CH 43.1

Building a Base

「Well, I guess I shall forgive you for being late.」

With a lively *tak tak* background music serving as the backdrop, Rinko-senpai, sitting on a log chair, places her elbows on the log desk.

These are handmade products made by the Senpais in a jiffy.

The surrounding trees have been completely cut down, turning the area into a bit of a clearing.

In the center of the clearing, Umeka-senpai taking the lead, a number of pillars have already been erected.

Umeka-senpai’s class, 『Fortress Architect (Ingeniator)』, seems to be a fairly minor class even among the『Craftsman』 branching.

It seems to be a subspecies or perhaps prototype of the major class『Architect』, a class suited to the creation of large-scale buildings.

All club members are performing cooperation in sawing lumber from the cut trees.

Using the basic『Craftsman』 skill,『Process』, they turn logs of various kinds of trees into planks in the blink of an eye.

Since all of them are working with their『Armed Golem』 summoned, even things like carrying the logs altogether seems to be a piece of cake.

Rather, it is amazing to see hut-like structures visibly taking form.

Looking at the Senpais’『Armed Golem』 again like this, I come to understand that there are various types of it.

There are all sorts of types like one with a slender and tall frame, one with no neck but has protruding arms, one whose upper body alone is muscular like a gorilla, and so on.

「Are you listening to me? Touma-kun?」

「For the most part.」

I have a feeling that we had no briefing to come together or something like that beforehand, but Rinko-senpai’s gaze is boring straight at me, so I won’t point it out.

「So everyone got failing marks, huh.」

「Ugh… Well, yeah we did, do you have something you want to say?」

「Ahaha. As expected, we’re quite bad at fighting, after all.」

Among the luggage that the Senpais have brought in, there seems to be a variety of daily necessities

What I have Mikan-senpai poured into my mug from the teapot is freshly brewed black tea.

The splendid cooking stove, which doesn’t look like it is just stones stacked on top of each other, was the first to be built, and it has a kettle hanging on it.

Don’t the Senpai sirs boast too much of daily life power, I wonder.

Incidentally, leaving the conquest frontline base, a common facility, which unintentionally ended up getting half-destroyed as it was, we are constructing a base for our own in another remote location.

There seems to be a lot of things such as PK (Party Killer) countermeasures, so I’m leaving it up to Mikan-senpai and the others.

「Rather than monsters’ raids, getting raided by other students is more annoying, after all. If it’s a girls-only group, I suppose groups that are trying to kidnap and rape them will definitely come after them.」

I see, I ought to eradicate them.

「Yes. After all, you have a strong desire to monopolize, don’t you, Touma-kun? Do your best to protect your harem.」

「Touma-kun, you pervert….」

Next to the grinning Rinko-senpai, Mikan-senpai’s face is turning red, eyes upturned.

Rather than the master of a harem, I have a feeling that I’m going to be treated more like a stallion for the Senpais.

When I turn my gaze away upon receiving Mikan-senpai’s pervert attack, I see that the logging has progressed in the blink of an eye and the clearing has expanded.

For some reason, it seems that they are even starting to cut stone out of the rocky ground.

The temporary base looks like a log house-style cottage, with the interlaced logs gradually stacking up high.

Excess lumbers have the tips sharpened and staked outward to enclose the base.

Aren’t the Senpais making a bit too much of a serious effort here, I wonder.

「Hmm, we’re a bit away from the safety points, after all. I suppose you can never be too careful.」

Rinko-senpai, bringing the black tea poured by Mikan-senpai toward her mouth, is by no means skipping work here.

Rinko-senpai’s『Armed Golem』, along with Mikan-senpai’s Goliath-kun, is laboriously helping out in the construction of the base, following Umeka-senpai’s instructions.

I guess it’s like a semi-automatic mode.

The two are a『Smith User (Blacksmith)』 and an『Appraiser (Authenticator)』, the types of classes not suited to base construction work.

