Chapter Prologue
Prologue - The Inside Body Dungeon and Parasitic Insects
"Blech, the walls are all soft and flabby."
"Ohh, it really looks like we're inside a body!"
In contrast to Taku and others, I proceeded on the flabby floor of the inside body dungeon very fearfully.
It was the dungeon existing inside the super-dreadnought mob, Grand Rock.
Various mobs attacked us after coming out of the walls of the dungeon.
White and boggy blood-sucking leeches appeared from there.
Mobs similar to pin worms crawled and along the meat walls of the inside body dungeon's and came down from the ceiling.
There were also mobs that looked like parasites who drilled through the meat wall.
All those mobs splattered colourful mucus upon their defeat which caused bad statuses.
At this stage, the amount of my SAN points was shaved down quite a bit.
Also, the inside body dungeon had other gimmicks aside from mobs that were waiting to take away my SAN points.
"Oh, there's a passage leading downwards!"
"Gantz, wait. I have a bad feeling about this."
"A bad feeling? Are your Senses reacting?"
"No, um, they do but, it's like my 【See-Through】 Sense is too low and I'm not entire surely what it's reacting to I guess?"
Actually, I had level 20 of my 【See-Through】 Sense upon entering the Grand Rock's inside body dungeon, but I couldn't tell despite that.
"Hmm. Is there a trap in there, or maybe it's reacting to enemy mobs in the back... not knowing that makes it hard."
"Still, we can't afford to have any one of the party to go in there and investigate."
Taku and Kei thought about it seriously, their arms folded. Meanwhile another party entered the passage leading downwards and——
"U-UWAAaaaaahhhh——"
The players were snatched away into the depths of the passage with terrifying momentum.
Then once the passage entrance's mimicry solved, the head and eyes of a degenerated organism appeared.
"No way, it wasn't a passage leading downwards..."
"It was the mouth of an organism, which means that they fell into——"
Minute and Mami-san were girls so they didn't feel completing the sentences, but it was clear enough to cause my hair stand up with dread.
" " "UWAaahhhh——" " "
"Hhiih?!"
Hearing the screams of the players captured inside the organism that was mimicking the passage, my face changed its colour from pale to pure white.
"What's with this horror space. So intense."
"As expected, Yun won't be any good here. It can't be helped, let's go back for no..."
"Taku? What happened?"
I looked away from what I rather not look at, but because Taku suddenly stopped speaking I raised my head and saw him look at a certain point.
"Aa-aah, while I feel sorry for Yun, it doesn't seem like we're going back."
When I looked after his line of sight when he said that, I saw that the meat wall that formed the passage we came through had squeezed itself in and closed the passage.
On the other hand, another passage opened up elsewhere.
"I'm fine. Probably, I'll somehow endure using willpower."
I already put on a brave expression and suppressing the urge to leave this grotesque horror space, I forced myself to act rationally.
"The road leading back is gone. What do you think, Kei?"
"It must be a timed structure change of the dungeon. If that's the case, the way leading to boss and the exit must be open somewhere.We have no choice but to move on carefu
lly, I think? Shall we go ahead and look for an exit for Yun's sake?"
"I guess. Let's do that."
Then, although we wandered around looking for the dungeon's exit, we were completely unable to understand the dungeon's structure.
I did actually map the dungeon as we searched, but because the dungeon's structure changed it was impossible to find regularities and certain routes so the map wasn't reliable. Then as a result of wandering aimlessly——
"Uwaa, it's swallowing me! My leg fell into a meat pitfall!"
"Yun?! We'll pull you out right away!"
"Hey, enemy's coming! Protect Yun!"
When I thought I slightly sank into the flabby meat floor, it was my left leg that was swallowed and I had become unable to move.
Matching that moment, a variety of mobs broke through the walls of meat and pounced on everyone.
While I couldn't move with my leg caught, I tried to assist others with enchants and the bow, but that's when the inside of the pitfall had become hollow and something wriggled inside.
"Hyah?! T-there's something inside! Ah! It touched me!"
"Yun-san, please hold out! We'll help you soon!"
"UWAaaahhh, hurry, hurry up, it's disgusting!"
In television programs I often saw games where people put their hand inside a box not knowing what's inside, but I didn't think I would taste that fear.
I didn't think that the fear of having something unknown touch me was this horrifying, because of that I was unable to assist others and could only wail.
As Mami-san encouraged me, I clung to her seeking help.
