Dungeon Conquered?

A new day dawns as Rina and Kaito return to the dungeon ruins. At this point, they have returned to the first piece of text Kaito could translate.

“So you’d bring new adventures to these ruins to see if they could read this text?” Kaito asked to finalize his understanding of how the ‘Lonely Queen’ came to be.

“Yeah,” Rina confirmed. “This dungeon recently came out of nowhere with never-before-seen text, and for some reason, people took no interest in it.”

Despite the dungeon being new, many adventurers have already cleared it. Not much of interest came in the dungeon besides the text that nobody could read. As a result, most adventurers don’t bother with the dungeon.

As Kaito and Rina approached the stairs to a lower level, Rina halted.

“This dungeon may be small, but each level gets exponentially harder,” explained Rina. “We’ll be using the strategy we’ve discussed from here on out.”

The strategy Rina devised was essentially the opposite of what they did the last time they were in the dungeon ruins. Rina would lead the offense in the front, and Kaito would support her, mainly utilizing his Phase skill to remain undetected by monsters.

All was going well as Rina dealt with the stronger monsters. Kaito only got to fight the monsters with exploitable weaknesses or monsters that Rina had weakened.

The two were now at the end of the third floor out of five, which contained another segment of text.

Rina showed Kaito the text as he began to read out loud. “This dungeon serves as a test for this those can read. Prove yourself worthy, so you can apply my needs.”

Rina, enthralled by finally gaining some progress regarding the dungeon ruin’s text, started her deduction.

“So that’s why the dungeon gets exponentially harder,” she concludes.

“Wait, aren’t I supposed to be doing this dungeon then?” Kaito thought out loud. “What if using this strategy makes me too weak for what’s to come?” Concluded Kaito in worry.

“I imagine I could fill the shoes of what’s needed to do if anything,” reassures Rina. “If not, I’ll just have to train you some more.”

“Ack, I hope not,” complains Kaito, not wanting to go through Rina’s harsh training again.

Rina, looking at Kaito with a stern look, responds, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing!” Kaito quickly says as he proceeds to the dungeon's next level, aiming to avoid Rina’s question.

On the fourth level, the two continue to fight a plethora of mammal-based monsters they fought on the previous floors. As the monsters were well above Kaito’s level, Rina was pretty much doing everything at this point. Kaito was just left to watch under the effects of his Phase skill as he just started to feel like some bag carrier.

“You doing alright?” Kaito asked after Rina defeated yet another monster on her own.

“There’s no need to worry about me,” Rina said with focus. “If anything, you’re in more danger, make sure to look out for—“

Rina, turning around mid-sentence, was cut off when she noticed a large figure appearing behind Kaito. Kaito also turned after Rina’s slightly alarmed look and was greeted by a large bear-like monster with one eye.

Without another word, Rina rushed towards Kaito’s aid. She leapt nearly as high as Kaito was tall and used some sort of piercing skill to attack the monster directly in its eye before its arm swing could hit Kaito.

This was the first time Kaito had ever seen one of Rina’s skills, but this moment of realization was short-lived, as it was quite apparent that Rina rushed that last attack.

Rina, having leapt at Kaito, continued her momentum, causing her to crash directly into Kaito. This caused both of them to fall to the ground, with Rina directly on top of Kaito.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” Rina said as she fixed her now slightly disheveled hair.

“N-no,” was all Kaito was able to muster out as he was clearly feeling the tension of the awkward position they’re now in.

While Kaito was still stiff as a rock from not knowing what to do, Rina finally got up from on top of him.

Rina, confused about why Kaito was still lying on the ground, questioned, “Are you sure you’re not injured?”

Finally breaking out of his trance, Kaito got up quickly and responded positively. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good, then let’s keep moving,” Rina announced as the two continued their descent.

The two have now reached the final level of the dungeon. This level was slightly different from the previous four in that the floor only contained a boss room. Their strategy for the boss monster was to be the same. Rina would solo the boss while Kaito would provide support if needed. Though a situation arose where either of them needed to do anything.

Upon entering the room where the boss would normally be waiting, Kaito and Rina were greeted by the monster’s corpse. Sitting on top of the corpse was a mysterious man covered in what looked like black armor. Rina could immediately sense how strong the individual was and assumed a battle stance as she put up her guard.

The mysterious individual started grumbling, “Ugh, this is what happens when we don’t have a ruling over a dungeon.” As he complained, he stomped on the corpse as if he were teaching it a lesson. The man, glaring at Kaito, continued his speech. “I wait for someone like that ‘Hero Knight’ to show up, and all I get is some babysat pipspeak. Talk about a waste of time.”

Kaito couldn’t tell how strong the individual was, but he could get a good sense of it as Rina flinched when the mysterious man simply stood up from the corpse.

“If you’re this weak, we won’t even have to bother with killing you,” concluded the mysterious figure as he disappeared from on top of the corpse.

With the figure having left the scene, Rina was able to release her tension.

“Who was that guy?” Kaito questioned to see if Rina knew anything.

“I don’t know,” Rina responded. “But we’re lucky he didn’t attack, as there would be no way I could protect you and myself if he did.”

Kaito started to feel more uneasy from the whole situation, as he was starting to suspect Rina was capable of defeating any enemy easily.

“Though he did mention the Hero Knight,” Rina thought out loud.

“The Hero Knight? Who’s that supposed to be?” Kaito asked while thinking the name kind of sounded lame.

“You don’t know the Hero Knight?” Rina said, confused. Coming to a brief conclusion of how Kaito wouldn't know who the Hero Knight was, asked, “Just where are you from exactly?”

Kaito, coming up with the most logical excuse he could think of at the moment, replied, “Oh, just from a far-off country to the east.”

Rina, not wanting to pry too much, made her judgment. “Looks like you’re going to need more training, physically and mentally.”

Moving on to the main reason the two traversed the dungeon ruins, Rina walked up to the final text in the ruins, which resided in the boss room. She then looked at Kaito, alluding that she was waiting for him to translate the text.

As Kaito began to read, he realized this text was more straight-laced and not in riddle form.

Kaito read, “Human of Earth, I need your help. My allies and I have accomplished many things in this world, but now they have gone awry. They now walk a dark path, as the original darkness starts to return. In the capital of Nakamura, speak the word ‘Nippon’ in the center of the grand library’s northeastern tower, and I will be able to meet with you. I look forward to a favorable response.”

After reading the text, Kaito was fairly nervous as tons of hints about him being reincarnated into this world were given, but it seemed Rina was a lot more enamored with the instructions the text provided.

“The capital city of Nakamura, eh?” Rina analyzed out loud. “This can work. The capital will have what you need to be prepared for what’s likely to come.”

Rina looked very relieved at finally getting to understand what the text said, and as a bonus, the text led to a larger adventure. Contempt at how their dungeon crawling went, Kaito and Rina left the dungeon ruins to prepare for their journey to Nakamura.