Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? - Chapter 138

Chapter 84 - (Chapter 138): Reserve Strength

Year 7444, Month 8, Day 24


After we arrived at the teleport room of the 5th floor we immediately started making preparations to camp. I used earth magic to make our beds and after we finished dinner preparations, showering and changing, we all licked our lips at the food Giberuti finished making.

"Today was disappointing right. I wonder what came out of the shrine on that altar?"

Ralpha is saying petty things as usual. Isn't it already fine on the 5th floor? We're exploring the 6th floor starting tomorrow after all.

"I'd like to think it wasn't anything special."

Bel responded. That's right. It's fine if we just think that.

"But, the people of Black Topaz..They struggled quite a bit."

Gwine changed the topic. Certainly they did~ The spear user in their party was only a bit better than Gwine in their movements. Even the guy who was using a kite shield and long sword on the front, putting aside his shield, his sword wasn't even up to Toris's level. If it's just that then even if I don't use magic I should be able to take on two of them with just a single long sword. If it's fine to use my bayonet then I should be able not just deal with three of them but I might even win.

"That's right. That Laios man who was using the battle axe, while it was quite showy along the way, he's the type who can't do anything but use brute force after all. If you look at their overall abilities I think Zulu is much better."

Zenom bites into the roast chicken seasoned with sauce using salt as the base. Hey old man, that's your second one. There's only two of these per person you know.

"That's true..it looked that way to me as well. After that, that woman who is the leader, what was her name again? Ah, Anderson-san. It seemed like her skill with the bow wasn't that great either."

Toris responded to Zenom. Hey now, didn't Anderson do plenty well. Even you're using Bel as the standard like Zenom just now. I'm telling you Bel is just abnormal~ Ha~

"No, Anderon's skill with the bow wasn't that bad right. As proof of that she managed to properly land both of her shots right? If you think about the cahnce of it missing while trying to aim for vital points then it was doing plenty. Even that Laios, his decision after using Instant Speed wasn't the greatest but there's no need to be that harsh..Zenom and Toris aren't your viewpoints too severe?"

I said that while amazed. Ah, this leg meat is delicious! It's not just salt. It has an even deeper flavor to it. Giberuti..you were a good purchase.

"Hn?"
"Huh?"

Zenom and Toris are exchanging glances. Huh? Did I say something strange? Zenom and Toris are making slightly difficult faces. Ah, so that was it was about.

"Nn~ so it was about that. It seems like I made you two strain yourselves a bit. Thanks. But, it's fine even if you don't worry about it too much for now. And, I don't think I want to make adventurers into my subordinates. Even if I had them they'd only be useful for something like forced reconnaissance or so. And it's not too late to start thinking about stuff like that when it's required. Of course~ if there's a good talent then I would want to scout them out. But, that's still a story for quite a while in the future."

I said that and bit into the leg meat again. It's seriously delicious, this.

"Hmm, certainly, I might have been in a bit too much of a hurry."
"Right."

Toris laughed a bit embarrassingly after being nudged in the side by Bel.



...............



After we finished dinner, we had some relaxing tea while getting massages in order from Giberuti. It's still only been about 2-3 hours since we arrived here. Around 6 pm I'm sure. Recently it doesn't even take us a full day to clear through the 4th and 5th floors like before. Though as expected no matter how used to them we get there's no way to clear through the 4th to 6th floors in just one day so there's not much meaning even if the speed we clear through gets a bit shorter. Well, it's good that we have more time to relax after we finish the 5th floor so that's fine.

It's a weird way of putting it but we've started to feel like this teleport room on the 5th floor has become an exclusive room of the {Slaughterers}. Since we're spending close to half of each month sleeping in this room it's completely started to feel like our own home and we've even decided where everyone is sleeping ahead of time at this point, we even went a bit overboard and a short while after I bought Giberuti we had him carry some rubber cloth in a couple of times and made a small simple bath for washing our feet.

We can continue relaxing like this until 8 pm or so and after that we can leave things to Giberuti until around midnight while resting. After that we have four shifts in groups of two for 1 hour each to lookout. Around 4 in the morning we all wake up and eat, take a simple shower in order and then departing for the 6th floor just before 6 am is our usual schedule. Tonight I'm on the last shift together with Bel from 3-4 am. Since the amount of time we have to remain awake to keep lookout was halved, and the fact that we can all get at least 4 hours of sleep and completely recover our of mana, just that had plenty of meaning in purchasing Giberuti. Up until then due to the rotations of our shifts there were times when mana hadn't full recovered by 4 am. It might seem like Giberuti's sleeping time is short but he's probably making up for that with afternoon naps.



................



