NOVEL NEXT Book 2: Chapter 57
Chapter 57.
Almost 10 minutes had passed as Tenji continued to fight, exploring his newfound strength.
There were corpses of Needle Mice with blood all around. About 10% of them had already started to harden, and the remaining 90% of the corpses were all smashed and slick in half.
Fortunately, Mizue and Rikka were not harmed. They were sitting on the boss area's magic circle, which was surrounded by old pillars in a cylindrical shape. They were sitting on their backs as they were physically and mentally tired.
Rikka had initially held her head in her hands and feared death, but now she was relieved to see Tenji fighting one-sidedly and winning.
Mizue was giving Tenji a slightly wary look.
Tenji cut off the last NeedleMice head with his Red Demon Sword.
"...Is this the last of the monsters?"
He could feel the slightest bit of fatigue from the unaccustomed physical exertion.
He huffed when he reached the end and gestured for the Goblins to gather around.
The Goblins were still expressionless, but seeing them checking Tenji's every move and gathering around like pets was cute.
"Good work. In the meantime, if there's any demon ore, could you retrieve it for me?"
"Oni."
"oni, oni."
The Goblins hear the instructions and search for the Demon Ore, not too fast but running at a small pace. The demon ore can be converted into points in the Book of Enma. So Tenji gave them instructions to collect them.
After confirming that the Goblins were obediently listening to his instructions, Tenji relaxed his body and returned to Rikka and Mizue.
Mizue and Rikka looked up to the approaching abnormal Tenji.
"Thank you so much, Tenji."
"You've been a great help."
"Yeah. Looks like the gamble worked."
"Oh, by the way." Mizue and Rikka recall
"What did you mean, Tenji-Kun gambled?... It seemed to me that you were so overwhelmed with NeedleMice..." Rikka said.
"You're right. Obviously, your strength was out of the ordinary." Mizue said.
Tenji agreed in his mind, "I see."
From Tenji's point of view, there was a section that was gambling, relying on the changes that would happen to his calling as a result of 'increasing his level', but it seemed like he was already vital to the two of them in the first place.
[Indeed, there is no clear concept of level up in this world. But it is known that as you fight monsters, you instantly become stronger.]
However, Tenji's level increase was a little more than just a "sudden increase in strength".
"No, it was a gamble. I won that bet and got that strength. I'm sorry, that's all I can say right now..."
"Oh, okay. You said you lied to the association before the fight. Can I assume that there were circumstances that you can't tell people about?"
"Yeah, and I would appreciate it if you would do that. I would like you both to keep this a secret."
They were relieved to see that he had returned from the demon to the student Tenji they knew.
Once they learned that this was a sincere wish, they felt closer to Tenji.
"Let's just say we'll try our best."
"Yes, I guess I'll just be thankful that I'm alive right now. I'll just zip it up in my mouth." Rikka said.
"Thank you."
Tenji thanked them again for their quick understanding.
So Tenji sat there like the two of them and smiled and spoke to them,
"I'm tired."
"We are too. Good work!" The two of them replied.
And the three of them were relieved from the bottom of their hearts where they had escaped from the brink of death.
Once they had gone through an extreme situation where they were prepared to die, their minds were quite drained.
They were so exhausted that they wanted to collapse right there, right now, and just sit there for an hour or so in blank amazement.
Inevitably, two of them, except Mizue, lay on their backs.
"But still... It was pretty awesome."
"Yeah, I think I know this is a real talent."
"Somehow, I understand why Tenji didn't fight with us until now," Mizue said.
"Well, I guess we were slowing you down," Mizue added.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, you two!"
Tenji interrupts them involuntarily with a blush.
But they didn't stop talking.
"Rikka, did you see Tenji move?"
"No, I didn't see it at all. Those little demons?... I could follow those two with my eyes, but I completely lost sight of Tenji-Kun."
"Yeah, me too. It's not just the speed, the judgment, the power. I'd have to say the results are perfect in every way."
'That's right. Tenji-Kun, will you be my boyfriend?" Rikka said out of the blue.
"Wait? What?"
"I'm kidding. I just wanted to tease you a little."
Rikka laughs teasingly.
So Mizue suddenly turned to Tenji as if he had just noticed him.
"My mentor is a former third-grade explorer with a third-grade calling as an attacker, and Tenji's current moves seemed similar to my mentor's."
"Third-grade? Me?"
"Oh, it's just my impression. No, I feel you were a little faster than my mentor."
Then Tenji thinks about his status value.
By the former, Tenji assumes Mizue means someone who is now retired from active service. Although it is impossible to determine how much that person had raised the bar, the possibility has emerged that Tenji now has the strength of a third-grade explorer.
[I had wondered about the sudden 1000 increase in all status values, but I wonder if it's just another increase due to the special grade calling. But, I'm still at only 1 level out of 100.]
[At this point, I can think of a few guesses.]
The level upper limit is indicated, so the level upper limit may differ depending on the grade.
The range of status increase per level may differ depending on the grade.
The status value of the third-grade calling level can be similar to my current status value.
These were three.
All of these possibilities were just speculation, but it was also speculation that felt somewhat justified.
[My current status is equivalent to a third-grade explorer?...... I guess the name "special grade calling" wasn't just a figment of my imagination.]
"Mizue-Kun. That was very informative information, thank you."
"Yeah? I'm glad my opinion helped."
There, the conversation between the three of them came to a stop.
It was pretty tiring for them just to speak out, so everyone pushed themselves to silence. Tenji was looking at the old ceiling, resting his body while being alert to his surroundings.
Mizue, Rikka, and Tenji were overcome with the emotion that they had survived and began to think about what they would do.
"Is it fine now?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, let's get going."
The three of them had taken a fifteen-minute mental and physical rest in that place and were on their feet again.
When Tenji received the demon ore from the Goblins, he immediately converted the demon ore into points.
It turns out that a single magic demon ore from a fourth-grade monster can yield 10 to 16 points. Even though the grades were the same, there seemed to be some variation in the points that could be obtained.
Tenji recovered 26 fourth-grade demon ores and got a result, so he thinks it's probably a good bet.
After the Goblins were done with their business, they started spoiling to go home. Tenji had them return to the Hell Realm immediately.
The others didn't ask much about the Goblins and kept quiet.
"In the meantime, it is possible that some monsters around us could be pretending to be dead. We should proceed cautiously with Tenji leading the way."
"Yeah, I got it."
Even if Tenji turned out to be the greatest strength of this team, it was left to Mizue Katsunari to take charge of this place. He was indeed a leader.
Originally, leadership was a word that Tenji was far from familiar with, and Tenji thought it would be better to leave it to Mizue from his past experience.
So, they began to make their way through the sub-dungeon, aiming for the exit again.