ch121-ch140 · 127-ch127

Chapter 127: There's No Saint of Assassination, Is There?

The date has rolled over—Friday morning—and Kasumi-san and I have just arrived on Floor 21 with 【Gate】.

I still haven't learned 【Charge・Spear・Magic Up】 or 【Charge・Shield・Magic Up・High】.

My skill points are at zero.

Once I level up, I'll learn them in order—spear first, then shield.

Until then, double super mode stays off. No hyper mode.

As long as it's nothing worse than the Ogre King, spear-only super mode can handle it.

No problem, so long as someone like that Umemoto guy doesn't show up.

(Ah, that's a flag, isn't it...?)

"Are you feeling all right?"

Yesterday Kasumi-san was worried about my condition and refused to go any further, so today we're starting from Floor 21.

Starting today, Kasumi-san is on a two-day overnight stay, and when she said she had preparations for that too, I had no choice but to back down.

Mia-san is coming to the Chiba Dungeon at noon, but I've left dealing with her to Shiraishi-san.

The two of them will go over property selection on the warehouse's second floor.

We should reach Floor 30 ourselves by just before five in the evening.

"I'm fine. No problems at all."

(That's a flag too!?)

The monsters from Floor 21 on are Forest Ogres.

On my own, I'd crawl along the ground with 【Presence Concealment】, but I have absolutely no idea how to move as a party.

"I'll go ahead and clear the Forest Ogres out. If reinforcements show up, Kasumi-san, they're yours."

Let's start by doing things the way we always have.

I know the route well, so I move up front.

Assassinate without being noticed, then call Kasumi-san over—repeat, over and over.

"Let's do that through Floor 25. I'll handle the magic stone collection."

Kasumi-san is sleeping in the dungeon from today, so her MP won't recover.

I don't plan on having her fight tomorrow, but conserving MP can't hurt.

If she makes a sound, the Forest Ogres react, so we settle on a few simple hand signs.

'Wait.' 'Come.' And 'there's a Forest Ogre over there.'

And here I was looking forward to a dungeon date, and we're going in silence...

(【Presence Detection】. ...One ahead, in our direction.)

Starting 【Charge・Spear】 this early, on these shallow floors, isn't great with MP drain in mind.

But Forest Ogre skin is as hard as iron, so my new spear could end up shredded...

Will the instant-activation strategy be enough?

With my current stats, I shouldn't need the boost skills.

【Charge・Spear】 and 【Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear】 alone should do.

At that, the cost is maybe 1 or 2 MP.

Even if I fell 200 of them by Floor 29, that's 400 MP—no problem.

Mia-san's Floor 30 breakthrough isn't until tomorrow, after all.

(【Presence Concealment】)

Once I'm reasonably close, I give Kasumi-san the 'wait' sign and circle around behind the Forest Ogre.

Approach unnoticed, step in, and...

(【Charge・Spear】 and 【Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear】)

The jumonji spear's strike takes the Forest Ogre's head off without the slightest resistance.

MP: 597→596

That one felt great.

Two skills in the instant after my step in, and the activation ends the moment the charged MP is spent.

Took less than a second.

(Whoops, gotta call Kasumi-san.)

I beckon Kasumi-san over with a come-here gesture.

Approaching without a word, she gives me a thumbs-up, follows it with a 'b', then drives her naginata into the Forest Ogre's chest.

According to 【Presence Detection】, no new Forest Ogres nearby.

While she pulls the magic stone, I'd like to push a little further ahead, but I'm using 【Presence Concealment】—if Kasumi-san loses sight of me from a distance, it takes her a while to find me again.

She'd spend that whole time worrying, so I won't.

It'd be no problem if we had even one more party member, though...

Kasumi-san pockets the magic stone and looks up, so we move out.

(Not very date-like...)

We can't see each other's faces behind the visors, and since I'm scouting ahead, there's distance between us.

Needless to say, no conversation.

Looks like today won't be a dungeon date either.

We plod along, and Floor 21—where monster density is low—is cleared in under fifteen minutes.

In front of the 'Gate to Floor 22', we can finally talk.

"Is it okay to keep going like this?"

"As expected of you, Haruki-san. Splendid. So this is how far one can push in a single stretch. Since this is Chiba, I had braced myself for nonstop battles—yet you haven't left me a single thing to do. One strike, without letting them call for reinforcements. I have witnessed the very essence of the scout class."

Sasa-Haru—

I lifted my visor to speak to her, so Kasumi-san raised hers to answer.

I'd worried she might be angry about having nothing to do, but she was smiling, so that's a relief.

When a Forest Ogre screams, the ones around it come running, so if you can't fell one in a single strike, the enemies call more enemies and it becomes one long running battle.

At HQ, someone is always fighting somewhere, so things get spread out—and apparently the path to the next floor is sometimes already cleared for you.

In Chiba, that never happens, so we have to kill everything ourselves.

She's pleased, so let's keep going like this.

At least I get to look cool in front of her. That's what counts.

"Your movements are more impressive than any scout-type I have ever seen. At Floor 40, jobs like 【Assassination King】 or 【Assassination Saint】 might just make an appearance."

She's showering me with praise again today, huh.

【Assassination King】 probably exists, but I don't think there's a saint of assassination.

...Is there?

By repeatedly performing correct assassinations?

...What would a correct assassination even be?

This is getting philosophical.

"Dungeons are philosophy," or something like that...

Why do people dive into dungeons?

Because the dungeon is there.