Prologue

We were in the middle of breakfast the morning after our flower-viewing party when Yuki suddenly shot out of her chair, fists clenched, and yelled, “I get that this might come off as weird, but honestly, I’m just jealous!”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but she seemed to be completely serious.

Apparently Haruka was just as confused as I was. “What’s the matter all of a sudden, Yuki?” she asked.

Yuki was staring down at the table, so I followed her gaze. Oh, Touya and I each got an extra slice of peach. We’re a party of seven, so it’s only natural that when dividing a couple of peaches evenly, we’d end up with two extra slices. Did Haruka put the extra slices on our plates because we’re guys?

“If you want my extra slice, here—just take it,” I said.

Unlike Touya, I wasn’t a big eater, so I tossed my extra slice at Yuki, and she caught it in her mouth.

“Dash not it!” Yuki slurred as she chewed. She broke into a grin. “Thanks for sharing, though. It’s so good.”

Natsuki, however, was frowning. “Yuki, Nao-kun, behave yourselves,” she scolded us.

Meanwhile, Haruka was warning the sisters not to imitate us.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” I said. “I should probably be a better example.”

“Yeah, definitely,” said Yuki. “You should have fed me the slice— Actually, no, forget it!”

As Yuki abruptly corrected herself, Touya nodded. “No need for us to be super stingy about food at this point.”

“I guess you’re right,” I said. “We have plenty of peaches in our magic bags, so I could have just taken out another.”

Money was no longer scarce around here, so fruit wasn’t a luxury as far as we were concerned. I would probably have hesitated to scarf down more valuable fruit, like dindels, but now that we’d obtained the rights to the Summer Resort Dungeon, there was no need for us to be conservative about the fruit we could gather there.

“Oh, is it just that you can’t stand to watch guys getting preferential treatment, Yuki?” I asked.

“That’s not it either! I’m actually offended you’d even assume that! There’s something else that bothers me way more!”

Yuki jabbed a finger at Haruka—more specifically, at the shiny accessory on Haruka’s finger.

Haruka frowned. “You mean the ring? Sorry, but this is mine.”

Yuki waved her hands defensively. “Please, it’s not like I would ever ask you to hand it over.” She shot a glance at me. “I’ll get my own from Nao eventually. Right, Nao?”

“...We’ll have to adjourn so I can take this matter under careful consideration before arriving at a conclusion,” I said.

“That doesn’t make any sense. Where are you going to adjourn to? You’re at home right now!” Yuki laughed and shrugged. “Oh well. I’m in no rush, so feel free to take your time.”

I averted my eyes. Truthfully, I wasn’t opposed to the idea of marrying Yuki. In fact, I enjoyed her company, so I was flattered that she was interested. However, despite its simple design, the ring was made of a mithril alloy, so it had been quite pricey. Even if I’d wanted to buy another in the near future, I had practically exhausted my savings on the pair for Haruka and me. Well, I guess it would technically be doable if I sold the mithril that Viscount Nernas gave me, but I just proposed to Haruka yesterday. It would be pretty shameless for me to give a ring to another girl immediately, wouldn’t it?

Natsuki must have noticed I was in need of an assist; she laughed at me, then turned to Yuki and asked, “So, Yuki, I take it you’re using Haruka’s ring as a pretext to ask Nao-kun for something?”

“In a way, yeah. But not exactly.”

“What are you talking about? Stop being so vague,” Haruka said irritably.

Yuki nodded to herself and sat down before voicing her thoughts.

“So, everybody knows I didn’t sleep well last night, right?”

“Well...yeah,” I replied.

Yuki had passed out drunk early in the afternoon and woke up in the middle of the night to interrupt my proposal. Then Haruka had put her back to sleep through physical force. To say that she hadn’t slept well was something of an understatement.

“And because of that, I woke up way later than usual today, and I saw something I’ll never forget,” Yuki went on.

As if she’d suddenly realized where this was going, Haruka hurriedly tried to interrupt Yuki. “Wait, stop—”

But Yuki forged on ahead without the slightest hesitation. “I saw Haruka staring at the ring on her finger in a state of, like, total bliss!”

“...Really, Haruka?” I asked.

“U-Um, n-no, that’s not true at all.” But her voice was faint and her eyes were shifty.

Yuki shook her head repeatedly and rushed in to deal the coup de grâce. “Nuh-uh, I saw it with my own two eyes! Haruka was cooking, but she paused a couple times to stare at her ring and smile!”

Natsuki must have thought it sounded like a heartwarming scene. “I rather wish I’d been able to witness that for myself,” she said with a giggle.

Touya joined in the teasing with a playful grin. “I guess you have a cute side that you don’t usually show, huh?”

Haruka’s face was getting redder and redder, and she turned away from us sulkily. “O-Oh, come on, let me bask in happiness, if only for today!”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” Metea put in. “It’s normal for you to be happy, big sis Haruka.”

“Y-Yes, I completely agree,” said Mary in an apparent effort to cheer her up. She clenched her fists and nodded to herself a couple times, then said, with a glance at me, “If Nao-san proposed to you, then it’s perfectly understandable.”

Haruka smiled. “I’m glad that both of you understand. You’re such sweet girls. As a reward, here’s another slice of peach for each of you.”

“Yay!” Metea happily stuffed the peach into her mouth. “Mm! This is really sweet!”

Mary paused to say, “Um, thank you very much,” and then she, too, ate her slice with a smile.

Yuki laughed and shrugged as she watched the sisters eat; it must have somehow helped her to calm down.

“I mean, I’m not about to ruin your honeymoon, Haruka, but...”

Haruka glared at her. “But what, Yuki?”

“But I wanted to share that info with everyone! It was such a rare sight!” Yuki exclaimed, completely ignoring Haruka’s reproachful look. “Sure, jealousy did play a part, but only a teeny tiny one!”

“Y-You sure say what’s on your mind, Yuki-san,” said Mary.

“’Course I do. No point in being sneaky about this kinda stuff,” said Yuki. “You gotta be frank so your emotions don’t get all pent up. It helps with relationships too.”

“You have a point, Yuki,” I said.

Minor gripes were natural when you lived with other people. It was unquestionably better to let off steam from time to time rather than letting it build up to the point of a major outburst. In addition, the fact that Haruka and I were now officially dating might cause some uncomfortable moments for the others, so as Yuki had said, it would be preferable if everyone in our party could be frank about their feelings in order to avoid conflict.

Haruka must have understood that too; a heavy sigh of resignation escaped her lips. “Fine, fine. Whatever. But regardless, this wasn’t the main topic that you wanted to talk about, was it, Yuki?”

“Huh? Nah, your cute side actually is the main topic,” said Yuki in a nonchalant tone. “I really wanted to let everyone know about this, so—”

“...Yuki?” Haruka’s voice was softer now, but more intimidating as well.

When Yuki realized she was in trouble, she began waving her hands in a panic.

“I-I’m just joking, obviously! I mean, well, it’s actually kind of relevant, so lemme explain myself,” she said. “See, I was the one who put the Adjust enchantment on the rings, right? And I placed an order with Tomi for the rock climbing tools we’re gonna need on the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, but the initial reason I did it was so we could get the revlight ore we needed for the enchantments.”

“...Oh, I guess that explains how you were able to prepare everything on such short notice,” I said.

There had only been a few days between our return from the twenty-first floor of the dungeon and our departure to gather revlight ore. Haruka had been impressed that Yuki had been able to gather the necessary equipment so quickly, but it sounded like it was actually a coincidence that everything had lined up perfectly.

“Yeah. I did my best to help you out ’cause you really wanted for the rings to be ready as a surprise for Haruka,” said Yuki. “Love is a good motivator, ha ha!”

“...You’re getting off topic again, Yuki,” I said, not wanting to endure the kind of teasing Haruka had earlier.

If I had left Yuki to her own devices, there were decent odds that I would have been the next object of everyone’s mirth, but now she smiled at me and quickly corrected herself.

“Oh yeah, my bad. Anyhow, I was hoping we would learn some kinda Climbing skill while we gathered revlight ore. We’re probably gonna need something like that if we wanna get past the twenty-first floor of the Summer Resort Dungeon, after all.”

“I take it, however, that it didn’t work out as you’d hoped?” Natsuki asked.

“Yeah, no,” I replied. “I got some decent rock climbing practice, but it didn’t result in me learning a new skill. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t practice enough or if there just isn’t a skill like that.”

In this world, unlike in a video game, skills didn’t grant us capabilities; rather, they were representations of our capabilities. That being the case, it didn’t really matter whether or not there was a formal Climbing skill, but...

“It would be kinda inconvenient for me if there’s no such thing as a Climbing skill,” said Yuki. “I wouldn’t be able to copy it from somebody else!”

While I’d practiced rock climbing, Yuki had taken on a supporting role in the hopes that she’d later be able to copy any skill I gained.

Touya gave Yuki an exaggerated shrug. “C’mon. You should at least practice stuff like that yourself. Hardships are meant to be shared sometimes, you know?”

“I get what you mean, but I think saving time is more important,” said Yuki. “That’s what I really wanted to discuss: Should all of us spend some time trying to learn a Climbing skill, or should we try to go as far as we can into the twenty-first level and only stop and practice when we can’t go any farther? What do you guys think?”

Everyone paused to consider the question.

“There were some plank trails, so we could advance farther if we were so inclined,” said Natsuki. “However...”

High, sheer cliffs flanked the waterfall, and the trails that led beyond it were all very narrow. The view from the twenty-first floor had taken my breath away, but I’d also been intimidated. The environment was visibly dangerous and completely different from anything we’d faced thus far, and it wasn’t inconceivable that we would encounter monsters while traversing the difficult terrain. With all of that in mind, I didn’t like the thought of advancing farther without a concrete, detailed plan.

“We might not realize we aren’t prepared until it’s too late,” I pointed out.

“Mm. My strong feeling is that we should practice rock climbing until all of us learn a Climbing skill, even if it ends up consuming a fair amount of time,” said Haruka. “Part of me does want to advance farther, but safety should be our paramount concern.”

“I completely agree,” said Natsuki. “Practice is the best way to avoid danger, and thanks to our recent efforts, we have ample time to devote to practice. We ought to take advantage of it.”

Touya folded his arms and nodded. “Yeah, good point. Even if I fall off a cliff, I can probably brute force my way out of danger, but that’s just me...”

Dude...are you thinking of the kind of story where a character saves himself from falling by stabbing his sword into a rock wall or whatever? Sorry, but it’s not as easy as you seem to think. Stabbing a rock wall would be hard enough under normal conditions, so it would be infinitely harder to pull off in the middle of, you know, falling to your death. Also, you’re the one who usually leads the way, so...

“I’m pretty sure falling would be more dangerous for you than anyone else here, dude,” I said. “If it was Haruka or me, we could probably slow our descent with the spell Airwalk.”

“Ugh. You mages sure have a lot of advantages,” said Touya. “But that only applies to you two, right? Everybody else is in the same boat.”

Hmm. Yeah, Yuki and Natsuki can’t use Wind Magic, and Mary and Metea can’t use any magic at all. But you’re forgetting something, Touya. I smiled and placed my hands on his shoulders, then shook my head.

“There’s a clear hierarchy here, Touya. Who do you think I would save first? You can probably guess where you rank, right?”

“Damn it! Yeah, I get it—you’d save me last! It’s an unjust society we live in, man...”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

The order would vary depending on the circumstances, but I would almost certainly try to save Mary and Metea first. Yuki and Natsuki would come next, with Touya at the very bottom of the list. I felt kind of bad for him, but it was the most pragmatic plan. Touya was the toughest of any of us physically, after all, although I had no idea how much that would help him if he fell off a cliff.

“Calm down, Touya,” said Yuki. “We’re all gonna practice rock climbing so we never have to let you fall to your death in the first place. Mary, Metea, what about you two? Do you have anything you wanna bring up?”

“Oh, um, I’d like to practice ahead of time if it’s going to be necessary in the future,” said Mary. “The view in the dungeon was incredible, but...”

“Me too,” said Metea. “It was really pretty, but it was also scary.”

The sisters’ voices were a little feeble. They must have been intimidated when they recalled the marvel of nature we had seen on the twenty-first floor of the dungeon.

My friends and I had once lived in a world full of pictures and videos, but Mary and Metea’s world had been limited to the town of Kelg until quite recently. The magnificent sight of the waterfall had been enough to stun even us, so I couldn’t imagine the impact it had had on the sisters.

Anyway, I think we have a conclusion.

“So no objections to rock climbing practice?” I asked. “I guess that settles it.”

Everyone nodded at my summary of our discussion.

Chapter 1—Rock Climbing

A few days after our discussion, we made our leisurely way back to the valley where Yuki and I had gathered revlight ore. We hadn’t decided on a definite date for our return to Laffan; the plan was for all of us to acquire some kind of Climbing skill before we turned homeward.

Still, this wasn’t a work trip as such. Spring had finally arrived, so we’d decided this would also be a nice time of year to camp out. Of course, any ordinary people who tried to camp in this area would quickly find themselves in a life-or-death situation. In this world, only powerful adventurers could truly enjoy the great outdoors safely.

Metea was walking ahead of the rest of us, singing to herself excitedly. “Picnic time, yay! Spring is fun!”

However, she didn’t know our exact destination, so she periodically turned back for confirmation, advancing only after I nodded at her. Haruka, Natsuki, and Yuki must have found this very endearing—they got big grins every time it happened—but Mary had a troubled look on her face.

“Calm down, Met!” she yelled to get her sister’s attention. “Don’t get too excited! You need to be aware of your surroundings!”

Metea puffed her chest out confidently and pointed at her own eyes. “Don’t worry, big sis! My eyes won’t fail to spot any delicious food!”

Mary’s shoulders sagged, and she gently scolded Metea, “Delicious food? Met, I know it’s important for us to have a good eye for things we can gather and take home with us, but safety is more important. We could run into monsters here. Don’t rely on Nao-san and everybody else to take care of everything for you.”

“Yeah, I know. But monsters stand out a lot more than delicious things.”

“That’s definitely true,” said Touya.

Ever since he was reincarnated as a beastman, Touya’s senses had been heightened; he was constantly alert to signs of danger. The same was true of the sisters. Nevertheless, to find things worth gathering, we had to rely on our own eyes; there was no equivalent to the Scout skill that would alert us to sellable materials nearby. The Appraisal skill was somewhat helpful in that regard, but in order for it to work, you had to bring your attention to bear on a specific item.

“Is there anything edible we can find in the woods at this time of year that’s actually good?” I asked.

“Well, mushrooms, but we already got plenty of those,” Yuki replied.

“I bet wild game would be a pretty good source of income if that was all you wanted,” said Touya. “I’m pretty sure the demand for meat and fur is constant.”

Touya was no doubt correct. With our magic bags, we could have earned far more money hunting animals like boars rather than gathering herbs.

Metea, however, seemed dissatisfied with that suggestion. “You’re thinking about this wrong, big bro Touya,” she said, puffing her cheeks out. “Stuff like that doesn’t work for a picnic.”

“O-Oh, really?”

Given how much Metea loved meat, Touya was obviously confused that she’d rejected his idea out of hand. However, about half a year had passed since the sisters joined our family, and we generally let them eat as much meat as they wanted at meals. Plus, thanks to our training, they were now capable of hunting game by themselves if they wanted. Their attitudes toward food were likely very different now than in the days when they’d never had enough to eat.

“We still have some time before the earliest fruit ripens, however,” said Haruka. “It’ll probably be the beginning of summer.”

“Indeed—although we could probably find wild vegetables if we were so inclined,” said Natsuki. “Is that more or less what you have in mind when you say we should find delicious food, Metea-chan?”

Metea paused to fold her arms pensively and swayed from side to side. Her final judgment ended up being pretty ambivalent. “I bet it would be fun to gather some, but I have no idea if they’re delicious or not!”

I couldn’t exactly disagree. Wild vegetables were really the kind of thing you only consumed in small amounts, and mainly to celebrate the change of seasons.

“Nao, Yuki, this is the second time you guys have been here, right? Anything good stand out to you along the way?” Touya asked.

Yuki and I exchanged a glance as we both sifted through our memories, but...

“Uh, the only thing that stood out to me was that we ended up with more mushrooms than I really expected. Right, Nao?”

“Yeah. There’s nothing particularly special here. There weren’t any real obstacles either, though. I guess I don’t have that many thoughts to contribute here.”

The woods north of Laffan were dangerous for the average adventurer, but they were far tamer than the area surrounding the Summer Resort Dungeon. Yuki and I had easily dispatched the handful of monsters we’d run into, and the terrain wasn’t especially challenging either.

“Well, I guess you could say our destination is worth seeing,” I said. “The valley does look nice, although it’s no match for the waterfall we just saw inside the dungeon.”

“Yeah, it pales in comparison,” said Yuki. “The twenty-first floor of the dungeon is on a whole nother level.”

When I mentally evaluated the view of the valley side by side with the view from the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, I felt the same way I had when visiting tourist traps in Japan styled to resemble famous international destinations: Maybe they weren’t that bad in their own right, but the comparison to the real thing wasn’t exactly flattering. That being the case, I wouldn’t have referred to the valley as “stunning” or anything like that.

“Mm, those falls were astonishing even to us,” said Haruka. “But Metea clearly wants delicious food, not beautiful scenery.”

“I’d like to apologize about Met bringing up something silly,” said Mary. She lowered her brow and raised an index finger to scold her sister. “Please don’t be so selfish, Met.”

But Metea clasped her hands to her chest and shook her head in frustration. “I wasn’t being selfish at all! I was just using my brain to try an’ make this picnic a good one!”

“Nao-san and everybody else were the ones who actually used their brains and came up with specific ideas,” said Mary. “Besides, the real reason we’re here is to go rock climbing, not go on a picnic. You didn’t forget about that, did you, Met?”

“...Of course not! Trust me!”

Yeah, she definitely forgot. The shifty eyes make it way too obvious.

Yuki giggled. “Honestly, it’s fine—we agreed we’d enjoy our time outside too.”

“Yeah. All we need to do is learn a Climbing skill before the hot weather rolls around,” I said.

Our armor had a cooling function, but it wasn’t yet powerful enough to completely negate the height of the summer heat, so I wanted to spend our summer inside the dungeon, which was much cooler than the outdoors. At the moment, it was important that we earn more money, but self-sufficiency wasn’t impossibly far away. Now that we had our own house, there was no longer a need to set money aside for lodging, and Touya had learned how to maintain our weapons himself. Thus, we could go about our daily lives more or less as usual, even with a slightly diminished income, as long as we didn’t make any extravagant purchases, like new weapons.

“Well, I don’t imagine it’ll take us that long. It’s still early in the spring, after all,” said Natsuki. “Incidentally, the corn we bought back in Kelg is still sitting in storage. I believe this would be the optimal time to begin sowing it...”

The changing season must have reminded Natsuki, but Yuki looked surprised. “Oh, I completely forgot about the corn! We’ve definitely gotta plant it now—if we miss this opportunity, we’ll have to wait till next year!”

“If we just use some of our compost, I’m pretty sure the corn will grow, even if it’s planted a little out of season,” I said. “It sounds like this is still the best time, though?”

Most crops had an optimal range of temperatures for successful germination. After we’d bought seed corn, we’d had the free time to plant it, but there had been a cold spell, so we’d decided, on Natsuki’s advice, to wait until spring.

“We probably need to start thinking about what to do with our excess compost too,” said Haruka.

“That’s a good point,” said Natsuki. “Our compost machine has been invaluable in helping us to dispose of the parts left over from gutting monsters and wild game, but...”

Our kitchen garden was far larger in scale than most, but at the end of the day, we were adventurers rather than farmers. Given that we slew monsters and composted their remains every time we went out adventuring, the supply of compost significantly exceeded our rate of consumption. At this point, it was really starting to pile up in our magic bags; it had effectively become a form of waste in its own right. This had only been possible because we’d created our own magic bags, but from the perspective of the average person, it was probably an insane way to use them.

“I think we should discuss this with Diola-san at some point. She might even be willing to buy some compost off us,” I said.

“That sounds good to me,” said Haruka. “We can’t just randomly dump our compost in the wild—it might have detrimental effects.”

If we disposed of our compost in a way that caused wild vegetation to grow out of control, it could alter the distribution of monsters in the woods, which could negatively impact other adventurers and make trouble for Diola-san in her capacity as vice branch master of the guild in Laffan. It would be best for us to discuss things with her ahead of time even if it resulted in extra work for us.

“It’s been amazing to have the fertilizer, but I guess it’s not always convenient,” said Yuki.

“Well, if we just used it all ourselves, we’d be able to harvest a ton of crops. We just have to be careful about how we handle it,” said Touya. “But anyway, I guess this means we can add sweet corn to the menu for our summer barbecues, right?”

Metea reacted instantly to this new information. “Oh, is corn actually sweet?!” She stared at Touya for a few seconds, then shifted her attention to Yuki.

“Hmm. It’d be great if the corn turned out sweet, but it’s hard to tell given that it’s dehydrated right now,” said Yuki. “It might be sweet if we cook it while it’s fresh, but we have to actually grow it first to find out.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “And we have a few different varieties, so it might take some work to sort them out.”

Back in Kelg, we’d bought three different kinds of yellow corn, plus red, purple, black, and white, so the only way to determine the difference in flavor was to plant all of them.

“Let’s grow them all! I’ll help plant the corn after we go home!” Metea exclaimed.

“Yeah, sure, let’s sow the seeds together once we head home,” said Yuki.

“Okay! In that case, let’s hurry! We gotta learn the skills as fast as we can and head back!”

Metea picked up her pace with a big grin on her face, but...

“Hmm? What happened to your eagerness for a picnic, Metea-chan?”

At Natsuki’s words, Metea stopped in her tracks to ponder, then began walking again, but much more slowly this time.

★★★★★★★★★

We spent the night camping out and reached the valley around noon the next day. We hadn’t found anything noteworthy along the way, but searching for wild vegetables had been a lot of fun for Metea, and now, as we looked up at the cliff face, her mouth was hanging open in amazement.

“Nao, I take it this is the place where you and Yuki gathered revlight ore?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied. “This is where we’re going to practice rock climbing.”

Since Yuki and I had returned from our own expedition, we had added more tools to our repertoire, including a rope ladder and all sorts of different spikes. There were spikes similar to rock climbing pitons back on Earth, others that looked more like bolts, and still others that were meant to be inserted into a hole or gap after it was filled with the resin that was commonly used in this world. However, we’d decided to abandon the tool that I had broken—its complex structure effectively rendered it untrustworthy—and to favor simple equipment and tools when adventuring.

“Looks like there’s all sorts of different stuff we can use,” said Touya. “I’m pretty sure I could get up there myself with zero trouble, though.”

“Yeah, but our objective is to get familiar with this equipment, dude,” I said. “We can’t just start testing it out in a place that’s even more dangerous than the dungeon.”

If you could conquer the fear of heights, Touya was probably right that it was possible to climb without any gear or precautions, but it was way too risky.

“Guess that makes this a practice stage for us,” said Touya.

“Yep,” I said. “All right, Touya, can you get some rope up to the highest spot?”

“...Can you be more specific, Nao?”

“It’s over there.”

I pointed, and Touya squinted at the spot I’d indicated, then turned toward me with a serious expression.

“Are you telling me to free climb all the way up there? It’s really high. The fall would kill anybody.”

“Of course. And the canyon floor is bedrock, so you’d die on impact.”

“...Seriously?”

Touya was giving me a reproachful look, so I tried to explain myself. “I mean, you’re the one who said you could probably climb up by yourself no problem...”

Even a simple task could become vastly more challenging in a dangerous environment. For example, balancing on a beam that was fifty centimeters off the ground was completely different from balancing on an identical beam fifty meters off the ground. Maybe there were people out there who could run down both beams at the same speed, but those were the kind of people I’d tend to give a wide berth to.

“Stop joking around and get up there, Nao,” said Haruka. “There’s no need to force Touya to do anything dangerous.”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Yuki. “And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to catch Touya if he fell.”

“Catching Touya-kun would be a challenge for any of us, given his physique,” said Natsuki. “Although—I don’t suppose it would be possible for you to flip in midair and land on your feet, Touya-kun?”

“Huh? You think I’m a cat or something?! I mean, I don’t think it would be impossible, but still!”

You could really pull off a feat like that at this point, Touya? Dang. But speaking of cats, what about Mary or Metea?

“What’s the matter, Nao-san?” Mary asked.

“What’s up, big bro Nao?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing!”

Uh, yeah, nah, I can’t ask them to try just to satisfy my own curiosity. Forget it.

“All right, I’ll get going,” I said.

I donned a harness and secured a rope to it, then began my ascent of the rock wall. Although I had yet to learn a Climbing skill, my body did seem to have built up some muscle memory for this process. Along the way, I checked the condition of the metal fixtures that I had left here on our last visit. I made it to the highest fixture with relative ease and fastened a rope to it. Next, I used Earth Magic to create a hole a short distance from my location, then filled it with resin, inserted a spike, and fastened a rope to that as well. The new spike and rope were backups in case the first broke. I double-checked the condition of both ropes, then slid back to the ground.

“Good job,” said Haruka. “Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly for you.”

“Yeah, of course. I spent a lot of time practicing when I came here with Yuki,” I said. “Okay, who wants to go next?”

“Sign me up,” said Touya. “Also, while I’m going up, why don’t you create another area for people to practice, Nao?”

“Mm. Having only a single one would be extremely inefficient,” said Haruka. “Are you up to the task, Nao?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “I’ll create a new practice area a bit farther away from here. I’ll make it a bit higher too.”

Yuki’s hand shot up. “Oh, okay! I’ll support you, Nao. We worked as a pair last time, after all.”

Haruka, however, looked hesitant, as if there was something on her mind.

“Taking Touya’s weight into consideration, I suppose it would be best if I worked in tandem with Natsuki to secure the rope,” she said at last.

Touya was the heaviest member of our party. The idea of his entire weight on the rope, plus gravitational acceleration, spooked me. Haruka looked around at Touya, Natsuki, and the sisters as if comparing them, then sighed and nodded to herself.

“Oh well. Be careful, Nao, Yuki.”

“Relax—there’s no need to worry about us!” Yuki smiled and gave her chest a confident pat. “I know how to be serious when it’s important!”

I just wished she’d known to be serious when I was proposing to Haruka the other day. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, Yuki, and you almost completely ruined it!

★★★★★★★★★

“Oh, hey, Nao, wouldn’t this place be perfect for a slightly more difficult course?”

Yuki and I had walked a few dozen meters from the first rope, which Touya was currently ascending. The rock wall Yuki was pointing at was much steeper. The bottom was comparable to the wall Touya was scaling, but higher up, it was considerably more sheer, and the last quarter was completely vertical. It looked like there were almost no natural handholds, so free climbing would be a real challenge.

“Yeah, this would be perfect,” I replied. “Should I place the highest spike at about double the height of the first one?”

“Sounds good,” said Yuki. “It would be nice if you could climb all the way up to the top of the cliff while you’re at it. I wonder what’s up there...”

“No idea, but considering the height, I doubt it’ll be anything really different from down here,” I said. “I bet it’s just more woods and vegetation. I guess the view might be decent. Do you want me to go take a look?”

Yuki looked up at the wall, then glanced in the direction of the valley’s mouth and paused in thought.

“I am kinda curious, but I think we can put that off until we have some spare time. Our main objective is to learn a Climbing skill.”

“Good point. All right, here goes... Oh, but first—how are the new spikes different?”

Yuki had mentioned that the new spikes were meant for use in places where the wire spindle wouldn’t work. However, she’d only given me a basic explanation. I still had no idea about the specific advantages and disadvantages of each type.

“There are three of them, so I assume each one has a different purpose?”

“Yeah, of course,” Yuki replied. “I guess I’ll start by explaining the piton. It’s the simplest one to use—all you gotta do is stick it in any gap in the wall. It’s simple and cheap to make too. But it’s useless if you can’t find a good gap.”

“Okay, so it’s easy to use but you can only use it in specific situations? Makes sense.”

Pitons were made from steel sheets and had holes on the shafts for ropes to pass through. You could lodge one into a gap, crack, or seam in a rock wall and hammer it in, and the spike would deform to the shape of the gap. Natural rock walls presented plenty of gaps, but pitons were useless without openings to hammer them into, so I had no idea how helpful they would ultimately prove in the dungeon.

“The second type is basically a bolt that you’re meant to stick in a pilot hole. Its usefulness depends a lot on how good you are at magic,” said Yuki. “If the pilot hole is too big, you won’t be able to fix it in there, but if the hole is too small, it won’t fit at all. You could probably solve that problem with a hand drill or something like that, but I don’t think it’s a realistic option for the dungeon—it would take sooo much time.”

“Yeah, monsters could interrupt us at any moment,” I said. “So what I’m hearing is, the second spike is going to take a certain amount of practice. The third one is the one you brought up before, right?”

“Uh-huh. With this one, you have to bore a pilot hole and pour in a special resin before you insert it. The size of the hole doesn’t have to be that exact. It lets you fix the spike just fine even on softer surfaces. Honestly, I think it’s the most convenient one.”

I had actually used the third type of spike earlier, and as Yuki said, there was nothing complicated about it. You could fix it in a hole very quickly—all you had to do was hit it a couple times—and the entire procedure was very quiet, minimizing the risk of attracting attention from monsters. In addition, it was reassuring to know that the spike could be used in softer walls. A lifeline that weakened a soft rock surface when you put your full weight on it was unreliable; it was always at risk of slipping free.

“So wouldn’t it be best to just use the third type of spike for everything?” I asked.

“Well, unfortunately, it does have some downsides,” Yuki replied. “Like, you have to wait a bit for the resin to harden. And it’s expensive to make.”

Yuki went on to explain that the resin was actually more expensive than the spike itself. The girls could make it themselves, but this time, she had asked Riva to do so. Either way, the cost of the materials remained a problem; they had to be imported from other towns. For that reason, the resin was about ten times the cost of the simplest piton.

“Sure, safety is priceless, so we can ignore the high cost if we gotta, but the real problem is the availability of the materials,” said Yuki. “We can’t just order them and get them right away. That’s why I think it would be better to save the third kind of spike only for situations where it’s absolutely necessary.”

“I see—a logistics issue, huh?”

“You got it. Also, since you talked about bouldering before, I placed some orders for stuff like climbing holds, but we’re not gonna test all of that right now, since climbing for fun isn’t really the point of this.”

“Understood. All right, I’m going to give it my best shot and hopefully learn a Climbing skill!”

★★★★★★★★★

We spent a fair amount of time using both practice areas. While one person climbed, one or two others held on to the rope or remained on standby for a fall. Meanwhile, anyone who was free worked on setting up camp or fished in a stream we’d found nearby. Everyone practiced at their own pace, just as we’d planned.

Mary and Metea actually demonstrated a surprising aptitude for rock climbing. All of us were in good shape, so I hadn’t expected anyone to struggle, but the sisters would have seemed to be at a disadvantage due to their smaller size. I’d assumed it would be necessary to place the spikes and other handholds at slightly shorter intervals, but...

“It looks like Mary and Metea are doing just fine,” I said. “Honestly, they’re downright nimble.”

“Indeed—although that doesn’t entirely allay my anxiety,” said Natsuki.

Mary was in the midst of challenging the rock wall, with Touya supporting her from the ground. Metea was also there, cheering her older sister on.

Mary was easily copying our own ascent earlier. It seemed that Natsuki was worried about something other than her agility, however.

“How come you’re anxious? She’s keeping three points of contact just like we taught her,” said Yuki. “I don’t get what the big deal is.”

“It’s probably because they’re so lightweight relative to their physical strength that they’re so nimble,” said Haruka.

Whereas the rest of us hoisted ourselves upward to a handhold after grabbing one, Mary seemed to float up effortlessly. Given that Mary was capable of swinging Touya’s sword, I knew she was stronger than she looked, but this was a pretty dramatic reminder.

“Weight relative to physical strength... When you put it that way, I guess the person at the biggest disadvantage is—”

Natsuki stared at me as if she’d instinctively followed my train of thought. “What, precisely, are you trying to imply, Nao-kun? I’m far from heavy.”

“O-Oh, nah, that’s not what I meant!” It was true that I’d thought Natsuki would be at a disadvantage, but...

Yuki giggled. “I’m smaller than Natsuki, and even though Haruka is thin, she’s got a lot of arm strength just from using a bow. Touya is obviously our heavyweight champion.”

“Yeah, I don’t know exactly how much he weighs, but he’s heavy, no doubt about it,” I said. “He’s the most muscular of any of us too.”

He was leaner than a bodybuilder, of course, but he was still in a completely different category than the rest of us. In comparison, I actually belonged to the same category as the girls.

After Yuki and Haruka provided me with some backup, Natsuki shifted her gaze back to Mary. “I suppose that’s true. The differences in strength between the rest of us are within a margin of error.”

I walked a short distance from Natsuki and sat down next to Haruka before breathing a sigh of relief.

“There’s obviously no need for Natsuki to worry about her looks,” I whispered to Haruka. “She’s in very good shape.”

“That’s not the point for girls, Nao,” Haruka whispered back. “And if anything, Natsuki is probably more concerned about building up too much muscle given that she swings around a naginata all the time.”

“I’d be happy if I could bulk up a little, but I guess it’s different for girls, huh?”

Even with consistent exercise, it was very difficult for elves to build muscle. Whereas Yuki was more of a speed fighter, Natsuki was always on the front lines, and she lacked the ability to deal damage with magic, so she had to train with her naginata every single day. In that sense, it was understandable that she worried about getting buff.

Haruka shot me a glance and chuckled playfully. “Well, as long as you remember to praise her periodically, I doubt it’ll bother her.”

Uh, Haruka, I just confessed my feelings to a girl for the first time, you know? Please don’t expect too much from me. Well, I guess the right word is proposed, but still, I basically have zero experience interacting with girls other than you, Natsuki, and Yuki... I bet our male classmates would yell at me, though, like “What do you mean, ‘basically zero experience’? Those three are more than enough!”

“I’ll do what I can,” I whispered. “Oh, huh, it really does look like rock climbing is easy for Mary.”

Unless you rappelled down, the descent was usually more difficult than the ascent, but while I was chatting with Haruka, Mary was making her way back down without relying on her rope. She had a look of intense concentration on her face, but once her feet made contact with the ground, she relaxed and unfastened the rope from her harness.

“You were so fast, big sis!” Metea exclaimed. “I’ll try hard too!”

“Yeah, good luck,” said Mary. “Be careful and try not to get injured, okay?”

Mary smiled as she fastened the rope to Metea’s harness and gave it a tug to confirm it was secure. She patted Metea on the back encouragingly, then came over to join the rest of us.

“Well done, Mary,” I said. “It looked like you weren’t having any trouble at all.”

“I’m very impressed at how much you’ve improved in no time at all,” said Haruka.

Mary smiled bashfully.

“Thank you for the compliments,” she said with a giggle. “But there are a lot of handholds here, and I also had the safety line, so I was able to get all the way up without feeling too scared, and that helped a lot. I think it would be harder if I had to climb up first like Nao-san did.”

“Still, that was pretty dang impressive,” said Yuki. “Is it just ’cause you’re a beastgirl? Metea looks pretty fast too. It would be nice if you two showed some more caution, though.”

Yuki turned toward the rock wall to watch Metea, who, having ascended and descended a couple times already, was practically bouncing up the wall.

Mary put a hand to her forehead and grimaced. “Ugh. I’ll make sure to tell her off later.”

“Well, this is fine as practice,” said Yuki. “It’s not like we’ll always be able to take it slow and careful.”

Inside the dungeon, it was possible that monsters would attack while we were in the middle of climbing, so practicing acrobatic maneuvers wasn’t completely pointless.

“Of course, it would be best to avoid getting into such a situation in the first place,” said Natsuki. “That said...”

“...we can’t ever assume that we’ll be able to climb under ideal conditions,” Haruka finished. “We have no idea yet what kind of monsters we’ll encounter in the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, so we have no choice but to practice as hard as we can here.”

The rest of us all nodded, and Mary suddenly turned around to look at Yuki.

“By the way, don’t you need to practice too, Yuki-san?” Mary asked. “You haven’t climbed yet, have you?”

Yuki pointed at herself, and, sounding a little panicked, said, “Wh-Who, me?!”

Mary seemed puzzled by her reaction. “Yeah. Everybody else has climbed a few times by now, but you’ve just been supporting Nao-san the whole time. If you’d like, I can take over while you practice...”

“I-I appreciate the offer, but don’t worry about me, Mary!” Yuki exclaimed. “I’m perfectly capable of rock climbing!”

It was a feeble excuse, but I couldn’t really blame her. Mary and Metea knew about our status screens, but we hadn’t explained the overpowered Copy skill to them in detail yet, so Yuki didn’t have any ready-made excuses.

“Oh, right, I guess you practiced already when you came here with Nao-san before,” said Mary.

“Y-Yeah, that’s right! So don’t worry about it!”

Mary nodded to herself—the conclusion she’d arrived at clearly made sense to her—but the truth was that Yuki hadn’t properly practiced at all. She had been counting on the Copy skill—and on my hard work. Even if she copied my skill, however, I still had to teach her how to use it; she wouldn’t become a masterful climber instantly.

I glanced at Haruka and Natsuki. Haruka shrugged, while Natsuki smiled awkwardly. Well, Yuki, I’m looking forward to seeing you embarrass yourself when the time comes. That’s a small price to pay for being able to take it easy.

When I woke on the morning of our second day rock climbing, I was greeted by the sight of Touya poking at our campfire with a stick.

“Morning, Touya. Where’s Natsuki?”

“Yo. She headed off to that stream nearby to fish. It’s still early, so if she’s lucky, we might be able to have fish for breakfast.”

“Sounds great. Should I go help her?”

The nearby stream was a lot smaller than the Noria River near Sarstedt, and there weren’t many signs of fish either. I wasn’t sure whether it was simply our timing or bad luck, but we’d only caught a few fish yesterday. If we’d been fishing solely for recreation, that would have been fine, but it certainly wasn’t enough to feed everyone in our party, especially given that a few of us were big eaters.

“You can go if you want, but she’ll probably be back in no time,” said Touya. “I think everybody else should be waking up soon too. See?”

Touya pointed at our tent, and a few seconds later, Haruka poked her head out. As she emerged, the interior of the tent was visible behind her, and I saw Yuki, Mary, and Metea all beginning to stir.

“Hello, Nao, Touya,” said Haruka. “This is a pleasant morning.”

“Hey. Is everyone else awake?” I asked.

“Mm. They should be ready to come out in a bit. I’ll go help Natsuki.” She had a kitchen knife in her hand, so she must have planned to gut fish at the stream.

“Take care,” said Touya, waving. “Tell Natsuki that the campfire is ready whenever she is.”

Haruka gave him a nod before heading off in the direction of the stream.

“Well, I hope Natsuki is actually able to catch enough fish,” I said.

“I’m sure it’ll be enough. We still have some of the fish from yesterday,” said Touya. “Oh, hey, Yuki, good morning.”

“Morning,” Yuki replied with a yawn. She stretched, then looked up and basked in the sunlight. “Whew. The pop-up tent sure is comfortable inside.”

“Yeah, it’s a cool piece of loot,” I said. “I just wish it were a little bigger.”

Our new tent was a magical device capable of maintaining a constant temperature inside. It wasn’t the most exciting thing we could have found in a treasure chest, but it was useful from the standpoint of conserving our stamina. Over a matter of a few days, it wouldn’t make much of a difference in our mana consumption, but for long journeys away from home, the difference was considerable.

“I dunno about bigger. Personally, I wish we had a second one even if it wasn’t as powerful,” said Touya. “It’s kind of awkward, all of us sharing one tent.”

Yuki shot him a teasing glance. “I had no idea you were that modest, Touya.”

Touya just shrugged and grinned. “C’mon, I’m the definition of modest. This must just be the first time you’ve heard about it.”

“First time I’ve heard about it too,” I said. “Well, I sort of understand what you mean, but...”

“I knew you would get it, Nao,” said Touya. “As long as you can sleep next to Haruka, though, I bet that’s all that matters to you.”

“...I’m not going to take that bait.”

Back in the dungeon, it hadn’t bothered me sleeping next to the girls, since I was wrapped in a blanket. I guess Touya’s kind of right that Haruka sort of served as a buffer for me, but sleeping next to her makes me nervous in a different way.

“Yeah, it would be really convenient if we had a second tent. Mary and Metea are both still growing,” said Yuki. “If we’re gonna keep working as a party of seven, it might be a good idea to figure out how to make a second one with alchemy. I dunno if we can make one as good as this, though.”

“Just having a second one would be good enough,” said Touya. “So far, we’ve done okay in the dungeon, but the twenty-first floor is a good example of a place where we can’t sleep in the open—what with the spray and the wind exposure, it could get pretty uncomfortable.”

Yuki and I exchanged a glance. Every previous floor had been relatively comfortable as long as we’d had foldable cots and blankets with us, but those probably wouldn’t be sufficient if we wanted to advance farther.

“You make a compelling point,” I said. “All we’ve seen of the twenty-first floor is the entrance, but the environment seemed as harsh as any place we’ve been out in the wilds.”

“I’ll talk about this with Haruka and Natsuki some other time,” said Yuki. “Oh, speaking of—looks like they’re back.”

I followed Yuki’s glance and saw Haruka and Natsuki returning with smiles on their faces. The reason for their happiness was readily apparent: Both were holding baskets full of skewered fish.

★★★★★★★★★

“I ate so much fish, I feel invincible!” Metea declared.

The fish, salted and slowly grilled over charcoal, was really delicious. Thanks to Natsuki’s hard work, all of us had been able to eat our fill, hence Metea’s professed feeling of invincibility, but...

“Really? In that case, do you want to challenge the hardest course today?” I asked.

Metea was momentarily at a loss for words, but she quickly recovered and pointed at Mary. “Oh, um, I’m invincible, but my big sis isn’t!”

Mary laughed awkwardly. “Met, you’re such a pain... Nao-san, I think it would be best if we take it one step at a time.”

“Of course. We can start with a spot that’s slightly harder than the last one you challenged,” I said. “I’ll look around for a suitable place.”

I patted Metea’s head to reassure her, then set out to search for a good spot. The place where we’d practiced yesterday abruptly went from steep to perpendicular, so the natural next step would be a rock wall that was perpendicular from top to bottom.

“Something with a bit of an overhang would be ideal,” I said. “Oh, here we go—that spot looks good.”

“Okay, let’s do it, Nao,” said Yuki. She smiled and handed me some tools. “I’ll support you like usual.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get going.”

I took the tools from her and began to ascend the rock wall. Along the way up, I carefully set up a safety line for emergencies, fixing pitons in place and securing ropes to them. I didn’t have to rely too much on my tools; I was able to accomplish most of what I had to do based purely on muscle memory. Though I’d assumed the overhang would present a greater challenge, it actually ended up being fine. It wasn’t like I could hang by one finger, but it was doable with three. My physical capabilities were honestly kind of shocking even to me. I could only manage feats like this because my arm strength wasn’t proportional to my muscle mass and weight but was supplemented by the Enhanced Muscles skill.

Skills and mana were really convenient for me and my friends. Without magical enhancement, Haruka’s arms would have probably been more muscular. Man, I really don’t want to imagine a buff Haruka—for multiple reasons. For one thing, I would be the weakest member of my party in that scenario.

After I’d set up this new practice course, we all took turns challenging the various courses. Finally, by the time I’d gotten comfortable climbing without gear—no using the pitons for footholds, no relying on the rope, although I was still wearing my harness for safety’s sake—I learned a new skill: Level 1 Climbing.

Seriously? It took this much practice just for a Level 1 skill? You have to get good enough to climb without relying on equipment to learn it? Oh well. All that matters is that I did learn it. One person in particular has been waiting for this moment...

“Hey, I just learned an actual Climbing skill,” I whispered to Yuki.

Mary and Metea were actually a bit suspicious of Yuki, since she’d never once practiced in front of them despite claiming to be competent at climbing already. Yuki had looked a bit uncomfortable whenever she noticed their skepticism. Now her eyes went wide with joy, and she drew closer to me.

“Really?! Can I copy it off you?! Pleeease!”

“Yeah, sure,” I whispered back. “This doesn’t mean you can avoid actual practice, though.”

“Oh, guys, me ’n’ Nao are gonna go collect some more revlight ore,” said Yuki. “Feel free to keep on practicing while you wait for us!”

That’s actually not a bad excuse. Smooth move, Yuki.

“...Okay. Take care,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, take your time,” said Touya. “It might not be easy.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure everything will go just fine,” said Yuki.

Everyone except Mary and Metea was able to see through Yuki’s excuse. Haruka and Touya in particular both wore exasperated expressions, but Yuki just nodded with a perfect poker face and tugged on my hand.

“C’mon, Nao, let’s get going.”

“All right,” I said. “What about that spot over there? You don’t want to spend too much time, right?”

The spot I’d indicated was a respectable distance from everyone else. It was a course I’d set up yesterday that went about twice as high as the original spot where we’d mined revlight ore.

It wasn’t like I’d deliberately chosen a more thrilling course for Yuki’s first experience with rock climbing. I just wanted, from the bottom of my heart, to help her learn a new skill however I could. I was a good friend like that.

“Are you serious? Isn’t this course, like, super high?” Yuki asked. “You know that I’m a complete beginner, right? Can’t I start with an easier—”

“Be sure the safety line is securely attached,” I replied. “Now, let’s see if you can make it all the way to the top without relying on rope or carabiners.”

“Hey, why are you ignoring me?! C’mon, show me some mercy!”

“Relax, Yuki. You’ll be fine. I promise I’ll catch you if you fall!”

“You aren’t thinking it would be more exciting if I fell a longer distance, are you?”

“...Of course not.”

“What does ‘of course not’ mean? I can trust you in an emergency, right, Nao?!”

Truthfully, I’d been planning to let her savor the sensation of falling for a bit before I belayed her, but now she was on the verge of tears, so I decided to drop that idea.

“Yeah, yeah, trust me, I’ll do everything I can to support you. Now go ahead and get climbing.”

“I’m counting on you, Nao! And just so you know, I’m not as good with heights as you or Haruka!”

I’m not too good with heights myself except in the treetops. Now that you mention it, though, the tops of the dindel trees are way higher than any of the cliff faces here. Weird.

“Again, you’ll be fine, Yuki. Good luck!”

“You better not be lying to me...”

“Relax. You can trust me. Just as much as I trust you about your promise to Haruka.”

“That honestly sounds not that great for me!”

“See, I knew you were lying!”

Haruka had been incensed at Yuki for spying on us, and Yuki had apparently assuaged her wrath by promising never to do it again, but I hadn’t gotten the impression that she was too serious about it. If anything, though, it would have felt weirder for Yuki to be more thoughtful. I preferred her usual boisterous self.

“...Whatever. Look, I’ll take my role seriously—just get going!”

I gave her a gentle shove in the direction of the rock wall. She glanced back at me a couple times on her way over. Just as I’d suggested, she began climbing without overrelying on carabiners. I pulled the rope tight at intervals. When I’d been climbing and had slipped a little, my heart had almost stopped even though I’d known I wasn’t going to fall all the way to the ground. I wasn’t cruel enough to put Yuki through the same experience.

“You doing all right up there?”

“Yeah, this part of the course is more or less the same as the other one.”

Yuki had technically practiced rock climbing once before, back when we’d first visited this canyon to collect revlight ore. However, she had yet to reach the real challenge—the perpendicular part of the course. While mining ore, we’d had to depend on the rope. Now Yuki slowed down as she carefully searched for hand- and footholds. Her movements were kind of clumsy, but she was able to avoid any major mistakes, probably because she’d had the opportunity to observe the rest of us extensively.

Whew. Well, I mean, it’s not like I want her to make mistakes, and it would be terrible—just terrible—if she went through the experience of dangling in the air meters above the ground. But, now that I think about it, shared hardships build solidarity, so...

“Careful now—just a little bit more...”

Yuki was so high up that her voice only barely reached my ears. She looked like she was almost to the top of the course.

“One more step, aaand—done! I made it, Nao!” She turned around to wave down at me.

“Damn it,” I said, then waved back. “Well, congrats. The next step is to climb back down. That’s the hard part, actually.”

“The idea of free climbing all the way back down sounds scary... Oh well. I’ll give it my best shot.”

Yuki started back down right away, and I slowly loosened the rope in coordination with her descent. It was very challenging to climb down without relying on the rope given the difficulty of checking what was beneath you, but Yuki had yet to slip up. Hold on, has she already unlocked the Level 1 Climbing skill she copied from me?

“Whew! I’m back! Yay! I managed to make it back without tripping even once!”

“Congrats, I guess.”

“You sure don’t sound like you mean it!”

Yuki pouted at my lack of enthusiasm, but although it had been easy for her, I’d struggled a lot, so I couldn’t truly feel happy for her—not from the bottom of my heart. Her Level 1 Climbing skill is probably exactly the same as mine, right? If so, she basically benefited from all of my hard work.

“Anyway, was that enough to unlock your copied skill?” I asked.

“Oh, right, gimme a moment to check... Yep, it’s unsealed now. Thanks, Nao!”

“All good. To be honest, I still feel a bit conflicted about the fact that it was so easy for you compared to what I had to go through, but I guess I’ll just have to tell myself that this was the most efficient use of our time.”

“Oh, ha ha, sorry...”

Yuki clasped her hands and winked. The only response I could muster was a dry laugh and a shrug. Fine, fine. I forgive you. But there’s no need to act this cute.

“Oh well. Anyway, I wonder how much progress everyone else has made,” I said. “I hope they’ve learned the skill by now.”

“Mm. Let’s head back now,” said Yuki. “Oh, but first, let’s make sure to collect some revlight ore.”

★★★★★★★★★

After collecting some ore to fake an alibi, we rejoined the others and learned that they’d all acquired the Level 1 Climbing skill during our absence. Before heading off with Yuki, I’d told them it would be a good idea to focus on free climbing, and it seemed my advice had worked. Mary and Metea had learned the skill as well; apparently it hadn’t been any more difficult for them than it had been for the rest of us. The sisters had learned the Disassemble skill after our initial check of their status screens, but this was the first time all seven of us had worked together to learn a new skill.

“Well, I’m glad we’ve accomplished the main objectives of our trip,” I said.

We had budgeted some extra time in case Mary and Metea took longer to learn the Climbing skill. I was relieved that they hadn’t.

Haruka shook her head, however. “We’re not done yet—we still have to practice climbing a rope ladder.”

“Huh? Is that really something we have to go out of our way to practice?” I asked.

“Have you ever used one, Nao?”

“...No, but it’s just a ladder, right?”

I’m pretty sure it would be easier than what we’ve been doing...

“Having used one myself, I assure you it’s quite different from a normal ladder, Nao-kun,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, they’re extremely shaky,” said Haruka. “I’m fairly confident that it will be difficult for you to get up and down one swiftly without some practice.”

“...Hmm, yeah, I guess it would be a good idea to try it out, then,” I said.

What Haruka and Natsuki said made perfect sense to me, especially given Natsuki’s personal experience. It was always risky to underestimate the difficulty of something you’d never done before.

Back at the head of the valley, I lowered a rope ladder over the edge of the cliff. It was actually made of wire rather than rope and thus more durable, but...

“Yikes, this is actually a lot more awkward than I expected!” I hollered.

When descending the ladder, it was hard to find hand- and footholds in the perpendicular section of the course, since there was hardly any distance between the ladder itself and the wall, and when you lowered it over an overhang, it vibrated a lot. It was compact, which was a significant point in its favor, but there were equally significant disadvantages.

“Damn, it really was the right call to try it out first,” said Touya. “Using a rope to climb down is way easier.”

“Yeah, I had it made ’cause I thought it would be convenient to have one with us, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” said Yuki. “Like, having toe spacers to put in between the ladder and the wall would be great, and something like a weight at the bottom to keep it from vibrating so much would be nice too.”

The rope ladder, in addition to making it easier to ascend, allowed you to use your hands to wield a weapon or cast a spell. It seemed quite likely that it would be helpful in our explorations.

“What with our party’s whole ‘prioritize safety’ thing, we should definitely practice using this some more before we return to the dungeon,” I said. “I think we should spend a while longer in this canyon and try figuring out ways to improve the design of the rope ladder. Is everybody okay with that?”

We had already spent two days in the valley, but we hadn’t set a definite deadline, and all of us had learned the Climbing skill sooner than we’d expected, so I had plenty of motivation and stamina for more practice.

“Sure, why not,” said Haruka. “It’s not as if we’re in a rush, and it would be convenient if we could level up our Climbing skills at the same time.”

“I wanna have a good time camping out here a little bit longer,” said Metea. “I love this place!”

“Me too,” said Mary. “Oh, um, what I meant was that I would love to practice rock climbing a bit more.”

Metea clearly had a different motivation than the rest of us, but that was no problem. No one had any objections, so over the next few days, we practiced using the rope ladder and improved our Climbing skills. We ended up spending an entire week in the valley.

★★★★★★★★★

Having successfully completed our initial objective, we returned home without running into any trouble along the way, but we didn’t head back into the dungeon immediately. We had spent time fishing, hunting in the woods, and gathering wild vegetables and mushrooms, so if we’d told anyone what we’d been doing, they would probably have assumed we’d been on vacation. However, we were pretty worn out, so we decided to spend a day resting before we finally tackled the next level of the dungeon. Much of our fatigue was mental rather than physical; we had scheduled plenty of breaks into our rock climbing practice, so we still had a fair amount of energy. Thus, I headed out to our backyard together with Yuki, Mary, and Metea in order to fulfill a promise that we had made a while ago.

“Okay, let’s plant some corn today!” Yuki exclaimed.

Metea hopped around merrily. “Yay! I’m looking forward to eating sweet vegetables!”

Mary, meanwhile, seemed curious about the seeds in Yuki’s hands. “The idea of sweet vegetables is a little confusing to me,” she said, “but I’m looking forward to trying some too.”

Personally, I wasn’t sure if corn counted as a vegetable. I thought of any dry crop as a grain and anything that you prepared by boiling it as a vegetable, but one way or another, there wasn’t really a universally agreed upon definition.

