Hazure Skill ‘Mapping’ wo Te ni Shita Ore wa, Saikyou Party to Tomo ni Dungeon ni Idomu Chapter 13

Chapter 13
Chapter 13 – Like a date

Translator: Mana

“What do I have to do for the second stage?”

No longer feeling the challenge to the current practice, I urged Jin to continue. Jin’s response was far from what I expected.

“We’ll have Note learn to activate ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ at the same time.”

Erm… that’s… something I can already do…

Of course, Jin couldn’t understand the awkwardness only I could feel. It wasn’t as though I could keep my silence, so I reluctantly told Jin and Erin I was already able to activate ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ together.

“Hah? Are you seriously saying that? You’re just lying, lying!”

In contrast to Jin’s open surprise, Erin reacted negatively.

It wasn’t a lie… I might actually hate her after all…

Recently, perhaps in order to seem mad at me, Erin had been retorting to everything I said in this way. Just how bad is she at maintaining distance between people…? In order to deal with Erin’s surface-thin anger, I sighed and began my explanation.

“It’s not a lie though… For evidence, do you remember that time? When my ‘Trap Detect’ and ‘Trap Dismantle’ completely dropped in level…”

“What about that…?”

Erin’s face turned sour, as if she was remembering my disappointing past. Ignoring her, I continued talking.

“It sounded like an excuse so I didn’t really want to say it, but it was since then. That I started practicing using ‘Enemy Search’ at the same time. After my faults were pointed out by Erin I realised I couldn’t go on the way I was, so I thought about how I could change myself and this was the result. Because of that, my ‘Trap Detect’ and ‘Trap Dismantle’ were pretty bad for a while…”

Erin seemed to comprehend the full story from my explanation. She looked around awkwardly, as if seeking help. Eventually giving up on that idea, she glared at my eyes while raging with fury.

“What’s with that… You make it sound like I was mad this whole time over my own misunderstanding…”

In reality, it was exactly that… But the responsibility was on me, who was originally the one slacking off and angered her, so I followed up.

“It was also my fault for not talking about my own situation and making you misunderstand, so don’t worry about it, Erin!”

“Don’t suddenly start acting like an adult, Note! You’re making me sound even worse!”

“Sorry for causing you trouble.”

“Hey, don’t apologise! You’re doing that on purpose to make me suffer, aren’t you?! I was the one who was wrong… I’m sorry…”

Erin and I both lowered our heads at each other. Even though we were supposed to be apologising, we couldn’t keep the smiles off our faces. It’s been three months since we’ve joked around like this.

From an outsider’s view, it might have just been a pointless conversation, but to me it was extremely fun and something I had always been waiting for. Perhaps Erin felt the same way—such self-conceited fantasies pa.s.sed through my head. I guess that wasn’t going to happen… But if it did, I would be so happy.

Suddenly noticing Jin’s warm gaze as he watched the two of us, we jumped in shock and looked his way. At the exact same time.

No, this wasn’t like that… Really…

“I’m sorry for making you worry about us too, Jin.”

In the end, the one most troubled by

the bad air between Erin and I was Jin, who had to come between us many times. With all my apologies and appreciation, I properly lowered my head.

Jin scratched his cheek and answered. “It was nothing.” I admired how cool Jin was as the most mature and adult-like of this party.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’ll get shy. Getting back on topic… Note, you’re able to activate ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ at the same time already, right…?”

“Well, yes…”

“Then we’ll skip the second stage and go to the final stage of ‘Enemy Search’, ‘Trap Detect’, and ‘Trap Dismantle’ practice!”

“Final stage…”

The words ‘final stage’ made me a little nervous. I wiped my sweaty palms as I kept an ear on Jin’s next words.

“Yup, the final stage—”

I took a deep breath— If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!

“Is for you to have ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ constantly activated 24 hours a day.”

Ah… I can already do that too…

Erin and I were walking through the shopping district of the town of Puriff.

…The reason for this had to do with the fact I had already achieved the goals for the arts Jin a.s.signed.

The original plan was to start searching for a tank member once I entered the second stage of practice, but because I made unbidden progress on my practice we were now stuck in a situation where we couldn’t go dungeon diving without a new member. I felt somewhat sorry…

So now, I was being taught the other thief skills that I was meant to start learning after we began dungeon diving. Hence, I was here shopping for weapons needed for the arts with Erin.