I was woken up at 3 in the morning by Ralpha and Angela. I guess it's time to change shifts for keeping lookout. I take off my eye mask and crawl out from my blanket. I grab my bayonet while still in my under armor and barefoot and yawn while walking to the area that's become the kitchen. I put some cold water into a wooden cup and drank it all at once. Along with a ringing sensation in my temple that cold water woke me up all at once. Bel is drinking some cold water the same way next to me. It sure is convenient being able to use water and fire magic right.

After that I used earth magic to create something like a bench where we could sit down and,

"Morning."
"Good morning."

we greeted each other before going into a short daze. Since we're the last in order for night watch, it's not like we're going to be sleeping again after this, after this we'll just take an adequate shower and put on our armor.

"Is it fine to go ahead first?"
"Yeah."

Bel put in a word with me before going to take her shower first. Since both Bel and I have plenty of MP we can get away with using level 3 water and fire magic and level 4 void magic for a total of 10 MP on our morning shower. It recovers in about 1 hour after all. Thinking about the drainage our shower facility is about 1m higher now. I made a foundation from dirt and stone and then we placed boards on top of that. We tilted several of the boards just a bit. There's a light slope on the lower ones and it stretches to about 20m outside of the room. The slope sinks in a bit and I cut off a piece of rubber cloth stretched out thin to lay out in it so you could say for the time being it functions plenty as a drain.

I felt a bit like taking a piss but as expected it's not good for both of us to move away while were on lookout duty. I'm sure Bel's shower will only take a few minutes so I'll just wait. Ah, I'm in the faction that it's no good to do while showering. It still remains in my memory that my parent's in my past life properly disciplined me to do it in the toilet. It's already been 16 years since then, I wonder if my parents are still alive? If they are then both of them would long since be..88 years old I guess?

Hn? Come to think of it Miki should still be alive as well. And, she's in this world too, no, was in this world. So there was two of her existence for at least close to 60 years? I could have sworn that Orth was just a different planet or something somewhere in the vast universe but...No, I have some memory of an SF that I read in the past. It seems that time isn't uniform throughout the universe. Let alone that if you exceed the speed of light you end up getting younger or something...I guess it doesn't particularly matter though. There's no way I would understand from just thinking about it, and I have no method of investigating it after all...

The sound of the shower behind me stopped. I guess she's done. Ever since I gave her that present, Bel has bought some thick towels with her own money like a lady and properly wipes her body. I often dry her hair with my magic as well. Of course I don't use something like a towel to wipe my body. I just dry my entire body in an instant with magic and it's over.

Shortly after, I can hear the sound of Bel putting on her underwear and clothes and it seems she's come out of the shower room.

"Sorry, before I dry your hair I've got to go to the bathroom."
"Ah, please do."

I go down the passage we've setup as a bathroom and turn down the first corner to the left facing the corner wall as I started to take a piss. And, then I immediately noticed. Someone is approaching. Is it Bel? Wait a bit longer for me to finish up. Even I managed to wait for you to finish your shower.

"Al-san!"

I heard Bel calling out to me from the right side, the direction of the room. Simultaneously I heard the footsteps of Bel running over from the room.

Eh?

"Al-san, someone is coming!"

Bel's voice is coming from my right.

Eh?

I reflexively turned just my head around to the left. After being told I realized that several people were coming closer from further in the hall.

Eh?

I look at my hands. There's a light yellow fluid flowing out that can't be stopped. Ah, the fat is gradually being removed from the Martian*.

Eh?

I look behind to the right. Bel is coming running down the hall.

Eh?

I look behind on the left. The silhouettes that were approaching from further down the hall appear to have stopped.
I felt relieved. 

"Al-san!"

I look behind on the right. Bel is already 10m or so away.

Don't look over here. I can't stop suddenly.

"Uwa, Bel! Don't come over here!"

She already has her short sword in her hand. She's holding it inside of the scabbard and hasn't drawn it though.

Bel comes to a stop.

The only sound coming from the hall is that of a liquid hitting the ground. What kind of torture is this. But I guess it's still good luck that at least it wasn't the large one?

Eventually the pitiful trickling sound came to an end and I was finally able to put it away. I immediately used earth magic to bury and hide it.

I forcefully swallowed the awkward feeling and after looking at Bel nodded and used {Light} on a rock further down the hall. Those guys are...

"{Sun Ray}.."

Bel said in a whisper. Certainly that's the case. About 40m ahead they're standing, it's {Sun Ray}. I looked at them for a few seconds and then went to Bel's side, just as I was about to my put my hand on her shoulder I realized I hadn't washed my hands yet so I stopped. Instead I called out to her.

"Let's go back."

I said that and we returned the teleport room.



................