“Well, I hope they’ll turn out to be sweet, but there’s only one way to find out. We’ve got seven different types of corn, so hopefully we’ll hit the jackpot with one of them,” said Yuki. “Pop quiz! What’s the most important thing when it comes to growing corn?”

Metea was the fastest to respond. “Oh, I know! To plow the field where you’re gonna grow it and do a good job!”

Yuki folded her arms and nodded to herself. “Yeah, those are the basics of farming, so you’re correct! What about you, Mary? Anything else come to mind?”

“Huh?! U-Um, don’t forget to water the crops, maybe?”

“Yeah, that’s important too. I don’t know what types of corn these are, but water is crucial for sweet corn. There’s something more, though. You’re up next, Nao!”

She’d really put me on the spot here, so I gave her a stern look and said, “I’m completely clueless about farming, Yuki.”

I knew nothing about kitchen gardens either. I had just tagged along with Yuki, Mary, and Metea because I had nothing else to do.

Yuki just shrugged and shook her head. “Come on, this is a basic science question that you should know if you didn’t slack off on your studies.”

“Science?” I was digging through long-buried memories, trying to unearth an answer. “Uhh...pollination, maybe?”

Yuki clapped her hands. “You got it! Pollination is a big problem with corn—it’s a wind-pollinated plant.”

Wind-pollinated plants, as their name implied, relied on wind to distribute their pollen. They had the advantage of being able to pollinate without relying on insects, but there were also disadvantages to this strategy, one being that if they weren’t growing in adequate numbers, the pollination would be incomplete, resulting in gaps in the kernels. If you were lucky, a single plant could be enough, but multiple staminate flowers gave you better odds.

Another disadvantage was the risk of cross-pollination. If you were only growing a single variety of corn, there was no danger, but we had seven different varieties, so there was a high likelihood of cross-pollination, which would make it difficult to determine the unique characteristics and flavor of each variety.

“It sounds like growing plants is actually quite complicated,” said Mary.

“You betcha. But if all you want is to grow something edible, it’s easy enough,” said Yuki.

The crops we grew in our kitchen garden were meant solely for our own consumption. We had no intention of selling them, so we didn’t have to worry too much about quality, but...

“So what’s the plan, Yuki?” I asked. “You want to separate out the sweet varieties and grow those specifically, right?”

“Well, one way to prevent cross-pollination is to cover the carpellate flowers with a bag and pollinate them by hand,” Yuki replied, “but we’re away from home all the time, so we won’t be able to check on the corn that much. I’ll just have to regulate the flowering time myself. I’m pretty sure I can adjust it using our compost. What do you think?”

“Yeah, that sounds like it might work,” I said. “It may be a challenge determining the ideal amount of compost, though.”

If our rapeseed crop was any indication, our compost made plants grow at twice their natural speed, but we had yet to determine how that would affect the flowering time of corn.

“Uh-huh, so we’re just gonna have to separate out all of the different varieties by hand,” said Yuki. “Our property is pretty big, and we have Edith’s mansion too, so I’m pretty sure we can prevent cross-pollination if we just plant the corn in the four corners of both places.”

“I see. Yeah, that sounds reasonable to me,” I said. “There’s plenty of vegetation in between too.”

“Right. Okay, time to get planting!”

“Planting time!” Metea echoed, sounding very energetic, but then she cocked her head in confusion. “Oh, how are we actually supposed to do it?”

Yuki opened her palms to show Metea the seeds. “We can start by planting three seeds in each of the pots. After they sprout, we’ll get rid of the two spares, and then, once the last plant is big enough, we can replant it out in the field.”

“We haven’t found anywhere to buy pots in Laffan,” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an easy solution,” said Yuki. “Magic!”

She placed her hands on the ground, then flipped them over to reveal a small pot about the diameter of her palm.

“Oh, duh, we have Earth Magic,” I said. “That is an easy solution.”

“Right? They’re disposable, so they don’t have to be that strong, and it takes only a teeny tiny bit of mana per pot. At planting time, we can just bury the pots in the field and turn them back into earth. I think about a hundred pots should be enough.”

Yuki and I got to work creating pots with Earth Magic. Given that all we had to do was harden some surface earth, we had a hundred completed in short order. Mary and Metea helped us fill them with soil. All told, it only took a couple minutes to finish our preparations for sowing corn.

“Next, we separate these seeds into seven groups, right?” asked Mary. “How far down do we need to bury them, Yuki-san?”

“Uh, the length of about one finger joint should be enough.”

“Okay! Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle!” Metea used her fingers to poke holes in the earth, then filled them with corn and covered it. She puffed her cheeks out in satisfaction and clapped her hands.

“Great job,” said Yuki. “We still have a lot of pots to go through, so let’s keep at it.”

“Okay!” Mary and Metea said in unison.

★★★★★★★★★

With four people working together, it took hardly any time to prepare the hundred pots. After watering them all, we headed inside.

In the living room, I saw Haruka relaxing on the carpet. The sisters pulled off their shoes and then rushed over to roll around beside her.

“We planted the corns!” Metea told Haruka.

“Welcome back. How many did you plant?” Haruka asked.

“Each of us did twenty-five pots,” said Mary, “so a hundred overall.”

“I see. I’m looking forward to the corn,” said Haruka. “I hope it’ll be good.”

“Me too!” said Metea.

I smiled at how happy the sisters were. When I looked around the room, Natsuki and Touya were gone.

I sat down on a floor cushion next to Haruka. “Where are the other two?”

Haruka was lying on a cushion and reading a book. She closed it and glanced at me, then pointed at the east wall—toward our research lab.

“Touya’s out on a walk, and Natsuki’s busy with some experiments,” Haruka explained. “Remember talking about koji mold during the flower-viewing party? She’s working on cultivating the mold that she prepared before we headed out to the valley.”

“Oh, I see. How’s it going so far? Does it sound like she’s having success?”

The method that Natsuki had attempted this time involved steaming a few different kinds of rice, mixing them with other ingredients, and then leaving them alone to ferment. They would definitely grow mold after about a week, but I wasn’t confident it would be koji mold.

Haruka’s answer surprised me, however.

“Koji isn’t especially rare,” she said, “so it should be easy enough to cultivate. Besides, Natsuki has the Pharmacy skill, and Yuki and I have Alchemy. The main issue is efficiency.”

Haruka went on to explain that koji mold was responsible for converting rice starch into glucose through a process called saccharification. The optimal variety of mold depended on the desired product, and there were other considerations, like efficiency and byproducts. If the saccharification process simply took longer, that wouldn’t be a problem, but some koji molds could produce harmful byproducts or foul odors.

“It would be nice if you could just tell from looking at the mold whether it was bad, but I’m guessing it’s even more dangerous if everything looks like it went okay at first,” I asked.

“Mm. From what Natsuki has told me, it can be a disaster if the mold creates toxic byproducts that have no taste or odor,” Haruka replied. “What she determined was that the only way to test it was to consume it herself, but fortunately, she has skills that can counteract some of the toxins.”

I frowned. “Uh, wouldn’t that be really dangerous?” It sounded like human testing was the only way to deal with this problem, but...

“You don’t have to worry about me, Nao-kun,” said Natsuki, who’d suddenly appeared in the living room. “I have the Poison Resistance skill, after all.”

She was dressed casually, so she must have finished her experiments. She walked over to sit down beside me.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine? I care a lot more about you than I do about koji mold...”

It would be great to have miso, soy sauce, and sake, but substitutes were perfectly fine. Natsuki simply smiled in response to my concern for her, however.

“I appreciate the thought, Nao-kun, but fermented food in general involves substances that are harmful to the human body. Since they aren’t chemically synthesized, they’re never entirely pure. It’s all about moderation. Alcohol, for example, isn’t exactly healthy either, and even salt can be poisonous if you consume too much. Regardless, I can always monitor my physical condition via my status screen, so I’ll be fine.”

“We have the Cure Poison spell at our disposal as well,” Haruka added. “I’m fairly confident that Natsuki’s experiments won’t endanger our lives. In fact, I’m more concerned that all of the mold will end up becoming inspiel sauce. The yeast that creates inspiel sauce seems to be far more powerful than something like natto bacteria.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s true,” I said.

I’d heard that sake brewers had to avoid eating natto in order not to contaminate the brewing environment with lactic acid bacteria, but inspiel sauce was so powerful that even if you tossed some natto in, it would probably just get consumed. That being the case, it might be risky even to have regular koji in the same building with inspiel sauce.

“I’ve been using the Disinfect spell as a countermeasure against this particular problem. If things don’t work out, I’ll ask Aera-san for advice,” said Natsuki. “No doubt elves produce some alcohol of their own.”

“Yeah, I bet they have some way to avoid contamination. Anyway, I guess I’ll leave all the koji experiments to you guys,” I said. “You guys are the ones with the Pharmacy and Alchemy skills, like you said. But please let me know if there’s anything I can help with. Like, maybe I can speed up certain things with Time Magic.”

“I’ll let you know if we need your help,” said Natsuki.

“I can do stuff to help too, so you’ll probably have to wait until near the very end for your turn to shine, Nao,” said Yuki. She was stretched out on the carpet, looking like she was enjoying herself. “Although you could help by giving us some mental healing.” She rolled over to place her head on my lap. “I love being able to relax and chill like this in the afternoon from time to time.”

“Indeed. Between preparing for our flower-viewing party and assembling equipment for rock climbing, we’ve been quite busy lately,” said Haruka.

“And I worked hard to get those rings ready for you and Nao!” Yuki exclaimed. “It was actually a lot of work, y’know?” She began counting on her fingers. “I basically had to beg the artisans to hurry up, and dig all that revlight ore, and practice the Adjust enchantment so I wouldn’t mess up when I used it on the rings!”

Haruka nodded, but she seemed peeved by the implication that Yuki deserved her gratitude. “Well, thank you very much, Yuki, for an almost perfect job. It would have been perfect—if only you’d quietly walked away at the end and left us alone.”

“Oh, I mean, sure, I can admit I messed up there. I should have just observed quietly and kept the info to use later.”

Haruka gave Yuki a cold look. After a moment, she said, “I see how it is. You’re not genuinely sorry, are you?”

“I-I’m just joking, Haruka!” said Yuki, sounding a little frantic. “I was under the influence at the time! Alcohol is so scary like that... It’s best to drink in moderation!”

However, Haruka continued to look down at Yuki and drummed her fingers on the cushion as if lost in thought. Before she could act on whatever plot had taken form in her mind, the living room door swung open and Touya appeared.

“Yo, I just got a whale bonus from Advastlis-sama!”

The rest of us looked at each other, but when we realized what had happened, we let out a collective sigh of relief.

But Touya seemed unhappy about our reactions. “C’mon. I confirmed I was the last one to get the bonus,” he said, pouting. “I wouldn’t have said it out loud otherwise.”

So even Touya isn’t that careless. Advastlis-sama did tell me that people who knew about the bonus wouldn’t be able to get it no matter how much they donated.

“If Touya received that message from Advastlis-sama, then clearly all of us have gotten the bonus,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, we make donations at the temple almost every day, so I guess it’s not too surprising,” I said. “Oh, what about Mary and Metea, though?”

“Oh, that’s not an issue,” said Touya. “He told me the bonus is only for us and our classmates.”

So does that imply there are other bonuses that the sisters can receive? Or is it just that we’re the only ones with status screens to check? Sure, the fact that the sisters can bring up their own status screens now is kind of a perk in itself, but...

“Maybe we should be more careful talking about this in the future,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, probably,” I said. “I bet Advastlis-sama will tell us what restrictions apply to his blessings if we just ask, though.”

Yuki and I nodded at each other. He’d adequately warned all of us about the restriction on the whale bonus, after all.

Mary hesitantly glanced around at us before chiming in. “Um, can I ask, what is this bonus that you’re talking about? It’s okay if you’re not allowed to talk about it...”

“It’s no trouble,” said Haruka. “I’m fairly certain that we’ve told you something about our circumstances before. Succinctly, whale bonuses are blessings that Advastlis-sama has bestowed on us for donating to his temple. Whether his motive was pity or something else entirely, I’m not sure.”

Mary seemed very surprised. “Huh?! So the god actually came down and told you he knew about you having a lot of faith? Isn’t that really good?”

All of us responded with dry laughter; the word “faith” wasn’t exactly relevant to our lives.

“We’re honestly not sure,” I said. “Based on what we’ve been told, it sounds like we wouldn’t have gotten the blessing if we’d donated money specifically trying to get it. I personally think that it was just a whimsical thing on Advastlis-sama’s part.”

“I’m inclined to agree with Nao-kun’s theory,” said Natsuki. “If you’d ever exchanged words with him, you’d understand that he isn’t a particularly cryptic god.”

There could be no doubt about his power considering he’d restored us to life in another world, but his attitude seemed basically lighthearted. At the same time, he was a bit of a trickster, having laid traps for us in the form of the land mine skills, so we couldn’t afford to let our guard down around him.

“In any case, the blessings aren’t super powerful,” I said. “They’re really just small bonuses. By the way, what did everyone get? I just got one called ‘Luck!’ It didn’t seem that useful.”

“I received a blessing called Sound Health,” said Natsuki.

“Mine was Increased Stamina,” said Yuki.

“The one I just got is called Fluffy Hair,” said Touya.

“Okay, I’m honestly kind of curious about yours, dude,” I said. Realizing Haruka had remained silent, I asked, “Oh, what about you, Haruka?”

She just blushed and averted her eyes, then admitted quietly, “I received a blessing called Safe Childbirth.”

“O-Oh, I see! Ahem!”

I faked a cough. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that the other girls had smirks on their faces, so I ignored them and turned toward Touya.

“So, uh, Touya, what does your Fluffy Hair blessing actually do? Your hair and fur are already pretty fluffy. I don’t know how much fluffier they could really get! Does the blessing make your cuticles healthier or something?”

“Nah—baldness prevention.”

“...Baldness prevention?”

I guess that’s pretty important. A beastman with a hairless tail and ears would look like a disaster.

“Do beastfolk even go bald?” I asked. “I’ve never seen an animal lose its fur. Unless it was diseased or something...”

“From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty rare, but beastmen can lose the hair on the top of their heads,” Touya replied.

“Oh, okay,” I said. “I guess that makes sense—there are plenty of humans with big beards and bald heads.”

But why do humans go bald in the first place? Or rather, why do they only lose the hair on their heads? In comparison, losing your facial hair wouldn’t be such a big deal.

I’d heard that only in recent years had Japanese people begun to consider baldness a big deal, supposedly in part because of advertisements by a certain wigmaker. In the past, most men had thought nothing of shaving their pates, so maybe the Japanese were too easily influenced. A lot of ideas that modern Japanese people took for granted—the custom of giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day, the notion that “diamonds are forever,” and the rule that an engagement ring should be worth three months of a man’s salary—had been popularized by companies to sell their products. Blindly going along with advertising like that seemed lame to me. Admittedly, I myself had probably spent more than three months’ salary on the rings for Haruka and me.

“I’m way more curious about that ‘Luck!’ blessing you got, Nao,” said Touya. “What does it actually do?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. It makes me a bit luckier, that’s all.”

“A bit luckier?”

“Yeah, a bit luckier. Basically, Advastlis-sama said if I’m going to take an arrow to the knee, the blessing will send it into my thigh instead.”

After I’d repeated that specific example, everyone got funny looks on their faces. I was well aware that it wasn’t an amazing blessing by any means, but neither was it completely useless. It seemed hard to evaluate its worth.

“...It doesn’t sound very useful at all,” said Haruka. “It would be a lot better if it were at least capable of diverting arrows away from you.”

“That said, I’m not sure how one could even determine whether certain outcomes were attributable to good fortune,” Natsuki pointed out.

“And from what we’ve seen so far, arrows can still hit you just fine,” said Yuki.

Yeah, okay, I do wish the blessing were just a little bit better! It’s been a while since I got it, and it hasn’t helped me at all. Sure, I’m lucky to be dating Haruka finally, but I’m pretty sure that would have happened eventually even without the blessing...

“Everybody else’s blessings sound pretty straightforward,” I said. “I guess we don’t know their actual effects yet.”

“It sounds like all of the blessings are pretty decent but not amazing,” said Yuki.

“Much like the blessings one might receive from an amulet sold at a shrine or temple in Japan,” said Natsuki.

Natsuki’s analogy made perfect sense to me. It was possible to find amulets guaranteeing health, safe childbirth, and traffic safety at almost any shrine or temple in Japan.

“So have any of you noticed the effects of your blessings?” I asked. “Natsuki already designed her skill build specifically for immunity against diseases, but...”

“Yeah, I think I’ve kind of noticed my stamina being better, but I’m not a hundred percent sure if it’s the blessing or just our daily workouts,” Yuki replied.

“Yeah, I guess it might just be the result of training,” I said.

I was determined not to bring up Haruka’s blessing. Given that it was such a sensitive issue, neither Touya nor I would ever have joked about childbirth, nor, of course, would Yuki and the other girls.

“All of these blessings sound pretty tame,” said Touya. “I’m not the only one who thinks this was deliberate, right?”

“Indeed. The specific blessings each of us ‘won’ may, in fact, have been predetermined via probability manipulation,” said Natsuki.

“Okay, so, like, it would seem like we’d gotten a random blessing, but it was actually rigged so we’d end up getting blessings that aren’t too useful?” said Yuki. “Well, it’s not like we were donating specifically to get blessings, so I guess I don’t mind...”

But despite her words, she did seem somewhat dissatisfied. She explained that she’d picked the darts option to determine her blessing. When I asked the others what they’d chosen, it turned out each of the three had gone with a different option: Natsuki had picked the bundle of strings, Touya had gone with slots, and Haruka had chosen the lottery wheel.

“I’m surprised you picked the lottery wheel, Haruka,” I said. “Didn’t Advastlis-sama warn you about it?”

“You mean what he said about the possibility of landing on a skill that was hard to make use of? He did warn me, yes, but I wasn’t worried at all. If you think back, the land mine skills were added in response to requests from our classmates. With that in mind, I felt fairly certain that any skills Advastlis-sama had designed himself were less likely to be disastrous in that way. As an example, consider the blessing I received. If you’d randomly ended up with that one, Nao, it wouldn’t benefit you, but neither would it harm you.”

“O-Oh, yeah, good point.”

Although the blessing would still be useful to a man if it applied to his wife...

“Also, did anyone get any new information from Advastlis-sama?” I asked.

“Nope, nothing on my end,” Yuki replied. “All he said was that he couldn’t tell me any secrets.”

“That’s more or less what he told me as well,” said Natsuki. “Specifically, he told me I didn’t have permission to access the information I wanted.”

I remember Advastlis-sama making a Haruhi reference with me—he used the phrase “classified information”—so he must have tailored his response to each person. But one way or another, he clearly has no intention of telling us anything useful. Oh well.

“Based on the blessings he granted us, I think we can surmise that he has no intention of doing anything that would have a major impact on this world as a whole,” said Haruka. “The weird blessings that were available through the slots must have been something like jokes at our expense. That seems like something a trickster god would set up.”

“I completely agree,” said Natsuki. “Based on the little bit of research I’ve done, gods don’t generally intervene in the mortal world except to inflict punishment upon those who exploit their names for personal gain.”

According to Natsuki, there were countries in this world where beastfolk were oppressed, and others in which slavery was perfectly legal. Then, too, there were lords like Baron Dias who tyrannized their subjects. In none of those cases did the gods see fit to intervene. It didn’t really sound fair to me considering how harsh they were about people embezzling from their temples, but apparently the red line was for mortals to justify their own misdeeds using the names of the gods. For example, if a country permitted slavery, that was one thing, but if they declared that slavery was permitted by divine decree, judgment would descend from on high.

“When you think about it, though, it’s good for us mortals that the gods don’t intervene in our affairs all that actively,” said Touya. “Advastlis-sama isn’t the only god in this world. There might be some out there who are actually evil.”

“Yeah, even Advastlis-sama isn’t necessarily good,” said Yuki.

“He did introduce himself as an evil god, so we probably shouldn’t trust him all the way,” I said. “But anyway, he told me, ‘See you,’ like we were going to meet again.”

“Really? He didn’t say anything like that to me when I received my blessing,” said Natsuki.

“I wonder if it means that we’ll get another equally subtle set of blessings in the future,” said Haruka, tilting her head. “Of course, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Honestly, though, it seemed to me like the blessing she’d gotten was pretty sweet considering the risks involved in giving birth in a world without modern medical services. Of course, this world did have something our old one didn’t—healing magic—so maybe that in itself was enough to compensate.

“So Nao, correct me if I’m wrong—you got a first-time login bonus and then a whale bonus after that, right?” asked Touya. “Maybe after that comes something like a daily login bonus.”

“None of us would qualify for something like that,” said Yuki. “There’s no way we can drop by the temple every day when we sometimes have to leave town on adventures.”

“Yeah, exactly. I don’t know much about gacha games... What other potential bonuses are there?” I asked.

“There are bonuses you can get during special events or the holidays, plus anniversary events, collabs, rewards for inviting your friends... There’s all kinds of shit.” Touya looked like he was really racking his brain, but...

“I dunno, none of those feel right,” I said. “What would a collab event even be in this world—a collab between Advastlis-sama and some other god?”

“In this context, inviting a friend sounds tantamount to inviting someone to join a cult,” said Haruka.

“I take it an anniversary event is exactly what it sounds like, but I can’t imagine what would constitute a special event,” said Natsuki. “Perhaps something like Advastlis-sama’s birthday?”

“Oh, like Christmas?” said Yuki. “Hmm. Do gods in this world even have birthdays?”

The anniversary event was the only possibility that sounded plausible, but nothing had happened on the one-year anniversary of our arrival in this world.

“U-Um, is it okay if I say my idea?” Mary asked. “Based on what I’ve heard so far, won’t thinking about how to get blessings make us not get them?”

The rest of us fell silent. Even if there were special events that Advastlis-sama had prepared for us, it was entirely likely that he would suddenly say, “Never mind, I’m scrapping the whole thing!” if we consciously thought about it.

“Yeah, we probably shouldn’t think about doing stuff specifically to get blessings or rewards,” I said. “It’s a waste of time if nothing else.”

“Mm. Even so, I’d imagine it’s acceptable to express our gratitude to Advastlis-sama,” said Natsuki.

Metea chose that moment to pipe up. “I’m grateful! I’m sooo grateful that the gods let us meet each other!”

Natsuki laughed. “I’m grateful that we were able to meet you and Mary, Metea-chan.” Metea was lying down near Natsuki, so she reached out and petted her head, and Metea began wagging her tail in bliss.

“Aww, thanks!”

Yuki and Haruka, too, smiled at the heartwarming sight, but then Yuki clapped her hands together and changed the subject.

“All right! Our conclusion is that we should continue treating gods the same way we have been, right?”

“That’s correct, Yuki,” said Haruka. “Let’s just consider ourselves lucky if we happen to receive something and agree that it doesn’t matter if we don’t.”

“I guess we just have to keep up the hard work,” said Touya.

The whims of the gods were unpredictable, so we all agreed there was no point in dwelling on this matter. The next day, we began preparing to head back into the dungeon, but we were interrupted by a part-time job offer from Simon-san, who said he was very sorry for the sudden request but wanted us to gather some precious wood. He added that he wouldn’t mind even if it was only a small quantity. Almost a year had passed since we’d last gathered precious wood for Simon-san, and apparently he still had a fair amount in stock, but as a result of the drop in supply and the corresponding market uncertainty, prices had gone up.

As the only ones capable of gathering precious wood, we could have been selfish and waited for the price to increase even more, but we didn’t feel we could really turn down a request from Simon-san; we had already antagonized the local lumberjacks by supplying the precious wood ourselves, so we needed an ally who could vouch for us. Ordinary lumberjacks normally worked in the forests south of Laffan, so the wood they harvested was in a completely different price category, but it was difficult to avoid provoking their envy considering how much more money we could earn by doing the same amount of work. None of them had confronted us thus far, so no doubt they were aware of how strong we had to be in order to brave the forests north of Laffan. Still, it would be wise to curry favor, if not with lumberjacks, then with artisans who were higher up the totem pole, so we temporarily put our dungeon diving on pause and headed off to the woods to gather precious wood.

★★★★★★★★★

Mary seemed surprised as she watched us hard at work felling trees. “I had no idea adventurers also cut down trees to earn money,” she said.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that we haven’t actually gathered any precious wood since you and Metea joined us,” I said. “Very few adventurers fell trees themselves, but here in Laffan, it’s common for adventurers to escort lumberjacks.”

These days, our party mainly earned money exploring the dungeon, but we were a rare exception. However, it seemed Mary had already heard about the escort quests that ordinary adventurers accepted, and Metea nodded too.

“I know about this! The kids from the orphanage talked about it!”

“They told us that adventurers escort lumberjacks but not that they gather wood,” said Mary.

“Oh yeah. It’s because most adventurers wouldn’t be able to sell the wood even if they cut some themselves,” said Touya. “They can’t just bring it to the lumber market. But we bypass the market and sell directly to the artisans who work with precious wood.”

“Yeah, you need to have some connections and know the right people to make money on wood,” said Yuki. “And anyhow, the main reason Simon-san wants to buy this wood off of us is because it’s precious wood.”

“For another thing, it’s pretty difficult for the average person to bring wood back to town,” I said. “There are a lot of reasons that we’re the exceptions.”

“Precious wood is very profitable!” Yuki laughed and moved both hands in a weird way.

“Hey, what are you trying to imply by that gesture, Yuki?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just meant to represent gold coins clinking against each other.”

“I mean, sure, it’s true that we can earn stacks of gold coins this way, but please try to avoid acting weird around Metea and Mary,” I said.

Look, they’re already nodding like they’re impressed by what you showed them, Yuki! Don’t teach children bad things!

“B-By the way, how much would one whole tree fetch?” Mary asked.

“Well, the value of precious wood has gone down a bit, but I still think one whole tree would net us about two hundred gold coins,” Yuki replied.

“T-Two hundred?! That’s amazing!” Metea exclaimed.

“Y-Yeah, it’s a great source of motivation!” Mary exclaimed.

The sisters firmly gripped the axes that they were holding. They definitely seemed very motivated now.

“Oh, uh, it’s fine to put in more effort if you want, but be careful and try to avoid injuring yourselves,” I said.

It was too difficult for Mary and Metea to fell a large tree on their own, so we’d assigned them the task of helping us prune the trees instead. I’d warned them just in case, since they could still end up straining their leg muscles. Regardless, their reactions were understandable.

When we’d first harvested precious wood, its price in Laffan had been roughly halved overnight, but we’d gotten even faster at felling trees over the last year, so the amount of money we could earn per hour was actually more or less the same as before.

“Well, in any case, we’re only going to spend about a week harvesting precious wood,” said Haruka.

“Oh, really? Why?” Mary asked. “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to work longer if we can earn a lot of money this way?”

“If we harvest too much wood, no buyer will be willing to purchase all of it from us,” Natsuki explained. “We could clear out our inventory by selling it more cheaply, but that would cause us a different set of problems.”

Metea cocked her head. “Different problems?”

Natsuki nodded. “It would be bad for the average lumberjack if there weren’t a significant difference in price between precious and ordinary wood. Under those circumstances, it wouldn’t be possible to make much money selling regular wood, and the lumberjacks wouldn’t be able to make a living.”

The current disparity in price was great enough that few people used precious wood when regular wood would suffice, but if there were only a two or three times difference, more people would begin to consider precious wood affordable.

The cost of raw materials wasn’t always a large fraction of the price of the final product; it varied depending on the product. For example, even if the cost of wood tripled, the cost of wood products wouldn’t necessarily triple as well. It would eventually become impossible for us to earn money in the long run if we created an oversupply of precious wood and its value dropped as a result. In addition, that would ignite a full-blown conflict between us and the lumberjacks of Laffan, and it wouldn’t be good for the carpenters either if precious wood lost its scarcity value. Nobody would benefit from that outcome, so selling precious wood more cheaply would have been completely pointless.

“Well, we’ll still be able to earn a lot of money in a week here, so let’s work hard pruning these trees!” I said.

“Okay!” the sisters exclaimed in unison.

★★★★★★★★★

A week later, we had finished exactly on schedule. In fact, thanks to Mary and Metea’s hard work, we’d been able to gather a bit more wood than we’d expected. In order to return a portion of our profits to the lumberjacks, we placed some orders for wood products, which we then stuffed into our magic bags. Then we headed to the dungeon to resume our exploration of the twenty-first floor, but...

“All right,” I said. “It’s time to resume dungeon explora—”

“Fate has at last brought us together!”

My words were suddenly interrupted by a girl who spoke in a strange and distinctive manner.

Side Story—Tomi and the Usual Sudden Orders

My mind was wandering during work. “Is Touya-kun’s party still not back yet?” I asked aloud. “I hope they’re safe...”

When Gantz-san heard me mumbling to myself, he gave me a slug in the shoulder. He seemed confident that there was no need to worry about them and told me that if I had faith in the quality of the weapons I’d made them, I should just focus on work. It was true that I’d made them the best weapons I could, but no matter how good a weapon was or how well you took care of it, it would break eventually, and I got spooked when I imagined my weapons breaking on my friends. The thought of them getting injured like that especially bothered me because I was still in their debt. Touya-kun had the Blacksmith skill too, so I wasn’t worried about him maintaining the weapons incorrectly, but even so, it made me antsy when some time had gone by without me getting a chance to inspect my handiwork.

But as it turned out, there had been no need for me to worry. Meikyo Shisui showed up a few days later with no injuries. Their weapons were all fine too. They had mentioned before that they needed to visit another town for work, so that must’ve been where they were coming back from.

They’d brought a small bag with them. Oh, is that a souvenir for me? You guys didn’t have to do that—you were working. Well, if you went out of your way to get it, I guess it would be awkward for me to turn it down. I wonder what souvenirs in this world are like. Is it some kind of food?

My guess about my souvenir was only partially correct. They handed over the bag and told me that they had found rice in this world, so they wanted me to try to make some rice hullers and mills. I’d really been missing white rice too, so I was excited when I opened the bag. The size of the grains surprised me, but apparently they were perfectly edible.

As a Japanese person, I guess I have to do my best. After all, if everything goes well, we may be able to make sake at some point. Ale is decent, but it’s nothing special. Working hard on tools to make better alcohol seems perfectly natural for a dwarf. I’m looking forward to this!

★★★★★★★★★

Immediately after receiving the rice, I launched into the mechanical design process. I didn’t even have anybody to chat with or ask for advice; Haruka-san’s party had already left after telling me they were going to earn the money to pay for this order. Personally, though, I wouldn’t have minded doing this for free as long as they covered the material costs. I was grateful for all the help they’d given me, and sometimes, people wanted to purchase the products I made for their party. The mincer hadn’t been easy to make, but it was providing me with a steady income to this day. I’d told them as much, but Haruka-san had said it was only proper to compensate me for my work.

This arrangement definitely benefited me. I’d even been able to build up a decent savings. Should I work toward purchasing a house? I can probably afford it now, but I don’t really want to live alone. Will I end up getting married at some point? Well, I’ll think about this later.

Luckily for me, I had once seen a household rice-polishing machine back in Japan. My mom had bought it because she claimed freshly polished rice was especially delicious. It was pretty simple—basically just a rotating metal colander. I had no idea how to make a machine for industrial polishing, but for household use, simple was probably fine. The main question was whether the same structure would work for these bigger grains of rice. I would have to experiment after getting some brown rice.

The rice mills would be a lot harder. I didn’t know much about them or even what they looked like. It wasn’t like you could easily get unhulled rice at stores back in Japan, and I’d never heard of a household mill either. I had seen a television show where idols had prepared rice using a wooden mortar, but I was pretty sure nobody used mortars in the modern world. Am I actually gonna be able to make a miller in this world?

“But wait—you have to separate the chaff from the wheat too. I guess I’ll go ask Gantz-san about this.”

★★★★★★★★★

“Huh? Nah, nobody around here bothers separating the chaff from the wheat,” said Gantz.

“Really? So how do they turn the wheat into flour, then?” I asked.

“They use millstones or water wheels to grind it,” Gantz replied. “For finer flour, they sift it a little, but usually, it’s sold as is. I hear the process is different for even finer flour, but I don’t know the details.”

Later, I asked Haruka-san’s party for more information. According to them, the chaff was naturally separated from the wheat during threshing, unlike with rice. Once the chaff was blown away by the wind or separated by some other method, the grains of wheat were essentially like brown rice. If you ground them in that state, the result was whole wheat flour, and if you removed the outer layers before grinding them, the result was regular all-purpose flour. Even somebody like me who didn’t know much about cooking had heard about whole wheat flour. It was supposed to be full of nutrients and good for you. So is the bread I ate every day actually healthy? Wait, no, rye bread isn’t made from wheat, right? It’s made from rye. But it’s probably still healthy.

“Well, I guess I know a little more about wheat now,” I muttered to myself. “It’s not going to help me with making a rice-polishing machine, though.”

The desired end result was to make the grains of rice smaller, not to grind them into flour. It wouldn’t do if everything got crushed together.

“Should I try to fit in a wooden mortar? Nah, that wouldn’t work.”

If it were that easy, Haruka-san’s party would never have asked for my help in the first place. I took a handful of the rice they’d given me and carefully examined it.

“It definitely looks like rice, but it’s bigger than what I’m familiar with. The hulls are a bit on the thick side, so I guess you could peel them by hand. Would something like a hull peeling golem work? Hmm... Nah, that’s not a job for a blacksmith.”

I rubbed the grains together between my palms. It seemed like it would be possible to get the hulls off this way, whereas peeling them off with your fingers would take forever just for a small amount. Would a traditional method like a wooden mortar actually be the most pragmatic option here? Once you’ve removed the hulls, I feel like the rest of the process won’t be too difficult.

I was busy trying to come up with a plan when Yuki-san unexpectedly dropped by alone.

★★★★★★★★★

“Hey, what’s up, Tomi? You doing all right? Is everything going well?”

Yuki-san’s voice had the same lighthearted tone as usual, but I frowned and sighed. “Please, Yuki-san, it hasn’t been that long since you first placed those orders. I’m still in the middle of figuring out a plan!”

It was true that I had made a decent amount of money on orders from Meikyo Shisui, but I still had other daily responsibilities. I hadn’t even started on the prototypes yet; I’d just spent a few days thinking about their potential structure.

“Yeah, I figured as much,” said Yuki. “No rush, but I actually have another order I’d like you to prioritize if you can. Do you have the time?”

“Sure, I don’t mind, but are you sure you’re okay with this?” I asked.

Yuki-san seemed really pleased about something, but I still had to make sure. Normally, I operated on a first-come, first-served basis. It was normal to prioritize established customers over new ones, but in this case, we were talking about two orders from the same group of people, so I wasn’t sure if Yuki-san had the right to make this decision on her own.

“Yeah, it’s all good. There’s really no rush on the rice hullers and mills, and nobody else in my party is gonna get angry just ’cause you prioritized my order,” said Yuki.

“In that case, I don’t have any problem with it either. What do you want me to make?”

“Some rock climbing tools,” said Yuki. “Nao has finally worked up the nerve to give Haruka a ring, so he an’ me need to go get some ore to make them.”

“Oh, really?! This definitely sounds like something I need to prioritize above everything else!” I exclaimed. “Is he planning to propose to her?”

“Yeah, probably,” said Yuki.

Engagement rings were way more important than rice hullers or mills. There was something else that concerned me, however.

“Um, are you really okay with how things have turned out, Yuki-san?”

I was completely clueless about stuff like this, but my impression was that relationships between boys and girls in the same adventuring party could cause problems. Also, Yuki had shown plenty of signs of being interested in Nao-kun, so I was worried about their party breaking up as the result of a love triangle.

But Yuki-san just cocked her head, then laughed and shrugged.

“Relax—there’s nothing to worry about. We’ve been together full-time for over a year now, and we’ve been through a lot of stuff that’s brought us closer than the average couple. At this point, it’s gonna take a lot more than some little problem to make us all fight or break up. Also, Haruka and Nao have been friends for fifteen years. It’s honestly about time they made some progress!”

Oh yeah, a group of people would really have to trust each other to stick together for over a year with their lives at stake. I guess I was worrying about nothing.

“Besides, me and Natsuki plan to have Nao take responsibility for us too eventually,” said Yuki.

“...Huh?! R-Really? That’s amazing.”

Well, I’ve never even gone on a date, so I feel like I can’t comment, but “responsibility”? Did you make moves on Yuki-san and Natsuki-san too, Nao-kun? And yet you’re going to propose to Haruka-san soon? Seriously, dude?

“J-Just be careful, Yuki-san...”

“Relax, seriously. There’s nothing to worry about! I’m confident that things won’t turn ugly.”

“I hope not. I would hate to learn that my friends ended up in a bloody fight using weapons that I made.”

They were used to shedding blood daily when fighting monsters, so I had a feeling that they wouldn’t hesitate to bring out their blades. It would be better for them to part ways instead of resorting to violence.

Yuki waved a hand dismissively. “Trust me, you can relax. If I thought that was a realistic possibility, I wouldn’t bother getting close to Nao.”

It sounded like they had already resolved everything among themselves, so I decided it would be best for me, as somebody with no experience in romance, to butt out. I changed the subject. “I see. Well, what were we talking about again? You mentioned something about rock climbing equipment, right?”

Yuki nodded. “Yeah. Ropes and harnesses we can take care of on our own, but we also need stuff like climbing picks, carabiners, and rope hooks, so it would be great if you could make all that. There aren’t any for sale, are there?”

“Yeah, this store doesn’t carry anything like that.”

I was fairly confident that there was more than zero demand for rock climbing equipment in this world, so the tools were probably out there, but we didn’t have any in stock as far as I knew. I guess I could ask Gantz-san for more info later.

“Just so you’re aware, I don’t know anything about the kinds of tools people used back on modern Earth,” I said. “I never went rock climbing—I wasn’t that interested in it.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll brainstorm with you. All we need from you is your expertise in making tools,” said Yuki. “All we know about rock climbing is what we’ve seen on TV or read about in books, but I’m sure it’ll be fine!”

Yuki’s laugh sounded carefree, but it made me uneasy somehow. You know you guys are essentially going to be betting your lives on this equipment, right, Yuki-san? You also know I’m the one who’s going to make it, right? I really hope that nothing I make ends up breaking on them. Ugh, I feel sick just thinking about somebody dying as a result. Sure, the same thing could happen because of a weapon breaking, but still.

“Relax. There’s no need to worry,” said Yuki, as if she could tell what I was fretting about. “We’ll make sure the tools are sturdy, and we’ll use them at our own risk.”

But I wasn’t really a tough enough guy to reply with something like “Well, I’ll take your word for it!” and just push the whole thing to the back of my mind. I need to be meticulous and careful when I make all this equipment.

“Okay, that’s about it for today, Tomi. I’ll come back with some of the others and we can all brainstorm together. I’m counting on you to ask Gantz-san questions and get info about how rock climbing works in this world.”

“Yeah, sure. Hopefully there are tools out there that have already proven useful.”

“’Xactly. Oh, by the way, I’m bringing Haruka with me next time, but just so you know, the proposal thing is meant to be a secret. I’m sure you could guess this, but Nao wants it to be a surprise.”

“Of course. It would suck really bad for Nao-kun if somebody else spoiled his proposal!”

Yuki smiled and gave me a thumbs up. “Totally! It’s gonna be such an important event for both of them.”

Yuki must have felt a bit conflicted about this, but she was holding her own feelings in check to cooperate with Nao-kun. It just went to show what a dear friend Haruka-san was to her. Man, I’m kind of envious of their friendship. I never had any friends like that before. I guess I’ve made some new friends in this world, namely Touya-kun and Nao-kun. And they aren’t just friends—they’re my patrons. Now I’ve got to return the favor. I could never forgive myself if I made a mistake and ruined Nao-kun’s proposal!

Later, though, when I heard how Nao-kun’s proposal had gone, it gave me some pretty bad whiplash.

★★★★★★★★★

Yuki-san dropped by Gantz-san’s store with Haruka-san and Natsuki-san to discuss the rock climbing tools as well as the rice hullers and mills. More specifically, we were going to finalize the designs based on all the information that the three girls could remember from modern Earth.

“How’s it going, Tomi? Any progress?” Yuki asked.

I nodded and took out a piece of paper I’d used to jot down all the ideas I had come up with so far.

“Well, I asked Gantz-san for advice about rock climbing equipment, so I’ve made some progress on that front,” I replied. “As for rice mills, I have a specific design in mind that I’d like to test out, but I think a wooden mortar would be a more realistic option than trying to make a rice huller here.”

“Does that mean it would be better for us to ask Simon-san for his help with the rice hullers?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, since it’s a wood product,” I replied. “You can probably make it rotate automatically, but that will take alchemy. Haruka, I think you and Touya-kun could probably get some good results working together.”

If I were designing the product myself to sell, I would probably tack on something like wheels to add torque and increase the rotation speech, so that would be work for a blacksmith, but Haruka’s party could probably accomplish what they were trying to do just with magic.

“I did come up with a design of my own, though,” I said.

As a tradesman, I couldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d been unable to come up with any ideas for a customer who’d asked for my help. The idea I had come up with was to rely on Haruka-san’s party to make a motor with alchemy that could drive the mortar’s rotation and blow the rice hulls off of the grains.

I’d come up with two innovations. One, you could adjust the speed of the mortar’s rotation by shifting gears. Two, the motor would simultaneously drive a fan to generate airflow. Basically, it was a combination of a mortar and a winnowing basket—a very nineteenth-century design structurally.

“I’m not super confident in this idea, and you’ll probably have to season the mortar regularly, so there’s plenty of room for improvement,” I said. “Can you guys tell me in detail about the structure of a modern rice huller?”

“Modern rice hullers contain rubber rollers,” said Natsuki. “To put it simply, there are two rubber rollers with two different rotation speeds. Rice is hulled when it passes between them.”

I hadn’t expected such a concrete answer, but Natsuki-san had given me some really useful information.

Haruka’s reaction was the same as mine. “I’m surprised you know that off the top of your head, Natsuki,” she said.

“Well, I’ve gone on a tour of a rice mill manufacturer.”

“...Now that I think about it, I remember you bringing me a souvenir from that tour,” said Haruka. “It was dried rice that could be rehydrated. It was quite good too, although I’m not sure if it was a fitting souvenir for a friend.”

“Yes, it was a type of gelatinized rice called alpha rice,” said Natsuki. “Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could have gotten you as a souvenir, but it was better than plain rice, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I suppose it was interesting.”

So Natsuki has actually toured a factory before, huh? I guess that explains how she was able to give me such a detailed explanation of the machine’s structure. I’ve heard that tours like that are usually free or pretty cheap. Supposedly you can even take home free souvenirs. In fact, at beer plants, supposedly they sometimes give away free beer! Man, if I’d been able to tour a plant like that, I could have gotten some delicious beer! If only I hadn’t been a minor back on Earth...

“Rubber rollers... That would work better than a mortar, but can we get rubber anywhere in this world?” I asked.

“That won’t be a problem,” Haruka replied. “We can’t obtain natural rubber, but we can create something similar through alchemy, so we’ll supply you with everything you need.”

“Thank you very much, Haruka-san. In that case, I’ll do my best to make a rice huller,” I said. “As for the rice mill... Is it all right if it’s similar in structure to a household rice-polishing machine? To put it simply, it would polish the rice inside a metal colander...”

The machine my mom had used would stop on its own based on the volume and level of polishing the user selected, but that kind of function would probably be really difficult to re-create. Whatever my machine ended up looking like, you would probably have to eyeball it and stop it manually. If I could create a golem, I could probably design it to control the machine, but the Blacksmith skill couldn’t manage feats like that.

“That should be perfectly adequate,” said Haruka. “We’d also appreciate it if you could install a function that would allow us to split the grains of rice into smaller pieces—ideally about a quarter of their original size.”

“A-A quarter, huh?”

It was a tall order, but I understood Haruka-san’s reasoning. The grains of rice they had brought me were simply too big by Japanese standards. They’d told me that the rice had tasted fairly good when they’d tried it, but if they were going to be cooking it on a daily basis, they wanted something that was about the same size as the rice we were familiar with from back home. A smaller size would help with the soaking time and the texture too.

I nodded at Haruka’s request. As an artisan, I couldn’t compromise or cut corners. “It probably won’t be easy, but I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

Haruka smiled. “Thank you, Tomi. I have high hopes.”

Yeah, she’s the picture of a lovely elf maiden. Looks can deceive, though—she can be merciless when she wants.

“Next, let’s move on to the rock climbing equipment,” said Natsuki. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about such things, however.”

“It should be fine—three heads are better than one, after all,” said Yuki. “Besides, we have Tomi here with us, so we can just call ourselves something like the Four-Headed Geniuses featuring Tomi, ha ha!”

“Don’t come up with some weird group name for us,” said Haruka. “Well, in any case, let’s pool our knowledge and see what we can come up with.”

Haruka took the lead in our brainstorming. None of us were particularly knowledgeable, so I was a bit uneasy with the whole thing at first, but after we discussed all sorts of different ideas, our combined knowledge prevailed, and we were able to come up with a working plan.

“Just sifting through our memories, we’ve come up with five whole tools,” said Yuki.

We’d been able to remember carabiners instantly, since they were also used for things other than rock climbing. There were a few different kinds that were distinguished by the size of the shackle and the method used to secure the opening, but none of them would be super hard to make. I didn’t even need a detailed description, since I’d handled one myself.

Next, we discussed three types of hooks and anchors for securing rope to rock walls. The first one was a bundle of wire looped around a square spindle, the second had an expanding tip, and the third was a spike that you could insert into a hole you’d made in a wall.

Then there was the question of what tool to use while descending a rope. None of us had any idea about its name, shape, or structure. It was just like, Isn’t there something like that? But we quickly dropped that idea because none of us knew how it worked. Ultimately, we decided that it would be better to solve that issue by putting a rope through a carabiner and relying on pure strength. According to the girls, everyone in their party was strong enough that a single rope would be enough to descend safely, so the mystery tool wasn’t important.

“Gantz-san told me that most people in this world wedge metal spikes into rock walls,” I said. “He’s capable of making those himself, but apparently the most important things you need are tools to bore holes manually and a resin that you have to pour into the hole before inserting the spike.”

According to Gantz-san, there had been demand for equipment like that in the past, but it had long since died out, so there was nothing in stock here, and he hadn’t made any spikes in a long time. He did know how to make them, though, and he had taught me in detail. The drills used to bore holes needed to be sturdy and durable enough to drill through hard rock but light enough that you could use them while climbing a cliff. The materials required were pretty unique too, so the spikes weren’t easy to make. The resin, meanwhile, was a type of adhesive made by alchemists. Gantz-san had told me that Haruka-san’s party could probably make some themselves.

“We’ve never made it, but I’m sure that we can manage after a little research,” said Haruka. “Rather than drills, we’ll rely on magic to bore holes.”

“Oh yeah, I guess nobody in your party needs to use a physical drill,” I said.

Magic was way more convenient than a hand drill or even an electric drill. Boring holes required fine precision, so apparently it was impossible for most mages in this world, but if Haruka said it was no problem for her and her friends, I knew I could take her at her word.

“Can you start by making some prototypes, Tomi?” Yuki asked. “Then we’ll test ’em out and decide which ones are fit for use.”

“Sure, of course,” I replied. “I just need a little bit of time to work.”

Thanks to this brainstorming session, I’d come up with some designs and a concrete plan. The next step was the fabrication. I spent the next few days working on some prototypes and then handed them over to Yuki-san. She took them and went with Nao-kun somewhere they could practice.

★★★★★★★★★

Yuki showed up at Gantz-san’s store again a few days later. For some reason, she looked a bit down.

“What’s wrong, Yuki-san?” I asked, feeling nervous deep down. “Did the tools work okay?”

Just like last time, Haruka-san and Natsuki-san had accompanied her.

She nodded. “Yep. One of them broke, though.”

The rest of us all gasped at that frank, straightforward answer.

“W-Were you okay?” I asked.

“Nao fell,” Yuki replied.

“But he didn’t get injured, correct?” Natsuki put in.

“Yeah, I would have opened with that if he had,” Yuki replied. “The place where we tested out the gear wasn’t that high at all, and I was supporting him, so everything turned out okay. He got a little bruised, but that’s the kind of injury he can heal himself.”

“I see. I’m glad to hear that,” said Haruka.

She let out a very relieved-sounding sigh, and so did I.

“Yeah, same here,” I said. “I would have felt horrible if he’d gotten injured because of something I made. Which tool broke?”

“This one,” said Yuki. She took out the tool with the expanding tip. “My takeaway here is that complex tools aren’t easy to use.”

It was true that that was the tool I’d struggled the most to make, but...

“It looks like the pin broke,” I said. “I thought it was sturdy enough, but obviously I was wrong.”

“I think it broke because the amount of force applied to it isn’t always consistent,” said Yuki.

I inspected the pieces of the pin that Yuki-san had retrieved. Her explanation made sense to me. Another factor might have been the quality of the materials. I had tried to work carefully, but it was possible that some fragile sections of the final product had eluded my eye. There were also other potential issues, like the hardness and resilience of the metal and the way I’d quenched it.

“Should I try to make it sturdier?” I asked. “It’ll probably end up heavier if I do...”

“Um, I feel kinda bad given how hard you’ve been working on this, Tomi,” said Yuki, “but I don’t think we really need this one. The simpler tools will be easier to make and also a lot more trustworthy...”

“Oh, it’s okay—I don’t mind,” I said. “I just want to make sure you guys are safe.”

It was easier to maintain quality control with simpler tools, and they tended to break less too. Metal spikes were a good example of that principle. If that was what Yuki wanted, I had no reason to object.

“Thanks, Tomi,” said Yuki. “Also, I only thought of this after watching somebody rock climb myself, but pitons are another tool you can stick into a gap in a rock wall, right? The kind I specifically have in mind are shaped like this...”

What Yuki-san went on to describe was a spike made from sheet metal with a hole to pass a rope through. If you used softer, more malleable steel, it would deform to fit the shape of the gap, so even if you pulled on it from below, it wouldn’t be dislodged easily.

“Wedging a spike made from sheet metal into a gap, huh? I would never have come up with something like that on my own,” I said.

All of my designs had involved wedging or drilling hard metal spikes into rock walls. The idea of using softer metal was a new one to me. You would have thought it would slip out easily, but after Yuki-san explained how it worked, I was able to get it. It looked easy to make too, so there was no reason not to use this if lots of people had done so back on Earth.

“Okay, I’ll work on making some pitons too,” I said.

“Thanks. Oh, also, one more thing. Nao was wondering if we could make some climbing holds, like at a bouldering gym. We weren’t able to test any this time, but if we had the right kind of bolt for rock walls, attaching it wouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about,” I said. “It would probably make it easier to climb if you could install those.”

If you were being a rock climbing purist, then climbing holds were a no-no, but for Yuki-san’s party, rock climbing was just a means to an end. The climbing holds used for competition bouldering were designed to be a little bit harder to grab and step onto, but I could make ones that were easier to use, since the objective was just to create equipment that would make it easier and safer for the party to get up and down.

“Now that I think about it, it would probably be a good idea to prepare a rope ladder for the purpose of descending to the ground,” said Haruka.

Yuki-san and Natsuki-san stared at Haruka-san, then nodded simultaneously.

“Yeah, I bet that could work,” said Yuki. “Honestly, it might even be the simplest solution.”

“Mm. It’s quite likely that we’ll be attacked while climbing in the dungeon, after all,” said Natsuki.

Oh, you’re going to use all of this stuff inside the dungeon too? Not just for mining ore? Oh yeah, I guess the ore is a secret, since it’s for Haruka-san’s ring.

“Um, what would you like me to do?” I asked. “Will these tools not be necessary?”

“No, please continue to work on developing and improving them,” said Haruka. “There’s no point being able to descend if we can’t ascend.”

“Okay.”

“There’s also no guarantee that a rope ladder will stay where we put it in the dungeon,” said Yuki.

“If we’re ever unable to return, death will be the only path that remains to us,” said Natsuki.

Her tone was casual, but those words were pretty ominous.

“By the way, what kind of place are you currently stuck at where you need rock climbing equipment to get past?” I asked.

“Actually, it’s an area with spectacular views,” said Haruka.

“Indeed,” said Natsuki. “There’s a waterfall beggaring anything I saw back on Earth.”

“Definitely the kind of thing you can only see in a different world,” said Yuki.

“Was it really that amazing? I wish I could see it at least once,” I said.

The girls’ words had stirred my curiosity. None of the scenery I’d seen in this world so far has seemed that special. Granted, I didn’t get out of Laffan much. I had seen plenty of strange things, like the giant barrash mushrooms and giant salmon, so I couldn’t help but be aware that I was in a different world. Still, the idea of unearthly scenery had me interested.

“It’s definitely worth seeing at least once in a lifetime,” said Yuki. “You’d probably die if you stopped to take in the view, though.”

“...Seriously?”

“I mean, yeah, it’s inside of a dungeon. There are plenty of monsters that are hard to spot too,” Yuki replied.

Man, dungeons really are dangerous. I guess they’re places that ordinary people just aren’t meant to explore.

“Well, if you really want to see the scenery for yourself, we can help guide you there,” said Yuki. “Haruka said something about earning a living as tour guides after we retire from adventuring, so this might be a good opportunity to practice.”

Oh, is it actually not that dangerous for them, or do they have a way to guide people safely? If so, I kind of want to go. You almost never get the opportunity to go on a guided tour in this world, after all.

“It might be a good idea to practice with Tomi first,” said Haruka. “Even if we make some mistakes, it’ll be fun.”

“Huh? No way! I’m not a character in a gag manga!”

It wasn’t like I would come back to life in the next panel if I exploded. I was sturdier than I’d been back on Earth, but an explosion would hurt me just as much as it would anyone else, and so would falling from high up.

“I’m joking, of course,” said Haruka. “The road to the dungeon itself is actually more dangerous than the interior, so unfortunately we currently aren’t capable of guiding you there.”

“It’s all right—there’s nothing to apologize about,” I said. “Oh well.”

