ch381-ch400 · 392-ch392

Chapter 392: The Human Motor

"As expected, I can't see a thing."

Kasumi-san got back after sundown, so it's pitch dark and we can't make out our surroundings.

The light she brought doesn't reach the World Tree.

In Chiba you'd have a sparkling starry sky, but here the clouds cover everything, and even in daytime the World Tree blocks out the sky itself.

"No monsters nearby either. Shall we call some?"

【Presence Detection】 picks up nothing.

What I saw when I was with Soushi and the others was also over a hundred meters out.

"Let's not. I'll look into hippo-type monsters. Now then, shall we head back and study?"

She stops me the moment I angle the light at the water.

There's still a little time before curfew, so I get nudged into studying.

"What do we do about the crocodile? It'll go bad if we leave it......"

Back at the warehouse, the croc greets my eyes, so I bring it up.

"Dismantle it? ......I've never done that either. In Chiba, only orcs ever get brought in...... And Mia-san, for all her skill, probably doesn't know her way around a crocodile. If anyone could, it would be those two, wouldn't it?"

The clothing-shop pair, huh......

The needle lady and the scissors lady. The scissors lady holds the job that corresponds to 【Leatherworker】's upper rank, 【Master Craftsman】.

If it's her, she should be able to strip meat and hide apart cleanly with her skills, and processing it afterward would be no trouble either.

She should be with the team other than Anego-san's—the one Mia-san joined, Hondo-san's team. I wonder when they'll be back?

"How about hiding where it came from and asking them to process it?"

"Handing over a crocodile with no appearance record in the country is a bit...... We'd have no excuse unless we at least turn it into hide only, even rough-cut. This time, either give up, try skinning it ourselves, or discuss it with Natsukawa-san and the others."

If it's hide only, we don't need those two—we could just tell some shop we imported it and bring it in.

Still—dismantling, huh.

【Hunter】 should have skinning-type skills, but people who take 【Hunter】 are the type like Yukiya-san, who want combat ability on top of scouting.

He wouldn't have taken those skills.

"Then tomorrow, after we check the World Tree, we'll try the dismantling."

If the World Tree is inside the dungeon's walls, our conquest of this dungeon ends at Floor 21.

Even if it isn't, we won't go deeper tomorrow.

That terrain is just too unknown.

I've never fought in knee-deep water before.

Water resistance will be brutal, and for a hippo it's home turf.

Cover is sparse—just tall grass poking its heads out of the water—so visibility is good.

If we get into combat at Floor-25-and-beyond monster density, it'll be a catastrophe.

The whole floor's hippos converging on us, and so on.

"Tomorrow, is it...... Take good care. Oh, that reminds me—I ran into Dr. Amamiya at HQ earlier. She says raising Nishino-san's and Higashi-san's levels is perfectly fine. If anything, she'd like them to get their Jobs sooner rather than later. Beyond that it's up to the two of them, but leveling them might be a good idea."

The delinquent girl said something about being anxious about exams unless she leveled a bit more, was it?

Level 5 already shows the effect, but once you know, wanting to level is just human nature......

Kasumi-san also said up to about 10 is fine, so seeing how things go, maybe golems......

"'Left Hand Gate' is parked on Floor 40, so even if we go......"

"No good. First, please walk to Floor 10."

Floor 40 can't be passed without beating the Manticore, so apparently going without Kasumi-san is out of the question.

A Job acquisition raises stats too, so let's do that......

We need to improve the vampire girl's food situation and free Shiraishi-san from being the morning cook, after all.

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"Man, there's no way you could do it."

"No, I could."

The next morning.

We came to the rain dungeon first thing for the crocodile-dismantling job.

Rain dungeon though it is, we're under the World Tree's eaves, so no rain falls on us.

Though occasionally something comes splashing down like an upended bucket of water.

We started the dismantling on the little island where the 'Gate from Floor 19' stands, and Soushi made quick work of it.

I don't know whether he registered this giant crocodile as an ingredient, but with nothing but a kitchen knife he separated hide from flesh with practiced speed.

The hide side has almost no meat left on it.

Beautiful work.

I was hoping for a whole "blood spurting everywhere, monsters swarming in, fierce battle!" thing, but it was over before the hippos could gather.

"The magic stone was a no-go after all."

Well, it was dead by that point anyway.

"What about the meat?"

There sits a purple mass still in the shape of a crocodile.

Way too grotesque to whet anyone's appetite.

"Leave it. Once we're away, the dungeon absorbs it."

Soushi looks a little disappointed—is that my imagination?

"Ta-dah!"

Aikawa, who carried the croc hide to the warehouse, comes back holding something.

The box she holds out shows a photo of a blond kid playing in a rubber boat.

"Oh? A rubber boat, is it?"

Judging by the packaging, nothing else comes to mind.

Apparently she bought it after everything yesterday.

"We decided there's no need to move through the water when Haruki can move us with his 【Gate】. With this rubber boat, if we push a person in, they'd go right through the 'Gate,' right?"

If that method of moving is allowed, don't we not even need the rubber boat?

You don't want to get wet?

What a spoiled lot we are.

"If the ground at the destination is sunken, you'd sink the instant you came through the 'Gate.' We'll avoid combat—put the 'Gate' up where there are no hippos."

So she'd thought about how we can't tell what's under the water surface five hundred meters out......

But if you stick a hand through and use 【Scouting】, you can learn the terrain too, actually.

Well, she went to the trouble of buying it, so let's use it.

"Ninety-five centimeters, huh...... Will it fit? Wait, do all three of us ride in this?"

The Gate is one meter wide, so theoretically we'd pass through.

With the air pumped in, it doesn't have that much length—wouldn't we be unable to move on board?

"It says up to 250 kilos is fine, so we're good, we're good."

Even in armor, none of us goes over eighty kilos, so the math works......

"I'll be in front, then. Underwater 【Gate】...... yes, it worked."

Boarding order: me, Aikawa, then Soushi.

The 【Gate】 into the water I'd worried about comes out fine, with the 'Right Eye Gate' jutting out of the water.

I also pushed the 'Left Eye Gate' as far toward the World Tree as I could manage.

"Alright, launch!"

Hmm? Isn't the middle person supposed to paddle?

"Here you go, incoming. 【Water Pressure】!"

Eep.