Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

.Chapter 17

He turned up another page of Enma's book.

The second page was mostly blank, with only three lines of text in black letters. Everything else is blank and empty.

Tenji read the written words out loud in his mind.

[The Book of Enma.]

This is the skill of summoning the Ten Kings who rule Hell. It is a medium to use hell beasts as a power. Once summoned, it will not disappear until the master dies.

(I learned about the "Book of Enma" skill more quickly than I expected.)

(Still, I sense some intent regarding the fact that only three lines are written on the page. The fact that the description of the Book of Enma is written in the upper left-hand corner of the page suggests that there is still a possibility of some more explanatory text on this page. It was weird.)

Based on this mere information, Tenji wondered, "Is this a page of skill descriptions?" He made a consideration.

(But then again, Hell, the Ten Kings, and Enma...... are like the story of a fairy tale world. I'm not familiar with hell stories, but given the name of the calling, I wonder if this is the ability to summon the beasts from Hell.)

It was challenging to get an accurate description from this text alone.

To get even more information about summoning hell beasts, Tenji turns the book to the next page.

However, the next page and another next page were blank.

From there, three more blank pages seemed to follow. He finally finds a page with new information on the eighth page from the book's description of the 'Book of Enma.'

[Demon ore conversion]

Point: 0

[Demon ore? Points? That sounds like a video game that I used to play.]

In the center of the page on the left side, only the words "Demon ore conversion" and "points: 0" were written, using an entire page.

On the right side of the page, there was a large drawing of some formation of three triangular lines and figures. The color of the lines was red like scarlet and looked somewhat eerie.

[The ore conversion means...... converting the demon ore into something, right? But what will it become if converted into...... something? I think this is a waste of money.]

Demon ore is an essential source of funds for mid-level and lower-level explorers. However, Tenji was unintentionally troubled by the waste if he got nothing when transforming it into something.

Nevertheless, Tenji slowly took out one of the magic gems he had tucked away in his pocket.

It was a small gemstone, half red and half yellow. It was the gem that came from that unknown spider monster.

When he held the magic gem in his hand, he noticed it was slightly heated.

He was like, "Huh? It's slightly hot....... It was as cold as glass just a moment ago."

Wondering why the magic gem suddenly became hot, he observed it from various angles. He tried to see through it with a light, tapped it with his finger, and dropped it on the ground. He was observing the gem under various circumstances.

Then Tenji figured out the theory of how the magic gem gets heated up.

"I see......... the closer I let this gem get to the triangles on this page, the hotter it seems to get."

He found that the closer the gem was to the triangular figure in the Book of Enma, the hotter it became. He noticed this after repeatedly bringing it closer to the book several times.

For Tenji, this phenomenon had to seem like the book of Enma implicitly wanted the magic gem.

"It might be a waste, but...... I'll consider it an unavoidable expense."

For poor Tenji, the magic gem is a money tree. Selling such a high grade of the magic gem would provide enough money for a few months' worth of food and money for his sister's school.

Of course, Tenji secretly thought that if he could get out of this place alive, he would sell the magic gem and give his younger sister some delicious food.

However, it is meaningless if he did not get out here first.

Thinking this was an unavoidable expense, he gently touched the magic gem to the triangle. He felt he could just touch or push it against it since it would get hot when he got close to it.

And that was the moment.

"Wow!" He exclaimed.

The lines of the triangular formation glowed slightly white, and the magic gem was absorbed with a swoosh.

Tenji was surprised to find that an unknown and powerful force pulled the magic gem he thought he had a strong grip on. But, at the same time, he was unintentionally moved too.

He was delighted to see that.

Later, Tenji saw with his own eyes that there was a change in the "magic gem transformation" after the gem was absorbed.

[Demon ore conversion]

Points: 55

The number that was "0" changed to "55."

The number was rewritten as if someone had erased it with an eraser and rewritten it with a pen.

The fantasy feeling was similar to that of a famous magic movie with the book and the feather pen. For Tenji, who had loved the movie since he was a little boy, the effect aroused more excitement than he had ever imagined.

Still, Tenji takes a deep breath and begins thinking seriously about his calling to survive.

"55... Is it possible to get about this amount of points with a magic gem that can be obtained from a half-grade monster? I want a notepad at such times. I don't have a smartphone now because it was in my bag. I also don't have a pen or paper..."

Tenji was thinking about the memo function of his phone, which he did not have at hand.

[I had a feeling that the number "55" was very important. I intuitively felt that this was an important factor that would influence my future calling.]

Still, Tenji decided to turn to the next page to get the next piece of information.

"Well, what kind of information will come out next?... It's a rather interesting calling. Is it game-like or anime-like?"

Essentially, a calling takes time to determine and use one's abilities and qualities. After fighting monsters, training your skills, and studying within the guild, you will finally be able to estimate where you stand.

However, in this Book of Enma, one after another, information related to the calling came out, which was interesting to Tenji. But Tenji felt like he was cheating a little.

He rolled up the book to the next page.

[Summonable Hell Beasts]

That was all that was written.

"Huh?"

Tenji, who never thought he couldn't get any information, suddenly made a crazy voice.

Still, there was one thing he knew.

The text "summonable earth, hell, and beast..." indicated that it was something called a hell beast that was to be summoned, and from there, the existence of a "hell beast" was confirmed.

'Oh, does this mean I can't summon anything just yet? Maybe, that's right...... yet I haven't done anything since I was given my vocation. And my level is zero......."

(Then I remembered that I was still at level 0 and dismissed it as inevitable.)

To begin with, the concept of "level" itself was an element that had never been heard of in the explorer community. It was a word that often existed in games, but these were only in games, and explorers were not considered to have anything to do with such things. Tenji drew this analogy to compare himself to a game character.

Some drunken researchers had proposed the concept of levels but were not taken seriously.

He turned the book to the next page for more information.

[Hell Realm]

Red demon species: 0/2

Red Demon?

(I finally got one piece of information about hell beasts.)

(Apparently, the most likely species I can summon now is the "Red Demon Species," which refers to an oni, a type of demon.)

(That was all I knew. But, unfortunately, I was not an expert on Japanese yokai or fairy tales, so it was inevitable.)

"Oni....... I guess it's a demon because it's Hell and a calling related to Hell. Seems like a bit of a disturbing vocation."

Thinking that no further information could be expected, he turned the book to the next page.

There, unlike before, were words on it that shone faintly in silver.

[Executable Hell Quests]

Quest Name:

"Encounter with the Red Demon Species"

Conditions for achievement #1.

Squat 1,000 times

Condition #2.

Shadowboxing for 2 hours.

Condition #3.

Survive for three hours or defeat the Red Demon

Condition #4.

Pancreas

-------------------------

Quest Reward

Release of the fifth-grade hell beast "Red Demon."

Fifth Grade weapon "Red Demon Sword."

Fifth Grade equipment "Red Demon Ring."

"Encountering the Red Demon Species."

Tenji found the term fascinating, much to his surprise.

Unintentionally, he gently touched the silvery letters "Encounter with the Red Demon Species" with his fingers.

At that moment, the Book of Enma glowed.

It glowed so brightly and white that Tenji reflexively covered his eyes with both hands.

While glowing, the Book of Enma began to flip through the pages by itself with speed, moving on to the next page and the next page and the next page.

Then, at a certain page, it stopped.

"Whoahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

And then--.

Tenji was sucked into the Book of Enma.