Let's be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~

Chapter 59.3

59 Part 3

Corporate sponsorships were selected among those with the highest number of blog readers and the highest adventurer points.

It is said that the numbers they generally look for are around five thousand.

However, Karens mere thousand bookmarks shouldnt be enough.

Still, having a low number of bookmarks didnt mean one would never be scouted.

Even if your ranking numbers are low, any adventurer may be scouted as long as they have something special going on for them.

Karen was one such adventurer.

But still, to learn that Karen of all people got scouted

Harukis chest was filled with muddy emotions.

He felt so envious of her!

An adventurer who didnt appear in the rankings had a contract with a company?

It didnt sound quite right to Haruki.

A sponsorship, huh? Thats great

Shes still just a candidate, though.

Was it her magic?

Yup.

Akane promptly answered Harukis question.

Just as Haruki guessed, Akane seemed to have chosen Karen out of her rare ability to use magic.

Supporting Karen and analyzing her magic to provide feedback to other adventurers could prove to be very profitable.

This was a very correct decision for any company to make.

Her being just a candidate could be due to the fact that she was still rather inexperienced.

And also, little was known about magic, so that could be another reason for that.

What is it?

Haruki was staring fixedly at Akane.

She didnt feel they were taking advantage of Karen.

He could almost see her counting coins, though.

Akane was a businessperson after all.

Counting money and calculating profits was her everyday life.

Her eyes were set on the profits, but there was nothing about how she felt about Karen at a personal level.

Thats what Haruki could read from staring at Akanes face.

Whats wrong with you, Air? Did you fall in love with me or something?

Shut up or Ill knock the lights out of you!

I dont condone violence!

Just as Haruki could feel his blood boil inside his veins, Akane tearfully hid her head behind her arms.

Why was she so eager to provoke people around when she was such a crybaby?

So far, Karen had never used her magic in front of others, except for Haruki.

She had been very diligent and never made a mistake in that regard.

So he had assumed that Karen would be very careful about using her magic.

Haruki was surprised to hear that Karen had used her magic in front of someone else despite this.

She must have had a very good reason for doing that.

However, it seemed it had nothing to do with anything bad happening, so at least Haruki could be a bit relieved about that.

Could this have anything to do with Karens special skill, Luck?

With Ichibishis support, Karen should have an easier time from now on.

It may not be long before her blog starts filling up with posts about magic.

Thats great, Karen.

Im sorry, youve helped me all this time and now only I get to

She seemed ashamed of having been selected as a sponsor candidate.

Karen apologetically lowered her head.

In Karens eyes, she had become stronger because Haruki had been supporting her.

But Haruki felt he hadnt been that supportive at all.

She simply had the desire to become stronger.

Haruki could sympathize with that will of hers, if only a bit.

If not for her will, she would have never grown this strong.

Even though he had improved his skills, he had been swayed by her sheer power.

Dont worry about that. So, Akane is there any way you can help me

Nope. Give it up. You dont have that many blog readers yourself, dont you?

Ack!

That hit him right in the chest so hard that it made him stagger.

He had timidly asked that question, but Akanes answer had been so blunt that it threw Haruki off.

Ichibishi puts their sponsored adventurers in billboards, you know? No matter how many of those they put across the city, if they featured you, I dont think people would want to look at them.

B-But

Rather than put you on a billboard, theyd put your face on an ad-balloon and send it far away, you know?

Gahh!

Way to kick a man while hes on the ground!

She had no mercy at all!

Haruki was a bit envious of Karen.

But not enough for it to be considered jealousy.

Harukis goal wasnt to become a sponsored adventurer, or even a ranker for that matter.

All he wanted to do was to become an adventurer.

It was as simple as that.

To become popular enough to be recognized by others

To earn fame, fortune and renown

Those things were not important to Haruki.

Having arrived at the 10th floor, Haruki left the gate room and bravely proceeded forward.

Still

Hey, arent you coming?

As opposed to Haruki, Karen and Akane were trembling and wouldnt dare step outside of the gate room.

They were holding their hands together tightly.

This wasnt a manifestation of a friendship that was powerful enough to ease their fears.

They were holding each other so that the other one wouldnt escape.

It really looked more like an unsightly rivalry.

This whole time, Haruki had been asking them just what happened when they first came to the 10th floor by themselves.

But no matter how many times he asked, their mouths were so tightly shut that he could barely hear anything out of them.

He carefully looked around the 10th floor, but couldnt find anything similar to a Monster Parade.

Apparently the situation here hadnt become as rough as it did back in Chikaho.

That alone made Haruki a bit less alert about this whole deal.

Hmm.

Unlike Chikaho, the garage dungeon has food monsters appearing every two floors.

If that rule hadnt changed, then the 10th floor is a food monster floor.

Haruki didnt really think there should be something out there on that floor that could frighten those two as much as they were.

A few moments later, Harukis detection reacted to a monsters presence.

He quickly readied up his weapon and stood there, waiting.

Well, lets see what kind of monster appears

The grass moved as if squirming around.

Just as Haruki was getting ready, a single monster appeared out of the waist-tall grass.