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I stared into the dungeon in stunned silence as particles of light began gathering once again at the spot where the slime had disappeared.
「……What is that? A scroll?」
A black scroll bound with a single golden cord had appeared. Aside from the scroll itself, nothing else had changed, but I had no idea what to do with it.
「Is this a drop item as a monster subjugation reward? I want to collect it, but it’s too far down at that height…… Ah, that’s right. I think I have something that might work.」
Leaving the drawer open, I rummaged through the closet. I found what I needed almost immediately. Fishing line, a paperweight, and adhesive tape.
I tied the fishing line securely to the paperweight and attached a loop of adhesive tape to its base. My makeshift scroll retrieval device was complete.
「Okay, it’s done. Here’s hoping this works……」
I lowered the fishing line toward the scroll. Aiming straight down at a target roughly three meters below proved surprisingly difficult. The paperweight swayed back and forth, making it hard to line up the shot. I stopped when it was about ten centimeters above the scroll, but the weight was still swinging wildly.
「One… two… three!」
I released the line the moment the paperweight swung directly over the scroll. Unfortunately, my timing was off. The weight landed on the ground a short distance away from the target.
「This is trickier than I thought.」
I reeled the line back in, retrieved the paperweight, and replaced the adhesive tape whose sticky side had gotten dirty from hitting the floor. Once everything was ready, I tried again. Thanks to the previous failure, I had a better feel for the motion this time. I lowered the weight toward the scroll much more smoothly. The swaying was noticeably reduced, and the timing was far easier to judge.
「This time…… One… two… three! There!」
Success. The adhesive tape stuck neatly to the scroll. I reeled in the line, and the scroll steadily rose toward me.
A few seconds later, the scroll was safely in my hands.
「Hmm.」
I examined the scroll, but it looked completely ordinary. After a brief hesitation, I steeled myself, untied the cord, and unrolled it.
The scroll had a white background covered in black ink. Instead of text, it was filled with what looked like intricate patterns or diagrams.
「Whoa!」
As I tilted my head at the incomprehensible object, the black ink suddenly began to glow. I tried to fling the scroll away in panic, but it was too late. It dissolved into particles of light and flowed straight into my body.
In a rush, I tore off my jacket and dress shirt, rolled up my undershirt, and frantically touched the spot on my chest where the light had entered. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
「Wh-what the hell was that……?」
I really shouldn’t have touched something that came out of a dungeon so carelessly. Even as that belated regret washed over me, I reached for the clothes I had discarded. A light popping sound rang out, and something appeared in my field of vision.
Name: School Uniform (Jacket) Condition: Good Description: The jacket portion of the designated high school uniform.
Name: Dress Shirt Condition: Acceptable Description: A mass-produced dress shirt.
「Huh?」
Semi-transparent windows resembling game description boxes had appeared, overlapping the uniform and shirt my hand was touching. After a moment of stunned silence, I closed my eyes, rubbed my brow, and looked again. The windows were still there.
「……Did that scroll from earlier cause this?」
There was only one explanation that came to mind. The scroll that had transformed into particles of light and entered my body was almost certainly responsible. To test the theory, I picked up the makeshift retrieval device I had tossed aside. Just like with the uniform, a description window appeared.
So that scroll had been an item that granted an Appraisal or Analysis skill? Things were becoming more and more like a game.
「……Wait a minute.」
A suspicion occurred to me. I opened the closet door and stood in front of the full-length mirror.
Just as I expected, a window appeared.
Name: Daiki Kokonoe Age: 15 Gender: Male Occupation: Student Level: 1 Skill: Appraisal Analysis 1/10 HP: 15/15 EP: 6/10
「……There it is.」
The window displayed what was clearly my own status.
As predicted, Appraisal Analysis had been added to the Skills section. There was almost no doubt that this was what had been causing the windows to appear in my vision. In that case, the number next to the skill name probably represented proficiency, following standard game logic. And once proficiency reached its maximum, would the skill rank up?
Now that I understood the cause, I moved on to checking the other entries.
「Level, huh…… I’ve never heard of levels existing in real life before. So that means I gained EXP when I defeated the slime earlier?」
I glanced sideways at the still-open drawer, then returned my gaze to the status reflected in the mirror. The EP value had decreased.
「It was 6 when I looked earlier, and now it’s 5. So using Appraisal Analysis consumes 1 EP……」
The fact that EP was now at half its maximum meant I had apparently used the skill five times without even realizing it. Since I hadn’t consciously activated it, that suggested it was constantly running—in other words, a passive skill. Still, if I couldn’t turn it on and off at will, this skill was going to be pretty inconvenient.
To test it, I focused on preventing the skill from activating and peered into the closet. It was packed with a messy assortment of items, but the windows that had appeared so readily before did not show up. I pulled out a cushion from inside and consciously tried to activate the skill. This time the window appeared immediately.
Name: Cushion Condition: Acceptable Description: A cushion made with low-resilience material.
The fact that the window only appeared after I consciously willed it meant this was an active skill whose ON/OFF state I could control. I looked at myself in the mirror once more.
