Chapter 87: Reckless Challenge

 

After he ate the magic ore, Yuuma felt a familiar heat spreading from his abdomen. He knew from his experience that it was the sign of magic ore’s power taken into his body.

 

「Aisha-san, I’ve already eaten the magic ore.」

「Yeah, let’s measure your physical strength again.」

 

Yuuma measured his physical strength using a back muscle strength measuring tool and a hand dynamometer again. Yuuma couldn’t help but be anxious as he looked at Aisha filling the notebook with the measured data.

――She said that we’re going to get busy, right? So we really are going to enter the dungeon.

Aisha nodded with a satisfied look while looking at her note, and then looking at Yuuma.

 

「The result is out. The “Silver Magic Ore” raise your base stamina by 37%, agility by 41%, and physical strength by 55%.」

「How did you know the rate for stamina and agility despite not measuring it?」

 

Aisha revealed a smug smile upon hearing Yuuma’s question.

 

「Its estimated value though. As long as I know the increased rate of physical strength, I can guess the increased rate of stamina and agility. It’s just a simple calculation after all.」

「I see now.」

 

――But then, raising my physical strength by 55%… Isn’t that quite awesome?

Seeing Yuuma clenched his fists to feel his strength, Aisha sat in the chair, crossing her leg.

 

「If we include all the magic ore that you consumed after we come to this 『Black Dungeon』, your stamina rose by 1.7 times, agility by 1.8 times, physical strength by 2 times.」

「Awesome~!」

 

Even the president who was looking from the side let out a voice of admiration. Aisha was smiling as if it was natural.

 

「Your physical strength doubled due to the effect of magic ore strengthened even further by Kotaro’s training. It will increase even further to 15 times when you invoke bloody ore’s “Super Strength”, and even further once Yuuma-kun learnt how to release his muscle limiter. The monster from mid-floor can’t hope to match Yuuma’s power anymore.」

 

Right at this very moment, Yuuma and the President felt something was amiss in Aisha’s remark.

 

「That’s why this time, we will aim for the deep floor… No, we will aim for the bottom floor of the black dungeon.」

「Eh!?」

 

The President’s face cramped upon hearing that.

 

「DON’T SCREW WITH US! BOTTOM FLOOR!? LIKE HELL WE CAN REACH THAT PLACE WITH JUST THE TWO OF US!」

 

Despite facing the enraged president, Aisha kept her calm and composed face.

 

「Hear me first, Kotaro. I’m not saying this to force you two if I know that it’s impossible. Different from the other dungeon, the black dungeon’s peculiar features can be seen the deeper we goes in it.」

「Peculiar feature?」

「The monster of black dungeon becomes bigger as we go down deeper into the floor. On the other hand, their strength has also increased proportionally…」

「Ain’t that fu*king dangerous!!」

 

The president was glaring angrily at Aisha.

 

「Let me finish first. It’s exactly due to their huge size that their movement is really slow, they can’t afford to chase after small creatures. In short, we just have to go through them without having to fight them.」

「Seriously!?」

 

The President looked doubtful at AIsha, the latter nodded with a serious look on her face.

 

「I’m serious. This method has already been used by foreign seeker team to dive into the bottom floor of the black dungeon.」

「That ain’t going to guarantee absolute safety! And like hell we can go back and forth such distance in one day.」

「The floor size of this black dungeon isn’t that big. It’s not even half the size of Ibaraki’s red dungeon, so one day journey is possible.」

「Don’t be unreasonable! Are you going to make us traveling for 24hrs straight!?」

 

Despite the President’s protest, Aisha stayed calm and composed.

 

「This time, we don’t have to fight. We just need to pass them quietly till we reach our goal. If you really think it’s impossible, I’ll leave the decision to retreat to you, Kotaro.」

「But still…」

 

Seeing the President’s hesitation, Aisha went even further and whispered to him.

 

「You know that there’s still one day left until my contract with D-Minor ltd expires tomorrow. In short, refusing my request today is equal to breach of contract. In that situation, I can claim reparations money you know? Are you sure that you want to refuse this request?」

 

The President grimaced upon hearing such a threat. He knew from his experience that Aisha was the kind of woman who would do that.

Thus, the President could only chew his lips.

Aisha was looking at the President who couldn’t say anything, and then moving her eyes to Yuuma.

「There you go, Yuuma-kun. We’re going to dive into the dungeon again.」

「A-Ah…」

「I said don’t worry about it. We will avoid the battle as much as possible, even if we have no other choice but to fight, the current you can easily overpower them.」

「Well… That might be correct.」

 

Aisha spoke cheerfully as if they’re going to go on a picnic. Yuuma even wondered if Aisha was right in the head for using such carefree tone.

The worried Yuuma looked at the president but the latter could only let out a groan with the usual frown on his face.

Thus, Yuuma could only heave a sigh as it was decided that they would dive into the dungeon for the last time.

 

◇◇◇

 

『Black Dungeon』 42nd Floor――

 

「Yuuma! Your turn!!」

「Yes, leave it to me!」

 

The rock monster slipped through under the president’s armpit, rolling toward Yuuma and Aisha. Yuuma stood before Aisha as if to protect her, raising his pickel above his head.

A huge sphere with a diameter close to one meter came toward him.

The old Yuuma wouldn’t be able to defeat this monster without 『Bloody Ore』.

But now――

 

「UWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!」

 

Yuuma brandished his pickel with his all. The rolling rock smashed to pieces, thrown high in the sky, and turned into black sand.

His physical strength had been doubled by the effect of magic ore, when he canceled his physical limiter, those numbers were doubled again.

In total, his physical strength rose to four times. It was enough to defeat your average monster.

Moreover, this ability was also――

 

Yuuma held his pickel aloft, and let the 『Liquid Metal』 to flow into its head part. He transformed the pickel into a giant hammer.

And swung it down toward another rock monster that was rolling toward him. His hammer smashed the rock monster, killing it in one hit. In that way, he kept pulverizing the incoming monster with his hammer.

――No problem, it’s just as I imagined!

And just when Yuuma gained some confidence, he heard the President’s voice.

 

「DAMMIT ALL!」

 

Six rock monsters slipped through the president, two of them heading toward Yuuma. At glance, their figure resembled that of black panther, they were running full speed ahead.

Yuuma swung his hammer toward them but they dodged his attack with their agility.

 

「They just won’t stop…」

 

He tried to swing his hammer to the side toward the two leopards who were charging at him again after circling behind him but that attack was also dodged so easily. And yet, Yuuma kept his composure.

Hundreds of thorns shot out from his hammer head. Those thorns pierced the body of the black panther.

The thorns that pierced the body of the black panther branched again inside their body.

The black panther raised a death throes before they turned into black sand. The current Yuuma could already handled 『Liquid Metal』 at will.