CH 54

Chapter 54: The Turning Cogwheel

Yuuma and co rode the jeep driven by Tanaka all the way from 『City of Explorer』 to Chiba. It was already 9 PM.

「Aah, I’m really burn out. Tanaka-san, I’ll leave Yuuma to you.」

「Yes, leave it to me.」

The president and Maika came down from the car and went back to their home.

After seeing them off, Tanaka drove the car backward, and then stepped on the car’s accelerator, heading toward the highway.

「Sorry for troubling you to escort me home too, Tanaka-san.」

「Don’t worry about that. My house located in Tokyo too, so we’re actually heading to the same direction.」

Tanaka winked at Yuuma before he turned the steering wheel.

He passed by the old Mito highway before entering the 6th national highway, heading south toward Tokyo. Even during that time, Tanaka was a talkative person.

Though it was the first time they were left alone with just the two of them, Yuuma couldn’t help but feeling grateful toward his kind and considerate senior.

It was already late at night when they arrived at Yuuma’s house. Yuuma came down from the car and looked at the driver seat.

「Thank you very much, and sorry for troubling you to drive me home this late, Tanaka-san.」

「It’s okay. See you again the day after tomorrow, Yuuma-kun. Have a nice sleep.」

「Back at you, Tanaka-san.」

After seeing off the car, Yuuma closed the door of his house. After entering the house, he told his mother to wake him up at noon since he was really exhausted, and went up to his room immediately.

He locked the door of his room as soon as he entered. He dropped his bag, opened the drawer of his desk and took out a notebook from inside.

「If I’m not mistaken…」

He sat in the chair and flipped through the page of his notebook.

Yuuma started to read the recorded situation at that time, the day after he discovered the tiny dungeon.

He stopped doing that a while later but the date of his first subjugation was recorded in that note.

「Found it… The first time that metal slime came out was… 2nd August the year before the previous one.」

And then, he also recorded the date of the appearance and subjugation of the mega sizes slime boss, it was 19th september last year. Yuuma confirmed this matter with the calendar.

Even though he didn’t record the details, he kept a record of the date of appearance of metal slime since they started to appear.

If beating one slime is considered as clearing the floor, it means that the tiny dungeon was a really deep dungeon.

After confirming the number of days since the first appearance of the metal slime, he counted the total number with a calculator. Yuuma gasped the moment he saw the result.

「413 days… A dungeon with 413 floor…」

It was far deeper than even the current deepest dungeon in the world, Orpheus.

「No way… Could it be――」

◇◇◇

When president Kanzaki returned to his home and just about to open a canned beer.

「Da~d, make sure you take a bath properly!」

「Okay.」

His daughter, Maika who was tidying up their luggage came nagging at him. Kanzaki opened his canned beer while wondering whom Maika would take after.

He drank the beer, sitting on the sofa, took the tv remote control and turned on the tv..

""

Just when he was about to lean on the sofa, his smartphone which he placed on the desk rang. When he wondered who called him this late in the night, it turned out to be Aisha.

「Ou, what make you call me this late?」

『Aah… My bad, Kotaro. I have urgent news for you.』

「What kind of urgent matter is this?」

『I can’t tell you about this matter by phone. Can you come at my laboratory right now?』

「HAAH!? Are you kidding me? It’s already late at night! I’m also just returned from expedition and am completely exhausted right now.」

『I see… But, you still have to come. Can you do that?』

Kanzaki ended up speechless since this was the first time he heard such a tone from Aisha, as if she would force him to come no matter what.

「Can I just come tomorrow? My car isn’t with me right now!」

『I prefer you to COME ASAP. Use taxi, the fare is on me, just come here ASAP.』

After being acquainted for a long time, Kanzaki realized that this wasn’t a trivial matter. Kanzaki heaved a sigh and then told Aisha that he would head to her place in a minute.

Kanzaki reluctantly stood up from the sofa since he already agreed to come to Aisha’s laboratory.

「Maika, I’ll leave the home for a bit.」

「EH!? Where are you going to at this kind of time?」

「To Aisha’s place. Maybe I’ll be back tomorrow morning.」

「Dad, wait a minute!」

When Maika looked at the entrance in hurry, her father had already left.

◇◇◇

3 AM. As soon as the taxi in which Kanzaki was riding arrived at Tokyo, Ota city, he disembarked while scratching his hair.

The taxi fare was really expensive. After he paid the taxi fare, he planned to ride the first train to go back home after the meeting with Aisha.

He had to suffer such long journey right after he arrived from expedition, completely exhausted and planning to lazing around during the holiday. Kanzaki entered the laboratory which was made from galvanized sheet iron with a foul mood.

「Oi! I’m here!!」

Kanzaki rudely opened the room that had always been used by Aisha. The room was dark without lighting, the only source of light came from the PC used by Aisha.

Aisha was currently sitting in the chair in front of her PC, crossing her long leg while sipping the canned coffee from her hand.

Kanzaki pressed the switch beside the entrance door to turn on the lighting. He had already come to this laboratory a really long time ago, thus familiar with the laboratory itself.

The electric light let out several crackling sounds before the light turned on and illuminated the entire room.

Even then, AIsha’s gaze never moved away from the PC’s screen before her.

「So what kind of business you’ve for me this time around?」

「… It’s about Mitaka.」

「Mitaka? So it’s a matter of Yuuma, have you found his problem?」

Kanzaki had finally remembered that he brought Yuuma to this laboratory for a check-up the day before the expedition.

「No way, could it be that he has some sort of illness!?」

「Nope, he’s healthy… Too healthy if I have to add.」

「The heck, you almost got me there! So what’s his problem then!?」

「Do you remember that I also measured his mana index?」

「Uhm? Ah, that stupidly oversized measuring device huh. Yeah, I remember.」

「The result just come out.」

「Eh… Is that so? Did he have “Mana Index”?」

When Kanzaki asked that question, Aisha placed her canned coffee on the desk, and turned her chair around to face Kanzaki.

「The result is positive, he DID HAVE “Mana Index”.」

「Oh, I see! So he did have mana. I mean, there has never been a case in which someone can’t raise their mana index at all before.」

「So, how much is his mana index?」 Added Kanzaki.

But instead of replying, Aisha fell into silence as if contemplating on something. When Kanzaki wondered what happened to Aisha, he heard Aisha mumbling something.

「… ４６５２００」

「Uhm? What?」

「Mitaka Yuuma’s mana index. There are some decimals but let’s forget about that for now. His mana index is 460K.」

「EH!? What in the hell are you talking about?」

Kanzaki was bewildered seeing Aisha start talking using unknown jargons. But then, Aisha raised her face and started looking properly at Kanzaki.

「It was the measuring result with my homemade mana measuring tool. There’s no need to doubt its accuracy.」

「ARE YOU FUC*KING KIDDING ME, YOUR MACHINE MUST BE BROKEN! 460K!? Even the strongest seeker in the world 『Flame Emperor Albert』 only has an 8200 mana index. Are you sure that you’re not sleepy and mistaken the number?」

「My measuring tool is the current most accurate measuring tool in the world. Nor did I sleepy and make a mistake with the number――」

Aisha rose from her chair, and stared straight into Kanzaki’s eyes.

「Mitaka Yuuma’s 『Mana』 is the biggest in the world, so big that he literally thousands of leagues ahead of the other Seekers!!!」