Year 7444, Month 9, Day 3
After confirming that Zulu and I teleported to the 1st floor. Oh? We're quite a bit of distance away.
Without any particular problems we were able to arrive at the teleport room of the 5th floor. The thing I was worried about was in the case someone hits a room with an altar but in the first place they almost never appear (as far as we know there's only 9 rooms on the 5th floor) so it can't be helped getting too neurotic over it, is what I decided to think. Miduchi can't use her MP as efficiently as me but elemental magic level 5 isn't just for show. If it's a thickness of about 50 cm then she can freeze an area of about 8 meters in every direction. Putting aside the insanely strong special bosses of certain rooms, if it's just a normal room boss (though calling them normal is a strange way of putting it) or the opponents that come out in the halls then they're no challenge. It uses 10 MP every time she uses the ice but as long as she holds the handle of the magic sword she can recover it in 40 minutes.
She can even use it consecutively making use of her large amount of MP. I doubt she'll fall behind so easily. We were able to establish that even if we split our party we're still plenty able to line up with the top teams.
Incidentally, with the increased number of members in the Unit Organization I thought I would be able to see the bonus to ability values with Identify but I wasn't able to see them. Since it's a proficiency bonus after all they don't seem to be the type that increases the maximum value.
One night passes and it's the next morning. Today I'm last on the rotation for keeping lookout, from 4 am to 6 am. My partner is Toris. I was woken up by Bel and Zulu as I rub my eyes and then wash my face with some cold water, then Toris and I took turns taking a piss in the hall. The trick to creating a good urinal is to create about one bucket of dirt ahead of time and have it sink in a bit. Use it as a reference for something.
Toris and I, the two of us are sitting with our backs to the teleport crystal in the center of the room while talking to kill time.
"Please leave Ralpha to me. Or rather please leave it to Bel to mange things. Rather than the surroundings saying too much it's best to let the two themselves settle things on their own."
"Yeah, that's right."
I know that. And somehow Bel has taken up the central position managing the women's side of things. In some meanings even the men occasionally are overawed by the strange force or pressure she emits as well. If we had everyone state their true feelings we'd probably all say, "It's seriously bad if you anger Bernadette.Koloil." Of course, it's not a joke but I think they really think that just as it sounds.
The source of her power is the God-like archery skills and the spells supported by an abundance of mana but I think what's really feared is her personality. While she has those lovely rabbit ears and a beauty which doesn't fall behind elves making it understandable she was Miss Campus, those glamorous curves that are characteristic of Rabbit-people, and a body which is tense from the exercise. If you just look at her outer appearance it's plenty to be called close to perfect but sometimes the glances she gives to people outside of our allies are like ice. The words that feel like they don't have an ounce of mercy at those times leaves a strong rational impression.
Though it's not like she's really that cold, she's quite warm in her interactions with allies. Particularly her lover Toris she's all over. Though she does get distracted if he falls into danger as well. I've given Miduchi a simple explanation but since she hasn't gotten an actual feel for it yet she probably don't know Bel's true nature. On the contrary Ralpha knows really~ well. On the surface they might seem like nothing more than equal friends but I think deep below Bel has a firm hold at the base of Ralpha's tail.
Particularly since she didn't show those sorts of things on the surface much until we grouped up with Toris, but after they joined us I think Bel is the one who changed the most. I don't know if meeting him again was the chance, her disposition was originally like that and it just came to the surface, it's difficult to make a decision on but the "naivety" that I felt from her at the start the same as Ralpha disappeared.
Honestly speaking, even if it benefits my goal, for example if it was something like burning down an entire village, I think I would hesitate. I think I would devote all my consideration to trying to find a different method to arrive at the same result. However, I'm sure she would burn it down without batting an eyelid. If it was an outsider village. Ah, of course, I think she would at least give them a warning to evacuate.
"In the first place I had no intention of meddling in it. However, honestly speaking, I thought it would be pretty low in possibility that there would be difficult feelings between Ralpha and Miduchi. I thought the first one Miduchi would cause something with would be Bel. If they hit heads I thought some sparks would come off, but after something temporary they would get along right away."
"A dispute over leadership?"
Toris grinned while saying it. I'm sure he was thinking the same thing as me.
