Chapter 17: Everyone Got Too Strong, and Hanna’s in a Huge Pinch.
"Haah! 『Flash Thrust』!"
"Jigaa…gagagagaga…"
With Ester’s powerful thrust, cloaked in light, <Onmyōji Taro>’s HP dropped to zero.
That makes four kills in total.
The first flute had only one use left, so we switched to the second and blew it four times. We got one dud, but managed to wake three rare bosses successfully, and now the fourth <Onmyoji Taro> has just been slain.
By the way, starting from the second run, we tried testing what would happen if we destroyed the Segway. Maybe, if we cut off its mobility, we could just corner him against the wall and beat him senseless? That was the hope—but turns out, the Segway couldn’t be destroyed.
What the heck? Well, to be fair, back in the game days, the Segway was indestructible too, so I guess this is just the norm.
But since this is real <DanKatsu> now, and we’d been able to smash <Takewari Taro>’s Segway, I couldn’t help but—no, I was really counting on it! I wanted to see what <Onmyoji Taro> would do if his Segway broke.
And yet—after all that hoping—nope! Can’t break it!
I was so disappointed I almost collapsed to my knees.
My hunger for <DanKatsu> knowledge is starving.
"What’s wrong, Zephyrus-kun? It dropped a <Gold Chest>! Come on, let’s open it already!"
"What!? A <Gold Chest>!?"
At Hanna’s call, my tension gauge instantly shot to max.
Heh… looks like I just burned through all the luck I’d been saving up. (Wait, did I even have any luck saved up to begin with?)
This is a rare boss <Gold Chest>! This won’t betray us—well… not too often!
So far, all three <Onmyoji Taro> drops were the bare minimum: two <Silver Chests>.
It’s about time for a <Gold Chest> or maybe even a <Beauti-Four Phenomenon> to show up, don’t you think?
Two chests this time. Not quite <Perfect>, but still—pretty good.
"Alright, who’s opening this time?"
""Me!""
As usual, three hands shot up.
I turned to look at the two who didn’t raise theirs.
"Don’t give us that suspicious look. You make it seem like we’re the weird ones."
Sierra scowled at my stare. …Did I really look that puzzled?
Maybe I did.
"We’re not that particular about it. The three of you can do it."
"No way, Ester! <Gold Chests> are… how should I put it… They’re special. The excitement of what might come out—it’s thrilling! You’d be wasting the experience if you didn’t savor it!"
If a princess calls it "a waste," that’s how precious a <Gold Chest> really is. I agree with her!
"Exactly, Ester. The moment you open a <Gold Chest>—that’s pure bliss. Skipping it would be a crime!"
"Miss Ester, please don’t hold back. Raise your hand too. It’s a <Gold Chest>, after all."
"…Sigh. Well, if Miss Hanna insists like that, then very well."
Ester nodded at Hanna’s extremely convincing line: It’s a <Gold Chest>, after all. The sheer magic of the <Gold Chest> even swayed Ester.
For the record, Ester and Sierra not nodding at mine or Lana’s persuasion had nothing to do with us lacking charisma, okay?
In the end, it was decided that Ester and I would be honored with opening the <Gold Chests>.
Come to think of it, it feels like it’s been ages since I last opened one myself.
"When was the last time I even did this…"
"You know, I’ve never actually seen you open a <Gold Chest>. You always seemed to hold back."
"Huh?"
Sierra’s comment made me dig through my memories. …She’s right! The only times I’d opened one were during the <Emperor Goblin> fight and in the hidden room of the <Beginner Dungeon>. So yeah, this was my first time opening one with the group.
"I even thought you were deliberately stepping aside so the rest of us could open them."
Ester, standing before her own chest, nodded in agreement.
So that’s how it looked…? Because I wasn’t proactive about opening <Gold Chests>, they thought I was just putting on a noble act. That was apparently one of the reasons Ester and Sierra always held back.
Especially Ester—seems she felt like, if even the Guildmaster isn’t opening them, then how could I? …Seriously? I wanted to open them too!
Well, what’s past is past.
From now on, I’m opening <Gold Chests> every chance I get!
First, let’s pray. We must deliver our wish to <Lucky Cat-sama>!
