Chapter 53.2

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 53 Part 2

A plant god for a plant being.

A craftsman God for someone who likes to collect drops from bosses like trinkets.

… It’s not hard to see the connection.

Could it be that the God that is assigned to one’s Divine Protection is related to one’s traits?

“No way…”

If that were the case, it would be really something else.

If Haruki’s “Cloth” were to turn into a Divine Protection God that could hide his presence…

No one could ever know whether he was even there or not.

No, no.

Haruki shook his head repeatedly.

There can’t be a god that cruel.

“So, Rhea. How do you feel about your skills improving?”

“*shakes*”

She moved her body, tried shooting a potato stone, and–

–Whooooaaa!

Wait, what kind of shot was that?

After a loud bang that would make anyone shiver, the potato stone disappeared far into the distance.

“*shakes…*”

You could say that Rhea’s abilities took a bit of a leap.

Apparently, her abilities had grown even more than what she had anticipated.

Without a doubt, the Divine Protection actually did affect one’s basic abilities.

We fought the boss of the 9th floor so that she would grow used to her new abilities.

Rhea’s shooting speed had increased somewhat.

But the real difference was in their sheer power.

The boss, one of the biggest fish in the upper floors, fainted in agony with a single shot.

And that was just after her first shot.

Due to Rhea’s Double Throw, her second shot left the boss on the verge of death.

What’s more, Rhea didn’t even seem to have been going all out during that fight.

How frightening…

However, this could be a huge boost to our survival rate during the Monster Parade.

All I had to do was pray that we didn’t mess it up somehow.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

It was the morning of the day where the Monster Parade operation would be taking place.

After getting ready, Haruki left the hotel and headed towards Chikaho, and found Kagemitsu and the others passing through the gate, carrying a large box-like thing with them.

“Good morning, Kagemitsu.”

“Yo.”

“What’s that thing you have there?”

The thing Kagemitsu and the other members of Aerial were carrying was a big wooden box, about 1 meter tall.

They seem to have no problem carrying it, but since they are so strong, Haruki could not be so sure the box was as light as it seemed to be.

“Well, you’ll see once we get there.”

“Hmm.”

Haruki guessed that what was inside the box was whatever they used during their “Strategy to split the Boss and Monster Parades apart” he had heard about the same day he arrived on Sapporo.

But he had no idea what that thing actually was.

He was curious about the box’s contents, but he would see them for himself once they reached the 10th floor.

Until then, Haruki entertained himself trying to guess what really was inside that box.

The present members were Kagemitsu, Yoshi, and Van.

Becky and Doraneko, who weren’t there during Haruki’s practice session, were also there.

“Have you recovered from your injury, Doraneko?”

“Yeah, I’m much better… Huh? You look surprised…”

“Oh, it’s nothing…”

Haruki shook his head in confusion.

Doraneko was actually a woman?

Since they hadn’t really spoken so much up until then, plus the fact that she had short hair and a slender figure, Haruki had assumed that Doraneko was a man.

Nevertheless, that didn’t mean he had been one-hundred percent sure he was a man.

Haruki opened his mouth and began to chew on words.

Kagemitsu grinned, having realized about Haruki’s misunderstanding.

Yoshi and Van smiled as well.

It would seem that Doraneko was often mistaken for a man, judging from their reaction.

Kagemitsu’s face went serious as he put his fingers in front of his lips, as if asking Haruki to shut up.

… Right.

Saying something about it would really be a bad idea.

The six of them, counting Haruki, arrived on the 10th floor after getting on the gate.

Soon after, Kagemitsu put the wooden box on the ground and opened its lid.

“Oh, are those slimy eels?”

The box was filled to the brim with slimy eels.

It was a bit nostalgic.

Haruki suddenly remembered about that time he went out searching for Oiso.

Back then, all that mattered was to defeat the boss.

He had never thought the boss would be defeated so easily.

Everyone grows stronger at their own speed.

Kagemitsu and the others took out all of the eels from the box and spread them on the gate’s floor.

The gate could be used to escape in a worst-case scenario.

But if the gate were to be blocked off at that time, it would be game over for them.

So they blocked off the gate with those eels.

It was a means to prevent the Monster Parade from using the gate.