With everyone focusing on defeating enemies and no one capable of helping me I felt like crying, I single-mindedly focused on enduring this horrible sensation. Meanwhile the enemy mobs were wiped out and then I was helped to pull out my leg from the meat pitfall.
Wrapped around my legs were creatures similar to loaches.
When I saw them swim in the water that accumulated in the meat pitfall, I was astonished that I was scared of such a thing, at the same time my energy was slowly consumed.
I mean, why even make this kind of thing, I thought depressed.
After that, when searching for the exit I ended up catching a blood-sucking leech in my hand, I felt goose bumps all over my body from the boggy sensation. I threw it away in a hurry and it ended up flying towards Minute, who responded with a scream.
At other time, a parasite mob appeared from inside a wall and covered Gantz with mysterious liquid, he received poison and paralysis bad statuses as well as slip damage. Seeing Gantz suddenly covered with mucus Mami screamed and her legs gave out, trembling, she sat down on the meat floor wet with mucus.
The worst ones were gel-like organisms which looked like giant single-celled 【Fresh Bacteria】.
Upon receiving an attack their HP was halved and they split up in two, their tackles had an effect of HP absorption. Not only we struggled with growth in numbers every time we attacked, Kei who had high HP was surrounded by a group of cells and focused on.
"Kei! We'll save you now!"
"Don't mind me! Just hurry and beat them!"
As we were surrounded by a group of cells absorbing HP, this turned into a long battle.
We felt fear as the army of cells approached us, vanity as we continued to beat them without any effect. Burning through the consumables, feeling impatient as their number decreased we somehow rescued Kei, then had Minute and Mami-san eliminate the 【Fresh Bacteria】 with area of effect magic. From then on, whenever we saw those bacteria we avoided it however it was possible.
And, walking with the mindset of wanting to escape from the dungeon even if a second faster——
"Why the heck did we have to arrive at Grand Rock's heart chamber! Moreover, there's a boss mob who took this place over!"
The Grand Rock's heart chamber was a boss room, waiting inside was a boss with countless tentacles who looked like a sea anemone, the 【Electric Parasitic Insect】.
Beyond the tentacles there were electrical orbs, it used them both for protecting itself from attacks as well as attacking enemies. The electric attacks also caused a 【Paralysis】 bad status.
For the way of beating it, there was no other choice but to steadily cut off its tentacles, destroy them before we are captured by the electric orbs.
"...cut down tentacles, destroy orbs. Cut down tentacles, destroy orbs."
During the battle with slimy, disgusting enemy mob at some point I started to program movements onto myself and just execute them like a robot.
And when we finally noticed, what we were looking at wasn't a heart infested by a sea anemone-type boss, but a huge heart with dark engravings caused by boss mob's erosion, at the same time we received strengthening materials dropped by 【Electric Parasitic Insect】, the 【Parasite Pacemaker】.
Then part of the boss room's wall opened and stairs leading to the top appeared. Moreover, the menu announced the start of a new time-limited quest.
——Emergency Quest: Heal Grand Rock's heart. (72 hours remaining)
With the 【Electric Parasitic Insect】 defeated the heartbeat weakens.
Use this time to use either recovery magic or recovery items to heal the heart. If the deadline expires, the 【Electric Parasitic Insect】's eggs will hatch and start parasitizing it again.
"Ooohh?!! A time-limited quest huh. This stimulates my curiosity. Also, this quest is suitable for our party set-up."
Saying so Taku looked towards Minute who looked a little tired after the battle with the boss and me, whose heart was at brink of death.
I wanted to sit down on spot, but sitting on the meaty floor would be unpleasant so I forced myself to stand with willpower.
"Well then, I'll start first. ——《Large Heal》!"
The recovery magic Minute cast enveloped the Grand Rock's Heart.
And then new information was added to the quest menu.
——The 『 1/10000 』 numbers.
"Uwah, do I have to use magic ten thousand times?"
Minute said so and tried various magic and methods. Magic recovering from bad statuses had no effect, the weakest magic didn't appear to have an effect, but we assumed that it worked but wasn't strong enough to increase the count by entire number.
"Hmm. 《High Heal》 gives one point. Area of effect 《Round Heal》 gives two. The highest magic, 《Mega Heal》 gives four points. That's haarsh."
"Next, Yun."
Already in lethargy I took out potions form my inventory and left them to Taku and others.
