Chapter 6
Maris Hackard meets her (entirely self-proclaimed) rival.

The 7th Floor. One might say that it was the 2nd test of the Dungeon for newbie adventurers. 3 new monsters filled these floors: Needle Rabbits, Purple Moths, and Killer Ants.

Needle Rabbits were cute, large bunnies maybe the size of a cat with a horn sticking out of their head. Purple Moths would hover around, dropping powder from their wings that would cause a poisoning debuff effect if one got covered too many times. And finally, the Killer Ants, very, very large overgrown ants that had tough carapaces, vicious fangs/claws, and a near-death summon which would call forth even more of its kind the longer it stayed alive.

As I jumped into the air, my sword flashed in a half-circle, slicing two of the moths in half before they even had a chance to spread their poison. As I landed, I swiftly spun a circle, dodging a rabbit's lunge before using a backhanded fist to bat it into the opposing wall. An ant skittered at me but my sword drove through its midsection and it dissolved into ash as the blade hit the magic stone.

It was my 9th day on the 7th Floor. So far, I had been extremely careful to avoid attracting a Killer Ant monster party, which would've spelt certain death. Having neither explosives nor any destructive spells, the most I could do was run from a swarm of those creatures. Therefore, Killer Ants immediately took first priority when I was on the floor.

As I moved through to the next room, a rabbit lunged at me, but my sword intercepted it midair and sliced it in half. Two more ants swarmed at me, but one of them ate my boot and the other got a sword through its midsection for its efforts. Three more ants and two moths entered the room but my sword instantly ended the moths as I easily stepped and wove around the monsters before slicing them up.

More screeches echoed in the following corridor. I didn't even bother looking up; I had long been alerted to the number of enemies. 4 ants, 3 moths, and 1 rabbit.

First to strike, first to win. As I dashed towards the room, putting on a burst of speed, I instantly leapt off the ground and sliced through 2 moths before landing on top of an ant and driving my sword through its head as I came down. Two ants clicked their mandibles furiously and moved towards me but my kick stalled the first one's momentum long enough for me to slice it in half and the second to eat the sword through its neck. The rabbit lunged but my fist intercepted it midair with a spinning backhand as I stepped out, dropping it to the ground before I followed up by kicking it in the head. There was a crack as its head twisted at an unnatural angle before it flopped to the ground.

The last ant tried to leave, but losing one of its legs to my sword stopped it long enough for me to remove its head from its body in one clean stroke. The moth tried to flee but its position was too low, giving me the chance to perform a vertical step-in slash, bifurcating it at the waist.

The 7th Floor's payoff was great–I was reeling in maybe 4500 Valis a day. If I kept it up, I might be able to purchase a higher-grade set of armor soon.

The pouch was near-full, so I made the decision to stop for the day. I'd have to get a bigger pouch soon.

As I made my way onto the 6th Floor, I noticed the unnatural presence of at least double the monsters I was used to. A monster trap spawn? That wasn't particularly rare, but I thought it might've been cleared out by now.

Regardless of what the War Shadows in the room were occupied with, they were quickly relieved of their business when I began cutting them down. My blade flashed left and right, each of the black humanoids falling with a single stroke as I removed heads from shoulders and limbs from bodies with my sword.

As the herd slowly thinned out one by one, I realized that on the far side in a corner, there was a group of 3: a blue-haired girl in leather armor, a dwarf with a shield and horned helmet, and a chienthrope with twin knives.

From the looks of it, they had been trapped in the spawn, and their confined space had made it harder for them to work in conjunction to thin out the horde.

However, as more and more of the monsters began turning in my direction, the trio began fighting with renewed vigor. The chienthrope charged into the fray, her dual knives flying as they found their way to chests, eyes, and arms. The dwarf pushed back a group of monsters with his shield before crushing their heads with his warhammer. And the human girl swung her sword left and right, cleaving monsters apart with multiple swings.

As the final monster died as the chienthrope's knives drove through its head, she turned to me. "Thanks, fellow adventurer! You really helped us out there. I'm Yelena. What's your name?" When did this turn into a meet-and-greet session? I ignored the chienthrope's outstretched hand and instead moved to start cutting out the War Shadows' monster stones. "Not the talkative type, huh? Well that's fine. Just wanted to express some thanks."

"Aye, you helped us out of a tough spot there, kid. I'm Umbar." The dwarf grinned at me before he, too, began harvesting stones. "Aren't you going to thank him too, Maris?" As I watched, the blue-haired girl looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. Well, that's fine too. Honestly I couldn't care less as long as lives were saved. "Come on, Maris, show some respect to him. He saved our hides."

