The Earth-san Has Leveled Up!

2-23. Dungeon Clear Reward

The dragon dropped a magic stone as big as a fist, a large piece of skin about two meters square with scales, and two fangs about 30 centimeters long.

After rolling up the large skin together, they returned to the area near the entrance where their backpacks were placed.

“Well, well, did it turn out well?”

“It might have been shaky and moved.”

“Ah, mine is facing upwards.”

As Meiko and the others said, to be honest, they had been recording the previous battle with their smartphones.

When it comes to a boss battle, the value of information is immeasurable, so they decided to keep a record.

However, since they didn’t have a tripod, the recording wasn’t very stable.

Meiko and Lulu had smartphone cases attached to their backpack straps, so they set them there to record.

Sasara stuffed rabbit fur into the side pocket and adjusted it by clamping it in.

They didn’t have much time, so they couldn’t fine-tune the positions.

They pressed the recording button on the smartphone set in the backpack, roughly decided the direction, and left the rest to luck.

Moreover, during the battle, the dragon used an earthquake attack, so it wouldn’t have been strange if the backpacks had rolled away. In fact, Sasara’s backpack had rolled with the smartphone facing upwards.

For now, they took the smartphones and saved the recordings.

They would check the results later.

With their backpacks on, the three started walking.

Even after defeating the boss, they couldn’t return the way they came.

Seeing this, Meiko thought that the boss room might be separated by some kind of server-like system.

Given the dungeon’s specifications, excessive time passing meant death. The difficulty changes at night, so they couldn’t leisurely wait in the boss room. Besides, the single path they took to get here had disappeared into the sea of clouds, and they wondered what happened to the people who were walking there.

Well, they would have to leave that verification to others.

The path they came from didn’t reappear, but instead, a new staircase appeared exactly opposite the entrance.

At the top of about 30 steps was a 10-meter square platform surrounded by a stone fence.

Since it wasn’t there before, Meiko and the others headed there with anticipation.

They detoured around the stone pavement that the dragon had destroyed and moved forward.

After climbing the stairs, they found…

“A treasure chest!”

Meiko’s fatigue gauge vanished.

She jumped up and ran towards it.

Sasara and Lulu, who were carrying the dragon’s skin, smiled wryly and followed her.

“Come on, you two, hurry up!”

It was quite something to make her friends carry the large skin and then hurry them along. Meiko was quite the character.

The treasure chest’s allure had erased the word “consideration” from Meiko’s mind.

Well, it’s not like they were the type to get angry over something like this.

“Meiko, the treasure chest is nice, but look at that.”

“Huh?”

Behind the treasure chest, a golden gate was shining brightly.

Despite being extremely conspicuous, it hadn’t caught Meiko’s eye.

“Oh! Is that a clear gate instead of a return gate?”

The possibility of it being an entrance to a hidden dungeon crossed her mind, but it quickly flew away. Meiko wanted to open the treasure chest as soon as possible.

Waiting for the other two was the least she could do.

There were two treasure chests.

Above each chest, floating letters indicated their origins.

According to them, one was the dungeon clear reward, and the other was the world’s first dungeon clear reward.

The dungeon clear reward chest was a luxurious red with gold trim, while the world’s first dungeon clear reward chest was a rainbow-colored box full of premium feel.

“We were the first in the world to clear the dungeon!”

“Fufufu, as expected of us!”

“Nyamotes! The world’s strongest trio!”

“Ahahahaha!”

They all laughed at Lulu’s words.

After a good laugh, they decided to open the dungeon clear reward first.

Inside were three jade-colored orbs, a bag containing 30 guinea coins, and several pieces of parchment that seemed to be recipes.

Lastly, there was a booklet with a depiction of Meiko and the others.

For now, they picked up the jade-colored orbs, but nothing particularly striking came to mind.

They would need to appraise them.

The guinea coins were worth 1,000 guinea each. They knew this because they had seen them when selling items at the cat shop.

30,000 guinea was a significant amount. It was enough to fully equip all three of them twice over.

The parchment was likely recipes.

However, these also needed appraisal.

And on the cover of the booklet depicting Meiko and the others, it was written:

[Infinite Torii Dungeon General Store Spring Issue]

Opening it, they found images of the three of them wearing clothes they had no memory of wearing. However, the equipment itself looked familiar. It was all beginner-level gear.

It seemed they had unknowingly been turned into models by some mysterious force.

Come to think of it, Meiko remembered.

[I’ll take the information fee in return, nya.]

The cat fairy had said.

