The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter (俺だけ入れる隠しダンジョン 〜こっそり鍛えて世界最強〜, Ore Dake Haireru Kakushi Danjon ~Kossori Kitaete Sekai Saikyō~)[a] is a Japanese fantasy light novel series written by Meguru Seto and illustrated by Note Takehana. It began serialization online in January 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was later acquired by Kodansha, who have published six volumes since August 2017 under their Kodansha Ranobe Books imprint. A manga adaptation with art by Tomoyuki Hino was serialized via Kodansha's Niconico-based Suiyōbi no Sirius manga service from May 2018 to June 2023. It has been collected in twelve tankōbon volumes. Both the light novel and manga are licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment.[3] An anime television series adaptation by Okuruto Noboru aired from January to March 2021 on the Animeism programming block.
Synopsis
Hidden dungeons are a place of legends where rare treasures and items are concealed. Some are lucky to find them, like Noir Stardia, the third son of a minor noble family, who acquires an exceptional skill that provides him great knowledge. As a result, however, it causes him to have painful headaches. Noir is given a job offer by his childhood friend Emma Brightness, who has a cure for his headaches. After Noir encounters difficulty with employment, he wishes to become an adventurer and finds a dungeon and the legendary adventurer, Olivia Servant, who has been trapped inside for centuries. Olivia gives Noir three powerful skills, which he uses to improve his power and enroll at the Hero Academy.
Noir is the third son of a baronet, a noble of the lowest rank, who is a self proclaimed coward who would like to take it easy. Upon not receiving a job as a librarian due to interference from more prominent nobles, Noir begins his journey to become a hero seeking other employment through attending the adventurer's/hero academy. He is originally born with the rare [Great Sage] Skill, which grants him unlimited knowledge for a time, but gives him terrible headaches after each use, so he refrains from using it until he learns from Emma that kissing her helps alleviate some of the pain. During an exploration of a secret dungeon, he meets Olivia, who bestows him the power to freely upgrade his and other people's powers [Create], [Bestow], and [Edit] by expending LP (Life Points), which are obtained by having joyful experiences but at the risk of dying if his LP is fully depleted.
Emma has known Noir since they were young. She willingly allows Noir to kiss her, which helps relieve his [Great Sage] aftereffects. She initially started a part-time job as a librarian to work beside Noir only to find he did not get it and then quits shortly afterward to take the heroes exam with Noir just to stay by his side. Emma loves Noir and plans to marry him.
Olivia is an adventurer who becomes Noir's master, helping him to grow stronger in hopes that one day he can become powerful enough to break her free from the Death Chains.
Luna is a half-elf saintess/cleric who is Lola's best friend. She is introduced into the story as a solution towards solving the curse of a duke's daughter who happens to go to same adventurer's school as Noir and Emma. As a famous cleric, her skills are quite unique with her being one of very few with curse purification skills; it initially shortened her lifespan, but Noir alters it to instead decrease Luna's finances. After her short adventure together with Noir on purifying the curse, she develops a crush on Noir, to the dismay of Emma and Lola.
Chapter 6: The King of the School Year Competition
Chapter 7: I'd Give My Left Arm
Chapter 8: Face to Face
Chapter 9: Inter-school Tournament
Bonus Chapter: New Knowledge
Manga
A manga adaptation by Tomoyuki Hino was serialized on Kodansha's Niconico-based Suiyōbi no Sirius manga service from May 2, 2018 to June 19, 2023.[21][22] Kodansha has compiled its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. Twelve volumes were published from December 6, 2018,[23] to April 9, 2024.[24] Seven Seas Entertainment has also licensed the manga and published the first volume on November 17, 2020.[25]
An anime television series adaptation was announced by Kodansha on May 8, 2020. The series was animated by Okuruto Noboru and directed by Kenta Ōnishi, with Kenta Ihara handling series composition, and Yuya Uetake designing the characters.[46] The series aired from January 9 to March 27, 2021 on the Animeism block on MBS, TBS, BS-TBS, and AT-X, with Crunchyroll streaming the series outside of Asia.[47][48][b] In Southeast Asia, Bilibili streamed the series.[49] The opening theme song (from episode 2 onwards) is "Pyramid Great Reversal" (ピラミッド大逆転, Piramiddo Dai Gyakuten) performed by Spira Spica, while the ending theme song is "Nemophila" (ネモフィラ, Nemofira) performed by COALAMODE.[50] The series ran for 12 episodes.[51] On February 8, 2021, Crunchyroll announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on February 26.[5]
After Noir, a baronet's son, loses his job, his younger sister, Alice, suggests he attend Hero Academy. His friend Emma believes he will succeed since Noir possesses the rare magic skill Great Sage, which reveals the correct answer to any question but causes crippling headaches. Emma reveals a former Great Sage alleviated his headaches by kissing his wives and embarrassingly requests Noir kiss her. Noir finds his headache gone and learns from Great Sage great strength lies in a hidden dungeon. There, Noir finds the famous heroine Olivia bound by Death Chains. As such, she gifts Noir her skills: Get Creative, Bestow and Editor. However, they requires LP points, which are generated by feeling satisfaction. At the academy entrance exam, they are told to gather rare materials in groups of three. Being only a baronet's son, Noir is ignored by most of the nobles and teams with Emma and Lenore Bludon. Noir returns to the dungeon alone and uses Olivia's skills to defeat a Dead Reaper. With the exam over, the Reaper's skull is revealed as an extremely rare material and they set a new academy record.
