arc01 · 031-ep31

Episode 31: All Sorts of Things I Need

After that, we just chatted away like normal. The free-time plan ran until eight at night, so we picked at a few side-menu snacks while we talked the time away.

Turns out Azuma had been a 3DCG creator in her past life. Apparently she'd worked at a game company. Putting that know-how to use, she'd gotten a head start on the whole VTuber thing as a way to search for fellow reincarnators.

Outright ripping off designs and character settings was more than she could bring herself to do as a creator, though—which is how today's Enishi Rian came to be. Now that she'd found a reincarnator in me, she was thinking of quitting and deleting the account. Feels like kind of a waste, but eh—she doesn't exactly seem cut out to be a performer anyway.

On my end, I mainly talked about the serious injury I'd taken recently and life inside the dungeon.

The 『dungeon livestreams』 I used to read all the time in my past life never materialized here, so information from inside the dungeons is surprisingly scarce. If you care enough to dig, a fair amount turns up, but what most people actually know is the upper-rank adventurers who shine in the entertainment scene. Adventurer-on-adventurer combat sports are a good watch, after all.

Skills, too—people are surprisingly clued in about those, come to think of it.

You're guaranteed at least one just for setting foot in a dungeon. Put bluntly, it's like a superpower you get for free—if you happen to roll a good one, it can make daily life way easier or fatten your wallet. Hence everybody being all over the topic.

More harmless chit-chat on top of that, and when our time was up, we called it a day.

"Thank you, truly. Meeting you—I think a good chunk of my anxiety is gone now."

"I see. Well, from here on, why not just treat the people around you as ordinary humans, plain and simple?"

"I will. I probably can't change overnight, but I'll change things bit by bit."

"That's the spirit—stay positive, stay positive. If I meet any other reincarnators or find anything out, I'll give you a shout."

"Thanks."

And with that, we swapped contact info and each headed home.

Apparently Azuma lives somewhere around the city center. She came a long way. Maybe she'd really been that anxious.

We're from the same hometown, after all. Might as well keep an eye out for her a little.

◇

Even after getting home and taking a bath, I was still brimming with energy—normally this was the hour I'd be fighting in the dungeon.

"Haaah… at times like this, having nothing in my room is a real pain."

My head had been full of nothing but becoming an adventurer, so when I moved out, the only things I'd stocked up on were bare-minimum furniture and appliances. No TV, no PC, and naturally no game console either—there is genuinely nothing to do. Net-surfing on my phone is about the extent of it.

I roll around lazily on my bed, thumbing my phone.

A message from Azuma had come in—sent while I was in the bath, apparently.

『Thank you for today. I'll sort things out my own way and give them some fresh thought. Good luck with your adventuring』

"What a diligent one."

I fire back a quip about going easy on the booze, then set myself adrift in the sea of the net.

It had slipped my mind entirely, thanks to Azuma, but apparently an A-rank party had moved to deal with the Akabane Dungeon irregular, and it had been put down without a hitch. Fast work, that.

Thankfully, every other adventurer who'd been on Floor 9 was confirmed to have made it back too, so the damage hadn't spread. Everyone besides me up there had been C-rank and close to Floor 10, so those three must have raised the alarm with the others as well.

The Goblin King was subjugated, but as a precaution, tomorrow another B-rank party will give Floor 9 a top-to-bottom sweep; only once it's confirmed back to normal will the entry ban finally be lifted. Which means the weekend should be open for exploring as usual.

Oh, right—my jersey got torn to shreds, huh.

Guess I'll have to go buy a new one tomorrow. I wonder if they make jerseys out of dungeon-sourced materials? No particular need to stick with jerseys, but whenever I picture clothes that are easy to move in, a jersey is what comes to mind. Heavy gear is off the table for someone whose selling point is speed anyway.

Huh… look it up, and they sell them just fine. This one's a guild-attached shop too, but they've put it out there as a straight-up fashion brand. For the general public, they sell models with just the same designs, apparently.

Seems pretty popular, so maybe I'll stock up on easy-to-move-in clothes and underwear here. Armor like a chest guard will have to wait until I've earned a bit more… Should I have 【Plunder】-kun work hard for me again? No wait—wouldn't the take-home be better if I hit C-rank and hunted C-rank monsters? Clubs are huge, so I end up shuttling back and forth over and over. Total pain in the neck.

…Maybe I'll round up camping gear and put the whole weekend into a mini expedition. Then hurry up and promote to C-rank while I'm at it.

I've already hit level 20, one of the requirements for promoting to C-rank, so all that's left is clearing the test.

The test comes down to either delivering assigned materials or subjugating the Floor 10 boss.

By the way, since this test is shared between individual rank and party rank, if a party takes down the boss, it counts as the party's promotion. Meaning the standard playbook goes 'advance to C-rank as a party first, then level up before raising your individual rank too.' Healers and support types going solo have no road but grinding up through material deliveries, after all. The four who were on Floor 9 that day were probably that type.

Honestly, though, the C-rank promotion test is riddled with loopholes—it's a rank you can snag even without genuinely having the chops for it. Which is exactly why B-rank and up count as first-class, and why guild requests stay out of reach until you've made it there.

The Floor 10 boss's info is already locked away in my head.

Next to the Goblin King, it's a complete trash-tier small fry—just one goblin, a swordsman-style one called a Goblin Swordsman.

Sure, its level runs high at 25, and it looks to be a 【Sword Arts】 user, but to me it's prime pickings. All I have to do is steal its weapon. Raise my level as far as I can on the mini expedition, do just that, and I should be able to shut it out completely.

And so I decided tomorrow would be a full day of shopping.

Oh, crap. I need to message Aizawa about whether I can pick up the items I ordered tomorrow, too.

I've gotten completely dependent on her. I'll treat her to something tasty one of these days.