Jiro Tanaka, 28, has a girlfriend.
His girlfriend is Suella Hendelberg.
Memoria Tris.
Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Full-time Employee)
Magic Aptitude: 8 (General Class)
Rank: Warrior
After Supervisor Evia left, we first contacted our Party Members.
This was because we needed to adjust everyone’s schedules and gather them all at once.
“So, can you make time for the schedule?”
“Ugh, I’m in the middle of an event, you see…”
“If you want to experience being bitten from head to toe the moment you step into the office, you don’t have to come.”
“Th-that’s awful!”
“Then come.”
“Understood, Haa, I don’t want to work.”
That’s fine with Minami.
I remember saying that last line myself a long time ago, so I hung up without teasing her.
“Haa!! What’s with this all of a sudden!!”
“I-I told you, it’s an emergency.”
“I have my own circumstances too, can’t you understand that as a working adult!?”
“I can’t help you if you tell me that…”
“Haa, fine. So? When should we meet?”
“Why are you scolding me?”
“Did you say something?”
“Nothing!!”
Beside me, Kaido, who was being scolded by someone younger, was calling Kitamiya.
Still, the fact that he’s diligently conveying the schedule is probably proof that the corporate slave mentality has ingrained itself in him.
“Haa.”
“Good work.”
“Senpai, why am I in charge of Kitamiya-chan?”
“It just happened that way.”
“In that case, wouldn’t it have been better if I was in charge of Minami-chan?”
“Who knows, it’s the result of acting quickly.”
While ignoring Kaido’s tearful gaze, I looked for the next address to contact.
“Well, next is the kindhearted Katsu. Hurry up and get in touch.”
“Roger.”
I called Amelia, and after a few rings, she answered.
“Hi! It’s Amelia!!”
“It’s Tanaka. Amelia, do you have time now?”
“Jiro-san? Yes, I do. Did something happen?”
“There’s been a bit of trouble, and it looks like our future schedule will need to be adjusted. I need you to come over for that adjustment. Can you make it the day after tomorrow in the evening?”
“The day after tomorrow? Un! I can!”
“Is that so? Then I’m counting on you.”
“OK!”
I replied “Then I’ll be counting on you” to her cheerful response and hung up.
With this, my work for today will only involve some meticulous paperwork.
Even in my position as Chief, my role as a Tester hasn’t changed.
Unless I officially join the Demon Lord’s Army, this matter will likely end as a distant story that I don’t know about.
That’s all there is to this story.
“Kaido, contact Katsu.”
I couldn’t continue.
Something shot out and wrapped around my neck, constricting it, and for a moment, my voice was choked.
“Ohh, Jiro, you’re free, right? Lend me your face for a bit.”
“I-Instructor!?”
“That’s how it is. Tadashi, I’m borrowing this guy for a bit.”
“Understood!!”
The one with the strong arms who did that, Instructor Kio, also known as the Ogre Yakuza, turned a fearsome grin that indiscriminately plunges children and adults alike into wailing chaos towards Kaido, and declared his intention to abduct me with a sentence like a shakedown.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t protest.
Because with the perfectly calibrated hold on my arm, my breathing was restricted, and I could only struggle.
However, my strength was like a child arm-wrestling a bear, and I quickly realized resistance was futile, so I surrendered myself to the situation.
Seeing me become listless and resign myself to fate, I was whisked away somewhere while being seen off by Kaido, who quickly saluted.
Instead of being slowly carried away like “Dona Dona,” I was being dragged along with a rumbling, as if something was running wild, which I thought was typical of an instructor. I was grateful for the durability of my neck, which supported my body, now heavier with armor and Ore Trees.
If it had been the same as in the old days, my neck and body would have surely separated.
As I was having such thoughts, it seemed we had arrived at our destination.
“Yo!! Sorry to keep you waiting!!”
“Were you able to retrieve what you forgot? Oni King.”
“Oh, it took a little time to search, but I found it!!”
Waiting there were the Supervisor, standing imposingly, and…
“Alright, let’s go!! You guys!!”
“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!”
A parade of a hundred demons lined up at the entrance of the Dungeon.
Starting with Goblins, then Orcs and Ogres, the commonality was that they all had horns on their heads.
And all of them were fully armed.
Coming this far, and looking at this place and personnel, I understood why I was brought here, whether I liked it or not.
“I’ll ask just in case, but why was I brought here?”
“Ohh!! It’s the practical training, the kind you have in your world!! I’ll take you to the deepest part of the Dungeon!!”
As expected, this unit is an army to subjugate that monster.
Roughly speaking, there are a thousand of them.
I’ve been incorporated into that.
From the instructor’s perspective, it was probably considered a good opportunity to gain experience, but there was no welcoming atmosphere.
