Living in a Dungeon in Modern Japan! An Overpowered Life with a Useless Skill - Episode 15

Episode 15

Because I went to bed early yesterday, I woke up quite early. The time was still 6 o’clock; there were still three hours until the meeting time.

“I guess I’ll go have breakfast early.”

I had already confirmed that the cafeteria opens at 6.

I changed into the clothes I had washed yesterday and headed for the cafeteria.

Since it was early in the morning, there were only a few people. But the cafeteria was already operating, and I found someone I recognized. So I approached and greeted them.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, you’re Akatsuki-kun, right?”

It was Hikawa-san.

Even though it was early, it seemed he had already finished eating breakfast—looks like he came right at opening time.

“You’re up early.”

“More like… it’s a late dinner, actually…”

From those words, I realized he had stayed up all night…

“Is it about that thing from yesterday?”

I couldn’t help but suspect it had something to do with me and Satsuki’s party formation that got forced yesterday.

“No, that actually helped save time. So I’m rather grateful for it.”

“Really? To be honest, I don’t see any benefit in teaming her up with a day-to-day guy like me who has a trash skill.”

“You’re underestimating yourself way too much. She has a high magic value, yes, but she’s still a level 1 explorer. Even if she were to team up with a strong explorer, her level wouldn’t increase. That means we have no choice but to pair her with another level 1 explorer. But there just aren’t many suitable candidates.”

Now that he said that, I realized it made sense.

Being experienced means not being level 1.

And being level 1 means having no experience.

In other words, the number of suitable people is much smaller than one might think.

“Also, I’d prefer not to let people know about the magic value thing. Probably only enough people to count on one hand know about her situation. Please don’t tell anyone. I’ve been stuck doing adjustments since yesterday… I’m about to finally get some rest. I’ve asked Kisaragi to take care of the exploration stuff, so please talk to her.”

(Note: In case you forgot, Hiyori’s full name is Hiyori Kisaragi. Just a reminder. Peace sign.)

Saying that, Hikawa-san walked unsteadily toward the lodging area.

“Being a higher-up must be tough after all…”

I gave a wry smile as I picked from the menu and had my breakfast.

After eating, I returned to my room and got ready.

To kill time until the meeting, I looked into things about skills and dungeons. But I couldn’t find any better information than what Hiyori told us yesterday.

However, it seemed like anti-type skills were famous enough that there was even a dedicated message board for them.

[Explorers] Anti-type Skill Thread – Part 215

239: My unique skill is “Lizard Slayer”—is it strong?

240: >239 RIP your explorer career.

245: Is it really that bad of a skill?

247: Yeah, it’s that bad. You get 10x damage against the target monster, but only 1/10 damage against everything else. Basically, it’s useless except for that one monster. And since monsters change every floor, it’s only good for one very specific layer.

248: But doesn’t that still mean you can become an explorer?

249: You think any party would take someone that useless? You’d be better off taking someone else who can fight, and have everyone help carry the luggage—it’s way more efficient.

250: I saw a video where someone tried using magic with that skill, thinking it would work. But it still got debuffed LOL. That was insane.

251: Yeah, that one was wild. Total rich kid’s hobby. Those magic scrolls were insanely expensive.

252: A 10-million-yen dead skill. You can’t even try it unless you’re loaded.

253: Well, if it’s lizard-types, maybe you could barely manage. But if it’s Slime or Goblin Slayer, you’re screwed.

254: You can one-shot weak monsters without any slayer skills anyway. Getting debuffed against other monsters on top of that is just LOL.

255: If you get one of those anti-type skills, just give up on being an explorer. At best, you’ll scrape by living day-to-day.

They were absolutely ripping on it.

Most of the stuff was information I’d already heard. But as far as the world was concerned, it was clearly seen as a trash skill.

There were other trash skills out there. But among all the skills used for explorer activity, this one ranked in the top three most infamous.

While reading that kind of info and getting a bit down, I also noticed that there really weren’t any active explorers with anti-type skills—there wasn’t any useful information to be found.

I didn’t have money to buy scrolls anyway. But realizing that even using magic would be ineffective counted as valuable knowledge.

I thought about looking into other unique skills too. But I decided against it—it would only make me feel worse.

While doing all that, the time hit 8:30. And the door chime rang.

When I opened the door, Satsuki was standing there.

“Good morning. I thought we could go together. Was I a bit early?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m ready.”

“Then let’s go.”

She seemed a bit more cheerful than usual, like she was having fun.

“Are you really that excited?”

“Well, I was anxious at first. But now the excitement is winning over.”

Her steps were light as she said that. And we arrived at the meeting room in about ten minutes.