78. The same Celeste




 We came to the entrance to Nihonium, the only one of the dungeon's now-boards that had been set up in this dungeon.

'So, Emily?'
Yes, sir.

 Emily nodded and manipulated the Nowboard with a familiar hand.
 The moment the status came up, she marveled, "Oh.

---1/2---
Level: 40/40
HP A
MP F
Power A
Strength A
Intelligence F
Spirit F
Speed E
Dexterous E
Luck B
--------- ...

The levels are maxed out.
'Your abilities are ...... in order, your HP and strength have been A's for a while now, but your strength is also A's. That's a status that's polarizing your ability as an in-fighter.
'Moggy moggy ...... these things ...... moggy moggy ...... strong'

 Eve says, biting into an extra carrot.

'It's not polite to talk with things in your mouth,'
......

 Eve stopped talking.
 She nibbled on a carrot and swallowed it completely, then picked up the next one.

'You're going to eat it! I thought this wasn't the rest of the explanation!
I will not allow anyone, not even God, to interfere with my meeting with the carrot.
'Isn't that a fierce word? Oh well, I'm with you on that one. Strong and tough, with some means of recovery, it's an ability value that can usually be managed by one person.
Not really.

 Emily blushed.

'Don't be modest, your HP, strength and stamina are A. That's awesome. Nah.'

 They all nodded in unison, asking their friends to agree.
 Emily became more and more embarrassed and manipulated the Nowboard as if to cover it up.

---2/2---
Plants D
Animals E
Minerals F
Magic F
Characteristic F
--------- ...

Drops are up a bit, too.
'Yes, sir. It's Celeste's turn to be next.
Yeah.

 Celeste nodded, standing in front of the now board that Emily had moved out of the way, and manipulated it with prayerful eyes.

---1/2---
Level: 54/54
HP D
MP A
Power E
Strength E
Intelligence A
Spirit A
Speed E
Dexterous A
Luck C
--------- ...

'It's amazing! The MP is on A!
'This will free you from running out of MP. It was about a C before.
You can shoot a lot of level 3s.

 Emily and I are hyped up, while Celeste is silent.

'What's up?'

 Alice asks curiously.
 Celeste doesn't answer, but puts her hand on her chest and repeats a deep breath.

'Eei!'

 I operated with a lot of momentum.
 The second page of status, the drop appears.

---2/2---
Plants F
Animals F
Minerals F
Magic E
Characteristic F
--------- ...

......

 He scowled for a moment, and then tears ragged on his face as he did so.
 Oh, that's right.
 Celeste had a complex about the fact that all her drops were F--F final.

 It wasn't a big deal when they were level-maxed, but to her, it wasn't at all.
 She lovingly traced the letter "E" on the now board with her finger.
 Eventually she turns to me, tears still streaming down her face.

"Thank you.

 And he gave me the best smile.

     Stars

 Tellurium 8th floor. It's the same outdoor-like dungeon as the sixth and seventh floors, and unlike the seventh floor, there's no dungeon snow blowing.
 To commemorate the fact that Emily and Celeste have passed the level, they decided to come down to the next level.

 By the way, Eve was at the second basement level.
 After defeating the sleeping slime along the way and mass producing Lyota Carrots, the rabbit's eyes took the form of carrots and remained there voluntarily.

 Then, I, Emily, Celeste and Alice came to the eighth basement floor.
 Waiting for us there was a metallic colored slime.
 Celeste explained to me that it was her turn to explain.

'Steel slime, as hard as it looks, it's extremely hard.
I know who you are. You're the guy I got my license for.

 The license is a policy of the Cyclo Dungeon Association to keep adventurers who are not strong enough to prepare for the monsters that become more powerful after the sixth floor, and to keep adventurers who are not strong enough to enter the dungeon.
 It's an essential item for adventurers whose sole purpose is to earn money by going around the dungeons, and it practically limits access to the dungeons.

 I fought this steel slime as a test for taking it.
 Incidentally, Celeste cringed a bit when I said "I know".
 ...... You wanted to explain it, and you did a bad job.

'Anyway, it's hard? Do you have any other special abilities?
No, it's just that he's so hard I hate it.
All right. Mr. Yoda, I'll handle this one.
Yeah.

 Nodding, Emily carried the hammer and jumped out.
 She struck first, spinning the hammer around above her head, swinging the hammer down with a force that knocked the whole ground off.

 Emily and Steel Slime, one on one. We watched from the sidelines.

It's amazing that you're able to physically attack that steel slime.
'It's basic to level up and hit them with physics.
'That's true, but you can't usually do that with a steel slime. The strategy is to find a weakness somewhere on your body and target it.
Yeah. That's not how I beat you.
How did Mr. Lyota do it?
It was smashed to bits after freezing and flaming rounds caused metal fatigue.
Kinesthetic?

 Celeste nodded her head.
 It seems that even she, who is an erudite woman, doesn't know the word.

 It was going to be settled while she was doing so.
 Emily stopped and hit the steel slime.
 Knocking it with enough force to make the dungeon shake. I raise the hammer and the slime tries to jump on it, but I slap it more.
 Raise the hammer, the slime tried to move, and the hammer came down.

 I repeated the process.
 It's just like a rice cake maker.

