CFD – Chapter 2 –  Daily Life

Today is Monday, which means I have to attend school. I enter the classroom, sit at my desk, and wait for time to pass while absentmindedly thinking. Eventually, my classmate Tsuguru Shinooka who seats in front of me, arrives.

“Hey, did you hear about what happened last week?” (Tsuguru)

“Last week?” (Yotsuka)

“Satou from Class C died.” (Tsuguru)

“…In the dungeon?” (Yotsuka)

“Yeah, during exploration. It happened on Saturday.” (Tsuguru)

I recall that he was a high school dungeon explorer who was somewhat well-known in our school. It seems that another student explorer has lost their life.

“Wasn’t he the ace of the Exploration Club?” (Yotsuka)

“Yeah. He was exploring the middle floor and protected a member of his party during the exploration.” (Tsuguru)

“That’s… He was a good guy” (Yotsuka)

I don’t know him personally.

By the way, the Exploration Club is a club that, as its name suggests, engages in dungeon exploration as its main activity.

While I do participate in dungeon exploration myself, I don’t belong to a club as I don’t see the point in exploring with a group of people. Although there are benefits such as being taught the basics of dungeon exploration or finding companions, they hold no value to me.

My father, who was an active explorer, has directly instructed me on the essentials of dungeon exploration, and I could also receive training at the Explorer’s Guild if I so wished.

As for companions, I don’t feel like I needed any. Since my job is as a summoner, I can summon powerful spirits with various abilities to assist me during explorations, so it is not necessary to work with others.

The only reason I would consider having a companion is if they are an adult who can handle lower-level explorations, as it would relieve me of the one-tenth value restriction, but obviously, that person wouldn’t be someone from a high school club.

“It’s already halfway through our third year, but it feels like the number of people has decreased quite a bit compared to when we first entered the school, don’t you think?” (Tsuguru)

“Really? Don’t you think it’s just a little bit?” (Yotsuka)

Shinooka looked around the classroom as he spoke, and I answered while observing my classmates in the same way.

The number has indeed decreased compared to when we first entered. It’s not because of transfer or dropping out, but because of the number of people who have lost their lives during dungeon exploration.

That being said, it’s probably only about 10% of the original number. That’s just the way it is.

“By the way, you’re also exploring dungeons, right? Are you planning on doing it full-time after graduation?” (Tsuguru)

“That’s the plan.” (Yotsuka)

“That’s nice. I don’t think many people would want to continue after seeing people around them die though.” (Tsuguru)

“It’s not really that nice. It’s dangerous.”(Yotsuka)

“But it’s popular, isn’t it? You’d be popular with the girls and the pay is good, right?” (Tsuguru)

“I don’t know about being popular. As for the pay, it depends on the individual. Depending on the level you can explore, it can be different. It’s safer to just graduate from university and get a job at a large company.” (Yotsuka)

If I recall correctly, he planned to attend university after graduation.

“If you’re interested, why not try it out for a bit? I’ve heard stories of working adults who earn a good amount of money doing it as a side job on the weekends.” (Yotsuka)

“Those are the kinds of things you see on social media. They sell manuals on how to efficiently earn money as an explorer, but it all seems sketchy to me. Besides, it’s not suitable for me. I may have the swordsman job, but I’m pretty bad at physical activities. I probably couldn’t even beat a goblin.” (Tsuguru)

Don’t worry, I also wish I could be good at physical activities.

While we were talking, another classmate enters the classroom.

It was Shirosaki Azami. She has a calm atmosphere and is probably the most beautiful girl in school. Well, I don’t know for sure, as I haven’t compared her to all the other female students.

When she enters the classroom, some students gather around her and talk to her about her previous livestream, saying things like “I watched your stream” or “Ririmu-chan was so cute.”

Yep, she is a streamer, and a popular one at that, with hundreds of thousands of followers. Her streams cover a variety of topics such as chatting, gaming, and even dungeon exploration. Occasionally, she also posts videos of herself singing or dancing.

