Chapter 12

In the end, I couldn’t say anything to Ruruka, who had completely returned to her usual attitude, and I continued exploring the dungeon with a lingering sense of frustration.

And then—

"Hey, do we really have to do this?"

"Well, what can we do? This is the best way. If I or Yuel did it, our weapons would get damaged."

—And now, in front of me, lies a Giant Ant, a large ant-like monster.

Yes, it lies there.

Its legs have been neatly cut off at the joints by Yuel and Ruruka, and it lies on its back on the ground.

The characteristic of the Giant Ant, a monster of the sixth floor, is its hard carapace.

When fighting with a blade, it’s possible to cut off its thin legs by aiming at the joints, but if you try to cut its body, your sword will get damaged.

That’s why the task of finishing off the Giant Ant was given to me, who holds a mace, a blunt weapon.

Looking at the Giant Ant lying on the ground, the first thing that catches my eye is its large mandibles.

These are the jagged, vicious mandibles that once severed Eito’s leg.

The Giant Ant is opening and closing its mandibles with a clacking sound, trying to attack my legs, though it can never reach me.

It can’t move, so it can’t reach me.

It should never be able to reach me.

But seeing the severe injury Eito suffered before and the Giant Ant that continues to fight even with all its legs cut off, I start to feel a bit scared.

No, I’m not just a bit scared.

I’m quite scared.

Looking at the Giant Ant’s eyes, filled with fighting spirit, I can’t help but feel that it might jump up like a freshly caught fish and bite me with those jagged mandibles the moment I get close.

I’d rather lend my mace to Ruruka and have her finish it off.

"Hey, Ruruka..."

"Shiki, you haven’t done anything since we came to the dungeon, right?"

"Ugh..."

She’s hitting a sore spot.

Yuel would never say something like that.

Yuel is a kind and good girl.

I’ll pet her later.

"Having Shiki, who can use healing magic, around does make me feel safer, but I also want to see Shiki’s cool side, you know?"

Ruruka says this lightly.

Even after what happened, hearing her obvious flattery, I can tell she’s not being serious.

Is it that?

"Shiki, I want to see your cool side!" kind of thing?

But I won’t fall for that act.

I’m a mature adult who doesn’t just go with the flow.

Thinking about Eito’s injury at the time, the large amount of blood, and his deathly pale face covered in cold sweat...

Just looking at the Giant Ant’s mandibles makes my legs feel itchy.

I feel like I’m about to back away.

And when I look away from the Giant Ant—

—Yuel is looking at me.

She’s looking at me with sparkling eyes, as if expecting something, while I stand there with my mace ready in front of the Giant Ant, not moving.

You too?

You’re telling me to do it too?

Well, Yuel is just watching.

This isn’t an act to get me to move like Ruruka’s.

Yuel is pure.

She really must be looking forward to seeing her master’s brave and cool figure as he defeats the monster.

The aftereffects of always putting on a cool act in front of Yuel are showing up here.

...But I have no intention of stopping.

Yuel, with her large, round eyes filled with anticipation, is waiting for my move, eager to see my fighting stance and the brave figure of her master.

With such sparkling, sparkling eyes.

...I can’t betray her...

—Resolving myself, I try to avoid looking at the Giant Ant’s mandibles and recall the kendo I learned in school.

I grip the heavy mace firmly, raise it to the upper position, shift my center of gravity, and swing it down with a shout.

"Haahaaa!"

A dull sensation.

There’s a crack, and a crack appears in the Giant Ant’s head, from which something oozes out.

Gross...

But I did it.

For a first try, it was a good hit, wasn’t it?

"Master, as expected of you!"

As the Giant Ant disappears in a flash of light, Yuel praises me.

At least I seem to have met Yuel’s expectations.

I’ve successfully maintained my dignity as a master.

I’ll pet her in return.

"Shiki, you did well!"

Without missing a beat, Ruruka also praises me.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was a beautiful swing. Did you study some martial arts? It was really cool! Shiki is amazing!"

"Ah, you’ve got some muscles too, they’re so hard!" she says while patting my arm, which is still holding the mace.

It seems I’ve also met Ruruka’s expectations.

"...Ah, you could tell, huh?"

The school kendo theory.

Since I managed to crush the Giant Ant’s head in one hit, maybe it really was a critical strike.

Also, in this world, the number of people who can learn combat techniques is probably quite limited.

Especially for adventurers, many seem to rely on self-taught methods.

Long live compulsory education.

"You could tell, you could tell. Ah, it was a powerful swing! Even I, a front-liner, was impressed!"

I see.

You could tell.

You were impressed.

"Master, you looked cool!"

Yuel also praises me, not to be outdone by Ruruka.

That’s right.