After returning to the teleport room and I guess the members of the {Slaughterers} got used to it on the 3rd floor teleport room but they were still boldly covered in their blankets. Since I started to feel a bit like testing it out, with a normal speaking voice I,

"Everyone, wake up."

tried saying that. Unexpectedly everyone quickly opened their eyes. Ralpha even woke up right away and grabbed the {tomahawk} that was sitting on her side. Even though she should have just fallen asleep..I'm amazing she was able to wake up.

"We have a guest."

I said that and took a seat on the bench-like seat. I want to wash my feet and put my socks and shoes on...Bel grabbed her bow and arrows and crossed through the room in long steps before taking up a seat in the corner.

Soon after the members of {Sun Ray} entered the room. A total of 8 people huh? They all have a cloth dyed gold on their right arm. I can see the mark of a Torii on the surface of the shield one guy is using as well. The emblem of the party is the Torii mark. Although, the only top team with something like a party emblem is them. After they all entered the room they made surprised faces seeing how comfortable the corner of the room we were in looked but they went to a different corner to start making preparations to camp. Seeing that we were pretty surprised as well.

"So they've caught up with us huh.."

Zenom whispered. That's right. The fact that they aren't returning the upper floors and are preparing to camp means none other than the fact that they intend to aim for the 6th floor. I wonder if we should quickly clear through the 6th floor already and aim for the 7th floor? Right now, we've filled in about 60% of the map of the 6th floor. Honestly speaking, if it was just making it to the 7th floor then it wouldn't be all that difficult. Since if we teleport from here about 50% of the time we end up on a floor we've been to before after all.

However, wait just a minute. They also say, "a beggar in a hurry will receive less". Up until now we've always aimed to complete at least 80% of the map before heading to the next floor. It can't be helped hurrying over something like this. Other people have their way of doing things and we have our way.

"I'm sure these sorts of things happen. However, we who have Gwine have been exploring the 6th floor for quite a while. Even though they're one of the top teams, we won't be overtaken so easily."

And in the first place, there's quite a few members of {Sun Ray}(if I remember correctly it's about 15-16 in total). Up until about six months ago it seems like they were doing rotations but recently they've started splitting their party into groups as they cleared through. Though there's a groundless rumor that the reason for that is us.

"They've been exploring the 5th floor since before we came to Baldukk. For the past six months they should have been splitting their team up while exploring. It makes sense why their clearing speed is faster than the other top teams. In that sort of meaning you could say that we're far stranger."

I said that and stood up. Since it doesn't particularly seem like they intend to fight with us, in that case then I thought of taking a shower right away.

"Since it seems fine, you can all rest at east until it's time. And, it's fine we depart a bit later today as well. I'm going to take a shower after drying off Bel's hair."

I said that before drying Bel's hair and then after entering the shower room, I took my clothes off. I put my clothes into the basket and hung it on the wall. I quickly took a shower and then used magic to dry my entire body before putting my clothes on. After leaving I put my socks and shoes on as well. I put my rubber protectors on and after confirming that Bel has finished putting her leather armor on, I exchanged glances with Bel and started approaching where {Sun Ray} were preparing to setup camp.

The members of {Sun Ray} noticed I was approaching and faced me so I called out to them after getting a bit closer.

"Just now was...sorry about showing you something quite unsightly...I'm Alan Greed. I'm the leader of the party {Slaughterers}. I recognize you all as {Sun Ray} but who is today's leader?"

There's no decided leader in {Sun Ray}. It seems they take turns among several people.
Of course it's not as if all of them take turns being the leader though.

I guess they heard my words, I heard a voice from behind me.

"I'm the leader. My name is Binsukol.Zemyunel. Do you have some business with us?"

So today it's this guy huh? He's a Dog-people man and his age is around 27-28. If I remember correctly his level was 17. I turn around to him and open my mouth.

"No, it's nothing significant. You might already know but on the 6th floor {Cave Boars} appear. Since their noses are good I suggest you take a shower before going to the 6th floor. If it's alright with you then I don't mind if you use the shower facility that we've prepared. It's made so that as long as you have someone who can use water magic of at least level 3 then you can take a shower with no problem."

After I said that and Zemyunel said while surprised.

"Oh~ is that so. It's our first time on the 6th floor. Thank you for the advice. Also, I'm grateful for letting us use your facilities."

He said that and lowered his head.

"No, it's fine. Ah, if you don't know how to use it then please ask my slave that will be remaining here. Well then."

I said that and returned to the encampment of the {Slaughterers}. What encampment?

After that, when it became time we all ate breakfast and then took showers in order before teleporting to the 6th floor.

It seems like {Sun Ray} only leave one person to keep watch.