the freedom of my body is coming back. Hahaha, in other words, if you keep turning you bitch into minced meat, those damn orders will be lifted. Right? Yeah? Oi?”
“Please stop, I'm going to die... Gekh, Gebh!!”

Aa─h, this is bad, I might have overdone it a bit. I seriously feel like I’m going to die.

“Hey, let's make a deal, okay? You let me go free and I'll save you. That's not a bad deal, right?”
“...Haa, haa, as long as you don't cause trouble to others, it's fine...”
“What? Are you really like that? You aren’t, right? If I have to say, you're more like me, right? Hey? Don't say something so boring and honestly ask for my help, okay? ‘No matter what happens to everyone but myself. Please save only me’, right?”
“I just, can't stand, seeing, beautiful, and cute girls, get hurt, even if I die. Gekh... gebh.”
“Hmm. Then, just die.”

She withdrew her arm from my body and pierced my chest again, this time grabbing my heart and pulling it out. Just a little bit, it felt good.

“Smiling while croaking, what a creepy guy you are..."

As I watched my plucked heart and myself being dumped on the ground as if they were trash and Magatsu Akehoshi flying off somewhere with my dimming gaze, my consciousness stopped there.

Fin.

*

☆Thank you very much for your long time support! Please look forward to Lotorl-sensei's next life!

────

(T/N: just in case you can’t tell, it’s not the end.)

Previous | Next 

CSA 101 - I Felt Like Humming an Obscene Transformation Spell

Summary of the previous chapter.

Lotorl's body was taken over by a raid boss-like being, but thanks to the efforts of her clone body-chan, she had managed to escape from the trouble, but then the heretic god Sananouta descended and got her into a big trouble.
Will Lotorl be able to survive? In the first place the world is on the verge of collapse, so Lotorl would rather just die than become the only one alive.

“What's wrong, Mama? You look like you're reminiscing about the summary of the previous chapter.”
“I just have a bad habit of reminiscing about the plot of the previous chapter at every milestone. More importantly, why do you call me mama? I don't feel like I have much of a mama element.”

I asked the god Sananouta while sprinkling a mega potion to heal my pierced chest and buttocks that were swollen from being hit repeatedly.

“Mama was the trigger to me being born, so Mama is Mama, right?”

With her moist and upturned eyes, her appearance looks just like me, but I can't believe she'd be so cute just because the inside is different... Kuh, I lost...!

“I’ll agree to that, but could you please stop acting cuter than me with my appearance? No matter how cute Sananouta-san is, I can accept it if you’re in your original appearance, but to be honest, you showing me being cuter than I am is quite painful...”
“Aha! Mama is more *** than I expected, hmm, more importantly I think I want you to call me without honorifics instead, I guess? Sananouta, Sana, Sana-chan, Sanano, Sanano-chan, Uta, Uta-chan, call me whatever you like!”
“Then, Shin Sananouta-oph!?”
“Sana wants a pet name for your cute daughter, you know?”

For a moment, a pleasure that was three times my sensitivity ran through my body. I shouldn’t tease god Sananouta just because she's cute. Let’s be careful in the future.

“Then I'll call you Sana.”
“Ehehe, then I will return to my original form, but if you look directly at me, your eyes will be crushed, so be careful, okay?!”
“...A form that will be fine even if I directly look at it please. Otherwise it’ll be difficult to have parent-child skinship.”
“Ee─h, it can’t be helped... Nyuru nyuru byuku byuku byu byu byururu~♪”

What’s with that obscene transformation spell? Won’t it make me want to hum it a little?!

With a sparkling special effect, she mysteriously transforms into Sananouta's original form, hm? Isn't this a little different?

Speaking of her original appearance, her hair was so long that it could crawl on the ground, but she changed it to a soft and fluffy shoulder length hair, and she changed its color to white-brown, and changed its inner color to her original hair color, pink. The color of her eyes which was originally purple turned to light blue, and her previous slender figure has become plump, especially her thighs. It's so amazing that she can become a state alchemist with just these thighs. Amazingly amazing.

* (T/N: I still don’t know the reference. Super long pink hair touching the ground, slender figure, purple eyes. I don’t know who she was.)

“How is this? Since I’m Mama’s daughter, I tried to be closer to Mama, but is this cute?”
“I luv you!!”
“Aha! Yatta─!”

This girl, she completely understands my preferences.
As expected of Sananouta who loves people so much that she assimilates all of humanity, understanding other people's preferences is probably a piece of cake for her.

I started to feel like it wouldn't be so bad if I were to be destroyed by this child's love.
Sorry, Isekai-kun. If this child says she wants to destroy you, I will fully support her and decide to destroy you together.

