Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

Chapter 6: Fairy Square

I keep descending on the long, long spiral stairway. It feels as if I'm falling towards the bottom of hell. Well, I myself am not in an uppity mood at all though.

"I won't catch up to them, will I…"

A while after the Higuchi party disappeared into the shrine, I also decided to head into the dungeon. While waiting, as I was going crazy with rage and vexation, there was also the fear of monsters coming from the smell of blood. All in all, my heart was a mess.

To distract myself from the distress, I thought to do some preparation for here on out, and went scavenging through the dead Takashima-kun's belongings. He was in the baseball club so, I'd have been glad if he had a metal bat or something, but the only useful things on him were some CalorieMates, a bottle of Pocari Sweat, and very deep in the pocket, a lighter. Of course, I found some cigarettes there as well. Since I prefer not to, those would be useless for me, but I decided to keep them anyway.[1]

After stuffing the notable items into my bag for a while, and then getting up to head in, my head had become much clearer. Calming down after stealing from the dead, I must've already become some kind of crazy.

I then stepped foot into the shrine cum entrance to the dungeon. And there I found that previously mentioned helical staircase that I'd begun descending. Nothing else to note, there were only those flights of stairs in there.

Wide enough to fit two adults side by side, the inner side of the spiral was a pillar without any blemishes. Made of stone like the outer wall of the shrine, the well placed blocks didn't wear any moss or vines nor did it suffer any corrosion, it was quite the sight.

Parts of the wall dully emitted white light, which made seeing easier. It was surprisingly easy to find where to place my feet, and my descent was without trouble.

Speaking of stairs, I wonder why Higuchi climbed up this place. The destination should be the transfer gate deep inside the dungeon. With the notebook's compass function, they shouldn't have gotten lost. I can't think of why he'd want to come outside. Considering how long these stairs are, you wouldn't want to just climb it without any objective- No, right, I see, he did have an objective. He wanted to get his hands on the core from the Armor Bear I defeated.

Of course, it's not as if he witnessed the moment the Armor Bear collapsed. Which implies that he has some ability to detect dead monster or maybe cores. If I think about what kind of vocation it'd be… something in the Thief or Scout genre I guess. At the very least, he doesn't give me a Warrior or Fire Mage kind of feel.

So then, one of those three must be a thief- Ah, thief huh, that fits Higuchi like a fucking glove. He was born for the job. That adept usage of the butterfly knife too could be an effect of thievery skills. And when you say thief, of course their weapon of choice is the knife.

Still, those guys really seemed used to everything didn't they. It's not even been half a day since I've arrived in this world. Nonetheless, Higuchi already has the gut to kill people nonchalantly, and even Masaru buried his arm into the Armor Bear's insides without flinching.

It's not like they just up and decided to be like that because the situation called for it. Most likely, the two of them have already done it enough to warrant that kind of attitude.

"What if, the timeframe we arrived at is different?"

That seems like a reasonable conjecture. Those guys had started their dungeon life some number of days ago. And as for me, I was finally dropped into that forest today.

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I had reluctantly exited the classroom first, but ended up here last. Or perhaps, there's some of us who haven't made it here yet.

Either way, the fact is that I had a late start compared to that fucking DQN bastard. That guy's probably already killed people and had experience fighting monsters. And, as per the explanation, he's probably leveled up on his vocation skills too.

Can I really start grinding and catch up with my already weak shamanism… No, let's not think about that now. I want to take my revenge on Higuchi and Masaru, but I lack the power to carry it out right now.

First things first, I gotta think about how to survive solo in my first dungeon.

"Huff… It finally ended."

In the middle of my endless speculations, I reach the end of the spiral. The place I arrived at was very open, and much brighter than the stairway.

"It's more like a park than a dungeon."

It was around the size of a neighbourhood children's park. Plentiful verdant greenery with flowers of red, yellow, blue scattered. Unlike the forest I was in recently, the trees and shrubs are much more orderly. Of course, it doesn't go far as having proper flowerbeds, but the grass was cut neat like at the national stadium.

I can see the ceiling, but It doesn't give the closed-off-ness of being indoors. The same light from the stairway shone from 5 meters16.5 feet above, gently illuminating the space.

What's most striking would be the stone fountain plonked right in the middle of the room. It was small and circular, but the reliefs of flowers in bloom surrounded by butterflies all around gave it an elaborate finish.

Its most distinctive feature would be the statue of a fairy standing boldly at the center. Long, narrow, leaf-like wings on a long haired young girl in a one-piece. And the face, super cute. This doesn't bring anything but the image of fairies to mind. This little girl sized fairy statue stood atop the shaft which acted as the water spout.

"Yup, this must be the ‘Fairy Square"

No, that's not some name I went and made up. Fairy Square is the official name stated in the newly updated information in the good ol' notebook.

I'd checked the notebook inside the shrine right before coming down the stairs. It seemed to have updated while I was having my dance of death with the Armor Bear, and the info supports Higuchi's explanation.

