“Ahh, today was a lot of trouble too…”
Miki plumped down on a sofa in her room, and let out a big sigh.
As she closed her eyes, she saw the announcement sent out to the whole beginner dungeon, and the panic it caused in the association.
It was the second time, so the place did not turn into a noisy beehive like the first time, but they were not expecting it to happen on the third floor. Not to mention that the message ‘God of the Mountain defeated’ sounded so powerful that it complicated things and made them late to react.
Furthermore, immediately after they left to collect information and get the situation under control, the party that caused it returned ahead of schedule with a bombshell that was a secret treasure…
Detailed information was taken, videos were disclosed, and they contacted various associations that day, meaning it took two days for things to settle in the association and the dungeon.
“Ahh… Just thinking about it makes my head hurt…”
‘…!’
“Oh, thank you Aqua.”
‘!’
Aqua, the water golem given to Miki by her son-in-law, caressed her head with its cool hand.
The golem Miki called Aqua was an invaluable being to her. Much like her daughters, her work left her with no time to keep a pet, and she returned to an empty home after work. But Aqua immediately made her life more lively. She learned from her daughters how to look after and educate it, and immediately taught it how to do housework and clean.
Aqua’s care revitalized her old hobby of gardening, and a lively aroma brightened up the living room.
“Ah, Aqua, can you pour me a drink here?”
Asked Miki while placing the gift much lauded by her daughter on a table.
“The same as usual.”
‘!’
According to her daughter, alcohol poured into that container was tastier than usual. Aki most definitely got her fondness for alcohol from her, but apparently not her resistance to it. It was too bad that if they drank together, Aki would soon collapse.
“And Alcohol Resistance… I said the cup was enough, but he said they didn’t need this skill… Alcohol Resistance Lv4, was it? Maybe she can hang with me longer with that skill.”
‘!’
Aqua poured cheap wine.
“Thank you. It does taste richer than usual, and tastier.”
Her face loosened into a smile as she remembered her daughter’s excitement.
“…Ah, that’s right, I have to make a call.”
That reminded her of something important.
She held on to the cup as she sat in front of her communications device, and Aqua brought her bag.
Miki operated the device to place a call with practiced ease, and after a few rings, a beautiful woman appeared. Her friend and junior, but also someone to be wary of in negotiations, the Witch of the Far East.
‘Good evening Miki. You seem tired.’
“I’m sorry, did I keep you waiting, Sakuya?”
‘Fufu, I have the information. It seems our son-in-law has been hard at work. We should gladly deal with the troublesome parts, right?’
Miki saw Sakuya the previous day during an emergency branch manager meeting.
These meetings were held on previously set dates, but since it seemed some incident or phenomenon happened every time their son-in-law entered a dungeon, they had been having them every four days. Furthermore, information about when they went into the dungeon was shared, so they could be ready to attend a meeting as soon as something happened.
But this was no such meeting… Sakuya asked to have this talk since they shared a son-in-law.
“What a crazy son-in-law, to throw us branch managers around like this.”
‘Fufu, it’s nice that he’s so full of energy. I feel very happy about his accomplishments.’
“…I’m glad he’s discovering all sorts of things, but it’s all so out of the ordinary and he’s growing so fast, that I find it hard to get a read on his range. Or even what he’ll do next…”
She spoke not with her usual grace, but with a less reserved grumbling tone. She took this attitude with her old friend Sakuya.
Of course, she could not let her guard down, so she did not.
‘Oh Miki… Isn’t it obvious? There is only the fifth floor left.’
“I guess. The final floor, that is not suitable for leveling up… Sakuya, that is the final floor, right? My people didn’t find any way to progress further in their investigations.”
‘Yes, I also sent subordinates in secret, so there is no doubt that the fifth floor is the last stop.’
“…I knew you did your own investigation. Even though I didn’t hear about it.”
‘Fufu, well, I didn’t tell you.’
“Didn’t you dodge the question last time?”
‘But now we share a son-in-law.’
Sakuya smiled a little through the screen.
“I should take the opportunity to ask. Did you already know about stacking skills to level them up to II or III?”
‘Yes.’
“What about rare II and powered up monsters?”
‘We finally received confirmation about them early this year.’
“…Ahh. Well, higher rank monsters such as rare II have the appropriate II or III skills, so…”
‘That is not quite right, Miki.’
“Eh?”
‘Didn’t you find it strange? The monsters with the levels in the hundreds that escaped from the deeper levels of the high rank dungeon during the monster break… What we now call stampede. Weren’t their skills all base skills?’
Miki remembered what happened, and the data of the monsters they faced then.
Sakuya was right, they all had base skills.
“…That’s true. What does that mean?”
‘Those monsters from the deeper floors actually did have higher rank II or III skills. The trouble was that without knowledge of how skills stack into higher versions, someone looking with Appraisal can’t see them. They simply appear to be the base version, and the base version is also what drops. It’s a troublesome contrivance.’
“What!? So the data in the database about monsters over level one hundred…!”
‘Yes, most of it needs to be checked again.’
“That is incredibly important information…!”
Miki was about to complain about Sakuya keeping such important information a secret, but put a stop to it when she realized something.
“…Did you only learn about this recently?”
‘Fufu, I did. It’s new information that was confirmed days ago. Our son-in-law revealed information about the stacked skills a little over a month ago. Before that, there was information about people not aware of the secret behind stacking skills who investigated rare monsters.
Recently, when the same people fought rare monsters again, they began to notice that the skills were clearly different. Then we took that information and sent people to fight other rare monsters and explore other dungeons, and new information kept coming… It was a lot of work.’
Sakuya sighed, showing exhaustion.
That action alone would be enough to fascinate many men.
“I see… Then all I can say is, good job investigating.”
‘Fufu, thank you Miki.’
Miki was at her wits end, thinking about how she would be busy with something else.
“Ahh… But Sakuya, if you sneak around too much, he might start to dislike you. Be careful.”
‘Of course. I’m treating him with the utmost caution.’
“Really? Okay then.”
‘!’
“Thank you Aqua.”
Miki drank the newly poured wine, and remembered when she first met him.
She treated him harshly at first, like a doting mother would, but was there not a problem with that? Their relationship was good enough at this point… As she drank, she felt a little unsure.
‘Oh, Miki? That’s a strange glass you have.’
“This? Hn… Oh, fine. It was a gift from him. A legacy grade artifact. It boosts the taste of alcohol poured into it.
Miki saw Sakuya’s eyes twitch.
She liked such rare items above anything else.
‘What a wonderful article!’
“Isn’t it? And he said he wanted to give you a present too, since he gave one to me.”
‘What a nice kid…’
Sakuya seemed ecstatic through the screen.
“That’s the reason why I called you. He gave me two lists of potential gift ideas, since he didn’t know what you like. First, there’s a list of spare skills. I’m sending it to you.”
‘Thank you.’
“The other contains food products such as the high grade meat dropped by an orc, followed by miscellaneous items such as weapons… There’s something absurd in there that I think will make you happy.”
‘Absurd? Fufu, I’m interested. Tell me more.’
That day, a bewitching smile was on Sakuya’s face, as she received two unique rank pieces of clothing as a present from her son-in-law.
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