During the week of Melchor’s absence, the first three days were rest days. And on the remaining four, the team was to explore layer sixty-one in order to help Xeno and Korinna get accustomed to the Volcano layers.
Everyone was free to spend the days off however they liked, but Daryl first went to Dorren Workshop to ask for his equipment to be repaired. He greeted Dorren as the latter was throwing some coal into the furnace. Then, once he presented the armor pieces that needed repairing, Dorren raised an eyebrow.
“Damn, this is some heavy damage. You still got enough replacements?”
“Yes. I still have two sets left.”
“Okay, good. How’d you get hit in this spot, anyway?”
Seeing that the armor had been broken on a spot that Daryl would usually avoid taking hits with, Dorren knit his brows.
“I mean, it’s been a long time since you last took a hit an the neck part, you know? You usually wouldn’t let even a little scratch on it.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just that…”
“What? Speak clearly, boy.”
“Well, I mean, I might have… gotten a little too reckless.”
During the Fire Dragon battle, Daryl had felt like getting competitive due to how flashy the latter was, which resulted in him being a little more aggressive than usual. At one point, the Fire Dragon’s tail swipe hit his neck, resulting in the damage to that part of his armor.
Dorren scratched his chin, wondering what exactly Daryl meant by ‘getting a little too reckless’.
“What, you got some fierce competition going on in the Clan? But I heard from Tsutomu that there’s no fighting over being in the main team or anything like that, though?”
“No, it’s just… I want to be the very best.”
Hearing how serious Daryl was, Dorren took his eyes off the heavy armor, stunned for a moment. He had not at all expected Daryl to say that, with him still seeing the young man as a little puppy.
Dorren thought he had misheard, but upon a close look, he noticed that Daryl now had a different air about him, being much more straightforward and determined than ever before. Dorren proceeded to give the young man a pat on his shoulders, cheering him on.
“Keh… hahaha! That’s good! Yeah, you gotta aim high like that!”
“Gah–! That hurt, Sir Dorren!”
Due to those ‘pats’ by a Dwarf’s standards being more like hard slaps to most other races, Daryl took a step away. Dorren proceeded to crack a grin.
“Look, I’ll give you all the repairs you need. You just aim high and become the very best, Daryl.”
“…Huh? Did I hear that right? Did you just… say my name?”
“What? You got any other business with me? If not, then get your ass outta here right now, doggo.” Dorren sent Daryl on his way, though the way he did it felt more like chasing away a stray dog.
“Ah–!! You totally did!!” Daryl argued so hard that, if not for the exchange’s comedic tone, one might think he was about to bite back.
And so, seen off by one of the apprentices, Daryl reluctantly left the workshop. With Dorren’s encouragement still echoing clearly in his ears, he returned to the Clan House in high spirits, unable to hide his grin the whole time.
――▽▽――
Korinna planned to spend the days off spectating other teams’ explorations, so she was outside most of the time, with the rest of the time spent relaxing in the Clan House. Before now, she had been struggling to make ends meet due to her low income as an Explorer, and had to work part-time as a nurse. For that reason, she was very happy that this Clan had a house for its members to live in, helping her save on food and lodging expenses.
“Now THIS… this is definitely tastier than what that restaurant had, Miss Ollie!”
“Thank you very much.”
Surprisingly enough, it turned out that Korinna was quite a big eater, with the steak she was having being as big as what Daryl would usually have. This was despite her relatively small build — though not as small as Hannah’s. In fact, Ollie honestly had no idea how Korinna even managed to fit the whole steak into her stomach.
After finishing her heavy breakfast, Korinna put on a coat and picked up a large lunch box from Ollie, then headed out to the plaza where the Monitors were. Spectating other Explorers’ activities through these Monitors had been her only hobby for the longest time, even after she became an Explorer herself, and she could even enjoy some street food and wine while she was at it, too.
At first, Korinna had been content with just watching, but then she began to admire Explorers more when she saw a certain girl shown on a Monitor. She then succumbed to her urge to create a Status Card, and proceeded to begin her activities as an Explorer.
[Now, which Pedestal should I look at?]
Monitor #1 had an especially large screen, so it naturally attracted attention from spectators of all ages, from children to the elderly, from the general public to the Dungeon Maniacs. Some among them, though, preferred not to watch the numbered Monitors, instead enjoying spectating through the ‘random’ Monitors — the sizes of which were closer to CRT TVs, and true to their name, they showed footage of in-battle Explorers at random. Korinna liked watching those occasionally, too.
Still, the numbered Monitors were much bigger and had better visual clarity, so today, Korinna decided to start with Monitor #10. It was still early in the morning, so the more famous teams were not yet active, with most of the ones currently shown being the mid-tier people trying to make progress.
The part she liked to watch the most was, of course, the fighting — though that was far from the only thing that Dungeon exploration had to offer. The Dungeon was filled with a great variety of sceneries and monsters, and Korinna quite liked seeing Explorers’ reactions to seeing new things for the first time.
She also enjoyed learning about Explorers through interviews, which were never in short supply thanks to newspapers and public events. They often gave out different impressions from what she would see on the Monitors, and sometimes it was that gap that caused her to become a fan of certain Explorers herself. She had had high opinions on Daryl and Garm for some time now, and she quite liked the recently-famous Hannah for various reasons, too. They did not see each other that often since they were currently working with different teams, but she hoped to talk to her someday.
Moving on from one Monitor, Korinna walked around to the next one, analyzing the live footage in detail — and she never got tired of doing it the whole time.
[Ah, that guy’s dead,] Korinna thought as she watched a party currently in battle.
