SWDnovel #329 - This is what speedrunners are like
#329 - This is what speedrunners are like
The beautiful elf girl ran over with herbs, scolding Zun Zun for his reckless behavior of rushing to meet the rampaging magic.
“I couldn’t help it, that was the second shrine.”
“Even so, you shouldn’t—”
She wanted to reprimand him further, but considering how much people like Zun Zun, who had been transferred from another world, valued these shrines, she stopped complaining.
He refused the herbs; this level of burn would quickly heal.
Shimazaki Yosuke was chatting with Alicia and the others. It's unclear what they were talking about, but he saw Alicia borrow Edgar's longsword and then dramatically stab it into the ground while introducing herself.
“I am the hero chosen by destiny, the Holy Hero, Alicia Idelucia!”
“!?”
Hearing her self-introduction, Zun Zun and the beautiful elf girl exchanged glances. It was as if a close friend who had been chatting, joking, and bragging with you on the street had suddenly become the son of a high and mighty tycoon, a huge change in status.
Zun Zun seemed to have guessed something, his expression a bit strange.
The beautiful elf girl was curious.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, well… I heard some news about heroes in the Sealed City, so I wanted to ask them if they knew anything, but I didn’t expect them to actually become heroes.”
“Information about heroes? I didn’t know anything about that.”
“You’ve been too busy flirting with Zun Zun to pay attention to such things, right?”
“I, I, I, I… I wasn’t!”
The beautiful elf girl’s cheeks flushed red from the bottom up, and she glared at Zun Zun in embarrassment, as if it was his fault. Wait a minute, wasn’t this her own problem? If anything, it was the beautiful elf girl who had been clinging to him all along.
Meanwhile, as Alicia was proudly introducing herself, Leica heavily knocked her on the head, causing the newly-appointed priestess hero to yelp in pain.
“Leica, what was that for!”
“Don’t jam the sword into the rocks! Look at Edgar!” He pointed to another companion and scolded Alicia, “The previous sword was broken by goblins, and it was hard enough to buy a new one!”
“Ah, it’s, it’s okay.”
Edgar forced a smile, pretending to be generous, saying, “Swords are consumables, as long as they can cut, it’s fine, no problem at all.”
“S-sorry, Edgar! But the sword doesn’t seem broken… Waaah, it’s chipped!”
Alicia, who had pulled out the sword, said apologetically.
At that moment, Edgar’s expression turned green.
“My Demon Smasher II…”
“I’m really sorry, Edgar!”
Alicia immediately knelt down to apologize.
This kind of hero is not a hero at all!
“So, you guys are heroes?” Shimazaki Yosuke asked, somewhat surprised, “Did you become heroes before encountering the goblins?”
“No, we weren’t until a month ago… If anything, we were just rookie adventurers with less than half a year of experience.”
Alicia said.
The beautiful elf girl also frowned, asking, “Then why are you calling yourselves heroes?”
“Well…”
“How should I put it… Sorry, Kuroki.”
Leica and Edgar looked awkward and inexplicably apologized to Shimazaki Yosuke, completely confused about the reason. Shimazaki Yosuke seemed eager to know why they had become heroes, so he used memory magic on Alicia.
The screen showed a man with a distorted expression, raising his arms and shouting ‘The birth of heroes!’ while a group of fanatical ordinary people cheered below.
Edgar and Leica on the stage looked upset, vehemently denying it, but they were forced to say everything.
Alicia also panicked and went along with the atmosphere, admitting to being a hero.
“That’s how it is.”
“Sorry, Kuroki… I didn’t expect to accidentally take credit for your achievements. We tried our best to deny it, but that pot-bellied priest wouldn’t listen to anyone and insisted on promoting us as heroes.”
The memory was replayed, and Leica and Edgar looked even more embarrassed.
Zun Zun hadn’t expected this.
He knew that Alicia and the others weren’t the type to rashly take credit for someone else’s achievements. Plus, with Zun Zun and the others intervening, Shimazaki Yosuke hadn’t erased their memories and wouldn’t be dragged into politics.
He didn’t expect the priests of this world to still disregard everything, pushing the three inexperienced rookies onto the throne of heroes, even exaggerating the 200 goblins into 50,000, putting them on the spot.