“I'm not interested in anyone other than Mama, so I won't do what Mama is thinking, okay?”
“Please don't nonchalantly read my thoughts. Also, thank you very much for not destroying this world.”

The crisis is over! Part 2 complete!

“I want to assimilate Mama, though!”
“Please don’t. I'll die.”

The crisis was not over! Part 3 begi-!

At that moment, I felt a shiver piercing my back. When I turned around, I saw a Japanese-style beauty standing behind me, laughing with an angry look on her face. Or rather, it's not a shiver, it's just her arm normally piercing through me... I'm just too insensitive to pain...

“Goph!?”
“Mama!?”

Ah, I'm starting to feel more and more pain. It hurts... It hurts.

“How dare you kill me, huh? Yeah? I think you know, but don't move, okay? I might just accidentally kill you.”

Careless, self-conceited, why did I forget that the person herself was there, my sense of crisis is just too lacking.

“Cough! Cough! I'm sorry, please don't kill me... I don't want to die...”
“Kukuku, you’re good. How many thousands of years has it been since I heard someone begging for their life. I won't let you die easily, so don't worry. I'll give you a full taste of living hell, okay?”
“I'll take her place, so leave Mama alone.”
“No way.”
“...I'm sorry, Mama. Once Mama dies, I'll die with you, so don't worry.”
“Ahahaha, once Mama dies? I told you I wouldn't kill her easily, right? Well, I guess I'll just let her suffer for a light 500 million years.”
“It might hurt a little, but please endure it, okay, Mama.”
“Ah? Like I’ll let you.”

A storm and a storm collided and a tremendous roar resounded as a result.
I feel like I'm going crazy from the pain as I'm being thrown around, going this way and that way with my chest still being pierced.

Or rather, the composition of Sananouta trying to kill me to save me and Magatsu Akehoshi trying to protect my life to make me suffer, even if I wasn't in my current horrible state where I can't think straight due to the pain, it’s still incomprehensible. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

“Goha!”
“Mama!”
“Nice nice, let’s do more!”

Please don't involve me in violent battles like those in shonen manga.
As long as I can make out with girls, that's enough.

“That’s why.”

Ignoring me, the biting dog continued to fight and, completely letting her guard down, I thrust my right arm into the biting dog's mouth. As might be expected of a biting dog.

“Moga!?”

I sacrificed my right hand to create Lotorl's blood potion and forced Magatsu Akehoshi’s main body to drink it completely.
My right hand felt like it was dripping with something viscous, so it seems that the bottle was not created.

Due to understanding of Potion Creation Skill exceeding a certain value, it has evolved into Potion Transformation Skill.

An announcement played in my head, but right now I should focus on the biting dog.

“Goho! Goho! What the hell are you doing!?”
“Stop.”
“Yes...”
“Wao.”

I removed her arm that had been piercing through the chest, sprinkled a mega potion to heal the wound, and tried to remove the biting dog’s Skills with my Compounding Skill, but I couldn't manipulate it, so I gave additional orders.

“Surrender yourself to me.”
“Yes...”

I thought about removing all her Skills with Compounding Skill again, but I thought it was a bit of a waste, so I turned the arm that pierced me into a potion, stored it in my Inventory, and sprinkled a mega potion to more or less cure her.

Once I removed all of Magatsu Akehoshi's many Skills with Compounding Skill, she suddenly turned into just a beautiful woman. Her physical ability alone is highly dangerous though.

“Mama, what are you going to do with that?”
“Hmm, pet?”
“...Kuh, gah, my body, is...”
“Wow! You're resisting with just your mental strength─! Amazing─!”

Let's give her some additional orders before she starts going wild. Carelessness is the great enemy!

“Do not harm others unless ordered by me.”
“Yes...”
“Your speech is bad, so don't use foul language. Refer to yourself as ‘watakushi’, and add ‘desuwa’ at the end of your words when you speak.”
“Understood desuwa...”
“Pft! Mama is kinda that, you know? I think I like Mama like that too?”
“Then you can be free as long as you follow my orders.”
“You ba-, you bi-, you! What have you done to me? Desuwa? Kii─!!”

She sure does some skillful things like stepping on the ground in the air. Pft.
Huh, more like, isn't it scary that she's flying normally even though all her skills have been erased? Does that mean you can fly just with physical ability?

“By the way, Mama, if you don't help those people, they're going to die soon, you know?”
“Eh?”

When I looked in the direction Sananouta was pointing, I saw that the elves and dwarves on the surface were lying on the ground, their limbs in a state where it should not be said, creating a so-called hellscape.

“Mega potion!!”