A part of me did want to see the magnificent scenery they’d described for myself, but I valued my life and safety way more, so I had no intention of demanding anything unreasonable from Haruka-san’s party.

“We can take you to the dungeon once we get strong enough that we can fend off monsters without getting distracted,” said Yuki. “Don’t get your hopes up, though.”

“We aren’t high-ranking adventurers, after all,” Natsuki added.

Nah, I think Rank 5 is quite high considering the fact that you’ve only been adventuring for about a year. That said, maybe I will get to see the dungeon after all.

“In that case, I’ll help your party reach new heights as adventurers by doing what I’m best at,” I said.

“Yeah, we’re counting on you,” said Yuki. “Right now, we just need you to work on the rock climbing tools. Oh, by the way, how are the rice hullers and rice mills coming along? We asked you to prioritize the rock climbing stuff, so there’s no rush, but I just wanted to check.”

“Oh, yeah, those two are already pretty much complete!”

It had been relatively easy for me to build a prototype for a rice huller thanks to the motor and the rubber that the girls had brought me. I had more or less copied the basic structure and mechanisms that Natsuki-san had described to me. The only new thing I’d added was a function that allowed you to fine-tune the space between the two rubber rollers manually. This was actually a pretty important function, since the different types of rice that Haruka-san’s party had given me varied widely in size, but the basic concept was simple enough. It had been even easier to come up with a prototype for the milling machine. Haruka-san had brought a machine that looked like a food processor as a point of reference, so I had more or less also copied that, with a few changes.

“The only thing I have yet to complete is the function to break the grains down to a quarter of their original size,” I said. “I’m still struggling.”

Dry rice tended to be very hard and brittle. You could split a grain into two pieces without too much trouble, but if you tried for four, most of the pieces would just crumble.

“You could sift through them and pick out the good ones, but more than half might end up getting wasted that way,” I said.

“We could use some of it for rice flour,” Natsuki mused, “but I’m afraid that more than half would really be too much wastage.”

“Yeah, I figured as much,” I said. “I’m testing all sorts of different methods, but...”

I had tried solutions like sharpening the blades or splitting the rice along different axes, and I had been able to improve the yield a bit as a result, but I was nowhere close to our goal, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed.

“Hmm. The rice is still edible in its original size,” said Yuki. “It’s just the texture and the soaking time...”

“We can improve the soaking time, but the texture is unavoidable,” said Haruka. “Oh, what if you try splitting the grains after you soak them?”

“I think that would keep them from crumbling, but are you actually okay with that?” I asked.

You couldn’t just leave rice soaking indefinitely, so you would have to soak the grains, then split them every time you made rice for a meal. Man, how many hours would it take to soak those big grains? I sure wouldn’t be willing to go through the hassle for every single meal.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Haruka replied. “We’ll just cook a large amount of rice at once instead—we have the ability to keep food hot for an extended period of time.”

“...Oh, right. In that case, I suppose it should work just fine for your party.”

Haruka-san’s party owned magic bags. I hadn’t really asked about them, but they were apparently good enough that they could stop the flow of time for any object stored in them. They would make it really easy for the girls to preserve freshly cooked rice, although I couldn’t decide if that was a worthwhile use of such a valuable and powerful magic item.

“Okay, cool,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind as I continue working.”

“Thank you,” said Haruka. “Oh, we have another job for you as well. You know who Mary and Metea are, right?”

“...Yeah. I attended the welcome party that you held for them. They sometimes drop by here too.”

Um, you know that I’m already busy working on the rice millers, right, Haruka-san? I also still need to make more rock climbing tools, and I need to work on improving them too. You can’t be serious about making more orders, right? Sure, I really appreciate that your party provides me with work, but still! Ugh. Oh well. I can’t really turn down commissions from my best customers, so I guess I’ll just nod.

“Good. You see, we were thinking that it’s about time to order some white iron chain mail for them. That’s why I bought this up with you. Would it be better if we discussed it with Gantz-san instead?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll pass your message along to him,” I said. “I don’t know who’ll end up making the armor, though—me or Gantz-san.”

Whew. This new order will just be business as usual—easy enough. I’m sure Gantz-san will help me out. Or rather, I’ll ask him to help me, so everything will be fine. He’ll probably make me participate too, but it should be much easier than developing new products on my own.

“Yeah, we’ll leave the details to you,” said Haruka.

“Thank you for your order,” I said.

Man, I still can’t believe that adventurers can just casually place orders for armor that’s worth millions of Japanese yen. That said, I don’t really want to become an adventurer anymore. I’ve come to realize that Haruka-san’s party is really an exception in terms of success.

“Also—” Haruka began with her usual composed expression on her face.

“D-Do you really have even more work for me?!” I desperately interrupted her. “I’m afraid I’m already at my limit! I really can’t take on any more!”

It was true that they were my best customers, and I was willing to accommodate most of their requests to a certain extent because I’d profited so much from this relationship, but...

Haruka chuckled and waved her hands to reassure me. “Oh, don’t worry, this isn’t work related.”

“I see. Whew...”

Well, I guess being too busy is better than having no work at all and being bored.

“We’re actually planning to host a flower-viewing party soon,” said Yuki. “We figured right now is just about the perfect time of year. It’s been a year and a half since we first started this party, so we wanted to take this time to celebrate all sorts of stuff. Like, for one thing, the fact that we’ve survived in this world.”

“Do you have the time and the inclination to attend, Tomi-kun?” Natsuki asked. “We’ll be serving some fancy food, but apart from that, it will be nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Of course! I’d love to attend!”

Thank goodness it was just a casual request. And there’s no way I would miss out on an opportunity for food made by Haruka and the rest! It’s not like “Might as well take what I can get”—it’s the main attraction as far as I’m concerned! Sure, the food at The Slumbering Bear is decent, but the food Haruka and the others make is on a whole different level. I don’t know if it’s because they put more money and effort into cooking or if we just have similar tastes as former Japanese people. Regardless, I’ll make sure I have time to attend!

“Whoa, it has been a while since we first got transported to this world, huh?” I said. “I haven’t even thought about that until now.”

“And yet all of us have somehow managed to survive,” said Haruka.

“We’ve been through all sorts of crap, but we’ve managed to make a life for ourselves here in Laffan,” said Yuki.

“Yeah, you guys have gone through a lot more than I have,” I said. “I owe my survival to all of you.”

At first, I had wound up in the middle of a forest, where I’d basically been at the mercy of two dumb guys—although looking back, there really hadn’t been much difference between them and me. Regardless, I’d been able to survive because I’d met Haruka-san’s party. I had never been in danger since then, while Haruka-san and her friends put their lives on the line constantly to build a new life in this world.

But the girls actually shook their heads after they heard me muse about my luck.

“You’ve worked quite hard to establish a life here, Tomi-kun,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, ’xactly,” said Yuki. “We only gave you a little bit of help to get you started. And you’ve helped us a lot since then, so we’re even.”

I would have said they’d given me way more than “a little” help. The first hurdle I’d had to jump was becoming a blacksmith’s apprentice. That had only been possible because Haruka-san and her party had earned Gantz-san’s trust. Touya had gone out on a limb to vouch for me too.

They’d also given me a lot of work. Most apprentices without a background in blacksmithing could only do things like assist the master with simple tasks, and they barely earned enough money to get by. But the orders from Haruka-san’s party had paid well, so I’d never struggled for money. I could even afford alcohol. In fact, Gantz-san reminded me all the time how lucky I was, and honestly, I agreed completely. But I knew that if I said that, the girls would probably try to argue, so I just lowered my head and thanked them again.

★★★★★★★★★

Now that we’d come up with the strategy of soaking the rice ahead of time, the problem of how to split it evenly was actually pretty easy to resolve. I was kind of irritated given how much I’d struggled with it. After a little testing, I determined that you had to soak the rice in water overnight, so you couldn’t ever cook it right away, but the girls didn’t mind at all. I’d successfully completed their order, and they gave me an extra reward in the form of some salted onigiri.

They were absolutely delicious. The rice wasn’t as good as the rice back in Japan, but it had been so long since I’d had anything like this that nostalgia covered up the difference. Another plus was the fact that these onigiri had been made by the hands of beautiful girls, so— Ahem, my bad; I should say, it’s the fact that I put so much work into the machine that polished the rice.

I wished I could eat rice on a regular basis again, but it sounded like it wasn’t available on the market here in Laffan. The girls didn’t have a lot with them either. I’d asked if they were willing to share some, but they’d only had a little bit to give me. They’d apparently found it someplace they couldn’t routinely visit to go shopping, so I planned to work my way through what they’d given me slowly.

As for the white iron chain mail that Haruka-san’s party had ordered for Mary-san and Metea-san, I ended up being the one who made it rather than Gantz-san, but I was pretty familiar with the process by now; I had already made mail a few times before. It took some time to finish, but the work itself was easy enough, so I completed that order before I started on the rock climbing tools.

The carabiners and the square spindle posed no problems, so I just produced more of those. The bolts, spikes, and pitons were all structurally quite simple, and I didn’t have to worry about the special resin, since Haruka-san’s party was going to take care of that, but the rope ladder actually took me a bunch of time to complete. I had never made one before, and neither had Gantz-san—he even asked, “That the kind of thing blacksmiths make?”

Safety was my top concern, so I used metal wires for the ropes. Normal rope would be too chancy if Haruka-san’s party got attacked inside the dungeon. The wire was more durable than the wire for the chain mail, so it probably wouldn’t snap even if monsters bit it. I gave the rungs a pipe structure so that they wouldn’t break even if someone like Touya-kun stepped on them in heavy armor. However, when I focused too much on durability, the ladder started getting too heavy for practical use, so I tested all kinds of different combinations of materials and structures and ended up destroying a lot of designs before I finally found the right balance.

All that was left was to actually make the ladder. This part wasn’t easy either. According to the specifications from Haruka-san, it had to be at least ten meters long. If there were any sections with defects, my friends would fall all the way down. I couldn’t afford a single mistake, so I worked carefully, and as a result, time passed in a flash. That was around the same time the date of the flower-viewing party arrived. At the party, I discovered a new path to hope: liquor.

Chapter 2—Visitors from Afar

At the sound of that unfamiliar voice, I turned my head and saw a group of three girls who seemed to have been waiting for us. They appeared to be adventurers, like us, and all three were of different races. The first was a tall elf, the second a short beastgirl with fox ears, and the third a human. Multiracial groups like this were rare in Laffan, where most of the citizens were humans.

The girl that had fox ears was pointing at me, but I couldn’t imagine why. I was certain that I would never have forgotten a party of adventurers who stood out as much as these three girls did. Oh, wait, actually, I think I have an idea...

“Um, would you happen to be the Jade Wings party?” I asked, using a name I’d learned back at the guild.

The three nodded, looking very relieved.

“Yes. You’re Kamiya-kun, right? Nice to meet you. My name is Yoshino Kitamura.”

“My name is Saeko Yamamura, but you can just call me Sae.”

“Greetings! Friend and foe alike know me as Kaho Kawabuchi!”

So Kitamura-san is a human, Yamamura-san is an elf, and Kawabuchi-san is a beastwoman... I can’t really bring to mind what they looked like back on Earth, with the obvious exception of Kitamura-san, who looks kind of familiar. Honestly, I have trouble recalling the classmates I didn’t interact with routinely, and it’s even tougher when their appearances have changed after reincarnation, although I can generally remember their names when they introduce themselves that way.

“Nice to meet you too. My name is— Actually, we probably shouldn’t talk out in the open like this,” I said. I looked to Haruka for her opinion. “Where should we go?”

Haruka gave a grudging shake of her head and shrugged at me. “It wouldn’t be right to tell them to drop by some other time. Oh well—let’s postpone our expedition for now.”

Kitamura-san looked a bit apologetic after she saw Haruka’s reaction. “I’m very sorry about this sudden visit. We would have preferred to contact you ahead of time, but...”

“Yeah, we get that it isn’t easy to contact people here compared to where we came from,” said Yuki. “And we’re away from home all the time too, so it’s not easy to catch us.”

“In fact, we were planning to leave town for an extended period starting today,” said Natsuki.

A look of relief appeared on Yamamura-san’s face. “Oh, I see. Well, I’m terribly sorry about that. This is convenient for us, though.”

Based on what Diola-san had told us, it sounded like Jade Wings had first arrived in Laffan quite a while ago, but what with our party adventuring so often, we’d seldom been in town at the same time. With our plans having been disrupted, it felt like we’d been dashed with cold water, but Yamamura-san was right that this was convenient for them.

“Anyway, let’s continue this conversation inside our house,” I said.

Metea seemed peeved that we’d canceled our original plans, so I patted her on the head as we turned back. It hadn’t been long since we closed our gates, but now I opened them again to invite the Jade Wings girls in. They seemed surprised by what they saw.

“What a magnificent home you have,” said Kaho.

“The grounds are pretty impressive,” said Touya, “but our actual house isn’t that massive.”

“Yeah, all we wanted was a house that’s big enough for all of us to live in,” said Yuki. “Anyhow, follow us inside.”

We guided Jade Wings into our dining room. Given that we probably wouldn’t have enough time to set out for the dungeon today, we asked them to wait for us while we went to take off our adventuring equipment. Once we’d changed into casual clothes, we reconvened in the dining room.

“Before we discuss anything else, let’s properly introduce ourselves,” said Haruka. “I’m fairly sure you know who we are, but my name is Haruka Azuma. You’re welcome to call me Haruka.”

“I’m Tomoya Nagai, but I go by Touya in this world.”

“My name is Naofumi Kamiya, but you can just call me Nao.”

“I’m Yuki Shidou. Feel free to call me Yuki here.”

“My name is Natsuki Furumiya,” said Natsuki. “You’re welcome to refer to me as Natsuki.”

Kitamura-san nodded. “Okay, so we correctly guessed who the members of your party were. We introduced ourselves earlier, but please feel free to call us by our first names too—that’s what we used to register as adventurers. By the way, may I ask about the other two members of your party?”

Yoshino sounded concerned about how much she could say around Mary and Metea, so I nodded and reassured her that she had nothing to worry about.

“We happen to be taking care of the sisters. We’ve told them about where we came from, so you don’t need to avoid any topics related to our past.”

“My name is Mary. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Metea! Are you all friends of big sis Haruka’s party?”

“Friends”? Not really... Our group and Yoshino’s group barely interacted. Even if you classify classmates as friends, it’s been over a year and a half since we last met. We might as well be strangers at this point. All of us exchanged glances. It was Haruka who finally spoke up on everyone’s behalf.

“No, we’re just acquainta—”

But Kaho suddenly leaned forward to interrupt Haruka. “Correct! We are the best of friends, linked by a bond eternal!”

Haruka fell silent, then sighed to herself before speaking up again. “We’re not best friends, but I suppose we technically are friends.”

Haruka had promoted the Jade Wings girls from acquaintances to friends, probably because she thought it would be awkward to contradict something Kaho had said so confidently in front of the sisters. Admittedly, Haruka and Kaho were both girls, and female classmates always seemed to know each other better than any two given male acquaintances.

Despite the fact that Haruka hadn’t completely affirmed Kaho’s declaration of eternal friendship, Mary was clearly trying to connect the dots between their statements. “Um, does this mean all of you met each other at some point a long time ago?”

“That’s right,” I said with a nod. “We were born in the same country. More importantly, there’s something I want to ask about. May I go ahead?”

“Of course.” Kaho smiled and lifted an index finger to her cheek, then cocked her head in a girlish way. “I ought to say that I’m completely available...”

I had to admit that she was pretty cute, but now Haruka was giving her a cold stare.

“That’s irrelevant. Right, Nao?”

I had nothing to hide or feel ashamed of, but I stammered, “O-Oh, yeah, of course.”

“You’re a bit slow on the draw, Kaho.” Yuki laughed and pointed at Haruka’s left ring finger. “Haruka and Nao just started their honeymoon.”

“Oh, a ring,” said Yoshino, audibly excited. “Wait, is that what I think it is, Haruka?!”

Natsuki covered her smile with one hand. “Yes, you’ve likely guessed correctly,” she said with a giggle. “Nao-kun just recently gave Haruka that ring.”

“What a marvelous gift!” Kaho exclaimed. “I’m too envious for words!”

“Right? Nao gave her the ring on a beautiful moonlit night,” said Yuki. “It was super romantic!”

“And the person who spoiled that romantic moment is in the room with us,” said Haruka.

Clearly there was a lot of truth to the idea that girls loved talking about romance, but...

“But I notice that Nao-kun himself isn’t wearing a ring,” Sae put in.

The girls all fell silent and stared at my left hand. It was true that my ring finger was bare, and Haruka pouted at me. Oh, come on, surely you understand that I’m not going to wear it when we’re out adventuring, right? You were wearing your own ring on your necklace rather than your finger earlier. Oh well. I’m definitely not going to talk back. I silently pulled out my own necklace and took off my ring in order to place it on my finger, then attempted to change the subject with a straight face.

“As I was saying, I wanted to ask you about your distinctive way of talking, Kaho,” I said. “Back in Japan, didn’t you talk...normally?”

“Your attempt to sidestep the topic at hand is pretty obvious,” said Yoshino.

“Mm, clear as day,” said Kaho.

“Yep,” said Sae.

“I’m not trying to sidestep anything,” I said. “But anyway, I’m not misremembering, am I?”

I had only chatted with Kaho a couple of times in the past, but if she’d talked like that back on Earth, there was no way I could ever have forgotten it.

At my second request for an explanation, Kaho puffed out her chest. “Oh, this is simply a role I’m playing. You recall, don’t you, how that ‘evil’ god—Advastlis-sama, he called himself—behaved when we first appeared before him? It occurred to me that he might be more charitably disposed to a memorable character as opposed to someone with no distinguishing qualities.”

Yoshino glanced at Kaho as if she were a pesky child. “I really wanted to tell her that reality is different from games, but her reasoning sort of makes sense to me.”

Honestly, it kind of made sense to me too. At this point, I’d probably interacted with Advastlis-sama more than anyone in Kaho’s party, and based on the kinds of blessings he’d bestowed on us, it definitely felt like he had that kind of playful mentality.

“Yeah, I guess he probably would be more interested in somebody LARPing like that,” said Yuki.

“Right?” Kaho wagged her tail, but then it drooped. “I must say, however, that I have not yet felt any blessing, nor seen any sign of divine favor.”

“Yeah, you can’t expect too much from Advastlis-sama,” said Yuki. “Oh yeah, can I ask a question myself? Your party name is Jade Wings, right? How’d you choose the word ‘Wings’ as the second part?”

Instantly, Kaho became energetic again. She stretched out her hand and declared, “O-Oh, I’m pleased that you asked! As you might imagine, there is a reason! Mayhap you recall the tale of old Cathay—jade feathers, joined together, become jade wings and soar through the Empyrean!”

Touya cocked his head. “Huh? What?”

Natuski laughed and came to his rescue. “She must be referring to the Chinese legend of the biyiniao. They’re birds that each have only one eye and one wing, so they’re dependent on one another and can only fly in pairs. Essentially, I believe it means that their goal is to make up for one another’s deficiencies as equal partners. Am I correct?”

“Yeah, you got it,” said Yoshino. “But six is probably the perfect number of people for an adventuring party, huh?”

“Yep. Three is a bit too small, but six is perfectly right,” said Yuki. “Buuut...”

“...Will it really be easy for each of you to find another ‘wing’?” Natsuki asked. “All three of you are cute, so I’m sure there are plenty of men who’d love to join you, but narrowing it down to adventurers, I imagine it would be difficult to find ideal partners.”

“Yeah, exactly. Plenty of adventurers have nasty personalities.” Yuki laughed to herself. “Maybe you’ll end up just being Jade Wings: Best Friends Forever or something like that.”

Yoshino, however, wasn’t laughing.“Ugh. I don’t really want to stay single forever,” she said with a scowl.

“Well, Yuki was just joking, but honestly, it’s probably not the worst thing that could happen,” said Touya. “Think about it—what happens if two of you find partners and girl number three gets left out? Are you gonna disband your party at that point?”

It was a pretty cruel suggestion but admittedly not unlikely. Sae didn’t seem to mind, though; she laughed and glanced at Kaho, then said, “Don’t worry. If that happens, we’ll just rename ourselves to something along the lines of Jade Wings Plus One.”

“Pray tell, what signifies the glance you just gave me?! Do you mean to say it is my doom to be alone?!”

“Yeah, but don’t blame yourself, Kaho,” said Sae. “You just can only attract...certain guys. Yoshino and I have a less niche appeal.”

“Ugh. Well, I suppose it is true that we beastfolk have a certain scarcity value,” said Kaho. “And yet there are no fewer than four of us gathered here today.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird considering how rare beastfolk are around here,” said Yoshino. “By the way, Touya-kun, what do you think of Kaho?”

Oh, right, ever since we got here, Touya has been going on and on about how much he wants to marry a cute girl with animal ears, so Kaho is perfect for him. Even setting aside her fluffy ears and tail, Touya has more in common with her than he does with any beastgirl who was born in this world.

But Touya awkwardly averted his eyes from Kaho. “Uh, yeah, sorry, jailbait isn’t my type.”

“Jailbait?! We’re of an age!”

“I know we’re the same age!” said Touya. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “I’m just saying, I prefer women who look a little more...mature.”

Kaho reacted with obvious disappointment. She was shorter even than Yuki—as short as Metea—and quite slender—nowhere near curvy enough to match Touya’s tastes. We were still quite young, so Touya probably wasn’t in any hurry to compromise on his desires.

“Ugh. Cast aside before I made a single move of my own,” said Kaho. “Not to say I had any intentions of my own along those lines, and yet I’m pricked in heart.”

Metea waddled over to Kaho and patted her on the back. “Um, please cheer up, big sis Kaho. You’re very cute, so there’s nothing to feel down about!”

Kaho opened her eyes and beamed at the little girl. “What a kind girl you are. Would you care to join my party? We’ll take good care of you!”

But Metea turned her down without entertaining the offer for even a second. “Nah, I prefer being with big sis Haruka’s party!”

“Rejected again... Finding new party members is truly a Herculean task.”

“Yeah, it’s hard finding new people you can trust, ’specially if they’re boys,” Yuki said with a giggle. “I bet you’ll have better odds if you just give up on finding one person for each of you, though. Relationships in this world aren’t always one-on-one—just look at us and Nao!”

Yuki, why did you have to use that as your example? And why did you have to emphasize it like that?! Now all of the Jade Wings girls were staring at me.

“Huh?! Seriously?!” said Yoshino.

“You just gave a ring to Haruka-san, but you’re in a relationship with the other two as well?” said Sae. “I’m honestly impressed, Nao-kun.”

“Indeed! This is unquestionably a doughty feat!” Kaho exclaimed. “I had no idea that you had seduced all of them!”

“Please, I haven’t seduced anyone! That’s slander!”

There was a possibility that I would someday end up in relationships with Yuki and Natsuki as well as Haruka, but I hadn’t done anything weird or aggressive to bring this about.

But Kaho completely ignored my angry attempts to clear my name. “Ugh! There can be no doubt that you are the hero of the story Advastlis-sama has devised! My pretentious idiolect was all for nought! Never did I imagine I would encounter a harem protagonist capable of seducing women right and left!”

“I’m innocent! I never wanted to be the protagonist of any story!”

Also, I really doubted Advastlis-sama would ever tolerate a harem protagonist. I had no desire to build a harem, but more to the point, the thought of becoming the protagonist of a story Advastlis-sama had planned was terrifying. It was easy to imagine him putting someone like that through harsh trials on the grounds that it was more interesting. Nothing good could come of it.

“I’m begging you, please don’t say anything more. It’d be awful if Advastlis-sama got any weird ideas from you...”

I let out a deep sigh and wondered whether or not I should beg Advastlis-sama not to mess with my life the next time I visited the temple.

“Oh, speaking of which, can I ask a question next, Nao?” Yoshino piped up. “You guys visit a temple pretty regularly, right? We figured out why after we visited one ourselves, but you guys have gone a lot more often and donated a lot more money too. Do you have some specific reason for that?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing myself,” said Sae. “Sorry to assume, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve become devout, exactly...”

“Is it possible that your eleemosynary endeavors are the result of awakening the loving-kindness of the Buddha and embarking upon the bodhisattva path?” Kaho asked.

The Jade Wings girls had, like us, survived a year in this world, so even without an explanation from us, they could probably guess our reasoning. They glanced over at the sisters, and Metea nodded, then used her entire body to express her agreement.

“Yeah, that’s right! Big sis Haruka’s party is nice an’ caring!”

All of us fell silent after that, including the Jade Wings girls. I honestly wasn’t sure how to respond to them. The main reason I visited a temple frequently was that it was fun to watch my stats go up, and the reason I donated so much money was that Ishuca-san helped us out a lot. I could simply have said all of that, but depending on what words I used, there was a chance that I would render the girls ineligible to receive Advastlis-sama’s blessings. I glanced at the other adult members of my party, and when no one seemed to have any advice to offer, I spoke up on everyone’s behalf.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t comment about this,” I said.

“Uh, that just makes me feel more curious, so—”

“Be not hasty, Yoshino! Heh, I know exactly what this is—I’ve seen it many a time in games. I’m confident that this is the kind of scenario in which we can’t gain something if we learn the details ahead of time.”

Kaho grinned and looked to us for confirmation. She was completely correct, but we couldn’t directly tell her that, so all of us answered with silence. If these had been hostile classmates, it would have been perfectly fine to sabotage things for them, but they seemed friendly so far, so there was no reason for us to purposely antagonize them. I gotta say, though, I’m impressed by Kaho’s ability to think about everything in terms of gaming. Sure, it’s a completely useless skill most of the time, but I guess it can be very useful in situations where Advastlis-sama is involved.

“...It seems like it would be best for us to refrain from inquiring further,” said Sae.

“Yeah. Well, anyway, I guess we’ll continue visiting the temple too,” said Yoshino. “It’s convenient to be able to check our own levels.”

The Jade Wings girls nodded to each other and promptly dropped the subject. They must have been able to guess the real reason for our silence from the looks on our faces.

“Well, we should get back to the main topic,” I said. “I assume there’s some reason all of you came to visit us?”

Back when we’d first come up with the name Meikyo Shisui, we had debated among ourselves and came to the conclusion that we would help any classmates in need who sought us out, but only if they were trying to lead honest lives. However, considering the quality and condition of their equipment, Jade Wings didn’t seem to be struggling at all. In fact, based on what Diola-san had told us, they were actually a fairly successful adventuring party, so I wanted to know why they’d left the area where they’d been working originally and traveled all the way to Laffan. But the three glanced at one another and seemed hesitant to give me more than a vague answer.

“Oh, um, no real reason,” said Yoshino. “We just heard some rumors about a bunch of adventurers who sounded like they might be classmates of ours, so we wanted to check it out. We also heard rumors about a dungeon near Laffan...”

“Mm. We don’t have any family to rely on in this world, so we figured it would be nice if we could find people whom we could get along with,” said Sae.

“Moreover, we were confident that, having made names for ourselves, we wouldn’t be mistaken for would-be leeches.”

So they basically traveled here because they could afford to, huh? Our party’s Japanese name served as effective advertising, just as we’d hoped, but I feel like no one who really needed our help would be able to make it all the way out here. Of course, that’s not such a big problem. In this world, most of the former classmates we’ve run into have been walking land mines—it’s not like we really want to go out of our way to help them.

“Gotcha. That makes perfect sense,” said Yuki. “Oh, also, have you interacted with any of our other classmates?”

“Well, we began our adventures in a place called Kiura, far to the east,” said Kaho. “We slew innumerable orcs, so the rumor of our deeds no doubt spread throughout the land, and yet no one approached us...”

“Mm, that’s right,” said Sae. “That’s how we ended up with the alias of Orc Ea—”

Yoshino suddenly clapped a hand over Sae’s mouth and gave us an immaculate smile.

“What about you, Yuki? Have you met any of our classmates?” Yoshino asked.

Okay, she’s obviously trying to dodge the question, but they didn’t inquire too deeply into our business, so I’m just going to let this slide. Yuki must not have thought it was a big deal either, because she responded like everything was perfectly normal.

“Oh yeah, we’ve met a whole bunch of different classmates,” said Yuki. “More than we would have liked to, actually.”

Yuki stared into the distance as if lost in a traumatic flashback, and the rest of us nodded. The two guys who had instantly screwed themselves over with land mine skills weren’t really relevant to us, but there were also the three who’d tried to make a move on the girls and ended up turning to banditry. Then there was the vampire who’d been the true mastermind behind the chaos in Kelg. We had managed to forge a positive and mutually beneficial relationship with Tomi and even, in time, with Yasue, though we’d started off on the wrong foot. If we brushed aside the unintended consequences of her actions, Satomi was just an airhead. Still, most of the classmates we’d encountered so far had become bad people.

“We’ve been able to confirm that six of our classmates have died as a result of their own poor decisions,” said Haruka.

“Really? May I ask why you’re so confident?” Sae asked.

Haruka responded with a perfect smile, and the Jade Wings girls all swallowed nervously. Natsuki laughed and jumped in to relieve the tension.

“We know some classmates who are still alive, of course,” she said. “There are three in total. One of them works at a weapons shop here in Laffan.”

“O-Oh, good to know,” said Kaho. “As it so happens, we were planning to purchase new arms and armor soon...”

“Y-Yeah. If it’s somebody your party knows, I guess we don’t have to worry about poor quality,” said Yoshino. “When we tried to order some back in Kiura, the final estimate was pre-tty expensive, so our plan was to earn and save here until we could afford it, but...”

“...as far as we can tell, there’s no really efficient way to earn money here,” Sae finished.

Touya folded his arms and nodded. “Oh, yeah, that’s totally true. We basically never take on any quests that are posted on the guild bulletin.”

“You think so too, huh? But your party seems to be doing okay,” said Yoshino. “The equipment you had earlier looked really nice, and the clothes you’re wearing now look just as well-made as something we could have bought back in Japan. I assume clothes like that are pretty expensive in this world.”

“I admit I’m a bit jealous,” said Sae. “Even ordinary new clothes are expensive enough...”

“Mm. We have had to content ourselves with secondhand clothes of middling quality,” said Kaho. “As for this dungeon—is that the true source of your wealth?”

She gave me a look as if trying to pry clues out of me, but I just laughed and shrugged.

“Well, we’ve definitely made a lot of money on the dungeon, but that’s not actually relevant. There are a lot of reasons that we’ve been able to lead comfortable lives in this world, but probably the most important is that we’ve been able to do a lot of DIY stuff ourselves.”

“H-Huh? DIY? Wait, you’re not trying to imply that you built this house yourselves, are you?” Yoshino asked.

“Of course not. We paid for some local carpenters—for the furniture too. It wasn’t cheap by any means, but it’s high quality—furniture is Laffan’s main export, so it’s pretty easy to order here.”

“Oh yeah, it’s definitely stylish and fancy,” said Yoshino. “I’d love to own some furniture like this...” She tilted her head quizzically. “But, um, I mean, what exactly do you mean by DIY? Like, what else can you make by yourselves to save money?”

Natsuki laughed at that reaction. “I believe the word ‘handmade’ would be more accurate than DIY, Nao-kun. You see, most of the tools we use in the course of our adventures are things we made using our skills and magic. In this way, we’ve been able to save a great deal of money.”

“Yeah, we’ve got skills like Alchemy that have helped us out in all sorts of ways,” said Yuki. “Even Touya’s Blacksmith skill has been super useful for stuff like maintaining our own weapons and making kitchenware. Our lives pretty much depend on the skills we got before we came to this world.”

“I can’t take too much credit for the smithing—I personally think you three have contributed way more by making clothes for everyone,” said Touya. “I really wouldn’t want to wear secondhand clothes. It’s a bit of a shame that most of the requests I make about design get ignored, though.”

“Sorry, Touya,” said Yuki, “but if you want us to stay motivated, you gotta let it go!”

The girls sewed all of our clothes by hand. True, they had the Sewing skill, but it wasn’t like that made them as fast as a sewing machine, so motivation was a crucial consideration, and if we complained about the things the girls made for us, it was entirely possible that they’d tell us to go buy clothes for ourselves. I didn’t have any particular preferences in clothes, so it was convenient that I could just wear whatever Haruka thought would look good on me.

“...I see. I guess you guys keep your expenses low compared to us,” said Yoshino.

“Ugh, is this the true power of all-arounder builds?! I suppose it’s impossible for people with specialized builds like ours to replicate your accomplishments.”

“‘Specialized builds’? Did the three of you blindly pick similar skills or something?” Haruka asked.

Yoshino gave Kaho and Sae an exasperated look. “Yeah. Well, my build is a bit more rounded out, but these two over here are just walking disasters.”

Kaho and Sae must have agreed with that assessment, because their eyes got shifty.

“Oh, really? If you don’t mind, could you tell us your exact skill builds?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Yoshino replied. “But just to be clear, I wasn’t as knowledgeable about these kinds of things as Kaho.”

“W-Well, I had good reasons for choosing certain skills,” said Kaho. “I-It is not so bad as Yoshino would have you believe...”

The Jade Wings girls displayed their status screens for our inspection. However...

“Yikes,” said Yuki. “Yoshino’s build is specialized enough. Kaho’s and Sae’s are...amazing.”

“Yeah, even if you had some specific build in mind, this is so over the top,” said Touya. “I can’t believe you went through with it.”

No one in my party had any individual skill above Level 5, but Kaho and Sae each had multiple skills as high as Level 8. Both were completely specced for combat. Apparently they hadn’t even had the Robust skill initially, which was crazy to me.

“I bet Kaho could beat Touya one-on-one,” I said.

“Whoa, that’s amazing!” Metea exclaimed. “I can’t believe you’re that strong even though we’re about the same age!”

“Ha ha ha, yes, feel free to shower me with more praise— Wait, no, it’s merely that we’re about the same height! I’m older than you are!”

“Yeah, sure, I think your skill builds are amazing as well, but in essence, I think you’re overrelying on brute force,” said Haruka. “I’m surprised that you were able to survive in an unfamiliar world with builds like these.”

“Truthfully, it’s all thanks to Yoshino,” said Sae. “I’m sure Kaho and I would have struggled if we’d only had each other to rely on.”

“Yeah, no doubt,” I said. “In terms of food and clothing, couldn’t you just make your own and save money that way?”

Haruka had been the only person in our party who’d started out with the Cooking and Sewing skills, but Natsuki and Yuki had learned to do both things, and I felt like Yoshino’s party ought to be able to as well.

Yoshino just glared at me, though. “Cooking is one thing, Nao, but not every girl is good at sewing!”

“Yeah, I understand, of course, but Natsuki and Yuki have learned to make clothes without the Sewing skill, so I figured you three could probably—”

“No, that’s actually not normal at all! The girls around you are just super talented!” Yoshino brought her fist down on the table and pointed at Kaho. “Look at Kaho! She has the Extremely Attractive Appearance skill, but she’s no match for a true noble lady like Natsuki!”

“Precisely!” Kaho said, seemingly on reflex, but then a look of shock came over her face. “Wait, me?” she asked, pointing at herself. Her ears and tail stood on end, then drooped when she took a look at Natsuki; her shoulders, too, sagged. “O-On reflection, I have to concede the point—but I’m still in the competition as long as I have my lovely ears and tail, am I not...?” She hugged her tail as if to comfort herself.

Sae gave Haruka the once-over and sighed. “Ugh. I’m no match for Haruka-san either.”

“I don’t think there’s any real need to compare yourselves to us in terms of appearance,” said Haruka.

“Easy enough for you to say!” Kaho retorted. “The truly blessed can never understand how the less fortunate feel!” She brought her fist down on the table in frustration.

“It really isn’t a big deal,” said Yuki. “When it comes to being popular with the opposite sex, personality matters a lot more than appearances...”

Kaho responded with a blank stare to Yuki’s attempts to comfort her. “When it comes to personality, too, every path is closed to me. Strength is hardly an advantage as a woman...”

“Nah, what matters the most is that you can earn money—that’s what your strength is good for,” said Yuki. “There actually aren’t that many adventurers out there who can slay orcs. And you’re all pretty, so I personally bet you’ll have a lotta options if you just start looking.”

“Mm, I suppose you’re right,” said Kaho. “But I cannot abide the thought of men approaching us in order to live on our earnings.”

“Yeah, especially in this world,” said Yuki.

“Even back in our old world, people really judged ‘house husbands,’” I pointed out.

Kaho let out a sigh. The rest of us could only chuckle awkwardly. It was one thing for a little kid like Metea to expect food and support from adults, but an adult man, not so much.

“In any case, all three of you are quite strong, so I imagine it will be difficult for your party to find adventurers capable of collaborating with you as equal partners, Kaho-san,” said Natsuki.

“I think it’s outright impossible,” said Touya. “Those Level 8 skills you’ve got—that’s got to be top tier in the entire kingdom. There’re slim odds of finding even one dude who meets the conditions you set out. There’s no way you’ll ever find three. Seriously, most other adventurers out there are weaker than you. The idea of finding three equal partners is a pipe dream.”

“Ugh. I’m sure you’re right,” said Sae. “Our skill builds are a bit too specialized.”

“Mm. My ability to deal damage is completely overkill for foes like orcs, and the same applies for Sae,” said Kaho.

Yoshino nodded to herself a couple times as she listened to Kaho, but then she looked around at my party as if she had suddenly realized something.

“Well, to return to an earlier topic—now that I think about it, I guess you can cut down on expenses by making things yourselves, but that doesn’t increase your income, right?”

Oh, so she noticed, huh? Yeah, naturally, it’s not just by cutting expenses that we’ve been able to earn so much money. It’s true that we’re making money thanks to our skills and magic, but...

The five of us looked at each other, silently conferring about how to answer. We would never have told someone like Tokuoka any of our secrets—or, for that matter, let him into our house—but the Jade Wings girls seemed like normal, amiable people, so it might be worth sharing some of our secrets if it would help us to form a positive relationship. Haruka paused in thought, but then she nodded at me, and no one else reacted negatively, so it seemed I had received approval to reveal our secret.

“...The thing is, we can make magic bags ourselves thanks to the Alchemy skill,” I said.

“R-Really?! That’s absolutely amazing!” Kaho exclaimed.

“Since your party has experience slaying orcs, you can probably imagine the utility of owning magic bags,” said Haruka. “If there’s effectively no limit to the amount of material you can bring back from the field, then selling meat is far more profitable than slaying monsters in order to recover and sell their magicites.”

Anyone who had any experience as an adventurer would understand the importance of being able to transport materials. All three members of Jade Wings nodded emphatically.

“Y-Yeah, the biggest issue we had with slaying orcs was carrying them back to town with us,” said Yoshino. “After we got a bicycle trailer, our earnings increased a lot, but if we’d had magic bags...”

“...we would have been able to earn far more money,” Sae finished. “I really wish one of us had had the foresight to pick the Alchemy skill.”

“I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple,” said Haruka. “Having someone with the Alchemy skill is necessary but not sufficient. You also need someone who can use Time Magic, and if the two don’t have good synergy, the enchantment can fail. We simply got lucky that Nao and I met all of the conditions.”

“Ugh. I suppose specialized builds are a grave error in real life,” said Kaho. “Could we perchance purchase magic bags from you?”

“We can certainly make some, but I don’t know about selling them,” I said.

I purposely avoided answering Kaho directly and once again exchanged glances with my party members.

Kaho seemed dispirited by our reactions. “You’re absolutely unwilling to sell, then? We can pay market price. We would truly appreciate it if you were willing to allow us to pay in installments, however.”

“Well, it’s not that we’re unwilling to sell you the bags,” I said. “It’s that if we do, there’s a risk of encroaching on the rights and interests of nobles. I’m pretty sure we won’t get in trouble if we just keep them for our own use, but if we sell them to anyone else, we might make some enemies.”

Now that Viscount Nernas had become our patron, I was pretty sure he would deter other nobles from trying to control us or force us to make magic bags for them. Still, I had the distinct feeling that a mere viscount wouldn’t be able to shield us from pressure completely if we were to start selling magic bags, what with the potential profits.

For some reason, Kaho’s eyes went wide with shock. “A-Are you implying that we need to join your harem if we truly desire to obtain magic bags, Nao?! What a foul and evil demand! But I suppose we have no alternative. I am willing to offer myself up as a sacrifice, but pray be merciful and spare the others—”

“Hold on, that doesn’t make any sense at all, Kaho!” Yoshino exclaimed.

“Yeah, that’s right! As an elf, I’d make a far more fitting sacrifice!” Sae interjected. “U-Um, just kill me!”

“No, it is I who must be sacrificed,” said Kaho. “Also, Sae, you’re no good at playing an elf in peril, so don’t bother.”

“You’re not trying to sacrifice yourselves on the behalf of our party, Kaho!” said Yoshino. “You’re actually just trying to get ahead!”

“Whoa, the Jade Wings: Best Friends Forever concept is vanishing right before our eyes,” said Yuki.

“It’s probably just beginning to sink in how difficult it’s going to be for each of them to find a partner,” said Haruka.

“Well,” said Natsuki, “if your priority is to marry a decent man, then the soundest strategy is probably to retire from adventuring as soon as you have adequate savings.”

“Boy, you sure are popular, Nao-san,” said Mary. “I guess it makes sense.”

“Yeah, duh,” said Metea. “Big bro Nao seems like somebody who could take care of a girl.”

I had to raise my voice to bring a halt to all of this—the Jade Wings girls’ inexplicable quarreling and, in parallel, the calm discussion taking place between the girls in my party. “Man, I can’t believe you’re all acting as if this has nothing to do with any of you! Or rather, stop! I never said anything about a harem!”

And you, Touya—don’t just sit there smirking like this has nothing to do with you! Granted, it would be worse if you jumped in and dragged this conversation in an even more awkward direction...

“What I’ve been trying to say,” I went on, “is that it’s probably fine to lend magic bags to people who belong to the same group we do!”

“Hmm? Even though we have a party of our own? Ah—I take it you mean something like a clan system, then?”

Kaho nodded to herself, but the members of my own party didn’t seem to be following.

“A clan system? What do you mean?” Haruka asked.

“I have in mind the sort of clan formed by multiple adventuring parties in certain games,” Kaho replied.

“Oh, I see,” said Haruka. “Yes, I think that could work.”

“Really? We would definitely appreciate it, but I assume you probably have some conditions,” Yoshino said. “Like, there’s no way you’d lend us something that valuable with no strings attached, right?”

Given that it was Yoshino who’d attempted to confirm the particulars rather than leaping at Haruka’s offer, it seemed she was responsible for negotiating on behalf of the entire party. It would probably be fine for us to lend some of the bags we’d made to people we trusted, but...

“Your party is powerful enough that if you’re willing to become our buddies and lend us a hand when we need it, I personally feel like that’s a fair exchange,” I said. “What do you think, Haruka?”

Haruka paused in thought but quickly made up her mind.

“The first condition is that you must make Laffan your base of operations,” she said. “The second is that you must pay us ten percent of your earnings. Too many problems could arise if we lent them to you for free. Are those conditions acceptable to you?”

“Um, that actually seems really favorable to us,” said Yoshino. “I’m completely okay with those conditions.”

“I am as well,” said Sae. “With magic bags, we’d be able to carry back more of the monsters we slay, and we could also bring all sorts of useful equipment into the field, which we haven’t been able to because of space constraints. We’d be a lot more efficient at our work.”

In spite of expressing their satisfaction with Haruka’s offer, Yoshino and Sae looked a little doubtful.

“It’s not as if we intend to extort you,” Haruka said with a shrug. “Please just keep the details of the rental fee a secret from other people.”

“It would greatly please us to accept your offer, but I fear one problem remains to consider, videlicet, how much money we can earn here in Laffan,” said Kaho. “Taking into account expenses like lodging, we aren’t currently able to make a respectable living.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” said Yoshino. “We like the peaceful and pleasant atmosphere here, but we were able to earn a lot more money during our time back in Kiura.”

“Mm, there aren’t many quests available in Laffan,” said Natsuki. “But that being the case, what was your party’s original plan?”

“Our original objective was just to come here and meet your party, so we hadn’t really decided on anything specific beyond that,” said Yoshino. “Well, I guess we did talk about wanting to get to at least Rank 4, since we were curious about the dungeon, but that’s about it.”

“Oh, going into the dungeon was one of your goals, huh?” Yuki folded her arms and pondered. “There are actually some reasons that that might be difficult for your party.”

“Really?” Yoshino asked, looking confused. “We’re currently Rank 3 adventurers, but we’ll be able to enter the dungeon once we make it to Rank 4, won’t we?”

“That’s the guild’s general rule for dungeons, yeah, but there aren’t that many quests in Laffan even once you rank up. Honestly, we only made it to Rank 5 because of a combo of good and bad luck. Also, we actually own the rights to the dungeon and the land around it, so even once you rank up, you can’t legally enter.”

“Huh?!” Kaho was so surprised that she shot to her feet and leaned toward Yuki. “What precisely do you mean by that? Is it truly possible to obtain ownership of a dungeon?”

Yuki began to recount all of the events that had led to this point, and a strange mixture of wonder and astonishment played over the faces of the three members of Jade Wings. After Yuki had finished explaining, they let out a collective sigh.

“It seems your party, too, has endured many tribulations,” said Kaho. “If your party obtained the ownership of a dungeon through hard work, then I suppose we have no right to explore it.”

“Mm, I was somewhat looking forward to learning what a dungeon is like, so it’s a little bit of a shame, but that’s all right,” said Sae.

We could have chosen to interpret our ownership over the dungeon as excluding anyone else from exploring it, and despite their disappointment, Jade Wings had enough common sense to avoid complaining to us about that fact. Unlike all the classmates we’d run into in this world, they had reacted like sane people. Hmm...

“...I personally wouldn’t mind giving your party permission to enter our dungeon if you’re willing to accept one condition,” I said.

“Yeah, sure, same,” said Touya. “And if you’re worried about lodging, we can just lend you some rooms on our property.”

“Hmm? Do you mean that we would be living under the same roof?” Kaho asked. “If so—”

“Oh, nah, that’s not what I mean,” Touya replied. “We actually own another house in this town.”

Kaho’s jaw dropped.

“...What? Splendid as this house is, you own another? This is difficult to credit. We are nowhere close to being able to afford a single home...”

But Touya was telling the truth, of course. Admittedly, it’s hard even for me to believe that we own two houses at our age.

“Yeah, we got the rights to another house as a reward after we paid for this one,” said Yuki. “But we can’t really afford to maintain two houses for ourselves, so this is honestly pretty good for us too.”

“Ugh. There is no justice in this world,” said Kaho. “In any case, your offer would be a great boon to us. Is it truly acceptable to you as well?”

“It’s perfectly fine with us,” said Haruka. “If we simply let it sit, it would just fall into disrepair. However, we do visit our second house from time to time because that’s where we have our alchemical laboratory, among other things, so you’ll need to keep that in mind.”

All three nodded at Haruka’s caveat.

“Oh, of course,” said Sae. “A rented house is still much homier than an inn.”

“Yeah, exactly,” said Yoshino. “I don’t think we have anything to complain about.”

Still, there was one last warning I wanted to give them in order to avoid complaints in the future.

“Just so you’re aware, our dungeon isn’t necessarily the greatest way to make a living. There are plenty of monsters with edible meat, so once we loan you our magic bags, you could make money hunting those, but slaying the monsters outside the dungeon would probably be more profitable.”

“Your party prioritizes exploring the dungeon over slaying monsters, correct?” asked Kaho. “I can only suppose you have your reasons.”

“Yep. The main reason is that exploring the dungeon is more fun, but there’s actually another reason...no, two other reasons related to the condition I mentioned earlier,” I said.

“It’s a separate condition from forming a clan together, right?” Yoshino asked.

“Yeah. The thing is that you can harvest fruit from the eleventh floor onward.”

In fact, that was one of the primary reasons we’d wanted ownership of the dungeon. When I shared that secret with Yoshino, Metea looked sad and murmured, “Sweet fruit...”

“If you can promise us that you won’t gather and sell the fruit, then I’m willing to allow your party to enter the dungeon,” I said. “What do you all think?”

Now that she’d heard the rest of what I had to say, Metea nodded emphatically to herself, beaming. The other members of our party laughed.

“I’d say that’s a reasonable condition,” said Haruka. “I think it would be perfectly fine for Yoshino’s party to harvest some fruit for personal consumption, however.”

“Yeah. Honestly, all of us can share the fruit if you just agree not to sell it,” said Yuki. “It’s not like we can harvest everything while it’s in season.”

“And you’re quite certain about this? I need not remind you how much money fruit can fetch on the market...”

Kaho must have noticed the upset expression on Metea’s face earlier, because she glanced at her. Metea went and hid behind Mary’s back; she must have been embarrassed. Yuki laughed, then shook her head in response to Kaho’s question.

“Yeah, but it’s not that much money for us,” she explained. “Just having good food is a way higher priority for us.”

Dindels were valuable, but that meant they could fetch up to three hundred Rea apiece—less than a single orc, and they were harder to obtain. Especially here in Laffan, both the period in which fruit was available and the varieties on offer were very limited.

“Logical enough, I suppose,” said Kaho. “And in any case, we’d much rather hunt for meat.”

“Meat was readily available even back in Kiura,” said Sae. “It was things like vegetables, fish, and fruit that were hard to find.”

“So that’s the main reason? Yeah, I completely agree with Kaho,” said Yoshino. “But what’s the second reason?”

“It’s actually pretty simple,” I said. “I’ll give you a hint in the form of the dungeon’s name.”

“The dungeon’s name?” Yoshino frowned in response to my vague prompt. “Uhhh...”

Sae was the first to figure it out. “It’s the Summer Resort Dungeon, right? Is that because it’s comfortably cool inside?”

“Yeah, the second reason is very straightforward—the temperature inside the dungeon is very stable,” I said. “You know how in the summer, constantly battling monsters is more comfortable in the woods? It’s a lot more comfortable to spend time inside of the dungeon even if you can’t earn as much money as you could working outside.”

“I completely agree,” said Sae. “I’m sure I would have lost my will to work by now if Yoshino didn’t have the Purification spell.”

“Yeah, in summer, just walking around can get uncomfortable. It’s so much worse when you’re fighting on the front line,” said Touya. “Well, Haruka worked with Yuki and Natsuki to make some actons for everyone to wear under our armor, so that helps, but...”

“R-Really?! I never imagined such a convenience existed in this world!” Kaho exclaimed. “W-Would you be willing to sell some to our party?”

“Sure,” said Haruka. “Just be aware that they won’t provide perfect protection against the heat, and they consume mana to function.”

“Any form of protection against heat is more than enough in itself! We are willing to agree to all of your conditions!”

All three of them nodded. I looked from one member of my party to another. It doesn’t seem like anyone has any objections on our end either.

“Okay, just to summarize everything, your party will pay us ten percent of your earnings and give us a hand when we ask. In exchange, we’ll loan you some magic bags and our second house and give you permission to enter the dungeon. But you don’t have permission to sell any fruits you gather in the dungeon. Those are the preconditions for forming a clan with us. Do you have any objections?”

“Nope!” the three members of Jade wings exclaimed in unison. “Thank you very much!”

★★★★★★★★★

A day after we formalized the creation of our new clan, all of us—the seven members of Meikyo Shisui and the three members of Jade Wings—set out for the dungeon.

“Are you all right, Yoshino?” Haruka asked.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” Yoshino replied, trying her best to suppress a burp. “I just feel a little bit bloated right now, but it’s no big deal. I should be fine by the time we get to the forest.”

“We were laid low by our own gluttony,” said Kaho. “It had been an eternity since last we were able to sup on white rice and the like. We were overwhelmed by nostalgia and by the skill of your cooking.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment,” said Haruka, “but I still think all three of you ate a bit too much.”

Yesterday, to kill some time before we resumed adventuring today, we showed Edith’s mansion to the Jade Wings party and introduced them to Tomi, and then we took them back home with us for a welcome dinner. We caught up with them while we ate. Because they were unexpected guests, the menu was the same as usual for us; the only additions were fruit, snacks, and three side dishes.

But that might as well have been a lavish feast as far as the Jade Wings girls were concerned. Overwhelmed by hunger and sheer emotion, they ate so much they ended up immobilized. Earlier this morning, when Natsuki prepared a traditional Japanese breakfast, the same thing happened all over again.

Sae hadn’t yet chimed in on the way to the dungeon, but she kept covering her mouth with her hands, so she, too, must have been overfull.

Man, all three members of Jade Wings are cute. Seeing them like this is kind of disappointing somehow.

“I have to say, I’m jealous that you guys get to eat such great food every single day,” said Yoshino.

“I very much agree,” Sae mumbled. “It’s concrete evidence that we’re no match for your party.” She rubbed her belly and stood still for a moment to catch her breath.

“Cooking is one of the things we’re really good at,” said Yuki with a giggle. “If you still feel too full, you don’t have to come with us...”

“I fear we have no choice in the matter,” said Kaho. “We are determined to earn as much money as we can as swiftly as we can in order to afford cool and comfortable actons before summer arrives.”

“Just so you’re aware, we don’t intend to charge you an exorbitant sum,” said Haruka.

“I’m well aware, but we require new weapons and armor as well.”

In her hands, Kaho held a greatsword as long and wide as her own body—obviously not a practical weapon for most people, but she was able to heft it easily thanks to the Peerless Strength skill.

“Holy shit, that’s massive,” said Touya. “Is it iron?”

“Iron of good quality, yes, but still iron at the end of the day. I wish to purchase a sword of white iron.”

“That’s definitely a good idea,” said Touya. “Some of the monsters you run into right outside the dungeon are pretty dangerous—lava boars, for example. We’ve only ever run into one, but it was a pain and a half to beat.”

“A lava boar? What kind of monster is that?” Yoshino asked.

“It’s a boar, but it’s bigger than an elephant,” Yuki replied. “Touya almost died! We ended up being really glad we’d already upgraded our armor.”

“A monster the size of an elephant, you say?” said Kaho. “I suppose that not even I could easily cleave it in twain.”

“Yeah. You have high level skills, but that wouldn’t stop your weapon from breaking,” I said. “Your party’s ability to defeat a lava boar might come down to how effective Sae’s magic is.”

