ch361-ch380 · 380-ch380

Chapter 380: Strong Weapons Exist, but No Weapon Is Universal

"Ah—that! I want to use it too!"

And so, I brought the long one.

The looong spear Kasumi-san used before.

Not quite 10 meters, but close.

This thing? It skewers crocodiles hiding in the brush, just like that.

"Whoa? It's dead...... Not bad."

Soushi calls out, having gone to check the brush.

Even without enhancement, the crocs on this floor are manageable, apparently.

"Yes, yes! Next, me! Lend it, lend it!"

"Me next."

Aikawa hands Soushi the jumonji spear and takes the long spear from me.

And now bare-handed, I take the jumonji spear from Soushi.

"It won't hit! Ah......"

Figuring anything visible was fair game, I aimed at a croc in the water—and missed.

Refraction of light.

You have to aim in front of where it looks like it is.

This WILL be on the test, you know?

Not that it matters—I've got 【Presence Detection】, so underwater or underbrush, I know exactly where everything is.

In the water, keeping your eyes shut might honestly be better.

"Look out!"

The missed croc bursts out of the river at Aikawa, but the spear's too long for her to do anything about it.

Soushi slips in without missing a beat and puts it down.

"Thanks! Ugh, this spear is IMPOSSIBLE to use!"

What she should've done was drop the spear and draw her sword.

Yukiya-san's signature move, that.

Though I'm pretty sure she'd have handled it with a kick even without Soushi.

Glad the Soushi who stepped in didn't get kicked, though.

As for the long spear's awkwardness—long is as long does, I suppose. Swings and roundabouts.

Great reach, no agility.

Might've been different if she used a spear daily......

Nothing for it but practice.

"So strong weapons exist, but no weapon does everything. Lesson learned!"

"Ugh, so annoying. Where's the next croc?"

I said we'd take turns, but apparently it's Aikawa's turn again.

Soushi's shifted to guarding her for when she slips up, it seems.

What lovely chemistry.

Aikawa keeps the long spear all to herself from there on, and we call it a day upon reaching Floor 15.

Partly because she'd had her fill of playing with the long spear, but mostly because the rivers multiply floor by floor and slow everything down.

Jumping with the long spear in hand, Aikawa lost her balance and nearly went into the river any number of times, and just as many times Soushi yanked her back by the spear shaft.

So: home before dark made the footing invisible.

But if the rivers keep multiplying at this pace, the Floor 20 boss room really might be nothing but water and no land at all.

If it's underwater, we head straight home......

Just please, not a waterfall......

︙ ︙

"Some kind of memo here?"

"'Z'? Wait, Z was 'Sword Saint-chan,' right? Looks like she's here. It's early, though—Kasumi-san won't be here yet, yeah? What do we do?"

Soushi turns up a memo left in the warehouse.

That round handwriting is Shiraishi-san's.

A bare "Formation Z" tells us nothing.

We were never told what we're supposed to DO when Formation Z is called.

Until recently I thought it was an evacuation drill, even.

"You ask me what to do...... We can't just stay like this, either...... Where is 'Sword Saint-chan' right now?"

I'd had a poncho on, but from the knees down I might as well have been standing in water, and inside the poncho—sweat or humidity, who knows—everything's a sodden mess.

I'd been thinking: surface, shower, that kind of thing—and then THIS.

"Be nice if she'd just stay put in the chairman's office on the surface. Why are we hiding from 'Sword Saint-chan' again? If it's just Haru-kun, we should be fine, right?"

Why was it again?

Well—whatever it was originally, right now there's a clear-cut reason to stay hidden.

Simulated duel and all, it may be late in the game, but she's hunting for the 【Gate】 holder.

There's my dream to consider, too.

And I'd rather 'Sword Saint-chan' not meet Kasumi-san either.

"Oh? Then maybe I'll go get her autograph!"

"Anyway, I'm going to go change—wait here, you two."

Well, we've got spare clothes here, so I'll have Soushi whip up some water and freshen up......

"She was at the shop, actually......"

"Did you have business with Mia-san?"

Mia-san's in the new dungeon, so she should be staying over tonight.

Same as us—mapping, monster surveys, pushing up to Floor 19.

The Chiba Triples are in the new dungeon in two groups: Anego-san's and Hondo-san's.

They move as a unit, and with so many production jobs among them, the surveys are going smoothly, apparently.

Other branches are moving party by party—some places have turned it into a race over who clears Floor 30 first.

Parties blowing past their return time on day one to scout the depths—other branches are apparently run off their feet.

Chiba doesn't have anyone who'd just wander into the depths on a whim...... Sorry.

Can't really talk, can I.

We snuck into a dungeon ourselves, after all.

"Nope. She's waiting for Kasumi-san, apparently. Said she was bored, so she was browsing the weapons."

If she was at the shop, I figured she'd come to give Mia-san her impressions of the weapons—turns out it was pure time-killing.

"Did you two talk?"

"Yep. She mistook me for Miko-san. I'm heading back to show her the shrine, so you two had better not move from here."

So she came looking for Miko-san?

Too bad—she's in Hokkaido.

'Sword Saint-chan' can supposedly read a person's strength by facing them—did she sense Aikawa's and take her for the one she's looking for?

"Get me an autogrraaph!"

"Idiot!"

And we see Aikawa off—she'd come all this way just to tell us......