Right after that, they heard that the night dungeon was extremely dangerous and completely forgot about it, but the fairy had indeed said that.

This was probably the information fee in return.

In other words, the same booklet would be placed in the fairy shop for lending.

“That cat really did it. Well, it’s fine, fufu.”

At the very least, the spring issue of the booklet was exclusive to Meiko and the others.

This was a big deal.

Everyone would see this and start choosing their equipment based on it.

“That’s Meiko’s model kimono! Did you go to Infinite Torii?”

“Wow, it was tough, but I managed to clear it by choosing Meiko’s model.”

Such conversations would spread among the youth.

“Well, this Lulu is cute.”

“This Shara is cute too!”

While Meiko was daydreaming about such a future, the other two were happily looking at themselves wearing clothes they had never worn before.

After collecting everything, they moved on to the world’s first dungeon clear reward.

Suddenly, they noticed that the adjacent dungeon clear reward chest had disappeared.

Treasure chests in the dungeon didn’t disappear even if Meiko slept inside for about six hours, but it seemed that clear reward chests would vanish.

If they could have taken it, it would have been a splendid trophy.

They shifted their gaze back to the incredibly luxurious chest.

It was shining brightly, stirring up anticipation.

By the way, they were still recording a video at this moment.

Opening the rainbow-colored chest, they found one item inside.

A globe.

When Meiko held the globe, a “Pishagoon” sound occurred.

Having experienced a “Pishagoon” after a long time, Meiko learned the details of the item.

――――

・Earth-san Premium Figure with Magnifying Glass

A detailed figure of the beloved Earth-san.

Shows the locations of dungeons around the world.

Can change size, with the spherical part ranging from 30 centimeters to 9 meters in diameter.

Once placed, it cannot be moved from that location. Can only be placed outside dungeons.

It will never break, but excessive rough handling will reduce karma. Using this as a weapon is out of the question!

――――

“Yay!”

Meiko was delighted.

It wasn’t because Earth-san was an incredibly powerful being or anything. She was genuinely happy.

To be honest, Meiko’s excitement over the treasure chest wasn’t about the contents being that important.

The joy of discovery and opening it was the most important.

Of course, if the contents were amazing, that would be the best, but even if they weren’t, she wouldn’t be disappointed.

She was a bit of a strange girl.

When she explained the globe’s effects to the other two, they were also delighted.

They were naturally airheaded.

“Well, it’s Earth-san’s figure. I wonder if we’re around here somewhere.”

“Kismia is here. And Japan is here, so we’ve moved this much on Earth-san.”

While listening to such vague conversations, Meiko thought about what to do with this thing.

To be honest, receiving something like this was just heavy.

It would be better to just hand it over to someone else.

Meiko thought that since the world’s first dungeon clearers were humans, they got something like this. If they were animals, they would have gotten something useful in the animal industry.

Meiko and the others later decided what to do with the globe.

After that, it was time to appraise the remaining dungeon clear rewards that didn’t trigger a “Pishagoon.”

Using one of the remaining three appraisal orbs, they checked them out.

First, the jade-colored orb was called a Magic Jewel and had the effect of increasing maximum magic power by 20.

Only the dungeon clearer could use it.

They received a bonus of 10 magic points for blessing Earth-san.

At first, they didn’t know if 10 was a lot, but now they realized that getting an initial +10 was a big deal.

It would take about 10 level-ups to earn that much, and without efficient magic consumption methods, it would be hard to train on their own.

Moreover, just getting a job could take away more than 10 points. There was even a possibility that they wouldn’t be able to use “Martial Arts” or “Magic” even after getting a job.

Therefore, Meiko thought that this item, which gave 20 magic points, was subtly amazing.

Next, the parchment.

The parchment was indeed recipes, and it seemed they could make weapons, armor, and accessories.

Each piece of parchment seemed to contain multiple recipes.

Mostly, it was the Beginner Equipment・Japanese Style・Sprin series. Probably sold at the cat general store.

There were also items with names like Phantom Dragon Armor, and Meiko speculated that they could be made from boss drops.

For all of them, the required materials and production methods were unknown since they didn’t have “Recipe Comprehension.”

Finally, the boss drops.

They seemed to be the skin and fangs of the Yamata no Orochi phantom.

“Eh!? That was Yamata no Orochi?”

As Meiko said this, the appraisal orb in her hand disappeared.

“Yamada no Orochi?”

“Fufu, that would be Yamada’s Orochi.”

Sasara responded to Lulu’s joke.

It wasn’t a dirty joke.

“Yamata no Orochi is a super-strong monster from Japanese mythology, a snake or dragon with eight heads.”

