There’s no reserve between me and first Magnitude Star anymore, but just as this meeting is about to continue, I grab Maki’s arm.
I think these people can be trusted, so I’m going to reveal some more.
“Shouta?”
“Sorry Maki, I have something else to ask.”
“What is it?”
I gesture for her to come closer, and whisper in her ear.
“Can I say the level of my Appraisal?”
“Eh…?”
Maki looks troubled, but her expression turns to exasperation after she thinks about it for a little.
“All right. But can you tell me first?”
“It’s two.”
“Then… Yes. If that’s what you want, say it.”
Maki smiles gently as she pushes my back and we return to the others.
“Thank you for waiting.”
“It’s fine. And sorry for getting in the way of your little rendezvous!”
“S-Shuu!”
“Shuu, don’t say that.”
“Hahaha!”
Hn? Did he say rendezvous? Maybe I misheard it…
“Hum… My Appraisal is level two.”
“Ooh? Really!?”
“But this is also…”
“Yes, we won’t tell. But does that mean you saw the monster’s skill?”
Asks Shuu, sounding excited. He really is crazy about new things.
“Yes, the murder rabbit had a skill called Swift.”
“““Ooh!”””
“Swift, you said?”
“Yes. It’s a secondary skill that affects stats, second to Super Strength.”
Says Maki.
“Secondary skill?”
“Yes. Super Strength, dropped by hobgoblins, is affected by the Physical Strength stat, so it’s a secondary skill. And then you have the primary skill, Great Strength. Similarly, we have Swift, which is affected by Agility, and it also has a compatible primary skill.”
Great Strength… I’m pretty sure one of the stalkers had that.
Still, it feels like everyone knows what a skill is by its name alone. I’m pretty confident I know more than anyone else about how slime move and their ecology, but…
And Maki in particular, didn’t check any materials or even looked like she had to think about it before she started to smoothly talk about skill types and their traits.
I could never hope to match her knowledge. She really does work as hard as she is popular.
“Thanks Shouta. That was a fun time because of you. Are you going to continue working on the second floor?”
“Yes. I went there for the first time today, so I haven’t gone around the whole place. I think I’m going to be hunting there for a while.”
“I see! Then tell me if something interesting happened the next time we meet. I’ll pay for it in kind next time.”
“We’ll probably bump into each other in the dungeon again. See you then.”
“Yes, see you!”
And so, we say goodbye to First Magnitude Star, and Maki and I stay here in the conference room.
She lets out a big sigh, and her lovely smile flips into one that’s hiding anger. She’s staring at me, and I start trembling like there’s cold air coming up from beneath me.
“Shouta.”
“Y-yes?”
I sit up straight without thinking, and my face stiffens. When she sees that, her face turns into a normal smile.
“There is a lot I want to say, but… Firstly, I’m glad you’re back safe. Also, I need to correct something. This new species of rare monster, murder rabbit, was already known to this association to a certain extent.”
“Eh, really?”
“Yes. I said it was a new species because it was technically never confirmed in this dungeon, but it has been confirmed to appear in other dungeons as a set with killer rabbits.
But murder rabbit is not the only monster that is said to appear with killer rabbits, so it’s not certain, but there is a very good possibility.
It’s difficult for a single adventurer to obtain information about other dungeons, so it makes sense that First Magnitude Star don’t know about this.”
“I see…”
Maki casts her eyes down, and her expression looks sorrowful.
“It’s not just in this dungeon, but there have been corpses of adventurers found on some floors that cannot be explained.”
“Cannot be explained…”
“By that I mean, that they died in ways that should be impossible for the monsters that appear on those floors. There were some like that on the second floor…
Thanks to you, we have discovered one of the causes that was a mystery.”
“Are you saying…”
“Yes. These murder rabbit twisted horns. There have been two corpses found with big holes that appeared to have been made from getting hit directly with these. They died instantly, so it doesn’t seem like they had time to suffer.”
I see a tear flow down from her face.
“It’s sad, but adventurers are always walking side by side with death. They become stronger by defeating monsters, but so do the monsters the further down they go.
And eventually, even tough adventurers suffer wounds so severe that they never quite heal and retire, or pass away. Only a few make it past that and become the highest ranking adventurers.
She says, as she looks up at me with her eyes moist.
“Shouta, you’re not going to die like the others… Are you?”
“…”
I don’t know what to say. But I do catch one thing.
Maki has probably faced the death of adventurers many times. And every time, her cheeks became wet like this, and she endured it. I see she has a good reason to not be someone’s exclusive, despite her popularity as a receptionist. How many did she mourn until now?
And today, I felt more danger than ever in my life as an adventurer.
The word death crossed my mind pretty clearly.
All that time when I was hunting slime, with no risk of ever dying to them, I pretended I was fighting.
I poured SP into Luck and increased my drops to the point where I wasn’t struggling for money for my daily life. And so, I never had any hardship that would make me have to risk my life.
I feel like I’ve been in the shallow end of the pool all this time. What happened today was a real fight, a real adventure. Braving danger to get something, that’s what an adventurer is.
Today, for the first time, I fought like an adventurer.
“Maki.”
I take her shaking hand.
What I’m going to say isn’t a lie to smooth things over or reassure her. I want to say exactly what I think.
“I did feel like I could have died today. One misstep, and I’d be dead. But that’s because I was too naive with my preparedness. I’ve always fought like this, so I thought it would work this time too.
But I was too conceited. My sword broke right at the start, and the monster’s level was high to the point where my equipment was worthless.
But I won. I won in spite of that. Because my Luck is so high.”
“…”
“But from now on, I want to be thoroughly prepared. If I do, I won’t lose to anyone. But I don’t really know what to do to be prepared, so Maki, I want to ask you to support me with that. You’re still not officially my exclusive, but you will be eventually. Definitely. Forget the two weeks, I’ll bring what I need in three days.
With your support and my Luck, there’s no wall I can’t climb, so trust me.”
“…Fufu, what’s with that? I’ve never heard someone try to pick up a girl talking like that.”
She wipes her tears, and places that hand on top of mine.
“All right. I believe in you, Shouta. Let me believe in you. I will use all my power to support you. So please, always come back… Promise me.”
“Yes, I promise.”
I have another reason to challenge the dungeon.
I don’t just want to unravel its mysteries, I have to become strong enough to not worry her. Stronger, stronger!
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He needs to get some new equipment, what will he buy?
Thanks.