During our battle with the lava boar, I’d been chilled to the bone when I realized how dangerous sheer mass could be.

The Jade Wings girls must not have expected that such dangerous monsters lived outside the dungeon; expressions of unease appeared on their faces.

“Th-That sounds like an awful lot of responsibility,” said Sae.

“Perhaps we were too hasty in agreeing to accompany you,” said Kaho.

“We know we’re no match for you guys when it comes to most stuff, but we were pretty confident in our combat abilities,” said Yoshino. “That said...”

Actually, the primary skills that the Jade Wings girls used to dish out damage were significantly higher in level than our own, but in real combat, other factors contributed to success, including support skills, equipment, and numbers. Thus, I had no idea how strong Jade Wings were in practical terms. From the sounds of things, they had plenty of combat-related achievements, so we’d allowed them to tag along with us on the assumption that they would be able to hold their own, but...

“If you end up feeling underprepared, you’re welcome to head back to town,” said Haruka. “We’ll stick together until the dungeon entrance, so you’ll be fine for now.”

“Yeah. We would feel better if Kaho had a better weapon, though,” said Touya.

He furrowed his brow and thought about it for a bit. He must have been reflecting that Kaho’s combat style and frontline position were similar to his own.

Suddenly, he yelled, “Oh, I got it!” and started rummaging through his magic bag. Soon, he extracted a large two-handed sword that looked somehow familiar. It was about the size of Kaho’s current sword, so not even Touya could have swung it easily.

“Wanna try this on for size, Kaho? It’s white iron.”

“Wait, isn’t that the sword we got from the treasure chest after we beat the mad tauros?” I asked. “Why did you bring something that heavy with you?!”

Magic bags had greater capacity than ordinary bags of the same dimensions, but they didn’t eliminate one hundred percent of the weight and volume of their contents. We usually had ample room for all the loot from our adventures, but still, it seemed pointlessly risky to let a sword that none of us could use take up that much space.

As I glared at Touya, demanding an explanation, he averted his eyes.

“...Well, we’re going to explore a new area, so I figured sooner or later I’d get an opportunity to go, like, ‘I’ve got the perfect thing for a situation like this!’ and bust it out.”

“Seriously? I remember you saying at the time that we might need a weapon like that someday, but still.”

If you ever found yourself in a situation where the only way to beat a monster was brute strength, wouldn’t it be better to retreat than to “bust out” a weapon you’d never used before?

“Well, your wish did come true, kind of,” said Yuki. She casually took the sword from his hands and proffered it to Kaho. “Lookee here, Kaho, I’ve got the perfect thing for a situation like this! If the sword you have now is too weak, you can borrow this one.”

“That’s my line,” Touya muttered to himself.

Kaho didn’t seem to have heard him; she was looking back and forth between Yuki’s face and the sword.

“A-Are you quite certain about this? That appears to be a sword of superlative quality...”

“I mean, we could probably get over a hundred gold coins if we sold it, but it’s just a white iron sword, so I doubt if we’ll ever use it,” Yuki replied. “’Sides, we wouldn’t be able to sleep if something happened to you guys ’cause you didn’t have good enough weapons.”

“Nay, it would not be right for me to accept such a thing free of charge... Ah, yes!”

Kaho rummaged through her own bag just as Touya had earlier, then produced a small leather pouch and placed it on Yuki’s hands.

“This is hardly a substitute for rental fees, but pray accept it. I believe it can be used in alchemy, correct?”

Yuki and Haruki both peeked into the pouch.

“Huh? Oh, pieces of wardstone! Yeah, we can definitely use these for something,” said Yuki.

“Indeed,” said Haruka. “Yoshino, Sae, is this exchange acceptable to you as well? Wardstone can fetch a decent amount of money.”

The two of them immediately nodded.

“Yeah, we don’t mind,” Yoshino replied. “You’ve already let us borrow magic bags and a portable toilet.”

As Yoshino said, we’d lent Jade Wings a number of useful tools and inventions of our own. One of the three in particular had been especially pleased.

“It’s a wonderful tool,” said Sae. “It’s basically a necessity for girls.”

“Yeah, as a girl, I can totally relate,” said Yuki. “I never wanna have to dig holes in the ground with a hoe ever again in my whole entire life...”

Clearly Yuki was still haunted by the memories of our earliest adventures in this world even after more than a year had passed. She must have felt sorry for the Jade Wings girls because of her own experiences.

For their part, they were just confused, naturally.

“A-A hoe? I have no inkling what you mean, but regardless, I humbly accept this sword,” said Kaho. “In exchange, pray let us slay the monsters along the way to the dungeon.”

“Are you sure you’re up to the task?” Natsuki asked. “As we mentioned before, some of the monsters in this area are exceptionally strong...”

“That’s actually perfect for us,” said Yoshino. “We’re only tagging along until the dungeon entrance, so we’ll have to get ourselves back to town. It seems like a good idea to figure out early if we can actually fend for ourselves in this area.”

“I’ll work hard too,” said Sae. “My stomach has finally settled down.”

We had crossed the grassy plains and were almost to the woods. The Jade Wings girls hoisted their weapons and took the lead.

★★★★★★★★★

Jade Wings had slain orcs as their primary source of income, and they swiftly proved their prowess in combat. Kaho sliced through multiple goblins with a single swing of her sword, Sae burned bind vipers to a crisp with her magic, and even Yoshino proved herself capable of beating orcs to death with a mace. They fought as if this was routine for them, and they were able to fend for themselves just fine on the outskirts of the forest and for the first quarter of the path to the dungeon entrance.

“I must say, I’m quite taken with this new sword,” said Kaho with a laugh and a smile. “It’s very satisfying, carving through ranks of foes like this.”

The words she was muttering to herself made her sound like a psychopath, and her cute face made them even spookier.

It was certainly true that she’d gotten more comfortable with her new sword in no time, but the monsters in this area were pretty weak. Stronger ones awaited us closer to the dungeon.

“Pretty soon we’re going to be running into monsters that are way stronger than orcs,” I said, “so just be prepared.”

When they heard my warning, the three stopped in their tracks and turned back to face us.

“Okay, thanks for the heads-up,” said Yoshino. “By the way, as far as you’ve seen, are there any problems with our combat skills that stand out?”

“You’re very good at the role of healer, Yoshino,” I said. “As for you, Sae, there’s— Fire Arrow.”

A bind viper had been lying in wait in the trees ahead of us, but I blasted off its head, and its body fell to the ground. The Jade Wings girls gasped in surprise as they stared at it, then at me.

I pointed at the dead bind viper and continued. “So, first of all, Sae, you’re not being efficient with your mana. If you fine-tune the potency and penetrating power of your magic, a Fire Arrow is enough for most enemies—there’s no need to resort to higher-level spells. If all you’re planning to do is slay a couple orcs and head back to town, there’s no need to worry about conserving your mana, but now that you have magic bags, it’s a different story. You’ll be out longer, so you’ll run out of mana if you don’t conserve it.”

“I see,” said Sae. “If we’re out longer and taking down more monsters to bring back with us, we’ll be in more battles.”

“No doubt we’ll have to be careful not to squander mana or physical stamina. But, more importantly, Nao, what was that just now? Your precise control of your mana was, of course, impressive, but how were you able to spy the monster before us, standing behind us as you are?”

Normally, it would have been difficult for me to detect monsters before the people on the front line did, but...

“Yeah, that’s another thing I wanted to point out. You guys are a bit slow to detect monsters. There are monsters that will ambush you and go for your legs first, so you’ve got to be wary of that. I recommend learning the Scout skill as soon as you can.”

“Is that how you were able to detect the bind viper just now?” asked Sae.

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s a great skill—it’s done a lot to keep us safe.”

“Honestly, we would probably have called it quits really early on if Nao hadn’t had the Scout skill,” said Yuki.

Kaho had a troubled look on her face. “I never imagined such a convenient skill existed.” She glanced at us awkwardly. “And yet I fear it will be no easy feat for us to follow your advice.”

She must have been self-conscious because she had far fewer skills than anyone in our party—an inevitable consequence of her decision to go with a more specialized build. Given how strong she was already, it was also possible she would struggle to learn new skills. I understood her mild bewilderment at my suggestion, but...

“You’ll just have to work hard at it. It’s actually relatively easy to learn new skills as long as you don’t slack off on training. Actually, I was the only one in our party who had the Scout skill at first, but now everybody’s learned it.”

“Even Mary and Metea?” asked Yoshino, sounding a bit doubtful.

Mary immediately nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that’s right! We only learned it a little bit ago, but now both of us have it.”

“So that’s what you can accomplish with training,” mused Sae. “Now that I think about it, you were all up and diligently training early this morning...”

“Perhaps we’ve relied too heavily on a mere handful of high-level skills,” said Kaho.

“Well, that’s by no means a bad thing insofar as all three of you are quite strong,” said Natsuki. “Still, if you want to make progress as adventurers, I believe it would be advisable to train regularly. Of course, if you’re content slaying orcs, there’s no need to do things any differently than you have been.”

“N-Nah, I don’t like thinking about how our future would turn out.” Yoshino grimaced and audibly groaned as if imagining a truly grim fate, then quickly nodded. “Okay. Would you be willing to let us participate in your party’s daily training sessions?”

“You’re quite welcome to join us,” said Natsuki. “It would be beneficial to us, as well, to train and spar with skilled opponents. In addition, Yoshino-san, I believe it would be advisable for you to train in close-quarters combat. The same goes for you, Sae-san.”

“Yeah, definitely, especially since you’re a party of three,” said Yuki. “When you’ve only got a few enemies, you can split up into specific roles, like healer and mage, but I’m pretty sure even Kaho would have trouble holding the line against a lot of monsters at the same time.”

“Since I’m an elf,” said Sae, “I have to ask—Haruka-san, can you handle close-range combat?”

“Of course,” Haruka replied. “If I couldn’t defend myself at all, it would impose too much of a burden on Touya.”

“Ugh. As things stand, I guess I’m dead weight,” said Sae. “I’ll have to do my best to improve. Do any of you have other advice for us? We don’t have much experience as adventurers, since we just did the same kinds of things for money.”

Sae elaborated: Jade Wings had made money almost exclusively by slaying and selling orcs. It had been a safe and stable source of income for them, so it wasn’t a bad choice by any means—except that repeating the same task over and over wasn’t useful from the standpoint of self-improvement as adventurers. That said, we ourselves weren’t pros in the strict sense.

“We may be able to provide answers if you ask us about specific topics, but we’ve mainly learned on the job too,” I said.

“Oh, I actually have something that I want to bring up,” said Touya. “Kaho, your only weapon is that greatsword, right? It’d be better to have some other weapons too. There are places inside the dungeon that are too tight for you to swing that thing.”

“That’s a good point,” I said. “Having a small party plus a small number of options for combat might hinder you at some point.”

Thanks to her Level 8 skills, Kaho wielded her greatsword with consummate ease out here in the woods, but in certain parts of the dungeon, she would be restricted to stabbing and lunging attacks.

“Does that mean it would be a good idea for Kaho to carry around different weapons like Touya does?” Yoshino asked.

“You don’t have to carry quite that much kit,” said Haruka, “but each of us is capable of using a few different weapons, and we always have spares with us.”

Kaho groaned. “Our expenses are mounting up to heaven.”

We’d upgraded and expanded our arsenal a number of times, so we had plenty of spares in our magic bags that we could take out as needed. In contrast, Kaho was usually the only member of Jade Wings who fought on the front line, and she had only one weapon—at the moment, the sword my party had loaned her. The girls had also mentioned wanting to upgrade their armor. All of those purchases would deal a lot of damage to their savings.

Kaho’s shoulders sagged. She glanced at Yoshino, but Yoshino just laughed and shook her head gently.

“Oh, um, yeah, sorry, we won’t be able to purchase new weapons anytime soon.”

“Well, you could end up in serious trouble if you keep on like this,” said Touya. “Oh, wait! I’ve got the perfect thing for a situation like this, ha ha!”

Once again, Touya reached into his magic bag. He was beaming at finally having gotten the chance to deploy the line Yuki had stolen from him earlier. This time, he pulled out a sword that looked similar to the one-hander he used most of the time, but...

“Hmm? What manner of sword is that?” Kaho asked.

It was definitely shoddier-looking than anything Gantz-san and Tomi had ever made for us. I couldn’t remember ever buying something like this.

Wait a second, I do recognize that...

“Right, I remember,” said Yuki. “Didn’t we get that off a goblin general?”

“Dude. Have you seriously been carrying that around this entire time?” I asked.

“Yeah, I thought we could use it in emergencies,” Touya replied. “Forgot I had it until now, though.”

We had acquired this sword six months ago. It wasn’t total garbage, but neither was it fit to replace any of our current main weapons. We had discussed selling it, but it had completely slipped our minds.

“Do you want to try using this, Kaho?” Touya asked. “It might not look like much, but it’s actually pretty decent.”

“It’s not as good as our current elemental metal weapons, but as I recall, it is superior to white iron weapons,” said Haruka.

“What?” Kaho exclaimed. “Do you mean to tell me that a lowly goblin had a weapon better than ours?”

“Uh, it was actually a goblin general, so way stronger than a normal goblin,” I explained. “In fact, it was way more powerful than an orc.”

We had essentially caught it off guard and slain it with ranged attacks, but it would probably have been a formidable foe at close range if our encounters with goblin captains were anything to go by.

“Really? We’ve run into some goblin fighters before, but I guess we haven’t battled the really strong goblins,” said Yoshino.

“If I recall correctly, generals are multiple ranks above fighters,” said Kaho. “In any case, are you certain about this, Touya? You mentioned that this was one of your spare weapons.”

“Yeah, but I don’t mind at all. Like I said, I forgot about it for months. And like Yuki said, I couldn’t sleep if something bad happened to you guys because your weapons suck.”

“I see. In that case, I will gladly accept your offer.”

Kaho did seem genuinely pleased as she took the sword from Touya, and after she gave it a couple of test swings, she nodded with a smile of satisfaction.

“Though it is far from prepossessing in appearance, it does appear to be a good weapon.”

When she looked back and forth between Touya and the new sword, she gasped and covered her mouth.

“First you gave me a white iron greatsword, and now you give me this as well? Would you actually happen to be aiming for me romantically, Touya?”

“Nah, no way,” Touya said immediately. “And also, these aren’t gifts. At some point you’ll need to either buy them or return them.”

Kaho clicked her tongue, then said, “I’m only joking. It appears that I’ll have to grow a bit more in order to succeed.”

Sae had a gentle smile on her face as she patted Kaho on the shoulder soothingly. “You’re almost eighteen years old, Kaho. Unfortunately, you have almost no hope of getting bigger at this point.”

Honestly, it seemed like Sae’s real intention wasn’t to comfort Kaho so much as to kick her while she was down. Kaho could easily have been mistaken for an elementary schooler; a small growth spurt wouldn’t have helped her much at all.

“Ugh. The truth should not always be spoken aloud,” said Kaho. “I wish I were at least as tall as Yuki...”

Since her name had been brought up, Yuki tried to comfort Kaho too. “D-Don’t worry, it’s what’s on the inside that counts!”

Kaho just stared at her. “We realized earlier that we are no match for your party. I mean in that regard too.”

“O-Oh, um, just play to your strengths!” said Yuki.

“Strength itself is my only strength,” said Kaho. “I don’t imagine I could take out an insurance policy in this world?”

“I-Insurance policy?” Yuki thought about it, not making eye contact with Kaho, and then seemed to hit on an idea. “You mean something like a Nao general insurance policy?”

“Wait, what?!”

At the same time I reacted, Haruka said, “Hold on, Yuki.”

I knew I could count on my fiancée to help me out in times of need! Please scold her on my behalf, Haruka!

“In this context, you mean a Nao life insurance policy, not a Nao general insurance policy.”

Huh? No, that’s not the point, Haruka!

“I believe both you and Yuki are both missing the point here, Haruka,” said Natsuki.

Whew, I knew I could count on you to have some common sense, Natsuki! Please correct them on my behalf!

“The purpose of the plan as you described it is to provide mutual aid, so I believe that something along the lines of ‘Nao-kun fraternal insurance policy’ would be a more fitting name. What do you all think?”

Really? I can’t count on Natsuki either? Damn it! What can I even say here?

“Mutual aid, you say?” said Kaho. “C-Can I opt in to that policy, then? How much is the premium?”

“Uh, well, I guess it’d cost you...the rest of your life,” said Yuki.

“That’s way too costly!” I said hastily. “Or rather, don’t opt in to something like that, Kaho!”

I had no intention of being forced to take responsibility for someone else’s life, but Kaho gasped as if she’d just realized something, then looked at me and scratched her head.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry about this,” said Kaho. “It’s just that I’m rather ill at ease when I think of what challenges await me in the offing...”

“It’s still way too early to panic about stuff like that,” I said. “Also, the one bear-type beastman I’ve seen was the size of an actual bear, so maybe fox-type beastgirls are all around your size and you’ll be able to find a fitting partner eventually.”

I was willfully ignoring the fact that Kaho had been very petite even during our time back on Earth, but she just pouted.

“Well, most people take for granted that fox-type beastwomen ought to be mature and sexy, don’t they?”

“Well, yeah, that’s probably how people back in our world would picture something like a nine-tailed fox,” I replied. “I think those are kind of a different deal, though—they’re almost more in the category of monsters.”

“You make a compelling point,” said Kaho. “At any rate, it’s rather awkward for someone like myself to admit this, but I find it difficult to believe that all fox-type beastfolk without exception are cute young boys and girls. I suppose I should simply be grateful that I was able to obtain the Extremely Attractive Appearance skill.”

“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “You’re very cute as is, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Kaho nodded. “O-Oh, I’m glad to hear that.”

She turned forward again and approached the dead mind viper. As she prepared to gut it, she murmured something that sounded like “Let’s finish this so we can move on.”

Whew. I somehow managed to get myself out of that mess. Sure, they were probably all just joking, but I’m not going to take any risks!

“Um, Yuki can I opt in to that insurance policy too, just in case of emergencies?” Yoshino whispered.

“Oh, I would love to opt in as well,” said Sae.

“Sure, both of you can feel free to join,” Yuki whispered back. “It’s always a good idea to prepare for the worst. All you need is to pay a preliminary deposit, and then we can discuss the details at a later date.”

Uh, something about the way she said that really does remind me of a shady insurance salesman, but I’m sure I’m just imagining things.

“Yoshino, Sae, aren’t you two going to go help Kaho?” said Touya. “Your party can take that viper back with you and sell it. Let’s get a move on here!”

Yoshino’s face glowed with joy. “Really? Thanks!”

But then she suddenly nodded to herself as if she had realized something important.

“Oh, right. We used to have to toss things we could have sold all the time because we couldn’t physically bring them back with us, but now we don’t have that problem anymore.”

“Let’s get this over as fast as we can, Yoshino,” said Sae. “The sun will set if we keep dawdling.”

A bind viper could fetch a few dozen gold coins back in Laffan. Naturally, the monsters in these woods increased in value proportionate to their strength. Perhaps realizing that fact, Yoshino and Sae hurried to join Kaho.

★★★★★★★★★

The next few battles confirmed Sae’s claim that the girls didn’t have much experience as adventurers. They fought monsters that were resistant to physical attacks, monsters that used magic, monsters that were hard to notice until they were really close, and even giant spiders. We were standing behind them the entire time, ready to bail them out if needed. We hadn’t provided them with any detailed information about the enemies they would be facing, and they seemed surprised every time they encountered something new. There were some scary moments in which it seemed like it would be necessary for us to intervene. Still, every time, their high-level skills won the day, but even that was only possible thanks to Yoshino’s healing magic.

They had to slow down in order to keep a closer eye on their surroundings than they had before, but if they wanted to explore the Summer Resort Dungeon on their own eventually, they had to be able to get through these woods. They seemed to understand this themselves; as they continued to fight on the front line, they didn’t complain about the lack of help from us. We finally reached the open area in front of the dungeon. Fatigue was clearly visible on their faces, but now that they could finally relax a bit, they all smiled.

“O-Oh, have we at last arrived at our destination?!” asked Kaho.

“Whew, I’m glad we made it,” said Yoshino. “This area sure ended up being more difficult than I expected.”

“Yes, it’s easy to understand why so few people come here,” said Sae. “I assume most adventurers couldn’t make it here alive.”

Although this area was more open than the woods, it wasn’t as safe as they were assuming. Still, I had no intention of scolding them. I couldn’t detect any enemies nearby, and Jade Wings had worked hard both at combat and at gutting monsters. They had earned the right to rest.

“You did quite well,” said Haruka. “We were a bit worried initially, but it seems that you’ll probably be able to fend for yourselves just fine.”

“Really? I hope so,” said Yoshino. “A party of three is definitely a bit too small.”

“It definitely is,” said Yuki. “The ideal number of people in a party kinda depends on what work you want to do, but a few more members wouldn’t hurt. I dunno if it’ll be that easy to find new members, though. You for sure won’t be able to find anybody in Laffan who’s as strong as you, so that’s one big problem.”

“Understood. We’ll have to address that issue at a later date,” said Kaho.

She glanced at Mary and Metea; apparently she hadn’t completely abandoned the idea of asking them to join Jade Wings. Ultimately, it was up to the sisters to decide whether they liked that idea. It would probably have been interesting to swap members with other parties from time to time, but the sisters’ cuteness always lifted our spirits, so I would be a bit sad if they ever left our party. Luckily, it seemed that Kaho had no intention of poaching them right now.

Kaho turned to survey the open area. Her eyebrows went up when she noticed something.

“Oh, the entrance of the dungeon is over there, is it not? And there’s a wooden sign!”

She hopped over to the sign excitedly, then folded her arms as she stood over it—a surprisingly imposing posture.

“It is my duty as a gamer to read signs like this!”

Touya laughed. “Yeah, I figured that’s how you would react. We’re the ones who set it up, though.”

I knew exactly how Kaho felt; I was also the kind of gamer who could never resist the temptation to walk over and read a sign. Yoshino and Sae went to join her, so both of them must have been curious as well.

“Let’s see here...” said Kaho. “What’s this? The dungeon and all the land within six kilometers belongs to your party, Nao?!”

“Yeah, technically,” I said. “We don’t really have anything to do with the land outside the dungeon, though.”

“Some of this is pretty scary,” said Sae.

She pointed at the words “Trespassers will suffer a swift death.”

Haruka simply smiled. “Oh, the threats? We haven’t decided yet whether we’ll actually carry them out. Of course, we’re legally entitled to do so. We may have to be a bit careful with noble trespassers, but commoners enter the dungeon at their own peril.”

“Yikes,” Yoshino murmured, looking genuinely scared. “Um, does that mean you’ll kill anybody who gets lost and accidentally wanders here?”

“We don’t intend to attack trespassers without warning unless absolutely necessary,” said Haruka. “It’s just that legally, we’re permitted to take the initiative on our property, which is reassuring to us—it’s difficult to defend against magic and arrows.”

“Yeah, if you can’t attack anyone until they attack you first, that gives a huge advantage to malicious people,” I said.

The idea of violent self-defense as a last resort only worked when you were much stronger than any potential opponent. If an enemy’s opening attack did us serious damage, we wouldn’t be able to fight back properly. A passive stance would be outright stupid considering that the girls might be harmed as a result.

“If you run into anybody suspicious, always strike first,” said Touya. “Bandits and people like that are scum. They need to be erased from this world.”

“Yeah, if you get beaten by bandits, you might suffer a fate worse than death,” said Yuki. “You guys gotta be careful.”

Metea and Mary were nodding along thoughtfully with their arms folded. When the Jade Wings girls saw the sisters’ reactions, they glanced at one another uneasily.

“...Have we been a bit too carefree and naive?”

Yoshino was looking specifically at Mary and Metea when she asked, so she presumably wanted to know about widespread attitudes in this world.

“Um, yes, probably,” said Mary. “If you accidentally trespassed on somebody else’s property and got attacked, you would only have yourself to blame.”

“Never act suspicious no matter what you do!” Metea exclaimed. “Especially not around adventurers!”

In the eyes of ordinary people, adventurers and bandits were functionally the same. High-ranking adventurers were viewed more favorably, but low-ranking adventurers were seen as people who couldn’t find proper jobs. They were really on the lowest rung of the social ladder, so it was obvious that others would make uncharitable assumptions if they spotted adventurers acting suspiciously.

“Oh, okay. We’ll be careful of other adventurers, but I guess we also have to be careful not to act suspicious ourselves,” said Yoshino.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “Dungeons are especially dangerous because there’s no one around.”

“I see,” said Sae. “In that case, do you have to demarcate a clear boundary between your property and the rest of the woods?”

“Well, we’re not going to hunt down anyone who happens to wander onto the outskirts of our property,” said Haruka. “It’s far too large for that. But we do intend to protect this open area in front of the dungeon, and we brought some materials with us for that purpose.”

The things we’d brought were wooden fence posts, nails, and other parts for gates. We had ordered a lot of materials, in part because we wanted to return some of our earnings from selling precious wood to ordinary lumberjacks in order to allay any possibility of ill feelings on their part. Our plan was to create a sort of base around this area as a visible assertion of ownership and to secure a safe area for ourselves.

“Sorry to ask this, but can you guys also help us out with this before we head inside?” I asked.

Kaho and Sae both nodded.

“But of course,” Kaho replied. “Manual labor is my forte, and a safe area here would be as great a boon to us as to you.”

“I’m happy to help out with Earth Magic,” said Sae. “I’m good at anything that involves hardening soil.”

Yoshino, however, was acting a bit weird. “I can, uh...act as a cheerleader?”

Haruka laughed at Yoshino’s response and laid her hands on Metea’s shoulders. “We can find something for you to do as well. Even Metea’s going to help—right?”

“Yeah! I’m actually sooo strong!”

As a demonstration of her eagerness, Metea flexed her biceps. She didn’t look particularly strong, but appearances were deceptive—even more so in the case of her big sister.

The parts we had brought to construct the fence had all been prepared so that we could set them up in short order. Still, Kaho, with her Peerless Strength, and Sae, with her Level 5 Earth Magic, were a huge help. Ultimately, we were able to set up our base faster than we’d anticipated. It exceeded our expectations, too, in how sturdy it looked. It would probably withstand an attack just fine.

★★★★★★★★★

“All right,” said Haruka, sounding very satisfied, “I think we’ve now sufficiently fortified this area that no one can claim to have wandered in by accident.”

Mary laughed and said, “Uh-huh, but are there actually any other adventurers who would come all the way here?”

“Well, among the adventurers currently working in Laffan, I’m fairly certain that only our party and Kaho’s can actually make it to this point,” Haruka replied.

“Then did we really have to do all this?” Mary asked. “It just seems like an awful lot to me...”

“I mean, the odds of it happening are pretty low, but it isn’t impossible that high-ranking adventurers will move to Laffan in the future,” I pointed out.

Now that we had the title to this land, we did want to assert our ownership somehow. Our biggest concern was that other adventurers might be lured here by rumors of the red strike ox milk that we had supplied to Viscount Nernas as a wedding gift for Baron Dias. There was high demand for the milk among certain members of the nobility, and apparently its scarcity value exceeded its market price.

The House of Nernas hadn’t been thriving in the recent past, so the viscount would have attracted undesirable attention from other nobles as a result of producing such a rare and valuable gift. Any noble who was curious could easily trace the source of the milk, and Haruka and I had appeared in person at the baron’s wedding, so it was entirely likely that they could trace it specifically to us. Diola-san had warned us as much.

“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if all that happened was that we got some more quests to collect red strike ox milk,” I said. “Still...”

“...the wrong info might get leaked,” said Yuki. “It would suck a lot if some trespassers showed up thinking it was easy to get the milk.”

“Overconfident idiots won’t pose us any challenge,” Haruka pointed out. “What we really want to avoid is a situation in which this dungeon attracts high-ranking adventurers actually capable of defeating red strike oxen. Yes, we have the right to chase away trespassers or slay them outright, but that’s meaningless if they’re too strong for us to defeat.”

“Yeah,” said Touya. “If we end up dead, nobody’ll even know who did it.”

No one outside of my party entered the Summer Resort Dungeon. The corollary was that there were no potential witnesses inside. If a group of highly skilled trespassers snuck inside and killed us, it would be the perfect crime. From our perspective, killing a bunch of people over milk seemed comically extreme, but of course, in this world, there were those who would kill just for a crust of bread, so we couldn’t afford to let our guard down.

“Decent odds we’re worrying for no reason, though,” said Yuki. “High-ranking adventurers who are strong enough to kill us wouldn’t really have that many reasons to.”

“Good point,” I said. “Anyone that much stronger than us can probably earn money in safer and easier ways.”

The scary part about all of this was that the probability of nobles getting involved somehow would always be greater than zero; there were all kinds of factors to consider and all kinds of circumstances that could arise.

“Hmm. Can such troublesome treasure actually be obtained here inside of the dungeon?” Kaho asked.

“Yeah, on the twentieth floor of the dungeon,” I replied. “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this earlier, but you’ll typically run into strike oxen from the fifteenth floor onward. You can get regular milk from them, so try to avoid killing any of the cows unless you absolutely have to in order to protect yourselves.”

“The milk is so good!” Metea put in. “You have to protect the cows!”

“Okay, now we understand,” said Yoshino. She giggled and gave Metea a gentle pat on the head. “Also, just to make sure—can you actually tell the males from the females?”

Touya began gesturing descriptively. “Well, if you see something big and thick hanging down, then—ouch!”

Yuki had cut him off by the simple expedient of punching him in the gut—a measure of justice, really; the gestures he’d been making basically amounted to sexual harassment. If he’d been on trial, any jury would have found him guilty.

Yuki faked a cough, then delivered a less offensive explanation with a smile on her face. “Ahem! W-We marked the female strike oxen with white paint, so just look for that.”

But Yoshino was looking away, red in the face, so it seemed that Touya had successfully gotten his point across.

“Y-Yeah, okay, we’ll keep that in mind when we make it to the fifteenth floor,” she said.

“That will likely be a long time hence,” said Kaho. “By the by, may we have your license to build a hut here as a temporary accommodation for ourselves? I can’t imagine it would be comfortable to stay in the dungeon while exploring. Surely it would be better to familiarize ourselves with it by increments.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead if you want to,” I said. “You might as well take this slow and steady. Can you actually make something like that yourself, though?”

Yoshino laughed. With a bit of a smug expression, she said, “Yeah, of course! Actually, we used to live outside of Sarstedt in a hut we made ourselves. We have experience with outdoor survival!”

“It was Sae who raised that hut from the very earth with her magic,” Kaho explained.

“Kaho helped too,” said Sae. “She cut down trees for wood and built the roof.”

Oh, I get it. Sae’s Earth Magic is Level 5, so assuming she has any idea how to wield it, making that kind of thing is probably pretty easy for her.

“What about you, Yoshino?” I asked. “What did you contribute?”

“M-Me? Oh, well, uh, I contributed by earning money, I guess?”

“She opened a clinic,” said Kaho, “and the fame of her spread among the local sellswords. She became so popular, in fact, that she acquired the sobriquet of—”

For some reason, Yoshino suddenly raised her voice. “I healed people as a side hustle, but that’s about it!”

“I-I see. Well, I guess you do have the skills for that,” I said.

It made sense: Yoshino’s healing would have been the fastest way for them to make money right after they arrived in this world. I was kind of curious about how the local temples would react if you opened a clinic inside town, but as long as you were outside the walls, there was probably no reason to worry.

“Incidentally,” said Haruka, “it should be fairly safe here now that we’ve set up this base, but if a powerful monster suddenly appears, feel free to take shelter inside the dungeon—it won’t chase you inside.”

“Really? Thanks! That’s good to know,” said Yoshino.

“What else is there? Ah, yes. If you happen upon any suspicious characters inside, feel free to attack them preemptively. You are the only people we’ve granted entrée, so just ignore any excuses they give you.”

“Yeah. In fact, you should slay anyone like that before they get a chance to fight back,” I said. “We’ve put a sign up and even fenced off the area outside the entrance. Anyone who ignores all that is probably either evil or crazy.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” said Sae.

All three girls nodded with sober expressions on their faces. I nodded back, then turned to face the members of my own party.

“Okay, we should probably get going now. Are you good to go, Yuki?”

“Huh?” said Yoshino. “Are you guys going inside without stopping to take a break first?”

“I mean, yeah, your party helped us out a lot on the way here, so we’ve still got plenty of stamina and mana left,” said Yuki. “I’m ready to go whenever.”

The Jade Wings girls all seemed concerned, but we were going to teleport into the dungeon, so for the time being, all we needed was my mana and Yuki’s. We’d used a little bit earlier while erecting the fence, but we still had plenty left, and it would be more efficient to rest after we teleported to our destination.

“Ere you depart, I must ask—of what else ought we to be mindful inside?” Kaho asked.

“None of the monsters you’ll run into initially will be that dangerous as long as you take them calmly,” I said. “If anything, I’m more worried that we’ll make you underestimate them if we say any more.”

They were more than strong enough to handle most of the monsters they would encounter, and they’d demonstrated enough caution to consider setting up a base of operations here in order to tackle the dungeon slowly, so I was confident that we didn’t need to worry about them. Their caution was probably an important reason they’d survived this long in another world.

“That’s about it from me, I guess,” I said. “Does anyone else have something to add?”

“Lemme think,” said Yuki. After a short pause, she clapped her hands like something had popped into her head. “Oh yeah! There’s a slope between the first floor and the second floor. It’s actually booby-trapped—it can collapse on you.”

“Ah, yes, crucial intelligence,” said Kaho. “But pray tell, why did you use the words ‘can collapse’ and not ‘will’?”

“Honestly, ’cause I’m not really sure if it’s still booby-trapped or not,” said Yuki. “The first time we went down the slope, the ceiling collapsed on us so we couldn’t go back. But after we escaped and came back, everything was all fixed up and back to normal, and the second time we went down, nothing happened, so yeah.”

“I suppose we have precious little evidence to go by. Should the ceiling collapse on us, what are we to do?”

“Don’t worry,” said Yuki. “After you beat the boss of the seventh floor, there’s a return device in the boss room that’ll teleport you right back here. If you guys just take some time and familiarize yourselves with the dungeon, I’m pretty sure you won’t die.”

Thanks to our magic bags, food wouldn’t be an issue for them, and anyway, they could also obtain plenty of meat inside the dungeon by slaying monsters. Sae’s magic would ensure that they didn’t run out of water, and cleanliness wouldn’t be an issue either, since Yoshino had Light Magic. The biggest risk was stress due to the unfamiliar environment.

“A dungeon is basically a labyrinth, right? What happens if we get lost inside?” Yoshino asked.

“You’ll be fine as long as you take the time to map out the floors as you explore them,” said Yuki. “It shouldn’t be hard—the layout isn’t all that complicated.”

“That sounds like the sort of thing one often had to do in retro games!” said Kaho.

“Yeah. It’s not as simple as drawing on graph paper, though,” I said.

Yoshino sighed to herself. “Kaho, please...”

Haruka chuckled and brought up an alternative. “Well, we can let you copy our map if you’d like.”

Yoshino hesitated for a moment, then raised her head and clenched her fists as if determined to resist the temptation. “O-Oh, um, nah, we can’t rely on you that much. If we want to explore the dungeon ourselves, we’ll have to improve our own abilities.

“Okay, so, to summarize, we’re going to take our time playing it safe and getting used to the environment, and as long as we proceed cautiously, we shouldn’t be in any danger of dying, right? I guess we’ll give it our best shot and avoid taking risks.”

“Mm. Take care,” said Haruka. “Is there anything else you would like to ask us about?”

Yoshino glanced at Kaho and Sae, but the two of them shook their heads, so she said, “Nah, that’s about it.”

“Okay. We’re going to head in now, then,” I said. “Take care of yourselves and try not to get injured.”

“Of course! And you as well!” Kaho exclaimed. “Old habits oft invite danger.”

“Thank you so much for all the help that you’ve provided us,” said Sae. “Please stay safe.”

“Take it easy and don’t panic! Good luck!” Yoshino exclaimed.

In response to those words of encouragement, we raised our hands in farewell. I made sure every member of Meikyo Shisui was gathered around me, then cast Area Teleportation.

Chapter 3—Exploration of a Deep Gorge

Thus, we temporarily parted ways with Jade Wings to resume our own exploration of the dungeon. Although we teleported past many of the floors to save time, we did stop to collect fruit and nuts along the way. The same day, right on schedule, we arrived before the boss room of the twentieth floor. It would have been ideal if we could’ve tackled the twenty-first floor in perfect condition, so I wanted to rest in the loot room at the head of the stairs, but...

“A month or so has passed since we last defeated the boss on this floor, right? I wonder if it’s respawned by now,” I said.

“If it has, then I wanna rest here for a bit before we fight it again,” said Yuki. “Lemme take a look.”

She carefully opened the door of the boss room, peeked inside, then immediately closed it again and took a few steps back.

“Well, I don’t see anything inside,” said Yuki. “Can you open the door for real this time, Touya?”

“Sure. Get ready for combat just in case.”

Touya placed his hands on the door and turned around to make sure everyone was ready, then opened the door. We entered the room and looked around. It really was empty inside.

“Whew. I guess the boss hasn’t respawned yet,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. My Scout skill didn’t detect anything, so this is what I figured, but still, better safe than sorry,” I said.

If I overrelied on my Scout skill, there were certain monsters that could catch me off guard. We had to remain vigilant whenever we were adventuring. We breathed a collective sigh of relief before crossing the boss room toward the loot room. After making sure there were no enemies in there either, we began setting up camp.

“It’s reassuring to camp in a small room like this,” said Haruka.

“Indeed. It’s much easier to protect ourselves than in a cave or out on the grassy plains,” said Natsuki.

In fact, camping inside the dungeon was a lot more comfortable than camping outside, since there was no risk of rain, but I wasn’t sure which was preferable, since being confined to an indoor environment for an extended period of time could affect our mental health. The number and strength of monsters varied between each floor, so it depended on where exactly we decided to camp, but loot rooms were comfortable enough. We weren’t sure to what extent we could trust the mechanics of the dungeon, but it didn’t seem that we would have to worry about a respawned boss charging in here or monsters from the floor below crawling up the stairs.

“Right—we should probably bury a teleportation marker here before we forget,” said Yuki. “The boss hasn’t respawned yet, but if we can’t teleport past it, we might end up having to fight a red tyrant strike ox multiple times.”

A blissful smile appeared on Metea’s face. “Oh, I loved the cheek meat. Steaks and stew with beef cheek are really good. I wouldn’t mind fighting it again!”

“Yeah, I really liked it too,” said Mary, but then she snapped out of it and scolded her sister, “Wait, no, Met, we weren’t able to help fight the boss last time, so don’t be so selfish.”

“The meat was definitely good,” I said, “partly because the cooks are so good at their job, but still.”

Beef cheek was fairly rare given that you could only obtain it in small amounts from normal cattle. Because of the red tyrant strike ox’s massive size, we’d gotten a decent amount, so the girls had been able to cook all sorts of different dishes. Stewed over an extended period of time, it was tender and delicious, and the steak was great too, although a bit chewy to me. All of that said, the idea of battling another red tyrant strike ox for more meat sounded appealing to me too, but we still had plenty of meat left inside of our magic bags, so...

Haruka giggled. “Thanks for the praise. In that case, I suppose we can come back here to slay another red tyrant strike ox once we run out of cheek meat.”

“Yay! And I’ll help out next time, I promise!”

★★★★★★★★★

The girls ended up serving us some beef cheek stew for dinner that evening, probably because Metea had mentioned it earlier. After savoring our meal, we spent the night sleeping in the loot room. The next morning, we headed down the long stairs toward the twenty-first floor. This was our second time descending these stairs, but they still felt annoyingly long.

Eventually, we heard a deep, weighty sound from far off. A little farther on, a giant waterfall came into view. I was once again stunned by such a magnificent sight inside the dungeon.

“...Man, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing something like this every time we come here,” I said.

“If we were back on Earth, this would probably be treated as a World Heritage Site,” said Natsuki.

“Yeah, I completely agree, but we really gotta make some progress today,” said Yuki. “We can’t just camp out here.”

“Mm. This area isn’t particularly suitable for camping,” said Haruka.

The stairs led down to a rock ledge that was wide enough to afford us some space to rest, but the sound of falling water was deafening, and there was a constant drizzle. If we used our pop-up tent, it would probably block out sound, but whoever stayed up on night watch would get soaked from the constant spray. It was true that we all had the Robust skill, but we would probably still catch a cold if we were exposed to a cold and damp environment for a prolonged period of time.

“Let’s bury a teleportation marker here too, just in case we end up being unable to climb back up the cliffs,” I said.

“Yeah, good idea,” said Touya. “That’d make me feel a lot better about exploring farther.”

“We should set up another of the main compass units too,” said Yuki. “I think it should be fine to just put it on the stairs.”

Every level of the dungeon from the first to the twentieth had been straightforwardly laid out, but the twenty-first floor was completely unfamiliar to us, so we definitely needed to map it as we explored it. Yuki took out a compass and began to set it up at the bottom of the stairs.

I watched her work, then walked over to her and buried a teleportation marker.

“Let’s see,” said Yuki. “Okay, the compass is working fine. It might be difficult to map this ledge, though.”

“Well, good luck, Yuki,” I said. “The teleportation marker seems to be fine too, so—hmm? Wait...”

After Yuki tested out the compass, I had confirmed that the teleportation marker was functioning. I could still detect it after burying it, but...

“Uh, Yuki, can you detect the teleportation marker that we left behind on the twentieth floor?” I asked.

“Huh? It’s right above us, so it should be easy to detect.” Yuki put a finger to her temple and closed her eyes, but then they went wide in surprise. “Oh, that’s weird. I can’t detect it. Did it break?”

“Nah, there’s no way—it’s only been a day since we set it up!”

I couldn’t detect the marker on the nineteenth floor either, so clearly the issue wasn’t specific to the twentieth. If we left the markers alone for long enough, they would probably stop functioning eventually, but the odds of two breaking simultaneously seemed slim. In addition, I had improved the range of my detection ability, so under normal circumstances, I was fairly sure I should still have been able to detect the marker on the nineteenth floor. However...

“It’s probably because of the twenty-first floor itself,” said Haruka, gazing at the scenery around us.

Touya nodded in agreement. “Yeah, exactly. The stairs that led down here were long as shit, and the sky is also—oh, actually, the sky looks just as high and vast as the sky of the twentieth floor...”

“On the other floors, all we could see when we looked up was the sky,” said Yuki. “There was never anything like a ceiling. But based on how far apart the markers feel, the ceilings probably weren’t actually that high.”

“The stairs also weren’t really long enough to explain why we can’t detect the other markers,” I said. “Could this be something like spatial distortion?”

“It’s possible,” said Natsuki. “Strictly speaking, dungeons aren’t even located underground.”

Natsuki explained that even if you began digging downward directly over the dungeon’s coordinates, you could never reach it, nor could you dig from one floor to the text. Apparently there were exceptions to this rule, but that didn’t seem to be the case for the twentieth and twenty-first floors of this dungeon. In any case, if they had been physically connected, then anyone who dug downward from the twentieth floor would probably fall to their deaths even if the distance was only as great as the height of the stairs.

“...Well, I guess it won’t be an issue if we just set up another teleportation marker later on this floor,” I said.

“We still have plenty of spares inside our magic bags,” said Haruka.

The materials to make teleportation markers weren’t cheap by any means, but they were affordable enough that it wouldn’t be a problem if we used a few extra to ensure our own safety. I felt bad given the amount of alchemical tinkering the girls had to do to make each marker, but when exploring a completely new floor, it was better safe than sorry.

“All right, let’s get going. I just hope this trail isn’t booby-trapped so it collapses under us.” Touya regarded the planks ahead of us with a somewhat dubious expression. “This is where we turned around last time, so we have no idea what’s ahead of us. Let’s all be on high alert. Hopefully Natsuki’s Traps and Snares 101 skill will help.”

“Oh, um, I’m afraid I’m not completely confident in that skill, but I’ll do my best.”

Natsuki seemed genuinely determined, but it was rare to hear her this nervous. Admittedly, all her skill did was furnish her with knowledge about traps, so it had occurred to me that it might not help her to detect them. There hadn’t been any opportunities for her to use it, so it was still level one. I felt like there were a number of reasons for concern here.

“It’s not ideal to restrict our range of motion, but for the time being, let’s tie ourselves together,” said Haruka. “This way, we’ll have some hope of recovery if one of us falls...”

“Touya’s the one who has the highest odds of falling, which might be a problem,” I pointed out.

Haruka didn’t sound entirely confident in her own idea, and I couldn’t really blame her. Touya was the strongest person in our party, and his total weight, including equipment, was far greater than Haruka’s and mine combined. If one of us fell, Touya could probably pull us back up on his own, but if he fell, there was no way Haruka and I could save him. Even with Yuki and Natsuki’s help, we would probably barely be able to save him given the velocity he would gain from falling. Mary certainly had the strength to help out, but as for her weight...

“Um, would you like me to lead the way instead?” Mary asked hesitantly.

Metea raised a hand. “I can walk with my big sis too!”

If Metea fell, we could undoubtedly pull her up easily, but...

“No way!” Coincidentally, I spoke at the same time as Touya.

If all we’d had to worry about was the plank trail collapsing under us, letting the sisters take point would probably have made sense, but we were inside a dungeon, so there were other threats—monsters, of course, and the possibility of different traps ahead—so we couldn’t in good conscience allow our youngest members to lead the way.

“We’d prefer it if both of you remained on guard in the rear,” I said. “That’s a very important contribution too.”

“It is? All right, then,” said Mary.

“Okay! You can count on us!”

As the sisters returned to their original positions, Touya came up with the perfect line. “All right. Feel free to cut the rope if you think it’s necessary, Nao,” he said, looking pretty satisfied with himself. “Sacrifice me to save everyone else if you have to.”

“Oh, I’ll be leading the way this time, Touya-kun,” said Natsuki. “You can walk right behind me.”

Touya froze at those words, and Mary clenched her hands in determination as she tried to cheer him up.

“D-Don’t worry, Touya-san! I thought it sounded cool!”

Mary had good intentions, but that had actually been the final blow to Touya’s ego. He flushed bright red and crouched down with his ears and tail tucked.

Haruka was at least merciful enough not to kick Touya while he was down. She turned to Natsuki as if nothing had happened and asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s the best option available to us in our current situation. I’m a frontline fighter as well, and this will enable me to use my Traps and Snares 101 skill the most effectively. Besides, even in the event that I fall, everyone else will likely be able to pull me up. I should add that if anyone falls, everyone else should immediately halt and crouch—it’s easier to lose your balance if you’re standing up.”

Natsuki’s reasoning made perfect sense to me, and yet I was ill at ease with the idea of making a girl lead the way into a dangerous place. Generally, however, all of us treated one another as equals, so I had no grounds to reject her suggestion. Touya still looked mortified, so I kicked him in the butt to snap him out of it, then tied myself to him with some rope. I made sure that there was enough space between us that we would still have some freedom of movement but kept us close enough that our bodies wouldn’t gain too much velocity if one of us fell. In the end, we lined up with Natsuki in the front, followed by Touya, me, Haruka, Mary, Metea, and then Yuki in the very rear.

Natsuki turned to the rest of us for confirmation. “Okay. Let’s get going.”

She began to pick her way down the narrow trail, paying careful attention to the ground beneath her feet. As we followed the trail, it sometimes widened and sometimes narrowed even more. In the narrowest section, it was no more than fifty centimeters wide, and the grade was fairly steep too. This lasted for over ten meters. I was spooked the whole time. I would never have said I was afraid of heights, but my legs were weak from fear. Even Haruka looked somewhat terrified. She kept muttering to herself that she should have put more practice into the Airwalk spell. I felt exactly the same way. We’d spent about thirty minutes on this rather thrilling section of the trail when my Scout skill picked something up.

I hastily tried to get Natsuki’s attention. “Natsuki, hold on!”

“What’s wrong, Nao-kun?”

Natsuki immediately stopped in her tracks and turned back to me. I walked over to her, and because we were all tied together, the others had to move as well. It was pretty awkward, clinging to the cliff in a huddled mass, but we had no other choice.

“Well, I noticed something weird with my Scout skill, but I’m not sure how to describe it,” I explained.

The signal I had picked up was very faint, but there was something up with the wall ahead of Natsuki on the right. It felt somewhat similar to the sensation I got when Natsuki and the others used the Sneak skill. I had leveled up my Scout skill, so I was better at detecting hidden things now.

“This spot here feels off to me.”

The spot that had caught my attention looked like a normal section of rock wall. I poked it with my spear just in case, and...

“Yikes!”

“Huh?!” everyone else exclaimed.

The rock wall suddenly leaped forward, bouncing my spear back. The impact almost sent it flying into the gorge, but I snatched it up just in time, and the lump of rock fell. Wait, that’s the signal my Scout skill detected! What is it?!

“It’s a monster called a rock spider!” Yuki exclaimed. “Well, it was a monster called a rock spider...”

Yuki was staring at what appeared to be a normal rock wall, but then she turned to me with a puzzled expression. So a monster ran into my spear and then just fell down the cliffside? Was it a suicide bomber or what?

“Actually, if you examine carefully, there’s some spider silk here,” said Natsuki.

“Oh, really? Whoa, you’re right,” said Yuki.

I followed Natsuki’s finger. There were indeed some strands of gossamer clinging to the wall where the spider had been concealed.

“It’s very thin,” said Metea. She squinted and snatched at the thread. From just a short distance away, it would have looked as if she were grabbing empty air. “I can barely see it.”

Touya pulled a face. “So if we’d walked by it without noticing, it would have knocked us off? Yikes!”

The impact of the spider’s body on my spear had been pretty powerful, so even someone as large as Touya would be at risk if a rock spider caught him off guard.

“It even made a lifeline for itself,” said Haruka. “I wonder if it’ll crawl back up to us.”

I carefully peeked over the edge of the cliff, but it was hard to spot the rock spider—it looked no different from any other part of the wall—so I was only able to locate it after tugging on the thread. Man, it’d be impossible to tell it apart from the rock if it didn’t have legs.

Touya was standing beside me. “Holding on for dear life, huh? I’m gonna cut the thread.”

He gave the gossamer lifeline a forceful tug in an attempt to break it, but it was strong enough to support the monster’s full weight, so he had no luck.

“Damn it!” His frustration was audible. “Time for some fire, Nao!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

In spite of its high tensile strength, the thread seemed likely to be weak to heat. I casually cast the Ignite spell and burned through it with ease. The wind carried the rock spider out of sight into the mist below the waterfall.

Touya smiled and wiped his brow. “Whew. That was pretty satisfying.”

Haruka gave him an exasperated glance. “We didn’t gain anything from this encounter, however,” she pointed out.

We had defeated a rock spider, but we hadn’t been able to obtain a magicite or any other materials from it. All we’d gotten was the small amount of gossamer still stuck to the wall.

“Honestly, I don’t think it would have been worth it to pull it back up and kill it here,” said Touya. “Looks like the only things worth any money that you can get from these guys are magicites and spinnerets.”

That was a pretty detailed rebuttal. Touya must have used his Appraisal skill on the rock spider earlier. Their magicites, apparently, were worth about three thousand Rea apiece, so maybe they weren’t a terrible source of income as long as you detected them ahead of time and had the ability to slice through their rocklike bodies. It would come down to the value of the spinnerets, but...

“Spinnerets? Those can be useful,” said Haruka. “Right, Natsuki?”

“Indeed. We’ve seen for ourselves how strong their thread is, so I’m certain we could use it in alchemy to enhance our casual clothes—perhaps even to the point that they could even double as armor.”

“But the thread was super weak to fire, so we’d have to make some adjustments,” Yuki noted.

According to Natsuki, it was true that the thread was weak to fire, but it wasn’t significantly more so than conventional fibers like cotton and silk; it was just inadequate as armor. There was apparently a special process for addressing this weakness when extracting thread from the spinnerets, so they would be valuable materials after all. In addition, the thread was, even in unmodified form, more durable and longer lasting than cotton as well as being highly elastic—as we’d already seen when Touya had failed to snap it. Clearly rock spider silk was an extremely useful fiber.

“We might even be able to make some runproof stockings,” said Yuki.

“Fine as the thread was, Touya-kun couldn’t break it, so that seems plausible,” said Natsuki.

“Well, that settles it,” said Haruka. “The next time we run into a rock spider, we’ll beat it and take its spinneret.”

“Got it,” said Touya. “I just hope we can manage that before it falls. It’d be annoying having to haul it back up here. I didn’t detect that last one, so I’m counting on you, Nao.”

“Yeah, same here,” said Yuki. “It had really good camouflage.”

“I couldn’t smell it either,” said Mary. “I can smell things like animals just fine if they’re as close as the spider was, but...”

Mary and Metea were sensitive to the presence of monsters in the same way Touya was. In the past, there had been a couple of occasions when one of them had noticed monsters before I was able to detect them with my Scout skill, but their sixth sense hadn’t worked in this case, whereas my Scout skill had at least helped me to notice that something was off. It hadn’t been accurate enough to identify the spider as a hostile presence, however, so maybe rock spiders had something on the order of a high-level Camouflage skill.

“They’ll undoubtedly be difficult to identify with the naked eye,” said Natsuki. “But perhaps, once we’ve encountered more, we’ll learn the trick of it.”

“I hope so,” I said. “I’ll do my best to point them out as early as I can. Just give it your best shot, everybody.”

★★★★★★★★★

Less than a minute after we resumed walking, we ran into another rock spider. They must have been common in this area. This one proved just as difficult to detect as the first. All of us looked in its direction, but no one was able to spot it, even after we had some detailed telemetry from my Scout skill. That was unsurprising, since not even I could spot it with the naked eye. Luckily, if I trained my skill on a target at close range, it would display its location in detail, so...

“Take this!”

Touya smashed his sword against the rock spider. The hard clang of metal echoed through the dungeon as the monster collapsed with its legs curled up. Not even one of Touya’s powerful swings had been enough to crush it instantly, so it definitely lived up to its name. Still, he was able to kill it with ease by running his sword through its soft belly. Apparently its back was the only part of it that was actually rock-hard.

