7 7 Are you nervous about your first job? Oh, is it just me?.txt (1/2)

Tanaka Jiro, twenty-eight years old, single, no girlfriend, occupation: Dungeon Tester (full-time employee)

Magic Aptitude 8 (General Class)

Officer of the Year: Warrior

This is a dungeon.

Brick corridors as far as the eye can see, and the scene goes on and on in front of you.

I can't feel my body.

As soon as I entered the entrance, my body lit up, but I guess this is the procedure to change my body into a magical body.

While being cautious of the surroundings, I tried to move my body, but I didn't feel anything strange.

We've only been in the dungeon for a few meters and as expected, we haven't had any contact with the dungeon monsters yet.

If that's the case, you had better get used to your magical body as soon as possible.

Starting with bending and stretching exercises, you should move your body in one way or another.

In the process, you'll feel something different.

The air feels heavy or uncomfortably oppressive.

”I guess it's true what they say about magic being thick.

During the training, they had said in the lecture that the magic was much thicker than in the company, but I didn't think there was enough difference to feel it.

I just have to get used to this atmosphere for now.

''The General Kirou's dungeon is a good place to start.

I felt like I was getting used to the atmosphere just by taking a deep breath to take in the magic.

I came to the dungeon as advised, but I won't know if it was good or not until I try it.

''U-ushi, let's get into it.

I lightly tapped my cheeks and stepped out into the dungeon.

Let's go back a few dozen minutes ago.

The first place to start is the General Kirov's dungeon.

Why?　Is that the most beginner-friendly part?

No, it's simply a matter of weighing efficiency and danger.

Efficiency and danger?

I was stopped over the counter by the tool shop clerk, a vampire girl, who was teaching me about the dungeon that I couldn't ask her in the lecture.

I'm also an employee of this company, so I've heard a certain amount of testers' stories. I've heard rumors, stories from teachers who witnessed the actual training, and the personalities of the people on our side and many other stories, but perhaps the dungeon of the General Machine King's Army is the best hole in the ground.

He held up a finger and the clerk connected it with the first one.

''First of all, I doubt anyone would visit our dungeon, except for the dungeon of the King of the Immortals, to which we belong. We'll also exclude General Mushroom King's dungeon for the same reason.

When asked if you've ever been attacked by a giant bug, I got goosebumps thinking about it.

If you shake your head, the vampire girl will say that you have.

''In addition, these two dungeons are incompatible with your current situation. It would be different if you were equipped and improved your status, but right now it's not possible.

The Legion of the Immortals is simply not effective against physical attacks, while the Legion of Insects is hard and fertile and a bit tough to take on alone, with many hard individuals due to their race traits .

''Next, the dungeons of General Tree King's Army and General Giant King's Army, but you guys don't know how to fight with people. You're the closest thing to people in terms of appearance, so I'm not sure you're ready to fight them yet.

If you ask me, yes.

If we were to just fight them, we might be able to, but in the dungeon, we not only have to kill them, we have to kill them.

And that means you might have to fight someone who looks just like Suera.

''I can pretty much know what you think by looking at your complexion, so for now, please calm down and listen to me.

I'll take those two out as well.

That leaves three, but since the Dragon King's Warlord is a dungeon made up of dragons, I must say that the quality of our forces is higher than other dungeons. If you go there now, you'll only get your head and arms bitten off.

This vampire girl seems to be very good at arousing the fears of our race.

The more I listen to her, the more unsympathetic she is becoming .

''So, as for the two remaining dungeons, the majority of our testers are probably taking on the Demon King General's dungeon.

Why would you think that?

”It's that simple. People are afraid of the unknown. It's easier to take on what you know than what you don't. Plus, we were able to outnumber the goblins in our joint training sessions in the middle.

She sounded as if she was calling me a fool, and if I think back to the training I participated in, I certainly don't think there were that many dropouts when I was a goblin .

It was only with the skeleton that they started to fall apart.

And I was able to overpower the goblins to some extent.

