Chapter 62.1

62 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 62

Let’s Learn How To Wield a Sword!

Just as the Chacha approached, Haruki readied his short sword and got closer to it.

Then, his blade flashed.

His short sword crossed paths with a bear’s claw.

“–!”

So strong!

The Chacha was stronger than the Beroberos in Chikaho.

But the Chacha still couldn’t take Haruki down.

Perhaps it was because Haruki had increased his Strength by 4.

Haruki pushed harder, forcing the Chacha’s arm to recede.

To be able to easily push back an attack made with a strength similar to that of a brown bear…

Haruki’s face stiffened as he realized how much strength he currently had.

He felt as if he should no longer call himself human.

Leaving that aside…

Haruki braced himself and shouted.

“Karen!”

“Yes!”

Karen replied.

At the same time, Haruki stepped back.

In a split second,

A flash.

–Vrooom!

The air was split, and thunder ran through.

“Gwooohhh!”

Struck by lightning, the Chacha’s legs gave up and it fell to the floor.

It lay there, every part of its body twitching in shock.

But it didn’t seem that it had sustained much damage.

The lightning wasn’t as powerful as it had sounded.

Perhaps normal magic should be used to damage it.

The reason why her lightning didn’t pack that much of a punch was because Karen’s skill had a score of 1.

Still, it was powerful enough to render the monsters on the 11th floor numb.

It wasn’t deadly, but still very dangerous.

“I’m counting on you, Karen!”

“… Ah, sure.”

Realizing Haruki’s intentions, Karen stepped forward.

–Vrooom!

“Gwooooh!”

–Vrooom!

“Gaaaaahhh!”

–Vrooom!

“Gyaaaooohhhh!”

Again and again, Karen struck the Chacha with her lightning.

The Chacha screamed with every strike.

It was a bit pitiful, but Haruki and Karen had to do the same as they did with the Centipedes.

–Sorry, Chacha.

–It’s all for her experience.

–Just give up…

Feeling sorry, Haruki waited for the Chacha’s final counterattack before its death.

The Chacha’s head fell to the side as it died.

Karen felt a weak case of level-up sickness.

It might have been a rather strong monster for her.

After that, by fighting lots of other Chachas, Haruki helped Karen to further increase her level.

Still, Haruki’s involvement was minimal.

Fighting one-on-one took time, but Karen was quite capable of fighting Chachas on her own.

Haruki’s job was merely to create a one-on-one situation.

At first, Karen needed as many as twenty lightning strikes to take a Chacha down.

But by the end of their training, she had grown strong enough to defeat them with 7 or 8 strikes.

Haruki took out his Board to make sure, and confirmed that Karen’s Thunder magic still had a score of 1.

Its increase in power was solely due to Karen having leveled up.

“After all, skills don’t equal attack power…”

Perhaps one’s fundamental strength was in their level, and skills merely added to that.

Even if one were to acquire a lot of new skills, they would probably not be as strong as someone like Masatsugu.

Haruki and Karen walked around looking for the stairs and the boss of this floor, but they were unable to get to the center of the room.

The closer they would get to the center of the room, the more Chachas would appear.

Since Haruki wanted to have Karen fight the Chachas one-on-one, they ended up going in circles on that floor for about a week.

They were yet to find the stairs or the boss, so they stayed there.

“We need to get to the center.”

“Right…”

“Yeah.”

Was there anything else they could do?

Haruki seemed troubled.

Haruki could always join her as long as the appearance rate would rise to a certain level.

However, the closer they got to the center of the floor, an unusual amount of Chachas would appear.

At first, two would appear at a time.

But the closer they got to the center, three and even four would show up at the same time.

If they were to go any further…

It would be possible that they would end up being against something similar to a Monster Parade.

Haruki had faced several Monster Parades in the past, but that doesn’t mean that he’d happily throw himself in front of one.

An adventurer should be ready to find something worth dying for.

That doesn’t mean that “an adventurer should throw himself at death’s door”.

It means “an adventurer should be prepared to die without hesitation when death is inevitable”.

Throwing oneself into danger isn’t adventuring, it’s plain recklessness.

When throwing oneself into danger, one at least should make sure to have a safety margin.

Trying to get closer to the center of the room, they confirmed that the number of Chachas increased drastically.

At first, Haruki would hold them back as Karen stunned them with her magic.

Those battles were stable enough.

But they gradually became less and less able to keep up with their numbers.

They were more often than not forced to split up and fight them individually.

After some consideration, Haruki suggested they withdrew for the moment.

“Hey, Karen… let’s round these up and leave for now.”

“Oh, I see… Okay.”

Karen’s eyebrows made it evident that she wasn’t fully convinced by that idea.

Rhea tapped on Haruki’s shoulder, probably having read Karen’s feelings.

‘I think I could go on a little further?’

That’s what Rhea was probably trying to say.

But Haruki shook his head in negation.

If they were to keep going, they would just be recklessly trying to push through.

Of course, there are scenarios where it’s necessary to push through.

But this felt a little different from those scenarios.

“This is just a guess, but there must be some specific strategy for beating this floor.”

“What do you mean?”

“Though these Chachas have a wide detection ability, that doesn’t mean that they have covert skills, right? I think there’s something there…”

Their detection ability was so easily noticeable, even for Haruki.

And even though they have such abilities, the way they fight seemed too ordinary.

They didn’t seem to be using any kind of strategy.

They weren’t making the best use of their abilities.

They seemed a bit unbalanced.

That’s why Haruki thought there was more to them than what it seemed.

He already had an idea of how to deal with that.

All he needed to do was to get the necessary items.

After returning to the prefab, Haruki threw the materials they had obtained that day on Akane’s front desk.

“Huh? Did you go to the 11th floor!?”

What happened to her?

Her face went pale as soon as she saw the materials obtained from the 10th floor’s boss.

“Why didn’t you take me with you!?”

“Why should we…?”

“Because I’m Karen’s coach? Of course you have to take me with you!”

“Anyway, Karen. Keep it up.”

“Eh… Eeehh!?”

Karen screamed out of surprise after seeing Haruki giving Akane the cold shoulder like that.

She was probably glad that they would never have to fight another spoon worm ever again.

Her face went blank and she dropped her shoulders.

As Karen was relieved about never having to have a rematch with the spoon worms, Haruki sold off the materials and added the money to his card.

“Ah, that’s right. Do you know a good swordplay training hall?”

“A training hall? Are you trying to fight them?”

“That’s not it. I want to take lessons in swordsmanship.”