Chapter 26: Day and Catfolk
The next day, I didn’t feel like doing anything.
I stayed shut in for a whole day at the inn.
I don’t want to meet anyone.
I am scared of being involved with people.
The only way I could think of to fight against enemies that simply direct attacks to my spirit from a safe place is to hide in the darkness and stay put.
By blending with the darkness, I could disappear from this world.
Those eyes don’t reach here.
The next morning after spending a whole day in peace and emptiness.
I woke up from the sudden announcement that rang in my head.
[Chosen, today a new method to obtain points will be provided. You can now do Points Loan and Re-Random Transfer! The Point Loan can allow a max of 3 points in advance, and the Re-Random Transfer will present you 10 points for the danger it entails. On top of that, you can choose the ‘One that shall be Loved’. Please go ahead and use them at your own discretion.]
I see. It must be like a rescue system for Chosen who don’t have any points.
It doesn’t have anything to do with me though.
…There are probably idiots who would use the random transfer.
As expected of God. How crafty.
When I opened the wooden window, a soft wind caressed my cheeks.
A clear morning.
*Guuh~*
Even when I pass my time doing nothing, my stomach rang.
I was feeling appalled by how unreasonable living is, but I can’t choose death.
When I opened the Status Board, I saw that my real time viewers had lowered to around 10,000,000.
These viewers probably just have this stream on their screen in the case something happens, and are not constantly watching it…I think.
As for my daily life, they do hear some slight noises, but only the contours of the room should be visible from the darkness.
But on the other hand, if there’s movement, that information will spread, and the viewers will increase in an instant.
I can easily imagine that’s the kind of viewing style that has been popularized.
I can’t lower my guard.
(So I say, but if I stay like this, I am going to end up penniless and driven out from the inn.) (Hikaru)
I can’t let myself drop to that point.
I lift my heavy body.
The city in the early morning is lively.
It is completely opposite to the dead city late at night.
I don’t really want to go out when it is too bright outside, but I gotta secure the food while it is still bright outside. There’s practically no establishments open at night.
But it can also be said that almost all stores and food carts are open from early morning, so I can secure my food more easily.
(This really is an isekai…) (Hikaru)
Big people, small people, cat-like people, dog-like people, pointy eared people…
Truly a melting pot.
If not for my current situation, I would be surprised by this parallel world that’s completely different from mine, showed interest in a lot of things, and might have had fun.
But the current me is seeing everything gray.
A japanese person with black hair and black eyes stands out in an isekai…it is a common setting in the novels I have read before, but it looks like I don’t really stand out here. Thanks to this, I don’t gather much attention and can buy food at the carts.
If it is normal everyday life stuff like this, the viewers shouldn’t be paying much attention.
There might be Chosen in this city, but the chances of meeting them should be low. I am not one of the original Chosen, so there’s zero chance they would know of me.
I swiftly buy food and leave the morning market as if running away.
I am now not good at dealing with places where there are a lot of people.
Or maybe I am now scared of people.
At daytime I coop up in the inn, and at night I leave the inn.
At the entrance of the dungeon there would always be 4 soldier-looking people serving as lookouts.
It would be difficult to sneak in at daytime, but if it is at night, there’s no problem.
“[Darkness Fog].” (Hikaru)
At the inn, the channeling of the ability is bad, and it takes my all to fill that room with darkness, but when I am close to the dungeon, it instead channels way too well.
So I say, but too much darkness is unnatural.
I covered myself in darkness for a radius of around 2 meters and slipped into the dungeon.
I rushed through the 1st Floor with darkness still around me and headed to the 2nd Floor.
The 2nd Floor is perfect for corpse scavenging.
“Monsters appear in groups.”
“Strong-looking monsters show up too.”
“You can easily come here from the 1st Floor.”
“It is easier to get lost compared to the 1st Floor.”
These are the special traits it has, and it has the conditions to wipe out explorers easily.
It has been 10 days since I have come to this city.
I come here almost everyday, but I would find dead people at least once every 3 days.
To be more precise, ‘what might be dead people’.
There’s just an empty husk of their possessions.
That’s why I didn’t feel any resistance in scavenging those.
Of course, it is not like I can check the whole 2nd Floor, so there might be more deaths everyday than what I see. In that case, just how many lives has this dungeon claimed?
