⟦Welcome to the dungeon 'The Exalt's Memories'.⟧

Wow. I like this hospitality.

⟦Member Count: 2/10.⟧

Hmm, seems like the dungeon has a limit on how many people can enter at once. Also, it seems to have recognised the duo of me and Neia as a party.

Interesting. The dungeon has a system in place to ensure that the native species of this world cannot abuse the dungeon.

I mean, if the member limit didn't exist, countries of this world would just send entire armies to clear dungeons through brute force.

Not only would doing that prevent the humans from evolving to better fight the Agressors, it would also cripple entire countries in case something went wrong inside the dungeon and they lose their armies.

The entry limit stops that from happening.

It also increases the quality of fighters by forcing them to send only the best people to clear the dungeon.

So basically, this is just an average dungeon system.

The inside was dark so I took out a torch from my bag and lit it. The yellow light spread around and lit up my surroundings.

I looked around, and yup, it was just a cave that had been turned into a dungeon to keep the Aggressors at bay.

There didn't seem to be any monsters around, so I made my way in.

"Is it always so dark in a dungeon?" I asked Neia who was quietly following me.

"No. Dungeons usually have Mana Crystals that provide light, but they have already been mined."

"I see, I see."

We continued walking vigilantly, but nary a monster appeared to challenge us. We didn't even encounter a crossroad (or whatever that makes you think which way to go).

This was just a straight cavern with no branches.

"Is this perhaps the weakest dungeon in the 1-star series?"

Dungeons are supposed to have a maze-like structure, with the complexity rising along with the difficulty, yet this one is just a straight cave.

"Exactly."

Wow, I'm insulted. How am I supposed to die in this dungeon I mean prove my worth to my guild?

"You don't seem too happy about it." Neia laughed.

"Well, you gotta deal with the cards you are dealt." I shrugged.

"Couldn't have said it better."

But yea, this is becoming a bit boring.

And boredom has absolutely no place in my life.

"What is the fastest clear record for this dungeon?"

"I don't know. The dungeon keeps its own records."

"Make an educated guess."

"Hmm… Well, there were rumours going around that a boy cleared this dungeon in half an hour."

"Really?"

30 minutes is the world record? What filthy noobs.

"I have no idea whether that is true or not. Maybe he just entered the dungeon, hung around the entrance and came out half an hour later."

"I see."

Well, for the sake of being on the safe side, let's assume that the rumours are true and the boy cleared the dungeon in 30 minutes.

And to be balls deep into the safe side, let's assume there's a mysterious Protagonist X out there who has cleared the dungeon within 11 minutes but hasn't revealed his achievement to anyone because he gets off at the sense of superiority.

Keeping those two things in mind, let's aim for a clear time of 10 minutes.

"We're going to speed up."

"Huh? Why? Take your time and familiarise yourself-"

"We don't have the time. I have to clear the dungeon within 5 minutes."

"Haaaa? That's impossible." She exclaimed.

"Is that so?"

Looks like Imma have the show this lass the tactic called 'speedrunning'.

Of course, speedrunning requires one to abandon the normal ways and look for exploits and glitches. Alternatively, one can just use cheats.

And so, I cast a bunch of magic spells. The first was the flight one to increase mobility, of course.

As I floated up, several magic circles appeared behind me, their function being detecting monsters and firing ice spears at them (which, by the way, have a homing feature).

Finally was a spell to augment my sight so that I could see the monsters before they could see me.

"Wait, don't tell me you're serious…"

"Nah, of course not." I chuckled. "See you at the finish line."

The next moment, I sped off towards the boss room.

"W-wait!" Neia's cry quickly faded away.

They say that slow and steady wins the race, but what they don't tell you is that the fast and furious creates world records.

Of course, some would say that what I was doing was reckless beyond measure as a single mistake could kill me, and you know what I call them?

Competent Adventurers.

Anyway, I hope this world has a Dungeon Book of World Records.

Oh look, a bunch of monsters.

They were just roaming around, playing and probably waiting for a newbie adventurer to sink their fangs into.

"Awoo?" One of them raised its head and turned into my direction. "Awowowowowowo!" It panicked when it saw me approaching them at such speed.

Before it or its companions could do anything to ruin my World Record Run, their heads were impaled by my ice spears.

As I flew past them, the spears vanished and their lifeless bodies plopped to the ground.

Ez- woah!

That was close. I nearly collided into a rock there.

Phew.

Anyway, I continued making my way in while killing every single Wolferion I came across.

Since just penetrating them with my thick spears was becoming a bit boring and repetitive, I played around by 360 no scoping them, impaling all the monsters with a single spear, and various other meme tactics to keep myself amused.

However, before long, I had to reduce the speed of my flight. After all, a door had appeared in front of me.

Looks like I'm at the end of my journey. And I completed it within 3 minutes as well.

Sub 9 minutes might very much be possible.

I stopped in front of the door but kept floating. I also didn't dispel my magic spells; I instead supplied them with more mana.

Azell said that this dungeon had been cleared so I wouldn't find any boss monster inside, but he's also the guy who said that the Minotaur would step aside if he showed it the medallion.

And we all know how that turned around, so this time, I'm going to keep my guard up.

And so, I pushed the door open.

What laid before me was a large hall.

To my pleasant surprise, there were no monsters around, only an altar in the middle of the hall.

A black, shiny ball was floating at the top of the altar. It was actually glowing with a white hue, giving it the mystic aura one would expect from a dungeon.

This was probably this dungeon's core.

I cancelled my flight spell (but kept the others up) and headed towards the dungeon core.

As far as I'm aware, touching the dungeon core should mark the end of my dungeon exploration.

And so, I did what I had to do.

The dungeon shone with a light brighter than an average cryptocurrency investor's future, and another screen appeared in front of me.

⟦Congratulations.⟧