Dat cliff. *disappears for another month*Year 7447, Month 4, Day 15
In the end in regards to the guardian of the 9th floor the mino we decided to continue using the net gun only when we fight against it ahead on when going back in. We haven"t done the replacement matches yet. Those minos with superior skill probably aren"t mixed in but after all I"m still a bit worried. Miduchi, Zenom, and Toris didn"t say anything either.
After that we spent our time going into the 10th floor and attacking the minos on the 9th floor from behind to defeat them.
The matter of interest everyone has their mind on is the next Monday after we leave the dungeon, the replacement matches that start on the 19th.
"Saji, Zulu. What about you two? Are you confident?"
Toris asked Basutoral and Zulu. This time I dispatched Angela to the {Exterminators} so these two are the target of discussion.
"What are you saying, Toris-san. Isn"t it only obvious that everything"s fine? Didn"t you see how I just finished off that {Great Troll}!?"
"Even if I were to be challenged it"s just a matter of properly doing everything I can. There"s no need for worry."
Basutoral said full of confidence and Zulu replied with indifference. Certainly Basutoral"s gotten more used to fighting against ogres and trolls since the replacement match last time and can be seen with the same feelings as the other members. He"s no longer on edge all the time like in the past and not as excessively cautious either.
Zulu"s just the same as always in only focusing on putting his all into accomplishing his job. Those who properly do what they need to do aren"t disturbed so easily and you can tell while he might find it regretful if he loses, he"ll just think it can"t be helped and work even harder to flip things over again next time.
Even from my point of view they don"t seem like they"ll be defeated all that easily right now. I think it"s become a pretty big wall.
"Putting that aside, Al, you still properly have some mana remaining right? Hurry up and look at it."
Ralpha asked me.
Really this fellow...
"Yeah, you"re level 2."
"Eeh!!? No way!!? .......level..2..that.. can"t be.."
Her eyes are wide open as she seems to be considerably shocked.
"There"s no way that"s the case right, idiot. In the first place he replied immediately. It"s not like he can activate it in this short of a time."
Toris said with a bitter smile while shaking his head. Both Zenom and Gwine were making slightly amazed expressions as if wondering why Ralpha didn"t realize it right away. Up until yesterday I spent more than 20 minutes each time I used it.
In order to really activate the spell {Shine.Light.Eyes} instantaneously it"s probably impossible unless I use it another 1,000 times or so. Even if I were to put in the effort and exhaust all of my mana several times on a daily basis like I did in the past it would take several months.
"Ku..you.."
It seems she only realized it after she was told.
She seems considerably embarra.s.sed but she"s just glaring at me with a mortified expression.
"Just stop teasing her already. Isn"t she pitiful?"
Miduchi told me off with an amazed tone.
Ralpha was looking at me with such an expectant look and spoke to me in that cheeky way so it was just a bit of teasing.
After that, in the end she heard level 20 and made a slightly relieved face but it seems she was still a bit mortified. And, while I say that, putting aside Zenom, it"s more in comparison to Miduchi and Angela who she already knows she"s lower level than.
On this day I also identified Zulu and Giberuti"s level. Zulu was level 21 and Giberuti was level 6.
Starting tomorrow I need to identify the {Magic.Items}.
...................................
Year 7447, Month 4, Day 19
This time there was obviously an increase in the number of people who pa.s.sed the first stamina test.
Following last time there"s the Kamu and Kimu pair.
They easily cleared it.
Then there"s the three person group of Ginger, Misu, and Jeru which barely missed it last time.
Misu ended up slowing them down again but because she didn"t slow them down as much compared to last time and Ginger and Jeru increased their times quite a bit they were able to clear it with some leeway.
And then there"s Binsu who challenged it alone.
It was a pa.s.s at the very last second but it"s still pretty impressive.
What was unexpected was Rokko and Kevin"s group.
Kevin was close to 15 minutes behind the time limit but because Rokko showed off some absurd speed in the end they were barely able to make the pa.s.sing line. Rokko"s good walking speed even surpa.s.sed Miduchi"s when we were determining the times.
This fellow sure is amazing.
Honestly speaking it"s something I"ve thought since before.
If Rokko were to just pa.s.s the stamina test then other than Miduchi, Zenom, myself, and barely Ralpha would be the only ones who he wouldn"t be able to defeat if he were to challenge alone. Since they have magic then he might also lose to Toris and Bel in a quick match but that"s only if they don"t need to worry about mana recovery, if things were to be drawn out a bit then he still surpa.s.ses them in a number of ways.
