Four days later. Tsutomu's PT, which had proceeded to search from the twenty-first level, had now succeeded in advancing to the forty-first level.


''Oh!　The smell of the sea!


　While Tsutomu was moved by the scent of the tide that he hadn't felt in a long time, Garum and Amy behind him were staring dumbfounded at the emerald-green, shimmering sea.

　Garum and Amy had stepped that with their level, they could just barely make it to the forty levels, but they had never dreamed that they would reach it so quickly.

　The grasslands and forests are still, but in the swamps and wildernesses, state anomalies and terrain countermeasures become essential, and the number of enemies that can be defeated by Garum and Amy with one or two blows becomes less and less. That's why I thought Tsutomu would start dying in the swamp and dungeon exploration would start to get clogged up.

　In fact, there are many PTs where the swamp becomes a headache in the final reachable tier. Lack of countermeasures against poisonous status disorders, how to identify and deal with bottomless swamps. Unfamiliarity with fighting in poor visibility and footholds. The swamp, which is often a slow, slow kill, eats away at the explorer's mind and corrupts them.

　Therefore, Garum had planned to steadily teach Tsutomu the knowledge of up to forty levels after the attack was stuck in the swamp, and to raise his level to the maximum level that could be raised to the swamp - forty - before attempting the challenge.

　However, Tsutomu used his in-game knowledge and extra G(gold) to prepare for the swamp beforehand. The first time he was caught in the swamp's muddy waters, he got knocked off his feet and slammed his face into the swamp, but that was the only thing he failed to do.

　Plus, from the swamp, Tsutomu's suggested configuration of tank, attacker, and healer came alive. Garum, a knight with high VIT (sturdiness), would take on as much of the monster's attacks as possible, while Amy, a twin swordsman, would do her best to chip away at the monster. And Tsutomu is mainly responsible for Garum's recovery and the support of the entire PT.

　When fighting monsters, Garum is able to recover from the heels and high heels that fly around him, and even if he is hit by poison or some other abnormality, Tsutomu's newly-acquired recovery skill, Medic, will fly in a few seconds, allowing him to recover immediately. As long as Garum followed Tsutomu's instructions and released his Combat Cry, there were almost no monsters heading towards him.

　Rarely, there were monsters that would ignore Garum and attack Tsutomu, but most of the time Garum or Amy would be able to cover them in time while Tsutomu was buying time with his attack skills. Tsutomu avoids the ranged and near-immediate death attacks of the Hierarchical Lord as if he is predicting the future, and he never ceases to recover and restore his condition.

　The ample amount of potions in his magic bag and the equipment and tools he has to counter each tier are also used at exactly the right time. Thanks to this, Garum attracts and defends against monsters. Amy was able to focus only on attacking, and she easily broke through the swamp in two days.

　Even in the wilderness where the undead monsters appeared for the first time, Tsutomu used the tools he had prepared in advance to counteract them. He was able to update the levels of the hierarchy.

　Tsutomu's current level is 20. Garum and Amy had never heard of anyone challenging the forty levels of the hierarchy with twenty, and they unconsciously thought that it was impossible for them to do so. Basically, it is common sense to challenge the level of each level until you have reached the maximum level. But that impossible thing was happening in reality.

　The highest level that Garum and Amy have reached on their status cards is the 49th level. Both Amy and Garum were in limbo with the hierarchical lord of the beach, and Amy was an appraising eye. Garum was scouted as a guild employee for his pure skill and sense of justice, and he's been recruited now.

　There's no harm in touching this, right?　And Tsutomu points to the ocean. Garum and Amy were letting loose together, only this time they were friendly.


''Yes....''
..........
'Mr. Garum?　Amy?　.........Oh, I'm sorry. Let's finish up around here for today.


　Tsutomu lowered his eyebrows as if he was alone in his understanding of the two, and then entered with them into the black gate behind them, working them both. The three of them were particulate and transported to the guild's black gate.


''Ah, thank you for your help.''


　When Tsutomu arrived at the guild's black gates and greeted him, the dragon man (Dragoneut), who was the gatekeeper, quietly bowed his eyes. The gatekeepers are basically uninterested in anything other than those who are dead in the dungeon and wearing flaxen clothing. Seeing Garum and Amy still not moving, Tsutomu impatiently took them out from beside the black gate, saying this was a serious injury.


''I'm really sorry for causing you two so much pain. I'm off tomorrow, but I'll take the day after tomorrow as well. It's a small thing, but this is my way of saying thank you.


