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Chapter 203.2: Light Stone
Following Kotarou’s suggestion, only one exploration team would be deployed from now on.
So this was what today’s team looked like

Captainăƒ»ă€ŽHero』 Souma Yuuto
Vice Captainăƒ»ă€ŽHealer』Himeno Airi
『Geomancer』Randou Kyouko
『Swordsman』Ueda Youhei
『Heavy Warrior』Yamada Genki
『Magic Swordsman』Nakajima Haruma
Now what they needed the most was combat experience, even Randou Kyouko who was engaged in a construction job around the nest of Yamato No Orochi was deployed for the exploration.
「Today’s main goal is to gather the core. It’ll take some time, but I hope you strip the carcass of all the monsters that you defeat.」
「That’s damn troublesome~」
Though Ueda was the only one who complained upon hearing Yuuto’s order, it was obvious from the expressions of the other members that they felt the same way. Everyone was reluctant to do the dismantling job.
But still, everyone who survived this far could dismantle monster corpses to pick their core.
「No~, I can’t do something like tha~t.」
Himeno Airi was the only one who blatantly refused to do the job in front of the corpse of the werewolf.
「Suma-ku~n!」
「Himeno-san, everybody has done the same thing――」
「Just shut up and do it already, Himeno!」
「HYAAA!?」
Seeing Airi acting like that, Kyouko slapped her butt with a rather annoyed look on her face.
Airi cried out in an unruly manner as her butt got slapped out of nowhere.
「U~~h
」
Airi glared daggers at Kyouko who accorded her such unreasonable treatment.
「What’s the matter? Got a problem with it?」
「I-It’s nothing
 I’ll do it
」
Maybe because she felt the unsurpassable wall between them, Airi could only shrink back when Kyouko glared back at her.
「Randou-san, I think you went a bit over the top just now.」
「Souma, the other reason I’m included here is that you’re too soft on women.」
「Yeah
」
Even Yuuto had never expected that Kyouko would retort so harshly.
Despite having such an intermezzo, the team managed to gather quite a lot of core.
Their current hunting ground was the underworld, but maybe because they had been exploring this place for several days, the team had already gotten used to fighting the werewolf.
With Souma Yuuto as the center of their team, the rest of the team had also raised their vigilance to protect Airi, the weakest of them.
After some trial and error, they found out that this was the best formation to deal with the pack of werewolves or other monsters that mixed in.
But then, they let their guard down since they were starting to get used to this formation.
They forgot that this formation relied heavily on the power of the 『Hero』.
「――Hey, Souma.」
During the lunch break, they entered the building that resembled a huge stone chapel to take a break. The one who spoke first was Kyouko.
「We literally have nothing to do since we came to this area.」
Including the first battle, the team had already fought four battles so far.
Soon after that, every member, aside from Yuuto, had defeated about three werewolves. The other monster was dealt with by Yuuto.
「That’s not true, Randou-san. It’s because you guys are behind me that I can fight with some leeway.」
「Don’t make us babysit Himeno just because you love fighting.」
「O-Oi, calm down, Randou.」
Yuuto received a harsh complaint from Kyouko right on the face. Ueda, who rather agreed with her opinion, had to calm her down to prevent an undesired situation.
Seeing how the situation took a sudden turn, the others such as Airi, Yamada, and Nakajima couldn’t do anything but hold their breaths.
「Surely, I fought the monster more than you guys, but this is the safe――」
「I know that you can beat them with ease, but look this isn’t the situation for that.」
An uncomfortable silence drifted among them.
Safety first, there was nothing wrong with that plan.
However, one shouldn’t avoid danger to become stronger.
「But we have to ensure safety first. That’s why I will protect everyone.」
「Souma, are you by chance misunderstanding something here?」
「What?」
「We don’t need and never want your protection.」
Then I won’t save you―― Was something that should come out naturally in this situation, but Souma Yuuto wasn’t the kind of man who would say something like that.
Rather, Yuuto was bewildered. He had no idea why Kyouko said that they didn’t need his protection.
「Randou, aren’t you a bit too harsh on him? I mean, it can’t be helped that Souma is taking care of most of the monsters since he’s the strongest among us.」
「That’s why I’m telling him that we won’t become stronger with this kind of fight. I want to become stronger, stronger to the point that I don’t need to be protected by Souma.」
「Don’t be so reckless. Fighting in the dungeon means risking your life for real, no need to take such a risk.」
「And that’s exactly the reason you’re chosen as the leader of this team. You’re not our guardian, don’t go protect us at your own convenience!」
Yuuto couldn’t refute those words.
In short, he didn’t believe in the strength of his team members.
Including Sakura and the other girls in his team until now, he had only met the other after arriving at the school tower, and despite all the aggression displayed during the class meeting, some clearly held a grudge against him.
So when he had to lead a party comprising of such a member, deep inside his heart, Yuuto didn’t trust his comrade.
「
 You’re right, it’s my fault for not believing in everyone’s power.」
「Well, from Souma’s perspective, we might be just small fry though.」
「No, I won’t go that far
」
However, their current job was to do their best to shorten the huge gap in their powers as soon as possible.
It wasn’t for a lofty ambition to become strongest or something along that line, it was simply because they had to at least reach his level to survive the upcoming battle against the giant monster called Yamata no Orochi.
It was a battle in which they couldn’t rely on a single strong player. Everyone had to polish their power since the upcoming battle was the kind in which they had to rely on each other. Thus, they had to clear many requirements such as reaching the minimum level of power.
「In this case, you can at least take an example from Momokawa, he knows how to whip others into shape.」
「That’s a bit
 Or so I wanted to say, but I think I know what you mean. Let’s change our combat formation.」
As expected, even Yuuto had no choice but to give in after being cornered that far by Kyouko.
It was exactly as he said, he knew what Kyouko was trying to tell him.
But just like with Meiko’s case, he couldn’t help but feel a rather unpleasant premonition considering Momokawa Kotaro’s influence was so strong even when the person himself didn’t participate.
「
 As though that guy has some sort of curse that draws in people to fight.」