Lotorl hurriedly used visual teleportation to descend to the ground that has become a sketch of a pool of blood, and sprinkled mega potions around.

────

Previous | Next 

CSA 100 - I Was Raped by Tentacles

When I woke up the next morning, the elves and dwarves' atmosphere was so heavy that Lotorl-chan, made of the tough, invincible, and strongest aero adamantite, felt sick to her stomach and was about to vomit. Their tension is crazy.

When a male elf, who looked like a young elder, finished his speech, the fully armed elves and dwarves formed a formation and departed somewhere. I also followed them secretly, trying not to be spotted.

*

After pushing through the forest for a while, they arrived at a large lake, and as the elves and dwarves positioned themself surrounding the lake, they started chanting, and the water in the lake gradually dried up, until I saw a giant black crystal at the bottom, and when I looked closely inside the crystal, I saw something that looked like a figure of a person running amok.

“No matter how you look at it, that’s a raid boss. Truly, thank you very much.”

There are more than 100 elves and dwarves in total, but just by using my Appraisal Skill to see the sealed figure in the crystal, I knew it was an impossible game.

After all, it was displayed as Level 100.
His name is Magatsu Akehoshi, that name sounds like something from the Devil Summoning series, a game I played in my previous life.
Since his status and the like are not displayed, it seems that my Appraisal Skill Level is not high enough.
I took out the appraisal ring from my Inventory, equipped it, and tried appraising the figure inside the crystal again.

Magatsu Akehoshi, Calamity, Asexual, 1.7 billion 1717 years old, Level 100, Calamity Skill, Juge SkilL, Jaga SkiLL, Gobju kiLL, gugegaga, you saw it.

“Ha!?”

Yousawityousawityousawityousawityousawityousawityousawityousawityousawit

“...IsawIsawIsaw, I, II, IGYAAAAA!!”

Mysterious visions are, areare, gettinggg, getting into my head, hyead adad, fuhi, fuhihi.

“O, oho, ohoo, ngigi, st, stoop, gugigi.”

Feels so good, feels so good, feels so good.

“Aa─h... Oo─h... Nhih... Nna...”

I'm starting to feel great. It's comfortable.

“Haah... nn, seems good, seems good, ah? You’re still holding on to your consciousness?”

“I am not of thee, and thou art not of me, and I am the one who hath come from the sea of my true heart, the Executor of Punishment, Lotorl.”

“What the hell are you?”

“Thou art the one who commits the greatest abomination, I condemn thee for brainwashing and possession.”

“Haa?”

Of course you know why.
It’s because you killed Lotorl on first sight with a cheat move and destroyed her brain.
Prepare your resolution.
I will now give you the punishment that is appropriate for your sin.
We also appeal to the gods.
I will also ask the little girl god to descend with no questions asked.
Also, prepare your alimony.
You have committed a taboo.
Look forward to being beaten to death by the gods.
Are you ready?

“What an irritating voice... hm?”

A mysterious magic circle was drawn in the air, glowing in an ominous black-purple color, and a Lotorl’s clone body rose up from there with her arms folded. Wait, why is my clone body-chan!?
Or rather, I can't move my body at all though!?

“Now count your sins.”

The instant my clone body-chan took a cool trademark pose and pointed at me, it disappeared, my pure white panties were taken off, a huge popping sound was heard, and the birds in the forest started fleeing away.

“Agih!?”

Hoe? What? What is happening? Can someone explain?

“I won't stop hitting you until you cry.”
“...You look down on me too much.”
“You, who can only move by possessing someone, is saying that? Oh?”

Wai!? My arm is torn off!? It’s torn off!! What are you doing, me??

“Hmph, just a lump of magic power is!?”
“Fufu, maybe it would be better if you didn’t underestimate me too much?”
“Kuh, you, GIIiii!!”

An otherworldly beautiful girl, Lotorl-chan overlooking a battle between my clone body-chan who is giving me a frighteningly fast spanking, and me (?) who is still chipping away at the clone body-chan even though I keep getting my butt unshapely spanked. What the heck is this?

“How about you start crying now? I'll forgive you, you know?”
“Ha! You idiot doesn't even realize you’re hurting yoursEGH!!”
“I don't mind if Lotorl's butt explodes. And since you can clearly feel the pain, you're the idiot.”

I do mind!? Just because you are yourself, isn’t clone body-chan terrible!?

“Kuku, ahahaha! I see... you're looking down on me too much. Gph... haha, what will you do if I do this? Aah? What will you do!”

Ueee!? You pierced your own chest with your arm, what kind of battle manga is this?? When the anime airs overseas, a mosaic will be added and the blood will be turned white, you know! It’ll become lewd instead, that’s putting the cart before the horse!