"Well yeah. But, I thought it would end up as anything conclusive. She may look like that but Miduchi's carrying a variety of problems. She was 30 before she reincarnated but originally she never had that outgoing or forward of a personality, since it seems like a large portion of her problems were swept away right now the feelings of release are probably stronger. And even if we mention a dispute over leadership, what the leadership is regarding, I thought those two would realize the direction is different right away and wouldn't be a problem even if they did dispute it for a bit."
"I see."
You see? does he really get it, this guy? Well I'm sure he understands it reasonably though.
"Toris, learn as much as you can from Zenom. Since it's for your own sake."
"..Yes...That's true."
While we were talking about things like this time passed by.
"Alright, let's go."
Leaving Giberuti and the camp site, the nine of us grabbed on to the teleportation crystal. In regards to the teleport traps on the 6th floor I don't know which of {Find.Trap}, {Detect.Snare}, or {Perceive.Pitfall} might be effective but if that's a type of trap then it should get caught in one of them.
Just right it's an area that we've come to before, moreover, it's a path that has a forked passage we haven't gone down yet.
Just before the teleport trap that we had confirmed previously I'll have Miduchi use the spell {Find.Trap}.
"Miduchi, there should be a teleport trap pretty soon, use {Find.Trap}."
"Yes."
""Eh?""
Surprise.
"I can't see anything."
""Eh?""
Disappointment.
"Then, try using {Detect.Snare} and {Perceive.Pitfall}."
"Yes."
""Eh?""
Surprise again.
"I think it's the stones? on both sides of the passage ahead of here. I can see one pair of something like that. I don't think they're more than 100 meters away."
""Eh?""
Admiration. Shut~up.
"Miduchi can use spells to discover traps. I intend to learn from her as well. However, since all of the spells require elemental magics at level 4 or 5 it seems, so it's on hold for you all."
Occasionally there's passages that stretch out straight ahead 1 Km or so in the dungeon. Though it's only when we use the spell it's big that we can perceive the traps that our in sight. If we're in an unknown area then we can quickly and safely explore through it while just remaining cautious of the monsters.
This day we were able to fill in a single new area on our map. It's the same results as usual. Though it felt like we were able to shorten the time feeling-wise. If everyone's magic levels go up and they're able to use these magics I wonder if our speed will increase even more? No, if I just learn them then I feel like that should be plenty to increase our pace.
Partially as an experiment Miduchi tried pouring mana only into the spell to detect traps. Along the way when her mana recovered I had her use it as much as possible. Even then she was only able to use it a total of 16 times. I guess it uses quite a bit of MP. However, thanks to that we were able to figure out a variety of things. How do I put it, if you were to ask the traps with a complex structure often get caught in {Find.Trap} and the simple structured traps get caught in {Detect.Snare} and {Perceive.Pitfall}. Of course there are exceptions as well. Even though the pitfalls were a simple structure but for some reason they didn't get caught in either {Detect.Snare} or {Perceive.Pitfall}. Isn't it completely failing to live up to it's name?
Yesterday Zenom was removed from the rotation and able to sleep the entire night. Today is the day Toris sleeps all night. And, today is the first day Miduchi and Ralpha keep lookout together as well. It should be from midnight until 2 am. I'm the very first lookout. I keep lookout together with Angela from 10 pm until midnight. After everyone else took their showers I wait for Angela to come out of her shower while watching Giberuti clean up after dinner. Incidentally, it seems that Giberuti eloquently managed to receive the types of mushrooms Miduchi had brought along.
It somehow seems that Giberuti is still doing some kind of preparations other than cleaning up. He's putting lard into a pot and turning on the heat, creating a large amount of oil. He put a number of duck legs into it and after putting some powered black truffle in, he's stirring it up. I guess he's boiling it slowly over a low flame so it doesn't reach a high temperature? It's giving off a good scent. Ah, Ralpha is looking at the pot. Don't lose to your gluttony. Your time to sleep will run out.
"Master, what is Larry doing?"
"It's probably preparations for tomorrow. I think he's probably making confit."
"There's a strangely good scent for confit..Is it that mushroom!"
"Yeah, I saw him put some in just now."
I glanced to the side at Angela as she sat down next to me. Her red hair is still wet. Though her clothes seem a bit second-hand they're still neat clothes so she gives off a clean feel.
"It's a good scent right. Master chose a good person."