The Oni standing behind the instructor were glaring at me.
I could feel gazes that couldn’t be described as just a few more.
Before I could be hurt in battle, my stomach would take damage.
“I appreciate it, but are you okay?”
“I permitted it, so no one will complain.”
Well, I wasn’t trained to be so cowardly that I’d back down from something like that, so I spoke to the instructor without hesitation.
Don’t underestimate my experience as a corporate slave in a black company.
If I backed down from this, I wouldn’t be able to do my job.
Instead, I let my magic surge and competed with him.
Seeing that, the instructor smiled as if pleased with the child’s growth.
“Then, I’ll gain some experience.”
“Kaka, I’ll let you enjoy it from a prime seat!!”
Saying that, I tried to follow the instructor who was striding forward.
“Jiro.”
“Yes?”
The supervisor called out to me as I was about to move.
When I turned around, the supervisor was standing there with the same cold yet serious expression as always.
“Go and taste hell. And then, come back alive.”
“Yes.”
And with a cold yet warm encouragement, I stood behind the instructor.
Now, I wonder if I can return within two days.
“Alright you guys!! The target is the deepest part of the Dungeon. Those who die won’t be invited to the feast!! If you want to drink, then earn some merit!!”
Surviving isn’t just a certainty; I will return alive by any means necessary.
With that resolve, I walked behind the instructor.
The instructor, whose heavy footsteps echoed as he strode forward, received a kanabō, as tall as himself and studded with spikes, from his subordinate along the way.
This is what they mean by “a kanabō for an Oni.”
Though well-used and covered in scratches, it was far from unreliable; instead, it was a blunt weapon that exuded a rugged, powerful, dull light, fitting for leading the charge into battle.
The instructor shouldered his weapon, his partner, and let out his final roar.
In response, the army roared again.
“Good,” the instructor said, deepening his smile, and finally shed his jacket.
As if to say that his own body was the strongest armor, his steel-like muscles were revealed, conveying his combat readiness without words.
“Open the gate!! The battle begins!!”
Following the instruction, which was less a command and more a physical shockwave, the entrance to the Dungeon opened.
The scene that appeared was a forest.
And what appeared next was…
“Well, well, quite the welcoming party.”
Monsters that we had just fought were now swarming in a horde.
Whether they had multiplied to this extent in just a few hours, or if they had always had this many, I couldn’t tell.
But this much I can say.
“First, as a warm-up.”
With this many…
“I’m cutting in!!”
The Oni’s blow shattered the ground, and the shockwave alone obliterated the swarm of Evol Eaters around the gate.
With the impact alone, their predatory abilities were rendered meaningless, as if demonstrating a physical end.
“Well, as for his disciples…”
Riding that momentum, the Oni army attacked the formless異形.
I didn’t get left behind by that surge; in fact, I reached for my Ore Tree, eager to be at the forefront.
“If you can’t do the same thing, what’s the point!!”
One strike, one step.
With every step I take, I’ll cut down one, then two. I’ll put effort into my legs as if I’m leaving sound behind with every advance.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to keep up with the instructor, who was slaughtering enemies like a storm.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”
I let out a monkey’s roar, drowning out the Oni’s war cry, drawing attention.
“Ohoho!! That’s the spirit, Jiro!! You guys!! Don’t lose to a human!!”
“Ooooooooooooooooooh!!”
With this fighting spirit, I probably blended into the Oni.
Some of the Oni, who were slashing into the enemy ranks with glee while saying “Don’t lose to a human,” showed a glimpse of their strength-supremacy ideology by saying “He’s not bad, is he?”
“Hmph!!”
Sometimes I would cut down enemies along with the trees.
And always take the initiative, faster than the opponent’s attack, faster than anyone else.
I sharpened my footwork, the transfer of my weight, the movement of my waist, the motion of my shoulders, the power of my arms, and the nerves at my fingertips.
I refined each attack as if it were training, turning my five senses, even the taste of the battlefield’s air, into information and reflecting it in my movements.
“You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you!! How is it, Jiro, the atmosphere of the battlefield!!”
“I’m too busy cutting down the enemies in front of me! But I don’t dislike it!!”
“Hah!! You understand!! Then I’ll take you to an even grander battlefield!! For now, follow me with the resolve to die!!”
“Yes!!”
For a moment, I moved behind the instructor, caught my breath, and immediately started moving again.
The elite troops assembled by the rampaging Oni King, Instructor Kio, moved in sync like a single beast.
I felt an indescribable excitement at being able to move as one of their fangs.
“Father!! I can see the entrance!!”
As the Hundred Demon Night Parade cut through the black sea, before I knew it, I had moved far deeper than I had intended.
