Chapter 123: Clan Virgin

The day after Absolute Helix's victory over the Fire Dragon, the team of five went around town giving interviews to news outlets. Diniel, Hannah, and Amira were used to his and gave out their responses as normal, while Daryl occasionally bit his tongue and fumbled his words out of nervousness... also as normal. Daryl had been covered by the news a few times before, but it seemed that he still was not used to the business.

Solit Company was also included in the list of publishers they visited. Tsutomu's relationship with them had improved somewhat over time, particularly thanks to Solit Company helping to cover up suspicious rumors that had arisen after the Stampede due to Tsutomu establishing a connection with the nobility.

Still, Tsutomu suspected that Solit Company had staged that situation themselves, so he had also asked the two other major publishers to investigate. No solid evidence had turned up thus far, but he had plans to keep looking into this particular issue, just to be on the safe side.

"That was intense..."

"Get your act together, man."

"Ugh..."

As Daryl put his hands on his chest and sighed, relieved that the interviews were finally over, Amira stung him where it hurt with some well-placed words.

"All you gotta do is nod along with the talk."

"No, I don't think that's how it works..."

"It's just like fighting in the Dungeon. Man, you can be so annoying with how shy you are..."

Daryl had contributed more than Amira to the battle, but he had been all shy and fidgety when the journalists interviewed him, a fact that Amira did not like in the slightest — and which caused her to be grumpy toward him after the fact. Daryl looked around for someone to bail him out, but Tsutomu and Diniel pretended not to notice.

"Listen, you're stronger than me. So, why're you not confident about it, huh?"

"Sorry."

"What, you want me to get down on the ground and grovel or something?"

"No..."

"Then what the hell is your problem?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

This sort of exchange between the two had already happened countless times by now. Hannah had made it a point to intervene at first, but she had since stopped since it was becoming tedious to step in every single time.

"Come on, everyone, we're leaving."

"Yes, sir!"

With one shout from Tsutomu, Daryl happily jumped away from the argument he had been stuck in. Amira clicked her tongue out of annoyance, while Hannah only chuckled dryly, sympathizing with all sides involved.

Hannah also wanted Daryl to be more confident, although she did not show it as much as Amira did. She herself wanted to be like him — a Tank with high VIT, able to take monsters' attacks head-on. Her race and Job dictated that her VIT was low, however, preventing her from being one the traditional way.

She was satisfied with her current role as an evasion-based Tank. Thanks to all the tactics Tsutomu had taught her, she was able to carry out her dream role, and was having much more fun than before.

Her jealousy toward those with high VIT ratings still remained, however, and as such, Daryl's overt humility did tick her off somewhat.

"Would be nice if he'd be a bit more solid, though!"

"I know, right!? He's strong as hell, so he oughtta... like, have the swagger to go with it!"

"Yeah, that's right!"

With the two of them purposefully talking loud enough for Daryl to hear, he trembled with intimidation as he walked on. Tsutomu, feeling that Daryl had taken enough abuse already, said something to try and help him,

"Well, this is the first time Daryl's joined a Clan, remember. Just give him a break and let him be humble for a bit."

"Yeah, I guess. It's like being a virgin — everyone's gotta be one at some point."

"......"

Embarrassed by Amira's analogy, Daryl turned beet red, his mouth flapping open and shut. Tsutomu took a lecturing stance with his hands on his hips, exasperated.

"Amira, watch your choice of words."

"...It's true, though."

"In case you didn't get it, it means to choose more appropriate words to say."

"Yeah, yeah."

Amira waved her hand and turned away from Tsutomu's line of sight, effectively dodging the issue. Tsutomu heaved a deep sigh before leading everyone out of the Solit Company office building.

Diniel and Hannah proceeded to go their own ways, and the remaining three headed to the Dorren Workshop to get Daryl's gear and Amira's greatsword fixed up.

"Holy moly, your stuff took some serious beating."

"Sorry..."

"But you were against the Fire Dragon, right? This is pretty much expected."

Dorren, the old Dwarf, let out a hearty laugh as he took the two main pieces of Daryl's heavy armor away. Then he also took Amira's greatsword and passed it over to his apprentice.

"Make sure they polish it good, old man."

"Always such a cheerful lass, eh? You know, li'l pup, you should try being more like her."

"Anyone but HER..."

"Huh? You makin' fun of me or something?"

"No, I'm not! Sir Tsutomu! Help me out here!"

With Dorren and Amira being so in sync that one would think they had prepared a script beforehand, Daryl was quite overwhelmed and ended up running to hid behind Tsutomu. In turn, Tsutomu awkwardly scratched his cheek as the pair grinned mischievously.

Afterward, the team stayed for a little chat before leaving the Dorren Workshop. Since they had nothing else to do, they returned to the Clan House. Today and tomorrow were technically this week's days off, so now everyone was free to do whatever.

"Tsutomu, let's go do some extra training — and check out the Volcano while we're at it."

"I swear, you're getting addicted..."

"...Just say no if you don't want to. I can go by myself."

"Hey, I'll go, too. A little extra training won't hurt."

