arc2 · 031-ch31

Episode 31: Results in District 2

　Rabbit Demon Iron Skin, the area boss of Floor 1 District 2, exploded into smoke and was absorbed into Suzuka.

　Suzuka's expression didn't change at all at the sight. There was no joy in defeating the powerful area boss, no emotion from surviving a life-or-death struggle. Not even a muscle twitched on a face that might have said he was exhausted.

　His level and skills had surely grown, but he didn't even feel like checking his status, and checking drop items felt too much trouble. The battle with Rabbit Demon had drained him so much that he couldn't even properly feel the afterglow of victory.

　For now, he needed a break. Water...

"I'm thirsty... gonna die..."

　After moving at full strength for a long time, Suzuka found it difficult even to speak. He had broken into a sweat all over and was suffering from dehydration. His throat burned as if on fire, his lungs demanded air and he repeated shallow breathing. Only saliva thick as phlegm would come out, getting stuck in his throat—extremely unpleasant.

　Now that the battle was over, maybe adrenaline had settled, because a splitting headache started and his condition was at its worst. He wanted to chug water immediately and wash away the sweat in the shower.

　He wasn't injured like during the Fresh Green Great Wolf battle, but in terms of fatigue, this time was definitely tougher. He was in such bad shape that if he sat down, he probably wouldn't be able to get up. He whipped his trembling legs that seemed about to give out like a young deer's and headed toward his backpack under which his water bottle was stored.

　But he didn't see his backpack anywhere. Strange. He had definitely placed it around here.

　Since he started dungeon exploration, his sense of direction had improved considerably. He hadn't learned the Map skill yet, but with this sense, he felt like he'd be able to learn it before long.

　Suzuka, with that level of directional sense, wouldn't make a mistake about where he placed his backpack. And he hadn't fought around here either, so it shouldn't have been blown away.

　He searched the area again and reached one worst conclusion. There are goblins in Floor 1 District 2. There are goblins who love pranks and prefer stealing people's things.

　Neither Suzuka's backpack nor goblins were around the area. He had been fighting Rabbit Demon for such a long time. There were plenty of opportunities to steal, and unlike the Great Wolf, since it was a 1-on-1 fight, he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings.

　He got played.

　At that fact, separate from his fatigue, his shoulders started trembling. Blue veins popped up on his forehead, as if a Hannya mask like Rabbit Demon's was there.

"...GOOOOORBLLIIINNSSSSS!! AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAH, I'M DEFINITELY GONNA KILL YOOOOUUU!!!"

　The scream of Suzuka's hoarse soul, unable to speak properly due to dehydration, echoed uselessly across the empty grasslands.

　◇

　Suzuka managed to return in a state where both his life and throat were parched.

　Since he was truly at his limit, he hurried to the purchase counter and had them buy a few items, bought a sports drink from the vending machine inside the Explorer Association, and somehow managed to stay alive. Even so, he spent about an hour slumped on a bench, so it was pretty rough.

　By the way, what he sold was three "Wooden Weapons." Totaling 300 yen.

　Suzuka was in a dying state, but he was so irritated that his anger wouldn't subside, so on his way back he wiped out a group of Wooden Goblins he found with a single sweep. Because of that, he nearly died from dehydration for real, but that's that.

　Because he was so exhausted and tottering, he couldn't even cash in anything other than wooden weapons for today's results. Well, if they're in storage, they don't take up space, so he can just sell them when he goes to the association next time.

　Now that he had fought area bosses consecutively, there were no monsters left to fight in Floor 1 District 2. His level and skills had risen, so even if he fought the area boss again, he probably wouldn't have such a hard fight as today. Then starting next time, he should explore District 3.

　There are 23 days left of summer vacation. Tomorrow is planned to be a rest day, and he'll probably take breaks while conquering District 3 too. This time he explored for 10 days straight for District 2, but it wasn't that tough. If he rests once every 10 days, that makes exactly 20 days he can devote to exploration.

　This summer vacation's goal is to find the gate to Floor 2. Since the gate is in District 3, he should be able to find it in 20 days. But that alone isn't enough.

　District 3 has monsters up to level 40, so Suzuka wants to raise his level to 40 as well. So like District 2, he'll defeat the 3 types of area bosses and achieve complete conquest of District 3. That's the goal for summer vacation.

　There are 20 days left so he thinks he can make it, but the schedule looks pretty tight.

"Well well, I wonder how much stronger I got from District 2."

　To check District 2's results, he displays his status in his room. At the end of District 1, his level was exactly 10. As a result of doing solo exploration throughout, he checked how far he had grown.

