ch181-ch200 · 197-ch197

Chapter 197: The Flirting Strategy

'I didn't say this in front of everyone, but if ten copper golems appeared, you should have evacuated too, Haruki-san. What is your special skill even for? Evacuating Mia-san was a wise call, but why was "escaping myself" not among your options in that moment? In the first place, ten metal golems appearing simultaneously is an abnormal situation. What on earth did you do to cause that?'

Lecture time, over the nightly phone call.

After that, Aikawa's move was finished, and as of tonight she's living on the second floor of Mia-san's shop.

She didn't have much luggage, and with five stat-enhanced adventurers on hand, it was over in no time.

Though most of it was translucent storage boxes full of clothes, so let it be recorded that I was useless.

Neither my nor Soushi's license is registered to Mia-san's shop key, so Bear Ossan can rest easy too.

(If someone smashed the lock, someone from the Association would come flying over, I suppose...)

'Are you listening?'

"I'm liiiistening! Ah, about the copper golems appearing—I actually have a theory. It seems the dungeon has a tendency to interfere with couples, so I believe it was our flirting at lunch that made ten copper golems appear."

'Mmm. That urban legend again?... I cannot say it's impossible. It does feel like something always interrupts us... Today too, just as we were about to go further, ten sand golems... the numbers add up. You're saying what respawned after you defeated those was copper golems? But then it wouldn't be monsters—it would mean the dungeon holds a clear WILL, you realize?'

"That possibility does exist. So shall we test it?"

The actual topic of tonight's call.

'A test?'

"We'll flirt in the dungeon and see whether rare golems appear."

The flirt-until-rare-golems-spawn-then-profit strategy.

A win-win plan: earn money off rare golems AND flirt at the same time.

'Dangerous. I see no merit in deliberately spawning rare golems. If you need money, gathering the attendant Forest Ogres' magic stones on Floor 30 is the safer route. Not approved.'

"I see... I thought since nobody ever comes to Floor 31, the two of us could take our time there... It's not dangerous, you know? If something dangerous comes, we just escape into the 'Left Gate.' And if the test produces results and shows it IS dangerous, we can alert other adventurers too, can't we?"

'The... the two of us? It's true that when Mia-san isn't there, it's inevitably the two of... the two of us alone, taking our time, flirting... Wait—how does one even flirt? You don't mean like TODAY?! Ahh, what have I DONE... Ah... um... the test, yes, the test. Very well. It is for the safety of adventurers. Let us conduct a thorough test!'

It seems she's found her merit—or rather, her righteous justification in her own mind—so it looks like the test is on.

I'd been planning something a little more, you know, mild—holding hands, feeding each other food...

A little scary, but forward we must go.

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It's Friday.

Tonight Kasumi-san and Mia-san will be staying over, but both have work during the day, so we're free until evening.

Kasumi-san's permission for Floor 20 came down, so the plan is to head back up to Floor 20 and check Soushi and Aikawa's sub-job options.

Going from Floor 31 up to Floor 20 takes nearly five hours in daylight.

Heading from Floor 1 up to Floor 20 normally takes about the same, but passing through Floor 15 could stir things up again, so the backtracking route is better.

That leaves the two of them just waiting around, so they'll gather sub-job intel on the surface, apparently.

No internet inside the dungeon, so Aikawa would be going in blind.

The Association offers job consultations too, so she'll consult Kasumi-san while searching the net, it seems.

"Then, do take care."

Seeing Kasumi-san off, I set out on the journey back up from Floor 31.