Chapter 15 — Seems Like the Class of Someone Who Only Wanted to Save Themselves

The Sage candidates decided that, for their great feat, they would defeat the Dark God. The choice was made primarily by process of elimination. Realistically, they had no idea how to prevent an invasion from another kingdom. Standing up against an entire nation was beyond their current abilities, and if it escalated to all-out war, they wouldn't be able to avoid killing people. No matter how combative they had become, they still hesitated to kill other humans.

In contrast, slaying a Dark God was much easier to imagine. At the lowest level of the Underworld below the capital, there was an ancient being. All they had to do was go down there and kill it, so there was nothing to cause hesitation. And all they would meet along the way were the creature's evil spawn. With opponents that weren't remotely human, they had no reason to hold back. They could wield their powers to the fullest.

After the meeting, a plan of action was presented to everyone. The various groups were assigned duties for collecting information or supplies, and their preparations began in earnest.

The day after their audience with the king, Groups One through Five left to carry out a reconnaissance mission. And though Yogiri and Tomochika had been assigned to Groups Six and Seven, which had been left behind on standby, the class still wanted to get a grasp on their combat strength, so they were brought along on the mission with the others. Tomochika joined Group One and Yogiri was sent out with Group Two.

The environments of the Underworld varied widely, but the entrance was cramped enough that they couldn't operate in large groups. For that reason, Explorers who traveled to the Underworld to exterminate the Dark God's spawn restricted themselves to groups of six or fewer, so the Sage candidates decided to do the same.

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The entrance beneath the palace was strictly controlled. There were numerous entrances throughout the capital, so access to the Underworld itself wasn't particularly limited, but it was different here, where it was connected directly to the royal abode. For that reason, the Sage candidates couldn't all flood the entrance at once, so each group entered one member at a time.

There were a number of rooms dividing the path that led downwards. In the event of an emergency, the rooms could be closed off to prevent anything from reaching the surface. Group One entered first, deciding to meet in the room just in front of the entrance, with Tomochika being the last to arrive.

"You guys don't look like you're in a different world at all!" she blurted out the moment she saw the others.

Sora Akino, the leader of Group One, who was responsible for keeping the entire class united, was wearing an outfit that would be fit for performing on stage back in Japan. "Yes, these are almost the same as the outfits I wore in my concerts."

They must have been custom-made for her. Though they seemed far too flashy for an ordinary person, she pulled off the look easily.

"How did you even get something like — wait, Carol, what are you wearing?!"

Carol S. Lane was dressed in a bright red ninja outfit. Complete with forehead protector and sword, she looked more combat-ready than the others, although it didn't offer much in the way of protection.

"I'm a ninja!"

"Then be sneaky about it! Disappear into the darkness somewhere!"

"What a stock comeback!" Carol laughed. "How many times do you think people have said that to me?"

"So fix it, already! Anyway, enough of that. What is it you have on, Ninomiya?"

Ryouko Ninomiya wore a traditional formal Japanese outfit and carried two swords. She had said her class was Samurai earlier, so maybe she was trying to match the look. Despite the fact that it was clearly a male uniform, it looked quite good on her.

"Sorry, I never wanted to wear something absurd like this either, but...with the whole Clothing Bonus system, I didn't really have a choice." In short, each class had a matching outfit style, and the closer one's chosen clothing was to it, the better one's stats and skills became.

"If you think we're just messing around, you probably thought that about me the most, didn't you?" the fourth member of the group, Yui Ootani, commented apologetically. She was dressed like a cheerleader, complete with pompoms in her hands.

These four made up Group One, with Tomochika being their provisional fifth member.

"Isn't your defense kind of low, though? I don't know what sort of monsters are down there, but if they bite you or whatever, won't it go straight through?" They didn't look appropriately dressed for infiltrating a nest of hellspawn.

"These clothes actually offer a good bit of protection, but it's not like we'll get hit that often anyway." Sora seemed plenty confident in herself, even though she didn't look especially strong in her Idol outfit.

"You seem pretty into it yourself, Tomochika! What is that, Superhero style? Sci-fi?" Carol asked, inspecting her outfit intently.

"I'm not really dressed like this because I want to be..." Her body was clad in a skin-tight suit, the black material covering everything except her head. Critical parts of the body were guarded by a red armor of some kind, which had a dull glow to it. She had wrapped herself in a black coat that almost reached her knees, but it was thin enough that it didn't do much to hide her figure.

The outfit was made from the material she'd received from the giant robot Aggressor. Since its form could be changed, Mokomoko had reshaped it into armor.

In truth, I wanted to cover your face as well. At least I've managed to work a bit into your hair, so there will be some defense against attacks to the head, Mokomoko remarked, leaning back with a smug expression as she admired her handiwork.

"If you cover my face, they'll think I'm some sort of freak."

"I see. So, that's what an Egoistic Blacksmith does, huh?" Sora seemed impressed, but Tomochika could only give a weak laugh in response.

Egoistic Blacksmith was the name she had offered as her "class," telling the others she could make weapons and armor, but that only she could use them. In reality, she could have easily given such items to others, but without Mokomoko nearby, she couldn't make any alterations to them herself. In order to prevent it from becoming an issue, she just told everyone that she couldn't share them at all.

"So, obviously I made this myself, but where did you guys get stuff like Idol and Ninja outfits here?"

"Harufuji from Group Three made them for us. Her class is Dressmaker." According to Sora's explanation, as long as she had material to work with, the Dressmaker could create any sort of clothing desired. And not just regular clothes either — she could also imbue the items with special effects. It was pretty versatile for a creative-type class.