You might question why we were the only two here. That was because of Jin.

“The two of you were fighting until just recently… How about you go shopping together to deepen your relations.h.i.+p?”

Jin shot me a pointed look.

We weren’t like that…

In reality, I thought it would be better to have the same-cla.s.s Jin come along, but it was true that we needed to get along better ‘as members of the same party’, so I obediently went with Jin’s suggestion.

I reminded myself that this was in no way a date, just a weapon shopping trip for two party members.

Though there are flashy men in this world who insist going out together as a man and woman can only mean a date, I didn’t think that way. If the definition of date was just to go out as a man and woman, then my jogs with Neme would be considered a date too. I shouldn’t be the one saying this, but if anything, those trips were more like a kidnapping than a date…

As I was pondering deeply over such thoughts, we arrived at the weapon store. Good timing.

We opened the door and a cheerful voice called from within. “Welcome!” It was the voice of a buff-looking bald man. Seeing as he was the only one in the store, he was probably the store owner.

“Oh, little Erin! Is that your boyfriend next to you?”

I wished he wouldn’t drop bombs like that so suddenly.

Even the usually snappy Erin was caught unaware, awkwardly answering, “N-No he’s not…” As a result, the reality of the situation created an unpleasant atmosphere in the shop .

To clear that atmosphere, Erin changed the topic.

“What’s with you! Owner! You’re more cheerful than usual today!”

To call the owner ‘Owner’… His name was written on his chest, you know… ‘Grey’… Well, whatever. I’d do the same…

“Yep, the most expensive staff in our store just sold.”

The owner proudly answered with a smile. Erin feigned disinterest as she looked around the store, then turned to the owner with a smug grin.

“Well then. I guess we’ll take the most expensive dagger in this store.”

“Huh?” I raised my voice in shock.

“Coming right up!” The owner said, heading around the back of the counter.

“No no, I don’t have that kind of money…”

“It’s fine, I’ll pay.”

“Why do you have to pay, Erin…”

“It’s an apology. For everything until now…” Erin looked at her feet.

The owner returned and showed us the dagger. It was obvious that it was a sharp blade even to amateur eyes. Especially as the price the owner showed us worth more than one year of my income as an adventurer. Even though it was a comparatively small dagger…

“Wait wait wait, is there really a need for Erin to pay something this expensive?”

“When you’re a first cla.s.s adventurer like me, you can afford to use money freely.”

“Even so, for Erin to pay…”

“It’s an apology, so shut up and take it!”

“Isn’t it wrong to deal with apologies through money?”

“What are you doing getting cowardly at a price tag for!”

“What did you say?! You dungeon nouveau riche!”

“How is it that you can return from a shopping trip together on worse terms than when you left…?”

We couldn’t say anything in return to Jin’s justified question.

The atmosphere in the beginning was good, if I did say so myself. Kind of like a date…

The turning point was after the weapon shop when we decided we might as well eat dinner while we were out, leading to a fight over which shop to eat at, repeatedly fighting within the shop itself, arriving at now.

We were probably fated to clash like this from the beginning. Similar yet opposing existences. Never crossing with each other.

Despite this exaggeration, I did think our distance was a lot closer than three months ago. We fought with each other, but there were some feelings of consideration between us.

In the end, I convinced Erin to buy a slightly cheaper dagger, which I really was grateful for. That’s why she mocked me when I told her I’d pay for her dinner, saying, “Being shouted by a beggar like you doesn’t make me happy at all. I’ll pay for you this time.” Just recalling it made me angry. Though when all was said and done, we split the bill… But still, she was really infuriating…

Well, I did end up experiencing Erin’s kindness first hand, raising my evaluation of her to as a rather likeable kind of person. That’s why I felt no discomfort in natural fights like this…

As such wonderful and pure thoughts pa.s.sed through my mind, Erin directed her crackling gaze my way. In opposition, I glared back, but…

“Wawah…” Neme, completely missing the situation, started panicking.

Then a loud noise suddenly echoed with a bang. It was the sound of the front door opening. From my ‘Enemy Search’ I could detect that it was Force’s presence.

A person’s strength can be felt when the level of ‘Enemy Search’ is raised, so as long as I remembered the strength level of certain people I could pull off simple tricks like this.

I really have improved a lot recently…

Force charged straight into the living room, and the first thing to leave his mouth was an outrageous remark.

“I’m going to quit the ‘Arrivers’!”