Chapter 10

"Alright, this should be enough. We won't have to worry about dinner for a while."

"Sure am tired. I got a bit carried away with the hunting."

We are now in the room after the boss room on the 5th floor. In the room where no monsters can enter, the two of us are sprawled out, exhausted.

"Alright, Haru. Let's check our haul. Can you show me what we got today?"

"Got it. Wow, I knew we got a lot, but it's still impressive."

"Let's see, the number of kills: 132 wolves, 9 boars, and 1 experience rabbit."

I write down the numbers we counted when we killed them. The experience rabbit is a rare monster we found on the 3rd floor before; when we killed it, we felt our levels increase. By the way, this time, the level-up feeling only happened once.

By the way, Haru discovered that the experience gained is proportional to the contribution to the battle, but this rabbit seems to be an exception. This time, Haru accidentally killed it with one hit, but I also leveled up. I didn't even assist in any way, so my contribution to the battle should be zero.

It seems that when the rabbit is killed, it evenly distributes experience to everyone around.

Oops, I got sidetracked.

"Big brother, what are you thinking about? Help me sort this out faster."

Haru is sorting the items dropped by the monsters, so I help her. There aren't many types, so we finish quickly.

"Alright, let's go over our haul. This is our first harvest from the dungeon."

Haru prefaces this and pauses, closing her mouth. Well, I know the results since I helped with the sorting, so this is more for Haru's satisfaction.

"Alright, 103 wolf claws, 12 wolf pelts, 47 stones, and one metal plate of unknown origin. And—"

"Also, 6 pieces of boar meat and 2 tusks. That's a good haul."

"Hey, big brother, I was going to say that—"

Haru pouts, cheeks puffed out, when I preempt her and announce the results. When I poke her puffed cheeks, they deflate with a "pss" sound. It's funny.

"Oh, it's gone."

"What's gone?"

Suddenly, Haru sounds panicked. I look at her hands, but there's nothing there. Of course, if it's gone, it means it was there before.

"Well, I was wondering what it was for, and I was playing with the metal plate, and it started glowing and then disintegrated and disappeared."

"Ah, well, it's probably fine. If it was a dangerous poison, it wouldn't just appear here, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. It wasn't useful anyway."

Haru is surprisingly pragmatic. We gather the dropped items by type and divide them between our backpacks. Naturally, my backpack is fuller.

"Alright, let's head back. I don't know how to get back, though."

"Didn't we come in on a magic circle?"

We try the magic circle we used to enter, but it doesn't react.

"What do we do? Usually, you'd channel magic power or something. I don't know how to do it, though."

"I don't think anyone knows. If that were the case, we'd all be stuck here."

We're trapped, it seems. We try channeling magic power into the magic circle and even kick it, but the answer comes unexpectedly.

"Big brother, there's a magic circle on the wall over there. I haven't touched it yet."

The magic circle on the wall is on the opposite side of the room from where we entered. From the stairs, the entrance magic circle is on the right side of the room, and the wall magic circle is on the left.

"Alright, big brother, touch it."

As I approach the wall magic circle, Haru tries to make me touch it, so I grab her hand to stop her and touch it myself. I'm a bit scared of being forced to touch it. When I touch it, words appear in my head.

Return

1st Floor: Transfer Room

5th Floor: Entrance

"Hmm, looks like we can return. Big brother, imagine the 1st floor."

Following Haru's instructions, I keep touching the magic circle and focus on the 1st floor. After a few seconds, the magic circle glows, and my vision changes with a floating sensation. It looks like a small room inside a cave. Haru is right next to me, and we must have been transported together because we were touching.

And in front of us is a slime.

"Why is there a slime here?"

We can easily kill it now, and it doesn't hurt much even if it attacks. I stab it with my hoe, and it dies. Of course, it doesn't drop anything. It shouldn't drop anything before the 5th floor, so this is definitely the 1st floor.

"The person who made this didn't think about safety, did they?"

"Well, if we can teleport here, the enemies around here shouldn't be a problem. But where are we?"

"Beats me?"

We cautiously leave the small room with our weapons ready. It turns out we're near the entrance to the dungeon.

"Didn't this room exist before, big brother?"

Haru looks a bit disappointed. Yeah, I get it. We were excited about where we'd end up, but we ended up in a room that didn't exist before. If this weren't a dungeon, it would be a horror story, but this is a dungeon, a place beyond human understanding.

"Dungeons are surprisingly chaotic, aren't they? What a casual feeling."

"Big brother, it can't be helped. This is a natural phenomenon, not something someone made. Probably."

"Yeah, I guess."

We both sigh and open the padlock, returning home. After all, if it says 'return' or 'transfer room,' you expect something special, right? You think there's some kind of flag or something.

But it's just a small room in the dungeon. Just a room with a magic circle.

Reality often defies expectations, they say. And it certainly does.

When we returned to the basement, it was 7 PM. We were definitely too engrossed, even with breaks. I understand that mental fatigue is a significant factor in the dungeon, so I plan to explore in the afternoon tomorrow.

For now, I'll take off my exploration gear, put it away, and make dinner. I don't know what the meat from the dungeon tastes like, but from what I've seen, it doesn't seem too hard or too soft. It's just regular meat. Since I don't know the taste, I'll focus on the natural flavor and make two steaks. One for each of us. I'll make a small amount of rice and some stir-fried vegetables to go with it.

"Let's eat."

Haru and I join hands and start eating the steaks. Unfortunately, we don't have knives, so they're pre-cut.

We take a bite of the steak and look at each other.

"Mmm!"

Haru also sounds delighted. This meat is incredibly delicious. It's not just the fat or the tenderness; there's something fundamentally different. It feels like it's seeping into our bodies. We don't even talk as usual and finish the steaks.

"Thank you for the meal."

We both join hands again and finish our dinner.

After a short break and some weapon maintenance, Haru and I go running together. This way, we train our minds in the dungeon and our bodies outside. This is how we enjoy our usual life with a little extra spice.