Is It Weird to Refine Spirits in Dungeons? Chapter 9

Holocure Spirit Refiner

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 9: Wavering Spirits

Since I still had conditions to fulfill for Sui-chan’s contract, I decided to deal with it as soon as possible. Luckily, there was an option of a dungeon where I could unleash her without holding back.

[Goblin-Infested Dungeon]

The next step up from the Ruins, the sole objective this time was the same, to eliminate all the monsters in this place. No special person for me to meet, so I could devote my full attention to eliminating the goblins.

I walked through the gate and reappeared in a run-down ruin. There weren’t any enemies around at first glance, but I spotted the shabby entrance that led to the place where the goblins must have made their lair.

“Let’s go, Sui-chan.”

Excitement! She responded.

There was a bit of faint light as I went into the place, so I didn’t have to use the light spirit for illumination. With my senses enhanced by the darkness, I noticed the lone goblin before it noticed me.

“Grrah? G-”

Sui-chan’s axe cleanly sliced its head off. Its body stayed standing for a moment, then fell over with a soft thump. I stepped past its bleeding corpse, and continued further down. Its spirit shard was absorbed into my body, the first of many.

Next! Sui-chan indicated for me to find the next victim.

“No need to rush,” I told her quietly.

Compared to the ruins, this one was much larger, both in scope and in the size of the corridors. That meant that the number of goblins I had to slay were much higher too. Just like any monster lair, the number of monsters increased the deeper I went. From the stray straggler, to minor packs, until I was encountering nearly ten of them at a time. 

Of course, having slain that many along the way, I had absorbed enough spirit energy to empower most of the spirit weapons I had on me. The Psycho Axe took care of any ambush attempts, as any goblin that tried ended up getting ripped to pieces by the flying golden weapon, while the Plug-type Asacoco and the X-Potato took care of those further away. I also made sure to improve my defenses, enhancing the Breastplate to reduce any incoming damage. Then there was Sui-chan’s Axe… which dealt critical damage at full strength.

That last one had proven its worth, when one stray goblin had managed to get in close during an ambush, trampling over the lives of its buddies to lash out at me with a club. The blunt weapon just rebounded off an invisible barrier around my skin, leaving me with only a little bit of an ache for its troubles. For the goblin, however, it received some powerful impact that shattered many bones in its body, joining the rest of its fallen brethren on the dungeon floor.

Hmm, that was quite effective. I ought to look into what the other items can do for me. Casting a cautious glance at the bodies, I continued on. These guys aren’t the Goblin Slayer type, that much I can tell. 

They were vicious with sharp senses, but they were equally stupid. It was easy enough to just poke my head around a corner to draw the attention of a few, wait for them to approach my location, and slaughter them. Then I just had to repeat. They didn’t have any plan other than to just attack straight on, and their ambushes were only due to a current fight drawing reinforcements I hadn’t been expecting. 

That was just more meat in the grinder.

As for the rest of the dungeon, it really was just an abandoned place; there wasn’t really much in the way of treasure, just scraps of metal and wood that were better off recycled. The goblins had really infested this place, and though there were some signs of traps, they had all been triggered and taken apart.

The smell of blood and filth was pretty strong now, though it didn’t affect Sui-chan in the slightest. For me, it was horrendous, and I was adamant on taking a full body soak once I finished with this place and returned home.

Just what were they eating in this place? I wondered as I descended another flight of stairs.

I received my answer shortly after, in the form of white strands lining the corridors, along with the source of them crawling along them.

TERROR! Sui-chan screamed in my head, making me wince.

Apparently, the goblins were eating the unnaturally large spiders that lived down here. And it was a relationship that went both ways, as I spotted some webbed-up lumps that had shriveled goblin limbs sticking out of them.

That wasn’t the only change I noticed; the goblins in this area were stronger and bigger, enough to be considered hobgoblins. They were still stupid, so I was able to bait some of them into the spiderwebs to get the two species to fight against each other, then swoop in to finish off the weakened survivors. 

