Chapter 143: I thought they were classmates summoned with me, turns out – no.
Day 49 Morning, White Weirdo Inn.
Putting aside whether a morning or cottage industry worker starts early or not, I have a morning fair open first thing in the morning?
Here is today's featured product! Mana accumulator bracelets for sale! First come first served~? It's a limited edition item with only 60 available~?
Struggle~? Fight for them~, kind of?
A hellish picture of girls' frenzied madness, capable of scaring away all of the morning freshness. If they approached dungeon exploration with the same terrifying drive, they would've already killed all of them? Also, it seems there is no wardrobe malfunction to be expected.
The backline girls that usually would be pushed back by frontliners were completely different today. After all, these are not some healing stones of unknown effect, but mana stones of certain effectiveness. And not just any stones but magic stones.
There are two types, the first one is a power stone bracelet, somewhat large magic stones linked together, excelling at high power output, which should be very effective during one battle, I guess most suited for frontliners? But the one I'd recommend is a 5 wrap bracelet that has great performance.
Instead of blowing a lot of energy each time, it slowly consumes the charge with high efficiency, a very practical item. The design is a straight-up rip-off, but I don't think Luu-san will notice what I'm doing in this world. If she does, I'll apologize.
[1] But I'm yet to receive angry letters from the Shint Mus-ry branch of this world, and since I blocked the passage with the fake dungeon, it should still be alright for a while. It will take some time for Luu-sans branch store of this world to become aware of this.
Don't touch it! I'm going to buy it! No, it's mine. It's a fated meeting?
Ah, I'll buy this one too.
Let backliners have it! You are a vanguard! And we are even in the same party! Cooperate with boosting the rearguard's firepower!
Frontliners need mana too, and there is only one bracelet with this design, so it's mine! I have wanted this since a long time ago! It's a knockoff though
That's all your limited quantity is to blame! That's not enough. I got only two bracelets? Make more!
And scale up ring production!
Am I going to have even more work pushed on me? Or rather, with two bracelets per person, wouldn't it usually be more than enough? Just how many arms do you have? And also rings, why did they end up completely sold out?
Didn't the danger of getting hit with debuffs pass for a while? I even wrote in the fake dungeon that no one should come? I also added a warning right above the entrance that anyone who enters this gate should abandon all hopes, dreams, and friendships, so it should be fine?
That dungeon can melt clothes, so it's a danger to intersex friendship, you know? Seriously.
Haruka-ku~n! There is no purple. If you have a 5 wrap bracelet with a combination of purple and red then give it to me, if you won't then make it! For goodness' sake!
Why are they so full of themselves despite buying all of this on credit? Are we in a buyer's market situation despite the obvious scarcity of goods? Is this again an Affection Rating issue? Without sufficient Affection even market principles are going to be ignored?
I mean, I'm getting shouted at just for having no purple and red combination? A combination of purple, red, and blue won't do? Don't you feel bad for Blue-san? Don't you feel bad for me?
I'm quite serious.
In the end, on top of selling all 60 pieces, I got requests for 20 custom bracelets? Isn't it strange? Aren't those numbers just weird? The geeks and the idiots didn't even buy anything?
They are just sitting along the wall, completely burned out? Well, whatever. On top of that, all 50 rings with Abnormal Status resistance, that I made after requests from the previous time, sold out as well? Just how many debuffs do they want to catch?
It's not a problem, since I made a profit from that, but I received only a bit of currency? I'm working all the time yet can't break out of poverty? Has anyone ever seen such a super hard working NEET? Death March isn't just the beginning here, it's still going non-stop in Present Continuous.
Looks like there is no saving in this world.
Now, let's go to the dungeon. Recently, I'm beginning to feel like the place where I can relax the most are the dungeons? Just why is that? I'm even beginning to consider seriously settling down in a dungeon for the sake of peace and quiet?
But I'm yet to find an excellent dungeon lot that has both satisfactory room arrangement and a good environment. And the dungeon we are about to explore today can be called the worst possible dungeon lot. After all, every single monster is an insect-type.
I absolutely refuse to live in a place swarming with bugs!
Dropping by the general store to deliver the goods, I also gave them 3 portions of rice with mushrooms, following it by slapping the shopkeeper on the head with a paper fan. I'm insanely busy, yet I ended up cooking rice and even making a paper fan? Good grief.
And after being done with buying, selling, and bartering, I left for the dungeon.
Oh! What a gloom, my enemies are insects and my allies are idiots. This is depressing, let's just kill them. And since I lent out Armored Pres-san, it's nothing but dudes here.
