The S-rank 【Kataroff Dungeon】 is located within Kataroff Village.
Because of this, many adventurers visit the village.
Normally, these adventurers enter through the main gate to begin their conquest.
However, the village possesses another entrance to the dungeon: a transference circle.
Anyone who steps into it is forcibly warped into the deepest, most remote regions of the 【Kataroff Dungeon】.
To this day, not a single person who entered that circle has ever returned alive.
After all, this is one of the world's Great Unconquered Dungeons, a place where no human has ever set foot and survived.
If a civilian who wasn't even an adventurer were cast into its depths, there was no hope of return.
I was being sent there without even a single weapon to defend myself.
To use the transference circle was, for all intents and purposes, a death sentence.
"Move it! Get inside, now!"
a guard shoved me by the shoulder, urging me toward the circle.
"Damn it all..."
I spat the curse in the silence of my heart.
I hated everything.
I hated Dalga for killing Namia, and I hated the villagers who refused to listen to a word of my testimony, choosing instead to pin the crime on me.
I hated them all so much I wanted to kill them.
But the sheer helplessness of my situation was what frustrated me most.
"Hey, hurry it up!"
With that, the guard kicked me hard in the back.
My body stumbled forward, and before I could catch myself, I had stepped onto the transference circle.
In an instant, a blinding light enveloped me.
◆
I opened my eyes and surveyed my surroundings, the reality of my situation finally sinking in.
This was the heart of the S-rank 【Kataroff Dungeon】.
No one sent here had ever made it back.
As someone who had never even trained as an adventurer, it was surely impossible for me to escape this place alive.
"Gugaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
A low growl reached my ears.
Ah, so my welcome party had arrived.
It was a massive, bear-like monster. Standing over five meters tall, its body was covered in skin as hard as tempered steel.
I had heard its name from the adventurers who visited the village. It was known as a monster you didn't survive an encounter with.
An A-rank threat.
The Bugbear.
"Ugaaaaaaaa!!"
The Bugbear locked eyes with me and charged with reckless abandon.
"Whoa!"
I instinctively threw myself backward.
The Bugbear’s fist slammed into the spot where I had been standing a split second before.
The impact alone gouged the earth and sent a cloud of dust billowing into the air. Even though the blow hadn't landed, the shockwave sent me stumbling.
I’m going to die.
At this rate, I’m definitely going to die.
I felt that truth with every fiber of my being.
"Help... me."
Even though I knew it was pointless, the plea escaped my throat.
"Someone! Somebody help me!!"
Before I knew it, I was running. I turned my back on the monster and sprinted, screaming for a savior who wasn't there.
There was no way a boy who had been tilling fields until yesterday could stand against a monster.
So, no matter how pathetic I looked, I focused entirely on escape.
"Ugaaaaaaaa!!"
"Wait—"
I glanced back, only to find that the Bugbear, which should have been far behind me, had closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
How could something that huge move so fast?!
The Bugbear loomed over me and swung its fist down.
Ah. This is it. I’m dead.
The realization hit me with cold clarity.
I was about to die. Perhaps it was a form of escapism, or perhaps it was the "revolving lantern" of death, but my memories began to race through my mind.
They were all miserable.
I was persecuted because of the color of my hair, and then my beloved Namia was murdered.
"Damn it all!!"
I was consumed by regret.
More than anything, it was infuriating to be killed like this without ever getting back at those people in the village.
I was going to die like a dog in a place like this.
『Shall I help you?』
"Eh?"
Suddenly, a writhing shadow appeared.
It was a shadow that held the shape of a person.
"Who... who are you?"
『I don't believe you have the luxury to worry about my identity right now.』
The shadow was right.
I was currently in the process of being slaughtered by a monster.
"Please... help me."
I had no idea what this shadow was.
Even so, I reached out to it like a drowning man grasping at straws.
『Very well. In that case, I shall grant you a single skill. Its name is <Save & Reset>.』
▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽▽
Skill <Save & Reset> obtained.
△△△△△△△△△△△△△△△
"What?"
I stared in shock at the message window that suddenly manifested in the air.
"Hey!"
I tried to call out to the shadow to ask for an explanation, but it had already vanished. No matter where I looked, there was no trace of its presence.
My body didn't feel any different. Had I really obtained a skill?
<Save & Reset>... I couldn't even begin to imagine what a skill with a name like that actually did.
"Gau!"
The Bugbear's fist descended. My body was crushed into a mangled mess under the weight of the blow.
In the next instant, my life came to an end.