Day 1 – First Steps into the Deep
The moment the class crossed Orcus's mouth, the world shifted.
Cool, dry air. The smell of stone older than nations. A humming tension that made Hajime's Soul Core vibrate like a tuning fork held too close to an engine.
Their footsteps echoed through the broad, dim corridors—barely lit by veins of green glowstone buried in the walls. The faint luminescence painted everything a muted jade.
"Stay sharp," Meld called, leading point. "Even easy floors kill the overconfident."
They weren't overconfident for long.
The first goblin pack hit fast—shrieking out of a side alcove.
Kouki's vanguard moved on instinct, Ryutarou's hammer-fists cracking skulls, Shizuku's blade clean and decisive. Suzu's barriers caught stray claws; Kaori's healing light soothed bruised shoulders.
Hajime supported with a concussive stone—timed perfectly to stagger a goblin lunging for a distracted caster.
"Nice toss, Nagumo!" Ryutarou yelled.
Hiyama, two lines back, shot a look that could've cut stone.
Hajime pretended not to notice.
---
Day 2–4 – Learning to Breathe Down Here
The week blurred into routine:
Wake → descend → fight → eat → fight → climb → collapse into an inn bed.
Each floor had its own flavor of hostility.
Floor 3: packs of small gray ratlings that swarmed ankles.
Floor 4: lizard-things that clung to walls and dropped onto shoulders.
Floor 5–7: wolf-packs with eerie coordination.
Floor 8–10: primitive beastmen that circled like hunting dogs.
Floor 11–15: reptilian brutes with thick plating.
Hajime rarely saw the killing blow.
He saw everything before it.
Resonance tracked footsteps in the dark, noted mana distortions in blind corners, sensed tension spikes from classmates on the verge of panic. He placed stones where needed—barrier pucks, stun bursts, binding traps.
Useful, but not heroic.
"Support MVP," Suzu whispered once after a clean ambush counter.
Hajime snorted. "If I were an MVP, I'd be at the front."
"Frontline dies first," Shizuku murmured nearby. "Support keeps us all alive."
Kaori nodded, smiling softly at him. "She's right, Hajime-kun."
He looked away, cheeks warming.
Across the formation, Hiyama witnessed it all.
His eyes narrowed a little more every day.
---
Day 5–6 – Fractures Beneath the Floor
By now, the class had synced into rhythm—groups rotating naturally between front, mid, and back lines.
But the deeper they went, the more Hajime noticed the stress lines forming:
Kouki growing reckless each time Kaori was in danger.
Kaori watching Hajime more often than she realized.
Shizuku observing everything, especially that.
Hiyama simmering with quiet, tightening hatred.
Hajime caught the glares.
Resonance felt them even when he didn't look.
Why? he wondered more than once.
What did I do that pissed him off this much?
He had no answer.
But his Soul Core pulsed with a slow, uneasy beat whenever Hiyama drifted too close.
---
Day 7 – Floor 20: The Ice Cavern
By the time they reached Floor 20, even the knights stopped calling them "newcomers."
The cavern opened like a frozen cathedral—walls of pale ice, shimmering faintly in the glowstone light. Stalactites hung like fangs; footing was uneven, slick in places where meltwater had refrozen.
"Welcome to the real test," Meld announced. "Clear this room and we wrap today."
The students spread into formation.
Hajime scanned the terrain.
Narrow paths. Melted crevices. Unstable overhangs.
A perfect place for an ambush.
His Soul Core throbbed—soft warning.
"Something's off," he murmured.
Shizuku's hand tightened on her sword. "I feel it too."
A rumble echoed overhead.
Then the "wall" in front of them… moved.
---
(A wild Rockmount Appears)
The protrusion reshaped—color bleeding from ice blue to rough stone-brown.
A gorilla-like monster shook itself free, towering nearly three meters tall. Its chest muscles bulged, fur bristling in jagged patches.
"Rockmount!" Meld barked. "Watch the arms—they can pulp bone!"
