I'm back with a new JP webnovel translation project, "Saitama Dungeon" by Yamaguchi Yuuko (山口遊子)

The main character, 15-year-old Hasegawa Ichiro was magically summoned from our-world Japan to an alternate world to become a Hero and defeat the Demon Lord, which he managed to do after ten years of effort. However immediately after his victory he was returned to Japan (or so he thinks) and regressed back to being 15 years old again, with no time seemingly having passed since his summoning. He is surprised to discover that he has in fact returned to an alternate version of Japan where monster-filled "Special Cavities" or dungeons suddenly appeared all over Japan about fifteen years before, around the time he was born.

Another two groups previously started translating this webnovel but both have stopped doing so. The only version still accessible comprises the first eight chapters, at Zetro Translation (warning: popup advert farm). Unless something happens I probably won't go back and create my own translations of those chapters.

As before, I'm not doing any Patreon or operating any kind of advert farm for this site but if you want to contribute a few bucks to me, I have a Kofi account button on the right.

 

Saitama Dungeon by Yamaguchi Yuuko

Episode 9: Junior High School Graduation and High School Entrance

The last summer vacation of my junior high school career finally began. Worried about how my physical abilities might have changed from my time as a Hero in the other world, I used my time off to test myself in various ways and discovered that basically there didn’t seem to be any difference at all. This was a relief.

If I ran a 100 meters race flat-out, I could probably get a time of under five seconds. An Olympic athlete would be be hailed as a record-breaker for running the 100 meters in under nine seconds. If I can run that distance in less than five seconds and people found out about it, it’s possible I might be abducted and experimented on as a lab specimen in some shady underground installation like in a manga. This means that no matter what happens, I can’t let my over-the-top physical abilities be made public.

By definition a Hero is someone who can wield the Holy Sword Enolagrat. Since I don't possess the Holy Sword in this world I couldn't officially call myself a Hero, but physically I am still a Hero in this world. In addition all the magic I was able to use in the other world can be used here in Japan without any problems. I have to keep my magical abilities a secret too, of course.

One day in August I decided to visit the Saitama Dungeon, a place I had investigated many times online. I thought it would take half an hour to get there from my house but it only took 20 minutes riding my upright “mamachari”-style bicycle.

I remembered there used to be fields stretching out as far as the eye could see where the Saitama Dungeon had appeared, but now there were several massive buildings in their place. Even the private houses amidst the fields were gone so it was clear the residents had moved out. In this world all of the dungeons had appeared around the time I was born. My memories of this region before I was summoned to be a Hero were disconcertingly wrong.

Wanting to see what the dungeon site was like, I rode my bike through the gate marked Saitama Dungeon Center and went to the front of the largest building. According to online info, this was the main building and behind it was the entrance to the dungeon.

I had read online that the dungeon entrance basically looks like a black vortex to the naked eye, but for some reason all the photos and videos taken of it are blurry and the vortex isn't clearly visible - it appears in images as a solid black slab. I’d say that’s weird. I was really excited by the idea of seeing it with my own eyes.

A bus entered the gate and pulled up at the bus stop in front of the main building and a lot of people got off. It's summer vacation so the dungeon is probably swarming with high school and university students who live nearby. The people getting off the bus ranged in age from around 20 years old to older folks in their 30s and 40s. I knew no-one could get a dungeon adventurer's license if they were of high school age. The ratio of men to women was roughly about two to one. That was the same as the gender ratio of dungeon license holders that I had seen listed online, unsurprisingly.

The bus passengers were dressed lightly, carrying large sports bags or backpacks. It was hot in summer so it wouldn’t make sense to travel to the Dungeon Center while wearing the sorts of protective gear they needed in the dungeon. I had read online that there were changing rooms with rental lockers inside the Dungeon Center and even a bathing facility which the licence holders could use for a fee.

The visitors all swiped cards over the card readers at the automatic ticket gates and entered the main building. After seeing that, I went to explore the various facilities around the Dungeon Center itself. I looked around the hamburger shops, family restaurants, hot spring-style baths, and even a store that sold dungeon armour before I pedalled my bike back home. I hadn’t discovered anything new compared to the information I had read online, but seeing it in person gave me a sense of motivation that I couldn't quite pin down.

Summer vacation ended and the second semester began. My grades continued to soar and I got perfect scores in all subjects in both the midterm and final exams.

"Hasegawa. With these results you know you could easily get into a prestigious school in Tokyo, right?” That's what my homeroom teacher, Maekawa-sensei, told me, but I think that to get into a top high school in Tokyo, I would need to study hard for the entrance exams since middle school exam results aren't taken into account very much by the top high schools.

"I don't think it's possible for me since I don't even go to cram school." I answered and Maekawa-sensei looked disappointed. I wondered if he thought his reputation would improve if some of his students got into a really good high school.

And then, March came and the day of the Saitama High School entrance exam. The exam was as easy as I had expected. My self-assessment after I finished was that I had got full marks in all subjects. Saying that, I might have made a mistake in answering one question but I don't think it would be a problem. It is said that 70% of admission to Saitama High School is determined by the student’s middle school report, so no matter how bad my exam result was I’d still probably be accepted.

By the way, I didn't even bother to apply to the private high school that I had originally considered as a backup school. If I had failed to get into Saitama High School I would have to repeat the entrance exam for high school next year but I was confident that this would not be necessary.

Five days later the results were announced and, of course, I passed. I sent an email to Maekawa-sensei on my smartphone to let him know and I received a reply within less than a minute.

 

"Good job! Congratulations!" it said. Since I have the mental age of 25, I properly replied, "It's all thanks to you, sensei. Thank you very much." Afterwards, I emailed my mom and dad to let them know I had passed and also received an immediate reply. I'll be a high school freshman in April and when my first high school summer vacation comes, I'll get my Dungeon license and become an adventurer.

Speaking of exams, Yuina sat the entrance exam for an all-girls school in Saitama instead of the co-ed ▽× High School. I didn't hear it directly from her, the topic came up naturally in discussion with my classmates after my middle school graduation ceremony. That’s how I found out that Yuina had been accepted into Saitama Girls High School.

In April I finally became a high school student. The high school was about a 20-minute walk from my house, farther away than my middle school but not by much. The first year had eight classes and I was in class 1.

My homeroom teacher was a woman named Yoshida Akane. She said she was in her thirties when she introduced herself to the class but she looked younger than that, and, although it may sound a little strange for me to say so, she had a nicely toned body. Because of that I thought she was a physical education teacher but it turned out she taught Japanese.

During our first homeroom class Yoshida-sensei asked if we had any questions. I put my hand up to ask if she was an adventurer.

“Oh, that’s a good question. Actually I’m a B-Rank adventurer. Amazing, right?”

It takes a cumulative total of over 10 million yen worth of dungeon materials purchased at the Dungeon Center for someone to be issued a B-Rank licence. I thought that earning that amount in a Dungeon at the same time as working as a teacher would be quite an achievement.

"When I was a student, I was in the university’s Dungeon Club and spent most of my free time exploring Dungeons.” Yoshida-sensei explained. “These days I only go exploring every now and then.” She looked down at the attendance book. “Your name is Hasegawa, right? Are you interested in dungeons, Hasegawa-kun?"

"Yes. I'm thinking of getting my dungeon license during the summer vacation." I explained.

"I see. You will have to balance adventuring with your school studies, but it's an easy part-time job if you're just collecting monster materials on the dungeon’s first level. Do your best." she said encouragingly.

"Yes, sensei." I agreed. I had really lucked out having Yoshida-sensei as my homeroom teacher since she obviously knew a lot about adventuring.