After-School Dungeon Diver: Level Grinding in Another World Volume 2 E-Book

Gamei Hitsuji

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Scrael tells Akira that she wants to visit his world, so he asks Ameithys the Purple for permission to take his friend to Japan. Casually, the god answers, “That’s fine!” And so the two are off to Japan! But once there, Scrael finds herself captivated by a certain something...

Dive into volume two of the leisurely and comforting otherworldly adventure!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Prologue: Where the Gods Are

Floor Twelve: Let’s Go to Modern Japan

Floor Thirteen: Nuisances at the Main Hall

Floor Fourteen: Fluffy Is Justice

Floor Fifteen: The Dangerously Good Creamy Stuff

Floor Sixteen: Trouble at the Rankings Chart

Floor Seventeen: This World Needs More Salt!

Floor Eighteen: Charge! Gandakia Dungeon Route Two! Part One

Floor Nineteen: Charge! Gandakia Dungeon Route Two! Part Two

Floor Twenty: Charge! Gandakia Dungeon Route Two! Part Three

Floor Twenty-One: Charge! Gandakia Dungeon Route Two! Part Four

Epilogue: Alas, I’ve Been Kidnapped!

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Color Illustrations

Prologue: Where the Gods Are

I was at God’s—Ameithys’s—place today. And no, I didn’t mean I’d died and gotten sent to his place. I was well and alive, and there was no surprise twist at the end where I’d been a ghost the whole time. I always had to visit this place whenever I traveled between my world and this one. It was a transit point of sorts, and I had to pay my respects to God every time.

This time, Scrael was with me, so I wasn’t alone for once. I’d been hanging out at the Divers Guild and thinking about what to do for the day when I’d encountered her. She’d expressed interest in visiting Japan, and so here we were.

Scrael curiously looked around the unfamiliar environment like a country bumpkin visiting a major city for the first time, but she was going to be even more fascinated once we arrived in modern Japan. Well, I’d had pretty much the same reaction as her the first time I’d been here, so I kept my mouth shut.

“This is your world?” asked Scrael.

“This is where God lives. We need to get his permission first,” I explained.

“Your god is Lord Ameithys, right?”

“Yup.”

Calling him “my god” may sound like I worshipped him or something, but I didn’t mind since he’d indeed been taking care of me and he was the reason I could use magic. In fact, if he asked me to become his follower, I’d agree without being asked twice. I’d been regularly giving him gifts, so I was already covered in the “offerings” department.

This place was as strange as ever though. There’d been times when it’d just been a white room with a bunch of manga and novels, times when it’d been a library filled with books, and times when it’d looked like a regular living room in some foreign country. I’d even considered getting my eyes checked when I’d found him chilling on a beach chair at a private beach. This place was never consistent, but I figured I was just being sent to wherever God was at the time.

We were at a library this time, and God was reading a book while lying down on the floor. If “lazy bum” was a phrase in the dictionary, you’d probably find his picture there. My impression of him was—well, he just seemed like some dude from my neighborhood. He had blond hair and rugged-looking features, but his chill and friendly personality made up the majority of what I thought of him.

“Hi God, I’m back,” I said to the relaxing Ameithys.

“Oh, Akira, what’s wrong? Did you forget something?” he asked.

“No, a friend wants to visit Japan, so I brought her with me,” I replied. “I think you mentioned it’d be fine before, but I thought I’d make sure.”

“That’s fine!” he said, then turned to us and waved with a smile.

He was so casual about it like I’d asked if I could go to a friend’s house down the street. The conversation was so casual that Scrael just stood there frozen, and she wouldn’t even react when I called her name. The gap between her expectations and reality had been far too wide.

Eventually, Scrael finally recovered and asked me, “Akira, Akira, is that him?”

“Yup. That’s Mr. Ameithys,” I said softly.

She narrowed her eyes. “You call a god ‘mister’? Sounds blasphemous.”

“Huh? But he said he doesn’t mind.”

“He’s right,” agreed Ameithys. “I don’t.”

Scrael looked a bit bitter but let it go and walked up to God.

“Lord Ameithys, I thank you for your daily blessings,” she said.

God rose from the ground, his demeanor now completely changed.

“Very well,” he responded. “Continue to keep your word and promise to your god and live a fruitful life.”

“Yes, Lord Ameithys,” said Scrael solemnly.

I could feel Ameithys’s godly majesty. He was usually so apathetic and indolent, but he was now acting like a completely different person.

“You really seem like a god right now,” I said to him.

