ch21-ch40 · 024-ch21

Chapter 21

"We got totally screwed."

"I told you I'm sorry, Sensei~"

"......?"

Sai sighed. In contrast, Hiyori apologized with a light quip. Mio didn't seem to fully understand what the problem was. The three of them had come to floor eight via the teleportation device at Shinjuku Tower.

With a sharp clap of his hands, Sai changed the atmosphere.

"For today's session, you're going to review what you've learned over the past two months. Hiyori, focus on magic. Mio, focus on close combat. I'll just be watching from behind."

"Yes!"

"Okay!"

Hiyori and Mio nodded cheerfully.

From here on, it was adventure time.

It had been two months since Hiyori and Mio last operated inside Shinjuku Tower.

It wasn't like they'd completely gone without real combat — they had their exorcist work, after all. They'd kept up with demon extermination. So this was a practical session with a moderate level of tension.

"Three goblins, one wolf."

"I've got the wolf!"

Hiyori instantly generated an unaspected magic bullet and took down the Hound Wolf that came leaping out. Mio chose to defend against the three goblins. Since they were fighting in a corridor, she just had to watch the front.

One goblin leaped at her, and at the same time, another goblin came diving in from ground level.

Mio held her sturdy magical staff vertically and deflected the attacks.

She predicted the enemy's simultaneous assault, maintained a solid defensive stance, and did a good job deflecting the blows.

As a result, one goblin that had lunged tumbled sideways past Mio. The goblin at her feet was grimacing from the impact of the collision.

Behind them, there was one more goblin that hadn't done anything during the exchange.

Without missing a beat, Mio — while maintaining her Body Enhancement — first stabbed the goblin on her flank with the tip of her staff.

"The one in back, please!"

"On it!"

Even before she finished speaking, Hiyori — who must have already prepared a magic bullet — fired one at the goblin in the rear and took it down.

Mio swung her staff with full force at the goblin at her feet.

That one, too, was successfully defeated.

The two of them watched the three goblins turn into magic stones, catching their breath.

"No enemy reactions nearby."

"Phew..."

They scanned the area and confirmed no new enemies were appearing. Both of them relaxed.

"Yeah. That was flawless. Great movement."

"Thank you very much."

"Yaaay, I got praised~♪"

Walking through a dungeon — not just Shinjuku Tower — required considerable experience.

You needed a mountain of logic, your five senses, and intuition.

With today's instruction, Sai planned to reveal some of that know-how.

As they walked through floor eight of Shinjuku Tower, he began explaining.

"We'll be arriving at that place soon."

"Gulp..."

"That place" was where Mio had fallen into a pit trap, splitting the party.

A place that had left both Hiyori and Mio with bitter memories.

Luckily, there were no monsters in sight nearby.

When they arrived, there it was — the familiar large pit trap before them. From this angle they couldn't see it, but at the T-junction at the dead end, there was a hidden door swarming with goblins.

The goblins would rush in once the adventurers had their backs to the pit trap.

Their strategy was to attack while the adventurers were panicked, then devour the wounded.

"Now, there's a pit trap about ten steps from here. If you look closely, can you see the hidden door at the T-junction?"

"...Hmm, well, I can see it now, but..."

"Honestly, I wouldn't notice unless you pointed it out."

If you looked closely, you could see something like a cut line in the wall.

It was at the level of "can you barely make it out?"

"You two have Body Enhancement active, right?"

"Yes. You told us to keep it on at all times, so we have."

As a result, they could feel their magical power being consumed bit by bit.

"You two have been keeping Body Enhancement running, but your five senses still aren't fully enhanced yet. If your five senses were fully reinforced, you'd be able to notice situations like this."

As he said this, Sai suddenly raised one finger to his lips.

A gesture for silence.

"Adventurers. Five of them. Three have heavy footsteps — probably warrior-types. The remaining two are lighter, so either mages or healers. No scout."

Obediently, the two fell silent. After a moment, they heard footsteps.

Multiple footsteps. And what appeared was a party of adventurers.

The party consisted of three men and two women. Just the composition Sai had described.

"Hey there~ We're gonna pass through."

"Go ahead. There's a pit trap ahead, and a hidden door beyond it with a group of goblins. Oh, and one more thing — there's a hobgoblin deeper in on the left side of the T-junction. If you're heading that way, it's all yours."

"Geez, there's a Hob too? Thanks for the heads-up~"

"We'll keep our distance."

"Sure~"

After that exchange, the adventurer party passed by and headed down the path ahead.

Sai and the girls went back the way they came, and after putting some distance between them, they heard the sounds of battle between that adventurer party and the goblins.

With the sounds of combat in the background, Hiyori pressed him.

"Hey, Sensei! How did you figure that out?! The adventurer party, and the Hob too!"

"This time, it was just my five senses."

"Huh!? Isn't that some kind of intuitive Skill?!"

Hiyori was stronger than most when it came to exorcist intuition, but even she couldn't read things as well as Sai.

Mio went without saying.

