CH 48.4

「The real deal starts at the beginning of next week, after all. Hmm, looks like the academy grounds are going to get noisy again~.」

Otoha-senpai is basically someone of our side, in other words, the muscle brain type, so she seems to be enjoying it somewhat.

She snaps her arms and floats an ear-to-ear grin on her face.

「Saki-chan is a girl, so I figured it might be a good idea not to let her stand out too much, but…. I do get the feeling she’ll beat them at their own game and build a mountain of their dead body. I think she’ll get the highest kill count.」

「Somehow, I have a premonition that it’s going to be erotically dangerous! Seiichi, make sure you escort me properly, okay?」

「Okey dokey.」

「It’s not such an end of a century outlaw hyaha event, you know. It’s just a moderate one, okay, a moderate one.」

Choosing the just right time, Rinko-senpai claps her hands together.

「I suppose that’s all for the tournament. Now then, speaking of the next agenda….」

Rinko-senpai, looking around the club room, punctuates her words once.

Our club room is basically an open café where boarding students can freely come and go, but right now there’s a sign on the door that says『Meeting in progress』.

Under normal circumstances, it seems that there tend to be a lot of boarding students who relax with a cup of black tea in their hands after taking a bath.

「For better or worse, this information is under a gag order, so everyone should put that in mind, okay?　 Today, I suppose we found what we believed to be an undiscovered raid quest in the dungeon.」

It’s the『Craftsman』 group Senpais who are abuzz, tensing up as they gasp.

As expected, I guess they don’t have good sentiment toward raid quests in itself.

「Well, we’re going to discuss how we should deal with this raid quest, but…. Yes, Shizuka-chan.」

「What is to be done in the normal procedure?」

Rinko-senpai nods in response to Shizuka’s question, who promptly raises her hand.

「Let me see. First of all, I suppose newly discovered raid quests are said to be a sweet quest. After all, it’s a bonus chance to obtain powerful magic items as well as tons of experience points. The raid domain that has been conquered will disappear, so I suppose normally the party that discovers it is the first to go in.」

「For the academy that manages the dungeon, the raid domains are an irregularity, after all. If you conquer a raid domain, you will even receive some reward, you see. It serves as a duty for students, but students who discover an Other Realm (Raid) gate have to make a report to the dungeon management department without fail. You’ll also receive a discoverer reward.」

Rinko-senpai floats a wide smile at Otoha-senpai, who makes an honor student remark in supplement.

「Well, I suppose that’s how the official stance goes. If they report it, it will be officially notified as a quest, after all. So it’s either they secretly monopolize it and hog all the sweets parts for themselves, or begrudgingly make a report to the academy if they deem to be beyond their capability, I suppose?」

「… Yes. Well, I guess that’s how it goes in practice.」

「To problem is that the dungeon dive into a raid domain is to be done in a special style through the Fifth Gate, unlike normal dungeon dives, I suppose. You already know this, don’t you, Touma-kun?」

Of course, I nod in agreement.

The Interface message displayed when I do a dungeon dive is also different from normal.

Since then, I’ve been doing some research pertaining to raid quests, and the reason why raid quests have a special style is because the raid domain is an independent space, different from the normal dungeon, it seems.

You can’t record coordinates (log memory) inside the raid domain, and in case you return from death or are subjected to compulsory repatriation, you will end up having to restart from the Other Realm (Raid) gate.

In the worst case scenario, there are even cases where you are unable to return to Rashomon.

The fifth gate of Rashomon, the『End Realm Gate』, boasts features specialized in raid quests, and it seems to have functions such as fixing your existence onto the raid domain.

Even if you use the kind of items or skills that allow you to arbitrarily escape from the dungeon, you will end up reappearing in the raid domain.

Even at the shortest time setting, you will be subjected to a compulsory confinement state in the raid domain for a whole day on above ground time.

Or, you can conquer the raid quest and return, that is.

「Yes. Something like that I guess. I suppose the bottleneck is that you can’t just go like, it seems quite impossible, so I give up. For an undiscovered raid quest, you won’t be able to tell how high its level of difficulty is until you try going into it. Nonetheless, the dungeon conquest groups dive head first into them like no other, and I suppose there is not that many super class or extreme class raids.」

「Isn’t that only a matter of course? At best, they are either elementary or intermediate classes. If a new advanced class raid domain was discovered, it would be a festival. But even if it’s just an elementary class small fry raid, you can still obtain at least high quality magic items, so there’s no reason not to challenge it.」

It appears that beginner class raid domains are found rather frequently.

It seems that as people find them in the middle of a normal dungeon dive, they tend to end up conquering them as is.

There’s also the front of first come, first served.

「The place we found it is off the map, so I don’t think we’ll be beaten to the punch by anyone, but….」

「I suppose Other Realm (Raid) gates tend to move periodically. Natsumi-chan has recorded the coordinates of the Other Realm (Raid) itself, so it is possible to do a direct dive through the fifth gate, though.」

Seiichi seems to be not too enthusiastic about it.

For those of us who are not allowed to return from death, challenging something of unknown difficulty level has too big of a risk.

He may look frivolous, but he is one cautious man.

But if you don’t have the courage to take risks, that means you’ll come to lead a life where you never achieve anything.

「Hmm, if I’m not mistaken, it’s not good to leave raid quests unattended, right? If we keep quiet about it, are going to get scolded?」

「It’s not like it’s going to cause unusual phenomenon today or tomorrow, so I suppose it’s nothing to worry about.」

「The Other Realm (Raid) gate we found was at the eighth stratum, after all. If it was at a shallower stratum, it could turn into an emergency quest, though. Well, it’ll probably come close to the charted map by then, so other parties will probably find them.」

I wonder if that means the problem is not the location of the floor, but the proximity of the stratum.

About the newly discovered raid quest, it’s settled with something along keeping it a secret for the time being and conquering it if it remains there by the end of the tournament.

The Senpais of the『Craftsman』 group seem to end up shying away from it.

However, for argument’s sake, it’s exactly in the case it turned out to be a large scale, high difficulty raid quest, that the Senpais’ ability is essential in conquering it.

This is where I ought to endeavor in enlightening the Senpais’ awareness as they service me in the bedroom.

Looks like it’d be fine to leave the overtly disappointed Saki and Otoha-senpai alone.

Shizuka, squeezing my hand tightly, tells me with her eyes that we have nothing to fear if we are together.

「Haah, I thought it’d be my first raid in a while, but I guess it’s getting postponed, huh…. Ah, come to think of it, Mikan-chan and the others were at the self-destructed Zakurosan, right? I sure am glad you managed to make it back safely.」

「Ahaha. Yes, Touma-kun was also with us, after all.」

「Aah, super rare items and boss monsters of an extreme class raid, I wonder what they were like. I wish I could’ve seen them once.」

I feel like I hear an iyou voice from inside the Item Box.