　Poppo handed over a high quality medium magic stone and Tsutomu dismissed him on the spot. The two remaining people looked at the magic stone held in their hands and let loose a bit again.

　Garum and Amy looked at each other.


''Oh no!　Oh, no, no, no!　Three at a time!　Forty levels in four days!　I've never died!　Oh, shit!　What?　When did you get so strong?　Hey!　Tell me about it!
Calm down...


　Amy brought her face closer to Garum's as she started to speak like a burst of lightning, and shook out her long white hair that reached her shoulders. Garum muttered to herself while blocking the protruding black dog ears from above.


'When did you update your hierarchy!　You've been a gatekeeper all along, Galum!
My highest tier is on the same beach as you, and I'm up to my eyeballs in sixty. And so are you.
Oh, so it's not possible for me to be strong..... If anything, I've grown dumber.


　Amy let go of Garum's shoulders as if disappointed and let her white tail droop in a shabby way. Garum lets out a sigh as he adjusts his messy black hair appropriately.


'Then we'll know by process of elimination. It's all thanks to Tsutomu.'
Yeah?　Sure, those flying heels and stuff are fun to watch, but that's it, right?　Ah, but potions and holy water are awesome. That potion is the most expensive thing in the forest apothecary, right?　I haven't used it yet, but it tastes great, doesn't it?　It's a big deal, isn't it?
..........


　Garum shushed Amy's words thoughtfully. Amy then made a pained face, and then told him to squeeze out while knotting her mouth in frustration.


''Well you must be awesome doggie,''
What?
'Oh my God, it's disgusting!　I'm saying it's because of you!　You didn't die while the enemy went all the way to you, and that's why it was so easy for me to take them down in my slowed-down arm!　It was easy, probably because of Tutom's potions, but it was easy!
What's up with you, man? You got some poison in the swamp or something?
'Ahhhh, that's annoying!　Stop that eye, you idiot!


　Amy turns away while squinting her golden eyes in abhorrence. Garum is also upset that that Amy complimented him, but he huffs and puts a hand to his chin to regain his tone.


'Right. You're right, it's probably hard to tell from you. Okay?　I did indeed get a potion, but I didn't use any of them. All of them were recovered by Tsutomu.
'Huh?　Tutom's mental powers are still a D+, right?　I wouldn't have it.
'Perhaps he's taking a blue potion to restore his mental powers. And those flying heels. That's awesome.
''........Hmmm. But at the end of the day, you're using a potion, so it doesn't make any difference if Tsutomu shoots a heal or Garum drinks a potion, does it?


　Garum's expression darkened at Amy's insistence and she waved her hands in a panicked manner.


'Don't be so angry. No, Tsutomu is great too, okay?　I don't think there are many kids who can follow you to the beach at such a low level without dying, and that's unheard of.
"...it'll be faster if you can actually do it instead of just talking about it. All right, son, that's it for me the next time you explore a dungeon instead of me. You'll be the tank.


　Garm pointed at Amy as if she had just thought of it. Amy pulled a troublesome face at the way he said it.


'Tank?　I don't know, I don't know, it's a pain in the ass.
'But apparently a tank is a job that Tsutomu says you have to have a high VIT and hate-making skills. I don't know if Tsutomu will give you permission, but still, you, try it. If you do, you'll see what I mean.
Don't be so selfish. I'm not used to sitting still like a doggy!


　With that said, Amy turned her back to Garum, fluttering her hand. Wow, this is top quality!　And Garum's shoulders slumped to Amy, who was worshipping the medium magic stone in her hand.


　--Oooh--


　A huge monitor in the central square of the labyrinth city, where a live feed of the dungeon is being played. Various people have gathered there to watch the live feed. Various stalls are lined up in the square, where everyone from nobles to beggars are gathered, and many shops have been established near the stalls. The area around the giant monitor acts like a marketplace.

　In addition to the giant monitor, there are large and medium-sized monitors in the central square and other squares, but it is the giant monitor in the central square that attracts our attention. The huge monitor, dubbed the first one by the public, is designed to show the PTs who are advancing to the lowest level of the searchers who are diving right now.

　The other large monitors are the second and third, and the order is purely hierarchical up to the tenth. The medium-sized monitors from the 10th unit onwards will show the PTs fighting the monsters. There are many people watching this one as well, but compared to the first stand, the crowd is smaller.

　In the midst of all this, Tsutomu, a dark-haired man sitting on a bench, chewing on a hard pork skewer as he devoured the medium-sized monitor. His thread-thin eyes are slightly open and his high nose pillar is covered in spit-roasted sauce.

