arc3 · 047-ch47

Episode 47: Bringing Forward the Schedule

"So this is District 3. It's spectacular, isn't it?"

As summer vacation was drawing to a close, the explorer party zoo, comprised of first-year students from Hachioji Explorer High, was in District 3 of Floor 1.

The original plan had been to spend the entire summer vacation defeating the area bosses of District 2, but with Nyako Nekoyashika's poison magic skill level rising and the Gale Rabbit armor sets for all members being collected earlier than expected, they were able to move up their schedule and challenge the area bosses ahead of time.

As a result, they were able to defeat not only the Fresh Green Great Wolf, the area boss of District 2, but also the Rabbit Demon Iron Skin, a monster that even those who reached Special Rank sometimes avoided.

The method zoo used to defeat the Rabbit Demon was a battle of attrition using Nyako's poison magic. They applied poison to each of their weapons, somehow managed to poison the Rabbit Demon, and then simply endured. As zoo could only deal damage to the Rabbit Demon through poison accumulation, it took a long time, but they managed to defeat it.

"Really, this is my first time seeing hilly terrain. It's like being in a foreign country."

"A-and, um, the dungeon always has nice weather, doesn't it?"

Inurakuse Yuurai and Nitta Kotori followed after Kirin Rikuzen. The peaceful and vast grasslands were rarely seen in Japan, but having become accustomed to them, the thrill had faded. District 3, where terrain changes occurred within the dungeon, appeared novel.

"A-all right, you guys, let's go at it full throttle!"

Nyako, more fired up than usual, took the lead and headed into District 3.

"Nyako-chan, if you start out too fired up, you won't last till the end."

Though Inurakuse was exasperated with her, Nyako's motivation remained high. And understandably so. The Twin Poison Serpent, the area boss of District 3, dropped an extremely rare item called the "Ring of Twin Poisons."

This ring, which could raise not just Status Abnormality Resistance but also poison magic skill level, was something Nyako absolutely had to have, as she also possessed poison magic.

Naturally, all zoo members felt the same way. If the members became stronger, the party itself would become stronger. Especially since poison magic was a valuable and effective magic. The reason zoo was able to defeat Rabbit Demon Iron Skin was because Kotori, using a weapon imbued with Nyako's poison magic, was able to poison Rabbit Demon Iron Skin. That's poison magic for you—possessing the potential to defeat any formidable monster.

"We'll proceed safely as planned. District 3 has level differences, after all. Don't get too fired up and overlook the Madness Serpent Mimics."

Even as Kirin issued a warning, the party set about exploring District 3.

"Kirin."

"Aah, perfect opponents."

Three monsters appeared before Kirin and the others. One Beginning Frog and two Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks. Both were among the weaker monster types in District 3.

"Everyone remembers the monsters' attack methods, right? Wanko-chan and Nyako-chan take the frog. Kotori-chan and I will take down the chipmunks."

As Kirin spun her spear lightly, she assigned roles. Against powerful enemies they would fight together, but against monsters of this level, they could handle them individually.

Though they were their first encounters with these monsters, it didn't take ten minutes for all three monsters to turn to smoke.

"They were kinda weak."

Inurakuse voiced her honest impression. The other members agreed with her words.

"Yeah. I didn't even need to use my magic."

"B-but the squirrel-chan was cute."

"I'm glad everyone feels that way. Above all else. This is what they call a status difference."

Stats increase based on the intensity of what explorers experience until they level up. To put it simply, the more safely you level up, the less your stats increase, and the more risks you take on adventures, the more your stats increase significantly.

At the level of Floor 1 District 1, the spread in stats isn't large, but once you reach Floor 1 District 3, the difference in stats becomes clearly apparent.

And that difference in stats also influences monster strength. So that ordinary explorers can fight them, monsters that appear on lower floors are assumed to have stats similar to ordinary explorers. Once you surpass level 100, which is considered the exploration limit for ordinary explorers, monster stats also increase, and the number of explorers who can fight them becomes limited.

