I was up late last night. It was tough.
My shoulders feel heavy all of a sudden, but casting Healing Magic at full power takes care of that.
I get on the bullet train early in the morning, and check the mail when I return to my apartment.
There are three leaflets, and a response from a company where I sent my resume.
I open it, not expecting much, but it says I passed their narrowing down process. It lists the day of the interview, and the location, that’s their main office close to the dungeon.
Yes!!
I pull off a triumphant pose I haven’t done since the Honto corporation agreed to interview me.
It’s not like they’ve decided to hire me, but I can’t describe the sense of accomplishment without tearing up.
The annoyed landlord comes over to rain on my parade, but it just has the effect of cooling my hot head.
I thank the landlord, and go back.
I take out the trolley bag from my Storage Space, and start taking care of the luggage and laundry. I thought I was going to stay there for days, so I didn’t need most of this.
Well, my mother is doing well, and that’s what matters.
When I’m done, I start getting ready to head to the dungeon.
I just got back, and I could take a break, but my body is itching for it.
That said, I need to stop somewhere first, the weapons store. I want to adjust the armor I got the other day. I have my divine bird boots, so my feet are fine, but I want to use the upper body armor and kabuto helmet.
Why? Apparently I’m going to be facing monsters that can use magic. Plus, it’s cool.
It’s white with blue patterns, like something out of a foreign fantasy movie. I really want to wear it. My chuunibyou yearns for this armor.
◇ ◇ ◇
Eh? Five million yen?
It costs that much to just adjust it? I just need the upper portion, how much would that be?
Still five million…
…I’ll come back.
◇ ◇ ◇
The twenty-first floor.
This dungeon changes.
It was a cave until here, but now it’s a forest. The trees look strong as they stretch up, and I feel the strong smell of the dense grass and thick vegetation. I take a deep breath, breathe out, and feel excessive stuff leaving my body.
People say we tend to feel energized among nature, and it feels true to me.
The twenty-first floor being a forest doesn’t mean there are no paths. There are paths stomped down by previous seekers, which also signal where to go.
However, it’s not just one path. There are many forked roads along the way, so it’s not that easy to reach the next floor.
And most importantly, adventurers aren’t the only ones making paths. The monsters who live here do too.
Two bipedal pig monsters pass by me, but all the orcs do is peek this way, and they keep going.
What does this mean? What do I do about this irritation I feel?
I don’t care, grab my greatsword from my back, and jump at one from behind to cut its head.
The other one is surprised, but I want to ask why it passed right by an enemy.
It swings its club to attack me, but its moves are dull, so it doesn’t matter how strong it is, because it can’t hit me.
I cut off this one’s head too.
If there were many of them, their attacks could be dangerous, but when there’s just a couple, they’re easy to dodge and counter.
There’s also an issue of compatibility, but kobolds are harder to deal with than orcs.
I hang the orcs upside down, and drain their blood. They’re hung from their feet with string, and it’s kind of tricky to get them hanging from a tree, but I manage it.
Orcs can be sold.
Unlike the other monsters so far, they can be eaten. They taste like pork, but they’re said to not be at all tastier than regular pork.
But since the guild sells it for cheap, it sells well.
They buy orc for five yen per hundred grams. Orcs weigh between a hundred fifty to two hundred kilos after their blood has been drained, so each goes for seventy-five hundred to ten thousand yen.
That price doesn’t match the effort it takes to carry monsters that weigh over a hundred kilos, but some still do it. Actually, quite a lot.
There are teams that specialize in hunting orcs. They divide roles between fighting them, preparing them, and carrying them, giving them a steady source of revenue.
Others make money relatively safely by fighting orcs on the side while picking materials for potions like medicinal herbs.
◇ ◇ ◇
Orcs pass by me. I attack from behind and take them down.
This keeps repeating until I come across people who specialize in fighting orcs.
They have a lot of orcs lined up, with a strong-looking cart carrying two or three of them. Only one person is pulling it, but he’s not having trouble with it, so I assume he has some sort of power type skill.
I also notice something else. There are all these orc corpses, but there’s no smell. It’s weird that the place doesn’t stink of blood, but I learn the reason right away.
These people are using tools to drain blood that I think are magic items.
They just look like large vinyl bags, but once the corpses are in them and they’re infused with magic energy, the bags suck the blood from the orcs, and drops it on the ground in the form of a fist sized lump.
Wow!
There are really useful tools out there.
I applaud, moved by human ingenuity.
Then they point at me, looking surprised.
What?
Hn? An orc behind me?
Muh!?
…There’s nothing there.
Eh? A new type of orc?
Where?
…
They’re talking about me…
…Ahh.
Can I hunt them too?
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Haruto Tanaka (24)
Level: 16
Skills: Earth Magic, Trace, Healing Magic, Spatial Grasp, Toughness, Magic Energy Control, Physical Strengthening, Poison Resistance, Storage Space, See Through, Parallel Thinking, Sewing, Limit Break
Equipment: Agility bracelet, greatsword of fortitude, divine bird boots
Status: Fat (All abilities boosted)
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kobolts
Hida, question, did the novel specify this as kobolt as in a variation of kobold or is it a typo?
I write kobolt instead of kobold at least once a chapter when they appear. Not just in this novel either.
Thanks.