　Tsutomu had been watching the monitor from morning till now, sticking to the monitor in front of the thirty-second floor, which is not very popular. Tsutomu takes notes as he watches the thirty-second floor, where mainly one to thirty levels can be seen.


(Poison Spider's thread can be incinerated by flames, you know.)


　Tsutomu said, "Live Dungeon! The knowledge in the game that you have developed in the game is currently quite useful. Enemy weaknesses and attack methods are just like in the game. As for the maps, not all of them are the same, but they all have some commonality, so it's easy to progress.

　However, there were many times when monsters acted differently or attacked differently than in the game. Their irregular actions betrayed the predictions in my mind and caused me to slow down my thinking.

　Even the goblins and kobolds on one level had confirmed that, so he had a bad feeling about it, but Tsutomu was beginning to feel that he couldn't deal with it with his in-game knowledge alone, not very well.

　Now that he had two excellent tanks and attackers, Garum and Amy, it might not be a problem even if he didn't know. However, Garum and Amy and the others are only on loan from the guild, a semi-fixed PT, so to speak. The loan period is also very vague, with the agreement that they will be loaned out until the disgraceful two names of Tsutomu's lucky person (lucky boy) are silenced.

　This is the period of time when there is plenty of money and time to spare. How could he not use this period of time effectively, Tsutomu had been gathering information about the dungeon as much as possible, even on his vacation, which was set aside one day a week.

　He'd run out of notepads because he'd been sticking around all morning, and while returning the iron skewer to the kebab shop, he headed for the guild with a gloomy look on his face.

　When he entered the guild, the explorers immediately called him the usual lucky man. I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot more information on this topic in the future.

　When I was about to leave the guild as soon as I replenished the memo paper that Tsutomu had run out of, I heard a loud voice coming from the direction of Kuromon.


''Hey, why am I the only one with a rubbish demon stone!
Shit. What are you, the new guy?　A healer's share is like that.
I can't even stay in a hotel like this!　Screw you!
is your fault for not asking for your share of the money in advance.


　A young young man dressed in light brown clothing like flax to be eaten, and three men dressed in equipment that would have been adult. Tsutomu sighed that from the content of the conversation, it was another reward-sharing tussle.


''Shh, and you guys!　You didn't even collect my equipment!　You'll have to pay for it!
'Oh?　It's your fault that he's dead!　The PT is already broken up. Now get the hell out of here!
What the hell are you guys bothering me about?


　When the guild staff called out to him, the man rubbed his skinny hands and bowed his head as he rubbed his skinny hands.


''This brat is just bleeping afterwards about the reward. Never mind that.
They're the ones who screwed me over!
Get me out. All of you!


　Each of the four explorers rubbed blood on the paper as the guild official produced a piece of paper and a needle. Immediately, the guild staff brought out the four status cards and compared them.


''The reward ratio is thirty percent for attackers and ten percent for healers. Let's get all the magic stones you've earned out of them.''
Okay.


　The guild staff received the magic stones that the three men and the young man produced from their pockets and checked everyone's status cards. Then he checked the number of magic stones again and returned the status cards to the receptionist.


''If you look at the staker, it's easy to see which monsters you have defeated. After checking the number of magic stones against that, the distribution is mostly the same. No problem.
No, wait a minute!　Where's my equipment?!
'In the dungeon, any object not touched by a living creature will naturally disappear if left on the ground or wall for around thirty minutes. If you were in the middle of a battle when you died, it's conceivable that you might not be able to pick them up within that time frame. So you are responsible for your equipment.
'You've got to be kidding me!　You're not doing a very good job!　We're paying a hundred thousand Gs to the guild!
''........I didn't check the reward distribution and I don't know the common sense in dungeons. It's probably a small price to pay for learning. If you make any more noise, I'm going to beat you to death.
You've got to be kidding me!　You've got to be kidding me!


　The searcher laughed at that as the young man grabbed a scrap demon stone and ran off. And he wouldn't get a good look at the outside, Tsutomu dropped one sigh while looking off to the side.

　Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who look at the giant monitor and admire the explorer and become an explorer without purchasing any information. That's why those explorers are so cumbersome because they can regularly catch such suckers. In contrast, the guild's response to this is to remain neutral. The guild is not a charity, but Tsutomu wondered what the attitude of not knowing the rest after letting them make a paid status card was.


(That's a disgusting way to be cursed...)


　Tsutomu, who was suffering the jealousy of the insect explorers, swallowed and thought about that, but quickly walked away from the guild and headed to the marketplace near the monitor.