chapter 47

The afternoon of the day after the party of four had updated their progress to the fifty-ninth floor, Tsutomu headed to the meeting place in front of the Monitor later than the usual appointed time. Amy and Garm were already waiting there.

Garm carried with him a brand new tower shield of the usual design, and wore his usual set of silver armor. Amy wore light armor and carried her swords in the sheaths on her waist. These sharp dual blades, crafted from monster materials, had been a favorite of hers for three years now.

“Hello. Looks like we’re all ready to go.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Fo’ sho’!”

Garm nodded, and Amy pumped up her fist. Seeing how Amy seemed energetic enough, Tsutomu nodded in satisfaction; the three proceeded to the reception counter.

At the counter, they updated their Status Cards and formed a party of three. Tsutomu’s current level was forty-five, thanks to the effective leveling method he had used for a day and a half. His DEX and MND had gone up one rating level, making it easier for him to use his healing and supporting skills.

Garm’s level was sixty-five. Amy, having finally managed to overcome the wall that was level sixty, was now level sixty-two, and her AGI and STR had raised a level each. Thanks to yesterday’s practice in preparation for the Fire Dragon, Amy had already gotten used to the changes in her AGI and STR, and was able to move around with no issue.

“Hmm.”

While the three of them headed for the Magic Circle, Amy suddenly held out her hand to Tsutomu. Although Tsutomu couldn’t tell at first whatever she was trying to do, it didn’t take him long to figure out; he smiled and held her extended hand.

“This kind of reminds me of the first time we met.”

“You were scared as all hell when you started out, Tsutomu!”

“I’d never seen a person turn into particles with my own eyes before, after all.”

Tsutomu beckoned to Garm, who was to his left; he too held Tsutomu’s hand.

“But this time, it’s the other way around… Huh? Does that mean we should stop holding hands now?”

“…Quit messin’ around.”

“Owowow…”

Tsutomu grimaced as Amy extended out her claws and dug them into his hand. Amy then averted her gaze and loosened her hand, then pulled Tsutomu along into the Magic Circle.

“I thought I was bleeding for a second there… Now, teleport to the fifty-ninth layer.”

The bodies of the three were wrapped in light particles and blinked away. Tsutomu’s vision blacked out for a second, and then the next, he found himself plunging down onto a surface of reddish-brown earth. He and the two others landed safely on the ground.

“Okay then, let’s try to find the Black Gate within one hour. <<fly>>.”</fly>

“I’m off!”

Amy, now applied with the effect of <<fly>>, zoomed through the air and disappeared into the distance. As usual, Tsutomu started sorting through his Potions, and Garn started doing some warm-up exercises. Tsutomu then saw that some claw marks had been left on his hand, and was prompted to chuckle dryly because of it.</fly>

Since the party almost never had to use Green Potions lately, they had been switched out with Blue Potions. Tsutomu looked at the large bottle of Blue Potion; seeing that it was half-filled, he then portioned some of it into small bottles.

When Amy came back and gave the two others the information about the surrounding terrain, Tsutomu suggested that they first went to a vantage point where they could easily search for the Black Gate. Once the potions were distributed to Garm and Amy, the two agreed to Tsutomu’s proposal. Now the exploration of the fifty-ninth layer began.

Since Amy had already been informed of the team’s strategies in fighting the Fire Dragon, on the way, Tsutomu had her practice by sending her signals to watch out for flash bursts and breath attacks. While checking how well Amy could react upon hearing the word ‘breath attack,’ he also used Flash Bottles to help her get used to the timing.

Once they were finishing up the practice rounds and had climbed up to two high locations, on their way to the next vantage point, the ears on Garm and Amy’s heads twitched as if they were detecting something unusual.

Amy looked down the cliff and saw five pea-sized human figures and four Wyvern silhouettes. The people were a party of the Golden Tune Clan, led by the Golden Wolfman himself.

“Ugh, they’re coming at us from below.”

“…Looks like this is turning into a race. Let’s hurry and get going.”

Tsutomu’s team had already gone up two separate cliffs, and had been on the search for almost an hour now. Since it would be a bother if the other party were to capture the Black Gate, Tsutomu told the others to pick up the pace.

“Tsutomu. One of them is rushing ahead of the others — they’re probably trying to capture the Gate. Mind if I go on ahead by myself?”

“Let’s see… All right, I’m counting on you.”

“You got it! I’ll definitely get there first! Oh, and can I have a <<haste>>?”</haste>

“Ah, right, sorry. <<haste>>.”</haste>

When one opened a Black Gate, the Gate’s ownership rights would be transferred to the party of which that person was a member. Tsutomu had never had to compete with anyone for a Black Gate before, so he left the decision-making to Amy this time.

Amy, after getting the <<haste>> buff from Tsutomu, licked her dry lips and went ahead in an instantaneous burst of speed. With her AGI at its highest, the speed at which she streaked through the sky was tremendous.</haste>

However, the Golden Wolfman, Clan leader of the Golden Tune, had the same AGI status rating as Amy. Moreover, his unique skill allowed him to temporarily raise his AGI by two levels.

The blond man flew past Tsutomu and Garm in a flash. The wind pressure blew Tsutomu backward, throwing him a little off his stance, but he managed to quickly regain his balance. Looking at the man who had passed him like a golden falcon, he thought to himself that the man would catch up to Amy soon enough; regardless, Tsutomu and Garm continued up to the clifftop at their own pace.

