“S-Shouta, what…”
“Did you combine skills!?”
Everyone’s eyes are focused on the skill orb in my hand.
Even Aira can’t hold her usual stoic expression. Our eyes meet when she has a rare dazed expression, and she turns away with embarrassment. I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of different facets of Aira today.
“I just thought it might work.”
“That’s all uh!?”
“No one can do that… Ah.”
Both turn to Aira, who is back to her usual expression.
“Ah, don’t worry, Aira isn’t going to leak this. Apparently Sakuya ordered her not to.”
“Yes. It won’t be a problem for master.”
“Phew…”
“That’s good…”
“But master, you did something incredible again.”
“Yes…”
In this case, even if I didn’t use Skill Compression, it would end up the same way if I used the same number of skill orbs. However, being able to compress four Fast Run into a Fast Run II does change things.
If I already know Fast Run II and add three more of those, I can reach Fast Run III. That’s something that wouldn’t be possible no matter how many regular Fast Run skill orbs I had.
Currently, my only ‘III’ is Super Strength, and that’s just because I was lucky enough to find rare monsters that drop Super Strength II.
I’m sure I could find monsters that drop other ‘II’ and ‘III’ skills if I looked, but surely they would also be stronger. But if I can easily gather numberless skills and use them to get to ‘III’ or even ‘IV’, I can power them up very easily.
I thought Compression was a skill that just took maxed out skills and compressed them into superior versions. That would be strong enough on its own, but now that I found a new effect, I feel like this is as broken as Level Gacha. No wonder it’s an ultra rare skill.
“Now I have thirteen Fast Run left. Then I’ll compress twelve… Use three Fast Run II to learn Fast Run III… Yes, that leaves one Fast Run and one Fast Run II.”
“You managed to use all of them but two.”
“Yes.”
“Shouta, what should we do with these?”
“Hn… How about we gift them to that uncle while we’re at it?”
If they trust this person that much, I think we can bring these skill orbs as a gift when we visit.
“Hahaha, that’s such an extravagant thing to offer as a gift.”
“Offering skill orbs as gifts would be more fitting of something like a betrothal gift.”
Say Aki and then Maki.
“Really? To me, it’s just something I can get easily. It feels like the right thing to give away…”
“Fufu, that’s just you. You really are off the charts. But hold on a second.”
Aki starts doing something on her smartphone.
“…Yes, there’s no information about Fast Run II drops. Well, you discovered ‘II’ skills just the other day, so I figured as much…”
“Can we speak to my mother about this? Hana might know something…”
“Sure, if it’s those two.”
“Thank you, we will be right back!”
Says Maki, and she rushes out of the room with her sister.
And ten minutes later, they come back with the branch manager and Hana.
“Amachi, can I tell this to the head of the association?”
The head of the association is their grandfather.
This is getting pretty serious…
“Sure.”
“Thank you. Hana, I’m going to the head office, so look after things here.”
“Understood, branch manager. Everyone, the bus is here. Let me take you to it.”
In the middle of this hurried atmosphere, we are taken to a bus going directly to the high rank dungeon.
I think Compression is going to cause a bigger uproar in the association than I thought, but now I’m all focused on going to the high rank dungeon. I’m not actually going to the dungeon, but I wonder what it’s like…
I can’t wait.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
After an hour of shaking inside the bus, we get off in front of a giant wall.
“Wall…?”
“This was built to prevent a dungeon break.”
I look up in awe, and a middle-aged man that feels dignified answers. When did he get next to me? It feels like his eyes are full of emotion.
“The monsters in this dungeon are too vicious, so humans chose to blockade it to avoid accidental entry. At first we thought we could contain it, but it turned into that mess.”
Blockade…
Looking at it more closely, I can see it’s actually a dome covering something, most likely the high rank dungeon.
““Uncle Ryuu!””
“Eh? It’s him?”
He smiles broadly, and the gentle way he’s looking at the sisters makes him look like a doting grandfather looking at his real granddaughters.
For just a moment, I also feel something resembling anger coming from him. Could it be that he doesn’t like me…?
“Hum, nice to meet you. I’m Shouta Amachi.”
“Yes. I am Ryuu Fujimaki. I heard about you from Miki… Just for you, I will let you call me Ryuu. It’s nice to meet you, young man Amachi.
We have a lot to discuss, so let’s head to the association’s cafe first. Of course, in a private booth.”
“Y-yes!”
We go after him into the 128 branch of the dungeon association, next to the high rank dungeon.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
“When I see you two in person, it really becomes obvious how beautiful you have become!”
“Ehihi, really?”
“Fufu, thank you uncle Ryuu.”
“But I am miffed to see you around someone else, when you would usually sit next to me…”
Ryuu is looking at me with sharp piercing eyes. Is this related to the emotions I got from him earlier? I guess it would be unreasonable, but I wouldn’t like to see them get all chummy with another guy either. I’ll just bear with it.
“Stop picking on our Shouta, uncle Ryuu.”
“I know, Aki. Also, Miki said you were coming to visit, but that’s not it, is it? Not that I wouldn’t be happy if you did come to visit me.”
Oh? She didn’t tell him?
“Well, the number one reason was to buy things here. Shouta’s prestige would grow if he wore what high rank adventurers wear.”
“Some ‘red color’ people tried to mess with him today. The beginner dungeon has become more open thanks to Shouta and Aira, but we don’t want people to keep looking down on him.
Say Aki and Maki.
Red color… That’s a term the association uses to describe people like the ones I met this morning. It means they did something bad, and basically received a red card and were forced to leave.
“So they authorized it? He rose to rank A, so I will authorize it as well. You can go there next.”
Ah, so they can reject first time customers because it’s a high rank dungeon? I almost went there not knowing that.
“Thank you. Hum, Ryuu, this is about the ‘requests’, along with a small gift from me.”
I hand him the box with the skill orbs, that Maki packed.
“Oh, how thoughtful… Hnn!?”
Ryuu freezes when he sees what’s inside.
There are a Super Strength and two Swifts for the ‘request’, along with a bonus Fast Run and Fast Run II. Was it too much?
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Shouta, you really need to explore more dungeons and more floors of the current dungeon.
I agree, at this point they just experimenting and it’s not yet finished.. I wonder when he’ll go to advanced dungeon.
facets -> faces
miffed -> missed
Wrong.
Facets has a deeper meaning than just faces, on a person it means personality traits and reactions
Miffed is an adjective meaning annoyed or peeved.
Edit: typo
That is way way too much, MC.
Thanks for the treat.