''In contrast, I'm sure most testers haven't tried the General Kirou's dungeons. Although it's new to me, I can challenge them efficiently without being hindered. In addition, the General's dungeons are mainly golems, and since their populations are much smaller than those of goblins, the frequency of being surrounded by them is reduced. The quality will be higher for that, but even if you're using the supplies, as long as you don't get carried away with that equipment of yours, you should be able to fight without any problems and the danger should be lowered.

Very good,” she continues.

'Golem's loot fetches more money than goblin's loot.

That's important.

It's a cash story, and when people hear that they can make money, they are more positive than if they had been lying to themselves earlier.

After spending quite a bit of money today, that information was quite effective.

''I guess that's about it, I think I've told you about the amount of help I gave you earlier. Believe it or not, I'll leave it up to you.

After saying that much, she shifted her gaze from me to the next stack of slips of paper as if she had no more use for them.

The content of the conversation may only be an overview of the dungeon, but it's quite valuable information for me, as I was still groping around without any prior information.

I'll use this as a reference. Don't come back.

We look forward to seeing you again.

As time was limited, we didn't need to stay any longer, so we left the store with the standard phrase behind us.

Then we went to the shop to buy some water and food, and changed into our gear in the room.

Doesn't that look like a costume?

My reflection on the street looked suspicious, but it made me think that if I wore it for a while, I'd fit in.

Well, let's get to work for the first time.

Check your equipment set, and if it's OK, you're ready to go to the dungeon.

And here we are.

There's no fluorescent light, let alone a window, but you'll come to a crossroads while taking the bright road.

In terms of space, there's plenty of room for you to swing the mineral tree up and down and to the left and right.

There'll be plenty of time between them if they're in a fight.

We're at the crossroads.

And then I write the route in a notebook .

What I'm doing is mapping, I draw against the wall so that I can see my surroundings, so it's a bit messy, but I don't have to worry about not knowing the way back anyway, because I just have to know myself.

Click.

I think I just heard something.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but the dungeon is the one place where there's always a risk of failure.

I had to imbue every inch of my body with a deathly determination to be on my guard.

It was mainly the instructors who physically soaked it in, but I wish they'd taught me as gently as Suela did.

I closed my notebook and looked around, trying to pick up the sound.

'First combat, huh?'

I don't know if they've noticed, but I hide behind the wall so that they can't see me.

When you take the mineral tree attached to your backpack and remind it to come off, you can feel a heavy weight in your hand.

You peer at the shadow that glimpses through the wall.

There is a sense of distance, and within that, there is eye measurement.

You can roughly estimate how far away it is with your senses, but

More than ten meters?

Of course, I'm not used to knowing the exact distance, so this is a guess as far as I can tell.

I've always had reasonably good eyesight so I don't wear glasses.

Furthermore, I think my vision has somehow improved with the magic crests.

Thanks to this, I can clearly see the numbers. I can see two small figures and one adult female figure, and the small one is a little bigger than a goblin.

We're outnumbered, and with no information on our opponents, it's a bit reckless to challenge them.

”Could you get a little closer?

Maybe it's because of the distance, but we can't get any details on our opponent by looking at him like we're looking down.

It could be Saul or maybe even Blood.

I'll take a careful look and not be in a hurry.

I can hear the footsteps more clearly now. The fact that the footsteps sound so light suggests that he weighs very little.

”Are these hand-weapon type golems made of wood?　It's more of a combination of puppets and mannequins than a golem.

It has a human shape but is made of wood, and its face is smooth like a flat-skinned man, with jewels on it like a one-eyed boy.

That seems to be the weak point, but it's impossible to aim for.

With such a large gain, it's going to be hard to aim at something smaller than a ping pong ball.

As I watched, it was less than ten meters away.

The one that looks dangerous is a medium-sized one. Its hands are as sharp as spears, so it'd be dangerous if it stabbed you. I guess I'll just aim for that one first and wait for the smaller one.

Mannequin-type medium-sized mannequins are not designed to hold things, but are sharper from the elbow to the tip of the spear to attack.

Unlike the mannequin type, the hands of the doll type are shaped like a mallet. Probably designed to strike with it.

The small size will lash out at their feet and the medium size will be the target.

Then it's safer to kill the medium-sized one first, to make sure it's the core of the battle.

