kscans

Chapter 930 - The Acrobat, Here and There

There was no time. No, it wasn't just lying around anywhere.

"...What's with this? Am I that popular?"

Lately, that's been especially true.

Log in the moment I get home and fall asleep, then spawn in the moment I wake up. After fulfilling my duties as a university student, that delicate sliver of time before dinner is spent in Arcadia at a rate of roughly over eighty percent. It's become the norm.

So today, too, I submerged myself in that eighty percent, shifting my consciousness from the mechanical bed in the real world to the one in my clan home bedroom in the virtual world. Ten seconds flat from 'good morning.'

No sooner had I finished my morning routine than a series of five message notifications chimed in succession: pi-ro-ro-ro-ron. Getting a flood of private messages the instant I log into a game is the very picture of an online socialite. I'm honestly honored and happy about it, but…

【Tiger☆Lucky】: Yo, you free? Lemme see ya.

【Natsume】: You got time right now? I need to see you.

【Irori】: Haru, my apologies, but could you spare a moment? A prompt reply would be preferable.

【Iris】: We're all having hot pot for dinner tonight. Be here at 18:00, don't be late.

【Sayaka】: Haru-sama. I have something of great importance to discuss. If you would be so kind as to—

…and so on.

Setting aside the one rather relaxing message from a certain foodie, the remaining four all demanding I 'show my face ASAP' were hitting me with a quadruple booking.

From the end of August to September, the flow of events like the Four Pillar War, the Triangle Duo, and the Green Connect raid caused a massive spike in my number of acquaintances. For a while now, I've been getting called out by friends and acquaintances for one thing or another.

It's not just for small talk, either; the number of invitations has been increasing, which makes me happy, but… the number of times I've had to apologize for only having one body has also been on the rise, and that's a problem.

"Umm, ah… let's see…"

Still, today's traffic jam is particularly bad. I don't have the luxury of laughing at how Tiger Lucky and Natsume-senpai, two felines, have accidentally become best buds with their identically worded messages.

Well then, I guess I'll just have to tackle them one by one.

◇◆◇◆◇

"—I'll cast aside my shame and get straight to the point. I need your advice."

"About what?"

And so, the first place I visited was the Eastern Round Table. My companion, therefore, was…

"…About… women."

"Okay, I get it. I understand the internal conflict you must have gone through just to bring that up with me, of all people. I won't laugh, so stop making that do-or-die face."

While we chat from time to time, it's rare for him to go out of his way to summon me. The man in question was Irori, the Peerless, a high-ranking senior from my own faction, also known as the Blonde Samurai.

True to his opening words, the handsome man confessed his clear-cut business in as few words as possible. I offered a wry smile. Just as I said, I banished any thought of teasing from my mind and adopted a sincere posture.

Given my own circumstances, I'm currently one of the world's foremost 'guys who can't afford to take a dismissive attitude toward other people's love lives'… but well.

I suppose that reaction, in its own way, makes things awkward for him.

"…My apologies for the suddenness. I debated whether it was appropriate to bring up this topic of romance with you."

"I told you, it's fine. I'll hear you out, my friend. Can't say you can rely on me, though."

I let out a second wry smile at Irori, who bowed his head slightly with an exceptionally rare attitude.

For a split second, I considered slapping him on the back in a buddy-buddy way, but the potential consequences were too terrifying, so I discarded that bat-shit-insane bad-end option in a literal instant.

"But, sorry. My schedule is a little backed up right now…"

"No, that is fine. I wrote that a prompt reply would be preferable, as you saw. As for the consultation itself, we can arrange it for another day… I apologize, but I would like to ask for a proper block of your time."

"Oh, well, if that's the case, then no problem at all."

"……………………"

"What's wrong? You okay? Seriously, don't worry about it. Did something happen?"

"No… nothing. No, I… yes, nothing. But, it is a little…—"

"Ah, okay, that's enough, don't say any more. I get it. I totally get it. I don't get it, but I get it. It's probably the kind of thing I've experienced myself, so rest easy, maybe?"

And with that.

As for my dear friend, who had shown a weakness far beyond rare…

"…Haru."

"What is it?"