"I see. Harufuji was pretty good at sewing, but wait...what does that say about my class?" Tomochika wondered aloud.

"It makes it look like you're only interested in saving yourself," Carol suggested.

"Wow, that sounds terrible, doesn't it?" Just like Carol said, she must have looked incredibly selfish to everyone else. "Well, whatever. I'm the last one, right? Shall we get going?"

"No, since this is our first time here, we hired a guide...and here he is now," Sora answered, looking towards the entrance.

The door opened, and a man in silver armor walked through.

"It's been a while, Miss Dannoura."

"Rick?!"

The new arrival was none other than Rick, the swordsman she had fought alongside at the tower. In short, the current Swordmaster.

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Group Two consisted of Haruto Ootori, Suguru Yazaki, Seiichi Fukai, and Shinya Ushio. Yogiri had joined them for the time being as well.

Haruto's class was Consultant, so he specialized in analysis. That alone made it unclear how useful he'd be in combat, but judging from the fact that he was in Group Two, it seemed likely he could hold his own.

Yazaki's class was General, so he could make use of all kinds of combat tactics. Perhaps because of his class, he had donned a sturdy-looking metal armor — a sharp contrast to the school uniforms the others wore.

Seiichi's class was Death God, his power being Instant Death Magic. Because of that power, or maybe because he was just hard to get along with, his classmates kept their distance from him. Yogiri was hardly one to talk about not getting along, though.

Ushio's class was Eroge Master. While the name didn't reveal much about his ability, he could stop time for anything he touched. It was effective on both life forms and objects, and it would feel to the target like they had skipped forward in time.

Ushio's altercation with the king was fresh in everyone's minds, but the fingers he had lost had already been fully healed.

Finally, their last companion was David, the same vice-captain of the city guard who had stopped Yogiri and fought with Tomochika outside the gates of the capital. Yogiri wasn't sure why a soldier was working as a guide to the Underworld, but it was probably due to his affiliation with the royal family.

"The members of the royal family have sealing powers. That's the main reason our bloodline has managed to keep a hold on this country."

The royalty's power to weaken the Gift was just as effective on the monsters of the Underworld as on the Sage candidates. Of course, the strength and range of that power varied from person to person, and whoever possessed the strongest power would become king.

"So, don't feel like you're safe or anything just because I'm here. The monsters on the lower levels can completely ignore my ability."

"Well, it's more of a problem in and of itself. We're here to test our own strength. Can you restrain your power at will?" Haruto, the leader of Group Two and representative of the remaining guys in the class, asked, earning a haughty response from David.

"Of course. If that's the case, shall I guide you to where there are some monsters?"

Group Two walked through the first floor of the Underworld, a cave-like area carved out of rock with a height and width of about three meters. The caves formed a complicated network in which one could easily become lost without a guide. Metal rods were stuck into the ceiling here and there, their tips giving off a dull light that made the Underworld surprisingly bright.

"Those collect small traces of mana in the air to give off light," David explained. "Placing torches in the areas they've explored is another one of the Explorers' jobs."

In short, the areas with light were relatively safe, and had already been cleared and mapped out.

The group followed David as he guided them through the caves. After walking for a while, they came upon an entirely empty area. It was a huge, wide-open space, large enough that they couldn't see the far side.

"I assume you've done some research," David said, "but I'll explain anyway. The layout of the Underworld is like a bowl. Basically, where we are right now is barely scratching the surface of it."

It was estimated that each floor of the Underworld was about ten kilometers wide, laid out in a ring. The outermost ring had a diameter of one hundred and forty kilometers, the second, one hundred and twenty, and the seventh ring spanned only twenty kilometers.

Though shocked by the sudden change in scenery, Group Two soon recovered and continued onward. Directly ahead, the ground abruptly ended in a cliff. According to David, there would be an opposite cliff somewhere in the distance, but that was a hundred and twenty kilometers away. There was no way they could see that far.

Looking down, there was nothing but empty darkness; the cliff itself was almost perfectly vertical, so without climbing equipment, descending would be effectively impossible.

"It's quite similar to Hell in the Divine Comedy, isn't it? Though in that case, there were nine levels," Haruto remarked, referring to a work by the Italian poet, Dante.

Yogiri remembered a game he had played based on the motif of the Divine Comedy. "Hey, if this place is shaped like a bowl, couldn't you just jump diagonally down from here to reach the center?"

"So I've been told," David answered. "There have been quite a few reckless Explorers who tried just that, but none of them ever made it back. So it has become customary to find the entrance to the next level and proceed normally."

"How far down is the bottom level?"

"Supposedly, about one kilometer."

"What? There's no way we'll make it that far down!" Ushio interjected. "We're going to spend such a stupid amount of time just traveling? How did anyone ever make it all the way to the Dark God?"

"They didn't, of course. The farthest we've managed to reach is the third floor."

Ushio stared back in surprise. Clearly, he had thought it would be a rather simple endeavor.

"Ushio, we figured that out when we were investigating the layout of the Underworld earlier. Were you even listening?" Haruto sighed, exasperated.

"We're more interested in defending the capital than progressing downwards," David explained. "For that, thinning out the ranks of the monsters on the second floor is sufficient. Even those who do it for a living make enough money that way. There isn't much incentive for them to go any farther."

They had assumed that defeating the Dark God would be fairly easy compared to repelling an invasion, but at this stage, their prospects weren't looking so great.