109. Academy Dungeon 1

Today, Shiro’s party, "Ebony Ice Wind," was entering the dungeon alongside the Hero Party for training purposes. Steven was also participating, as part of the training regimen.

The Cambria Academy Dungeon was a training dungeon accessible directly from within the academy grounds.

This dungeon had only twenty levels, and the monsters that appeared weren’t particularly strong. Each level featured different environments—perfect for training, really.

“This setup’s too convenient….” Shiro found himself momentarily suspicious of how perfectly tailored the dungeon’s design seemed.

Shiro’s group entered the building at the dungeon’s entrance. A heavy, imposing structure, it could be sealed shut in an emergency.

Inside, they stepped into a vast hall-like space, where a pitch-black object stood dead center. It had a swirling, incredibly complex shape—like a three-dimensional fractal.

“What the hell is that black object? Feels like a 3D model of a Julia set…” Shiro murmured.

“Oh, that? Weird shape, isn’t it? Probably an artifact. There’s some text on the plaque over there, but nobody can figure it out,” Ida explained.

“Wait… I’ve seen this object before…”

Shiro stared at the object at the entrance and suddenly remembered.

It looked exactly like the one he’d made during his early days of VR development—just a practice model for 3D modeling.

“Senior… this was… the one you showed me before… something about fractals…” Kotone whispered.

“Yeah. A 3D model of a Quaternion Julia Fractal. The plaque probably lists the parameters for this shape,” Shiro replied.

Shiro had a hunch about this object. He’d made it, of course—but the location it was placed was the real issue.

“Wait—is this not exactly like the entrance to my old dungeon exploration game?!” Shiro exclaimed.

The dungeon exploration game was a project Shiro had built as a demo for his landscape generation program. You could call it a gallery of procedurally generated environments.

Back then, Shiro had been obsessed with algorithmic landscape generation.

Landscape generation was a program that created various environments based on specific algorithms and parameters.

Planets, natural terrain, plant shapes, even entire towns—anything could be convincingly randomized.

By combining L-System, fractals, and physics simulations, he could generate lifelike scenes with ease. Shiro, ever the perfectionist, had gone all in—pushing how realistic he could make it. Incidentally, the environment in the Filidia System he’d managed to boot up was a direct result of fully leveraging that same landscape generation engine.

His algorithms could produce twenty distinct environments:

Caves, grasslands, forests, mountains, tropical rainforests, deserts, high mountains, mines, oceans, rivers and waterfalls, volcanoes and lava fields, ice and snow, swamps, wetlands, toxic zones, undead zones, light zones, cloud seas, cities, zero-gravity floating stone fields.

Combinations of these were also possible.

And while he could’ve just made a simple gallery, that would’ve been boring—so he turned it into a dungeon exploration game.

“Mitoka, do you still have the source code for that old dungeon exploration game?”

“Yes, I do,” Mitoka replied.

“…Right. So, we’ve got the map data too, right? Let’s move forward while cross-referencing it. Mapping skill’s always active, so we’ll keep syncing the data as we go.”

Shiro decided to start by checking whether this dungeon matched the one he’d designed. He never forgot to keep his mapping skill running constantly.

From the entrance’s similarity, he figured it was likely just the original game’s data being used directly. That meant he had an advantage—knowledge of the route, traps, and all.

Still, the monsters were unique to this world, so he’d have to watch out for that.

“Split into two groups, take turns fighting, okay? While battling, Aria’s party and Steven will handle the training,” Shiro said.

The warrior group consisted of Makoto, Masaki, Emilia, Miradia, and Mizuki—led by Steven.

Kotone had obviously intended to join the warrior group, but was forcibly pulled into Shiro’s team by Mizuki and Makoto. At first, Kotone had objected—

“Kotone, you okay with Shiro being taken by Shestia?” Mizuki asked with a sly grin, and Kotone turned red, shutting up immediately.

So Kotone now joined Aria’s party for coordination drills and training.

“Alright, focus on three things during this session. First: defense using Magic Veil and Vitality Veil. Remember the method I taught you recently?”

They all nodded.

“Second: train in each person’s specialty magic. Use it often. If you’re running low on MP, just take an MP recovery tablet.”

And third: gaining experience points by defeating monster beasts. This team of heroes, being the least experienced, will take the lead in clearing monster beasts. The rest of you will support them.

