Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Gate

Switching from a mace to a sword had been a good decision. Armored orcs would perish if I stabbed them in a weak spot, or they’d at least suffer a fatal wound. Either way, it lowered my risk and increased my turnover. It was a shame that the strength debuff caused by the Glutton skill prevented me from wielding even heavier maces, but what could I do?

My biggest concern was that I had to face more and more enemies armed with metal weapons. The dungeon might grant me physical enhancements, but how much help was that against a knife to the heart? As a solo adventurer, I avoided getting hit in the first place. Still, that was no excuse to skimp on countermeasures for the worst-case scenario.

Because of that, I’d come to the armory in the Adventurers’ Guild to buy armor. The school’s factories also sold armor, though I’d have to submit an order for bespoke armor and wait until it was ready. My needs were pressing, so I wanted to buy a set straight from the shelf.

A set of plate armor stood glimmering in the glass showcase by the entry to the armory, dazzling passersby. The store stocked pieces of light armor crafted from the skin and fangs of magical beasts, and there was also heavy armor made of mithril alloy, a fantasy metal. The price tags beneath each of these were staggering. I could buy a house at these prices! I was shaking in my boots as I walked around inspecting the stock.

“Hi, boss,” said a middle-aged man wearing an apron. “Whaddaya looking for?” He looked a bit like a bandit from how huge he was with bulging muscles and his big, scruffy beard. His apron had the shop’s logo printed, so I realized he worked here.

“Oh, err, do you have any good light armor?” I asked.

“Which parts of your body are you looking to protect? And what’s your budget?”

Apparently, he was the store’s manager. Looking at my age and size, he cupped his hand to his chin and mused, “Must be a high schooler. Big one too. Probably won’t want anything too expensive.”

“I have fifty thousand yen, and I’d like something to protect my torso,” I responded.

“In that case...” the manager said, heading to the back of the store, then returning with a black leather jacket and a pair of gloves. “This is armor made from demon wolf leather. Most ordinary knives won’t penetrate it, and since it’s made from monster pelts, resizing is easy. I’ll sweeten the deal and throw in these shoulder guards for your fifty grand.”

I didn’t suspect he was scamming me, but I used Basic Appraisal on the items just in case.

Demon wolf jacket. Plus six to defense. Plus five percent to fire resistance.

Demon wolf gauntlets. Plus three to defense. Plus three percent to fire resistance.

So they definitely were demon wolf leather. The jacket would protect my chest and armpits on the front while simple leather straps fastened it to my body from behind, which made the design light. The gauntlets had two components, one worn on my wrist and the other on my forearm, to protect me from my knuckles to my elbows. They reminded me a bit of the gloves worn when practicing kendo. They hadn’t been impressive in the game, but these black gauntlets looked badass. I loved them.

“If you had some more cash, I could’ve fetched something for your legs too,” the manager said. “You won’t often get demon wolf armor this cheap, boss!”

He explained that he’d bought a large supply of demon wolf pelts the week before at an excellent price from a demon wolf hunting party. Since he was on good terms with them, he sold the demon wolf armor at below-market rates.

Demon wolves spawned on the dungeon’s sixth floor and had a small probability of dropping demon wolf pelts. Tanning and treating the pelts would result in this black leather.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll take both.”

“Pleasure doing business! Wanna try ’em on now?”

I equipped the gauntlets, shoulder pads, and jacket, then brought out my rented sword. Shortly after, I looked in a nearby full-length mirror, eager to see the fantasy warrior I’d become... Alas, looking cool just wasn’t possible with my rotund figure. I seemed more like a generic villain from a late-nineties anime.

I supposed I’d drop by again to buy armor for my legs once I saved up enough. After all, I’d probably go for demon wolf leather again to match what I’d just bought. The gamer in me wouldn’t be happy until I’d gotten the complete set.

So, I made small talk with the manager while I waited for my armor to be adjusted. He told me the market was volatile, and prices were rising because the supply of dungeon metals, ores, and potions couldn’t keep up with the recent surge in popularity of adventuring and dungeon raiding. As he handed me a discount coupon, he warned me to be careful because violence between adventurers was becoming more prevalent.

Now that I had some new gear, I was excited to test it in the dungeon.