2
"The Guild and the Receptionist" Transliteration: "Girudo to Uketsukejō" (Japanese: ギルドと受付嬢)
Yū Yabūchi
Kenta Ihara
January 16, 2021 (2021-01-16)
Noir's father cannot afford the 300,000 gold academy fee, so Noir must earn it himself. Reluctant to draw more attention by slaying another rare monster, Noir decides to join the Odin Adventurer's guild. The receptionist, Lola, is furious when he claims to have Olivia's skills, since Olivia was a guild member 200 years ago. She wagers him to prove it and is forced to apologize while flashing her panties when he does. For his first quest, Noir collects rare Rainbow Grasshoppers, using Great Sage to locate them and earning 250,000 gold. Seeing how capable he is, Lola develops a crush on him. Noir and Emma next hunt a Big Rabbit, a magical 20-feet-tall beast. After it proves too strong, Emma becomes depressed and Noir has the inspiration to use Get Creative to improve her skills, but is forced to nibble erotically on her ear in order to generate enough LP, including an accidental panty shot. With the rabbit defeated and enough gold to pay his fees, Noir shares the rabbit meat in a feast with the rest of the guild. Elsewhere, Olivia is annoyed Noir has not visited in a while.
3
"The Troubled Classmate" Transliteration: "Wakeari Dōkyūsei" (Japanese: ワケあり同級生)
Michita Shiraishi
Kenta Ihara
January 23, 2021 (2021-01-23)
On their first day, Noir meets Maria Fianna Albert, a duke's daughter, and with his Discerning Eye realizes she is cursed to die on her 16th birthday. Noir is ignored by his classmates, since baronet is a title awarded to commoners for service to the kingdom. As such, Maria goes out of her way to treat Noir as an equal. For combat training, ex adventurer Elna Stongs tries to teach the class a skill to avoid an opponent's strike, promising an erotic prize to anyone who uses it successfully. In the end, Noir is the only one to manage, using Get Creative as a shortcut, and is treated to a full body dry hump under Elna's buttocks, raising his LP. Maria is overcome by the pain of her curse, which Noir is determined to cure, but is informed by Great Sage a vast amount of LP is required. As he is already low on LP, Noir kisses Emma without thinking and is punished by Elna. Asking Lola's advice, Noir learns about Luna, a cleric known for her healing abilities, but is warned Luna almost never deals with curses for personal reasons.
4
"The Untainted Cleric" Transliteration: "Kegarenaki Seijo" (Japanese: 穢れなき聖女)
Ryōki Kamitsubo
Kenta Ihara
January 30, 2021 (2021-01-30)
Lola visits Luna, who happens to be her best friend. Meanwhile, Noir visits Olivia and has to grovel after not visiting. To help Maria, Olivia teaches him her skill, Lucky Lecher, which will generate LP through accidental perversion. Luna later meets with them and reveals she has met Maria already but had to refuse to help. With his Discerning Eye, Noir realizes that lifting curses shortens Luna's own lifespan, and lifting a curse like Maria's would kill her instantly, so he is surprised when she agrees to lift the curse and die. A child is injured and Luna heals him, but suddenly becomes terrified. Examining her skills again, Noir sees she has the useless skill Cowardice, which makes her more of a coward the lower her magic drops. Lola is furious Luna hid her own suffering, but is glad she knows. Noir realizes it would cost less LP to change Lifespan in Luna's skill to Finances, so that lifting curses costs gold instead of life, but still requires more LP. To generate the LP quickly, Lola takes him to a secret gathering of Harem Pride, a cult of jealous men who rate the attractiveness of each other's girlfriends.
