In a building still under renovation, a woman sat. Behind a counter and on her chair. Dressed in her signature striped shirt and a vest, with both her elbows on the desk. In the classic pose of a man from the show, Ne*n Gen*s*s Ev*ngalion, the legendary g*ndo pose.

"Hmmm... Seems like he has made his move. A move of a plan many would disapprove... if they knew. With respect to the other Aspects, we made a move too. The one in red should be there right about now, altering the weapon and preparing to save the two catalysts. Hopefully, he shall be too obtuse, obtuse enough to overlook our ruse." or so she mused, hoping that the plan she used, could save the world and all in it from being reduced to nothingness.

 

 

Early the next morning, in the Sandiasfulk inn. 

 

I'm waking up, to sand and dust. I feel like crap and my mouth's full of sawdust. I'm breathing in Sandiasfulk.

Aaah.

I'm popping joints, stretching up, then checking out of the hotel fast. This is it, the story starts. 

Whoa.

I've woken up, I feel it in my creaking bones, enough to make both eyes roll. Welcome to my powerup, to the powerup. Welcome to the story arc, where God's doing his part. 

 

I'm ready to go, even before the sun rose. Going downstairs to the first floor, I looked around the already surprisingly packed dining area and saw a familiar face. I walked over and met up with Zanko as he then invited me to sit at the table he was already at.

After ordering breakfast, we both started eating. As I was chewing my food, scrambled eggus and bakon, a beam of light slowly shone through the hole in the wall designated as a medieval window. Seeing the sun slowly rise up, I asked him "Do you know when's Yuki waking up?", to which he replies, "N-no." while trying not to turn his head while glancing around the crowded inn. Which, while it does help him not look like a rat-like criminal, it instead makes him look like a pigeon.

 

And thus, with that awkwardly short reply, our table fell back into silence as the noise of the rest of the inn blanketed all in its reach.

 

While waiting, I thought, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Well, why is the woodchuck asking that question? It's not like he could chuck said wood right?", and after thinking of that random nonsense, I suddenly remembered an old adage which I totally did not makeup going something like, "Do not make your teammates wait." Which, I thought was rather fitting.

 

I took advantage of the time we had as we waited and spent it talking to Zanko, well trying, to talk to him. To which he always returns my conversational prompts with an extremely short 1 or 2 syllable reply, which though it is an impressive feat to answer everything in only 1 or 2 syllables, it did not help carry the conversation forward whatsoever. While wishing Yuki was here so that I could have a somewhat competent conversational partner, I gave up trying to talk to Zanko.

 

And so we silently waited.

 

Waiting

 

and waiting

 

and waiting

 

and...

A certain loli suddenly appears, sitting with us at our table. Efficiently and peacefully eating her breakfast.

Very slowly turning my head away from the scenery outside of the window, I turned to my right and stare at her. Hoping she would start a conversation of sorts.

 

She continued eating.

 

If awkward silence could kill, this would be the equivalent of a thermonuclear bomb.

 

...

 

Finally, she finishes her meal. While feeling like I should have just asked earlier, courtesy be damned,  I asked the two at our table, "Shall we get going?", to which she replies, "Yes." and he replies, "S-sure."

Grrrrreat! Let's go folks!

Getting up from our seats, I put on the heavy bag full of equipment as 'Mr. Blue Sky' by Electric Light Orchestra starts playing in my head.

I started walking towards the door.

 ding ding ding ding,

walk walk walk kick,

It's a beautiful new day! Aye!

I stared out onto the crowded Sandiasfulk roads, breathed in the Sandiasfulk air and headed towards the Sandiasfulk dungeon.

My party followed me, each showing their excitement in different ways as we walk past culture shock after culture shock. People wearing wrapped cloth around their heads, everyone wore sandals and the stalls all looked more temporary compared to where we came from.

Yuki stared curiously at everything, unwaveringly sweeping everything with her gaze of curiosity. Zanko, like a bird in a new cage, glanced around fearfully and questioningly.

Meanwhile, I, fearing the crowd's reaction to the living embodiment of handsomeness that is Zanko and already used to how desert markets are from my military excursions, weaved through the crowded and winding streets quickly and expertly, heading with a single-minded goal to where our objective lies, clearly visible above the crowds, a giant castle-like tower looms ahead.

