Chapter 8
The Great Wizards were snickering as they said all sorts of weird things.
They were all hell-bent on teasing me.
Even my own teacher, AngryArtist, was in on it.
‘Is it going to be like this from now on, too?’
I didn't like that.
At least there was someone I could count on.
Otherwise, I would've been really sad.
I went to find a gallery member who could answer my question and left a post.
└GoodAtHousework: Ahahaha, that thing?
└GoodAtHousework: You don't know, huh?
└Hikki: Ah, come on;;
└GoodAtHousework: Haha, sorry. Your reaction was cute.
What was so cute about that?!
I'm not cute at all.
└GoodAtHousework: I don't know that much about it either, but I understand it as something like bonding.
└GoodAtHousework: It's a term used mostly by summoners and tamers.
└GoodAtHousework: But resonating with a staff.... That's a first for me, too.
Bonding, huh....
How was I supposed to bond with this thing?
This No Affinity thing was.... a staff?!
It's not an Ego Staff or anything. It's just a staff.
└Hikki: Summoner teachers, please tell me how you resonate. How do you guys do it?
└BearDoorBearDoorBear: Feed them well, brush their fur, show them lots of love, and eventually you'll resonate.
└Woofwoof: For real lol
How am I supposed to show a staff some love...?
└Hikki: Do you know?
└Ice Bat: Hmm, nothing comes to mind right away.
└Ice Bat: Take a break from climbing for a while and focus on resonating with it.
└Ice Bat: It'd be helpful to figure that out first.
Phew.
I'd been thinking of taking a short break from climbing anyway.
I'd climbed the Tower five days in a row.
I should take two days off.
Even Tower climbing has entered the five-day workweek era, I tell you.
Flop—
I closed the gallery and sprawled out on the bed.
“Hmm.”
The No Affinity staff sat by itself beside me.
I stared at it intently.
How could I resonate with it?
The way summoners and tamers resonated was a lot like taking care of a pet.
But this was a staff.
There had to be another way.
Maybe by using magic, for example.
“Water Bomb!”
I picked up the staff and tried casting a basic spell.
Float—
A blob of water rose into the air.
“Hmm.... I don't feel anything.”
Using a staff instead of my fingers
felt a little different.
‘But calling this resonance...’
felt a bit underwhelming.
I even opened the window and threw a Water Bomb outside.
I tried using several elemental spells at once, too, but got the same result.
Maybe it was because this thing proudly had All Stats +0.
It didn't feel like it made casting spells any easier, either.
“You useless thing, seriously....”
That's when it happened.
A faint sensation suddenly traveled up through my hand.
It was an emotion I knew all too well.
‘Discouraged?’
Had the staff's feelings been transmitted through my hand?
And it was feeling discouraged?
No way.
“Are you sulking because I called you useless?”
Could that really happen?
‘Well, I can just check whether I'm right.’
I carefully set the staff down on the bed.
“Hmm.... From now on, your name is Moo-sang. I won't call you useless.”
I gently stroked it.
“Want to grab a meal together sometime?”
Wuuung, wuuung—
I felt an emotion through my hand.
It was positive.
“Oh, you want to grab a meal together?”
A laugh escaped me.
“Hey, what are you, seriously? This is ridiculous.”
While I was at it, I decided to talk to it some more.
“You really are... Hmm.... Hey, you're shiny, aren't you?”
You're really cool.
Wuuung—
Once again, it sent me a positive feeling.
Feeling how happy it was made me happy, too.
‘So resonance really is about sharing emotions.’
I still wondered why equipment like this existed at all.
But I didn't mind it.
It was like I'd gotten a strange new pet.
“Moo-sang, come here.”
I lay down on the bed and called Moo-sang.
Of course, Moo-sang didn't come running over on four legs.
I moved Moo-sang over with my own hand
and let it rest on my arm like a pillow.
I'll let Moo-sang rest like this.
I should get on with what I need to do.
‘While I'm resting, I should get a proper grasp of my condition.’
A little while ago, I'd noticed something strange while ordering delivery.
My stomach had felt especially bad when I looked at the delivery app's reviews tab.
It seemed like it was probably due to my unique effect, Anthropophobia.
But I hadn't felt anything particularly wrong while choosing food and placing the order.
It wasn't that reviews were uniquely hard to look at.
It was more like ordering delivery was still allowed.
So just how far could I go?
That was what I wanted to know.
“Hoo!”
After taking a deep breath, I opened a browser window.
The portal homepage.
‘I'm fine up to here.’
I pressed on and visited all sorts of websites and apps,
and managed to find a few clues.
“The places I was fine with were...”
the delivery app, portal homepages, shopping sites, and WTube.
The places that made me feel unwell were—
all kinds of community sites and social media, the review sections of delivery and shopping sites, and WTube's comment section.
Once I laid it out like this, I could see what they had in common.
‘I had a strong aversion to features that let me communicate with people.’
Everywhere that had made me feel uncomfortable
was somewhere I could post or leave comments.
The more likely I was to interact with other people, the more uncomfortable I felt.
‘At least I can still search for information.’
If I couldn't even do that, I'd be incredibly frustrated.
To celebrate, I opened WTube again.
‘So that was all it was? It wasn't even a big deal.’
There were so many videos I'd been too scared to watch until now.
I'll binge them all from start to finish.
The homepage was serving up videos picked by the algorithm.
A few gaming videos and variety show clips.
And videos of Hunters climbing the Tower.
They'd been filmed with body cams.
One of them caught my eye.
[So Fast?! How the World's No. 1 Hunter ABC Climbs Floor 6]
Maybe because I'd been talking about Floor 6,
a video on just the right topic had popped up.
