A week had passed since Amira and Hannah’s acceptance into the Clan, and now the probation period was finally over. Tsutomu informed the two as such when he returned from a trip to the Guild, and Amira instantly looked nervous, seeming to have just remembered how important that was to her. Hannah, on the other hand, looked as if she had forgotten altogether that it was even a thing.
“So… would you like to become our long-term members?”
“Of course!” Hannah promptly answered, then shot a glance at Amira beside her.
“Me, too… yeah,” Amira reluctantly added.
Tsutomu, thinking it would be best not to call out the pair’s schtick, proceeded to hand them the official application form. The papers were already signed by Tsutomu, the Clan Leader, so all the pair needed to do was sign their respective sheets and submit them to the Guild.
Hannah held her paper up high and let out a celebratory shout while running around the living room. Amira looked down at hers and held it tightly with both hands as she walked to her room upstairs.
[We’re finally getting somewhere…]
Tsutomu had intended to expel Amira if she were to cause problems during the past week, but all in all, she had not been doing anything out of the ordinary. Feeling that the Clan could start doing things for real at long last, Tsutomu heaved a sigh of relief.
And as he sat around pondering some things over, Ollie walked over and served him a cup of red tea.
“Oh, thank you, Miss Ollie.”
Accepting the cup and taking a sip, Tsutomu then let out another relieved sigh.
During the past week, Scarlet Devil Squad had reached layer seventy and faced the Volcano’s Layer Boss… and got almost instantly annihilated. From Tsutomu’s point of view, this was a perfectly understandable result, since he did not think anyone would be able to beat the Mount Golem on their first try.
Ealdred Crow had reached layer seventy soon after, so now the two Clans were at the exact same point of progress. They, too, had been wiped out by the Mount Golem, but their performance had been better than Scarlet Devil Squad’s. Although they had lost four members right off the bat to the wide-ranged lava splash attacks on their first attempt, they were bound to get used to it after a few more runs.
Contrasting with Ealdred Crow’s balanced composition, Scarlet Devil Squad had only Weiss and Alma as their truly powerful fighters, and the Layer Boss they were up against this time was difficult for both of them. As such, most of their attempts had ended with them being annihilated without even a decent fight.
Weiss’ unique skill, <<Phoenix Soul>>, was a self-buff that enchanted his weapons with the powers of a Phoenix, temporarily granting them the Fire and Holy elements, both of which were ineffective against the Mount Golem.
Another effect of this skill enabled him to heal his own injuries by consuming mental energy, but once the lava splashed on him, it was virtually impossible to recover fast enough to offset the damage. And so, as had been the case with the Fire Dragon, Weiss could not rely on it to brute-force his way through.
As for Alma, although she did not possess a unique skill, the power boost from her Black Staff made her <<Meteor>> spells extraordinarily powerful. Against the Mount Golem, however, magical attacks such as <<Blizzard Cross>> were far more effective compared to physical attack spells such as <<Meteor>>.
Despite that fact, Alma had been using <<Meteor Stream>> and nothing else, and while it was a powerful spell, the enemy’s high physical defense meant it was never going to do much. She knew that she had to use other magic skills, but she had opted to keep using her <<Meteor>>-type skills due to how they had practically become synonymous with her name.
Adding to all those was the fact that their party still consisted of four Attackers and one Healer, meaning Weiss and Alma had to perform well for them to be victorious. For Scarlet Devil Squad to have a fair shot at the Mount Golem, their only options were to either change their composition or consider different strategies, both of which would require extensive discussions on their part.
Tsutomu, figuring that those two Clans were sure to do some exploring again tonight, made plans to go out on a stroll. Putting on a jacket to help with the chilly weather, he proceeded to head to where the Monitors in the market were.
With the city no longer under the threat of a Stampede, the streets were filled with people as it usually would be. Stalls were lit up by numerous artificial lights, and near them were the many Monitors floating in the air.
The largest Monitor, fittingly called Monitor #1, had the most spectators gathering around it. The stores near it, carrying various commodities crafted from materials newly discovered in the Volcano layers, were thriving with business. The workshop district was busier than usual as well, with the new Magic Stones giving craftsmen access to higher heat, revolutionizing the processing of materials.