And finish them off, we did. Sui-chan’s disgust at those bugs carried over to me, so we made sure to exterminate them whenever we could. Considering that I received quite a lot of spirit shards from their numbers, I saw no reason to object. Though it was a bit noisy in my head because of how she was encouraging me to destroy them all.

Then we finally reached the deepest depths of the lair, where the goblin boss was. Unexpectedly, the large green guy was riding on top of an equally large red spider, and they focused on me when I entered. The green hobgoblin flung a heavy battleaxe at me, which I naturally dodged, but the heavy metal weapon triggered a mechanism in the doorway, causing metal bars to lower down and obstruct the entrance. 

It was so cliche that I would have laughed, if it wasn’t my actual life on the line.

“Looks like we’re in for a tough fight, Sui-chan,” I muttered.

Prepared! She replied with a surge of determination.

“GURRAAAAH!” The hobgoblin roared, hefting a replacement axe. 

The spider’s legs curled, and it leapt high into the air at us. I fled away from the landing zone, but I wasn’t expecting it to suddenly spit a gout of fire at us.

“HOLY SHIT!” I yelped, diving into a roll. Red actually means fire element? 

It was faster than I was, but I quickly realized that its rider was using it more as a mount to close the distance quickly, so the hobgoblin could hit us with his axe. Thankfully, dealing enough damage was enough to fend it off each time it tried. The fire breath apparently needed a recharge period, and it only did so after performing a jump. If not for the blood and stuff, this attack pattern would have been perfect for a simple adventure game.

The spider was larger and an easier target, while the hobgoblin was the actual boss, and the one I had to beat in order to clear this dungeon. A lot of my shots missed, but enough hit true that I could see the hobgoblin getting increasingly angrier. 

Just as I thought it was about time for the second phase, it finally snapped. 

“RRRRAAAAAGGGH!” 

The spider leapt once more, and I quickly got away from the landing spot. What I didn’t expect was for the hobgoblin to jump off it in midair, but its target was not me.

“SKRREEEE-!?” The spider’s shriek cut off midway as the battleaxe split its head in half.

The hobgoblin seemed to dig around it for a bit, before ripping it back out, the weapon bearing a gross purple mess on one side like some kind of scoop, and it was giving off a smoky flame-like aura.

Then it brought the weapon to its mouth and bit off some of the spider innards that were stuck on it.

Wait, that’s actually the Spider Cooking!? I realized as my senses marked the item as a ritual reagent. Ew, yuck, do not want.

KILL! Sui-chan shared my disgust.

Now that the boss was no longer riding, it was slower, but tougher to evade as my attacks failed to dissuade it from giving chase. It also had different attack patterns, like an unexpected Whirlwind Spin that sent me flying across the room, when I mistimed a dodge and took it to the chest. The Breastplate really saved my life that time, even if I was gasping for breath and scrambling to regain my wits.

Wait… am I poisoned? I looked down at the purple stain left where the axe struck me.

USE IT! Sui-chan told me.

Seeing the goblin boss stomp closer, I decided not to question my spirit, and activated her super attack. In the air around me, multiple colored blocks appeared out of nowhere, and began to fall, hitting the ground with earthshaking impacts. The boss received a particularly big red one on top of it, leaving it flattened but still squirming. Then the blocks exploded with invisible shockwaves, spreading cracks throughout the ancient architecture. For the hobgoblin, it jerked and thrashed from the impacts, barely holding on to its consciousness.

I didn’t miss the opening. I limped closer, and swung out my hand. 

Sui-chan followed my motion, and a red line opened across its throat.

As its lifeblood began to spill out across the floor, the hobgoblin released its hold on the axe, which fell to the ground, breaking as it did. As it gradually stopped moving, I continued to observe it cautiously for a bit, before finally bringing up the window screen. Sure enough, my objective was marked as completed. My mind idly noted that the axehead, which had broken off from the handle, kind of resembled a plate.

As if on cue, there was the sound of cracking stone, and the original battleaxe embedded in the wall fell out. At the same time, the bars raised from the ground, permitting me to exit this boss arena. 

I stared at it for a while, before realizing that I was still poisoned.

