ăI get that this materialâs valuable and all but should we really be standing around here for this long?
ăIf we were to get there ahead of everyone weâd have ta throw down with the boss all by ourselves, no need ta rush things.
Hiroshi replied with an answer that only addressed one of Artiemâs concerns and went right back to picking apart the wines and various leaves. His focus was unwavering, his hands glided through the air with purpose. It was clear to anyone that Hiroshi knew what he was doing and he did it well.
ăWasnât there anything worth gathering on those walls you just blew a hole though?
ăThose last few walls didnât âave anythinâ of value. Some of the plants on there could be used for class seven potions but I donât see any reason why we should drop what weâre doinâ for a material we can find almost anywhere else.
ăWhatâs so different about the ones here?
ăWith just a little pinch âo the good âol alchemy I can transmute âem into either Barcella or one if its substitutes Millaret, both materials for class one potions.
Artiem looked visibly baffled at the mention of class one potions. Both the first and second class potion recipes were a relic of the past, although five pots of the real thing can still be found scattered around the world. All five of those were exclusively hp pots, all the other types got completely used up while repelling the coordinated onslaught of limbo monsters.
As such it was reasonable to be healthily skeptical about Hiroshiâs ability to craft something thatâs been lost to the sands of time. Even if Hiroshi was to achieve this highly unlikely feat there was no way of knowing whether it was the real thing or not as regular town folk could get a full heal from just a class eight while the average decently levelled adventurer could achieve the same effect with class fives. The difference in healing amounts would progressively scale the further down the ranks one went and by class three they would already hit the max hp cap, which made it downright impossible to tell a class three and a class two apart purely by the numbers.
ăWhatâs a Barcella?
ăA moss found within the great divine cavern situated around the summit which, when consumed raw, would heal for as much as a class five, with a lil bit of tinkerinâ, of course.
ăWhat about Millaret?
ăItâs basically Barcella thatâs been purified down to only its elements with healing properties. Youâd think that itâd be more potent that way, but due to how those impurities interacted with one another they actually put Barsella ahead, which made it the choice material for potions. That being said, with a bit of workinâ around the difference is negligible at best.
Artiem stared on blankly as she was being bombarded with a flurry of specialized lingo. The whole exposition did little to clear up her doubts but at the same time her gut feeling had a hard time fully distrusting the highly expansive track record Hiroshi had going for him.
ăJust know that the stuff we got on hand isnât anywhere near enough for class one brewing, so as much as Iâd love ta put my money where me mouth is thatâll come at a later time.
ăAlright then.
Hiroshi, who had taken notice of Artiemâs dubious stare, off-handedly brushed off any implicit accusations with a trick up his sleeve by the name of reality. Once that was cleared up he returned right back to work and after a solid five minutes of silence he picked apart the entire wall clean.
ăNow that thatâs over with what say we take this pole axe for one more spin?
ăNot going to stop you just, make sure to be ready for a fight in case there are monsters hiding behind that wall.
ăI donât need ta make sure of anythinâ since Iâm almost certain thatâs goinâ ta be the case.
ăUh, huh?
Artiem was in complete awe at Hiroshiâs reckless abandon. Thatâs not to say that she wasnât giving credit where credit was due, his ability to sense enemies across dense objects was praiseworthy although Artiem, a pragmatist at heart, found it hard to fathom how, despite this foresight, he nevertheless insisted on charging in without any real plan in mind. This frustrating disconnect made her want to give Hiroshi a piece of her mind but she managed to hold back.
ăDonât ya worry ya pretty lil head, thereâs more than one wall separating us and the monsters plus Iâve already got a strategy in mind in case brute force wonât do us any good.
ăAre you sure?
ăIâm sure Iâm sure.
Hiroshiâs vague hints at there being a plan werenât all that convincing but, if experience taught us anything, is that when push comes to shove he wasnât fooling around. Whether or not those plans of his would go without a hitch was debatable but there was almost no doubt that he wasnât intent on throwing his life away for no real reason.
Hiroshi, completely unaware of the inner turmoil happening right in front him, approached the wall with a sly grin, raised his pole axe above head and
ăHow do ya like me now, eh?
Swung it down like his life depended on it. Just like the many times before the attack disintegrated the walls in an instant, opening up a massive gaping hole in its wake.
What awaited on the other side was a pack of oversized squirrels which were a few heads taller than the average human.
ăH-Hiroshi!
Their sheer size and number inspired fear in Artiemâs heart which made her unconsciously turn towards Hiroshi in hopes of finding relief. What she saw at that moment absolutely blew her away.
ăEat this!
ăWhere did you get that!?
Hiroshiâs battle cry was followed up by the sight of a super-sized pomey soaring through the air. To get a more accurate idea of just how massive it was, for comparison the one they shoved in Baroldâs face was tiny by comparison. Itâs as though an entire mutated cabbage head was repurposed into a bomb. For a normal human being itâd be a challenge to rip it off the ground, much less throw in a straight line of all things, but for Hiroshi, who could wield the heaviest of war-hammers without breaking a sweat, it came as naturally as breathing.
ăGet behind cover!
Hiroshi yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed Artiem, who was standing frozen in place, and hid behind the wall. He finished casting defensive circle and fortress right as it went boom, the shock waves were so intense they could be felt across the entirety of the dungeon.
