Chapter 72
――The day after we commissioned a kimono at Yagyu-do.
We're heading to the dungeon.
Until the day before yesterday, we'd been saving up mana to buy 【Creditor Protection】, which we needed to deal with 'Sky-Cleaving Sword.'
Now that our showdown with them is over, we're resuming our adventuring activities in earnest starting today.
To prepare for that, I bought several Skills.
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【Purchased Skills】
〈Enhancement〉
【Physical Enhancement Lv. 1】, 【Stamina Enhancement Lv. 1】 (NEW!)
〈Exploration〉
【Presence Detection Lv. 1】
〈Stealth〉
【Presence Concealment Lv. 1】
〈Magic Control〉
【Mana Control Lv. 1】
〈Physical Combat〉
【Dagger Arts Lv. 1】,
〈Magic〉
【Fire Magic Lv. 1】, 【Wind Magic Lv. 1】 (NEW!), 【Water Magic Lv. 1】 (NEW!), 【Earth Magic Lv. 1】 (NEW!), 【Healing Magic Lv. 1】, 【Enchantment Magic Lv. 1】 (NEW!)
〈Resistance〉
【Poison Resistance Lv. 1】 (NEW!)
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【Stamina Enhancement】 costs 5,000 MP. 【Poison Resistance】 costs 3,000 MP.
The remaining four—Water, Wind, Earth, and Enchantment Magic—cost 1,000 MP each.
Every one of these Skills will be useful in today's exploration.
The total is 12,000 MP, but I can use more than 35,000 per day now, so it's no problem.
Since our showdown ended, I've been putting all the mana left over after buying these Skills into increasing my mana capacity.
Thanks to that, my maximum mana capacity is now over 5,000.
For now, these Skills are enough.
For the foreseeable future, I plan to keep pouring any mana I don't need for combat into increasing my maximum mana capacity, while buying Skills as needed.
So, we're all set.
Today's destination is the Second Floor.
This floor is for E-rank adventurers.
Rinka's also risen to E-rank, and Skill 【First Sword】 is so powerful that she should be able to fight here just fine.
The Second Floor is an outdoor-type floor, much like the First Floor.
Whereas the First Floor was a simple area made up of grasslands and forests, this one has varied terrain, including rocky mountains, rivers, and sandy areas.
And there's a wide variety of monsters, too.
In the rocky mountains, there are tough Rock-type monsters.
Along the rivers, there are aquatic monsters.
――and so on, monsters adapted to each type of terrain appear.
And among them, our target is――.
We'd been walking for about thirty minutes since arriving on the Second Floor.
We fought monsters several times along the way, but with Rinka activating 【First Sword】 and me using elemental magic suited to each opponent, we killed them all instantly.
A sheer cliff stood before us.
A cave gaped open in it.
It was about three meters across.
――A Mega Ant nest.
As their name suggests, Mega Ants are ant-type monsters, but they grow over a meter long.
Their bodies are covered in a hard, black exoskeleton, and the best way to damage them is to target their soft joints.
Several Mega Ants stood guard near the entrance to the nest.
"They're bigger than I expected."
"Yeah, they're pretty startling at first."
Just getting bigger makes them much more disgusting on an instinctive level.
Since this was Rinka's first time seeing them, she was a little hesitant.
MP, on the other hand, was happily saying, "They're ants~!"
Apparently, as a Gift Fairy, she didn't feel fear or disgust toward monsters.
She said something like, "They're all fertilizer for mana~."
"Are you okay?"
"...I-I'll do my best."
Rinka was a little tense, but I wasn't worried at all.
"All right, I'll buff you."
"Please!"
I immediately began chanting the incantation for the Enchantment Magic I'd just learned.
"――【Attack Power Up】"
"――【Defense Up】"
"――【Agility Up】"
I stacked three buffs.
Normally, this would be impossible, but 【Mana Transactions】 makes the impossible possible.
"That's amazing!"
"Rinka-san, you're sparkling~. Your mana looks delicious~"
Wrapped in the mana from the buffs, Rinka's body gave off a faint, pale glow.
That finished our preparations.
"Let's go, then."
Rinka took a deep breath and began chanting.