"Please!" the heroes chorused.

"Lastly, Kotone has her fourth point. Practice with your spirit summoning," Shiro said.

"Got it, senior!" Kotone replied cheerfully.

A hallway stretched straight ahead upon entering the entrance floor, ending in stairs descending into the labyrinth. On either side of the hallway were several rooms—each a teleportation chamber.

You could return to this level from any previously visited floor, or travel directly from a teleportation chamber on another level back here. This was another feature lifted straight from Shiro’s game design.

The only difference was that the fact of having visited a level was recorded on the Guild Card—something unique to this world. Incidentally, this Guild Card was impressively feature-rich.

Since Shiro and the hero group were all entering the labyrinth for the first time, they decided to proceed floor by floor, starting from the first.

Descending the stairs led them into a cavern-like space—wide enough for ten meters, with a height of about five. A massive stone corridor.

"Whoa, look at this—cave! But it's pretty spacious!" Makoto exclaimed, excited.

"First, we’ve got the typical environment. These walls—stone?" Masaki murmured, running a hand along the wall and inspecting it.

"Feels unpleasant," Mizuki said.

"...Isn't this exactly like Shiro’s game?" Kotone asked, having played the original.

"...Yeah, I guess. But this is real. Don’t get careless—there’s no respawn here. In my game, there were no monster beasts at all," Shiro warned Kotone.

"Ugh, you're all way too relaxed. Pay attention and move carefully! Well, the first floor doesn’t have anything too dangerous," Aria scolded them.

"Shiro, can't we just break through the wall or floor or ceiling and get ahead faster?" Makoto asked.

"...Hah. No good. The dungeon’s floors are their own separate spaces. Even if you break the floor or ceiling, there’s nothing on the other side," Shiro replied.

Right. Each dungeon floor was a self-contained space, connected to others only through gates. Breaking through the outer walls doesn’t lead anywhere. Same with the floor or ceiling—no matter how much you tear it apart, you don’t jump to another floor. The only ways to move between floors are the stairs or teleportation chambers.

Shiro’s group advanced floor by floor.

"Hostile pack approaching from ahead—15 Kei-Wolves!" Shiro shouted.

"Fire Arrow," Masaki said.

"Ice Arrow," Mizuki added.

Both had unlocked the ability to cast spells at three times the normal power—no incantation required. It was a common magic in Japan, nothing unusual to visualize.

After Masaki and Mizuki each took down about three wolves, Makoto charged forward.

"Yah!" he yelled, slicing through the rest with his holy sword in quick succession.

"Wow, Shiro, this sword cuts real good," Makoto said.

"...Makoto, charging in blindly like that’s dangerous," Shiro warned.

"Relax, Shiro. I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. I’m good at RPGs and swordsmanship," Makoto replied cheerfully.

"No, that’s exactly why it’s dangerous. This isn’t a game. You could die if you’re not careful," Masaki snapped.

"I know, I know," Makoto said, grinning. "The magic weave and vitality weave my brother taught me are strong—totally solid defense. I don’t even feel like I could get hurt. And if it looks bad, I’ll bail right away. I’ve got that instinct down cold."

"More Cave Sheep coming from ahead! Six of them!" Shiro shouted.

"Mizuki, chanting Ice Brett," she began, but the sheep charged faster than expected.

"Kyaa!" Mizuki yelped, losing her balance.

Steven dashed forward, blocking the charge with his shield and driving his sword through the creature.

"Mi— Mitsu, you okay?" Steven asked, grabbing her hand.

"...I’m fine," Mizuki murmured, cheeks flushed, eyes glistening as she nodded at him.

"Good. Cave Sheep look slow, but they’re surprisingly fast. Be careful next time," Steven said, flashing her a dazzling smile.

"...Yes," Mizuki replied, her face burning even more.

"...Hey, Mizuki, come here," Kotone whispered, tugging her gently.

Then, barely audible:

"Um… you’re not… thinking…?"

"Shh! But… don’t you think he’s cool?" Mizuki whispered back.

"...He’s over ten years older than you, you know."

"I know. But I like older guys…"

"Hmph. Whatever. But seriously—stay focused during combat. You’ll get killed if you don’t!" Kotone muttered, a quiet exasperation in her voice.

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