Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells Vol. 1

by Kaoru Shinozaki

  Walk.

  What was that?

  Walk. Walk.

  Nothing…

  Walk. Walk. Walk.

  There’s nothing down here. Just rocks. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. Oh, and rocks. Did I mention rocks?

  They all looked the same.

  What’s a rock, anyway? What’s the difference between a rock and a boulder? How about mountains… how big does it have to be to count as a mountain?

  I’m underground… Is it still a mountain if it’s underground…?

  “…”

  My mind was in a bad place.

  Extreme hunger. Extreme thirst. Who knew it’d be this hard? I’m not even seeing monsters anymore. I’d kill them if I did. Food. Meat. I don’t care what it is. Somebody, please. Give me something to eat.

  “Oh yeah…”

  There were monster corpses on the lower levels.

  “Maybe I could eat them.”

  My voice cracked from lack of water as I told the emptiness my idea. I turned back—I had a bad feeling that the empty, identical terrain stretching before me might just continue forever.

  But I did know one place where there would definitely be food. Minotaur corpses are basically beef, right? And I bet bird-head meat tastes like chicken.

  I can make it there. I have to.

  I trudged the long road back to the battlefield I’d left behind. I wasn’t even sweating anymore when I got there.

  Water…blood? Can I drink their blood?

  I took out my shortsword, held it in my off hand and…stopped.

  “Hang on…”

  I poisoned them all to death…are they okay to eat? The poison wore off, right? They’re not bubbly or purple anymore. As long as I can actually cut them up, it should be fine to eat them. I can eat them…please let me eat them…

  I set aside my leather pouch. Leaving my left hand free for using skills, I gripped the sword in my right.

  Minotaur… Beef…

  My hand gripped tight around the hilt of my sword.

  The hide’s probably too tough to cut through, even if it’s dead. I should try near the head, somewhere with less muscle.

  I dug in and gouged out one of the eyeballs.

  This might work…?

  I looked dubiously into the eye socket…could I get some meat out of there? I swallowed.

  I have to try. Just…push down how disgusting this is, there’s no room to be squeamish.

  I need food and water, or I’ll die.

  Okay. First, jam the blade into the eye socket…

  Pssssh!

  “Whoa…?! Aah!”

  I jumped back. Acid spurted out of the eyehole—the entire corpse was full of it. There was no way I could eat that.

  “…”

  I glanced down at the eyeball that had fallen on the rock next to me.

  Maybe I can eat it…?

  I’m gonna die. I need it.

  I gingerly picked the eyeball up and bit into it.

  Pssssh!

  “Gaaanngh!”

  It was filled with acid. I coughed and spat over and over.

  It’s like their whole bodies are filled with this stuff—harmless to them but poison to their prey.

  I furiously wiped my mouth on my uniform—it felt like the inside of my mouth had melted a little.

  I sighed deeply.

  I was lucky I didn’t swallow any. It burned, but there wasn’t much I could do about that without water.

  The damage didn’t seem too bad, at least—it might’ve been my defense stat doing the heavy lifting.

  I made my way suspiciously toward the nearest bird-head monster. I tried the same thing, with predictable results—it wasn’t edible.

  Figures. They send people here to die, right? If you could kill and eat the monsters, surviving down here would be much simpler. There’s no way the Goddess would make it that easy. I’m sure this was part of her plan—even if someone manages to beat the minotaurs and the bird-heads, their own primal needs will get them before long.

  “The Ruins of Disposal… No survivors, huh?”

  The monsters must eat something, though…and they must have a water source somewhere. If I can find that…

  I shook my head. This was another world. I couldn’t rely on my world’s logic here.

  But if they don’t need food and water…that’s my last hope crushed. Maybe they don’t kill humans for food? Maybe hunting is just a game for them—hunting for sport, like we’d play a video game.

  “…”

  I stopped walking.

