ch1-ch20 · 014-ch13

Chapter 13

"We're really, truly grateful!"

"Thank you so much..."

Princess-carrying Mio, Sai arrived at floor eight — and there was Ichijō Hiyori, about to head to floor seven.

"Nah, I'm just glad I could help."

The three reunited safely and took a rest at the floor eight safe point, checking on their situations.

Hiyori and the others, too, but Sai had been fighting the Floor Boss Skeleton Knight on floor five until just a while ago. From there, he'd cleared floor six by the shortest route, rushed up to floor seven, and made it to floor eight.

Not that it mattered — Shinjuku Tower's map was already implanted in his head.

If someone was in danger, he'd hurry.

But maybe it was his age. His body was definitely feeling the shock of it.

"Still... how did you manage to come rescue us...?"

Even though Hiyori hadn't been able to send a rescue alert, Sai had come to their aid — she couldn't help but find it strange.

She'd tried to scream, but the wolves had pinned her down and she couldn't get a proper sound out.

And yet, he'd appeared in that crisis like it was nothing.

A knight in shining armor... No, a bit too old for that.

She wanted to know how.

"I got a call from my nephew."

Sai explained that his nephew was a junior of Hiyori and Mio at school — that the nephew and his friends had been watching the two girls' stream, noticed they were in trouble, and contacted Sai.

"I happened to be on floor six, so I'm glad I could get here fast."

"Then... thank you so much. We'll have to thank your nephew later too..."

"Old man, you're probably pretty high rank, right? Why were you on floor six?"

Mio gave a straightforward thanks, while Hiyori was suspicious about why someone of Sai's caliber was on floor six.

His equipment was average, but the pressure Sai gave off told her he wasn't ordinary.

There was no particularly famous treasure on floor six. So why was he there?

"I was fighting the Floor Boss on floor five. I'm a freshly-licensed adventurer, you know."

"Huh?"

"I'd just beaten the Skeleton Knight and gotten to floor six when my nephew contacted me..."

"No no no no..."

Mio shook her head vigorously side to side. Hiyori rested a hand on her head, thinking.

"Ho-old up a sec, old man. If you just got your license, then what's your current rank?"

"F-Rank, of course."

Sai puffed out his chest like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Hiyori and Mio were currently E-Rank.

Rank could go up for various reasons, but generally speaking, the rough guideline was that E-Rank meant you could reach floor five, D-Rank meant floor ten, C-Rank meant floor fifteen, and B-Rank meant floor twenty.

Rank could also increase through contributions to the guild (delivering a certain quantity of magic stones, etc.), but even so, the floor you could reach = your rank.

F-Rank was impossible.

With that kind of strength, he'd at least be D-Rank. C-Rank would be more appropriate.

"You're lying."

"I'm not lying."

"I can't believe it. Your self-enhancement magic was incredible too, but when you used the pit trap to come back to floor eight, you were flying, weren't you?"

Flight magic was one of the most difficult types of magic.

Gravity control and posture control. And on top of that, output adjustment in a specific direction — it was a pretty troublesome spell.

Among mid-level spells, it was one of the hardest, and its difficulty was beyond what Mio could handle.

Flight magic was something even Mio — who'd mastered low-level magic — couldn't do.

Precisely because she knew that kind of magic, she couldn't believe Sai was F-Rank.

"Ah, old man. Are you, by any chance, the type who let their license lapse?"

If that was the case, a lapsed license was possible.

Adventurer licenses, like driver's licenses, required renewal every few years.

Hiyori figured he'd forgotten to renew and gotten a reissue.

"That's not it either. I just got this adventurer license the other day, that's all."

"Hmm~?"

Hiyori speculated about who this benefactor might be.

At the very least, he wasn't an exorcist. If there was an exorcist this strong, they'd definitely be talked about. Even if he'd been an adventurer overseas, adventurer licenses were supposed to be universal worldwide.

The most likely possibility was a former soldier.

But Hiyori's intuition told her the man in front of her wasn't a soldier.

Maybe because he didn't give off that soldierly severity.

Even though his strength was on par with or greater than a soldier's.

The gap between her guess and her gut feeling made her uncomfortable.

But she felt she could trust the man in front of her. That much seemed certain.

"You two seem to have calmed down. Let's head outside soon."

They left the safe area and headed for the teleportation device.

The teleportation device was a teleportation-type magical device.

It wasn't connected to floors two through five, but it was a teleporter-like device that could instantly take you to the floor you'd reached.

A mysterious device being researched by countries around the world, in hopes it could be used outside the tower too.

"If you just got your license, this is your first time with a teleportation device, right? You're in for a surprise. Hehe."

"Ah... yeah, I guess so..."

Not sure how to respond, Sai gave a vague answer.

He'd experienced teleportation many times in the other world, but he seemed to have decided to play along.

