Level-up Maniac, Level up in Modern Dungeons - Episode 22:

　After the battle was over and we picked up the Goblin Knight’s dropped items, all we got were magic stones. Damn it – we decided to return to the surface.

“Onee-san…umm, Hinata-san, was it?”

“Y-Yes. My name is Hinata.”

“Oh, I’m Takeo Samejima.”

“Yes… Eh? Ah, what? Th-your real name? Is it okay? Um, I’ve already streamed it…”

　Hinata said, pointing at the drone next to her.

　Well, it’s better than being called Junkie-Niki or Ina Bauer-Niki, and I don’t mind.

　The comment section seemed to have suddenly become noisy, as the drone began reading out comments in a chaotic fashion, such as “Here comes Junkie-Niki’s real name!”, “You’ll be identified!”, and “Samejima Takeo…!! That’s the kind of name that would make Jellyfish-chan fuss!”, but I was going to ignore them for now.

　More importantly…

“Yes, that’s fine. And this guy over here… I think your name is Gouda. I’m sad that you couldn’t be saved, but if we leave you in the dungeon like this, your body will probably disappear, so I thought I’d take you back with me… I might be a little late in coming back, but is that okay?”

　I checked with Hinata-san.

　I don’t know what happened between the two sleazy guys who ran off first, and Gouda, Hinata, and the others, but I think it will be sad for Gouda’s family to have the body disappear as well.

　On the other hand, it seems that Goda was not someone Hinata hated.

“Oh, that’s very much appreciated….Umm, I’d rather ask for your cooperation.”

　He bowed deeply.

『Ohhh…!! Junky-niki, you’re a good guy.』

“Just a normal, nice guy”

“Wasn’t he a crazy battle maniac…?”

“Wasn’t he just a dangerous guy who got drunk on the pleasure of killing…?”

“No, am I the only one who thinks that normally nice guys are scary?”

“His personality is completely different from when he was fighting the Goblin Knight…”

“Anyway, it’s good that Gouda will be able to return to his family…”

“Damn, if Matsuda and Aoyama hadn’t run away, Gouda might have been saved…!!”

“Those guys are shitty.”

　I don’t know what’s going on, so I’m going to stay out of the comments.

“Well then, shall we go?”

　I put my backpack in front of me and put Gouda on my back.

　A relaxed human body feels heavier than its actual weight, and he was far heavier than when I carried Hinata. Well, Gouda is well-built and probably heavy as well.

　Anyway, he started walking towards the passage to return to the surface–

“Um, um, Samejima-san!”

“Yes?”

　I turned around because Hinata-san called out to me.

“If you’re going home, I think it’s quicker to go this way, but…um…”

“…………”

　The person he pointed awkwardly to was a staircase leading to the fourth floor.

“…………a”

　Now that you mention it, that’s true.

　Rather than going back to the third-floor teleportation circle from here, it would be closer to go down the stairs and head for the fourth-floor teleportation circle, and we wouldn’t encounter any monsters.

　But wait a minute?

　So what I’m saying is, maybe there was no need to fight the Goblin Knight so desperately?

　If they used these stairs, even Hinata, who was limping, could have returned safely.

　After letting Hinata escape and buying some time, I should have been able to escape as well.

　………….

　No. Oh no!

　The stairs in the dungeon are ridiculously long, and with Hinata dragging her feet, it wouldn’t be possible for her to get down in just a minute or two. If that happened, I wouldn’t be able to maintain my fighting spirit and would have no choice but to run away, but at that point, I didn’t know which direction the Goblin Knight would go after.

　If the goblin knights had come up from the fifth floor or lower, they would have easily invaded the stairs that were supposed to be safe, and I wouldn’t have been able to escape even if I had carried Hinata-san on my back.

　So defeating the Goblin Knight here was the best choice!!

　Even if we were to escape, other people would become victims!!

　Yeah yeah!! Definitely!!

“…That’s true.”

　There should be no mistake, but for some reason, I felt a sense of futility and nodded weakly.

　This time, he headed towards the stairs leading to the fourth floor– and,

“Junkie Nikki, wait a minute!”

　What? What now?

　Hearing the viewers’ voices, he stops in his tracks, feeling disheartened.

“It must be difficult for you to go down the stairs right now, Hinata. I think you should rest a little on the stairs and get some more treatment before going down.”

　He pointed out that…

　In short, I’ll recover my MP and use healing magic again to completely heal my leg.

　…That’s true.

　I also want to recover some HP, so this is perfect.

“That’s right. Well then, let’s go and rest on the stairs for a bit.”

“Oh, sorry. Thank you, Samejima-san.”

　Hinata-san bowed her head apologetically.

　●◯●

　While I was resting on the stairs, I had some free time so I was able to hear the details from both Hinata and the viewers.

　Well, to sum it up simply, it seems that Hinata’s party, led by Gouda, had already advanced to the fourth floor.

　He was originally active in a different dungeon that wasn’t Shinjuku, but he ended up diving into the Shinjuku dungeon in search of the 《Life Magic》 skill orb.

　–《Life Magic》Skill Orb.

　Several monsters can drop this, but the earliest one to drop it is the Goblin Mage that appears on the 4th floor of the Shinjuku Dungeon.

　If you want to move forward as an explorer, this is an essential skill in many ways.

　And so Hinata and her friends had been diving in search of the 《Life Magic》 skill orb – but today, as they were heading to the fourth floor like usual, they bumped into a goblin knight climbing the stairs.

　In confusion, they began fighting the goblin knights that attacked them, but Hinata-san was the first to get hit in the leg, making it impossible for her to escape.

　Even so, the party leader, Gouda, fought back desperately, but the other two, Matsuda and Aoyama, soon realized they couldn’t win and abandoned Gouda and Hinata, running away.

　By the way, the reason the two of them ran towards the passageway instead of the stairs was that a Goblin Knight was standing in front of the stairs.

　Anyways, with that, the front line collapsed, and Gouda, who had been fighting back so hard, was finally pierced through the chest by a Goblin Knight and died.

　Next, right after the Goblin Knight turned towards Hinata-san, who was unable to escape, I appeared―that was the sequence of events.

　On a side note, the party members met through “Dungeon Pairs,” a matching app provided by the Explorers Association, and since they had only recently met, they weren’t particularly close.

“But Matsuda and Aoyama were targeting Hinata-chan.”

“It’s really dangerous, so you shouldn’t form a party with them again, Hinata-chan.”

　It seems that both Matsuda and Aoyama are disliked by viewers.

　Hinata seemed to agree, as she nodded and said, “Yes.”

“As expected, I won’t be forming a party with those two anymore.”

　Hinata-san must have had some thoughts about the two who had abandoned them and fled, as she stated this firmly with a slight look of disgust on her face.