The Bag in the Beast's Belly
Crackle. Snap.
Night was closing in. Simon had built a bonfire and was waiting for the meat to cook.
It was the meat of the first monster he'd hunted since entering the dungeon. Watching the surface brown and the fat drip down in glistening beads made his mouth water all on its own.
He'd been stretching his rations, limiting himself to two calorie bars a day, so his stomach was growling louder than ever.
"About time for the seasoning, I think."
He gave it a light dusting of the special spice Hong Peng had given him, then picked up the fully cooked meat and brought it to his mouth.
It certainly looked the part — just your standard lumpy chunk of venison.
Starving, Simon took a big bite.
Chomp, chomp.
As he chewed, his expression turned distinctly ambiguous.
Is this... actually meat?
It was a texture he had never once experienced before. If he had to compare it to food from the continent, it was less like meat and more like biting into a plump mushroom or a piece of eggplant. The flavor was closer to nothing at all — a big, blank mouthful of nothing.
Even so, he ate it, letting his hunger do the seasoning. Cooked over the fire and dusted with Hong Peng's monster-meat spice, it was at least edible.
In no time at all, six chunks had vanished.
"Still feels like something's missing."
Simon smacked his lips and turned back toward the carcass.
For all its size, the shell had made up most of its upper body, and the majority of what remained was either riddled with tendons or too contaminated to eat. Granted, his butchering technique left something to be desired too.
He was just walking over to the monster's corpse to see if there was anything else worth carving when—
"Huh?"
Something caught Simon's eye.
Spilling out from among the butchered parts was what looked like a long leather strap. It seemed to have been inside the stomach.
Simon took hold of it carefully and pulled.
The thing slid smoothly out of the carcass — and it was no strap.
"...A bag?"
A bag had popped out of the monster's stomach, of all places. Simon immediately split the belly wide open and combed through the stomach cavity from top to bottom.
Inside it, along with the bag, was a skeleton — presumably the bag's original owner.
Analyzing it as a necromancer, a specialist in corpses, Simon judged the shape to be close to that of a primate. The skull was large, and there was a clavicle — a distinctly primate feature.
It looked slightly different from the humans of the continent, but it occurred to him that beings resembling humans might well exist in this dungeon too.
"Anyway."
Simon frowned as he turned the bag over, examining it from every angle.
"How is this thing still intact? It should have been digested."
Monsters that swallowed humans whole and ate them were supposed to have stomach acid potent enough to melt even bone.
Yet there was no acid in the stomach at all. The surface of the bag wasn't even damp — it was stiff and dry.
No — wait. This is a dungeon. I shouldn't be shackled by the continent's common sense.
Simon set the question aside for the moment and rummaged through the bag. Out of it came something familiar.
This is—!
It was a book.
Roc Island. The Great Auditorium.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience!"
The emcee, who had been darting frantically around the podium, shouted into a voice-amplifying crystal.
"We are receiving the next Observer footage as we speak, so please bear with us just a moment! And joining me again today is Professor Hong Peng!"
Hong Peng, seated beside him, waved both hands cheerfully.
"Hello there, everybodyz!"
The emcee's face slackened for an instant.
Hong Peng was a genuinely decent person — a rarity among Kizen's notoriously fearsome faculty — and her exotic looks and overflowing, healthy vitality were precisely his type.
Still, the man was a professional. He fixed his expression at once.
Honey, Nelly — Daddy's running clean today! Eyes forward, no wandering!
He turned his gaze to the audience.
"We've had a number of inquiries since the first day of broadcasting, so allow me to clarify! Because the exam is being held inside a dungeon, there are limits to picture quality and broadcast time, and we are unable to single out and focus on specific students. The dungeon is simply too vast and sprawling, so we appreciate your understanding. Now then, Professor!"
Hong Peng beamed.
"Yez~"
Her hair swayed as she leaned forward. The scent of exotic spices mingled with her natural fragrance and tickled the tip of the emcee's nose.
He fought with all his might to keep his composure from melting.
"Before the next video is ready, could you give us a brief explanation about dungeons? What exactly is a dungeon?"
"Gladly!"
Hong Peng scraped her chair back with a rumble and rose to stand before the blackboard. She wet her palm with a dab of spit, took up a piece of chalk, and drew a single circle.
"Thiz continent we live on. Plenty of folkz think it'z the whole entire zorld. But zcholarz believe that bezzidez the continent we ztand on—"
She swept her chalk around the circle labeled continent, sketching far, far larger circles all around it.
"—there iz another world out there."
"Aha! You mean a 'different world' entirely!"
"Yez! And from that other world, countlezz fragmentz have broken off."
Between the circle marked continent and the circle marked other world, she dotted the blackboard with countless tiny grains.
"All theze fragmentz of zpace drift through the spatial realm. And every zho often, for one reazon or another, they twist zpace on the continent and tear open an entrance. That iz the bazed principle of a dungeon."
"I-I see! I've only ever heard people talk about dungeons in passing. This is the first time I've ever heard it explained!"
Contrary to the stereotypes about her — a Grassland native, and a Magic Combat professor no less — she had real erudition in history and academia as well.
Strong, beautiful, and intelligent on top of it all. What on earth could this woman possibly be lacking?
"Az for where the word 'dungeon' comez from — long ago, a zpatial tear opened beneath an ancient kingdom, now lozt to uz, and the montzers living inside left the royal palace in abzolute ruinz. That iz what gave uz the name."
Her full, healthy lips moved as she spoke. Her hair flared out with the passionate sweep of her arm as she paced back and forth before the blackboard.
"And dungeonz bring ztrange phenomena with them the moment they come into being. The dungeon our ztudentz are in right now iz..."
