ch141-ch160 · 158-ch158

Chapter 158: A Sweet Deal

"Hmm. Hmmmmm. I'll have seconds!"

She thought, and thought, and thought it over.

And the answer Shiraishi-san arrived at was... of all things, seconds.

Well, fair enough, I suppose.

I did declare today free of charge.

At Shiraishi-san's call, Soushi has already retreated to the kitchen.

He really does look like an honest-to-goodness chef.

"How on earth can it be this delicious?"

Head cocked with a thoughtful "hmm," she's eyeballing Kasumi-san's parfait.

You already ordered seconds, you know!

She doesn't seem sold on Kasumi-san's "it's the chef's skill" line from earlier either.

A little thought would make the skill obvious...

But the parfait is simply too delicious for her brain to keep up.

As expected of 'Japan's Number One Skill.'

"Shiraishi-san. Have you ever considered becoming a high-rank recovery job? Someone like you could save the lives of so many adventurers. Don't you think it would be a waste to leave such a wonderful talent just as it is?"

Sliiiding her own parfait in front of Shiraishi-san, Kasumi-san makes her pitch.

Shiraishi-san dips her spoon into that parfait and takes a bite.

"But you see. That would mean having to kill lots and lots of monsters, wouldn't it? It's scary..."

Bite two, bite three—the spoon never stops, and Kasumi-san's portion disappears too.

Um, I'm fairly sure that offering meant "you can eat this if you take the high-rank job," though?

"The truth is, I'd love to go camping in the dungeon with you boys and cook over a campfire too, you know? But we all have what we're suited for and what we're not. Someone like me belongs on Floor 1, casting 【Heal】 for the neighborhood grandpas..."

Word has it 【Heal】 does wonders for bad backs, and no small number of elderly folk pick up adventurer licenses purely to receive treatment in their twilight years.

【Heal】 can't cure the underlying cause of back pain, and even so the relief should hold for a month or two—yet the grandpas keep trekking into the dungeon week after week, dropping their money all the while.

It's not the pain that brings them, you know—they come because they want to chat with Shiraishi-san. So says Hayashi-san.

Diligently casting 【Heal】 on perfectly healthy old men day in and day out, Shiraishi-san is their idol.

'【Heal】: 5,000 yen per cast and up'

And it's not just the old men smiling—so is Hayashi-san, holding that very placard.

I do hope insurance starts covering 【Heal】 sooner rather than later...

"Hold on—nobody said taking a high-rank job required grinding levels, right?"

With my skill, it's a there-and-back trip, nothing more.

Even without leveling, the job upgrade alone raises her stats and her MP.

Plenty of benefit right there.

All she'd need is the skill points to learn 【Heal・High】.

She hammers her 【Healer】 skills all day, every day—a high-rank recovery job is a guaranteed appearance.

【Healer Mage】, the high-rank of 【Healer】, counts as a magic job, so if she took some offensive magic job at Floor 20, she could handle combat too.

Besides, Shiraishi-san should still be Single-Rank, so she could pick a lower-rank sub-job as well.

Though since she'd rather not fight, 【Water Mage】, or maybe 【Staff User】—to raise her Magic and boost 【Heal・High】's potency—strike me as the sensible options...

"We must not do that."

Kasumi-san shakes her head and presses on.

"The Association's requirements for a Triple-Rank promotion request state that the client must be Level 30 or higher. Even if this is not an official request, unless she is raised to an equivalent level, I cannot agree to it. If we bend that rule, I lose all standing to admonish anyone else ever again..."

I thought we'd proven the method safe by delivering Mia-san to Triple-Rank without a scratch, but this is Kasumi-san's professional pride, I suppose.

So if word got out and copycats appeared, she'd have no right to stop them...

And then there'd be questions about HOW she reached Triple—and people doing risky things attract exactly the wrong kind of attention.

That Shiraishi-san is a 【Healer】 is common knowledge.

One look from another 【Healer】's 【Analyze・HP】 and she'd be found out on the spot.

A 【Healer】 Shiraishi-san who can't set foot near other 【Healer】s would be a funny one, though.

The mummy hunter, coming home a mummy.

"See? Just leave little old me alone with my parfait, all by my lonesome... Oh, and as for paying for all this—I'll be taking it up with Mia-chan, the owner, directly~"

Grrrnnn.

She found the soft spot.

Until a moment ago her eyes were spinning spirals from parfait bliss, so I could gloss things over—but that last line was clearly off her rocker.

Once she's calm and turns this into a bargaining match, there's no beating this woman.

And if Mia-san finds out, I'll get the "don't make people do things they hate!" scolding.

Not that I want to force her into anything she hates—I just figure, it's happening either way, so I'd like her to become a high-rank recovery job, that's all.

Isn't there some approach everyone could accept...?

"Eat a delicious parfait, level up, AND gain a high-rank job? There's no such dream come true, dear. Why, that's the very definition of a sweet deal."

Nobody asked you to make the pun...

And with that, Soushi came back.

"Hey, thanks for waiting! One strawberry parfait!"

Sou-chan, buddy—this is not a sushi bar.

"Amazing—it's become a pure strawberry parfait. And it's properly super-sized, too!"

Instant corrections on all feedback!

Incredible, Soushi.

What's gotten into him?

"I might get to serve it to the 【Saint】 herself someday. Gotta research properly and make something worthy."

Yes... thank goodness the person Shiraishi-san plans to consult about payment is Mia-san.

If she'd worked this angle on Soushi directly, this boy would have caved in an instant, you know?

Can't exactly take him to Dr. Amamiya's either...

"Sooo tasty! THIS is the one! Strawberry really is the soul of parfait. But sooo close! I want strawberry in the ice cream and the fresh cream as well!"

If only leveling up worked while she ate like this.

"Hm? Actually... there is... a way to level up while eating parfaits..."

A sweet deal like that... exists.