My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Chapter 24:

Female Clerk Dives Into The Dungeon

We moved to a nearby fast food restaurant because we didn't want to talk in the restaurant, received our order at the counter on the first floor, and sat down facing each other at a table on the second floor.

Her name is Machi Serai. She introduced herself briefly on the way to the restaurant and told me her name. She also told me her kanji characters, so I am sure I am not mistaken. In response, I said my name was Ezuki, too.

I'm not very good at talking. If I told her too much about myself. She would know I was currently unemployed. It's hard to have Machi Serai look at me contemptibly and say I'm unemployed.

So I decided to be a man of few words, a hard-boiled man. Yes, that's how I felt. With my current appearance, it shouldn't be too much to ask for that style, I would like to think.

"So, Serai-san, do you have any advice about the dungeon?"

"Yes, I do. Will you listen to me!"

Serai-san seems to be a talker, and she begins to talk about her personal life in a cheerful and amusing tone. It's what I call light talk. I can't imitate him, so I was taken aback by her engaging way of talking.

Let me summarize her talk.

Machi Serai is a female college student. The dungeon store is her part-time job during the summer break from university. She started living on her own as a university student and got hooked on net games, and fantasy role-playing games, influenced by video streamers on the Internet.

Then there was a dungeon outbreak commotion in the world, but she started thinking that she would like to dive into dungeons and have adventures. Then things changed, and ordinary people could dive into dungeons on a trial basis. That was an opportunity! But, of course, a woman with her thin arms couldn't dive into a dungeon. So, she decided to cooperate with someone else, in other words, to form a party to challenge the dungeon.

But then a problem arose.

Even if they formed a party to go into the dungeon, a woman would be of little use in fighting the monsters. The men in the party don't want to take a stand for charity.

They would get into disputes over the distribution of the drops, and the men in the party would pester her.

They said I'll protect you, and you can be my woman.

But I am a man myself, so I can understand why the man who partnered with her would say that. Naturally, my motivation will change depending on whether the woman I'm protecting is my girlfriend or a stranger. Yeah, I hate it. If I were to protect a stranger desperately and then return to the ground to find her flirting with her lover, I would probably slam my gloves down on the ground and say, "I can't do this! I can't do this!".

But her story is not over yet. But since I only have to be a good listener, the conversation is interesting, and I appreciate it very much.

After that, Serai-san repeatedly formed and broke up parties, or even left them. The reason for this is very simple and cash-based, "I want you to play the role of a shield, but I don't want to be wooed.". Also, the guys at the party had a dispute with each other over her.

What's this, boasting about being popular with the unattractive me?

She should have invited her boyfriend to join her in the dungeon, but she had no boyfriend, and no strong relatives nearby since she had moved to Tokyo.

But then she thought about it.

She would work in a dungeon store, find a strong person who can dive into dungeons, and get a lecture on how to fight from such a person. Then, she thought, she too could become stronger and explore dungeons without being treated as a liability in a party.

Well, that would make it less likely that men would come on to her even if she formed a party. Then, I came to her, asking her to buy magic stones day after day. She concluded that she was interested and approached me.

Now, what should I do?

.

In the end, I decided to accept her offer.

However, as a condition, I made her promise not to tell anyone about what I taught her, to follow instructions during instruction, and not to answer any questions she didn't want to answer.

I was going to dive into the dungeon anyway, and I wanted to have data other than my own to investigate the relationship between level-up and ability value increase.

After finished explaining, I threw the remaining hamburger and fries into my mouth, sucked on a straw, and downed it with soda. The drink of a man who manipulates acid is carbonated water. And across from me, Serai-an is also talking, not eating her burger. She was too absorbed in her conversation to touch the burger.

When I told her that I was going to dive into the dungeon today, she hurriedly started to eat his hamburger before I could change my mind.

.

Serai-san told me she had her dungeon gear in her locker at the store, so we decided to meet at the dungeon reception desk and parted to change clothes.

We then headed for a construction site surrounded by a steel fence. The built dungeon was on a vacant lot where a building was about to be constructed. Entering the site from the entrance facing the street, we found the entrance to the dungeon in the middle on the right side, which was heavily fenced off. Behind the fence, was a tent for disaster prevention, and several stationed police officers were there.

(Well, according to Serai-san's story, the prefab hut on the left is a rental locker for people diving in the dungeon.)

As she said, there was a two-story prefab hut on the left. It looked like a construction site office. But it seemed to have coin-operated lockers inside.

Well, as long as I can change my clothes, that's all that matters to me. I could build a spacious warehouse with my skill [Space], so the Katsuo-kun bats and Bug King Suit are there. I also stored the clothes I changed into in the storage space. In other words, I have a storage space, so I don't need a locker.

However, I could not let others see my storage space, so when I entered the prefab hut, I opened the door to an empty locker and finished changing my clothes as I took my luggage in and out of the locker.

Fifteen minutes after we parted, I met up with Serai-san again. Fifteen minutes after we parted, I met up with Mr. Serai again.

I decided to call her "Serai-san" even though she was younger than me. She had mentioned that one of the reasons she approached me was my polite language, and she had also told me that she had been quite annoyed with a DQN customer.

"What? Ezuki-san, what are you wearing?

"What, are you going to dive into the dungeon dressed like that, Se-rai-san?"

But when we met again, Serai-san and I were surprised to see each other's appearance.

I was wearing my "Bug King Suit", a full-body armor made from the outer shell of a massive cockroach and processed with magic power. It looks like an insect, and I think it's pretty badass, but its defensive capabilities are reassuring.

On the other hand, Serai-san had changed her clothes to dive into the dungeon and was wearing an ochre-colored coat with a hood, the kind you might wear at a campsite. On her feet, she was wearing thick boots and jeans with knee pads, but that was it. She's also holding a long stick with a metal-reinforced tip in her hand as if it were a weapon.

"Is thatcan you see me properly?"

Serai-san asks, pointing at the eyeballs of the Bug King mask. Oh shit, I should have taken the mask off.

"Yes, I can see you just fine. It's mirrored, so you can't see it from the outside. But, Serai-san, are you wearing protective gear to protect yourself?"

"Yes, I'm wearing it!"

After saying that, Serai-san opened the front of her coat and showed it to me. It was clear she was wearing a thick corset-like garment around her abdomen. But it did not protect her important boobs. And there seemed to be no helmet to protect her head.

"Well, what about your head and chest?"

"That's here"

Saying this, Serai-san put her coat and the hood over her head.

"Mmmm that wouldn't be considered protective gear, would it?"

"Eh, Ezuki-san, are you seriously dressed like that?"

"Well, if you're curious, you can touch it"

I open my arms so that Serai-san can easily touch the Bug King Suit.

"Wow it's very hard."

It makes me happy when a girl touches me and says I'm hard. But this is the armor we're talking about. Serai-san touches the outer shell of the Bug King Suit's chest with her fingertips and seems surprised at how hard it is. The Bug King Suit is soft and hard, hard and very elastic.

"My whole body is covered with this. So most attacks won't hurt me."

"What is this thing made of?"

Serai-san wonders about the suit's material as she rustles the outer shell of the abdomen, perhaps liking the feel of it. After the candy-colored gloss came out through the magic power, the surface became smooth. The roughness, like a ginkgo leaf, is not here, and very pleasant to the touch.

"This one is also a secret because it's part of what we promised."

"Huh, let's go to the reception then."

Serai-san still wasn't convinced but seemed to have decided not to think about it for the moment. We walked side by side and headed for the disaster prevention tent, where the dungeon admission desk location.