Chapter 78.1

78 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 78

Let’s Take Them To The 15th Floor!

After finishing with the request, Haruki returned to K-Town.

After a week and two days, the vegetation in K-Town had quickly grown due to the summer’s heat, sunlight, and rain.

It was greener than ever.

After parking the car, Haruki took out his luggage and left it in his house.

Then, Haruki went to the prefab to check on things, only to find that…

“… They’re dead.”

There were two dead bodies in the prefab.

Both Akane and Karen’s faces were devoid of expression, as if they were actually dead.

Haruki felt he had already seen this scene before.

He opened the prefab’s door while pressing his thumb strongly against his temple.

“Hey, I’m back…”

“…”

All Karen and Akane did in response to Haruki’s voice was move their eyes.

— This won’t do.

— It’s so hot in here!

Thinking he would get heatstroke if he didn’t do something, Haruki hurriedly opened the window.

“So what happened this time?”

“… Waaahahaaahhh!”

When he asked, it seemed to have stirred some memories on the back of Akane’s head. She suddenly began to cry while shouting and trembling.

“Don’t tell me you’re still stuck at those spoon worms?”

“No… Ah, long time no see, Karaboshi. Welcome back.”

“Thanks. So, what happened?”

“Well…”

After having come back to her senses, Karen slowly began to recount what had happened.

They had overcome their fears of the spoon worms, and reached the 11th floor.

It seemed that Karen’s level had increased considerably due to her training with the Werewolves.

The Chachas weren’t much of a training partner.

So they decided to go to the 15th floor to train.

But on the way…

They were held back by the Slimy Eels of the 14th floor.

Well, actually, the only one who had been held back was Akane.

“Waaahahaaahh!”

Akane’s tears tried to reject reality.

She could be barely heard saying “But they didn’t make any sense, what were we supposed to do?”

Certainly, even with his sharp short sword, Haruki had trouble slicing through them since they were covered with slime.

Akane’s blunt weapon would have had an even harder hitting them.

“So you got stuck at the 14th floor, huh?”

“Yeah… Sorry.“

Karen apologized because she felt sorry for herself.

Her lightning attacks worked well against the Slimy Eels.

What she had lacked in order to defeat them was raw power.

Still, if the one at the rear guard fails to keep the monsters in check, then the battle will end up going south.

The reason for that is that whether the ones at the rear guard use bows or magic, the time between each of their attacks is much slower than that of the ones at the front lines.

The damage each of their attacks can deal is very high, but their attack rate is low.

If they are swarmed by monsters, they will be inevitably forced to withdraw.

If the ones at the front lines are unable to properly keep the flow of monsters in check, the rear guard alone will not be able to press forward through the dungeon.

Karen had gotten strong enough to be able to deal with Chachas on her own.

That meant that her power was by no means insufficient.

“So it was Akane’s fault.”

“How can it be my fault!? Once they get you with that slime of theirs, you can’t move an inch!”

“Ah…”

Haruki was terrified by Akane’s tone of voice.

Their slime is so sticky that even the Slimy Eels themselves get stuck with it.

Still, if the melee-based Akane’s movements are sealed, there wouldn’t be much to do about it.

However, Akane’s eyes didn’t seem to be those of a lost puppy.

— So she did get caught by them on purpose, huh?

That must have been just Akane trying to train Karen.

Though Haruki wasn’t sure exactly why Akane was going that route.

— Wait a second.

— Perhaps I could help as well?

Akane slightly lifted up her chin as if she knew what Haruki was thinking about.

“Oh well. I’ll help you break through the 14th floor.”

“But…”

Karen bit her lower lip at Haruki’s suggestion.

She probably felt sorry to inconvenience him any further.

However, Haruki shook his head.

“Don’t worry. I won’t be going to the 14th floor just to help you out.”

Though Haruki had reached the middle floors of Nakasatsunai dungeon, Esta did not receive a Divine Protection.

For that reason, Haruki had planned to go through the first floors of the garage dungeon and up to the middle floors in order to allow for Esta’s Divine Protection to manifest.

The stronger Esta were to become, the better he would be able to protect the household.

There was no way Haruki would let him not have a Divine Protection.

Esta didn’t need to become so tough just to be able to protect the household better.

Still, to grow stronger is part of a man’s adventurous spirit.

Even if the household he was meant to protect was in the middle of the countryside where there are no burglaries, Haruki wanted a tank in his house.

“Are you coming with us, Akane?”

“Of course. I have to go help Karen train!”

“Even if you become a burden to your trainee?”

“Ugh…”

Akane’s eyes began to well up with tears due to Haruki’s retort.

No matter how well her intentions were, she was as shabby as ever.

However, Haruki might have gone a bit too far with his comment.

— I’m sorry, so let’s forget about it and go.

＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

With Esta by his side, Haruki reached the 9th floor in three days.

The idea this time around was to help Esta level up as well.

Haruki instructed Rhea to avoid getting involved as much as possible.