Chapter-01 · EP-020

Episode 20: Second Exploration

Well, the troublesome summons to the staff meeting was over, and I returned to the classroom.

Today, exploration was scheduled from first period. Time to pull myself together and enjoy it.

This time, unlike yesterday, we were going to form parties by drawing lots. The purpose was to learn different ways of cooperating by pairing with various people, since sticking with the same members all the time might cause confusion when someone new joined. I thought it didn't really matter since only slimes were on the first floor, though.

I ended up in a new party, which was convenient since I had planned to leave Murasakimura's party anyway.

My party members this time were Yusuke Shiraishi and Hiroshi Mizuno. A three-person party.

After a brief instruction from the homeroom teacher in the hall at the dungeon entrance, the dungeon exploration began.

We moved together as a group, and when we found a slime, one person would defeat it, then the search for the next slime would begin. I felt this process was very inefficient and was growing impatient.

"Hey, wouldn't it be better if we split up?"

"We can't do that, Ichinose-kun."

"Even if you say that, while one person defeats a slime, the other two are just watching. It's inefficient, right?"

"That's true, but the point is to explore while in a party."

The advantages of forming a party were experience point distribution and the ability to fight more safely than alone.

If we strayed too far apart, the party would automatically disband, but I wondered if we could still get the experience distribution if we didn't go that far apart while acting separately.

Besides, as far as slimes on the first floor went, they were so weak that there was no need for multiple people to fight them together.

After I explained that, the other two seemed to understand somewhat.

"Alright, let's split up but not too far apart, defeat slimes, and compete to see who can defeat the most."

"We'll get in trouble if we do something on our own."

"They won't find out."

Saying that, I separated from the other two and started walking.

There were hardly any slimes to be found on the well-traveled wide paths. They seemed to be mostly in places like behind rocks or in recessed areas. So, I moved to a wide, dead-end room-like space. I observed the area for slimes. From a little distance away, it was easier to spot them. That meant defeating one, then looking for the next was inefficient. First, I needed to figure out where each one was. Once I had a grasp, I'd go in and defeat them.

First, number one. I struck a slime moving on the ground and defeated it.

Whack!

I picked up the gem and moved to the next slime. The one that went behind this rock here… there it was.

Whack!

I poked it with my wooden sword to defeat it. I rolled the gem out with the sword and picked it up. Next. The one moving along the rock wall was around here… there.

Whack!

I lightly struck it. Hitting too hard might damage the wooden sword against the rock wall, so it was better to strike with moderate force.

And one more was over this way… ah, there it was. It had moved a bit.

Whack!

I defeated the fourth one. There were four slimes here. Alright, let's move to another spot where slimes might be.

I continued defeating slimes like that, and when I looked at my watch, about an hour had passed. Today, exploration was scheduled until the second period, so I still had about an hour left, but I decided to head back for a bit to see how my party members were doing.

Checking inside my waist pouch, I found exactly twenty Magic Gems. That meant I had defeated twenty slimes. Unfortunately, no Heal Gems (potions) dropped. If possible, I wanted to get them as drops from slimes rather than buying them at the store. The probability of a slime dropping a potion was said to be about one percent. I guess I had no choice but to defeat as many slimes as I could.

I met up with Shiraishi and Mizuno and compared the number of gems. I was the overwhelming winner.

They were surprised, asking how I managed to defeat so many. But if you defeat them one by one while sticking together, moving at the same pace, it was bound to be inefficient. And I reaffirmed that solo exploration suited me better.

As I was feeling satisfied with today's exploration, I noticed some commotion among the girls.

Curious, I looked over. It was Samejima and Momota again.

"Why can't you still use your magic?! You're already slow, so if you can't use your skill, you're just dead weight!"

"…I'm sorry."

It seemed Samejima, who had been exploring with her, was accusing Momota of being useless. I was thinking how annoying it was and wished they'd stop fighting when Hayasaka came to mediate. Since Samejima seemed to dislike Hayasaka too, I thought it might backfire, and I was right. Samejima got even angrier and started yelling. I decided to stay quiet, thinking that if I got involved, it would cause more chaos. Where was the teacher in these situations? Majima was nowhere to be seen. Was he slacking off again as usual?

As I was thinking that, Murasakimura stepped in to mediate. Samejima quieted down when confronted by him.

Well, I wanted to stay as uninvolved with those people as possible.

Still, they were classmates; they should get along better. Otherwise, there was no way we'd beat the other classes in the autumn inter-class competition.