That Must Be Because It Wasn’t Fun

“…Aww, it’s all sticky.”

Misha sighed as she picked up her pointed hat.

It was because the hat had been swatted by the hunter lizard’s long tongue.

“I’ll have to send it out for cleaning…”

“…No, I don’t think you need to.”

Saying that, I brought the retriever close to the hunter lizard.

…I didn’t really know what to make of that…

For now, maybe I’d get the egg. Actually, since monsters were born from miasma, did eggs even have any meaning…?

With a roll, a magic stone and an egg appeared.

At the same time—

“Ah!”

Misha’s voice rang out.

“The stickiness disappeared!? …Oh, I get it.”

Misha, who was smart, immediately understood the situation.

“Monsters disappear—so the stickiness disappears too!”

“That’s how it works.”

For a frontliner like me, having splattered blood disappear was normal, but it was probably unfamiliar to Misha, who fired magic from afar. Humans were surprisingly dull about things that had nothing to do with them.

“Hehe, thank goodness, thank goodness.”

Misha happily put on her hat and approached me.

“It was an egg, huh? What was the rarity?”

“C.”

“Heheh. That was a nice judgment call. Hunter lizard eggs are a delicacy, you know, and one sells for 10,000.”

“Whoa.”

“Was there anything else?”

“There was a tongue and a stomach.”

“A tongue and a stomach! Those are delicacies too. I think both of them sold for around 5,000 to 7,000.”

“It’s all food.”

“Hunter lizard ingredients are famous among gourmets.”

The corners of Misha’s mouth curved into a grin.

“Nishishishi! This guy looks like he’ll be a good way to make money too!”

“It really does.”

Since we could somehow manage even against three of them.

“And experience too…”

“Yep, yep!”

Misha smiled brightly.

Our levels had risen before we knew it.

A skeleton warrior and three hunter lizards. All of them were higher-ranked than us, given our levels. On top of that, the number of people in the party was also factored into experience distribution.

With two people, it seemed we received quite a lot of experience.

It was a speed that would have been unthinkable back when we were working as a group of five.

“If we rack up experience like crazy on this E layer, couldn’t we safely farm even the D layer?”

“I feel like we could.”

Misha responded in a good mood.

“Man, this is what they mean by buying time with money, meow.”

“…But we found a problem too, didn’t we?”

“A problem?”

“Misha’s defense.”

“Ah.”

Misha grimaced as though troubled.

Just now, the hunter lizard’s attack had nearly caught Misha.

Misha was a mage, and her base defense was quite low. And she was not boosting it with equipment like I was.

If it had hit her, she likely would not have gotten away unharmed.

“That’s true…”

“We still had around 3,000,000 left, right? Should we buy some equipment?”

“With 3,000,000, there isn’t really anything that good…”

After groaning, “Hmm,” Misha continued.

“Let’s put it on hold.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Mages are paper-armored to begin with, you know… With equipment around 3,000,000, I don’t think it would change much. As long as we’re challenging stronger enemies, I know it’ll be dangerous.”

“…Then, in a slightly safer layer—”

“No, nooo.”

Misha shook her head while laughing.

“That would make it pointless. The whole idea is, ‘Let’s level Ios with high-performance equipment!’ after all!”

“That’s true, but I can’t put you in danger, Misha.”

“…If you’re going to compromise there, I’ll stay behind at the inn. You can level by yourself, can’t you, Ios?”

Parting ways with Misha and going alone—

I shook my head.

“I don’t want that.”

“Heeh, is that another one of those half-hearted kindness things?”

Misha peered into my face. Her eyes looked as if they were testing me.

“You don’t need feelings other than efficiency for leveling. In fact, the experience efficiency would be better if you were alone, Ios.”

“No, it’s not kindness or anything…”

Those words did not correctly express how I felt.

I searched.

What words could correctly express my heart?

After thinking for a while—

I finally spoke those words aloud.

“It’s not fun.”

“Huh?”

“I want to adventure together with you, Misha. It’s not fun alone.”

“Hahaha… Not fun, huh…”

Misha lowered her head a little, then lowered the brim of her pointed hat and hid her face.

“You’re making me blush, Ios! You, you!”

As soon as she said that, she poked me with her staff.

“W-Wah!? Wh-What are you doing!?”

“Nishishishishi!”

Misha snapped her face up and laughed happily.

“All right, all right! That’s right! Let’s have fun! Let’s see how far the two of us can go!”

“…No, but we still have to think about your safety, Misha…”

“That’s what isn’t fun for me!”

Misha grinned.

“…Let me stand beside you with a good feeling! I don’t want being together with you to become a burden on you!”

Those words echoed in my chest.

That was true.

That certainly wouldn’t be fun… I couldn’t let Misha feel that way.

“Got it. Then the plan is ‘Prioritize survival.’”

“Understood, leader.”

Then Misha tapped my armor with a knock.

“I’m counting on you. Protect me, strong warrior-san.”

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

I would absolutely protect her.

You, who chose the path of standing beside me after I had been abandoned.

We smiled at each other, then began walking deeper into the dungeon once more.