The battle was over. After picking up the Goblin Knight's drop item—which turned out to be nothing but a magic stone; dammit—we decided to return to the surface.
"Miss... uh, Hinata, was it?"
"Y-yes. I'm Hinata."
"Right. I'm Takeo Samejima."
"I see... Wait, what? Your real name? Are you sure? I mean, I'm still streaming..."
Hinata pointed toward the drone hovering nearby.
Well, it was better than being called "Leveling Junkie Bro" or "Inabauer Bro," and I didn't really care much about my privacy anyway.
The comment section immediately began to erupt. Fragments of chaotic messages were read aloud by the drone's text-to-speech: "Leveling Junkie Bro's real name reveal!" "He's gonna get doxxed!" "Takeo Samejima...!! That name's gonna cause a stir with Kurage-chan!" I ignored them for now.
More importantly...
"Yes, I don't mind. Also, regarding this man... Goda, right? It’s tragic that he didn't make it, but if we leave him here in the dungeon, his body will eventually vanish. I was thinking of carrying him back with us. It might delay our return a bit, but is that okay with you?"
I checked with Hinata.
I didn't know the full story behind Goda and Hinata, nor what had happened with those two flashy guys who ran away earlier, but I figured it would be heartbreaking for Goda’s family if his body simply disappeared.
As it turned out, Hinata didn't seem to hold any ill will toward Goda either.
"Oh, that would be a huge help... In fact, I should be the one asking you to do that."
She bowed her head deeply.
『Whoa...!! Leveling Junkie Bro is actually a nice guy.』
『He's surprisingly polite.』
『I thought he was just a brain-dead battle maniac...』
『Wasn't he a psycho who gets off on the thrill of the kill...?』
『Is it just me, or is the fact that he's normally so polite even scarier?』
『His personality is way too different from when he was fighting the Goblin Knight...』
『Regardless, I'm glad Goda will be able to return to his family...』
『Dammit, if only Matsuda and Aoyama hadn't run, Goda might have been saved...!!』
『Those guys are seriously pieces of shit.』
Since I didn't know the details, I chose not to engage with the comments.
"Well then, let's get moving."
I swung my backpack around to my chest and hoisted Goda onto my back.
A limp human body always feels heavier than its actual weight, and Goda was far heavier than Hinata had been. Of course, Goda was also well-built, which probably added to the load.
In any case, I started walking toward the passage to return to the surface when—
"U-um, Samejima-san!"
"Yes?"
I turned around at Hinata's call.
"If we're heading back, I think it's closer to go... this way... um..."
"............"
She looked awkward as she pointed toward the stairs leading down to the 4th Floor.
"............Oh."
Now that she mentioned it, she was right.
Instead of backtracking to the Teleportation Circle on the 3rd Floor, it was much closer to go down the stairs and aim for the Teleportation Circle on the 4th Floor. Plus, we wouldn't encounter any monsters that way.
Wait, hold on.
Does that mean... I didn't actually have to fight the Goblin Knight that desperately?
If we had used these stairs, couldn't Hinata have escaped safely even with her injured leg? Once I’d bought enough time for her to get away, I surely could have escaped myself.
............
No. No, no, no!
Dungeon stairs are incredibly long. With Hinata dragging her leg, she wouldn't have been able to make it down in a minute or two. If that had happened, I wouldn't have been able to maintain my Fighting Spirit and would have had no choice but to retreat. I had no way of knowing which of us the Goblin Knight would have pursued then.
If the Goblin Knight had come up from the 5th Floor or deeper, it wouldn't have hesitated to enter the stairwell—even though it was supposedly a safe zone. Even if I’d carried Hinata, we likely wouldn't have outrun it.
So, defeating the Goblin Knight right then and there really was the best choice!!
Even if we had managed to escape, someone else would have surely fallen victim to it!!
Yes, yes, exactly!! No doubt about it!!
"...True."
Despite my self-assurance, a wave of futility washed over me, and I nodded weakly.
I turned toward the stairs leading to the 4th Floor once again, but—
『Leveling Junkie Bro, wait a sec!』
Now what? What is it this time?
I stopped, feeling exhausted by the viewers' interjections.
『It'll be hard for Hinata-chan to get down the stairs as she is now. You should rest in the stairwell for a bit and let her heal herself one more time before you go.』
That was a fair point.
In short: recover MP, use Healing Magic again, and fix her leg completely.
...Fair enough.
I wanted to recover my HP too, so it was a good plan.
"You're right. Let's take a short break on the stairs then."
"Oh, sorry. Thank you, Samejima-san."
Hinata bowed apologetically.
●◯●
While we were resting on the stairs, I had some time to kill, so I listened to the story from both Hinata and the viewers.
To summarize: Hinata’s party, led by Goda, had already advanced to the 4th Floor.
They had originally been active in a different dungeon, but they had come to the Shinjuku Dungeon specifically to hunt for a Life Magic Skill Orb.
—The Life Magic Skill Orb.
There are several monsters that drop it, but the earliest one available is the Goblin Mage found on the 4th Floor of the Shinjuku Dungeon.
If you intend to progress as an explorer, it's a practically mandatory skill for various reasons.
So, Hinata and her group had been diving in search of that Skill Orb. Today, just as they were heading toward the 4th Floor, they happened to run into the Goblin Knight as it was coming up the stairs.
In the ensuing chaos, they were forced into a fight. Hinata’s leg was injured early on, making it impossible for her to escape.
Despite this, their party leader, Goda, had fought back desperately. However, the other two members—Matsuda and Aoyama—had quickly judged the fight unwinnable and abandoned Goda and Hinata to save their own skins.
Incidentally, the reason they fled toward the passage instead of the stairs was simply because the Goblin Knight was blocking the entrance to the stairwell.
Regardless, the formation collapsed after they fled. Goda, despite his best efforts to resist, was eventually pierced through the chest by the Goblin Knight and killed.
Then, just as the Goblin Knight turned its attention toward Hinata, I had appeared.
As an aside, the party members had met through "Dungeon Pairs," a matching app provided by the Explorer Association. They hadn't known each other long and weren't particularly close.
『But Matsuda and Aoyama were totally using Hinata-chan as bait.』
『It’s seriously dangerous. You definitely shouldn't party with those guys anymore, Hinata-chan.』
It seemed Matsuda and Aoyama were thoroughly loathed by the viewers.
Hinata apparently felt the same, as she nodded.
"I definitely won't be partying with those two again."
She clearly had strong feelings about being abandoned. A faint look of disgust crossed her face as she stated her resolve firmly.