Magical Hunter Girl Decorates the Dungeon! Episode 004
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Earlier, Iji had clearly seen the glowing threads.
However, the instructor had acted as if he hadn't done anything.
It must mean those threads are invisible to ordinary people.
‘Since I’m an Awakened, could they be threads only visible to Hunters?’
A perfect syllogism!
Without realizing it, I puffed out my chest.
Meanwhile, the instructor, upon hearing the word "Hunter," glanced around, hunched his shoulders, and...
“...I appreciate you looking at me like I’m someone amazing, but I used this.”
He showed me a small switch held in his right hand.
“It’s a Magic Stone battery switch. You know what a Magic Stone is, right?”
“Yes.”
A rare energy source found only in dungeons.
That means...
“It’s a device that makes the goal pull the ball in when I press the switch. It’s just to help kids who can’t score.”
He hadn’t used Hunter powers; he had used the power of modern civilization.
‘I jumped to the wrong conclusion!’
The instructor asked, looking restless.
“How did you know? Did you hear it? I can’t let the kids find out about this.”
It seems the instructor can’t see those silver threads.
Iji changed the subject. I didn’t want to tell just anyone that I had awakened.
“It’s just... the ball was supposed to go ‘thud!’ but it went ‘boing’ and went in, so it felt strange.”
“You’ve got a sharp eye. Keep it a secret from the other kids, okay?”
“…….”
Iji hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Helping someone pretend to score is a foul. It’s a bad thing to do, but—
‘Adults have their own adult reasons.’
“Yes, I’ll keep it a secret.”
“Thanks! Now, take this.”
The instructor held out a basket.
“Choose one gift from here.”
“...But the gifts are only for people who score. I shouldn’t take one.”
Adult reasons are adult reasons.
Iji didn’t let him off the hook for her own sake.
“You were the one who helped, so I didn’t actually score.”
“Hmm...”
“I was taught that you shouldn’t cheat.”
“Alright! Then student Iji gets zero points.”
The instructor hid the basket behind his back in one motion, then used his other hand to spin the basket around and hold it out again.
“But since you’re honest, that’s plus one point.”
“Yes?”
“You could have just taken the prize quietly, but you confessed that something felt off.”
“Ah...”
“You learn in school that honest children receive rewards, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“So, pick one.”
“...Yes!”
It was a good thing I spoke up!
Iji looked into the basket with a joyful heart—
And almost lost her smile.
‘It’s so drab.’
The items in the basket were just black ballpoint pens, pencils, and keychains. Every item had written on it in blocky white letters.
Did he notice Iji’s disappointment?
The instructor grumbled.
“Ha, I keep telling them to change these things that look like they came out of a civil servant’s desk drawer...”
“Yes?”
“Never mind. If nothing here catches your eye, you can choose from this one!”
The second basket the instructor held out was filled with items that had absolutely nothing to do with the Career Experience Center. Pokémon badges, hamburger erasers, lollipops, and so on. The level of color and variety was completely different.
And right there, Iji found a treasure.
‘It’s a Bunny Princess sticker!’
Bunny Princess, the other protagonist of the most fun animation in my life, , was smiling from the bottom of the basket.
‘And it’s the hometown ball gown version!’
I hadn’t been able to find this sticker even after visiting five unmanned stationery stores!
The instructor smiled.
“See something you like?”
“Yes! I... I’ll take this.”
“Huh?”
What Iji had grabbed was a ballpoint pen. The instructor tilted his head.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Thank you!”
Iji hurried out of the basketball court. I had to get away quickly from the eyes of the bunny princess, who was sparkling as if asking me to take her home.
‘I didn’t come here to play.’
I came here to seriously explore my career path.
I need to learn about Hunters, and if it turns out I can’t work as one, I need to find another job quickly.
‘Magical girls don’t help with buying a house.’
Let’s think about what does help.
‘I’m good at being a patissier. Basketball is hard. And this time...’
The last thing left was the scientist experience.
Perhaps the previous group hadn’t finished yet, as children were gathered in a noisy crowd in front of the .