“Well, I am? I’m kind of expected to say this kind of stuff, ya know?” he said, pointing at me with both index fingers.

He could be silly like that—or maybe I should say he was frank and friendly.

As we continued our casual conversation, Scrael wordlessly shot me that dubious look again.

“Well, I mean, this is how we usually talk,” I said.

“You should still show a certain level of respect,” she argued.

I was already used to talking to him like this, so I didn’t know what to say. Besides, I’d already been showing respect, so there was nothing for her to worry about. And why was it okay for God to talk to me so frankly but not the other way around?

“So, she wants to visit your world, right?” Ameithys asked me.

“Yes. We’d be honored if you could give us your approval,” I said.

“Please, Lord Ameithys,” added Scrael.

He’d already said it was fine earlier, but we wanted to double-check for the official green light. We had to be careful about these things, or we could end up in a whole lot of trouble.

“I don’t mind,” he said, “but you shouldn’t go over there as is. Let’s take care of a few things first, starting with your ears.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“Just a little magic. With my godly powerrrs,” he said in a jokey way, waving his hand around.

He’d made such a casual gesture that it didn’t seem like it’d actually done anything. Then, I looked over at Scrael and found that she now had human ears. They weren’t long or pointed; they were now rounded.

“Whoa! That’s amazing!” I exclaimed.

“Huh? Whaaat? What?”

Scrael looked around in confusion. She then seemed to realize she couldn’t see her ears at the edge of her vision as usual, and she became even more bewildered.

Ameithys offered her a mirror and said, “Here you go.”

“My people’s pride...” she said as she peered into the mirror, a look of despair on her face.

The color had drained out of her as if the world were ending, and her disappointment was palpable. Those trademark ears were her race’s identity after all—their race was even named after them.

Seeing her devastation, Ameithys added in a fluster, “Oh, no. All I did was make them look different. They Haven’t actually changed, okay? There’s no need to worry.”

“Really?” I asked as I reached out to where her long ears should’ve been, thoroughly feeling them.

Sure enough, I could feel something there. The tips were pointy and stiff. And no, I wasn’t talking about anything lewd.

“He’s right. Your ears are still there,” I noted.

“Don’t touch without permission,” said Scrael.

“Can I touch them?” I asked.

“Fine,” she said after hesitating.

I wasn’t sure what that exchange had been about, but at least I’d gotten permission after the fact.

“Next, we’ll take care of your clothes,” said Ameithys with another casual wave of his hand.

Scrael’s clothes drastically changed from her usual outfit that looked like a Chinese dress. In an instant, a big, cute hat appeared on her head, and a blouse with a tie and a skirt wrapped around her. Her attire was reminiscent of a schoolgirl’s outfit and looked very cute on her.

That was quite a useful technique. I wished I could use it too. I could probably be a great magician with a trick like that.

Ameithys then conjured a full-length mirror with a puff. Scrael saw her own reflection, and her expression brightened.

“It’s cute. It’s nothing like Akira’s clothes,” she said.

“Well, my outfit is pretty unique,” I pointed out.

“I thought that’s how everyone dresses in your world.”

“They’d all have to be explorers if they were all wearing this.”

They’d all probably had names like Kawaguchi or Fujioka and go on TV looking for strange things around the world like they’d done in a certain TV program. But if I had to step into the Amazon rainforest or something, at least I was dressed for the occasion. Though, I’d still have to be wary of infectious diseases and parasites.

“These clothes are a gift from me,” said Ameithys.

“I’m most grateful,” said Scrael with a ninety-degree bow.

Such reverence.

God didn’t seem too concerned. “I’ll also make it so you can speak and write some stuff in his world.”

“Isn’t ‘some stuff’ a little vague?” I asked.

“It’ll be fine. You managed in this world without issues, didn’t you?” he said.

“Well, that’s true.”

“Just go with the flow,” he said. “People in your world go to foreign countries and just wing it, don’t they? It’s kind of like that.”

I wanted to say a few things, but I kept my mouth shut. Indeed, people did travel like that and ended up fine, and I’d done the same thing myself in Do-Melta too.

I still had to take some time to teach Scrael about my world, so we decided to excuse ourselves.

Floor Twelve: Let’s Go to Modern Japan

We’d ended up back in my room. The interior of my room—well, that wasn’t all that important. There was a desk, a TV, a dresser, a laptop, and nothing else really special to note. It was your run-of-the-mill student’s room.

