AIWON Mall Isekai Store, Grand Opening Today! - Chapter 146
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Maria : Mebius World Online
Ouren/Yuuzen : I Was a Small Fish
Episode 12-3
Day 34 since I became the manager of the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store.
I was walking through a dimly lit passageway.
But it wasn’t the back area of an Aion Mall with reduced lighting for energy saving, nor was it the mall after hours.
“This area has a different atmosphere, huh?”
“Yes. Originally, this was the Catacombs—a subterranean burial ground. But as it transformed into a dungeon, it absorbed the surrounding environment.”
“Huh, a dungeon transformation… merging with the environment. I really don’t understand this otherworld.”
“Shh! Naoya, be quiet! If you make too much noise, monsters will be drawn to us!”
“Chloe’s acting sensible… or maybe not, since she’s telling me to keep quiet in such a loud voice.”
“Ha! C-could it be that Naoya intends to gather monsters to use them against me? And then he’ll hold me down and say, ‘If you want help, you know what you need to do,’ and torment me? K-Kuh, kill me now!”
“Definitely not sensible. And I can’t even control monsters. Besides, Chloe the Holy Knight should be stronger than any low-level monster here. And we have Anna-san and the Captain to help.”
The floor had patches where the stone was worn away, exposing the dirt, and the walls and ceiling looked completely like a cave passage.
This wasn’t the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store, where I’ve already been working for over a month and gotten used to.
We were about an hour’s walk away from there, at a dungeon right next to the nearest town: the “Catacombs of the Old City.”
Apparently, it was once a communal burial ground for a city that had been destroyed by a plague, now turned into a dungeon.
“By the way, Anna-san, since the atmosphere has changed, does that mean the types of monsters that appear here have changed too? From skeletons and ghosts to more cave-like creatures?”
“Hmm! They’re coming, Anna, Naoya. Stay alert!”
“What kind of cave-like creatures? Rats, slimes, goblins? …Please, just don’t let it be undead. Let them be living creatures.”
Chloe stopped, and beside her stood the Captain, a skeleton clad in full plate armor. A friendly ghost that had tagged along poked its head out from behind his shoulder.
Anna-san held her staff at the ready, standing behind Chloe.
From up ahead, a white, translucent mist drifted toward us. And it wasn’t just one or two. It was hard to tell because they overlapped, but there were probably five or six of them.
“Anna-san, these are ghosts, right? The same kind as that one with us?”
“No, they’re different.”
Chloe slowly stepped back as she faced the enemies. The skeleton Captain, who had been standing beside her, moved forward. His cape fluttered, and the ghost companion expanded, spreading out dramatically.
The enemy ghosts stopped.
“Whooa, ghosts have abilities like that, huh? The Aion ghosts are black mist, while these monster ghosts are white… it’s kind of reversed.”
My face twisted into a grimace.
Without paying me any attention, Anna-san raised her staff toward the ghosts. Like with the skeleton earlier, she was probably going to try to understand their wishes. If they had regrets… if they wanted to move on… or if they were interested in employment.
…Please don’t hire too many undead. I don’t want the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store to turn into a catacombs dungeon.
“No, Naoya. Anna does have ghosts in her service, but the one accompanying her isn’t just an ordinary ghost.”
“Huh?”
“That one is a higher-ranking type of ghost—a ‘Wraith.’”
“Oh, I get it. Since it’s a higher-ranking type, it can stop enemy skeletons and ghosts. That’s why Anna-san has time to question them. Makes sense, makes sense.”
Unlike the previous enemy skeletons, the enemy ghosts didn’t respond to Anna-san’s questions. Apparently, they had no self-awareness, consumed by hatred. They had become nothing more than monsters that attack the living.
Anna-san gave a sad smile and released a light from her staff. The ghosts dissolved, fading away like mist into the air.
“So, at the Aion Mall Otherworldly Store, even higher-ranking undead are working! That makes sense—the Captain doesn’t seem like an ordinary skeleton either, and neither he nor the Wraith react to the purification light!”
Even though they were in the front and bathed in light, neither the Captain nor the Wraith seemed to take any damage. In fact, the Wraith quickly slipped back into the Captain’s armor—well, the armor with just bones inside.
