I’m walking around on the first floor of the dungeon.
The Automatic Mapping skill I got the other day automatically shows me enemies and people in places where I’ve been, but it won’t map them if I haven’t been there directly, even if I have another map.
And since it doesn’t feel right to me that it has holes, I’m filling out the rest of the map.
The branch manager gave me a two week time limit, but I can’t get those holes in the map out of my head. This is just to clear my head so I’m able to focus.
“That makes it thirty in a row… I should look for one just in case.”
Yesterday I went around looking for goblins to hit the hundred mark while avoiding people, so I left the map at about thirty percent. Goblins spawn again pretty quickly after one goes down, so it was more effective to keep going around the same places.
But today it’s the opposite. I’m being careful not to defeat a hundred, because I might get distracted and cause an accident. And so, as I fill out the map, I prioritize finding a killer rabbit when I hit the thirty goblin mark.
Monsters walk around the dungeon even when no one’s around, so if I pay attention to the red dots on Automatic Mapping, I can tell by the movement speed and distance covered whether it’s a goblin or a killer rabbit. This was a great discovery.
Being able to spot killer rabbits on the map is going to make it easier to repeat the hundred goblins in a row challenge too.
“…All right, the map is finally done.”
After taking down a moderate amount of killer rabbits, the map is filled.
Looking at the full map again, I can see this really is big compared to Unlucky Hall. It would probably take an hour to just walk around the outer circumference.
Hunting too much as a part of this task takes me beyond level eleven and into level twelve.
Normally I would want to not waste the experience and roll as soon as I reached level eleven, but I couldn’t this time. Because…
“They really are following me.”
I see multiple white dots on the map, a few tens of meters away from where I am.
At first I thought I might be misunderstanding, but they’ve been following me and keeping their distance like this for hours now.
They’ve hunted pretty much nothing, because they’re walking the same path as me. That’s clearly abnormal for adventurers that make their living hunting monsters.
“Those people have too much free time… Is it because of that incident with the skill orb yesterday…”
It really was a blunder, so much so that Maki even got mad at me. I was happy that she was worried about me, and wanted to reassure her, but I got carried away.
What should I do about this…
“Option one, run. Option two, give them the slip. Option three, leave it be. Option four, do the opposite and say hi. Hm…”
1 – Running makes it look like they’ve won, and I don’t like that. And it might lead them to follow me around again.
2 – Losing them here in the dungeon might be a good idea depending on how things go. Let’s keep that one in mind.
3 – Let sleeping dogs lie, and don’t mind them is also an option, but it hurts that I can’t roll the gacha while being followed.
4 – …I don’t know about this one. I don’t know any adventurers, and I’ve never heard of anyone being stalked. And I don’t think that happens often anyway. I can’t afford to do something dumb either, or I might cause problems for Maki again.
Maki…
“Ah.”
I got it.
“I know. I should report it.”
Also, my bag is packed with iron knives from today’s hunt, so I should get them assessed and get rid of them.
It’s just past noon too, and I’m getting hungry.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
“Followed?”
“Yes. What should I do?”
I get lunch at the convenience store next to the association, and eat in the conference room while reporting. It’s Maki’s lunch break too, so we get to eat together.
Eat with Maki… I can definitely see people resenting me for it if they found out.
She brought a packed lunch with her… Did she cook that?
“Right on the heels of yesterday… Then how about you try going to the second floor?”
“Ah, yes. I was planning to go there after lunch.”
“Then let’s go with that. That area is a plain, and wider than the first floor, so it should be harder to stay hidden and follow you around. And if they keep doing it, you have a chance to see their faces.
Also, from now on, I will be seeing you off when you enter the dungeon. The exclusive usually does that, but you won’t mind the proxy doing that, will you?”
“Eeh!? I mean, I’m happy, but are you sure?”
“Yes. And if I do, I might see who is following you. Let’s pay close attention, so we can compare our information if they do follow you on the second floor.”
“Yes.”
I say with a clap without thinking, and Maki smiles. She’s beautiful anyway, but that’s cute.
Our fun lunch time ends, and Maki does the assessment.
I hunted two hundred thirty goblins and nine killer rabbits this morning.
That gave me a hundred ninety-seven minuscule magic stones, thirty-seven iron knives from the goblins, and three minuscule magic stones and two killer rabbit horns from the killer rabbits.
By the way, the official item names come from guild employees who can use Appraisal. They have a database where they consolidate this information, and it’s possible to see some of it in the application. Like names, photos, and how much they’re worth.
Yesterday I threw out more than half the knives I got because I figured they were just knives, but Maki was upset about that. Actually, it was more exasperation. She told me to check the things I find in the dungeon in the application from now on.
She’s very right.
“You picked up so much… Shouta, are you trying to milk that dungeon dry?”
“Sorry.”
“Fufu, I’m joking. Good job.”
She says with a slight smile that makes me feel entranced.
Oh no, I think I’m falling in…
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