Dungeon's Final Boss: Banished by My Boss, the Goddess, to Earth—So I'll Continue My Past Life - 99

Chapter 99: Fire Mage

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Somewhere in the Chūgoku region. Together with Shin Mouri, we headed to a dungeon located on an island floating in the Seto Inland Sea.

“Because transportation is inconvenient, not many Awakened gather here, and we haven’t had a good opportunity to clear it either, which has been a problem.”

Misa, the secretary, explained.

“Places like this don’t attract attention unless there’s a particularly rare drop item.”

Is it oranges, maybe?

Surrounding the prefab building were fields planted with trees that looked like citrus. Dust accumulated over the years had blended the building naturally into its surroundings. At the entrance, I opened the electronic lock by holding up my Awakened registration card and stepped through the portal inside.

“Well then, I’ll wait for you at the inn on the island. Please contact me when you’re finished.”

Once again, to prioritize speed, only Mimimi, Shin, and I were present. Misa wasn’t an Awakened, so she wouldn’t be entering at all.

“Understood. Here, take this.”

“What is it?”

“An antidote. It also clears out alcohol.”

“Huh?”

“You were looking at that okonomiyaki place by the port, weren’t you? Try it in advance for the celebration party.”

“Oh—thanks.”

“I recently enjoyed some monjayaki with draft beer, but I’m curious—how do you think okonomiyaki pairs with beer?”

“Oh, that’s absolutely a guaranteed match!”

Misa instantly bit the bait, just as I thought. While we were moving around, I noticed her eyes kept getting drawn to signs for bars and alcohol, so I figured as much.

We parted ways with a cheerful Misa, who saw us off with a smile, and stepped through the portal. Inside, it resembled a traditional Japanese-style mansion. Wooden-floored corridors, sliding paper doors that didn’t open, and evenly spaced candles affixed to the pillars.

“This dungeon seems to have particular aesthetics compared to other dungeons.”

“Most are just caves or stone-built mazes, after all.”

Walking through a Japanese-style hallway with shoes on triggered some sort of instinctive aversion in me as a Japanese person.

“So, shall we prioritize clearing the dungeon?”

“Ah, before that, would it be alright if I checked how much support Hasegawa-san’s buffs give?”

“Sure.”

Responding to the request, I cast buffs on Shin. For him, I prioritized boosting ‘Endurance,’ ‘Body,’ and ‘Magic.’

‘Endurance’ increased durability—affecting defense and basically HP status. ‘Body’ affected the number of times active skills and magic could be used—basically MP. ‘Magic’ influenced magical power—affecting the strength, effectiveness, and accuracy of magical skills.

“Whoa, this is amazing.”

Shin immediately grasped the boost in his abilities and let out an impressed voice.

“Shimazu-san said you were amazing—and now I see why.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“With this…”

As Shin focused, a large fireball manifested around him, which in the next moment transformed into the form of a girl wreathed in flames. She had a distinctive tail, and patterns like partially-melted stones floating in lava adorned her skin. There were ten of them.

“Salamanders?”

“I’ve been summoning fireballs to support attacks for a while now, but recently I’ve been researching how to enhance them—and I finally completed it.”

“Oh?”

“With the buffs Hasegawa-san cast, I can maintain all of them. Ladies, go ahead and start hunting monsters.”

At Shin’s command, the Salamanders moved forward. Soon, we heard red flashes and explosive sounds.

“With this, I can leave the fighting to them and focus entirely on filming Mimimi-san!”

“Eh? Is that really okay?”

“Of course!”

“In that case…”

Seeing Shin’s face light up, Mimimi turned to me, and once I nodded, she accepted.

I didn’t miss the moment Shin quietly clenched his fist in triumph.

I see.

It seemed this dungeon didn’t go deeper underground, but instead expanded horizontally.

We never came across any stairs, just continued through a Japanese-style maze.

“This place being a vast, never-ending maze is part of why it’s unpopular.”

“Ah, yeah. Makes you dread having to go back.”

“Exactly. Even when you need to go down floors in a normal dungeon, going too deep will make returning a hassle, but a maze like this? A maze is on a different level of annoying.”

That’s right. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen a return portal here yet. Maybe we could sell return items… Should I price them per party or individually? Or just individual-use only?

As I was thinking this over, we arrived at a large, tatami-covered hall, where a magic stone vein had formed. No one had visited in a while, so the layer of stones was thick—covering more than half the room.

“Wow! This looks like it’ll be so rewarding!”

Mimimi looked ecstatic.

“Shall we start filming here?”

“Yes!”

We increased the number of filming drones to three and began shooting right away. Starting with an opening talk, then an explanation of the dungeon, and finally, the camera turned to us for introductions.

Now that I thought about it, Shin didn’t seem interested in filming himself this time. He must have planned to leave the clearing to the Salamanders from the start. Once the mining of the magic stone vein began, we made sure to back away to avoid getting in the shot.

It seemed Shin was a fan of Mimimi. Though he kept up a cool demeanor, the moment filming started, his eyes sparkled as he watched Mimimi in action.

“Hasegawa-san, you’re amazing.”

While I was idly watching Shin and Mimimi, he suddenly said that.

“You think so?”

“The way you handed Misa the antidote earlier, and the fact that you knew she liked alcohol even though you didn’t drink with her… I think you’re really incredible to be able to do all that.”

“Hmm, maybe that’s just wisdom from age?”

“What accumulates with age is your own experience. Even if I reach your level someday, I don’t think I could do the same.”

He’s surprisingly negative, huh?

“I don’t have some all-seeing insight, you know. I’m honestly surprised by your comment just now.”

“Haha, well, I’m also doing my best myself.”

“Right. And if you pretend well enough to the point it becomes like breathing to you, no one will notice otherwise.”

I probably developed this skill from fighting dungeon monsters—honing my observational eye to detect weaknesses. After all, you couldn’t read a human’s weaknesses at a glance. It wasn’t that easy.

“It all comes down to observation. It’s no different from reading enemy behavior to find weak points. What you do in the dungeon definitely connects to how you live outside it.”

“I see…”

Shin nodded repeatedly and murmured. I wasn’t sure how much of my words had truly reached him. I wasn’t wise enough to give guidance to a lost young man—so I hoped this much would suffice.

With that in mind, the two of us silently watched Mimimi swinging her pickaxe.

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