arc3 · 036-ch36

Episode 36: New Armor

After wrapping up the discussion with Kirin, or rather the flashy woman, I continued armor shopping. First things first, I have to accomplish my objective, or tomorrow's dungeon exploration will be affected.

I'd been looking at plate armor until just now, but that's probably enough, I thought. So I headed to the corner for armor prioritizing mobility.

There are items with padding in key spots to avoid hindering movement, and there are also clothes that look like work clothes such as tracksuits or military uniforms.

There's quite a variety, but the clothes with padding look like they'd feel weird, so those are rejected. Military-style stuff isn't bad either, but material-wise, tracksuits feel more familiar and would probably be better.

After looking at several pieces of armor this way and that, I ended up deciding to buy sturdy tracksuits as originally planned. There are quite a few types of tracksuits too, and prices vary widely depending on the materials used.

There were even tracksuits inside a showcase. The design didn't appeal to Suzuka, but the top and bottom together cost 2 million yen.

"Tracksuits made from spotted spider material, huh. That's steep."

"Well, yeah. Spotted spiders are monsters from District 4 on Floor 1, you know? The prices reflect that."

Kirin, who had been silently following behind until now, taught me this.

"District 4. No wonder it's expensive."

On every floor, materials from monsters in Districts 4 and 5 are expensive. This is because the stairs to go to the next floor are in District 3, so you can go to higher floors without having to explore Districts 4 and beyond.

To raise your explorer rank, exploring District 4 isn't necessary—what's important is which floor you can explore on. Therefore, few explorers deliberately explore District 4, which is unrelated to their rank.

Furthermore, Districts 4 and 5 have a wide level range for the monsters that appear, and if you explore poorly you can end up surrounded by monsters higher level than yourself, making them areas with a much higher risk of death compared to Districts 1 through 3.

Even if you explore with a level margin set, there's a sadistic mechanic where item drop rates drop drastically from opponents with a level difference, so there's no benefit. That's why items produced in Districts 4 and 5 are expensive even on Floor 1.

What Suzuka needs right now is not armor using rare items, but armor with good cost performance.

After searching around, I narrowed it down to two candidates. Both have anti-cutting effects and are tracksuits made from special fibers with materials mixed in that conduct mana easily through the fibers.

A set of top and bottom costs 140,000 yen. At that price, I can buy two sets. The design is cool and wouldn't look out of place walking around town, which is a big plus.

"Foruts and Meichuu, huh. Both are good brands."

"Foruts? Is this one? A foreign manufacturer?"

"Yeah. It's a long-established manufacturer of explorer equipment from Germany."

"Then I'll go with Meichuu here. If it's a Japanese company, it should be reliable, right?"

If it were German-made, the quality probably wouldn't be a problem, but they'd be making things to fit German body types. If it's a Japanese company, they'd be making things to fit Japanese body types, and the quality would be reassuring too.

The design and fabric texture were to my liking, so I'd found something good.

I took two sets of tops and bottoms in hand and paid for them. Even then, Kirin followed quietly from behind.

Payment was done with a smile and cash in full. I made a debit card when I opened the account, but it hasn't arrived yet, so cash payment was the only option. It was an expensive purchase totaling 280,000 yen, but even so, over 100,000 yen remains. Thank you, Dungeon-sama.

"I've bought everything I wanted to buy, but there's one last thing I'd like to look at. Is that okay?"

"Of course. That aside, can I ask why you suddenly switched to formal speech?"

"Oh, since Kirin-san isn't an enemy, I thought I should respond properly."

I had misunderstood on my own, but Kirin hadn't come here for revenge for that pick-up guy from before. There might be patterns like her party waiting in ambush outside and all that, but if I started talking like that, there'd be no end to it.

But for someone I just wanted to talk to, my attitude until now was extremely inappropriate. Plus, the other party is an Explorer High student—in other words, older. Age isn't absolute, but respect is necessary.

So, I judged there was no problem after buying the armor, and decided to change my attitude.