The teacher drew the attention of the increasingly restless children.
“Alright, alright, stop showing off your gifts—”
“I’m not showing off! This pencil is ugly!”
“You shouldn’t call gifts ugly! Anyway, in the science lab, we’re going to do a robot experiment using Magic Stone batteries.”
“Robots!”
The children’s eyes sparkled.
“What kind of robots?”
“Can we make Iron Man?”
“Can we take them home?”
The children’s expectations swelled. The teacher missed the timing to deflate those expectations, and by the time the children were even suggesting that ‘maybe this building is going to turn into a robot’...
The science lab door opened.
The teacher let out a sigh of relief.
“Everyone. Please step to the sides so the students who finished the experiment can come out!”
The children listened obediently.
However, what came out through the open door was not the students who had experimented first.
“...Huh?”
What made even the teachers panic was...
A person walking unsteadily, wrapped from head to toe in bandages.
Were they about the size of the sixth-grade girls?
With every step, their arms and legs—which lacked wrists, ankles, and elbow joints—bent and snapped back in strange directions.
In the chilling silence, one child shouted.
“They must have done human experiments!”
“Aaaah!”
The children began to scatter in a panic.
Iji wanted to run away, too. But the wave of children running without direction was a threat as big as a tsunami to a small child like Iji.
‘Where should I go?’
Just then, someone shouted from inside the science lab.
“Those outside, go to the hallway! We’ve evacuated all the students inside through the back door!”
The teacher replied.
“What’s going on? Is it okay inside?”
“There’s a problem with the Magic Stone battery here— Argh!”
In the middle of the science lab, a pillar of fire erupted from the experiment table.
As the lab instructor fled, his scream-like warning grew more distant.
“Everyone get back! This is definitely a dungeon—”
But Iji didn’t hear the rest of the sentence.
A pure white beam of light shot out from the flames in all directions. *Thud, thud*, the sound of collisions echoed through the space.
There was no time to dodge.
One of them touched Iji’s head, and...
‘Aaaah! ...Huh?’
The moment I felt it, it didn’t feel painful; it felt like someone was petting me.
The world went dark.
At almost the same time, my body began to bump up, down, and sideways.
It didn’t hurt. It felt like riding a very long water park slide.
Then, a sudden light hit my eyes...
As soon as the glare subsided, I saw a message on a blue background.
You have entered a dungeon.
“Huh...?”
Following that, a desolate outdoor landscape came into view.
A sandy field where the sunlight beat down vertically.
There’s no way there’s a desert in Korea.
Iji had been caught in a suddenly generated dungeon.
‘C-calm down. I learned what to do in times like this!’
In first grade, we gathered in the auditorium and learned how to deal with various emergencies.
If there’s a fire? Shout “Fire!” and run to the hallway while staying low!
If there’s an earthquake? Hide under a desk!
If you get caught in a dungeon outbreak?
‘Follow a nearby adult!’
...The pride I felt for participating in the training diligently evaporated in an instant.
Iji looked around again.
No adults.
No children either.
Conclusion.
‘I can’t do what I was taught.’
The bigger problem was that there was a presence that was neither an adult nor a child.
On the desolate landscape made of rocks, sand, and dead trees, the bandage monster that had appeared in the experience center was moving alone.
“Uh... ugh...”
The monster was just looking around very slowly. It didn’t seem to have discovered Iji.
‘Let’s hide for now.’
It was fortunate to be small at a time like this.
As I crouched behind a suitable rock, another message appeared before my eyes.
Clear Condition: Remove the dungeon boss’s bandages.
It was my first time in a dungeon, but I could understand the meaning of that message from the context.
I must have to complete the condition to get out of the dungeon.
‘The dungeon boss... that must be that monster, right?’
The bandage monster walking very, very slowly.
But I shouldn’t let my guard down.
‘Even cockroaches crawl around normally, but once they spot me, they get super fast.’
Let’s not move rashly. Let’s hide here and think slowly.
But before Iji could even plant her bottom on the ground.
*Splat*, I heard the sound of something falling.
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