chapter04 · 095-ep95

Episode 92: Q&A Chatting Stream and the Secret of Karin Ojou-sama's Strength, Part 2

"Yes, yes, calm down. There's no way the national budget accidentally sent three billion yen in superchats. That money genuinely came from your viewers. The platform fees and taxes will take a huge chunk, so you won't receive the face value. You don't need to be THAT afraid. It'll still be a fortune, though. Yes, yes, see you later. With that much money, you never need to worry about the future, so I'll feed you plenty. Bye."

"...Speak of the devil. Was that the monster ojou-sama?"

In a certain back alley.

As Mafuyu finished dealing with the call from her best friend, a figure asked that question with a touch of nervousness. It was Kasumi Makihara, a woman in Public Security distinguished by her easygoing air.

"Yes. It seems she's panicking because her superchat total passed three billion. She said the government must have transferred it to her by mistake."

"Hahaha. Considering that absurd strength, three billion yen should rightfully be pocket change to her... Haah. Honestly, I can't decide whether we're in this mess because of how far outside common sense she is, or whether we've gotten off this lightly because she's such a decent, ordinary little citizen completely at odds with her strength... Well, she's undoubtedly been nothing but a positive influence so far, so I'm not complaining."

With her usual carefree air somewhat tarnished, Kasumi muttered through an utterly exhausted expression.

But that was understandable.

Roughly two weeks had passed since Karin's solo deep-layer conquest stream.

In contrast with the public's excitement over Genocide Ojou-sama's exploits, the government—including Kasumigaseki—had been thrown into all sorts of chaos.

The Tokyo police, especially the Anti-Dungeon Division and Public Security, were in a frenzy.

The sudden arrest of all Black Tiger's principal leaders was enough on its own. But because they were confessing to all sorts of things with frightening honesty, a mountain of work had materialized: suspects who needed arresting, evidence that needed verification, and more.

Honestly, without the top-class domestic bodies afforded by levels in the 2000s, they would have died of overwork normally.

Thankfully, Black Tiger affiliates frightened by Genocider Yamada's annihilation video had turned themselves in, and the higher-ups had responded flexibly to the extreme circumstances by breaking with precedent and sending large numbers of reinforcements from elsewhere. The commotion had settled down a little for now.

They could catch their breath far sooner than expected, which was why Kasumi had come to meet Mafuyu.

She wanted to ask once again about that absurd ojou-sama.

"So, continuing our discussion... what exactly is going on with that monster ojou-sama? The gap is so vast that I can't make a definite statement, but even without showing her full hand, she's plainly stronger than Japan's two aramitama, isn't she...? And at only sixteen. An explorer's talent is generally measured most clearly by how efficiently they absorb mana from defeated monsters—in other words, how fast they level. But Karin Yamada isn't merely growing quickly. Why is that girl so strong?"

"Why? As another Public Security agent in the level 2000s, haven't you already figured it out?"

"Well, yes... but I suppose I don't want to believe it until I hear the answer directly..."

"Haah."

What a pain...

Mafuyu heaved a long sigh.

But she did understand Kasumi's position.

When dealing with a supernatural being on that scale, Public Security naturally wanted some minimum amount of confirmed information.

If they'd already worked out most of it, there was no point hiding it. And now that Karin's ability was so widely known, maintaining good relations with Public Security could only help.

Thus, while carefully judging what she could reveal without betraying Karin, Mafuyu slowly began to explain why Karin had grown at such an absurd rate.

"To begin with the conclusion, there is theoretically no limit to that girl's growth, and the decline in growth speed that accompanies higher levels is as gentle as it can possibly be."

"I already don't want to hear any more... Ah, yes, sorry, that was a joke. Continue?"

At Kasumi's urging, Mafuyu went on.

As a basic premise, just as Kasumi had said, an explorer's growth speed is determined almost entirely by how efficiently they can absorb mana. Even after defeating the same monster, what one might call the "experience points" gained varies greatly from person to person, producing different leveling speeds.

But this growth curve ordinarily plateaus somewhere.