"You are a great help. I am sorry. Thank you…"

"Hey, seriously, knock it off. Don't show me any more of that meekness. It's creepy."

I decided to put a pin in it for now.

◇◆◇◆◇

"Alright, here I go! Watch closely…—Transfooooooorm!!!"

"Whoooa?! For real?! That's busted, you gotta be kidding me!!!"

So yeah, I squeezed in and quickly dealt with the Tiger matter.

He must have heard about it from Shohren, another high-ranker in our faction. The tiger-cat-man, who was dying of curiosity about the Terror Armament rampage I'd unleashed yesterday, and I just goofed around for a bit before parting ways. That's Tiger Lucky for you.

As per tradition, I summoned the idiot to the Plains of the Horizon, Istia's beginner area, quickly showed off my full armament, and promptly sent him on his way.

Alright, next.

◇◆◇◆◇

【Iris】: We're all having hot pot for dinner tonight. Be here at 18:00, don't be late.

【Haru】: The real question is whether the main ingredient is meat or fish.

【Iris】: Both.

【Haru】: Motion carried.

Alright, next.

◇◆◇◆◇

"—Hmm… a simple choice between offense and defense. Well, just as I expected."

"Both are pretty useful, right?"

And so, I prioritized Irori's case, which had an unusually serious air to it, then sandwiched in Tiger's, which I figured I could finish in a flash, and had a casual chat with my housemate during my travel time from Istia to Key Tree City… smoothly transitioning through my tasks to the fourth item on the list.

As always, high places seem to be this kitten's favorite. I took one step of tree-climbing to have an audience with the Thread-Weaver. With a literal rocket jump, I landed on a branch hundreds of meters above the ground and sat down next to my senior, who no longer showed any surprise at my antics. We began our information exchange.

It was about yesterday. We had both conquered the ninetieth floor at the same time but via different routes, and now we were discussing the reward skills we'd each obtained.

"By the way, I went back and forth a few times, clearing the Dao, Earth Demon, to test things out."

"As expected of the diligent cat-sama—ouch!"

"The conclusion is, the reward skill seems to be granted only when your latest result is unified as either 'all questions answered' or 'all questions ignored'. If you beat it while ignoring the gimmick, the skill disappears. If you solve the gimmick and beat it again, you reacquire it… In other words, you can't have both."

"Huh, that's a shame… On a related note, did you just flick my forehead?"

"Why don't you ask your 'memory' if you said something that deserved it?"

Playful banter aside, the information she'd confirmed was genuinely valuable.

Starting from the sixtieth floor and appearing every ten floors, the 'Demon' bosses share a common gimmick. By solving all the maze puzzles and proceeding, you obtain [Demon's Favor]—a defensive skill that raises the player's resistance to all elemental attacks.

There's another dungeon reward skill with a similar effect called [Four-Sided Blessing], but [Demon's Favor] surpasses it in both breadth and potency.

And of course, it's a passive. Furthermore, the two effects stack without conflict, so it'll be treasured as a durability-boosting skill where the more you have, the better.

In contrast, by ignoring the maze gimmick entirely and simply steamrolling the Demon, you get your hands on [Four Pillars' Embrace]—a purely offensive skill. It grants the effect of ignoring a certain percentage of the opponent's resistance value for all elemental attacks the player performs.

Anyone who's ever played a game would react instantly to the words 'percentage ignore,' and it's nothing short of a powerful effect. While the damage increase isn't massive, it's the kind of thing you'd take without a second thought if you could get it.

This goes for mages, of course, but with the customization of Key Tree armaments, it's become easy for melee warriors to secure elemental attack options these days. Since this is also a passive, a skill that will never be useless can't possibly be weak… and so on.

That look on your face, senpai-dono, what's it for?

"…The kind of thing your partner shouldn't get her hands on—"

"That's enough. It's better not to think about it."

And just like that, the information exchange with Natsume-senpai was swiftly completed. And so, for the final item on the list, the one that somehow felt like it would drag on the longest—

【Sayaka】: Haru-sama. I have something of great importance to discuss. If you would be so kind, might I have a moment of your time, just the two of us?

I suppose it's time to head over to the Saintess.