“Uh hey, it’s good to see you, Kotarou…”
“Sure, whatever. Just talk.”
I had neither the intention not the time to make up and be friends with Masaru again. The one I needed to focus on wasn’t my once friend, but Higuchi, and what he was planning by making Masaru talk with me instead of himself.
“Right, I’ll do that… er, the Boss here was a pretty big guy, and… I guess it looks like a Goliath.”
“By Goliath you mean from UB?”
“Yeah, exactly like that.”
So it looked like that. I guess it wouldn’t be strange to find something like that in this dungeon.
Goliath is a guy who appears in the Old Testament, a 3 meter tall, and buff as all hell, warrior. And David, (you know, the guy with that famous nude statue,) was the one who beat him. This famous statue apparently tried to capture the figure of the biblical hero as he aimed a head-shot on his much larger opponent.
So anyway, over the years, the name ‘Goliath’ has been used in lots of media, and the one we were talking about was a game both me and Masaru had played, UB, short for Undead Bounty. It was a zombie shoot-em-up and had a Boss monster called Goliath. And according to Masaru, the Boss they were up against looked a lot like it.
This UB Goliath basically looked like a gorilla. It had a lot of horns and spikes sticking out of it, and got red, glowing patterns when it went into rage mode, but was otherwise, just a big gorilla.
“Wait, does it also shoot beams out of its chest for no apparent reason? No wait, don’t tell me it gets boulders out of nowhere and starts throwing them at you?”
“No, that’d be just weird.”
Phew. That mystery beam and boulder rush were both instkill moves if they hit you in hard-mode. I was glad that this Goliath wasn’t irrational like that.
“But we only fought it for a few minutes before running, so I can’t tell you if it can use magic or not.”
“Okay, fine. Just describe what you know.”
“It only tried to punch or grab at us… but the problem was that it was too big and fast for us to handle. If Ayase-san didn’t help, we might’ve been toast.”
So it was definitely the super strength type. Damn, I’m not actually that useful in melee.
But now I was interested in Ayase-san’s powers.
“And what’s Ayase-san’s Job?”
“Ah, um…”
Masaru quickly glanced at Higuchi like he was asking for permission. I didn’t miss that.
“Reinchan’s got a pretty rare one,” the Thief answered, “it’s called Spirit Master and she can use fire, ice and lightning magic. She’s pretty much like a master mage. Ah, technically it’s her pets, Guardian Beasts, that do all the work, so she’s more like a Summoner than Mage. You see it in a lot of RPGs.”
Apparently they didn’t need to hide it, so Higuchi explained the basics about Ayase-san himself.
“Uh huh…”
If what he was saying was really true, then she had a really powerful Job as far as mage jobs go. Any other mage I saw had only one specialty element. For Class Rep it was ice, for Nishiyamsan it was wind, and for Souma Sakura, while she was a special case with the Saintess Job, she also just had the light element in her arsenal.
And Ayase-san already had 3, fire, ice and lightning. That meant that she might be able to get more, like wind, or earth, or even light and darkness or some other element I couldn’t even imagine.
And her abilities weren’t simply using the different elements, but using them well. I could guess this from the fact that her magic was strong enough to deter the Goliath enough to let them run back to safety.
Plus, if she’d really been weak, then Higuchi would be treating her not like a princess but like a slave. And since his behaviour towards her was the former, it meant that he also acknowledged that she was not someone to be trifled with.
“Got it. But I still need to see how you all fight in practical terms, so I suggest we try taking out some mobs in the general vicinity. Sound good?”
“Whoa there Momokawa, trynna find a weakness already?”
“I haven’t fought in your team before, so I’ll need to know some stuff. It’s for better teamwork.”
I couldn’t tell whether he really suspected me or was just joking.
“Heheh, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. So you want to go now or?”
“A bit later, I need some more time. I got here right after fighting a Boss too, so I need to get some things ready.”
“OK, pardner.”
Acting as if he took my word for it, Higuchi had nothing more to say, so he went away and laid back on one of the fairy walnut trees.
“Uh, hey, Kotarou, can I uh, help with something maybe?”
“No need. You know what, you can fuck off. I don’t want to deal with a traitor like you any more than I have to.”
“O-oh, right…”
Yeah, his plainly sullen face wasn’t going to work on me.
I didn’t need to care about him. Right now, I had to reorganize my thoughts with all this new info.
Around half a day’s worth of resting time later, we all left the Fairy Square so we could do that team building exercise I suggested.
“Wow, it’s similar, but there’s like a whole new feel to it.”
