ch221-ch240 · 233-ch233
Chapter 233: The Wicked Blade
"I see...... Yeah, I've got the picture."
After we wiped out the second boss floor's monsters, Anego-san's inspection began.
She's checking over the orc corpses.
"And what exactly did you figure out?"
Aikawa asks.
This kid really doesn't scare easy, does she.
If you don't ask, you don't have to know, you know?
I do NOT want to find out what's just been exposed......
"Soushi first. Same as a minute ago—this cut isn't something an entry-class job can manage. Whether it's a special skill that enhances the weapon or one that lets him use a slashing attack like 【Slash】, I can't tell, but I do know he's got a special skill of that line."
Nearly a bull's-eye.
Well, he is cleaving straight through Orc Knight armor.
A staff user could never pull that off.
I TOLD you two to hold back!
Some people get attack skills as their special skills.
The famous case is the person whose special skill turned out to be 【Fireball】.
Apparently they can cast 【Fireball】—normally 10 MP—for just 1.
"Oho. So what about Haru-kun? Did he pass?"
"Hold your horses. The monsters Haruki kills—they always go down to a single strike at the neck?"
"Hmm. Now that you mention it, maybe. Setting aside fights where we're drawing them off and not going for the kill—either I shatter the magic stone, or it's neck and POING."
There is nothing "poing"-sounding about it, believe me.
"'Jaken'—the wicked blade—after all, huh...... No, more like a bad habit's grown on top of it. You're too hung up on one-shot kills. You want to fix that."
It's called a habit BECAUSE it doesn't get fixed, you know.
"'Jaken'? What's that?"
"Is that the rock-paper-scissors thing, ssu?"
"That's 'janken' you're thinking of."
The retort escaped me before I knew it.
"Got it, got it. Hiroshima dialect, right."
"'Myself, I'm clumsy, jaken.' Oi!"
Why are you doing the bit?!
"Oh, that reminds me—I wanna get my driver's license too. But cars need a 'shaken' every couple of years or so, right?"
"That's a 'shaken'!"
Somewhere in there, this turned into a pun contest......
Everyone's eyes converge on Anego-san, the one person who hasn't answered yet.
"Huh? Huh? Umm...... murder—'satsujin'?"
"'Jiken'! As in 'incident'! Eh, bit of a stretch?"
"Ah-ha-ha-ha!"
"Haaah, what is wrong with you people. Fine—jaken talk on the way back. Here, the General's magic stone. Stow it somewhere safe."
"Whoopsie, ssu! What if I dropped it and cracked it?!"
A beautiful catch.
If she's the type to drop it, no promotion qualification for her, I suppose.
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"So what IS this 'jaken', ssu?"
On the way back from Floor 19 toward Floor 1, after fending off orcs a few times and things settling down, we circled back to the earlier topic.
"Hm? Ah—'wicked' plus 'blade' makes 'jaken.' Swordplay on the crooked path, basically. For you it'd be a wicked spear, wouldn't it, Haruki? The thinking goes that nothing but instant-kill strikes aimed at necks and vitals is crooked. Scatter your attacks, throw feints, build up to a finishing blow—that's the proper way, and leading with your finisher from the very first exchange is the crooked path. It only works on opponents beneath you. Against monsters, sure, it's probably efficient enough. But letting it become a habit is bad news, you hear?"
I can overwhelm with speed, so I end up going for the neck even head-on.
Kasumi-san has told me to knock off the lunging thrusts too—so this is what she meant, huh.
In judo terms, it'd be like throwing your opponent on raw strength alone.
"Break their balance properly, THEN throw"—that's the idea, I suppose?
But the shortcut is just so tempting, though......
Can't exactly lecture the newbie about her spear-twirling......
"Crooked, huh...... So does that mean he fails?"
Aikawa, don't fixate on THAT.
"I'd like to say 'fail,' but...... Hey, you lot—why don't you form a party with me? Soushi's still got plenty of growing left in him, and having one dancer like Natsuki in a party makes a world of difference. You're only three so far, right? Not right this second, of course. With the New Dungeon business, I'm going to be busy too. And if you do, I'll even turn a blind eye to you and Mia."
"Mia? That loli blacksmith, ssu? What are you even saying, ssu? Haru-kun is going to marry Watanabe-san, ssu. He's going to make Watanabe-san happy, ssu, so he hasn't a moment to spare for any other woman, ssu."
"Huh? Watanabe—as in Kasumi-san?"
"Ah."
"Guh."
"Ah......"