ch301-ch320 · 309-ch309

Chapter 309: Surprise: Huge Success

"Hardly any skeletons left, are there."

We pass through the castle gate and enter the fort like normal.

We're in something like a courtyard, and it's quiet.

The black presences can be counted on one hand, and all of them seem to be indoors—or rather, inside the fort's buildings.

"Then let's go inside and call Mia-san."

I'd had Mia-san go back to the warehouse to examine the weapons we'd picked up, but at this rate that worry was unnecessary.

The moment we enter the big building inside the fort, I use the 'Left Hand Gate' to bring Mia-san in too.

"Oh? Indoors, is it? The walls...... quarried stone? Doesn't look all that sturdy."

True.

The walls here aren't as thick as the outer ramparts.

An ordinary person would struggle to break through—but the ones who come here are adventurers past Level 40.

If Aikawa 'Beast Transforms,' walking through a wall looks easy.

"Let's form up around Mia-san as we advance. I would like to say the vanguard is mine, but I leave it to Haruki-san, with his 【Presence Detection】. I will guard the rear, so you two, please take Mia-san's flanks."

"That works. Squeeze me in the middle and you lovebirds can't flirt."

From what I've seen of 'Blue Ocean''s videos, even fighting inside doesn't bring the outside enemies swarming in.

If any do come in, it'll be within earshot of the fighting, I suppose?

Skeletons make no sound, so no calling for reinforcements.

In five minutes the outside enemies will start respawning, but as long as we don't do the Flirting Strategy, we won't get surrounded either.

"Mmm-mmm-mmm? We can do it, you know?"

"Don't you dare!"

We can always escape with the 【Gate】, so it's fine!

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"Ah, next room on the right. Skeletons inside. They seem to have noticed us too, but they're not coming out."

Exploring the first floor of the three-story building.

We go down narrow corridors checking every room, but nothing notable so far.

This is the first room with skeletons, too.

The black presences have stopped moving just beyond the door.

"Mine. Would you open the door?"

"Yes. One, about two meters in front of the door. Careful."

Kasumi-san volunteers to handle it.

With her armor enhancement skills, I can safely leave it to her.

Fingers up—3, 2, 1—and at zero I pull the door.

The skeleton inside had waited with spear at the ready, but before it could move, Kasumi-san's thrust to its chest sent it flying.

It came apart, all right.

By the way, Kasumi-san has switched back to her usual guandao.

Mia-san, too, has put away the long-handled hammer and picked up a shield from earlier.

The grip's spikes are cleaned off, and she's turned it into a square clip for easy carrying.

Fast work.

"A spear—no, wait. It's a fire poker."

"Mmm-mmm. It is a spear."

"I'm telling you it's not! If we wanted a spear, we picked one up earlier, didn't we!"

It does look like a spear, but it's a metal bar with a hook on the end.

This room is......

"Is that a stove? Looks less like a smithy and more like a kitchen."

Aikawa's right—it's probably a kitchen or a cookhouse.

"Going by what I see, no kitchen knives lying around, though."

There's a water jar, at least—but when I lift the lid, it's empty.

"This one's not carrying anything else either."

Soushi searches the shattered skeleton, but nothing turns up.

"Was it watching the fire? No—the fire's not lit...... If this floor reflects jobless equipment, this one must have copied an apprentice's or a part-timer's gear. Oh? 'Enhancement' takes to it. This is pretty good, actually. Can I keep it?"

I see.

A skeleton copying the gear of an apprentice who hasn't even been allowed to hold a hammer yet......

"Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm? Mia-san, a spear user? If you just think of the fire poker as a spear, couldn't it serve a production-job holder in a fight?"

She has a point—right now Mia-san looks like a warrior with shield and spear.

"No—if I actually thought "spear," I don't think I could enhance it. A fire poker that can also be used for combat—that's about as far as it goes. And it's only because this thing is dungeon-made that it enhances at all, I figure. I don't usually use stuff like this."

The weapons skeletons carry have, besides their sharpness and durability, one more trait: skills take to them easily.

Simply put, they're easy to 'Weapon Enhance.'

'Weapon Enhancement' is surprisingly hard.

Aikawa, whose dance skills can enhance anything that's a weapon, aside—Soushi still can't enhance anything but the kitchen-knife part at the tip of his spear, and even I struggled to maintain enhancement at first.

Even adventurers who got their jobs smoothly hit a wall on the 'Weapon Enhancement' skill.

"A first-class adventurer can use weapon enhancement without thinking," as the saying goes—most 【Katana User】s can't enhance double-edged swords, and even among 【Swordsman】s there are those who can't enhance katanas.

Yet even those people, they say, can enhance the swords and katanas skeletons carried.

"How about leaving skeleton weapons at the counter for people to practice enhancement on?"

Pretty good idea, no?

"Weapons worth over 2 million yen each, with extraordinary performance. Plenty of Association employees want one, and some would object to letting them sit idle. And then there's the question of where they came from—I think doing it through the Association would be difficult. At Mia-san's shop, however, as Mia-san's personal property, she might be able to lend them out for practice."

The Association is out, then......

"Nah. At this rate I'm going to want 【Tool Enhancement・Smithing・High】. But skill points, man. 【Naming】 alone eating 5 points is already brutal."

Mia-san has taken a liking to the fire poker, but for combat use she'd want an upper-tier enhancement.

Not enough skill points, though.

"Oh, I thought of a new way to level you up earlier, but......"

"NO! NOT DOING IT!"

Rejected by Mia-san.

"I haven't even said what it is yet......"

"It's gonna be putting a 'Gate' in front of the castle gate and flirting, isn't it!"

With that, I feel like nobody but me would level unless we got close to where the skeletons fall.

And if we're too far away, maybe I don't level either.

"Golems—golems, I said. The thing you're good at."

"Really? The not-scary kind?"

"......"

How should I answer?

I was scared too, and Mia-san hated it just now, so......

"Why are you going silent there! NOT DOING IT! Absolutely not!"

"It's not dangerous, I promise—we'll put a lifeline on you. Perfectly safe."

"What's a lifeline!? That sounds terrifying!"

"For today, let's just take a look at the 'Gate to Floor 42' and head back. If we went from the 30s floors, we'd have to fight skeletons again on the way home."

"There's a Minotaur, right? Then I'll fight it!"

The 'Gate to Floor 42' is in the great hall on this building's third floor, guarded by a Minotaur skeleton.

You can enter without beating it, and since we're not going deeper today, we could ignore it and head home.

But Aikawa's fired up, so I'll leave it to her.

I want a great axe too.

Or so I thought—but the great axe the Minotaur skeleton Aikawa beat carried was rusted like the goblin's, so we scrapped it.

At this rate, the halberd the Orc General skeleton on Floor 43 holds will probably be rusted through too.

Apparently only the weapons and armor carried by humanoid skeletons are the mad-modified good stuff.

After that, we exterminated the fort's skeletons once more, fell back to Floor 39, and called it a day.

Mia-san, who had complained so much, went grinning from ear to ear back to her shop, shoulders loaded with weapons.

Amazingly, there was no scolding at all.

We got home safe, so it should be fine to say it now.

The surprise was a huge success!