Chapter 253: Spectaculating
———Karra———
<11: 57 am>
“Well, chat, what do you think of this?” I said as the drone camera moved around to get a better angle of the three entrances. It really is quite familiar to the one in that mad dollhouse.
{Well it is three ways}
{Not a lot to look at?}
{Is this all?}
Those were generally what was said about the preliminary floor with three total entrances. It’s surprisingly dull just how little there is to go off on. I clearly can’t make much content out of this, except for one fact… I haven’t been doing this for a while. I think I can get maybe an hour of dungeon run before going back to the party. A stream of that wouldn’t be that exciting, and I don’t want to put my friends on screen more than I need to. I think it’s time for me to shake my rust off and get going. This might take a while…
“Hmm… Hey, chat. What do you think the faint red glow means?” I asked them as I noticed two of the three entryways having that subtle glow.
———Lerim———
<12: 02 pm>
It’s weird to think that the dungeon she is in isn’t too far away. I could technically go in there and join her since we all know which entrance she entered, but obviously I want to keep my head low right now. There is no reason for me to assist her. She is plenty capable as is. I’m plenty certain that she’ll be fine, and even if she isn’t, she probably has some lifeline as she gets deeper and deeper into the dungeon.
“...By the way, the dungeon here is considered one of the hardest, right?” Evari asked as she looked at the stream and saw Karra bulldozing through everything.
“Allegedly. It’s hard to believe considering that from all the reports and hearsay, this is probably the dungeon where people consistently go deeper than forty floors.” Our guildmaster replied. “Of course, with the special function that no other dungeon has, it’s natural that people are more willing to go deeper. If we have something like this as well I’d imagine that the productivity level will rise significantly.”
“It’s very simple mechanically, but that alone helped a whole lot.” I remarked as we kept watching. Hmm… Is it just me or does something about her feel different today? It’s hard to make out through the screen alone. Perhaps it’s just a case of progression as she grows stronger. People rarely get weaker at her age, it’s gonna take a while for there to be any physical defects… If that time ever comes. In the world of magic, what causes deterioration and the end of a lifespan can be a bit different for each person, but that’s not important to the current conversation.
“…Have you ever met her personally before? Do you know how strong she is?” Evari asked as we kept watching, just taking a break from eating and drinking. Did she never figure out that it was me who was on her collab stream? Or did she just forget about that. It was a big talking point for a while.
“I have. She’s certainly stronger than you. I believe she’s probably one of the strongest people in this school.” I don’t really know enough about the hierarchy of this place to know much more than that. “I still don’t fully understand why this place has quite an extensive combat training curriculum, but I’m not gonna question it.”
“By the way, when did you get a laptop?” Evari asked another question. This one seems pretty trivial isn’t it?
“A while back. Why?” I got it as a bonus for the collab stream. Its specs are insanely high for something that’s portable.
“I just didn’t expect you to have one?” Hey, what in the world is she insinuating? I know I’m a cheapskate but even I have stuff that a lot of people have. The PC I have at home is admittedly a worn down piece of crap, but at least it still works.
“…Anyway! It seems like she’s speeding through the floors. Doesn’t look like she’s holding back much, if at all.” She’s blitzing through the monsters and obstacles with her speed, going through each floor in less than a minute each time and going further and further down.
“…If only I could blitz through the dungeon like that.” Evari remarked.
“It’s not recommended. You’ll burn yourself up too fast and not have any energy for your return trip. If you’re slow with that the monsters might respawn on your way back.” This is why such a convenient system is so crucial to the growth of the fighters here. That is an insane privilege to have. “Moreover, I don’t think you’re at the level to even perform that kind of feat consistently for multiple floors in a row.”
“What does that mean? I think I have been getting pretty good lately.” She protested. I mean, I don’t doubt that she has gotten better at this, but I am saying that she isn’t at that threshold.
“It’s still not enough, unless you wanna go test it out for yourself?” I said while leaning back. “I’ll just stay here and pray you don’t die in there.”
“…I’m good.” Guess she’s not that reckless. Dungeon is a test of endurance more than firepower, so reckless abandon is just asking to die. So far I haven’t even reached a floor with monsters on my level. My stamina gave out way before then, or to be more specific, I’d be flat out dead from exhaustion before I could even fight.
It might be different in other dungeons with different scaling. The one in Karra’s collab stream for example seems to be very brutal. I’m pretty sure even now the dungeon isn’t meant to be entered by the Explorer’s Association. It’s that bad.
“But onto a different topic. We can keep watching, but there is something we haven’t addressed yet.” Our boss said after a period of silence. “Lerim, how did the investigation go?”
“We’re talking about this now?” I said while scratching my head. I know we’re not near any other group that could overheard us, and it has been a while since we talked about it, but still…
“Might as well.” He said as if it’s not a big deal.