“Thank you very much for creating an opening. From now on, it's the little girl god’s turn.”

Before I knew it, the clone body-chan had hihiirokane in her hand, and it seemed like she was planning to use it as a catalyst to summon the little girl god.
A frightfully quick metal transformation, even I would miss it, huh.

The hihiirokane that the clone body-chan was holding glowed in rainbow colors and rose into the sky, and a rainbow-colored crystal descended from the sky and was absorbed by the clone body-chan.

“What, what’s happeni-hyan!?”
“Aha.”

I heard a sexy moaning voice that I couldn't believe was my own, but what does it mean?

“Since you played a prank on Mama, you need to be punished right? Right, Mama?”

Mama? Is she talking about me? ...In other words, the little girl god was not my mother but my daughter...?

“Kuh, damn you! You... what? A god’s presence?”
“Eheh, I'm a newbie who just recently became a god thanks to Mama, but I'm still a go─d. Yay.”

Mumu, she recently become a god? So, she's not the little girl god, but a different god... Ah, I can guess...

“There is no way a god could descend into this world as a god.”
“I can do it, can’t you see? You want me to explain, right? I didn’t hear your answer, so I'll just start on my o─wn. Recently, recently, like the Earth hasn’t rotated even once recently, wait here’s not Earth, right? Well, let’s put that aside, since I was just created by the creator god, I have almost no divinity, so descending on Mama’s clone body was as easy as squeezing a baby's cheeks! Doyaya.”

A─h, this feeling, how nostalgic... She has the same personality as the one I saw in my previous life and is really cute. If it's just her personality,

“Ha, you’re created recently? Ahahaha, meaning, you’re a small fry god huh, kukuku.”
“Saying such cruel things to me with Mama’s face, I won’t forgive you! Punpun!”
“When did I say such a hyu! OHOOOOOOOO!!?”
“Just go and make me feel good.”
“IGUUUUUUUUHHHH!!?”

How nasty, as expected of Sananouta, it's nasty.

As to what was done to him, it was too much of that, so I'll leave it up to your imagination.
The keyword is tentacles. Duel standby!

“Aha! Bye-bye senpai! Ah, I mean, ex-senpai, oh well!”

The biting dog called Magatsu Akehoshi was feeling so good that it seemed like he was ascending to heaven, and my physical freedom was gradually returning.

* (T/N: 噛ませ犬 - biting dog - someone to look as if he's putting up a fight but actually have no chance of winning.)

“Oh, oooh, gumming, dangerous, I can't stop feeling so gooooood, gum, gummmiiiiiiiingg!?”
“Ah, sorry, Mama! But I’m sure Mama can handle it! After all, you’re my Mama!”
“I CAAAAAAANNNNNTTTTT!! I’M COMIIIIIINGGGG!!”
“Aha! Mama is so cute!”
“STOOOP IIIIITTTT!!”

On that day, Lotorl awakened to a new sexual fetish.

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CSA 99 - I Was a Loner

While looking from above at Seiankyo, which is neatly organized like a checkerboard, Lotorl spotted an armed group of dwarves marching a little further away, so she decided to continue scouting and was now wondering whether to intervene by force or not.

“All conflicts shall be eradicated. I am Lotorl.”

Joking aside, I'm genuinely curious about where that group of armed dwarves is marching, so I decided to follow them and watch them from above so they don't notice.

*

I followed them for a while, but as the sun began to set, the group of armed dwarves started preparing for camp, so I built a simple tree house in a tree and slept there that day.

The next day.

I woke up earlier than the armed dwarf group without oversleeping as was my habit from my days at the orphanage, so I had a light breakfast and waited for the armed dwarf group to resume their march while checking for the hihiirokane bug and transforming an ore.

The bug has been firmly fixed, so I guess I should offer a prayer of appreciation to the god. (Is the guitar done yet?)

...Was that an auditory hallucination? Phew, I'll do my best today too!

I shouldn’t be religious enough that I’d hear god's voice, so I ignored the auditory hallucination, and just like yesterday, continued watching the armed dwarf group as they resumed their march, and followed after them.

After following them for a while, I saw an elf forest-like settlement in the distance, so I realized that this group of armed dwarves was marching towards it.

“Are elves and dwarves on bad terms in this world as well?”

As expected, even I am starting to feel like I need to resolve myself, but it's not like anything has happened yet so let’s see how this goes. When something happens, that’ll be the time.

As the group of armed dwarves finally arrived at the elf settlement, they raised their weapons high in the air, and the group of elves responded by raising their bows and spears as well, and a fun-looking party began.

“W-what am I being shown...!?”