Name: Daiki Kokonoe Age: 15 Gender: Male Occupation: Student Level: 1 Skill: Appraisal Analysis [A] 1/10 HP: 15/15 EP: 4/10
An “A” had been added after the skill name, likely indicating it was now in its active state. In other words, the information displayed by Appraisal Analysis changed depending on the user’s awareness or level of knowledge. Even the game-like status window itself seemed to be using an easy-to-understand format pulled from my own knowledge and perception……
The EP number had decreased again too, which confirmed that each use consumed 1 EP.
「If I want to make full use of this skill, I’ll need to increase my knowledge far beyond what I currently possess……」
A student’s duty is to study. It looked like I would actually have to put those familiar words into practice. For better or worse, in this day and age there were online encyclopedias and specialized knowledge websites. Increasing my knowledge wasn’t impossible if I set my mind to it. It was depressing, but still better than doing nothing.
When I focused on closing the status, the windows floating in my vision vanished. I was beginning to grasp how the skill worked.
「Haah.」
I was exhausted. I had thought the slime problem was solved, only for an entirely new issue—skill manifestation—to appear out of nowhere. At least the direct threat of the slime was gone. Mentally speaking, dealing with a skill was somewhat easier to handle.
I closed the closet, sat down at my desk, and shut the drawer that led to the dungeon.
「I did defeat what seemed to be the boss slime of a one-room dungeon. It’d be nice if the dungeon itself disappeared now……」
I still had no idea why it had appeared, but having a dungeon inside my own room was quite possibly the worst situation imaginable from both a safety and mental-health perspective. I wanted it gone as soon as possible.
Clinging to that faint hope, I opened the desk drawer and looked inside. My body immediately went rigid.
The slime I had just defeated was sitting there again, perfectly healthy.
「……Don’t tell me it has infinite respawn?」
I stood there in a daze for a while, but I couldn’t stay frozen forever. With my mind still moving slowly, I tried to make sense of the situation. The conclusion I reached was that the monsters had infinite respawn. No matter how many I defeated, another would appear. The act of opening and closing the drawer was likely the trigger for the repop.
「……Guess I should test it.」
First, I tried using Appraisal on the slime, but nothing happened. For some reason, the description window refused to appear. While tilting my head at the failure, I grabbed the bag of salt on the desk and poured it into the dungeon just like before. The slime writhed in agony on contact, gradually shrinking until it vanished.
「So this one can be defeated with salt too……」
The results from the previous fight hadn’t carried over. The sample size was still too small to be certain, but simply confirming that no salt-resistant variants were appearing was already a significant discovery.
Still, the fact that Appraisal hadn’t worked on the slime bothered me.
「……No drop item this time.」
I waited about five minutes, but unlike the previous subjugation, no item appeared. It seemed defeating a monster did not guarantee a drop.
Feeling slightly disappointed, I closed the drawer and opened it again to check for respawn. Just as expected, a slime was once again sitting inside the dungeon that should have been empty.
「Infinite respawn…… and the trigger really is opening and closing the drawer. Looks like that’s confirmed.」
I let out a heavy sigh and closed the drawer.
「Alright then……」
I stood up from the chair and moved back to the full-length mirror in the closet. Just like before, I used Appraisal on myself.
Name: Daiki Kokonoe Age: 15 Gender: Male Occupation: Student Level: 2 Skill: Appraisal Analysis [A] 2/10 HP: 25/25 EP: 11/15
As expected, I had gained EXP from defeating the slime. My level had increased, and both my maximum HP and EP had risen. However, since EP hadn’t fully recovered to its maximum, leveling up did not seem to restore everything. Recovery would apparently have to rely on natural regeneration for now. I wondered if an EP recovery potion or some kind of EP recovery skill would appear later.
The proficiency of my Appraisal Analysis skill had also increased. Why hadn’t it worked on the slime earlier?
「……Wait a second.」
I pulled the cushion I had appraised earlier out of the closet and used the skill on it again. The result was identical. This time I released the cushion and tried Appraisal from a distance. Nothing appeared, just as I suspected. I then turned my back to the mirror and tried using it on myself. Again, nothing.
In other words……
「To use Appraisal Analysis, I need to be touching the target and have it within my line of sight.」
That was quite a harsh limitation. The method I wanted most—appraising enemies—was impossible. Still, if long-range appraisal wasn’t an option, there were other ways to make use of it.
Besides……
「If I raise the proficiency enough, will the skill rank up?」
If it evolved into something like Appraisal Analysis II, maybe long-range use would become possible. Of course, that was nothing more than optimistic speculation. For now, I would focus on maxing out the proficiency of Appraisal Analysis.
And to do that……
「I should go buy some more salt while I still can.」
I needed to replenish my supplies. Once you knew how to handle it, this dungeon essentially became a bonus stage. Since I could level up relatively safely here, I might as well raise my level as much as possible while the opportunity lasted.
I hung up my uniform, changed into casual clothes, grabbed my wallet, and headed for the supermarket.