Hazure Skill ‘Mapping’ wo Te ni Shita Ore wa, Saikyou Party to Tomo ni Dungeon ni Idomu Chapter 7

Chapter 7
Chapter 7 – Expectation vs Reality

Translator/Editor: Mana

After dinner, the members gathered in the living room to discuss the plan for the future of the ‘Arrivers’.

For the record, Erin’s cooking was pretty average. As expected of a ‘Cooking – Small’. Or rather, in spite of being a ‘Cooking – Small’? I was scared of Erin getting mad if I told her the truth, so I highly praised the taste, but…

“Now then, I’m going to explain the plan for our party’s future. I think everyone apart from Note has heard it before, but make sure you know it.” Jin started talking to the party members. The usually loud party members had serious expressions on for once.

Seeing Jin take charge like this made me think of Jin as this party’s leader, but apparently the leader was Force. How strange. I should ask why sometime…

“For the next six months, the ‘Arrivers’ will go on hiatus from dungeon clearing. In order to give our undivided attention on training Note.”

“Eh…?” I raised my voice in surprise. The other members seemed to have already accepted this.

“Challenging dungeons take up a lot of time and effort, you see… We decided that it wasn’t possible to do that alongside Note’s training. And it’s too inefficient to attempt to clear further floors without a Mapping user. So we decided to use the next half year as a long-term investment.”

I didn’t think my role was regarded so highly. The tension and pressure weighed on my heart. At the worst, they would just throw me away if I was useless. I had considered such an outcome to be very likely. To put it bluntly, I was prepared to be a disposable being.

However, the thoughts of the ‘Arrivers’ were different. They were trying to treat me as an irreplaceable member. That’s why they had decided to raise me up instead of diving straight into the dungeon with my incompetency.

“Are you sure…? To spend half a year on a stranger that suddenly popped out of nowhere…” My lack of confidence and insecurity made me blurt out a trembling question.

“We’ve calculated for everything. You don’t have to be bothered by it…” Jin explained their reasons with half a smile on his face.

The reason was that to the ‘Arrivers’, my situation had fulfilled all the conditions they were looking for.

The first was that I was an adventurer. Like how Erin said while we were cooking, it was extremely rare for a ‘Mapping’ skill user to also be an adventurer.

The next was because I was ambitious towards clearing dungeons.

It was common knowledge that in this world, diving in dungeons came at the risk of your life. For someone with no fighting capability to be willing to work with a top-cla.s.s party to enter a dungeon was an abnormality in itself.

And yet I accepted it quite easily. Even Jin expected more resistance to his negotiations when he approached me, and found my reaction quite anti-climatic.

The last one was—

“So you haven’t decided on a job yet, right Note?”

“Yes, sorry… All I did was ch.o.r.es in the past, so… I don’t really have anything like a battle style…”

I couldn’t use magic, and I wasn’t particularly skilled at swordcraft either. It was something that had always bothered me. But in response, Jin looked rather happy.

“No no! We’re actually grateful for that. We would’ve felt worse if we had to force you to change from a job you were accustomed to—and the training rate would have been worse too.”

“Change jobs? Was there a job you wanted me to do?

”

“That’s right. Do you mind, Note?” Jin seemed a little apologetic as he asked me. I was actually rather grateful, as I couldn’t decide on a job myself anyway. I obediently accepted.

“The job we want you to do is a thief.”

“Thief?” To let Jin’s words sink into my head, I repeated them out loud.

“We’ll have you do the same role as what I’ve been doing in the party until now. You could have been an a.s.sa.s.sin like me, but considering the training conditions and time limit, we figured a thief would be more appropriate for a beginner?”

“The same role as Jin…”

Images of Jin’s battle with the large ogre resurfaced in the back of my mind.

That? For me? If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!

As if to clear my concerns, Jin continued his explanation.

“Rather than doing the same role as me, perhaps it would be more accurate to say you would be taking over a small part of my role? Right now, I’m in charge of a.s.sisting the party’s in battle, as well as searching for enemies and detecting traps. I want to leave the non-battle roles to you, Note.”

I recalled seeing Jin report the locations of enemies in the dungeon. So that’s what they want me to do…

“That’s why you want a thief that has the ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ arts?”