For the time being, a bloody war never started, so that was a good thing, but for a party, the atmosphere felt strangely tense.
Since I was watching from high in the sky, I couldn't really understand their conversation, but I could hear lines that raised death flags here and there.

“It’s like before a raid battle... ah.”

I was reminded of a player event in a VRMMO I played in my previous life where guilds interacted with each other before a raid boss battle, called the eve party, but I was a loner that had a communication disorder, so participating solo felt a bit awkward, so I never did... How sad... the me from my previous life...

At that time, I heard players jokingly saying death flag lines to each other, so it's similar to this current situation.

I’m not a loner right now, you know? No, it's true that I'm alone right now, so I'm a loner, but please don't jump on my mistake. Because I'm not a loner.

“I wonder if there are some kind of boss monsters?”

For example, demons, snakes, foxes, and spiders too... Japan in my previous life sure had quite a few boss monsters. I don't know if they really existed though. They were legends, so there is a high possibility that similar beings existed.

“Now that I think about it, a demon king also existed there didn’t it... Japan in my previous life was dangerous!”

It was later proven in historical studies that he never called himself the Demon King, but because his impression in anime and games is so strong, the general public recognizes him as the Demon King, so he is still the Demon King.
I feel that being called Demon King by others has a higher rank than calling yourself a Demon King.

* (T/N: this is talking about Oda Nobunaga right?)

Anyway, I'm glad it wasn't a bloody big battle between elves and dwarves.

That day, the party continued until night, and Lotorl-chan watched the party all by herself. It's painful to have memories of my past life coming back...

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CSA 98 - I Tried Making a Nectar Potion

“Flight Skill Level 35, it rose up quite a bit.”

As Lotorl landed on the sandy beach of Kagono Island, she drank an ex potion to heal her tired body from the long flight.

“This is water after all.”

I'm not looking for deliciousness in potions, so it's fine as is, but as expected, I'm curious about the taste that Rin-san felt.

I'll look into it the next time I meet Rin-san again, but for now let's search for a village or city.

I flew up into the sky using my Flight Skill from the sandy beach where there were no presences of people, and flew slowly so as not to miss any settlement.

“Isn’t there something...?”

As I continued to fly around for a while looking for a settlement, I bumped my head into a tree as big as the World Tree.

Let’s definitely stop being distracted while driving.

“This one tree, what kind of tree, big tree... fumu, a sapling of the World Tree, is it?”

When I examined it using Appraisal Skill, it was displayed as a sapling of the World Tree.
I knew that the World Tree existed in this world, but seeing it actually growing was overwhelming. Its presence, or rather, its aura is amazing.

“Even at this size, it’s still a sapling...?”

There won’t be an even bigger world outside of this one, right?

It reminded me of some ridiculous settings from the manga I read in my previous life, such as the shadow realm, the gourmet world, the new world, and the theory that an even bigger world exists outside of the world map, but I'm sure it doesn't exist in this world. I said it doesn’t exist, because it’s scary.

For now, I tried to pick one leaf and turned it into a potion, and I successfully made a resurrection potion. Its effect is to revive a person who died within an hour.

“What an iffy effect...”

I guess it can't be helped since it's a leaf from a sapling, but since I have Synthesis Skill, I can make its effect to be to revive at any time rather within an hour.

And so, I plucked the leaves of the World Tree, turned them into potions, and synthesized the created resurrection potion over and over again, and the nectar potion was completed.

“Its effect is, regenerate and revive the dead, and cure all kinds of injuries and illnesses...”

Fufun, it was a perfect job, even if I say so myself.

Well, I don't think I'll have a chance to use it, so I'll store it away in my Inventory.

After that, I went down to the ground, collected fallen leaves and branches in Storage, and went back to searching for a settlement.

*

“...So this isn’t actually Kagono Island in the first place?”

Since the map was kinda drawn vaguely, I guess there was a high possibility that the location was off.

For now, let's go up to the atmosphere and check out the Khizr archipelago.

I visually teleported using a certain cloud high up in the sky as a landmark, used my Flight Skill to go even higher, and search for the Khizr archipelago.

“Ooh, it's shaped like a dragon after all.”

I climbed almost to outer space, but strangely I didn't feel suffocated, is it because there is air here? Or is it because of my body modifications? Or maybe my Skills?

I was able to confirm the dragon shape of Khizr archipelago, so I used my Compounding Skill to turn the vaguely drawn map into a blank sheet of paper, and used Mapping Magic to transfer what I saw onto the paper.

“Ah, didn't I erase even the information about the city? ... Well, whatever.”

From now on, when I find a city, I will update the map to draw my own original map. That way would be more fun anyway.

