Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 245

TN: Please read my translations only on my website since I never give my permission to any site to host my translations. And if you like my translations, please support this site on Ko-fi and Patreon to read several chapters ahead!

Sponsored chapter by our Patreon. Enjoy~

TL: ALT

Chapter 245 – Friend Summon Conference

It’s been about a month since we rescued Shaina.

The Asylum has increased its capacity, and yesterday, we were busy expanding the facility.

As Dungeon Master, I’m the only one who can physically expand the Asylum, which is inside the dungeon.

When it comes to the interior, it’s quicker for me to do what I can within my authority.

When transporting materials from outside, there are also items that only I can carry due to the capacity of the Item Box.

The Information Department is rushing to train information agents who can operate on the surface, but people from the other world inevitably stand out in Japan.

It is difficult to find people who can blend in with the Japanese and have high scouting abilities (including skills).

Therefore, gathering information on the surface is also my job.

In order to protect the people from the other world, I need to control as many dungeons as possible and make them targets for activating the Escape portals.

In short, I have to level-raise the dungeon bosses, repeatedly clear the dungeons, and deplete the dungeon’s resources.

Since I’m the only one who can do this, it also becomes my job.

There’s also the issue of rescues when the Escape portals are activated.

In most cases, I can leave it to the mini slime and the Karakuri soldiers, but if the employer of the person who needs rescuing is a high-level explorer, it’s safer for me to go myself.

If the enemy is an S-rank guild like Hecatonchire, who “employed” Shaina, monsters alone may not be enough in an emergency.

Also, I can’t give up my own money-making job to collect Escape Crystals.

I do receive a certain amount of “rewards” from the activities of the explorers in the Asylum Exploration Department, but attacking S-rank dungeons is ultimately the fastest way for me to make money.

I use Dungeon Travel to clear S-rank dungeons all over the country, but even so, S-rank dungeons take time.

It’s not a problem if it’s just killing monsters, but there are also complicated gimmicks.

In between these activities, I listened to reports from each department of the Asylum, shared information with Serika and Haitani-san, and consulted with them about the activities of each department.

To be honest, I don’t have enough time.

“You look tired… Are you okay?”

Serika asks me.

We are in the conference room of the Asylum.

I used the Friend Summoning skill that I got as a bonus for soloing an S-rank dungeon to temporarily “summon” Serika and Haitani-san to the conference room.

Serika and Haitani-san, the master and sub-master of the Paladin Knights, are under strict surveillance, but using Friend Summon makes it easy to meet in secret.

Of course, I can send them back to their original locations, so there’s no need to worry about the return trip.

“To be honest, it’s pretty hard,” I admit.

My current workload is probably on par with that of Prime Minister Seiji Tozaki.

He’s also the chairman of a major corporation, so I’m completely outclassed in terms of my ability to keep a busy schedule.

Is thinking such trivial things a sign that I’m weak?

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“This isn’t the time for that.”

“Even so. I understand the importance of Asylum’s activities, but I still care more about you, Yuto. If you ever feel like giving up, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

“What would you do without me?”

“Asylum’s activities certainly depend on you, Yuto, but I can’t do it without you either. If I wanted to, I could give up everything and escape with you. Right now, even another world would be okay.”

“I appreciate you saying that, but it’s not realistic. Don’t tempt me too much.”

Before the conversation could go into an endless loop, Haitani-san interrupted.

“Kurashiki-san and Serika-san, let’s leave it at that. The time for the Friend Summon is limited, so let’s think of a realistic way to ease Kurashiki-san’s burden.”

“Well, I’d rather avoid a long battle and get it over with quickly. The problem is that we have to save our resources for the crystals.”

“We’re saving resources all the time. At this rate, we should be able to implement our plan by February.”

“February…”

Considering that it was early December, it seemed like a long time.

When you’re at the peak of fatigue and busyness, your sense of time becomes distorted.

No matter how hard you try, time doesn’t seem to pass, and it feels like this hardship will go on forever.

“What about the Dungeon Drain magic device that Shaina and the others are developing?”

“It’s a device that directly extracts resources from dungeons not under Kurashiki-san’s control and transfers them to crystals. At this point, it’s not very efficient. I think it can be improved, but if we overdo it, we could end up depleting the dungeon’s resources.”

“That might take away the livelihood of ordinary explorers…”

“Still, our priority is to stop Prime Minister Tozaki’s ‘strategy’. The dungeon’s resources will recover over time, right? If it will ease Yuto’s burden, I think we should do it.”

“How about scaling down the plan? All the A-rank dungeons in the city are already under Kazushiki-san’s control. Even if we limit the target to the residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area, the effectiveness of the plan shouldn’t be significantly reduced, right?”

“No, if we can secure all the S-rank dungeons in the country, we should have enough resources. To avoid chaos, we should still implement the plan nationwide. We can handle that much.”

Thanks to talking to Serika for the first time in a long time, my mood gradually improved.

“If you say so, I won’t say anything else… But you’re going to meet him today, right? Can you really trust this Haruhara-san?”

I told you that there are people on the ground who are cooperating with us.

One of them gave me information about someone very important to me.

Haruhara Tsukito.

He was my best friend and party member in the job world.

“He’s not a bad guy.”

“But that’s Haruhara-san in the parallel world, right? The Haruhara-san in this world might not necessarily be on Yuto’s side.”

“I know that. But he could be a valuable media contact.”

In this world, Haruhara is apparently a reporter for the Weekly Bunshu.

Speaking of Bunshu, I remember when they exposed the nuclear crisis that the government had kept secret during the Okutama Lake Dungeon collapse incident.

The information was apparently leaked by someone connected to the Prime Minister’s Office, but that only made Haruhara suspicious of Tozaki.

Did Tozaki deliberately leak the information to bring down the previous government?

Haruhara feels that he is partly responsible for the country’s current state and is conducting a relentless investigation.

And in the process of searching for Seiji Tozaki’s political weaknesses, he became interested in me, a mysterious explorer known as “Kurotengu” or “Summoner.”

“I’ll find out if he’s the same person from the job world. If so, I’ll ask for his cooperation.”

“…Are you sure? He was your high school classmate, right?”

Haruhara is a classmate from my high school days, which I consider my darkest period.

According to my research, Haruhara left school before Junko Tozaki—then known as Junko Himuro—began bullying, so he was not involved in the incident in question.

Given Haruhara’s behavior in the professional world, it makes sense that he would have dropped out of high school in this world, where the dungeon did not appear during his high school years.

I don’t know if he remembers me from back then.

“If he’s just a reporter looking for information, it’s probably best not to deal with him. But he seems to be doing a pretty thorough investigation. We may need to protect him in case of an emergency. I know this sounds like a strange way to put it, but he could be turned into a public relations officer for our plan.”

If you like my translations, please support me on Ko-Fi and subscribe my Patreon to read several chapters ahead!