Ossan Saikyō Chapter 9 Part 02
After successfully securing rooms at an inn, we gathered in the dining hall to discuss our plans.
“For now, there are two D-class dungeons we haven't cleared yet. One is here in Euron, and the other is in the neighboring town of Tolson.
…
The Euron dungeon has 15 floors, while the Tolson one has 10. I think we'll need to spend at least one night inside either of them. What do you all think?”
When I asked, Sphenia nodded.
“With our party, it's possible to reach the 10th floor in a single day. Still, it would be wiser not to push ourselves. We should plan on staying the night.”
“I agree. In that case, I think we should tackle the 10-floor dungeon first. The 15-floor one seems to be more difficult.”
“I think we'd probably be fine either way, but being cautious is important.”
After Rani spoke, both Freynil and Sphenia nodded in agreement.
“I think so as well.”
“I agree. There's no need to rush.”
“Alright then. Tomorrow we'll just do our training, then prepare for the trip. My new mace should be finished, so I'll pick that up... As for equipment, I guess the only concern now is Rani's sword and armor?”
“I think I'm still fine for now. Besides, dungeons with more than 10 floors have treasure chests, don't they?”
“Yeah, they do.”
In dungeons with 10 or more floors, there was a Boss every 5 floors, but only the final Boss granted a skill.
That didn't mean the intermediate Bosses offered nothing, though.
Each one dropped a treasure chest upon defeat.
If you were lucky, you could obtain powerful weapons or armor from them.
It really was a system designed to tempt adventurers with the thrill of chance.
“Then I'll just hope we get a good weapon there. If it's you, Soushi, I'm sure we'll get lucky.”
“Is that so?”
Sphenia tilted her head at Rani's remark.
She still didn't know the peculiar nature of our party.
Though to be fair, even I had no idea whether【Bad Luck】affected the contents of treasure chests.
“Is it possible for two treasure chests to appear?”
When Freynil asked, Rani's ears twitched.
“Oh! If it's Soushi, maybe that's actually possible. Ahh, now I'm getting excited. Let's run to Tolson at full speed tomorrow.”
“Something like that can happen...?”
Sphenia tilted her head again.
I felt a little bad about raising her expectations, but to be honest, I was looking forward to it myself.
We'd already confirmed that camping overnight wasn't much of a burden for us.
As long as we didn't let our guard down around monsters, everything should be fine.
◇◆◇
The following day, I headed to the weapon shop by myself.
The girls were apparently going shopping for clothes and supplies.
As soon as I entered, the dwarf owner spotted me and grinned.
“Hey there, lad. Your order's ready. Come on back.”
I followed him into the workshop.
The moment I saw it, an utterly monstrous mace sat upon the floor.
Like my current one, it had a spiked iron ball at the head.
However, that iron ball was more than a size larger.
The shaft was also absurdly thick.
About as thick as a 500 milliliter plastic bottle.
Naturally, it was somewhat longer as well, reaching around one and a half meters from end to end.
“Just like you ordered, I packed plenty of Dark Metal into the head. But because of that, I had to make the handle thicker or it'd snap clean off. That also gave it a nice bit of weight. Honestly, it'd take about five people to lift the thing. Go on, give it a try.”
I wrapped my hand around the grip.
For an ordinary person, it would have been too thick to grasp properly, but thanks to my【Grip】skill, I could hold it firmly.
I lifted the mace.
Yeah...
It had a wonderfully satisfying heft to it.
This thing looked like it'd be a joy to swing.
“You picked it up that easily? You're gonna become one hell of an adventurer. How's the balance?”
I gave it a light swing.
Even from that alone, I could tell it possessed terrifying destructive power.
At this point, I almost felt sorry for the monsters.
“The balance is excellent. It's easy to handle.”
“Well... I did put a lot of effort into it. Still... seeing someone swing it that easily is honestly unbelievable. Here, not exactly a test cut, but smash this for me.”
He placed a sturdy-looking suit of armor on the floor.
Judging by the large gash running through it, it was clearly junk.
I casually raised the mace and brought it down onto the armor.
There wasn't the slightest resistance.
The armor crumpled as though I had crushed something made of paper.
“I made the damn thing myself, and even I'm thinking I created a monster...”
The dwarf muttered as he stroked his beard.