Handmade highly-effective Potions, default Potions with basic effect, Revival Medicine. The result of using a variety of different potions was——
That they had effect similar to that of recovery magic. Potions added below one point, High Potions added one point.
However, the Blue Potions added two points despite being quite inexpensive. The one who had the highest effect was the Revival Medicine that added five points each.
The Blue Potions seemed to have some correction and were the most cost-efficient.
"Hmm. Using ten thousand High Potions sounds toughh."
I checked up on the amount of potions I had, but it was obviously not enough to achieve the quest conditions.
"Also, since you can't deal damage to the heart it means that it's not treated as a mob but as an object. It can't be helped, let's round this up for now!"
We can finally escape! The moment I thought so I grabbed Taku's arm and dragged him outside of the dungeon.
Everyone else was shocked, even though I cast an enchant on myself, they didn't think I would manage to pull Taku with my stats.
After I rushed at full power up the stairs provided towards the outlet, the floor made of flabby meat slowly changed to a hard one made of rock, giving me some sense of security.
Then, finally——
"We're finally out...."
We came back to the safety area we were in before entering.
It was already evening, moonlight entered through the holes in the ceiling and bathed itself in the fountain with the 【Water of Life】.
The moonlight reflected in the waving water surface reflected light at the ceiling and the walls of the cave, creating fantastic atmosphere.
Gantz and others who followed joined me as I submerged myself in the fountain's atmosphere, then I sat down on spot.
"HAAaaa〜〜finally ooout..."
With just the dungeon search I went over my willpower capacity and exhausted all energy I had.
Just, I was a little reluctant, wondering if it's really all right to leave the Grand Rock like this.
●
"Onee-chan! Yun-oneechan...!"
"Ah?! W-what is it? Why have you all gathered up?"
Ever since the we completed the Grand Rock's quest I often found myself lost in thoughts. Even now, I didn't even realize Myu and the others have gathered up.
"Yun-oneechan! You're dazing out too much recently!"
After exhausting my energy in meat and mucus of inside-body dungeon, that evening I shut myself in the 【Atelier】 to recharge.
Right now in here there was worried Myu and Taku, but what was more unusual was that even Sei-nee had come.
"I can understand that Myu and Taku come, but why is Sei-nee here?"
It wasn't rare for Myu and Taku to come since they frequently came to the 【Atelier】 for shopping, but Sei-nee was mainly using items made by her guild's crafters so she didn't come too often.
"I came to Yun-chan with a request from 【Eight Million Gods】."
"A request?"
I bet she'll give me some impossible challenge, I thought for a moment, but seeing my expression Sei-nee explained, solving my misunderstanding.
"Mikadzuchi is organising a tasting party of liquor we had made from fruit-type items and she wants players with 【Cooking】 Sense to evaluate them, the request this time is an invitation to that tasting party."
Saying so she passed to me a folded bronze-coloured invitation, it seemed to be an item for inviting outsiders into the guild. It seems to have been used up.
"Hmmm. Tasting party, huh. Still, we're minors so we can't drink liquor can we."
"That's all right. We also have prepared the juice we made the liquor with, the liquor was also used for cooking so there's no problem."
Which means the alcohol was burned off I guess. Depending on the type of liquor there would be various dishes, while I imagined that I voiced one concern.
"Hey, Sei-nee. Will there be any insistent solicitation or something like that when I go to your guild?"
"Pft, nope. The truth behind this tasting session is that it's just a pretext for Mikadzuchi to drink."
Well, it's mainly a casual party rather than a solicitation, on personal basis some might try some light invitations or speak up about your party, quests and schedules. Sei-nee predicted lightly.
"Also, I don't know why but Yun-oneechan has been dazed for last few days! So let's go for a change of pace! Staying in here all alone isn't good for your mental health!"
It seemed like Myu wanted to participate in the tasting session, or rather, the drinking party as well.
When I turned my line of sight towards Taku——
"I won't participate because I have a prior engagement. Also... well, sorry for forcing you along last time."
Taku scratched his head and apologized with difficulty. If he is to apologize for forcing me into the inside-body dungeon, he should think earlier that I don't have tolerance for that kind of thing. Next time, he just needs to give it some thought beforehand.
And what more importantly I want to ask is——
"Aren't you going to clear that quest?"
"There's no real need to clear it right away, is there. Let's take our time preparing, there's a possibility the prerequesites are very different from what we have. So it's wait and see for now. Rather, Yun, if you make potions in such state you'll fail."
"Uh, it's as you say."
