Celia stared at the spot where her Master had vanished.
“As expected of Master….”
Celia, who had faced her Master for the first time, had been astonished.
“He has not even recovered all of his power yet….”
At present, her Master’s power was still incomplete.
He had probably expended even more of it while freeing her from her seal.
Even so, his presence was extraordinary.
“He truly is a great being!”
And at the end, her Master had ordered her to offer up everything.
“So he intends to move in earnest now.”
A great being.
A supreme being.
A being none would dare approach.
Her Master, who deserved all of those titles, was about to begin moving in earnest.
It was at that moment.
Grrrrrk—
Rumble—
The entire dungeon began to tremble.
To Celia, it was, as expected, a familiar sight.
Her Master must have been using his own power to expand the dungeon.
“If Master is making his move, I cannot possibly remain idle.”
What she had to do now was pave the path her Master would walk.
That meant she could not be content with her current position.
“I should take care of this first.”
Celia took out the reward she had received for helping the incubus dungeon—the inventory artifact.
From the outside, it looked like a small bundle, but countless items could be stored inside it.
And now was no exception.
Various pieces of equipment came out of the small bundle.
“The quality really is on another level.”
The incubus dungeon had been located in another dimension.
From Azmo, the master of that dungeon, she had heard that a dimension called Earth existed, as well as stories about the hunters there.
“Hunters are the same sort as adventurers here.”
The hunters of Earth were simply more subdivided.
For Celia, who had only ever lived on the continent of Eldorad, it was a novel story.
And the equipment before her now was equipment used by Earth’s hunters.
There were weapons such as swords, bows, and spears, as well as defensive gear like armor that could protect the body.
Then she thought about how to deal with them.
After pondering for a moment.
“The hunters’ equipment….”
She decided to issue it to the goblins.
“Mr. Denver, please bring some goblins from Area 2.”
As soon as Celia gave the order, Denver departed.
At present, the goblins’ combat power was on the lower end.
Even if they received weapons from the trading company, there would not be much of an increase.
But hunter equipment would be different.
The quality itself was clearly on another level.
Celia often found herself thinking that she wanted to visit this place called Earth.
“But what is this?”
Among them, however, there was also an object Celia had never seen before.
It was shaped like a long rod, but something like a handle protruded downward partway along it.
“It isn’t a spear. It feels similar to the poison dart tubes goblins use….”
The weapon goblins commonly used was a poison dart tube, and it had a simple structure.
A poison dart tube was a round, cylindrical tube like a wooden stick. After placing a poisoned dart inside, one blew into it with one’s mouth, and the dart would fly out.
It was easy to make and easy to shoot, so it was a fairly efficient ranged weapon.
And this rod-shaped piece of equipment Celia had brought looked similar to that.
If there was one difference, it was that the long, extended rod seemed stronger, perhaps because it was made of metal.
Celia placed her eye against the hole at the very end of the rod.
“Hmm….”
There didn’t seem to be anything inside….
This time, she examined the handle.
She touched the ring-shaped part in front of the handle.
There was something protruding slightly there, and Celia pressed it with her finger.
Bang—
In that instant, flames burst from the end of the rod-shaped equipment along with an incredibly loud noise.
Celia was startled by the sudden roar, but soon regained her composure.
“…It seems this is how it operates.”
Then Celia turned her head in the direction the rod had fired.
There, the goblins Denver had brought had already lined up.
Among them, one goblin was sprawled on the floor, blood spurting from its body.
Judging from the hole near its heart, it seemed to have been struck by the impact just now.
The remaining goblins were trembling violently.
“Oh dear… I hope you’ll be happy in your next life, Mr. Goblin.”
Leaving the fallen goblin behind, Celia looked at the equipment again.
It was no ordinary weapon.
It contained power greater than a bow.
To gauge how powerful it was, Celia placed her palm against the end of the rod and fired.
Bang—
“Hmm.”
The power was certainly decent.
She did not know what principle it operated on, but there was even mana in the attack.
A piece of equipment that could fire quickly and with impressive power.
But its limits were just as clear.
It could deal effective damage to a 1-star goblin, but it could not harm her at all.
“I wonder how far its effectiveness extends.”
She briefly pondered what to do with this long rod.
“Still, it’s better than not having it.”
After some thought, she decided to give the equipment to the Goblin Lord.
If the goblins were arming themselves with hunters’ equipment, would it make sense for the Goblin Lord to have nothing?
Since it looked quite luxurious, like the staffs carried by mages, she thought it would suit the Goblin Lord, who was more or less the mid-boss of Area 2.
And so, Celia placed a gun in the Goblin Lord’s hands.
* * *
When you wake up from sleep, your head is usually foggy.
During that process, at first, the contents of the dream remain vivid in your memory.
Then, after a few seconds, the details begin to blur, and before long, no matter how hard you try, all that remains is the question, “What kind of dream was I having?”
“…….”
And I, too, had just had a dream, but my memory of what it had been about was growing hazy.
The last part, at least, remained the clearest….
“Ah.”
How embarrassing.
With what confidence had I told them to offer up every sacrifice they had?
Using a way of speaking I didn’t normally use made it feel even more humiliating.
“But was it really a dream?”
I vaguely remembered.
“Is this game I’m playing really reality?”
