arc1 · 010-ep10

Episode 10: The Typed Reply

Once into the latter half of the middle layers, thick stalactite-like rock hanging from the ceiling grew more numerous, and rugged, damp rock faces began jutting in from both sides of the passage, cutting off the view ahead.

From here on, monsters' outer shells thickened all at once—an area where large species roamed that could flatten even a vanguard who met one head-on alone. As Iori pressed on at his quick walk, checking the dampness of the flagstone through his soles, the lens of the body camera at his chest caught two Heavy Shells ahead, heavy footfalls ringing through the passage.

Each one size larger again than the individuals he'd seen in the middle layers two days ago, their bulks sheathed in glossy black thick shell bulged out to the full width of the narrow passage, walling off the way ahead.

『Whoa, this time there's no gap to slip past the side like before!』

『Normally this is where two shield vanguards brace and stop the charge while the rear guard chants long and punches clean through the shell with a big spell, right』

『Solo, there's no gap to chant in—surely this stretch will cost her some time?』

『And it's been brisk-walk since minute one—when exactly does this onee-sama breathe lol』

『My clan's vanguard is watching next to me with her head in her hands going "that footwork's too pretty to learn anything from" lol』

One hand lightly steadying the sway of the big rucksack, Iori measured the two passage-blockers with his eyes.

He'd passed straight by the small species of the upper layers, but at this size, from the middle layers' latter half, the stone quality was decent too, and just the thing for padding out the bottom of a big rucksack. Since he'd be having the road cleared anyway, he decided he'd start collecting stones from here on—and drawing the one-handed sword from his hip, he stepped straight in without a flicker of doubt.

Aware of the prey's approach, the two raised a short "Gugya!" of a roar together, both loading their thick hind legs to lean into a charge.

But faster than those heavy bulks could spring forward, the surface of the flagstones they'd braced upon froze over, white and slippery as a mirror.

On an ice floor laid with no word of a spell spoken, the two pairs of hind legs, mid-kick, slashed hard through empty air and slid out.

As the bulks floated up forward, legs splayed at unnatural angles, into those open guards slipped Iori's swinging one-handed sword and wind blades whose trajectories he'd narrowed to match the opening angles—left and right at once.

The targets weren't the thick shell of their backs, but the soft seams of the joints joining leg to body, left defenselessly exposed as their feet skidded.

The point of the one-handed sword stroked shallow and exact across the right beast's joint; a wind blade gouged sharply through the same seam of the left. The pair, support gone, crashed to the floor with a heavy whump—and into them came Iori on a smooth stride that never stopped a step, punching through each risen neck-seam in turn.

In barely a dozen seconds, the two great bulks dispersed into black mist, leaving two magic stones sitting plonk on the flagstone.

By the time he'd come close, picked them up, and shoved them into the rucksack's side pocket, the monster presence in the passages around had cut out entirely.

"...phew."

He'd walked all the way from the entrance without once stopping for breath, and his throat was a touch dry. Stopping beside the damp rock wall, Iori drew a metal canteen from the rucksack's side pocket and put it to his lips.

The sensation of cool water sliding down his throat was pleasant. After a couple of good swigs and the cap back on, a thought crossed Iori's mind: had the streaming app crashed at some point? For the sake of checking, he drew the terminal out of the holder at his hip for the first time.

The instant the screen lit, his eyes went round despite himself.

"...Huh?"

In the concurrent-viewer field that should have shown nothing but 『1』 or 『2』 in the corner of the screen, there sat an unfamiliar four-digit figure: 『1,420』.

And across the lower half of the screen, strings of text flowed like a waterfall at a speed he'd never once seen.

He thought bug at first—then promptly remembered the conversation at the Explorer's Association counter the day before yesterday.

――Right. Sagimori-san did say I'd been caught on that Tsukishiro girl's stream, and was a bit of a topic.

Doubtless these were people who'd caught interest from that stream and come to see what sort of explorer was doing the diving.

The sheer headcount startled him a little at first—but if all that was happening was his usual exploration being watched through a screen, it wasn't as if his pace would be disturbed, and there was nothing to be troubled by—he relaxed his shoulders almost immediately.

As he was about to slip the terminal back into its holder, his eye caught, mixed into the comment feed ripping past, quite a few posts puzzling over those two Heavy Shells just now—how did the magic land before the charge? How did a one-handed sword get through that thick shell?

Apparently the questions were about how he'd felled them just now.

Chit-chat and talk of his own life held no interest for Iori, but being asked about dungeon strategy and the workings of monsters he didn't mind at all. If people who'd bothered to come watch his slot had questions, he'd answer just those, briefly.

Without troubling to speak a word aloud toward the mic at his chest, Iori—canteen still in one hand—tapped the terminal screen ton-ton with the thumb of the other and typed a few short lines into the streamer-only text chat.

A few seconds later, two curt lines, tagged with the channel owner's mark, popped into the waterfall of the comment feed.

『Exploration Stream (host): Freeze the ground before they can close in, and they can't move』

『Exploration Stream (host): Aim for the joint gaps, and even a shallow cut gets through』

That sent, Iori gave a small, satisfied nod, killed the terminal screen at once, and pushed it back into the holder at his hip.

The moment the camera at his chest was once again showing nothing but damp stone wall and a hand holding a canteen, the comment feed—past fourteen hundred viewers—accelerated as if detonating.

『Ah, she just read the comments!!』

『Typed reply incoming, zero words spoken lolol』

『I know what she said is simple—it's that nobody else CAN do it!!』

『Please do not wave off threading a sword through a moving Heavy Shell's joint gaps, at a run, with "a shallow cut gets through"!?』

『I mean, that little "phew" sigh while sipping canteen water was kind of cute, wasn't it?』

『Onee-sama, at the very least, please tell us your naaaame!!』

『Answering only the questions, point-blank, then pocketing the terminal right after—too cool, I'm dying』

He pushed the metal canteen from his left hand firmly into the rucksack's side pocket, snapped the drop-prevention clasp shut with a click, and lightly dabbed the wet corner of his lips with a fingertip.