"So that's what today's training is about. It's about magic control too, but this kind of training is something you'll be doing as long as you keep being adventurers."

"If I can master it, please teach me."

"Leave it to me. Honestly, it's my specialty."

It was the face of an adventurer who'd handled countless scouting missions in the other world.

"The next step beyond magical Body Enhancement. It's called Five Senses Enhancement."

When exploring a dungeon, there were many things to watch out for.

One was monsters. Where they were, how many, what kind. You wanted as much information as possible, and how much you could grasp in advance could mean life or death.

One was traps. What kind of traps were where in the dungeon. Were they fatal or not. For that matter, the dungeon itself could be a giant trap. In obvious cases, what was the oxygen level like. Even if there was no problem yesterday, there might be one today. There could even be traps made just five minutes ago.

One was people. Only adventurers were supposed to be in the dungeon, but knowing who was where was crucial information. In the other world, there was the possibility of bandits or assassins lying in wait. Usually they were adventurers, but sometimes there were robbers. Or there could be ordinary people captured by monsters for some reason. Even in Shinjuku Tower, there was the possibility that someone who didn't like you might try to make it look like an accident... And even if not, someone could fall into a pit trap from above.

"Broadly speaking, these are the things to watch out for in a dungeon. There are plenty of other things to check too — like places with low mana in the atmosphere where magic stops working."

What Sai was saying made sense even to Hiyori and Mio.

They really did need to be careful.

But could they actually move while paying attention to all that?

"If you can't, then... hmm, keep your adventuring to around floor thirteen or so. From around floor fourteen, the trap and monster placement start getting nasty."

"...Come to think of it, I think I've heard another adventurer say something similar to what you're saying, Sensei."

"Oh, that thing, right. Like monsters using traps against us or something."

"On floor thirteen, Orc Mages do stuff like that. They'll deliberately step on a poison gas trap and use wind magic to blow it at adventurers. It doesn't seem to be the kind of poison that kills you right away on floor thirteen, but things like this happen a lot.

For example, let's say there's an arrow trap that fires when you step on a certain spot in a corridor. That trap was originally placed there to shoot whoever stepped on it, but if you know the location well, it becomes an improvised extra weapon. The enemy thinks too. They might deliberately step on it and use it as an attack."

"I see..."

"Conversely, that means we might be able to use traps too."

Sai patted the wall.

"There's no trap here, but if there was a small hole here, something could be fired out of it."

"Right. If you know that, you can turn it into your own weapon."

"Of course, it depends on what gets fired. Sometimes it's poison gas or a flamethrower that gets you and the enemy both..."

The types of traps were truly diverse.

Some were originally meant to prevent intruders, and others could have been made by someone who lived in the place before it became a dungeon for everyday purposes. Maybe it wasn't a pit trap — maybe it was a big trash chute. There was a past example where a flamethrower coming out of a wall was "for roasting meat during meals," and a hole nearby was for disposing of garbage.

"I understand what you're saying, but what does this have to do with the five senses? You mentioned Five Senses Enhancement, but this doesn't seem related..."

"Of course it does. For example, visual enhancement lets you find where traps are placed or discover hidden doors. As for touch — your hands matter, but your feet matter most. You can notice floor-based pressure traps before you step on them. Even with shoes on, you can sense them the moment your foot touches the ground before you fully step down. Most pressure-activated traps won't trigger with less than about a hundred grams of weight. Depending on your footwork, you can read that too. But the biggest thing is reading the wind. You can feel the air currents on your skin. In an enclosed dungeon like this, you can read all sorts of things from subtle movements of the air. Combined with what you hear, you can figure out what's moving around you."

"W-wait a second, Sensei."

At that point, both Hiyori and Mio pulled faces and stopped him.

They were thinking about just how difficult the content he'd just rattled off in one breath was.

From the perspective of two high school girls, they thought he was making it sound way too easy.

"...Sensei, do you normally do stuff like that?"

"Of course. Oh, taste is harder to use for just exploration. Smell covers most of it. Smell is especially important for detecting poisons, but if you can sense subtle odors, combined with touch, you can even detect monsters that are disguised as humans. Ah, right, we were talking about taste. It's strange, but when you enhance your five senses, if you open your mouth and sort of taste the air, you can perceive flavors. It's really strange, I know..."

Sai's lecture didn't end.

The two high school girls were put off.

"...I thought I understood, but I see now it really isn't as easy as it sounds."

"Yeah..."

They hadn't thought they'd instantly get stronger just by being taught by someone they respected as a master... but it seemed there really was a lot they had to learn and train to master.

It wasn't just about getting stronger in combat.

After that, Hiyori and Mio worked on enhancing their five senses while maintaining Body Enhancement as they headed to floor nine, but in less than an hour, they were exhausted.

According to Sai:

Their magical control was still sloppy, so they were wasting a lot of magical power.

They were getting stronger. They really were getting stronger, but...

The path of the two high school girls as adventurers was still only half complete.

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Thank you for reading.