Was it a dream, or was it reality?
Déjà vu, in other words.
Perhaps I already knew the answer. I merely wanted to see definitive proof.
“Should I check?”
What remained were my ability and the game on my smartphone.
Holding the smartphone in my hand, I launched the game.
Right. It had definitely started after I began playing this game.
I trusted my intuition.
“How much money do I have right now?”
The money I had earned by overworking myself as a porter before obtaining the trait “Mana Sensitivity.”
Originally, I had saved it to buy a skill book, but right now, something like a skill book wasn’t important.
This might be even more important than those things.
I didn’t know why, but my intuition was telling me.
What was certain was that I had to trust my current feeling and act on it.
As soon as the game launched, I immediately entered the shop.
I had only one goal.
I purchased gems.
- Payment successful.
- 5,000 gems will be delivered to your mailbox.
I purchased again.
- Payment successful.
- 5,000 gems will be delivered to your mailbox.
- Payment successful.
- 5,000 gems will be delivered to your mailbox.
I continued purchasing gems.
Then, when I had purchased 1.1 million won’s worth of gems.
- There is a risk that causality may be distorted.
- You cannot purchase additional gems at this time.
“Huh?”
No, what the hell is this causality thing that it’s blocking me from buying gems?
This wasn’t how this game originally worked.
A game that had definitely been scheming every possible way to induce in-app purchases was now blocking them instead.
A game that stops a user when they’re trying to spend money?
Huh….
Now I’ve seen everything.
Anyway, didn’t that make this pointless?
I had just spent a bit more than usual. If the game blocked me, then in the end it would be no different from normal.
My original plan had been to buy as many gems as I could and dump them all into the dungeon.
“Let’s stop here for now.”
At present, I had a little over 100,000 gems.
Originally, I had intended to go all the way.
No matter how I looked at it, this game was not an ordinary game.
If what I suspected was true, then this was a fortuitous opportunity for me.
“Well, nothing strange happened when I gained the status window and trait.”
If anything, it had benefited me. There had been no losses.
That said, a few questions did arise.
First, how could this be utilized?
For now, I knew one thing.
The system where I became stronger when sacrifices were offered in the game.
It was still only a strong guess, so I couldn’t be certain.
But I was at the stage just before being almost certain, so I wanted to confirm it once more.
There was no harm in being cautious.
If I could grow stronger by obtaining sacrifices like that?
Was its usefulness truly limited to just that one thing—sacrifices?
Second, why me, of all people?
I had no status window and was merely someone called a half-baked hunter.
Beyond that, I was human to begin with.
And those I managed were ultimately monsters, so why had such a fortuitous opportunity appeared for me, a human?
In the end, what did it want from me?
Those questions circled in my mind.
Then, before long, I shook my head.
“For now, am I worrying over nothing?”
In my current situation, a means to become stronger had appeared.
For someone like me, who had no power at all, it was an excessive worry.
At one point, I had even thought that I wanted to gain power even if I had to make a contract with a demon.
“Compared to that, this is practically decent.”
Occasionally, there were hunters who had contracted with demon-type monsters.
The process of making the contract was unpleasant, but they obtained power in an instant.
At first, I had worried that this might be something of that sort too.
But what about me now?
I was perfectly fine.
Until now, there hadn’t been anything I could consider disadvantageous to me. Aside from my bank account.
“If I had to point to something, it would be moral conscience.”
Judging by the situation, the source of my power was sacrifices.
And such sacrifices were established under the condition that someone was offered up.
My status window and trait were likely the result of that process as well.
But that was already in the past.
And even if the moment came when this conjecture turned into certainty, I would only need to slightly change my way of thinking.
For instance, I could have them exclude good people, at least, and offer up people like criminals as sacrifices instead.
It would be too foolish to abandon such a good fortuitous opportunity entirely just to preserve my moral principles.
Until then, I would use every method available.
“…….”
For a moment, I thought about things from the past.
A world where the weak were prey to the strong.
Right, if I couldn’t become stronger, then I would be the one devoured first in this world.
I had not the slightest intention of foolishly doing nothing and becoming one of the weak.
“Then, shall we begin?”
Even if I couldn’t purchase more gems, I currently had over 100,000 of them.
Now it was time to strengthen the dungeon.
* * *
Shwaaaa—
Rain began to fall from the sky.
The already dreary atmosphere of the mountain grew even colder and darker.
The raindrops soaked the trees and the earth, and soon a deep mist formed.
“Achoo!”
And there was someone taking all of that head-on.
It was the vampire Aren.
“Hing….”
Aren was depressed.
She had thought that if she just crossed the mountain, the Demon Realm would appear right away, but reality had presented her with yet another mountain.
She had wandered for days.
And now, in such a situation, it had even started to rain.
“Uuu… It’s cold….”
Her body began to tremble.
The weather had been good until now, so it had been fine, but the rain falling now did not seem likely to stop anytime soon.
“Let’s hurry and find a place to get out of the rain. Goodbye, rabbit friend.”
Aren decided to search for a place to take shelter from the rain first.
Then she set down on the ground what had once been a rabbit, which she had been holding in one hand.
As she pushed her way through the gaps between the trees and continued forward, Aren was able to find something.
“Oh! I found one!”
Through the dense trees, she could see a cave.