[Goblin-Infested Dungeon: CLEARED!]

I have no idea how I got back, along with the Spider Cooking reagent, but the moment I reappeared in front of the house, my poisoned state was cured, which was a real relief. I was still carrying a stinky item with me, so I quickly dashed into the house and placed it on the ritual circle. Doing my best to breathe only through my mouth, I started to perform the ritual to create my next spirit weapon.

Thankfully, it succeeded, and the smell vanished almost as though it had been my imagination. The axehead was replaced by a white plate with a mosaic-covered purple mess, and I quickly stored it away inside the grimoire rather than look at it any longer.

Reminder, Sui-chan informed me grumpily.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly.

I placed my palm on the grimoire, and began to distribute the collected spiritual energy. As intended, I spent the majority of it on unlocking her abilities, which satisfied the terms of our contract. The remainder went into enhancing her stats a little, which suited the bloodthirsty spirit better.

“Kawaii!” She cheered, flying out of the book.

The tiny spirit performed a cute little dance, before heading out to rejoin the rest of the spirits.

As for me, I went to take the shower I so desperately craved. I soaped up and scrubbed myself at least three times before I felt clean enough to come out. 

I think I should hold off on any such dungeons for a while. Maybe a game-like one where the monsters vanish when they’re defeated? That would be better for my mental state.

Speaking of my mental state, I was starting to feel a bit stagnant for some reason. Currently, I was training spirits, and visiting alternate worlds with dungeons of stuff to extract, but what happens after that? Was there an end to it? Or would I end up doing this forever until I died? I had some difficulty trying to think about it… To be honest, I sometimes thought it would be better if I didn’t have to worry about this issue.

Maybe I should see if I can summon a spirit capable of giving psychiatric help…

“A?” I heard Gura call to me, and turned to look at her.

“What’s up?”

“Goob, Chum.” She turned and pointed with her trident.

I looked, and there I saw the other spirits, all waving at me. 

They might be rather simple in thoughts and expression right now, but perhaps in the future, I would develop them to become proper spirits, capable of proper communication. It was a long way off for sure, but seeing them helped me make up my mind about this. I would see them reach that level in the future.

…

I reached out and touched the round crystal mounted at the bottom of the frame, causing the black screen to light up. I studied the words that appeared on it.

“Ray” [1]
Level 1/69
Status
HP: D
MP: S
STR: D
VIT: E
INT: B
MND: C
SPD: C
DEX: D

“Now tap it and swipe left,” The girl next to me instructed.

I did as she said, and the text changed.

“Ray” [2]
Drop Status
Plants: D
Animals: C
Minerals: B
Magic: F
Specials: A

“Wow, your Drop Status is pretty good too. That means you’ll get a lot of drops from killing monsters in dungeons!”

“I see…” I said out loud. “Thank you for explaining this to me, Emily.”

“You’re welcome!” The girl replied cheerily.

The young blonde was Emily, a girl who lived in this dungeon, and she was kind enough to explain to me how things worked in this strange new world. A world where everything revolved around dungeons.

Literally.

Slaying the monsters that dwelled within the monsters would result in things being dropped. That sounded typical for such a setting, but every monster would leave a drop, influenced only by their slayer’s Drop Status. Different dungeons would yield different drops too. For example, the current dungeon I was in, Tellurium, dropped only vegetables, with the first floor’s slimes only yielding bean sprouts. The next floor would give a different type, and so on. Emily mentioned hearing about other dungeons that dropped living animals, which were then slaughtered for their meat. With such a setting, there was no need for roles like hunters or farmers.

The status board was something all dungeon delvers used to check their levels and statuses. They appeared naturally in the dungeons, though there were some in towns as well, but Emily said that those cost money to use. Within the dungeon, it was free. It was a good way to know which dungeon they were best suited for with their Drop Status.

For some people who didn’t get any drops, that was usually because their Drop Status was too low, so the monster’s drop was air. The same air that all living creatures needed to live, so saying everything revolved around dungeons was not hyperbole.

