ch141-ch160 · 145-ch145

Chapter 145: A Treasure for Life

"Man, monster meat is tasty."

Lunch break—and Kasumi-san has gone back to work.

We stepped outside, bought several kitchen knives, and just finished a wild boar katsudon at a restaurant inside the dungeon.

You could honestly call dungeon Floor 1 a small town.

Tidy rows of shops line the well-kept concrete streets.

The Chiba Dungeon may be called Japan's most deserted dungeon, but the big corporations and dungeon-industry businesses still run chain stores here.

One 24-hour convenience store and one 24-hour family restaurant.

The family restaurant handles monster meat.

A chain that spans dungeons nationwide—so you can even eat meat from monsters this dungeon doesn't have.

Wild boar, for a start, plus a cow-type called the Bighorn, plus a flying chicken called the Clock Bird.

"Apparently headquarters even has high-end places serving rock bird and deep-floor monster meat."

Deeper-floor monsters aren't necessarily tastier, but deeper definitely means pricier.

Headquarters also has shops run by adventurers with cooking and production high-rank jobs—【Head Chef】 among them.

"Whoaah, headquarters, huh. Oh! I wanna do Saitama too! It's summer break—I'm gonna play SO much!"

The Saitama Dungeon is a sea area.

Sand beach and open sea from Floor 1 onward, with all the monsters sealed away—you can play to your heart's content.

Almost all adventurers registered to Saitama are ordinary people—folks who've never fought a monster in their lives, licensed just to play in the sea.

The most registered adventurers of any dungeon in Japan—even more than headquarters, supposedly.

Incidentally, admission is free, but luggage storage and showers will cost you.

Being water-related and all, at the Saitama Dungeon's beach houses, would-be 【Water Mages】 work day and night.

But getting 【Water Mage】 to appear on Floor 10? A year of that work might not even do it, apparently.

The known trick: become the basic-job 【Mage】 on Floor 10, work a beach house for one month, and 【Water Mage】 almost certainly appears at Floor 20.

(That's assuming you can break through Floor 20, though...)

Still: no fear of going hungry, and if things go well it's a job that lands you employment with the Adventurer's Association—so there are apparently plenty of paid Double-Rank promotion requests aimed at conquering Floor 20.

However, for safety's sake, a Double-Rank promotion request can't even be placed unless the client is Level 20 or higher.

Done the normal way, that's a year.

"Beach house versus grind: which is faster?" debates flare up regularly.

【Water Mage】, an aspirational job for so many—doesn't appeal to Soushi, apparently.

Well, it's a magic job—poor fit for a main.

By the 30s floors, magic jobs can't even stand in front of a monster anymore.

Mages are strong in attack power alone, but a 【Water Mage】's attack magic is close-range 【Water Pressure】—useless unless you step right up to the monster...

"Come to think of it, Soushi—got a job you're aiming for?"

"Glad you asked! Ta-daa!"

From who-knows-where, Soushi shows me something like a tape measure.

"The heck is that? A tape measure? Oh—fishing line, like gut line?"

"Close! I mean, you're mostly right. It's piano wire."

Smug as can be, he slips a finger into the ring on the tape-measure-style case and draws the piano wire out.

"I don't get it. What do you need piano wire for? It's pretty thick. Wasn't it expensive? If you've got money for that, buy armor! ARMOR!"

We're on Floor 2 hunting goblins, and Soushi is wearing my armor.

His own gear is just the helmet.

I'm Level 31 with an Endurance of 155.

Nothing a goblin does can hurt me, so it's fine.

The armor stays on loan until Mia-san finishes his set.

I figured the armor's weight would slow him down, but he apparently hit Level 3 during the Minotaur fight earlier, and he says he's fine.

"That's exactly the point—the JOB. Keep using the weapon of the job you're after, and that job shows up, right? So I'm chasing it with this."

"Oh? And that job would be?"

"【Thread User】!"

Yep. Even more of an idiot than I imagined.

Thank goodness Kasumi-san had already gone home...