The experience required increases at an accelerating rate with every level, so further growth demands defeating larger numbers of stronger monsters.

Normally, there are several ways to keep overcoming this ever-rising hurdle.

Explorers augment their strength through heavily trained skills, polished martial arts and accumulated experience, party coordination, and powerful equipment made from gathered materials, then hunt monsters above their level to gain more experience.

But each of those methods eventually reaches a limit.

This is true of skills and technique, but the clearest and most unavoidable limit comes with weapons and armor.

The greater the power concealed in a material, the fewer craftspeople exist who can draw it out to its fullest.

How many craftspeople in the world could process a deep-layer boss-class material and bring out one hundred percent or more of its latent power?

People with crafting aptitude are generally unsuited to combat. As had been the case with Honoka Kamishiro, their own level rises with great difficulty. Consequently, they usually keep their own level modest and focus on increasing the level of the crafting skill itself as they manufacture weapons. But that leaves little skill-power correction from increases in their personal level, inevitably creating a ceiling.

Naturally gifted master artisans can break through some of those limits, of course. Many workshops create crafting tools, use those tools to make even higher-performance tools, and repeat the process to build more capable furnaces, allowing them to properly process higher-order materials. Nor is it rare for master artisans like Karin to venture into dungeons and train themselves relentlessly.

Yet even then, they lack the power to fully process materials from the deep and abyssal layers. The further an adventurer reaches into those regions, the more they must depend on their own strength rather than equipment as they challenge dangerous foes. Put simply, by the threshold of the abyss, even "equipment made by the finest crafting professions" can no longer keep up with the battle.

Just as Black Tiger had commissioned the greatest artisans in the country and still only managed to produce impact-absorbing armor Karin condemned as "shoddy."

Thus, in realms where equipment could no longer be relied upon, only those with special unique skills could aspire to greater heights. Then even those powerful individuals struck walls that unique skills alone could not overcome, and their growth slowed.

"But Karin is different."

"...<Divine Artisan>."

Kasumi gave a hoarse murmur in response to Mafuyu's words.

"Right. In Karin's case—or rather, for anyone with <Divine Artisan>—as the user's level increases, <Divine Artisan>'s precision increases too. The rank of materials they can process and the performance of the equipment they create grow alongside their own strength. They level up, defeat stronger foes, make powerful equipment from those materials, use it to defeat still stronger enemies and level efficiently, then use <Divine Artisan>, which has grown along with them, to make even stronger equipment again—that cycle never ends for that girl."

And even without <Divine Artisan>, Karin's talent as an explorer stood far above the rest.

Not only compared with Honoka and the other <Divine Artisan> users in the Anti-Dungeon Division's Ojou-sama Squad, but even with Japan's top explorers, she boasted abnormal mana-absorption efficiency. She possessed growth potential utterly unbecoming of a crafting profession.

Whether because she admired Setsuna-sama or for some other reason, the concentration she displayed while refining herself was extraordinary. The speed at which her various skills—especially detection skills—appeared and developed had entered the realm of absurdity.

Even before Mafuyu had carelessly taught her the trick of dungeon-interior crafting that exploited <Divine Artisan>, Karin had wandered the deep layers alone and shocked Mafuyu speechless. Frankly, even Mafuyu, once called a prodigy herself, found her abnormal.

"In short, her already exceptional talent as an explorer was combined with <Divine Artisan>, and she became unstoppable. That girl is going to grow much stronger still."

Mafuyu had once told Kasumi that Karin ranked "closer to the top than the bottom even worldwide"... but that was half true and half lie.

Rather than merely closer to the top, she was probably nearly in the highest tier.

Naturally, there was no way to investigate every monster hidden throughout the world, so nothing was certain. But Karin, who continued training behind the scenes even now, was probably already among the world's foremost at age sixteen.

Accounting for her future potential and <Divine Artisan>'s extensibility... Mafuyu couldn't imagine how far she might go.

"Even if I had already worked out the general picture... that's a cruel joke."

Kasumi was once again left speechless by the confirmation.

Just as Mafuyu had said in the beginning, by that theory, Karin's growth truly had no ceiling.