I still haven’t seen an actual moment where explorers get wiped out, but it should be a matter of time before that happens.
I walk through the dungeon while making sure not to let my Darkness Fog run out.
The monsters in this floor seem to be incapable of detecting my presence inside the darkness, so I can walk as I please as long as my ability is active.
I can earn money from getting the equipment of the dead, but there’s a lot of times when Spirit Stones would just be lying there. I get a decent earning from picking those up.
There were times when I would meet explorers, but I would just use darkness to avoid them.
“Hey! What’s the point of a scout not going ahead?! Go check things out already!”
“I-I’m sorry-nya. But my leg is injured.”
“That’s because you are not wearing shoes! Shoes! Good grief, you are useless.”
“Oi, that’s enough. Let’s just leave her.”
“N-Nyo way! If you leave me in a place like this…”
They are a party I see every so often.
Looks like the scout beastkin is injured and can’t walk.
“We are hiring you to be a scout, you know?! If you are going to be of no use, of course you would be discharged. Dismissed, fired. See ya.”
The 3 explorers go ahead further and further with torch in hand and leave the cat beastkin.
The beastkin also drags her feet so to not be left behind, but…it looks like that won’t work.
(Aaah, geez, what are they doing…) (Hikaru)
The cat beastkin must have given up, she began to cry in place.
It may be the 2nd Floor, but you still need to walk several hundreds of meters to reach the 1st Floor. It would be impossible to get out without meeting a single monster.
Even if she gets to the 1st Floor, it is not like the 1st Floor is safe.
(Damn it!) (Hikaru)
I couldn’t take the choice of abandoning her.
If it had been a human, I might have ignored them.
But a cat beastkin is truly as if a cat had begun walking on two legs. I think the feeling of protecting her must have welled up because of that.
I opened the Status Board and used 5 Crystals to buy a potion.
The potion for 1 Crystal says it only works on scratches, so it is the 5 Crystals one. From what I see, it isn’t that deep of an injury. There should be no need for a scroll.
“Use that.” (Hikaru)
I placed the potion by the feet of the beastkin while still hidden in the darkness.
“Eh eh?! Who is it?! Nya?! Potion…?”
“You apparently just have to pour it onto the injured area.” (Hikaru)
I have never used a potion.
The Stamina Potion and the Spirit Energy Potion were oral medicines, but the ones that deal with injuries are apparently the type that you need to apply directly on the wound. That’s what was written in the description.
When the cat beastkin used the potion, her cut leg…or more like, the wound at her paws slowly stopped bleeding. It looks like it doesn’t suddenly close it up completely, but a few bandages should be good enough for this.
“T-This is an intermediate or higher potion… I can’t pay for this-nyan.”
The cat beastkin says this as she covered her ears.
Could it be that she is unexpectedly strict in repaying a debt?
“It is something I did on my own volition. No need for money.” (Hikaru)
“W-Why-nyan? Then what should I do…”
What should she do…huh.
Nothing, really.
I simply couldn’t bear to look at this and helped her out.
“Right… Well, for now, let’s get out…or are you going to continue adventuring alone?” (Hikaru)
“No, it would be impossible for me to get out of the Hungry Beasts Underground Prison-nya… Even the 1st Floor would be questionable.”
Is Hungry Beasts Underground Prison the name of the 2nd Floor?
This one…judging from her voice, she is a woman… It seems like it might be a good idea to get information about this dungeon from her.
“Got bandages? We will move after we treat your wound.” (Hikaru)
It seems she at least had the minimum required things. The cat beastkin sticks a gauze and wraps the affected area with bandages.
“Can you walk?” (Hikaru)
“With this, I should be okay-nya.”
“Then, I will have you accompany me for a bit. Follow me.” (Hikaru)
I spread the darkness and took her hand.
“Nya nya nya nya! It is pitch dark nya!”
She suddenly got surprised like a cat, so even I was surprised.
Anyways, we won’t be meeting monsters while we are inside the darkness.
“Quiet. We are going back to the 1st Floor for now.” (Hikaru)
“Nya nya~.”
I pulled the hand of the cat beastkin and headed to the 1st Floor.
I don’t know if there’s no risk though, but she is even working as a scout, so she should know in detail about the dungeon.
This is my chance to learn more about this mysterious dungeon directly from the mouth of someone else.