Chapter Fifty-nine: To Master My Skill…
I take the drop items I receive from Mr. Ville and store them in the manifested Camping Car. It’s better to be light and nimble during exploration, after all…
“Hm…? A warning…?”
“What’s wrong, Rin?”
“Ah, Mr. Ville. No…I was just wondering what that was over there…”
As I gazed at the lingering warning alert at the edge of my vision, Mr. Ville, with a puzzled look, patted my shoulder. It’s not really something requiring an official report, but since it piqued my curiosity, I took the opportunity when he called out to me to point at that spot. It’s flat… well, flat-ish compared to the uneven surroundings, clearly smooth in that area.
“…That’s a trap.”
“Ms. Aria! Eh, that’s a trap?”
“Yes. A grounded type trap. You should ask me, the scout, about things like traps!”
“Guh! M-Ms. Aria… can’t… breathe…!”
“Hey, Aria! Rin’s suffocating!”
As the two of us craned our necks, Ms. Aria suddenly popped out from behind Mr. Ville’s back. Her pale blue eyes sparkled in the dim light. As expected of a scout, she moved with such speed that before I knew it, I was enveloped in a tight hug, pressed against her scandalously ample chest.
Amazing? Yes… Wonderfully outrageous? Yes… But a bit too embarrassing!
It was Mr. Ville who grabbed me by the collar and pulled me back from the brink of suffocating via the dream-like cause of smothering by top-quality breasts. He subtly shielded me with his back, but I think at this point I won’t suffocate from those breasts anymore.
Puffing out her baby pink cheeks in seeming displeasure, Ms. Aria formed a ball of string on her palm…and then gently tossed it towards that spot.
“Huh!?”
The moment it hit the ground, the earth cracked open and swallowed the string ball whole. To seal the opening, a muddy fluid surged up from the hole, oozing out in a viscous flow before solidifying in an instant.
“Mm… pitfall type. There’s nothing around it, so it’s okay to take a look.”
“But… something came out from inside it…”
“Ah, that’s how it seals up the hole… There are quite a few like that in various places.”
With Ms. Aria’s assurance of "nothing to worry about," I gingerly approached. Poking the area where the hole was, I felt a hard texture beneath my finger. When I tapped it, a faint echo suggested the inside was now hollow. It seemed that once the surface solidified, the fluid inside drained away.
An amazing trap…
“Still, nice spotting that, Rin!”
“Ah… well, my skill reacted to it, so…”
“Skill?”
“I thought it basically told me what is edible or inedible, but while I had experience with it reacting to a poisonous plant, I never expected it to react to a trap too!”
I guess a poisonous plant and a trap both register as "threats to life" and trigger the alert…? If that’s the case, using it in tandem with Ms. Aria’s scouting skills could reduce the risks during exploration…!?
Lost in thought, I met Mr. Ville’s gaze looking down at me.
…Dammit! I’m not jealous of your height or anything! Dammit!
“…It seems you haven’t fully mastered using your skill yet, am I right?”
“Yes, I feel like there’s still more I can do with it based on this.”
“Then why don’t you try using the skill bit by bit while we’re in this dungeon? Since it’ll be a long haul anyway, getting a grasp of the skill’s capabilities should make it easier to use properly.”
“You’re right. I wanted to use it before, but never really got the chance… but now it feels like the entire area is like a real combat zone, it’s the perfect training ground!”
If traps register as "life-threatening," then couldn’t treasure chests and valuable items also be sensed as "beneficial to survival"…? I can’t help but wonder.
In any case, it’s learn by doing!
“Well, don’t overdo it, okay? Try it out when we can cover for you.”
“Thank you! I’ll do my best to be useful!”
“Don’t force it. You’ll lose sight of what’s right in front of you if you rush.”
“Huh? Oh, whoa!”
Inside the dungeon, as I get fired up alone, Mr. Ville’s hand pats my back as if to calm me down. Never forgetting to support party members, he is truly a model leader, and the Gourmands party that accepted me is genuinely kind and open-hearted.
…Yup. Though told not to rush, maybe I should still try my best to pay them back somehow…?
Was it because I was thinking about such things…? The next moment after stubbing my toe on something, I lost my balance and my vision flipped upside down.
Oh, I’m falling…!
Bracing for the impending pain and impact, I squeezed my eyes shut… Huh…? No pain?
“Ah… Mr. Ville… I’m sorry.”
“So ‘losing sight of what’s right in front of you’ wasn’t just a metaphor, it was a warning, huh?”
“Mm. There was a ledge.”
Opening my eyes which were tightly shut, I found myself cradled in Mr. Ville’s arms instead of falling to the ground. The leader had caught me before I hit the floor.
Phew! With Mr. Ville as support, I managed to steady myself… how embarrassing!
At the quiet words of Ms. Aria, when I looked down, there indeed was quite a ledge. I must have tripped over it.
“…I’ll be more careful where I step…”
“No, that’s why I said don’t overdo it…”
Suppressing the shame from various directions, the words that came out were just a tiny squeak. And even that embarrassed me, making me hang my head as Mr. Ville simply stroked it…
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