Hmm? I looked up when I felt eyes on me. Sumire was watching me, resting her head against her hand.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“May I watch you?” she asked.
“Go ahead,” I replied with a wry smile.
I have an audience, huh? Simply swinging a sword would bore her, so I looked around. Since we were in the Rainforest Area, we were surrounded by trees. Among them, I noticed one that was on the verge of dying. Fat chunks had been torn out of its base, as if something had been gnawing on it, and its only remaining leaves were all dried up, barely clinging to its branches.
This is a good one. I went up to it and slammed the palm of my hand against the trunk. The tree shook from the impact, and leaves fluttered down from the branches. There’re about twenty of them, I guessed at a glance as I held my sword at the ready. The move to use here is...
Niten Enmei-ryu: Wind Stance: Air Sickle. It was a dance-like technique that sliced up everything around the swordsman, making it useful when one was surrounded by enemies. I slashed through the leaves with precise swings before looking over to Sumire in a wordless “How was that?” I figured she’d be impressed by my moves, but she was just staring at me, mouth agape and eyes wide.
“Sumire?”
“E-Eugene...”
“What’d you think of that?”
“D-Did you just cut all the leaves before they even reached the ground?!”
“Yeah, but I’m out of practice. Missed a few. If my old man saw that pathetic display, he’d really give me an earful.”
“W-Wow! You’re so amazing that I don’t even know what to say, but, Eugene, you’re just incredible! Hey, what else can you do?!”
“Hmm. All right, I’ll show you this.”
In a good mood from Sumire’s unguarded praise, I decided to show off the various techniques of the Niten Enmei-ryu school of swordsmanship. It had been a long time since I’d done this. Sumire was so loud with her compliments that the members of the Martial Arts Club, curious at the noise, all gathered around us, and I ended up having to demonstrate my attacks for them too.
In the end, we all went to sleep at a late hour. A day like this wasn’t so bad once in a while, though.
♢ The Next Morning ♢
We set out for the 15th Level. Thanks to the magic of Babel, the stairs leading upward changed locations every day; that was why we didn’t bother looking for them the night previous. It would’ve just been a waste of time. The experienced members of the Martial Arts Club had reached the 19th Level in the past, though, so it didn’t take us long to find the stairs up to the 16th.
That was when a group of Goblins attacked us. A Hobgoblin, a more powerful strain of Goblin, led them. I was about to borrow some of Sumire’s Ifrit mana to help fend them off, but the Martial Arts Club members defeated them all before I had the chance.
“Aw, man. Too bad, Eugene,” Sumire said.
“Well, nothing we can do about that,” I replied with a shrug.
On the 17th Level, we ran into a group of Orcs but defeated them without issue as well. After the fight, we took a break near the Dungeon Elevator. Other members of the Martial Arts Club came to meet us there, holding more food in their hands. They didn’t hesitate to share some with Sumire and me. We ate a meal of meat, vegetables, and fried fish in between slices of bread and covered in a flavorful sauce.
“Wow, sandwiches!” Sumire said with a joyful look. Apparently, this was a familiar meal to her.
I enjoy this a lot too, actually. Maybe I should make them myself next time. After lunch, we continued our exploration.
On the 18th Level, a troop of Kobolds attacked us. Since they used weapons like spears and bows, which allowed them to attack enemies from a distance, the Martial Arts Club members, with their shorter reach, had some trouble fighting them. I continued to act as a Healer, though no one received any serious injuries.
It took us about an hour more to reach the 19th Level. As Healer, I mostly hung out near the rear of the party with Sumire. Truthfully, I was rather bored.
“Looks like I won’t be needed this time either,” I said.
“Ah, sorry about that, Eugene. But safety first, right? Thanks to you being here, we don’t have to be wary of cutting loose,” Leona said. She must have felt bad, since she had been the one to extend the invitation.
“We’re really making smooth progress,” Sumire said. She looked like she wasn’t really paying attention to her surroundings. I had to remind her of where we were.
“Sumire, just so you know, you’ll have to abandon such naive thoughts once we get past the lower levels. There’s a reason Babel is the Last Dungeon, and that it’s the only one that humans haven’t fully conquered yet. We were talking about the 100th Level, but the difficulty spike from the 50th Level is nothing to scoff at either. We’re C-rank explorers now that we got past the 10th Level, and passing the 50th Level will turn us into B-rank explorers. The gap between C and B is a wide one.”
“That being said, we’re still on the 19th Level,” said Leona.
“Well, yeah.”
Leona was right. We were still in the lower levels. There shouldn’t be any danger, so long as we played it safe and abided by the usual rules of exploration. Without running into any trouble, we eventually discovered the stairs to the 20th Level.