It had already been a month since we talked about the gold sleeping in Mochi Dungeon.

  Steadily tinuing to imrove our skills, the two of them had been running the dungeon without pint sihen.

  Sometimes, taking breaks to enjoy the city, eating snacks, and shopping with the money we saved, we were somehow enjoying this world.

  But on such a day, after tless runs through the dungeon, with cushions that could ruin a person pced in Nel's room besides those for Amina a happened.

  "This is the end!!"

  "Good job, Nel. Even if the skill effect is marginal, the efficy has improved a lot."

  "With this mas, it's bound to happen."

  With a final blow from Nel, who pletely saw through the oppo's movements, the st Kagami Mochi was defeated, a feat that might have set a new personal best in RTA.

  What followed was the routine check of the treasure chest.

  "Both of you, look at that!"

  Amina, who was no longer surprised by golden treasure chests, called out to us as we were looking away.

  "What is that!?"

  It had been so long that even I was surprised.

  A ptinum treasure chest with a rainbow aura.

  No mistake.

  "A rainbow treasure chest!!"

  "Eh, is this it?"

  "It's the first time it's appeared."

  A treasure chest that appears at an ultra-low probability, the highest rate items in this dungeon.

  Gathering around the chest that exuded an almost divimosphere, our hearts were rag.

  Not from running and the increased pulse.

  Our brains were in a state of extreme excitement, pulling our hearts along.

  Yes, colloquially speaking, it's like the brain juice is going crazy.

  "...Is it okay to open this?"

  "Yeah."

  "Will divine punishment fall?"

  "I don't remember it falling."

  While I was excited about what item might appear, Nel and Amina were calm.

  No, they were too mystified, hesitating whether it was okay to open it.

  When it was a golden treasure chest, they pyed rock-paper-scissors to not let me open it.

  Well, it's because my real luck is so bad that they think it's better not to let me open it.

  But now, they were urgih their eyes to open the chest.

  "Nel, aren't you going to open it?"

  "To, today I feel a bit off, so I'll pass!"

  "I, I think I'll pass this time too."

  Personally, I wanted Nel, who has the highest real luck among us, to open it, but both were too scared of the mystical item to want to open it.

  F them to open it wouldn't do any good.

  "Don't pin if it's a dud."

  "Got it."

  "Yeah, it's fine."

  After firming it was okay even if it was a dud, I gently reached out to the rainbow treasure chest.

  Opening the chest uheir watchful eyes.

  Nostalgic.

  During game event periods, I used to search for limited items with my friends like crazy.

  The roar when a rainboeared, and the sadness when a different item appeared that you couldn't genuinely be happy about.

  Wait, I'm starting to not want to open the chest a bit?

  I don't think Nel and Amina would say such things, but opening it feels more like bearing the responsibility of opening it rather than the expectation.

  "...I'm opening it."

  "Okay."

  "Go ahead."

  Influenced by their atmosphere and recalling a bit of past trauma, I also got nervous.

  Imagining the list of items that could e out of the Kagami Mochi's rainbow chest in my head.

  "Namu Amida Butsu!"

  After taking a deep breath, I opehe unlocked chest.

  "So, how is it?"

  "Did lightning strike or something?"

  "Nothing has ged, but..."

  Nothing unusual happened.

  No monsters summohat Nel was worried about.

  No traps activated, nothing of that sort.

  Nel and Amina, relieved that no divine punishment had fallen, cautiously peered inside.

  Having ope first, I frowned slightly at the tents of the chest.

  "The tents are... a key? And it's really shiny. Like it's made of gold."

  "...Could it be!?"

  Amina, carefree, admired the key I took out from the chest, but Nel, looking bad forth between my fad the key, seemed to realize its true nature.

  "That's right. It seems we've hit the jackpot."

  It's been a while since I've seen it, but there are only two types of keys that e out of Kagami Mochi's rainbow chest.

  One is a regur Mochi key.

  Basically, a dud.

  But this golden key is unmistakable.

  "It's the key to the Golden Mochi Dungeon."

  "Wha!?"

  The sound of gasping from both sides, but that's not important right now.

  What's up with my real luck?

  It never works normally, so why now?

  Could it be that something bad is going to happen iure that I o take advantage of this luck?

  Please, no. I just learned from Nel about the dark side of this world's power holders and realized with Jinx-san's firmation that it's dangerous to stand out befaining strength.

  "What should we do?"

  "What do you mean? We have to use it."

  Nel's question was natural.

  It's what we were inally seeking.

  There's ation in using it now.

  Selling it is absolutely out of the question.

  "Is it okay to use it? It feels a bit wasteful."

  "Carrying it around is scarier."

  Amina showed reluce to use such a precious item, but the bes from using it are immeasurable.

  You gain more experience from defeating monsters in this duhan in any other.

  Depending on the drop items, you get even stronger.

  "Hey, Liberta."

  "What is it?"

  The idea of leaving the dungeo even e up with su item.

  Ihe dungeon, especially the boss room, ohe door is closed, there's no worry of interference from the outside.

  Right now, this is the safest pce.

  We're staying here until we decide the key's fate.

  A on uanding among the three of us.

  "'t we make it so we use it forever, like the keys we've been using?"

  "Ah."

  And then Nel realized.

  Because I showed her a way to make dungeon keys perma.

  "To clude, theoretically, it's possible."

  "Theoretically?"

