ch81-ch100 · 089-ch89

Chapter 89: The Strongest Job

SIDE: Umemoto Atsushi (the man who became a 【Berserker】)

In the end, Jun couldn't pick a high-rank job.

We'd originally agreed that if a high-rank recovery job came up for him, he'd leave the party—but at the last moment, maybe he held back out of consideration for us.

Maybe because of that, the teammates waiting on Floor 31 were worried, but not one of them blamed Jun.

'I'll have my answer by our next attempt.'

And with that, the matter was closed.

The rest is Jun's call.

Speaking of high-rank recovery jobs, the Adventurer's Association headquarters has a 【Saint】.

This 【Saint】 is a high-rank job, but it counts as a general/support job, so its stats are low.

Yet its recovery skills are apparently stronger than the healing magic of 【Healer Mage】, a high-rank job in the magic category.

A famous soccer player came to Japan recently to receive this healing skill, and it made the news.

Foreigners normally aren't allowed into dungeons, but the two countries granted each other special permission, and so it happened.

Apparently the ligament in his knee was regenerated.

The 【Saint】's skills 【Miracle】 and 【Heal・Extreme】 can supposedly heal even body parts that are gone entirely.

Skills far beyond modern medicine.

The skills and magic stones obtainable in dungeons are steadily encroaching on the surface world.

Magic stones generate electricity, which becomes batteries, and over ninety percent of the cars running on the surface are now battery-powered.

Gas stations have become battery-swap stations, and thermal power plants have been replaced by magic stone power plants inside dungeons.

(An adventurer's just an ordinary person once they leave the dungeon.)

Maybe that's already a thing of the past.

(From now on, we're entering the age of 'ordinary people' working in dungeons...)

Is that going too far?

(Now then, what to do with a whole week off?)

We have a week off until our next dungeon attack.

We'll be challenging Floor 30 again next time, but honestly, I'm optimistic.

Four of our five are high-rank job holders, after all.

That might be part of why nobody gave Jun any grief this time.

Everyone wanted to hurry home and try out their new skills...

...Me included, truth be told.

(I have no skills to learn.)

All there is, is 【Frenzy】 and the skills attached to it.

(【Frenzy】, huh...)

A skill that supposedly grants explosive power for as long as your MP holds out.

But while it's active, you lose yourself.

You rampage without distinguishing friend from foe. A 【Berserker】 in the most literal sense.

Even having become a 【Berserker】, there are skills you must absolutely never learn.

That's just common sense.

(Troubling.)

I'd been holding onto skill points so I could learn skills the moment I made high-rank, but there's nowhere to put them.

(I'll leave it pending.)

Best to pick up skills from my 【Swordsman】 sub-job instead.

So far I've only taken 【Weapon Enhancement・Sword】 and 【Slash】.

Taking 【Flying Slash】 might broaden my options in a fight, but I decided to wait and see my teammates' new skills first.

And so my week of vacation began.

︙

︙

Day three of vacation. Today I'm visiting the Adventurer's Association headquarters for the first time in a while.

On days one and two, I broke in 【Berserker】 in the Ibaraki Dungeon—no discomfort at all, and my power came out smoothly.

I didn't go deep, but the exhilaration of scattering monsters with overwhelming power is the best.

With the shakedown complete, today I'm finally doing the video recording I've long wanted to try.

The theme for my commemorative first shoot: 'Dungeon Time Attack.'

The 'Dungeon Time Attack' that famous 【Ninja】 streamer does.

If a scout-type can do it, there's no way I, a 【Berserker】, can't.

I'm now someone who doesn't lose to a 【Sword Saint】.

Combining 【Berserker】 stats with 【Scout】 skills, I should reach Floor 30 faster than anyone.

I enter Floor 1 of the dungeon.

(Ah, that guy standing by the wall...)

The scout-type guy who was always there.

I remember him well—his main job was scout-type, same as mine.

My first time in the headquarters dungeon in over a full year, and nothing has changed...

(Time to start...)

I switch on the camera and begin recording.

Headquarters is crowded, so no talking now.

I'll dub in the commentary later.

Starting my wristwatch's stopwatch mode, I touch the Dungeon Gate.

(Here we go.)

I blast through Floor 1 of the headquarters dungeon.

Fast.

My Agility is higher than when I was a 【Scout】, but that's not all.

Maybe thanks to the higher Strength, I cover more ground with every step.

With Endurance up, my stamina is up too—no fatigue in my legs at all.

Everything, everything is different from being a scout-type.

The 【Ninja】 in the video ran along the walls. A bit of showing off, that.

