ch41-ch60 · 053-ch53

Chapter 53: It's the Skirt's Fault, It's the Orcs' Fault, It's Society's Fault

The day after spending a night at the hospital.

The test results came back.

No abnormalities.

They even checked my head properly.

"That's a relief..."

Watanabe-san was sitting beside me.

She'd come first thing in the morning today too.

Apparently she'd taken time off work.

She'd stayed by my side during the tests since yesterday, talking about all sorts of things...

How she'd been a receptionist since dungeons opened to the public.

How a lot of people died back then.

How solo adventurers died most of all.

How people who leveled up fast died quickly.

How people who progressed quickly died quickly.

How people with rare special skills died quickly.

That all applies to me.

That's... terrifying.

The conversation continued.

Watanabe-san said she'd started clashing with reckless adventurers like that.

Then she'd been more or less sent away to Chiba.

Apparently things had been peaceful since coming to the Chiba Branch.

Even so, to reduce the number of adventurers dying, she now spent most of her time giving advice online.

Maybe she streamed videos or something?

And several years later.

An idiot had appeared in the Chiba Dungeon for the first time in years.

"When I saw the magic stone from Floor 18, I couldn't understand what it meant."

Ah, so she thought, "This guy's gonna die."

I couldn't see any emotional ups and downs from Watanabe-san as she spoke.

She was talking matter-of-factly.

That anger she'd occasionally—no, frequently—shown before was completely absent now.

"What frightened me most was Kasugano-san's reckless attacks."

Hmm? Was she talking about that final [Charge・Spear]?

"Rather than occasionally, I'd say frequently. You attack without regard for your own safety, don't you? That scared me the most. In the dungeon, getting injured means almost certain death. Especially when solo. The deeper you go, the harder it becomes to get back. Please never do that in actual combat."

Well, there's no one to help me out there.

The advantage of a spear is its range.

Deliberately closing in to go for a one-hit kill is something only an idiot would do.

I guess I had been thinking that the best defense is a good offense.

If I take them down in one hit, I don't need defense, and it's faster anyway.

Plus, even if I get hurt, I can just use [Gate] to escape instantly.

"It might be useless to say this to a [Charge Spearman] pursuing romance, but..."

Oh, she's onto me.

"Only a [Charge Spearman] could do something like that. But if that's the case, something doesn't add up. Your strength is too high. What level are you, exactly?"

It's not like I was hiding my level, and the match was already over anyway, so I figured it was fine.

"I hit Level 24."

"I see... At Level 24, your Strength should be 60. I'm a Level 31 [Naginata User] with 58 Strength, so you've completely surpassed me."

So a Level 24 [Charge Spearman] has that much Strength.

Meaning Watanabe-san had memorized the base stats for [Charge Spearman].

As expected of a receptionist. Truly worthy of the title.

The stats gained per level up are fixed.

If you look it up online, you can find the Level 10 stats for any job.

One-tenth of that is called the base value, and base value × level equals your stat number.

The reason it's Level 10 is because decimal points don't show up in your Status.

Each level up raises your stats by the base value amount.

Job: [Charge Spearman]

Lv: 10→11

HP: 300→330

MP: 150→165

Strength: 25→27

Endurance: 25→27

Agility: 20→22

Magic: 15→16

Is this what Watanabe-san's stats look like?

Actually, her Strength would be 58.9, but it displays as 58.

Job: [Naginata User]

Lv: 10→31

HP: 280→826

MP: 150→465

Strength: 19→58

Endurance: 23→71

Agility: 19→58

Magic: 15→46

Mine should look like this.

Job: [Charge Spearman]

Lv: 24

HP: 720

MP: 360

Strength: 60

Endurance: 60

Agility: 48

Magic: 36

"What are your plans for after this today?"

I hadn't really thought about it, but I wanted to work on my spear sense.

I wanted to practice [Charge・Spear].

"Probably heading straight to the dungeon, I guess?"

"Absolutely not. You should rest."

Ah, there's that angry expression she hadn't shown until now.

"I've rested a full day with all these tests and I'm feeling fine now. I want to move my body a bit."

"Ah. In that case, would you like to come with me to the headquarters? A [Blacksmith] acquaintance of mine runs a shop in the headquarters dungeon."

[Blacksmith]! A production job!

I want to go. It must be a weapon shop.

But what if it's actually a shop where a cute [Blacksmith] makes cute accessories...?

Wait, could this be... a date invitation?

"They're the [Blacksmith] who made that rental spear. I'm sure you'll find a good spear."

Ah, I was wrong.

She's telling me to get my own weapon.

Well, testing if I can activate my skills at a weapon shop should be acceptable.

Maybe I'll meet a bald, tough-looking former adventurer who took an arrow to the knee, recognize my potential, and give me his old weapon.

No wait, maybe a weapon in a discount barrel will talk to me.

"Gimme this, old man." "You can have it for free."

And I'll get a handmade scabbard as a bonus.

What a tsundere old man.

︙

I realized during the trip that I was wearing dungeon gear—long-sleeved athletic shirt and sweatpants.

Well, it's not a date, so it's fine, but I do want to dress a bit nicer when going out.

Meanwhile, Watanabe-san's casual clothes had a chic feel. Black long skirt with a white blouse.

A long skirt, huh...

We talked about various things during the trip, but the one topic I wanted to hear about never came up.

Whether I won or lost the match.

Or rather, what we'd bet on...

Whether we'd form a party or not.

I could tell Watanabe-san was acting much more relaxed than before.

We'd gotten closer and talked a lot more than before.

But I still didn't know the crucial part.

...Does this mean I lost, so she's relieved and being nice to me?

Long skirt... Yeah, it's the skirt's fault.

The Association uniform's short skirt is entirely to blame.

These days, even black gyaru wear longer skirts.

I'll mention it to her tomorrow.

That dungeon black gyaru wear even shorter skirts.

Though that would mean waiting two months for Floor 20.

Well, I'll just grind Floor 19, make bank, and gear up.

Time to vent my anger on the orcs.

It's the skirt's fault. It's the orcs' fault. It's society's fault.