After waking up in the morning, I left my room. I yawned as I walked through the salon, feeling the morning sunlight through the window.
Celeste was slumped against the arm of the couch.
“What’s the matter, Celeste?” I asked.
“Oh… Ryota. No big deal, it’s just a magic storm.”
“Oh, man.”
Magic storms were a type of weather in this world. During such storms, people couldn’t use magic at all. Depending on the person, you might even feel sick. Celeste was one such person.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just the usual,” she replied. “I’m not actually sick, so it’s fine. This one just happens to be a bit long, so that sucks a little.”
“Long, you say?”
“Yeah. They say it’ll last five days.”
“That is long!” I was surprised.
Five whole days? This must be the longest one yet.
“It’s just the season for it. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Kinda like rainy season, huh?”
I compared it to my old world.
“What about you, Ryota? Are you okay?”
“Huh?”
“You look so serious lately. Are you working on something big?”
I touched my face all over again. It was true that I’d been extra-motivated by the prospect of meeting Nihonium lately. Had she seen through me?
“I dunno, maybe.”
“Do you need my help?” She sat up with a determined look on her face.
I appreciated the offer. It made me happy, but I answered, “It’s okay. I’ll manage.”
“Yeah… Knowing you, I’m sure you will.” She slumped down again.
She trusted me; and to live up to that trust, I planned to go for another hard day’s work in Nihonium.
☆
After breakfast, I went to chat with Plumbum. She showed me an even more powered-up Prince Ryo. His face was prettier than ever, and his clothes were more sophisticated.
If the two of us competed in a beauty pageant, he’d trounce me, I thought as I left her and went to Nihonium.
There, I farmed zombie dragons, typically with eternal flame rounds. When I ran into a specimen with a counter of 1, I used the Bead of Time and shot a bunch of bullets.
Along the way, I stopped using eternal flame rounds on counters of 3 and above; instead, I’d use a growth round and annihilation round combo.
I continued to refine my methods.
Slow and steady wins the race. Even if it took longer to kill them because of these new methods, I might still get a flash of inspiration. I considered using the two-action eternal flame rounds against a 3-counter dragon lazy, so I stopped doing it.
And so, I killed monster after monster, gradually raising my dexterity.
Eventually, though, I got a sharp headache.
The magic storm was affecting me, too. MP, intelligence, willpower─I’d raised all of my magic-related stats to SS, so magic storms affected my health. Not as much as they did Celeste’s, though.
Most of all…
“Repetition.” I tried casting a spell, but it didn’t work.
Even the strongest farming magic in the world was still just magic; it was useless during magic storms.
A zombie dragon with a counter of 1 appeared. I used my Bead of Time on my gun and fired repeatedly to kill it.
When I got the dexterity seed, I was relieved. It was a good thing I hadn’t settled for incorporating Repetition into my farming scheme. If I had, I’d be forced to give up for this whole five-day magic storm.
“I’d still like another option or two, I think.”
A pattern for 3-counters.
A pattern for 4-counters.
A pattern for 5-counters.
And though they were rare, an all-out pattern for 99-counters.
I wanted to try everything I could.
Suddenly, I heard applause nearby. I whipped around in surprise. Nobody ever came beyond B2 of Nihonium.
There I saw Neptune. As usual, his two orbiters Lil and Ran were there.
“Impressive,” Neptune said in greeting. “You’ve found a stable way to do work here. And in a magic storm, at that.”
“What brings you here? That’s rare.”
“Ahaha, well, I just heard there was someone who’d cleared a dungeon that I’d given up on long ago.”
“Given up…?”
“Remember? When Nihonium was born, we came here to investigate it.”
“…Oh!” In the very depths of my memories, I found it. I clapped my hands together when I remembered.
It had happened over a year ago, back when Emily and I had still struggled on B1 and B2 of Tellurium. Back when my stats were all F.
When Nihonium was “born,” there were rumors that the Neptune Family had been sent to investigate it.
“You’re right. I totally forgot.”
“To be honest…” his voice trailed off.
“Hmm?”
“I gave up on this dungeon. Threw in the towel.”
“You really did?”
“I investigated all the higher floors, yes, but I couldn’t do the 1-count and 2-count monsters here. I just couldn’t kill them in one blow.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Lil, Ran,” Neptune said to his girls. The women behind him came up and clung to him.
“Yeah, yeah. You just want a demonstration?”
“Leave it to us!”
A zombie dragon passed by; its counter was at 3.
Lil and Ran began casting spells in songlike tones.
“Godly Blessing!”
“Devilish Curse!”
White and black magic covered Neptune. Two opposing colors of light created wings of white and black.
Instantly, the counter went down to 1.
Neptune swung his fist without much ceremony. It was a powerful blow, easily blowing away the zombie dragon despite him not putting his full force behind it.
“That’s my trump card, as you can see. Three and higher are easy, but one and two are impossible.”
“Oh, I see.”
I’d seen his ultimate move there before. It had power to spare, but it was fully incompatible with this floor.
“But you’ve been an adventurer for a long time, too, so you understand. What does it matter if I can’t beat the one-count monsters here?”
“Yeah. No doubt,” I replied. Neptune nodded back.
This world’s rules were strict. Apart from phenomena relating to S-rank drops, there were no exceptions.
There was nothing wrong with Neptune investigating the whole dungeon down to this floor and giving up on the 1-count and 2-count monsters. If he reported that honestly to the Dungeon Association chief─Clint at the time─then that would’ve been convincing enough.
“That’s why I came. To see the face of the person who so easily overcame what I couldn’t.”
“That so?”
“You’re as impressive as ever. Say, why don’t you join me?”
“Still trying? How many times have you tried to poach me now?”
“But of course. I like you, remember?”
“You keep saying that, too… Sorry.”
“That’s a shame. Well…”
“Hm?”
“How about I join you instead?” he offered. “Like how Cliff and Margaret have already.”
“…Huh?”
“Let the Neptune Family come under the Ryota Family umbrella. How about it?” Neptune looked as serious as could be.
But…
“For real?” I confirmed.
“For real for real.”
Despite his light-heartedness, he seemed serious about this. Lil and Ran’s sulky looks were proof of that. As if they wanted to know why the hell Neptune would be subservient to someone else.
But he was serious.
For real, though?