An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 30

Chapter 30: You’re Going to Get Taken for a Ride

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The last person arrived about ten minutes late after the meeting time.

“Hoaaaaaaam~ Sorry, sorry! I ended up taking one of my believers home yesterday and had fun until morning, so I overslept.”

She said while yawning. She seemed to be a university student. And although she looked sleepy with her hair disheveled and no make up on, her striking natural beauty was still shining through.

“That woman… Isn’t she the leader of that new religion…?”

“The so-called Saint, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. No doubt about it. Well, she’s a bit of a pervert though. They say that if you become her believer, you get to sleep with her or something. The number of her male believers has skyrocketed because of it.”

“Seriously? …Maybe I should become her believer too?”

“Don’t. They say you’re going to get taken for a ride with her.”

Now that everyone had arrived, the staff of the Dungeon Management Agency came to the front to make an announcement.

“Now, the S-rank explorer promotion exam will begin now.”

He then explained the details of the exam. The test would take place in Inokashira Dungeon.  Inokashira Dungeon was a highly difficult Class 6 dungeon with 30 floors. The upper levels went down to the 5th floor, the middle levels went down to the 10th floor, the lower levels went down to the 10th and the deep levels went down to the 30th floor.

“Your goal is to defeat Queen Tarantula, a spider-type monster. Queen Tarantula mostly appears after the 26th floor and you need to defeat it and get the ‘Queen Spider’s Silk Gland.’ However, cooperating together is strictly prohibited. You must do everything on your own. I will say it again. You have to defeat it AND get the materials on your own. If you somehow acquire the required material WITHOUT defeating Queen Tarantula first, the materials won’t count. You can’t pass the exam in that way. This is because the test is specifically designed to ensure all of you have the basic requirement to be an S-rank explorer. As you all may know, S-rank explorers SHOULD be able to explore the deep levels solo.”

A drone camera was assigned to each examinee to prevent cheating. The staff would be monitoring the whole thing through the drone camera.

“Excuse me, what about the ones who play the support role in parties? Do they still need to defeat the monsters solo? No, I’m not asking for myself. I’m just curious.”

“Of course. If you want to become an S-rank explorer, you need to be able to explore a dungeon of this level solo.”

The staff member answered one of the examinees’ questions in a clear voice, as if the answer to that question was obvious enough. 

“Remember, even if you manage to obtain the material and bring it back to the surface, there’s no guarantee that you will pass the exam. The examiners will review the whole situation that happened in the dungeon before we make the final judgment.”

“What?! Ugh! That means you guys can just fail someone out of whim! I’m sure a famous streamer like me will be at a disadvantage..!!  How outrageous!”

The one yelling was Ryuuga Takahashi, a dungeon livestreamer who had begged me to withdraw from the exam earlier. The staff calmly denied his flimsy accusation firmly.

“No. The examiners will make their judgements fairly. We will never let anything impede our decision. Please refrain from planting a seed of doubt just because you’re worried you’re going to fail.”

“I-I-I-I-I-I wasn’t trying to plant a seed of doubt or anything!!”

The staff members activated all the drones for each examinee at the same time. The drones then flew toward their pre-set targets. 

“We will monitor everyone’s situation through these drones.”

“Excuse me! I have one more question!”

“…What is it?”

Ryuuga Takahashi raised his hand again and the staff member responded to him, seemingly annoyed at Ryuuga Takahashi.

“Is it okay if I livestream my heroic endeavor during this exam on Xtube? In this way, I can prevent any unfair evaluations coming my way!”

“That’s fine. However, please make sure you don’t show any other examinees in your livestream.”

It seemed that livestreaming during the exam was allowed.

“I see. In that case, I might as well do a livestream too.”

“What!? Tha-That’s not fair! I came up with the idea of livestreaming during my S-rank promotion exam! Are you planning to steal my idea?”

“Steal it? But it’s not a unique idea or anything. Everyone can come up with the idea to livestream during their promotion exam…”

The staff had finished explaining everything to us, so the exam was about to begin. To avoid crowding, everyone would enter the dungeon in groups of five, four times in total. Fortunately, I was in the very first group to enter the dungeon.

“Damn it! I’m in the second group! My spotlight has been stolen!!”

Ryuuga Takahashi exclaimed while holding his head, seemingly vexed at the placement of his group. I ignored him and stepped into the dungeon. Everyone else in my group also started walking on their own, choosing their path without colliding with each other. 

I then activated my personal camera drone and started the livestream.

“Hey everyone, I’ve decided to do a livestream.”

I hadn’t made any announcement beforehand, but the number of viewers was increasing rapidly.

〈Another guerrilla livestreammmmm!〉

〈I wonder what is he going to do now.〉

〈Perfect time. Today is my day off so I can watch Nishida’s livestream leisurely.〉

“A lot has happened and now I’m taking the S-rank promotion exam. Right now, I’m in the Inokashira Dungeon. I guess this is my first time livestreaming in this dungeon, huh?”

〈S-rank promotion exam!?〉

〈I thought Nishida is an F-rank?〉

〈Is it really okay to livestream the exam?〉

“Yes. I’ve received permission from the Dungeon Management Agency. To be precise, there’s no rule that says we can’t livestream it. It’s just that most of the examinees don’t bother livestreaming the exam.”

〈Come to think of it, I saw similar announcement from Dragon Channel too.〉

〈I was planning to watch that.〉

〈If I can watch it here, I’ll watch Nishida’s instead.〉

It seemed I had unintentionally taken away some of Ryuuga Takahashi’s potential viewers. I then gave my viewers a brief explanation of the details of the exam while walking through the dungeon.

“And of course, I’m going to use the teleportation traps, just like usual.”

Getting to the 26th floor would’ve taken two or three days if I used the normal way. I didn’t want to close my restaurant longer than I had to, so I was hoping to finish the exam in one day if possible. After all, I only had to defeat the Queen Tarantula and get the required materials to finish the exam. 

“Ah. Found it.”

After walking for 20 minutes on the first floor, I finally found a teleportation trap. I managed to find the trap relatively quick. What a promising start. 

〈He already found it.〉

〈Way too fast, just like usual. It’s rare to find a teleportation trap on the 1st floor.〉

〈A lot of explorers have tried to follow Nishida’s footsteps, but they couldn’t find any teleportation traps. It was faster for them to just head for the stairs in a normal way.〉

After making sure I was holding onto both drones, I infused my magic power into the trap and stepped onto it. 

“This is… This should be either the 6th or the 7th floors.”

I had reached the middle levels.

〈And even they managed to find a teleportation trap, none of them can skip so many floors like Nishida.〉

〈That’s right. Even after they infused the trap with a lot of magic power, they could only skip one or two floors at most.〉

〈How on earth is Nishida able to jump down so many floors in one go like this??〉

“Well then, let’s keep teleporting until we reach the floor where Queen Tarantula is.”

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