Please, let something good drop!
"Please, let something good drop… <Lucky Cat-sama>, we beg of you."
Ester whispered her prayer before her chest, then opened it first.
"This is… is this the Segway that <Onmyoji Taro> was riding?"
"""Ooooh!"""
At the sight of what Ester pulled out, Hanna, Lana, and I all shouted in unison.
And then, everyone’s eyes turned to me. Very well—allow me to explain!
"The official name is <Taro’s Bamboo Karakuri Roller (Modified)>, but we’ll just call it <Seg-Modified>. Unlike the <Mount>-Type Accessories that Knights can equip, this is classified as a general-use vehicle. The difference is about as big as equipment versus item. Anyone can ride <Seg-Modified>, but it’s only for movement. You can’t take it into dungeons, since it breaks when attacked, and it’s strictly single-passenger. Oh, and you can’t attack while riding it either."
I paused there. So far, I’d only covered the downsides. Now, time for the upsides.
"The real charm of <Seg-Modified> lies in its speed. At full throttle, you could probably cross the entire academy campus in no time. It’s insanely good for travel—perfect for commuting to school and such."
Basically, it’s like a bicycle. Sounds kinda underwhelming when I put it that way, but don’t underestimate it—it’s actually super handy. The same goes for <DanKatsu>: speed boosts were one of the most vital elements in the game.
In certain games, your movement speed ramps up as the story progresses—from walking to dashing, then dashing to bicycles.
Nowadays, double speed and even triple speed are standard. Heck, remakes proudly advertise, Now with speed-up mode! Players are so eager for speed that they’ll overlook minor glitches or awkward pacing in exchange.
There are even games where the characters talk too fast to follow, or conversations get out of sync because of the sped-up flow—and people still love it. That’s how important speed is.
Since <DanKatsu> wasn’t the one-tap movement type, but rather a proper "player-controlled navigation" game, speed boosts were always a godsend. Even if you couldn’t drop items like <Seg-Modified>, there were still other rideable vehicles to obtain—though, those were pretty pricey.
"So, that means this is a jackpot!?"
"…Yeah, pretty much."
That said, <Seg-Modified> is single-rider only.
In the game days, that was no problem—you only controlled one character anyway. But in reality… how should we even handle this?
Well, whatever. I’ll think about that later.
Right now, I still have a <Gold Chest> to open!
"<Lucky Cat-sama>, <Lucky Cat-sama>! Please, I beg you! Grant me fortune!"
(…I already gave you some, you know.)
Clack.
When I opened the chest, inside was a single folding fan.
"A rare boss weapon!"
Lana, peeking over my shoulder, exclaimed with delight.
Exactly—this was one of the fans wielded by <Onmyoji Taro>: the 『Holy Fan of Exorcism』.
──────────
<Holy Fan of Exorcism: Attack Power: 8, Magic Power: 48, 『Saint Fall Lv.8』 『Saint Pillar Lv.5』 『Force Lv.2』
──────────
Rather than raw stats, this weapon prioritized Magic Level. Among Beginner-Level Dungeon weapons, this was, without a doubt, top-class.
All three spells were mid-tier, but two were holy-element attack magic, and the buff 『Force』 (which boosts abnormal status resistance) was incredibly useful. Lana could cure status effects, but she had no way of boosting resistances beforehand.
This fan—absolutely a jackpot! Both Hanna and Lana could equip it.
Our combat power was guaranteed to rise. The only question was, who should use it?
The next day, Friday, after we’d finished the <Onmyoji Taro> runs and delivered all its materials to Gant-senpai…
"Zephyrus-kun, can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What’s up, Hanna?"
Today, Hanna came to visit my room.
That in itself wasn’t unusual, but Hanna coming to consult me was rare.
I had a hunch. Probably about <Magic Stones>. After all, she’d been mass-producing them into a mountain—no, a swimming pool’s worth—so maybe now she was worried about where to store them.
But—
"It’s about the upcoming Intermediate-Level dungeons."
Wrong guess.
Strange. I thought that was a pretty urgent matter, but apparently not.
Well, since she’d started, I might as well hear her out. I let her into the room.