Tsutomu's goal was to conquer the Dungeon, and more importantly, he enjoyed the process of doing it. Even on days off, most, if not all, of his activities involved the Dungeon in some way. His answer to Amira prompted the latter to raise the corners of her mouth in a smile.

"Ah! I wanna go, too!" Hannah spoke up.

"I already have plans to visit Sir Garm, so I won't be joining today," Daryl said and bowed his head.

"Pass," Diniel said and raised her hand while lazing around on a sofa.

"All right. Have a good rest, you two."

With that, Tsutomu went together with Amira and Hannah to the Volcano layer, planning to get some training in.

――▽▽――

"So hot..."

"Ugh..."

By the time they were done training for the day, Amira and Hannah were feeling quite groggy. After all, they had gone through back-to-back battles amid the Volcano's high air temperature. If they were to make any progress down here, they had to get used to the heat first.

Still, they were sure to have an easier time going forward compared to other major Clans, thanks to better anti-heat tools and equipment becoming readily available as of late. The benefits from Ealdred Crow reaching layer seventy-one were great as well.

The seventy-first layer was a part of the Snow Field biome, wherein killing ice-type monsters would occasionally yield Ice Magic Stones. Currently an extremely rare and valuable commodity, merchants had practically dropped everything and rushed like a flood to the Ealdred Crow Clan House as soon as it had been confirmed that Ice Magic Stones dropped inside God's Dungeon.

Ice Magic Stones had always been in high demand, what with them having utility for a wide variety of tools and crafting. The low supply of them in circulation was due to them dropping only in the other Dungeons — and even then, only the high-difficulty areas. Now that they were discovered in God's Dungeon, a steady supply of them could be expected in due time, since those hunting for them no longer had to worry about permanent death.

Right now, Ealdred Crow had their hands full with the storm of merchants vying for deals to trade Ice Magic Stones with them. In fact, Rook had been too busy to even get a good night's sleep, pestered for compensation by various organizations — especially those who had been making a living collecting Ice Magic Stones from the other Dungeons.

Still, none of the other Clans seemed anywhere close to conquering layer seventy, meaning Ealdred Crow would be able to practically monopolize the supply of Ice Magic Stones for some time. Even if the trades were handled badly, they could still easily rack up hundreds of millions in profits.

[...Which means it'll be quite a while until Ice Magic Stones are readily available.]

If Ealdred Crow were to let a large amount of Ice Magic Stones into the market, the price of associated magic tools would become lower, making it easier for one to work their way through the Volcano layers. It was quite possible that Ealdred Crow already knew this and was hoarding the Ice Magic Stones to themselves for now, but with how frenzied the merchants were, they probably would not be able to keep at it for too long.

Since the Mount Golem on layer seventy was highly resistant against physical attacks, it was absolutely necessary to have access to the right elemental attacks. Among the ranks of Absolute Helix, Diniel was the only one capable of using them reliably, and even then, she needed a decent supply of Ice Magic Stones for making elemental arrows. Still, that issue might be solved in time, thanks to Ealdred Crow's recent discoveries.

[And it looks like Scarlet Devil Squad's hit a roadblock...]

The Alma incident — particularly the part when she begged on her for the Black Staff to not be confiscated from her — had not been reported in newspapers, but the story had still spread via word of mouth, eventually reaching Tsutomu's ears in one way or another.

[...That's pretty scary, really.]

Tsutomu himself had witnessed Alma's unusual obsession with the Black Staff immediately after the Stampede, and as such, did not quite want to imagine what would happen if she were to lose the staff. He did have an appointment with Weiss tomorrow and intended to ask about the matter then. Still, Tsutomu had been irrationally worried for his own safety lately.

He had expected Scarlet Devil Squad to resume exploring immediately, with the Black Staff wielded by some other member while Alma was out of commission, but they seemed to have other plans. Due to Weiss' bad elemental matchup with the Volcano layers, the team would likely not go anywhere if he did not use the Black Staff himself. The four Attackers were by no means under-levelled, but if they wanted to win with the four-Attacker team composition, they needed to be overwhelmingly powerful — much more powerful than they were now. If they wanted to insist on not using the Black Staff, they had to change their strategies to progress any further.

[Yeah, looks like they'll be stuck for a while... So, the one most likely to get past layer seventy next is Silver Beast, huh? They've come a long way.]

When it came to notable Clans, Silver Beast definitely was the closest one to defeat the Mount Golem. Although none of them had levelled up to their current cap of seventy yet, their party synergy exceeded those of all other Clans. In terms of audience, that made them quite entertaining to spectate, and resulted in them gaining more and more fans as of late.

As for non-Clan organizations, there were the Guild and the Security Team that had reached the Mount Golem. The Guild was in charge of managing the town's Explorers, so updating their staff members' layer progresses was a part of their job, as they had to stay on top of things at all times. Similarly, the Security Team had been rushing to progress further in case there were any criminals among the Explorers. As for the Labyrinth Conquerors, they were currently out of the picture, as they were on an expedition to a distant Dungeon and would not be exploring God's Dungeon for quite a while.

[Would be nice if we were the third group to clear layer seventy... not too soon, not too late.]

While thinking about those things for himself, he cast <<Medic>> on Amira and Hannah as they walked along like zombies.