"Hiyori, stop saying stupid things and let's go."

"Ah, wait up, Mio-chan!"

The Skeleton Knight fight. The rescue of Hiyori and Mio.

Today's conquest had been fulfilling.

Sai nodded to himself quietly, then left Shinjuku Tower behind. ◇ "Yamana-san, I have a small concern..."

The next day after that second Shinjuku Tower conquest.

Sai was at the Adventurer's Guild reception to update his adventurer license.

He'd heard that adventurer licenses needed updating every time you defeated a Floor Boss — at floor five, floor ten, and so on.

It was a necessary process to clarify how far each adventurer had progressed in their conquest.

"Um... just to confirm, you've been to floor eight, but this was only your second conquest, right?"

"Yes, is there a problem?"

"No, not a problem exactly, but since you've cleared past floor five, you qualify for E-Rank promotion... the problem is your delivery quantity is severely lacking..."

When an adventurer passed floor six, it was recorded on their license and they ranked up to E.

At that point, the license color changed and a new one was issued — but apparently that couldn't happen. There were various reasons for changing the color, but operationally speaking, it made it easier for the guards near the teleportation device to verify. If someone couldn't update their license for various reasons, their current F-Rank card would be marked with "Cleared floor 5," and the guards would check that before allowing them to proceed to the teleportation device.

Normally, a typical adventurer took months to go from F to E-Rank.

In that time, they'd deliver a large quantity of magic stones, but Sai had only entered Shinjuku Tower twice. In other words, his delivery amount was desperately insufficient compared to the requirement.

The receptionist woman gave the explanation apologetically.

Sai listened and understood.

"Ah, I see. Got it. Out of curiosity, how short am I?"

"Um... roughly about five hundred small magic stones..."

In other words, a mission to defeat five hundred monsters from floors one through ten.

"I see. Understood. I'll deliver them in batches then."

"My apologies for the trouble. Thank you very much."

Saying that, the receptionist bowed her head.

Where to hunt those five hundred magic stones.

It occurred to him that floor eight had a lot of goblins.

In Shinjuku Tower, monsters didn't come outside unless something unusual happened.

When monsters did come out of the tower and do something, it was usually because an adventurer had caused some trouble. That was why non-adventurers weren't exposed to monster threats.

But back when Sai was in the other world, goblins were a menace that attacked villages and towns — they appeared outside dungeons too.

Farmers tearing their hair out over ravaged wheat fields. Young merchants attacked while traveling. Children playing outside getting kidnapped by goblins. He'd heard stories like that. Even with countermeasures, humanoid monsters used cunning and spread malice.

That was why adventurers, upon spotting a goblin, would kill on sight. Kill them before a request was even issued. When a request was issued, it was already after they'd been killed — with that kind of momentum, they'd kill them relentlessly and without mercy. If possible, they'd scout the surroundings and destroy the nest entirely.

That was what was expected.

Sai knew the goblins in Shinjuku Tower didn't fit that description, but his past memories led him to resolve to devastate the goblins on floor eight.

With his future activities decided, Sai headed to the weapon and armor shop and item shop inside the Adventurer's Guild.

"I don't need to buy weapons or armor, I guess..."

Japanese-made weapons and armor were, frankly speaking, low level. For example, weapons and armor made from ultra-hard alloys were excellent in terms of materials, but their magical enchantments were almost non-existent. Perhaps because magic power had only recently been discovered, the technological development hadn't caught up yet.

As a result, adventurers with a certain level of skill tended to use weapons and armor found in Shinjuku Tower. They dropped from monsters, or were found in treasure chests that for some reason appeared inconspicuously in corners.

Some of those were quite good pieces, but adventurers used such items themselves, so they rarely made it to market. At best, they might end up at auction.

Sai thought about this as he looked around the weapons and armor.

None of them were usable. Not like this.

But what if, for example...

Couldn't he use them to disguise weapons and armor made in the other world?

Items made in the other world had various magical enchantments applied to them. For instance, if he thinly attached ultra-hard alloy plates over magisteel armor, it would just look like "ordinary Japanese-made armor."

He was going to have to defeat a lot of goblins from now on, so he wanted to use equipment he was familiar with as much as possible. With that in mind, he picked out and purchased several weapons and armor pieces.

"I'd like to have a professional do this, but... I can't always get what I want, can I."

Processing equipment was at a DIY level, but it wasn't beyond Sai's ability.

Still, it would take a fair number of days.

Back when he was in the other world, there was someone who made most of Sai's equipment.

If he could borrow her help, it would take a day — no, just a few hours.

But she wasn't in this world.

Not a single friend from that world was in Japan.

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Thank you for reading.

Today also marks a two-chapter update.

Another update was made at 9 AM as well.

Thank you very much.