The person in question was a Tank, and just as Korinna thought, he got his abdomen pierced by a Spear Deer ten or so seconds later, and his body burst into light particles. Korinna continued to ‘sense’ the death of other in-battle Explorers, and sure enough, they died shortly after.
From all the Monitor footage she had seen so far, her own experience as an Explorer, and her work experience as a nurse, she was good at foreseeing combatants’ deaths based on the mood and tendencies of the fight. In fact, she had spectated so many battles that she could anticipate a good deal of occurrences in general.
The ability to ‘predict’ death was what she had always had to some degree, and after the three-role composition became more popular, she had had many more opportunities to improve its accuracy. Her predictions were almost always right, which ended up creeping out her friends who would sometimes spectate with her.
Around noon, when the workers on their lunch breaks began to gather near the Monitors, Korinna went to sit on a bench to eat the sandwiches that Ollie had prepared for her.
She picked the spicy chicken sandwich as her first piece, though before she even finished it, she was already eyeing the ham and egg sandwiches as well. The stalls near the Monitors were also tempting since she could get freshly-cooked food from them, but Ollie had prepared such a wide variety of sandwiches that she was satisfied with them for now.
And so, she continued to watch the Monitors as she gobbled up the sandwiches in her box.
――▽▽――
“My sources were correct — My skill does have an effect that helps reduce the effect of heat! Ahh, it’s so beautiful, I don’t think I can keep looking at it!”
Xeno seemed quite happy as he looked away from his hands upon seeing them wrapped in auras of gleaming silver.
Xeno and Korinna, newcomers to the Volcano layers, were spending the next four days getting accustomed to the biome’s environment and its monsters. The effect of Xeno’s <<Ember Aura>> turned out to be useful in mitigating the area’s heat, getting rid of the scorching hell everyone had had to put up with all this time, thus making things easier for the whole team.
Without special skills like this, one would need to regularly rehydrate and use temperature control magic tools instead — which were quite costly, so the team was thankful to have access to one right now. There was one gripe Diniel had with it, however.
“You know, all these flashing lights really are unnecessary. You should stop it.”
“Hmph, the color of Xeno cannot be suppressed. Whether you like it or not, I will continue to make it shine!”
“……”
Diniel closed her eyes, giving up on trying to argue her point. Fortunately, one of Korinna’s Divine Protection skills, the <<Adventuring Deity’s Protection>>, could also help with environmental effects, so she opted to use that instead. It also caused her to glow, but the light was far less distracting compared to Xeno’s aura, and thus did not get in the way of her shooting.
Ideally, they would want to have an Adventurer for help in this aspect, since that Job had access to the most terrain-related skills, making them quite valuable in the Dungeon’s second half of layers, from the Volcano and Snow Fields to the Ancient Castle. In fact, it was thanks to an excellent Adventurer like Misil that the Clan of Silver Beast was doing so well right now, so much so that they were currently ahead of Ealdred Crow.
“All right, let us be on our way, then! Miss Diniel, please!” Daryl said as he looked at an information sheet that Ollie and her apprentice had compiled for him.
“Mm-hm.” Diniel nodded and started scouting the area.
Considering the dungeoneering scene’s average progression, a team was guaranteed to be at least shown on Monitor #50, meaning they would have a God Eye following them. While Diniel was busy searching for enemies, Korinna looked around and found this layer’s God Eye floating in the air.
The God Eyes were basically eyeball-like spheres that acted as the Dungeon’s cameras, projecting whatever it saw onto its corresponding Monitor. They followed Explorers’ explicit directions to some extent, with ones closer to Monitor #1 being able to take more precise instructions.
After telling Diniel the areas of the Volcano with high possibilities of there being Black Gates, Daryl noticed Korinna looking at the God Eye in the distance.
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, nothing much. It’s just… I’m feeling a little nervous, knowing that so many people are watching us right now.”
As Daryl approached her, Korinna looked down and tightened her grip on her talisman. The Absolute Helix team was currently shown on Monitors close to #20, and viewership was high due to them being one of the town’s top Clans. Previously, Korinna had not gotten to see God Eyes very often, and even when she did, their numbers were in the late 40s at best.
Now, however, she could not help but feel embarrassed to imagine just how many people were watching. And now that Daryl asked her about it, she became a little more conscious of God Eye as a result.
“…Now that you mentioned it, it’s quite reasonable to feel nervous, yes.”
“I know, right? Ah, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that — I mean, Xeno is always… his showy self, and Diniel doesn’t seem to care at all!”
“Ah… Right.”
Daryl thought of the faces everyone would make while on camera. Tsutomu had not cared about such things at all in the beginning, but he recently started to pay more attention to them for the sake of publicity. Amira still did not seem to have any interest in that, while Hannah cared only a tiny bit.
Having worked with those three for a long time, Daryl did not particularly mind being watched, but now that he thought about it, he did feel a little embarrassed — if only because he remembered how he viewed other teams through the Monitors whenever he gathered information.
The God Eye, seemingly sensing the pair’s being conscious of it, proceeded to approach them and circle at a low angle around Korinna, whose attire was a fairly common kind for Channeler: a black and white nun-like outfit.
And then the God Eye moved on to Daryl, focusing on his fluffy tail that stuck out of his uncool, utilitarian armor.
“W-why is it acting like this!?”
“H-how am I supposed to know!?”
The two of them turned bright red and started running away from God Eye, which continued to follow them. Xeno, noticing the commotion, started running after them so that he could get on the camera as well.
“They have way too much energy…”
Diniel spent a moment looking at them, then proceeded to use <<Eagle Eye>> again to search for the Black Gate.
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