Now it was time for Scrael’s lessons, but I had to get changed first. A safari outfit was pretty much cosplay in modern Japan. I threw my mud-covered outfit in the laundry sometimes, and I felt bad for my mom when I did.

“Let me get changed first,” I said.

“Okay,” said Scrael.

I quickly got changed in the corner of my room. I didn’t feel any reservations about changing with a girl in the room, probably because I’d gotten used to it from going back and forth between here and Do-Melta. With Scrael in particular, we’d already had that spicy episode at the washing area in the Divers Guild, so we didn’t think much of it.

I changed into a casual outfit of a white tee and a pair of blue pants, and Scrael looked at me with a critical look.

“You look better in this outfit...”

“Well, I wear the other one because it’s easy to move around in, and I don’t mind if it gets dirty. This is what I usually wear,” I explained.

“Is that how it is?” she asked.

“Yup.”

“It’s so weird that you wear the other outfit when you have decent aesthetic taste.”

She really must have hated the safari look. It was a well-established style that could even be considered traditional, and I couldn’t understand why she loathed it so much.

Suddenly, Scrael glanced out the window and said, “There are houses everywhere.”

“Yeah. It’s like that everywhere in Japan—er, in my country’s major cities.”

She’d pointed out the housing problem here without knowing it. I figured she meant it was impressive that there were so many houses, but there were far too many people here for how little land there was, which was how it was in a place like Japan.

Anyway, I started teaching her about this world. She’d come in here completely blind, so she was full of questions. If I didn’t teach her some basic knowledge now, it’d be a matter of time until we ran into trouble.

Learning to use a toilet, for example, was crucial. I’d heard there were places with flushing restrooms in Do-Melta, but they weren’t the norm there, and they didn’t use Western-style toilets.

After giving her a rundown of the basics, I decided she was going to need to learn the rest on her own. That was what I’d done in her world, and things had ended up all right.

“Oh? Is she a foreign friend of yours?” asked my mom.

“Yup. She just came here, so I’ve been teaching her about Japan,” I said.

“Ah, that’s probably for the best if she’s new here.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Scrael.

“Nice to meet you too,” replied my mom. “I hope you two get along well. Are you about to go out?”

“Yup. I’m going to show her around for a bit,” I said.

There were surely some more things my mom could’ve asked in this bizarre situation, but she just giggled without prying any further. Maybe it was just her unassertive personality, but I was impressed that she’d just let it slide. Maybe she was just used to me having strange friends like my childhood friend Hiro.

I showed Scrael a TV, but she didn’t have the cliché reaction of thinking there was a person inside the box. I had to admit I was a bit disappointed.

As we continued watching the TV for a bit, a superhero and kaijin villain appeared on the screen. The coconut-crab-looking creature was about two meters tall, but the hero was only about two-thirds of its size. He was tiny.

“Your evil deeds end here, kaijin!”

“Dai Red! At last! It’s time I—”

“Shut up and take this! BurniiingSmaaash!”

“At least let me finish my liiine—”

The time it took for the hero to blow the bad guy into smithereens was about two panels in manga terms. RIP.

Japan was peaceful as always.

“Your house is so fancy,” said Scrael.

“This is a pretty standard household,” I explained.

“This is standard? According to my observations, the standard of living in this world is extremely high,” said Scrael, using big words and nodding to herself.

She was right if we were comparing Japan to Do-Melta, but they had magic, so I was interested in seeing how things would develop over there. Magical technology was usually a land mine in fantasy stories, but I was sure it’d be okay with Ameithys keeping watch.

Afterward, we stepped outside into the residential district. Scrael was already finding surprises everywhere, her eyes bright with excitement.

“I saw them through the window earlier, but wow. So many big buildings,” she said.

“It must be impressive if you’re seeing them for the first time.”

“Yeah. I see even bigger buildings over there too.”

“That one’s near the station,” I explained. “Twenty-story buildings are pretty common over there.”

“Twenty stories...” breathed Scrael, her eyes wide with surprise.

“But things here weren’t so different from your world just a century or two ago, I think,” I added.

“Can things really change that quickly?” she asked.

“Well, you’re looking at it. Guess there’s no limit to human greed.”

“Humans truly are greedy. And foolish,” said Scrael, nodding thoughtfully.

I wasn’t sure how we’d ended up at that conclusion, but humans were indeed sinful creatures.

As we continued talking, Scrael began freely crossing the street.

“Scrae, you can’t walk into the road like that. You might get run over by a car,” I warned.

“A car?” she asked.

“Yeah, an automobile. You’ll see.”

Eventually, a car drove by. Scrael, of course, stared with her eyes as wide as saucers.

