The Virgin Hero Who Fought in the Dungeon for 20 Years Returned to the Surface Only to Find the Population of the World Has Dropped Drastically, with a Male-to-Female Ratio of 1:1000 - 92

Chapter 92: The Power of an A-Rank Explorer

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Loria arrived at the Hachioji Dungeon in the worst possible condition. Near the entrance, numerous buses were parked. Their passengers were today’s audience, the princess-like girls from the Explorer Academy.

Haa, this is such a drag.

Still in a gloomy mood, Loria was pushed forward by her vice-captain, Ichika, toward the association’s administrative building nearby.

“Come on, come on, are you still in vacation mode? We don’t have time to stand around spacing out, you know.”

“Hau hau, just let me rest a little.”

“There’s no time for that! It was barely over an hour from central Tokyo. Captain, aren’t you getting a little too soft?”

“Girls have their own things to deal with, you know.”

Loria half-heartedly pretended to listen to the long briefing among the instructors. Normally, she was a serious person, so it was unusual for Loria to be this lethargic.  Speaking of which, she had heard that Ryuuto was also transferring into the Explorer Academy.

Maybe, by some chance, he’s somewhere in this group?

With hawk-like sharpness, Loria scanned the crowd, but she could not find a trace of him. No matter where she looked, it was nothing but a swarm of females, females, and more females. She had had enough of females.

Weapons and armor, which normally didn’t bother her, felt unbearably heavy. Her knees almost buckled, and each time they did, Ichika, standing beside her, caught her.

“Please, keep yourself together.”

Uuugh, shut up. I’m just exhausted, mentally.

“Look, it’s your turn next, Captain.”

“Uuuugh, Ichika, switch with meee.”

“That’s not possible, you know that.”

Like a sleepwalker, Loria staggered toward the stage. Her steps were heavy. The moment she placed her right foot on the first step, a small glimmer flickered in the darkness ahead. Suddenly, a violent chill shot down her spine. The hazy fog that had covered her consciousness cleared in an instant. Loria switched to combat mode reflexively.

It was as if she had stepped into another world, even though she had just entered the entrance of the dungeon. Far in the distance, a faint bluish phosphorescence was visible. It was subtle. Though she was an A-rank explorer, but Loria had only managed to spot it by chance.

At once, she scanned her surroundings.

Why has no one else noticed it? Maybe this is just her imagination?

Among the association staff and academy teachers, she was the only one ranked at the very top. Therefore, the only one who could make the call was Loria.

It was fine if she got laughed at. It was fine if she was ridiculed as overthinking. Because this intuition was the very trump card that had saved her countless times from death, the decisive factor that separated ordinary people from the extraordinary.

“Run—everyone run!”

It happened in an instant. The flat ground near the dungeon entrance—where everyone had their backs turned—suddenly bulged in multiple places, and gigantic artificial soldiers emerged.

Golems.

Inside dungeons, they were the generic term for giant clay dolls animated by high-threat-level magical formulas. Their sizes ranged from around two meters to over ten meters, their bodies composed variously of clay, stone, or metal.

This is bad. I have to get everyone to safety, fast!

Loria’s panic was justified. Though the students of the national academy were elites in training, in reality they were chicks with almost no actual combat experience. Indeed, when the largest of them, an iron golem, began its attack, most of the students didn’t even react. 

They were struck one-sidedly. Like figurines swept from a table by a tantrum-throwing toddler, dozens of students were sent flying into the air, slammed into the ground. They were unable to even scream, only groaning in pain.

“A-a-ah… What…?”

A student from the magic division wielded an oversized wand that looked impressive but the fire she had fired held no effect against the golem. The crystal golem, its body clad in high-grade magical power, didn’t suffer even a smudge; instead, it deflected the spell easily. The girl froze, eyes darting in panic. She was staring blankly at the giant fist descending toward her.

“Kh—!”

Loria dashed forward and raised her shield, catching the massive fist of the crystal golem, which was large enough for an adult to barely wrap their arms around. The destructive power and sheer weight were immense, but to Loria’s seasoned judgment, this level of attack was not a threat to her.

The magic stone embedded in the center of her round shield responded to her will and shone brightly.

“Yaaah!”

With a roar from her core, Loria deflected the crystal golem’s fist with just her left arm. Knocked off balance, the crystal golem’s enormous frame lurched to the right. Loria swung her sword in her right hand horizontally, slicing both of the golem’s legs clean through.

This was no mere slash. Her sword was layered with meticulously condensed magical power, sharpening its edge. What was said to be harder than steel—crystal golem legs—were cut through as smoothly as melting butter.

Crouching swiftly, Loria jumped nearly ten meters without a running start. There was still plenty of clearance before the dungeon ceiling, no risk of hitting her head. She swung her longsword in one smooth motion, severing the crystal golem’s head.

That’s one down.

The severed head struck the wall with a dull thud. The magic puppet, decapitated, froze where it stood, motionless. Perched on the golem’s shoulder, Loria infused her eyes with magical power to reinforce her sight and scanned the battlefield. 

Her gaze found Ichika, who was skillfully guiding students toward the dungeon’s exit. Though many golems had appeared suddenly, most of the academy instructors escorting the students were retired explorers and not just any explorers. They were once skilled explorers.

Still, having long since left real combat, their side was being pushed back. Reinforcements from the association would surely come once reports went out, but Loria also bore the pride of an A-rank.

“Well, this is the job I took on, after all.”

She slung her shield onto her back, raised her longsword high overhead, and began chanting.

Loria was the balanced type. Her true strength emerged when working with both front and rear guard in a party. Still, that didn’t mean she lacked decisive power. Finishing her incantation of a lightning spell, she opened her eyes wide and envisioned electricity wreathing the blade she gripped.

“Magic Sword—Verse of Lightning!”

Hoisting her longsword, she built up force, then swung it down diagonally. The slash, infused with lightning magic, filled the dim dungeon with a burst of white as bright as midday. Loria’s long hair stood on end, bristling wildly from the raging current.

A thunderous crash echoed, and a maelstrom of yellow lightning raged until its power was spent. Soon, silence returned to the dungeon.

“Well, that should do it.”

Muttering, Loria leapt down from the charred remains of the crystal golem, its body blackened by the electrical aftermath. She swept her gaze across the area. The numerous golems that had swarmed moments ago had all been reduced to nothing but scattered fragments, burned away by the lightning strike.

The terrifying thing about Loria wasn’t just that she unleashed such a devastating attack. It was that she had simultaneously marked her allies and erected powerful protective wards around them, leaving them completely unharmed.

Calmness. Judgment. And overwhelming, indisputable ability.

Together, these were what defined the power of an A-rank explorer.

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