arc4 · 062-ch62

Episode 62: Drunken Sheep Again

With Sugō's preparation complete, the two were looking for a monster to hunt.

Since he was carrying the two-handed sword heavily, Suzuka put it into Sugō's storage.

As a blessing of the dungeon, once you enter the dungeon even once, you can see your status. Status naturally starts at Level 1, but storage comes equipped with a value between 1-4 from the start. Therefore, even Level 1 Sugō can store a heavy two-handed sword.

"Oh, there it is there. District 1 is easy to find, nice."

Recently they'd been exploring District 4, which is a forest zone, so the grassland area where you can see far is comfortable because it's easy to find enemies.

"Is that the Drunken Sheep? That meat was tasty, huh."

"I know. It's tasty, right. So Sugō, defeat it and secure the meat."

A short distance away, there's a Drunken Sheep grazing on grass. Just one. Suzuka also started out fighting Drunken Sheep.

"So, what's the strategy? I attack from the side while Suzuka stops the sheep's movement, right?"

Sugō checks before fighting. But Suzuka looks at Sugō blankly.

What is this guy saying?

"We're not fighting together. You fight alone."

"Hah? No no... Hah? What are you talking about?"

Suzuka throws question marks at him like he's looking twice. But Suzuka also doesn't understand Sugō's thinking.

No, I see. Sugō isn't familiar with the dungeon. That can't be helped then.

"Listen? When you fight in a state of risk in the dungeon, your stats grow more."

"I know that. It's common sense, right. That's why you can't grow stats at training centers."

"What, you knew that? Then you understand the reason for fighting alone too, right. If you can't grow stats, your intelligence won't go up."

Sugō's goal in leveling up is to receive the benefits of stat increases and aim for improved academic performance. If the high-level Suzuka fought together, he'd only get the same amount of stat increases as at training centers. There would probably still be some benefit, but since he's helping Sugō level up, he doesn't want to end up with such half-baked results.

At least more stats than training centers. Aim for the same stats as Explorer High students.

"No, so... Eh? What, is your brain made of muscle too?"

"Hey hey, that's quite a way to talk, big brother. Do you know? In the dungeon, even if people die, they don't get charged with a crime."

"As if that would happen, idiot. Listen, I haven't learned martial arts or anything, and of course I can hardly swing a sword. Basically, I can't fight."

Even if he confesses "I'm weak" all of a sudden, Suzuka has no encouraging words. Because it's a fact.

"There's no way someone like me can fight a Drunken Sheep alone, right? Look, its horns. They're horns that say it's killed several people, you know."

The Drunken Sheep has rounded horns curling up to protect its side profile. Certainly, if that stabbed you it would seem painful, but he'd never thought it was such a vicious thing.

"It's fine. That's decoration. It's nothing much."

"There's no way it's decoration. Is your head decoration?"

This guy is no good, he's too scared to talk rationally. Sugō throws a tantrum, saying "No no." Being the older brother, he stands firm against Suzuka and won't change his opinion.

"I'll teach you how to beat the Drunken Sheep."

"How to beat it?"

"He's drunk, so his footing is unstable. If you dig a hole with a shovel, he'll catch his foot in that hole and take a tumble."

"But in this open field, if you're digging, it's completely visible, right? Even if you lure the distant Drunken Sheep, do you think I can pull off something like that?"

Sugō is right. If you dig a hole right in front of you, normally you'd notice. But Drunken Sheep is different.

"It's fine. He's drunk, so no matter what you do right in front of him, the blood rushes to his head and he can only charge forward. He can't think that someone's digging a hole in front of him or that there's a pitfall."

"Seriously? Drunks are too pathetic, aren't they?"

"That's right. You be careful too when you go to college."

So saying, Suzuka hands Sugō the shovel.

"If you understand, dig a hole quickly."

"No, but..."

Even after teaching him how to beat it, he's still reluctant. Even though it's his own brother, he's being wishy-washy and it's frustrating.

