The Darkness Was Comfortable for Me

Chapter 91: Combined Party and Surrounded

Taking a leisurely 2 hours, the demon lord subjugation team had broken through the 2nd Floor.

We are now in the 3rd Floor.

It is apparently customary that the demon lord subjugation starts from 2 floors above the floor that it was found in, and if it is a Demon Lord found in the 5th Floor, they begin searching from the 3rd Floor.

“There’s the chance the Demon Lord is already on this floor! Be on alert, everyone!”

“Alright!”

The big man at the front shouted.

So he says, but there’s apparently rarely any cases where one has gone up 2 Floors in such a short period of time. It hasn’t been long since it appeared, and they say that the highest possibility is that it is staying in the 5th Floor.

Alex and I are participating as porters, but one can tell by our equipment, we are totally planning on participating in the battle. It is a subjugation team that’s around 40 people in total. Probably no one would be bothered if porters were to participate in the battle as well.

“Demon Lords apparently get stronger as they go up the floors. Did you know that?” (Alex)

“No, I didn’t.” (Hikaru)

“It seems like it was pretty strong already in the 5th Floor, so if it were to come up all the way to the 3rd Floor, I think it would have become strong enough that people of our level wouldn’t even be able to face them. What do we do if that happens?” (Alex)

Slight fear was shown in the face of Alex.

He was laughing just a few moments ago about looking forward to fighting a Demon Lord, but maybe the pressure got to him as the moment approached.

…But this is the normal reaction.

Gleefully wanting to fight is not a normal mindset after all.

You could even say that Alex, who has come to this demon lord subjugation just because it seemed amusing, falls into the category of people who are quite willful.

“I will fight the Demon Lord no matter the floor it shows up in. I came here for the sake of that.” (Hikaru)

“Hikaru… Right, they do say that luck smiles upon heroes, so now that we have come this far, we gotta do it…!” (Alex)

Alex psyches himself up with an ‘alright!’.

Yeah, now that we have come this far, we have no choice but to do this.

I opened the Status Board and checked my viewer count.

I thought it would decrease because I took a break yesterday, but it actually has gone up.

(It is 900 million…! Still 4 days remaining and 1st place in the Real Time Rankings. If I am in the 3rd place in the Total Ranking, I have plenty enough chance. It is going up to a strange degree even though I still haven’t met the Demon Lord. A synergizing effect might have happened because I spoke to Alex.) (Hikaru)

Actually, the viewer count increased quite a bit in the date with Rifreya yesterday.

Rifreya was beautiful yesterday. Her sparkling figure under the sunlight must have been a sight that even the people on Earth couldn’t take their eyes off.

Or maybe it came from their hatred of me hanging around with her.

…Killing his childhood friend and yet dating an isekai beauty. That would definitely be a great headline for them.

Today’s plan is apparently to check the 3rd Floor to see if the Demon Lord is here.

We will be sweeping the floor for a whole day with 2 rotations of 12 hours each. If the Demon Lord is not found, the next day we will apparently begin the search in the 4th Floor. In other words, even with these numbers, we are technically split in two.

If we end up missing the Demon Lord by some strange prank of fate, it will go up the floors. At worst, it could even come out to the surface. That’s apparently the scenario that must be prevented at all costs.

According to Alex: ‘the Great Spirits would come out in order to defeat the Demon Lord, and it will turn into an irreversible situation’. If that happens, it will be impossible to return the Great Spirits to their churches, and the spirit energy balance of the dungeon will crumble and it will perish.

That’s why the Demon Lord alone must definitely be exterminated.

That’s the duty of the city that has created a dungeon artificially.

“Now then, we will be dividing you all into 3 groups! Spread in whatever manner you wish!”

With the order of the man in the front, the explorers spread out in 3 groups in a haphazard manner.

“Well then, I will be regrouping with the boys! Let’s do our best so we don’t die!” (Alex)

“Yeah, let’s do our best.” (Hikaru)

Alex pushes his fits out, and I bump fist with him before we go our separate ways.

Looks like Rifreya is at the opposite side of Alex’s party.

It seems to be a group with a lot of women…

“Ah, Hikaru! Over here, over here!” (Rifreya)

Rifreya is beckoning me over with a smile. The gazes of the fully armored women gathered on me, and it felt incredibly uncomfortable…

“Heeh~! So this is your boyfriend, Rifreya-chan. Ah, I am Gloria. Nice to meet you.”

“I am Moapple! I have heard about you from Full-nan. You saved her in the 2nd Floor. I would like to thank you too-nan!”

“Woaah, you really are completely in black!”

3 women unrestrainedly close the distance, and it flusters me. One of them is a lynx.

Or more like, this group is full of women!

“Hey hey hey, Hikaru is troubled here.” (Rifreya)

Rifreya helped me out here, but she is hugging my arm, so it is pulling their attention even more.

Even the 3 other women whistled at this.

“There was talk that Rifreya-chan, who was said to not have interest in men, had suddenly gotten a nice man, so I was wondering what was going on here, but…that’s so nice.”

“There’s a lot of encounters, but the explorer men are all kinda the same.”

“Hikaru-kun looks like an upstart, but that’s also fresh and cute.”

“Now that you mention it, there haven’t been those types until now!”

The female explorers were saying what they pleased.

Honestly speaking, I am super bad at dealing with these unreserved gazes.

I wanted to hide in the darkness, but using Darkness Fog here would stand out way too negatively here.

“Now now, everyone, leave the talk already and let’s get going! The Demon Lord might be here, so you might die if you are not careful!”

“Ye~s!” “Yes!” “Yes-nan!”

“Also, Rifreya-chan and the boyfriend, follow us for now.”

“Yes!” “Okay.”

The red haired woman in red armor seems to be the leader of this group.

Her bright red full body armor stands out, but her giant axe on her back stands out even more. Just how much physical strength does one need to have to swing around an axe like that?

It looks heavier than the greatsword of Rifreya.

With one order of the red haired explorer, she grabbed hold of everyone, and the exploration started.

The 3 parties advance in different directions.

We are a party of 14 including me. You could say it is Rifreya and me plus 2 other parties. Rifreya and I are in charge of keeping guard of the back.

“Sorry about just now. Everyone knows that I am diving with you, so it turned out like that.” (Rifreya)

“It can’t be helped. By the way, that lynx person…could it possibly be that she is not hired?” (Hikaru)

“That’s right. Moa-san is a big veteran that has been treading this line of work for 10 years. Her Tier is apparently pretty high too.” (Rifreya)

“She does look strong.” (Hikaru)

Apple-san was taking the job of a scout and hopping ahead.

Grapefull and the other hired lynxes most likely aim to be like her.

Her armor is all mithril and it looks cool.

This might be what you would call the senior you aspire to become.