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~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +50 this weekend!
~ I've edited some of the previous chapters to remove anything you might consider "cringe" or "unnecessary." I'll continue reviewing them from time to time!
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"This guy was a wannabe magician, wasn't he?" Issei mumbled to himself as he not-so-gently removed both the dagger and the 'grimoire' from the corpse's hands and stowed them in his inventory. He wasn't sure if he could use the dagger, but he was definitely getting rid of the grimoire as soon as he could. Even if it wasn't evil, the description alone made him sure it was more of a hindrance (if not an outright threat) to any attempts to learn magic.
Issei hummed slightly as he ran through his own limited knowledge of magic to try and figure out what happened here. "Hmm...it looks like he was trying to use some kind of ritual, but I'm willing to bet that he didn't have enough MP to do it alone. When his MP was fully drained, the ritual must have tried to use his life force as a powers source." Issei couldn't help but shake his head at the poor, mummified idiot. "Poor bastard, what a way to go."
Running low on MP wasn't a fun experience (he could tell you that from personal experience); being drained completely and then having your HP drained as well must have been agonizing. The guy might have been a complete idiot for attempting to use a magical ritual on his own like this, but that didn't mean he deserved to die in agony like that.
Looking around the rest of the office, and ignoring the very obvious magic circle for the moment, Issei managed to find ¥30000 in one of the drawers, which was useful, as well as a whole drawer full of dubiously mystical bric-a-brac that he decided to go through in more detail later to see what could possibly be useful and what would be joining the grimoire in being sold to the store.
Seriously, there was an actual dribbly candle in amongst all of it!
Finally looking at the magic circle properly, Issei spotted a very obvious 'come pick me up and get teleported who knows where' sheet of paper in the centre of the circle. Seriously, this was practically a cliché!
"OK, why not just walk into it?" Issei mused. "A trap that you know is a trap isn't really a trap anymore, right?"
Besides, it wasn't as if he had any other way of entering the dungeon.
With a few swipes on his window, Issei changed into his armour and cloak, as well as equipping his Sword Breaker. As this was against mages (presumably), he wouldn't try to train his fist fighting skills against them; magic beats fists in terms of range. Instead, he was going to focus on levelling up his new [Sapphire Blade] ability. Given that Issei was about to enter a Level 15 dungeon and the sword-gauntlet was only LV0, scoring the killing blow against a single enemy should level it up to LV5 or more right away.
This was also a smart plan due to the fact that the Durability of [Sapphire Blade] was low...as in 'I can't believe that a blade made out of magical crystal is so brittle' low. Issei honestly hoped that the damned blade would be worth it, otherwise the points he'd invested into it would be wasted on a weapon that was only useful as a last resort.
"[Sapphire Blade]!" he called out, bringing the [Gamer's Gear] to life on his arm.
[Azure Edge!]
From the back of the blue gauntlet, a long spike of crystalline material seemed to sprout, growing into a narrow, blade before his very eyes and gleaming even in the dim light. Issei had to admit, even if its stats kinda sucked at the moment, it still looked fairly neat.
Now fully armed, Issei stepped onto the magic circle, which promptly started glowing to blinding levels, forcing him to cover his eyes. When he uncovered them, he was in a circular room built from tan stones, with a moderately large double-door in front of him. Carved into both doors...
"...is that a bell?" the Sekiryūtei blinked. It certainly looked like a bell. Not only that, it was mounted on a snowflake that looked really familiar for some reason...
Issei was jolted out of his reverie by the appearance of another window in front of him.
[Welcome!]
You have entered your first true dungeon!
Well, sort of. This is a pseudo-natural dungeon, created by the half-assed, incomplete and stupidly executed ritual of Kinoshita Rentarō. Rather than simply killing him and imploding (and possibly taking half the block with it) the ritual, which he designed by slapping multiple traditions and spells together and hoping (without much evidence to support it) that it would work, used elements of the pirate games he was copying on the side to create this dungeon, based on one particular set of enemies that it chose at random.
And people say that ironic karma doesn't exist.
You can only enter this dungeon four times, and you cannot leave the dungeon without defeating a floor boss. After you defeat one, you are given the chance to leave. If you choose to stay, you cannot leave until you defeat another floor boss.
A fair warning: if you leave the dungeon, all of the enemies inside of it will respawn and go up by one level. This will happen every time you leave. Fortunately for you, there are only four floors in the dungeon, so it shouldn't be too hard to clear it...right?
"Suspicious! This couldn't be any more suspicious if it tried!" Issei declared flatly. "Also, is it just me or was that a bit more conversational than all the other notifications that I've seen?"
Deciding that if things got really tough, he'd switch back to his gladius, the Sekiryūtei advanced to the door and nudged it with one foot, letting it swing open, revealing a corridor that led up to a corner. The entire complex seemed to be lit by glowing stones embedded into the walls at set intervals.
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