This zone of the dungeon still had the same concrete-esque stone walls, but while before, everything was shades of gray, this play was practically white. This zone looked a lot cleaner, and the light panels above seemed brighter as well.
“Oh yeah, there’s lots of traps set up in this zone, so watch your step. Don’t worry too much though, I can tell where they all are with my Thief senses.”
Traps huh. Maybe I was lucky, but I’d encountered exactly zero traps during my whole time in this world. The only time I heard of them was back when Mei-chan mentioned one. I had no clue as to how they worked or operated in the dungeon.
I wanted to fix that soon… but I had to get Higuchi out of the picture first. The more time I wasted, the better he’d know my powers.
“It kinda feels like a hospital.”
“Really? I don’t see it, oh, don’t step there, there’s something in the ground.”
Of course, there weren’t any white beds or that astringent smell of antisceptic here, but the clean and white area surrounding us felt very clinical. There were large white domed areas that seemed to mirror the green forest domes that I’ve seen a lot. All in all, it looked like a large scale hospital.
The rooms, the halls, the passages, everything was such a same stark white that it all almost seemed disorienting, but Higuchi was able to instinctively tell which spots had traps set up. Even the path he indicated just now, looked no different from any other. Of course, if it did, it’d defeat the purpose of the trap.
“Higuchi, how do you tell where they are?”
“Intuition. Thieves have a specialty in that sort, don’t know about other Jobs.”
Natsukawsan also said similar stuff about her intuition. This likely means that those with the Thief Job has a high probability of getting trap sensing skills.
No, not just traps, Thieves were better at sensing enemy presences too.
“Skeletons up ahead. We can use them right?”
Higuchi walked casually with his hands in his pockets, but was still able to accurately detect which way the Skeletons were supposedly coming from.
“You said before that the Skeletons here are the only easy ones right?”
“Yeah, they’ll be fine for practice.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Then, almost like a repeat of what happened with the Hirano x Nishiyama couple, we used Skeletons as fodder to show each other our abilities.
“―― There.” Higuchi said “That’s about it. Kind of a bummer that the Thief Job doesn’t get any of those flashy finishing moves.”
“No, I think you’re pretty strong regardless.”
It was a unit of Skeleton Troopers. I’d first seen one of these when I was in Class Reps party and we were going around hunting Skeletons for their equipment. Back then, we were able to easily finish off those mobs as a 6 member party, but Higuchi was able to defeat almost the whole unit all by himself.
His weapon was a common Goma knife that, despite him not using Slash or any other Battle Art as far as I could see, cut apart the arms, legs and even the backbones of the enemy mobs. Once he cut them up, he would deliver a literally bone shattering kick to finish them off.
His basic strength far already far exceeded the norm, but this could be due to him simply being physically stronger than Natsukawsan or even Kenzaki Asuna even back in Japan.
And this was clearly the tip of the iceberg. He should’ve already gotten a bunch of Battle Arts, and if he used those fine-tuned movements with a Skill like Hi Walk, I might not be able to follow him with my eyes. Other than attack moves, he was also likely to have support Skills specialized for Thieves. All in all… Higuchi was strong.
Right, so I also got to observe how Masaru fought, though not much. While Higuchi dove into the Troopers’ formation, two of those Skeletons broke off from the unit and came towards us. Masaru took on those ones.
He’d said he was a Warrior but… frankly, it was very disappointing. I mean, sure I may have only seen powerful vanguard fighters like Mei-chan, Natsukawsan and Kenzaki Asuna, but Masaru wasn’t just bad compared to them, he was worse by magnitudes. With his awkward fighting style, he was barely able to manage two Skeletons only after using a bunch of his Battle Arts. He was beyond hopeless.
No, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. This could just be how a normal person with a magical Job looks. If I’d been given Swordsman or Warrior, I’m sure I’d be just as hopeless as him.
But now that I finally got to witness his level of strength, I could understand why he’d let himself be Higuchi’s slave all this time. This was his only means of survival in the dungeon. With his n00b skills, he would’ve died at the first Boss if he went solo.
“The next room up ahead has some Skeletons too. Your turn Momokawa.”
“Sure.”
“Call out if you don’t think you can handle it. We’re teammates now, gotta help each other out, right?”
My turn came along with another asinine line of platitudes.
We’d scavenged some of the better equipment from the last unit of Troopers, so now Rem and I were better equipped. Rem dual-wielded a sword and club, while #2, who was not as strong, equipped a club only to focus on blunt damage. I had an iron spear like usual.