It was easy to break it open too if we worked outward from the belly. Even Yuki had no difficulty extracting the magicite and spinneret. All that was left after that was the rock spider’s hard exoskeleton, which had no value to us, so we simply tossed it over the edge of the cliff. It was quite literally as hard as rock, and even its softer parts seemed to be composed of chitin, so unlike other monsters, it seemed unlikely to be compostable.

“Rock spiders actually seem kinda similar to things like limpets that cling to rocks,” said Yuki.

“Makes sense,” said Touya. “They’re pretty weak if you can detect them ahead of time and just smash ’em.”

“That takes a lot of strength, though, so probably only somebody like you could pull it off, Touya,” I said. “Actually, maybe Mary could too...”

Mary and Touya used the same type of sword. None of the other members of our party had weapons suitable for clubbing monsters. Any of us could probably achieve similar results with a blunt weapon, and there was also the option of casting a spell like Stone Missile, but there was no point in wasting mana when Touya could handle it for us.

“Would you like to give it a try, Mary?” Haruka asked.

“Are you sure about that, Haruka-san? I don’t think I can figure out exactly where a rock spider is on my own...”

“I suppose you’ll have to level up your Scout skill a bit,” said Haruka. “In that case, give her a hand, Nao.”

“Sure.”

I pointed out the location of the next rock spider we encountered and told Mary exactly where to attack. She was as successful as Touya had been at dislodging it from the wall, but its legs were still moving, and it attempted to flee, so I had to step in and stab it with my spear. Either the one that Touya had clobbered had instantly passed out or it had already been on the verge of death. In any case, stabbing rock spiders was a simple enough task that Touya and Mary took turns clubbing them for me to finish off. We worked our way down the trail for about an hour, but...

“Looks like a dead end to me,” said Touya.

“Yeah, totally,” I said.

This narrow trail had been cut into the cliffside. We’d now reached a point at which it was suddenly cut off, as if someone or something had stopped working on it. We walked to the edge and checked in all directions for another trail or path, but we were unable to find anything. We simply couldn’t progress any farther by conventional means.

“This isn’t a sign for us to start carving out our own path, is it?” I asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Haruka replied. “I don’t think that this is the end of the dungeon either, but...”

“Yeah, there’s no way it’s the end!” Yuki interjected. “That would be way too disappointing!”

“I would imagine we can go farther,” said Natsuki. “In the books I’ve read, there are a few recorded cases of adventurers of the past successfully reaching the end of this or that dungeon, but in all of those cases, it was unambiguous that they had reached the end.”

I had read the same books Natsuki mentioned, and as she said, all of the tales of successful conquests ended with something like a very strong boss monster or a special treasure chest. None of them ended with this kind of anticlimax, and it would have been foolish to assume that our dungeon was unique and we were the first to experience something like this.

“Have there ever been cases in which hidden doors were hidden along the path to the end of a dungeon?” Haruka asked with a glance at Natsuki.

Natsuki shook her head. “None that I can recall. We might be able to find one if we went back and took our time searching carefully, but...”

“I’d like to avoid having to do that if possible,” I said.

We had advanced slowly and carefully because of the numerous narrow sections in the trail, but we’d still walked way more than a kilometer. The idea of constantly exposing ourselves to the risk of falling off the cliff while we inspected every centimeter of the rock walls sounded far too psychologically fatiguing to me. I was the only one who had the Trap and Snares 101 skill aside from Natsuki, after all. If we used this as an opportunity for Yuki to copy the skill, we could split up into three groups, but then each group would still have to cover a few hundred square meters. All of us would likely run out of stamina and patience halfway through.

“I think the most realistic option would be for us to test the walls with hammers,” said Natsuki. “That’s something we can do as we walk.”

“Personally, I think we should try something other than looking for a hidden door,” I said. “Either up...”

I looked up at the cliff. It was so unbelievably tall that its top was actually hazy; I couldn’t see it even with my Hawk’s Eye skill.

“...Or down.”

I looked downward more cautiously than I had looked up. The bottom of the cliff, too, was shrouded in mist. We had come a long way from the waterfall, but the majestic sight was still visible, and the mist from its basin traveled all the way here—a testament to its sheer size and power.

“Hmm. This is an opportunity for us to put our practice into actual use, but it’s kinda scary,” said Yuki.

“Yeah. We have no idea exactly how high we need to climb, so we don’t know if the rope that we prepared will be adequate,” said Haruka.

“We also don’t know yet whether or not we’ll actually have to climb down,” I said. “Hmm? Wait a second...”

Something caught my eye, and I leaned forward. There appeared to be an opening in the cliff face about twenty meters down. It was carved into the rock, making it difficult to distinguish, but it appeared to be another plank trail.

“Hey, what do you think of that over there, Haruka?”

“...Yes, it does appear that we could advance farther from there,” Haruka replied. “Hold my hand for a moment, Nao.”

She extended her right hand to me, and I gripped it firmly so she could lean forward and peek over the edge. As she returned to her original position, she murmured, “It definitely appears to be a viable path.” We took turns supporting each other as we checked the spot, but...

“I wonder if it’s necessary to climb down there to progress,” said Haruka. “It’s a more realistic objective than the bottom of the cliff, but...”

“Yeah, it’s within a doable range,” I said.

During our practice, we had climbed close to twenty meters up and down, but in the canyon, the ground had been clearly visible, whereas this gorge appeared bottomless. Anyone who slipped would fall much longer than we were accustomed to. Yuki and Mary were visibly terrified, and Haruka and Natsuki seemed somewhat uneasy. In contrast, Metea and Touya didn’t look particularly scared at all.

“It’ll probably be fine,” said Touya. “There’s no way we’ll fall if we just go one at a time. Besides, I’m also curious about those things growing on the rock walls. See over there? Flonions and stackmushes, apparently.”

“Huh? Let me take a look,” I said. “Oh, I think I see what you’re talking about.”

There were indeed plants growing on the rock walls. It was probably the high humidity that made it possible for them to thrive here. The two specific varieties of plants Touya had pointed at were green and white, respectively. The green ones, which hung down from the rock wall, were flonions, which were similar to chives and leeks. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about them, and they didn’t seem remotely worth risking our lives for.

The white plants—or rather, fungi—were stackmushes. At first glance, they appeared to be as thin as paper. I was curious about why they weren’t growing outward from the rock face like ordinary mushrooms. This gorge was fairly windy, so maybe the wind inhibited their horizontal growth.

“The stackmushes don’t look like anything special,” I said. “Are they actually worth a lot of money or something?”

We were adventurers, so it wasn’t greedy to be curious about the monetary value of materials and food. If the stackmushes could actually fetch us a decent amount of money, it would be worth the risk to harvest them, but otherwise, we could just ignore them.

“As you can probably surmise from where they grow, they’re difficult to gather, so they are worth more than common vegetables and mushrooms,” said Haruka. “However, they don’t have any special properties, so they’re not worth a lot of money, especially since they can be found outside of dungeons as well.”

Haruka added that they were supposed to be delicious. Flonions were apparently comparable to brand-name vegetables, while stackmushes were only one tier below truffles and matsutake mushrooms in their refined flavor. They were growing abundantly below the cliff, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t see any overhead, at least not within reach. So given that this is a dungeon, is there some reason for that? Like, do rock spiders eat them? I guess it’s possible. They don’t have a lot of obvious sources of food here.

“Okay, but it’s probably okay for us to get some, yeah?” said Yuki. “You said they taste good, right?”

“As far as I’m aware, yes,” said Haruka. “They don’t look particularly delicious by any means, however.”

“Especially the stackmushes,” I said.

“They’re very thin!” Metea exclaimed. “But maybe they’re not very filling?”

Admittedly, they were thinner even than something like a wood ear. I had no idea how you were even supposed to eat them.

“I don’t think either the flonions or the stackmushes are worth going out of our way to harvest,” said Natsuki, “but if any are within reach as we descend, I do think it would be worth it for us to gather them. We can’t make a fair judgment until we actually try them out for ourselves, after all.”

“In any case, let’s walk back the way we came and look for places to climb down,” I said.

“Yeah, good idea,” said Yuki. “We didn’t really check under the edges of the cliff on our way here.”

As we retraced our steps, we tapped the side wall and leaned out periodically to check under the cliff. Given that the ground had yet to give way under us, there didn’t seem to be any traps, so we abandoned the rope that had linked us together; it had also inhibited our movements somewhat. We walked all the way back to the stairs that led up to the twentieth floor, but...

“As expected, no hidden doors,” I said.

“There were, however, plenty of spots from which we could safely descend,” said Natsuki.

Initially, we had kept close to the rock wall for fear of slipping, and we’d been focused on watching out for rock spiders, so there were actually a number of ledges below the trail that we’d failed to notice on our first traverse. If we descended from a spot above one of those ledges, we could probably make it to safety even if we slipped, and we wouldn’t fall all the way to the bottom of the gorge. Depending on how far we fell, we could still be injured, but the psychological hurdle, at least, would be more surmountable.

“As one would expect of a dungeon, there is a viable route after all,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. It would be great if there were things like vines that we could climb or hop down, but I guess that’s only in games,” said Yuki.

Vines weren’t as conveniently placed in real life as they were in video game maps, and the same applied to rope.

“Even if there were vines here, I don’t think they’d be much help,” I said. “They’d probably snap on us.”

“Yeah, agreed,” said Touya. “Rope ladders are pretty common in games too, but I wouldn’t trust something a stranger had left behind. It’s just too risky.”

Yuki, Touya, and I glanced at each other and nodded. Some aspects of the dungeon reminded us of games, but still, it was best to be more realistic in our approach.

“Well, that’s exactly why we prepared a ladder we know we can trust,” said Haruka. “In any case, we need to decide where exactly to descend from.”

“There were multiple rock shelters that looked reachable,” said Natsuki. “It’s possible that there is a single correct path. However...”

“...We don’t have any hints, so we might as well just start from the closest one,” I finished.

Assuming it would be more or less equally difficult to reach all of the shelters, we had no alternative but to check each of them one by one. If we started in order, it would be harder to lose track and easier for Yuki to map out our exploration.

“We might have to teleport back, so perhaps it would be best to start with the closest spot,” said Natsuki.

“I guess that means that spot right over there,” I said.

The ledge adjacent to the stairs was decently spacious. Walking to its edge and looking at the plank trail we’d just traversed, we saw another ledge, lower down and about fifty meters ahead. We immediately walked over there to look directly down. Underneath it was another ledge, about three meters in area—not wide, but wide enough for all seven of us to land on.

“Welp, guess I’ll have to go first,” said Touya.

“I mean, yeah, you’re always first.”

I felt a bit bad about the fact that it was always Touya’s responsibility to lead the way, but he was the toughest member of our party, so it was usually our most logical strategy.

“Yeah, I get it.”

“U-Um, I wouldn’t mind switching places,” said Mary hesitantly.

Touya laughed and shook his head. “Nah, sorry, but I can’t take you up on that offer.”

Mary was a beastgirl, so there was a good chance that her body was more durable than Yuki’s or mine, but rather than allowing her to put herself in danger, it would be better for me to take over. However, Touya was simply better suited to this role than any of us. There wasn’t much we could do about that.

“Yeah, sorry, but you’re the best at handling this kind of stuff, Touya,” said Yuki. “Just so you know, this isn’t, like, intentional gender discrimination...”

“Don’t worry, I get it. It would be dumb sending the healers down first, and if we exclude the sisters too, you and Nao are the only ones left. I’m way tougher than either one of you, so it makes the most sense for me to go.”

“I’ll support you,” I said. “Good luck.”

Our plan was to use a rope ladder this time. Normal ropes were better for faster descents, but rope ladders were more convenient for climbing up and down repeatedly. In addition, I firmly secured a lifeline to Touya.

“Do you see any rock spiders ahead, Nao?” Haruka asked. “It would be dangerous even for Touya if he were to be attacked while climbing down.”

“I don’t think there are any in this section, but I’ll double-check just in case.”

As before, my Scout skill failed to pick up any hostile signals. Mindful of how well rock spiders could camouflage themselves, I cast some weak spells at a few suspicious spots, but it seemed everything was all clear.

“Yeah, there shouldn’t be any nearby. All right. Enjoy your one-way ticket, Touya,” I said, pointing over the cliff.

Touya cocked his head. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘one-way’? Are you telling me that I’m going to die or something?”

“Nah, of course not. I’m just joking. I’ll keep a careful eye out for monsters. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“If you say so, dude. One last check...” He gave his lifeline a tug. “Okay, I should be good to go.”

Touya put one foot on the first rung of the rope ladder, but then Yuki suddenly piped up.

“Oh, wait, Touya!”

Touya flinched at the unexpected sound.

“Please gather any stackmushes and flonions you run into along the way!”

“...Are you seriously asking me to do that when I’m this nervous? Well, if the climb down turns out to be easier than I’m expecting, I’ll give it a shot.”

“Good luck, big bro Touya!” Metea exclaimed.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

At those words of encouragement from Metea, Touya began to climb downward. Based on the length of the rope ladder, the distance to the ledge below was easily over twenty meters, so it was going to take him a while.

“Man, that ledge is really far down there,” I said. “The distance is more than the height of a four story building, so I guess it’s taller than our high school.”

“Yeah, that’s a good comparison,” said Yuki.

The mist and haze rendered the gorge bottomless, but the ledge was still somewhat visible. It looked small from this distance, so even now that we knew that the ledges were fairly spacious, the prospect of climbing down was pretty intimidating. Still, Touya looked relaxed and was taking his time, collecting the stackmushes and flonions within arm’s reach. When he was about three meters below us, my Scout skill suddenly picked up some signals.

“Yikes, something is coming from above, and fast!”

Haruka was the first to react. “Is it a bird?!”

Three birds resembling hawks suddenly zoomed down from high overhead, beyond the range of my Scout skill. They weren’t flapping their wings, and so they swooped down in total silence.

“Attack!” Haruka exclaimed.

She herself was the first to take action. Powerful as my magic had gotten, it was no match for her bow in terms of range. Her first arrow flew directly at one of the birds. It attempted to adjust the angle of its descent, but the arrow pierced through one wing. It wasn’t killed instantly, since the arrow hadn’t struck its body, but incapacitated by the injury, it rammed into the cliff face and then fell into the gorge.

“Fire Arrow!”

When the remaining birds flew inside our range, Yuki and I both attacked with magic. Our Fire Arrows pierced them, and they, too, fell out of the air.

Touya breathed a sigh of relief after he saw that all of the birds had been defeated. “I almost panicked for a sec.”

It was clear that the birds had been aiming for Touya, so it would have been difficult for him to dodge while descending the rope ladder.

“Sorry, it’s kind of my fault,” I said. “Those birds came out of nowhere—from beyond the range of my Scout skill.”

“Nah, it’s all good. I’m surprised their eyesight is good enough that they can attack from that distance, though. I didn’t hear any flapping either...”

“The birds were gliding, so they were completely silent,” said Haruka. “And they resembled hawks, so their eyesight isn’t surprising.”

“Did my Hawk’s Eye skill lose to the real thing? Ugh,” I said.

I had no idea how far away the birds had been when they detected Touya, but they had clearly glided toward him in a straight line, so they unquestionably had excellent vision.

“I think the birds might have waited for Touya-san to start climbing down before they came after him,” said Mary. “I don’t have any way of attacking if more show up later.”

“Yeah, me either.” Metea crouched down. “Should I look for some rocks...?”

She’d picked one up by the time I intervened. “Nah, Metea, don’t. It could be dangerous.”

A properly aimed rock could be an effective weapon, but Metea had never practiced throwing, so the risk of friendly fire was too high.

Natsuki smiled gently and took the rock from Metea. “I have a skill called Throw, but I doubt that even I could have hit one of those birds in flight.”

Metea stared at her empty right hand and pouted, then quickly clenched her fists and peeked over the edge at Touya.

“Oh well, I guess I’ll give up on that. Be careful, big bro Touya!”

“Roger. Nao and the rest of you guys, I’m counting on you!”

“Yeah, just don’t let your guard down, and— Oh, more monsters are coming, a lot of them!”

My Scout skill had picked up multiple signals to my left, over the waterfall. Now they were approaching us rapidly in a straight line. When I squinted, I made out a cluster of small dots.

Haruka had her bow at the ready, but she said, “Ugh, the targets are too small!”

“What are these things, Nao?!” Yuki asked.

“Fish, I think!”

They were flying right at us, but I couldn’t yet make them out clearly even with Hawk’s Eye. I could discern their silhouettes against the darkness, and they looked somewhat like flying fish. Their bodies, however, resembled those of needlefish, with long, sharp snouts.

As the massive cluster of dots descended on us at an angle, Haruka let off some arrows. However, even she was only able to graze a few of the monsters, which wasn’t enough to down them, and when she realized that, she discarded her bow and extended her hands.

“Fire Arrow!” Haruka exclaimed in unison with Yuki.

I paused in thought for a moment, then decided to risk using a spell I hadn’t fully mastered yet. “Jet Fire!”

My reasoning was that Jet Fire would be more effective in this situation due to the sheer number of enemies. As it turned out, I was grossly mistaken. Yuki and Haruka’s response wasn’t perfect either, but they still succeeded in blowing away a few fish, whereas the shoal was easily able to fly around the flames I’d cast; I didn’t kill a single one. Part of the problem was that I wasn’t comfortable with the spell, but another was that it was a Fire Magic spell.

Fire Magic spells were all very powerful and capable of dealing severe damage, so they were convenient, but they also had some drawbacks. One was the fact that they didn’t have any weight or stopping power as such. You could blast off the head of a charging orc, for example, but momentum would carry its body forward. Fire Arrows had a little explosive power, but they were better at piercing a target and couldn’t send a monster flying backward.

I had been aware of this issue for a while, but given how easy it was to dodge a dead body carried forward by momentum, I hadn’t treated it as a serious problem. Spells that could incapacitate a target were more useful in situations where dodging wasn’t an option, and Jet Fire was even more limited than Fire Arrow in that respect. It had a wide area of effect, but at least in my hands, it wasn’t powerful enough to incinerate them instantly. Thus, the fish were able to fly around my flames. Their combined physical mass would have been dangerous even if I’d succeeded in frying some.

One of the flying fish that had dodged my Jet Fire flew directly at Touya. “Watch out, Touya!”

“Raaarrgh!”

Touya kicked off of the wall, counting on his lifeline, and the flying fish whizzed past him and struck the rock. Nearby, Natsuki had crouched down to swing her naginata at the fish, but at least ten had gotten past her. Their long snouts sank about twenty centimeters into the rock, but they were still wriggling around.

The lifeline pulled Touya back, and as he slammed into the wall, he let out a pained groan.

“Big bro Touya!” Metea exclaimed.

“A-Are you okay, Touya-san?” Mary called.

“No, not really,” Touya replied with a grimace. “It really hurts...”

As he’d leaped sideways off of the rope ladder to dodge the fish, one of them had lodged itself in his shoulder. It was wriggling around in an apparent attempt to make the wound larger, and blood was gushing down Touya’s arm. He was barely able to hold on with his right hand clasping the rock wall and his left hand around the lifeline.

“Actually, I’m in a world of trouble here. This rope is looking pretty iffy, for one thing...”

“I was somehow able to prevent them from hitting the rope, but it certainly doesn’t look good,” said Natsuki.

Apparently her objective had been to keep the fish away from the rope with her naginata, and she’d succeeded, but the rope was frayed from glancing blows.

“Quickly, Nao, get a new rope!” Haruka ordered me.

“Roger! Mary, Metea, wrap some rope around yourselves and go sit by the wall over there.”

“Okay!” the sisters replied in unison.

All of us secured ourselves before dangling a line down to Touya. He attached it to the carabiner on his own harness, and only then did all of us breathe a sigh of relief. I’m really glad we have carabiners with us. Otherwise, it’d be impossible for him to tie a new rope to himself.

“Can you climb back up on your own, Touya?” Haruka asked.

“Sorry, but probably not. My right arm doesn’t have much strength left in it...”

“I see. In that case...”

Haruka was looking back and forth, clearly troubled, between the rope ladder and our own situation here on the plank trail. Meanwhile, Yuki and I were working to dig a hollow in the ground so we could brace our feet and pull Touya up without sliding over the edge ourselves. Considering his weight, this would be a precarious task even for five of us.

“What should we do, Haruka?” I asked. “Should we just try to pull him up?”

“...I’m beginning to believe we aren’t actually adequately prepared for the twenty-first level. We should have designed something like a pulley for situations like this.”

Although Touya’s weight was a significant problem, Haruka seemed more concerned about something else: She was looking at the rope itself where it passed over the edge of the cliff. Even if we succeeded in hauling Touya up, there was a chance that it would fray and snap due to the friction.

“We can’t just keep wasting time like this,” I said. “Is there anything else that we can use?”

I was certain that the wound was sapping Touya’s stamina, and if we didn’t move fast, new foes might appear. I racked my brain for anything in our magic bags that might be of use, but maybe because the stress was wearing on my nerves, I couldn’t come up with anything.

While the rest of us were frozen, Metea sprang into action. “Overthinking is bad! Let’s just stick this in for now!”

She took out the iron baton—really just a plain iron rod—that Touya had once used as a weapon. Making skillful use of the lever principle, she thrust it between the rope and the cliff.

“Now the rope won’t rub on the rock, so come on, let’s go!”

“Great thinking, Metea!” I exclaimed. “All right. Let’s do this!”

We all had the Enhanced Muscles skill, so Touya’s weight was manageable as long as we kept our feet firmly planted. All of us worked together, and soon, he appeared over the edge of the cliff.

Touya breathed a sigh of relief the moment his feet were back on solid ground. “Thanks for saving me.” With an irritated look, he reached for the flying fish, still embedded in his shoulder. “This damn fish!”

But Haruka stopped him before he could pull it out. “Wait, Touya! I’ll take care of it for you. Please just sit down.”

“...Right. Sorry.”

Touya obeyed, and Haruka circled around behind him. She took out some cloth and pressed it against the wound before pulling the wriggling fish out in one swift motion.

“Argh...”

As Touya writhed in pain, Haruka pressed down on his shoulder, then cast magic over it. “Cure. Purification.”

Touya’s whole body relaxed, and he placed his hands behind him, then took a deep breath. “Shit, I feel a lot better now. Thanks. I really thought I was a goner.”

Yuki came over and removed Touya’s shoulder armor. As she inspected it, she suddenly yelled in surprise.

“Dang, this is scary! I can’t believe that fish just went all the way through the leather.” She beckoned at me. “Come take a look, Nao!”

I walked over to join her. There were huge holes in both the shoulder armor and the acton underneath. The chain mail was undamaged, but the tip of the fish’s snout must have passed between the links.

Chain mail was intrinsically somewhat weak to piercing attacks, but Gantz-san had made our mail with masterful precision, so only the tip of an ordinary spear could pierce it. We had been confident that it would be adequate as long as we weren’t attacked by a weapon as sharp and slender as a needle. It was unfortunate that these foes had a natural advantage against mail. The most important sections of our chain mail were reinforced with lava boar leather and partial plate, but the flying fish’s snout had bypassed all of that. As Yuki had said, it was scary to think about.

Touya sighed as he examined the giant hole in his shoulder armor. “This is expensive, high-quality leather. I honestly can’t believe it ended up like this. Man, I’m glad my shoulder didn’t get completely destroyed.”

I pointed with my chin at the cliff below us. “Yeah, the flying fish even got stuck in the rock. They’re tough, no doubt about it.”

They seemed unable to extricate themselves from the wall, so the way they were wriggling around helplessly, they looked pretty pathetic, but now that I knew what happened when they hit a human being, I would never underestimate or laugh at them. Even the wriggling motion served to enlarge wounds and exacerbate blood loss.

Natsuki was examining the flying fish that Haruka had pulled out of Touya’s shoulder. She held it up, handling it carefully, and pointed. “Its snout is barbed.”

“Let’s see,” I said. Metea and I went to join Natsuki, and I immediately saw what she meant. “Yikes. Yeah, you’re right.”

“It looks like it hurts a whole awful lot,” said Metea.

From a distance, the snout resembled a needle, but it had jagged barbs all over it—presumably the reason it could work its body back and forth and dig itself deeper into the wound without falling out.

“I guess that’s why it stayed stuck in you even wriggling around like that,” I said.

“Yeah. It was really painful.”

To treat a wound like that, you had to pull the fish out forcefully, enlarging the hole. It hadn’t been an issue for our party because we had access to healing magic, but it would have taken a lot of time for a wound like that to heal naturally, and it would almost certainly have left a nasty scar.

“Let’s see. The actual name of this thing is ‘flying needlefish,’” said Touya. “It comes flying out of the water and stabs targets with its snout. If you get stabbed by one, the wound keeps getting worse and larger, and if you don’t have a way to staunch the bleeding, it can lead to a massive hemorrhage.”

Having experienced that himself, Touya grimaced as he read the results of his Appraisal to us. In fact, had healing magic not been available, Touya would probably have lost the use of his right arm for a while. It would have been a severe blow to our fighting strength as a party.

“Third Eye says it has two skills called Flight and Pierce,” I said, “which do exactly what you’d expect.”

It was possible that the shoal of flying needlefish was just a type of terrain effect restricted to this part of the dungeon, but it had attacked us at a very inconvenient time.

“By the way, they’re apparently edible,” said Yuki. “You can sell the snout part too.”

Natsuki paused as if unsure how to react to that statement, then said, “Let’s gut it before we decide what to do next.”

In spite of her apparent uncertainty, she quickly chopped off the needlefish’s head and began to drain its blood. Decapitated, it just looked like a somewhat elongated flying fish. But does it actually taste good?

Metea looked up at me and cocked her head. “Does it taste good?”

Though she and I were obviously thinking along the same lines, none of us had an answer for her.

“We can try it out and see after we return home, Metea-chan,” said Natsuki. “We may be able to make some good broth with it.”

“Broth? Uh, I dunno about that, but I’m looking forward to it!”

Metea had been on high alert just a little while ago, but now she laughed in excitement. Clearly she’d succeeded in calming herself.

Her sister also seemed to be looking forward to trying it; Mary murmured the words “A new fish!” to herself.

Oh yeah, flying fish are supposed to be good for broth, right? Seeing the sisters excited is making me excited too.

“So the body is edible,” said Haruka, “but I suspect the snout would serve well as the tip of a javelin.”

She split the snout from the head that Natsuki had discarded, cleansed it of Touya’s blood with the Purification spell, and then flicked it with her finger. She frowned—it seemed to be very hard—and passed it over to Yuki.

“Yeah, that would probably be a good use for this,” said Yuki. “We could use it in other weapons too, like arrows.”

“Arrows...” Haruka mused. “It might be worth a try.”

Yuki took the snout back from Haruka and tapped it with a kodachi. “It wouldn’t cost us anything to experiment,” she said, sounding a little exasperated. “It’s really hard—hard enough to pierce rock, and that’s without us even modifying it!”

It took a lot of work to drive even pitons and spikes into the dungeon walls, whereas the flying fish had easily lodged themselves in the rock. That meant that they weren’t just sharp but insanely sturdy.

“If they can furnish us with food and the raw materials for weapons, flying needlefish may be extremely useful,” said Haruka. “That being the case, let’s retrieve the remaining ones as well.”

She pointed at the needlefish that were still stuck in the walls. They were squirming around but had yet to free themselves.

“Like sitting ducks, except they’re fish!” Yuki laughed. “I wonder if they’re suicidal monsters—like, they try to take their targets down with them.”

“Yeah, even if they’d succeeded in killing us, they would still have ended up like this,” I said.

It was pointless trying to analyze monster behavior from a rational standpoint. This shoal of fish had carried out the equivalent of a suicide bombing. The ones that had fallen into the gorge might have survived, but even that was unlikely.

“Well, as adventurers, we should slay as many as possible and take what we can from them,” I said.

“Yeah, I agree,” said Touya. “But one of us has to volunteer to do that.”

It sounded like Touya had chosen his words carefully, but Haruka showed him no mercy.

“And who do you think is the best suited for that job, Touya?”

“Me, duh. Yeah, I knew that would be the conclusion!” Touya raised his voice, but then he seemed to resign himself to his fate and looked down the cliff with a grimace. “Man, they’re scattered all over. Do you think more of them will come and attack me when I climb back down there, Haruka?”

“They might. If they do...”

“If they do?”

Haruka tilted her head cutely. “I suppose I’d be happy to have more fish for broth.”

“I wouldn’t be happy about it!”

Natsuki smiled. “Flying fish broth is quite gourmet, Touya-kun.”

“That doesn’t make me any happier!”

“Would you prefer grilled needlefish?” asked Haruka. “That’s on the menu as well.”

“No! What I’m trying to get at is that it hurts like hell when those things stab you!”

Believe us, dude, we can tell.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take some precautions this time,” I said.

“...Be more specific.”

Now that we knew how the flying needlefish attacked, we could devise some countermeasures. Touya seemed skeptical, so I tried my best to explain what I had in mind. My idea was to use the Isolation Field spell in order to create a zone that the needlefish couldn’t easily fly through.

There were a few reasons that I hadn’t been able to deploy that spell earlier: It had a substantial mana cost, and although it could cover the area that the shoal had flown through, it couldn’t extend all the way to the ledge below; I would have had to climb down myself and cast it around me.

We had learned that Fire Magic wasn’t a good option given the fish’s mass, so my plan was to use spells like Concussion and Stone Missile that could hopefully knock them away on impact. Then there wouldn’t be any need to incinerate them.

“The only problem with that is it’ll be impossible to retrieve their bodies,” I said. “We already missed out on the birds earlier...”

“Come on, just this once, let’s not worry about that!” Touya exclaimed.

“But you wouldn’t want to miss out on good food, right, Touya?” I asked.

“I mean, yeah. But I care more about safety than food right now.”

It would be ideal if I could simply attack the fish that looked likeliest to hit Touya, but that would be fiddly. It was easy to target monsters flying directly at me, but when looking down on them from overhead, it would be hard to judge the distance.

“Oh, by the way, the birds that came after us earlier were arrowhead eagles,” said Yuki. “Their feathers are good for fletching arrows, and their drumsticks are supposed to be delicious too. Raptors grab stuff with their talons, so maybe that makes the leg meat nice and firm?”

“Eagles, huh? I couldn’t really make them out.” Touya glared at her. “But also, come on, Yuki, I don’t care about potential new food right now!”

Yuki just smiled and shook her head, unbothered by his reaction. “Nah, it’s good for us to know! They can improve our lives in more ways than one. ’Sides, you’re the one who loves meat, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, of course, but it’s not like we need the money!”

“What’s the big deal? It’s not like you’re going to die or anything,” I said. “You’re a pretty sturdy guy.”

“I mean, sure, but would you want to get stabbed by one of those?”

The odds of Touya actually dying here were very low. One of the fish had nailed him in the shoulder, but his vital organs were protected by a breastplate imbued with Light-elemental magic. Based on my inspection of the needlefish’s snout, I didn’t think it could punch a hole in that. The rest of our party was far more fragile than Touya, so another fish attack would have been more dangerous for any of us.

“Look, let’s just prioritize safety over retrieving monsters!” said Touya. “With the needlefish, I’ll do what I can, within reason, but don’t make me go out of my way!”

“Fine, fine—and I’ll make sure I’ve got you covered,” I said. “Good luck!”

I did feel bad about always forcing Touya to handle stuff like this. After carefully checking his lifeline, I cast Isolation Field.

“Honestly, hearing ‘Good luck’ from you right now is kind of killing my motivation.”

Touya let out a “Hrmph!” and then hopped onto the rope ladder again. He was the kind of guy who groused a lot to let off steam, but he never made it anyone else’s problem. I honestly respected that about him.

“All right. Here goes.”

“Be careful, Touya-san,” said Mary.

“Good luck, big bro Touya! I hope you can bring a lot of fish back with you!”

I wondered if the sisters were just encouraging Touya because they’d heard him complain that his motivation was flagging. Or actually, could Metea be completely sincere? She probably just wants new food, but I guess she’s sincere about that...

“There you go, Touya-kun,” said Natsuki with a giggle. “You received some words of encouragement from a couple of young girls. Don’t you feel a bit more motivated now?” She handed him a leather bag.

“Sure, I guess,” said Touya, though in truth, he still sounded unenthused. “Here I go.”

Since I’d gotten caught off guard earlier, I focused really hard on scanning with my Scout skill, but I didn’t detect anything. Touya was also watching his back as he yanked the needlefish out of the walls. He just grabbed their still-squirming bodies and snapped them off, leaving the heads in the wall, and then dangled them over the void to drain their blood. After they’d stopped leaking blood, he tossed them into the leather bag.

The sight was so surreal that we all fell silent. His method was pretty efficient, since it allowed him to kill them and drain their blood at the same time, but it wasn’t really the kind of thing you would generally want kids watching. One of the kids in our care, however, looked indescribably happy and was shouting, “Fish!”

“Fourteen, fifteen, and I think that’s it,” said Touya. “Pretty good haul.”

Including the one we’d pulled out of his shoulder, we had sixteen needlefish. Touya looked around to make sure he hadn’t missed any, then ascended the rope ladder again. I canceled the Isolation Field and breathed a sigh of relief, letting my body relax now that Touya was back.

“Good work, Touya,” said Haruka. She took the leather bag from him and extended it toward Yuki with the mouth open. “Are you done with that snout, Yuki?”

Yuki was still inspecting the snout of the first flying needlefish, but she apologized and then put it in the bag.

“You seemed very engrossed,” said Natsuki. “Was there something of particular interest to you?”

“Yeah, kinda,” said Yuki. “What do we think is the hardest thing it can pierce through?”

“Not white iron, I’m pretty sure,” I said.

“Mm, although a thin layer of softer iron likely wouldn’t withstand them considering they pierced solid rock,” said Natsuki.

Of course, it wasn’t purely a question of the armor’s hardness; there were some sections that could deflect the needlefish. Regardless, thanks to Touya’s hard work, we’d gotten a bunch of needlefish snouts, so now we could experiment with them and use them to stress test shields and armor.

Haruka must have been thinking along the same lines I was. “Are you thinking of making Touya wear something like plate mail, Yuki?” she asked.

Yuki quickly shook her head. “Nah, I was just thinking that if Touya climbed down with something like a wooden door panel on his back, reinforced with metal plates, he could gather as many fish as we wanted.”

I couldn’t get over the image of Touya carrying a board on his back while a shoal of needlefish drove themselves into it like nails, and I burst out laughing, as did everybody else.

“Actually, though, that isn’t the worst idea,” said Haruka.

“Mm. But we’ll have to do some tests to confirm in advance that it works,” said Natsuki. “If it does, however...”

“...Then we can ensure both safety and profit, right?” said Yuki.

The rest of us, including the sisters, nodded—with one exception.

“Nah, wait, that would be really heavy to lug around!” Touya interjected. “A board is one thing, but the metal plates would add way too much weight!”

In this world, door panels were made entirely of wood, so they could weigh over twenty kilograms on their own. Once we added metal plates thick enough to stop the needlefish, even if they were no more than a centimeter thick, the total weight could exceed a hundred kilograms, depending on what type of metal we used. It would be a huge burden on Touya, and it would be a disaster if he ended up dangling from a rope with that kind of weight on his back.

“Actually, I think you could probably pull it off, Touya,” I said.

“What the hell are you talking about, dude? Like, I’m a lot stronger than I was, but—”

“Well, rescue teams sometimes have to carry people on their backs while going up and down a rope, right? So it’s definitely possible...”

The total weight of the rescuer plus the person rescued had to be over a hundred kilograms, especially factoring in the equipment the rescuer was carrying. If a feat like that was possible for someone back on Earth, Touya had to be able to pull it off. In fact, I was more concerned about the rope; that would probably be the main issue we had to address.

When I explained my thought process to Touya, he paused in thought, then gently nodded. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I probably can pull it off.”

“It won’t be cheap, but I think it might be wise to replace both our ropes and the rope ladder with wire,” said Natsuki. “It may also be possible to reinforce the ropes with alchemy, although I’m not certain of that.”

Thanks to Natsuki’s efforts—and a stroke of good luck—the shoal of flying fish had failed to sever Touya’s lifeline, but it definitely wouldn’t have survived a direct hit. However, wire was expensive and difficult to work with, so if alchemy was a viable alternative, it would definitely be preferable.

“Haruka, Yuki, is there any alchemical technique we can use on these ropes?” I asked.

“Hmm. Nothing comes to mind right now,” said Yuki. “There are some things we could try that would make the rope stronger, but...”

“...we don’t know if that would actually make the rope strong enough to withstand an attack from a shoal of needlefish,” said Haruka. “And if we hit on a technique that works, it might be wiser to prioritize upgrading our actons with alchemy.”

I couldn’t disagree with that. If we’d had alchemically reinforced actons, Touya’s injury could have been prevented.

“Well, in any case, let’s return to this topic once we get home,” said Haruka. “For now, we need to decide whether to advance or head back.”

“Yeah, good point,” said Yuki. “If we don’t wanna take any more risks right now, we should head home and rethink our preparations. But it kinda feels too soon for that.”

“We just got here,” I pointed out, “and we haven’t even been in any real battles yet.”

Even considering our safety-first approach, we had spent a week practicing rock climbing and preparing all kinds of tools, besides which the journey to the twenty-first floor had consumed a few days. After all those preparations, it would suck to head home after only a few hours to the dungeon. Luckily, after selling all that precious wood earlier, we were in good shape financially, but we had yet to accomplish anything on our current expedition...

“So far, all we’ve gotten this time are a few dozen flying needlefish,” I said. “It’s been kind of a letdown. Like, sure, I’m looking forward to eating them, but still.”

“The question is whether they taste more similar to normal flying fish or gars,” said Haruka. “Or they may have a unique taste of their own. We have no way of knowing.”

“We also have no way of knowing if they even taste good,” said Yuki. “All we know right now is that they’re edible.”

“...Oh, right,” I said. “That’s a shame. It’s been a while since I had some saltwater fish...”

Freshwater fish were good in their own right, but they weren’t the same. It would be great if this level was just an easy source of saltwater fish. Flying needlefish were a bit dangerous, but once you figured out how to deal with them, it became obvious that they were pretty stupid.

“Given that they seemed to come flying out of the waterfall, I’m not sure I would categorize them as saltwater fish,” said Natsuki. “But perhaps it’s a saltwater cataract.”

“Nah, there’s no way that’s— Actually, I take it back. You can’t rule anything out in a dungeon,” said Touya.

But Haruka quickly rejected his suggestion. “No, I’m fairly confident it’s not saltwater. We’re soaked from the spray. It would feel different if it were saltwater.”

“Oh, sure, makes sense,” said Touya. “So I guess flying needlefish are just freshwater fish that look like saltwater fish back home. We’ll just have to wait and see what they taste like.”

We’d been drying ourselves periodically with magic, but when we stood still for any length of time, we ended up a little damp, and I hadn’t gotten the gritty sensation of saltwater. Touya didn’t have any objections to Haruka’s reasoning either.

“Let’s take a moment to assess our current situation first,” said Haruka. “Then we can decide whether to head home or proceed deeper into the dungeon.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I said. “We still have plenty of stamina and magic, and we haven’t used up a lot of resources either, so both options are okay.”

Haruka looked around to make sure we were all paying attention before continuing. “All right. Let’s start with the rock spiders. You can detect them reliably with your Scout skill, correct, Nao?”

“Yeah, pretty reliably, but when they’re a ways away from us, I can’t be sure—especially not when they’re on the ledges below us,” I said.

Touya glared at me. “Huh? You didn’t mention this earlier when I was climbing down there!”

I nodded and explained, “That’s why I’ve been using magic to double-check. Besides, even if a spider rammed you, it would probably bounce right off you, right?”

“Well, yeah, probably, but...”

The real threat posed by rock spiders was that they’d abruptly force us off the narrow plank trail. However, that wasn’t a risk for someone as heavy as Touya, especially in wider areas like ledges. I could deal with rock spiders just fine as long as I was prepared, but they would be considerably more dangerous for someone Metea’s size. Fundamentally, though, they depended on the ability to ambush their targets. I was confident in that judgment: My Third Eye skill told me they had the skills Disguise and Ambush.

“Next, the arrowhead eagles,” said Haruka. “I was able to shoot one down with my bow, so I don’t think they pose much of a threat to us.”

“I actually kind of disagree,” I said. “What you did isn’t easy for all of us, Haruka.”

If nothing else, the eagles were dangerous by virtue of their speed. They flew in a straight line, so it was relatively easy to aim at them, but you still needed to be a good shot.

“I can’t fight those birds,” said Metea.

“Me either,” said Mary. “They’re out of reach of my weapon, and they’re fast too.”

“Haruka, Yuki, and Nao-kun are the only ones who can easily dispatch arrowhead eagles,” said Natsuki. “I believe I could as well if they were to fly within range of my naginata, but it seems they only aim for people who are descending the cliff...”

Metea raised her hand, apparently eager to be helpful. “Oh yeah, I can slay them too if they fly near me!”

But the issue was that arrowhead eagles didn’t seem to aim at people who were standing with melee weapons at the ready. Haruka could only take down one at a time with her bow, and Yuki and I could each take down two with magic. Thus, assuming Haruka began using magic immediately after loosing an arrow, six was the absolute maximum number of arrowhead eagles that the three of us could engage in combat at one time.

“Hmm. Three arrowhead eagles attacked us earlier,” I said. “I think three more is the most we can safely handle.”

“I’m in agreement,” said Haruka. “That being the case, I suppose the greater threat is the flying needlefish.”

“Yeah, they’re hard to deal with ’cause of their size and how many of them there are,” said Yuki. “Even if we manage to kill a lot of them at the same time, it’s not enough.”

“If our three mages each slay three fish, that adds up to nine,” I said. “That leaves seven fish—assuming the average shoal is the same size as the one that hit us earlier.”

“There were a few more fish than that, actually,” said Haruka. “Yuki and I slew and drove away a few more. In fact, there were a number that easily got around your magic.”

“Ugh, I was hoping you didn’t notice!”

“Ah, yes, some of them weren’t even seared, much less grilled,” said Natsuki.

Okay, I admit it—some of them were totally raw. I didn’t even manage to char their skin!

“Yeah, yeah, I messed up and used the wrong spell. My bad.”

“Just so you’re aware, Nao, you aren’t cute when you sulk,” said Haruka.

“I’m not sulking!”

Haruka poked me in the cheek, but I swatted her hand away, then changed the subject.

“Anyway, how should we deal with flying needlefish?”

“...Well, what about the Explosion spell, Nao?” Haruka asked. “Would that be more effective?”

“Oh, are you thinking that the shock waves would blow them away? I guess it could work, but there are a few potential issues,” I replied. “For one thing, I haven’t mastered Explosion yet, and for another, the spell could also hurt the people climbing down, so I wouldn’t recommend it. What about a spell like Storm Cutter instead?”

“That would probably have the desired result, but I haven’t mastered it either,” said Haruka. “My Wind Magic is still only Level 5, after all.”

Explosion, Storm Cutter, and Jet Fire, the latter of which I’d used earlier, were all Level 8 spells. We prioritized practicing spells that seemed likely to be useful, but the difficulty of casting scaled directly with level, so high-level spells were much harder to master, especially for someone like Yuki whose skill levels were lower than mine. Hey, wait... Now that I think about it, Sae can cast Level 8 spells just fine, can’t she? Man, I should have asked her to show me some so I could take notes. Oh well.

“We’ll just have to rely on Touya,” said Yuki. “Touya, if we get hit with another shoal of flying needlefish, I bet you can spin around and cut ’em all out of the air, right?”

Yuki was acting cute, looking up at Touya with an index finger to her cheek, but Touya’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“What? With unstable footing and one free hand? No way!”

Haruka laughed. “Well, that stands to reason. It would be amazing if you could actually do it, however.”

“I bet you can cut arrows out of the air too. You’re so cool, big bro Touya!” said Metea.

“Huh? Did you not hear me earlier? Sorry, Metea, but there’s no way,” said Touya. He sounded almost as if he was afraid of her asking him to demonstrate on the spot. Unfortunately for her, he simply wasn’t on that level yet.

“How about you give it a go, Yuki?” Touya suggested. “You can use Isolation Field just like Nao did, right?”

“Me? I mean, yeah, but wouldn’t it be better to leave it to Nao? He’s sooo much better at magic than I am.”

“Okay, is the objective to keep them from attacking us so we don’t have to face them head-on?” I asked. “I guess I can probably manage that, although it creates another problem after we climb down.”

The Isolation Field spell could probably protect me from both flying needlefish and arrowhead eagles, but I would be in danger if I ended up alone on the ledge and had to face off against other monsters.

“So what if we have just me and Nao rappel down?” Touya suggested. “We’ve practiced. We know it’s possible. Based on what happened earlier, we should have some lead time after we start climbing before the monsters come after us. We can probably make it all the way down.”

“So you’re suggesting that we just scramble down to the ledge before the monsters get us, huh? That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “But...”

“...the two of you wouldn’t be able to return to the rest of us,” Haruka finished. “And then there’s the risk of the ropes breaking.”

Touya had been about three to four meters down the rock wall when the three arrowhead eagles attacked us, followed by about twenty flying needlefish. If the numbers of attackers increased with our descent, then we might have to face as many as a hundred flying needlefish on our way down to the ledge. True, that was the worst-case scenario, but even if the total number of needlefish was smaller, we couldn’t count on good luck, especially where our rope was concerned.

“We could return with teleportation magic, although honestly, relying that much on magic always feels dicey to me,” I said.

“Well, if magic is an option, we could just teleport our whole party down to the ledge,” Yuki pointed out.

“Oh, right,” I said. “How did I not think of that?”

When teleporting to an area within line of sight, the odds of failure were low, so there was no need for us to take the risks involved in climbing down.

But Haruka shook her head. “I considered that option myself, but I have a feeling that if we rely on teleportation to make progress, it’ll come back to bite us. Pulling off Teleport requires a great deal of Time Magic practice, so it’s not exactly cheating, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t feel right to me.”

“Oh, yeah, I totally get what you mean,” I said. “Like, in some games, if you use teleportation to sequence break, you can end up running into enemies that are way too powerful for you.”

It seemed natural enough to apply the logic of games to the situation at hand, so although Haruka’s conclusion had been a little ambiguous, I nodded. So did Touya.

“So you’re basically saying that if we can’t get deeper into the dungeon with just our own power, you think it’s a sign we’re not strong enough and we need to train longer, right?” he asked.

“Yes, exactly,” Haruka replied. “I believe that would be a sound tactic—do you all agree?”

“I certainly do,” said Natsuki. “It’s best to have some kind of benchmark that we can refer to in estimating our likelihood of safely clearing new levels.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Haruka. “That being the case, I think it would be best to try climbing down rather than relying on magic. But I do have another concern—that monsters will continue bombarding us even after we survive the first wave.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “Touya could probably endure multiple waves just fine, but...”

No new monsters had attacked Touya while he’d been climbing back down to collect the flying needlefish that were stuck in the wall. However, if that was just a coincidence—if the monsters simply took some time to respawn—then we might have to deal with more flying needlefish on our way down.

“We are in a dungeon, so it could happen,” said Yuki. “Well, for now, let’s just use Nao as bait and see what happens...”

“I’m honestly kind of conflicted about your word choice there, but I guess I don’t have any other options.”

“As long as I’m up here with everybody else, it’ll be pretty easy for us to pull you up, dude,” said Touya.

My ranking within the party in terms of weight was classified. Still, I couldn’t deny that I was lighter than Touya, and it would be way easier for him to pull me up than vice versa.

“Well, if we’re talking about weight, we do have one person who’s lighter than Nao,” said Haruka.

“Mm, indeed,” said Natsuki. “And that person happens to be capable of casting Isolation Field as well.”

Haruka and Natsuki smiled playfully and gave Yuki some pointed glances.

“Huh? D-Do I have to?”

Yuki’s eyes darted around nervously. In terms of weight and magic proficiency, Yuki and I were equally good options for this task, but I was a guy, so...

“Don’t worry,” I said gallantly. “I’ll handle it this time—”

Metea suddenly interrupted me. “I’ll do it!”

“Huh?”

All of us turned around to look at her. She didn’t seem at all discouraged by our skeptical reactions; she puffed out her chest confidently.

“I’m the lightest person in this party!”

“That’s true,” said Haruka. “However...”

Of course, none of the girls could seriously claim they were lighter than Metea. Given the delay between detecting new foes and engaging them in combat, we could probably pull Metea back up the cliffside before she was in real danger. Still, I wasn’t sure if it was worth exposing her to that kind of risk.

“Big bro Nao’s magic would make all the fishes fall down, and that’s a waste!” said Metea.

“Yeah, true, they’ll just bounce off the barrier and fall into the chasm,” I said.

If we were lucky, some of them might land on a ledge, but I couldn’t cast the spell directly behind my back, so the wind would probably carry most of them all the way down to the bottom of the cliff.

“I can handle stuff that’s hard!”

Now I’m not sure what to do. I glanced at Metea’s older sister for her opinion.

Mary had a serious expression on her face. “If you really consider us members of Meikyo Shisui, please give Metea a chance,” she said with a nod.

“Oh, this isn’t as crucial as you might think, Mary,” I said. “But...”

It was difficult for me to give her a straight no. We were their guardians, so it wasn’t really right for us to put the sisters in danger, but they’d made their own decision to become adventurers, and they’d been working for a few months now. If we truly considered them our peers, we needed to approach this issue with an eye toward pragmatism.

“Metea can’t defend herself as well as the rest of us, but she is very light, so it would be easy for us to pull her up,” I said. “The risks involved in climbing down are about the same for her as they are for any of the rest of us other than Touya, so I guess the main disadvantage is that she doesn’t have magic to counterattack.”

Metea stood on her tiptoes and waved her right hand in front of Touya’s face. “But I’m small, so I can dodge easily!”

She proceeded to kneel and curl up into a ball, looking at me as if to say, “See?” It was cute, but there was no need for her to demonstrate that she was a smaller target than Touya when the difference was so obvious at a glance.

“Hmm. Well, I think we could let Metea go ahead with Nao right above her,” said Haruka.

“Oh, yeah, I could create a safe area that she could retreat into if necessary. That’s not a bad idea at all.”

The ledge was at least twenty meters below us. It wouldn’t be easy to haul Metea all the way back up after she’d descended that far, but if I was positioned directly above her, I could simply pull her back to me. It would be easy enough to ensure her safety.

“So can we catch the fishes?” Metea asked.

“Yes, you can catch the ones that aim directly at you,” Haruka replied. “If you encounter monsters on the ledge below, we’ll have Touya rappel down to you as quickly as possible while the rest of us provide backup from above. Does that sound good?”

“I suppose this will be a test: It may be that the monsters target anyone climbing down, but it may also be that they’re simply a trap that won’t trigger again after the first descent,” said Natsuki. “Regardless, I’m inclined to believe that this is worth trying.”

After some further discussion, we came up with what we believed to be the safest plan: Metea would slowly climb down first, and I would follow her on the rope ladder, maintaining a constant distance of a few meters between the two of us. If monsters attacked us, I would pull Metea up to me and protect us with Isolation Field. We attached a lifeline to Metea as she and I prepared to climb down.

“Here goes!”

Metea saluted us with a smile on her face, then went over the edge. I had no idea if she was smiling because she had no fear, in spite of having witnessed the injury Touya had suffered earlier, or if she just had that much trust in us.

“I’ll get going too,” I said.

“Take care of her, Nao,” said Haruka.

“Of course. You can count on me.”

As I slowly descended after Metea, I constantly checked her position. When we’d progressed a few meters beyond the point where Touya had been attacked, my Scout skill picked up some signals. I looked up to warn the others and saw that Haruka already had an arrow knocked.

There were a total of four arrowhead eagles flying at us—one more than before—but Haruka was able to react swiftly. By the time the eagles were within range of my magic, she’d already sniped two of them, and Yuki had nailed another with a Fire Arrow, so I downed the final eagle with a Fire Arrow of my own. Since I had more leeway to react this time, I tried to shoot it from an angle that would result in it falling onto the ledge below, and when I craned around to check, it looked like I’d succeeded. Of course, given that I’d used fire magic, I had no idea whether its feathers would be salvageable.

While I was busy dispatching the last arrowhead eagle, Metea had climbed up beside me. She clapped her hands and said, “That was awesome, big bro Nao!”

She was dangling in the air, but she didn’t seem frightened in the slightest.

“You doing okay so far, Metea?”

“Yeah!”

Even as we exchanged those words, Metea began descending again. It was almost like we were fishing with her as bait, and soon, the fish showed up. This shoal appeared to be about the same size as the first, and like it, they’d emerged from the top of the waterfall and headed straight at us.

“Touya!” I yelled.

“Yeah, I know!”

“Whoa!”

With one hand, I pulled Metea up next to me, then into my arms, then activated Isolation Field. A few flying needlefish jammed their snouts into the rock beneath us with a series of sharp thuds, and a few more bounced off of the spell and fell into the gorge.

“We got hit even up here,” I said. “I wonder if using Isolation Field was the right call.”

“Um, maybe I just got pulled up too fast!” said Metea.

If I’d been the target, the shoal’s initial trajectory had been off mark, but when I’d pulled Metea up, some of them had adjusted their angle of attack. They’d probably been going too fast to change directions mid-flight, but with enough distance, they could clearly make some adjustments.

“Are you not scared at all, Metea?”

“Nope, I feel fine! I know I can count on you an’ everybody else to keep me safe, big bro Nao!”

“Well, don’t get overconfident, but I’m glad that you trust us.”

If necessary, I could also expand the Isolation Field spell to cover Metea while she was climbing below me. However, the mana cost of spells scaled with their area of effect, so that would rapidly deplete my mana. It wouldn’t be a huge deal, though; we could just put this “test” on hold and return home.

“You can go a bit slower, big bro Touya!”

“Huh?”

Touya peeked down at us from overhead, looking a bit confused. Metea didn’t seem to care; she just waved her hand as a signal to give her more slack.

“Let’s go pick up all the fishes first! There’s plenty of fresh fishes waiting for us!”

“Yeah, let’s,” I said.