Not everyone is taking risks in exploration. There are more explorers who explore safely and steadily. For those stat-maxed explorers, it's only natural that monsters up to level 100, which explorers like them can fight, would feel weak.

"All right, it's good we were able to experience the status difference. From here on, if we don't go aggressively, we'll drop immediately. Let's put our backs into it."

As Kirin said, if they got complacent here, it would negate the meaning of having maintained such high stats until now. Fighting monsters with status differences meant safe exploration.

In other words, if they leveled up in lukewarm conditions, the amount of stat increase would decrease, and they wouldn't be able to reach the front lines.

"Th-that's good, Nyako-chan. It looks like we can do the area bosses as scheduled and farm them!"

As Kotori said, if they wanted to maintain their stats, they would need to farm area bosses or advance to Floor 2 before reaching the level cap of 40. Determining the optimal timing for when to fight area bosses versus when to advance was difficult. This was where the benefits of belonging to a top guild came in.

With a top guild, based on years of know-how, they could instruct you on the optimal exploration area according to your stat amount and level. But explorers who couldn't receive those instructions had to proceed by trial and error—if they rushed, they'd die, and if they hesitated, they wouldn't be able to max their stats and their growth limit would arrive sooner. Since stats were irreversible, from here on they needed to act flexibly according to the situation.

zoo's policy in District 3 happened to coincide with Suzuka's—they advocated leveling up by farming area bosses.

"Kotori-chan! You've got good luck, so I'm counting on you! Really! Just hit it one time like you did Wanko-chan's shield!!"

Nyako pleaded as if clinging to Kotori. If you asked who in zoo was lucky, everyone would unanimously say Kotori.

The shield Nyako was talking about was the "Rabbit Demon's Shield," which dropped from Rabbit Demon Iron Skin. Among Rabbit Demon Iron Skin's drop items, this rare shield was a jet-black shield that seemed made of black iron. A large shield big enough to hide the body was equipped by Inurakuse, zoo's tank role.

It was Kotori who had this item drop. For explorers, drop items belong to the person who dropped them, but that's not the case when you're in a party like zoo. Since it's meaningless to hold onto items you won't use, they distribute items to appropriate members.

"Didn't something drop even in that fight just now? I didn't get anything, though."

"U-um... Ah, th-this, armor dropped."

Following Inurakuse's words, when she checked her Storage, it seemed she had already obtained a drop item from the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunk. And it was the armor series, a low-probability drop.

"Why? What do you mean? Is Kotori really just lucky? Maybe the drop rate is better when you deal the finishing blow... no, it really is just luck."

"Hey Nyako-chan. What's with that disappointed look?"

zoo had lucky Kotori and unlucky Kirin. Just now, both had delivered the finishing blow to the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunk, but it seemed only Kotori got the drop item.

"F-fwooohhh!! Th-this, this is too cute!!!"

"Why are you shouting suddenly? You're loud."

"N-Nyako-chan!! Look at this! This! It's cute!!"

What Kotori was excitedly shoving at Nyako appeared to be the armor from the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunk that had just dropped. It was cute armor that looked somewhat like ethnic clothing.

"It's close up! I can see it! ...well, it's cute, but the Gale Rabbit armor is better armor, isn't it?"

"Sigh... Nyako-chan is hopeless. Absolutely hopeless."

Kotori shook her head with a look of exasperation.

"Grr. What's with this tiny thing. Should I poison it and sink it?"

"Heh heh heh. It f-fine as long as the attacks don't hit. I-I've decided to equip this armor."

If another explorer had said the same line, it would have been laughable, but when Kotori, who possessed the Acrobat Unique Skill, said it, it carried conviction. Kotori, who easily dodged the poison magic Nyako unleashed and escaped, indeed didn't seem to care about the difference in armor performance.

"Stop playing around and let's get going~"

"Wanko-chan. How's the shield?"

"Pretty good. But, with Beginning Frogs, I still don't really know."

"That's true too. Next I want to fight a Madness Serpent Mimic or Curtain Frog around."

Once Kirin and Inurakuse decided on the next monsters to fight, they proceeded forward, ignoring Kotori and Nyako, who were still fooling around.