"My magic is just mid-tier and beginner-level spells, so I can’t even compare to Lady Lana. Against yesterday’s boss, I barely scratched it. That was only an Intermediate Low-tier boss, right? And besides that, I keep having to rely on Miss Sierra to protect me all the time…"
"Ahh, yeah… I get what you mean…"
Hanna’s words poured out in a torrent—a rarity for her. I nodded along as I listened, realizing she’d been bottling this up for a while.
To sum it up—
"So basically, you’re saying if things stay like this, it’ll be tough for you to keep up in Intermediate dungeons?"
"Yeah… That’s it. Isn’t there anything I can do, Zephyrus-kun?"
Looked like she was still bothered by how little she contributed in yesterday’s fight with <Onmyoji Taro>.
True enough—Hanna had barely done anything more than providing a distraction.
I knew the cause. It wasn’t her fault—combat jobs like mine had gotten too strong, which left Hanna weaker in comparison. In other words, she just couldn’t keep pace with the rest of us in battle.
Hanna’s a crafter—an 【Alchemist】.
To begin with, crafters can’t realistically keep up with fighters. Even so, up until <Mother Mush>, she’d managed to get by thanks to the <Manalite Staff> and <Maholitan R>. But once we hit the third-tier tree unlock, the gap opened up like a canyon.
That’s when the distinction between combat and crafting jobs becomes painfully clear.
Before that, <DanKatsu> let you distribute SUP pretty freely, even with some restrictions on stats, so the difference wasn’t too noticeable. But from the second and especially the third-tier unlocks onward, each job branches hard into its specialty.
Hanna had already unlocked her third-tier tree, fully awakening as an 【Alchemist】. Same with us in combat roles.
But for a crafter to keep tagging along? Our jobs were simply too exceptional.
We weren’t just high-ranking jobs—we were at the top of the top, boasting SUP 20+ across the board.
If we’d been mid-rank jobs, closer to Hanna’s 【Alchemist】, maybe things wouldn’t be so bad. But the gap was just too wide now. A real problem.
I tilted my head, gathering my thoughts.
"There are a few options… though probably not the ones you’re hoping for."
The fastest way for Hanna to keep up would be <Job Change>.
If she switched to a combat job, she could keep raiding with us without issue. Since she started as a "Villager," she’s uncategorized, meaning she can only reach up to high-rank’s lower tier, but honestly, that’s still plenty for Hanna.
Still… 【Alchemist】 is an absolutely essential job for dungeon progression. I really don’t want her to give it up. Hanna’s fine as she is.
Another option was using a <『Guest』’s Bracelet> so she could come along just as a gatherer. She’d still be able to enter dungeons, but wouldn’t be allowed to fight.
When I explained that, Hanna’s face fell.
"So… it really is hopeless then?"
"Well, normally, yeah. If you wanna raid, you pick a combat job."
"R-right… That’s what I figured…"
"But—don’t give up just yet."
"…Eh?"
There was still one more option. Actually, this was the real one.
The final method was upgrading her gear again—loading her up with item-based firepower to cover the gap.
I’d been thinking about this for a while: Hanna only adopted this witch-like style because she happened to get the <Manalite Staff>. She was never a true mage. She’d just been faking it. Of course she couldn’t compete with the real thing.
That’s why she needed to start fighting as an 【Alchemist】.
And now that her third-tier tree had unlocked, the time had finally come.
Materials were the issue—but we’d already stockpiled quite a lot. All those drops I’d been quietly saving for Hanna instead of selling? Time to put them to use.
The Hanna Overhaul Project was finally moving into its last stage. (Though it might drag on even further.)
"Hanna, I want you to mass-produce the items from this recipe."
I said that as I slapped down a thick bundle of recipes into her hands.
These recipes—the bomb-type items—were the true essence of the 【Alchemist】.
"Bomb recipes? Zephyrus-kun, where’d you get so many!?"
"Picked them up yesterday."
When I’d asked Marie-senpai to arrange a deal with the Item Guild to repair the <Rare Monster Flute (Boss)>, the guild she hooked me up with just so happened to specialize in <Bombs>.
See, items are so deep that each field has its own guild—medicine, cooking, you name it.