A scout Goblin pointed towards the entrance, presumably where the mother organism was.
“Hmph, it was faster than I thought. The Kuzuri makes for a bland Dungeon, doesn’t it?”
“If you crush your way through the shortest distance in a straight line, this is what happens.”
Even though we were still fighting, I could afford to look back.
The area we had just passed through should have been a dense forest, but now it was a well-trodden path.
I bore some of the responsibility for this environmental destruction, but about eighty percent of it is the fault of the Ogre Yakuza who went wild at the front.
I blurted it out, but the instructor, as if agreeing, just smiled without seeming bothered by my words.
“So, what are we going to do? Enemies are pouring out of the Dungeon entrance like a spring.”
“What? That’s obvious.”
And, though I described it as a spring, it wasn’t water that was gushing out, but of course, Evol Eaters.
The swarm emerging from the cave indicated by the scout Goblin seemed endless, and no matter how much we cut them down, there was no sign of them diminishing.
“Half of you, guard this entrance and prevent us from being attacked from the rear!! The rest of you, we’re charging in!! Charging in!!!”
“I knew it!! So it’s going to end up like this!!”
But, without caring about that, the instructor carved a path forward with an intensity that would make a rock-drilling machine blush.
The situation partly unfolded as I imagined, and my body moved reflexively, entering the cave without hesitation.
Inside, it was a labyrinth with expanded caves, like the Dungeon that the instructor was in charge of.
However, the holes were arranged in a pattern that would confuse the enemy.
It was a structure designed for insects, which can move on walls and ceilings, unlike bipedal beings like Oni.
But the instructor, as if knowing the way, or rather, knowing the way, moved through it without hesitation, guiding the Oni army.
Regardless of the enemies emerging from all sorts of paths, when movement took time, they would halt in place and wait for the army’s movement.
“Did it stop?”
“The enemies aren’t inexhaustible. If our cutting speed is faster, the number of troops they can deploy is limited. Recover your stamina while you can!!”
During that process, the flow of enemies temporarily stopped.
“Instructor, by the schedule, how long will it take to reach the deepest part?”
“At this rate, I’d say three days. Today, we should probably set up camp and prepare to rest. You guys, get ready to build the camp!!”
During that lull, we began constructing a camp for rest, despite being in the enemy’s territory.
The tents the Oni took out were simple, but they were a high-quality item that had magical treatments applied to allow for a brief nap if we took shifts watching.
I remembered seeing something similar in an underground facility before.
I had considered buying one with the party’s budget at the time, assuming we would be holed up in a Dungeon for an extended period.
“…Instructor, wouldn’t it be faster to connect to the deepest part with the Dungeon Gate to push through all at once?”
“If we could do that, we wouldn’t be having this much trouble. The enemies wouldn’t just leave the key unlocked, would they? According to Evia, only the official entrance can be opened in this Dungeon now. Personally, I prefer clashing like this!!”
As the camp construction progressed rapidly, I calmed my breathing while standing.
The fact that everyone knew what to do with a single instruction indicated that their training was complete.
While watching such a group, I had a moment of free time and asked the instructor a casual question.
However, the instructor laughed it off, as if my idea had been tested.
“You really love fighting, don’t you, Instructor?”
“Oni are such creatures. You can tell by looking at them. They love sake and battle, and they spare no effort for it. And you, who enjoys fighting, can understand that, can’t you?”
“Perhaps.”
When I honestly conveyed my impression of his appearance, I received a natural answer that didn’t break his image as an Oni.
The instructor glanced at me with his imposing eyes, revealing his inner thoughts.
Instead of denying it, I had too much familiarity with it, so I could only shake my shoulders in affirmation.
“Then it’s good. It’s going to get even more fun from here. To enjoy the battle, you should rest while you can. We’ll depart when the Undead King’s group catches up.”
The instructor, seeing that, looked satisfied and told his subordinates to bring him some sake before leaving the area.
“If this is the Kuzuri’s Dungeon, then it should be ‘friends’ garden’ for the instructor, shouldn’t it? Is it rude to ask him how he feels about fighting his friends?”
The Supervisor and the Instructor, whether they treated it as work or not, acted quickly and without hesitation.
Or perhaps, what seemed strange to my common sense was normal to their way of thinking.
While harboring such doubts, I decided to make the most of the break I was given and took out a cigarette and started smoking it.
Jiro Tanaka, 28, has a girlfriend.
His girlfriend is Suella Hendelberg.
Memoria Tris.
Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Full-time Employee)
Magic Aptitude: 8 (General Class)
Rank: Warrior
Today’s Quote
Well, going with the flow is also a necessary thing, isn’t it?
This concludes the chapter.
We look forward to your continued support in this work.