Name: Suzuka Jozenji

Level: 10 ⇒ 23

HP: 86 ⇒ 213

MP: 88 ⇒ 210

Attack: 93 ⇒ 218

Defense: 86 ⇒ 211

Agility: 94 ⇒ 219

Dexterity: 92 ⇒ 217

Intelligence: 87 ⇒ 208

Storage: 37 ⇒ 89

Abilities: Swordsmanship (1⇒3), Body Control (2⇒3), Body Reinforcement (3), Mana Control (2), Evasion (1), Snatch, Thought Acceleration (1), Mana Perception (1), Presence Detection (1)

　Skills that increased during the Rabbit Demon battle were Evasion and Mana Perception. Plus Swordsmanship level went up by 1.

　The reason he was able to barely avoid Rabbit Demon's attacks halfway through was probably thanks to the Evasion skill. And the reason he was able to defeat Rabbit Demon was none other than being able to catch the mana fluctuations in Rabbit Demon's body reinforcement magic through Mana Perception.

　Mana Perception is a skill that can check the size of mana and the strength of magic, and since Rabbit Demon's body reinforcement was also mana-based, he could perceive it. Thanks to that, he was able to distinguish between strong reinforcement points and weak points, and accurately accumulate damage.

"Looking at it like this, I've gotten pretty strong. If I carelessly whack someone like Yasu, I might injure them."

　The stat growth continued to record almost maximum values, and in this about 10 days, his stats increased by 2.5 times.

　It's said that general explorers' stat growth rate is 5. On the other hand, in Suzuka's case, it was averaging over 9. Approximately double the stat growth of general explorers.

　Because he has such high stats, he's able to act solo, and because he acts solo, it's thought that his stat growth values are also high.

　When exploring with Yasu, there was once when his growth value was low. But this time, he was always gaining stats averaging over 9. By bearing the risk of acting solo, it seems the rewards are that much greater.

"But even this strong, area bosses were close calls, huh."

　He was wounded by Fresh Green Great Wolf, and was nearly eaten by Green-Yellow Wolves. Rabbit Demon Iron Skin's attacks didn't work at all, and if the Mana Perception skill hadn't manifested, he probably would have lost. Both area bosses were able to grasp victory in fights that were close calls.

　The area bosses' levels are high, but even so, they felt completely different in strength from other monsters. It's strength that makes you understand why Explorer High School says not to fight area bosses.

"Could area bosses be monsters for people like me?"

　This isn't words from Suzuka's arrogant thinking, but purely what he feels.

　General explorers with a stat growth of 5 don't have stats as high as Suzuka, and they don't awaken many skills either. Even if such explorers gathered in a party and challenged them, it's strength I don't think they could win against area bosses. With ordinary monsters that Suzuka starts finding monotonous, having even fights is probably the best they can do.

　But besides Suzuka, there are others whose stats are booming. For those kinds of people, ordinary monsters give no sense of resistance. Because they can overwhelm with stats, they can handle them with ease even without setting level margins.

　For those kinds of people, the ones they can struggle against and have proper fights are area bosses. To defeat area bosses, high stats are necessary, and to maintain high stats, defeating area bosses is essential. Suzuka felt that there might be that kind of cycle.

"Well, whatever. I'm planning to defeat area bosses in District 3 anyway."

　Area bosses are opponents that ordinary explorers can't even defeat. If you level up to be able to defeat them with ease and then try to challenge, they suddenly disappear and you can't even fight. They're existences you can only fight by taking risks while within the proper level. Area bosses are that kind of existence.

　There's no way items from such existences would be cheap.

"Even this goes for 100,000 yen. And this one is 1,000,000."

　Three items were placed before Suzuka.

　Boss Fox's drop item, "Boss's Bellyband." Fresh Green Great Wolf's drop items, "Fresh Green Great Wolf's Pelt," and "Fresh Green Great Wolf's Fang."

　The bellyband's price is 100,000 yen. The pelt is tagged at 1,000,000 yen and the fang at 500,000 yen selling price.

　The reason they're this expensive has more to do with rarity than quality as items.

　They're items from area bosses that are rarely defeated. Even though it's Floor 1 District 2, their value is quite high.

　Furthermore, explorers who defeat them often keep them as mementos themselves, and they almost never go up for sale. The prices listed earlier are the Association's purchase prices; if put up for auction, they'd probably fetch even more.

　Suzuka also thought he might never get them again, and since he's not short on money, he decided not to sell them and keep them as mementos.

　Another item called "Moeful Eye" dropped from Great Wolf too, but since he doesn't know what state it'll come out in from storage, he decided to keep it gathering dust in storage.

"Even without selling these, I'm earning this much. Dungeons are amazing, huh."

　On his desk was the money he earned in these 10 days. Total amount: 428,600 yen. This is the amount after excluding Gale Rabbit and Green-Yellow Wolf armor. Plus there's still a large amount of items remaining in Suzuka's storage from today, so it'll probably go up another 70,000.

