Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 182
Defense Specialization and an Extended Battle
As Maple sat there under the ghosts stare, Sally slowly regained her calm.
“Maple…is it still there?”
Sally asked Maple without raising her face.
“Yes, it’s still there.”
“Ugghh…why won’t it leave me alone…”
While there was still a tremble in her voice, she was starting to seem like the normal Sally now.
“Are you calm now?”
“I’m calm. But this is so embarrassing, so don’t look at me…”
Of course, Maple had already seen Sally’s crying face very clearly.
Sally’s ears, which were the only thing visible, were bright red. And so Maple could imagine how much redder her face would be.
“Okay. But…did you want this skill that bad? Really?”
“I currently regret getting myself into this…really. I want to punch myself for believing that I might be fine…”
According to Sally, she had been blind by want of the skill.
“That’s very unusual. You’re always right about everything, Sally.”
“It was something that I wanted so much, that’s why. Now that I’m calm and level headed, I see that I can make do without that skill.”
“But what was this skill that you wanted anyway? I never asked you about it.”
Maple said, and so Sally started to tell her about the skill and items she wanted and about what had happened since she arrived here.
Maple listened and realized that there was not much that would be useful to her.
As she didn’t need to go and get things she didn’t need, it would make exploration much more efficient from now on.
Of course, there was a part of Maple that was enjoying the exploration, so there was no saying that she wouldn’t go.
She would likely just go anywhere that looked interesting.
As they talked like this, Maple wished that the ghost would just float off somewhere else, but the ghost would not move at all.
“It would be bad if I left the throne…maybe I could attack it?”
Maple stretched out her hand to use the item. A blade of wind cut into the ghost.
And the ghost stumbled and retreated.
However, it had no HP bar. And so Maple understood that it did not deal damage and could not be defeated.
The ghost had covered its face in its hands and wailed, but after a moment, it returned to them and tried to touch them.
“We’ll have to escape while it’s recoiling…Sally, can you do that? It will probably catch up with me.”
Maple suggested that Sally alone could escape.
“Umm…I don’t think so.”
It was clear that it wasn’t solely due to her AGI being 0.
“What should we do? Huh?”
The ghost who had until now refused to part from them was suddenly moving away and left the room.
It was so sudden that Maple could do nothing but stare in stunned surprise.
“It’s our chance! Let’s go, Sally!”
“Huh-huh? Uh, okay!”
Sally was covering her face and hadn’t understood the situation as Maple pulled her hand.
For the first time ever, the two of them ran at the same speed.
From behind them, they heard the voice of someone who had been sacrificed to the ghosts in their place.
Sally heard the screams of the newcomers and became red with embarrassment at realizing that she had been acting the same way.
“Dash!”
Maple took the shortest route back through the hallways that she remembered until finally, they came to a place where you could log out.
“Thank you, Maple.”
“Ehehe…you are welcome!”
They were both happy to have returned.
From behind them, cold arms stretched out and embraced them at the same time.
“Ahhh….!”
“Oomph!”
Just as both of them froze in shock, they received a notice for the new skill.
“Uhh… ‘Connection to the Underworld’? Oh, it’s the skill where it doubles the effect of items.”
Maple said as she looked at the skill.
Sally had slumped down, but it seemed like she had acquired the same skill as well.
According to the skill’s description, it was a mysterious connection to someone who would occasionally and slowly lend you a hand from behind.
“Eww…I don’t want that connection.”
“What do you want to do, Sally? I can stick with you if you want to explore some more.”
“I’m logging out. I want to leave.”
Sally said immediately.
“Of course. Uh, bye bye then?”
Maple waved her hand.
“Thanks for helping me today. I’ll make it up to you later.”
“Don’t worry about that. You helped me a lot up until now! I feel like I was finally able to return a bit of the favor.”
Maple said with a laugh. Sally’s expression brightened a little.
“Thank you. Well, see you when the 7th layer is ready.”
“I’m sure you’re just saying that.”
“No, I’m not returning…after this.”
With that said, Sally logged out and left.
There is a saying about forgetting the heat once it is past your throat.
In many cases, people tended to repeat their mistakes.
