ch141-ch160 · 154-ch154

Chapter 154: Leveling

"Sooo good. The Bighorn comes from the Aomori Dungeon, right?"

"Yep. Wild Boar too. Aomori really lives up to its 'gourmet dungeon' name."

After seeing Kasumi-san and Mia-san off, it's time to eat.

We ordered Bighorn steak—the cow monster—at a family restaurant inside the dungeon.

"I want to test my skill too. Any chance I could get some of this meat?"

"There should be a shop selling it at HQ. Can't go myself, but make a shopping trip of it. The streetscape there was something else, I tell you."

Each prefecture's dungeon has its own local specialties, and Aomori's is animal-type monster meat.

HQ has branches of all those shops, but eating it locally is a different experience.

Someday, a dungeon tour of all Japan with Kasumi-san might be nice.

"Haruki, you got plans this weekend? Maybe I'll take a little trip, then. Those hobgoblins filled my wallet right up."

My weekend is spoken for—outings with Kasumi-san.

We're buying my mother a fridge.

And browsing appliances for the warehouse while we're at it.

"Then once we've eaten, it's back to the hobgoblin grind, right?"

"Eh? ...We're still going?"

It's not even 6 PM yet.

We can hang in there until dark.

I've got 【Night Vision】, so I can keep grinding long after dark, but Soushi can't—seven o'clock is probably his ceiling...

"Get you to Level 9 today, and from tomorrow we can loop Minotaurs on Floor 10. And if you're at 9, Floor 9 works too."

Floor 9 has better EXP efficiency than Floor 5, but the hobgoblins there shoot bows, so Level 9 or above is the recommendation.

If he could kill fast enough, looping Floor 10 would be even better, but even with me playing bait, Soushi would take too long to finish them off.

What about me power-leveling him with quick kills?

Overdo it and Soushi's own skill never develops, though...

"I think I finally get why your level's so high..."

"Get it now? Then let's go."

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Yesterday we called it once Soushi hit Level 9.

Kasumi-san's call came through that night, so apparently Mia-san left without drinking.

Maybe she slept well—Kasumi-san sounded cheerful on the morning call, and told me she has something important to discuss when we meet after school.

Did she think up some surprise or other?

If I'm too guarded, my reaction will fall flat. I'll go in with zero plan.

"Huh? Is Aikawa out today?"

I slipped into the classroom right at the bell, but the two behind me aren't there.

"She's been out a lot lately. What about Natsukawa-kun?"

Souma-san, in the seat next to mine, fills me in.

"Overslept. He should be on his way now."

Soushi overslept because he overdid it yesterday.

He might have muscle aches and 'rapid level-up side effects' too.

"So Aikawa's gone delinquent on us?"

"She's here more than you are, Kasugano-kun? And Natsukawa-kun's been alone so much lately, he looked lonely. Gufufu."

The reason I didn't know she'd been absent is that I'm the one who's never here.

And for some reason, Souma-san looks delighted.

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"Saaaafe!"

Soushi showed up just barely before first period.

He walked in right as our homeroom teacher finished up and left.

That is unambiguously late, but in Soushi's head it counts as safe.

Honestly, though—can't you graduate even without attending morning homeroom?

It's got nothing to do with credits, right?

"Looks safe to me."

"Something's off with my body. I broke like three cups this morning alone. I've got that thing you had."

"Ohh? Side effects, you say? Young Natsukawa-dono shows every sign of a promising future, I say."

The dungeon otaku known as 'Ota' pipes up.

His real name is... what was it again...

Even his name in my phone is saved as 'Ota.'

"Your birthday still hasn't come around, right?"

"It has not. This humble one is a child of February, I say. Besides, exam-track students normally don't register until their exams are over. You are the only one, Kasugano-dono?"

No, no—even exam students with early birthdays register anyway so they can hit the Saitama Dungeon, don't they?

Dungeon talk is off-limits in the classroom, so we keep it vague.

And in whispers, at that.

Souma-san pretends not to be listening, but her ears are wide open. That's the one thing to watch.

I sneak a glance at the school goddess, Mizuki Saori.

She doesn't turn around, and shows no sign of noticing.

I relax—and my eyes meet the black gal's in the next seat over.

Whenever I look at the goddess, this one somehow always catches me and does her teasing little gestures.

Today, though, she just whips her eyes away.

Lately, this is how Saito—the class black gal—has been.

I haven't been at school much, so I haven't even made my juice offerings.

Is she angry about that?

"Ota, hear Soushi out about his job at lunch. Let's go out for ramen somewhere. My treat."

Soushi's awfully torn up over his job, so let's borrow the dungeon otaku's wisdom...

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The ramen was on Soushi.

He cashed in over 20,000 yen worth yesterday, so this much is nothing to him.

Though when he heard that, the shop owner did a double take at us.

It was a first in all our three years here.

Come to think of it, it might be the first time I've brought Ota along, too.

For the record, Ota was completely useless.

His recommendation was the "strongest build": 【Monk】 into 【Berserker】.

The only reason I started talking to this guy in the first place was his knowledge of 'Dungeon Martial Arts'—and every top fighter there is a 【Berserker】...

And then he launched into what sub-job to take instead of 【Staff User】.

'Dungeon Martial Arts' bans weapons, so you can't bring a staff into the ring.

How did the fighters level up, you ask?

Bare-fisted, of course—NOT. America is a gun society.

Guns dominate inside their dungeons too, so I'd bet they leveled with guns like anyone else.

They probably did fight bare-handed now and then to get the job, but at base it was guns.

In America, you can power-level even solo.