“Or rather, can’t I just go to Seiankyo like this...?”

Continuing with sightseeing travel across the Khizr archipelago is also good, but I felt like it would be a waste to miss the Battle of Sekigahara-like big battle event, so I decided to continue on to Seiankyo via visual teleportation.

Since it's a little far away, I'll mass-produce about 100 bottles of ex potion and stock them in my Inventory. I think it'll probably be okay, but just in case.

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CSA 97 - I Was Misunderstood by a Dwarf Girl Clerk-san

After parting ways with Okuya-san at the drugstore, Lotorl went around Ganasaki Island, and was disappointed by the lack of tourist attractions here. So she tried asking a dwarf girl clerk-san at the permit counter in the gate plaza about how to cross over to Khizr Country mainland.

“I'm sorry. Right now, accepting foreigners is restricted.”
“Restricted, is it?”
“Between the west and the east is a bit... I'm sorry. I can't say any more to people from other countries.”

Hmm... is it a civil war? Like the Battle of Sekigahara? A great decisive battle? I kinda want to see it just a little bit.

“What if I want to go no matter what?”
“Hmm, it’s not the mainland, but Shikuni Island is the closest island from the mainland, so rowing a boat from there and entering Seiankyo is... wait, that’s no good! Listen, just pretend you didn’t hear what I said.”
“I understand. Then, please give me a travel permit to Shikuni Island."
“Geez, you don’t understand it at all!”

I tried to buy a travel permit to Shikuni Island, but the dwarf girl clerk-san refused, saying, “I will never sell it,” so I picked up a stone that was lying on the ground and used my Alchemy Skill to turn it into gold... no, to orichalcum. Since I was able to transform it into orichalcum on my first try, let's use this to slap the dwarf girl on the cheek.

“I will give you this orichalcum, so please sell me a travel permit to Shikuni Island.”
“No. In the first place, there's no way you have something as rare as orichalcum.”
“I don’t mind if you examine this using your Appraisal Skill though.”
“No. Even if it were real, there’s no way I can let you go to Shikuni Island.”

Geez, what a stubborn clerk-san.

Since it can't be helped, I gave up on the legal route, bought a map of Khizr Country at a general store, and decided to go to Shikuni Island by teleport.
Also, since I already made the orichalcum, and I don't want it to become fertilizer in Storage, I made a magic wishing mallet from it and gave it to the dwarf who seems to love blacksmithing.

“T-this!? Where!? Why did you!?”
“Yes?”

Ah, Lotorl might have figured it out...
This is the ‘I did something again?’ case, right?
I guess it was a bad move to create something so easily related to Japanese culture... boohoo.

“...Could it be that, you're Amatsuma-sama?”
“No. I’m called Lotorl.”

I don't know who Amatsuma-sama is, but when it comes to magic wishing mallet, I would say Daikokuten-sama, of the Seven Lucky gods. I don't know if there is a legend of the Seven Lucky gods in Khizr Country, but I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, so I definitely won’t say something like, “Wouldn’t that be Daikokuten-sama?”

“Lotorl-sama...”

No, really, please don't look at me with the kind of respect you would look at God...

“I don’t know what implication that mallet has, but I’m not the kind of existence you think I am, so please don’t get me wrong.”
“Yes, Lotorl-sama...”

Stop it! That look will do me in! To be more specific, it does about 1000 damage to my mind! Stop!

“Well then, it's about time I go.”
“Ah! Please wait, Lotorl-sama! Lotorl-samaaaaaaaaaa!

I heard a shout from behind, but I didn't look back, casted Acceleration Magic and dashed away.

“I guess it's certain that strange rumors will spread...”

Well, if I move quickly to Shikuni Island, there probably won't be any problems.

For now, to buy a map of Khizr Country, let's find a store that sells it.

*

“This here is Ganasaki Island, so... Shikuni Island is around Shikoku, huh... Ah, so Shikuni is like that…”

I managed to get a map at a tool shop that vaguely depicts the area around Khizr Country, so I confirmed that Ganasaki Island is not near Nagasaki but near Okinawa, and Shikuni Island is drawn around Shikoku. Well, there's not much point in comparing it with the Japanese archipelago of my previous life, but it's quite interesting to look for similarities.

“Seiankyou is, as I thought, it’s around Kyoto, huh.”

As far as I can see on the map, there is a long way to go from Ganasaki Island to Seiankyou, so I decided to go to Kagono Island first, then head to Kumabon, Oowake, Shikuni Island, and then, Seiankyou, in that order, to the center of Khizr Country. .

“Alright, let's depart.”