Of course there"s also a number of areas where he loses to them as well.
He"s a bit of a half-a.s.sed and has a devil-may-care att.i.tude. He appears to be idiotic and easily get carried away. However, his skills built up leading the front as the {a.s.sault.Vanguard} in {Sun.Ray} for many years are real.
His age is just starting to pa.s.s his prime as an adventurer at 31 years old.
It"s about time for his ability values to enter the descent but right now is also the period where each of them are at their highest.
It"s unfortunate that his weapon is a long sword so he"s a bit lacking in decisive force.
Also, if he were to take a single solid hit that would be the end for him.
As expected I"m sure things would be difficult for him alone.
The order of making challenges is decided based on this first test.
I said it last time but they can"t challenge the same person. Even if the person who receives the challenge manages to fend off the first challenger, the runner-up still can"t challenge the same person.
It"s a test which runs over an entire day and rest is also necessary so I had them restrain from consecutive battles.
Since I"m sure the strategy and pacing will change based on the opponent there"s no point to applying the results of one match to the other opponents either. If they have any complaints then they"ll just have to raise their ranking in the first test.
Kamu and Kimu obviously declared that they would be challenging Basutoral and Angela.
Basutoral and Angela were already prepared for it from the start so they didn"t show any disturbance.
If this was Rokko and Kevin then I think they"d have the highest chance of an upset...
Though I say that, I think it"s still the pair that has the highest chance of an upset.
Ginger"s three person group challenged Zulu, Toris, and Ralpha.
They must have avoided Bel and Miduchi because they can skillfully use the bow and have magic as well.
The three on the side of recieving the challenge all had expressions as if they"d lend them their chests.
If anyone let"s their guard down and takes an attack from an ogre then Toris and Ralpha"s mana runs out from healing then it"s possible.
Binsu hesitated for quite a bit but between Bel and Miduchi seems to have thought that Bel would be easier to deal with.
It seems that challenging Zenom wasn"t even worth taking into consideration from the start.
Bel accepted the challenge with no expression.
I"m sure things will be difficult on this end.
And then Rokko and Kevin threw down their challenge letter to Zenom and Miduchi.
There was a bit of an atmosphere of self-abandonment but they were the only ones left after all.
This side I can a.s.sert with full confidence.
There"s no chance of an upset.
Tomorrow and the next day everyone will get plenty of rest to get rid of the fatigue and then three days later, the second test starts from the 21st.
This time even though we"re going to the 7th floor since there"s the challengers, guards, and observers we"ll be going with everyone from the {Slaughterers}. Of course, we can"t all stay together so it"s necessary to split up the parties until the teleport room on the 6th floor. I made it so that those being challenged and the challengers aren"t in the same group and split everyone into 8 people per party.
I left leading each of the parties to Toris and Miduchi. Gwine who"s excluded from being challenged as a special case is together with Toris"s party while Giberuti and Hisu are in Miduchi"s party.
In my party is Sanno, Ruttsu, Rodrick and his two combat slaves, along with my four combat slaves as we head towards the teleport room of the 6th floor. Putting aside the 5th floor, it"s the first time for a lot of them to experience the 6th floor. If they aren"t put together with me then who could manage them right.
Looking at it like this and everyone from the {Butchers} obtained the challenge right.
...........................
Year 7447, Month 4, Day 27
We finished the second test and it was just around noon when we returned from the dungeon.
The second test was performed over a period of four days but we still don"t know all of the results.
All of the magic stones obtained are still in each of their bags and I haven"t seen them either so we really won"t know until we cash them in at the magic tool store. For guard and observation purposes while I accompanied several of the teams for the test, it was just one side and I was only able to watch for about half a day after all.
There"s only one group which the results are already known. Just Binsu who ended up being hit in the back by an ogre"s club a few hours after the test started. The magic stones he obtained up until then was 1 from an ogre and 3 from goblins so as expected there"s no way Bel would lose to him.
It seems everyone is greatly interested. This time while we met up at the 6th and 3rd floors on the return, as expected just like last time each of the groups gathered together and started whispering to each other, since it would be boring to figure out the results partway through I put a gag order on it until the tests all are complete and we finish selling the magic stones to know the complete results.
Of course I let them talk freely about things unrelated to the tests. Particularly Sanno, Ruttsu, Rodrick, and his combat slaves it was their first time seeing ogres so they couldn"t hide their excitement.
