Chapter 43.1

Thank you for your support

Let’s Return to the Main Base!

Three weeks had now passed since the search for Oiso.

Haruki and Karen continued to spend their time leveling up in the Chikaho, the Sapporo dungeon.

One of the reasons that they continued to go to Chikaho was because there were no traveling expenses.

For a whole month, they didn’t have to pay for rooms or food.

There was no way they wouldn’t take advantage of that.

And unlike the garage dungeon, all kinds of Adventurers would come to Chikaho.

They would often encounter them while they were in the middle of fighting monsters.

And so they had to be very careful to not show Haruki’s Skill Board or Karen’s magic.

It was stressful.

However, they had to get used to these kinds of situations, or it would come back to haunt them later.

And so they purposely fought in places where there was a good chance of people coming.

After 3 weeks of leveling, Haruki became strong enough that he could kill the monsters of Chikaho’s 8th floor without a problem.

Kurosaki Karen(18) Gender: female

Skill points: 0 → 2

Class: Spirit User → Spirit User/Hammer User

-Vitality

Stamina 1 → 2

Natural Recovery 0 → 1

-Strength

Strength 0 → 1

-Magic Power

Magic Power 3

Magic Compatibility 2

Magic Manipulation 2 → 3

-Agility

Quickness 0

Dexterity 0 → 1

-Technique

Weapon Mastery

Blunt Weapon 0 → 1

Light Armor 0 → 1

-Intuition

Detection 1

-Special

Luck 1

It was probably because she exercised every night before going to bed.

Karen had gained enough strength that she could now unleash her magic at full power without having her staff slam into her head.

Furthermore, when she unleashed her most powerful magic, it wasn’t huge like it used to be.

This was because she could now control the strength and size of it.

As for Haruki,

Karaboshi Haruki(27) Gender: male

Skill Point: 0 → 3

He had gained 3 skill points.

It had probably gone up after the monster parade.

You didn’t receive points no matter how many monsters you killed.

And the reason that it had gone up, was likely because he killed that mysterious thing in the wall.

Haruki couldn’t think of any other explanation for it.

However, you only received 1 point for hunting down a rare type.

The only time he had gotten 3 points at once was when he beat the stampede boss.

Judging by that, was it possible that that thing was a monster that starts stampedes?

That was what Haruki believed, but there was no way to find out.

But he had 3 points.

Regardless of the reason, he intended to make good use of them.

As for the remaining tree…

Class: Sword Master → Hidden Sword Master

-Vitality

Stamina 3

Natural Recovery 0 → 2

-Strength

Strength 3

-Agility

Quickness 2 → 3

Dexterity 2 → 3

-Technique

Weapon mastery

One-handed sword 3

Throwing 1 → 2

Light Armor 1 → 3

Kick 0 → 1 NEW

Conceal 1 → 2

Imitate 1 → 2

-Intuition

Detection 2

-Special

Growth Acceleration

Tame 0 → 1

It was a disaster!

Conceal had gone up!!

This meant that the strength of Haruki’s presence had plummeted.

Even Karen would sometimes lose sight of him when he took off the mask.

For a moment, Haruki had to wage a horrible battle against his urge to raise Karen’s detection skill immediately.

However, the rational side of him was winning for now.

Compared to Karen, Haruki’s skills rose at a faster rate.

Part of the reason was that he used a dagger, which meant more actions, and he also moved around more as the advance guard.

However, the biggest reason was Growth Acceleration. That is what Haruki thought.

He couldn’t make any detailed comparisons, but since their growth rate was so different, the chances that it was an effect of Growth Acceleration was very high.

As for his new skill, ‘Kick,’ it was exactly what it sounded like.

This had appeared due to him employing kicks during hunting.

Once the skill appeared, the power of his kicks had shot up.

That being said, a kick was a way of filling in the gap between attacks.

He had no intention of putting points into it.

Furthermore, his magic sword continued to evolve.

It was already sharper than the Silver Wolf dagger, and the blade had a deeper curve to it as well.

He looked forward to seeing how it would change in the future.

And like Haruki and Karen, Rhea was also showing growth.

Rhea(1) Gender: Female

Skill Point: 0 → 2

Class: Leaf Demon

-Vitality

Stamina 0 → 1

Natural Recovery 0

-Strength

Strength 2

-Agility

Quickness 1

Dexterity 1 → 2

-Technique

Weapon mastery

Throwing 3

-Intuition

Detection 0 → 1

-Special

Treasure Chest 1 → 2

After gaining experience and raising his level, Haruki returned to K-town.

He was finally going to try and reach the central layer of the garage dungeon.

If you became a medium rank Adventurer, that put you in the top 10%.

Surely he would stick out if he was in the top 10% of Adventurers!

He would not allow Conceal 2 to win this battle!

He tried to encourage himself…

＊

“Hmm?”

As he entered his property in order to park the car, Haruki noticed that three strange men were standing in front of the dungeon gate.

He had never met these men before.

Though, there was something familiar about them…but he couldn’t remember anything.

Haruki felt a rush of anxiety as he jogged up to them.

“Did something happen?”

“…!?”

When he called out to them, the men all looked in his direction with expressions full of shock.

…Were they burglars?

The suspicion entered his mind but he pushed it away immediately.

The men were all in their mid-twenties.

And their equipped weapons all had the ‘Ichi’ logo.

Like with many Adventurers, they weren’t even entry models.

“…Ah, are you the owner of this house?”

“Yeah. It’s Karaboshi.”

“Karaboshi…? I see. It’s been a while.”

In spite of him saying ‘it’s been a while,’ there was a question mark after the name.

One thing was certain.

They didn’t think that it had been a while at all.

But Haruki felt the same.

He didn’t even remember them.

And so there was no need to be embarrassed about it.

They should be more bold and honest.

Didn’t they know that being honest about things like that would be less hurtful in the end?

“We participated in the defensive battle as part of the self-defense group.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you.”

“No, thank you. The truth is, we’ve been using this dungeon recently. We wanted to come and talk to you first, of course, but you weren’t here…”