Suicide Mission

“…No Hidden Clear, huh.”

I finished reading the system messages that popped up after clearing the seventh floor and frowned slightly.

There was no message saying I had fulfilled the Hidden Clear conditions.

I had completed the normal clear condition of wiping out the goblin nest, but that meant I had failed to solve the hidden one.

“Is there something more?”

I searched the cavern again, still smeared with the exploded flesh of the monster. But there was no extra passage or anything of the sort. The goblins were all dead, and pressing every inch of the walls did nothing.

“Maybe something in another room?”

I wondered if the Hidden Clear condition might be in a different chamber. The cave seemed fairly large. Did I need to comb through the whole thing?

“Hey, Yuda?”

“Ahh… haaah… a miracle…”

“Yuda!”

“Ah, ahh? Y-yes! Kim Hunter!”

I called out to Yuda, who had gone so far as to prostrate himself on the floor. He had been completely absorbed in scribbling something in his notebook and only answered belatedly.

“Tell the others to search the entire cave and report anything special to me. If they run into goblins, call me right away. I’ll stay here.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Yuda dashed off at my request. The village men who had come with us scoured the whole cave, but nothing that could serve as a clue to the Hidden Clear turned up—just stolen goods the goblins had stashed and a few human corpses.

“Hmm… Let’s head back to the village.”

On the way back, and even after searching the entire village, we still found nothing. Just what was the Hidden Clear condition supposed to be?

“Is something the matter, Kim Hunter?”

“Hmm…”

Could it have something to do with the villagers? No one had died. Surely it wasn’t telling me to kill the villagers too.

“Is there anyone else who was kidnapped by the goblins?”

“Everyone who was taken was rescued by you that day, Kim Hunter.”

With no leads on the Hidden Clear condition, it was clear I couldn’t achieve it in this state.

“…Understood. Then…”

Nothing I could do about it. The Tower let you challenge the same floor again anyway. There was no rule that said you had to get the Hidden Clear on the first try, so it should be fine. I couldn’t just sit here forever with no clues.

“See you around.”

I gave the villagers a rough farewell and pressed O. A pure white light washed over me, accompanied by a floating sensation. I heard the villagers making a fuss again—“Ahh…!”—and then I was out of the Tower.

The next day.

I stared at the Tower’s message, deep in thought.

That morning I had been thinking of leaving the seventh floor alone and tackling the eighth first. The moment I tried to challenge the eighth, this message appeared. Skipping ahead meant giving up on the seventh floor’s Hidden Clear for good.

“Guess I have to…”

I had no choice but to resolve the seventh floor’s Hidden Clear first. That meant re-challenging the seventh floor.

“I think they said rewards drop on a re-challenge.”

The Tower had always allowed re-challenges of cleared floors. Plenty of climbers gave up on pushing higher and just farmed lower floors for magic stones. Until now I had never been stuck, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so I had kept updating my highest floor.

And there was another message that bothered me.

Come to think of it, the seventh floor had started right after the sixth ended. In other words, my actions on previous floors carried over and affected the next ones. If I challenged the eighth now, everything I had done on the seventh would be reflected there.

“So even if I re-challenge, the villagers I meet on the next floor will still remember me from the first attempt?”

Once fixed, the previous floor’s history couldn’t be changed. How that would play out, I had no idea. I didn’t even know if I would meet the villagers again on the next floor.

“The history of the Tower that I create… something like that?”

From the wording alone, it sounded like the story kept continuing. I filed it away for later and moved on.

“I have to succeed within two tries.”

Two Hidden Clear attempts remaining. Fail those and the seventh floor’s Hidden rewards would be gone forever. That was something I really didn’t want to miss. Today I would re-enter the seventh floor.

“But what the hell is the Hidden Clear condition?”

The real problem was still that I had no idea what it was. I had searched the cave and the village thoroughly and found nothing. The only important thing on the seventh floor had been that monster.

“Still creeps me out just thinking about it.”

That grotesque thing made of mysterious black metal fused with goblins. It had looked exactly like a goblin meatball. Was the Hidden condition to save the goblins that had become meatballs? Yeah, that didn’t seem right either.

—Young master. Breakfast is ready.

Just then the maid I had recently hired knocked on my door. Before I awakened we hadn’t been able to afford servants, so we cooked for ourselves. Now we had a few, and life was much more convenient.

“Good morning, Father.”

“Mm. Let’s eat.”

When I came down to the dining room Father was already seated. Mother and Irene ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had left for the Academy yesterday. A lonely father-and-son breakfast began.

