ch301-ch320 · 308-ch308

Chapter 308: How Special Skills Grow

"I-I'm gonna hide, okay? Everyone, be careful!"

"Goblins first, please! They'll reach us before the rest!"

Confirming Mia-san has gone back to the warehouse, I give the others their orders.

Contact with the goblins positioned nearby will come fast.

We have to fight so we don't get surrounded......

"Mmm-mmm. I will take the goblins!"

And with that, Kasumi-san makes a beeline for the 'Left Hand Gate.'

She chased after Mia-san, straight back to the warehouse.

"Ehhh? What about everyone's dance?"

"I'm fine. Gotta thin them out before we make contact!"

Every second spent dancing is precious.

"Don't break the weapons! Soushi, dance time!"

Should I use super mode for accuracy?

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

Super mode.

And to check for bow or gun wielders, one more.

(【Charge・Shield・Armor Enhancement・Shield・High】【Charge・Shield・Magic Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Endurance Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Strength Up・High】【Charge・Shield・Agility Up・High】)

Hyper mode.

Katanas, katanas, swords, katanas, clubs, swords, katanas, swords, spears—as far as I can see, no bows or guns.

Looks like it'll work best on the lead runner.

Time for the first shot.

(【Gate】!)

Left eye down, right eye up.

Moving each eyeball in a different direction, I bring up both 'Eye Gates.'

The 'Left Eye Gate' goes right in front of the lead humanoid skeleton; the 'Right Eye Gate' goes into the sky.

The charging skeletons won't collide with the 'Left Eye Gate' that appeared out of nowhere—they'll be sucked in, I expect.

When I used the 'Left Eye Gate' against golems, there was no exit—but this time there is.

Skeletons come pouring out of the 'Right Eye Gate' up above.

Height, about 50 meters.

Too high and I might run into the dungeon's height limit.

Skeletons are strong, and their bones themselves are hard, but their joints are weak to impacts.

And the magic stone behind the breastbone shouldn't survive the shock of a fall either.

Fifty meters should be plenty.

Three seconds, four—the first skeleton is slammed from the sky into the ground.

Just as expected, it's in pieces.

And at the same time, skeletons coming around the 'Left Eye Gate' turn toward us.

Just as monsters avoid the 'Floor Gates,' they won't come near my 'Gates' either.

Going around is only natural.

So—here's a new 'Left Eye Gate' present for the new lead runner.

(【Gate】, 【Gate】, 【Gate】......)

GASHAN, GASHAN—skeletons drop one after another and shatter on the ground.

Enough?

No—did I overdo it?

Hardly any of the skeletons that came out of the fort are left.

I want to measure their strength too; I'll leave the rest to everyone.

Hyper mode can come down as well.

Looking back, the only one fighting goblin skeletons is Kasumi-san, holding a long spear—shorter than the 'Giant's Spear,' but a good 6 or 7 meters.

I'd had this long spear ready for a while, but there'd never been a place to use it.

The 20s floors are forest with too many obstacles, and the golems of the 30s are too hard and heavy for the shaft to hold up.

Here, though, the skeletons are light enough that she sweeps several of them flying at once.

A one-woman rampage, in other words.

"No fair! What IS that!"

Aikawa points at the 'Right Eye Gate' floating in the sky and complains.

"It's just the 【Gate】?"

"That's not the point! Why is it only Haru-kun who gets to cheat?"

Well, that one only works on things running at us.

Golems can't pass through a 'Gate' unless they're lying on their sides, and monsters too big, like the Manticore, it doesn't work on either.

"Well, Kasumi-san's thing is strength with her special skill included, Soushi can spray boiling water and ice, and Aikawa can do full-body beast transformation now. Didn't you all get stronger again after clearing Floor 40?"

Evolution of special skills isn't my privilege alone.

Aikawa could already turn into a slender panda-person with her full-body beast transformation at Floor 30—by now she can probably take an even more panda-like form, no?

Oh—Kasumi-san, having mostly finished the goblins, is heading for the humanoid ones.

"Uhh. I'm, um, not using full-body transformation anymore......"

Hm?

Did something happen?