“It’s so fast. There isn’t even a horse pulling it.”

“That’s an automobile. It runs by burning fuel to make the wheels spin,” I explained.

“Huh? Burning fuel makes wheels spin? How?”

“Uh...”

I couldn’t explain it without looking it up, so I showed her an image on my smartphone titled “Explaining Automobiles Like You’re Five.” It would’ve been too difficult to try and break down the mechanisms on my own.

Scrael’s eyes were full of wonder. “This world is amazing... It must be so fun here.”

“It’s normal to us, but it must seem that way to visitors from another world,” I said.

I would’ve probably had the same reaction if I went to a future world; I’d be super excited if I saw flying cars.

I explained things one by one as we made our way toward the station, then I suddenly felt her tug my hand.

“Akira, Akira, what kind of dungeon is that?”

“Dungeon?”

It was a rather alarming word to hear amid our peaceful stroll. In this world, the word “dungeon” never really came up except in video games or light novels.

“Scrael, there aren’t any dungeons in this world.”

“But everyone’s going into there,” she said.

“Where?”

I looked over to see her gesturing toward a subway entrance.

“Hold on, that could’ve been any underground structure. Why did you immediately assume it was a dungeon?” I asked.

“Men of prime working age are going in there with lifeless eyes. I speculate that there’s a high-depth-level floor down there.”

“No, no, there isn’t.”

It was still around the time people made their commutes to work, so there were a bunch of office workers using the subway. It seemed Scrael had seen those people and assumed there was a dungeon down there. If that were the case, there’d be dungeons throughout every major city. Though, some subways probably deserved a dishonorable title like “Dungeon.”

“You wanna go down there? There’s no dungeon,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Okay, then let’s go.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Scrael extended her hand toward me. She was—well, she wanted to do that thing we’d done before. I felt a bit shy as I held her outstretched hand.

“Th-This kind of feels like a date,” I said.

“It’s not,” she said.

“But—”

“It’s not.”

I said nothing.

I didn’t know why she had to be so stubborn about it, but apparently this wasn’t a date. Why were we holding hands, then? Surely, she had to know it could cause some misunderstandings. I was a sucker for anyone who showed me even a little bit of kindness, so I wished she was more aware of the consequences of her actions.

As I stood there with those thoughts in my head, brows furrowed, Scrael squeezed my hand hard. It hurt. It seemed she intended to shut me up by force. I, of course, immediately succumbed to her superior strength, so she quickly eased up on me.

Scrael and I made our way down into the subway even though we had no business there. She was on guard the entire time as if we were stepping into a dungeon floor.

§

Our tour of the unremarkable subway had ended, and Scrael and I were looking up at the trains running aboveground.

I told her, “Those things run underground too. They’re all over the place in my world.”

“They’re so convenient. You could use them to transport things in no time,” she said.

“Yup. I guess advancements in logistics are a big part of what pushed our human civilization forward.”

We’d ridden on a train for a few stops in the subway earlier, then we’d come back to where we’d started. Scrael’s thoughts had included “It’s so fast,” “There are so many people,” and more. I didn’t think she quite understood how useful trains were for transportation without any idea of the distance traveled, but she’d gotten a feel for their speed.

We entered a specialty store in front of the station that bought gold and precious metals. We’d come to exchange gold from the other world for Japanese yen since sightseeing wasn’t exactly free.

One might wonder, what about all the intricate paperwork? We’d used magic to finesse our way through it, of course. The staff was surprised when two kids walked in but only for a moment. I knew I was the one who’d used it, but magic was pretty scary stuff. Still, I was pretty satisfied with the results.

“Heh heh, so many Yukichis...” I said, admiring my stack of ten-thousand-yen notes.

“Akira, your eyes look like money signs,” Scrael pointed out.

“Oh, oops.”

It seemed my brain had been completely filled with thoughts of money. I didn’t want to overuse this cheat code to make money, but this was a special occasion. Ameithys had given us the green light too, so it shouldn’t be an issue. We weren’t hurting anybody anyway.

Heh heh heh.

As we continued on with our tour around the station area, Scrael asked, “What’s that, Akira?”

She was pointing at an establishment that was rather noisy even though it was so early in the morning. It was a place where war and bloodshed befell upon opening every day as the folks who’d been in line since early morning rushed inside to fight over the best seats. After all, there was money on the line.

“That’s a gambling place where only adults can enter. All the patrons there are like Instructor Seeker. We can’t go in. Unlike in Do-Melta, you have to be at least eighteen to be considered an adult here.”

