After I stopped the alarm on my watch that signaled the start of our return, we began retracing our steps. Of course, taking the shortest route back would have put us well ahead of schedule, so we took a few detours to hunt monsters along the way.
As we moved, another group appeared.
"Nine of them... I’ll take the lead this time. I’ll let three through, so do your best to take them down."
"Y-Yes!"
After giving Saori-chan the word, Hiiragi-san approached the snarling goblins with a relaxed, steady gait while leveling her spear. She showed no signs of tension; she was the picture of composure.
The moment the goblins entered the reach of her weapon, Hiiragi-san's spear arm blurred for an instant, and three goblins were sent flying through the air.
"There you go. Good luck."
The airborne goblins landed directly in front of Saori-chan. Though they were coughing from the impact of the fall, they didn't seem to have any external wounds. It seemed Hiiragi-san hadn't used brute force to blow them away, but had instead skillfully scooped them up and tossed them.
Hiiragi-san then turned her attention to the remaining six, engaging them in a back-and-forth battle while taking care not to kill them instantly.
"Hah!"
Before the thrown goblins could regain their footing, Saori-chan lunged with her spear at the nearest one. Even if this was training for multiple-enemy combat, there was no reason to ignore an enemy showing such a blatant opening. Taking one down for certain was a solid opening move.
The spear Saori-chan thrust out met no resistance, piercing the goblin through the brow exactly as intended.
"！?"
"Gi!?" "Gi!?"
The remaining two goblins, who had just recovered from the fall and were trying to grasp the situation, let out cries of shock. Seeing their comrade’s head suddenly pierced, spraying blood, clearly rattled them. It was understandable—anyone would be shocked if a spear suddenly burst through a friend’s skull from behind.
The goblins looked around in a panic and spotted the owner of the spear—the perpetrator who had killed their comrade. Forgetting about Hiiragi-san, who had just tossed them aside, they fixed their bloodshot eyes on Saori-chan and let out a roar of rage.
"Gigi!"
The remaining goblins fully recognized Saori-chan as their enemy and lunged at her, brandishing their clubs. There was no coordination to speak of, but their eyes held clear murderous intent—a desperate desire for revenge. Their aura was truly ghastly; a faint-hearted person would likely have frozen in place.
However, even when exposed to such intimidation, Saori-chan moved to intercept them with zero hesitation.
"Ei!"
"Gi!?"
She delivered a front kick to the body of the goblin she had just killed. As she withdrew her spear, she used the corpse as a projectile, kicking it into one of the goblins leaping at her to knock it out of the air. To utilize a monster’s corpse for defense the moment it's killed... it seemed Saori-chan had grown quite accustomed to fighting multiple enemies.
Then, she immediately thrust the withdrawn spear into the other leaping goblin. It was a clever counterattack, made possible by using the kick to the corpse to negate the recoil of pulling out her weapon.
"！?"
The spear gouged deep into the center of the goblin's chest, and a large amount of blood poured from its torso and mouth. That was a fatal wound.
Saori-chan didn't try to force the spear all the way through; instead, she let the momentum flow, spinning the spear vertically to slam the goblin into the ground before kicking through its head to snap its neck. She wasn't letting her guard down just because she'd dealt a lethal blow; she was making sure it stayed down. Since there were few opponents this time, that was fine, but I should probably teach her that in a larger melee, it’s sometimes better to prioritize the remaining active threats once an enemy is incapacitated.
"Yah!"
"Gi!?"
Finally, Saori-chan thrust her spear into the throat of the last one—the goblin that had been struggling to crawl out from under its comrade's corpse—and twisted. The goblin gave one violent convulsion, and then the strength left the hand it had reached out to grab the spear. It stopped moving.
"Oh? You're done already? Then I'll finish up here too."
Sensing that Saori-chan’s battle was over, Hiiragi-san, who had been thinning her group down to three, called out and moved to settle her side. Stepping back to gain distance, she drew her spear back, took a single breath, and stepped forward powerfully to close the gap.
In the next moment, her arm blurred, and the goblins' heads flew into the air. It looked like she had pierced all three of their necks in a single heartbeat.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. It's over."
With the goblins spraying blood behind her even as they remained standing, Hiiragi-san walked back toward us without looking the least bit tired. Well, against goblins, she wouldn't even have the chance to break a sweat.
Once the goblins finished their particleization, Hiiragi-san and Saori-chan went to collect the drop items. This time, they found a lucky drop.
It was a magic item—a dismantling knife. These still fetched a decent price, making them a "jackpot" find for the shallow floors.
"Lucky you, Saori-chan. You can sell this for a pretty good price, you know?"
"Eh, really?"
"Yes. And even if you don't sell it, if you use it on a monster you've defeated, it will drop foodstuff items. It means you won't have cases like before where you kill a monster but get no drop item at all....Though, meat dropped by monsters on the shallow floors doesn't sell for much right now, so it's hard to make a profit unless you collect a huge amount."
