"Ugh… where… where am I!?"
I woke up sprawled on cold stone. The air was damp and heavy, and faint blue light glowed from the cave walls around me. I was deep underground, alone, inside the infamous Seventhfall Abyss.
Everything came rushing back.
Last night, after the summoning, we'd each been given a room in the castle. Charao and Shizuka had gone straight to sleep. Only Iida had tried to cheer me up before heading off himself.
I'd been walking to my own room when Queen Walurge suddenly appeared and said she needed to speak with me privately.
I followed her like an idiot.
The moment we stepped into that side chamber with the magic circle, she turned and smiled coldly.
"[Paralyze]."
My body locked up. I couldn't even scream.
"A Sacred Weapon that's just a bag? I'm afraid you're completely useless to us," she said, voice dripping with contempt. "I can't have the royal family's reputation stained by personally executing a hero, so I've decided to dispose of you here instead."
She basically disposed of me like trash.
She wasn't even going to grant me a quick death. She was throwing me away like broken trash into a monster-filled dungeon so no one would ever know.
The paralysis faded the instant I hit the cave floor. Now here I was, abandoned and marked for death.
"That damn queen… I swear I'm gonna remember her for this."
I muttered it to the empty darkness, but the words felt hollow. What could a fifteen-year-old with a school bag even do?
A monstrous hiss echoed through the tunnel.
"SHAAAAAAA!"
An enormous serpent coiled into view—scales glistening, fangs dripping purple.
[Appraisal]
Venom Great Viper (Rank S)
Can melt anything with a single spray of dissolving poison.
It opened its jaws and unleashed a flood of violet acid straight at me.
I was still sitting on the ground, clutching my stupid bag. My legs wouldn't move. I squeezed my eyes shut.
"I'm going to die here… melted into goo before my adventure even started…"
『Store [Dissolving Poison]?』
A calm, mechanical woman's voice rang inside my skull.
『Store [Dissolving Poison]?』
I didn't know what was happening, but anything was better than dissolving.
"Yes! Store it! Please!"
SHHHHHLOOOOOORP!
The entire torrent of deadly poison bent in mid-air and vanished into the mouth of my bag like it was being vacuumed up by an industrial-strength hose.
『[Dissolving Poison] stored.』
『Condition met. Sacred Weapon leveled up.』
The viper screeched in fury and lunged, jaws wide.
『Store [Venom Great Viper]?』
It can store the monster itself!?
"YES! STORE IT!"
FWOOOOOOOM!
A howling wind exploded from my bag. The gigantic snake thrashed, coiled, and got sucked inside head-first—twenty meters of muscle and fangs disappearing with a ridiculous slurp.
『[Venom Great Viper] stored.』
『Sacred Weapon leveled up. New skill unlocked: [Delivery Bag].』
I sat there, chest heaving, staring at the ordinary school bag resting innocently in my lap.
It has levels. My weapon can level up.
I checked the new skill description.
[Delivery Bag]
Speak the name of any item that exists anywhere in the world, reach inside, and a portal will connect directly to it.
…You've got to be kidding me.
"Mineral water."
I shoved my hand in. My fingers closed around cold plastic. I pulled out a perfectly normal convenience-store bottle.
"Sweet red-bean buns—tons of them!"
I flipped the bag over.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
A small mountain of fresh pastries spilled across the cave floor.
I looked from the food, to the bag that had just inhaled an S-rank boss like pocket change, to the bottles of poison now quietly sitting in storage.
It absorbs any attack.
It absorbs any monster.
It can pull unlimited supplies from modern Japan.
A slow, dangerous grin spread across my face.
"I wasn't disposed of."
"I was upgraded."
For the first time since being betrayed and dumped here to die, I started laughing—quietly at first, then louder, echoing through the abyss.
Let them think I'm trash.
This bag just turned me into the biggest cheat in the entire world.