If he ever saw me swing this thing at full power, his soul would probably leave his body.
In any case...
I'd become even stronger now.
My next goal would be to train until this mace actually felt light.
If I was going to become completely specialized in physical combat, then I might as well see just how far I could take it.
Honestly, I was looking forward to seeing what kind of person I'd become.
◇◆◇
On my way back from the weapon shop, I stopped by the Guild to let Mariane know we'd be heading to Tolson the following day.
She flipped through the Guild's extermination request ledger until her finger stopped on a certain page.
“There's an extermination request near Tolson. It's for a Gigant Viper, an upper D-Rank monster. I believe your party can handle it.”
“Gigant Viper? A giant snake monster?”
“Yes. The largest can reach about twenty rids in length. Both its hide and meat are valuable materials, so if possible, we'd appreciate it if you brought them back.”
Twenty rids was about twenty meters.
An absurdly enormous snake.
Still, the crocodile-shaped Flesh Golem we'd defeated recently had been around that size as well.
Honestly, if it was a purely physical monster, it would probably end up as food for my new mace.
“Understood. We'll take the request. Please tell me the details.”
According to Mariane, it had been spotted a short distance off the main road.
The report had come from the villagers where we'd previously exterminated the Moon Wolf.
That poor village really did have terrible luck.
(E/N: Ha! No, it's you 😂!)
“If we defeat it, can we hand over the materials at the Guild in Tolson?”
“If possible, we'd appreciate it if you brought the hide back here instead. It'll ultimately be processed in Euron anyway.”
It sounded like quite an unreasonable request, but she was obviously saying it because I had an【Item Box】.
I agreed and left the Guild.
◇◆◇
As I approached the inn, I spotted Freynil and the others.
That was fine.
The problem was that three young male adventurers were standing in front of them, enthusiastically trying to strike up a conversation.
Rani was standing at the front dealing with them.
Her tail was standing perfectly upright.
That alone told me the exchange wasn't going well.
With three exceptionally beautiful girls standing together, it wasn't hard to guess what was happening.
Freynil noticed me and looked over with pleading eyes.
I immediately quickened my pace.
“Excuse me. Is there something you need with my party members?”
The moment I spoke, one of the young men started to reply.
“What? Old man, nobody asked fo-!!!”
Then his eyes landed on the monstrous mace resting across my shoulder.
His expression froze.
“Ah... no... it's nothing. They were just cute, so we tried talking to them. That's all. See ya.”
The three hurried off as though fleeing.
I see.
So this mace had another use.
Now that I thought about it, adventurers at the Guild had been glancing at me repeatedly as well.
So that was why.
“I'm so glad you came, Soushi-sama.”
Freynil hurried over and clung to my arm.
“Honestly... I've spent half the day dealing with guys trying to hit on us. Next time, you're coming with us.”
Rani puffed out her cheeks while Sphenia smiled wryly beside her.
Sphenia probably realized that she herself was responsible for about half the attention.
But admitting it outright would sound overly self-conscious, so apologizing wasn't exactly an option either.
“Even from my perspective, the three of you stand out. The men are the ones at fault, but... that's just how it is.”
“I've got zero interest in weak men. Maybe all three of us should just cover our faces.”
Rani said it sulkily.
Depending on where we were, that might actually become necessary.
This wasn't exactly a world with a strong concept of personal rights.
Sphenia nodded before looking toward the mace resting on my shoulder.
“So that's your new weapon, Soushi-san? It hardly looks like something a human could wield. Though I can certainly understand why adventurers would run away just from seeing it.”
“It's really enormous. Soushi-sama is becoming even stronger.”
Freynil's eyes sparkled.
“Well, I still can't exactly swing it effortlessly. But it should make a pretty good charm.”
“It really will. From now on, whenever we're walking around town, you have to carry that mace over your shoulder. It'll make excellent bug repellent.”
It was a rather cutting remark, but honestly, Rani wasn't wrong.
If merely carrying it around was enough to keep troublemakers away from them, then maybe that was for the best.
Still...
If I walked around town all the time carrying this mace over my shoulder, I had a feeling it'd make me stand out even more.
That would probably create an entirely different set of problems.
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E/N:
Just imagining the scene of those men scurrying away with their tails between their legs is hilarious!
Stay tuned!
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