-47- Peaceful
Turning down the corners of her mouth, she acts pompous as if to say that she is disappointed. The way she does whatever she wants just like a child reminds me of that guy who I have an undesirable but inseparable relationship with. Although her face is very refined unlike him, she is the only one who gives me uncomfortable feeling just by looking at her.
「Did you return without telling me so the three of you can have fun? Yuuko-chan is angry. I"m mad, okay? Call me when it"s something fun, geez.」
She talks while eating spaghetti with a plastic fork. Slurping the noodles without cla.s.s, she licks her stained lips with her red tongue.
Although her actions are somehow sensuous and stimulating, it is annoying.
「Yuuko was sleeping when we returned so it can"t be helped. Since you were also in a bad shape, I thought it was better not to wake you up.」
Rather than saying it is crispy, the pizza is springy. I spoke while tearing it pieces to wrap together the strings of melted cheese and eating it.
「Uhn, I"m not convinced. I wanted to see Hii-chan and Heidi"s crazy looks after all. How was the appearance of the two experiencing a.n.a.l?」
「Yuuko-san, can"t you stop it while we are eating?」
Remembering last night"s affair, Hiiragi-san"s face was turning red. Maizuru discovered an opportunity and held back her words.
「Fufun. Then it should be okay after eating.」
A nasty grin floated on her face. Hiiragi-san, who noticed the mistake in her statement, opens her mouth to correct it but she is unfortunately beaten to the punch.
「Heidi seems to like a.n.a.l and also an M, but do you like public shaming too? 」
Heidi, who is brought up as subject, ponders while twining her hair with her fingers. She was delighted as she probably came up with an answer.
「… Maybe I do.」
「Tell us more in detail later. We might discover a new fetish, right?」
「Yeah, it looks interesting. Okay, Yuuko.」
Heidi was ecstatic while Hiiragi-san was mortified. Maizuru reached her hand for the plastic bottle near me and whispered when her face got closer.
「Looking at Hii-chan"s expression like that is what Master likes, right?」
I separated my face from her and my slave is making an obscene smile. Like saying that she"s doing it for her owner to annoy me. However, it is not different from my taste and she is not wrong so I have mixed feelings.
Only the voices of my party members echo through the white hall, and the girl alongside a wall who is looking this way with a gloomy expression was hugging her knees.
◆
Maizuru Yuuko is the most talented among our party members. She is a very important factor for exploring the dungeon. Her knowledge in regards to learning those basic skills had been exceptionally big.
I learned after failing many times following Wazuka"s advice, but she learned it right away just by seeing it once.
「This magic skill layer is nice. Uhn, looks like I can also do something that.」
Maizuru easily extended the scope of the layer to the tantou in her hand and showed it. After that, she presses the blade clad in mana against a large rock nearby. The ma.s.s of rock that should have been solid is cut without even a resistance.
After she laughed like having fun and pulled out the blade in one go, she extended the range of the worn mana to lengthen the blade this time. The part of the extended mana cleanly cut the rock like a cake.
The three of us was watching that with mouths open wide.
「I got it. But the mana consumption is strong so it feels like a killing blow. Hm? Were the three of you surprised that Yuuko-chan is very talented?」
「S, so amazing. How on earth did you do it?」
Hiiragi-san made an honestly astonished expression and asked.
「It"s like watching Natsume, it feels a bit weird.」
Heidi got depressed while giving out a dry laugh.
「It"s not particularly difficult. I reinforced the blade covered in mana the same way when reinforcing the body, and just extended the range of layer that applies reinforcement with the same method as emission.
「I can"t extend the layer to the weapon in my hand though?」
I spoke out to vent my anger towards Maizuru who answered casually. I knew that it was because of my frustration and inferiority complex. I could not help saying it even though it was lame.
「L, look, since Master is a normal person, isn"t it because you"re still not used to that weapon? Uhm… Hii-chan and Heidi can do it, right?」
Maizuru-sama drew back to a submissive att.i.tude. She looks at the other two for help.
「Although we learned emission through PP, it seems like we can"t learn layer on our own.」
「That"s right. Maybe, certain MS can"t be learned if you didn"t learn sense on your own. Isn"t it the same as Hibari"s detection not appearing in the PP exchange list? Why don"t Yuuko try checking her status if the new MS is there?」
「Reinforcement was added.」
Surprisingly, just by explaining the layer, we unexpectedly learned about new MS. All of us were surprised.
I recover my mood just a bit when Heidi said the word detection.
「I think that sense being a requirement is probably correct, but couldn"t it be compensation for effort in some sense? I was able to learn circulation and layer because of Wazukkun"s advise after all.」
「It seems so, If it is what you say, even I wouldn"t be able to learn sense and operation immediately, right?」
The discussion about the required effort and verification ended.
We check our personal belongings and decide the plans for today. After going through several meetings, we stepped through the closed door.
◆
Dozens of wolf packs, large bats hanging upside down from above not less than ten meters from the ground, and bears boasting their large build that is nearly twice that of a human.
A fight with troublesome monsters was waiting on the other side of the closed door. We can not lose. If we raise our combat ability using mana, we can certainly kill them one by one.
However, mana is limited and not infinite. We can defeat the monsters simply because of our raised physical abilities using mana exceed their movements. If we fight in our basic state, we would go straight into the stomach of the predators. There is some strength just by imagining that. Therefore, we need to rest once we finish a fight.
「Haa, we"re not really progressing, are we?」
「This is even our second time to come back.」
「Timewise, we should be able to go after one more time.」
Our mana greatly decreased after one more fight. The number, distance, and strength are becoming a danger that is incomparable to the upper levels as we move on.
Not having a convenient recovery method, we can only minimize the risks that we will surely take. We can not proceed once there is a serious injury, because it is different from the tutorial and we can not afford to die.
「What were you doing since earlier, Master?」
Maizuru who was worried about me doing repet.i.tive work asked. I move my hand without raising my head since dealing with her is troublesome.
「Don"t simply ignore me. Come on.」
Annoying.
「Hibari-kun, how about giving at least a reply?」
「Sorry, Hiiragi-san. I"m processing a stone we acquired from Ashia. It seems to be something that can also be moved with mana and I"m in the middle of sharpening its tip. It might counter the large bats if this goes well and it looks sharper than ordinary edge tools so it"s fine to use it as a throwing weapon in the worst case.」
「… Master really likes Hii-chan.」
If I don"t scold Maizuru with clear distinction, she also does not display a sad behavior. She was looking at me with a somewhat lost expression. Disgusting.
I am also a bit tired, I show the stone I"m currently polishing with a whetstone to the three.
Still, it"s still smooth but it is starting to have sharpness, and there is even a part that easily cuts the thin skin when I slide my fingers on it. I"m shaping it with a throwing knife as an image.
「Ninja!」
With a strange intonation, Heidi looks at me with great interest. As expected from a foreigner, was she dreaming about things like samurai and ninja? She might have a strange mental image of j.a.pan.
She performed a pose seen in anime and drama. A beautiful woman with a misshapen stone is, unfortunately, not much of a picture.
「I recovered my mana so let"s go one more time.」
Moving towards the four doors, we started the third exploration.