“So, does that mean the Captain is of a higher rank? He sure looks strong… Aaahh! The Aion Mall Otherworldly Store has already become a dangerous place, teeming with powerful undead! Maybe that’s why we don’t have many customers!”
My lament echoed through the cave-like dungeon. Anna-san gave a slightly troubled smile, and the Captain shrugged his shoulders.
Despite my loud outburst, Chloe said nothing.
Well, I guess she’s not worried. After all, she’s a Holy Knight, and there’s a Lich, a Wraith, and… what is the Captain, anyway? A Skeleton Leader, a Skeleton Knight, or maybe something even higher, like a Skeleton King?
With a weary sigh, I trudged onward, faced with the reality before me.
The dungeon might be a dangerous place, but I wasn’t too worried.
After all, we had a Holy Knight, a Lich, a Wraith, and the Skeleton Captain with us. The dim lighting didn’t bother me, nor did the abundance of undead monsters. Aion Mall was already packed with undead creatures anyway. There’s even a dragon.
“Naoya, we’re almost at the entrance to the second basement level! I’m sure you’ll be shocked!”
“Yeah, the second basement. I don’t know… I feel like I’m beyond getting shocked by most things at this point.”
“Hehe, perhaps. But I still believe you’ll be surprised, Naoya-san.”
“…I hope it’s a good kind of surprise.”
I was the one who wanted to learn about the dungeon. I hadn’t expected to be brought to one swarming with undead, but understanding this place would help with future product ideas. It should, anyway—since many of the customers at Aion Mall Otherworldly Store are adventurers.
So, discovering something surprising could be valuable. I welcome it… or at least, I try to.
With Chloe leading the way, we continued our smooth progress through the dungeon. Encountering skeletons or ghosts wasn’t an issue. Either the friendly Wraith or the Skeleton Captain would hold them at bay, and Anna-san would question them, eventually purifying them. So far, none of the undead had expressed regrets or any desire to keep going.
Anna-san said only rare undead with lingering souls or those that had recently revived would act like that, especially here in the “Catacombs of the Old City,” where centuries had passed since the city’s ruin.
After two or three hours on the first basement level, we arrived at the entrance to the second level.
Just as Chloe and Anna-san had suggested, I stared in astonishment at the entrance.
Or rather…
“A gate? And the carvings seem distinctly themed around ‘death’…”
“Yes! To enter the second basement level of the ‘Catacombs of the Old City,’ one must pass through this gate!”
“A gate. We pass through it. …No way.”
“Naoya-san? What are you looking for? Even though it’s a gate, there’s no gatekeeper, so there’s nothing above.”
“Haha, right. I-I was just thinking… since it’s a gate to a tomb-type dungeon, I half-expected an inscription like, ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,’ or something.”
“Hm, do the gates in Japan bear such inscriptions?”
“It’s more of a fictional thing. Forget it, Chloe.”
“‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,’… such harsh words… they weigh heavily on me.”
“Anna-san?”
“…Let’s go. It’s nothing new, and I’ve been down this path many times.”
“Then onward!”
Chloe enthusiastically pushed the gate open and strode forward, while Anna-san’s steps faltered. The ghost looked at her with concern, and the Captain gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
After Chloe, I stepped through the gate.
Beyond the heavy doors, through the thick entranceway…
I beheld the second basement level of the dungeon, Catacombs of the Old City.
“…Huh!? What the—what is this!?”
“So you’re surprised after all! I, too, couldn’t comprehend it when I first came here. Humans are indeed strange creatures!”
“I think it’s the ‘dungeon’ that’s strange, Chloe-san, not humans.”
The second basement level of the “Catacombs of the Old City.”
Spread before us was an ancient cityscape.
A city, likely dating back 800 years to when it was destroyed.
“I see… that’s why it’s called the ‘Catacombs of the Old City’…”
Anna-san stepped past me and halted, gazing at the “Old City.”
Her eyes grew unfocused, narrowed, as if peering into the past.
With a sorrowful expression, a smile that looked like it would dissolve into tear