Regardless, the northern part of town was still suffering to some degree from the Stampede’s aftermath. Due to all the property damage and casualties, a certain religious group had gained a boost of influence in town, and were now advocating for the inviolability of God’s Dungeon.
[We sure are lucky that the damage wasn’t too huge.]
Thanks to the two prior evacuation announcements and the nobility’s barrier, fatal casualties had been kept to a minimum. Although there were genuinely unfortunate cases for the Explorers, the civilians’ deaths had simply been due to them refusing to evacuate, which was a poor decision on their part. The rest of the populace was of the same opinion, so not many of them were swayed by the religious group’s activism. If things had played out differently and the damage had been much bigger, however, the growing religious group may have actually been successful in sealing off God’s Dungeon for good.
[Man, I sure want to get home soon…]
From time to time, Tsutomu had noticed a certain girl he recognized — the one girl who had lost her Explorer mother to the Stampede, who had been in denial ever since she had been told that her mother could not be brought back to life. Used as a symbol by the religious group, she had been occasionally giving sympathy speeches in front of crowds on their behalf. Tsutomu wanted to do something to help her, but since she resented the Explorers who had failed to revive her mother, it naturally meant that she hated him as well. Knowing full well that there was nothing he could do about it for now, Tsutomu slogged on toward the market so that he could spend some time looking away from reality.
He proceeded to sit down on an open bench and look at Monitor #1 which displayed the Scarlet Devil Squad. He was exasperated by the sight of Alma using nothing but <<Meteor>>-type skills again. At one point, a certain young woman with long rabbit ears walked over to him.
“Aha! I knew I saw someone familiar! What are you up to, Tsutomu?” The young woman, who turned out to be Lorena, greeted him, her cheeks a little red and her rabbit ears swaying about.
“Hello, Lorena. I’m here to observe the frontliners, that’s all,” Tsutomu answered and looked around. “Is Misil here as well?”
“Oh, no, he’s exploring the Dungeon with the others right now.”
“…You got excluded from the main party?”
“No I wasn’t! He’s just helping the lower-leveled members with their training!”
Lorena, cheeks puffed up in annoyance, proceeded to sit down next to Tsutomu. She seemed to have too much free time on her hands, with her being off-duty today.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Why would I be demoted, anyway!? I’m the best Healer around right now, you know!”
“…Are you high on something?”
“No, I don’t smoke.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Tsutomu turned back to the Monitor while wondering since when had Lorena become so confident. The latter followed suit, looking closely at the action on the screen.
“Hmm, Scarlet Devil Squad still has their mostly-Attacker setup going, I see.”
“Right.”
“Hehehe, I bet Silver Beast is going to catch up soon!”
“Looks like you’ve become somewhat more confident after winning against the Fire Dragon. What’s your progress looking like now?”
“We’re down to layer sixty-five so far. Kind of stuck on that fish… You know the one.”
“You mean the Bolseyer?”
“That’s right! That thing is such a ridiculous creature, I tell you! It wiped us out so easily!”
The Bolseyer, its name now public knowledge following Amy’s appraisal, was a lava-swimming monster that looked like a fusion of a loach and a catfish.
“Have you seen how it slides all over the place? I swear, that thing never stops moving!”
“Right. Shouldn’t be that hard if you have a Black Mage, though.”
“That’s what we figured, too! But you see, our Black Mage hasn’t gotten past the Fire Dragon yet — that’s why everyone is training to beat it right now.”
The Bolseyer’s whole body was covered in a red slimy membrane, which it used as a lubricant of sorts to swim through lava and slide across the ground. One would need to disable that membrane if they wanted a chance at defeating it.
There were many ways to do that, with the safest method being to cool its body surface, which could be achieved the fastest with Black Mages or Spiritualists’ magic skills.
“After getting past the Bolseyer, maybe Silver Beast will be counted as one of the major Clans! The Clan’s been getting more famous lately, what with them being featured on more and more newspaper articles.”
“That’s right! The press really rushed to us right after we beat the Fire Dragon — it’s crazy! It’s the first time I’ve been featured, too! Oh, but we haven’t let Solit Company cover us yet — there’s no need to worry!”