In addition to the couple of fish that had bounced off of my Isolation Field, there were about twenty stuck in the rock wall, so Metea and I copied the method that Touya had devised earlier to collect them. It was honestly a pretty smart strategy. If you didn’t snap their necks before pulling them out of the wall, they would probably try to stab you with their snouts, so it was best to kill them while they were immobilized, even if it looked a bit gruesome.

“Okay, all done! Now let’s go catch more fishes!”

Metea seemed pleased with our haul and urged me to hurry with a smile on her face. We ended up repeating the same process four times, and by the time we reached the ledge, we’d accumulated over a hundred flying needlefish. Just in case there were monsters concealing themselves nearby, I lowered myself onto the ledge before Metea, but luckily enough, it seemed completely clear. We’d made it to our initial destination and gotten some fish and birds along the way.

“Is it safe down there, Nao? It is? Okay, I’ll go next!”

Yuki waved at us, then climbed over the edge. We had decided beforehand on the order in which we’d descend. The next thing we had to test was whether the flying needlefish would continue attacking subsequent climbers after a couple of us had already made it to the ledge. Yuki could defend herself with magic, hence the fact that she was next in line after me.

But she made it all the way down to the ledge without being attacked. Apparently there had been no need to worry.

“Whew. I was kinda nervous, but everything was fine.”

“I’m glad you made it down here safely,” I said. “Although given that you can also cast Isolation Field, I’m pretty sure you would have been fine regardless.”

“Please, I don’t know if my Isolation Field is actually good enough to block flying needlefish! Yours is a lot harder and more durable than mine!”

“Well, yeah, the durability scales with the amount of mana you use.”

You could adjust the size and hardness of the Isolation Field at will and cancel it at any time, but there was no way to reabsorb the mana you’d put into it, so if you made it more powerful than was really necessary, it was a waste of mana. For that very reason, I’d vacillated a bit about the amount to use in my own Isolation Field.

“Anyway, I think we can conclude that the flying needlefish don’t just attack anyone passing through that area,” I said. “Maybe they’ll attack again after a certain amount of time has passed, though.”

“Yeah. Maybe this is one of those dungeon traps,” said Yuki. “You know, the kind that takes a while to reset after you trigger them?”

“So no more fishes flying at us?” Metea asked.

The two of us laughed at her disappointed tone. In spite of the danger posed by their sharp snouts, flying needlefish were, at the end of the day, just fish. They were easy enough to catch as long as you took precautions.

“Even bosses eventually respawn, so I’m sure we’ll run into the flying needlefish again at some point,” I replied.

“Yeah, ’xactly,” said Yuki. “If it’s the same as the respawn rate for bosses, we might have to wait a few weeks. But for a regular trap like this, maybe it’ll only be a couple days.”

“Oh, yay!”

Metea was beaming, and Yuki and I laughed again. Despite the serious injury that her “big brother” had suffered, Metea was just happy to have a new source of fresh fish. Adventuring was definitely a good profession for her personality type.

Mary was the next to climb down to the ledge, followed by Natsuki, Haruka, and Touya in that order. Touya pulled up the ladder, then rappelled down. Our plan was to leave behind the rope he’d used.

“Well, we all made it here safely.” Haruka glanced around. “This place looks similar to everything we’ve seen so far on this level.”

Of course, a difference of twenty meters in elevation wasn’t enough for a dramatic change in the scenery. The bottom of the gorge was still shrouded in darkness, and the massive waterfall likewise appeared unchanged from this angle. A plank trail similar to the one above led away from the falls, and a rock wall overhung it like an eave. That overhang had prevented us from confirming the existence of another plank trail on this level, but it would probably help to shield us from rain.

But wait, is there rain inside dungeons? I’d normally assume no, but there’s a sky above us with what look like clouds. It was clear the whole time we were in the grassland area. I wonder if the good weather will hold.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything of note here apart from the plank trail,” said Haruka.

“What do you think is next?” I asked. “Will we end up at another dead end or will the trail actually take us somewhere?”

“Well, based on how things have gone so far, I bet we’ll have to climb down again,” said Yuki.

Natsuki nodded. “And the shoals of needlefish seem likely to be a recurring trap.”

“This shelter is pretty convenient,” said Touya. He pointed up at the waterfall. “Great view too.”

The flying needlefish had flown at us from the area he was indicating. It was because they had a straight line of sight that they could come at us so fast. If they’d had to fly more slowly and maneuver, they wouldn’t have been much of a threat at all.

“Dealing with more flying needlefish isn’t my idea of a fun time, though,” Touya added with a shrug.

Of course, someone disagreed vociferously.

“Nah, it’s good! We got a lot of fishes!”

Metea looked proudly at the bag full of fish we’d collected. Mary glanced over her sister’s shoulder and into the bag, and a smile appeared on her face too.

“Over a hundred fish from climbing down one time? We’ll be able to eat fish every day now!” Mary exclaimed.

“Yeah! We won’t run out for a long time even if we both eat two fishes every single day!”

The sisters had never had fish before they came to live with us, but now they were delighted whenever it was served. Of course, we had no idea if these fish would taste good, but the most important quality an adventurer could have was to be excited about exploring, so the rest of us laughed at the sisters’ contagious enthusiasm and positivity.

★★★★★★★★★

As it turned out, Yuki had guessed correctly: After following the new plank trail for a while, we arrived at another dead end. Looking over the edge, we saw a number of ledges. We descended using the same strategy of staggered rappelling we’d developed earlier, filling another bag with fish as we climbed. The smiles on Mary’s and Metea’s faces were radiant. The rest of us were also looking forward to flying fish broth, but we were getting ready for a change of scenery. Even after three successive descents, the bottom of the gorge still wasn’t visible. The path forward remained unclear, which was unfortunate—or, from the sisters’ perspective, very fortunate.

By the time we’d rappelled over five ledges, we had descended more than a hundred meters. Just how deep is this gorge? The mist was slowly thickening, so I was confident that we were getting closer to the bottom, but I was still concerned that we were depleting our supply of rope. We had prepared as much as possible, but rope that was sturdy enough for our purposes was far from cheap, besides which there was a limit to the quantity available in Laffan. Of course, we would never have tried to save money by buying less expensive rope given how essential it was to our safety, but even so, we didn’t have an infinite amount in our magic bags.

Haruka voiced the thought that was probably on everyone’s minds: “We need to plan out our next course of action soon.”

We’d been making decent progress, and there had been no clear stopping point, so no one had said anything, but now an unignorable change was taking place across the entire twenty-first floor of the dungeon.

“For whatever reason, our surroundings seem to be getting darker,” said Haruka, “so I thought this would be a good moment to reconvene and discuss our plans.”

In fact, the way the darkness was enveloping us, it was almost as if dusk had descended on the dungeon.

“The floors up to the twentieth floor were always bright, weren’t they?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Yuki replied. “The floors before this one didn’t change in the whole time we were exploring.”

I looked up at the sky and saw that the “sun” was approaching the horizon. “I wonder if this means the area we’re in is closer to the natural environment outside of the dungeon than the grasslands up to the twentieth floor.”

“That might be the case,” said Natsuki. “Nevertheless, this place doesn’t appear suitable for camping.”

“Yeah. We’ve come a pretty long way from the waterfall, but if anything, the humidity is getting worse,” I said.

On that first rock ledge, we’d been covered in spray borne on the wind, but now there was mist all around us. It wasn’t exceptionally dense, but it had lowered our visibility. Arrowhead eagles in particular had gotten harder to deal with, given that we had to hit them rather than just dodging them like we could the needlefish. Fortunately, it wasn’t a huge problem, since the number of eagles attacking us had decreased with every level we descended, whereas the number of fish had remained constant. On our most recent descent, we’d only had to contend with a single eagle.

The main issue at hand was that we were getting soaked in this mist. We continued to dry ourselves with magic from time to time, but the moisture was incessant. If the ambient temperature had been warmer, it wouldn’t have felt so bad, but we had, after all, named this the Summer Resort Dungeon, and it was always cool inside—cool enough to sap our stamina and chill us. As if that weren’t bad enough, the moisture was making everything slippery. Touya in particular was struggling to rappel down to each successive ledge. All of us had put on coats halfway through our descent in order to prevent our clothes from getting wet, but they didn’t completely keep out the moisture, and worse, they hindered us when climbing. With all of that in mind, we couldn’t truly rest and recover from our fatigue camping out in a place like this, especially since there was a high chance that one of us would catch a cold if we stayed here.

“...I hope I’m just imagining things, but does anybody else feel like the whole path we just followed was one big, long trap?” Yuki looked up at the cliff we’d just descended and sighed in irritation. “We haven’t found anywhere warm to rest, and even if we decide to turn around, we need to get our stamina back first. This floor is a way bigger pain in the butt than any of the other ones we’ve done so far.”

“It’s not all bad,” said Haruka. “We have a magical pop-up tent, which could prove extremely useful.”

“I bet that’s the whole reason the tent was in the treasure chest after the boss of the twentieth floor,” said Touya.

“Yeah, I guess it was kind of necessary for us to explore farther,” I said. “It reminds me of how games give you items that you need to progress.”

“I imagine that for most adventurers, it would be difficult to start a fire under these circumstances,” said Natsuki.

To get to this point, ordinary adventurers would have to find some way to deal with the issue of fuel. Thanks to our magic bags, we could carry a decent quantity of wood and keep it dry. Without them, the wood would have been soaked, as would tools like tinderboxes. That being the case, most adventurers wouldn’t even be able to warm themselves on this floor. We were very fortunate that we had not only dry firewood but the ability to ignite fires magically.

“We can make a campfire!” said Metea. “We have lots of wood too!”

“Are we going to grill some fish here?” Mary asked.

Luckily, Mary and Metea were still upbeat despite the situation. I wasn’t sure if it was because of all the fish we’d collected or if beastgirls just naturally had more stamina than humans. Their physiques were comparable to Yuki’s, but Yuki was actually the most exhausted of any of us. Admittedly, she’d been using a lot of magic, so her fatigue might have been mental rather than physical.

“Let’s put that off until we return to the twentieth floor,” Haruka told Mary. “Then we can relax while we eat.”

“Does that mean we’re heading back now?” Touya asked.

“I think we could make one more descent,” said Natsuki.

Even as Touya and Natsuki chimed in, Yuki remained silent, then sighed to herself.

“Are you good to keep going, Yuki?” I asked.

“I can probably handle one more climb down. But then you gotta let me rely on you when we teleport back, Nao.”

“Sure. It’s not too far away, so I should be able to handle it by myself.”

I had also expended a decent amount of mana, but as an elf, I had more to spare than Yuki did.

“All right, it’s decided,” said Haruka. “Let’s make one more descent, then return to the twentieth floor and grill some fish.”

“Yay!”

Metea expressed her joy openly, while Mary just smiled demurely. Our hearts warmed by the sisters’ positive attitudes, we began looking for a suitable ledge for our final descent. We had done this enough times that by now, everyone knew their own roles in the process. However, that might have made us complacent, because this time, there was an unexpected accident as Natsuki was rappelling down.

“...Huh?”

The upper part of the rock wall that the rope ladder was secured to suddenly collapsed. Natsuki was about ten meters from the ledge when it happened. The rest of us watched as she went flying. Natsuki, like all of us, had leveled up enough that the fall was unlikely to kill her in itself, but there was another problem: the rocks falling alongside her. There was no way she could survive being crushed.

Natsuki hesitated for a split second, then swung her naginata at the wall in order to push herself away from the falling rocks. However, as a result, her trajectory was now carrying her beyond the rim of the rock ledge. If nothing caught her, she would fall all the way to the bottom of the gorge.

I checked Haruka’s and Yuki’s positions. They can’t reach her in time. Without another thought, I leaped off of the ledge toward Natsuki. She’d gained a lot of momentum, but I just barely managed to grab one of her arms and pulled her toward myself.

“Hold on tight!”

“Okay!”

Natsuki wrapped her arms around my back, and I held her tightly against myself. But I wasn’t wearing a safety harness, so now I was falling too. It was what you might have called a huge mistake! Still, if I’d been limited by a lifeline, I probably couldn’t have caught her.

“No! Nao!”

Haruka’s scream echoed all around us as Natsuki and I plummeted through the dense mist.

Chapter 4—An Unexpectedly Dark Turn

A deafening sound echoed through the dungeon as boulders crashed against the overhang of the ledge where Meikyo Shisui was sheltering. Haruka screamed helplessly as she watched Nao and Natsuki fall together, but her voice was lost in the cacophony. The rest of Meikyo Shisui had been able to retreat to the plank trail, away from the cliff edge, but that meant they had been some distance from Nao and Natsuki. Nao had been able to catch Natsuki because he’d acted swiftly. Given the distance between them, he’d had no time to ponder the decision.

“B-Big bro Nao fell down!”

“Wh-What should we do?!”

The blood had drained from Metea’s and Mary’s faces, and they were scampering aimlessly back and forth along the ledge. When Haruka saw that the sisters were panicking, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Don’t worry. Nao didn’t fall,” she said. “He made a conscious decision to leap after Natsuki.”

“...He didn’t leap without thinking, did he?” Mary asked.

“No. I’m confident that he had a good reason for acting swiftly.”

Though Haruka’s tone was calm, her face, too, was white as paper, and her fists were tightly clenched, as if she was fighting to restrain her emotions. Before the dust from the rockslide had fully settled, she dashed up to the edge of the cliff and looked over. However, she saw nothing but mist. There was no sign of Nao and Natsuki.

“Damn it!”

Haruka had expected this outcome, but she clenched her fists even tighter. It was as if reality had slapped her in the face. Yuki walked over to Haruka and gently caressed her hands in an attempt to soothe her. Haruka shook her head before relaxing and holding hands with Yuki.

“Calm down, Haruka,” said Yuki.

“I know, I know.”

Haruka kept repeating those words to herself in an effort to steady herself.

Suddenly, a voice from behind them asked, “Did you see them?”

When Haruka turned, she saw Touya. “You sure got here quickly.”

“I mean, yeah, considering what just happened, I had a reason to hustle.” Looking troubled, Touya pointed behind him, where the very end of the rope ladder was visible under a pile of rocks. “The rope ladder is under there, though.”

This was inevitable; the rope ladder had been secured to the section of the cliff that had collapsed earlier. It wouldn’t be impossible to retrieve the ladder, but the rocks that had fallen onto it were taller and bigger around than Touya himself, so it would have taken the party a considerable amount of time to shift them.

“So what next, Haruka?” Touya asked. “Do you want me to use the longest rope we have on us and climb down after them?”

“Well...”

Haruka looked back and forth between the cliff and the somber expression on Touya’s face. Finally, she shook her head.

“I don’t think you should attempt that without Nao’s help,” said Haruka. “I know you’re equally capable of scouting out foes, but there are still the flying needlefish to deal with, and we might encounter new monsters as well. It’s all too risky.”

“Gotcha,” said Touya. “By the way, I’m kinda surprised by how calm you are.”

“I have to be calm in order to fulfill the role I took on voluntarily.” Haruka gently touched her left ring finger. “If I were to collapse right now, I couldn’t face Nao later.”

Still, she wasn’t able to conceal her true feelings perfectly: Her hands were trembling.

“Personally, I think a little panicking might do you some good,” said Yuki. “But anyhow, you said you’re pretty sure Nao had a good reason for doing what he did?”

“I am. I’m sure you’ve observed it yourself from time to time—after Nao and I learned what this floor would be like, both of us invested considerable time in practicing the spell Airwalk,” said Haruka. “Neither of us has mastered it yet, but we can slow our speed of descent while falling. The only trouble is that I’m more proficient than Nao is. I’m the one who should have jumped after Natsuki. Ugh...”

“It’s not your fault,” said Yuki. “Nao just happened to be in a better position. And besides, if we have to split our party into two groups, it’s better not to have you and Natsuki in the same group, so I think Nao made the right decision.”

“Yeah, I agree,” said Touya. “This way, we’ve got people with Time Magic and Light Magic in both groups. It could be worse. I’m sure they can teleport back in no time if Nao’s still alive.”

The two youngest members of the party immediately interjected.

“That’s really mean, big bro Touya!”

“Why did you have to say something like that, Touya-san?!”

“O-Oh, uh...”

The sisters even went so far as to express their anger with their fists. Although they were still children, their punches were powerful, and Touya’s chain mail wasn’t very resistant to blunt force, so he covered his chest and groaned in pain.

“Mary, Metea, please calm down,” said Haruka. “I’m sure Touya didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” She shot Touya a glance. “Right, Touya?”

Touya swiftly nodded.

“Gosh, you really picked the wrong time for that kind of chatter, Touya,” said Yuki. “But yeah, you’re right—they should be able to teleport back. They might go back to the entrance of the twenty-first floor, but still, I think it would be a good idea to bury a teleportation marker here.”

“Mm. Let’s do that and wait here for a bit,” said Haruka.

“I guess I’ll go and dig the rope ladder out from under those boulders,” said Touya. “I hope it didn’t get completely crushed.”

“We’ll have to examine it,” said Haruka. “Of course, it’s made of wire, but even so, I’m not sure whether it can withstand that kind of damage.”

“Can you handle all those rocks, Touya?” Yuki asked. “It would be easier if I did it with magic, but...”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. You need to save your mana wherever you can. But the biggest chunks are gonna be a pain in the ass to break up, so I may need your help.”

“Okay,” said Yuki.

“I’ll help too!” Metea declared.

“Please let me help as well,” said Mary.

“Thanks,” said Touya. “All right. Let’s take it slow and steady so we don’t get our hands stuck.”

The largest rocks were a meter in width and two meters in height, but most were small enough for the three to carry in their arms. Still, if the person carrying them were to trip or drop them, they were large enough to break bones.

Touya contemplated the pile of rocks, trying to decide where to start. Before he arrived at a decision, Haruka interrupted him.

“Just don’t throw any rocks over the cliff.”

“Oh, right, duh... Yeah, I know—I would never think of doing something like that.”

In actuality, the idea had obviously crossed Touya’s mind, but Haruka didn’t bother pointing that out. Instead, she folded her arms and stared silently into the chasm. Touya and Yuki exchanged a glance, shrugged, and set to work shifting the rocks toward the plank trail. Mary and Metea helped. In the end, Touya was able to split the largest rock into several smaller pieces by kicking it, so they were able to conserve Yuki’s mana and retrieve the rope ladder, but...

“This doesn’t look super usable to me,” said Touya.

“Yeah, climbing down it might be risky,” said Yuki.

None of the wires on either side of the ladder had broken, but some of the rungs were severely bent, so it was clearly unsafe for use in the dungeon.

“Well, let’s take it back with us and get it repaired before we—”

Touya and Yuki were still inspecting the ladder when Haruka suddenly put a finger to her lips and hushed them. “Shh!”

The sound of a whistle pierced the air.

“Yes!” Haruka exclaimed.

“Two times! That’s the signal that they’re safe!” Yuki breathed a sigh of relief.

The tense look on Haruka’s face relaxed a bit. “Those whistles ended up being useful after all.”

“Yeah,” said Touya. “When Nao came up with that idea, I didn’t think we’d ever use them. Guess I was wrong.”

In addition to their highest-capacity magic bags, the members of Meikyo Shisui each carried around an additional lower-capacity bag, too small to hinder their movements during combat, on their belts. Nao had come up with the idea of storing whistles in these bags after Mary and Metea had gone missing at the viscount’s mansion. The whistles enabled them to communicate over a distance if they were ever separated. It was a somewhat primitive solution, but none of the mages in the party had the ability to transfer messages magically, so whistles were an adequate substitute; their sound could travel a few kilometers in an open environment. Just as importantly, other noises didn’t block the shrill sound of the whistles, as witnessed by the fact that Haruka had heard one over a great distance despite the roar of the waterfall.

Meikyo Shisui had also devised a series of signals. Three whistles was an SOS, while two meant that the person who’d signaled was safe. They had also agreed upon a few other signals that employed long and short sounds similar to Morse code, but Haruka was the only one who had committed them to memory—even Natsuki and Yuki had to consult a chart in order to decode them—so they weren’t particularly useful.

“Yay! They’re okay!” Metea exclaimed.

“Yeah!” said Mary. “Oh, right, we need to respond!”

“Mm, of course! Will you do the honors, Touya?” Haruka asked.

“Sure.” Touya took out his whistle and looked at Haruka for confirmation. “Two times, right?”

“Yeah,” Haruka replied with a nod.

“Okay. Here goes.”

Touya took a deep breath and gave his whistle two blows.

“Whew. If they heard that, all we need to do is wait here until they get back,” said Touya.

“Yeah! If they’re in whistle range, they can’t be that far away,” said Yuki. “Nao can teleport them back no problem!”

Haruka breathed a sigh of relief at Yuki’s confident words. However...

★★★★★★★★★

“Why aren’t they back yet, Yuki?!”

“Uh, yeah, I know what I said, but it’s not my fault, Haruka.”

Initially, Haruka had been optimistic about Nao and Natsuki returning soon, but after two minutes passed, she began kicking her heels restlessly, and by the five-minute mark, she had lost her patience completely.

“I’m just confused,” said Haruka. “Does Nao not have enough mana to teleport back?”

“Oh yeah, that’s one possibility,” said Yuki. “You said before that neither of you have mastered Airwalk yet, right? So using it might have eaten up most of Nao’s mana...”

Casting a spell without having mastered it would put a mage at risk of expending excess mana and being rendered immobile. The mages of Meikyo Shisui were all too familiar with this phenomenon. Now that Yuki had reminded her of it, Haruka asked, “If that’s the case, is it possible that they won’t reunite with us for a while...?”

“They blew on the whistle two times, Haruka-san,” said Mary. “I don’t think we need to worry too much about them.”

“I’m sure big bro Nao and big sis Natsuki are fine!” Metea put in. “They’re different from big bro Touya!”

“...Yeah, I suppose you two are probably right,” said Haruka.

But whereas the sisters’ admonition had helped Haruka to calm down, Touya appeared shocked.

“Man, does nobody here believe in me? Do you all just think I’m some kind of oaf?!”

“I mean, the whole reason we think they’re probably fine is magic,” said Yuki. “Right, Metea?”

“Huh? O-Oh, yeah, of course!”

Metea hurriedly nodded. Young though she was, she was adept at reading the room when she had to. Unfortunately, however, Yuki’s excuse failed to convince Touya.

“Nah, that’s obviously not what you meant! Like, sure, Nao and Natsuki together have better odds than I would have, but still.”

But in spite of his sulking, Touya was well aware that Nao and Natsuki were, indeed, better equipped for this challenge than he would have been, including in terms of their ability to assess an emergency situation calmly, so he dropped the matter and looked up at the cliff overhead.

“Now that I think about it, they could have teleported back to the entrance of the twentieth floor—we talked earlier about going back after one more climb. Maybe we should go check there.”

“Good point,” said Haruka. “Is that within your capabilities, Yuki?”

Though Haruka had phrased it as a question, it was clear from the way she was staring at Yuki that she would only accept an affirmative answer. Yuki had no choice but to nod and say, “Y-Yeah, of course! I don’t have much mana left, but I’ll give it my best shot!”

Everyone gathered around Yuki, and she closed her eyes to focus. However...

“...Huh?”

Yuki quickly opened her eyes again and tilted her head nervously. Haruka, too, began to feel uneasy when she saw Yuki’s reaction.

“What’s wrong, Yuki?”

“Oh, um, it seems like I actually can’t teleport...”

A dry laugh escaped her lips. She seemed genuinely baffled.

“What do you mean you can’t teleport?” Haruka demanded. “Surely you have adequate mana?”

“Yeah, no, that’s not the problem. It just feels different. Like, I can sense the teleportation marker, but I can’t reach it for some reason. I’m not really sure how to describe it. Maybe it’s a lack of mana, but...”

“Give me a clear answer,” Haruka snapped.

Ordinarily, Haruka was good at keeping her feelings under control, but due to the situation at hand, she was letting signs of frustration slip out. Yuki paused to think things through before elaborating.

“Uh, well, for example, if normal teleportation is like moving around with no wind, then right now, it feels like there’s a headwind—like, twenty meters of headwind. I think I can overcome it if I use a ton of mana, but it’ll be close.”

“Oh, is it kind of like being on the receiving end of a signal jamming attack?” Touya asked.

“Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. I can probably get us back to that ledge up there no problem, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to go back to one of the markers what with everything happening. Even if I’m just a little bit off, I could send all of us off a cliff or something.”

The rock ledges were wide enough, but the plank trails were quite narrow; no single section was wider than two meters. If Meikyo Shisui teleported to the wrong spot, at least one person was sure to fall.

“Ugh. Damn it. I never thought we’d end up in a situation that we couldn’t just teleport out of,” said Touya. “We can’t climb back up either, what with the rockslide. What’s the plan, Haruka?”

“What?”

“C’mon, snap out of it,” said Touya. “You’re supposed to be the practical one, right?”

Haruka had an uneasy expression. Her eyes were wandering. “Yes, I’m well aware of that. However...”

The sisters seemed very surprised by her indecisive response.

“Whoa, I’ve almost never seen big sis Haruka act like this before,” said Metea.

“Mm. She’s usually calm and composed at all times,” said Mary.

“Oh, uh, yeah, Haruka is actually kind of dependent on Nao when it comes to emotional stability,” said Touya.

“Natsuki’s not around, so we’re missing the other calm person too,” Yuki pointed out.

“Yeah, me and Yuki are comic relief characters, so we’re not much help,” said Touya.

“Exactly, so— Hang on, who are you calling comic relief?!”

Haruka’s expression softened a little as she observed the sketch Yuki and Touya were acting out.

“I need to pull myself together and consider our next course of action.” Haruka spent a moment in thought. “I believe it would be best for us to head back before the others.”

“Really? We’re not going to look for big bro Nao and big sis Natsuki?” Metea asked, looking surprised.

“Our original plan was to head back after one more descent, so even if nothing had happened, we wouldn’t have made much more progress,” said Haruka. “And now we’re down two members, so we have even more reasons to turn back.”

“Yeah, it’s the only practical thing to do at this point,” said Touya.

Touya had avoided saying outright that they needed to consider Nao and Natsuki’s safety, but Haruka pressed her lips together and took a deep breath in an effort to stay calm.

“Luckily, Nao and Natsuki were both carrying their magic bags, so they have adequate food,” said Haruka. “They can protect themselves from or simply avoid monsters using Time Magic and Scout, and Natsuki has healing magic, so they won’t have to worry about injuries. It might be best for us to return home in order to return and search for them later.”

Everyone understood that there was an element of wishful thinking in Haruka’s works, but no one spoke up to say so.

“We’ll just have to hope they can fend for themselves for a while,” said Touya. “We’re in a bit of a predicament here ourselves. So, what’s the plan, Haruka? Should we try and climb around the section that collapsed, or should we teleport out of here?”

“I believe that climbing back up would be the better option, but do you think we can pull it off, Touya?”

Touya nodded, then took a look around and grimaced.

“I mean, I’ll give it a shot if that’s what you want me to do, but it’s getting pretty dark already.”

“We could cast Light, but that would also make it easier for monsters to spot us,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. And we might run into some monsters that only come out after dark,” said Yuki.

It would have been far too dangerous to climb the rock wall that had collapsed in the dark, and Yuki was correct that unfamiliar types of monsters might attack them. Haruka understood all of this, so she immediately nodded and raised another possibility.

“In that case, we have no alternative but to camp here tonight. I’m not sure whether this is a blessing in disguise, but I do have the pop-up tent in my magic bag.”

The pop-up tent would allow Meikyo Shisui to rest without worrying about environmental factors such as wind, temperature, and humidity. One thing it could not block out was noise, and lookout duty would be exhausting for whomever had to keep watch in the wind and spray, but it would still make a huge difference.

“I doubt it will be of much practical use, but could you create some embankments with Earth Magic, Yuki?” Haruka asked. “That way we could block some of the wind.”

“No prob! I’ll just use the rocks that fell earlier.”

“Go help Yuki with that, Touya,” said Haruka. “And Mary, please work on starting a campfire while I work with Metea to set up the tent.”

“Okay!” the sisters replied in unison.

Now that Haruka had sufficiently recovered to dish out instructions, the others were relieved, and everyone worked together to set up camp.

“Move those rocks over here, Touya,” said Yuki. “Put ’em right here on this line.”

“Roger. Here goes!”

Walls created with the Earth Wall spell gradually crumbled, but earth shaped by the spell Ground Control retained its form longer. Each spell had its own advantages. The former could be used to create walls instantaneously, but maintaining them consumed a great deal of mana, so it wasn’t suitable for the situation at hand. To conserve mana, Yuki used Ground Control to merge the rocks that Touya had lined up for her.

Meanwhile, Mary was taking firewood out of her magic bag. “Um, can you help me start a fire, Haruka-san?” she asked.

“Oh, right. Ignite.”

Thanks to their aptitude at magic, the Meikyo Shisui party finished their preparations in no time, and all of them sat around the campfire.

“Dang, this is so relaxing somehow,” said Yuki.

“Eating a little might improve our spirits as well,” said Haruka. “We may as well grill some flying needlefish while we’re here.”

“...Are you sure, big sis Haruka?”

Metea was more hesitant than usual given their situation, but her growling stomach betrayed her true feelings, as did the way her ears waggled in happiness at Haruka’s suggestion.

“Yes, of course,” Haruka said with a giggle. “We can’t just go to sleep on empty stomachs, after all. Give me a hand, Yuki.”

“Sure thing... I bet a grill would be better than skewers for these.”

Yuki arranged several stones in a square, then transferred some charcoal from the campfire and placed a grill over it. After gutting, washing, and salting the needlefish, she laid them on the grill.

“On a closer inspection, they definitely resemble ordinary flying fish, just slightly longer,” said Haruka.

“Yeah... Oh, have you actually cooked flying fish before, Haruka?” Yuki asked.

“Mm. I was able to find them in supermarkets from time to time,” Haruka replied. “They weren’t common by any means, of course.”

The most common types of fish sold in Japanese supermarkets were horse mackerel and Pacific saury, but the supermarket that Haruka frequented also offered rarities like flying fish and Japanese amberjack periodically, so Haruka, as the kind of high school girl who sometimes cooked for herself, had bought and filleted them before. From her perspective, the flying needlefish seemed to be a bit firmer than true flying fish, but the difference was so slight that the average layperson wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

“They seem kinda like bluefish,” said Yuki.

“Well, they came flying out of the waterfall, but based on the experience of filleting them, I’m inclined to agree,” said Haruka.

Haruka and Yuki tilted their heads in parallel as they watched the fish slowly brown. The bluefish they had in mind couldn’t ordinarily be found in freshwater.

“These fishes look delicious!” said Metea.

“Mm. They smell very good,” Mary added.

“And they look pretty fatty,” said Touya. “I bet they’re gonna taste good, and I bet they’re gonna be completely different from the freshwater fish we’ve been eating too.”

“Anything is acceptable to me as long as it tastes good,” said Haruka. “All right, they should be more or less ready by now. Let’s dig in.”

The skin of the flying needlefish had turned crispy. Having been cooked over a smoking charcoal grill, all of them were dripping fat. Although they’d been seasoned only with salt, they smelled wonderfully appetizing. Touya, Mary, and Metea held out their plates as if they couldn’t wait any longer, and Haruka laughed as she gave each of them one grilled needlefish.

“Thanks!” Metea said. “Wh-Whoa, this is so good!”

“I-I didn’t expect it to taste this good,” said Mary.

Meanwhile, Touya’s assessment was “Damn, this is pretty interesting!”

The beastfolk members of Meikyo Shisui devoured their fish whole, with total disregard even for the spines, but Haruka and Yuki were obliged to pick the bones out using their chopsticks, and so they enjoyed their fish more slowly.

“They taste a bit fishy, so they are kinda like bluefish in that way,” said Yuki.

“They certainly taste fishier than whitefish,” said Haruka.

In contrast to the two girls’ measured assessment, Metea and Touya, who had already consumed their entire fish, had simpler opinions.

“Really? Doesn’t bother me,” said Touya.

“The fish we usually eat is good, but this is delicious too!” said Metea.

Meanwhile, the tail of Mary’s needlefish was still sticking out of her mouth, but she nodded in agreement.

“I think this tastes good too, but I think I’d rather have it dried,” said Yuki. “Like, a whole dried fish. Since there’s stuff like flying fish broth, you can probably get rid of the fishy smell that way.”

“I’ve never had dried flying fish before,” said Haruka. “I’m not sure if we’ll be able to dry these properly.”

“I’ve seen on TV how to dry a whole Pacific saury,” said Yuki. “I bet it won’t be that hard.”

“Can you really dry a Pacific saury whole?” Haruka asked.

“Yeah, you totally can,” Yuki replied. “They didn’t even gut them before they did it—apparently you’re supposed to cook and eat ’em whole.”

Flying fish had to be grilled before you could dry them and use them to make broth. In contrast, sardines had to be simmered before they were dried, and fish like horse mackerel had to be filleted and soaked in saltwater. The important parts of these processes tended to be cut out of television shows, so it was best to avoid copying them blindly. Unfortunately for the rest of Meikyo Shisui, Natsuki wasn’t present to point this out.

“I believe fish normally rot if you don’t start by removing their organs, but in any case, we can discuss this at another time,” said Haruka. “For now, let’s have some soup and onigiri.”

“I want another flying needlefish!” Touya exclaimed.

“Me too!” said Metea.

“I-I’d like one more as well,” said Mary.

“Sure, of course,” said Haruka. “And you, Yuki?”

“Nah, I think I’ve had enough,” said Yuki. “Just hit me with an onigiri and some soup.”

“I think I’ll have the same,” said Haruka.

She lined up some onigiri on the grill, then cleaned three extra needlefish while Yuki handed everyone bowls of soup and painted the onigiri with the inspiel sauce they’d made as a soy sauce substitute. Soon, a delicious fragrance filled the air.

“The onigiri smells really good,” said Mary.

“Oh, have we never served you grilled onigiri before, Mary?” asked Yuki. “Well, now you know how irresistible they smell!”

“Onigiri are very convenient,” said Haruka. “You can eat them as is, but I also appreciate how easy it is to cook them.”

“Nice distraction too,” said Yuki.

“Anyway, glad you’ve calmed down, Haruka,” Touya chimed in with a grin. “Good food really helped your mood.”

Haruka laughed, then began distributing the needlefish, which had finished cooking.

“Nao has Natsuki with him, so we don’t have to worry about them going hungry,” said Haruka.

“Yeah. I wish we knew what kind of situation they’re in right now, though,” said Touya. “Haruka, can’t you just use your long elf ears to reach Nao?”

“Please, they aren’t antennae,” said Haruka. “We could use the whistles to remain in contact, but that would be a waste of time. More importantly, it might attract new foes.”

“We didn’t hear any more whistles after the first two, so that probably means nothing bad has happened to them, right?” Yuki asked.

“I would assume so,” Haruka replied. “We’ll all just have to fend for ourselves.”

Although they hadn’t imagined it would actually prove necessary, Meikyo Shisui had discussed what to do in the event that the party was split or one member got lost. The five members seated around the campfire felt secure in the knowledge that Nao and Natsuki weren’t in immediate danger of being killed, and they had agreed beforehand that if their party was ever split in two, each group would do its best to survive. Back on Earth, rescue operations had to be carried out within forty-eight to seventy-two hours of a disaster, but that didn’t apply to Nao and Natsuki; both had magic bags, so they would survive as long as they could remain mobile.

“Honestly, I bet the two of them could survive a whole year on their own if they had to,” said Touya.

Touya was correct that it was difficult to imagine Nao and Natsuki quickly succumbing to the elements, but Haruka pouted at his assessment.

“I have no intention of taking that long to rescue them.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just trying to say there’s no need to hurry or panic,” said Touya. “Let’s be cautious here. We can even afford to spend some time leveling up our skills if we have to.”

“I suppose you’re right,” said Haruka. “For now, our main priority is simply to return home safely. If we can’t manage that, we won’t be able to help Nao and Natsuki regardless of how badly they need it. Also, I’m sorry, but can you handle the first shift on lookout duty, Touya?”

“Sure, I don’t mind. Will you take the one after that, though?”

“I will. I think it would be best to let Yuki get as much rest as she can in order to recover her mana.”

“Appreciate it,” said Yuki, sounding awkward about it. “I really don’t have much gas left in the tank.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Touya. He grinned and flashed her a thumbs up. “I’m supposed to be the dude who does anything that takes stamina!”

★★★★★★★★★

It was the dead of night when Touya suddenly called, “We’re under attack!”

Haruka was the first to respond. “Yuki, cast Isolation Field!” she commanded.

“H-Huh? O-Okay! Isolation Field!”

Yuki was still half asleep, but she somehow managed to cast the spell properly. A barrier enveloped the pop-up tent, and soon, it shuddered with the sound of something ramming into a hard surface.

“Let’s go!” Haruka shouted.

“O-Okay!” said Yuki.

“Okay!” the sisters exclaimed in unison.

The four girls hastily grabbed their weapons and leaped out of the pop-up tent. The first thing they encountered was Touya. He was facing the waterfall with a serious expression, holding his weapon at the ready. Soon, however, he breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed.

“Guess it’s over already,” said Touya. “I can’t detect any more hostiles.”

“I see,” said Haruka. “What exactly happened?”

“If you wanna know the answer, look over there,” said Touya, pointing at a spot in the dungeon floor where a few flying needlefish were wriggling around, apparently after they’d bounced off of the barriers that Yuki had erected. “Go check out the other walls too.”

Metea went around the side of the tent. “Oh, there’s a lot of fishes stuck here too!” she declared happily.

“Whoa, you’re right,” said Yuki, who’d tagged along with Metea. “I count over twenty, easy...” She sounded more startled than pleased, however.

“It seems like we would have been in big trouble if Touya-san couldn’t detect them,” said Mary.

“Haruka deserves a lot of the credit for reacting so fast too,” said Touya. “How’d you manage to figure out the perfect response, Haruka?”

“I was sleeping lightly,” said Haruka. “Yuki also deserves some credit for following my instructions so promptly.”

“Gotcha,” said Touya. “Well, anyway, I’m glad we managed to save that expensive-ass tent.”

It went without saying why Haruka hadn’t been able to sleep, but rather than point that out, Touya glanced at Yuki.

“Check it out—those walls you made helped a ton.”

“Yeah. I just made them to shield us from the wind. I didn’t expect them to be this useful!”

Isolation Field had completely enveloped the tent, but Touya had been standing outside the spell’s area of effect. Although he’d been able to detect the oncoming shoal of twenty needlefish in advance, it had been much more dangerous in the dark. Had he not been able to take cover behind the walls, he would have been in much greater peril.

“I don’t think I would have died, but no question in my mind I could have gotten really badly injured,” he said.

“I’m surprised that we were attacked in the middle of the night,” said Haruka. “I suppose it wouldn’t be unusual for normal monsters...”

“It’s a pretty nasty trick, huh?” said Yuki. “We assumed the plank trails and ledges would be safe ’cause of how things were during the day.”

“Mm. I don’t think we were inexcusably careless, but we were ambushed while totally exhausted,” said Haruka.

The dungeon had essentially lulled Meikyo Shisui into believing that the flying needlefish would only attack them while they were climbing the rock walls. In that way, it had caught them off guard during the night.

Moreover, unlike the arrowhead eagles, which were audible when they flapped their wings, needlefish flew in nearly complete silence apart from a faint whistling sound. Their slender bodies and muted colors also made them difficult to spot in the darkness.

“...Perhaps we should illuminate our surroundings just as a precaution,” said Haruka. She leaped out of the tent and swiftly cast Light.

Metea picked up one of the needlefish and held it under the light. “They’re shiny!”

Though they weren’t exceptionally lustrous, the needlefish—much like bluefish, which were known as somewhat shiny—did have a certain sparkle that would make them easier to identify in the dark.

“I’ll create a few more sources of light farther away from our tent in the direction of the waterfall,” said Haruka. “Luckily for us, the fish seem to come from the same direction every time, so they should be easy enough to predict.”

“I just hope we don’t get baited again,” said Touya. “Like, it would suck if they came at us from the opposite direction next time.”

Touya sounded like he was just joking around, but Haruka just grimaced. “Enough, please. Don’t jinx us.”

“Nah, there’s no way something like that would happen,” said Yuki. “Needlefish coming at us out of the waterfall is one thing, but there’s nothing except sky in the other direction! It’s not like they just spawn in midair!” Yuki began laughing, but then she suddenly interrupted herself with a serious look on her face. “Wait a second... Now that I think about it, we are in a dungeon right now, so...”

“I find it hard to imagine that the dungeon would be that merciless against adventurers,” said Haruka. “If that were the case, then we’d have to stay constantly alert to the possibility of monsters like lava boars materializing right on top of us.”

“Yeah, we’d be crushed instantly,” said Touya.

A lava boar weighed several tons. Meikyo Shisui had leveled up several times since their first encounter with a lava boar, but if one were to fall on them from overhead, it would be physically impossible for them to get out from under it.

“Even if a shoal of needlefish attacks us from the opposite direction, I’m sure we’ll be all right as long as we have the walls for cover,” said Haruka. “At any rate, this seems like a good time to change guard. I’ll take over from here, Touya. Tomorrow will be a rough day as well, so get some rest while you can.”

“Really? Guess I’ll take you up on that. I am actually pretty beat.”

Touya yawned as he entered the pop-up tent. After everything he’d been through, it was only natural that he would be tired.

“Everyone else should go back to sleep as well,” said Haruka.

Metea raised her hand. “Wait, lemme stay up with you—”

Mary put her sister’s hand down and steered her toward the tent. “No, Met. You need to sleep, so let me take care of this instead.”

“But...” Metea looked back at Haruka as Mary pushed her toward the tent.

“We’ll need people with enough stamina for lookout duty tomorrow as well, Metea, so for now, you should get some rest,” Haruka admonished her gently.

Metea’s tail drooped slightly. “’Kay. I’ll sleep for now.”

“Try to fall asleep as quickly as you can, all of you,” said Haruka. “Especially you, Yuki. You’ve just used even more magic, so you need deep sleep to recover mana.”

“Yeah, I know. See you later.”

“Good night,” said Metea.

“Good night,” said Haruka.

Touya had already fallen asleep, and Yuki let Metea into the tent. Haruka added a few extra pieces of wood to the campfire, and then she and Mary leaned against one of the walls Yuki had created and quietly watched the flickering flame.

★★★★★★★★★

The next morning was unexpectedly peaceful. Nighttime ended when the sun rose. Of course, that would have been perfectly normal in the outside world, but deep in the bowels of the dungeon, Haruka watched their surroundings brighten with a subtle unease.

“I remained vigilant the entire time, but nothing happened,” said Haruka.

She seemed unhappy about having worked so hard for nothing. Mary laughed and asked, “Isn’t that a good thing, Haruka-san? Safety is the most important thing, isn’t it?”

“It is, but I imagine you’re a bit disappointed as well,” Haruka said with a playful smile on her face. “After all, we weren’t able to catch any more fish.”

Mary blushed and stuttered, “O-Oh, I-I mean, it’s true that the flying needlefish yesterday were very good, but I’m not the kind of person who only thinks about food!”

Still, she continued giving Haruka furtive glances, as if she couldn’t resist the taste of needlefish, and at last she asked, “Could we have some for breakfast too?”

Haruka almost burst into laughter but somehow managed to hold herself together and say, “S-Sure, of course. Would you like me to grill some again?”

Mary nodded cheerily. “Yeah, that would be great!”

Soon after the two began grilling fish, Touya popped out of the tent, and Metea appeared alongside him. A few minutes later, Yuki, yawning heavily, crawled outside to join them.

“Morning,” said Yuki.

“Good morning, Yuki,” said Haruka. “What’s the current state of your mana reserves?”

“Uhhh...” Yuki folded her arms and cocked her head as if attempting to measure it. “Better-ish.”

“I see. I’m glad to hear that,” said Haruka. “We’re going to need you to work very hard today.”

“Oh, I guess I really don’t have any other choice.”

“Mm. After what happened last night, I won’t feel safe unless you have Isolation Field at the ready constantly,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Though Yuki’s shoulders slumped, she nodded and seemed to resign herself to her fate.

Although it was possible to rappel down a rock wall quickly, climbing up was much slower. The members of Meikyo Shisui were now aware that the walls could collapse on them at any minute, and they’d suffered a monster attack in the dead of night, so they planned to take great care in selecting the spot for their next ascent. Under the circumstances, Yuki was the only person who could be counted on to lead the way, so she would ascend to a ledge and let down a rope ladder for the others.

“Hurry up, big sis Yuki!” Metea hollered. “The fish is almost ready!”

Metea pulled on Yuki’s arm excitedly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

“The rice is ready too,” said Mary.

Yuki followed Metea to the bonfire. Mary more or less forced a plate of breakfast into Yuki’s hands the moment she sat down. Tempted by the delicious smell of the fish and urged on by the ever-energetic sisters, the others began to eat.

★★★★★★★★★

Yuki stayed on high alert as Meikyo Shisui ascended through the dungeon. Luckily for them, they suffered no further attacks from arrowhead eagles or flying needlefish. This lent some credibility to their theory that the sections where they’d been attacked previously would remain safe for a certain interval of time, but they had no means of estimating exactly how long that interval would be, and they’d been attacked down on the ledge the previous night. For that reason, it would have been far too dangerous for them to ascend without Yuki’s Isolation Field, and they took great care in securing their footholds. By the time they made it to the rock ledge directly overhead, Yuki had exhausted almost her entire reserves of mana, and everyone had to take a breather before progressing farther.

Yuki could recover her mana in half a day, but she was still a normal human and couldn’t be active all day and night. Thus, Meikyo Shisui could make only two ascents per day without taking unacceptable risks. Before beginning their journey upward toward the twentieth floor, they had descended six times, so along the way back up, they had to spend two more nights camping out. They were once again attacked in the dead of night, but Haruka used her own mana to create defensive walls, and the flying needlefish that had attacked them ended up inside of Metea’s tummy during the next morning’s breakfast. On the third day, the five members of Meikyo Shisui finally made it to the staircase that led to the twentieth floor of the dungeon.

★★★★★★★★★

“We made it,” said Touya, “finally.”

“The rock spiders that respawned along the way were more difficult to contend with than I anticipated,” said Haruka.

Over the last year, every member of Meikyo Shisui apart from Nao had learned the Scout skill. Touya had leveled his Scout skill up to Level 3, but that was still low compared to Nao’s. Everyone had learned to detect rock spiders to a certain extent after slaying a couple on the twenty-first floor, but the monsters still caught them by surprise much of the time; it wasn’t always easy to distinguish the spiders from the rock walls before they pounced.

“I wonder if it might be a good idea for all of us to try harder to level up our Scout skills,” said Yuki.

“You got yours via Copy, didn’t you, Yuki? What’s your current level?” Haruka asked.

“...Level 2.”

“That’s not high, but it’s also not low enough that I can accuse you of slacking off,” said Haruka. “It’s kind of an awkward level.”

Copy made it relatively easy for Yuki to learn new skills, but she still had to work hard to level them up beyond Level 1. So far, she had mostly been relying on Nao and Touya to detect enemies, but the fact that she’d still managed to get her Scout skill to Level 2 was a testament to the fact that she was working hard.

“Awkward, huh? What about you then, Haruka?”

“Me? My Scout skill is Level 1.”

“Huh?! So it’s lower than mine!”

“But is that really a fair comparison when you have the Copy skill, Yuki? I had to learn Scout through my own hard work. Besides,” she continued with a completely straight face, “if I leveled it up too much, Nao would lose one of his special roles, so I’ve simply decided to spend my time on more important matters.”

“Uh-huh...” Yuki muttered to herself. She didn’t sound entirely convinced.

Objectively speaking, Haruka’s words were nothing but an excuse. Still, given her own reliance on the Copy skill, Yuki could hardly object.

It was true that learning Scout had been more difficult for Haruka than for Yuki and Touya, although Touya, as a beastman, also had a sharp sixth sense. However, even Natsuki had long since acquired the Scout skill, so it wasn’t prohibitively difficult for any adventurer who worked diligently at it.

“Mary, Metea, both of you have learned the Scout skill by now as well, haven’t you?” Haruka asked.

“Um, yes, that’s right,” Mary replied.

“And both of you were able to learn it within a short period of time,” said Haruka. “I wonder if it’s because you’re both beastgirls.”

“That’s probably one factor, but Kaho didn’t have the Scout skill, so there’s gotta be more to it,” said Yuki.

Haruka cocked her head as she watched the sisters. “Hmm. It must be the result of hard work, then.”

Metea puffed her chest out. “That’s right, I worked very hard! I’m going to turn into a strong adventurer and make a lot of money!”

Hard work was one of the primary reasons that Mary and Metea had been able to learn the Scout skill so rapidly, but their environment had also served as a catalyst. They had experienced battles in areas that they wouldn’t have been able to reach on their own, and they were around Nao, who had a high-level Scout skill, almost constantly. In contrast, Kaho was hardly even aware of the existence of the Scout skill.

“Yes, of course,” Haruka said with a giggle. “I suppose the rest of us should work harder. We’ve allowed everyone to focus on training the skills that they’re best at, but we may need a better strategy to prepare for situations in which we’re split up like this.”

“It’s hard to say what would be best,” said Yuki. “Unlike in video games, we don’t have infinite time. We’ll eventually get old, so we definitely need to think about how to use our time efficiently.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t something that we should discuss here,” said Touya. “Let’s head back to the twentieth floor.”

“Indeed. We can resume this discussion at a later time,” said Haruka.

At Touya’s eminently reasonable suggestion, Meikyo Shisui began ascending the stairs. Haruka walked at the very rear of the group of five. After placing a foot on the first step, she paused and turned back to stare into the deep gorge. Shrouded in mist, it appeared bottomless.

“Natsuki, Nao, we’ll be back as soon as we can. You won’t have to wait long.”

Haruka turned forward again and swiftly climbed the stairs as if forcing herself to move on for the time being.

Side Story—Part Five of Sai’s Adventures: The Beginning of a New Journey

Most guys my age could probably agree on the top three things we’d want if we ever got transported to another world. Number three was a slow, easygoing life with no challenges thanks to some convenient powers a god bestowed on you. Middle-aged men—or younger guys who were loners—would probably put that at number one. For the average high school boy who wanted a life of adventure and excitement, it would be more like number three.

Number two was becoming so overpowered that you got a lot of special treatment and attention without really having to work for it. In isekai stories, there were some protagonists who put in a little bit of effort, but they were so few and far between you could basically ignore them. Back on Earth, that kind of success was probably the number one dream of guys who had basically nothing going for them and had never put much effort into anything—the kind of guys who were mentally trapped in middle school forever. Personally, that whole idea had always seemed unrealistic to me.

Beautiful girls were number one. There was no question in my mind that most guys my age, even if they’d never been able to talk to a girl in real life, had fantasized at least once about going on adventures with a beautiful maiden. Obviously, that was completely delusional—there was no way a girl like that would be attracted to a broke wimp. But as it so happened, I knew one guy who’d made this dream a reality through sheer luck: me!

I’d messed up with my initial choice of skills, and the knowledge I brought with me from my old life hadn’t turned out to be much of an advantage either. On top of all that, I’d ended up in a party full of muscular dudes on their way to Ivalia, then gotten caught in a pitfall trap. But all of my bad luck had been worth it, because now I’d been blessed with a stroke of luck so good that it was like a bright star shining in the darkness of the dungeon. I mean, yeah, technically speaking, meeting Adonix-san’s party was a stroke of luck too, but I’m going to ignore that for now...

After all the setbacks I’d experienced since I started my new life in this world, I’d finally made friends with a beautiful girl named Estelle. Now we’d formed an adventuring party together, and slowly but surely, we were getting to know each other. I won! From here on out, it’s gonna be a cakewalk...! Wait, didn’t I think the same thing right after I arrived in this world? And then it all blew up in my face. But this time, I know it’ll be different! I just know it. Yeah.

“What’s the matter, Sai?” Estelle asked, staring at me in confusion. “What’s with that weird smile?”

I quickly brushed her question aside. “O-Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Yep.”

Currently, Estelle and I were standing at the entrance to the dungeon. I’d been lost in thought, savoring my good luck and reflecting on my journey up to this point.

Now I pointed ahead. “More importantly, let’s hurry up and enter the dungeon. Can’t waste any time, right?”

A guy claiming to be Estelle’s fiancé had suddenly shown up in Ivalia about a week ago. With the help of Elvira-san, we had convinced him to bet Estelle’s hand in marriage and her family heirloom on the results of a contest of strength. The winner would be whoever got past the twentieth floor of the dungeon first. Estelle and I had a slight advantage thanks to the support of the Adventurers’ Guild, but there weren’t that many adventurers out there who could make it to the twentieth floor. Usually, getting that far took you anywhere from a few months to a few years. Not knowing exactly how strong Broze’s second was, we had no way of estimating how much time we had left.

“I suppose that’s true, but don’t let your guard down,” said Estelle. “The first few floors are relatively safe, but anything can happen inside a dungeon. We’ve already learned this lesson the hard way, haven’t we?”

“O-Oh, yeah, absolutely.”

It hadn’t been that long since the pitfall trap on the fifth floor of this very dungeon had caught both of us off guard. Of course, that was the whole reason I’d gotten to be friends with Estelle, but regardless, I had to watch out for stuff like traps. A trap that sent you from the fifth to the eighteenth floor of a dungeon would be instant doom for most adventurers.

“You know, there might be traps that only react to you or me.” Estelle was walking ahead of me, but she turned around with a playful smile. “You do seem to be quite lucky.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, so I just said, “Come on, don’t jinx me!”

In terms of my skill build, I was supposed to have luck with money, but depending on the situation, this could either be an advantage or a massive disadvantage, which was scary to think about.

Estelle giggled. “Well, in any case, it’s important to keep in mind that we need to proceed with caution.”

“Yeah, good point. So, what’s our next course of action? Should we try to get to the twentieth floor as fast as we can? We do have the option of taking a shortcut to the eighteenth.”