“Let’s go, Rem. Just like the usual.”
Rem and #2 dashed into vanguard positions while I was rear support. The three of us had experience hunting tons of Skeletons to prepare for the Basilisk fight. The Troopers here looked to have better equipment than the one’s in the poison zone, but they weren’t all that much stronger.
My spear was useless as I only used a Blackhair Bind tentacle furnished with stones at the tips to deal blunt blows. Once Rem and #2 beat them down enough that they were slow to react, I was able to crush them with my tentacle hammer.
Though truth be told, it was faster to just let the two of them handle everything. The fight ended with the Mud Doll duo scoring more than half of the kills.
“That’s pretty much how I do it.”
“… Nice, you’re pretty strong yourself Momokawa.”
“No no, that took everything I had.”
Thankfully, I was able to hide my stronger Shaman Skills. I only used the one blackhair tentacle for the makeshift stone hammer, while I completely hid the existence of Rotten Bog and Redhair Twine. They also didn’t know about the Red Knife, my fire enchanted weapon.
Still, I don’t expect Higuchi to actually believe that this was my full strength.
I was tense and nervous as to how far Higuchi had been able to deduce about my other abilities, and also whether he’d sensed my intent to murder him. The both of us displayed only friendly facades as we progressed further into the dungeon.
“―― There. The Boss Room is right after this one.”
We’d arrived at our destination. Splayed out before me was another large, circular hall room, but this one with an ostentatious gate standing on the other end, in addition to a white monolith in the center that looked like a grave stone.
“And what’s that white monolith supposed to be?”
“A save point, duh.”
What a nice dungeon, to kindly set up a save point right outside a Boss Room.
“You mean, you don’t know. Got it.”
“Come on, Momokawa, I thought you’d like that one.”
“That’s what I thought when I saw a Fairy Square for the first time too. This one’s more like a checkpoint.”
“Welp, that’s a real otaku for ya. You know your stuff.”
It almost felt natural how easily he was able to make fun of me. It was still beyond annoying. Someone like me just can’t get along with an honest to god DQN punk like Higuchi.
“Hmm, it really stands out here. Makes me think it has some purpose… did you try putting a core near it?”
“We did yeah. Nothing. My intuition also told me that this wasn’t a trap.”
I touched the stone object all over and without any reserve, which lead to no particular result. I even borrowed a small core from Higuchi and touched it in multiple places, which also showed no reaction.
“Maybe it’s a transfer device?”
But even if that was the case, I simply didn’t know how to use it. I couldn’t find anything like a switch and neither was there any slot or groove to place a core in.
I did have one weird theory where this might be a flag event object that only reacts to the chosen one, like Souma Yuuto. He was the Hero and all.
“Yo, you done yet?”
“Yeah, I’m done. Couldn’t find anything either.”
I returned the core, and after giving the hall one more look over, I was ready to go back to the Square.
“You wanna go take a sneak peek at the Boss?”
“Need more time. Those Skeletons had some good stuff and I need to know what I’m dealing with.”
“Careful ain’t ya.”
“Well yeah, life on the line and everything. Of course I’m gonna take my time preparing.”
“Haah, boring… but you got a point.”
Higuchi accepted my proposal to return and had now turned his back to me.
Now was my chance.
My gut was telling me to go for it, and I believed that it was right. Higuchi wasn’t looking at me, his hands were still in his trouser pockets and he believed that I would be silently following right behind.
Just now, I said that I’d take my time preparing. But the most important thing in a fight is to know when to just go for it.
And I knew that that time was now. Now was my biggest and only chance. If I went along with Higuchi any longer, he’d definitely make me into his pawn. I could honestly say that he was stronger than me. And once he is also sure that I couldn’t do much against him, I’d become another of his slaves. Like Masaru.
Okay, I can do this. Right here, right now, I’ll kill Higuchi.
“Entwine its escape, with weaving hair,”
I chanted that only inside my head. He was a Thief, and would likely hear me no matter how quietly I said it. I wasn’t going to take even the smallest chances.
As for Masaru and Ayase-san… great, they were already outside on look out. They shouldn’t be able to get to him on time.
Calm down, you got this. I have the power and weapons needed to instantly kill one unsuspecting and unarmed human being. I can do it, I will do it. I will kill him.
“――Blackhair Bind!!”
This chapter was sponsored by Nolan N. There's 3 more! It's for faster chapters. Before paying, be sure indicate a series. If not, the money will go towards chicken nuggers.The average amount for a series is listed below.
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