“...Alright then. Guess I’ll tell you what I find.” I said while looking at the others who are confused as to what we’re even talking about. It’s not strictly confidential, but we haven’t been bringing it up in front of the others yet. “Relax. It’s nothing pressing.”
“Then why talk like it is!” Evari protested. Let’s just ignore her.
“Anyway. He had me investigate whoever kidnapped the dual-wielding maniac and turned him into that. He couldn’t find any lead so I chose to do it in his stead. I do find out a few things about it that haven’t been discussed before. You remember all the previous points I brought up, right?” I said while looking at the guy who needed me for help.
“They aren’t based in our town, they obviously have a lot of resources, and their intention seems to be more on experimenting than to target anyone specific. It’s the bare basics that we could guess.” He answered. “The obvious culprit is the one who is also responsible for that underground lab. The problem is that we don’t know anything about them either.”
“And here comes a little surprise I managed to find. I tracked down the specific lab he was sent to. It’s from the town right up north. I dismantled it and took all the evidence I could find that wasn’t encrypted.” I said before pulling out a USB stick from my bag.
“W-When did you learn to do stuff like that?” Evari asked. It’s admittedly not an expertise of mine. I don’t really know much about computers and programming.
“Through brute force and connections, more or less.” I don’t really want to get into specifics since that’ll just open more can of worms instead. “We can look at it later after we’re done with the stream. Unless you’re that impatient.”
“…It can wait. I’m glad you managed to find something.” He said, not making it clear how much he actually appreciated my efforts. “It’s always surprising how dynamic the cameras are. It feels like we’re watching a film.”
“Doesn’t really feel like much when it’s mostly a blur. The quality of the footage is very high but that still doesn’t stop things from looking like smears at times.” There’s really no helping it with how fast they’re moving. You could slow it down and go frame by frame since the frame rate is surprisingly high, but you’re not really getting the feel of the fight that way.
“...How strong is a normal student here anyway?” Evari asked, even though Karra is one of the top dogs here. Very much not normal.
“Well…” I muttered while looking at the other people here. I don’t think this is going to offend them. I’m pretty sure we’re all at least above average here. “They are all most likely stronger than the average adventurer. They have a dedicated training program, and the people in charge of it clearly know their stuff. My guess is that it’s someone who is aware of magic before it comes to the forefront.”
“You think any of them are stronger than me? Aside from the kid on the stream.” …I forgot I never told her where that mousegirl is from. That’s my bad.
“Excluding her. At least seventeen of them.” I bluntly stated.
“That’s… quite a specific number.” She remarked.
“Just roll with it. If you want to know for sure, go bully some kids or something.” I said while still staring at the stream. The pace is still the same and there is no sign of fatigue. She’s doing well as she goes past the sixty floor mark. Even boss monsters go down in less than three hits.
“No way I’m doing that…” She replied. Then let’s leave it that way. Causing a commotion here just seems like a bad idea. It’s already uncomfortable since we’re here as a bunch of strangers in… not a new land, but it is quite far from home. Sometimes you have to internalize just how far from how you actually are. We’re not even in the same state.
“...She’s doing a lot of flashy moves. Are any of those practical.” One of the guys asked.
“Nope. She’s just doing it for show. She is a streamer. She has to put on a show for her followers to be entertained.” I said while the footage showed her jumping up into the air and raining down fireballs, wiping out the group of monsters in an instant.
She ran down to the next floor and started cutting up the monsters in a few seconds with her special weapon before going to the next floor. She easily blitzed through each floor in less than a minute. She is already near the hundred floor marks, but her speed isn’t really the issue here.
“Kinda terrifying, now that I look at this a bit longer.” Evari remarked. It does indeed look inhuman. The reckless abandon approach that she used to go to the lower floors certainly makes her look extremely intimidating to onlookers, and certainly flashy and entertaining.
She’s starting to slow down and show signs of exhaustion after defeating the boss on floor one hundred. I can’t really gauge just how much power she has left in the tank, but at least she probably can’t go more than fifty floors after this.
She might need to leave pretty soon and go back to the party. With how it’s looking this might be one hell of a short stream. Probably should’ve paced herself better than being so flashy.
…Say. How is our group chat looking? Most of us are obviously not here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Idea is here, but that’s still three people from our chat at most.
Are they saying anything right now? Hmm… They seem to be asking about the party that Karra was talking about. I’m surprised some of them haven’t connected the dots yet. I’m pretty sure this place is a talking point online. It’s such a surprisingly grand venue where anyone could participate for free, and a few exceptional guilds or people can come here from wherever they were, no need to worry about the distance.
I wonder… Should I even talk about how I’m in here as well? Or is that too much in terms of bragging?
Maybe send them a picture or something…