While the emcee sat utterly entranced by Hong Peng's lecture, wearing a dazed, lovesick grin, the broadcast Henchman had been frantically signaling him to wrap it up for some time.
Only belatedly noticing the signal, the emcee snapped back to his senses and bellowed:
"Ah! And right at this moment, we've been told the students' next footage is ready to air! We'll return to the professor's dungeon lecture right after — for now, let's all watch together!"
Day two in the dungeon.
The students had split into two distinct camps.
"M-my attacks aren't getting through!"
"What the hell IS this thing?!"
The students who still hadn't figured out how to take down the dungeon monsters.
"Hey, loser! Throw it straight!"
"O-okay!"
And the students who had cracked the strategy.
Thwip!
Thwipthwipthwip!
In this promotion exam, Meilin had run into Toto — of all people, a classmate from her own class.
"Now! Loser!"
"Got it!"
At Toto's signal, his skeletons hurled the fruits cradled in their arms high into the air. Meilin stretched out her arm, her eyes gleaming with razor focus.
⟨ Pierce of Blizzard ⟩
Meilin's specialty: pinpoint accuracy.
The ice drills, launched with perfect precision, threaded through the fruits in mid-flight and rocketed toward the charging, water-buffalo-shaped monster.
Crunch! Thud!
The moment the fruits struck, the ore-armored monster shrieked in agony. Chunks of its mineral plating shattered away, exposing raw flesh beneath.
Only then did Meilin draw out the searing sphere of flame she had ready in her left hand.
⟨ Dark Flare ⟩
FWOOOOSH!
Under the follow-up blast of her flames, the monster was roasted whole and crumpled to the ground.
"Whoa-ha!"
Toto hopped up and down with joy. Meilin gave a dismissive snort and swept her hair back.
...Still, I never would have guessed. That there was a trick like this.
For a moment, the misery of day one flashed through her mind. She'd beaten on those monsters until her arms went numb and they simply would not fall — until, in despair, she'd started climbing trees at the mere sight of one, shivering on a branch until it lumbered past.
But the moment she'd met Toto and learned the trick, it turned out to be this easy. Remembering how she'd spent the entire night up in a tree made her face burn.
"See? I told you. Hehe."
The smugness lasted exactly as long as it took Meilin to shoot him a sideways glare — then he wilted instantly and hung his head.
"Thanks for teaching me the trick, Toto. Anyway, I'm heading out."
"M-Meilin! Let's go together!"
Toto scrambled after her.
Meilin growled low in her throat, doing her best to shake off the dead weight trailing behind her, when—
"Oh."
Something occurred to her.
"You're in the same club as Simon, right?"
"Y-yeah! The Mutant club."
"Then you must know Benya pretty well? The second-year senior?"
At the sudden mention of Benya's name, Toto's face flared crimson.
"K-know her! Really! Really well! Hahahaha!"
Watching him stammer, face burning, Meilin let out a thoughtful "Hm-mm." A sly smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
"Hey. Don't tell me you've got a thing for Benya."
"I DO NOT!!"
Toto shrieked, scarlet to the ears.
Loud denial, loud affirmation, as they say. Meilin snickered.
"I like it~ Maybe you and I could actually become friends."
"R-really?"
Promoted from lackey to friend! Toto lifted his head, eyes shining with hope.
"That's riiight~ If you end up dating Benya, we could become even better friends. I might even help yo—"
Mid-sentence, Meilin's gaze landed on Toto in all his scrunched-up, compact glory.
Height aside — and it really did have to be set aside — above all there was that utterly self-esteem-free expression of his. In her mind's eye, she tried placing the tall, magnificent, effortlessly cool second-year Benya right beside him.
Try as she might, the picture simply would not form.
"...Let's just go our separate ways."
"M-Meilin! Let's go together!"
Meanwhile, up in the Kizen Main Auditorium, the Mana Screen was showing Meilin and Toto hunting down a monster with Pierce of Blizzard.
Hong Peng, watching intently, broke into enthusiastic applause.
"What a combination! That iz one inzane teamplay!"
"...I beg your pardon?"
The emcee flinched and echoed her.
"Inzane teamplay!"
"A-ah, aha! Y-yes... a fantastic... team play... haha!"
Sweat poured down the emcee's face.
"Ahem! Though it does surprise me, Professor — from what I can see, the students who've worked out a strategy seem to be surprisingly few."
After Meilin's group, the next footage showed one after another of the students fleeing in sheer terror.
"Gathering ore to ztrike back at the montzer — it'z zomething worth at leazt trying, wouldn't you zay?"
Hong Peng smiled gently.
"Fighting inzide a dungeon where you could die at any moment, and watching from a zafe place with the whole wide view of a third party — thoze are two very, very different thingz."
"Ahh! Th-that's true! I spoke too rashly!"
"And above all."
Hong Peng raised her palm.
"You have to conzider the tendenciez of necromancerz. Our ztudentz have zoooo many dark zpellz they learned here at Kizen. With magnificent bladez and treasures tucked under their armz, they juzt don't feel like bothering to throw pebblez off the roadzide."
"I-indeed...! Quite so."
"Of courze, zome ztudentz are doing wonderfully!"
As it happened, the screen was showing Dick at that very moment.
On only day two, he was already swaggering around with ten ore weapons strapped across his back and ten more around his waist, chuckling to himself. He had been the very first student in the entire cohort to figure out the monsters' weakness.
"Well then! Even zo, it lookz like only a matter of time before the ztudentz work out how to bring theze montzerz down! Zo tell me, Professor — in your expert judgment, among all the ztudentz we've zeen, iz anyone even the tiniest bit clozer to reaching the Dungeon Lord?"
Behind her, the footage rolled on — Meilin's group and countless other students fighting hard across every corner of the dungeon. Hong Peng smiled sweetly.
"Not a zingle one."