Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 115

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TL: ALT

Chapter 115 – “Best Friend”

“Huh? You want to go to the dungeon shrine? That’s unusual. Well, it’s okay.”

Those were Haruhara’s words after he heard my story.

Haruhara Tsukisagi.

For me, a high school magic swordsman in this world, he is a bad friend and a comrade-in-arms.

Without the usual adolescent embarrassment, I would say that he is my best friend.

But to me, a former shut-in in my original world, he is a “Who the hell are you?” and “What’s with this galge friend character?” [T/n: It’s a type of Japanese video game that focuses on interactions with attractive girls].

…I’ve been uncomfortable with it for a long time, but I’m finally able to get to the bottom of it.

As someone who started in the shadows at school and was bullied along the way, my suspicion that this world was a convenient hallucination for me began to resurface.

After school, I came to the dungeon and invited only Haruhara.

Since I have regained my memories of the original world, Sayuki and Honoka-chan are now people I need the courage to meet.

Honoka-chan is very forward in her relationship with me.

In fact, we are boyfriend and girlfriend, so it is not strange.

On the other hand, since we are dating, I have no reason to reject Honoka-chan’s approach.

Of course, if I enjoy my relationship with Honoka-chan in this world, I don’t have to worry about being caught cheating in my former world.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m willing to do it.

After making such a bold―or rather, completely out of control―confession (?) to Serika in the original world, I can’t possibly act as Honoka-chan’s boyfriend with an innocent look on my face.

To make matters worse, there’s another reason why I can’t stop Honoka-chan’s approach.

In this world, Honoka-chan is my junior, one year below me.

In my original world, Honoka-chan was a junior high school student; I was almost ten years older than her.

It would be a lie to say that I was not a little nervous when such a beautiful girl approached me, but it is also true that I had to restrain myself from making a move on a junior high school girl.

Well, Honoka-chan didn’t care about that, and when it came to her mother, Haruka-san, she was in the too-extreme position of saying, “It’s okay for mother and daughter to be together.”

Haruka-san aside, there was definitely a significant hurdle for me when going out with Honoka-chan.

There is no such hurdle in this world.

This is another factor that supports the theory that this world may be a comfortable illusion for me.

However, from my point of view as a high school magical swordsman, there is nothing strange about the relationship we have finally formed after all these years.

Anyway, it was hard to invite the two girls, so I invited Haruhara, who looked bored, to come to the dungeon with me.

Huh? Do you think I should have just come alone without inviting them?

According to the common sense of this world, or even the common sense of the original world, it is an iron rule that you should never go into a dungeon alone.

I know you might be mad at me for saying, “You’re telling me that now?” but it’s certainly strange that I’ve been alone all this time.

Besides, a magic swordsman has no exploration skills like scouting or trap detection.

Even if I dive into a dungeon that is below my skill level, I need a companion who can scout.

I can no longer use the scouting skills I learned in the original world, such as Enemy Search and Stealth.

“Sorry, but I want you to come with me.”

“What’s wrong with you? Is it really necessary to worry about that now?”

Haruhara smiled and tapped me on the shoulder.

“…Yes, I’m sorry.”

I replied a little awkwardly.

…I’m not good at this sense of distance.

It’s called soccer in gym class, and it’s like an exchange between two high-caste, happy people.

Well, it’s just that it feels unfamiliar, but strangely enough, I don’t feel bad about it.

While I was struggling with how to treat my “best friend,” whom I had almost never met before, Haruhara was moving deeper into the dungeon with a familiar gait.

Haruhara and I arrived at the Black Swan Forest Water Park Dungeon.

It is a C-rank dungeon, just like in the original world.

I feel like it’s not nearly challenging enough for Haruhara and me right now.

Even Haruhara, who does not have a high STR, was able to slaughter the monsters easily, not to mention my firepower as a magical swordsman.

Haruhara, who is a master thief, is able to finish off the Treasure Hobbit, who is also a familiar face to me.

