Chapter 9: Boss Fight Over. The Final Treasure:<Gentle Pickaxe>
"I have returned."
"Ah, welcome back, Ester. How did it go?"
It was evening, right after yet another round against the <Knight Goblin>, when Ester appeared from the gate leading deeper to the 14th floor. She’d come back from her harvesting trip.
"I traveled through the 10th to 14th floors. As expected, the deeper gathering points were untouched. I managed to harvest 282 stalks of <Mana Grass>."
"You gathered that much!? That’s incredible—but really helpful. Once we’re back, we’ll have Hanna turn them into MP potions."
I’d expected far fewer, but apparently Ester had gone around in a carriage to visit each gathering spot—even heading all the way back to the 10th floor. Well, with a carriage, that wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes. That’s a 【Knight】 job for you. Though honestly, she doesn’t act very knight-like.
Still, this meant MP potion mass production would be smooth sailing. I owed Ester a lot.
"Right. And how did things go on your end?"
"Ah, we’ve already reached our goal of job level 25. The <Knight Goblin> fights are going smoothly now, and I haven’t even needed to step in and cover for them lately."
After a few rounds of hunting <Knight Goblins>, Lulu had started observing her own HP, so the damage she took had dropped a lot.
Right now, she was experimenting with dodge skills like 『Quickstep Evasion』 and 『Rolling Sword』 to avoid losing HP in the first place.
For reference, 『Rolling Sword』 is a higher-tier upgrade of 『Quickstep Evasion』—a roll-dodge that follows up with a slashing strike. It’s a little similar to my own 『Sonic Sword』.
In the end, they’d gone ahead and activated a handful of new skills.
Partly because the excitement of unlocking them was too strong, and partly because they wanted to get used to them early. It was their firm request.
Well, if that’s what they want, I have no right to stop them. I gladly shared with them the secrets of my "strongest growth theory."
"Ah, Ester onee-san!"
While we were talking near the entrance, the others came back—probably after finishing storing the loot.
Lulu was the first to rush over.
"Listen, listen! Lulu got suuuper strong! She spins around and slashes! Spin-spin, slash-slash, just like that!"
"Is that so? You worked hard, Lulu."
"Hehe, yup!"
Ester gave her a gentle, warm smile as she patted Lulu’s head, the little one proudly boasting like a small animal.
And just like that, a wholesome little scene bloomed before us—the healer and the healed, soothing each other. …I wanted to join in too.
"By the way, Sir Zephyrus. This ‘spin-spin’ Lulu keeps mentioning… You didn’t, by chance, dance around spinning with her, did you?"
"…Ester, why are you looking at me like that?"
"??"
For some reason, Ester was giving me a suspicious look. It was the first time I’d ever seen her with that expression. It kind of reminded me of Hanna’s sharp gaze.
Even Lulu tilted her head in confusion.
"No, no, the spin-spin is Lulu’s skill! It’s reeeally strong!"
"Ah… I see. Then I misunderstood."
"By the way, just so you know, Cheria’s had more skinship with Lulu than I have. She was carrying her around just a moment ago."
"…I see."
Ester’s eyes turned toward Cheria. She looked… jealous.
I guess traveling alone earlier had left her lonelier than she realized.
At that moment, Cheria and the others joined us.
"What’s wrong, Ester? You’ve got a look I’ve never seen before."
"It’s nothing. Did you enjoy the dungeon, Cheria?"
"It’s fascinating—my thirst for knowledge is endlessly stimulated. Lord Zephyrus’s advice is precise and wonderfully efficient. For a laid-back elf like me, this place is brimming with excitement. Honestly, I’d like to take him home with me."
"…Please don’t. Lady Lana would be heartbroken."
"Cheria, maybe tone it down with that kind of talk in front of me, yeah?"
What exactly did she mean by "take me home"? From the way she said it, I could clearly picture her locking me up and squeezing every bit of <DanKatsu> knowledge out of me.
I swore to myself right then—no matter what, if Cheria ever invited me over, I would not go.
"Lord Zephyrus, may I have a word?"
"O-oh, Celestan. What is it?"
Honestly, I welcomed the sudden change of subject. I turned quickly toward Celestan.
"Right. This dropped—what shall we do with it?"
"Wait, that’s a <Gentle Pickaxe>! You mean a <Gold Chest> dropped!?"
Looks like while I’d been busy talking with Ester, I hadn’t noticed that the <Knight Goblin> had dropped a <Gold Chest> this time.
What Celestan showed me was one of the <Gentle Gathering Series> that comes from <Gold Chests>—a <Gentle Pickaxe> with 『Excavation』 attached.
Basically, the excavation-version counterpart to the <Gentle Shovel> I bought off Marie-senpai. Of course, it came with the 『Double Yield』 skill too. The only downside was that with 『Excavation Lv3』, it could only be used up to the Beginner Upper-tier dungeons.
"Obviously I’m not selling this! There’s no shortage of ways to use it. —Everyone, this <Gold Chest> was a jackpot. Congrats!"
"A jackpot!? Yay, that’s great! Yaay, yaaay!"
At my announcement, Lulu threw both hands up and bounced around with joy. Too cute.
Ester and Cheria, I noticed, weren’t so much looking at the <Gold Chest> item as they were watching Lulu’s delight. Couldn’t blame them—I felt the same.
"Alright then, time to head back! Our final drop was amazing—today was a good day!"
"Yes, good work, everyone."
"Good work~."
Exchanging words of thanks, we all left the dungeon together.
Yeah… feels like another great day.
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