“Kuroki, we tried our best to deny it! Really! But when that priest asked who had eliminated those goblins, and we told him it was someone who looked like a beastman, he instead looked displeased but firmly said it was our achievement, not listening to a word we said!”
“That only has the opposite effect. And don’t be nervous, Leica. Yosuke… cough, Kuroki won’t mind, right?”
Zun Zun tiptoed and patted Leica, who was trying hard to explain, on the shoulder, signaling him not to be so agitated.
His flushed face was almost the same color as his hair.
As a martial artist, Leica couldn’t bring himself to take credit for someone else’s achievements, especially since Shimazaki Yosuke was their friend. He thought Shimazaki Yosuke would be angry, but what he didn’t expect was—
“It’s okay, I don’t mind.”
Shimazaki Yosuke was awkward. He kept changing his identity and causing trouble, but once people found out, he would basically erase the relevant memories, putting on an attitude of not wanting to be famous at all.
Considering that he was always mistaken for a beastman in this world, it was better not to be famous.
“Besides, I don’t mind either. Fame is completely a burden. My only goal is to collect the lost artifacts, and I don’t care about anything else… Although I say that, I didn’t do anything in the goblin battle.”
“Me too.”
Zun Zun and the beautiful elf girl chimed in.
In short, they didn’t blame Alicia and the others for this. If anything, they were also victims, inexplicably being given high expectations, which must have been a lot of pressure.
After that, Zun Zun went to the second shrine alone.
【The Body’s Sharee Ancient】
Alicia and the others didn’t understand why Zun Zun wanted to go to the monster’s lair, but after the beautiful elf girl explained the reason to them, they looked enlightened and also revealed some scattered information about those transferred from another world. Of course, it was all repeated information.
In a closed-off other world, and with Alicia being just a rookie adventurer, knowing some information about those transferred from another world was already surprising enough.
Half an hour later.
Zun Zun swung his arms, walking out of the shrine with a relaxed expression.
The beautiful elf girl, seeing that he was safe and sound, let out a heavy sigh of relief, her worried face immediately turning into disdain.
“How much longer do you plan to waste? I’ve been waiting long enough.”
“Eh, it’s only been half an hour, right?”
“Beastman, shut up.”
Shimazaki Yosuke’s expression turned sour after being scolded.
Zun Zun then raised the back of his hand. Three circles appeared, with two patterns lit up, proving that he had cleared the shrine.
"Just as I thought, the reward of this shrine is to strengthen physical fitness. That giant hedgehog probably occupied the shrine for too long, absorbing a lot of the escaping energy, which is why its size became so large."
"Is, is that so."
The others didn't care about these things. Afterwards, Tojima Yosuke casually destroyed the shrine, causing Alicia and the others to exclaim in surprise, followed by an explanation of the reasons behind it.
And so, the six of them moved together.
They walked for a long time.
Alicia, holding the map, nodded after confirming it several times and said, "We're here, this is it."
"The Deep Dark Labyrinth..."
"We've finally reached this point."
Leica and Edgar rubbed their hands together in anticipation.
Seeing them like this, the beautiful elf girl asked curiously, "Is this underground city worth such emotion?"
"Ah, back when we were little, we promised that one day we would come here."
This was originally an A-level labyrinth. As fledgling adventurers, Alicia and the others had no way of obtaining exploration permission, but because they had the title of Hero, they were able to explore it exceptionally.
Tojima Yosuke was quite interested in their explanation, and after checking Alicia's memories again, he understood that this was a promise the three of them made as children.
Zunzun looked at the three of them and kindly said, "Is that so, then do you need our help?"
"No, thank you."
"Because this is our goal."
"We have to rely on ourselves!"
"Ah, is that so."
Alicia and the others refused Zunzun's offer of help, but as fledgling adventurers, they had no idea how terrifying an A-level labyrinth could be.
It was like a college student with innocent eyes, who needs to experience the beatings of society. Zunzun only told them to be careful and didn't stop them.
The three of them entered the labyrinth together.
Soon, their cries of pain came from inside.
"It hurts! An arrow!?"
"Hey, idiot, what did you just press!"
"Poison gas is coming out, ahhhh!"
Soon, the three of them came out covered in wounds and looking tattered, obviously paying a considerable price for their recklessness.