Could I do that now?

I'm recording too, after all.

Why the hell not?

From running parallel to the wall, I leap and run along a windowless stretch of the building's face, around the gap between the first and second floors.

(You never know till you try.)

This is the fruit of the body balance I honed as a scout-type.

It makes me feel like those years weren't wasted, and that makes me a little happy.

Adventurers passing by are looking up at me.

"Whoa."

"A 【Ninja】?"

"So high-rank jobs can do stuff like that, huh!"

Feels great.

︙

︙

I've made it to Floor 29.

My time through Floor 18 couldn't beat the 【Ninja】's, naturally.

But by sprinting through Floors 18 and 19—no detour route—right between adventurers in mid-combat, I evened up the time.

Of course, I made sure not to train monsters along; any orc that reacted, I put down.

My time at the point I downed the Floor 20 boss was faster than the 【Ninja】's.

But from here on, the 【Sword Saint】's time starts closing in from behind.

That 【Sword Saint】 barrelled straight through Floors 21 through 29.

Right through the Forest Ogre packs.

I could probably manage that too, but it would cost me time.

So I hold the shortest line and take them down one by one, assassin-style.

That brought me to Floor 29, and my time is still ahead.

These days I can cleave a Floor 29 Forest Ogre clean in two with a single strike.

As expected of the strongest job, 【Berserker】.

The reason 【Berserker】 is called the strongest...

In America, sports that make use of in-dungeon stats—Extreme Dungeon Sports—are all the rage, and the most wildly popular of them all is dungeon martial arts.

And the job of its champion, one Mr. Max, is 【Berserker】.

Beyond him, seven of the top ten ranked fighters are 【Berserkers】—everyone acknowledges it's the strongest job.

Incidentally, the remaining three all have a special skill called 【Beast Transformation】, which lets them take the form of beasts.

Their physical abilities rise to match whatever beast form they take.

For close-combat jobs, it's a jackpot of a special skill.

(I'm jealous.)

And my special skill is 【Poison Resistance】—a total dud skill...

(Hm? Is someone there?)

I hear voices.

In front of the 'Gate to Floor 30'?

【Presence Detection】 reads nine human signatures.

Looks like they're resting up before entering the 'Gate to Floor 30.'

I came here on a record-breaking pace, and at the very last moment, this...

Embarrassing as it is, I suppose I'll ask them to let me touch the 'Gate to Floor 30'...

(Ah...? Those guys are...)

I instinctively hide myself in a tree's shadow.

I'm using 【Presence Concealment】, so they haven't noticed me.

I scope out the situation without being noticed.

"So we're benched for another two months, huh."

No doubt about it.

My old party members... Hasegawa and crew.

"Still, it's like we don't even exist to them."

"For real."

"Happens all the time. And we've never once botched a corporate job."

Looking closer, besides my four former party members, there are other familiar faces.

The guys from that escort party we hired back then...

(Damn it.)

Of all the people to run into.

Forget the record. Time to go home...

Just as I move to leave, more of their conversation drifts over.

"Wouldn't it be weird if the only times we screw up are with women? Maybe next time we see one through—a woman, I mean?"

"Sure—if you can keep it in your pants."

"Ha ha ha!"

A woman?

Now that he mentions it, that woman from back then isn't here.

She should have joined the party in my place...

I stop and decide to listen a little longer.

"Hey, about our next target. You know that little thing of a woman? The 【Blacksmith】. What about her?"

"The 【Blacksmith】? Ah, that nagging little thing."

Target? What's that supposed to mean?

"Seriously? Her? That's your pick? Yikes."

"Isn't that risky, though? Word is the one always with her is Association staff."

"Long as we don't target the staff themselves, the Association won't launch a real investigation. It'll be fine. Come on, yeah? Apparently she keeps filing promotion requests—she'll come running to us."

"Well, we'll figure it out when the time comes. Two months, man. Hold out."

These guys... don't tell me...

"Still, you guys have some nerve, making us accomplices too. It started when you dumped Umemoto, right? On the way home Hasegawa got dumped, and out of spite..."

"Hey. Drop that story. It makes me sick just remembering it."

"He got dumped right after kicking out a friend since forever. No wonder he wanted to kill someone."

"Uh, that one was still alive afterward, though?"

"I said drop it!"

No doubt about it now.

These guys...

My camera is running.

But at this distance, I don't know if it's picking up their voices.

Should I get closer?

"GOAAAH—"

Wh—crap.

There was nothing there a second ago!

A Forest Ogre just spawned directly behind me...