Like how the transfer gate needed quite a bit of cores to activate. Like how only, exactly three people can use that gate to escape from this dungeon.

Why the hell didn't you, even if forcefully, add something this important to the first message! so I was getting mad, but there's no one here to vent it on, so I buried it back in my heart and kept reading the rest.

And one of those currently confirmable pieces of dungeon info is, this ‘Fairy Square'.

It says that, in these ancient ruins there are many fountains with fairy statues laid out, which, for some reason, monsters won't approach, making them the sole safe areas in the dungeon.

Endlessly flowing for many thousands of years, the fountain's water was clear like spring water, and made for an important source for resupply. In addition, the fruit from the trees here can serve as food, and the flowers can work as medicinal herbs even if applied raw.

All in all, it's a resting area. One could even say, a Save Point. It kinda even feels like that cute fairy is saving my progress here.

No well, I don't really have the guts to attempt dying once to try for a load game though.

"Since I'm here and all, let's take a break."

Or rather, I should call it preparation for solo challenging the dungeon from now on. Even before fighting monsters, there's survival tactics to consider.

That in mind, let's collect some water.

"Woah, looks really – cold!?"

The clear water surface that I dipped my hand into without much thought, felt cold enough for me to let out a yelp. It was in fact surprisingly cold.

"… it's good."

As I try drinking it, that reaction naturally flows out. To be honest, I've never thought about water as good or bad tasting till now.

Whether it be mineral water or spring water, it all felt the same- But, this water is clearly, good. Really delicious. Almost makes you think there's something weird in there.

"I wonder if, this is recovering mana…"

Puha~ I let out a sound of satisfaction like what my father does from a beer after the bath. It feels like that blue MP gauge placed below the green HP gauge is being vigorously filled up. Though I have no idea whether that's actually happening or not. It's my own body, but I'm not sure.

For now, like it said in the info, seems like there's no problem using the water. At worst, it'd be fine to come back here to resupply. Now to just hope the structure here makes it possible to return.

"These tree nuts, you can definitely eat them, but I wonder about the taste…"

The next thing I grabbed was, Filled with nutrition, with just this and water, you can survive no problem!– the nut praised by my Intuition Pharmacy as such, AKA the ‘Fairy Walnut'. That'd be its officially designated name from the notebook.

The walnuts are fallen under trees which line up on both sides of this avenue-like room. They're slightly smaller than baseballs, and have a brilliant shade of green. These ain't ripe at all!?– is not what I complain about. Peeling off this green husk, you can find that characteristic walnut brown color inside.

"And these leaves, they've got a bit of healing effect."

As if imitating the wings of a fairy, these walnuts have two pairs of thin leaves loosely stuck to it. Intuition Pharmacy says that these 4 leaves can work to accelerate the healing of wounds. If mixed with the Fake-elionfalse dandelion it would make for an even better healing concoction.

"Hm, the taste is so-so."

I took a bite of the fairy walnut while thinking up drug creation plans, and the taste wasn't too good or too bad. It's nothing special.

Well, it's obvious cause there's no seasoning, but, just being edible raw gets it a passing grade as food. The look and edibility are the same as Earth walnuts, a familiar wrinkly shape, so I don't feel weirded out by it.

"But I don't really want to eat just this you know."

Spoken like a true privileged modern Japanese citizen, I diligently put away the main dish from here on out into my bag.

"Alright, now to get my shaman fingers crackin'"

Lastly, I face towards the garden of flowers in full bloom as if inviting me to it. The notebook's already declared that they have ‘medicinal uses', so these will become raw materials for making some valuable drugs.

The text message info only talked about one type of these medicinal herbs. It gave some official name, but it's too long and I forgot. Looks exactly like a 4-leaf clover, so that's what I'll call it. My other classmates are probably calling it that too.

Incidentally, this 4 leafed clover is similar to its counterpart on Earth in that it's a pretty rare find. However, the value in effort of finding one is returned with similar, no, much more value in powerful healing effect.

The Higuchi gang has already passed through this fairy square, and probably took most of them. There's no use in looking for possible leftovers.

But as a shaman, I'm able to discover useful herbs other than the clover we were all informed of. Moreover, I could even combine these herbs using Intuition Pharmacy, and make nice meds.

I was scared that it'd be like RPG consumables, and only individually usable- but that turned out to be needless anxiety.

"Hell yes, this'll do it… this'll work!"

Woohoo!– I dive into the flower garden. The hidden effects of all these different flowers sizzle into my brain.

The one's that look like white lilyshirayuri have a healing promotion effect like the fairy walnut leaves.

The one like a red tulip warms you up, blue lavenders are detox, yellow for pain relief- There were many different types as if someone'd gathered them.

"Awesome, now to roll up my sleeves and get cooking!"

Seems like my run hasn't completely run out after all. Finally, I'm starting to see the light.