I got up from the comfortable chair in the tool shop, put the map in my Inventory, and first headed to Kagono Island.

Once I left the shop, let’s use the cat-ear-shaped clouds floating in the sky as a landmark, teleport, and use my Flight Skill to raise its Skill Level and head to Kagono Island.

“Should I try to challenge the limits of my speed?”

Since my body is made of aero adamantite, I think it will be safe no matter how unreasonable the flight is, so I would like to fly at the maximum speed I can achieve with my current Flight Skill Level.

“Ready, don!!”

If this was a manga, the words ‘DON!!’ would be drawn in the background, and if this was an anime!! There will be a ‘DON!!’ sound effect.

Leaving the joke aside, the sound of the wind was too loud and it would be painful if I kept going like this for a long time, so I cast Wind Deflection Magic on both of my ears.

“It should be okay now.”

All that’s left will be to continue flying to Kagono Island while maintaining the maximum speed.

────

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CSA 96 - I Tried Licking a Rabbit-Faced Dwarf Girl

“Now then, what are you doing after this?”
“I have a store, so if you want to do something, do it by yourself.”
“Violence.”
“...Is that a threat?”
“Assault.”
“Hey, that’s a threat right?”
“Running wild.”
“I get it, I understand. I'll do anything, so don't say any more”
“Nn? Did you just say you'll do anything?”
“I won't do anything I can't do.”
“For now, let's go back to the store.”
“Ha...”

From the restaurant, I returned to the drugstore with Okuya-san and exercised my right to do whatever I wanted.

“Squeeze squeeze, squeeze squeeze.”
“Nn...”
“Grope grope, grope grope.”
“Kuh...”
“Suu haa, suu haa.”
“Stop with the sniffing.”
“Even though it smells good?”
“Stop it.”
“Then how about licking?”
“...Pervert.”
“Lick lick, lick lick.”
“...Pff, I changed my mind, licking is prohibited! Ahaha, stop it! It tickles!”

What part of the body did you imagine?
The correct answer was... the foot disguised as the armpit!
Those who answered correctly will receive a Lotorl special clear file through the lottery!
Please refer to the program's official website for application details.
Just kidding.

Is licking the foot dirty? I used Cleaning Magic to clean it, and after I licked it too, I used Cleaning Magic to clean it properly, so there's no problem. To begin with, the only dirty thing about Okuya-san is her personality.

“Fuu, that was a good taste.”

She looked at me with disdain, feeling disgusted with me from the bottom of her heart. It's thrilling, isn't it?

“You've had your fill haven’t you? Can you please get out of here so that I can get back to work?”
“That's true. I'm feeling reluctant, but I'm in the middle of sightseeing so I'll come here again when I need to take a breather.”
“You don't have to force yourself to come.”

I can clearly understand her feeling of ‘don’t come here again’.
Let's hit her with high potions here to increase her likability rating.

I took out 10 high potions from Storage and handed them to Okuya-san.

“Eh, what are these...?”
“It's an inconvenience fee and a foot licking fee. Okuya-san was so cute that I just got carried away. I'm truly sorry.”
“...I don’t think you need to apologize for that... Okay, well, I accept Lotorl-san's feelings. But I don't need this much, you know?”
“Then please take this as a token of my friendship.”
“...Do you want to be friends with a horrible person who assaults children?”
“It’d be bad if it were anyone else, but if it’s me, I can take it, so I'd be happy if we could be friends.”

Okuya-san is looking down, her ears slightly red. Are you happy? You are happy, aren’t you? Haa, so cute.

“...You can come, anytime...”
“Yes?”
“You can come anytime! In exchange, let me hit you!”
“Uwaa... you want to hit your friend, that’s the worst isn’t it...”
“Wha!? You’re the one who said you can take it!”
“Ehehe, that’s fine. I'll tease you and make it easier for you to hit me like I did now, so please hit me to your heart’s content.”
“Uuu, I'm really, not good with you...”

Like this, Lotorl had successfully become friends with Okuya-san, and when she left the drugstore, she went to the back of the store, opened a gate to a place where she could see Okuya-san from above, and started peeping on her.

“Haa... I became friends with a weird girl... But there are so many high potions... Uhihi, this one is for preservation, this one is for display, and this one is a spare... Uhehe, she was a weird girl, but to think she’d give me this much, she must have loved me that much... Lotorl-san. No, now that we've become friends, I guess it's okay to call her without a suffix... Lotorl, Lotorl, Lotorl, Un. Next time she comes here, I want to talk to her more properly...”

AAAAAAH! LET’S TALK NOOOOOOOOOOOW!!
I suppressed those feelings of mine and closed the gate.

To think that such a cute girl has violent urges inside her, that gap is going to make me crazy. Luv.

