SG – Chapter 9: Obstruction

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“You guys again?” 

“Hah? Our level is higher, so everyone is being reserved. Because of that, we end up having to pick you since you are left. I would like you to at least show gratitude. If you say anything haughty, I will seriously teach you a lesson.” (Ayano)

Jinguji is quite the temperamental woman, being able to point the tip of her spear as if nothing. 

She emphasized this while her red hair waved about. 

“You had close to 2 weeks, so I would have liked to see a bit of progress.” 

“But you are apparently still in the 1st Floor. You really don’t show progress.” 

“I wonder about that.” (Takashi)

Even this kind of exchange must look like we are having fun, the gaze of the men is just unbearable. 

Their gazes are telling me ‘you are going to leech off them again?’.

We are going to be heading straight to the deep part of the 2nd Floor: the Goblin and Dire Wolf Zone. 

It is like a mountainous zone, so there’s bad field of vision, and it is a troublesome map where they can easily call for allies from a blindspot. 

It is also easy to cut to the back, so it is hard to protect the backline.

Once the hunt began, there wasn’t much difference between us aside from my Agility, so Jinguji stopped complaining. 

“That’s the same weapon you used before, right? I don’t know if you sharpened it or what, but it is pretty sharp.” (Ayano)

“Are you trying to say I am only matching you guys because of the weapon?” (Takashi)

“I would like you to stop saying you have c-caught up. I will seriously get angry.” (Ayano)

“At any rate, that’s quite the unrefined battle style. Is that your style? Healing you is hard work.” (Reika)

“Shut it, Hanagasaki. Please use Heal only after properly confirming an injury. You have been wasting them for a while now. You have not been of much use either.” (Takashi)

“That’s not funny even as a joke.” (Ayano)

“I won’t forgive you even if it is a joke.” (Reika)

“Also, I can use Heal myself, so there’s no need to use it on me.” (Takashi)

“That’s unexpected. So you chose to become a Priest.” (Reika)

Hanagasaki made a surprised face.

Even as a close combat Class, it isn’t rare to choose healing magic to manage the aggro**. <To become aggressive towards the player’s character. The focus of enemies.> 

“Despite that, your attack power is way too high. It seems like you are only wearing a dirty Ring, and your weapon seems to be the normal type. He most likely just has a cheap Heal Domination Crest to fake being a Priest. Properly call whenever you are about to run out of MP, okay? Not our fault if you die.” (Ayano)

Jinguji doesn’t seem to be convinced, but I am in a hidden Class, so that’s normal.

Hanagasaki’s Heal came flying at me to the point of being overprotective, but after seeing that I didn’t bleed one drop even when bitten, it eventually stopped.

My HP won’t be going down from monsters around here with my current Vitality. 

“This is a surprise. You really have become stronger.” (Reika)

Hanagasaki has seen me doing a variety of things, so she has already felt something off here. 

But asking what Class I am is something you don’t ask others, so they are not. 

It is normal to not disclose such information.

“Wouldn’t we be able to go to the 3rd Floor? But maybe it might be hard for Takasugi.” (Ayano)

The idiot Jinguji seems to think she will be able to show me she can fight better than me if it is in the 3rd Floor. 

The Strategy Guide has written that my Vitality is enough to go to the deep part of the 3rd Floor, so I also agree with the idea.

Hanagasaki must have judged that I am ready too, she didn’t seem to be against it. 

“Is it really going to be okay? I am a bit scared.” (Reika)

Hanagasaki said while her face went pale.

“You two haven’t gone yet?” (Takashi)

“It is your first time too, right? Enemies begin using magic on the 3rd Floor. It might be too soon for you.” (Ayano)

I have 150 Magic Resistance, so I don’t know what’s too soon.

Hanagasaki isn’t against this most likely because she knows that I wouldn’t pull their legs even if magic were to be used on me. 

Also, facing a new floor is a path that any explorer has to go through. 

We found the stairs pretty quickly and went down to the 3rd Floor. 

The map this time wouldn’t have enemies popping from our backs, so I walked by the side of Jinguji.

The enemies of the 3rd Floor are: Orc Warriors holding axes, Orc Soldiers holding spears, and Orc Wizards holding staffs.

I don’t know if they are made of stone or metal, but being faced with actual weapons makes me flinch instinctively. 

After seeing it from up-close, it looks like their weapons are grinded stones tied up to a stick.

I got hit by the spear of the first Orc Soldier on the middle of my forehead, but I was protected by a mysterious power, and it felt as if I was hit by a wooden stick with a round tip instead.

I staggered and it seemed to have caused a bit of a concussion, but I properly managed to counter it.

Their weapons don’t shine as much as metal equipment, and the damage is not that high, so I know it isn’t that sharp. 

Even though I know there’s no issue, I can’t take my eyes off the tip of the spear, my vision narrows, and I end up unable to take resolute actions like avoiding.