I had memorized the location of the pitfall trap on the fifth floor that had sent the two of us to the eighteenth. I had also partially mapped out the eighteenth floor, and I knew Estelle and I could deal with the monsters there no problem. With all of that in mind, I figured it would be possible for us to reach the boss room of the twentieth floor in no time, but Estelle sighed and gave me an exasperated look.

“Didn’t I just say that we need to proceed with caution? Of course, we probably could make it to the twentieth floor, but do you really believe we could defeat the boss there?”

“Uh...”

I had done some research. More specifically, I’d asked Lucas-san for advice, and he’d told me that the boss of the twentieth floor was a large group of stronger goblin variants. I knew that we couldn’t underestimate monsters like that just because they were goblins, but...

“...I honestly think we probably could,” I said after some thought.

Estelle once again stopped in her tracks and turned back to me. She put a hand on her waist and poked me with her index finger like she was scolding a disobedient child.

“If ‘probably’ is the measure of your confidence, then that isn’t an acceptable risk. Think back to the boss of the fifteenth floor and the weapon it wielded. Recalling that, do you really think we’ll be able to clear the twentieth floor at our current levels?”

As she argued with me, Estelle kept looking at the spear in my hands. I’d gotten it after defeating the reptila that had been the boss of the fifteenth floor, although based on the info Estelle and I had gathered later, reptilas normally didn’t use arms. Thanks to the unexpected difference between the boss and an ordinary reptila, I’d gotten my hands on an expensive and powerful spear, but if we’d made any more mistakes than we had, we would probably have died on the fifteenth floor.

“The next boss battle will be against a group of monsters, so we’ll start outnumbered. What do you think will happen if your financial ‘luck’ happens to trigger in that situation, Sai?”

“Oh yeah, we could end up with a lot of good quality weapons and get rich—”

“Surely you’re joking.”

“O-Of course. What I meant to say is that we would be in grave danger.”

Estelle seemed satisfied with my answer. She nodded, then resumed walking.

“In addition, we were very fortunate that we fell all the way from the fifth floor to the eighteenth without suffering any injuries. Are you confident that you could pull that off again, Sai?”

“U-Uh, no, not really.”

I’d successfully protected my lantern and avoided stabbing myself with my own spear, and I’d seen enough of the terrain in the dark that I’d been able to land safely, but that all came down to luck. Now that I knew what to expect, I could probably remain calm if it happened again, but there was no guarantee that I’d be able to pull off another safe landing.

“My thoughts exactly,” said Estelle. “We have decent odds of success, but considering how narrowly we avoided disaster in our first battle with a reptila, I believe it would be better to level up before we proceed much farther. There’s no point in forcing ourselves to take huge risks immediately.”

“Yeah, it was a pretty close call. I bet it’ll go a lot smoother the second time around, though.”

“Mm. Now we know the boss monster’s weakness.”

We had used magic to drench the reptila in water and then freeze it. Although it was a monster, it apparently had some traits in common with normal reptiles, because that method had weakened it a lot. Next time we faced a reptila, we could play it safe and freeze it from the get-go.

“That said, I believe we should avoid advancing farther until we’ve gotten strong enough to slay reptilas without taking advantage of their weakness to cold,” said Estelle. “We were lucky that your plan worked, but if it hadn’t, we could easily have died there.”

“Yeah, I was really nervous the whole time. I seriously thought I was dead when the reptila sent me flying with its tail.”

My brain had actually failed to process that I’d hit the wall and slid to the floor. It had all happened in a flash. As I reflected on that, a dry laugh escaped my lips.

When Estelle noticed my reaction, she pouted and glared in a cute way. “Please—this is no laughing matter. I was horrified when it happened!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”

“One sorry is enough. Anyway, for now, we should prioritize training,” said Estelle. “Given that you got hit by a very obvious tail attack, you need to work especially hard, Sai. I need you to become familiar with your new weapon.”

“Y-Yeah, good point.”

As Estelle said, I should have seen the incoming attack, but I hadn’t noticed until it hit me, and I still wasn’t capable of using my spear to its full potential. She was right that I had a lot of work to do.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you have it in you to become stronger,” said Estelle. “This is your chance to get started. Good luck.”

I really felt like she was using a carrot-and-stick approach here. She gave me a gentle smile and a pat on the shoulder, then took a step back, revealing a night weasel behind her. Night weasels were kind of a pain—they were small and hard to land good hits on—but they were also too weak to be a good warm-up for Estelle. I psyched myself up, held my spear at the ready, and stepped forward.

★★★★★★★★★

I took care of every monster we encountered from the first to the fifth floor. I was only able to pull it off thanks to backup from Estelle, who kept the monsters pinned down, but still, the battles turned out better than I’d expected, and I improved at wielding my heavy spear. Estelle fought by my side like normal from the fifth floor onward, and we made steady progress with no setbacks. We deliberately avoided using magic to conserve our mana and get better at fighting in the dungeon for extended periods of time, and anyway, none of the monsters we ran into really required the use of magic.

“I thought we would struggle a little as a party of two, but maybe I was wrong,” I said.

“I spent most of my career as a solo adventurer, so from my perspective, having a partner certainly makes a difference,” said Estelle. “Besides, we survived the eighteenth floor and made it out of the dungeon, so even if we were holding back, there’s no reason we would struggle here.”

“Yeah, the monsters here are nothing compared to the ones on the lower floors,” I said. “I remember you being able to cut your way through them pretty easily, though.”

“The ability to defeat monsters in one-on-one battles and the ability to safely explore the dungeon are two different things,” said Estelle. “Back then, the perilous circumstances forced me to focus, but I can’t do so indefinitely. Just so you’re aware, I really felt like I was on thin ice at the time.”

Estelle’s explanation made sense to me, and I also understood that she couldn’t maintain extreme focus forever. Right after we’d escaped the dungeon together, she’d looked totally beat, and for that and other reasons, she’d skipped the victory party and headed right back to her room to rest. Taking all that into account, the best floors for exploring daily to earn money were the ones populated by weaker monsters that Estelle wouldn’t have to go all out against.

“Now that I think about it, back when you were on your own, you used to explore mainly around the eighth floor, right, Estelle?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s right. As a solo adventurer, you can’t expect help from anyone, so even a little bit of fatigue can be dangerous if it slows you down,” Estelle replied. “I’d decided that the eighth floor was my limit—that was the farthest I could go without getting into areas where I wasn’t confident I could survive an unexpected emergency. I realize you have to take risks sometimes to grow as an adventurer, but...”

As an adventurer, you had a choice between sticking to the safe, familiar floors to earn a steady income or pursuing greater heights. Option number one was perfectly fine for career adventurers, but it was out of the question for us considering what Estelle wanted to achieve. Still, even on lower floors, you could suffer serious injuries as a result of taking risks. It wasn’t easy getting stronger. Did Estelle feel like she hit a wall staying on the eighth floor for so long? It would make sense if she accepted my invitation to form a new party for that reason. I just happened to meet her at the perfect time.

As I was savoring my good luck, Estelle gave me a confused look again. “What’s the matter, Sai? You’re smiling in a weird way again.”

“Can’t you just say I look happy?! No, wait, I mean, it’s nothing major. I was just thinking how glad I am that we became partners.”

“Candidly, I feel the same way. A lot more is possible for a party of two.”

We had already made it to the ninth floor, which neither of us would have been able to accomplish this fast on our own—this was where stronger forms of goblins, like goblin fighters, started showing up—so Estelle was definitely right.

“It seems like there’s basically nobody else here,” I said.

“Stronger forms of goblin are hard to defeat,” Estelle pointed out. “They aren’t really worth the money either.”

“Yeah, you’re right. They’re good sparring opponents, but...”

The new types of goblins we’d run into on this level were fighters, archers, and scouts. Individually, they were just armed monsters that were a bit stronger than regular goblins, but you could also run into all of the monsters that had shown up on the other floors, which could be dangerous distractions during combat. Worst of all, their magicites weren’t even worth a single gold coin apiece. Battling monsters on the eighth floor would have been a more efficient way of earning money, and if you didn’t want to do that, you could just make a break for the twelfth floor, where the goblins stopped showing up. But our goal was to train and get stronger, so we slowed down and took turns fighting.

“At least from my perspective, you seem to have gotten more comfortable with your spear, so I’d say this was a fruitful training session,” said Estelle. “However, let’s call it a day. We can tackle the tenth floor tomorrow.”

“Sure, I’m down for that. I am starting to feel like I could use a break.”

We’d been using a map to avoid wasting our time, but we’d still fought a lot of battles—we’d really blazed through the dungeon. I’d been swinging a heavy spear that whole time, so my muscles were aching. Truth be told, I wasn’t just “starting” to feel like I needed a break; I was pretty much at my limit. Back when I was adventuring with Adonix-san’s party, our expeditions were never longer than two or three days, so if I was going to be taking longer trips with Estelle, I probably needed to start lifting weights. I don’t want to get as buff as Adonix-san and those guys, though. I’m too short—it just wouldn’t suit me.

“Hmm. Can we rest in that small room ahead that we passed through earlier?” I asked.

“Sure,” Estelle replied.

★★★★★★★★★

We laid a thick mat in the corner so we could lie down without the stone floor chilling us. I sat down first, and Estelle sat a short distance from me, leaving enough space for a third person between us. When we had first met after falling down the pitfall trap, we had sat facing each other, but she’d kept much more distance. Maybe we were starting to get physically and emotionally intimate. I really hope I’m not just imagining it.

While I was wondering, Estelle started making tea. She poured it into two different mugs and handed one to me. “Here you go, Sai.”

“Thanks, Estelle.”

Hell yeah, this is what life as a teenager in another world should be like! Exploring a dungeon with a beautiful girl who serves me tea while we’re sitting next to each other... I’m finally a normie! I bet I’m living the best second life of any dude in my class, ha ha!

“What’s the matter, Sai? You’re once again smiling in a wei— I mean, you seem to be having a good time.”

I fell silent for a moment. Estelle had paused to correct herself, so obviously my plea from earlier had gotten through, but she still couldn’t hide her real opinion. And honestly, it was possible that the joy I’d felt had come out as a weird-looking smile.

“Well?”

If I’d told Estelle what was really on my mind, I was pretty sure she would have gotten uncomfortable, so when she urged me to respond, I squeezed out an answer that was just a slight deviation from the truth. “Oh, well, yeah, I am definitely having a good time. I’m just happy that we’ve made so much progress without running into any serious problems yet.”

Estelle nodded. “Mm, I agree,” she said with a gentle smile. “Nothing special has happened yet, but it’s a pleasant feeling to be making progress.”

“Y-Yeah, definitely.”

The answer I’d given her wasn’t a lie, exactly, but I still felt awkward given that she’d responded positively. I took a sip from my mug in an attempt to distract myself from my own feelings, but...

“Ugh, what is this?! This is really bitter!”

It was pretty common for adventurers to drink warm beverages while taking breaks inside dungeons. If you wanted to save money, you could just drink hot water, but people who could afford it drank tea instead. The kinds of tea I was familiar with from back in Japan weren’t commonly available, though—I didn’t recognize any of the leaves on offer in stores. Estelle enjoyed one particular tea that had a refreshing flavor similar to mint and an aroma like citrus, but the tea she’d just served me smelled kind of burnt and tasted really bitter. I looked over at her, demanding answers, and she laughed. She had a playful smile, like she’d successfully played a prank on me.

“I went with something different this time. It does taste a little nasty, but I decided to test it out—apparently it’s good for your body. If you’re exploring a dungeon for an extended period of time and subsisting on meat, fatigue will gradually overtake you. Supposedly this tea can stave that off.”

Estelle showed me a bottle with a few green pills inside. She must have tossed one of them into my mug while I was distracted.

“Really? I had no idea you could find stuff like that here in Ivalia.”

“It’s only recently become available, but it’s already earned a good reputation, so it must be worth putting up with the bitterness. In fact, some people say it tastes good after you get used to it.”

“Hmm. Well, I guess it isn’t that weird... There are bitter teas out there.”

It was much bitterer than regular tea, but the only reason it had caught me off guard was that I hadn’t been prepared. Now that I knew the bitterness was coming, it was bearable. Honestly, the slightly burnt taste might have appealed to people who took their coffee black. Personally, though, I needed milk and sugar.

“...Well, if it’s really good for you, then I don’t mind if we keep drinking this,” I said.

“I’m glad to hear that. Our expeditions will likely keep us inside the dungeon for extended periods of time, so I want to do whatever we can to keep our bodies in top condition,” said Estelle.

“Yeah, you have to be healthy and energetic if you want to succeed,” I said. “I’ll guess I’ll buy some too so we have a stockpile. What kind of tea—or I guess I should ask, what kind of medicine is this?”

“Well, if we’re both going to consume it, I don’t mind paying for it,” said Estelle. “But in any case, apparently it’s called Nagaku Dive.”

I choked.

“A-Are you okay, Sai?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. Something got stuck in my throat, but it’s nothing major.” I coughed a couple times.

“Nagaku Dive”—does one of my classmates have something to do with this? There’s no way the Japanese-style name is a coincidence, right? Estelle said this is a new product, so...

“By the way, did the store where you found this have any other new products that were kind of similar?”

“It did, yes. The others I remember were called Dirt Remover and No Toilet Breaks. The first removes dirt and stains from clothes. The second is a medicine that reduces the number of times per day that a person has to go to the bathroom. I thought the second one would be useful in here, but to be honest, I was a little bit scared to try it, so I ended up deciding not to buy any.”

“I-I see...”

Yeah, I’m pretty sure only one of my classmates would hide a lame joke in a product name like that—it’s just Japanese for “long dive.” Honestly, the fact that all of those products sound useful kind of annoys me. It is difficult for adventurers to keep their clothes clean, what with battling monsters all the time, and during long expeditions, bathroom breaks turn into a huge issue...

“I take it you’re curious about the store, Sai? I could show you around it if you like...”

“U-Uh, yeah, sure, I’ll take you up on that offer if an opportunity ever comes around.”

On the one hand, I wanted to make a connection with someone who could create useful medicine. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk of interacting with another of my classmates. I had no reason to pick a fight with anyone, but I also didn’t want any dudes to hit on Estelle, so I hastily changed the topic.

“So, if I remember correctly, this expedition is going to last two nights and three days, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Estelle replied. “If we exclude the time when we were both stranded here, then this is technically the first time I’ve properly explored the dungeon with you, Sai. I believe we have decent synergy, but it’s important that we practice working as partners.”

“We did manage to make it all the way here without relying on magic.”

“Mm. The plan tomorrow is to continue to focus on fighting with physical weapons,” said Estelle. “On the third day, when we head out of the dungeon, we can start to mix in magic. Does that sound all right to you?”

“Of course,” I said. “You have way more experience than me as an adventurer, so I’ll leave it to you to plan everything out.”

“I’m glad that you trust me,” said Estelle, “but please feel free to speak up if you have any concerns.”

“I can’t think of any major problems at the moment, but give me a second...”

When it came to combat, I had no concerns. Estelle was very good at working as a member of a team, probably in part because we’d already fought together before back when we were trapped in here. Over the course of this expedition, I’d gotten more capable of matching her movements too.

The only other important category that came to mind was dungeon exploration in general, an area where I was more or less a complete amateur. Adonix-san’s party had been kind enough to teach me various things, but Estelle was far more knowledgeable and had made it all the way to Rank 5 exploring the dungeon on her own. That being the case, all I had were quibbles.

“Well,” I said, “if we ever go on an expedition longer than three days, I am kind of concerned about hygiene.”

It hadn’t really bothered me during my time with Adonix-san’s party, since we were all men, and when I’d been stuck in here with Estelle, I hadn’t had the attention to spare, but if we were going to continue exploring, I was curious about how we were supposed to deal with that problem.

“If we don’t get a chance to wash up, we’ll really start to smell, so— Oh, whoops.”

Estelle gave me a sharp look and scooted farther away from me—far enough that there was now room for two people between us. Dang, I screwed up. I guess I’ll somehow have to close this distance again.

“You should keep thoughts like that to yourself instead of voicing them, Sai. This is an issue that every adventurer has to deal with. In fact, we’re actually quite fortunate compared to others, since we can use magic to create water any time we like.”

I guess Estelle makes a good point. I have the Level 3 Water Magic skill, so washing is no problem for me. If somebody asked me to fill a whole bathtub, I’d probably get concerned about the mana cost, but if all I had to do was fill some buckets for a shower, I could recover that mana in no time. Warming the water up would be easy too—Estelle could just use the Heat spell. Thanks to magic, we were able to keep ourselves relatively clean while we were trapped, but...

“Sorry. I really shouldn’t have acted so inconsiderate around a girl,” I said.

“You better be sorry,” said Estelle. “I have a surprise for you, however.” She giggled. “Here goes. Purification!”

Estelle smiled and cast a spell. Right away, her entire body started to glow. When the light faded, Estelle’s equipment and clothes had suddenly become clean even though they’d been dirty from combat just a few seconds ago.

“Huh?!”

I’d only heard rumors of Light Magic before—this was the first time I’d actually seen a Light Magic spell myself. Mages who could use it were a breed apart. The demand for their services was so high that it was basically enough of a qualification on its own to get them into any party of adventurers.

“This isn’t some sort of illusion, is it? I thought all you could use was Fire Magic, Estelle!”

“That was true when we first met, but since then, I’ve learned how to use Light Magic as well.”

“Seriously? How did you manage that in such a short period of time?”

Magic was far from easy to learn. I had started off only being able to use Water Magic and had since put some time and effort into learning other kinds of magic, but I’d had no success at all.

Estelle smiled at me and shook her head like she got why I was confused.

“It’s thanks to you that I was able to achieve this feat, Sai. Once I could see my own status screen, I learned I had the aptitude for Light Magic. If I’d remained unaware of that, I would never have even tried to learn it.”

“Oh, I get it now. By the way, who did you learn magic from, Estelle?”

“My mother. I wanted to become just like my mom, so Fire Magic was my first choice. Most people are only ever capable of using the first type of magic they learn, so the standard course of action is to find a master who can use that type of magic.”

“What if you fail? Do you look for a different master?”

“No. The people who fail just end up assuming that they have no aptitude for magic at all and give up. People who are capable of becoming mages are actually quite rare... Is there something bothering you?”

“...Nah, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

I hadn’t been able to learn any other types of magic, while Estelle had been able to learn Light Magic in no time, so it was possible that learning each variety of magic required a specific aptitude skill. With all of that in mind, it was also possible that most mages in this world had just made a lucky choice and started off by pursuing the types of magic that matched their own aptitudes. However, there was also the possibility that you could obtain the aptitude for certain types of magic through some kind of training.

All of these were just untested hypotheses, so I decided not to share them with Estelle. At first, she seemed a bit confused by my reaction, but then she ignored it and changed the subject.

“Well, in any case, we won’t have to worry about hygiene issues now even if we stay inside the dungeon for an extended period of time. I can also use the Light Cure spell now, so let me know if you suffer any injuries.”

“Oh, that’s great to know,” I said. “Healing magic will probably be a huge help.”

“Indeed. According to the research I’ve done, Water Magic, Light Magic, and magic bags are all necessities for high-rank adventurers exploring deep inside of dungeons,” said Estelle. “It would be wonderful if we could obtain one more magic bag, but that won’t be easy.”

“Yeah. We don’t have enough money to purchase a new one, and there are none available for sale either.”

The amount of supplies and resources you could bring was one of the most important restrictions on dungeon exploration, together with the amount of materials that you could bring back with you. Magic bags solved both issues, but they were so rare that even if you placed an order well ahead of time, it was impossible to predict when it would be ready. The highest-quality magic bags were only available at auctions, and I’d heard that the bidding got pretty intense, so I was impressed that Estelle had one of her own.

“Well, I guess there’s no point in asking for too much,” I said. “What other new spells can you use now, Estelle?”

“Currently, Light and Light Protection,” said Estelle. “Light simply creates a light source, and Light Protection is effective against undead monsters.”

“Huh? There’s a spell that lets you create light? Interesting,” I said. “It sounds convenient. Is there a reason that you haven’t used it yet?”

For us as for most adventurers, lanterns were our main source of light, but they just weren’t that bright. They worked fine once you got used to them, but you had to be careful about how you handled them during combat. Plus, you had to lug fuel around at all times.

But Estelle shook her head. “If lanterns are sufficient, then I believe it would be best to conserve mana considering I also use magic to deal damage to monsters as well. Having mana for healing magic is a higher priority. Besides, using the Light spell inside of a dungeon would be an ostentatious way of advertising that I can use Light Magic, and I don’t want that—it’s best to avoid trouble whenever possible.”

“You make a good point,” I said. “You’d definitely stand out a lot.”

Light Magic was very convenient for all sorts of purposes, and mages who could use it were in high demand, so if a bunch of high-rank adventurers found out about Estelle’s abilities, there was a chance that they would offer her favorable conditions in an attempt to recruit her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t offer her anything better at the moment, so forming a party with some high-rank adventurers would be a more efficient way for her to accomplish her goals, but...

“Um, Estelle, do you think you’d be interested in joining any other party?”

Estelle lifted her eyebrows, looking exasperated and angry at the same time. “Not at all. Do you really think I’m that heartless?”

“I mean, of course not, but you want to achieve something significant as an adventurer so you can get rid of your father, right? So wouldn’t it be better to form a party with some stronger adventurers in order to—”

“Just so you’re aware, Sai, I absolutely despise the act of betrayal.” Estelle paused to look me directly in the eyes before continuing. “You acted of your own free will to save me during a crisis. That’s why I trust you and why I agreed to form a party with you. I won’t go back on my word even if the circumstances change, and I’ll never betray you. Do I make myself clear?”

I nodded a couple times. “O-Oh, yes, of course.”

For some reason, I found myself feeling really intimidated by Estelle, but then she sighed and relaxed.

“However, that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to have to deal with other parties trying to recruit me,” said Estelle. “I’d like to keep the fact that I can use Light Magic a secret. Can you promise me that you’ll never tell anyone else about this, Sai?”

“Of course. I promise.”

Would I ever get another chance to go adventuring with a beautiful girl if I parted company with Estelle? Nah, there’s no way. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even muster the courage to talk to another girl. I had good reasons of my own to keep Estelle’s Light Magic a secret, but I firmly declared once again that I would never tell anyone else about this.

★★★★★★★★★

After we reached the tenth floor of the dungeon, the number of stronger goblin variants noticeably increased, but the numbers of other monsters were more or less the same as on previous levels, so we ended up in an awkward situation where our earnings remained the same even as combat became way more annoying.

“Now I get why most adventurers avoid these floors,” I said.

“Mm. If you can find them, it’s much more efficient, purely in terms of earnings, to hunt short horn deer in the first few floors rather than having to deal with ten goblin fighters.”

Even the stronger goblin variants didn’t offer anything that was actually worth money apart from their magicites, and each magicite was only worth around four hundred Rea. In contrast, if you could lug an entire short horn deer back with you, the meat, magicite, and hide would sell for up to five thousand Rea. As a result, the population of short horn deer on the first few floors of the dungeon had been thinned out. The other weak monsters, like night weasels and giant rats, were only worth about two hundred Rea each. All of these considerations together meant you could probably earn more money per hour battling monsters on the eighth floor and beyond if you didn’t factor in the time needed to travel all the way here.

“Well, our current short-term goal is to train and get stronger, so fighting goblins is worth it for us,” I said.

“Indeed. We’ve gotten quite decent at working as a team, and we’ve gotten some practice fighting against groups of monsters,” said Estelle. “If we take our time exploring every corner of the tenth and eleventh floors in order to become more confident fighting in tandem, I’m sure it will help us in the future.”

“Yep. The monster attacks here don’t hurt much at all—it’s pretty safe.”

Even the stronger variants of goblin weren’t that strong, but they were excellent sparring opponents: You could practice all kinds of things, like dodging their attacks or, in my case, deflecting their arrows with my spear, and they were weak enough that even if I screwed up badly and took a hit, I wouldn’t be in any danger of dying. We could probably become stronger faster if we battled powerful foes like reptilas, but it would be pointless if we died trying.

“Don’t let your guard down, Sai. The number of traps also increases from here onward, so we’ll have to watch out for those as well as for monsters. Some traps are difficult to detect, so try not to be careless.”

“Okay. Man, I’m really amazed you can spot traps too, Estelle.”

Adonix-san’s party had one guy—Lucas-san—whose whole job was scouting and disarming traps. Estelle and I were a party of just two, so I’d been wondering how we were supposed to deal with traps, but I guess she had it covered.

“I originally planned to work as a solo adventurer, so I tried to acquire all kinds of knowledge and skills I thought I’d need,” Estelle explained. “But as I said, you should stay alert too, Sai. After all, I didn’t detect the pitfall trap on the fifth floor.”

“Oh yeah, that caught me completely off guard! Well, I bet traps like that are pretty rare—”

There was a heavy sound, and I fell silent. Estelle and I stared at each other.

Her gaze hardened. “It seems you spoke too soon, Sai.”

“Nah, please, it’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything!” I objected, waving my hands.

I hadn’t touched any of the walls, and I was fairly sure that I hadn’t stepped on anything strange either. Well, it’s not like I can detect every weird spot on the ground, but I don’t see any suspicious dents or anything like that under my feet, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t my fault! Is it? I glanced at Estelle for confirmation, and she briefly looked around us, then nodded back at me. Whew. A not guilty verdict! Yay!

“Well, if you’re not the one who caused that sound, Sai, then where did it come from?”

Both of us had heard it, so something must have caused it. We examined our surroundings again to see if anything had changed, and I actually did spot something that stood out a lot.

“...Look over there, Estelle.”

“Hmm? Oh my.” Estelle let out an involuntary gasp when she saw what I was pointing at. “I really have no idea what to say.”

She hadn’t noticed earlier because she was looking in my direction, but a square section of wall about two meters ahead of us had retracted. We carefully approached the newly formed hole, which appeared to be about thirty centimeters in area and about twenty centimeters deep. At the end was an engraving of a handprint that looked like you were supposed to put your hand on top of it.

“This is so suspicious,” Estelle and I said in unison. Clearly we were thinking along the same lines.

“Wait, hold on,” I said. “Is this actually a trap?”

“I don’t think a trap would be this obvious...”

“Yeah, exactly. Hmm...”

If the dungeon had wanted to spring a trap on us, then it could simply have activated something like the pitfall trap and taken us by surprise. This seemed too convoluted.

“In that case, I suppose it might be some kind of mechanism to open a door to a hidden room. Could you please place one of your hands into the print for a moment, Sai?”

“Huh? Me?!”

“Other adventurers have explored this area before, and I’ve never encountered any information about anything like this. It’s possible that someone hid it immediately after finding it, but most adventurers wouldn’t skip out on an opportunity like this.”

Estelle’s reasoning made perfect sense to me. Anyone who didn’t get excited at finding a secret like this wasn’t cut out for the life of an adventurer. Still, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy, since we had no idea why this hole had shown up.

“If you don’t want to do it, then I’ll do it myself—”

“N-Nah, I’ll do it! Or I guess I should say, please let me do it!”

Considering the situation we were in, I could never have forgiven myself as a man if I’d foisted this task onto Estelle. I gulped, slowly brought my right hand up to the print, and—

Estelle suddenly thumped me on the shoulders. “Bam!”

“H-Huh?!”

“It would be scary if there was a sound like that and we were suddenly locked in here, wouldn’t it, Sai?”

“E-Estelle, please don’t scare me like that...”

I glared back at her, but she just stuck out her tongue and giggled.

“You seemed very nervous, so I couldn’t help myself. Sorry.”

Ugh, she’s so cute! I guess I’ll forgive her this time...

“Fine, fine. But let’s take this seriously now. We have no idea what might happen.”

“Of course. I’ll stay alert just in case.”

I made sure Estelle had taken a step back before I brought my hand to the print again. Immediately, the wall in front of us retracted even farther, then slid down to reveal a passageway.

“A hidden passageway!” Estelle exclaimed. “I had no idea there was anything like that on this floor!”

“Maybe nobody else has found it because this floor isn’t popular with adventurers,” I said. “We’re going to explore it, right?”

Estelle’s eyes lit up like a kid’s. “Of course! My mother told me stories about finding treasures at the ends of hidden passageways like this one!”

I chuckled—it was so rare to see a response like that from her—and in response, Estelle made an anxious gesture.

“O-Oh, don’t worry, I’ll stay on high alert,” she said. “It sometimes takes courage to retreat in the face of danger, after all.”

“Yeah, of course. So anyway, let’s advance carefully.”

“Mm. Let’s go!”

Even if the odds of this passageway being a trap seemed pretty low, it was still a new, unexplored area of the dungeon, so Estelle started paying closer attention to our surroundings than she had been, but the passageway turned out to be just about twenty meters long. At the end was a door similar to the other ones we’d seen in the dungeon.

“This doesn’t look like the kind of door that leads to a boss room or something like that,” I said. “Maybe there’s nothing special behind it.”

“Don’t let your guard down, Sai. If there’s nothing worthwhile behind this door, we can laugh about it later, but if danger awaits us, it’ll be no laughing matter.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” I said. “In that case, let’s dim our lanterns first.”

We glanced at each other and closed our lanterns, then slowly cracked the door. The room beyond was completely dark. We partially reopened our lanterns, and they illuminated a small area of the room, but...

“Well, the door is normal, but this room is actually pretty big,” I said. “Bigger than a boss room.” Actually, it was as big as a school gym back in Japan.

“You’re right. We need to be extra careful now, so— Wait, there are reptilas inside!”

At the far end of the room were two reptilas standing side by side. They were completely still, probably because we hadn’t actually entered the room yet, and much larger than the one we’d run into in the boss room. Their size alone kind of intimidated me. The only noteworthy positive difference from the boss was that they weren’t armed.

“Yikes,” I said. “Seeing two reptilas, I’d normally turn around and head back without a second thought, but...”

“...there’s something behind them,” said Estelle.

Specifically, there was a treasure chest on a pedestal, almost like the reptilas had been placed there to protect it. The existence of the chest made me hesitate about my knee-jerk conclusion that we couldn’t beat them.

“This is my first time seeing a treasure chest in the dungeon,” I said.

“Mine too,” said Estelle. “You have to be very lucky to find unopened treasure chests in floors that are popular among adventurers.”

“So if we head back now...”

“...someone else will probably retrieve the treasure instead. High-rank adventurers don’t usually explore this area, but they may show up if someone discovers this passageway and sells them its location.”

Although the tenth floor didn’t see heavy traffic, it wasn’t like zero adventurers ever came here. If we retreated now, someone else would probably find this passageway before we could challenge the dungeon again.

“All right. Listen to me, Estelle.”

I quietly took a deep breath and grabbed one of her hands. She’d been leaning forward into the room, but now she snapped out of it and looked back at me. I shook my head at her as I slowly closed the door.

“You said it sometimes takes courage to retreat in the face of danger, right?”

“...Yes, you’re right. I did say that.”

“So let’s calm down and discuss whether or not we can actually defeat those reptilas.”

At first, Estelle looked downcast, but then she lifted her head with an excited expression on her face and nodded.

“Oh, yes, sure! First of all, let’s analyze the foes that we’ll have to fight,” said Estelle. “The reptila that we fought in the past is a useful point of reference. The most significant differences here are their larger bodies and lack of weapons, but...”

“...the fact that they’re bigger probably means they’re stronger than a normal reptila, right?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. We have no idea what constitutes ‘normal’ for reptilas,” Estelle replied. “It’s possible that the one we previously fought was actually on the smaller end and these ones are normal size.”

“...Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Or maybe that other reptila had a smaller body so it could be more flexible wielding that spear.”

“Exactly. I have a feeling that these aren’t as strong, however,” said Estelle. “So if we err on the side of caution in assessing them, I believe they’re more or less as strong individually as the one that we previously fought. What do you think, Sai?”

“Yeah, that’s a fair assessment. Let’s analyze ourselves next,” I said. “I’ve got a much better spear now, and you’ve learned Light Magic, but those are about the only differences, right?”

Thanks to Advastlis-sama, I could check my level now, but leveling up in this world wasn’t as simple as getting stronger every time you defeated a bunch of foes. My teamwork with Estelle had improved a lot thanks to all the battles we’d fought together, but it wasn’t like I myself had gotten that much stronger.

But Estelle shook her head; she must’ve had a different opinion.

“Light Magic is actually a very significant difference, Sai. It allows us to endure minor injuries, for one thing. In addition, we now know the reptilas’ weakness. The fact that we’re on the tenth floor is another advantage. I’m fairly confident that we can still make it out of the dungeon even if this battle incapacitates one of us.”

“...Oh yeah, that’s a good point.”

We’d fought our previous battle with a reptila while trapped in the dungeon, so we’d absolutely had to avoid getting hurt, whereas now, Estelle could heal any minor injuries we suffered, and knowing the reptilas’ weakness plus an easy way to escape the dungeon, we could just retreat if we had to.

“Do you think it’ll actually be worth challenging these guys, though, Estelle?”

Estelle glanced at me and nodded. “Yes, I do. Even if we use up all our mana, we can rest and recover. It should be worth the effort.”

I nodded back at her, and we began to devise a plan for the highest odds of victory.

★★★★★★★★★

The moment Estelle and I entered the room, the two reptilas started moving. We started the battle by weakening them.

“Water Blast! Water Blast!”

“Cool!”

I splashed them with water while Estelle used the Cool spell. We could only afford to freely use magic until they closed the distance with us. Unlike the last time, each of us had to handle a different reptila, so after we physically clashed, we wouldn’t have much room for spellcasting.

“Freeze! Water Blast!”

The two reptila seemed irritated—they were using their hands to swipe away the water I was shooting at them—but there was no need for me to hit them directly; my objective was just to get them wet, and I succeeded. As one of them got in range...

“Freeze— Yikes!”

The reptila I’d targeted struck back with its fist. It was slower than the boss, probably because my magic was acting as a debuff, but it was still pretty scary. I barely managed to parry its fist with my spear, but I still really felt that attack.

“I can handle this!” I yelled. “The last one was way harder!”

Every time I’d clashed spears with that other reptila, I’d felt like my whole body was going to fall apart. This was nothing in comparison. For one thing, it was unarmed, while I had a spear, so each clash left its fists bleeding. Still, it kept on coming; it didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest.

“Take this! Water Blast!”

I leaped backward and splashed the reptila with water, then shot a glance at Estelle. Damn, hers is already bleeding all over the place—she got both its arms good. She’s a real swordswoman!

“There’s more to come! Freeze!”

Since Estelle seemed to be faring just fine, I aimed at the legs of the reptila I was facing, which was starting to look pretty sluggish. Its skin was tough, but it couldn’t stop my new spear, so I stabbed it hard and deep, took a quick step back, and then dodged to its left to avoid its fists.

“It isn’t weak, but I guess it isn’t exactly strong either.”

The last reptila I’d fought had almost seemed like a martial artist, what with its skill with a spear, but these guys seemed like they were relying too much on brute force. They just attacked us by swinging their arms around, so it was easy enough for us to dodge, and the more damage we dealt them, the more sluggish they got.

“Time to finish this!”

I got around behind the reptila and lunged directly at its heart. Its body shuddered in place for a moment, but it proceeded to fall to its knees and then onto its face. I made sure it was absolutely dead, then checked on Estelle.

“Well, it looks like you don’t really need my help,” I said.

“Mm. I’ll be done with this one shortly.”

She sounded confident too. The reptila that she was fighting was still a bit more nimble than mine had been, probably because it hadn’t gotten hit with as much magic, but it was covered in bleeding wounds and slowing down from the blood loss.

Less than a minute after I started watching, it lost its balance, and Estelle immediately seized the advantage. She sliced halfway through its neck with her sword, then leaped backward to avoid the torrent of blood that gushed out of its neck as it collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.

“Very impressive,” I said.

I held out one of my fists, and Estelle smiled as she exchanged a fist bump with me.

“Thank you, Sai. You performed quite well too.”

“Well, the reptila turned out to be weaker than I expected,” I said. “I guess they really were super weak to cold.”

“Mm. Our magic was enough to slow them down,” said Estelle. “I’m certain the reptila with the spear was much stronger.”

“Yeah, that thought crossed my mind too. These ones were sloppy, and their only moves were pretty simple,” I said. “I’m kind of confused that other adventurers don’t take advantage of their weakness to cold, and— Actually, come to think of it, I guess it’s not an option most people have, what with how rare mages are.”

“Indeed. The only place in this vicinity where you’d encounter a reptila is in the boss room of the fifteenth floor, and that’s only one. That said, a larger party could probably deal with reptilas easily enough simply by surrounding and overwhelming them.”

“Yeah, good point.”

The hidden room we had found was an exception. If reptilas were just wandering around the more challenging floors, anyone who could reach those floors could probably defeat them without having to rely on magic. Our strategy was only useful under very specific conditions.

“All right, let’s go check the treasure chest, then gut these guys,” I said.

Estelle seemed to care a lot more about the treasure chest than the two reptilas, and she nodded, beaming.

“Yes! I’m looking forward to this!”

Estelle hopped up on the pedestal and carefully investigated the chest.

“Hmm. I’m pretty sure it isn’t booby trapped. Do you want to open it, Sai?”

“Nah, you can go ahead and do it, Estelle.”

The look on her face made it obvious that she really wanted to open it herself. I couldn’t resist that unspoken plea coming from a beautiful girl like her. She smiled and seemed unable to contain her excitement as she placed her hands on the lid.

“Really? In that case, thank you. Here goes... Hmm? A bag?”

“Yeah, it’s just a shoulder bag,” I said. “It looks pretty plain.”

The chest was about a meter wide, but the bag was the only thing inside it, and that was pretty small—maybe about thirty centimeters wide and not very impressive looking. It didn’t look like junk, exactly, but I felt like it wasn’t a good enough reward for a treasure chest that had been guarded by two reptilas.

“This is better than something like a rusty sword, but I guess we can’t expect much from a treasure chest on the tenth floor of the dungeon,” I said.

Estelle suddenly gasped and picked up the bag. “Hold on. Give me a moment to confirm...” She opened it and stuck a hand inside. “Yes, I guessed correctly! This is actually a magic bag, Sai!”

“...Huh? Seriously?”

“Yes! Not an exceptionally good one, to all appearances, but a magic bag nonetheless.”

Estelle was still visibly excited as I took the bag from her. I put one of my hands inside just as she had. Whoa, she’s right! It looks like a normal bag, but I can put my arm in all the way up to my shoulder!

“A magic bag, huh? I thought it would be great if we managed to find a second one, but I really didn’t think it would happen,” I said.

“I didn’t either,” said Estelle. “And I especially can’t believe we found it here, in a relatively shallow part of the dungeon. Your financial luck may actually be a potent blessing.”

“...Really? Are you sure this isn’t just a coincidence?”

“Last time, we encountered an armed reptila on the fifteenth floor, which is fairly exceptional, and this time, we found a hidden passageway. I don’t think you can brush off both events in combination as mere coincidence. Advastlis-sama himself bestowed that blessing on you, so it’s hard for me to believe that it had nothing to do with this.”

Uh, the description of the blessing includes a “maybe,” and plus, there’s a question mark at the end of its name, so I don’t think it’s actually that useful. I mean, it’s possible that it had an effect, but...

“To be honest, I feel like the trials that we’ve had to overcome have been way too harsh,” I said. “It was like we only had two options, fortune and death, you know?”

Clearly whatever blessing I had wouldn’t just result in me running into a treasure chest full of coins while wandering around the dungeon. Given how far we’d had to go to get a good spear and a magic bag, it seemed more like a high-risk, high-reward deal. The rewards were definitely worth it, but I still wasn’t sure if I would call that a “blessing.”

“I believe that as an adventurer, you should be grateful for opportunities to earn rewards like those,” said Estelle. “If death were guaranteed, I of course wouldn’t want to face these trials, but this time and in the past, there were alternatives open to us.”

“Sure, we had the option of retreating, but did we really have other options back then when we were stranded?”

We had been in a situation where we couldn’t escape the dungeon unless we defeated the boss of the fifteenth floor.

“But we did have other options,” Estelle insisted. “We could have returned to the sixteenth floor and trained there before challenging the boss room. It’s simply that it wasn’t a realistic option considering our mental health at the time.”

If we’d had to train before challenging the boss room, I was pretty sure our temporary party would have fallen apart before we were ready. Parting ways after an argument would probably have been one of the better outcomes, right? Honestly, if we’d acted differently than we did, we could have doomed ourselves.

“Does this mean that you trust me a bit more now, Estelle?”

“...You shouldn’t directly inquire about things like that, Sai.” Estelle glared at me, but she quickly averted her eyes and continued, “More importantly, let’s hurry and return to the guild in order to report this hidden passageway.”

“Huh? We’re heading back already? Defeating these reptilas ended up being pretty easy, so it wouldn’t hurt to continue exploring until tomorrow like we originally planned, would it?”

We had used a lot of mana during the battle, but we still had plenty left because we’d been conserving it until now.

But Estelle shook her head. She had a serious look on her face. “Do you remember the rules that apply to adventurers exploring this dungeon, Sai?”

“Rules? Oh, are you talking about taxes? D-Does that mean the guild will confiscate this magic bag?!”

Adventurers had to pay a twenty percent tax on anything they acquired in the dungeon. I’d had to pay a hefty sum on my current spear. I had no idea what magic bags were actually worth, but there was no way I could actually afford to pay for this one. Maybe Estelle could afford it, but...

“No, but that’s a good guess,” said Estelle. “The rule that I’m thinking of is a minor one that most adventurers probably aren’t aware of for the simple reason that it isn’t relevant to them, but it happens to apply to the situation at hand. The rule states that items found inside of hidden rooms or unexplored areas of the dungeon are exempt from tax for a certain period of time.”

“Seriously? That’s great for us, isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course. But it only applies to adventurers who swiftly report cases like this to the guild.”

According to Estelle, treasure chests inside hidden rooms could respawn, so the rule she mentioned had been established to prevent adventurers from keeping the treasure chests they found to themselves. The temporary tax exemption, meanwhile, existed to incentivize adventurers to venture deeper into the dungeon.

During the exemption period, the guild would suffer a loss of income, but dungeon cities would never grow if exploration slowed to a halt, so apparently it was more profitable in the long term if adventurers could discover and bring back new items and materials from unexplored areas. However, hidden rooms were rare and hard to find, and high-rank adventurers were the only ones who could explore new areas, so I got what Estelle meant about the rule being irrelevant to most people.

“By the way, what happens if some other adventurer informs the guild about this hidden room before we do, Estelle?”

“If that happens, we’ll lose the tax exemption and the magic bag will be sold at auction.”

Estelle went on to explain that if someone else told the guild there was nothing in the hidden room before we had a chance to report the magic bag, it would become impossible for the guild to determine whether we were telling the truth or lying in order to avoid taxation. If the two reports came in around the same time, then it was possible that we could get a favorable verdict given our positive relationship with the guild, but the guild relied on taxes for a certain percent of their revenue, so it was far from certain that they’d side with us.

“Y-Yikes! L-Let’s hurry!” I exclaimed.

Despite the fact that Estelle had been so excited about the treasure chest, she was serious now, and she stopped me before I could dash out of the room. “We need to get back to the guild as soon as possible,” she agreed, but then she pointed to the reptilas. “First, however, let’s gut these.”

We swiftly dealt with the reptilas, then rushed out of the dungeon.

★★★★★★★★★

Estelle and I visited the reception desk at the guild to notify them that there was something important we wanted to discuss as soon as possible. The staffer who ended up getting assigned to us was the same guy who’d helped us the other day when we were dealing with Estelle’s fiancé. Even though we’d shown up with no warning, he immediately guided us to a conference room. We might have been getting favorable treatment because of Estelle being a Rank 5 adventurer.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Estelle-san. Has a problem arisen regarding the contract that was drafted the other day?”

“No, not at all, but thank you. We’re actually here to talk about something that we encountered in the dungeon,” said Estelle.

“In the dungeon, you say? Did a problem arise during your latest expedition?”

“No, not exactly. To be more specific, we found a hidden room on the tenth floor.”

“...Huh? A hidden room on the tenth floor of the dungeon?” the guild staffer repeated, sounding confused.

Estelle nodded, and he froze up for a few seconds. Suddenly, he shot to his feet, eyes wide.

“P-Please wait here for a moment!” he shouted, then dashed out of the room.

“Whoa, he definitely seemed surprised,” I said.

Estelle laughed. “It’s the natural reaction,” she explained. “It’s quite rare for hidden rooms to be discovered, especially on the upper floors, which have already been thoroughly explored.”

We barely had any time to chat before the staffer returned and put a map of the tenth floor on the table along with some scratch paper.

“C-Could you please indicate exactly where your party found the room? And please summarize the events leading up to your discovery as well!”

“Um, I believe it should be right around here,” said Estelle. “Right, Sai?”

“Hmm. We turned here and walked straight, then found the passageway that led to the hidden room about halfway before the next corner... Yeah, it’s right about here.”

“I see,” said the staffer. “It was far from the standard routes, then. Most adventurers tend to rush past the tenth floor, so that could explain why the room hasn’t been discovered until now. What precisely happened? What kind of hidden mechanism did your party discover?”

“We’re actually not quite sure ourselves,” said Estelle. “You see, we suddenly heard a sound and noticed that the wall ahead had retracted, and...”

Estelle slowly recounted what we’d seen, but we were still pretty clueless. Before heading out, we had investigated the passage to see if there was any way to close it, but the wall with the engraved handprint had retracted completely, so we had no way of manipulating it, and we couldn’t find any mechanism that would have allowed us to return the passageway to its original state. Something must have happened to trigger the sound we’d heard, but since we had no idea what it was, our account ended up being pretty vague.

“Both of us are mages, so it’s possible that the dungeon was somehow reacting to that,” said Estelle. “The passageway remained open when we exited the room, but of course, we don’t know if anything has changed since we left the dungeon.”

“Oh, if I recall correctly, you were the ones who fell victim to a pitfall trap on the fifth floor, were you not?” The guild staffer nodded to himself and paused in thought for a few seconds. “That is indeed a trap that reacts only to mages, so your hypothesis may well be correct. At any rate, some tests will be necessary to verify it. To continue, what did you see upon entering the passageway?”

“There was a door at the end that led to the hidden room, and inside, a treasure chest guarded by two reptilas was visible,” said Estelle. “We defeated them and retrieved the contents of the chest before leaving the dungeon.”

“You managed to defeat multiple reptilas as a party of two? Hmm. I don’t suppose it will be long before your party clears the twentieth floor of the dungeon.”

“Oh yeah, now that I think about it, what happened to Broze and his servant?” I asked. Given how impressed this staffer seemed by our achievements, I figured it would be easy to get a little information out of him.

He raised an eyebrow and casually replied, “Them? Of course, it’s terribly difficult for greenhorn adventurers to rank up in this city. It seems they’ve departed to train elsewhere so that Broze’s second can advance to Rank 4 before they return.”

I was only Rank 2, but since Estelle was over Rank 4, I was allowed to enter the dungeon in her company. Most newly registered Rank 0 and Rank 1 adventurers had difficulty finding parties that would trust them, but Rank 2 adventurers generally did all right. Still, though, you had to earn trust by completing quests, so you couldn’t rank up that fast. It had taken me about half a year to get to Rank 2. Maybe Broze’s second could get there in three months if he really pushed, but...

“Do you think they’re really coming back eventually?” I asked.

The staffer grinned. “I can’t be certain, but rest assured, the accessory at stake in your match has been entrusted to the guild for safekeeping. Even in the event that they never return, your party will receive it after successfully challenging the twentieth floor. It will, of course, be a different matter should they succeed before you, but that seems unlikely as long as your party works diligently and avoids complacency.”

Estelle and I glanced at each other and nodded in perfect sync.

“We intend to do our best to win,” said Estelle.

“Yeah. I have my own reasons for not wanting to lose this match,” I added.

“That’s good to hear. At any rate, let us return to the matter we were discussing. What were the contents of the treasure chest?”

Estelle gave me a look, and I said, “Oh yeah.”

I placed it on the table. The guild staffer looked surprised.

“This doesn’t appear to be a normal bag. Is it perhaps a magic bag?”

“Yeah. This is all that was inside the treasure chest.”

“I see. Please give me a moment to inspect it.” The staffer stuck his hands inside the bag. He nodded to himself, then took notes about its appearance, color, and size on the scrap paper. After returning the bag to the table, he said, “It appears this is a magic bag of decent quality. I will register documentation noting that it was your party that discovered this bag in a hidden room. Are you aware of the special tax exemption relevant to this case?”

“Yeah. Adventurers who report the existence of hidden rooms to the guild get a tax exemption on the items they find inside, right?”

I was worried there might be something that would disqualify us from the exemption, but the guild staffer just chuckled.

“Quite right—as long as the guild can verify the location of the room and other particulars of your account.”

“Huh? So what’s going to happen to the magic bag while you’re doing that?” I asked.

“You may keep the bag with you and use it. If the guild is unable to verify the existence of the hidden room, you will have to pay the full tax. But I trust that no adventurer would be so foolish as to antagonize the guild over a single magic bag.”

For a party to enter the dungeon, it had to have at least one member Rank 4 or higher. Somebody like that would have to have earned a fair amount of trust, and filing a false report wouldn’t be worth it, what with the demerits they’d suffer. Even if an adventurer did decide to make a false report for some reason, the guild would still come out ahead, since they’d be able to collect the full tax.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that we can keep the magic bag.”

I had been worried that the guild would come up with some pretext to confiscate it. Estelle seemed a bit confused by my reaction, though.

“Oh, please, Sai, there was never anything to worry about,” she said with a laugh. “The Adventurers’ Guild is a fair and honest organization.”

“Indeed. Perhaps there are corrupt branches somewhere, but the guild does not confiscate items unless they are dangerous. It is true that magic bags are valuable, but they’re by no means extremely rare.”

“Really? I assumed they would be really hard to get your hands on...”

“One wouldn’t be likely to find them exploring stores at random, but provided one has the money—and the connections—it’s easy enough to find a magic bag for purchase,” the staffer explained. “The bag that your party discovered, for example, would command anywhere from two thousand to three thousand gold coins. High-quality magic bags, meanwhile, can easily fetch over ten thousand gold coins. You’d be lucky to encounter such a thing even at auction.”

Nah, I don’t think it’d be “easy enough” for a commoner to buy something like that. One gold coin was the equivalent of ten thousand Japanese yen, so apparently the price of a magic bag ranged from twenty million all the way up to one hundred million yen. Even for commoners, that wasn’t unreasonable for a once-in-a-lifetime purchase like a house, but that was different from a bag. I had been a normal high school student not too long ago, and valuable items like that were still completely out of reach for me.

“Is there anything else you would like to tell me or ask about?”

“I don’t believe so,” said Estelle. “What about you, Sai?”

I shook my head, and the guild staffer nodded at us, then gathered the map and scratch paper and stood up.

“Very well. In that case, the guild will begin its investigation tomorrow. It should take no more than two weeks. Please do not leave the city during that time, but feel free to resume exploring the dungeon while you wait.”

He hustled out of the conference room, and we left the guild shortly afterward.

★★★★★★★★★

“I’m not sure how to put it into words, but I feel relieved and anxious at the same time,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Estelle asked.

We’d returned to The Independence, our usual inn, to eat lunch. Most of the people who stayed here were solo adventurers, and they usually ate lunch outside, besides which it wasn’t even noon yet, so Estelle and I were the only ones in the dining hall. Still, I took a careful look around and lowered my voice before continuing.

“I mean about the magic bag,” I said. “If the guild doesn’t find the room where we said we did, they’ll confiscate it, right?”

Estelle tilted her head and gave me an ambiguous answer. “Well, we’ll have to pay a twenty percent tax, but I take your point.”

“Yeah, but for something as valuable as a magic bag, twenty percent is basically an attempt to confiscate it, right? If the guild staffer’s estimate was right, then we could end up paying as many as six hundred gold coins. Or do you think it’ll be cheaper than that?”

“He’s a professional, so I’m sure his estimate was accurate,” said Estelle. “However, if we end up having to pay the full tax on the magic bag, it’ll be appraised first. If it’s actually of higher quality than average, there is a possibility that we’ll have to pay more than that.”

“Six hundred gold coins is already completely undoable, so that would really suck.”

We’d headed for the exit immediately after defeating those two reptilas, but it had already been past noon when we’d discovered the hidden room, so we’d had to camp out once during our journey back. We’d ended up spending two days and three nights in the dungeon, and we’d earned about forty gold coins for our trouble. If we factored in rest time and preparations before an expedition, plus necessary expenditures like lodging fees during our time outside of the dungeon, then the maximum we could earn in one day was probably about three gold coins per person.

“Even if we pooled our money, we’d have to work for over three months to pay the tax,” I said. “Although, the guild staffer did tell us the investigation might take up to two weeks...”

“Actually, we can earn more money than that if we really want to. The primary goal of the expedition that we just completed was to practice using our weapons and fighting as a team,” said Estelle. “We could earn more simply by hunting monsters that offer a good return on effort, and thanks to the magic bag we just acquired, we can also bring more materials back with us.”

“...I guess that makes sense.”

“In addition, taxes on valuable items can be paid in installments,” said Estelle. “There are restrictions, as that staffer warned us earlier, but if you’re a working adventurer who explores the dungeon routinely, the guild is fairly generous about permitting you whatever time you need to pay the tax.”

“Oh, really? Does that mean we don’t have to worry even if the guild can’t confirm the existence of the hidden room?”

“Yes, that’s right. We can still obtain ownership of the magic bag as long as we work hard.”

“I see. That’s good to know.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Magic bags were staple items in isekai light novels. Given how much money they cost and how hard they were to find, I didn’t want to part with the one we’d found.

Estelle laughed and smiled at my reaction. “Relax, Sai. There’s really nothing to worry about. I can pay the tax myself if it comes down to it.”

“...Are you really that rich, Estelle?”

“Rank 5 adventurers like myself can easily build up a respectable savings over time as long as we don’t waste money.”

“Really? I had no idea that the life of an adventurer was that profitable once you hit the higher ranks.”

“Mm-hmm. But expenses like equipment add up as well.”

Good weapons and armor could easily cost as much as a house, so from my point of view, they were basically luxury goods.

“...Well, I guess we can just take our time,” I said. “There’s no point in taking unnecessary risks. What should we do in the near future?”