Maris turned her back to me with a slight "hmph!" Mhm, you go ahead and do that. After all, the more you sulk, the more magic stones you aren't collecting, and the more are filling up my pouches…

I looked down to find that my pouch was full.

Correction, my pockets and wherever else I could stuff them, then.

~~This is a Line Break~~

"That's a total of 6400 Valis, sir. I assume half of it is to be deposited in your bank account?" In response to my nod, the Guild employee passed over a sack of money, which I immediately placed in my pouch. Precious, precious money.

One of the few upsides to Orario's primitive economy: the banks here weren't out for your blood. At least, I didn't think so. After all, over here concepts such as the stock market, mortgages, and bonds meant little to nothing to them. There was nothing much they did other than store money and charge you a continuous fee for doing so, which was highly preferable to carrying it around on your person and getting robbed for carrying around gold coins in the daylight. The service was simple, nothing complicated, which was good. No muss, no fuss.

As I turned around, I found myself facing the blue-haired girl from earlier today–Maris, last name unknown. She stood there for a moment before suddenly ducking her head down in a stiff bow. "My name is Maris Hackard! Uh-uhm, thank you very much for saving me earlier in the Dungeon! " Mhm, it seems that another person has recognized the greatness of Hikigaya Hachiman. Bow to me, you riajuu peasant! "However…" Maris suddenly sprung up and dramatically directed a finger at me. "I won't lose to you!"

… What.

As I attempted to process what was going on however, Hackard kept talking.

"I recognize that you're a stronger adventurer than I am at the moment, but one day, I'll surpass you as an adventurer! Just you wait for that day, err…"

"Hikigaya."

"Hikitani! I'll surpass you one day! Starting today, I'm your rival!" Hey, hey, who the hell is Hikitani? Why does everyone have a habit of butchering my name like this? And the fact that you screamed it out loud is bound to cause more strange mispronunciations of my name, you know? Ahh, forget it.

With that short outburst in the Guild, Hackard ran out of there, leaving everyone else to stare at… nothing in particular, really. From within the nameless crowd, I silently wiped my forehead and thanked my Skill for being so effective.

~~This is a Line Break~~

"Nice going, Hikigaya-san." Flova smirked at me as I walked in, and I immediately knew that they had found out about the incident at the Guild today.

"Nyahahaha, Hikinya, you have a, a rival, nya! That's hilarious, nyahahahahahaha!" Anya was rolling on the ground, laughing and clutching her stomach as if it would burst.

Ignoring them, I put away my gear and donned my apron.

Somehow, mysteriously, my relationship with those in the Hostess had, in the 8 months since I started working here, progressed from "non-conversational social distancing well-trained new employee who already knew the basics but was willing to learn more" to "well-acquainted, well-trained, polite, sociable, useful employee with a sharp tongue who is also a newbie adventurer". I could swing with the sharp tongue and the newbie adventurer, but sociable? That's more than a bit canon-divergent, isn't it, Author-san? I don't do "sociable". My loner powers came for a reason, you know?

Ignoring Flova and Anya's prattling the entire time, I took out one of the glass jars of coffee powder from the cupboard.

"Nee, Hikinya." Anya had, for some reason, gone silent. "Are you okay? You're pretty pale today."

"I'm fine, Anya. Just… didn't sleep well last night." I grimaced as the scene in the rain floated to the front of my mind, again. My left hand throbbed with a phantom pain where it had been stabbed.

"Really, nya?" Anya frowned as her tail drooped to the ground. It was rare for her to be so serious. "I have some sleeping medicines if you want, nya. They should help a bit until you get over it, Hikinya."

"Thanks, Anya." Problem is, would I ever get over it?

That incident just 2 days ago had been my closest brush with death. The coldness of each drop of rain, the spiking pain in my hand, the–

I shook my head. Don't think about it. Just focus. You'll get over it. Just focus.

Focus, alright? I sucked in a deep breath, willing my hands to remain steady as I began brewing the coffee again.

~~This is a Line Break~~

"..." I rolled my eyes as I cut through another War Shadow and drove the blade right between the eyes of a Frog Shooter. "Hackard, what are you doing?"

The blue-haired girl didn't reply, but I heard her stiffen in response to my call from around the corner. We were on the 6th Floor, and the girl had been tailing me for quite a while. I was just too preoccupied to care. Judging from what I had heard from Flott, who often liked to ramble about her day as I read through various sources of data involving monsters, Floors, and Orario history, Hackard was a reckless adventurer under the charge of Flott's best friend, Eina Tulle, who would frequently complain about her. Apparently, she had only registered as an adventurer just 4 months prior, but was already making her way to Floors way above her ability level.