I left the place while writhing in agony.

────

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CSA 95 - I Touched the Thigh of a Rabbit-Faced Dwarf Girl

“Nnaa─h!”
“Is it here, is this a good one?”
“Nnaa─h! Nnaa─h!”
“Gehehe, you’re crying with such a nice voice.”
“Nnaa─h! Geez, enough alrea- nnaa─h!”

* (T/N: Lotorl speak kinda like kansai dialect, but I don’t know how to write that.)

Okuya-san, your shoulders are so stiff.
Eh? Are you misunderstanding this for you-know-what?
If you misunderstand it for something lewd, please drive off your earthly desires by doing 108 strikes on your back.

Well, now that I have obtained war funds, shall we go eat Unaju?

“Okuya-san, would you like to go out to eat with me? It’s my treat.”
“...I’ll go.”

“Welcome! Ara, Okuya-chan is with you, huh?”
“Good afternoon...”
“Are you okay with unaju?”
“Un.”
“Then, two Unaju and two matcha ice creams please.”
“Okey-dokey!”

I paid the money in advance and sat down on an empty cushion seat on a tatami mat, even though I said that, there was no one else in the restaurant. This is past mealtime, and there is a possibility that this restaurant’s food is bad, but there is a delicious smell wafting through the restaurant, so I'm sure it'll be okay.

“Why side by side...”
“I wanted to touch Okuya-san's beautiful thighs.”
“...Just do, what you want.”
“If you don't like it, just say so, okay? I won't tell anyone about Okuya-san's secret.”
“Is that, a threat?”
“In the first place, even if I, an outsider, told someone, who would believe me?”
“...That might be, true.”
“Then once again, may I touch your thighs?”
“...Fine, but if someone comes, stop.”
“Of course.”

At first she seemed sluggish, and I guess she was just using a business face, and of course I liked it in its own way, but her nervousness as she felt something like ‘she found out my secret that I didn't want anyone to know and I didn’t know what to do, so let’s just try not hurt her mood’ just now is also quite good.

“Squeeze squeeze.”
“Nn.”
“Touch touch.”
“Uh.”
“You really have beautiful legs.”
“Thanks.”

Haah, so cute... I want to bully her more.

“Sorry to keep you waiting! Here are two unaju and two matcha ice creams!”

Aah, the food came at the wrong time. Well, I guess I can save it for dessert after dinner.

“Well then, shall we eat?”
“Un,”

First, I will start with the eel.

“Chomp, crunch crunch, crunch crunch?”

Eh, what's with this crunchy texture? It feels like eating thick lettuce. Even though it tastes just like eel, how mysterious.

When I looked next to me, I saw Okuya-san with a lovely smile on her face as she deliciously stuffed her mouth with eel and rice. Cute of cute.

Well, I would like to try some rice too.

“Munch, squish squish squish?”

Eeh... what’s with this squishy texture...

It wasn't the unaju that I expected, so I guess I was a little disappointed... It's not bad, but I expected more...

I also tried the matcha ice cream without expecting much, but I don’t need to guess, isn’t this melon ice cream? I like melon ice cream, so it's fine though.

When I looked next to me, Okuya-san was pouring matcha ice cream onto unaju and mixing it all into a mess. That’s one amazing thing.

“Is that delicious?”
“I just wanted to try it once...”

Was Okuya-san’s family a frugal eater... fumu.

I took out lettuce from Inventory and synthesized it with eel kabayaki that I haven't touched yet.

“This is the true lettuce eel, just kidding.”

When I tore a thin slice of it and ate it, it turned out into a proper eel-flavored lettuce. It’s delicious.

“Lettuce?”

It seems that Okuya-san was so absorbed in her meal that she didn't notice my eccentric behavior.
For the time being, let's tear a sheet off and feed her this.

“Here, I’ll give you one slice.”
“Eh, un...? Shaggy shaggy... eh, an eel-flavored lettuce...?”
“I tried synthesizing lettuce and eel using Synthesis Skill.”
“Amazing... can I have one more?”
“Go ahead go ahead.”
“Shaggy shaggy.”

A bunny face and eats like a bunny, she’s just too cute. I’ll get the urge to take you home, you know.

“What?”
“Cute.”
“...It's embarrassing, so don't look at me too much.”

Aahn! She turned red all the way to her ears! My heart won't stop racing!

As I watched Okuya-san's cutely cute expression, I wrapped the unaju with eelettuce and ate it, and the taste of supreme bliss filled my mouth.

After that, I continued eating while watching Okuya-san, who ignored my gaze and continued eating silently, until we finished our meal and left the restaurant.

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