“Don’t run away, don’t run away, don’t run away… Aaahhh! [Demon Vanquisher] [Glacial Shift]! [Flight]… there we go! Whew… Ah, I’m so bored of this monotonous work. I’m done.”

Although the number and types of monsters had increased, I was getting tired of hunting Earth Dragons and Basilisks, which would collapse the moment their magic was exhausted.

It was the same routine: detect them, cast Demon Vanquishr, freeze their legs with Glacial Shift just in case, then finish them off with a sword strike from the air using the unique flying skill [Flight] I got from a treasure chest on the 30th floor.

I was even getting tired of mimicking scenes from manga.

I’d act like, “I’ll hold them off! Go on without me!” even though there was no one around. But it just felt hollow.

It’s practically impossible to find any new tricks at this point.

Not that I’m underestimating it— this dungeon isn’t exactly easy.

Still, seeing the same scenery every day and fighting similar monsters makes me sick of it all.

I’m now on the 58th floor from the bottom.

It’s been a year and seven months since I started this exploration.

What, too long? A lot has happened, okay?

You read about people in light novels spending years in dungeons alone, but I’ve realized that’s truly a fantasy.

Staying here, without internet, anime, or even M-Tube, and without a safe house but only enemies around, fighting alone would be impossible without incredible mental strength.

The first four months getting to the 30th floor, I struggled, thinking of my fallen friends to keep going.

But when I realized that the dungeon had no intention of letting me out alive, my heart almost gave up.

This dungeon felt alive, almost as if it had its own will, especially when a horde of lesser and earth dragons suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

It was around then, in the depths of my despair, that I stumbled upon the ultimate item for a shut-in people.

It happened after I defeated the high-ranking fire dragon boss on the 40th floor, counting from the lowest floor.

Like with other boss rooms, there was always a heap of human skeletons.

There were fewer now, but around 30 skeletons were scattered across the 40th floor.

After paying my respects as usual, I started gathering their equipment, and that’s when I found an extra Magic Tent (Luxury) in a storage ring worn by one of them.

And when I checked inside the tent, I was surprised because the interior design was modern style!

Unlike the luxurious and overly decorated tents I’d found before, this one had simple, modern sofas and tables.

The clothes in the closet looked like they’d fit right in in the present world.

The library even contained 10 skill books, and on top of that, I found photos of… adult magazines in one of the desk drawers.

For a moment, I was like, “Wait, another world? Really?” and felt a bit thrown off.

On the desk was a photo of a gorgeous orange-haired couple, probably the owner and their spouse, dressed in tuxedo and gown and smiling blissfully.

Must be nice.

I almost wanted to say, “May your happiness last forever!”

Wait, they are dead already? Well idk.

Once you’re reduced to bones, everyone looks the same. Rest in peace.

It seems they stored duplicate skills that they’ve learnt in the library, so I found a variety of them.

I haven’t found book skills like [Danger Detection], [Map], and [Language], so I quickly learned them.

That’s right! I got the Language skill!

I was thrilled — finally, I could read that novel!

The illustrations had been driving me nuts, and I tried to decipher it out of sheer curiosity, but it was impossible. But now, I could finally read it!

After learning it, I found out that [Language] lets you understand a language after hearing or seeing it enough times.

The [Danger Detection] skill is pretty self-explanatory. It sharpens your wild instincts, like a sense of impending danger.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

But it seems like it would be hard to level up this skill, as it only activates when I’m in actual danger.

The [Map] skill maps out the paths I walk in my mind, and if I look closely, it also records walls and surroundings.

Say goodbye to paper and pens!

Since then, I’ve been living in this modern tent.

It’s a six-bedroom, living, dining, kitchen with a 45m2 living room, two 30m2 rooms, and four 12m2 rooms, more than spacious enough for just me. The bathroom is only a bit smaller too.

Ah, but the toilet is still just a squatting one. Guess that’s standard here now.

Other than that, the facilities are the same, and there’s still plenty of food, so there is no problems.

The dragon meat was the most delicious thing ever by the way.

As for my thoughts on the long-awaited erotic novel, it lived up to my expectation.

The male character’s verbal teasing was so skillful that I learned a lot from it.

There was blindfold play, humiliation play, even toy play, which keeping me glued.