5
"The Future of This Harem" Transliteration: "Hāremu no Yukusue" (Japanese: ハーレムの行く末)
Keisuke Warita
Kenta Ihara
February 6, 2021 (2021-02-06)
The crowd mercilessly criticizes the girlfriends' physical attractiveness. Emma, Lola, and Luna all pose as Noir's harem and win over the crowd by acting out romantic scenarios with Noir, raising his LP from winning the prize money and enjoying the attention of all three girls at once. They rush to Maria's home where they explain to Maria's parents the reason Luna could not cure Maria before and what they have done to let her lift the curse without risk. Overhearing everything Noir did for her, and realizing that he used most of his LP, Maria kisses him. Luna manages to lift the curse with less than a minute to spare. Maria swears to spend the rest of her life repaying her debt to Noir, making the girls even more jealous as they realize Maria has a crush on Noir. The situation for Noir becomes downright dangerous when Luna admits she also has fallen for Noir. Afterwards, he visits Olivia to pass on the good news and is surprised when Olivia demands a kiss as well. However, he can only bring himself to kiss her on the forehead.
6
"The Tulip Lion" Transliteration: "Chūrippu Raion" (Japanese: チューリップライオン)
Yū Yabūchi
Kenta Ihara
February 13, 2021 (2021-02-13)
Maria's father generously pays everyone one million gold, which Noir plans to save for his future. Noir then decides to open a shop selling rare monster materials, with his mother, father and sister as employees. Heading to the dungeon to begin harvesting monster materials, Noir learns some more useful skills from Olivia. Making it to level 5, Noir comes across a Pitch Black Lion and attempts to flee, only for the lion to speak. The lion, Tigerson, explains he was friends with an elf adventurer, Vashelle, and they explored the dungeon together, but Vashelle insisted on exploring level 6 alone and disappeared 350 years ago. However, Tigerson hopes Vashelle might still be alive. On level 6, Noir discovers Vashelle is a zombie and uses Get Creative to turn him back. Overwhelmed by Tigerson's loyalty, Vashelle thanks him but decides to return home, hoping to find his beloved. As magical creatures are forbidden there, Vashelle and Tigerson are forced to say goodbye, so Noir offers to be Tigerson's new friend and let him live at his family home. Tigerson is eagerly welcomed by Noir's family, who offer to employ him as security for their new shop.
7
"The Receptionist Ranking" Transliteration: "Uketsukejō Rankingu" (Japanese: 受付嬢ランキング)
Masahiro Okamura
Kenta Ihara
February 20, 2021 (2021-02-20)
Maria begins hugging Noir in public. Their first exam is announced where they must collect specific monster materials or else attend summer school. Noir and Emma ask Lola for help, only to find her in a fight with Sarah, another receptionist who has been stealing Lola's clients, thus lowering Lola's performance evaluation. As there is no proof Sarah broke any rules, Lola challenges her to a competition where if she scores higher on their next evaluation, Sarah never steals another client, but if she loses Sarah takes Noir as a client. Noir is terrified as he uses Discerning Eye to reveal that Sarah's skills are sadistically erotic. Noir, Emma and Luna begin completing as many jobs as possible, raising Lola's evaluation. However, after passing their exam, they find it is still not enough to beat Sarah, whose adventurers are driving themselves beyond exhaustion in hopes she will reward them. Asking Olivia for help, Noir is advised to defeat the dungeon's seventh floor for its treasures and is given several more of her skills. Reaching floor seven, Noir finds himself in an underground forest where an elf girl watches him from the trees.
8
"A Little Girl's Wish" Transliteration: "Yōjo no Onegai" (Japanese: 幼女のお願い)
Tatsuya Sasaki
Kenta Ihara
February 27, 2021 (2021-02-27)
The girl, Dory the Dryade, asks for Noir's help, explaining Dryades are tree spirits, and a monster is attacking her tree, draining her magic and slowly killing her. She promises to show him two treasure chests and the entrance to level 8 if he helps her. Noir discovers a Gold Bee monster that is so powerful its sting will be instantly fatal, but he decides to help. Grateful, Dory heals a small wound on his lip by kissing and licking it, raising his LP considerably. He returns to Olivia, who advises against risking his life for a stranger, but is eventually convinced and tells him how to win. Using Get Creative, he convinces a nearby pack of Silver Wolves to attack the Bee. The pack is killed, but the Bee is weakened enough that Noir kills it easily. After promising to visit Dory frequently, Noir finds two rare items in the chests, one he gives to Emma to strengthen her wind magic and the other to Lola to increase her evaluation. In the end, Lola wins the evaluation. While Sarah is forbidden from stealing anyone else's clients for life, she still attempts to seduce Noir.
