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Chapter 76: Superpower’s Experiment
「Huff… Huff… That was a close call.」
Yuuma leaned on the wall of rock behind him while adjusting his disordered breath. They managed to escape from the 56th floor, the floor in which the valis reside and are currently resting to adjust their breath in the 55th floor.
The president was also plopped on the ground, sitting cross-legged as he was as exhausted as Yuuma.
At this point, Aisha had literally been sprawled on the ground, and also ran out of breath. Since she was originally indoor type, it was only natural for her to be exhausted first.
「Yuuma, did you take the magic ore?」
「Yes… Only two though.」
Yuuma replied to the president, taking out two magic ore drops from Vali that he kept in his pocket.
「Ooh, good job Yuuma-kun!」
Aisha came closer on all fours with gleaming eyes.
「There are other Valis that I defeated but… I’m completely focusing on escaping back then.」
「No worries, two is plenty enough.」
Aisha was smiling happily as she took the two magic ore from Yuuma’s hands. Seeing Aisha like that, the president finally raised his voice.
「Oi! Escaping from the dungeon as soon as possible is more important than those stones. Yuuma’s『Metallization』 can’t be used anymore for today, and my magical power has already running out too. Safe your laugh for later!」
Aisha just huffed her nose hearing that.
「Don’t worry. We’re going to use the explosive on the way out of the dungeon.」
Aisha spoke with a confident voice nevertheless, Yuuma couldn’t help but doubt her statement.
「Aisha-san. Despite what you say about using explosive, I have to tell you that I dropped my pickel in the 56th floor, and I can’t use 『Metallization』 anymore, needless to say about bloody ore.」
Despite hearing Yuuma’s worries, Aisha was unperturbed at all.
「Don’t worry about that, Yuuma-kun. Now gimme your rucksack.」
「Y-Yes…」
Yuuma gave his explosive-filled rucksack to Aisha.
Aisha then took out duct tape from her waist pouch, and stone that she could find nearby.
Lastly, she took out the white tube from Yuuma’s rucksack, placed the stone that she picked up on the cap of the tube to act as a detonator, and tape them together with duct tape.
「What are you doing? We’re about to be surrounded by monsters!」
Unable to understand the meaning behind Aisha’s action, the president stood up to warn her while scanning their surroundings. In fact, there was already a rustling sound coming from the shade of the rock nearby. But, Aisha didn’t seem to be flustered at all.
「Kotaro, throw this in the opposite direction of our current position. Throw it as high as possible.」
The president received the handmade dynamite, furrowing his brows as he looked at the dangerous goods in his hand.
「What do you mean by throwing this?」
「Just do it, you’ll know the reason immediately!」
「Okay.」 Replied the president with a blunt voice, and then he threw the handmade dynamite. The tube spun in mid air, and fell down head first from the stone that taped to the cap due to the stone’s sheer weight.
The moment the stone fell to the ground, it became the detonator that triggered the explosion.
The monsters that approached Yuuma and co turned around and ran toward the direction of the explosion.
「NOW! RUN TO THE ENTRANCE!!」
That moment, the president realized Aisha’s intention and replied with a stuttered voice as everyone ran toward the stair to the upper floor.
After that, they used more than twenty explosives on the way back, they literally slipped through the floor without having to fight the monsters inside, and when they arrived at the shallow floor, the president wielded his hexagonal staff to crush the incoming monsters.
And then――
「WE ARE OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!」
As they climbed up from the first floor, they had finally returned to the area under SDF’s management.
Looking at the tattered state of Yuuma and co as they climbed up from the dungeon, the SDF’s personnel stationed in that place rushed in hurry and carried them to the medical ward immediately.
Yuuma heaved a sigh of relief having survived such a tumultuous exploration day.
◇◇◇
The day after they returned from exploring the 56th floor of the 『Black Dungeon』. Yuuma woke up in his hotel room in Yokohama.
He returned to his room yesterday night after receiving treatment from SDF’s doctor in the medical ward.
Though he didn’t suffer from a big injury, when he discussed with the president whether they should take a break from today’s exploration or not, Aisha intruded into their room.