And to think there’s cosplay culture there in that other world — men really are the same, no matter where they’re from.

In this way, I ended up seclusing into this room with this top-tier entertainment, abandoning my dungeon exploration.

I was just done with everything. I was lonely. I wanted to hear city noise, some pointless TV show, anything that wasn’t the sound of monsters.

I had grown tired of eveything. I was lonely. I just wanted to hear sounds other than monsters, whethr it was the bustling of the city or stupid TV sounds. There were days I pathetically cried all by myself.

I missed hearing human voices.

I longed for human warmth.

I was being crushed by loneliness.

So, I spent my days reading every book I could find in libraries of the Deluxe & Large Magic Tents.

When I was reading, I didn’t feel lonely.

The books contained information about the real, magical other world, more fascinating than any fantasy novel. It’s no wonder that, as a fantasy lover, I couldn’t stop reading.

Speaking of which, there was a book titled “The Empire and the Wanderers.”

And inside, it said something incredible: apparently, Japanese person had once been in the world where the dungeon came from.

Amazing, right?!

There, they’re called “wanderers.” It seems people from Earth have arrived there periodically over the ages.

They supposedly shared knowledge and lived happily, being protected by an empire called the Termina Empire.

Apparently, the world has only one continent, and this Empire is the only nation, which has existed for over 2,000 years. Amazing, isn’t it?

It makes sense that, as the sole country on the continent, they could protect all wanderers.

Well, since its a novel from such country, there were probably informations that was prohibited to public consumtion. So, I dont really know what happened to the Earthlings there.

There is also no way all the nobles were good people, its also possible that they were captured and imprisoned for life to prevent ideologies such as lgbt or democracy.

Damn, now Im afraid to go there.

If there is only one country in that world, it seems like there is no way to escape.

But, can they protect all the wanderers?

If its on Earth, it’d be impossible to observe them all.

After all, people’s skin and hair color there are similar to Earth’s;

I wonder if they have more reddish eyes? But with tinted glasses or contacts, who’d notice?

Apparently, the Empire has progressed in technology by absorbing the knowledge brought by these wanderers.

However, the wanderers had different knowledge ranging from ancient times to modern,

If I were to interpret it in light novel style, probably because they fell through some dimensional vortex wnd went to another world, ending up in either the past or future of that world.

Like, modern people go to the past of that world and pass on advanced tech. Or Edo period people go to that world with some ancient wisdom? Thats probably it.

Oh, and another big discovery — elves and beastfolk do exist here.

But they’re not regarded as people.

In novels, they’re always treated as inferior race.

When I read about someone killing a beastfolk for not obeying, I just couldn’t go on. Its seems pretty normal there

It’s heartbreaking to think of them being persecuted just because humans have ruled for 2,000 years. If I ever visit another world, I’d want to help them.

Elf, cat ears, rabbit ears, fluffy tails….

And so, for a long while, I buried myself in all kinds of books and the occasional, um, adult book. I did try to resume exploring at one point, but it didn’t last long.

Still, I made slow progress, and as I went on, the monsters started getting weaker.

I began to feel like the surfafe might be near

After what felt like an endless marathon, I could finally feel the finish line drawing closer.

With no more books to read, I resumed exploring two days ago, hoping to encounter velociraptors on the 60th floor, and now, I’m here on the 58th.

Yet, I’m still sick of this repetitive work.

After putting the earth dragon and basilisk I’d killed into my spatial storage bracelet, along with my magicsword, I thought to myself.

“It took some time, but reading books was the right call. Thanks to it, I can bring out the full power of my equipment now.”

Most of the books in that study were about the dungeon, which made sense, since the study was in a tent meant for camping in the dungeon.

But reading them taught me about unique properties of equipments that appraisal skills can’t reveal.

It turns out you need Appraisal Skill Level IV or V to identify all the details of high-performance gear.

As a result, I’ve acquired equipment across mythical, legendary, and heroic ranks.

The magic sword is top-grade equipment and classified as Mythical, the highest tier.

But without channeling magic through it, it couldnt reach its full potential.

And I was just wearing my half-plate armor, which is why I kept getting unnecessary injuries.

I’ll talk the details later, for now, I changed my armor to full set of Black Dragon Armor, they all are legendary tier.