“Will you need a weapon?” Emily inquired.

I shook my head. “I’ll be fine, thank you for asking.”

She glanced off to the side. “Ah, a slime! Please watch, Mr Ray!” 

The blonde hefted a giant hammer and ran straight at the red blob, bringing the weapon down on top of it with a loud crash. The slime was flattened completely, leaving a red smear beneath the hammer’s head.

Brutal. My spirit approved.

“Look at this!” She lifted the weapon off the red puddle.

The puddle sparkled, then disappeared, leaving a small handful of bean sprouts in its place. She quickly picked them up and dropped them into a small pouch she carried. 

I thanked her for the demonstration, and armed with directions to the exit, headed out of the dungeon. It took me a while, but I finally recalled just why the setting had seemed so familiar. This was the one where the main character got isekai’d to this world, and even though he had a level limit of 1, his Drop Status were S all across the board, when people only assumed the highest was A. 

The objective this time was different from usual; instead of a clearly stated one, I only had to accomplish one of the two possible ones. The first was to earn half a million Pyros, the currency used in this world. The other was to obtain a gun. For that one, I knew how to do so, but it required waiting for the main character to arrive, since his S-rank Drop Status was necessary to earn it, and even then, it took a certain event before he was able to get a gun.

Yeah, I should go for the money objective. 

With that thought in mind, I left the dungeon, and soon arrived at the nearby town of Cyclo. Firstly, I was going to gather information. Just because I knew of this world, didn’t mean I knew this world the way the natives did. 

I could admit that outright.

The first thing I noticed about the town was the quantity of vegetable goods on sale, with very little meat-related goods, and those were usually more expensive. By presenting myself as a new adventurer, kicked out of my home to find my own way, I learned the reason why. 

Cyclo was located close to five dungeons that dropped plant-related items, thus giving it the title of Agricultural Town. 

So it was fitting that I had brought Fauna along, because when I had been watching Emily kill the slime earlier, she had popped out to try the status board. I had caught sight of her status before she returned back inside my body.

“Fauna” [2]
Drop Status
Plants: A
Animals: F
Minerals: D
Magic: C
Specials: C

It was the slayer’s Drop Status that influenced the drops, so unless I went to the trouble of hitting them with a weapon myself, those plant-dropping monsters slain by Fauna’s leaves would yield lots of drops.

After a bit of asking around, I found out how the whole supply process worked; the gathered monster drops were turned over to a purchase shop, who would then distribute them to the various stalls, from whom the customers bought the food for consumption. Prices naturally changed due to supply and demand, and it wasn’t odd to see the price go up and down by several Pyro over the course of a day. Supply was pretty obvious, since the adventurers had to brave danger to gather the drops, and sometimes things got too dangerous to gather the same thing. As for demand… apparently someone with a higher Drop Status could obtain better tasting food items, resulting in the formation of a personal brand, so to speak. People would fork out more money to buy those. There were also reviewers who 

The purchase shops were on lookout for those people, and would jump at the chance to sign a supply contract with them. If I wanted to achieve my monetary target, then that was the path to go.

But first, I need to learn the ropes of this place. I mentally grumbled to myself.

Living in the pocket dimension made me too stagnant, in a sense. Food and lodging was provided, and I could get all sorts of stuff provided I had enough spirit energy to pay Shopee’s prices. 

However, now I was out in a different world for the long term, and that meant I had to secure my own food and lodgings, and it was a bit awkward for me to figure out the process. Kind of like a lame person relearning how to walk…

Reassurance. Fauna conveyed to me with a motherly-like feeling.

“Thanks, Fauna,” I mumbled, so other people wouldn’t overhear.

With this spirit by my side, and the other spirits waiting for me back home, I couldn’t see myself failing.

Afterword: I tried to return to this story after so long, and it was definitely tougher than I thought to regain my muse for it. I’m sure my readers can tell that I’m losing interest in it, so I might be putting this on hiatus and only return to it when the mood strikes me, like when I get closer to reaching Danmachi as a world. Tensei Skill Shop just has much more potential for character interactions, I believe.