CFD – Chapter 1 –  Bottom Tier Streamer

“Summon, Ifrit” (Yotsuka)

As I chanted in my mind, the fire spirit, Ifrit, was summoned and instantly burned the monster that was approaching me.

After confirming the enemy’s death, I continued walking forward without stopping while Ifrit disappeared back to its world.

I decided to leave the monster’s corpse as it is. I could have stripped the parts that were worth money, but my bag was already full, so I couldn’t carry
anything else.

Currently, I am exploring a dungeon located at a certain city in the countryside.

Accompanying me is a drone camera, which is currently streaming my exploration on a major streaming site. There are probably only one or two viewers, if any at all.

Dungeon exploration streams are very popular, but I didn’t put any effort into the title or thumbnail, and my exploration scenes didn’t have much content, so the number of viewers is always minimal. It would be more surprising if I had one regular viewer other than my family.

So why am I streaming in the first place? It was because my mother requested it as a condition for allowing me, a high school student, to explore dungeons so that she could confirm my safety at any time.

My mother had recently lost my father, who used to be a dungeon explorer, so it was a relief that she even allowed me to explore dungeons at all. However, it is frustrating to bring a camera for a stream that no one was going to watch. I didn’t want to be seen anyways. I just wish that I didn’t have to stream my exploration. Well, there is only less than half a year left until I graduate from high school.

Once I graduate from high school, I’ll finally become a full-fledged explorer. Currently, underage or high school student explorers are subjected to receive one-tenth of the payment for the resources brought back from the dungeon, but that will be removed upon graduation. The burden of streaming imposed by my mother will also disappear. It means that my life will become much easier, from living to exploring.

Every day, I will repeat solo exploration, earn money, live alone, and eventually be defeated by a monster and die.

That’s my future prediction.

I don’t have any particular dissatisfaction.

It’s not like I have a strong attachment to dungeon exploration. It’s just that it’s more suited for me than any other legitimate profession, and someone has to explore dungeons and continue to hunt monsters, otherwise, the monsters will leak out of the dungeon and become a necessary job in society, that’s all.

“Yotsuka” (???)

A voice called out to me.

As I walked while thinking about this and that, a fairy named Rinnea, who was out scouting, returned. During dungeon exploration, I always summon her to be on guard and keep an eye on the surroundings.

The little girl-like fairy, clad in light, floated in front of me at the height of my face.

“There’s a red golem beyond that corner.” (Rinnea)

“Got it. Thanks.” (Yotsuka)

“You’re welcome!” (Rinnea)

I thanked her and continued walking in the direction she pointed at. As soon as I turned the corner, I saw a golem clad in flames.

“Summon, Euros” (Yotsuka)

I chanted silently. The wind spirit I summoned proceeded to blow away the golem’s massive body. The flames are extinguished by the gust, and compressed air bullets are fired at the Red Golem, which was helplessly destroyed without being able to do anything.

As I watched this happen, I stopped and let out a sigh.

“I’m tired.” (Yotsuka)

I muttered to myself and took out my smartphone from my pocket to check the number of viewers and comments on the stream.

“Are you going home?” (Rinnea)

“Yeah.” (Yotsuka)

“Got it!” (Rinnea)

Looking through the screen with Rinnea, the result was as expected. Only one viewer was commenting, knowing that I have a style of defeating monsters without checking the stream. They write things like “Good job” or “Well done” every time I defeat a monster.

Just to clarify, this is not my mother. She promised to watch the stream but apparently couldn’t bring herself to watch it much because it was bad for her heart.

“Thank you for the comments. I’m ending the stream now.” (Yotsuka)

I say that to the camera and put my smartphone back in my pocket.

I explore the dungeon by just defeating monsters and return whenever I feel tired of using my mental, physical, and magical strength. This is my streaming and exploration style, and it was taught to me by my father. 

My father often brought me to the dungeon when I entered high school and taught me many things. The most important thing he taught me was about timing to retreat, which he repeated to me many times. He said it was absolutely necessary if you want to survive for a long time.

Today is Sunday, which means I have school tomorrow. Since it takes time to get to the lower floors, I refrain from exploring on weekdays, so the next time I can come here is Saturday. With this in mind, I started to head back home.

By the way, when I reached the exit of the dungeon and gave my closing greeting to a viewer, I received the usual comment:

“Thank you for your hard work. As always, you have an aura of a king!” (Viewer)

And even Rinnea who was influenced by that comment, would always say:

“Please call us again anytime, my King!” (Rinnea)

I don’t know why she always say that.

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TL notes:

Thanks for reading!
If it wasn’t obvious enough already, this is MTL with editing to make it readable, or at least I hope it is readable. I will struggle a lot with the names so I might change them from time to time. Because of that, I have added a character list for reference.

I can totally understand his mother not being able to bring herself to watch the stream, that feeling is probably similar to watching her son go to war every weekend.

Btw Rinnea referred to Yotsuka as 王様, which apparently translates to “king”, but I’m not sure if it sounds weird. Should I change it to “lord” or something?

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