"Ahahaha! That's really funny, ah! You changed how you deal with me because I wasn't an enemy? Heh heh heh, ah—that's funny"

This was Kirin's umpteenth burst of laughter today.

Suzuka himself had no self-awareness of saying anything funny, but if she found it funny, that's fine. Kirin's way of laughing didn't seem like she was making fun of me—she genuinely seemed to be laughing with amusement, so it didn't bother me.

"No, sorry for laughing out loud. There's no need to change your attitude. If you talk to me like before, I'd be happy about that, personally."

"Really? Then I'll go back."

"Thanks. I really want to get along with you, you know."

Maybe the afterglow of that laughter remained, but Kirin was still laughing happily.

◆

"So, can I ask what it is you want to look at?"

"Yeah. I want to look at 'storage bags.'"

Storage bags are dungeon-produced items.

In appearance, they take the shape of ordinary backpacks and such, and you can normally put food and tools inside them. The capacity is exactly as it appears—they don't have expanded interior space where you can put anything inside.

The remarkable point about this item is that even if it contains items from outside the dungeon, you can put it inside storage. On top of that, no matter how many things you put inside a storage bag, storage capacity is only consumed one per storage bag—a truly excellent item.

With this, you can put drinks and food inside storage and go dungeon exploring. You won't end up in situations like that time the goblin stole things from me.

Besides, even when shopping like today, if you can put your wallet and purchases inside a storage bag, being able to shop empty-handed is another happy point.

"Storage bags, huh. Those are over here."

Kirin guided me as if she knew where they were placed. Inside the sturdy-looking showcase, only three were displayed.

"Is that all there is?"

"They're luxury items, you see. If you ask the clerk, they should show you other sizes too."

When she said that and I looked at the price, it was a convincing price that they'd hesitate to put on display.

A pouch size that seemed like it would only fit a wallet and a cell phone cost 5 million yen. One slightly larger than that was 6.5 million yen. Of the three, the largest storage bag in second-bag size had a price tag of 10 million yen.

I knew it was convenient and expensive, but actually seeing it leaves a different impression. I've seen prices of around 25 million yen for backpack-sized ones on the net, so I guess that's just how it is.

"Are you earning enough on Floor 1 to afford a storage bag?"

"No, not at all. The armor cost just now wiped me out. I just wanted to see what a storage bag was like."

The designs of the displayed storage bags varied.

There were feminine-looking ones like makeup pouches, and subdued drawstring bags that looked like something a grandpa would use. The second-bag-style ones had designs with colorful dyeing applied to leather.

Like dungeon-produced armor, storage bags change to designs that match their owners when put inside storage. Armor changes both design and size, but it seems storage bags only change design.

"Storage bags are practically one status symbol for explorers, too. We're also saving party funds just for a storage bag, you know."

"It really is convenient to have one, huh. Well, at this price, I won't be able to buy one for a while."

"Even at this price, they're on the cheaper side globally. Storage is like a safe that no one can break into, you see. I hear they're highly valued in countries with poor public security."

Indeed, if you can put important items inside storage, it's no different from depositing them in a safe where you can safely take them in and out anytime. Not only that, since you can also carry explosives and firearms around, if someone wanted to use them for terrorism, they could do so as much as they wanted.

When you think about it, it might be quite a dangerous item.

While convenient, if mishandled, it becomes something dangerous. ...Yeah. It's overflowing in this world, isn't it. If you think about how easily it can be misused for danger and the degree of damage, it's by far the most dangerous item.

"I got to see storage bags too, so I'm good now. Thanks for keeping me company."

"Not at all, don't worry about it."

"You said you wanted to talk, so should we go to a café or something? Kirin, do you know any cafés around here that serve good sweets? I want to eat something sweet."

Kirin is an Explorer High student. In other words, an active high school girl. She must know all the good cafés in this area.

"I'm not looking to have a serious discussion, so I'm all for a café. Let's see... There's a café I go to often with my party members. The cheesecake is recommended—what do you think?"

"Let's go there!"

That's promising. Suzuka smiled and followed Kirin, convinced of this.