“I’m a kid?” asked Scrael, pointing at herself.

“Yup.”

Fifteen-year-olds were considered adults in Do-Melta but not here.

The automatic door to the pachinko parlor slid open, and Scrael jerked in surprise.

“It’s so loud... I feel like my ears are going to explode,” she complained.

“Yeah, I have no idea how they can listen to all that noise all day.”

Being exposed to all that noise could seemingly cause some hearing damage. At the very least, your ears probably wouldn’t work right for a while after being in there for a long time.

We hurriedly moved away from the clamor of the pachinko parlor and resumed our sightseeing tour. She was fascinated by convenience stores, supermarkets, fancy cafés, arcades, and pretty much anything else we saw along the way.

She glanced at the building of a not-so-reputable company and said, “Another dungeon...” repeating the same joke from earlier.

“What’s that place?” she asked, pointing at a casual-looking chiropractic clinic.

“It’s a chiropractic clinic,” I explained. “There’s a chiropractor in there, and—”

“What does a chi-ro-prac-tor do?”

“Um...work out knots in your muscles, I guess?”

“Mm-hmm...” she said thoughtfully.

“Maybe acupressure on your feet?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And maybe stretch your shoulder blades?”

“What? That sounds painful,” said Scrael, confused.

“Does it? It shouldn’t be,” I replied, equally perplexed.

“Huh...?”

“Huh...?”

We looked at each other, and Scrael was clearly disturbed for some reason.

“I mean, they just stretch your shoulder blades,” I repeated.

“Yeah, that sounds painful.”

“Hold on, what exactly are you picturing, Miss Scrael?”

“Well, I guess someone puts you in a shoulder lock, then sticks their fingers under your shoulder blades and stretches them out in one fell swoop like this...” she said, then did a stretching motion with both hands.

“No, no! You’ve got it all wrong! And it’s not some sort of monster-fighting job like a Diver!”

“It’s not? I thought there was a martial arts master with the title of ‘chiropractor’ in there.”

“They basically give you massages,” I told her.

Scrael had assumed I was talking about some sort of gory finishing move. I mean, that would be pretty painful, or it’d probably just kill you outright. It seemed she was inspired by this imaginary move, and she was moving her hands around and trying to come up with a new technique as we continued walking. I wished she’d stop mumbling things like “Bend their joints like this...” and “Break it like this...” because she sounded like a crazy person. There was a pretty intense juxtaposition of her cute appearance and violent tendencies.

“There are so many incomprehensible things in your world,” said Scrael.

“Well...yeah, you’re right. I agree.”

“There are so many unnecessary things here.”

“They say humans start wanting unnecessary things when they live fulfilling lives. I heard it on TV once,” I said.

Suddenly, she started sniffing around as if she smelled something. “I smell something sweet,” she said.

“It’s a crepe shop. They sell desserts. Wanna try one?” I offered.

“Yes.”

I decided to buy two crepes for us. It was a franchise crepe shop you could find anywhere. They weren’t particularly amazing, but they were never terrible either, so you couldn’t go wrong.

Which flavor should I get...?

I had to get at least one with chocolate. I ended up deciding on one custard-cream flavor and one chocolate-banana-cream flavor. I wanted to try both, so I thought we’d share.

Just as I finished paying for the crepes, I heard voices from where I’d been standing earlier.

“Hey, girl.”

“You free right now?”

That was fast. I’d expected something like this to happen if I took her around, and it had already happened less than an hour into our tour. They were like supersonic-speed heat-seeking missiles. They were going to end up exploding, so I had to quickly make them change direction and blow up somewhere else. Actually, they probably shouldn’t be blowing up at all. I’d been worried about running into trouble because Scrael hated humans, and sure enough, trouble had found us.

I quickly turned around to defuse the situation, but it was too late. By the time I turned all the way, the strangers were on the ground.

“Whaaat?! It’s been five seconds since you met!”

I saw Scrael standing there, facing away from me, and two men lying face down on the pavement. It’d all happened too fast for me to process. It was like all of the events between the beginning of the encounter and now had been blown away by a certain anime character’s Stand attack.

I rushed over, and Scrael slowly turned to me. She wore that trademark narrow-eyed reproachful look on her face.

“What happened?” I asked.

“These two talked to me,” she answered.

“I can see that. But why are they on the ground?”

“...I don’t know. They suddenly fell without warning.”

“No, they obviously didn’t! I mean, that’d be scary for other reasons if that was true!”