The『Hundred Ptarmigan (Plasma Thunderbird)』 that I strangled down is in the middle of having its wings picked off by Kurumi-senpai, the『Chef』.

It may seem like another class unsuited for dungeon conquest, it seems to boast excellent ability at acquiring materials through methods such as monster dismantling.

We seem to be going to have a chicken meat festival for dinner, so I have great expectations of it.

「It’s a huge one, isn’t it? The bones or the feathers for instance, the materials seem to be super rare too, so let’s make all kinds of equipment out of it.」

「The meat too, if we have that much, I guess should we smoke and preserve it, we would be able to solve our food problem, too.」

Smoked chicken is my favorite food.

For rice and seasoning, it seems that the Senpais have divided and brought them in.

「Come to think of it, the monsters you defeat don’t turn into crystals, huh.」

「I see, after all, it’s the first time you’ve been on a raid quest, right, Touma-kun!」

Mikan-senpai, starting to explain things as if she has mastered it all with a smug look on her face, is annoyingly cute.

I listen to the story carefully while translating the Mikan language.

In the case of a raid quest field, there are several settings that differ from those of a normal dungeon.

When it comes to the subjugated monsters, the corpses seem to remain as is without getting reduced to the miasma.

Monster crystals are coming to existence from the condensation and crystallization of the reduced miasma, so they are not available.

This may only be no more than a pain for students with classes that are unable to do material processing, but for those with classes of『Craftsman』 branching, it means that they are able to get their hands on treasures as much as they want.

And then, it’s an important factor, but if you defeat edible monsters, it will also serve as food securing.

If you ask why that’s an important point, it’s because raid quests seem to be akin to long term confinement type dungeon dives.

By confinement, it’s just what it sounds like: you are unable to go out for the set amount of time.

Although the undead function of resurrecting from death is working, the resurrection location has changed to no longer be in Rashomon, but in the same raid quest field.

I don’t know what kind of system it’s switched to, but it seems that there is also no memory initialization when you are resurrected.

This seems to be the greatest reason as to why raid quests are frowned upon.

I guess the motive is that everyone would rather forget about all the memories of going through pain and agony.

This time, the supplementary lessons programme levied upon us the supplementary lessons group is for a whole three days.

It’s by no means a short period of time for a struggle for survival.

To be honest, it seems that I was naive for assuming that it would be a cycle of diving in the morning and returning at night like a normal dungeon practice.

「Ah. Err, you see, about that….」

I thought I made a mistake in translating the Mikan language, but even when I look at Rinko-senpai, she is nodding silently.

It’s very much fantasy-like, but it seems that the time during a raid quest differs from the passage of time on the above ground.

It’s a phenomenon called the『space-time pressure difference』, and seems to be something you learn even in class.

This matter is not limited to raid quests, as it seems that the deeper you go in the dungeon, the more compressed the flow of time becomes.

Around 10th stratum, the flow of time is accelerated to only about 1.1 times as fast, but when you reach 20th stratum, it’s to 1.5 times as fast, and by the 30th stratum, it’s to more than 2 times as fast.

I guess it feels like for example, even if you go outside after going into action for an hour inside, only 30 minutes have passed.

This seems to be the reason why the time on my watch has subtly gone amiss.

The deeper the stratum, the greater the time difference, in other words, that means the monsters that inhabit fields with great time differences are also powerful.

「Hmm. In the case of『Goten no Zakurosan』, how much of a time difference is there?」

「Umm. You know, you see. It’s said to be nine times as fast….」

「Well, it’s one of the『Extreme Class』 raids, the greatest degree of difficulty, confirmed by the academy at the moment, after all.」

I see. I don’t get it.

At any rate, if the time difference is nine times, does that mean that three days will be stretched out to twenty-seven days, I wonder?

Or rather, to be confined in extreme conditions for almost a month, I think that’s on the level that can easily cause abnormality in one’s mind.