We arrived at the fifth floor of the Dungeon Academy Dungeon—yeah, the name’s kind of like Ba〇ku Kawasaki Bike, but whatever. By this point, no reckless students from other schools were around.
I figured there might be explorers like us or Aoki who had prior dungeon-diving experience, but now that I think about it, anyone who’s seriously leveled up in a standard dungeon knows how hard that grind is. They wouldn’t risk going this deep, where getting reset to level 1 is a real danger.
And with that, Hime started the stream. Today, Ayame was in charge of the opening greeting.
「Good morning, everyone. Thanks for tuning in on a Sunday morning. I’m Azuma Ayame.」
Comments flooded as soon as Ayame greeted the viewers.
〔Finally! I’ve been waiting!〕
〔Gamma-chan’s voice is so soothing.〕
〔Where’s today’s dungeon?〕
「Yes. Today, we’ve been given a special invitation to explore the much-talked-about Dungeon Academy Dungeon.」
〔Dungeon Academy!? Just saw it on the news!〕
〔Is this the first time it’s being streamed?〕
〔The Dungeon Bureau did a stream before, but they didn’t show any actual monster fights.〕
〔The overseas Academy Dungeons were streamed a while ago.〕
「Thanks for the comments. Yes, this is that Dungeon Academy Dungeon. Before explaining it, we have a special guest joining us today.」
Cue Shizuka-san’s entrance.
「Good morning, my dear guinea pigs! I am Yamanashi Shizuka, the unparalleled genius scientist! Feel free to call me Shizuka-chan.」
She really called the viewers “guinea pigs.”
She really called herself an unparalleled genius scientist.
And of course, she wants to be called Shizuka-chan.
I wonder what people think of that?
〔Shizuka-chan is hereee! This collab is amazing!〕
〔I watch Shizuka-Chan-nel every month!〕
〔Not subscribed, but still a fan.〕
〔Wow, what an impact.〕
〔Getting called a guinea pig gives me chills. What is this feeling…?〕
〔↑You’re sick. Go to the hospital.〕
〔Hospital: It’s too late.〕
Turns out she was a big hit.
People who knew Shizuka-san and those who didn’t seemed to take it well.
Oh, right.
Dungeon streamers have always been eccentric, so her kind of over-the-top introduction probably feels normal.
「I’ll be here to provide commentary today. Now, let’s discuss the differences between the Dungeon Academy Dungeon and standard dungeons as we move along.」
Shizuka-san explained everything smoothly, with such clarity that I felt like copying her words down verbatim and posting them at the dungeon entrance.
Thanks to her, we didn’t need to explain anything ourselves and could focus on taking down monsters.
「A Red Viper, huh?」
A red snake-type monster appeared.
Among serpent monsters, it was considered weak.
Normally, we’d just bypass it, but since this was a stream, we decided to take it out.
「I’ll handle this!」
Hime lunged forward, her foot striking the ground.
The Red Viper lashed its tail to attack, but Hime kicked off the air, shifting her trajectory and avoiding the strike.
She plunged a kunai into the Red Viper’s neck, and its head fell with a soft thud, leaving behind scales and a magic stone.
I thought this would be a good chance to showcase Kouchi Sessoku enhancing her attack power, but against a Red Viper, it didn’t even serve as a test.
〔Did Alpha-chan just change direction mid-air?〕
〔She moved too fast to tell.〕
〔All I saw was the snake’s head drop.〕
Even Hime’s impressive aerial maneuver seemed like an optical illusion because of her speed.
Shizuka-san picked up the magic stone.
「I want everyone to pay attention: in Dungeon Academy Dungeon—and any dungeon created by Danpol—you don’t get D-Coins, but magic stones instead. Beta-kun, do you know why that is?」
She turned the question to me out of the blue.
She called me Beta-kun instead of Chinota-kun—probably to protect my identity.
Names like Ichino or Taira are auto-converted to Beta, but Chinota-kun wouldn’t be.
So, the answer to why black dungeons don’t drop D-Coins?
「Ehto… Is it because when Danpol created the black dungeon, they weren’t yet in a contract with the government, so there was no way to exchange D-Coins for cash?」
「True, Danpol didn’t have cash on hand. But if that were the case, wouldn’t they just exchange them at a normal Dungeon Point office?」
Good point.
「The real question is: What exactly is a D-Coin?」
「I heard they’re crystallized power from another world—short for Dimension Coin, right?」
「Excellent! Not many people know that. I’m impressed, Beta-kun.」
The chat lit up with praise.
〔I didn’t know that!〕
〔Is Beta-san secretly a genius?〕
Good thing Mikoto taught me this stuff.
「Here’s my theory: Danpol’s and Danpon’s dungeons might be receiving energy from different worlds. In fact, energy measurements from black dungeon magic stones differ slightly from those in regular dungeons. To elaborate—」
Shizuka-san launched into a detailed explanation.
She tried to simplify her terms, but when things got too technical, it was hard to follow.
〔Feels like I’m back in school.〕
〔ZZZ… huh? I’ve snapped back to reality.〕
〔Very interesting (I’ve given up understanding).〕
The viewers, unaccustomed to academic lessons, were starting to doze off.
「Shizuka-san, shall we get going?」
「Indeed.」
We resumed our exploration.
「There are quite a lot of monsters here.」
Shizuka-san remarked.
We were used to fighting in PD with enemy counts set at ten times the normal amount, so this actually felt manageable. But compared to standard dungeons, there did seem to be more monsters.
「Is it because the dungeon is newly formed?」
「No, black dungeons tend to have more monsters in general. The Dungeon Academy Dungeon seems to follow the same trend. Still, this volume is a hassle.」
「Exactly—collecting all these magic stones is such a chore.」
「Carrying them around is no picnic either.」
Hime’s clone picked up the stones and stuffed them into my backpack. The weight was starting to add up. Individually, magic stones were small—about the size of half a fist—but together, they were getting heavy. Still, leaving them behind didn’t feel right.
By the time we reached the 15th floor, my backpack was stuffed with magic stones.
〔Beta’s item box can’t even hold all those magic stones〕
〔Most of them were black stones, though〕
〔With this many magic stones, no wonder the government’s buyback prices have dropped〕
The sheer quantity amazed the viewers.
〔Beta must be the reason for all these drops. Alpha barely got any magic stones from her kills〕
〔Seems like magic stones aren’t a 100% drop rate like D-Coins〕
〔For regular explorers, this haul would be much smaller〕
〔But at least it’s safer〕
〔Magic stones don’t increase your rank, so if you want to be a top explorer, there’s no point coming here〕
〔It’s worth it! Safe money is still money!〕
〔Didn’t you just say it wasn’t profitable?〕
The chat buzzed with debate.
So, it was my fault we had so many magic stones.
「Wait, if we can’t fit them all, why not shrink them?」
「Shrink them… Ah, you mean that.」
「「That?」」
Hime knew what I meant, but Milk and Ayame didn’t. I pulled it out of my inventory.
「This is—」
Just as I was about to explain:
「Hold on, Beta-kun!」
Shizuka-san interrupted, grabbing the Magic Stone Fusion Device. Was something wrong?
「Tara-ra-tatataa! The Magic Stone Fusion Device!」
Shizuka-san struck a pose while holding up the device.
I mean, that imitation doesn’t look like the original at all.
「What are you doing?」
「On my channel, whenever I introduce a useful magic tool, I always introduce it this way.」
「…That’s D〇raemon’s shtick, not yours, Shizuka-san.」
I half-closed my eyes and muttered a quiet retort.
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