arc2 · 064-ch64

Chapter 64: The Dungeon Club's Reaction

side Leader Sato Shota

"Man, SS-san's coaching was seriously incredible!"

Right after seeing off SS-san's drone, Kanade immediately shared his thoughts on the day. Daiki and I were thinking the same thing, so I nodded deeply.

"If that guy hadn't been there, I might've actually died..."

Maybe saying it himself brought back the memory, because Daiki shuddered. Kanade and I had both imagined the worst-case scenario for a split second too. Daiki himself probably experienced something even more terrifying.

"But because of that, we learned to be careful for real, right? We went through something like that and came out alive, which is why we were able to seriously improve."

Yeah, just like Kanade said—normally you'd have to sacrifice a teammate or yourself before learning a lesson like that. The fact that we got to experience it and walk away in one piece was incredibly lucky.

"Plus, don't you think we grew a ton just today alone?"

"For real! We definitely got stronger!"

"I think so too! At the end, we took down four Bite Dogs all by ourselves!"

When I said that, both Kanade and Daiki excitedly agreed. Our levels went up, sure, but more than that, our tactics, efficient movement, and ability to predict monster behavior had improved by leaps and bounds. All thanks to SS-san, of course.

"Now we've got a clear shot at hitting our magic stone quota, right?"

That's right. Nice one, Kanade! On this run alone, we'd earned over ten times our usual haul of magic stones. We're university students right now, so the taxes aren't that bad, but even if we start making good money down the road, we won't have to worry about taxes.

"We're proper explorers now, huh."

Daiki's face was grinning ear to ear with joy. Wait, it's not just Daiki. Kanade and I were caught up in it too—our cheeks had loosened into smiles.

"For everything he did for us, it was only thirty thousand yen... Isn't that, like, dirt cheap?"

At Kanade's murmur, the three of us exchanged glances. He's right. We got trained up to be competent explorers, earned a ton of magic stones, had him handle scouting and combat support, and even leveled up—all for just thirty thousand yen. That's only ten thousand yen per person.

"And on top of that, the video from today's gonna be sent over later, right? Once we upload that, we get eighty percent of the revenue?"

At Daiki's words, all three of us swallowed at the same time. Sure, compared to parties like Kokushi Musou or Hyakka Ryouran, we'd look pretty underwhelming. Underwhelming? F-rank is bottom of the barrel, even among explorers.

But still. This was filmed by SS-san—I couldn't help but get my hopes up. They were definitely earning hundreds of millions. Even half of that—no, even a tenth—would be an insane amount of money for us.

"Let's meet at my place tomorrow morning."

He'd said the video would be sent over tomorrow or the day after. Since it was going to be delivered to my computer as the leader, I figured it might come as early as tomorrow, so I invited the other two.

"Sounds good, I'll head over around nine."

"Same. I'll grab breakfast on the way."

Naturally, both Kanade and Daiki agreed without hesitation.

It was getting dark out, so the three of us decided to celebrate with yakiniku before heading home.

▽▽▽

The next morning, both of them showed up at my house well before the planned nine o'clock. They were both so excited they'd woken up early.

While eating the sandwiches Kanade brought, I powered on the computer.

"Whoa, it's already here!?"

We'd spent about six hours in the dungeon. SS-san had condensed that into a three-hour video. The fact that it arrived this early in the morning meant he must have pulled an all-nighter to get it done.

Going this far for an F-rank party... All three of us instinctively clasped our hands and bowed toward the computer.

"Alright, let's watch it ourselves first."

My voice was a little shaky, and I could hear the other two gulping. Everyone was just as nervous.

"Wha—he got footage of me biting into my food!?"

Apparently, the video started with my embarrassing self-introduction. I wanted to edit that out, but the other two stopped me, saying it was funny in its own way.

Once we entered the dungeon, the drone rose higher and used its telephoto camera to sweep the surroundings. It immediately spotted two Bite Dogs and guided us to them. The movement was like a textbook example of scouting.

"It finds them so fast."

"Yeah, for real."

I'd thought so at the time, but Kanade and Daiki were impressed by that speed too.

"Ugh, my instructions are full of gaps. I can see it now—this is how we were at the start, huh."

Just as it looked, I was the one giving orders during the first fight. No wonder Daiki didn't notice and charged in without thinking. I couldn't help but smile bitterly at how bad my instructions were.

"The fact that you can see that means you've grown."

Kanade immediately comforted me. His eyes never left the screen, though.

"Whoa—the camera's following the arrow!?"

Kanade raised his voice in surprise. Yeah, I'd never seen footage like this before. A rental drone could never pull this off. No wonder everyone goes crazy over it. If you could get your fights filmed like this, of course it'd be popular.

Still, I wondered—why did he accept our request? There must have been A-rank and B-rank requests available too.

"Damn, this looks amazing and we're acting like idiots..."

That was the scene where Daiki got caught in a pincer attack from Bite Dogs. We were totally panicking, but SS-san's drone stayed calm. It had the composure to capture our desperate faces, and was always positioned to back up Daiki at a moment's notice.

"Even if we couldn't make it in time, SS-san would've saved us."

Kanade noticed it too. Just from watching the footage, we could pick up on that—we really had grown.

And from there, the footage was breathtaking. Precise instructions, airtight strategy, a wealth of information—every aspect showed the demeanor of a first-class leader. This was something low-rank explorers like us absolutely needed to see.

Even with SS-san's help, three F-rank explorers like us had taken down three Crowcats on our own. This would make an incredible teaching resource. After all, you could clearly see our teamwork getting better and better, and thanks to his precise advice, by the middle we were able to come up with strategies on our own.

And at the end—we took down four Bite Dogs in a flawless coordinated assault without taking a single hit!

"Damn, I'm getting seriously emotional."

"Same here, honestly."

After watching the three-hour epic, Daiki and Kanade were so moved they were actually tearing up. Me too, of course. SS-san's filming was incredible—he made even us look cool.

But I was scared of how the public would react when this went live. Compared to Kokushi Musou or Hyakka Ryouran, we just didn't have that flash. The monsters were all weak ones, too. But we couldn't not upload it—twenty percent of the revenue was SS-san's share.

"Alright. Here goes."

With both of them watching, I clicked the mouse with a trembling hand.