The girls pushed this dungeon on us because they didn't want to deal with bugs! And chasing after bugs to kill them in melee eats tons of time! They are flying, running, and there are hordes of them!
Yeah, the affinity is the worst. After all, they are dumb idiots specializing solely in close combat with pretty much no ranged attacks. On top of this, they are most suited for dealing with humans, large monsters, and beasts.
On the other hand, they are weak against insects, ghosts, and magic-type enemies that prefer to keep their distance. Or rather, they simply need a lot of time to kill enemies in such an unfavorable match-up. And in addition, since they don't learn, they end up chasing after bugs every time.
The bugs that keep running away appear to be more intelligent than them.
For starters, we begin from floor 39, withParalyze Moth Lv 39, moths with paralysis attack. I already pushed rings with resistance to them, yet they keep struggling here because moths keep escaping by flying. And yet, today again, they showed up carrying swords and spears
Even 1st graders would've prepared butterfly nets or something? Why are you coming here with swords right after saying that they didn't really work? Why are bugs smarter than you? Why doesnt the idea of preparing tools or learning magic even cross your minds?
Ooh! There was such a secret trick!
I can't do this, they are real idiots How is it a secret trick to use an insect net to catch insects?! And all five went oooh!hearing that They even added an exclamation mark. They really didn't think of it. It's not that it didn't occur to them, they didn't even try to think at all?
Using suspicious grass that the shopkeeper recommended to me, I fumigate the place. For bugs, THIS!, is how heavily recommended this item is. Buying all of it I then placed a bulk order for more.
AndParalyze Moths Lv 39 are dropping like flies You are dungeon monsters, don't die instantly from an insecticide herb sold at a general store! How are you different from common bugs? Perhaps it was possible to beat this dungeon in one day by thoroughly fumigating it from the first floor?
And the idiots shouting Woooow! Such an original idea! I can't take it anymore, honestly, didn't you guys ever see an insecticide? You did hear how I fumigated the great dungeon, didn't you?
Why would a modern person chase bugs around with a sword? This is the actual surprising part here. I'm pretty sure even cavemen, our ancestors from the stone age, were still brighter than that? How far do you have to go back to get such idiots?
It's one thing if they tried and couldn't come up with anything, but the fact that they didn't even try to think disqualifies them as a sentient life form? What kind of creatures are they? Can't I fumigate them as well?
Oh man, and we were going around, running up the walls to strike down giant moths flying 10 meters above the ground?
Or filling up the area with countless slashes to completely seal the escape of flies that instantaneously moved around at ultra high speed at unpredictable trajectories?
Or showering giant beetles with a series of blows, completely overwhelming them until we could pierce through their defenses?
Eh? It does sound like your typical fantasy stuff? Eh? Is this actually the correct approach?
No! They just make it sound cool!
Phew, that was close, I almost was tricked by their wording. It's really not what you say, but how you say it, huh.
In other words, they were chasing moths until they got near walls, the flies were evading attacks so they swung their swords around like maniacs until they hit something, and the beetles were too sturdy, so they just kept stabbing them at random until bugs died?
Their way of thinking is absolutely barbaric, or rather, there is no thinking involved at all.
Hmm? Did you guys really come from the modern era? I was pretty sure you are my classmates, but could it be you are just some strangers?
We are! We were in the same class! We aren't just strangers!
Unfortunately, they are modern people. If modern-day people of our previous world were to hear this they'd surely grieve and moan, asking if these really are their contemporaries. Yeah, it saddens me as well? Seriously.
And while continuously making fools of the idiots, I keep burning the insecticide herb, while sending the smoke further with wind magic. Hmm? For some reason, I'm beginning to feel as if it's my approach that's wrong? How utterly baffling.
Okay, let's go down. If they are still not dead I can fumigate them again? They also might drown if flooded? Well, let's think after we see what's going on down there.
Just what were our struggles until now? Our war versus an army of bugs?
Even though I had to go through a life and death battle when crossing blades with praying mantis?
And it was so hard to deal with that swarm of charging spear locusts?
And we had to fight caterpillars while running around the dungeon, constantly avoiding their spit?
A bit of fumigating couldve put an end to all that fighting?
No, would a modern person even fight giant bugs with a sword? Normally?
I think they knew about insecticides even in the middle ages? And wasn't lime used even in ancient times? Even Dalmatian pellitory is used for quite a long time already? From which era did you guys get summoned?
Jurassic Period?
Were they really living in modern society? On the other hand, the geeks were poisoned by it? Am I the only normal person here? How deplorable.
[TL Notes: [1] Chan Luu, the creator of the iconic wrap bracelet, and a trendsetting jewelry designer from Vietnam. ]