The Rock Golem with high HP and VIT is my responsibility, but even Haruhara should be able to defeat it with a few blows.

“Oh, I got a gold nugget!”

Haruhara, who had defeated the Treasure Hobbit, shouted at the rare drop.

Tsukisagi got it.

I’m used to it in high school, but not in my original world.

“Oh? What is it, Yuto? You seem to have something to say?”

“It’s nothing.”

I looked away from Haruhara, who was staring at me with half-open eyes.

“But I can’t say that “gold nuggets” are worth the trouble, can I? Well, it’s better than nothing.”

Haruhara says as he puts the dropped items into his magic bag.

“That’s right.”

Selling the gold nuggets would be more than enough for a high school student, but it’s not enough for a high-ranking explorer to make a living.

Even if Haruhara and I were to explore C-rank dungeons now, it wouldn’t be worth it.

If we want to make money, we should go to a higher-ranked dungeon.

Then why did we come to this dungeon?

Because it is the only dungeon that is close to the high school, not so wide on each floor, and deep vertically.

Because, just like in the original world, the dungeon shrine appears between floors.

The time it takes to traverse the floors should be short, and the number of floors should be many.

The Water Park Dungeon was almost the same as the original world, including the monster composition.

The only thing that is different from the original world is,

“…There are quite a few people.”

“Really? It’s always like that here.”

Haruhara picked up on my murmur.

The dungeon is not that crowded, but you can feel the presence of explorers everywhere.

Since we are on the shortest path to the lower floors, we sometimes pass each other.

Some of the explorers I pass look at me with narrowed eyes and say, “Level 9999!” in surprise.

The situation made me feel a bit superior, and I was attacked in my original world with the usual question, “Isn’t this just an illusion that suits me?”

As you may recall, in the original world, it was considered a serious breach of etiquette to peer into another explorer’s status without permission.

It’s not very good etiquette here either, but in any case, all you have to do is squint your eyes.

If you do it secretly, you won’t get caught, and even if you do, there’s no way to follow up on it.

However, in the original world, when I used the ability to look at the status, the other person knew that I had looked at his status.

Because of that sense, I could tell that they had seen my status.

By the way, in this world, to detect that squint, you need a scouting job like Haruhara’s master thief. 

“You’re very popular, Yuto.”

Haruhara says teasingly.

“Level 9999 has a different effect, doesn’t it? I’m jealous. I can’t wait to catch up. I wish I could catch up to you soon so I could be more popular with the older female explorers.”

Haruhara laments exaggeratedly.

Haruhara’s current status is “Haruhara Tsukisagi Level 7731 Gambler/Master Thief.”

Unlike me, Haruhara has two jobs at the same time.

The first is his main job, and the second is his subjob.

The job set in the subjob is somewhat less effective, but it is effective alongside the main job.

It sounds great, but there is a big disadvantage to having more than one set of jobs.

“Well, well, well. Haruhara’s double job as a scout makes things easier for us. If you want to make up for the loss of experience, I’m always willing to help.”

I comforted Haruhara.

――That’s right.

If you have several jobs at the same time, the experience you gain will be diminished.

In the case of Haruhara, who has two jobs at the same time, his experience drops to three-quarters of the normal amount.

This is the biggest disadvantage of having multiple jobs.

And by “biggest,” I mean that there are other disadvantages to multiple jobs.

Of course, Haruhara doesn’t understand that.

Haruhara sighed,

“I appreciate you saying that… It’s kind of subtle to raise your level when you have multiple jobs, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It’s a matter of leveling bonuses for the jobs, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I’m not sure if this is something that needs to be explained between Haruhara and me in this world, so Haruhara didn’t explain anything further.

“Isn’t it still too subtle, even between two high-ranking professionals?”

“Well, if it’s a gambler and a master thief, it’s not so bad even if they’re average. If it’s a mainline gambler, I don’t want the LCK bonus to go down.”

And that’s exactly what Haruhara said, but it’s still not very friendly.