  What do I do? Head back to the desert? There’s nothing there. Back to the start, to track the minotaurs and bird-heads who ran away from me? No, fighting them while I’m in this condition is too dangerous. I might not get my skills off in time.

  I felt weak, like my head was hollowed out and empty.

  “That’s right…gotta pick up my bag…”

  I looked down blankly at my light-up leather pouch.

  “Huh…?”

  The glowing crystal on my pouch…it looked different, somehow.

  It used to be more lime-green, didn’t it?

  I remembered it being a pale green color, maybe. But now, the bottom of the crystal glowed purple.

  I rubbed my eyes.

  Am I starting to see things? Was it always this color?

  I thought back to when the foul Goddess first handed it to me. It definitely wasn’t purple at that point.

  Did I poison my pouch somehow by mistake…? Nah, that can’t be it.

  “Ah—”

  As I inspected the pouch, the light got fainter. I put my hands on the crystal and poured more mana into the pouch—as much as I could, before hunger took away the strength I needed to use mana at all.

  “Huh?”

  The purple patch grew.

  Is this…some sort of gauge? Does it fill up when I pour mana into it?

  My exhausted mind raced.

  My level’s so high that I have a stupid amount of mana. More than enough.

  I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. Maybe walking past all those rocks had actually melted my brain. But I just wanted to see something happen. Something, anything different.

  I’ll leave enough mana to use a bunch of skills—100 times should be enough.

  I started pouring mana into the pouch’s crystal.

  Even if I’m sitting here and the only difference is that my crystal’s purple now, that’d be something…

  After several minutes, the crystal turned completely purple—the gauge was full. It glowed with a strong, dazzling light. I felt a strange sense of satisfaction with what I’d done.

  “Pfaa haah…hah…” I choked out a parched laugh.

  Why am I laughing, anyway?

  I forced my tired legs to stand.

  Time to go…I can still move, right? I probably won’t make it back to that desert area, though. I’ll have to find where those minotaurs ran off to. Walk until my legs give out. If I try my hardest and it’s not enough, at least I’ll know I did everything I could. There are still things I can do here! I turned that crystal purple, didn’t I?!

  I can still change things.

  You knew what you were getting yourself into. This place is hell. Writhe. Struggle. Until the very end.

  Until your heart stops beating.

  Disposed hero, Mimori Touka.

  “Heh, I’m not giving up that easily… Pfah hah hah…”

  For some strange reason, I started laughing.

  At least things are getting interesting again. Has the hunger started messing with my head?

  I walked a few meters, then stopped. Something was wrong.

  “Wh-what…?” I lurched forward, then frantically looked in all directions.

  Is it an attack?! Is some monster pulling me down?!

  There was nothing there…

  Oh.

  The leather pouch had changed again—now the crystal was gray. It was glowing just as strong as ever, but…
had it suddenly, without warning, gotten heavier?

  “Ah…” There was something inside. Not the sword—I’d left that near the mountain of monster corpses. It didn’t feel familiar.

  “So, what is it?”

  Trembling, I turned the whole thing upside down.

  Two items fell out—one bounced and rolled a little, the other fell flat with a crinkle. I picked them up.

  I’d seen that packaging before. Seeing something so normal…it made me feel horribly homesick.

  “This can’t be real. There’s no way…”

  In my hands were a 500 ml plastic bottle of cola and a bag of beef jerky.

  At first, I didn’t wonder why. I didn’t have time for thought.

  “W-water…”

  Water… Water, water water water water, water water water water.

  I held the bottle with both hands. There was condensation on the surface.

  Cold to the touch. Not a hallucination. This is real.

  I twisted the cap.

  “—?!”

  I couldn’t even summon the strength.

  Are my stat modifiers not working? Or do they not apply to little stuff like gripping a bottle? Do stat modifiers just stop working when you’re weak?

  “Aaaah!” I twisted like my life depended on it—which it did, really.

