ch181-ch200 · 194-ch194

Chapter 194: The Dango Three Brothers

"The moment you think it's getting dangerous, you come right back, you hear?"

Mia-san pokes just her head out of the 'Left Gate' to say it.

Is that even okay?

I'm also curious what that looks like from behind.

And if she won't retract that head, I can't bring out a 'Left Gate' nearby for an emergency escape...

"Please, absolutely do not come out."

I want to say "please retract your head," but I take her words as cheering me on and hold my own back instead.

I decide to fight at a slight distance so the copper golems—should they be called Copper Golems?—don't head toward Mia-san.

Not intercepting but fighting on the run—my specialty.

(【Charge・Spear・Magic Up】【Charge・Spear・Endurance Up】【Charge・Spear・Agility Up】【Charge・Spear・Strength Up】【Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear】)

I break into a run toward the copper golems, activating spear super mode as I go.

The golems' already-slow movements feel slower still.

【Charge・Spear】, the skill that starts the chain—I've gotten to where I can activate it unconsciously now whenever I go to use the others...

I think that's a good sign.

And I did say I'd get serious, but golems move so slowly that shield super mode is probably unnecessary.

The group of copper golems is right in front of me now.

I use the jumonji spear's side blade like a pickaxe to smash the lead copper golem's left thigh area.

It feels less like cutting and more like crushing.

I fight while sprinting past on their right side so I don't get surrounded.

One after another, I smash the left thighs of the golems on the right the same way.

Spear swinging right and left, destruction powered by the spear-length centrifugal force and super-mode strength.

(This is not good...)

I can feel the strain on the jumonji spear.

If I'm going to fight like this, I should have switched to a halberd.

Or if I'd used shield super mode too, I could have cut through without straining the spear...

Should I use it?—but only one copper golem was still standing, so I crushed its left thigh with raw strength the same way and toppled it.

"Toppled" is generous—it's too heavy to stand up on one leg, but it swings its arms to attack.

Its right arm, slammed down into the ground with a DOSHIN, probably weighs over twice what I do even on its own.

Dangerous, I think, glancing over to check on Mia-san—and there's an extra head.

Aikawa has poked her face out above Mia-san's head.

"Shocking fact I never wanted to know! The golems we've been using for level-ups were in their pre-shipped state..."

Aikawa's reaction to seeing the golems' limbs removed.

That's right.

It was processed exactly like this, for safety, before "shipping."

By the time I'd removed the limbs from every golem, my MP had dropped below 20.

I'd be using the 'Left Eye Gate' too, to have Mia-san crush the limbs down to their roots, so today's probably the end?

I turn around to ask her—and there's another face.

Soushi has poked his face out above Aikawa's.

The dango three brothers, is it?

I am extremely curious what the underside of that stack looks like...

"Mia-san, please do the finishing. And you two—dangerous, so pull your heads back in."

"How many is that altogether?"

"Ten, apparently. Hey. Do copper golems give more EXP than those sand golems from before?"

Aikawa answers Soushi's question and comes back with a new one of her own.

That's a difficult question—or rather, an answer nobody actually knows.

On Floor 6 of HQ, goblins and hobgoblins spawn mixed, and the verification crowd's findings have established that hobgoblins clearly give more EXP, so Chiba is probably the same.

Floors 1 through 9 have no EXP difference by floor; whatever weapon you hold, EXP is fixed per species, which is why the famous wisdom goes that Floor 5, where only hobgoblins spawn, is better for leveling than Floor 6, where mixed monsters appear.

Once you're in the 10s, Floors 11 through 19 spawn nothing but orcs, but here EXP differences by floor do emerge.

The deeper you go, the easier the leveling, it's said.

But that's about as far as verified knowledge goes—at Floor 31, casual verification is out of the question.

After all, levels can't be reset, so each adventurer can verify once, and raising a new adventurer past Floor 30 takes a good two-plus years.

What's more, EXP gain varies with things like distance when the monster died, whether you attacked at all, how you took part in the fight, whether you landed the killing blow—so accurate measurement is nearly impossible.

The EXP debate is deep enough that people argue if there's a finishing-blow bonus, there ought to be a first-attack bonus too. That's how murky it is.

"No idea. Haruki, what do you think?"

"What DO you think, Mia-san?"

The question rotates from Aikawa to Soushi to me, so I pass it along to Mia-san.

For things like this, the elders are the ones to ask.

"...Hm? Ah, EXP. Got me. It's my first time up to Floor 31 myself. I'll ask some Triples later, but metal ones are supposed to be rare—you can't just go expecting to meet them, y'know?"

"Is something the matter?"

Aikawa calls out to Mia-san with concern—she'd seemed a little dazed.

No, addressing someone top-down like that is a bit much, don't you think?

"It's just, Haruki's fighting style was a complete mess. Well, that's not the point..."

"You mean it sucks?"

Don't say it so baldly.

"Sucks, huh... We're on Floor 31, and the enemies are rare metal golems, right? What does it mean that a sucky fighter is crushing ten rare monsters with total ease? That's what I was thinking about. Anyway, I'm carrying that golem back now, so you two will see real quick just how abnormal this is. I'll do the finishing, so you two wait in the warehouse."

"Can't say I follow, but roger thaaat. Over to youuu~"

Soushi and Aikawa retract their heads, and Mia-san comes through onto Floor 31 with the rest of her body.

"Then, please start with that one."

I place the 'Left Eye Gate' on top of the nearest copper golem.

When I went for their legs earlier, I destroyed the thigh area and severed them, so there's still quite a bit of leg left.

For Soushi and Aikawa's safety, I have her crush those down to the root.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to fight if you'd used THAT earlier?"

Tell me about it.

I can't exactly claim I forgot.

"It's a secret skill, you see, so I try not to use it much."

That's the story I'd like to stick to, but I'm using it RIGHT NOW to pin a golem...

"...Meaning you didn't even need to fight at all?... Hold on a second. Ngi-gi-giiii. HEEEAVY!"

Mia-san lifts the limbless copper golem.

Copper is heavier than iron, isn't it?

She staggers straight into the 'Left Gate' and comes right back.

"Huh? You already extracted its magic stone?"

That was fast.

"No, that one's a teaching aid. Should be fun watching those two try to extract it... Haruki, close the 'Gate'."

"Eh? Um, sure. Away, away, then."

As told, I dismiss the 'Left Gate'.

What's this about?

"Listen. From now on, no matter what Natsuki says, do NOT engage with Bear Ossan. And no matter what Bear Ossan says, either."

What's this all of a sudden?

"Is that parent-child relationship really that bad?"

"Well, it's not good. Bad is only natural, I figure. But I think that's fine as it is. Bear Ossan will keep working to mend things, and Natsuki will keep working to stand on her own. That's how it should be. You two will clash plenty from here on out, but if we just side with Natsuki so nothing unreasonable happens to her, that's enough. But you, Haruki—you're out. Stay out of it."

What is this, a shunning?