Sure, it looks a bit edgy, but it’s practical for weaker enemies.

My main weapon is the [Magic Iron Sword] with a [Mithril Sword] as a backup.

The mithril sword is heroic and still excellent. Mythic-ranked items are just too rare. If you find a heroic-ranked item in a treasure chest, its usually a jackpot.

I’ve acquired quite a lot of equipments and magical tools so far, mostly from the boss room chests, corridor chests, and drops from skeletons.

I keep thinking I should sort them out soon. I mean, there’s even a legendary bikini armor, which is pretty intriguing—though I don’t have anyone to wear it.

“Emi-chan! Misaki-chan! The Goddess-hand Kotomi-chan! I miss you all—don’t quit the shop! I need to see that waist move just one more time! ♪ Excitement-chaos-body ♪ La la la la la—♪”

At this point, I was letting off a lot of steam and kind of zoning out.

While I was singing like that, of course, a basilisk showed up. But before it could fire off its petrifying gaze from that single eye, I used my [Demon Vanquisher] skill to immobilize it, channeling magic into my magic iron sword, and swiftly cut off its head.

Then I continued walking and singing.

Monsters of that level aren’t even a threat anymore.

Oh, and here’s what my current stats look like:

Hikaru Akutsu

Species: Human

HP: SS

Magic: SS+

Strength: SS

Agility: SS-

Dexterity: SS+

Unique Skills:

- Demon Vanquisher

- Barrier

- Flight

Skills:

- Appraisal III, Detection III, Night Vision IV, Body Enhancement IV

- Small Heal III, Middle Heal IV, Large Heal IV, Alchemy III, Synthesis II, Hardening III

- Hawk Eye IV, Silence IV, Concealment IV, Danger Detection II, Map III, Language IV

- Wind Blade IV, Flame Lance IV, Ice Spear III, Glacial Shift IV, Crushing Pressure III, Terrain Manipulation III

- Thousand Spears III, Inferno Hell III, Strong Arm III, Tracking III

Notes: Master of Demons

I leveled up the healing skills a lot while fighting dragons and healing myself, considering my life was on the line. I can’t worry about being merciful there. For other skills, I try to use attack-based ones whenever I can.

Appraisal is still tough to level up. I’ve been slacking off, but Im still a long way to level IV.

My language skill, on the other hand, went up, for reasons you can probably guess—I have a novel I re-read religiously every day.

As for my unique skill, Flight, it’s exactly what it sounds like: I can fly.

The speed increases depending to the amount of magic I put in, though if I’m not maintaining a barrier, the wind pressure and chill make it hard to go too fast. I figure I can hit top speed of 300 km/h if I push it to the limit.

It’s a handy skill, especially since I can maneuver well.

Though the faster I go, the more magic it drains, so most people probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.

With this, I could take my future girlfriend on an aerial sky date.

Imagine wearing green clothes and a hat, reaching out from her window…

Actually, that’d be suspicious. I’d probably get reported.

When I first learned this skill, I was thrilled that I could take shortcuts over the maze walls, like a lesser dragon.

But it turns out I can’t. I can’t fly higher than the walls—there’s some invisible ceiling where even [Demon Vanquisher] don’t work. Unfair, right?

The [Inferno Hell] skill is like a fire version of [Glacial Shifting]—a large-area incineration attack.

Shouting “Inferno!” for fun raised its proficiency level.

[Strong Arm] is a skill that doubles my strength.

It’s stronger than a Strength Bracelet, though its effect is brief.

At level III, it lasts about 15 minutes, which is more than enough time for me.

[Tracking] lets me pursue marked monsters or objects, though I have to get within a certain range to locate them accurately.

At level III, it should cover this entire floor, but it’d be nice if it navigated with some kind of glowing path, like some of RPG games.

As it is, I just get a vague sense of where the target is when I’m within range. I’m prioritizing it because it’s handy for avoiding dangerous monsters.

As for my stats—honestly, I might be the strongest in the world.

I guess fighting dragons all the time will do that.

Even though my skills are so strong I barely feel the boost, it doesn’t hurt to have high stats.

“Oh! Found the stairs to the 59th floor! Kotomi-chan, I’m coming for you!”

At that time, I had no idea that I was about to encounter someone who would change my life forever.