118 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 118

Let’s Welcome A New Life!

Haruki and the others exited the secret room and returned to their exploration of the regular 15th floor.

The boss was a Werewolf that looked a little bigger than the regular ones, making it about two stages stronger than those.

Haruki ensured a safety margin, expecting a difficult battle.

However, having raised their fighting ability by several levels, Haruki and the others made short work of the Werewolf. They were able to defeat it quite easily.

The Werewolf boss was by no means weak.

It had even transformed during the battle, turning its upper body into something really close to a human form.

When that happened, both Haruki and Esta were so overjoyed by it that they even forgot that they were in the middle of a boss battle.

[It transformed!? It’s sooo cool!!]

[(Nyunyunyu!!)]

The girls, on the other hand, directed their cold stares at Haruki and Esta…

[Umm… We’re in the middle of a battle?]

[(shrugs)]

It seemed it would take some more time for the girls to understand the boys’ wild fantasies.

Leaving that aside, the transformed boss fought with a large wooden stick that had fallen onto the ground as a polearm.

It was a big difference with previous bosses, who hadn’t been able to do something as advanced as that.

Also, the boss was highly skilled, with an outstanding level of agility and strength.

Still…

“I thought it would be a much harder fight…”

“Yeah… I thought that we’d have a more difficult time fighting it.”

Haruki and the others looked at the boss, who slumped onto the ground with a miserable growl, with a vacant expression on their eyes.

They had defeated the boss with such ease that it almost didn’t feel like a boss battle at all for them.

Their skill level had increased with the tree enhancements, and they had leveled up considerably after defeating the lower god.

Moreover, Haruki had mastered his energy-based attack, and could now deliver powerful blows that were on a completely different level than before.

It had been only three weeks.

In just three weeks, Haruki and the others had considerably improved their skill.

The tremendous changes they had undergone in such a short time had taken a toll on their movements and perception, just like when they enhanced their skills for the first time.

How much had they been affected by that?

In this battle, Haruki was finally able to understand that.

“It’ll take a bit more time for my body to get used to this power…”

If he couldn’t recognize and handle his own power correctly, he could end up putting it to waste in many ways.

If that were to happen, he wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy his battles, like he had done previously against the Werewolves and Shigure.

Besides, putting his power to waste could lead to bad habits.

Which is why he felt it would be better for him to take it easy and let his body adapt to his new powers from now on.

When they activated the gate on the 16th floor and looked at their clocks, it was already 6 PM.

Akane’s shop had already closed for the day.

— Aw, I had something I wanted her to appraise for me…

Haruki sighed, wishing he had been able to go back a little sooner.

One of the reasons why they took so long was that the 15th floor was about four times bigger than the 1st floor, but the main reason was that they had spent a lot of exploration time doing nothing.

It’s the same reasoning as when playing a racing game and driving a race car into a wall at full speed.

It doesn’t matter how powerful it is unless it’s handled correctly.

Today, they had taken longer than necessary, they’d been scared of monsters more than they needed to, and had been surprised more than they had to.

All those unnecessary things added up to the time it took them to reach the 16th floor.

However, being aware of these weak spots could open up a great chance.

If these problems could be eliminated, they would be sure to improve their time.

“Let’s finish here for today. We’ll do some warming up tomorrow.”

“Okay, got it.”

After returning to the surface and seeing Karen off, Haruki went back home.

* * * * * * * * *

[The road to a noticeable presence] By: Air

『The Werewolf Boss!』

Hey there, Air here (^o^)

I defeated the Werewolf boss today (^o^)

That Werewolf boss was amazing.

It could transform!

So cool!! (>_<)

I’ve never seen a monster transform, but that’s okay.

Will there be more monsters that can transform like that in the future?

I surely hope so. It’d be so exciting!  (>_<)

I’d like to show off my presence with a cool transformation too.

But when I said that out loud, the female members of my team stared at me cold-heartedly…

Why, though?

Don’t they understand how epic that would be? (= =

I did my best in defeating yet another floor of the dungeon today as well!

I wonder if this will bring me closer to getting a more noticeable presence?

* * * * * * * * *

*pichun pichun~*

*chun chun chun~*

It was early in the morning. Before his alarm clock could go off, Haruki was awakened by the chirping of a bird.

It seemed to be very close by. It was very appropriate for the morning, as well.

Haruki opened his eyes.

Then, he found a tiny bird next to his pillow.

It was a small and fluffy white bird. It seemed it would feel very nice to hug it close.

“Where did you come from, little guy?”

It wouldn’t try to run away, even after being stared at by Haruki.

It was almost as if he couldn’t see any humans around…

— Nah, there’s no way.

Haruki immediately denied his own negative thoughts.

Just as Haruki seemed troubled, the tiny bird tilted its head to the side as if asking him what was wrong.

“Pii?”

“Uuuhh…”

Fascinated, Haruki was completely lost staring at the little bird.

— Ah, but I also have Rhea an Esta!

Remembering about Rhea and Esta, Haruki shook off his allurement with the little bird.

Just as Haruki was about to break free from the bird’s spell, it crouched, stashing his tiny legs inside his body.

Its fluffy feathers puffed up instantly.

“Uhh!!”

The fluffiness of the tiny bird took Haruki down in one shot.

He felt as if he could no longer resist.

— Alright, let’s just admit it.

— This tiny bird is the best!