Although itâs destructive force falls short of the titanic roar it was still much more impactful than any lower tier advanced aoe ability. The squirrels in the epicenter of the blast were wiped clean off the face of the earth while the ones just shy of it were turned into bloody pulps. The few who happened to be in the outer blast radius had either their entire skeletons blown to smithereens or passed away from fatal internal organ damage, while the three remaining lucky rascals who didnât get blasted into heaven suffered heavy damages. Just like that a few dozen gigantic squirrels met their maker in a sequence of events that took mere seconds to unfold in real time.
ăWhat on earth was that!?
ăI spotted it durinâ our hot spring outinâ and I simply couldnât stop miself from seeinâ what places I could take the little feller with a lil bit of selective breedinâ. At some point it just got way too out of hand to return to the wild so I held onto it for safe keepinâ.
ăSelective breed this, selective breed that why is it always selecting breeding with you?
ăAs a craftsman itâs my sworn duty ta take mi inquisitive nature as far as it pleases.
Hiroshi made his way towards the remaining few squirrels who still had some fighting spirit left in them and quenched it through the use of outclass, while simultaneously blabbering on about some abstract concept that probably sounded better in his head. Artiem just stood on and watched.
A mere few seconds later said squirrels were already sleeping with the fishes.
ăWhat in blazers was that!?
An explosion went off somewhere in the distance.
Haruna and Tatsuya, who had been making steady progress towards the source of the miasma, were stopped dead in their tracks by the shockwave resulting from the explosion.
ăDo you think someone got in an encounter?
ăThink? Iâm almost completely sure of it.
ăJudging by the magnitude of that blast it must have been a doozy up close.
ăMakoto and Mio couldnât have been responsible for this
ăBut that would mean that⊠theyâre in danger!?
ăDonât rush to conclusions, we can check in on them via party chat.
Tatsuya shifted his focus towards the party chat after stopping Haruna from running to conclusions. Hiroshi was experienced enough to where he could respond to messages even in the midst of battle and in the unlikely case that it was Makoto and Mio behind this one of them would find the time to respond eventually.
ïŒWe heard an explosion, how are things on your end?ïŒ
ïŒBesides the fact that it took us by surprise allâs good.ïŒ
ïŒOur plan of avoiding the miasma is kind of getting derailed at the moment, asides from that everythingâs peachy though.ïŒ
Tatsuya felt relieved to hear that Makoto and Mio werenât in any immediate danger, as was evident by their jokey tone. Hiroshi had yet to respond, which was enough evidence in itself to rightly assume that he was the one to cause all the commotion.
ïŒIâm responsible for alla the hubbub, sorry âbout that.ïŒ
Tatsuyaâs growing concern was swiftly dispelled by Hiroshiâs lackadaisical response. Just as he was entertaining the idea of pressing Hiroshi for further detail he got beaten to the punch by the man himself.
ïŒWhen we busted through the wall a whole army of them things kindly welcomed us with open arms. Iâm not much for social pleasantries so I had the super-sized pomey take care oâ that for me.ïŒ
ïŒDidnât you use them all up already?ïŒ
ïŒYa seriously think ya can get any conclusive results from a sample size of just one or two pomeys? Are ya deaf lad?ïŒ
ïŒNow Iâll have you know-ïŒ
Tatsuya did not waste a single moment giving Hiroshi a piece of his mind. Due to his so called âinquisitive natureâ Hiroshi would frequently dabble in less than wholesome experimentation.
ïŒAs I was sayinâ before being rudely interrupted by a certain someone, Iâm currently in the process of collecting materials from alla these dead squirrels. Most of the corpses be a teeny tiny bit too utterly mutilated to yield anythinâ of real value, but the few that remained relatively intact can be used to craft stat-boostinâ items, so Iâm makinâ sure to salvage what I can. Oh and how do yaâll feel âbout squirrel meat?ïŒ
ïŒWhat does it taste like, sensei?ïŒ
ïŒExcellent question little one. It tastes like squirrel.ïŒ
ïŒIâm sold.ïŒ
Just as Hiroshi was about to leave the party chat after having an eye-opening exchange with Mio, Haruna promptly butted into the conversation.
ïŒHiroshi.ïŒ
ïŒAye?ïŒ
ïŒDid anything happen to Artiem?ïŒ
ïŒDepends on what ya want to know. Are you askinâ whether she got caught in the crossfire or if she had another one of her âaccidentsâ?ïŒ
ïŒBoth.ïŒ
Tatsuya and Makoto had a hard time holding back from laughing at Harunaâs wholesome directness. For her, on the other hand, this wasnât a joke, it was a matter of life or death.
ïŒNothinâ happened to âer, in either sense. If it did weâd probably not be here discussinâ her well beinâ all willy nilly now would we?ïŒ
ïŒIâm glad to hear that. Iâll make sure we pick up the pace so it stays that way.ïŒ
ïŒNo need ta rush, weâll be collectinâ materials along the way, so if ya blast thought the entire thing ya will just end up facingâ off against the boss all by yerselves.ïŒ
ïŒOk.ïŒ
Hiroshi was completely oblivious to Harunaâs true motive. The dungeon run to him was less of a run and more of a leisurely stroll, so to speak. This attitude of his might have seemed inappropriate considering their set of circumstances at the time but upon further scrutiny anyone could gather that one was only able to maintain a state of complete alertness for only so long before their body gave out. As such taking it easy to some extent wasnât just a good thing, it was the desired approach.