You can run away, but there are few individuals wandering alone, so it's better to challenge more than one of them, being prepared to take an attack to some extent than to look for them.

Take one more step and measure the distance.

The sound of dry footsteps, like wood and stone colliding.

It's getting closer by the second, and you can't help but swallow your spit.

Gulp.

And I thought I heard a louder sound than I thought.

The body decided that it had been noticed, and quickly got off the wall, and the next thing I knew, I was running at the mannequin.

''D'oh!

A sideways slash up from underneath after running up to it, along with the feeling of shattering wood with a mishiri in hand, cut off the medium-sized mannequin to its upper and lower body .

''Meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Swing the blade down to split the small size from the shoulder to the left and right.

Residual heart .

As you follow up, you can use your padded feet to connect your feet, and when you turn your body to the rest of the small size, you catch the shadow that had jumped up into the air before it.

''

As soon as he could, he raised his left hand up.

Kagome's iron plate collided with her opponent's wooden mallet, and her left hand's fist was filled with strength.

”The monkey shout isn't working?

In my previous training, my screaming would provoke some sort of reaction in them.

Whether it drew attention or surprise or frighten them, it caused action.

It hasn't.

......

In addition, its body separation, which would have killed it instantly if it were a living thing, doesn't seem to be working against it.

The small mannequin seems to have returned to its magic, but that mannequin doesn't seem to be able to do much more than lose its lower body.

It's a good idea to use your arms as your legs and start moving.

”Is that weird?

It reminded me of Japan's famous crazy fast-moving yokai.

This is no time to be silly.

I'm loud, and the earlier offensive might lure others to come to us.

Nope.

Additions.

They were already there.

Four of them, two mannequins, and two puppets.

Any more reinforcements, and we're deadly.

You might want to refrain from using the monkey bars.

The sickle's neck is raised and a weak sound warns me.

If you use it any longer, it'll draw more enemies to you.

So the point is, we should kill them before they get here?

But I dared to reopen the door to cut off that warning and discard it .

It might have been a fatal decision, but I was able to get the job done more efficiently by getting the job done rather than dwelling on it at my former company.

He laughed off the backward thoughts.

The way they laughed reminded me of the two instructors' vicious smiles.

”I can't lose.

Compared to those two, the odds look pretty good.

I'll try to be strong to get some life out of my stomach, but this word may come in handy.

You've been feeling bearish, but now you can be a little more bullish.

Let go of your weakness, enjoy the crisis and

Laugh.

Laughing through danger is the way to strength.

Those are the words of our two instructors.

Slowly, let the air pass through your lungs and belly.

”Kye-yahhhhhh!

As if releasing the pent up air, I shouted .

Even though it has a volume of voice that seems to vibrate the air, the opponent's reaction is non-responsive.

''Kka!''

I don't know if it was just a breath that spilled out of my mouth or a laugh that spilled out.

I just took that as an opportunity to run.

There's no way to run and fight like this in kendo.

Kendo is a martial art that trains the mind, not the art of fighting.

But it is certainly useful as a basis.

From a running start, I'll step into the sword's lead and adjust my feet to move out of range of an incoming puppet so that he is out of reach of my attack and in range of my attack.

You can cut off the puppet that leaps through the air and cuts off the puppet that tried to cut the sky with a kesa-slash.

Kendo's gait is said to be logical.

Kendo uses a form of footwork that is easy to understand and apply to a human being who moves on a flat surface instead of in three dimensions.

He drops his center of gravity, slides on the ground with his legs, and then lifts them up as if to cut down a mannequin that has lost its lower body in a reverse kesa-slash.

swallowing back.

This is the famous technique of Kojiro Sasaki.

This is an easy thing to say, but it's never easy to learn to use.

There was a wide range of things I did during my rookie training period.

This is the kind of martial arts training I focused on.

If I didn't do it, I'd just get beaten up, but I learned to at least give it a shot.

Of course, I didn't have a professional master, but my instructors seemed to enjoy helping me put my efforts into practice.

I didn't limit myself to kendo, I reached for whatever I could.

It was one of those techniques that came together for me.

Mwah!

So was my footwork.

I was taught to use what works, not just the sword.