  But I also know it's an unrealistic story.

  "Once, an alchemist who reached the pinnacle of the field prepared the best equipment ceivable at the time and attempted to synthesize a hundred of these golden keys."

  It's famous in the FBO unity.

  If using the Mark of the Weak make certain ables usable indefinitely, then why not make rare ables into infinite meisms?

  A thought everyone had, but no one achieved.

  A pyer with an alchemist build, said to be unmatched at the time, prepared what he sidered his masterpiece setup and equipment, along with enha items and persohat anyone would agree were perfect for the challenge.

  A challenge prepared with a hundred keys, ready to face failure.

  "And the result?"

  Nel, intrigued by the legendary tale, urged me to tinue.

  "Failure. No, a crushi."

  Despite all the preparation, all the golden keys shattered, leaving only the weakest item, the Mark of the Weak.

  The pyer who attempted it thought it was strao fail so badly, questioning if the item was unsynthesizable, ahe challenge footage to the operators for inquiry.

  The ahat came back was.

  "The synthesis success rate of the golden key and the Mark of the Weak is... one in a hundred million. And that's with the pinnacle alchemist's perfect preparation."

  The operators, sidering skill position, equipment, status, setup, items, personnel, all factors, carefully calcuted aurhe answer.

  The answer quickly spread among the pyers, and the path to the perpetual motion mae of the golden key was reized as not zero, but close to zero.

  "Even if there's an alchemist in this town with better skills, it's better to use it than to attempt it."

  The NPC alchemists in this town are far below the pyers.

  Even the royal court alchemists 't hold a dle to a serious alchemist build.

  "Right, then I think it's better to use it."

  inally intending to use it, after hearing my story, Nel decided it's better to dispose of troublesome items early.

  "Is it really okay?"

  "Then, is there any other method? If you say throw it away, I'll get angry."

  "I won't go that far."

  As a mert and as a result of her efforts, Nel couldn't bear to throhat she had gained, gring at Amina who was menting the waste.

  "Alright, I get it. I'm ied too."

  After a few seds , Amina raised the white fg.

  Amina, who just wao keep the rare golden key, seemed to have tipped the scales towards using it.

  "The's use it right away. Strike while the iron is hot."

  "If that's the case, let's use it here."

  With Amina's resolve, Nel headed towards the magic circle to go outside but was stopped.

  "Eh, we're ihe dungeht? we use it here?"

  "We . In fact, there's no safer pce to use the goldehan here."

  Geing a dungeon inside a dungeon.

  It might sound strange, but it's perfectly doable.

  Once, a foolish pyer prepared a rge number of dungeon keys and created a dungeon that took three days to exit.

  "Right, the boss room is safe from outside interfereno one e in."

  "Then we use it without worry."

  "Alright, let's use it right away."

  That logic should hold.

  Cautiously presenting the goldehe familiar sensation of it fitting, and the sound of it clig open.

  "Whoa!?"

  "It's bright!?"

  The light from the opened space made us instinctively shield our eyes.

  Like the Mochi Dungeon, it's a cave, but the entire space is dyed in golden hues.

  "Is this all gold?"

  "Yeah, but it's a dungeon, so it's iructible and 't be taken out."

  "Wow, amazing."

  As our eyes adjusted, we slowly lowered our hands.

  A natural golden cave.

  If we could mine all the gold here and take it back, imagihe wealth.

  Perhaps thinking that, Nel has been moving her head up, dow, and right.

  "Ah, even the mochi is golden."

  Looking into the space from the entrance, Amina spotted moving objects.

  "Eh? But there seem to be a lot of them."

  "This dungeon is different from the regur Mochi Dungeon; it doesn't respawn. Instead, there are more mochi initially and more rooms."

  "Wow."

  Golden spheres boung around with a soft motion.

  Though familiar from games, seeing it after a long time feels oddly strange.

  "This should really help level up our skills!!"

  "Right, we o think carefully to distribute the numbers evenly."

  But there's no doubt it's a treasure trove in terms of experiend drop items.

  Personally, hoping for Nel's real luck, I'm thinking three rounds should be enough, directly challenging the greed sensor.

  "Well, let's go in."

  There's not much time left today.

  If we're to defeat all the golden mochi in the dungeoter hurry.

  "Yeah! Let's go with full spirit!"

  "Let's do our best!"

  Each holding our ons, we ehe first room.

  "First, one each!!"

  "I'll take the one on the right!"

  "Then, I'll take this one."

  Even golden, mochi is still mochi.

  Non-active monsters, so even when we arrived, they were leisurely boung around.

  The pza is a bit wide, blending into the golden space, making it a bit troublesome to find, but sihe moving objects are mochi, we each chose our targets.

  "On the t of three!"

  "Okay!"

  "Eh, ah, okay."

  Is this some kind of ritual?

  Well, there's a desire to defeat the first moogether, I guess.

  "Owo, three!"

  Following Nel's cue, we thrust our spears into the golden mochi.

  The sensation is almost the same as regur mochi.

  Not hard like some metal monsters.

  So the golden mochi was easily defeated i, just like regur mochi.

  "The drop is... nothing."

  The golden ground was empty.

  Thinking it's a pity, I remind myself that not getting anything is normal.

  "I did it!! It dropped!!"

  "Nel, you're amazing!!"

  Eh, seriously?

  But seeing Nel jumping for joy with a golden mochi in hand, my heart aches a little.