ch221-ch240 · 236-ch236

Chapter 236: The 'Floor 30 Isn't Scary If Everyone Goes' Strategy

"Hey, look at this! My license!"

Soushi grins ear to ear as he shows it off.

Two stars—Double-Rank.

Yesterday, not just the newbie—Soushi and Aikawa got promoted to Double-Rank too.

A rookie Double-Rank is eye-catching, sure, but it's not unheard of.

Even in Japan, there are plenty of streamer projects where money does the talking and someone hits Double-Rank in a single day.

Those rank-up requests below the appropriate level regularly set the internet on fire, but since they don't go through the Association, legally—or rather, Association-ly—there's no particular penalty.

One Triple-Rank can push through Floor 20 without trouble, so maybe they figure it isn't all that dangerous?

This time too, with a Triple-Rank like Anego-san along, Kasumi-san said nobody would bat an eye.

"I'm Double too, you know. Hardly a rarity. I get being happy about it, though."

"Listen to this. Yesterday, Soushi went all goo-goo over Hayashi-san—he nearly signed a warehouse lease!"

Aikawa is in a mood.

"Well, you've got a lease too, and she said a Double-Rank adventurer could manage the payments, so......"

Aikawa isn't angry about nearly getting swindled by Hayashi-san.

She's angry because Soushi was drooling over Hayashi-san.

......Best be careful, me.

"She nearly had me booked for the NEXT rank-up request too—"

Hayashi-san has fully locked on to him.

Kasumi-san guards me from that, but guarding Soushi is Aikawa's job now.

Officially, we're the branch manager's endorsed, promising rookie party.

We may be handling public-facing requests from here on, too.

"Speaking of rank-up requests—about the thing Anego-san brought up......"

"Right, and in the end Watanabe-san will be helping, won't she. So we're tagging along again? That part's fine by me...... When's it happening?"

"You three are joining too, you know? Early October, probably? Activating the 'No One's Scared of Floor 30 If Everyone Goes' strategy."

"Huh? 'Everyone'—does that mean Haru-kun's skill goes public?"

Ahh—it would be easier that way, but not this time.

"No, we climb to Floor 30 like normal. With the production-job people included, that's twenty-plus, I'd guess. We're joining as escorts."

"What do you mean?"

A rank-up request is normally done with two parties, tops.

The party that actually enters Floor 30, and the escort party that preserves MP on the run up to Floor 29.

But that had always struck me as odd, so yesterday I ran it by Kasumi-san.

Why not just have everyone go at once?

Adventurers, as a species, want to stand above every other party—one floor deeper, one level higher, a rarer job—anything to be upwind of the competition.

Not to single out the newbie, but they live in a world of taking and getting taken jabs.

Creatures who do not know the meaning of the word "cooperation."

There are clans—leagues of parties—but even then, the rule is separate entries into the dungeon.

"Camping was fun, right? So I thought—why not camp our way up to Floor 30, all of us together? I was talking it over with Kasumi-san, how one big run would be easier than piecemeal, and she said let's try it. More people means more escorts, so us too—come on."

Kasumi-san said she wants to get the production-job folks their Triple-Rank promotions as well.

Sooner can't hurt anyone.

"But a boss area only fits five. Forget the rest of it—what about Floor 30?"

Soushi has found the flaw in the plan.

"That part, we lean on Kasumi-san. It'll be a war of attrition against her MP, so she rests completely on the way up, and on the way back we manage things so she never has to swing a weapon. Worst case, if her MP runs dry before everyone's promoted, I can pick up the slack."

Even out of MP, Kasumi-san dismantles Forest Ogres with ease.

All I'd have to handle is the Ogre King.

"Then we'd better be Triple—no, upper-rank jobbed—by then, huh?"

Exactly. Rank stays as is; the leveling is purely to land the upper-rank jobs.

Same for Kasumi-san—for everyone's sake, she wants to be as leveled as possible by the day itself.

And......

"Not Triple. By October, we're aiming for Quadruple—clearing Floor 40."