After returning to the real world, Risa got up from her bed and put the game away.
“Hmm…so sweaty. I need to take a bath… Oh, maybe later! I need to eat first.”
Risa said, and then she opened the door, much more carefully than usual, and went downstairs.
When she reached the living room, she saw that her mother was in the middle of making dinner.
“Risa? Dinners not ready yet.”
“Yeah, I just came to watch TV.”
Risa said as she turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa.
However she was not really interested in it, and she was basically just occasionally glancing at it.
As Risa sat in the living room and waited for dinner to be ready, the telephone began to ring.
Risa turned around and looked towards the phone.
“Oh…yes, this is Shiromine. Yes.”
“…”
Her mother talked on the phone for quite some time before finally hanging up and turning to Risa.
“Risa? Something urgent has just come up, and I have to leave. Your father is also going to be late today… You should eat before the food gets cold.”
“Wha…uh…okay…”
Risa said hesitantly. Her mother rushed to her room in order to get ready.
“I’ll try to be back as soon as possible.”
“…Okay.”
And then her mother left the house.
It was already dark outside, and the only sound in the house came from the TV.
“I better eat, then.”
After seeing her mother off, Risa returned to the kitchen to eat.
“…”
Risa picked up the TV remote and raised the volume.
She was sitting on the chair, her feet swaying uneasily and her eyes slightly narrowed.
Her chopsticks seemed to move slowly.
“That was good.”
Risa said as she washed the dishes and randomly switched the channels.
According to the weather report, it would rain tonight.
She spent the time like this aimlessly, but no one returned home.
“I better take a bath…but…”
For some reason, she was much more nervous than usual.
Well, she knew the reason.
“I’m…a little scared…”
And putting it into words made it worse.
Risa went around and closed all of the doors and curtains so there were no gaps. Then she hugged the cushion on the sofa and curled up.
“…I know!”
She must have had an idea because her face lit up.
In a different house, Kaede had also logged out and was studying in her room.
Her phone started to ring.
“Is it…I knew it.”
Kaede picked up her cell phone and saw the name ‘Risa’ on the display.
“Hello?”
“Ah, Kaede? Are you busy?”
“Uh…I’m fine now. What is it?”
“I just thought that I really inconvenienced you today. Want to talk for a while?”
Kaede had a vague idea of why Risa was actually calling, but they continued to talk without her bringing it up.
“Hm?”
As they were talking, Kaede realized that she could hear the sound of water apart from Risa’s voice.
“Maybe the bathtub or bathroom. She’s such a scaredy cat…oh.”
Kaede had accidentally said what she was thinking out loud.
Risa could have easily pretended like she didn’t hear it, but she fell silent.
“Ri-risa?”
There was a short silence and then Risa’s voice could be heard.
“…Kaede, there is no one but me in the house now.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s a little…lonely, I guess…”
“Yeah.”
“To-to be honest…I’m scared…can we keep talking?”
There was no way that Kaede would say no, and so they continued to talk.
As they talked, Kaede remembered that something like this had happened before.
“Do you remember, when this happened before?”
“Did it?”
“Yeah. But that time, you weren’t calling while in the bathtub. But I remember being sleep-deprived the next day.”
“Oh, when we were in elementary school? Ohhh…I haven’t grown at all then.”
Talking like this made her fears go away a little.
By the time that she got out of the shower and into her bed, they became more excited in their conversation, and Risa had cheered up quite a lot.
“Good night, Risa.”
“Yes, thank you. Good night, Kaede.”
Risa went to bed a few hours earlier than usual.
She turned the light off and buried her head under the blankets and closed her eyes.
She could hear the sounds of rain that had started to fall.
Going to bed early was fine, but it didn’t mean you would fall asleep.
30 minutes, then an hour elapsed.
As time passed, the feeling that had been growing thin started to return.
“Mmm…mmm…”
Risa began to move restlessly in her bed. After a while, she made up her mind and grabbed her phone.
It was obvious who she would call.
Risa turned the lights back on as she began to talk with Maple, who had been woken up.
“Ahaha…this happened before too!”
“I’m…really sorry, Kaede…”
And so it goes without saying, that Kaede was sleep-deprived the next day.