“Mmm. These meatballs are excellent, Hena.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Father kept praising Hena as he ate. Hena was the maid we had just hired; she had cooked this morning’s meal as well. A proper noble house would normally employ a skilled head chef and cooks separately—food was an essential luxury for nobles—but we still couldn’t afford that. So Hena the maid handled the cooking, and she was surprisingly good at it. Father had even said that with her around we might not need a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠head chef at all. She was perfect at every other task too; she was a servant I hoped would stay with us a long time.

“Ian. Why aren’t you eating the meatballs?”

Father asked when he saw me picking around them. I couldn’t exactly say the goblin-meatball monster from yesterday had ruined my appetite, so I made something up.

“If you don’t want them, I’ll take them.”

He was so eager he was ready to drop his dignity and snatch the food. That almost made me want to try one.

“No, they look delicious. I was just saving them.”

I sliced a meatball into quarters with my knife. Something was inside.

“An egg?”

“Yes. I tried putting a boiled egg inside the meatballs.”

“Isn’t Hena’s idea brilliant, Ian? We really hired well.”

A boiled egg inside a meatball. In this medieval world that was a fairly creative dish. And it tasted fine.

“An egg inside a meatball…”

While eating Hena’s cooking, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind. An egg inside a meatball. Come to think of it, hadn’t there been something inside that monster’s body yesterday? I felt like I had finally grasped a clue to the Hidden Clear.

“Thank you for the meal.”

The moment I finished eating I went straight back up to my room. I was certain that was the clue. But it had been inside the monster’s body. A fragile gunslinger like me fighting that thing up close would be dangerous.

“…Should I try it?”

After a moment’s hesitation a method occurred to me. The skill Grenade Throw didn’t damage me.

I pressed O and was swallowed by pure white light as I re-entered the seventh floor.

—Long live Kim Hunter! Long live Kim Hunter!

The moment I arrived the villagers were already cheering. Just like last time, it picked up right after the sixth floor. I stopped the villagers who were hailing me like religious fanatics and told them I would wipe out the goblin nest for them.

“O-oh! We are forever grateful!”

“Forever grateful! Forever grateful!”

“Enough, let’s just go.”

After that things moved quickly. Having done it once, I followed the familiar path. Together with the village men we reached the goblin nest.

“Stay back and follow me.”

“Understood!”

I left the village men behind and headed straight for the room with the monster. There, exactly as before, the hideous goblin-meatball monster was devouring goblins.

Squelch—

This time I watched from a distance. Every time the goblin-meatball monster’s body split open I peered carefully inside. Last time I hadn’t paid attention, so I had missed it, but something really was in there. Something that had no business being there.

“…A baby?”

Inside the goblin-meatball monster was a human infant. Amid the tangled mass of goblin flesh it alone retained its shape. I thought I must be seeing things, but no matter how many times I looked, it was a baby.

“So I was supposed to save that…”

Seeing the baby left me shaken. That meant on my previous attempt I had blown the baby up with a grenade too? Sorry. This time I’ll definitely save you. I still don’t know how you got in there, but…

“Ah, ahh…”

I glanced back and, sure enough, Yuda was there again. Even though I had told him to stay far away, he had snuck after me and was once more scribbling in his notebook.

“Yuda.”

“Ah, ahh… Y-yes! Kim Hunter!”

“I have a favor to ask. Can you do it?”

“H-how could I possibly refuse a request from the Divine One…”

“Never mind that. In a moment I’m going to throw something. Stand right here and catch it. You absolutely must not drop it.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

I positioned Yuda in a suitable spot. Trembling, he still forced his eyes wide open, determined to carry out the god’s command no matter what.

I pulled out five enhanced rounds and converted them into enhanced grenades. After one deep breath I started running. The closer I got to the goblin-meatball monster, the harder my heart pounded and the more terrified I became. To endure the fear I hurled myself forward with a scream.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!”

My roar echoed through the cave. The goblin-meatball monster spotted me and its body split wide open, clearly revealing the baby inside. I threw myself into the monster’s body and tore the infant free from the flesh. Ripped roughly from the meat, the baby burst into tears.

“Yuda, catch!”

Sorry, but I had no time to worry about the baby’s crying. I immediately flung the hastily extracted infant toward Yuda. The baby barely made it out just as the monster’s body closed around me. I was trapped inside.

And then I pulled the pins on the enhanced grenades. My eardrums couldn’t withstand the blast; a piercing ringing filled my head.