She closes her eyes and twitches her nose with an ecstatic expression while saying. Incidentally Giberuti is also spellbound with it. I think the tongues of my two mongrel's have grown too fat. However, these two mongrel's are too picky with their food. It's not particularly like they say selfish things like this is bad or they don't want it but their attitudes when eating things they think are delicious is far too different from normal so it's easy to tell. The only ones that picky with their food than Giberuti and Angela are Ralpha and I. Ah, though I guess Ralpha is just a glutton. Putting that aside, just because he's cooking something delicious she says, "you picked a good person." it's like she doesn't care at all about his personality. Though I'm sure it really doesn't matter.
Around the time for us to switch shifts Giberuti finally finished his preparations and laid down. Thanks for your hard work.
We woke up Miduchi and Ralpha and Angela and I jumped into our blankets. It's in bad taste to listen in so I'll go right to sleep. Get along together, you two.
.............
Year 7444, Month 9, Day 6
After being woken up for our turn on keeping lookout, Zulu and I sat down on the bench while listening to Ralpha's snoring.
Be grateful to my greatness, I fixed your breathing impediment.
................
Once again today we chose an unexplored area to teleport into. We luckily managed to find an altar room as well.
【Humidifier】
【State: Good】
【Value: 10000000】
【Ability: Air moisture 17.3g/m^3 every one hour 5m^3 production;180 value/1 day】
Today I'm on lookout from 2 am to 4 am. My partner for today is Gwine. Today is the day Miduchi can sleep plenty. After picking up the role from Ralpha and Bel, Gwine and I started our lookout shift. We've been in the dungeon for almost a full week today, after we finish exploring today we're returning to the surface.
"Al-san. Is it fine to ask a bit of something?"
"Hn? What is it?"
"When are you planning to get married?"
Oh~ beard-san~ you too?
"..No idea. Something like that. Even if we do it will be quite a while in the future I'm sure. Well it's not like I don't get you guys being interested in it but I'm not in that much of a hurry and that was just Miduchi getting ahead of herself."
"Hm~n..but, why is it Miduchi-san?"
"It's not like we didn't originally know each other and she was in love with me since the past after all..I've been together with her for a reasonably long time as well, there's feelings too. She's been carrying along a variety of problems since she reincarnated until just a while ago. When most of those things we're resolved I guess we were just drawn to each other. Though there's times when she says weird things, she's fundamentally a good person. Try to get along with her."
Somehow I feel like I've had the same conversation a number of times recently. It can't be helped though.
"No, it's not particularly like I'm complaining about it. I think that I would like to get along with Miduchi-san as well.."
Yeah, please do that. It's a big help.
"Ralpha huh? Don't worry aobut it. It's not like Ralpha did anything wrong. Of course~ even I'm happy that everyone accepted Miduchi. However, even if it's someone that I brought along, isn't it difficult to completely accept her before you get to know her at all? Ralpha was just calm."
"Do you seriously think that?"
..Isn't she misunderstanding something? Since Gwine is together with Ralpha the most I thought she understood Ralpha a bit more than this.
"That's right. Ralpha is a good fellow. We've already been together for over two years so that's only obvious though. My heart isn't so vast that I could spend two years together with someone who's unpleasant. But you know, don't misunderstand. The only one who Ralpha opened her heart up to form the start was you, Gwine. Whether it be me, or Bel, it's not like she got along with us like now from the start. Since there was the circumstances we met Bel under I think she tried to be careful to act kind but I don't think she suddenly opened her heart up to her. Though there's times when she says idiotic things as well, she's generally pretty level-headed."
".."
What is it, those eyes?
"I don't know Al-san anymore."
She got angry and is facing the other way. Ha~a, how bothersome~
I used the {Cantrip} pulling to lightly pull on Gwine's beard. It's still not long enough to braid.
"Ehi~!! Really, what are you doing."
"Gwine sure is kind. Ralpha is my precious, friend. Please think about Ralpha from here on as well."
I lowered my head to Gwine as she turned around and entrusted it to her.
"Even, if you didn't say it like that I would, Ralpha is my friend after all."
That's right isn't it.
On the last day the confit came out. For breakfast and in our bento. The confit that had been maturing inside of the hardened lard for a few days was extremely delicious along with the scent of black truffles. The bento had sandwiches of lard with bits of black truffles mixed in spread on bread with confit in between as well. It seems pretty high in calories but if it's just this level of calories then we'll consume them in stamina.
Ralpha was delighted as she ate them.