kscans

Chapter 283 - Staying Up Late Together

"—Hey, if it isn't senpai. What're you doing up at this hour?"

"…That's my line. Staying up late? You self-proclaimed younger person."

In the dead of night, when even the plants are asleep.

After seeing off Iris, who had left with a 'see you tomorrow,' the back-and-forth slaps from reality had successfully banished any hint of sleepiness. It had been two hours since I returned to the virtual world.

I didn't feel like heading out to the field alone, so I wandered the streets of the [Safe Area]—and ended up at the Eastern Round Table.

It wasn't that I was hoping to find someone to talk to; I just vaguely sought out the 'chair that ruins people' here… but it seems someone was already here.

"It's not so much staying up late, my active hours are basically at night."

So said the boy in all black—Tetra—with a small smile. He glanced at me as I appeared, having taken over the large table to work on something.

"Ah… am I interrupting?"

It's not unusual these days for people's sleep schedules to be flipped. I had no intention of commenting on someone else's lifestyle, so I just voiced my concern and was about to leave the Round Table for another spot—

"Not really. Actually, this is perfect timing. If you're free, mind helping me out for a bit?"

…or I was about to, but I was unexpectedly stopped, which caught me a little off guard.

"I'm free, I guess… what, you want me to keep you company for a chat?"

Is that it—or so I thought.

From the looks of it… alchemy, maybe? Lined up were unidentifiable materials, a mortar and pestle, and other similar-looking tools.

I adjusted the question I was about to ask as I watched Tetra carelessly toss them into his inventory and stand up.

"…Doesn't look like it."

"Nope. I just ran out of materials, so I'm going to get some. Can you help me?"

"At this hour?"

"You're one to talk, showing up looking like you're ready to pull an all-nighter."

"………………"

It's a pain how perceptive all the rankers in Arcadia are.

"…A ranker from Istia asking for help to gather materials, what kind of hellscape are you planning to drag me to?"

"It's not a particularly difficult dungeon or anything."

Wait, it's a dungeon, not a field? So it's a full-on expedition.

"You look down in the dumps. Moving your body might take your mind off things, don't you think?"

"…………Haaah… fine, I'll go."

Is this guy really younger than me?

That's not how a 'kid' shows consideration…

◇◆◇◆◇

"Hey, you, senpai (kouhai)."

"What's up, senpai?"

"Don't 'what's up' me! You ask for help and then just stand back and watch? Aren't you living the high life, huh?"

We moved to the southeast of the [Garden of Divine Creation]'s city district.

After passing through a forest and running across a plain, we entered a small, dense jungle. Inside was a dungeon—the [Poison Spring's Respite].

Come to think of it, this was my first time fighting in a forest environment, and I was being made to do it almost entirely on my own. I shot back a retort, but Tetra just shrugged, unconcerned.

"What do you expect? Our combat speeds are too different. If I joined in, I'd just get in the way instead of helping."

If he had meant that 'getting in the way' was referring to me, it would have been war, but since that didn't seem to be the case, I held my tongue.

Well, it's not like I'm genuinely angry about something like this, so it's fine…

"I told you, I'll thank you properly. It's a hundred times faster if I leave it to you, so that's why I'm asking."

"Sheesh… Is it really true that the rankers of the East have zero direct combat power? To be honest, I don't even believe half of that story."

According to him—'I'm a full support build, so I have no attack power,' he said.

Yeah, right. I checked the post-war results, so I know. You took down a Southern ranker on your own in this Four Pillar War.

"It costs a lot to show off my tricks, you know. It'd be stupid to end up in the red while gathering materials… Well, you can look forward to it eventually."

"No, I mean… it's fine, but."

…I'm still a bit unstable, I guess. It's not my place to say it, but my responses lack sharpness.

And it's not just my words that lack 'sharpness'—

"You seem to be off your game."

"…A lot has happened."

Yeah, a lot. About my build, about real life.

I'll leave real life for tomorrow and beyond, but as for my build, I might need a fundamental solution. [Rocket], which is fine as long as I don't touch it, is one thing, but [Hare Real] turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought.

"Hmm… If I can help, you can talk to me about it. But when it comes to combat, our styles are too different, so it might be difficult."

"I know, right. And speaking of styles…"

Though it was none other than me who broke the 'norm,' it seems that 'aerial combat' didn't originally exist in Arcadia.

It wasn't uncommon for individuals to establish temporary aerial maneuvers, but being 'primarily airborne' was a different story.

Since there are probably no players who have acquired an aerial maneuver skill similar to [Hare Real], there's no one I can ask for tips.

In the end, the only person I can think of who might be able to help is my master… I have a feeling that Ui-san would be able to guide me to a solution with her 'if it can be done, it can be done, so do it' theory again.

What even is that theory…

—And so, while juggling conversations and thoughts about this and that.

"That said, if you can move that well, I think it's more than enough by ranker standards."

After kicking aside over a hundred of the 'amorphous monsters' that relentlessly attacked.

Tetra looked at me with an exasperated expression, but that was surely laying on the flattery too thick. After all, these guys were nothing but bona fide grunts.

[Poison Spirit's Emissaries]—snakes, bats, bees, scorpions, and others like spiders and frogs… The main enemies of this dungeon were these creatures that attacked with a thousand different variations even within the same species.

Their true form was a sickly purple slime that mimicked all sorts of poisonous creatures. Like a certain samurai, they were bastards equipped with 'physical immunity,' a perfect counter to me.

…Do bats even have poison?

"These are just cannon fodder. It's like 1/100th of the [Spiral Crimson Tower]."

"It's the numbers that are usually the problem. And you're comparing them to something insane."

Well, that aside, it's actually impossible for me to clear this alone at the moment. After all, they're immune to physical attacks… so why am I, who still lacks any means of magical attack, able to deal with these slimes? Well—

"'Sand,' 'shadow'… Arcadia has a lot of unique magic attributes, huh."

"Maybe. There's 'star,' too."

"What's that? Sounds super strong."

"It is super strong. The two users are right above your head, senpai, you acrobat."

"It's those two…"

—and so, while continuing our conversation.

The black aura enveloping the [Evanquartz, White Crystal Sword of Sky-Soaring] I wielded was the reason I could fight my natural enemy. To put it simply, it was an enchantment skill.

A support skill that can add a magical attribute to a purely physical weapon—as for whose work it was, it goes without saying.

"Come on, you seem to have it easy, so let's get this over with quickly. The material we need only drops from the boss, so our goal is ten runs for now."

"Yeah, yeah… —Hey, you, what did you just say?"

"Look ahead. Here come some more."

"This guy…!"

And somehow, I can't bring myself to hate him, which is what's so infuriating.

It seemed my late-night adventure with my senpai (kouhai) was going to be a long one.