Noticing that they were slowly drifting further away from me, my companions tried their best to keep up, perhaps afraid of losing sight of me.

Losing me and getting lost is after all, totally unrelated to their stats and extremely likely to occur in such a place, especially with the constantly moving crowds and unfamiliar scenery. Not to mention a couple of women blocking Zanko's path from being stunned at his magnificent face. Yuki, for the sin of being too near to Zanko in public, suffered getting stuck in the human barricade too.

I conveniently picked up our supplies while on the way to the dungeon.

 

Arriving at the gates, the crowd seemed to fade away, perhaps afraid that monsters might occasionally pop out of said gates.

In front of the gates was... a toll booth...? Inside it sat a receptionist wearing the guild's uniform, and beside the toll booth stands 2 guards on either side of a closed but smaller gate. Rather unnecessary, considering the giant gates just a few meters away.

Predicting that there would probably be some sort of toll, I waited for Yuki and Zanko to catch up before we all went to the booth. 

At the booth, I see a sheet of paper on the counter: 

Ticket Types                                                         Pricing

Solo (regular)                                                       10 gold

Solo (pass)                                                            20 gold

Duo (regular)                                                          7 gold

Duo (pass)                                                             14 gold

Party (regular) (3 members)                               8 gold

Party (pass) (3 members)                                   15 gold

Every subsequent member till 5 (regular)        2 gold

Every subsequent member till 5 (pass)             4 gold

The pass lasts for 30 days and are non-refundable,

The party pass only counts if you are with all your

party members.

Terms and conditions apply.

 

What the heck is this? An amusement park? Why are there passes? Isn't this an isekai? I hope I don't come face to face with Donkey's wife.

Noticing us standing there and just staring at the counter, the receptionist, or rather, the ticket seller asked us, "M-may I help you?" She seemed to stutter a bit due to sweeping her gaze over Zanko's handsome face, even ticket sellers aren't immune to Zanko's handsomeness huh?

Yuki, the Chief Finance Officer and Chief Executive Officer of our party of 3 as well as someone who probably hasn't ever been to an Amusement Park, asked the ticket seller, "The Tickets. What do they mean?".

Replying to Yuki while facing down to avoid the radiance that is Zanko's glorious mug, the ticket seller says,

"The funds from the tickets are used to provide security in case a dungeon breakout or a monster flood occurs as well as deterrence against solo dungeon exploration.

The tickets are split into 2 categories, the Pass and the Regular.

The Pass allows you to enter and leave the dungeon free of charge for 30 days from the purchase of the pass, however, it costs twice as much as compared to the Regular ticket.

The Regular ticket allows you to travel in and out of the dungeon for 5 days, free of charge."

 

Yuki nodded at the receptionist, indicating her comprehension of that massive exposition dump filled with unneeded marketing tactics.

She turned to us with a questioning gaze. 

Well, I say questioning but it's more like her usual deadpan expression, except she somehow made that seem questioning.

She then asked, "Regular Party ticket. Any objections?" shaking our heads, she holds out her hand, which we drop the gold required into.

She turns to the ticket seller, handing her the gold and telling her, "Regular Party ticket. For me and the two at the back." 

The ticket seller responds, "Please provide me with your adventurer's tags for the imprinting of ticketing information."

Again, Yuki turns back, with her hand held up, I handed my tag and Zanko handed his badge over to her, she hands said tags and the badge over to the ticket seller.

Receiving the tags and seeing the badge, the ticket seller looked surprised... probably thinking something like "Wow. Looks and strength? What a catch!"

His personality be damned.

After the tags and badge were inserted into the machine. The ticket seller pressed some magic buttons on the magic ticket machine and the magic information was imprinted into the magic tags with a bright magical blue glow filled with magic.

Like a microwave, the magic ticket machine rang a loud 'Ding!', announcing to the world that it has finished its job.

Again, repeating the whole sequence, we got our tags and the badge back.

 

Finally, the guards push the gates, swinging them open as we slowly but eagerly enter the Sandiasfulk Dungeon.