Volume 4 Chapter 7.1

About ten days after renewing equipment…

「Mako, there is a giant centipede (uncertain) behind you.」

「Okay」

「Sensei, there’s a bone lizard (uncertain) approaching from the front.」

「Aight」

Hiroshi’s group finally got to delving into the dungeon. There was an easy explanation to why they were so late in doing this.

「……Yep, seems we were right in warming up.」

When they were accustomizing their equipment, Hiroshi hadn’t been able to stop himself.

「Is it really that different now mate？」

「Yeah, quite different」

Hiroshi asked Makoto while mercilessly pulverizing the bone lizard (which never had any real useful “materials” to gather), and Makoto replied while splitting the giant centipede in half with one strike as she replied seriously.

「Not only is the blade sharper than before, but the biggest changes are the leather and metal armors.」

「It was half plate before wyvern leather, mate.」

「When did this even take place？」

Hiroshi had brought up a topic that took place before Makoto met up with him and the others, and she questioned him with an exasperated look on her face. Though it was only a year since they had changed to wyvern leather, it had been even less time than when they had used the Farlane knight half plate. The team was already beginning to forget what the metal armor even felt like.

「But I seem to recall that we never acclimated the equipment with the wyvern leather, mate.」

「That time, our defense increased and our weight was light, so you might even say we managed to finish everything with Tatsuya’s oxide circle alone.」

「But it ain’t like Bro took on all of it by himself, right？」

「Aside from a few exceptions, pretty much anyone with that half plate armor hardly got hurt at all, so it was a super good idea to train them.」

「Ah, I gotchu」

Receiving an answer he could totally relate with, Hiroshi gave a broad nod. It was true that the number of monsters they defeated at the time were many in number, but there were only a few kinds of monsters they fought who were able to pierce through half plate armor and damage them, and on top of that, the wyvern laser armor (and especially Hiroshi’s which had max defense) were maybe evil tigers and hell hounds. But even for those two monsters, Tatsuya probably didn’t even need a class 7 potion with the armor he had on.

Needless to say, had this not been equipment created by Hiroshi, there would not have been nearly as much defense implemented.

「On another note, this hihiirokane katana is quite nice.」

「Ya like it？」

「Yes. Of course, orichalchum and adamantite aren’t bad at all. It’s just that this katana feels right.」

「At present, the worst performin’ one is that one, though」

「It’s true that this katana has the lowest performing edge among the three variants, but I feel more accustomed to it having used it the most. Also, whether it be a living thing or a nonliving thing, every time I slash something it feels like the sword is alive, as if it’s rejoicing over someone using it.」

At Makoto’s description, all the minors suddenly turned far in the other direction, clearly in an awkward situation. Clearly the training had gone well, but as a result, sadly enough, you couldn’t deny that this “katana” seemed to have acquired a strange new fetish.

「Ah, right, Makoto-san」

「Yeah？」

「I think I toldja that thing grows the more ya use it. Well, just know that depending on how ya use it, the growth can go in many different directions. Looking at the equilibrium between cooldown time, auto repairing, etc, I say ya just use yer extra skill when ya find the right timing.」

「Got it」

Listening to Hiroshi’s explanation, Makoto gave a nod. In many ways it was an appealing idea, that being the katana shifting into whatever its owner desired.

「On another note, it was quite unexpected to see not Haruna, but Hiroshi of all people with a breastplate.」

「I already told Haruna-san or Mio that if I put on a half plate of armor, the dungeon exploration would take a week or so longer.」

「Right, the whole penalty aspect」

「Yup. I did try ‘n move about with full plate when we were testin’ the armor out, and the weight was fine, but it’s supa hard ta move around, so while it’s fine with battle, I best not activate it much when just movin’ round. That’s how it felt.」

Makoto got what Hiroshi was saying. Hiroshi’s position made it guaranteed that he would take on the brunt of attacks, so while it was difficult to move around, he could make up for it with his skills to a certain extent. Outclass, for instance, didn’t take any penalties for attracting attention, and even if attacked from behind, Cover Dive was pretty good for following up in such instances. No one was depending on him for firepower, so if Hiroshi so much as got a smash attack on them it was plenty already, and with all of those elements together, you could say that even with very dull movement, the team would manage.

But they didn’t have all that many followup skills when exploring, plus acquiring and practicing all this was extremely troublesome. Even if they were to perfect this formation, with the current skills they had it was unfortunately not possible to move around that skillfully. So other than shut-in battle experts that specialized in clearing advanced class dungeons that were constantly at their throats if they didn’t constantly have full plate armor on (including tanks), there really weren’t that many people mastering those related skills.

Things appeared to be the same for this world’s adventurers. The only ones really doing this were knight wannabes. The majority of adventurers stuck with breast plate armor, even if it was metal, and the heaviest worn was half plate armor covering all the vital parts.

「Oh right, Makoto-san」

「Yes？」

「I did put a water movement enchantment on yer half plate just in case, but unlike mine or Haruna-san’s, it don’t float in water, so just remember that, kay」

「Ah～、I remember now, we did have a problem like that, huh. Wait, breastplates float？」

「It’s only limited to above-intermediate metal (excluding magic steel and adamantite) armor that’s been lightened to an extent.」

The greatest demerit to metal armor was its lack of buoyancy. Makoto recalled struggling with this several times in the game. Although not instantaneous (more like 5 seconds), she had managed to swap out armor when traversing across water to the leather sub armor. Regular swimming skills couldn’t cover for the flaws in metal armor, and casting only a few enchantments on water movement would just go to waste, so she really only had that choice.

However, unlike the game, this world forced you to actually swap out everything. Although certainly longer than 5 seconds, you could have a fairly easy time taking off breastplate armor, but with halfplate, it would be a lot more difficult, and it was incredibly difficult for one person to take off their fullplate armor by themselves. With that in mind, you therefore could not equip metal armor when going to places with a high chance of water spots, likely one of the reasons why regular adventurers evaded metal armor.

「When you think of it that way, I’m glad we had wyvern leather back in the underground ruins.」

「Yuuup. Especially that third floor with its gimmick using water for a lot of the attractions.」

「Yeah, that first pond attraction was nooot something you wanna try with metal armor.」

「Well, even before that, goin’ to the desert with regular metal armor is nothin’ but suicidal without me enchantin’ it.」

As soon as she brought up the ruins, Hiroshi gave Makoto a fierce rebuttal, and she just looked far into the distance. True, unless you had a high-performing heat-resistant enchantment…nay, even an enchantment like that probably would only last you an hour in the desert wearing metal armor. The rays from the sun were intense enough to bake you within an hour even if you came prepared. And if, heaven forbid, you were to come into direct skin contact with the desert sun, you would immediately sustain a burn, no question about it. It’s fairly easy to picture this if you think of a playground slide or metal handrail exposed to the rays of the sun.

「Sorta feels like we keep getting bit in the back for all our stereotypes surrounding the fantasy world……」

「And then ya got the clothing ‘n armor lookin’ mighty similar to the kind in fantasy books or games. Oddly makes sense.」

「No, I don’t really think it’s as simple as either of you are making it out to be……」

Makoto had a faraway look in her eyes as she realized how many times they had bumped into this wall of reality, or rather, physics. The struggle was truly real.

「Y’know, depending on how you look at it, maybe even bikini armor with all its skin exposure is actually logical over here too?」

「No, Mako, that’s even more impossible than fullplate.」

「And Makoto-san, you don’t seriously think any woman has the guts to skulk around town with that kind of outfit, right？」