ch441-ch460 · 450-ch450

Chapter 450: On to Floor 47

"From here on, every skeleton that comes out should have the job composition of an upper-tier adventurer even among Triple-Ranks. Let's advance with due caution."

We've reached Floor 47.

The mass-production invincible boxes came through, so with two leveling runs a day, Soushi's and Aikawa's levels hit 47 yesterday as well.

And so we've come to Floor 47—but since it's our first day here, it's just Kasumi-san and me again.

Soushi and Aikawa's attendance is in dire straits, so they went to the university.

Mainly Soushi, that is.

He has almost no work as the 'Summer Shadow,' but he always tags along with Aikawa to headquarters, so at the university it's often just me.

After lectures we come to the dungeon, so I don't even get to hang out with friends—I'm completely on my own, you know.

Aikawa gets invitations from clubs all the time, and among them are adventurer clubs too—everyone seemed to be having such fun......

"You mean the 【Samurai】 ratio drops? And what do the increasing ones become?"

"At headquarters it's the 【Sword Master】s that are common. Otherwise, in Osaka and Nagoya, upper-tier adventurers hold jobs with riding-type skills, so skeletons on mounts may appear too."

Ah, wasn't there a request out to 'Blue Ocean' for a bike at 50 million yen a unit?

But the 'Queen' got shot down on the way back from that, so I don't remember whether the thing itself was ever obtained......

I've heard most mad-modified vehicles are the type that suck mana from the skeleton in the driver's seat—could we ride those too?

If we get a chance, I'll pop outside and stash one with 【Gate】.

In Europe, the upper ranks at this depth are adventurers in powered suits built with the latest technology.

What comes out are skeletons wearing further mad-modified versions of those powered suits.

Even among Triple-Rank adventurers there's almost no gap in machine performance against Quadruples—so once those are mad-modified, a Quadruple has no chance of winning.

To begin with, in Europe even starless, jobless adventurers often use powered suits or remote-operated robots like Robo-ko-san's, so it's said advancing is hard by Floor 41 already.

Countries with adventurers are the lucky ones—where the military is the main body entering dungeons, they say Gatling guns get mounted on top of the fortress gates.

America's the same, I hear—a gun society, where firearm use inside dungeons is basically unrestricted.

"Bikes, is it...... The body slams are scary, so I'll prioritize dealing with those."

There shouldn't be many, so if they come out ahead of the other skeletons, they're perfect prey for the 【Gate】.

Surely nothing the size of a car that can't fit in the Gate will come out, right?

I've heard the SDF assembles trucks inside the dungeon and leaves them on each floor to haul supplies......

The invincible box gets pinned down with 【Gate】 once it reaches its spot, so there's no fear of it flipping—but the heat of an explosion does transmit through.

I've been nullifying 【Fire Magic】 with 'Magic Shield' as much as I can, but even just the heated air warms the invincible box, and the inside gets hot.

If it came to a more realistic explosion—gasoline and the like—that'd be a little scary.

Rocket launchers fall into that category too: the ground gets gouged out, and there's a chance the blast wave gets inside.

From Floor 48 on, I plan to have Soushi fill the gap with the ground using his 'Water Magic,' but......

"All done. Let's set out. Though I can't be certain, the 'Bow User's' range has likely extended as well. Please stay alert, and apply 'Shield Enhancement' early."

Kasumi-san, who'd been assembling the mass-production invincible box hidden by the 'Gate to the Previous Floor' as usual, announces it's finished.

Coming from me, who was on high alert until it was done, it's a bit rich—but on skeleton range, I'm actually optimistic.

It probably won't exceed 300 meters.

Beyond that, you fall outside the skeletons' sensing range.

Well—I only noticed this myself when the invincible box was backing away.

Just a little past 300 meters, the sniping from the castle gate stops dead.

Skeletons have no eyes.

A normal skeleton's sensing range is, at best, 10 meters—beyond that they won't attack unless you make a loud noise.

Scout-types have a wider range, and react even through walls.

When you hole up in a fortress side room overnight, the ones hammering on the door are these guys.

And the skeleton that seems to be a bow-user-type job has its range suddenly stretched to 300 meters.

I think they're sensing us with skills.

So once you leave that range, we're invisible to the skeletons.

Well, once the Flirting Strategy goes live, for some reason monsters from even FARTHER away come swarming, though......