I tried to avoid it, but failed, so I ended up thinking it would be better to take the attack by guarding with my arms instead of receiving it on my body. 

Jinguji must have been revitalized by seeing me in that state, she had a smile on her face. 

“That’s pathetic~. If you can’t avoid attacks like that, the future looks bleak.” (Ayano)

That’s not true.

My body reacts better as I level up, and I feel like my technique is getting better with the increase in physical capabilities.

I should be able to fight normally once I get used to it. 

The reality is that hitting my attacks isn’t difficult and the result is exactly as my Agility shows. 

And then, 2 Orc Wizards appeared.

We dealt with one each, and by the time we were over with that, Jinguji had an ice fragment pierced on her shoulder, and blood was trickling. 

Vitality doesn’t affect the damage of magic attacks; it is only mitigated by the Mind stat. 

“Ouch ouch…” (Ayano)

Jinguji frowned and held her wound. 

Physical Classes have a harder time raising their Mind stat, so even Jinguji should have pretty much the same as her initial stat.

That’s why the damage should be higher than what it looks like. 

I casted Heal while saying this to Jinguji.

“You are weak so don’t push yourself too hard.” (Takashi)

Jinguji’s face turned bright red as if she was going to explode and fell silent. 

Even Jinguji would get hit on this floor, and she suffers more damage than me even against physical attacks. 

And when it comes to magic, different from my case where the ice shards can’t even touch my body and disappear, Jinguji would almost always have ice shards piercing her body with a frown on her face. 

The meat inside is frozen because of the power of the magic, so the damage is higher than what it looks.

Also, now that I have declared to Hanagasaki that I have Class Changed to a Priest, she is concentrating on attacking, so she has no leeway with MP, meaning that I am the one doing the healing now. 

Even Hanagasaki would have moments where her spells fail, yet mine would always activate. 

With the HP of Jinguji, she should have no complaints about the power of my Heal.

She should be getting a full recovery with just one cast. 

“What a handful you are. Protecting ain’t easy either.” (Takashi)

I was getting ahead of myself. 

Even Jinguji fell silent and glared at me. 

“Leave it at that, I feel bad for her. You are going too far.” (Reika)

“As if. Do you think I have forgotten what happened before? I don’t have a birdbrain.” (Takashi)

“That was because your level was low and it really was dangerous. Ayano was used to it and had leeway in her level. There was absolutely no need for you to step to the front. It was so reckless, it was hard to look at.” (Reika)

Even I couldn’t say anything when hit with such logic while expressionless.

However, it is a different story if the other party counterattacks.

“I-I landed more hits than y-you.” (Ayano)

“I am also attacking with magic. There’s not much difference in terms of number of attacks.” (Takashi)

The power of my spells isn’t that much different from Hanagasaki.

There’s the quality of the weapon and the growth of the Domination Crest, so Hanagasaki still wins over me in that front to a certain extent though.

Despite that, Jinguji is still protesting as if she was going to bite me at any moment. 

I stopped dealing with Jinguji who wasn’t willing to hear reason anyways and returned my attention to the exploration.

While we were having that pointless argument, 3 students blocked our way. 

When I tried approaching them, they pointed the tip of their spear as if driving me away. 

“Here lies the hunting ground of Class C. We won’t let Class D pass. Go elsewhere.” 

They said this one-sided thing with a threatening attitude.

I can even feel the atmosphere that if we were to try to pass, it would turn into a battle. 

I expected this to happen, so I wasn’t too surprised by this. 

Class C is a class that has been entering the dungeon since middle school, so they should be higher than level 10. 

They are not opponents we can fight yet. 

There’s no choice but to pull back.

“What terrible harassment.” (Reika)

Hanagasaki said this expressionlessly even when she was annoyed.

I was close to laughing at that statement that felt as if it had practically no emotion in it. 

“Isn’t this more of an obstruction than harassment? No matter how you see it, not letting even others pass is way too tyrannical. Maybe we should just kick their asses.” (Ayano)

“Stop it. You won’t be a match.” (Reika)

The dungeon floors are divided by: the front of the stairs where there’s barely any monsters, and the efficient deeper area where monsters spawn a lot.

With the efficient deeper area being blocked, you can only do pretty inefficient hunting by fighting over the monsters around. 

That deep area is pretty vast, so this is pretty much harassment. 

Also, you can’t go to the stairs leading down without passing through the deeper area.

And in this way, Class C was blocking the path of Class D in shifts when it was dungeon diving class.

There’s the need to show our strength by fighting between classes in order to make them stop this. 

We couldn’t go deeper in, so our class obviously got stagnated. 

We ended up encountering classmates of ours several times in the narrow area close to the stairs.

It is still fine right now, but this might soon end up becoming a fight over hunting spots between our class.

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