It would be fair to say that the deeper dungeons extended belowground, the deeper Karin's own depths became. Even her current strength remained a work in progress.

Cold sweat formed at the thought. Thank goodness a monster with that much talent was blessed with such good sense, even if she did cause various incidents on-stream.

But whatever the case, Kasumi finally let out a breath.

"If she's that absurdly strong, then just like you said before about nuclear weapons, it circles all the way back around to being reassuring. Foreign powers have quieted down out of caution toward that monster, so there was already little need to worry. And if some idiot without foresight does try anything, they'll undoubtedly be counterattacked."

"We still can't let our guard down."

"Of course. Actually, I wanted to report something related to that today. We're demonically busy, it's true, but after Black Tiger and everything around it was cleaned up, several people in Public Security may soon have time on their hands. They're in different sections, so it doesn't translate directly into more strength for us, but we should be able to send help to the Public Security Foreign Affairs Division and devote more resources to detecting suspicious foreign movements. So if we notice anything, we'll share it immediately. We'd only get in the way directly guarding Karin Yamada, but this is one area where we can support her... In fact, this is me reporting that we've already started."

"I see... Thank you very much."

Mafuyu thanked her coolly, as if this were expected, though inwardly relieved that her best friend's defenses had grown more robust. Perhaps perceiving those inner feelings, Kasumi showed a slightly teasing smile through her exhaustion.

"Well, even putting Karin Yamada aside, things are getting ominous overseas lately, what with talk of dungeon terrorist organizations. Being able to assign people to Foreign Affairs is a huge help for us too... When you think about it, maybe it was a blessing that we got to crush the country's dangerous elements now, even if the treatment was incredibly drastic... Then again, perhaps I'm just so busy that I have to see it that way to cope. In any case, I'll continue leaving Karin Yamada to you, her best friend. They've decided to pay you a generous allowance for it too, so look forward to that."

With one final carefree, joking remark in her usual manner, Kasumi vanished from Mafuyu's sight.

"Phew."

After finishing her contact with Kasumi, Mafuyu took a breath.

If the Public Security Foreign Affairs Division—the department that cracked down on foreign spies and terrorists—had clearly taken their side, that was reassuring. Of course, foreign countries were vast, and given the existence of country-toppling explorers, as Mafuyu had just said, they still couldn't lower their guard.

But as the fact that country-toppling explorers had remained rumors worldwide demonstrated, such people tended to dislike conspicuous action for various reasons. With the high likelihood of being counterattacked and the risk of revealing their identity and abilities in a flashy battle with Karin, no one would attack her. They were almost never obedient honor students who moved simply because their country gave an order, and foreign governments were already unable to act rashly because they feared Karin's strength. The level of safety had risen considerably.

"Well, there are exceptions to everything... but worrying too much before we receive any information would only wear us down. We'll naturally stay vigilant, but for today, I suppose I'll make a stamina hot pot for Karin, who must be exhausted. I also want to talk with her again about the three billion, fortifying her house, and our plans from here on."

For now, Mafuyu relaxed her shoulders and called Karin again, who was apparently still showing the whites of her eyes over the superchat total.

—Never imagining that a monster with neither hostility nor harmful intent toward Karin Yamada, and therefore impossible to predict, had already begun to move.

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※Bonus

Kasumi, returning: "Hey. I just remembered—didn't that ojou-sama say on-stream before that a 'best friend' taught her the dungeon-interior crafting loophole and showed her how to make use of <Divine Artisan>?"

Mafuyu: "...That was an accident."

And so, some of you may have worked it out: the reason Karin ojou-sama, who was apparently dangerous to begin with, became even more dangerously strong is the person who carelessly taught her the trick of crafting inside dungeons. I think the circumstances around this can be revealed soon... but when a certain someone taught her, she presumably didn't yet fully understand how dangerous Karin was. Then again, once Karin turns twenty (the age of adulthood in the story's Japan), she'll be able to use materials however she likes sooner or later anyway. If anything, sooner may have been better for self-defense, so perhaps the result worked out...