"Hey, hey, Konkon's body is starting to crack.

 So Concon is a steel slime.
 If she named it that, will it eventually become one of her companions, like the two bodies on her shoulder?
 As I was thinking this, Steel Slime was knocked over.

'Mr. Yoda! I did it!

 Emily came back with a smile of accomplishment.
 Forgetting to pick up the dropped melon, she came back to me and the others with a smile of accomplishment.

     ☆

 In the city of Cyclo, we walked into a magnificent building in Yakeh, which resembled a vegetable, and came down to the basement in a straight line.

'It's very spacious,'
We're going to fight a monster here.
Do you want to play with honeworks and pulls?

 As soon as they stepped in, their friends looked around the basement with great interest.
 By the way, I left Eve behind.
 On the way back, I took out the sleeping slime in the basement and started rubbing my cheek on the carrot, saying something like, "I don't care if I die now, rabbit," or something like that.

 I walked over to the counter and spoke to the same middle-aged guy from before, who said, "I'm here to get my license.

"I'm here to get my license.
...... from the 11th floor onwards?
No, the sixth floor and up. I don't have any friends yet.
...... three?
We're together.

 The man leaves the counter with a blank expression on his face and begins to prepare.
 I go back to my friends.

I've talked to them.
Yes, sir. But why? I think my license will be fine with Mr. Yoda's.
That's true, but if you keep it, it'll come in handy when the time comes, won't it?

 I think it's because I'm a modern person who thinks "driver's license" when he hears the word "license".
 If there is one person who has a driver's license, there is no problem, but if more than one person has it, we can deal with it in case of emergency. But if more than one person has it, we can deal with it in a pinch.

It's actually useful.
What do you mean?

 Celeste's eyes lit up when I asked her about it.
 "There's a big difference between that and that time when you couldn't explain it in a steel slime.

That's because the family looks strong. How many people have drop-A's, how many licenses, things like that. It's just things like that. If they are strong and have a lot of drivers' licenses, they can be asked to do things.
'Come to think of it, when I first heard about Neptune, it was called 'an amazing gathering of five plant drops'.
That's just the way it is. We're not...

 Celeste glanced at the man who was getting ready at a distance.

'I've decided not to disclose Mr. Lyota's (s), so we should keep taking these things.

 The three of us nodded at Celeste's explanation.

 Meanwhile, the man came back, ready to go.

...... Who do you want to start with?
Emily: ...... Huh?

 I saw something on the far side of the room that would give back to the haggler.
 Potatoes.

Steel-- that's a melon?
...... random, except for the seventh floor.
Why not the seventh floor?

 Alice asked a reasonable question.

'Because you can't usually take down the seventh floor by yourself.
'If you use the slime tears, the difficulty will drop too low this time, so it won't be worth it.
Yeah,
...... passing quota is at least five children.
It's going to be pretty hard. What do you think?

 I saw Emily and Celeste.
 Potatoes, the monsters in the Tellurium 6 floors below.

 They're called father-son slime, and they have a very specific method of defeating them.

I'll do it.
Can you do it?

 Celeste nods, confident.

'Okay,'
Hang in there!
"Go-go-go.

 Celeste nodded and was sent off by me and the others.
 We waited for a while, facing the potatoes, and the potatoes, which were placed far apart, hatched into haggles.

 One large slime and dozens of smaller slimes, so what's the mother and child slime?

Five of them will do, Celeste.
Yeah, we'll take the bicorn horn to the ground, burn the body with the inferno and be done with it.

 Ore and Emily nodded at each other.
 Since I know Celeste's strength, I was able to look at her without worrying about including her quota.

 A magic circle unfolds at Celeste's feet, her long, beautiful hair fluttering in the magic.

''Inferno!''

"What?

 My voice and Emily's were in unison.
 Unlike what I expected, Celeste unleashed her first move, a wide range magic, Inferno.

 The dozens of child slimes that existed in the area were collectively burned away.

'Inferno from the start?'
My parents are too strong.

 There are two characteristics of the parent and child slime.
 When you kill a child (limb), its drop goes up as much as you kill its parent (main body).
 And the more children (limbs) you kill, the stronger the parent (main body) becomes.

 The child was wiped out, and the parent's theoretically strongest state was created.

 Celeste was undaunted, she further deployed her magic circle.
 A different magic circle.

'This is ...... the power that Ryota-san raised me with, a new power.

 Muttering, Celeste holds out her hand.

'Cut me open, Silent Fury!

 A thin, cocktail light further narrowed down like a laser shot out from a supple fingertip.
 It hit the body of the parent slime.
 Immediately after the laser spot went across the body.
 The slime - the slime's body, which had been strengthened to the extreme, was cut in two and disappeared with a snap.

''It's done--ah.''

 Celeste wobbles, and I rush over to her and hug her.

'What's wrong?'
I just used too much magic, a new kind of magic.

 As Celeste speaks, she has a greasy sweat on her forehead and her face is the color of paper.

You look exactly the same ...... as you did when we met.
No, he's changed. It's changed a lot.

 Celeste looks straight at me.
 She looks at me with calm, yet intensely passionate eyes.

"Thank you, baby, it's all thanks to you.

 That's the most "thank you" I've ever heard.
 It was the most throbbing thing I've ever heard.