But Suzuka is 30 in mental age. He can understand his 18-year-old brother feeling fear about fighting alone. Yasu also said he was scared. Normal people would probably think that way.

He could get angry and force him to fight, but it would be better if he thought of fighting on his own initiative. And Suzuka flashed on a brilliant idea to get Sugō to fight positively.

"Sugō. Imagine this. You're a college student."

"What, all of a sudden?"

"Just imagine. You're a college student. You join a circle you like, work a part-time job and get money to play, and you end up dating a cute girl who's taking the same lecture."

"Hooh, that's wonderful."

"But, the situation changes suddenly. After dating for just one month, that cute girlfriend breaks up with you."

"Hah? Why?"

"I'm sorry, Sugō-kun. I got confessed to by the handsome famous senior in the Explorer Circle, and right now I like him. So I'm sorry, let's break up."

"Who's that senior? Explorer Circle? Messing with other people's women. I'll tell Suzuka and have him beat him up."

"The Explorer Circle is a circle that does level raising with their own power instead of going to training centers. They're guys who can't even make it to Floor 2, but there are many with better looks than the training center level raisers. Taking advantage of that, it's an evil circle that devours college women."

This corresponds to what would be called a "sex circle" in the previous world. Since weekdays are free, he was looking into various things about dungeons, and what came up was the Explorer Circle. Naturally, there are probably some who seriously explore dungeons, but overwhelmingly, there seem to be many who are there for sex.

In the end, most of them can't grow their stats more than Explorer High students, but as a hobby, that's probably enough.

Because they explore as a hobby, they won't become explorers who risk their lives in the future, and since their stats are higher than training center graduates, they're smart with excellent grades, they have stamina thanks to stats so they're energetic and healthy, job hunting is advantageous and they're promising for the future. And if they have good looks on top of that, it's understandable that women would flock to them.

"Pfft! Isn't that the best circle! I'll do that one too."

"But, you raise your level in the dungeon from now. And if you can get stats booming, what do you think will happen?"

"The expected newcomer... Overwhelmingly advantageous over the other guys...! She won't leave me either!!"

"Explorer Circle, famous for good looks. And among them, the extraordinarily handsome Sugō... You get it, right?"

"From a life of being cuckolded to a life of cuckolding! ... Leave it to me, Suzuka. Big brother will do his best."

So saying, Sugō started digging a hole with all his might. Even though he's my brother, I'm worried about his college life.

This guy is in science track so I think there are no girls around him, but if it's the Explorer Circle, will they come?

"I finished digging."

"After that, approach the Drunken Sheep. When the Drunken Sheep notices Sugō, it'll get angry and chase you, so just lure it and make it fall in the hole."

"And then, I just need to swing my sword down while it's fallen, right?"

So saying, Sugō approached the Drunken Sheep steadily as if to make you wonder if his previous fear was a lie, and successfully lured it and made the Drunken Sheep fall using the hole.

"UOOOOOOOOO!!"

Sugō somehow swings down his two-handed sword while shouting. It hits the Drunken Sheep's body well, but since his attack power is low, it seems he couldn't turn it to smoke with one blow.

Even so, every time the Drunken Sheep tried to get up, he tried hard to swing down his sword and pin it to the ground. In the middle, it almost got up and charged at him, but the injured Drunken Sheep lacked liveliness in its movements, and somehow Sugō managed to avoid it and succeeded in swinging down his sword again. From there, swinging down two or three more times, the Drunken Sheep turned to smoke and was absorbed by Sugō.

"Haa haa, I defeated it! I defeated it, Suzuka!!"

"Congratulations. You did it. Here, tea."

So saying, he takes tea out of his bag and hands it over. Since he did something he's not used to, adrenaline came out and he's excited, so he lets him take a breather.

With this pace, he should be fine.

"Oh! My level went up!"

"That was fast. Good start. Let's go to the next one with this pace."

"Yeah! Just wait, my harem life!!"

Ignoring his older brother who raises a rotten goal, Suzuka went to look for the next prey.