"【Thread User】... that was a scout-type job, right? Pretty sure I've seen it in the net's job trees."

Never actually seen footage of anyone who HAS it, though...

Does anyone even have it?

Well, no need to ask why he wants it.

Because it looked cool, of course.

"I didn't just sit around waiting for my birthday, y'know. I did my research and picked a job that fits me. Even this piano wire is the anti-monster kind!"

"Fits me"? What part of 【Thread User】 fits you?

Your aptitude is 【Water Mage】.

Even the dungeon says so.

"Where do they even sell something that dumb?"

What idiot manufactures and sells anti-monster piano wire?

"Bought it online, but the shop's supposedly in the HQ dungeon. A tiny girl runs the place, and word is she makes everything herself!"

Hmm?

At headquarters. Run by a tiny girl. Stocking ridiculous weapons...

Why does that sound familiar...

No, wait—'Red Shadow' yanks his thrown knives back on something string-like, doesn't he.

Is that this same piano wire?

"【Thread User】 is a scout job, right? You planning on 【Ninja】 for your high-rank?"

"Nah—if a super-rare like 【Ninja】 shows up, sure, great, but fighting with this thing has to take real strength. For a main, I'd want a job with high 'Strength.' You asked what job I want, so I answered 【Thread User】—but on Floor 10, like Watanabe-san said, 【Knight】 would be the best pick if I can get it."

Whoa. Wrote him off as a plain idiot, and he'd actually thought it through.

This guy really has been serious about becoming an adventurer.

He might know more than I do.

In that case, I shall say nothing more.

Today we'll just test the 【Cooking】 knife enhancement, then let him level however he likes...

I'll look up 【Thread User】 online too, and talk it over with Kasumi-san.

"Oh, goblin. It'll be on us in a moment. How's the knife coming?"

"Just like Watanabe-san said—I think the iron one's enhanced. But the second I ease up, it feels like it slips right off."

We'd bought a whole stack of knives, and picked up some non-iron ones just in case.

"That part's just practice. Hold it without thinking and you'll probably manage ceramic knives too. MP?"

"Oh, right, haven't checked. 【Status】. 【Cooking】, 【Cooking】! It's not dropping!"

He's fired the 【Cooking】 skill several times, and his MP doesn't seem to budge.

Whether that's because it counts as weapon enhancement (tool enhancement), or because 【Cooking】 itself uses no MP, I can't tell—but my money's on the former.

"It's almost in view. Just don't take a club to the head. The moment it gets hairy, I'm stepping in, so go on—easy does it."

"You got it!"

Soushi whoops and charges out—then the goblin rears its club back, and he stumbles mid-stride.

Go, now's your chance—what's the holdup?

And just as I thought "oh dear"...

Span!—the swinging goblin's club was cut clean in half.

Soushi had sliced it away with the kitchen knife.

(That was close!)

The top half flew right at me!

The instant I looked away, the iron kitchen knife in Soushi's hand was buried deep in the goblin's neck.

"Hahh... hahh..."

Soushi, staring down at the crumpled goblin...

"Soushi?"

"I DID IIIIT! Now I'm a real adventurer toooo!"

Seems he's fine.

I'd had him wear a plain helmet instead of a visored one in case the wild boar made a second appearance, so to speak—but apparently that worry was wasted.

Soushi's been saying he'd be an adventurer someday since first year.

Some people just get the license and stop at meals on Floor 1 or the sea at Saitama.

Only by felling a monster like this can you truly call yourself an adventurer.

"Congrats, Soushi. That was awesome. That knife cuts WAY too well, though, huh?"

Normally, weapon enhancement doesn't work on Floor 2.

No—it doesn't work until Floor 10, and even I still can't manage it for everyday use.

Isn't 【Cooking】 a little TOO strong?

"See? I'm keeping this club and the magic stone for the rest of my life."

Another wonderful smile.

Three years at his side, and this might be the first time I've ever seen that face.

He must be over the moon.

A goblin magic stone sells for all of 100 yen, so keeping it as a memento is the best call.

Me? Now what was mine again...?