The beautiful elf girl greeted them with concern, but still said mercilessly, "Hmph, fine, seeing how miserable you guys are, I'll reluctantly help you."
"Let's help too," Zunzun said.
"Please..."
Alicia was extremely grateful.
Thus, the labyrinth exploration team became six people.
As soon as they entered the labyrinth, the beautiful elf girl drew her long sword and walked in front to guard against the surrounding dangers. At the same time, she explained to the three fledgling new adventurers behind her how to conquer a difficult labyrinth and what to pay attention to in this situation.
She was conscientious, like a qualified teacher, teaching ignorant students.
Because ignorance really wouldn't do.
However—
"Wait a moment."
Tojima Yosuke stopped everyone. After some magical operations, he successfully found the hidden door of this labyrinth and took a shortcut to the depths of the labyrinth.
Here, everyone saw the labyrinth's treasure.
The Divine Artifact, the Demon Staff of Salvation.
Tojima Yosuke casually tossed the staff to Alicia and said happily, "That's great, we got the staff."
"Oh, oh..."
"Yes, yes..."
"Great..."
The three of them stared blankly at the staff in their hands.
Their words of celebration didn't have the slightest emotion, as if they didn't feel any joy or happiness from obtaining the Divine Artifact. Even the beautiful elf girl was speechless at this chaotic method of conquering the labyrinth.
"Ah, sorry."
Tojima Yosuke seemed to understand something. He grabbed Leica and Edgar's heads, wanting to erase their memories.
"Wa-wait, wait, wait!"
Zunzun quickly stopped him.
"What are you going to do!?"
"Th-that... they sincerely wanted to conquer the dungeon and get equipment, right? My method of exploiting bugs would definitely make them feel ashamed, s-so I wanted to do it again."
"Then you don't need to erase their memories! Have you forgotten? They don't have any memories of clearing it!"
"Ah, that's right!"
Tojima Yosuke clapped his hands.
Zunzun comforted the startled three and said, "Sorry, I'm really sorry that you didn't have any experience. Let's do it again."
Then he put the staff back where it was, and while they were confused, they challenged the labyrinth normally again.
Afterwards, he asked the beautiful elf girl to take them, explaining and challenging the labyrinth at the same time, clearing the labyrinth once. Of course, Zunzun also took them to clear it once. And Tojima Yosuke, seemingly finding it interesting, also took the three of them to clear it once.
After they were familiar with the process, the three of them challenged the labyrinth on their own again.
Again and again, until they could clear it flawlessly and quickly.
The repeated practice of re-entering the dungeon allowed even the most novice adventurers to experience the joy of clearing the dungeon... or did it?
"So beautiful..."
When Alicia and the others finally obtained the Salvation Staff with their own strength, they shed tears of emotion, saying that they would definitely remember this moment.
It seemed like they were happy.
After expressing his congratulations, Zunzun returned to the labyrinth with Tojima Yosuke.
"Eh, what are they doing...?"
"Well..."
The beautiful elf girl awkwardly twitched her lips. She had seen this scene many times, and even now she couldn't understand their actions, but she still knew the purpose of doing so.
"For speedrunning."
"Speed... running...?"
"What is that?"
Clearly, Alicia and the other three didn't understand Zunzun and Tojima Yosuke's reason for repeatedly conquering this labyrinth.
The first time it appeared was after 45 minutes.
"Zunzun, let me make the ice slide on the jumping platform, that way the progress will be faster."
"Okay, I'll leave it to you."
The second time it appeared was after 30 minutes.
"Yosuke is too slow when dealing with the giant Golem. Your lightning magic is much weaker than mine, I'll deal with it next time."
"Then I'll assist you."
The third time was 20 minutes, then 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes...
The time became faster and faster.
Almost as soon as they went in, they heard a burst of crackling sounds from inside the labyrinth, and then the two of them walked out arm in arm, saying incomprehensible words at the same time.
Time passed little by little, until the sun sank below the horizon, and it was evening. Zunzun and Tojima Yosuke walked out of the labyrinth with satisfied expressions.
Then, at the entrance of the labyrinth, they erected a stone tablet with inexplicable words and times written on it.
—Speedrun Record
Zunzun X Tojima Yosuke Time: 3 minutes 26 seconds.