　That makes it 50,000 yen profit per day. That's awesome. Since it's solo exploration, all the profit goes into Suzuka's pocket.

"I really need to make a bank account. I'll go make one tomorrow."

　He'll need it sooner or later, so it's better to have an account ready.

"With this much money, I wonder if I can buy some nice armor."

　Tomorrow he plans to take a rest day and go shopping. At that time, he's thinking about checking the prices of things necessary for exploration.

　With 500,000 yen, he'd like to buy some kind of reward for himself, but unfortunately there's nothing he wants. Originally, Suzuka had no interest in watches, cars, or clothes.

　Before getting absorbed in FX, his hobbies were pretty much just games and manga, and his only use for money was occasionally going to brothels. Having gone back to the past, games and manga are known items so he's not tempted, and while his strong sex drive as a junior high school boy makes him want to go to brothels, as a third-year middle schooler, he'd probably be turned away at the door.

"Well, first I should get exploration equipment in order."

　If he sells area boss items, he could probably buy most things, but other than armor he's not particularly troubled, so there's probably no need to rush.

"Besides, I got this too. No, I'm so glad I defeated it at the risk of dying! This really makes me happy!"

　He took out two items from storage. Both were drop items from Rabbit Demon Iron Skin, "Rabbit Demon Iron Skin's Hard Hide" and "Rabbit Demon Mask."

　The hard hide is like Great Wolf's item, something to stash in the closet. The happy item is the other one. "Rabbit Demon Mask."

　That mask shaped like Rabbit Demon's face with an angry-looking rabbit is a decoration-type item dropped by Rabbit Demon.

　Name: Rabbit Demon Mask

　Grade: Rare

　Details: A mask with all the anger of rabbits concentrated. The wearer gains effects as if wrapped in iron skin. Raises wearer's HP by 10% and defense by 15%.

　Effectively it doesn't match Suzuka's fighting style very much, but it's so cool he doesn't care about that. Just that one point makes him grin.

"This is super cool, huh. I want to use it. Wearing this and going solo would be super cool, huh."

　Thanks to the existence called dungeon, even if you wear equipment with strong cosplay vibes, there's no problem in this world. It's wonderful. That's why, imagining himself exploring dungeons wearing this mask and full Gale Rabbit armor, Suzuka grins.

　Especially the combination of solo and a mask that hides his face tickles Suzuka's chuunibyou heart. He can create a somewhat mysterious atmosphere, and pull a move like being Hachioji Dungeon's hidden powerhouse.

"I want to use it. I want to use it, but what should I do..."

　Since it's cool, he definitely wants to use it, but here too there was the problem of standing out.

　Masks are fairly popular as dungeon items, so the mask itself isn't the issue. The issue is that it's the mask of the area boss Rabbit Demon.

　Suzuka doesn't sell area boss items not just for the reason of keeping them as mementos. The main reason he doesn't sell is because he might get targeted.

　Why worry that much? It's the jealousy from other explorers.

　If Suzuka were a student at Explorer High School, it would probably still be okay. It's like having the huge organization called Explorer High School that exists across Japan backing him. But Suzuka the solo explorer has no one to protect him.

　Japan's dungeons have world-class rare good security. Thanks to the efforts of heroes who were active after the war. But that doesn't mean absolutely no problems happen.

　It's not rare for people to die in dungeons, and dead humans get absorbed into the dungeon over time and not even their corpses remain. That's why, even if killed by someone, no evidence remains.

　Since large amounts of money are often involved with explorers, it's said that theft and murder happen fairly often even in Japan, and there are places abroad where it's said explorers are killed more often than monsters.

　Right now it's the lower floors where Explorer High School students and training facility people are too, so there's little danger, but once it's Floor 2 or above, explorer rank goes up to 4th rank and you step into a lawless zone called self-responsibility.

　In the midst of that, with no self-defense skills and no backing to protect him, exploring while wearing expensive area boss items is suicidal behavior.

　This world is similar to his original world, but because stats rise in dungeons, the danger of humans is completely different. Especially explorers have overwhelmingly low barriers to violence since they kill monsters daily.

　If you watch the news about explorers that flows every day, you're forced to realize that whether you like it or not. Perhaps because there's a gap from his original world, Suzuka has even more of a sense of crisis about explorers.

　In the end, if he takes safety, like with Unique Skills, he should probably hide them until he exceeds level 100.

　Suzuka thinks he should take risks in dungeon exploration, but he doesn't think he needs to take risks against humans. Humans are despicable, and they often take actions you can't understand. Being food for people like that... his guts would boil and he'd make a face like Rabbit Demon.

"Well, I'm going to keep defeating area bosses, and items with higher rarity will probably come out eventually. Now is the time for patience."

　And with that, he put away the area boss items he had spread out and went to sleep, preparing for tomorrow.