“Yes, that’s right. Eventually we’d like you to learn some battle techniques too, but for this half year we want you to only focus on training the ‘Enemy Search’, ‘Trap Detect’ and ‘Trap Dismantle’ arts, as well as raising your stamina. I’m really sorry for making such selfish demands…”

Well, I guess that means they’re not expecting much from me combat-wise…

I knew that already, but hearing it out loud was quite a shock. Seeing Jin and the other members fight had made me dream a little of fighting like that, beyond what was realistic for me.

Maybe Jin had seen the expression on my face, as he scratched his head uncomfortably.

I understood Jin’s reasoning. I knew it painfully. With nothing but the ‘Mapping’ skill, even if I started polis.h.i.+ng my battle techniques now, I would never catch up to Jin and the others.

Even so, it would be a lie to say I was completely satisfied.

I fully understood the overwhelming extent of everyone’s abilities. That was why I longed to be like them, to fight like them in my heart. But I wanted to prioritise my determination not to be a burden as a member of the ‘Arrivers’ over those feelings.

I was not blessed with any talents. Jin had done his best to come up with a way I could partic.i.p.ate in this party. That alone was enough…

Forcing down the desires within me, I gathered myself and replied. “That’s fine with me… If anything, I’m happy you’re willing to leave such an important role to me…”

“I’m truly sorry… Once you’ve gotten used to dungeon exploration, we’ll teach you about battles too… For now, we want you to raise the accuracy of those three arts. Especially for ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’, as they work well with mapping skills.”

Mapping skills were considered very compatible with ‘Enemy Search’, which tracked the position of monsters, as well as ‘Trap Detect’, which tracked the position of the numerous traps in a dungeon.

When mapping skill users use ‘Enemy Search’ or ‘Trap Detect’, the positions of monsters and traps are shown on top of the map depicted in their head. That was common knowledge in this world, particularly amongst mapping skill users.

“I’ll teach you the basics for ‘Enemy Search’, ‘Trap Detect’, and ‘Trap Dismantle’. I can make physical traps, but I can’t make magical ones, so Erin will help teach the magical ones, alright?”

“…Yeah, I know,” Erin replied bluntly.

“Also, in order to raise Note’s stamina, could you take him along on your morning jog, Force?”

“Eh… Annoying.” Force’s apathetic voice replied. Was that a yes?

“Eventually I’d like Force to escort Note when he practices ‘Enemy Search’ and ‘Trap Detect’ without me, so I’m counting on you.”

“Erm… does that mean someday I’ll have to practice without Jin?”

“Well… yes. I still have to search for a new tank member…”

Now that he mentioned it, that was right. Jin didn’t have time to be wasting on me… I reflected a little on my shortcomings.

Oblivious of my feelings, Force suddenly offered his bright idea, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with self-confidence—

“How about I search for the new member?!”

“Absolutely not!” Jin, Erin, and Neme all yelled at once.

Err… Why? Was there a need to deny him so harshly…?

“You do realise it was your constant s.e.xual harra.s.sment that made Ryune quit, right?”

Who was Ryune? The previous tank…?

“That wasn’t s.e.xual harra.s.sment! It was flirting! The healthy kind of social flirting between a man and woman!”

“What part of checking the pattern of her underwear in the laundry every day, praising her choice to her face and attempting to touch her chest at every possible chance is considered a healthy kind of flirting…”

Seriously…? Force… That’s nasty…

“For a healthy man that much is normal, right Note?”

“No, I think that’s disgusting.”

Force, stop trying to save yourself by lumping me together with you. I was a pure and innocent boy that had never touched Miya inappropriately in my life. Though that could just be my cowardice…

“See, Note isn’t creepy like you, Force!”

“Shut up, Erin! You’re just a flat child who has nothing compared to the womanly charms of Ryune!”

“Hah? It seems like you want to die today, Force!”

Erin raged as Force continued to taunt her. I started to question whether these two actually got along…

“There there, Erin. Calm down… Even if you’re like a child now, you’ll grow up one day. As your senior in life, this Neme guarantees it!”

Neme smugly gave a thumbs up.

That was when the quarreling Force and Erin finally agreed on something together.

“That’s not rea.s.suring at all, coming from Neme!”