chapter 18

“Ah, I think so too.”

Himeno-san agrees with a nod.

“From now on I’ll call Hanebashi-kun Yukinari-kun, and Sakaede-kun Shigenobu-kun. Therefore, call me Meguru.”

“Me too, call me Minori.”

“Well…if we call each other with such familiarity in front of everyone, it might seem suspicious.”

The two of them understand my words but…what’s with their expressions? Have I misread the situation? Nonetheless, I want to avoid actions that will arouse the suspicions of Taniizumi and the others.

“Yukinari, in moments like these, you should just nod.”

Shigenobu says in an amazed manner.

“I know, I think it would be good to get closer as well, but…”

The two of them refuse to look at me. This is probably a signal for me to call them by their names.

“…I understand. Then, when we’re out like this, I’ll call you Meguru-san and Minori-san. In front of everyone though, I’ll stick to your family names. Does this work?”

“Well, can’t be helped.”

“Yeah!”

Like that, somehow or another, I feel as if my distance with Hiyama-san, now Meguru-san, and Minori-san is shortened.

***

Like this, the rock lizard is teleported, we return down the path we came, and fight beatable mamono until we run out of time. Gradually, Shigenobu reaches Lv 4 as well and then we return.

“Welcome back.”

Hagisawa, sitting at the entrance of the workshop, greets us.

“How’d it go?”

“Going too deep is dangerous. Also, Hiyama-sa… Meguru-san got to Lv 5 and obtained a new ability called clairvoyance.”

“Woah! What kind of ability!?”

Hagisawa understands the situation and is as pleased as we are. It’s only been two days, but it feels like a sense of camaraderie is developing. Of course, that’s how I feel too.

“It’s an ability that allows you to see registered places from afar. We can check if the coast is clear when Yukinari teleports mamono corpses.”

“That’s really convenient, it’s convenient but…”

“It’ll be convenient for keeping watch as well!”

Don’t be so foolish. Depending on where it’s used, unviewable places can be spied on.

“Just now, did Hiyama-san just call Hanebashi by his first name?”

“Since we’re comrades, using our names is okay. I’ll call Hagisawa-san by your first name as well.”

“Seriously!?”

Instead of the tension between the two of them rising, they both start to smile. Is this the so called forced smile? It’s awkward for both of them, but Hagisawa is a guy. There’s certainly some desire to have a girl call you by your first name. It’d be different if he was handsome or sociable, but Hagisawa is, for better or worse, just an ordinary high school boy.

“I see…… From that reaction, it seems like you don’t want to call me, nor be called out to, like that.”

“Ehh! Please! Please call me by my first name! My name is Hagisawa Dai! Call me Dai-kun!”

“Dai-kun!”

“Not you, you bastard!”

As a break, Himeno-san visits the student with the barrier ability out of a sense of friendliness. Meanwhile, we take out the corpses hidden by Hagisawa and dismantled them.

Lunchtime eventually arrives and within the meager portions of food that’s been distributed… seems to be meat.

“Can’t we just cook them with the fire in Shigenobu’s workshop to make them disappear? Since we have a few Lvs, our stomachs probably won’t get destroyed?”

“It’s not impossible, but the fire isn’t that strong.”

Even though it’s not a metal smith, it’s a full-fledged furnace. As long as Shigenobu makes the preparations in advance, it should be useable. Considering that it was made using an ability, it should be maintainable. Perhaps a full-fledged version will be made someday?

“Say, should we ask Hagisawa to preserve the food?”

“That’s an option, but how about this? Although I’m unable to say the name, there’s a guy in the combat group who’s been selling food under the table due to this troublesome situation, or so I’ve heard.”

“…that’s not bad. Besides, it’s not like we want to be in conflict with the combat group. This will make it easier to repair our relationship later.”

Still, the problem is who will receive it. Let’s say there’s a good-willed, anonymous, candidate. Even if we write a letter, it’s not like we can place it somewhere inconspicuous. Anyway, I think I’ll ask it to Hagisawa to preserve them. With the assistance of our abilities, we won’t get food poisoning.

“Then I’ll preserve them with my ability. Hyahho! We’ll be able to feast luxuriously on meat!”

