kscans

Chapter 123 - A Day Off is for Experiments!

Having finished my report to Kaede-chan about the Water of Life, I decided to move on to the next topic.

"Alright, Kaede-chan, it’s time for a fun experiment."

"An experiment?"

"Ta-da!"

I pulled a potion from the bag I’d left on the sofa.

"A potion? But it’s red. I’ve never seen one like this before."

Well, I did just make it last night.

"This is a Buff Potion that increases attack power!"

"Oh... does that mean you found some Sparkling Grass?"

"That’s right. Lin-san told me about it, and it was growing normally along Mireille Road. Apparently, you can only find it in the morning."

"So it’s like a morning glory?"

Is that what morning glories are like? I have no idea when it comes to flowers.

"Yeah, something like that, I guess? And apparently, Silken Grass grows at night."

"Between this and the monsters turning to smoke, there are a lot of things about Frontier that are hard to understand, aren’t there."

That’s nothing new. For me, it’s the levels and skills that I don’t get. To be honest, what even is a Status Card...

"I guess there’s no point thinking too much about it. More importantly, can you put out a request for gathering materials?"

"I think Sparkling Grass will be fine, but there’s not much information on Silken Grass. I’ll try putting out a request, anyway. It might be expensive, though."

Sparkling Grass is conspicuous, so someone will probably gather it, but Silken Grass is a bit iffy. It’s out at night, and we don’t even know what it looks like.

"I don’t care how much it costs. Just put out the request."

"Understood."

The Buff Potions aren’t for selling, they’re for insurance, so just being able to get the ingredients would be good enough. It’s a just-in-case measure for Nanapon, so as long as we don’t do anything that dangerous, we should be fine.

"Now then, let’s test this attack-boosting Buff Potion."

"How are we going to do that?"

"Kaede-chan, how about you try slapping me."

"What... me, slap you, Senpai?"

Kaede-chan looked reluctant, as expected.

"Alright, let’s add a scenario."

"A scenario? Are you going to pretend to be a groper or something?"

I couldn’t exactly say, "What the heck," because that was precisely what I was thinking.

"Just hit me normally."

"Oh, so he really was planning to be a groper."

Hey now.

"Just channel all your daily stress into it. Oh, I mean stress from work, not from me."

"I was thinking of calling you a pervert, Senpai, and then hitting you..."

It pains me that I can’t deny it.

"Whatever, just hit me."

"Okay, here goes."

Contrary to her cute little "here goes," she slapped my cheek with considerable force. Not even my own father has... actually, yeah, he has hit me before.

"It stings a little, but whatever. Okay, Kaede-chan, drink this."

I handed Kaede-chan a Buff Potion (Strength).

"I really don’t feel right about hitting you, Senpai..."

"It’s fine. I don’t mind it that much."

"That’s a turn-off. Not the situation, you, Senpai. You’re a turn-off."

That’s not what I meant.

"I meant it’s fine because there’s no malice behind it!"

"If it weren’t for that groper comment earlier, I might have just accepted that."

Despite her words, Kaede-chan gulped down the Buff Potion (Strength).

"Looks like this is the day Kaede-chan’s opinion of me hits rock bottom."

"It’s fine. It hasn’t dropped at all."

Was that a good thing? Or a bad thing?

"Alright! Kaede-chan, hit me with about the same amount of force as before."

"Um, about this much, I guess? Here I go!"

Once again, Kaede-chan struck me with a cute little cry, but it didn’t feel any different from before. Both times just stung a little.

"Huh?"

"How was it?"

"I can’t really tell."

"What? So I hit you for nothing?"

No, I’m the one who got hit for nothing.

"Hmm, the defense-up potion reacted to being attacked, so I thought this would too, but I guess not?"

"It would be great if we could measure it."

"You’re right. Okay, let’s use this..."

I pulled a hand dynamometer I had prepared earlier out of my bag.

"Shouldn’t you have just used that from the start..."

"It’s an experiment. I have iron dumbbells and stuff, too."

"I see."

"Alright, I’ll try squeezing it first."

I gripped the dynamometer tightly with my right hand.

"Nngh! Nngh!! Nngh?"

"You don’t have to try so hard."

"No, I can still go higher."

"Senpai, that’s one of your quirks. No matter what your grip strength is, my affection for you won’t go up or down."

Well, fine then.

"Let’s see, sixty kilograms. Now that I think about it, I have no idea if that’s high or low."

"Isn’t that high? That’s amazing."

Hmm, her affection level really isn’t changing. It seems she couldn’t care less about strength.

"By the way, Kaede-chan, you try it too."

I handed the dynamometer to Kaede-chan.

"Let’s see... Here I go! Nngh! Nngh!!"

Kaede-chan squeezed the dynamometer with all her might, letting out cute little sounds.

"You don’t have to try so hard."

"No, I can still do more! I’m just getting started!"

I couldn’t care less about Kaede-chan’s grip strength, though. Ah, so this is how Kaede-chan felt a moment ago.

"Isn’t that enough? Girls are more popular when they’re weaker, you know."

"Okay, I’ll stop."

Kaede-chan promptly stopped squeezing.

"Let’s see, thirty-three kilograms. That’s half of yours, Senpai."

"Is it the difference between men and women?"

"Who knows? Besides, I drank a Buff Potion, so I can’t really say."

True enough.

"Okay, next I’ll drink one and try it."

I took a Buff Potion (Strength) from my bag and chugged it down.

"Alright! I’ll show you my true power."

"Since you’re basically doping, that sounds incredibly lame."

She’s right. That was so uncool.

"Here I go! Hyaaah!"

Just like before, I squeezed the dynamometer with all my strength.

"Go, Senpai, go!"

Drawing strength from Kaede-chan’s cheers, I gripped the dynamometer until I hit my limit, then let go.

"Ah, I’m tired. Let’s see, sixty-six kilograms. An increase of six kilos."

"So, about a ten percent increase?"

Ten percent, huh. That’s a bit underwhelming.

"Better than nothing, I guess?"

"I’m not sure."

Well, at the very least, Nanapon probably won’t need it.

"For now, I’ll just drink one when I go adventuring."

"You’re going to drink a defense-up potion anyway, right? If you add an attack-up potion on top of that, won’t your stomach be sloshing around?"

It will.

"I guess I’ll save it for tough enemies."

Are there even bosses? Even if there are, they’re probably dangerous, so I doubt I’ll fight them.

"What should I do about the request?"

"Please put it out, just in case. You never know what might happen."

I have an Item Bag, so storage isn’t an issue. I might as well make a few, just in case.

"Understood. I’ll post the request tomorrow. Ugh, I want to quit my job."

I know that feeling all too well.

"You can quit if you want, you know."

"I’ll keep at it until you quit being an adventurer, at least. I’m worried about you."

It’s love. This is love.

"...One could also call it anxiety."

Love? More like a mother’s love, I guess.