As Meiko explained, she remembered that there were eight rocks lined up in the square.

“Then, do we fight the real body at night?”

“No, the real body is probably in the true dungeon, right? The night version is also a phantom. But with eight heads.”

Sasara and Meiko discussed this.

Meanwhile, Lulu said,

“Earth-san said that Japan is a big dragon’s corpse.”

“Ah, that’s right. I wonder if it will fly away someday?”

“Please don’t. If that happens, everyone will die.”

“Just kidding. It’s a corpse, so it won’t fly. But maybe there are a lot of dragon-like bosses in dungeons.”

Since everything here was just speculation, Meiko and the others cut the conversation and divided the items they had obtained.

First, they divided the money equally, each getting 10,000 guinea.

They used the fairy cards made at the cat general store to absorb the money.

Next, everyone used the Magic Jewel to increase their magic power by 20.

After checking their status, they found that not only their magic power but most of their stats had dramatically changed.

The significant change in stats also felt like a reward for clearing the dungeon, and the three of them cheered.

The rainbow-colored chest also disappeared, leaving only a golden vortex in the small space.

Entering it would lead to the goal, but Meiko and the others decided to take a break first.

They hadn’t felt like resting in the square after the boss battle, so they finally relaxed here.

From the stone pavement floating in the sea of clouds, they looked at the mountain they had adventured through.

It was a beautiful mountain with red torii gates and vibrant life.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t see the first mountain from here, but that only emphasized the length of the path they had taken.

Meiko thought that adults would probably drink in a place like this, recalling a dramatic manga.

“We really made it here alive.”

Meiko said with deep emotion.

“It’s thanks to Meiko.”

“Nyau. Without Meko, it would have been impossible.”

The two praised Meiko.

“That might be true. But without Sasara and Lulu, it would have been impossible too. You two cut down the enemies with the weapons I forged. That’s why we made it here together.”

Meiko smiled as she said this, but Sasara and Lulu’s minds were filled with the image of Meiko’s small figure bravely rushing towards the terrifying dragon.

An ordinary girl with [Synthesis Enhancement] would have been overwhelmed by the boss’s pressure and wouldn’t have realized they could defeat it, leading to the party’s destruction.

Only now that it was over did they understand.

If Meiko had been five seconds slower to start running, Sasara and Lulu would have surely lost all strength and collapsed on the spot.

It was because of Meiko that they were here now, Sasara and Lulu were certain of that.

Feeling tickled by their admiring gazes, Meiko plopped down.

“Ah, it was really fun adventuring with you two.”

Looking up at the blue sky, Meiko reminisced about the past few days.

Adventuring in the dungeon, making various discoveries, defeating enemies, and growing stronger. Alongside her were reliable companions who adventured with her.

Everything Meiko had been seeking was packed into these past few days.

“I had so much fun adventuring with Meiko and Lulu!”

“I also had fun with Shara and Meko!”

Sasara said with a flushed face, and Lulu responded with a full smile.

The two also lay down.

For a while, the three of them were lost in thought.

In the midst of this, Sasara suddenly remembered something and asked Meiko.

“By the way, you didn’t take a single hit from the boss, right? Do you still have the effect of [First-Floor Solo Clearer]?”

“Now that you mention it, I do. That guy, despite his appearance, didn’t land a single hit on me. Pfft, high five!”

As she said this, Meiko checked the effect of [First-Floor Solo Clearer] in her status screen.

The effect was grayed out and lost.

“Why!?”

She had confirmed it was active before the boss battle, and she was sure she hadn’t taken a single hit, but when did it happen?

A scene from the boss battle flashed through Meiko’s mind.

She had taken one hit.

It was the wave of stone pavement that knocked her over after the shockwave.

That was the only possibility.

And the fact that that one hit was a critical blow.

It must have had a magical aspect to it, being the boss’s attack. Probably earth magic.

“Eek!”

Meiko broke out in a cold sweat as she remembered how she had narrowly avoided the dragon’s sliding bite and how she had relied on invincibility to become the final decoy.

It had been extremely dangerous.

It was a miracle they were here now.

She couldn’t thank Sasara enough for deflecting the dragon’s face with her slash sword.

If she hadn’t been in the mindset that it was okay to take one hit, she wouldn’t have been able to relax and become the final decoy.

She didn’t want to worry them, but information had to be shared.

Meiko told them the truth.

“R-really!?”

“Shara, you did great!”

The three of them shivered together.

Now that the safety net of invincibility was gone, Meiko realized it was time to change her tactics and learn a different approach to battles.