“Thank you for your consideration, but please, don’t force yourselves just for me. I wouldn’t want to hold your Clan back, and I don’t really care about them anymore.”
“…Huh? Really?” Lorena tilted her head.
“Yes, really. Please do tell Misil that as well,” Tsutomu said with a smile.
Although quite unconvinced by what she had just heard, Lorena still nodded in agreement.
The two smaller publishers had gotten big enough by now, and Tsutomu himself had been given an award from the nobility for his contributions during the Stampede. At this point, he no longer felt the need to tighten the screws on Solit Company, since any further spite toward them specifically would only result in unnecessary resentment.
“By the way, Tsutomu, I’d like to ask about the girl from Ealdred Crow… Stephanie, if I remember right? She just up and declared in an interview that she’ll surpass you someday — what’s that about?”
“Ah… her. To be honest, I don’t get it either. I don’t think she means any harm, though.”
“What!? But she was totally being aggressive, and not even hiding it! Didn’t you use to teach her how to be a Healer!? She’s so rude, going on to say things like that publicly!”
Ever since he wrapped up his lessons for Stephanie, Tsutomu had always been fully aware of how she had been telling pretty much everyone that she would surpass him. Still, feeling that she did not hold any ill will in saying that, and that it might help boost her motivation, Tsutomu has been letting it go.
Lorena, on the other hand, seemed quite uncomfortable with Stephanie’s declarations, as apparent from her twitching white-furred rabbit ears.
“Well, she might be pretty good and all, but I know I’m better than her! She’s nowhere near ready to surpass you, Tsutomu!”
“That’s… true, I guess.”
“Definitely! If anything, I’ll do that way ahead of her!”
“I’m not about to just sit around and be a stepping stone, you know.”
“Heh, it’s only a student’s duty to surpass her teacher!”
“Give it your best shot.” Tsutomu said and chuckled, reminded of Eunice by how confidently Lorena had made her declaration. Still, Lorena was indeed a highly capable Healer, unlike Eunice, so he felt fine with letting her be a little audacious.
As a general Healer, Lorena was in fact not as good as Stephanie, but as a Healer working specifically for Silver Beast’s party, she was superior. Conykins’ strengths lay in their enhanced hearing and ability to detect nearby living things, making them fit for being Healers. When it came to her role, Lorena was especially good with the still-obscure aspect of aggro management, making her stand out from the other Healers — in fact, the way she did it was almost just as effective as Tsutomu’s analysis, which was gained through a combination of experience and exploiting game knowledge.
Adding to that was how Lorena was one of the most experienced Explorers, with approximately six years of action to her name. Although she was not a frontline fighter, her role was no child’s play. Not one bit of experience she had accumulated went to waste.
Tsutomu and Lorena proceeded to chat some more, with some of the topics being how the latter’s rabbit ears were a different color from her hair, and how Silver Beast had been able to take in another Beastkin child thanks to their recent funding.
“Huh, your ears look like that because of a mutation? I never noticed.”
“Apparently, yes. It’s just a different color, though.”
Beastkin’s ears and tails were generally the same color as their hair, but that was not the case for Lorena, whose white-furred ears contrasted with her black hair. She folded her ears and complained that she would have preferred that they were normal instead.
“And because of how… unusual I am among my kind, I’m grateful that Misil took me in. That’s why I’d like to help my Clan in any way I can.”
“He sure is a nice guy, isn’t he? Could do something about his sloppy look, though…”
“Boy, oh boy… He’s going to be SO HAPPY to hear that,” Lorena cracked a joke and pointed at Tsutomu with both her index fingers.
“What are you, a little kid?” Tsutomu chucked, knowing that Lorena was in her twenties just like him.
A few moments later, he realized that quite some time had passed with him not looking at the Monitor.
“Huh, it’s this late already? I should get going.”
“Maybe you should show up at my Clan’s place, too. You’re welcome to visit us anytime, Tsutomu!”
“When my Clan is a little less busy, sure.”
“Cool, cool!”
Lorena waved to Tsutomu, and he waved back. He then proceeded to make his way back to the Clan House, regretting the fact that he had not gotten to watch any Volcano footage tonight.
