Chapter 119.1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 119

Let’s Get Tags For Our Monsters!

Akane had suddenly changed the topic. That had been extremely suspicious, but no matter how much Haruki would ask her, she wouldn’t talk about it.

“What do you mean? Does it have something to do with the dungeons?”

“Yeah. Remember those balls Masatsugu had given to you both? They call them ‘Gacha balls’ in the ‘Let’s become’ boards, but lately they’re saying that there’s a tameable monster that can come out of one of those.”

“Oh!”

Haruki opened his eyes wide in surprise.

It was the first time he had heard about that.

However, it seemed that Karen already knew, since she had been silently drawing her chin in.

“Huh? How come you know about this, Karen?”

“I’d rather be asking how come you don’t know about this, Karaboshi. It’s quite the hot topic, you know?”

“Really…?”

Haruki didn’t know because he only read the blogs of famous adventurers.

Famous adventurers weren’t actively opening gacha balls. They weren’t so desperate for money or items to be gambling like that.

It was novice and intermediate adventurers who would throw themselves at the gacha balls. Such gambling was very popular with those types of adventurers. Some of them even spend up to their last penny opening gacha balls, hoping that what they get from them can help them become richer when exploring the dungeons.

Advanced adventurers, on the other hand, consider gacha balls to either be a trap, or that they have a low probability of giving you something useful. Most of them would only open a gacha ball only if they got it as a drop while hunting instead of buying them.

That’s why senior adventurers such as Rankers didn’t write much about gacha balls.

Haruki also read the news related to adventurers, but unlike the bulletin boards’ summary sites, the news had a slow turnout. Because of that, he hadn’t seen any published topics about tameable monsters coming out of gacha balls there either.

It would seem that both the senior adventurers and Haruki, who would only read certain news sites, had been left out of the loop.

However, Karen was well aware of that because she was an avid blog reader.

Unlike Haruki, she prefers to read the new and popular posts, so it was no wonder that she already knew about that.

“What does the fact that a tameable monster can come out of a gacha ball have to do with you being in such a good mood?”

“What do you mean? I’m always in a good mood.”

The flustered Akane crossed her arms in front of her chest.

It definitely wasn’t her usual mood at all.

“Ahem. Going back to the main topic, there have been more and more adventurers that have tamed monsters. But with that, a problem has begun to arise.”

“… Friendly fire?”

“Exactly.”

Akane snapped her fingers.

“Friendly fire” is a slang term for when an attack accidentally hits a friendly target.

While trying to slash at an enemy monster, an ally could accidentally get in the way and end up getting damaged by the attack. In such cases, the term “friendly fire” is used.

Friendly fire generally occurs when people aren’t careful, especially the one who ends up getting hit by an attack not originally aimed at them.

However, it would be a different thing when the one getting hit was a tamed monster.

Since there was nothing that indicated that a monster was tame, other people would be unable to tell them apart from a regular, wild monster.

This was precisely why it was so difficult to prevent friendly fire involving hitting a tamed monster.

“Who was at fault there? Was it the adventurer that accidentally hit the tamed monster, or did it the adventurer who tamed the monster not take proper care of it?”

“Who knows?”

“Which is why Ichibishi, Kawamae, and Banma have joined to develop a tag for tamed monsters that will help prevent friendly fire!”

“Prevent friendly fire? Can they make it so that tamed monsters can’t be attacked by using that tag?”

“Well, it won’t exactly make them so that they can’t be attacked.”

With a bitter smile, Akane took out a silver-colored tag from under the counter.

The tag looked exactly like the ones soldiers tend to use out in the battlefield.

The tag was engraved with a mark that indicated that it was a tamed monster and the logo of each company.

By having a monster wear this, one could certainly tell that monster apart from others of its species, just like a dog collar.

“Is that all? It’s not like it’s going to do much of a difference in the heat of the moment…”

“It’s not meant to help in the heat of the moment, though. It’s the same as with humans, wouldn’t you agree?”

“You’re right…”

It was just as Akane said.

In crowded dungeons, there were many accidents at the corners of passages and in passing another.

Adventurers were always exploring dungeons in a state of extreme tension.

At those times, if something suddenly were to appear out of nowhere, there would be no other reaction than to slash at it.

Accidents of that level were almost impossible to prevent.

Rather, if there was some technology that would help prevent such accidents, it should be introduced to adventurers first.

“This works as a warranty card from each company which ensures that the monster wearing it is tame.”

“Warranty card?”

“Right. It’s proof that the monster is tame. So if you have problems determining whether a monster is tame or not, all you need to do is look at the tag. That being said, don’t expect any legal claims for damages or such if your monsters get attacked even when wearing the tag.

The laws are full of blank areas when it comes to tamed monsters. Adventurer laws are being revised every day, but there’s still nothing on rights and protection of tamed monsters. The bill will pass soon. Until then, you can think of this as a makeshift measure.”

Tamed monsters weren’t covered by the current laws.

It was still not defined whether it would go under animal rights or adventurer laws.

Adventurer laws wouldn’t be saving any lives if they were revised at a normal rate like any other law. There were a lot of lives at stake. For this reason, adventurer laws were revised at an exceptionally quick rate.

Eventually, the definition of “tamed” would be determined by the adventurer laws.

But for the time being, these tags would have to do.

“The tags are made of the hardest material that can be equipped, even at low levels. They won’t break easily.

And their luminescent paint is the best! It’s covered with a paint that faintly reflects the light that shines inside the dungeons. It’s hard to tell now, but I can assure you it becomes really noticeable as soon as you enter the dungeon!”

“… Noticeable?”

Haruki murmured as if in some sort of trance.

Hearing that, Karen’s facial expression changed into that of someone who was about to say “Ah, crap!”

“Give me all of the tags that you have.”

“Huh?”

“If I cover my body with them, I should be able to be noticeable while in a dungeon, right!? Well then!!”

Haruki’s eyes were fixed on the tag.

— If I wear these, I’ll be able to stand out!

— These tags are the best!!