「OKAY, TIME TO DIVE INTO THE DUNGEON AGAIN!」
Unlike Yuuma and the president who was obviously still exhausted from yesterday’s exploration, AIsha was the only one who was still as lively as before.
「Let us take a break, will ya?」
Ignoring the president’s dumbfounded question, Aisha broke into the room and took Yuuma out.
Thus, the president and Yuuma had no choice but to dive into the 『Black Dungeon』 again.
◇◇◇
「――Well then, let’s start with ingesting the bloody ore that we acquired yesterday, Yuuma-kun!」
Once they entered the 1st floor of the dungeon, Aisha gave Yuuma two magic ore and a PET bottle.
「Eh? A-Are you sure about this? I mean, I’m starting to worry about my physical condition… I mean, that magic ore is-」
「Don’t worry, it’ll be alright. You have no problem so far even after ingesting that magic ore, right? No need to worry about the side effects of the bloody ore as long as you use it in your metallization state. It’s absolutely safe!」
Honestly speaking, Yuuma felt that her persuasion was quite over the top but, Yuuma also couldn’t deny the fact that 『Super Strength』 and 『Metallization』 was a match made in heaven.
He knew that he could become stronger with this power.
Thus, Yuuma decided to eat the magic ore.
He took the bloody ore, fully prepared to die, swallowed it and washed it down with water from a PET bottle.
It took only a moment for him to feel the familiar heat spreading in his body.
「It seems I gained the ability.」
「Okay, let’s confirm immediately. Use your 『Metallization』.」
「O-Okay.」
Yuuma invoked his metallization. Naturally, it didn’t mean that he had no worries at all but…
「First, let’s start with the strange even that happened yesterday, the fact that the effect of bloody ore wore off in less than three minutes.」
Yuuma nodded, he agreed with Aisha about that matter being so strange. The reason why Yuuma and co fell into such a predicament was that his 『Super Strength』 ability wore off faster than estimation.
He completely forgot about that matter yesterday due to panic but, now that Aisha reminded him about that matter, it was indeed a huge, hidden problem.
「Indeed, it wore off faster than it was supposed to be」 Said the president, agreeing with Aisha too.
「The bloody ore basically enhanced your abilities by around five times.  I couldn’t say for sure since there is no way to measure it precisely.」
「FIVE TIMES!? That much huh… But, what we saw yesterday seems to be even stronger than that.」
「That’s why we’re going to investigate that matter today. Yuuma-kun, invoke your 『Super Strength』 and punch this rock wall.」
「Y-Yes.」
Yuuma invoked the bloody ore’s ability. Thus, glowing red lines resembling that of blood veins appeared on the surface of his body, he felt that his body was overflowing with strength.
Aisha took out a stopwatch from her pocket and pressed the switch.
Yuuma went all out and punched the rock wall, his fist sunk into the wall along with the thunderous sound of the crumbling wall.
「Done…」
「Once again.」
「Y-Yes.」
Yuuma did the same punch again and again till three minutes had elapsed and he felt the sense of overflowing with “Strength” left his body.
「Now invoke your 『Super Strength』 again, Yuuma-kun. This time, punch the wall while focusing on increasing your strength more than before.」
「O-Okay…」
Yuuma invoked the bloody ore’s ability again, focusing his mind as glowing bloodvine’s red lines appeared on his skin.
He recalled the time when they fought Vali yesterday, it was the moment when his concentration rose to its limit. When he tried to remember the feeling from back then――
He remembered that at that moment, he put more power into his punch, more focus in his mind, a more complete body and mind unification.
That moment, the glowing red lines on Yuuma’s skin intensified.
「THIS IS IT!」
Aisha’s eyes opened wide as she raised delightful voice. At that moment, Yuuma took a stance, he pulled his arms on his waist, stepped forward and transmitted his power from leg to waist.
Going up from waist to shoulders, from shoulder to arm, and lastly, as he felt torrent-like power in his arm, he spun his fist and nailed a punch into the wall. The impact and sound of this punch was incomparable to his previous punch.
His punch literally pierced through the wall as if it was made from tofu, cracks spread in all directions with his punching points as its starting line, and the wall finally crumbled down.
The three of them could only look dumbfoundedly at such unworldly destructive power.