After five more minutes, Tsutomu and Garm reached the top of the cliff; they walked for a little longer before seeing the Black Gate, the design and color of which clashed with the otherwise natural scenery that one would think it had been forcibly placed there with an editing software. Near it, Amy was lying face-down on the ground, breathing hard. And there was another person there — a man with nicely-trimmed blond hair, sitting on a boulder. Upon seeing Tsutomu and Garm, he casually raised his hand.

“Heh, she really got me good. Never knew when Amy girl’d even gotten this fast, man.”

“……”

In response to the man’s greeting, Tsutomu bowed slightly before rushing over to Amy. He assumed from the fact that Amy had gone so short of breath in such a short amount of time that she had rushed up the cliff with all her might, then immediately ran at full speed to get here.

“I-I did it, Tsutomu… I got it,” Amy told Tsutomu as she looked up with a breathless look on her face, and then faced down again, as if she had completely burned out.

Tsutomu cast <<medic>> on her just to be safe, then stood up; at the same time, the man’s Golden Tune party rushed over, having finally caught up to their leader.</medic>

The man laughed, put his hands on his head, and told his party members — all women — that the Black Gate had been taken. The women turned to give Tsutomu’s group a reproachful look, while Tsutomu, thinking how they were as scary as ever, helped Amy up upon seeing that she was starting to catch her breath.

Then the man, the Clan Leader of Golden Tune — now already gone far away — shouted to Tsutomu’s team some words of encouragement, then proceeded to hop down the cliff, presumably done with exploring for the day. Tsutomu heaved a sigh, relieved that no conflict had taken place.

Then, after Amy had caught her breath and Tsutomu had fully recovered his mental energy, the party of three went over their strategies once again before putting on their red coats and entering the Black Gate to the sixtieth layer.

――▽▽――

A dust storm swirled in the dented center of the bowl-shaped landscape. Tsutomu waved his white staff, casting support skills on Garm and Amy while the former glared at a distant clifftop and the latter twitched one of her ears in nervousness.

“<<fly>>, <

Amy kept her chain of light attacks going, maintaining the Fire Dragon’s bleeding status effect. Garm kept the Fire Dragon’s attention glued to the ground, and kept standing up again and again no matter how many attacks he had to block. Tsutomu issued his instructions to the two as he cast healing and support skills for them.

Tsutomu drank his Blue Potion and kept an eye on the battle below. Things were going smoothly. Then he tucked the empty bottle into his belt and raised the corner of his mouth.

[Now this is us in our perfect form.]

Garm, Amy, and himself — Tsutomu was convinced that this was the most efficient battle performance a party of three could achieve. Watching the battle situation from the sky as things went on perfectly smoothly, Tsutomu cast his healing and supporting skills for his teammates, continuing to do what he could do best, while also recalling some memories of when he’d had fun playing and getting better at the game.

Then, four hours after the battle had commenced… Amy clung to the Fire Dragon’s wobbling head and thrust her dual blades into the creature’s golden eye. The Dragon flailed its head about in rage. Another twenty minutes later, the Fire Dragon lost its other eye, turning its vision completely dark. Now it was completely powerless.

And then, five and a half hours since the start… the Fire Dragon silently lowered its gigantic body to the ground. Its blood soaked the ground dark red, and light particles started leaking from the surface.

Amy, despite seeing the particles, kept vigilant and held up her dual blades. But then, when the mass of particles grew larger and started enveloping the Fire Dragon’s face, she shook the blood off her blades and sheathed them. Garm also exhaled loudly as if to ward off his fatigue, holstered his tower shield on his back, then approached Tsutomu and raised his hand without saying a word.

Tsutomu gave Garm a high-five with one hand, then rushed over to Amy and raised his other hand with a smile. Amy only stared at Tsutomu’s raised hand.

Through the Monitor, she had seen Tsutomu give high-fives to Garm and Camille, with them looking quite happy while doing so. She had cursed her circumstances at the time, alone in her Guild Dormitory room, wishing that she could have been there with them.

Now Tsutomu’s hand was being held up in front of her. That fact made Amy irrepressibly happy.

“Yay!”

“Ow–!”

And so Amy gave Tsutomu a high-five… with all her strength. And with how strong she was, Tsutomu couldn’t help but flinch back. Tsutomu shook his arm, feeling a sting as if he had just been hit by a giant man.

“C-come on, Garm and Amy. High-five,” Tsutomu said, prompting Garm to make a face as if he had just swallowed down a bitter bug.

Regardless, Garm raised his hand, albeit reluctantly, greatly surprising Amy.

“What, really? You out of your mind?”

“…Hmph. It’s thanks to Tsutomu’s and my attacks that we were able to defeat it so quickly. You’re not hogging all the glory.”

“Bah… yeah, yeah. Yay,” Amy said, sounding quite uncomfortable, before giving Garm a high-five.

Garm, with a serious look on his face, continued to speak,

“But I’d never thought we would be able to defeat the Fire Dragon this quickly… I suppose this is in part thanks to your contribution.”

“…Uh, that kinda awkward, coming from you. Sure you didn’t hit your head back there?”

“……”

Garm closed his eyes and went silent as Amy moved away from him and hid behind Tsutomu. In the middle of the scene, Tsutomu cracked a dry smile.

Then, once they retrieved the red Large Magic Stone, the three returned to the Guild, hand in hand.