Chapter 25, Boom, Then Bang!!

Translator: Lizz

 

The giant skeleton had created several fireballs and kept them mid-air during its attack. If that was possible, then the Fireball skill Masato had learned could do the same.

 

Recalling the scene where he had been chased by fireballs, Masato activated the skill. Instead of his internal mana, one, then two fireballs rose around him. But he did not release them immediately. He pushed his control on them to the limit, and increased their number.

 

Sweat burst out and dripped down from the extreme focus and tension.

 

The orcs that had been closing in on Rika and Hinata stopped, stepped back, and stared upward.

 

Feeling the heat from behind, the two turned around and saw Masato surrounded by countless fireballs.

 

“A-amazing… how many are there?”

 

If all of these were released at once, the monsters here would be annihilated. However, Rika and the others in the room would not escape unharmed. Skills obtained in dungeons had no setting to disable friendly fire. And Masato did not look capable of worrying about ‘not involving others’.

 

“Hinata-chan! It’s dangerous to stay here! Retreat!”

 

Rika shouted loudly as she ran.

 

Warned, Hinata finally realized the danger to herself and left the room that had become a monster house, a beat late. Immediately after, with a low boom like fireworks being launched, a hot wind raged.

 

The screams of orcs, goblins, and green wolves echoed, and from the blazing red room came the smell of burning. The scene was so tragic it could be mistaken for hell.

 

In such a situation, Masato could not have been unharmed.

 

He had been blown away by the blast into the small room under the stairs.

 

Thanks to level-ups and physical reinforcement, he did not suffer major wounds, but he still had many bruises and scrapes. His mana reserves were drained entirely, reducing him to a battered state.

 

“Are you… okay?”

 

Speaking with a worried voice, Rika rushed over.

 

She knelt and took him into her arms.

 

“Ugh…”

 

Masato had lost consciousness for a few seconds. He immediately awakened, opened his eyes while enduring the pain, and Rika’s face was right in front of him.

 

“What… happened?”

 

He remembered releasing the fireballs and burning the monsters, but he did not know if he had defeated them all. He had been blown away before he could ascertain that.

 

He waited for the answer. Had they escaped the danger, or was it still ongoing?

 

“The monsters in the room were all annihilated. You saved us again.

 

No. It was me who was saved again.”

 

Rika had jumped down from the hole to try to save Masato, but had nearly been killed by the giant skeleton. And yet, without her, Masato would surely have died. They had saved each other. Not once, but twice. That experience had already forged a strong bond of trust, one unique to the two of them.

 

It was something attainable only by veteran parties who had endured long years together. It was something explorers valued, something money could not buy.

 

“It was mutual, wasn’t it?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

The tension melted from their faces.

 

An atmosphere that only close friends, childhood companions, or siblings could share surrounded them.

 

“Ehehe, Masato-san, since you’re older, you can speak like you just did, you know?”

 

“Yeah. Then I’ll take you up on that.”

 

“Yes, please.”

 

From the time they had met, he had always spoken formally, and it had been bothering her.

 

To Rika, Masato was older, a senior explorer, and also her benefactor.

 

She had long wished he would speak more casually. Even when talking with Seiji during exploration, she had been trying to learn from his conversational style. But in the end, such effort had not been necessary.

 

Though the trigger had been a battle with monsters, something very fitting for explorers, the sudden closeness filled her heart with joy.

 

“Masato-san got nicely roasted though—”

 

Just as the two were about to continue talking, a lively voice called out.

 

“You two are really close!!”

 

Masato shot upright.

 

He remembered that they were in a dungeon, but had forgotten the presence of the other members. Rika had too. Both of them blushed deeply while pretending that nothing had happened.

 

“Hinata-san, are you hurt?”

 

“Nope! All thanks to Masato-san! Nee-san and Seiji-kun are fine too!”

 

Masato turned his gaze deeper inside.

 

Seiji was still aiming his bow at the stairs, while Reika rested her naginata on her shoulder and looked at Masato and Rika.

 

“Was everything okay on the stairs?”

 

“Yes. Between Seiji-kun and me, we could handle their number. I’m sorry it took time.”

 

She apologized for two things: the delay in securing their retreat, and not being able to help Masato fight in the monster house.

 

But in this case, Masato was at fault for keeping his Detection skill a secret. If he had told them earlier, they could have acted immediately when he said ‘We should run’. Still, they had run into monsters halfway up the stairs, and with orcs trying to come up from the room, they had been caught in a pincer attack. Combat had been unavoidable.

 

“That was just an unlucky accident, so there’s no need to apologize. Of course, we’ll reflect on it later, but who could have predicted monsters would use the stairs to come down? More importantly, I want us to celebrate that the whole party did what we could and overcame the difficulty together.”

 

Reliable in battle and never blaming comrades needlessly, Masato struck Reika as the ideal senior. As a twin who had always been expected to take on the role of the elder sister, she had longed for someone dependable.

 

That sense of security, something her classmates or Seiji could not provide, had an almost addictive charm for her.

 

Once Seiji was certain no more enemies were coming, he lowered his guard and stepped in, speaking to Masato as if to cut between the two.

 

“It looks like no more are coming. As Masato-san said, it was just an unlucky accident, but thanks to it we managed to confirm our coordination. More importantly—what skill did you use earlier?”

 

Explorers sometimes did not reveal the skills they had learned, so asking about them was considered bad manners. The reason was that possessing an excellent skill could make one a target inside the dungeon.

 

If someone killed a skill-holder in the dungeon, there was a certain chance that the learned skill card would be expelled from the body. Masato had only recently learned this.

 

Of course, few explorers actively tried to kill others. But if someone died in the dungeon, proving it was murder was extremely difficult. Sometimes the body was never found. Rather than living in fear of being attacked, it was safer to hide powerful skills for self-defense.

 

Seiji understood this, but his youthful curiosity could not be suppressed.

 

“It was just Fireball. It’s often listed in the regular auctions, so it’s easy to obtain and convenient.”

 

“Fireball… depending on how it’s used, it can become that powerful. I learned something.”

 

He stopped moving, hand on his chin, lost in thought.

 

Masato had shown abilities far beyond Seiji’s expectations, both in the battles above ground and now underground. Any rivalry or ambition he had felt had completely vanished.

 

The conversation continued casually.

 

“I’ve never heard of a room where monsters wait. Maybe rooms can be special, just like monsters sometimes have special variants?”

 

When Reika voiced her doubt, Rika answered with information she had researched in the past.

 

“Some scholars said there were rooms that generated monsters. Maybe this was one of them.”

 

No one had ever witnessed the exact moment monsters appeared. Even after twenty-five years of hunting them, they had never gone extinct, so it was believed they must be produced somewhere.

 

“I know that! There was the same thing in a game!!”

 

Hinata replied cheerfully. Her carefree answer made Rika and Reika laugh at the same time, and the direction of the conversation completely shifted. After that, the topic was only about the games Hinata liked.

 

After a while, Masato clapped his hands to gather attention.

 

“I know you still want to talk, but let’s save it for when we’re back somewhere safe. For now, let’s all collect this huge number of magic stones.”

 

No one objected to Masato’s words, and the whole group entered the room filled with magic stones.