“Alright then, I’ll explain the rules right away.”
The rabbit lightly flicked its cane and raised it into the air. A floating display—like a status screen—materialized before us.
“Today’s space-time mission is… this!”
With a sharp motion, the rabbit pointed the cane at the screen. A string of words appeared across it.
“Space-time… darts… journey?”
“Exactly! From here on, you’ll be playing these space-time darts. Wherever the dart lands, I’ll teleport you to a certain floor within that dungeon.”
“…Ah??”
“And once you’re there, you’ll complete the mission I assign.”
Teleport…?
“Here’s today’s dartboard!”
With a sweep of its cane, the empty air warped—and out of nowhere, a round dartboard appeared.
No, wait—it was completely pitch-black. Every part looked exactly the same.
Where the hell was I even supposed to aim?
“Look closely. Here—right here.”
The rabbit tapped the center of the board with its cane.
Squinting, I could just barely make out a faint white dot.
“If it lands here, there will be no teleportation. Mission complete, and I’ll grant you a reward.”
“And if it lands anywhere other than the white spot, you’re off to some part of a Nether-class dungeon—GoGoHeaven! Oh, and that includes the lowest floor, so… I’ll be rooting for you not to hit that.”
Heaven? Yeah, right. Didn’t sound heavenly at all…
“Nether class…? If we end up in a place like that, even the upper floors would probably be a death sentence…”
“Is it… really that dangerous?”
“Dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover it… Even SSS-rank explorers haven’t managed to clear the lowest floor yet. There’s no telling how many skilled adventurers have lost their lives in that dungeon!”
> Even the upper floors are a dead end unless you’re top-tier SS-rank
> Wasn’t the Hero’s party’s best around the 80th floor?
> No, I think it was the 78th
> The lowest floor is level 100, right?
> Difficulty: SSS. One of the world’s three great abyssal dungeons
> Divine-class, Nether-class, Abyssal-Sea-class, right?
> Most explorers drop out around floor 50
> The mid-boss is completely broken
> Wasn’t it the Nether Dragon King, Ades?
> Yeah… judging by how many explorers it’s wiped out, it’s probably the deadliest mid-boss ever
The chat erupted again, this time buzzing with talk about Nether-class dungeon. Even just skimming the comments flashing past, one thing was painfully clear—that is not a place people like us should be setting our foot in.
So no one had ever even reached the lowest floor…?
From what is currently known, every possible destination sounded like a nightmare—but if there is one place we absolutely had to avoid, it’s the fiftieth floor. Hit that, and it’s game over. No exceptions.
“Just so you know, opting out of the mission isn’t allowed.”
“And if we refuse?”
“You won’t be able to.”
“…That’s not an answer.”
“Once you run into a Unique House, you’ve basically got no choice but to give up…”
Satsuki-chan let out a long, exhausted sigh, her shoulders slumping as the last of her energy seemed to drain away.
“It’ll be fine! This time, your mission is just to survive for ten minutes on whatever floor you’re sent to. And if things start looking bad, you can use an escape item to come right back. Though, of course, that won’t count as a clear.”
“Wait—you’re giving us escape items?”
“Nope. Those are on you.”
We don’t have any!
Neither Satsuki-chan nor me has one.
“Daishi-san, hey—Daish-san.”
Satsuki-chan leaned in and whispered softly into my ear.
“What is it?”
“Couldn’t you use your [Return] skill somehow? It seemed like a teleport-type ability, right? If that works, then maybe we won’t need an escape item.”
“Oh… that’s actually a great idea.”
The last time I tried using [Return] to go back home, it got canceled because I hadn’t set a designated point. In that case, why not set this place as the return point? If anything went wrong, I could just come straight back.
“Hey, Rabbit.”
“Call me the Space-Time Rabbit.”
What a pain.
“…Space-Time Rabbit, then. We don’t have any escape items. Would it be okay if I used my own teleportation skill to get us back instead?”
“Hm. Your teleportation skill, you say…—wait, a teleportation-type skill!?”
The rabbit suddenly started freaking out for some reason.
“Yeah. So, from everything I’ve heard, I really don’t see us clearing this. I want to set it up so we can return to this spot if things go south… would that be okay?”
I hadn’t used [Return] yet, so I couldn’t say for sure if I understood how it worked. But if I had to guess, I could probably only set a designated point from my current location. Which meant… this place should be valid.
“Teleportation-type skills are supposed to be extremely rare…. Only certain, highly specialized explorers can use them. This guy’s clearly a beginner… and a cleric, no less…”
The Space-Time Rabbit kept muttering to itself.
So which is it—yes or no?
“Ahem… well, if you can use it, then I guess I don’t mind. If you really can, that is…”
Still doubting me, huh?
…Just watch.
“Return! Set designated point!”
Last time, it had refused to activate because no point had been set—so this time, I invoked [Return] while clearly intending to establish one.
Just like before, a string of text appeared before my eyes. I followed the prompts, making a few adjustments so that I could come back to this exact spot. Just in case, I tried to see if I could set my home as the return point—but as expected, that wasn’t possible.
| 《 Understood. Setting return coordinates to: Room 2 【Unique House】, Basement Floor 1, West Tokyo 4th Beginner Dungeon. Proceed? 》 |
“Yes. Do it.”
| 《 …Designation complete. Configuration done.》 |
The text flickered—and vanished.
…That’s it?
It felt almost too simple, like I’d missed something—but, well, it should be fine.
“Alright! Then let’s get to the darts, Satsuki-chan!”
With that safety net in place, a wave of relief washed over me.Shaking off the lingering anxiety, I called out to Satsuki-chan with renewed determination.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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