D-Layer Dungeon Dive (Part 2)

We walked through D-Layer, searching for our next prey.

“Now that I think about it, Iosss.”

“Hmm?”

“Did you use War Cry?”

“…Ah, no, I didn’t use it.”

I had completely forgotten.

I had only just learned it, so it had slipped right out of my head…

It was true that it would be better to save it for when a powerful enemy appeared… but its recast was one hour, so it was not something I needed to be stingy with.

To begin with, testing it out was important.

“I’ll try using it next time.”

I’ll try using it—

At that time, I had no way of knowing that it would not be that simple.

Before long, we encountered two trolls.

We could not be careless, but I also did not think they were opponents the three of us would lose to.

“Nishishishi! All right, Ios! Activate War Cry and charge!”

Misha gave a valiant command.

I tried to charge at the trolls, but—

“…Uwooooooo—”

My voice was quiet.

War Cry did not activate.

Misha tilted her head.

“…Would you call that a war cry just now?”

“…No, that wasn’t a war cry…”

I continued while feeling my ears grow hot.

“It’s just… embarrassing…”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!?”

Misha bent backward.

“In the fight just now, the moment it started, you were shouting like, uoooooh! and charging, weren’t you!?”

“No, I was! I was, but!”

I argued back without giving in. I had to somehow convey this subtle feeling!

“When I’m conscious of it, it’s embarrassing! Going ooooooh! I can’t just say it naturally!”

Unless my spirit was surging, it was not something I could do very easily…

Misha laughed grandly.

“Ahahahahaha! Activating your skill is embarrassing!? That’s fine! Then you need practice! So you can put your spirit into your war cry!”

Mmmmmmm…

She was definitely making fun of me…

Though Misha was right. It would be a problem if I could not activate it when I needed to.

So, I pulled myself together and turned back toward the trolls.

And then—

“…Uwooooooo—”

It seemed it was still a little short of activating…

Even so, there was no way we would fall behind against a mere two trolls. The two of us and one animal leisurely cleaned them up.

After hunting for a while after that, we returned to the surface.

When we brought today’s loot to the Adventurers’ Guild,

“With the magic stones and other items, that will be 500,000—”

the purchasing clerk’s words were not finished yet.

“And with two monster ores for 1.3 million, the total comes to 1.8 million!”

O-One point eight…!?

An outrageous amount had come out.

However, the truth was that there were also spoils I had not handed over.

First was the familiar alchemy stone.

Then, there was the troll ore. The ones I handed over were ores gathered from D-class monsters other than trolls. I had judged that three ores from a single adventure was too miraculous and that the guild would become suspicious.

When those were added together—

2.5 million!?

I was shocked by the outrageous amount.

“Sir, you sure are lucky to get two ores, aren’t you? You lucky thing!”

“Yeah, really…”

I answered with a strained smile.

Actually, three ores had dropped, though…

After we moved to our usual restaurant, we talked while raising a toast as always.

“…That was an incredible amount of money…”

“Well, we can only go to D-Layer about once every four days, so at most around seven times a month… Dividing it by days—”

Misha immediately calculated and told me the value.

“That’s about 600,000 per day in earnings… The alchemy stone is 110,000. Around 700,000 per day, I guess.”

700,000 per day—

That was when I suddenly realized.

“Huh? So does that mean we can earn 21 million in one month?”

“That’s how it works.”

Misha nodded with a mm-hmm.

“Hey, Ios. During the past three months, we earned 17 million in E-Layer, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, doesn’t that mean debt repayment is almost done?”

…That was certainly true.

17 million plus 21 million made 38 million. Huh? In terms of earnings, wasn’t it already over?

“That’s amazing… Is D-Layer this profitable?”

“Hmm, rather than saying D-Layer is—there are two factors, I guess.”

“Two?”

“First, there are only two of us, so the reward split itself is small. Normally, it’s split six ways.”

True, if 38 million was split among six people, each person would get a little over 6 million—

Ah!?

“Damn it! I was calculating it as if we got all of it, but because I’m splitting it with Misha, I have to calculate it as half!?”

“I think it’s fine to put everything into repaying the debt first. This debt belongs to the party, and it benefits both of us. I’m gaining experience like crazy thanks to Ios-sama too, after all.”

“…Is that okay?”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what I decided!”

“Got it.”

I decided not to complain about this and that. Misha had decided it for my sake. So I should repay Misha with what I could do.

Misha continued speaking.

“And then, the second factor. Schrödinger’s Cat really is weird after all.”

“…Weird, huh…”

“Even this time, if we took out the ores, it would be 500,000 gold. That’s normally about how it is. The selling price of ore is big—and being able to draw that for certain is cheating. For a normal party, getting one during a single march would probably make them happy.”

“…I see…”

“Being able to get three of something like that is weird, right?”

“It’s weird…”

“It’s weird, isn’t it…”

After we said that to each other—

““Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!””

the two of us burst out laughing.

It was a good thing this was a noisy restaurant aimed at the masses… If it had been a shop aimed at the wealthy, the stares would probably have been painful.

We laughed from the bottoms of our stomachs.

It was already absurd!

Everything ignored every single rule!

On top of that, I could choose skills as much as I wanted. Even the ability to hide a cat, which I had thought was useless, had been useful in the previous area boss fight.

Humility was a virtue, but—today, I wanted to think this.

Were we actually surprisingly amazing?

Could we walk the path we had chosen however we liked?

Was that kind of best possible future spreading out ahead of us?

Right now, I could believe that.

Of course, Misha probably believed it too.

After we had laughed for a while, Misha looked at my face and continued like this.

“After we finish paying back the debt… what should we do?”

“Huh?”

“We only have to stay in Piptat until the debt is paid back, right?”

“Yeah…”

That was right. As a condition of the debt, Misha had been placed under a compulsion spell so that she could not leave Piptat.

Once we finished paying back the debt—

Misha, and we, would be free.

“Thanks, Misha. For my sake—”

“Nishishishi! I told you, don’t worry about it! And it’s too early for those words! Say them after we’ve finished paying it back!”

“Yeah.”

It felt unpleasant that Misha’s movements were bound. From now on, I would make repaying the debt my top priority.

Misha continued speaking.

“Once the debt is gone, we can go places other than Piptat. Of course, we can keep diving into the dungeon here—or we can go somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else, huh…”

Those words sank into my chest.

The world that had been closed off suddenly expanded all at once.

There were many dangerous monsters outside the dungeon too. There were also monsters that only spawned outdoors.

Wandering through the endlessly spreading world— through a world I had not yet seen, did not sound bad either.

The weak me was no longer here. The me who could not have confidence in myself was no longer here. The me who had been exiled—was already long in the past.

The me now had the power to aim for a place where I could shine. Together with one more person and one animal, I could go anywhere, to the farthest ends.

The world, too.

The future, too.

They spread out endlessly. We could go anywhere.

That fact made my heart thrill.

“Yeah. I still want to think about what we’ll do, but—”

I lifted my mug.

“For now, shall we toast again?”

“Nishishi! Didn’t we just do that?”

“I’m in the mood to do it one more time.”

“Same here!”

The moment she said that, Misha took her mug.

“To the future spreading out ahead of us!”

“To the world we’re heading toward from now on!”

Clang! We struck our mugs together with force.

“Cheers!”

Our adventure had still only just begun.