ch381-ch400 · 381-ch381
Chapter 381: The Childhood Friend Is a Sword Saint Flag 【Sword Saint-chan】 Part 5
SIDE: Hoshino Chiharu ('Sword Saint-chan')
Where is this......?
This isn't the usual place, is it?
A wide room, a high ceiling......
At the end of the carpet lies a single luxurious chair.
A place I know well.
The Purgatory area...... the room we call the throne room, in the fortress of the 40s floors.
But something's off.
The 'Gate to the Next Floor' that should be here—gone?
"Chiharu! What's wrong? They'll be here any moment?"
Ao-senpai?
Why are you—
"This is it!"
Yukiya-senpai, too......
Why are you here?
And the 'Gate' that should be before the throne is behind the two of them......
I see......
So THIS is the real Floor 50!
"Enhancements complete. Here they come!"
One minute passes just as I take it all in.
Six familiar shadows appear......
If it follows the dreams so far, it should be up above as well.
That's right—this is a dream.
A Floor 50 dream.
But still...... I see.
So in the real thing, it's all at once......
Natural enough, I suppose.
The one to watch out for first is, of course, 'that girl.'
Ah—no good!
"Senpa......"
One strike at the opening.
No—two. Just two swings, and the senpais are cut in two.
【Dimension Slash】...... Yukiya-senpai is dead.
You're kidding, right?
This easily?
'Blue Ocean,' veterans of a hundred battles?
"YUKIYAAAAH!"
As for Ao-senpai, the one cut in two was an afterimage—an evasion skill.
A half-baked evasion skill can't shake 'that girl,' but that's 'Blue Shadow the Ninja' for you.
The recent dreams have been far, far too much, so I've been wanting at least one of those myself.
Though the trouble with evasion skills is you can't evade while one is running.
Having your body move on its own isn't all good news.
See? The 【Flying Slash】 went right where he fled.
He dodged this one by a hair, though.
This time it wasn't an evasion skill—he sidestepped it himself.
Impressive...... but the distance is closing.
I'm the one who has to take on 'that girl.'
(My body feels light!)
Thanks to Ao-senpai's buff skill.
It's been a while since I got a full, proper enhancement.
With this......
The moment I think that—a spear from behind.
Right. The enemy isn't alone.
The 'naked skeleton' that should have been thrusting from behind comes charging in from the front.
It's always unbelievably fast, but today it's faster still.
They're buffed with enhancement skills too, over there.
Then this is pointless, isn't it......
Somehow, keeping clear of the spearhead, I aim for the shaft and knock the attack aside.
This is bad...... Ao-senpai......
I want to go help him first, but 'the armor with the empty arm,' which came out from behind, spreads that lone arm wide and blocks my path.
"Chiha......"
On the second strike, then the third—the head of Ao-senpai, who had somehow been weathering 'that girl's' attacks, goes sailing through the air.
What was he trying to say......
My eyes met that flying head......
︙ ︙
"—!"
"Kyah! ......Um, i-it's morning."
Morning......?
Right. I was dreaming.
A Floor 50 dream......
The senpais were killed, and I woke up there.
But something's strange.
I shouldn't have died yet.
Until now, even cut clean in two, I stayed conscious as long as my HP held out.
Did I take that spear to the head and burst instantly?
No—I was watching for that more than anything, so it couldn't have......
The newbie woke me, and the dream ended partway?
That's odd too.
Kuma-chan is the one who usually wakes me, and the dream always ends the moment I die.
Could it really end there?
(It's possible......)
The dream moved on to the next stage.
Even though I haven't beaten the Lich yet......
Thanks to this silver sword, maybe?
Of the weapons I had brought in, it was the one that worked best on the Lich.
I was figuring I'd beat it next time with this sword—but the dungeons sealed over New Year's, so I couldn't dream.
The dungeon must have judged that this weapon could take the Lich down, and the dream advanced to the next stage.
By the way, this is the sword that little 【Blacksmith】 made.
A dwarf after all......
An otherworlder after all......
"Um, are you all right?"
Mami-tan, the recent newbie, looks at me worriedly.
I scouted her thinking this girl with the 【Naked King】 job might be the 'naked skeleton,' but apparently she doesn't use a spear.
Bikini armor with sword and shield, apparently, is Mami-tan's style.
She's only Level 30-and-a-bit, but even now she feels reasonably strong.
If she climbs to 50 and goes completely naked, she might move just like that 'naked skeleton.'
There's still hope.
......Probably, that dream was the dungeon's directive: bring your companions to five.
After all, the enemy is five plus the Lich, and we were only three......
The revelation being: without a companion who can stop 【Dimension Slash】, Ao-senpai and Yukiya-senpai will die.
Still, setting aside the true form of the still-unseen 'naked skeleton,' I do wish they'd send me a Watanabe Kasumi at the least.
The other side had a proper full-body black armor, after all......
"It's fine—I'm awake. ...Asuka-senpai, wake up. Breakfast."
I rouse Asuka-senpai, asleep beside me.
"Eek!! Hiih!"
Asuka-senpai jolts, springs in place while still lying down, eyes snapping wide open.
Ahh—the falling dream, huh.
I get that one on the surface now and then too.
This time is the new dungeon survey, so we're only going up to Floor 19, and no strong monsters appear yet.
Blue Ocean's behind-the-scenes staff are with us as well, and I brought Asuka-senpai along as a rehab run.
At this rate, going deep looks impossible for a good while.
For Floor 50, hauling supplies without her help would be difficult......
The 40s floors that caused her trauma we can give up on, but I'd like her with us up to around Floor 39.
With her, the 40s floors would be easy too—seize a room inside the fortress and seal it up, and the skeletons can't get in.
We could even rest like that for a night. Though for sealing that entrance, we've always used the iron material-collection box I keep in 【Storage】.
It'd be nice to find some suitable furniture......
Even clearing that, the next problem is MP management.
Not spending MP as much as possible in preparation for Floor 50—that's the hard part.
Ideally I'd want at least one party as escort.
But Quadruple adventurers capable of escorting through the 40s floors don't exist besides us.
"Mami-tan. Head out once you're ready—we'll follow."
Which is why we need to raise Mami-tan and the others.
Raising them—barely a hair past Triple level—will take real time.
The Floor 50 conquest I literally see in my dreams looks to remain far off......
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
Mami-tan leaves the tent.
Asuka-senpai stays frozen, eyes wide open.
"Come on—if you're not up, Asuka-senpai, nobody gets to eat breakfast! Up you get, up you get."
Every bit of the food is in her 【Storage】, after all.
︙ ︙
"You two look terrible. Bad dreams, maybe?"
Ao-senpai says it with a refreshed face.
Our eyes meet, and I remember how the dream ended......
"Oh? From the look of you, this one didn't work out either?"
Yukiya-senpai is alive too.
......Thank goodness.
Surprising even myself, but that dream seems to have hit me pretty hard.
The one who failed to protect them is me—and the one who killed the two of them is me as well.
What am I supposed to say to them?
"If we go to Floor 50, you'll be killed by me"?
Last time, that line is what made Yukiya-senpai run away from home.
If I tell Ao-senpai, he might call off the Floor 50 conquest?
I don't want that......
What should I do?
At times like this, I have no friends left to consult.
I can't tell Kuma-chan either, and the one person I could talk to about this is......
(Watanabe Kasumi......)
Will she think I'm hopeless?
That naginata user looks at me with contempt whenever I talk about Floor 50.
As if I were going out of my way to throw my life away.
She'd probably say, 'There—see? What did I tell you.'
But there's no one else I can talk to.
Once I head home today, maybe I'll stop by the Chiba branch again......