I had it pointed out by Taku too, but it was true, the misses I made because of being absent-minded when making potions stood out.
"If you want to complete the Grand Rock again, invite me. By the next time we'll prepare tactics for clearing it in shortest amount of time and there's less burden on you, Yun."
"...thanks, Taku."
"DAHH! What are you happily chatting about in middle of conversation!"
"Woah?!! Myu, don't ride on my back, really..."
I peeled off Myu who jumped on my back and clung to me.
"Then looks like it's decided! Let's go play in 【Eight Million Gods'】 home right away!"
"Agreed, let's go. For a change of pace, you'll have some fun other than staying muffled in the store."
"Okay, let's go!"
Myu pointed at the entrance energetically and as if to say "strike while the iron is hot", she pulled my hand trying to bring me out of the 【Atelier】.
Midway, I saw my partners the unicorn Ryui and the black fox Zakuro stare at me worried through the door of the store part so I pat them to calm them down same as usual.
"Sorry. It doesn't seem like I'll be back to normal right away, but should be all right."
When I said that, both of them rubbed their necks on me.
And in the end Taku said this——
"【Eight Million Gods'】 is OSO's largest guild. You'll probably learn a lot. Have fun!"
"Ah, yeah. Got it."
I said just that, and brought outside by Myu and Sei-nee I left the 【Atelier】.
We moved on the main street heading from South to North then to the northernmost part of the first town.
It was an area with various buildings lined up with most of them being for sale tobe used as guild homes.
It was easier and cheaper to purchase one like this rather than purchase a land and make a building from scratch like the 【Atelier】.
The 【Eight Million Gods'】 home was located just the opposite of 【Atelier】 which was located in the South side so I wasn't very familiar with the exact placement. Then, we stood in front of the building that stood out the most.
"Yun-chan, we've arrived."
The guild was standing in the location that allowed for gathering players together the best.
It was an European-style building with white walls and roof painted in red.
However, it wasn't only an European-style building. Next to the main building there was an expansion that looked like a Japanese-style mansion which looking from the front, had a wide garden full of gravel.
On the opposite, left side, there was bare ground which was used as training grounds for players to do PvP and such.
Sei-nee stood in front of the gate and opened it with natural movements and we entered.
"Welcome, this is 【Eight Million Gods】 guild's home. We did a lot of remodelling inside, enjoy yourselves."
Saying so she invited me and Myu, then entered inside the home from the front.
After following her, we were overwhelmed and agape, we stared up at the ceiling.
The moment we entered we saw atrium hall with several sets of tables and sofas, there were counters on both sides, as well as several parties in middle of a discussion.
"Woah..."
"Amazing, Onee-chan! So that's how the guilds are!"
"Fufufu, it's surprising since the guild's facilities were extended beyond how it looks from outside. How about Myu-chan's party also participate in the taste-testing session together with us?"
"Really?! Ah, but they can't participate today because they have things to do."
"Then they can come to play on another time."
I could only let out a voice of admiration. Inside this home which had the space extended beyond its appearance, I had no way of knowing just how many rooms are there.
"It's so spacious I can't calm down."
"Just gotta get used to it. When the guild members and guests gather, even this turns crowdy."
Being spoken to from behind I turned around and there, saw a woman with wine red-coloured hair.
"Heyy, Missy. Finally feel like joining the guild?"
"I came for the tasting party rather than to join. Well, I look forward to that liquor. Also, don't call me 'missy'."
I reflexively talked back to the guild master, Mikadzuchi who was there when I turned around.
"To me, just having you Missy come to the guild is a step forward."
"Are you soliciting to guild like that?"
Personally, I always thought that Mikadzuchi's solicitation was something like a greeting or a joke, but it seems like she was actually serious.
I wonder what's so good about me. My Sense build had gathered several trash Senses and completely ignores balance, there's nothing special about it worth mentioning.
While I can understand why would Myu be recruited, I have no idea why am I.
"Well, you can consider whether you enter the guild or not meanwhile. For now, once again——"
Standing straight in front of us Mikadzuchi spoke in serious voice to Myu and me.
"——Welcome to 【Eight Million Gods】 guild home. Well, make yourself at home with the intention of a change of pace."
With her words as a start, other guild members who were sneakily stealing peeks at us have started to come one after another to welcome us.
It was a little embarrassing but not unpleasant, made me feel a little shy.
Since it looked like there were many interesting things inside the OSO's largest guild, I thought it might be fun.