***

Today, I planned to go to the fourth floor, where adventurers would begin to encounter traps, although they were rare. Some of those disappeared after activating and reappearing in another place sometime later. Most traps stayed in specific locations, so it was best to memorize where you encountered one, sprung or not.

In DEC, monsters could get caught in traps, which I found hilarious. If you knew where an active trap was, you could use it against monsters. But the fourth floor only had pitfalls that weren’t fatal since they had no spikes or blades at the bottom. Monsters would only suffer from a twisted ankle, at most. To kill them, you’d have to use long-range weapons or magic.

The only weapons I had at the moment were the close-range ones I’d rented from the school’s factories, so I’d be hunting monsters in my usual style without making use of traps.

***

Okay, here I am on the fourth floor, I thought. It took three hours to get here... Going down to the fifth floor might be quicker when I want to leave.

On the fifth floor, I could use a “gate” to travel back and forth to the first floor. I was unsure it would work in this world as I had seen no one else using it, but that was all the more reason to venture to the fifth floor and try it out.

The landing area of the fourth floor was an open space with thirty meters between the floor and the ceiling, and an eight-story building for lodging used the full height of the floor. It looked like they’d tried to squeeze it into the available space. A restaurant took up the first floor with a fancy price list on a stand outside the entrance.

The Pig’s Tail Inn. Book a stay for forty thousand yen per night. Breakfast is fifteen hundred yen. God, that’s extortion.

I browsed the inn’s reviews on my tablets, and most had a variation of “five-star price for a shitty motel!” I might have enjoyed staying at the inn for the chance of a bath and to get the genuine dungeon raid experience. Unfortunately, it was beyond the means of a low-level adventurer like me who could barely scrape together fifty grand for weapons and armor.

The inn seemed to be putting up quite a few tourists, who required a visa and a foreign Adventurers’ Pass to visit the dungeon. One could make the trip to the fourth floor safely and without fighting as long as tourists stuck to the main streets that connected the floors. I could make out a few foreign faces in the terraced seating area. There were dozens of dungeons around the world, but only one in Japan, so this was the natural destination for tourists.

Adventurers chose to set up tents or roll out mats and sleep huddled up near the edge of the open space instead of booking a room at the inn. That made sense, given the prohibitive pricing. Other than that, there were stalls trading magic gems and stands selling baked foods.

I was on a tight schedule, so I wanted to skip the amenities and head straight to my hunting spot.

***

The fourth floor was less busy than the third, but many adventurers viewed it as their primary raiding spot. I pushed out of the bustling landing area and followed the main street onto the fifth floor until I reached the turning point for the orc room. Then, I passed several holes in the ground, pitfall traps that others had sprung. I wasn’t likely to activate one based on how many were in the room.

The orc room on the fourth floor I’d picked out for my raid was about the same size as the one on the third floor. But the monsters that spawned there were all level 4 and above, like orc chiefs, goblin archers, and goblin mages. Occasionally, a level 5 goblin soldier spawned as a random encounter instead of a goblin archer. These had little HP, so you could kill them with a backstab or a single hit when they were immobile and absorb their level 5 experience points.

A party of adventurers had beaten me to the first orc room I tried, and they were fighting inside, so I walked to the next closest orc room.

I peeked inside.

There they are, I thought. Two goblin archers, one orc chief. The chief’s wearing a breastplate.

I wasted no time starting the day’s hunt. I pulled the pin from a stun grenade, lobbed it inside, and shut my eyes shut until the flash was over. When the light was gone, I charged into the room, found the two low-HP goblin archers, and sliced their legs. The goblins dropped their bows, which I stomped on and snapped. I left the goblins on the ground, injured but alive, and thrust my sword into the orc chief’s side.

“Ooh gaaar!” it roared, stumbling.

It tried to regain its footing and pulled its weapon up, but I was quicker. My attack packed a punch now that I was level 5, and the orc’s club flew out of its hands. I plunged my sword into its thick neck.

I waited a little before finishing the first writhing goblin, then slew the last, and I finally had a chance to catch my breath.

After swinging my sword around in this encounter, I realized my strength had progressed since my first dungeon raid, even with the Glutton debuff. Though my sword now weighed the same as the mace I’d stopped using, I could swing it easily using both hands. The feeling was the same as swinging the wooden bat at level 1, and my agility had improved too. I was still fat, weighing over a hundred kilos, but I could reach running speed. If I kept leveling up, I might come to act like a superhuman from a superhero flick, even at my current weight. That was both exciting and a little scary.