"Then shall we go and cash them in?"
Leading along a large group we head towards the usual magic tool shop Danhiru. The only ones entering the shop are myself and 1 representative of each group. It"s considerably small after all.
First off we cashed in all of the magic stones we obtained on the way into the 6th floor. So they can"t be falsified when they"re gathering them, each of the parties were properly doing joint management of them. As long as you don"t fuse the magic stones together the date they were gathered can be confirmed on them but that can only be determined using my {Identify} after all.
After that we finally reached the point of selling each of the magic stones for determining the test results.
It should be fine to start with the challengers side first. The bag of Kamu and Kimu"s group that were at the top of the ranking.
"{Status Open}..Hmm. 7 magic stones from ogres and 10, no 11 from goblins huh...In total that"ll be 5,902,200 Z."
The words of the old man from Danhiru spoke echoed through the strangely quiet store interior.
I accompanied their group for half a day as guard and observer as well. As expected guarding and observing for an entire day consecutively is impossible. While I was still watching them they would carefully set their aims on just 1 ogre and then definitely defeat it with the 2 of them. Their combat was completely stable with no danger.
But, for them to obtain a total of 7 they must have put in quite a bit of effort.
I accompanied them for half a day from 12:00 midnight on the first day until noon of the next day but they must have been tired after exploring for a day, they teleported into the 7th floor after a short 5 hours or so of rest without even taking a shower.
They especially put emphasis on the fact that they would fundamentally be eating the bento that they had Giberuti make while moving.
While making an effort to not look at Basutoral"s face behind me, I concentrated on the hands of the old man from Danhiru.
Next up is Ginger and the other"s group. I never saw this one.
The number of magic stones they obtained from ogres was amazingly 11 of them! There were 18 from goblins.
The total was determined to be 9,284,500 Z.
I can hear a number of sighs.
Ginger let out a cough while holding the empty bag.
And then Binsu. I just mentioned it but it can"t be helped.
The total was 833,600 Z.
Don"t get so depressed. You were alone so it really can"t be helped. Luck is important too.
Finally was Rokko and Kevin. I was watching but after all they were quite impressive.
They obtained 9 magic stones from ogres and 14 from goblins.
Of all things they obtained even more than Kamu"s group.
Rokko"s face as he took a step forward from my side looked somewhat proud.
The total was 7,536,800 Z.
I can hear some pretty surprised voices.
"He~ We never even slept."
Go to sleep!
Now then, next is finally the magic stones of the side being challenged.
First off is Zenom and Miduchi.
I wonder how things will turn out?
Zenom casually flipped the bag upside down.
A bunch of magic stones rolled out.
The number, 21 of them. Not a single one from goblins.
Without even needing to wait for the estimate there"s no room to doubt their victory.
Rokko"s jaw fell so far I thought it might reach the floor.
"We only slept for 3 hours after all."
Oh my~ so that"s why there were so many. Zenom sure is rough at handling people~ No wonder Miduchi was grumbling about it being "bad for the skin".
And then, Bel.
She"s still expressionless like a Noh mask as usual as she took a step forward and casually flipped her bag over too.
7 of them huh? There"s no goblin magic stones in Bel"s results either.
There"s no need to wait for the estimate on this side either.
It"s believed that Bel periodically used {Detect.Life} and efficiently hunted down lone ogres before finishing them off. And then, magic and her bow, even if it comes down to close combat she should have been able to finish things off all at once by relying on her {Shortsword.Of.St.u.r.dy}.
"7 of them alone huh.."
Kamu grumbled to herself.
Next up obviously Toris took a step forward.
Just as expected from how punctual he is he carefully took out the magic stones one at a time.
The number was 19 magic stones from ogres. There appears to be over 30 from goblins as well.
There"s not much meaning in waiting for the purchase price on this end either.
Ralpha used almost all of her mana on {Detect.Life}.
These guys, when they ended up finding 3 ogres together Ralpha said, "Since we happened to come across them" and still went to fight them.
Additionally, they didn"t even return to the teleport room on the 6th floor and boldly camped out in a hallway of the 7th floor.
I ended up feeling nervous about it.
"Ku..."
I could hear Ginger let out a groan.
Last up is finally Basutoral.
His face has turned pale.
Hey, it can"t be!?
But, it"s possible.
Basutoral put his hand in the bag and started taking out magic stones.