"Hey! Goblins are done. Any more coming at us?"

"No—nothing on 【Presence Detection】 either. As for the rest......"

Humanoid skeletons—but it looks like only one left.

Kasumi-san thrusts the reversed long spear's butt spike into the skeleton's breastbone.

Konk—the magic stone pops out through the gap in the spine, and the skeleton crumples like a puppet with its strings cut.

She handles that long spear beautifully.

"All done? Then I'll go get Mia-san."

All the black presences nearby are gone.

No figures on the fort walls either—Mia-san should be safe to come now.

"I'll gather the magic stones, so Aikawa, go help Mia-san."

"Ah, right. The weapons aren't broken, are they?"

The magic stones are probably smashed, but the weapons? Can't promise anything.

Also—the 40s-floor weapons 'Blue Ocean' brought back fetched 2 million yen, but even if we bring some home, we can't sell them.

Should I tell her?

"All done? Really? No surprises? Pye!"

Mia-san creeps out warily.

Even the goblin skeleton skulls lying on the ground frighten her.

"Sorry, but Soushi, keep watch on the fort. Everyone, watch the ground—it looks dangerous."

"Wouldn't it be better if YOU watched the fort? I'll pick up the stones over here—go on ahead."

"You think? Sorry, then. I'll leave that 'Gate' up—if anything happens, dive into it."

I doubt I'd lose to goblin skeletons, but I'll leave the 'Left Hand Gate' up just in case.

︙

︙

"Not many wearing armor. And the ones who are, it's leather. Can't even tell what leather—no way I can judge it."

We gathered the scattered skeletons' equipment, but no good armor, it seems.

This floor reflects the equipment tendencies of jobless adventurers, so that's that.

We'll have to push a little deeper......

"Mia-san, how's this sword? Beautiful blade."

"Hmm. No good. The blade's balance is off. Swing it—you can tell it's weird, right? Ah, Kasumi-san, that spear's no good either. The shaft is bent. The power won't transfer properly like that, will it? We're not taking it home."

The sword Aikawa picked up has a beautiful blade but seems useless in practice.

The spear Kasumi-san holds has its shaft bent 90 degrees, the blade pointing some random direction.

How did it even thrust?

I'd have liked to see that skeleton fight.

"Mmm-mmm-mmm—. You can't fix it?"

"It's bent way too far. Even repaired, the strength drops. No good."

The humanoid skeletons' weapons are strong and cut well.

Many outperform both modern technology and the weapons Triple-Rank production jobs make.

They're also known to take skills—weapon enhancement, armor enhancement and the like—beautifully.

But as you can see, they've been mad-modified: they're not ordinary weapons.

The blades are chipped here and there, the grips bristling with spikes everywhere, impossible to hold normally.

Some shafts aren't straight at all but wobbly, even twisted.

The armor's shoulders sport spikes that make you ask—what is this, the end of the century?

Spikes inside the helmets, too.

Spikes, spikes, spikes—nothing here is usable as-is.

Which ones might be repairable, we can't really tell.

Good thing we had Mia-san come along.

"Nothing satisfactory after all? It vexes me, but it seems we must press on two or three more floors."

"I want to get you two kitted out with armor. Also—your and Natsuki's weapons are at their limit, Haruki. Time for new ones."

"Huh? Soushi's is fine?"

"Soushi actually maintains his own weapons, it seems. Well, if a kitchen-knife-like sword drops from a skeleton, nothing beats that. And you two are just using yours wrong. You're slamming them around with brute force—that's what shortens a weapon's life. Hone your technique. Your technique."

That's the fault of a master who doesn't teach properly.

With the dream business too, maybe I should take Hiramatsu-ryu a bit more seriously.

Kasumi-san doesn't look like she'll spar with me for a while, anyway......

Setting that aside—Soushi maintains his own weapons?

"Hm? Ah—kitchen knives I can maintain with the 【Cooking】 skill. Seems I can use every skill a 【Cook】 can learn, so I looked it up, and there's one called 【Maintenance・Cooking Tools】. It even fixes a frying pan's coating—a completely meaningless skill, honestly."

What is that, a cheat skill!?