Chapter 24:

Chapter 24:

Female Clerk Dives Into The Dungeon

We moved to a nearby fast food restaurant because we didn't want to talk in the restaurant, received our order at the counter on the first floor, and sat down facing each other at a table on the second floor.

Her name is Machi Serai. She introduced herself briefly on the way to the restaurant and told me her name. She also told me her kanji characters, so I am sure I am not mistaken. In response, I said my name was Ezuki, too.

I'm not very good at talking. If I told her too much about myself. She would know I was currently unemployed. It's hard to have Machi Serai look at me contemptibly and say I'm unemployed.

So I decided to be a man of few words, a hard-boiled man. Yes, that's how I felt. With my current appearance, it shouldn't be too much to ask for that style, I would like to think.

"So, Serai-san, do you have any advice about the dungeon?"

"Yes, I do. Will you listen to me!"

Serai-san seems to be a talker, and she begins to talk about her personal life in a cheerful and amusing tone. It's what I call light talk. I can't imitate him, so I was taken aback by her engaging way of talking.

Let me summarize her talk.

Machi Serai is a female college student. The dungeon store is her part-time job during the summer break from university. She started living on her own as a university student and got hooked on net games, and fantasy role-playing games, influenced by video streamers on the Internet.

Then there was a dungeon outbreak commotion in the world, but she started thinking that she would like to dive into dungeons and have adventures. Then things changed, and ordinary people could dive into dungeons on a trial basis. That was an opportunity! But, of course, a woman with her thin arms couldn't dive into a dungeon. So, she decided to cooperate with someone else, in other words, to form a party to challenge the dungeon.

But then a problem arose.

Even if they formed a party to go into the dungeon, a woman would be of little use in fighting the monsters. The men in the party don't want to take a stand for charity.

They would get into disputes over the distribution of the drops, and the men in the party would pester her.

They said I'll protect you, and you can be my woman.

But I am a man myself, so I can understand why the man who partnered with her would say that. Naturally, my motivation will change depending on whether the woman I'm protecting is my girlfriend or a stranger. Yeah, I hate it. If I were to protect a stranger desperately and then return to the ground to find her flirting with her lover, I would probably slam my gloves down on the ground and say, "I can't do this! I can't do this!".

But her story is not over yet. But since I only have to be a good listener, the conversation is interesting, and I appreciate it very much.

After that, Serai-san repeatedly formed and broke up parties, or even left them. The reason for this is very simple and cash-based, "I want you to play the role of a shield, but I don't want to be wooed.". Also, the guys at the party had a dispute with each other over her.

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She should have invited her boyfriend to join her in the dungeon, but she had no boyfriend, and no strong relatives nearby since she had moved to Tokyo.

But then she thought about it.

On the other hand, Serai-san had changed her clothes to dive into the dungeon and was wearing an ochre-colored coat with a hood, the kind you might wear at a campsite. On her feet, she was wearing thick boots and jeans with knee pads, but that was it. She's also holding a long stick with a metal-reinforced tip in her hand as if it were a weapon.

"Is thatcan you see me properly?"

Serai-san asks, pointing at the eyeballs of the Bug King mask. Oh shit, I should have taken the mask off.

"Yes, I can see you just fine. It's mirrored, so you can't see it from the outside. But, Serai-san, are you wearing protective gear to protect yourself?"

"Yes, I'm wearing it!"

After saying that, Serai-san opened the front of her coat and showed it to me. It was clear she was wearing a thick corset-like garment around her abdomen. But it did not protect her important boobs. And there seemed to be no helmet to protect her head.

"Well, what about your head and chest?"

"That's here"

Saying this, Serai-san put her coat and the hood over her head.

"Mmmm that wouldn't be considered protective gear, would it?"

"Eh, Ezuki-san, are you seriously dressed like that?"

"Well, if you're curious, you can touch it"

I open my arms so that Serai-san can easily touch the Bug King Suit.

"Wow it's very hard."

It makes me happy when a girl touches me and says I'm hard. But this is the armor we're talking about. Serai-san touches the outer shell of the Bug King Suit's chest with her fingertips and seems surprised at how hard it is. The Bug King Suit is soft and hard, hard and very elastic.

"My whole body is covered with this. So most attacks won't hurt me."

"What is this thing made of?"

Serai-san wonders about the suit's material as she rustles the outer shell of the abdomen, perhaps liking the feel of it. After the candy-colored gloss came out through the magic power, the surface became smooth. The roughness, like a ginkgo leaf, is not here, and very pleasant to the touch.

"This one is also a secret because it's part of what we promised."

"Huh, let's go to the reception then."

Serai-san still wasn't convinced but seemed to have decided not to think about it for the moment. We walked side by side and headed for the disaster prevention tent, where the dungeon admission desk location.