  Pshh…

  The sweet smell of cola flooded my senses as I jerked the bottle toward my lips. I started gulping it down. I knew you weren’t supposed to drink too fast when you were dehydrated, but I couldn’t fight my instincts—couldn’t hold back.

  I only stopped when I started choking and coughing.

  “It’s so good…”

  I realized I was crying. It was the most delicious cola I’d ever tasted in my life.

  The thick, sweet taste penetrated me to my very core as it flowed in a refreshing river down into my stomach. My throat twitched with every bubble of the carbonated liquid. Every cell in my body was overjoyed to have sugar again. I let the feeling wash over me.

  I looked back at the bottle—there was about a third left. I closed the cap and turned to my next prey.

  I’ve never been so happy to see convenience store beef jerky.

  Drinking the cola had somehow made me hungrier. I tore through the package and started tearing at the meat with my teeth.

  Who cares about manners? Just me and the monsters down here anyway.

  Chewing the hard, stringy meat felt amazing. The strongest taste was salt, but there was also a sweet, almost fragrant flavor underneath it.

  I unscrewed the cap of the cola.

  “J-just a little more…!”

  I took a swig of the drink while the jerky was still in my mouth. The salty jerky mixed with the sweetness of the cola rolling over my tongue, forming a perfect union. I’d never thought to put these two things together before, but…it was amazing.

  It’s so good. Have they always been this good…? Oh man…cola and beef jerky…

  I wiped my mouth on my sleeve.

  Three pieces of jerky left… Do I save them?

  I started reaching for the packet again, but somehow…I resisted.

  I have to save it. Continuing on with no food would be too risky.

  “All right, then…”

  Good…holding back is good. There’s a little cola left, too. Good job, rational brain.

  I picked up the jerky and idly looked at the packaging. There was a sticker on the side that read, “For Big Appetites! Ultra Pack!”

  Dear whoever decided to make this a jumbo pack…I am eternally grateful.

  I took a deep breath.

  I was really, really into eating for a minute there—I must’ve looked crazy. Though I guess nobody could expect manners in a situation like that.

  It might’ve been the sugar, but my brain seemed to be working a little better and I felt the strength returning to my limbs. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought my stat modifiers’ effects might’ve gotten weaker when I was hungry and exhausted.

  As if waking from a stupor, I flinched and looked around.

  This is bad. I was so caught up with the food that I forgot to watch out for monsters. I’m lucky that one didn’t kill me while I was eating.

  I moved to a more defensible spot against one of the walls and sank down into a sitting position. I put the plastic bottle under my arm and inspected the leather pouch again. It was empty. I ran my thumb across the crystal.

  “It’s grey now, huh…”

  Starts out lime green. Put in enough mana, and it turns purple. Once the cola and jerky come out, it turns grey.

  I had to assume that the sudden appearance of my cola and jerky had something to do with the crystal changing color.

  So…pour enough mana into the pouch and something comes out. But where did it come from? Was it from somewhere in the real world?

  Okay, there could be a million explanations and I don’t know enough about magic to figure it out. Let’s shelve that one for now. Put mana in, take food out…got it.

  “Will it turn green again?”

  It might only work once.

  The pouch’s glow had faded while I was eating. I started pouring mana into it and it started glowing again…but the crystal’s color was unchanged.

  Still grey. Does it reset after a while? And what if…

  “Next time, it might not be food and water. It might be something else.”

  I needed to test all these theories somehow.

  The leather pouch that the Goddess had given me out of “compassion,” the E-Class hero’s item she’d mocked as useless…it had saved my life. It was ironic.

  “She called it compassion, but apparently the pouch was mine from the beginning of this whole summoning thing. So she really just returned what she stole from me…”

  I stood back up and packed the leftover jerky and cola in my pouch.

  “Okay, ready to go.” I scratched my head. “I’ve started talking to myself a lot, huh…?”

  I guess it makes sense, though. Walking around in silence through these caves would’ve driven me insane.