‘Noona ABC is great.’
ABC, better known as A-be-se.
A Hunter famous for moving so fast you could barely follow her with your eyes.
She was gorgeous and incredibly skilled, so she had tons of fans.
I was one of them, too.
‘She seems like a total social butterfly....’
I'm jealous....
With that stray thought in mind, I clicked the video.
The scenery on Floor 6 appeared.
A lush green meadow.
The wind blew, and the grass swayed gently.
─ This is Floor 6. I'm on Hard difficulty.
─ The objective is to hunt one Dire Wolf.
─ I've heard they're quite agile opponents.
─ I've prepared well, so I'll do my best.
Subtitles appeared to match ABC's French.
ABC kept walking, alert to her surroundings.
Her signature weapon, a rapier, occasionally appeared in the frame.
‘I heard that's an incredible sword, too.’
ABC had been an extremely promising rookie at the time.
Apparently, the European Hunter Union had gifted it to her.
I heard it was incredibly light.
Something like the weight of a fountain pen?
I heard it helped her make the most of her strengths.
Hmm.
“Still, I like you better, Moo-sang.”
It's not like ABC can resonate with that sword.
Right?
Wuuung— Wuuung—
Moo-sang seemed to agree with me.
Anyway.
Around then, a wolf appeared on ABC's camera.
It looked twice as big as an ordinary wolf.
‘I didn't think much of it while watching as a viewer.’
But knowing I'd have to face one made it feel different.
How had ABC taken down the Dire Wolf?
—Just as I was wondering that,
the screen began shaking violently.
ABC's hunt had begun.
The speed made me feel dizzy just watching.
I caught a glimpse of the wolf running away and ABC chasing after it.
When the screen finally steadied,
the once-proud Dire Wolf lay dead, covered in wounds.
─ As I'd heard, that was quite a fast opponent.
You're faster, though.
The video ended there.
ABC's strategy for Floor 6 was speed.
She'd overwhelmed the swift Dire Wolf by being even faster.
In that sense, it was similar to how I'd beaten Floor 5 through sheer superiority,
but I couldn't copy her this time.
I was slow as molasses....
‘I wonder how mages handled it.’
I searched for another video.
─ Hello, subscribers. I'm Nico.
It wasn't a name I'd heard before.
─ As you know, I'm a cryomancer.
─ I earned the Ice Cloud skill while clearing the tutorial.
Ice Cloud? What kind of skill was it?
─ I'll be starting Floor 6 on Normal difficulty.
─ I'm a little worried, but I won't know until I try. Let's go.
Nico cautiously began walking.
He soon came face-to-face with a Dire Wolf.
He chanted a spell.
“Oh.”
Dark smoke blossomed from the tip of his staff.
A big cloud quickly formed.
A cloud that poured down huge chunks of ice in a furious torrent.
It looked like a pretty destructive technique, but...
‘This isn't going to work, is it?’
It was completely unsuitable for Floor 6.
The cloud was too slow,
slow enough for the Dire Wolf to dodge it at its leisure.
─ Th-this can't be...!
Nico's face twisted.
The wolf was approaching.
At an incredible speed.
The distance between them closed in an instant.
─ ...!
The mage began chanting another spell.
Once again, the Ice Cloud headed toward the Dire Wolf.
Since it was closer this time, there was a slightly better chance of hitting the wolf, but...
─ Damn it...!
Once again, the Dire Wolf easily moved out of the attack's range.
─ Hah... Hah....
Had his mana run out after casting the skill twice?
Or had he panicked?
The mage, Nico, was breathing heavily.
The wolf came even closer.
It was now too close to dodge.
The monster leaped at him, and
at that moment—
─ Emergency Return!
Fwoosh—
The mage barely escaped with his life.
─ I'm sorry, but I don't think I can climb Floor 6 in my current condition.
─ I'll train more, prepare a strategy, and come back.
The video ended with subtitles over a black screen.
This video was from six months ago, but there still isn't another episode.
Did he give up just like that?
That's a shame.
‘Well... I'm not exactly in a position to worry about someone else....’
Nico's problem was my problem, too.
My spells weren't as slow as Ice Cloud,
but they could still be dodged if my opponent tried.
And my opponent would be a Dire Wolf on Hell difficulty.
It would be even faster than the wolf Nico had faced.
If I missed with my spells just a few times, I'd be in immediate danger.
‘Maybe even aiming at it will be difficult.’
Would I die in the blink of an eye?
How was I supposed to fight it...?
No matter how much I thought it over, I couldn't come up with a good answer.
Tsk.
Would I have to ask them again after all?
I felt like I was relying on the gallery members too much, but...
‘That's what they're there for, right?!’
Most of the Archmage Gallery's members were battle experts who'd spent their whole lives on the front lines.
Wouldn't I be an idiot not to ask?
All right.
I'd rationalized it in no time.
“Help me, Mage-emon!”
[How do I beat the hell out of a crazy-fast wolf?]
[Author: Hikki]
It's seriously crazy fast. I can't even see it.
If I fire a sloppy Fireball, it probably won't even touch a hair on its head.
What do I do?
Comments came in right away.
└OuchCold: If it's crazy fast, why not make it crazy slow?
└Hikki: Ah?!
└Ice Bat: I told you to take a break since you seemed worn out, but you brought me lesson material all on your own.
└Hikki: Ah.
└Ice Bat: Get ready for class right now.
└Hikki: Ah.
I should've rested and asked later.
└HorsesAreForRiding: I was scheduled to teach you next week.
└HorsesAreForRiding: You know binding spells are a specialty of nature magic, right?
└HorsesAreForRiding: Just you wait.
Ah.