ch61-ch80 · 078-ch65

Chapter 65

That day, Sai went to provide guidance to a party that was struggling on floor 14 of Shinjuku Tower.

They'd apparently been having a tough time around floor 14 for quite a while, and had been consulting with him via DM, but today he was finally able to fit in the instruction.

"Ooh, the weather's great today...!"

"Whoa, it's the real Sai-san...!"

"Thank you for having us!"

Their party consisted of five people. Mid-twenties, perhaps.

For them, having watched Sai on stream all this time, he was probably something like a hero. They looked at Sai with sparkling eyes.

A bit too dazzling for an old man.

"The pleasure's all mine. I'll guide you so you can take at least one thing away from this."

Chatting like that, they entered Shinjuku Tower and headed straight for floor 14.

In Sai's assessment, from floor 14 onward, the traps in Shinjuku Tower started getting nastier and the enemies stronger and more troublesome.

Cleverly hidden traps included, for example, monsters lingering nearby to make you step on traps during combat, or spaces that gradually drained your stamina and spirit.

Even if you didn't notice at first, you'd gradually realize you'd fallen into a trap.

They really started deploying some clever and nasty layouts.

What's more, teleportation-type traps could even appear, so you really had to be on your guard.

Conversely, if you learned well on floor 14, it made conquering higher floors easier.

Incidentally, the maps themselves didn't change up to floor 15, but the traps were updated. A pitfall that wasn't there yesterday might be there today.

Because of that, adventurers seemed to share trap information when they found it.

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Arriving on floor 14, Sai took position at the rear, following the young party members as they led the way.

He conducted reconnaissance using his detection abilities and Five Senses Enhancement, careful not to get in their way, and checked each of their movements one by one.

The movements were slow, but the female scout at the front wasn't neglecting to check her surroundings.

However, perhaps because they felt her movements were slow, the party members behind seemed a bit stressed.

In combat, the female scout couldn't contribute much.

To put it bluntly, she gave the impression of "just wandering around."

Still, each member of their party had high individual skill and was handling things properly.

Their movements weren't bad either.

At the very least, they seemed to have earnestly studied the content of Sai's instructional streams and were putting it into practice.

But due to insufficient coverage, they kept getting minor injuries here and there.

When the battle ended, they tried to resume exploration.

"Hmm..."

It was at that moment that Sai let out something like a mutter to himself.

With perfect timing, the mage leader standing next to Sai spoke to him.

"Sorry. Yuuka's been struggling a bit lately..."

The leader spoke apologetically.

The one called Yuuka was the woman scouting at the front.

Perhaps because the mage leader's voice carried, it reached Yuuka at the front.

"S-sorry...! I'll hurry!"

She said that and tried to move hastily.

But this timing was dangerous.

"Hold it!"

Sai shouted and in one bound, shielded Yuuka as if embracing her, simultaneously deploying the Hexa Shield.

Suddenly caught in something like an embrace, Yuuka's eyes went wide.

But the next moment, a small arrow — a crossbow bolt — struck the Hexa Shield.

The party members were awed by Sai's godlike movement.

"Whoa...!?"

"Yuuka-san, was it? There was a step-type trap right under your feet."

Yuuka, who had suddenly found herself in an embrace-like position, finally grasped the situation upon hearing Sai's explanation.

"Wh-what!? You're right. I'm so, so sorry..."

Yuuka bowed her head in a voice as small as a mosquito's squeak.

Seeing her expression, Sai understood what this party needed to learn.

"Okay. I can see your goal now. Let's head to a safe area."

With that, Sai took the lead and guided the party members to floor 14's safe area while teaching them walking techniques.

Taking a short break, the five-person party waited for Sai's words.

"There are a lot of things I want to say, but first — you're in a dangerous situation."

"I knew it..."

With that, all the party members looked at Yuuka.

"That's the first problem. Why did you all look at her?"

"Well, because..."

Everyone fell silent.

Whether it was because the atmosphere felt like a scolding, or because they felt guilty about singling one person out, everyone stayed quiet.

"It's okay. Just say what you think. If no one speaks, nothing moves forward."

"Yuuka's slow as a scout, and in combat she's more of a liability — she can barely participate..."

"I see. What about the rest of you?"

No one said anything, but they all seemed to share the same opinion.

Yuuka looked quite uncomfortable, but perhaps she felt the same way herself.

"What about you, Yuuka-san?"

"I, well, you know, I'm slow, so..."

Yuuka spoke with her head down, lacking confidence.

"You were doing a solid job of using Five Senses Enhancement to scout the surroundings, even if it was still faint, weren't you?"

