ch381-ch400 · 382-ch382

Chapter 382: The Childhood Friend Is a Sword Saint Flag 【Sword Saint-chan】 Part 6

SIDE: Hoshino Chiharu ('Sword Saint-chan')

"What kind of monsters showed up on the teens floors?"

On the way to the Chiba branch, Kuma-chan brings up the new dungeon we were just in.

"Mixed-type. Like Aomori. The main monster was cattle-type, so the Floor 20 boss is probably cattle-shaped too."

"Cattle—as in Bighorn? If it's mixed-type, Wild Boar would show up too, right? If a tasty dungeon like Aomori popped up in Tokyo, I bet adventurers would multiply. I'd love to go on my day off!"

Conversations with Kuma-chan almost always end up on food.

"If it gets opened to the public, that is. And I suspect that's a long, long way off?"

In the ten years since dungeons appeared on Earth, only one dungeon per prefecture has been opened to the public.

And the governor picks which one, more or less arbitrarily, out of the several a prefecture has.

Even if another round of public openings comes, that one won't necessarily be the pick.

"Hm? You don't sound very enthusiastic? Was that dungeon not to your taste?"

I was too hung up on the dream—my heart wasn't in the conversation.

Kuma-chan and I go back a long way, so she notices these things right away.

"Mixed-type means insects. For adventurers aiming for the depths, single-species type is easier to work with."

Still, I don't want to get into it, so I gloss over it.

Mixed-type means dungeons where multiple monster species appear on the same floor.

Many are field dungeons like the Aomori branch dungeon—ones resembling Earth's environment, field-type dungeons that seem to have carried the monsters' world's ecosystem over wholesale.

So you get mosquitoes, moths, horseflies, bees and the like crashing your camp, which makes conquering them harder.

An adventurer's hearing sharpens as stats rise, so even from a distance you hear the wingbeats and can't sleep.

And it's not just that—multiple species of monsters means preparing for multiple species of monsters.

Single-species type, by contrast, is just what it sounds like: dungeons where only one monster species appears per floor.

The HQ dungeon only differs to the degree that its orcs carry different weapons, so it counts as single-species.

Easier to prepare for, and it's my preference.

You can push deep fast and meet strong enemies sooner.

If only the dungeon would throw in something like a 'Direct Gate to Floor 40' so you could pop right over......

"......Oh, right—lots of shops have been moving from HQ to the Chiba branch lately, haven't they? The fortune-teller I used to go to moved to Chiba too! It was inside the department store, and it had quite the reputation for accuracy—but the fortune-teller herself is terrible, you know? She says you can only pick one: the job or a man. 'If you want a lover, quit the job you have now'......"

She took the hint, apparently, and changed the subject.

Fortune-telling, huh......

Dreams, in the sense that they show the future, are a kind of fortune-telling too.

Maybe I'll drop in?

︙ ︙

"F-Formation Z, ssu—! Emergency, ssu—! I'm off to tell everyone, ssu—!"

It's not exactly the usual uproar at every visit I make here—today the only one kicking up a fuss is the staffer with the odd speech endings.

The new dungeon seems to have them run off their feet; nearly all the staff are out, and the Watanabe Kasumi I'm after wasn't there either.

"Heyyy! If you go now, no one's there—!"

The other staffer at the reception just inside the dungeon entrance calls out to stop her, but the odd-ending staffer goes on without listening......

But who did she go to tell?

Not back to the surface—she went toward the dungeon.

If nobody's up here, then to the other staff, I suppose?

"What's 'Formation Z' supposed to be?"

Kuma-chan asks.

That's what I'd like to know.

Every single time, this.

"Sorry, dear. Watanabe-san isn't in today. She won't be back until after five, you know?"

The remaining staffer calls over to us.

"I know. I heard that up top."

Having heard as much on the surface, I'd decided to kill time by touring Floor 1 with Kuma-chan.

......Hm?

This staffer......

Has she gotten weaker?

What does that mean?

Last year, every time we met, she felt stronger—but today I sense nothing.

She reads as nothing more than a weak Triple-Rank like the ones fighting on the 20s floors.

Getting stronger I can understand—but what does getting WEAKER mean?

And this suddenly?

With the new dungeon boiling over, keeping a capable staffer at the branch is a strange arrangement too.

Maybe she's under the weather......

Get well soon.

︙ ︙

"Welcome in—"

"Oh, this one's open. What a relief—"

Starting with the fortune-teller Kuma-chan recommended, every interesting shop that seemed to be run by adventurers was closed.

No surprise there.

The adventurers who recently moved their base to Chiba are, by rumor, the ones Watanabe Kasumi raised to Triple-Rank.

And Triple-Ranks, naturally, have been in the new dungeon since the new year.

The only shop open was the dwarf's.

But the dwarf girl herself—the one who matters—isn't here either.

Only a woman who seems to be the dwarf's mother......

She looks like an ordinary human to me.

I caught a glimpse of the father once—a short, dwarf-ish old fellow.

So apparently that 【Blacksmith】 isn't a dwarf after all, but one of those half-dwarfs.

"Hm? The big spear's gone. Don't tell me it sold?"

The spear that used to stand there like a utility pole had vanished from its spot.

And Kuma-chan had been planning to have fun testing whether she could lift it.

Well, even I can only barely hoist it, so a Single shouldn't manage—but if her raw strength was high, I figured there was a chance.

Kuma-chan is tall, and being SDF, she keeps in training.

"Ah, that one? We offered it up at the shrine."

Offered it up?

That utility pole?

Come to think of it, how did they even get it out of the shop in the first place?

You'd have to carry everything inside out first or it wouldn't fit, no?

"Whoa—there you are......"

"Welcome baaack...... wait, what happened to you? You're soaked."

The customer who just came in looks at me, startled.

That's fine and all, but water is dripping off that female customer.

"Has it started raining outside?"

Kuma-chan says something wide of the mark.

In armor, she can't have just come in from outside.

But this customer...... is strong.

Her movement is so-so, yet she feels stronger than the top-tier adventurers I meet at HQ.

A rare talent with a long way to grow.

Which means this girl is......

"You're Miko?"

My fifth companion.