I’m holding a weapon.

And the opponent can’t move because its legs have been cut off.

There was no need to be afraid.

Also, from what I saw just now, the Giant Ant doesn’t seem to move very fast.

I might be able to handle it one-on-one.

"Alright, next time I’ll fight from the beginning!"

"Ah, that might be too tough for Shiki. Just finishing them off is fine, okay?"

"......Okay."

Thanks to all the praise from Ruruka and Yuel, I was able to overcome my fear of the Giant Ant and smoothly continued the simple task of swinging my mace to finish them off.

Of course, it was just finishing them off.

It’s important to know your limits.

—And then.

Finally.

We’ve arrived.

At the seventh floor.

The monsters on the seventh floor are Slimes.

The drops are Slime Jellies.

Slime Jellies.

With this, we can finally replenish the Slime Jellies we were short of.

The mini-skirted waitresses at the bar.

The cleavage-showing sign girls at the inn.

The steamy, wet-through sisters at the soup stand.

Various scenes flash through my mind.

Ah, I want to fight soon.

Well, Yuel and Ruruka are the ones who will be fighting.

Yuel and Ruruka are already in battle with a few Slimes.

Slimes are jelly-like monsters that wobble and are about the size of a soccer ball.

They have a core in the center, which is their weak point.

To defeat them, you need to accurately target the core, but Ruruka and Yuel seem to have no trouble.

They easily dodge the Slimes’ body slams and accurately pierce the cores one after another.

Their only attack is the body slam.

However, the impact is surprisingly high.

Slimes harden their bodies at the moment of attack, so a direct hit could cause a fracture.

But that’s all.

Slimes can’t stay hardened all the time, and they don’t have poison or acidic bodies.

So, Slimes are not very strong for a seventh-floor monster.

However, there’s a reason for that.

"Is that the boss room?"

"It would be tough for our party. The boss here is almost immune to physical attacks."

The boss, indeed.

In the labyrinth of Melhart, there is a room called the boss room at the center of each floor that is a multiple of seven.

There’s a theory that the monsters on the boss’s floor are weak because the boss drains the floor’s magical resources.

It’s said that the monsters on the fourteenth and twenty-first floors are also relatively weak.

The boss of this floor is a Huge Slime.

Its structure and attack methods are basically the same as a regular Slime, but its size is drastically different.

It’s said to be three meters in diameter.

Even a not-so-strong Slime can become much stronger just by being larger.

A Huge Slime is not only too large for a regular sword to reach the core, but its sticky body also seals any wounds quickly.

Moreover, the impact of its body slam, due to its massive size, is a real threat.

It could easily crush a person.

The guild also advised against entering the seventh floor carelessly.

"We’d need a high-damage magic user to stand a chance."

"Yeah, we could probably defeat it by gradually whittling it down, but I don’t really want to try. If we do, it might drop rare items, though."

While Ruruka says this, Yuel is staring intently at the door leading to the boss room, but I shouldn’t worry about it.

She’s probably just captivated by the door’s decoration.

I want to believe that Yuel isn’t a battle junkie who would deliberately fight a mismatched strong enemy.

"What’s the rare drop?"

"It’s called a Slime Droplet, a material for a magic potion. I think it’s quite valuable. But mostly, it just drops a few regular Slime Jellies."

"Hmm, but it doesn’t really matter to us."

I say this clearly, making sure the girl staring at the boss room door can hear.

"Yeah. Well, let’s defeat that Slime over there and head back. I’m getting hungry."

Now that I think about it, it’s about lunchtime.

If we follow the main route back without taking any detours, it should be a good time.

I do want to collect more Slime Jellies, but I can’t let Yuel go hungry.

"Yeah, that’s a good idea."

After finishing our dungeon exploration, we’re at the guild’s item buyback counter.

Until now, I had forgotten something very important.

That is, during this dungeon exploration, I had just been watching the battles from behind Yuel and Ruruka.

It’s a common occurrence, but this time it was a problem.

When a monster is defeated, it drops items "on the spot."

In other words, the person who picks them up is naturally the one who is close to the monster, the one who fought it.

What I’m trying to say is that the Slime Jellies we obtained during this exploration are not in my item box at all.

And now, Ruruka and Yuel are about to hand over the materials to the receptionist at the buyback counter.

Even if I wanted to stop them, I can’t think of a good way to do it.

Well, I can think of something, but it would be a terrible statement that would ruin my reputation.

While I’m thinking, the receptionist, with a practiced smile, calmly announces the total buyback amount.

And then.

Finally, two-thirds of the amount—Shiki and Yuel’s share—was deposited into my bank card, along with the receptionist’s natural smile.

April 6th revision.

Added "Shiki and Yuel’s share" to the last sentence.