"Yes. But it's true that I'm slow..."

"You all watch my streams, right?"

Each of them nodded.

"I might have mentioned this during instruction, but from floor 14 upward, both the traps and monsters get more cunning. Honestly, when you're not used to it, that pace is totally fine. So, Yuuka-san, you need to move with confidence, and the rest of you need to learn to cover for her."

As he said this, one of the party members pouted their lips in dissatisfaction.

They didn't say anything, but he could tell what they wanted to say.

Their movements during the exploration spoke volumes.

It was a common front-line issue with young adventurers, even in the other world.

They wanted to push forward and fight lots of monsters.

"The second problem is the way you fight."

"But we learned from your fighting style, Sai-san..."

"Yeah. You were doing that. I could tell you were keeping what I taught in mind, and honestly, that made me a little happy."

"Then why is it a problem?"

The young leader voiced his question.

"You have no coordination — you were fighting separately. Watching your battles, I could see that basically you were engaging monsters one-on-one, not worrying about minor injuries, taking them down, and then healing up. Right?"

It seemed the observation was spot-on, as the chubby guy sitting next to the leader raised his voice.

"That's because recovery potions are expensive!"

"Of course, a certain amount of injury is unavoidable. But if you coordinated properly, you could reduce the number of injuries, you know?"

"Th-then, what should we do?"

"Good question. I think it'd be helpful for you to watch how the 'Wakou' party fights and operates. Their covering techniques, their feints, their suppression — they're frighteningly good."

Coordination was something Sai couldn't teach through his instructional streams.

His and Hexaria's movements were done as a pair, so they weren't good references, and in his regular instructional streams, he could only teach "the optimal individual movements."

He might need to teach coordination methods more than he had been.

That was a future challenge for Sai's instruction.

"Also, you all rely too much on your eyes. You need to be able to use all five senses."

"Do you mean we should learn Five Senses Enhancement?"

"Of course, learning Five Senses Enhancement is good, but what you really need is coordination. The ability to cover each other."

During battle, your eyes naturally go to the enemy's movements, but you also need to keep track of how your allies beside you are moving.

With five or six-person parties, it was true that keeping track got harder, but if you couldn't, by the time you noticed, someone would be seriously injured, one person would have to move to healing duty, and you'd end up fighting with two people missing.

When things were going well, it was fine, but against strong enemies, this flow would quickly lead to a slow decline.

"...Something like that."

The party members listened seriously to the words of Sai, whom they respected like a hero, even if they seemed a little frustrated.

After that, Sai and the five party members used the floor 14 teleportation device to head to floor 1 and disband.

Arriving at the Adventurer's Guild, Sai gave individual advice to each of them.

Being on an adventure also meant being on stream at the same time.

He'd decided that while viewers were watching, he'd cover points that were useful for the audience on stream, and give personal advice in the lobby.

In that flow, he gave individual advice on things he'd noticed.

Things like unconscious habits they hadn't been aware of, or tips for improving the things they were good at.

He carefully discussed those points.

For Yuuka, it went like this.

"You might still be slow and worried, but what you're doing now isn't wrong. So believe in your own strength and keep at it."

Believing in your own strength.

Sai knew better than anyone how hard that was.

Sai's total internal magical power wasn't high.

Of course, it was more than Hiyori and Mio's now, but compared to other-world adventurers in the same class band, it was safe to say it was low.

There was a time when that was his complex.

"...This is something my senior — my own teacher — once said. In a party, the scout has to be an all-rounder."

During exploration, they had to go ahead of everyone else and guide them.

They bore the responsibility of tracking monster positions, checking for traps, and ensuring the party advanced safely.

In combat, they were required to provide all forms of support — fire support, defense support, recovery support.

They were even expected to land the first attack in many situations.

They had to support the whole party so everyone could fight safely without danger.

Scouting was the job that required the most vigilance during an adventure.

If there was a surprise attack, the scout had to notice it first, and they also had to understand how the party's actions affected the surroundings.

They had to stay constantly aware, constantly thinking, and never let their mind cloud over.

A scout's lapse in attention could wipe out the entire party.

Sai passed on the philosophy of a scout to Yuuka.

"You want to support everyone, don't you?"

"Y-yes!"

"Good answer."

Said Sai, and smiled.

Then he looked at all five party members again.

"No matter what, you can't suddenly grow overnight. Take your time, build up what you can do one step at a time, and you'll become full-fledged adventurers. Let's both do our best."

"Thank you very much!"

The five party members bowed their heads.

Sai also bowed to them, and they disbanded.

Little by little, activities like this raised the overall level of adventurers.

He believed so.

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Thank you for reading.