“Let’s spend today preparing for our next expedition. Tomorrow, we can spend a day recuperating, and we’ll head back into the dungeon the day after tomorrow. Our next goal will be to clear the fifteenth floor. The battle with the two reptilas yesterday was fairly easy, so I imagine that we can also defeat the boss of the fifteenth floor without any issues...as long as your financial luck doesn’t trigger in some way, Sai.”

“If my blessing was what made the reptila in the boss room have a weapon, then I’m pretty sure it won’t trigger again.”

“I hope that’s the case,” said Estelle. “Although, actually, it might be better for us if it did trigger. Assuming this boss is comparable to the last one, then we can dispatch it using the same strategy, and a new spear could be useful either as a spare weapon for you or as a source of money.”

“I kind of want to get to the point where I can defeat the boss without relying on magic too much, but I guess you’re right.”

The boss of the fifteenth floor had almost managed to kill us, but we’d taken advantage of its weakness and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Eventually, though, we would probably run into powerful foes with no clear weaknesses, so I wanted to be capable of achieving victory the normal way.

“By the way, Estelle, do you think you could beat a normal reptila with just your sword?”

“If it were possible to ensure that it remained a one-on-one battle, then I believe I could based on how the battle against the two reptilas in the hidden room turned out.”

“Were those actually normal reptilas?”

“Well, they were certainly weaker than the armed reptila that we fought before...”

According to Estelle, her main issue as a fairly petite woman would be the reptila’s overwhelming physical strength. As long as it wasn’t armed, she could slowly whittle down its health, but if it had something like a spear and could parry her attacks, then she was fairly sure that she’d need an opening to use magic.

“My current sword would likely break if it clashed with your new spear, Sai. It’d be wonderful if I could acquire a better sword, but that won’t be easy.”

“Hmm. I guess big, heavy weapons make a big difference.”

I was pretty small compared to the average guy, so Estelle and I tended to struggle against the same kinds of opponents. Neither of us could have faced somebody as muscular as Adonix-san head-on.

“Well, I guess we can worry about that in the future. So tomorrow is a day off, huh?”

I’d had days off during my time with Adonix-san’s party, but I’d had basically nothing to do. I didn’t have anything like a gaming console to kill time with, and there was nowhere I could go to have fun. The other dudes tended to split up and go different places on their own—to temples, taverns, and brothels. The last option was the only one that had interested me, but cheap establishments were all I could have afforded, and that hadn’t sounded appealing to me, so I’d just spent my days off rolling around in my bed at the inn. I’d gotten enough physical rest, but my mind was never truly refreshed.

“How do you spend your days off, Estelle? I mostly sleep all day, so I was curious.”

“Sleeping is a perfectly valid option. I myself make sure to get plenty of sleep in order to recover from exhaustion. It would be a disaster if I made a mistake in the dungeon as a result of fatigue.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. What do you do when you’re not super tired, then?”

“I usually read books in my room or treat myself to a more expensive meal. I also spend time walking around outside. In fact, I plan to visit a bathhouse tomorrow.”

“A bathhouse? You mean the one near the dungeon entrance? But why?”

Most adventurers returned from the dungeon totally filthy, and sometimes they were covered in blood or muck too. They would definitely have drawn the ire of the normal citizens if they’d walked around town in that state, so the bathhouse existed for adventurers to clean themselves up a bit before they headed back to their inns. Adonix-san’s party had been able to wash up with the water that I created, and now Estelle had the Purification spell, so I’d never visited a bathhouse myself, but I’d heard that you only got one portable washtub’s worth of hot water. That was about the same as what you could buy at an inn, so I hadn’t imagined people visiting bathhouses on their days off.

“Oh, that’s not the one I have in mind,” said Estelle. “The one I’m planning to visit is a deluxe bathhouse.”

“A-A deluxe bathhouse? Is it expensive?”

“Somewhat, I suppose? However, it’s only called a deluxe bathhouse to differentiate it from the one near the dungeon entrance. It’s nowhere as deluxe as you might imagine from its name—commoners make use of it too.”

According to Estelle, only adventurers went to the bathhouse near the dungeon entrance, whereas the deluxe bathhouse was a place that commoners also visited from time to time.

“But I assume there are more differences than that, right?” I asked.

Could it be that there’s actually a bathhouse in this city with proper bathtubs?

“To put it simply, the difference is that the deluxe bathhouse has steam rooms,” Estelle replied. “You sweat and then wash off to feel refreshed. I can’t afford the kinds of high-end inns that have private baths, so I go to the deluxe bathhouse periodically instead.”

So I guess they don’t have the kind of bath I was hoping for. Too bad. But what’s the difference between a steam room and a sauna? I have been to saunas connected to hot springs inns back in Japan...

“Steam rooms, huh? I’m kind of interested.”

“In that case, would you like to go together, Sai?”

“...Are you really okay with me tagging along?”

Asking a girl to share a bath took a lot of courage, even if you didn’t mean it that way. I had been hoping that Estelle would invite me to tag along, but still, I had to confirm.

But she nodded and giggled. “Of course. I have no reason to refuse.”

Hell yeah! A date with a beautiful girl! This was a huge milestone in my life, but I hid my joy behind a poker face.

“In that case, I’ll take you up on your offer, Estelle. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Mm. It’s a wonderful place, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy your time there.”

Ugh. I guess I’m the only one who thinks this is a date, huh? Oh well.

★★★★★★★★★

After breakfast the next day, I headed back to my room to rest for a while. Two hours later, Estelle dropped by to pick me up. She led me to a part of the city I’d never been to before—apparently a residential district where a lot of the locals lived.

“I had no idea that places like this existed in this city,” I said.

“The dungeon is the city’s main industry, but many of the people who support that industry have families here,” said Estelle. “There are also people who seldom interact with adventurers. It seems the residential areas were purposely separated from the city proper in order to prevent conflicts between ordinary citizens and adventurers.”

“Oh, I see. That makes perfect sense. A lot of adventures are basically thugs.”

Most of the adventurers here, being adventurers Rank 4 and above, were decent people, but given the nature of their profession, they tended to look really tough. Adonix-san and the guys in his party were all friendly dudes, but I was pretty sure that they could have made a kid cry just by standing nearby. In fact, Estelle and I, who could both blend in with ordinary people if we wore casual clothes, were rare exceptions among adventurers. Estelle stood out in a different way, though.

“I guess a bathhouse in this section of the city wouldn’t cater to adventurers,” I said.

“Some adventurers drop by on their days off, and I happen to be one of them,” said Estelle. “Oh, look—we’re almost there.”

I looked where Estelle was pointing and saw a moderately large two-story building. The main thing that made it stand out was the chimney on top, but apart from that, it seemed pretty normal. The fact that it wasn’t fancy honestly made it look more welcoming, though.

“This looks pretty ordinary,” I said.

“Precisely,” said Estelle. “I told you that it’s nowhere near as deluxe as you might imagine from its name, and I’m sure you understand what I mean now.” She smiled at me. “Let’s get going.”

The entrance had separate sections for men and women. I’d been well aware that this wasn’t mixed bathing, but I hadn’t anticipated that I’d have to part ways with Estelle at the entrance.

“Will you be fine on your own, Sai? Do you know what to do?”

“Please, you don’t have to worry about me—I’m not a kid. Besides, I can just ask people for help if there’s something I don’t understand.”

“I suppose that’s true. In that case, see you later, Sai.”

“Y-Yeah! See you later, Estelle!”

A promise to meet up later—perfect! Now I don’t have to worry about people giving me weird looks if I wait here! I smiled and waved at Estelle as I watched her walk off.

After she disappeared into the women’s section, I took a look around. Although the entry area was split into two sections, it was plenty spacious. I saw a couple of benches where people could stop and rest, and there was free drinking water too. That in itself definitely made this place a little bit deluxe, since water wasn’t usually free in this world. Some bathhouses back on Earth had large rest areas and food for customers who’d finished bathing, but obviously there was no point in wishing for too much here.

I gently shook my head and walked toward the men’s section. Right inside was the counter where you paid.

“Uh, let’s see. How much is the fee...?”

“Oh, is this your first time here?” asked the guy behind the counter. “The fee is two large silver coins.”

I felt like that was on the expensive end, but it didn’t seem like he had any reason to lie to me, so I placed two large silver coins on the counter.

“Okay. Here you go.”

“Cheers. Here’s your key.” He handed me a wooden key that was on a strap so you could wear it around your neck. “You can use it to open the locker with the corresponding number.”

Oh, I’ve seen something similar to this before. I guess it should be pretty easy to use.

“Okay. Thank you.”

I took the key and walked through the men’s section until I arrived at a changing room full of lockers. It wasn’t even noon yet, so there weren’t many people inside, but there were a few. I followed their example and took off my clothes, put them in my locker, then walked on with just a towel in my hands. The first thing I came across was a washroom.

“...Oh, I guess I’m supposed to wash off here first. There’s hot water too, although I guess that’s to be expected considering the fee.”

Specifically, here was a large basin filled with hot water as well as some smaller buckets to scoop it with.

“Okay, this is kind of lukewarm, but I guess there’s no point in complaining.”

As a former Japanese person, I washed pretty fastidiously, so I wasn’t too dirty, but I still splashed myself with some hot water and scrubbed myself with the towel. Then I walked on and entered an area where the air was thick with steam.

“I guess I’m about to find out what a steam room is like.”

There was a structure here that looked like a small room surrounded by boards. The flooring was duckboard with some benches on top of it. A few guys were sitting on the benches, bathing in the steam that rose through the duckboard. A little ways beyond this room, I saw another washroom, so apparently you were meant to wash yourself again in there after you sat in the steam here.

“Okay, here goes... Hmm. This feels kind of different from a sauna.”

The moment I sat down on an open bench, my whole body was wet. It was hot, but it wasn’t as suffocatingly hot as a sauna; it was actually pretty comfortable. I was definitely sweating, but the steam washed everything away, so it was hard for me to tell my own sweat from the condensation.

“...Okay, that should do it.”

I stood up and walked over to the washroom to splash myself off with lukewarm water. Okay, yeah, that is refreshing. This was a rare opportunity, so I headed back into the steam room and sat down again to enjoy it one more time.

“Yeah, this feels perfect for me. This has gotta be better for your body than a sauna.”

Usually, right after you left a sauna, you had to get into a cold bath, and I was pretty sure that process was bad for your heart. I’d never really understood why some people recommended half-body baths or saunas as healthy options. Oh well. Everyone has their own preferences. I guess you just have to go with whatever suits you best.

“Man, this feels great, but I guess I should probably head out now so that I don’t end up making Estelle wait for me.”

I washed off with lukewarm water again. On my way to the exit, I saw another giant basin full of water. When I touched it, it felt cooler than the water I’d just used.

“Hmm. This must be optional.”

I glanced around and noticed that only half of the other people were actually splashing themselves off with this water. I was a bit hot, so I splashed myself twice, then headed to the changing room.

“Uh, this should be it, right?”

There was nowhere for people to dry their hair or groom themselves. The price for this entire experience was two large silver coins, which could easily cover up to four meals at a cheap eatery, but...

“Is this expensive or cheap? I honestly can’t tell...”

Back in Japan, I would definitely have found that price to be too high, but it was hard to evaluate by this world’s standards. After exiting the locker room, I sat down on one of the benches near the entrance to think for a bit.

“Some dining halls give you free water, so I should probably factor that in too.”

I grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and took a sip, then paused to cool it with the Freeze spell before taking a second. The water was delicious, especially since I’d just gotten out of a bath. In the towns I’d passed through on the way to the dungeon city, there were some places that had charged money for foul-tasting water, probably partly due to their locations—wells weren’t easily accessible everywhere.

Ivalia, though, apparently had an abundant supply of water relative to other towns and cities. You had free use of the wells at inns, and plenty of dining halls offered water for free, which I really appreciated, since I usually didn’t consume alcohol.

I slowly sipped from my cup and spaced out a bit as I watched people pass by. It was honestly kind of a luxury being able to spend some time relaxing and people-watching while most commoners were hard at work. I would honestly have come back and paid another two large silver coins for this experience.

“But no cost is too high to do things with Estelle.”

Suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me. “What do you mean?”

I flinched, and when I spun around, I saw Estelle, fresh from the bath. Her face was a bit flushed, and her hair was tied up, so the back of her neck was visible. She looked kind of sexy, and I blushed too.

“Oh, n-nothing! M-More importantly, did you know that water here is drinkable?”

“Huh?” said Estelle. “Yes, of course. I’ve been here plenty of times before, after all.”

“O-Oh, right.”

Estelle had a puzzled look on her face, but I turned my back on her and went to get myself some more complimentary water. I stopped and took a deep breath to calm down, then filled another cup, cooled it with Freeze, and walked back to Estelle.

“Oh, did you freeze this for me? Thank you very much. I am feeling a bit hot... I can cool water myself, but freezing it is a bit difficult.”

“Ice water right after a bath tastes really good, so I figured you’d enjoy it,” I said. “I can also make some actual ice cubes if you want, Estelle.”

“Really? I’ll take you up on that offer the next time we come back here together.”

“Sure! Feel free to invite me whenever,” I said. “I’d love to come back—this place is really nice!”

Honestly, I’d fallen in love with it the moment I saw it. If Estelle would invite me, I wouldn’t have minded coming here daily.

“So what should we do next?” I asked. “Do you want to just head back to the inn and get lunch?”

“Hmm. That’s not a bad option, but there’s actually a dining hall I drop by whenever I come to this bathhouse. I quite like their food, although I’m not sure it’ll suit your tastes, Sai.”

“Oh, really? Well, I’d be curious to find out. If you like it, I assume there’s no way the food is bad.”

Don’t worry, Estelle! I can just force myself to enjoy the food even if it isn’t my kind of thing! All that matters is the chance to spend more time with you!

“Do you, now?” said Estelle. “In that case, let’s head there together. I’ll lead the way.”

“Thanks. I’m looking forward to it.”

As she strode ahead and I followed right on her heels, I did a little fist pump.

★★★★★★★★★

After two or three minutes walking through a section of the city that adventurers usually stayed away from, we arrived at a dining hall that had a serene ambience. It was still somewhat early in the morning, so there were only a few customers inside, and none of them looked like adventurers. They were mostly women—maybe that was the clientele the menu was targeted at.

“Hello. Do you have a table for two available?” Estelle asked the hostess.

“We do! Please have a seat over there.”

When we took our seats at the table the waitress had indicated, I glanced at the menu posted on the wall, but...

“Hmm, none of this looks familiar to me. Have you already decided what you’re going to order, Estelle?”

“Yes, I have. It’s possible that the dishes I have in mind won’t be enough for you, however.”

“Nah, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Whatever you get, please just order the same for me. I want to try out the kind of food that you like, Estelle.”

“Really? Very well, then. What about drinks? Are you interested in alcohol?”

“Sure, why not? Can I just go with your recommendation for drinks too?”

“Of course. In that case, let’s order some wine to celebrate our day off.”

Estelle gently raised a hand to summon a waitress over and began to order. She was obviously pretty familiar with this place. The waitress seemed relaxed and friendly too, so they must have known each other. Looking at Estelle and me sitting together, she smiled, then asked us to wait a moment and strode off.

“Now that I think about it, you usually don’t drink, do you, Estelle?”

“I don’t, no. I don’t hate alcohol by any means, but I was a solo adventurer. I’m not sure whether I should say this, but it’s dangerous to overindulge around other adventurers.”

“Oh yeah, I get what you mean.”

Man, the idea of a beautiful girl like Estelle getting drunk by herself at a bar really scares me. I bet even adventurers who are good guys under normal circumstances might be tempted to stray from the straight and narrow if they saw a girl like Estelle in that state.

“Something horrible could happen to me,” Estelle was saying. “Being robbed would actually be one of the better outcomes.”

“...I guess I can’t let my guard down either,” I said.

At first, Estelle just cocked her head in confusion. “Huh? You’re a guy, Sai, so—oh.” As she examined my face, she covered her mouth.

“I know what you’re thinking, so please don’t say any more, Estelle.”

Estelle colored and quickly averted her eyes. “O-Oh, yeah, okay. Be careful, Sai.”

Initially, she’d had the wrong idea about the relationship between me and Adonix-san’s party, so she must have been pretty knowledgeable about that kind of thing. Luckily for me, my ass remained safe and pure, but I had parted ways with Adonix-san’s party, so I had to protect myself and stay on high alert at all times. People would be way less likely to save me than they would a girl.

After we’d been chatting for a bit, the dishes we’d ordered arrived, but...

“Oh yeah, I understand now why you thought that this wouldn’t be enough for me,” I said.

The platters on our table contained mostly vegetable dishes. All of them looked like they’d been made with care, and they looked tasty too, but compared to the kind of stuff adventurers ate, they didn’t look all that satisfying.

“Mm. They’re also somewhat expensive because of the fresh vegetables,” said Estelle. “In Ivalia, unlike in other towns, meat is cheaper than vegetables. Would you like to order some additional dishes, Sai? There are some meat options if you’d like...”

“Nah, no need,” I said. “I’m not a big eater by any means, and I don’t hate vegetables either, so this is fine with me.”

“Really? I’m glad to hear that.”

“Besides, once we get back to the inn, we’ll have plenty of meat for dinner.”

A somewhat heavy-sounding sigh escaped Estelle’s lips.

“Yes, you’re right. The amount of meat served there is a bit much for me, especially for breakfast. The Independence is a good inn with affordable single rooms, but I really wish there were other options for meals.”

A single meal at The Independence was enough to satisfy your average muscular dude, so honestly, clearing a whole plate was a struggle for me too, especially given the lack of veggies. I guess that’s one of the reasons that Estelle is a regular patron of this dining hall.

“Sadly, there aren’t any better inns for a solo adventurer,” said Estelle. “Although, actually, we’re a party of two now, so...”

Estelle suddenly fell silent and stared down at her food. It was easy to guess what she had been about to say, but I couldn’t just ask her if she wanted to move to a room for two at a different inn. Sure, I get it’s a little wimpy, but from my point of view, sharing a room at an inn is basically the same as living together as a couple! There’s no way a normal high school boy could suggest something like that to a girl he hadn’t even confessed to! Only a real womanizer could pull that off casually! I considered myself a man of integrity, so I just played dumb and nonchalantly grabbed a cup of wine.

“F-For now, l-let’s toast!” I said.

“S-Sure,” said Estelle.

Oh, uh, I guess both of us are flustered. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down before speaking up again.

“Okay. To our first successful dungeon expedition.”

“Cheers. To our continued adventures together.”

Estelle and I raised our cups of wine, then gently clinked them together.

★★★★★★★★★

We fought our way past the goblins on the tenth and eleventh floor with relative ease. From the twelfth floor onward, the most common monsters were howling wolves and grotto wolves. The latter were somewhat smaller, but both varieties had blackish fur, so in the darkness of the dungeon, raiding parties—usually a bunch of grotto wolves led by a howling wolf—were hard to deal with.

We’d already cleared this floor back when we were trapped in the dungeon, though, so we knew how to deal with the wolves. Their fur was valuable and easy to transport, and the magicites of the howling wolves were worth about two gold apiece. Just in case the guild’s investigation didn’t turn up the room we’d found, we spent some time hunting wolves as a backup source of income. After two days of that, we arrived at the area outside the boss room.

“I’m kind of curious about what your blessing might cause this time, Sai,” said Estelle.

“Nah, there’s no way it’ll trigger again. I bet we’ll just end up facing off against a normal reptila.”

Still, I was a little nervous as I opened the door to peek inside. All I saw was an empty room, though.

“...Did my blessing spawn a different kind of monster?”

Specifically, I was concerned about some kind of slime or spider, so I took another look around just in case, but Estelle gave me a pat on the shoulder and pulled me back, then swung the door wide.

“If there’s nothing inside, I imagine it’s because the boss has yet to respawn,” she said.

Estelle illuminated the boss room with her lantern, but the light failed to reveal any traces of monsters anywhere, including on the ceiling and the walls.

“Yeah, I guess there really is nothing,” I said. “Is stuff like this common?”

“Well, bosses don’t respawn for a while after they’re slain. That much is nothing unusual,” said Estelle. “And there may not be many opportunities to defeat this boss—if there are any adventurers who primarily work between the sixteenth and twentieth floors, they probably slay it routinely.”

“Does that mean we just had bad luck last time?”

“Maybe, but there’s also the possibility that the boss simply hasn’t respawned since the last time we cleared this floor.”

Well, I have no idea what the usual respawn rate is for bosses, but it’s only been a little over a month since we were trapped in the dungeon. If the rate scales with a boss’s strength, I guess it’s possible that it could take multiple months for one to respawn.

“Wait a second, Estelle. In that case, what about the boss room on the twentieth floor? Won’t it be really bad for us if that room is empty by the time we get there?”

Even if we managed to reach the boss room before our opponents, there would be no point if it was empty, and if the respawn rate stretched out into weeks, we couldn’t just camp out in front of the boss room waiting for it. Whether or not we got the chance to fight it when it did finally respawn would come down to chance. If the respawn rate was a few months, that would be plenty of time for Broze and his servant to return, so depending on the timing, they might be in the ideal position to challenge and beat the boss before us.

But when I explained my concerns, Estelle just smiled like she was trying to put me at ease. “I don’t think there’s any need to worry about that as long as no other adventurers are purposely trying to hinder us. In addition, the guild has set up a teleportation device on the twenty-first floor of the dungeon, so high-rank adventurers simply skip all the way to the twenty-first floor, and low-rank adventurers only explore up to the eighth.”

According to Estelle, the monsters that adventurers could encounter from the ninth to the twentieth floors of the dungeon weren’t really the most efficient sources of income. A lot of them were pretty valuable individually, but the deeper you went into the dungeon, the farther you got from the city above, so it became more and more challenging to haul materials back—especially things like meat that could spoil.

Magic bags solved a lot of those problems, but most of the adventurers who had magic bags were higher in rank and made their money exploring the floors after the twenty-first. As a result, low-rank adventurers who were content just making a living stuck to the floors closer to the surface. Only the adventurers who wanted to get stronger and eventually tackle the twenty-first floor went beyond the ninth.

“Essentially, adventurer parties who want to explore the dungeon beyond the twenty-first floor are the only ones who challenge the boss of the twentieth floor,” said Estelle. “Large groups of stronger goblin variants aren’t worth much relative to the effort required to slay them, so few adventurers go out of their way to take them on multiple times. That’s one of the reasons I chose defeating the boss of the twentieth floor as a victory condition.”

“Oh, okay. I guess you planned everything out thoroughly.”

“Of course. This is a match that I absolutely can’t afford to lose, so I discussed the details with Elvira-san in advance in order to make sure we can achieve victory without cheating. That said, please don’t let your guard down.”

“Yeah, got it. I could never forgive myself if we lost due to complacency, so you can count on me.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Thank you for working so hard to help me, Sai.”

Please don’t look at me in such a purehearted and innocent way, Estelle. You’re making me feel bad. As she held my gaze, I accidentally let my true feelings slip out. “O-Oh, don’t worry about it. I have my own personal reasons for working hard...”

But Estelle didn’t seem to mind; she just laughed. “That actually makes you sound more trustworthy than if you’d claimed to be helping me out of the kindness of your heart. And in any case, I know that you’ve been working far harder than Broze...”

“Huh? Wh-What do you mean?”

Do I actually have a chance? Is she into me?

But Estelle danced around that question. “Depending on your efforts, you may be able to learn the answer...eventually,” she said with a teasing giggle.

Her reaction left me feeling really motivated, and I eagerly strode into the boss room.

“Okay! Let’s hurry, Estelle!”

Don’t get ahead of yourself just yet, Sai! You’ve still got a long way to go! As long as the hare doesn’t slack off and take a nap, he can still beat the tortoise! I dashed through the boss room, accompanied by Estelle’s cheerful laughter, but as I placed my hands on the door to the sixteenth floor, I paused.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Sai?”

“Oh, nothing. I just got a bit nostalgic after everything we’ve been through.”

It was in this room, not too long ago, that I had finally earned Estelle’s trust after the battle with the armed reptila. I’d leaped into the boss room ready to face death. Now, the situation had turned around completely—I believed there was a bright future beyond that door. Would forming a party with Estelle have gone as smoothly if we’d just fought a normal reptila?

“Now that I think about it, maybe my blessing has actually been a net positive so far,” I said.

“Oh, are you talking about your spear?” Estelle nodded to herself. “It certainly has been useful. A high-quality weapon is essential for combat.”

She’d reached her own conclusion, so I just nodded back, unable to say what I really meant, then opened the door and started down the stairs to the next floor.

“That said, if your blessing were to activate constantly, it could quickly become overwhelming, so I hope it allows us some breaks,” Estelle added.

“Honestly, my blessing probably played some role in us encountering an armed reptila and a hidden room, but I think those were mostly coincidences,” I said. “Like, the boss room on the fifteenth floor turned out to be completely empty.”

The description of my blessing on my status screen was pretty ambiguous—it was hard to tell whether or not it actually improved my financial luck. But if it did trigger frequently, then proper blessings were probably even more beneficial than I’d imagined when I chose it.

“I guess we’ve had some rare outcomes twice in a row, so maybe—”

I cut myself off when I suddenly heard a sound reverberating through the stairwell.

“...Can you still chalk it up to coincidence if it happens three times in a row, Sai?”

“No, trust me, it’s really not my fau— Actually, it might be my fault this time.”

Estelle stared at my left hand, which was flat against the wall beside the stairs.

“Hold on, Estelle... Aren’t the stairs between floors supposed to be safe areas?!”

“Not necessarily. There have been cases in which traps were discovered in passageways between floors. However...”

Estelle stood still and took a careful look around. When nothing else happened, a confused expression appeared on her face.

“Maybe that was a sound from elsewhere in the dungeon that had nothing to do with us?” she suggested.

“Yeah, maybe. We could also just be imagining things—”

I carefully pulled my left hand back from the wall, and the same sound echoed through the passageway again.

“Something seems to have changed,” said Estelle.

From the wall where I’d placed my hand, there was a sound like a lock disengaging, and a squarish indentation like a handle sank into the stone.

“Wh-What should we do, Estelle?”

Estelle looked at me as if that were a stupid question. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“...Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

When adventurers discovered something new, they only had one option as long as it didn’t seem too dangerous. I gave the indentation a careful look over, then reached into it.

“I probably just have to press this, right? Here goes nothing.”

When I pressed the handle, a section of wall began to move smoothly, forming something like a swing door. It was big enough for one person to pass through at a time, and ahead, there was a narrow passageway.

“It looks like there’s a faint light at the end of the passageway,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Mm. Be careful.”

I couldn’t detect any monsters, but I held my spear at the ready as I entered the passageway. As it turned out, though, it was only about ten meters long, and soon, we arrived outside of a small room. In the middle of the floor was a circle that glowed softly.

“That must be the light I saw earlier,” I said. “It’s a magic circle, right?”

The room was a cube, about three meters on each side. The magic circle was about two meters in diameter, so it took up most of the floor. I made sure not to step on it as I entered the room.

Estelle looked a bit surprised as she glanced over my shoulder. “Oh, Sai, I believe that’s a return device.”

“Return devices let you teleport out of a dungeon, right?”

“That’s right. You may recall that there’s a teleportation device on the twentieth floor.”

“Oh yeah—the thing we need to reach to beat Broze.”

“Precisely. The Adventurers’ Guild sets up teleportation devices to allow adventurers to enter and exit dungeons at will. The trouble is that they’re expensive to maintain. Return devices, however, are created by the dungeon itself. They’re one way—they only allow adventurers to teleport out of the dungeon—but they don’t have to be maintained.”

“Okay, but what does all of that mean?”

“It means that this will have a significant impact on everyone exploring this dungeon. In fact, it may entirely change the way adventurers approach it!”

Estelle explained that the majority of the low-rank adventurers in Ivalia purposely worked on the first to eighth floors. Once people found out there was a return device on the fifteenth floor, things would probably change a lot. Any adventurers who were at least strong enough to defeat reptilas could get to this point, then teleport out of the dungeon without having to waste time and resources fighting their way back to the entrance.

“I guess this is something we should report to the guild, right?”

“Of course!” Estelle exclaimed. “It isn’t particularly valuable to us, but it’s much more important to the guild than the hidden room. This might even earn you a promotion, Sai.”

“Dang, that’d be pretty nice.”

It made sense that Estelle was three ranks higher than me, since she’d been adventuring longer, but the size of the gap had been in the back of my mind for a while now.

“So should we hurry back and report this immediately?”

“No. First, let’s conduct some tests ourselves. It’ll be a problem if the guild can’t locate this device when they send their people to investigate.”

“Yeah, good point. Unlike the hidden room, this one has a door, so maybe we can figure out how it works.”

We had no idea how to close the passageway to the hidden room, and there might not even be a way. The wall here just turned into a swing door, though, so it seemed like it should be possible to close it again. We walked back out to the stairs, and I put my hand into the squarish depression again and gave it a pull. The door closed with a faint click.

“Oh, the door and the passageway disappeared,” I said. “So did the handle.”

At this point, the door was almost impossible to distinguish from the other sections of wall nearby. After I took my hand off of the wall, it became completely indistinguishable.

“Can you open it again, Sai?”

“I’ll give it a shot,” I said. “Let’s see what happens if I touch the same place—yeah, okay, it retracted again.”

“If the door opens whenever you put your hand in that handle, it should be possible to reproduce these results,” said Estelle. “But how to mark the specific location?”

We spent a little time walking up and down the stairs and conducting tests. In the end, we discovered that the handle appeared when you paused on the step in the exact middle of the stairs between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors and touched the wall sixty centimeters above the step. It worked the same way when Estelle touched it, so probably anyone could activate the door. Mana seemed like the only precondition to opening the secret passage.

“All right, I believe we now have enough information for a detailed report to the guild,” said Estelle. “I imagine they’ll praise us for our hard work.”

“Yeah. I’m kind of confused about why nobody has ever managed to find this before, though,” I said. “All you need to do is touch the wall...”

“Hmm. At the moment, I have two hypotheses,” said Estelle. “The first is that you may have to spawn and defeat a special boss like the armed reptila before you can trigger the door. I have no idea what conditions are required to spawn the reptila, however.”

There were all kinds of conditions that might have been relevant—maybe an adventurer had to reach a certain floor or slay a certain number of reptilas beforehand, or maybe it was purely random—but we didn’t have any actual evidence for any of those possibilities, so it sounded like Estelle’s first hypothesis was off the mark.

“The second is that it was simply a coincidence—that none of the adventurers who have come this way before have ever touched the specific place where the mechanism is concealed,” Estelle concluded.

“Is that really plausible, though?”

It wasn’t like I knew the history of this dungeon in detail, but Ivalia had grown up around it and become famous as a dungeon city, so the dungeon was obviously really important to the local economy. There had to have been countless adventurers who’d passed by this spot. It was hard for me to believe that none of them had ever touched the wall where I had.

“I believe it’s plausible. The handle is located in an inconvenient place.”

“Oh, you mean because so few adventurers explore these floors at all? I mean, I guess that makes sense, but...”

“Yes, that’s one way of looking at it.”

I cocked my head at Estelle’s choice of words. “One way? What do you mean?”

She just laughed at my reaction. “I’m talking about the exact spot on the wall. For example, Sai, do you think someone like Adonix-san would have accidentally touched the wall right there?”

“Uh, I guess not...”

I was under 160 centimeters tall, which bothered me a little. Adonix-san, though, was massive—definitely over 180 centimeters and possibly close to 200. He wouldn’t have been likely to touch the wall low down, and the majority of adventurers were a lot closer in height to him than they were to me. Even female adventurers, who made up only a small fraction of all adventurers, were mostly taller than me.

“...Well, results are all that matter in the end,” I said. “We don’t know exactly what led to this discovery.”

“It’s true—even if your blessing played a role, we’ll probably never know for certain,” said Estelle.

“...Okay, let’s head back to the guild and report what we found here!”

Estelle just laughed at that, so I urged her to hurry as I headed back inside the room with the return device. This magic circle isn’t going to, like, summon a demon, is it? I know I can trust Estelle, but...

“Uh, Estelle, are you sure this is a return device? What if it’s actually a trap and it teleports us somewhere else in the dungeon?”

“There are teleportation traps in some dungeons, but they’re generally hidden so that you don’t notice them before stepping on them. This is the first time I’ve seen a return device in person, but I have difficulty imagining that something this conspicuous could be a trap.”

“G-Got it...”

Estelle giggled. “If you’re that scared, would you like to hold hands?”

She was probably just teasing me, but...

“Yeah, actually, let’s.”

Even if it wasn’t very likely, I absolutely wanted to avoid getting separated from Estelle at this point.

Estelle looked surprised at how quickly I’d answered, but she smiled and took my hand.

“Very well. Let’s hop into the circle together on the count of three.”

It kind of felt like Estelle was treating me like a kid, but I was willing to put up with it. I didn’t want to end up stranded by myself deep in the dungeon again, and I probably wouldn’t be fortunate enough to meet someone like her again. I nodded back at her, and we stepped into the return circle at the same time.

★★★★★★★★★

“Oh, hello again. I don’t suppose your party found another hidden room?”

We had reserved a conference room at the guild, and the guild, assuming we’d be most comfortable around someone we were familiar with, had assigned us the same staffer. The moment he joined us in the conference room, he was all smiles and jokes, but...

“Yes, that’s correct,” said Estelle.

The staffer’s face froze up. “Huh?”

“Rather than a treasure chest, we found a return device this time,” said Estelle.

“Huh? What?”

“After conducting some tests of our own, we determined how to open the passageway leading to the hidden room so that anyone can use the return device, and—”

The staffer interrupted Estelle with an incredulous half smile. “W-Wait just a moment! You t-truly found a return device?”

When we both nodded, his expression turned serious. He sat up straight and said, “I-I see. And where did you find this return device? Based on what I know of your circumstances, I assume it was somewhere before the twentieth floor, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right,” said Estelle. “We found the passageway that led to the return device in the middle of the stairs beyond the fifteenth floor boss room.”

“Really?! If what you say is true, it may entirely change how adventurers approach this dungeon! Relocating the teleportation device on the twenty-first floor may even be warranted, and—”

“Huh?! Uh, that would be kind of bad for us,” I put in. “Like, it would directly affect the match that we signed a contract for...”

The condition we’d agreed on was that the first party that made it to the teleportation device on the twenty-first floor would win. If there was no teleportation device, there would be no way for us to beat Broze.

But the guild staffer just smiled and shook his head as if to say we had nothing to worry about.

“Have no fear—this would not happen immediately. If the guild concludes that it is desirable to shift the teleportation device, we will install a new device deeper within the dungeon before removing the one on the twenty-first floor. Considering your party has already reached the sixteenth floor, you should have adequate time to reach the twentieth.”

“Oh, I get it,” I said. “I guess it’d be really inconvenient for other adventurers if they suddenly lost the ability to use the teleportation device on the twenty-first floor.”

“Indeed—it would directly impact their daily income. The guild would not benefit from adventurers dying as a result of taking unnecessary risks. We will be cautious about any changes we choose to implement.”

If the guild planned to remove the teleportation device on the twenty-first floor after another was installed on a deeper floor—say, the thirty-first—then adventurers who’d earned the right to use the device on the twenty-first floor would probably take all kinds of risks to get access to the one on the thirty-first floor during the short grace period. One potential solution to that problem would be to grant all of them the right to use the device on the thirty-first floor, but that would come with its own risks.

I guess the guild could just stop issuing the right to use the device on the twenty-first floor immediately after installing the new one on the thirty-first floor or wherever, then wait for a certain set interval before removing the old device.

I had no idea how the guild planned to approach this issue, but regardless, it didn’t seem like it was going to happen quickly, so there was probably enough time for us to clear five more floors.

“Essentially, we can’t afford to advance slowly, but if we maintain a normal pace, we should still make it in time, correct?” Estelle asked.

“Correct! Incidentally, if the guild is able to verify the existence of the return device, I believe it should be possible to arrange a promotion for Sai-san. This would constitute a very significant contribution to the guild, after all.”

“That’d be pretty nice. What about Estelle, though?”

I was curious about why the staffer hadn’t mentioned her, but he and Estelle both shook their heads.

“You can’t get to Rank 6 that easily, Sai,” said Estelle.

“She will be closer to a promotion, but I’m afraid it won’t happen immediately.”

“Oh, okay. I was just curious,” I said. “By the way, what happened to the hidden room on the tenth floor?”

It hadn’t even been two weeks, but I figured the guild had to have made some progress toward finding it.

The guild staffer knit his brow, though. “Unfortunately, the guild has thus far been unable to find a way to open the passageway leading to the hidden room, so the investigation is ongoing.”

“So does that mean we won’t be exempt from the taxes on the magic bag?” I asked.

“Oh, rest assured, there’s no need to worry about that. When the guild dispatched a team of scouts, the passageway was open, so we were able to verify the existence of the hidden room. However, when we sent another team to investigate, it had disappeared. Do you have any guesses as to how your party was able to open the passageway?”

I was really relieved after the guild staffer assured us we still qualified for the tax exemption. I sifted through my memories for any potential clues about the passageway, but...

“It seemed to appear out of nowhere when we walked by,” said Estelle. “Right, Sai?”

“Yeah. We didn’t really do anything special,” I said. “Oh, wait, I have an idea—what if we can’t actually open the passageway again until the treasure chest in the hidden room respawns?”

“Oh, I suppose that’s possible,” said the staffer. “In that case, it might be a good idea to pause our investigation and shift to sending teams to check the location at intervals. Thank you for your suggestion. Also...”

The staffer paused for a moment, like he felt hesitant about continuing for some reason, then asked us to wait and left the conference room.

“Any guesses about why he suddenly left?” I asked Estelle.

“Frankly, I have no idea. It would be wonderful if we received a cash reward for our discovery, however.”

“Does the guild actually hand out cash rewards to adventurers?”

“Yes, but only in cases in which they’ve furnished the guild with useful information. Even then, the guild usually waits until they’ve confirmed the validity of the information. It’s possible that he’s going to talk to someone who does investigative work for the guild.”

This time, we had brought back detailed information about how to find and open a hidden passageway, and Estelle seemed to think that it would be better for the guild staffer to relay that information directly to an investigator instead of passing a message along.

But when the staffer returned to the conference room shortly afterward, he was alone, and he brought up something neither of us had anticipated.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, and I know this is very sudden, but would your party be willing to guide one of the guild’s investigators directly to the return device? The guild will treat this as an official request and reward you accordingly upon completion, of course.”

If we accepted this request, it would cost us a lot of time. We technically could reach the location of the return device within a few days if we rushed and worked hard on our own, but we had no idea how much extra time it would take if an investigator from the guild was accompanying us. Estelle and I stared at each other, then turned to stare at the staffer.

“Just as a reminder, we have an important reason for wanting to reach the twenty-first floor of the dungeon as soon as possible,” I said.

“I’m well aware of that, of course, but I believe your victory is almost certain. Your opponents apparently lashed out at staffers of a guild branch in another town and attempted to purchase promotions. These are severe infringements, and as a result, they ended up with the equivalent of negative ranks.”

“...Wait, seriously?”

I wasn’t sure if the guild staffer had permission to tell us about something like this, but he just smiled and shrugged like he was mocking Broze and his second.

“That’s correct. At the moment, they’re reluctantly engaged in cleaning ditches, and having antagonized the guild directly, they will not be permitted to rank up in the near future. Circular letters have been distributed in nearby towns as well, and realistically, they don’t have the time to journey to a faraway town, so there’s no easy way for them to escape their predicament.”

Promotions weren’t easy to achieve here in Ivalia, and the same applied to nearby towns, so it sounded like it would be impossible for Broze to achieve Rank 2 for a few months.

“I guess that means we do have some leeway,” I said. “Can we please have a moment to discuss this?”

“Of course. Feel free to take your time.”

We walked away from the staffer and lowered our voices to confer.

“So what should we do, Estelle?”

“I think accepting the quest would be the best course of action—both for your sake and to improve our reputation with the guild.”

“Well, I appreciate that you’re looking out for me, but everything going on with you is way more important!”

Apparently, if you wanted to work your way up through the ranks, it was important to take on quests issued directly by the guild. The quests themselves were a measure of the guild’s trust, and you could make a lot of progress toward ranking up by completing them. Still, I was pretty sure I could make progress anyway just by working hard, and Estelle mattered a lot more to me than a potential promotion, so I wanted to finish our contest with Broze before anything else.

“I appreciate the thought, Sai, but I can wait. Besides, the staffer told us that we have some leeway, so there’s no need to hurry.”

“Are you sure, Estelle?”

“Yes. After all, between a Rank 5 adventurer and an adventurer with a negative rank, it’s obvious whom the guild will prioritize.”

It sounds like there’s a pretty extreme disparity in treatment on the basis of rank, and bad conduct prevents people from ranking up no matter how strong they are. It’s not a bad system, especially from my perspective, since I’m not particularly strong. It probably helps other adventurers who work hard too.

“In that case, I guess we should accept the quest, huh?” I asked.

Estelle nodded, and we turned to face the staffer again.

“Okay. We’ll accept the guild’s request to guide an investigator to the hidden room,” I said.

The staffer smiled. “Thank you very much. I will keep you informed whenever the guild obtains new information about your opponents.”

Oh, man, I guess ranks really do affect how you get treated! If this is going to earn us that many favors, I’m totally down. It sounded like Broze and his servant had no one but themselves to blame for how things were turning out, and I felt no pity for them.

“The investigator will exit the dungeon via the return device, so it will be sufficient for you to guide him one way. Afterward, you are free to continue exploring or to exit the dungeon yourselves. If the investigator is able to confirm the existence of the return device and your method of opening the hidden passageway, the guild will furnish a cash reward.”

He must have overheard what we were discussing earlier. Estelle and I laughed, and then all three of us began discussing the details of the quest, like when we’d depart and which investigator would accompany us.

The staffer seemed impressed with us—after we’d finished our conversation, he murmured, “I must say, your party clearly has the kind of luck that is necessary to succeed as adventurers. In fact, you remind me of the kinds of adventurers who seem almost blessed by the gods. They appear only rarely, but they invariably make discoveries that push the front line even deeper into the dungeon.”

“Oh, really?” I asked.

“Indeed. I don’t know whether it’s due to prowess or sheer luck, but such adventurers tend to find themselves in extraordinary situations over and over again. Of course, that also means that they frequently end up in dangerous situations, so many never return from the dungeon. Please be careful and don’t rush.”

Estelle and I both nodded.

“Thanks for the advice. We’ll keep that in mind,” said Estelle.

“Yeah, we’ll be careful,” I said.

This staffer must have seen a lot of different adventurers over his career, so his words had a lot of weight.

★★★★★★★★★

Three days later, Estelle and I headed back into the dungeon, accompanied by a guild investigator. He was really competent and gave us a lot of helpful advice outside of combat. By the time we reached the fifteenth floor boss room again, the reptila had respawned, but we easily defeated it and led the investigator to the stairs beyond the boss room. The hidden passageway opened just fine.

In the end, we earned the cash reward we’d been hoping for, and we used that money to upgrade our equipment before heading back into the dungeon. From the sixteenth floor onward, we started running into ripper hares, plus more wolflike monsters. Starting on the eighteenth floor, stronger forms of goblins, like goblin leaders, began showing up too. All of those were monsters we could defeat without too much trouble, but based on the advice the guild staffer had given us, we worked slowly and carefully and made progress over multiple expeditions.

Eventually, we arrived outside the boss room of the twentieth floor. Estelle cracked the door to take a peek, then took a deep breath.

“If we survive, we may become heroes together, Sai,” she told me with a shrug.

“So what I’m hearing is this is going to be a really dangerous battle?”

“Mm-hmm. I saw what looked like a goblin general. Based on the information I’ve gathered, the boss monsters in this room are supposed to be goblin leaders led by a few goblin captains, but...”

“...there’s a goblin general in the mix, huh? I’m assuming from the name that it’s pretty powerful.”

“That’s right. It also happens to be wielding a powerful-looking sword, so in a sense, your luck is holding, Sai.”

This is the fourth time, so I guess I can’t chalk it up to coincidence anymore. Man, I really didn’t think my blessing would be this effective.

“Well, think about it this way, Estelle: The potential rewards for victory have improved, right?”

“Yes, assuming that we successfully slay the goblins.”

Estelle and I exchanged a glance and a laugh, then opened the door to the boss room.

★★★★★★★★★

Estelle and I were once again waiting in a conference room for the same guild staffer. This was the third time we’d come here as a party of two. Normally, we would have chatted to kill time, but at the moment, Estelle was silent, so I kept my mouth shut too.

After thirty minutes, the staffer finally appeared. “I apologize for the wait. The necessary procedures took more time than expected.”

“Oh, it’s all right,” said Estelle. “We’re sorry to have put you through all this trouble.”

“Thank you for your patience. Now then, the guild has confirmed that your party defeated the boss of the twentieth floor and reached the teleportation device on the twenty-first. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” the two of us said in unison.

The group of goblins had been a real challenge, but since we’d known in advance that we would be able to teleport outside the dungeon after defeating them, we hadn’t had to conserve our mana. I’d fought on the front line and distracted the goblins while Estelle blasted them with the full might of her magic. We’d easily vanquished the weaker goblins, and then I’d used my own magic to help Estelle take on the goblin general and captains. In the end, we’d gotten a valuable sword, but that wasn’t why we had dropped by the guild today.

“Thus, I officially declare that this contest, mediated by the guild, has ended with your party’s victory. The guild has contacted your opponents to notify them of the results of the match, but it seems they have refused to concede. Before departing the town where they were working, they abandoned a quest they had accepted without completing it. I will therefore finalize the process on my own authority.”

“They abandoned a quest? Isn’t that really bad?” I asked.

Given that Broze currently had the equivalent of a negative rank, I was kind of curious about what consequences he would suffer.

“Yes, but he probably has no intention of continuing to work as an adventurer,” said Estelle, sounding exasperated. “If he’d worked hard despite his weaknesses, I would have been willing to reconsider my opinion of him, but now... I suppose there’s no point in thinking about it further. However, he comes from the knightly House of Puri, which has no hereditary land—rather, they’ve achieved success through business. That being the case, the situation that Broze has ended up in probably spells disaster for his family...”

The guild staffer nodded and then gave us some additional info. “There is no excuse for his actions. His status as an adventurer will be revoked along with his adventurer card, and he will be banned from the guild permanently. In addition, he apparently threatened that his household would file a formal complaint with the guild. The House of Puri has already been added to the guild’s watch list, but if they proceed with the complaint, the guild will blacklist them.”

He went on to explain that if the House of Puri got blacklisted, they would never be able to do business with the Adventurers’ Guild again. That meant they would lose the ability to purchase materials that adventurers had gathered and also that the guild would refuse to allow them to commission adventurers for escort quests between towns. In addition, the guild was in charge of assigning jobs to day laborers, so being on their blacklist would be even more painful for a mercantile house. You could work around the blacklist by hiring bodyguards yourself or gathering employees of your own, but the House of Puri would be at a huge disadvantage compared to their competitors who still did business with the guild.

“The guild will handle everything by the book regardless of any potential complaints from the House of Puri. The victory condition was discussed and agreed upon by both parties, so any disadvantages that arise due to a lack of knowledge on the part of one party are irrelevant.”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “They agreed to the match because they thought they could win easily.”

Broze had probably agreed to the match under the assumption that he had an advantage: He had a servant who looked pretty strong, and he’d been able to designate me as Estelle’s second. But I was stronger than I looked, and Broze hadn’t been able to enter the dungeon right away, so his plan had completely backfired. He had no one but himself to blame for all the problems he’d had since the start of the match. If he’d just worked hard, he would probably have been able to achieve Rank 2 and enter the dungeon by now, assuming his servant’s rank was high enough.

“Broze doesn’t deserve any sympathy, Sai,” said Estelle. “It was his own foolishness that doomed him.”

“I quite agree with Estelle-san. It is true that the guild provides favorable treatment to high-rank adventurers, but we never provide help exclusively to one side of a match. In any case, let’s continue with the procedure to officially conclude the match. I have brought the object that was promised to the winner. Please inspect it. Do you confirm that this is the prize agreed upon?”

The guild staffer placed a wooden box, small enough to fit in the palm of a person’s hand, on the table in front of us. Handling it with caution, Estelle opened the lid and gasped. When I peeked over her shoulder, I saw a shiny bracelet inside. The color was a mixture of silver and gold. It didn’t have any fancy engravings or gems attached to it, so at first glance, it didn’t appear particularly valuable, but when I took a closer look, I saw that depending on the angle of the light, intricate patterns appeared on the surface. It had a mystical aura that was hard to describe.

“...Yes, this is the correct prize,” said Estelle.

“I see. In that case, please sign the documents here... Thank you.”

After Estelle signed the various documents on the table, the staffer handed one of them to her.

“This document attests that the guild has certified your victory. It also states that you—Estelle-san—are the owner of this bracelet. Please keep it safe.”

Estelle nodded as she accepted the certificate. “I will.”

The guild staffer gathered up the remaining documents and stood. “This concludes the paperwork and procedures pertaining to the contest facilitated by the guild. Congratulations once again. The guild wishes you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”

“Thank you very much,” we said together.

The staffer chuckled quietly and left the room. We watched him go, then looked at the bracelet again.

“So this is the heirloom that was passed down through generations of your family, Estelle?”

“Yes, it’s the bracelet my mother wore. I still can’t understand what my foolish father was thinking when he handed something this important to another household.”

Estelle was clenching her fists. She sounded genuinely angry. As a commoner, I didn’t really have much perspective on the nobility, but since this bracelet was a memento of her late mother, it seemed unforgivable for her dad to have offered it up as collateral for a debt.

And on top of that, he’d treated Estelle herself as a source of income. He was a terrible human being and a terrible parent, and considering he’d ended up in a situation where he’d needed to sell a precious family heirloom, he was obviously too incompetent to handle his responsibilities as the head of his household. It seemed like it would be important for Estelle to take the reins from her father as soon as possible.

But for now, that was all in the future.

“Well, anyway, I’m glad we managed to retrieve your family heirloom,” I said.

“Mm. I was only able to do it with your help, Sai,” said Estelle. “Thank you very much.”

She teared up as she took the bracelet out of the box, handling it as if it were very fragile.

“Don’t worry about it. I had my own reasons for helping you out, after all.”

My short-term goal had been to prevent Estelle from getting married. A secondary objective had been to make a good impression, and based on how happy and grateful she was acting, it looked like I’d succeeded.

Estelle giggled. “I seem to recall that you mentioned that before, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. It’s the truth, and I decided to be frank about it because I’m well aware that I’m not good at hiding stuff.”

I had more or less zero experience with girls, so there was no way I could hide my feelings while adventuring with a beautiful girl like Estelle. As a result, I’d assumed that it would be better for me to be frank about why I wanted to be with her, and I’d tried my best to be honest and gentlemanly.

“Well, anyway, I guess this means we can continue working as adventurers for now,” I said.

This chain of events had started with Estelle telling me she had a problem just a few days after we’d formed a party, when I was still overjoyed at my luck. At first, I’d been at a loss about what to do, but in the end, Estelle had successfully recovered her heirloom, and I had managed to get a bit closer to her. I had become stronger and leveled up as an adventurer too, so there was only one problem left to solve on my end. I took a deep breath, then turned around to meet eyes with Estelle.

“Once again, would you be willing to keep adventuring with me as a party of two, Estelle?”

“Of course, Sai. I’m looking forward to all our adventures together.”

A beaming smile appeared on Estelle’s face as she gently clutched her heirloom to her chest in both hands. Tears of joy sparkled beautifully in the corners of her eyes.

Afterword

It’s already been six years since the first installment of this series, and we’re all the way to volume 12 now. Good heavens, time sure flies! Incidentally, I’m always curious about the etymology of words and phrases like that one. There are plenty of strange phrases in Japanese, especially in classical rakugo. One famous example is Jugemu, but it’d take up too much space if I typed out the entire thing, so feel free to look it up yourself.

Now then: Relatively early in this volume, the Jade Wings party meets up with Nao’s party. I guess that much was obvious from the volume’s cover. I’ve really been wanting to see the three Jade Wings girls on the cover, and I finally got my wish granted. As a sidenote, this is actually the first time that Nao’s party has properly met up with classmates who are also adventurers. Their previous encounters have usually ended on a sour note, but this time, perhaps they’ll be able to form a positive relationship.

This volume also reveals the origin of the name “Jade Wings”! In the side story at the end of the volume, Sai makes his return. Read it and see how his relationship with Estelle is progressing!

But I imagine most readers finished the volume before reading this afterword. In the past, I think a decent number of people may have bought books after reading the afterword, but that’s less likely with ebooks, although they offer other conveniences, like the ability to read a sample of the opening. In any case, Jade Wings doesn’t meet up with Meikyo Shisui in the web version, so I’ll probably end up having to make a lot of adjustments and add new scenes. But that also means I can look forward to seeing more wonderful art of the Jade Wings girls by Nekobyou Neko-san, and I’m definitely looking forward to that!

I should add that I have two new works to announce. 「図書迷宮と心の魔導書」* and 「けもみみ巫女の異世界神社再興記 神様がくれた奇跡の力のせいで祀られすぎて困ってます」** are currently available for purchase from Dragon Novels and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, respectively! I would really appreciate it if you would check these series out. As a sidenote, the latter new series has a very long title compared to most of my other works. It was actually my editor who came up with it. The placeholder title I’d come up with right before release was 「けもみみ巫女」***, so my priorities in writing this series should be pretty obvious! Feel free to dive in if you’re a fellow animal ears enthusiast!

Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the readers who purchased this volume as well as Nekobyou Neko-san and everyone else who contributed to bringing it to publication. I hope you’ll all continue to provide your support in the future.

Itsuki Mizuho

*Literal translation: “Library and Grimoire of the Heart.” Title is not yet licensed in English; this title is not official.

**Literal translation: “The Story of a Shrine Maiden with Animal Ears Reviving a Shrine in Another World.” Title is not yet licensed in English; this title is not official.

***Literal translation: “A Shrine Maiden with Animal Ears.” Title is not yet licensed in English; this title is not official.