9
"To the Gala" Transliteration: "Yakai e Gō" (Japanese: 夜会へゴー)
Keisuke Warita
Kenta Ihara
March 6, 2021 (2021-03-06)
Emma invites Noir to a party for nobles. Meanwhile, as a baronet, Noir's father is unfairly prohibited from renting a space for Noir's shop. At the party, the Earl announces the notorious Phantom Thief has threatened to steal his jewel, the Mermaid's Tear, so he has hired the Lahmu guild as security. Emma is approached by Mike Kental, a noble, who challenges Noir to see who the better dancer is. Noir uses LP to gain dancing skills and is declared victor. The Phantom Thief then arrives, steals the Tear, and kidnaps Emma. Leila Overlock, from Lahmu, chases her with Noir. The Phantom Thief summons a Phoenix, which Leila defeats while Noir defeats the Phantom Thief. Suddenly, they are pinned by her partner, Tom Bertholda, who declares he will marry Emma. A furious Noir declares Emma is precious to him. Emma awakens and they defeat Tom together. Afterwards, Emma is worried that Noir might think she is now dirty, but he reassures her with a kiss. Despite being from rival guilds, Leila agrees she and Noir can be friends. As thanks, the Earl helps Noir open his shop and gets him a massive discount on the rent.
10
"Let's Go to the Hot Springs" Transliteration: "Onsen e Ikō" (Japanese: 温泉へ行こう)
Yoshihisa Matsumoto
Kenta Ihara
March 13, 2021 (2021-03-13)
Leila transfers into the academy. Elna then announces a hot spring training camp. During the trip, she informs them they must defend themselves from monsters without her help. Noir almost falls into a trap and is told by a friendly pixie bandits are responsible. The pixie tells them of a shortcut to the hot spring, but Noir is suspicious and discerns the pixie has an ability to control monsters. After they defeat her lizardmen army, Noir captures the pixie. At the hot spring, the girls bathe first and the boys hatch a plan to peek at them. Noir refuses to participate and flees, running into Elna, who helps him. One of the boys, Hjorth, reveals he has been abusing strength potions for this very moment. To protect Emma, Noir creates the skill Powerless and gives it to Hjorth, defeating him. However, he has to use more LP to stop another boy. In the end, it turns out the girls have not bathe yet. Noir passes out from low LP, so Elna rewards him by letting him bathe with the girls, albeit blindfolded. Knowing his LP is low, both Emma and Elna massage him with their breasts.
11
"Noir's Decision" Transliteration: "Noru no Ketsui" (Japanese: ノルの決意)
Noboru Koshihisa
Kenta Ihara
March 20, 2021 (2021-03-20)
Noir opens his shop, Stardian Rarities. In gratitude, Noir tells Olivia he will free her from the Death Chains. Great Sage informs him a solution is on the dungeon's 15th floor. Noir takes Emma with him to floor 14 where they defeat an army of rude goblins. On floor 15, they find a clone of Olivia, the Death Chains' true form, which possesses Olivia's abilities and they are forced to flee. They ask Olivia if she has any weaknesses the clone might also have. Olivia initially refuses to tell them because Emma has bigger breasts than her. However, when Noir insists he has to free her for everything she has done for him, she admits she once almost lost a fight but never knew why. After investigating, Noir finds a story of Olivia battling a cleric called Littorine, who possessed the rare skill Sacrifice that temporarily boosts abilities by sacrificing already learned skills. Noir spends 10,000LP to create Sacrifice just as the clone confronts him, having escaped the dungeon to continue their unfinished duel. Noir activates Sacrifice only to realize the clone also possesses Get Creative and she paralyzes him with a superior clone of his own sword.
12
"A Battle I Can't Lose" Transliteration: "Makerarenai Tatakai" (Japanese: 負けられない戦い)
Kenta Ōnishi
Kenta Ihara
March 27, 2021 (2021-03-27)
Olivia reminisces about an event from 200 years ago where a young man died because she did not properly tutor him. Noir meanwhile is still in battle against Olivia's clone when Emma, Lola, Luna and Leila show up. While the girls' combined attack successfully manage to break her sword, they are suddenly struck with a fever bestowed on them by the clone. She also bestows Noir with the Sluggish status and edits his Stone Bullet skill. Realizing the clone is much more creative than he is, Noir sacrifices all of his remaining skills except for Get Creative, Editor, Bestow, and Sacrifice to give himself the boost needed to continue fighting. In retaliation, the clone attacks Noir with a fire dragon, but Noir cuts through it, igniting his sword, and he strikes the final blow at the clone. The girls then replenish his LP after they recover. Noir visits the dungeon where Olivia thanks and embraces him for his effort. In the end, Olivia informs Noir that since the Death Chains are gone, he is now able to continue exploring the remaining floors of the dungeon.
Notes
^Also known as Special training in the Secret Dungeon as this title is seen on the cover of the Japanese version of the light novel.
^ abMBS listed the series premiere at 26:25 on January 8, 2021, which is January 9 at 2:25 a.m.
^冬アニメ『俺だけ入れる隠しダンジョン』2021年1月からMBS・TBS・BS-TBS“アニメイズム”枠ほかで放送スタート！番宣CMも公開 [Winter animation "The Hidden Dungeon that only I can enter" will start broadcasting from January 2021 on MBS / TBS / BS-TBS "Animeism" frames and others! Teaser CM is also released] (in Japanese). Animate Times. November 20, 2020. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