Hagisawa calculates the situation.

“Speaking of which, I have an idea, Dai-ku… Hagisawa.”

“Hm? What’s up?”

Considering that Hagisawa called me a bastard when I called him by his name, I get a feeling he doesn’t want me to do that.

“Can you gather the mushroom spores and make items without your ability?”

“Yeah. It’s not impossible, but it can’t be guaranteed to be effective.”

“Of course, since this also serves as an experiment, it’s no problem.”

“Hmm, that seems like something you can do too. Don’t rely on me.”

“No, isn’t this Hagisawa’s responsibility? I’ll go check.”

If I don’t do it myself, and instead rely on the skill of others, I’ll be no different from Taniizumi.[1]

“Hanebashi… no, Yukinari…”

Annoyance crosses Hagisawa’s face as he looks at me. Is my distributing food again today bearing fruit? Incidentally, I teleported to receive a bento from my parents, ate, and returned. I feel a little…no, I feel really guilty. I don’t think it’s right for me to consume what meager provisions we have, so I divided it amongst everyone.

“Understood. I’ll make it.”

“Since we’re in another world, if we can procure machine parts, Hagisawa might be able to make peerless items.”

There are manga and novels like that. Once the situation changes, how will Taniizumi react? …thinking about that is somewhat amusing.

“That’s true!”

“Well, if that happens, please give me priority treatment once the Hagisawa harem begins.”

“No matter how much a bastard like you begs…”

While we thrust abusive words at each other, we deepen our friendship in preparation for the next outing.

“All right, it’s my turn now!”

I’m refreshed after the break. Hagisawa too suddenly fills with motivation. Ah, this began when Himeno-san went to restore the barrier ability user.

“We can’t go too deep due to the strength of the mamono? Also, our equipment seems to be is still weak as well.”

“I know, the most important rule is to be as safe as possible.”

Hagisawa shows us a small sachet of mushroom spores. Has he been experimenting too?

“For now, it’d probably be best to aim for that metal turtle Yukinari can defeat? It doesn’t seem like there’s be any harm gathering more of it.”

“Yeah, and the points one gives is pretty high. They could serve as a trump card.”

“Understood… we should get Hagisawa and Shigenobu to Lv 5 as fast as possible…”

“Yukinari, what about you?”

“Shigenobu, think about it. Meguru-san and I have similar abilities. That means the gained ability is likely to be similar.”

“I don’t think that’s how I’d be.”

Meguru-san disagrees. Either way, it’s been pointed out. It will be less disappointing if we don’t expect anything big.

“For example, if Yukinari-kun’s activation time shortened, you would become extremely powerful.”

Well…I agree. The biggest problem with my ability is that it takes five minutes to activate. If it was instantaneous, it would be a rather troublesome ability. I would have been entered into the player group instead. Although, at this point, I don’t want to anyway.

I mean… isn’t just being able to return to Japan by myself already a huge advantage? Such a possibility comes to mind. Just being able to return to Japan is already an excellent ability, so I feel like there should be a negative somewhere. As such, I don’t expect too much from the gained ability.

“Either way, Yukinari-kun should hope for the best.”

“Th-that’s right. Anyway, let’s get going.”

“Fufu……”

Minori-san smiles about something while looking at us. Probably because, little by little, things are going well.

“Well I’ll teleport us again. It doesn’t seem like there are any mamono there right now.”

Meguru-san raises her hand to make the portal appear.

“Let’s do our best to reach Lv 5 by the time we return!”

Hagisawa moves forward and presses into the portal in high spirits.

“Well, we’re heading out, Shigenobu.”

“Ah, I’ll be sure to keep things under wraps here.”

We wave to Shigenobu as we depart. Honestly, we’ve only been focused on raising our Lv… so we haven’t really made any novel discoveries. Since going too deep is dangerous, we have to somehow improve our equipment.

We have to boldly search around. The mamono encounter rate seems… high? I don’t know what ability expansions those of the player group might have, but we of the base group aren’t as strong as them. If possible, I want to find some clues about it.

With those feelings, we set off to defeat mamono.