  It’s okay to talk to myself, right? Uh…I guess there’s nobody here to judge me, so I can’t see the harm.

  All right. Food and water are handled for now, time to start heading up.

  I walked back the way I’d come—through the place I’d started out, past the monster corpses, to the upper area, and into the desert.

  “…”

  Unexplored territory.

  “I haven’t been leaving any markers so I can’t be totally sure, but…I don’t think I’ve been this way before…”

  I walked cautiously over the fine sand. Two, maybe three hours passed before I found myself standing before a huge, twisting, rounded opening.

  “Let’s do this.”

  I took a step forward.

  AWOOOOOOOH…

  Was that the wind?

  At least that meant there was air down there, though that didn’t necessarily mean it was connected to the surface. I hadn’t seen any monsters in the area yet, and I couldn’t sense any nearby.

  Do none of the minotaurs or bird-heads live here?

  I touched the black surface of one of the rocks. It was smooth as glass.

  The terrain here was bumpy, dotted with puddle-like indentations and blanketed in white powder. The black stone jutted out of the sand like small, snow-topped mountains in a sea of white.

  I kept walking, and eventually came out into a large cavern.

  “Wow…”

  There was a swampy patch of water nearby, and I went over to investigate. Unfortunately, the water was dark green…and were those bubbles? There was an intense smell hanging over it, too. It really didn’t look like something I’d want to drink.

  Shame—I could’ve filled the plastic bottle if this stuff was drinkable.

  “Hm?”

  There was a skull floating on the surface. It looked human—somebody must’ve fallen in and drowned.

  That�
��s proof of one thing, at least. Somebody else escaped those minotaurs and bird-headed monsters and made it up here. Another discarded hero, struggling to get away.

  I searched for a way forward and found a smooth slope leading upwards.

  Looks like a spiral staircase that’s given up, or pancake batter spread too thin. It’s a really gentle slope, I’m trying to say.

  “I guess I should use it…”

  I began to ascend.

  This is totally a dungeon—why’d the Goddess call this place a ruin?

  As soon as I started my ascent, white shapes caught my attention.

  “This is—”

  A small depression in the rock up ahead came into view…and it was filled with bones—countless bones.

  Not just human bones, either…bones of the minotaurs and bird-heads, too.

  I swallowed.

  There’s something even nastier lurking here, no doubt about it.

  “What’s that…?”

  I could hear something, a cry from the darkness…

  The massive crash of rock being cracked open.

  “Wh-what was that?!”

  I raised my arm to protect my face. The shrapnel shot past me, just barely missing me to careen wildly across the sand.

  When the dust settled, I saw it.

  “That thing’s…huge.”

  A massive cavern had opened up in the rock face to my left, and through it…

  Footsteps. A massive, orange-glowing form moving in the darkness.

  “That’s…”

  It was a dragon.

  Its massive, lizard-like head had empty eye sockets, and dark purple rotting meat hung from its exposed ribcage. It stretched its giant, ragged wings and writhing, sinewy tail. Its arms ended in razor-sharp claws.

  It opened its mouth and let out a guttural roar.

  Is it a skeleton, or some kind of ghoul, or…

  A zombie dragon.

  The roar almost knocked me off my feet. It reeked. Something oozed from between its teeth, splashed on the ground and fizzed.

  More acid, huh?

  “Guaaaaaaarrrr!”

  A thin, worm-like tongue shot out of the zombie dragon’s mouth, clearly gunning right for me. For a moment, I was frozen.

  “So this is your home, huh?”

  That pile of bones in the hollow must be the people who came before me—the zombie dragon’s garbage heap.

  I could feel how badly it wanted to kill me. I raised my hand.

  I’m grateful. Really, I am. Thanks for making it easy on me. This way, I don’t have to feel bad about annihilating you. Thank you for stepping into the arena—now it’s down to survival of the fittest.