***

Today’s raid was going well. My time slaying enemies was kept short by launching surprise attacks and taking advantage of their immobility. Because they only respawned at ten-minute intervals, I was more than capable of handling the three monsters. Whenever I spotted a nearby monster in my downtime, I backstabbed it or lured it into the room to kill it. Over two hours, I racked up forty kills.

I’d gotten a bit scared when an orc chief roaming the area outside the room had attacked me. But I was better at following its motions compared to when I’d been level 4, so the fight hadn’t been too difficult. The experience showed me that leveling up improved your overall fighting ability by increasing physical strength and dynamic visual acuity.

As it happened, I didn’t encounter a single goblin soldier during my raid. Remembering back to the orc chief on the third floor, the probability of random encounters was much lower than in the game. I looted two bows but threw them away because they weren’t magic items and were in bad condition with their bowstrings snapped, meaning I couldn’t even sell them for scrap.

When it was time to go, I headed down to the fifth floor instead of up to the third to test the gate. The fifth floor was also busy with adventurers, and there were shops, food stands, and resting areas. Due to the time of day, plenty of tents had sprung up here and there, with parties of adventurers eating their meals inside. Pitching tents this close to the gate room indicated the gate wasn’t common knowledge or usable.

Drawing on my mental map from the game, I recalled I’d reach the gate room if I turned left from the landing area and walked for a kilometer. In the room, I saw a magic circle of complex geometric shapes inscribed on the wall. If I channeled my magic into the circle and registered the gate, I should warp to the first floor’s gate. Or so I hoped, anyway.

Adventurers with the advanced job Sorcerer could learn a magic skill to create gates. Since every fifth floor had a gate room, I was in no rush to learn it. That skill definitely was a great one to learn, though. A Sorcerer could use it to whisk their party to safety in an emergency.

After arriving at the gate room, I looked inside but found nobody. I was the only person in the whole area! In answer to my earlier question, it appeared the gate wasn’t common knowledge.

But this meant adventurers on the deeper floors must spend weeks or months traveling from the first floor to their raid destinations. The idea of anonymously posting about the gate rooms online briefly passed through my mind, but I rejected it. The gates could ramp up the speed of dungeon exploration and strengthen terrorists and other violent organizations, throwing the world into more chaos. The cat might come out of the bag eventually, but I wouldn’t be the reason.

Once I confirmed I was alone, I began funneling magic into the magic circle. The grooves in the circle started to glow deep blue, and I heard the low rumbling of a mechanism activating. The gate appeared, a shining, whirling pool of purple.

“So it does work! Right, in I go!” I exclaimed.

There might be adventurers in the first floor gate room, but I didn’t need to worry because I had no way of telling. So, I jumped in.

A whooshing sound passed by, and a world replaced another instantly. On the other side, I found myself in a dark room.

“Hang on, this isn’t the first floor. I’m...inside the school?”

This location had a magic circle for a gate, meaning this was a proper gate room. Although the room looked like an ordinary Adventurers’ High classroom, it lacked windows. About twenty seconds passed while I examined my surroundings before the gate closed, leaving the magic circle on a wall. On the opposite side of the room, someone had stacked desks against the wall.

I exited the dark, classroom-like gate room. The hallway made me more convinced that I was in the school. When I climbed up the stairs, I got my confirmation. I recognized the entryway to the school’s first floor, which meant the gate room was in the basement.

“What the hell’s going on...? How can there be a gate room outside the dungeon?”

I’d frequently used the gates in my gaming days, but they’d never taken me outside the dungeon. It was an unsettling development. If the dungeon and its rules worked differently to the game, then my advantage as a former player would diminish, and it might force me to change my plans.

Why was there a gate room here in the first place? Was it man-made? But if Japan had that technology, we should have progressed farther into the dungeon. I circled back to the gate room and inspected it from top to bottom, inside and out, but nothing stood out.

From a different perspective, I could enter the dungeon from within the school without passing through security. I’d planned to use either the gate skill or magic items to get my family into the dungeon, but a new solution had presented itself. Plus, I was tired of dealing with the crowds when I wanted to enter the dungeon. From now on, sneaking in here was the way to go.