Her job is as a monster tamer, and she has tamed several cute yet powerful monsters who act as the mascot of her streams. When it comes to dungeon exploration, she skillfully displays her power, which is also one of the reasons why she’s so popular.

Monster Tamer. It is considered to be the strongest job currently. Azami is a typical example of this. If you have a good-looking appearance and can tame powerful monsters, you can easily gain popularity on streams by using their cuteness and rarity.

And since you can explore dungeons with the monsters you tamed, you can monopolize the profits. She can wear two luxurious shoes, that of a dungeon explorer and a streamer, at the same time. There are also other jobs, such as breeders, who safely domesticate monsters and sell them as pets.

Our homeroom teacher eventually came in and homeroom started.

Today, there seem to be quite a few absences.

As I was thinking that and looking around, the teacher made the following announcement.

“Ooyama, Yamazaki, Kira, and Katou have not returned home ever since they entered the dungeon yesterday.” (Homeroom teacher)

As soon as he said that, it felt a heavy atmosphere overtake the class.

“Are Ooyama and the others adventurers?” (Classmate)

Someone asked the homeroom teacher.

“They just finished their training at the guild and reportedly attempted their first dungeon two days ago with the four of them. They were doing well that day, and the next day, they went into the dungeon again and… that’s the situation.” (Homeroom teacher)

In other words, they went missing in the shallowest and easiest area of the dungeon.

They are probably dead. That’s what I thought to myself.

I’ve heard that it’s not uncommon for beginners to enter the dungeon and get wiped out. Especially since Ooyama, the leader of the four, was not exactly the cautious type, so if he was informed that they were doing well on the first day, it was not hard to imagine what happened.

The report on the four students ended there, and then the incident involving Sato from Class C was also reported. The explorers were reminded to be more vigilant, and the rest of the time passed as usual. Everyone accepted it as a matter of course.

Death has become an everyday occurrence.

I remember my father saying that when he was alive. It seems that before and during the early stages of the dungeons’ appearance, things were not like that. In the past, it was unimaginable for children to die so suddenly and frequently. Even if just one person died, it caused a great uproar.

Dungeons and Jobs, they both suddenly appeared together a few decades ago.

Dungeons appeared without warning in cities, rural areas, and remote places all over the world. Alongside the dungeons, each person was granted a job, such as swordsman, mage, monster tamer, and summoner, allowing them to wield supernatural power.

In the early days, the police and military forces of each country, including the Self-Defense Forces in Japan, were responsible for dealing with the dungeons.

Initially, dungeons were handled by the police and military forces of each country, and in Japan, the Self-Defense Forces were in charge. The dungeons’ entrances were sealed off and troops were sent into some of the dungeons to observe the interior.

As time went on, various incidents, experiences, and information accumulated, revealing that monsters were lurking in the dungeons and they were stronger the deeper one went. If the monsters within the dungeon weren’t hunted to a certain extent, they would multiply and overflow into the outside world.

It was also discovered that the materials that could be obtained from these monsters were useful resources and that the power of jobs was more effective in battles against monsters than firearms.

After some time had passed since the appearance of the dungeons, each country began to entrust its exploration to the private sector. It seems that it was too costly to manage them with police, military, and self-defense forces. Free access to the dungeons was allowed, and the materials obtained there could be freely bought and sold.

As a result, early explorers established explorer guilds to facilitate the sales of dungeon materials, as well as for information sharing and training to minimize casualties. Although it is said that there are currently too many guilds.

Furthermore, to prevent students from flocking to dungeons for pocket money and engaging in reckless behavior, and to prevent bad parents from exploiting minors by forcing them into dungeons, regulations were implemented to limit the purchasing price of dungeon materials for high school students and younger to one-tenth of the standard price. 

The effectiveness of this regulation is questionable, however, it was put in place to ensure that students focus on their studies rather than risking their lives in dungeons.

Thus, this is how the world has come to be.

---

TL notes:

Thanks for reading!
Yep, Tsuguru understands that you should not trust things on social media too much. If this was our world, I can imagine the higher number of students flocking into dungeons just for more social media attention.

---