The monster pounded its chest, letting out a guttural roar—
"Graaaaaah!"
The entire room shook.
"Ugh—!" "Kyaa—!" "W-What—!?"
The Intimidating Roar rolled through them, stunning half the frontline.
Kouki froze mid-step.
Ryutarou's stance wavered.
Even Shizuku flinched, teeth clenched.
Hajime threw a stun stone into the ground between the Rockmount and the immobilized students—
Crack—flash!
It slowed the beast for a heartbeat.
But only a heartbeat.
The Rockmount lunged—not at the stunned vanguard, but past them.
Right toward Kaori's group.
Kaori gasped, raising her staff. "Barrier—!"
Suzu shouted, "K-Kaori-chan!"
Then the Rockmount bent low, grabbed a huge chunk of ice, and hurled it—
Except the "chunk of ice" twisted midair.
It wasn't ice.
It wasn't a rock.
It was another Rockmount, curled tight, springing open suddenly—
Arms wide.
Bloodshot eyes bulging.
Breathing like a deranged stalker.
"Kaori-chaaan!" someone joked weakly—
Except the thing looked like it really would scream that.
Kaori choked on her spell.
Eri shrieked.
Suzu screamed.
Half the casters flinched and broke their chants.
Too fast, Hajime realized. They won't block in time—
Meld intercepted, blade flashing.
"Don't just stand there in the middle of a fight!"
He bisected the diving Rockmount cleanly—
—but the girls were still pale and shaking.
Hajime stepped nearer instinctively.
Kaori turned toward him, trembling. "T-That was— I thought—"
He nodded. "It's dead now. You're safe."
But safety didn't last.
Kouki snapped.
"How dare you frighten them—!"
White mana flared around him.
"Kouki—NO!" Meld roared.
"Celestial Flash!"
The holy sword unleashed a crescent wave of blinding white light.
It sheared through the first Rockmount—
—and slammed into the wall behind it.
Stone cracked.
Ice shattered.
The entire cavern shuddered.
A chunk of the wall collapsed.
Silence fell.
Then—
"…sparkly?" Kaori whispered.
---
Where the wall had fallen, embedded in the ice-rock mix was a crystal the size of a melon—
pale blue
glowing softly
beautiful in the dimness.
All the girls stared, entranced.
"That," Meld sighed, rubbing his temples, "is a glanz crystal. Rare gemstone. No magical properties, but nobles love them. Common in rings, pendants… even proposal jewelry."
Kaori's face flushed pink.
Shizuku's eyebrow rose.
Suzu's eyes sparkled.
Kaori glanced—just for a second—toward Hajime.
A small, involuntary gesture.
Hajime blinked, confused.
Hiyama saw it.
A cold spike of fury slid through his gaze.
---
"I'll grab it!" Hiyama shouted—and sprinted ahead.
"Hiyama—STOP!" Meld barked. "We haven't checked for traps yet!"
He ignored the warning.
Hajime felt his Soul Core jolt.
"Don't—!" he started.
Hiyama clambered up the rubble, reaching toward the crystalline surface—
A knight yanked out his Fair Scope, scanning.
His face drained of color.
"CAPTAIN! IT'S A TRAP!"
"Hiyama, back away!" Meld thundered.
But too late.
Hiyama's fingertips brushed the crystal.
A magic circle pulsed into existence—
bright, complex, expanding rapidly outward.
Just like the summoning circle that brought them to this world.
"Oh, come ON—!" Hajime snapped.
Meld shouted, "RETREAT! EVERYONE RUN—!"
The magic circle surged, filling the entire cavern floor.
Light swallowed their feet.
Students screamed. Knights cursed. Kaori reached for Hajime— Hajime reached back—
And then—
WHITE.
A gut-wrenching drop, weightlessness, and—
The world vanished.
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Author: "Send me stones, kings and queens 🗿."
Reader: "Real sigmas don't beg for stones."
Author: nods stoically while single tear drops in grayscale motivational edit 💪
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