Wasn't that pretty reckless of her?

I mean, imagine going into Floors above your stat levels. That'd be almost as stupid as going into the Dungeon without a Falna to begin with.

Not like I did anything remotely like that, of course.

There was a huff before Hackard jumped out. "I just happened to be here adventuring when you popped out of nowhere! Are you trying to stalk me or something?!" I gave her a look that amounted to, That's a lie and we both know it.

"Go join your party."
"They're not coming today."
"Go find someone else."
"I'm supposed to be on break today."

I vaguely felt my eye twitch, and had this been an anime, there probably would've been a swelling vein on my face somewhere. "So, why're you following me then?"

"Just checking out how good you are." As she began walking up to me, I had a vague sense of foreboding before I found myself face-to-face with her. Close. Too close. Too close.

Unfortunately, while I wanted to tell her that she was too close, my body had frozen up. I could suddenly feel every drop of sweat on my face as she stared at me.

"Let's party up."

Predictably, the first thing that came out of my mouth in response to that was "Huh?" That didn't make sense. Hackard had spoken it as if on a whim.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, let's party up for today. How deep are you going today? Right here? Or to the 7th?"

"The 7th, actually, but if you aren't allowed to do it you can't follow me."

Hackard coughed before looking to the side. "Who do you think I am? I'm not reckless enough to try venturing onto the 7th. I've long made the stat requirements already."

I eyed her with apprehension before blowing out a sigh. This was going to be a long day.

~~This is a Line Break~~

I sliced through the carapaces of two Killer Ants at once before pushing off the ground and nailing a Poison Moth to the ground with my knife. Behind me, I could sense Hackard using her sword to take down another ant by slicing it in half. She honestly wasn't half bad as an adventurer, even if she was more than a little reckless. Her stats, of course, were far superior to mine, allowing her to hack and slash through monsters without using too much technique or footwork and stand on near-equal footing with me in the Dungeon.

That's how we went, back-to-back, as we cleared out the entire room. Every ant ate a sword through its head before it could live long enough to call for more of its comrades. Every moth was taken down before it had a chance to spread its poison powder. Every rabbit went down.

Hackard, meanwhile, was still harvesting magic stones, and I joined in–until my ears picked up the skittering of many, many, many feet upon the floors and walls of the Dungeon, coming from the room right in front of us. As I watched, one of the ants let out a dying screech before Hackard stabbed it through its head. She then realized the implications and her mouth dropped open. It would've been comical if not for the danger we were both in.

One word from me sealed the deal. "Run."

We ran, sprinting through the hallway towards the stairs to the 6th Floor. Behind us, the skittering turned into a pounding march as dozens and dozens of Killer Ants poured into the room we had just left.

As we dashed down the 5th hallway, the ants remained behind us. A quick glance behind us was enough to tell me that at least 20 of the ants were still chasing.

"Right, here's the plan," I let out as we continued sprinting. "Rotate fighting in the hallway. I'll go first. 3… 2… 1… now!" With that, I turned and abruptly skidded to a stop, planting my boots at a diagonal angle to bleed out momentum but not completely come to a stop. My sword quickly found the head of an ant before I spun a circle, kicked off the ground, dodging an ant's lunge completely as I did so, and landed on the ground as Hackard impaled its head on her sword and I bifurcated two more at the midsection before Hackard followed up by slaying them.

Heh, that was pretty cool, I'll admit it. Too bad I couldn't dramatically pose because I was too busy dodging more attacks. A quick step-out-step-in made the next ant leave itself completely open as it mistimed its attack and my sword lodged itself in its neck before I separated its head from its body with a flick of the wrist. As I jabbed my sword between the eyes of another, I finally fell back. 8 more ants left. "Switch, Hackard."

As I fell back, Hackard moved forward in near-perfect conjunction and began chopping up the monsters, albeit in a much more brutal manner, sending limbs and body parts flying as her sword mowed down enemies and cut them down head-on. I finished the ones still alive by driving my blade through their heads and killing them completely.

I whipped my blade downwards as I heard the tell-tale CRACK of a monster being born from the wall, my blade splitting the needle rabbit straight down the middle, blood splattering across the walls.

There was a burst of skittering behind my back and I turned around, fully expecting a Killer Ant at my back. Instead, there was a piercing screech as I turned to find Hackard instead, her sword already pushed through the monster's head. She flashed me a cheeky grin and a thumbs-up.

Huh. She was more competent than I expected.