The knowledge required is different for each, so if you don’t know the right people, you usually go through the Crafting Guild as a middleman—they’ve got connections everywhere.
And as for the repair of my <Rare Monster Flute (Boss)>, it's actually the specialty of a bomb-related guild.
And as for why bomb specialists handle flute repair? Sounds weird, I know, but in <DanKatsu>, <Bombs> basically meant offensive items. That covered all sorts of limited-use attack tools.
Since items with a limited number of uses tend to be mainly <Bomb (Attack)> type, jobs like 【Bomber】 or 【Explosive Technician】 had tons of repair skills for that category. Sure, jobs like 【Magic Tool Specialist】 could handle it too, but since I needed to buy bomb recipes anyway, I went through them.
There are all kinds of <Bomb> items. Some are single-use, like dynamite, while others take the form of fireworks-like <○○ Launcher> cannons or Wands. The ones that look like wands don’t really scream "bombs," so it can be hard to tell at a glance. For example, the <Wand of Thunder> is actually classified under the <Bomb> category.
Same as flutes, wands that have a usage counter displayed next to them aren’t considered equipment but consumable items. Just a little tip.
Anyway, after about twenty runs of <Takewari Taro> yesterday—right after <Onmyoji Taro>—I went with Marie-senpai to visit the guild <Come Be a Bomber With Me> and got my flute repaired.
The repair cost was 500,000 miru per durability restored, eight restores total. That came to 4 million miru.
Pretty pricey, but considering the value of rare boss materials, not a bad deal. It wouldn’t be worth it at Beginner Mid-tier dungeons, but once you reach Intermediate-Level dungeons, the income balances it out nicely.
"—And that’s when I also picked up some <Bomb>-type recipes."
"Hoheee."
Hanna half-gaped as she listened to my explanation.
"This isn’t the time to ‘Hoheee,’ Hanna. Attack-type <Bomb> 『Alchemy』 recipes aren’t bought up by the Academy, so you won’t find them in the Great Library. You have to get them yourself. And now that we have one, there’s only one thing to do."
The 【Alchemist】 is an excellent job that can craft all sorts of items.
<Potions>, <Bombs>, <Monster Items>, <Weapons>—you name it. If the recipe says it can be made with 『Alchemy』, an 【Alchemist】 can make it. That’s their biggest strength.
The recipe I bought this time was a <Bomb>-type recipe crafted with 『Alchemy』 as well.
Lucky for me, the <Come Be a Bomber With Me> guild didn’t have any 【Alchemists】 in their ranks, so they sold the recipe to me for fairly cheap. (And please, don’t comment on their name.)
"Combine it with the poison we made last time, and your offensive options really open up, Hanna. If you don’t have to rely on magic, your RES can shine, and with enough HP and defense, you could hold your own even in an Intermediate-Level dungeon. Against enemies that only use physical attacks, you can just use <Maholitan-R>. Against ones that only cast magic, you can counter with bombs and poison. And if you have to tank it, your high RES will carry you through."
As I laid out how Hanna should fight from here on, she pulled out a notebook from who-knows-where and eagerly started taking notes. Probably Sierra’s influence.
"For now, focus on defense and production. Just keep cranking out items like crazy. As for armor, we’ll rotate in anything good we get from dungeons, and whenever we tackle higher-grade dungeons, we’ll upgrade your gear along the way."
"Uh-uhm… will I have enough miru for that?"
"If not, I’ll show you which crafts sell for the highest price. You’ll just have to work hard to make them. Materials can be gathered in dungeons."
"Okay! I’ll do my best!"
Hanna clenched both fists, fired up with determination.
As long as she knows which direction to head, she always gives it her all. She’s a crafter job, but she’s stuck with us this whole time. In terms of guts, she’s probably top-tier in <Eden>.
It’s because Hanna works so hard that I keep thinking of ways to make the most of her.
"Alright, I’ll try making some right away then."
"Hold it, Hanna. You haven’t forgotten today’s promise, have you?"
"Fueh?"
I stopped her just as she was about to leave with the recipe in hand, and she tilted her head. Judging by her face, she really had forgotten.
"I told you yesterday—today is the E-Rank guild exam."
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