Chapter 12: Orcus Great Dungeon

Orcus Great Dungeon is a huge labyrinth that consists of a hundred floors. As one of the Seven Great Dungeons, the lower you go, the stronger the Magic Beasts become. Furthermore, this dungeon was a very popular place for mercenaries and adventurers. At the same time, it was also a great training ground for new recruits; That was because it was easy to judge the strength of the Magic Beasts in accordance with the dungeon floor. Moreover, the Magic Beasts in the dungeons also possessed higher quality Magic Stone in their body compared to the Magic Beasts in the wilderness.

The Magic Stone is the core that provides power to the Magic Beast. The stronger the Magic Beast, the higher quality the core is. These Magic Stones are used as raw materials to make the magic circles. The magic circle could be activated as long as it was completed, but the effect was only one-third when comparing the magic circle drawn by oneself to the magic circle drawn by using Magic Stone Powder.

In brief, using Magic Stones could effectively improve the efficiency of magic. In addition, the magic tools used in everyday life were also powered by Magic Stones. There was a very high demand for these Magic Stones; It was essential for both the armies and everyday life.

Although it seemed important at a glance from this description, the original stories only talk about it briefly as magic stones are a luxury in this world. Even if they can be used to make magical technology, the rarity of this item makes them not become a popular item. This is because although they are renewable resources, not many people can obtain them as better quality magic stones only come from stronger magic beasts that only a few can defeat.

By the way, powerful Magic Beasts with high-quality Magic Stone can use inherent magic. Inherent Magic does not require incantation and magic circles. It is the only spell the Magic Beast can use, the same species of Magic Beast will not be able to use all sorts of spells even if they possess magic power. But in place of that, the Magic Beast doesn't require incantation and magic circles to perform the spell.

This is the strong point of a beast compared to humans that Hajime manages to obtain at the bottom of the abyss. Although he needs to turn himself into a hybrid of humans and monsters, He can get power beyond what ordinary humans can get.

Commander Meld led a group of knights and brought the students to their temporary lodging in the small town of [Holward]. The adventurers who wished to challenge [Orcus Great Dungeon] would stay here. Tonight, they were going to stay at an inn managed by the Kingdom, which was exclusive for the new recruits.

All the students are assigned into pairs as the normal room was designed for two people. Of course, as we have an odd number of students (21), one of us needs to sleep alone where the opportunity goes to our Hajime where He will get a visit later at night.

Tomorrow is the day they will challenge the dungeon. It seems like we will only challenge up to the twentieth floor. This way, even someone as weak as Hajime will be useful. This is what the commander said with his own mouth. As for why I am not mentioned? Being second in combat practice (originally belonging to Shizuku) makes up for my non-combat class I guess. Although some of my classmates are stronger than me, my experiences in fighting allow me to defeat them.

As for Hajime, other than feeling sorry for being a burden, he really had nothing else to say. Rather, it was definitely the better choice to just leave him in the capital city... The timid Hajime also did not say anything after reading the atmosphere around him.

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Right now, all of us gathered in front of the entrance to the [Orcus Great Dungeon].

Although it is named dungeon, it is actually more similar to a museum as it even has a reception desk with its cliche beauty inspecting the status plate of the people who enter and leave the dungeon. After working out with a lot of magic circles, I can finally alter a bit of the data inside my status plate to be 'normal' (like other summoned students). Even though I can change it, I can't recreate them as I have no corresponding magic and material to create them.

Looks like commander Meld was waiting for this time as I can see his curious eyes looking at my status plate that I never show to him. Seeing my status, He left with a bit of disappointment shown on his face.

'Hey! To think that the reason he doesn't care about my status plate is actually this. It is good that I already alter my status plate ahead of time.'

We then enter inside the Dungeon that I have been waiting for. The inside of the Dungeon was totally different from the bustling of the outside. There was no lamp at the five-meter wide passage, yet it was emitting dim light, it was possible to see to some extent even without any illumination magic or torches. There are also a lot of special green stones which I remember to be illumination ore buried in the wall that even exist in the true Great Dungeon.

The party organized into ranks and pressed forward. For a while, nothing of interest happened until they advanced into a certain hall. This hall was dome-shaped and the ceiling looked to be around 7-8 meter high. Then, in front of the party that seemed to be looking for treasures in the circular hall, gray fluffy balls gushed out from the crevices in the wall.

"Okay, Kouki's group, step forward. Everyone else falls back! Follow the instructions you received before setting off! Get ready! These Magic Beasts are called Ratmen. Their movement is quick, but they are not very strong. Just stay calm."

Just like he said, the Ratmen ran over with a speed of around 50km/h. Their scarlet eyes shone eerily from their gray matted heads. They were bipedal Magic Beasts with the outer appearance of a rat that had a muscular upper body

The front-line consisted of Kouki and his party while I was with my party (Kousuke, Jugo, and Hajime) at the sideline ready to intercept in case of any mishaps from them. The reason Hajime is alone in the original is because of a combination of many factors from an introvert, non-combat class, etc. However, since I know his true skills, I will just take him.

Even though we are ready at the sidelines, the same thing happens like in the stories as the front-line wiped all the monsters with overkill magics.

'Damn, what a showoff. I don't even get a chance… Well, not like I will show my true power before the behemoth event.'

The other students didn't get a turn. It seemed like the enemies on the first level were too weak for Kouki's party.

"Ahhh~ good job! Next time you guys give it a try, but don't lower your guard!"

While facing the outstanding students, Commander Meld smiled bitterly as he warned the group not to let up. However, after successfully subduing Magic Beasts for the first time, it was unavoidable for them to feel excited. The student's faces broke out into smiles. Commander Meld just shrugged his shoulders and said, "It can't be helped."

"Anyway, good job on your performance this time, don't forget to retrieve the Magic Stone. But still, wasn't that a bit overkill just now?"

Commander Meld was clearly admonishing the rear-support, the girls in Kaori's group knew they overdid it and began to blush.

There were no particular problems from there onwards, they took turns in battles, and made their way to the lower levels smoothly. Eventually, they arrived on the 20th floor, which is the mark of a first-class adventurer. The highest level explored was the 65th floor, but this achievement was accomplished by adventurers over 100 years ago. Getting to the 40th level now is considered the work of an Elite Adventurer. Anyone who passed the 20th level was considered first-class. Since all the students were cheats, they easily broke through to the 20th level, even if they did not have much battle experience.