Dungeon's Final Boss: Banished by My Boss, the Goddess, to Earth—So I'll Continue My Past Life - 20

Chapter 20: Raid Team

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“Minister Niitaka, you really went and did it, huh?”

“If you want a dungeon to be cleared immediately, of course that person has to be an S-rank awakened, right?”

When I arrived at the D-Ministry, I was taken to a reception room, where Minister Niitaka appeared shortly after. He smoothly dodged my complaint.

“That may be true, but still…”

“By the way, were you able to avoid being spotted by the people outside? There were a lot of reporters, weren’t there?”

“I’m used to moving unnoticed.”

“I’m jealous. If only I could do the same. Ah, here is your registration card.”

He handed me my Awakener registration card.

“We used your My Number Card photo for it. Normally, you’d need to take a new one, but this time, we made an exception for you.”

“Well, I appreciate that.”

It’s not like I’m a vampire who doesn’t show up in photos, but if this saves me even one unnecessary hassle, so I won’t complain.

“Now then, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Go ahead.”

“You mentioned that when you defeat monsters, you don’t obtain magic stones?”

“Yes.”

“Well then…”

Minister Niitaka’s proposal was as follows. Even though I could clear dungeons instantly, it would still be ideal to generate some income from magic stones and other loot. So, how about positioning my S-rank abilities as support and recovery-focused, while letting other members handle the attacking part? Would dungeon clearing still be possible under those conditions?

“I’d say it’s possible, but that depends on the skill level of my companions.”

“I see. Would you be willing to team up with a raid team assembled by the D-Ministry?”

“Fine by me. Ah, and one more thing…”

I negotiated the compensation, which had been glossed over. We settled on a system where the magic stones would go to the D-Ministry, while other dropped items would be divided between me and the strategy team.

“You’re more meticulous than I expected.”

“Haha.”

What exactly do you mean by ‘than I expected’?

“Then, we’ll hold off on officially announcing your abilities until after the first mission. As for the location…”

“Wait, do you already have a dungeon in mind?”

“Yes. The strategy team is already prepared as well.”

“And if I hadn’t come here today?”

“In that case, we would have sent someone to fetch you.”

Minister Niitaka said as he let out a hearty laugh.

Politicians really are terrifying.

Leaving the reception room, I was guided to the helipad on the D-Ministry building. Along the way, I was introduced to the raid team.

“Shuji Hadano. A-rank. I’ll be the main attacker.”

“Itaru Sakuraba. B-rank. I’m the tank.”

“Taisuke Zaizen. B-rank. Tank.”

“Isshin Kanada, Daichi Owada, and Makoto Higashino. All C-rank. We’re the sub-attackers. Pleased to meet you.”

“Are you all military personnel, by any chance?”

Minister Niitaka answered my question.

“They are Awakeners dispatched from the Self-Defense Forces.”

“I see. I’m Jiro Hasegawa, a newly registered Awakener. Looking forward to working with you.”

“””YES!”””

All of them gave a crisp military salute. I didn’t want to deal with any ‘Can this guy actually fight?’ nonsense, so I exerted a bit of pressure when I introduced myself. Their disciplined response was reassuring. Straightforward people really made social interactions so much simpler. We boarded a high-speed helicopter and headed to the site.

The destination was a certain prefecture in the Tohoku region. With this helicopter, we would arrive in about thirty minutes. Out of curiosity, I checked a map app. The same trip would take around two hours by bullet train. Even taking the air route into account, this thing was fast. The dungeon had appeared near an airport.

“Alright, let’s go.”

When the helicopter descended to about a hundred meters, I jumped down. I heard shouts of surprise behind me, but I had already landed.

“Huh?”

“No way!”

“He can do all that, and yet he’s supposed to be support and recovery-focused?”

“As expected of an S-rank.”

“This is making me lose confidence…”

Amidst the noise of the descending helicopter, I could hear murmurs like these coming from the raid team.

I see, so they can’t do it.

I had assumed that if Samejima-san could do it, then maybe they could as well. It seemed the difference in power between S-rank and other ranks was really vast.

I might need to enhance my support spells a bit more. Alright, I’ll keep an eye on how things go, but for now, I’ll strengthen them to about the level of “a goblin that a mid-tier party underestimates, only to end up getting wiped out.”

The buff I would give to them would be stronger than the buff-type food and drinks sold at dungeon convenience stores.

The dungeon was called the “Lost Forest.” It was a maze in the form of a dense forest. The monsters that appeared were mostly Red Bears, Treants and humanoid tree creatures. It seemed like the dungeon was themed around a conflict for dominance between these two species, but in reality, they weren’t fighting each other at all. Instead, both of them were targeting us and it was up to the raid team to deal with them.  I had already distributed my support magic to them.

“H-Hahaha, what is this?!”

“Amazing! My body feels so light. The attacks barely hurt!”

“I can see it. I can see their movements!”

“My attack power is completely different from usual!”

“Wait, I can actually defeat them? No way!”

“I can fire as much as I want!”

All five of them seemed to be in top form. The main attacker, Hadano-san, wielded a sword, while the sub-attackers, Kaneda-san, Owada-san, and Higashino-san, used firearms. They looked like assault rifles, but they clearly weren’t ordinary guns. At the very least, they had to be specialized weapons that incorporated magic stones as catalysts in their bullets and gunpowder. Otherwise, standard lead projectiles wouldn’t be able to kill dungeon monsters. They might work on goblin-level weaklings, but in a dungeon, regular firearms were useless unless modified to reflect the Awakener’s power in the bullets.

The same applied to other weapons. Hadano-san’s sword, the armor and shields worn by Sakuraba-san and Zaizen-san—none of them were just ordinary metal gear. They were crafted with magic stone catalysts and dungeon materials, designed to enhance and reflect the user’s Awakener abilities. Such weapons could either be acquired as dungeon loot or created by Awakeners with production-based abilities. The strategy team steadily hunted monsters, and after about three hours, we finally reached the inner chamber.

There, we successfully defeated the Elder Treant. In the end, I had to strengthen them to the level of “an ogre strong enough to kill a hero,” and I also had to use healing magic to keep their fatigue in check. But for a first mission, I’d say they achieved an impressive result.

When we emerged from the dungeon, several helicopters were already hovering in the sky. I could see people with cameras aboard every one of them.

“Those are media helicopters.”

“They came all the way out here?”

“Maybe they found out you were here.”

“Ugh, does the media really go this crazy over Awakeners these days?”

“What are you talking about? You’re the fifth Awakener in all of Japan. This is a bigger deal than an athlete winning a gold medal.”

“Hah…”

That sounds like a biased opinion from someone dwelling in a dungeon-related job though…

I wasn’t particularly interested in appearing on TV, so I decided to leave as quickly as possible.

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