As Hiiragi-san explained the mechanics, Saori-chan's expression became conflicted. Meat from these floors sold for maybe 100 yen a piece. It was only natural for her to think that a one-time payout might be better than trying to make a profit over the long term. If they could reach the 10th floor and start getting orc meat, keeping the knife would make sense. At their current level, selling it for activity funds was probably the smarter move.
As Hiiragi-san and Saori-chan discussed the knife, Mika pulled on my sleeve and looked at me with curiosity.
"Hey, Onii-chan. Is that really a jackpot?"
"Back in the day, even meat from low-floor monsters sold for quite a bit, so the dismantling knife was a top-tier item."
"Yeah," Yuji added. "But nowadays, using a dismantling knife prevents anything but foodstuff items from dropping. Unless you're an explorer or a company that specializes in food collection, people don't really use them actively."
"...Which means?"
"It’s an item that can be a great tool or just a high-value exchange item depending on the explorer's style. For you guys right now, cashing it in is probably the way to go."
While it might have been a coveted item for Hiiragi-san in the past, now it was just another item to trade for cash. Rather than killing monsters and collecting meat one by one, it was more efficient to dive deeper, kill high-level monsters, and use the profit from those drops to buy meat in bulk from wholesalers.
Well, unless you're aiming for marbled minotaur meat. You almost never see that unless you use a dismantling knife and grind through a massive number of meat drops. Honestly, whoever said you can't turn off the desire sensor... well, that’s all of us.
"I see... then we'll trade it in this time."
"Understood."
It seemed Hiiragi-san and Saori-chan had reached a conclusion. They were going for the cash-in.
A sensible decision.
Retracing our way through the dungeon while fighting monsters here and there, we ended up leaving a little earlier than originally planned. Since it was afternoon and the population on the shallow floors had increased, the number of monsters had dropped. We decided to finish up before the exchange counters got crowded.
"Phew... Good work. How was today's exploration, Mika, Saori-chan?"
After we emerged from the dungeon entrance, I asked them for their thoughts.
"Hmm, I guess I'm a little tired since we dove two days in a row," Mika said.
"I see... How about you, Saori-chan?"
"Same as Mika-chan, I'm a bit exhausted. But..."
"But?"
"Compared to yesterday, I'm feeling a lot better mentally, even after killing goblins."
"Is that so... Mika, how about you on that front?"
Saori-chan still looked a bit conflicted, as if she hadn't quite fully processed it yet. However, her expression was much closer to normal than it had been yesterday, so she was clearly making progress.
I gave a small nod to Saori-chan and then looked at Mika to see how she was holding up.
"I'm... still not quite used to it, I think."
"I see..."
Though she was better than yesterday, Mika’s face was still a bit stiff. It took us time to get used to it too, so I couldn't expect her to be fine just a day later. You have to take your time to organize your thoughts and feelings.
I lightly patted Mika's head over her helmet, offering a bit of comfort.
"Well, you know. We dove back-to-back because of the school schedule, but the next time we dive will be a week from now at the earliest. Don't rush; just take your time and process things. If there's anything you want to talk about, don't hesitate to come to me. Don't bottle it all up; if you want to vent, just let it out."
"...Yeah. Thank you."
While comforting Mika, I spoke to Saori-chan as well.
"Saori-chan, if there's anything on your mind, feel free to speak up. Even if you're doing better, it doesn't mean there's no impact at all. Just talking to someone can make things a lot easier."
"Yes. Thank you very much."
Saori-chan seemed to have already reached a compromise within herself, but that was worrying in its own way. I needed to keep an eye on her. It would be a disaster if her perspective shifted too far and she ended up in some kind of trouble outside the dungeon.
For a professional explorer, killing humanoid monsters is part of the job, and they build a "mental shelf" to separate that from their daily life. But for amateurs like students, the boundary can get blurred. If they can't switch their mindset properly, they might accidentally use their powers in the real world over something trivial. To prevent that, I have to help Mika and Saori-chan build that mental shelf—a sense of professional awareness.
"Hey, Daiki. Can we move to the side or head to the lockers? It's not that crowded, but you're blocking the people coming out behind us."
" " "Eh?" " "
Prompted by Yuji, we looked back at the entrance. Just as he said, people were walking around us with annoyed looks. We were standing right in the middle of the corridor.
" " "S-Sorry!" " "
Mika, Saori-chan, and I bowed our heads in apology and scrambled to the side.
Seriously, Yuji, Hiiragi-san. If you noticed, don't just stand there grinning—tell us sooner.
"Ah, well... we can talk more later. For now, shall we head to the lockers?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Y-Yes."
Feeling a bit sheepish, I suggested we move. Even though we were out of the way now, I felt awkward and wanted to leave. Mika and Saori-chan immediately agreed, and Yuji and Hiiragi-san followed with their usual wry smiles.
After changing, we left the lockers and moved to the building where the exchange counter was located. There were significantly fewer people than on the weekend; it looked like we wouldn't have to wait long.
"Okay, I'll go get a numbered ticket. You guys wait in the seating area."
"Right. We'll leave it to you, Daiki."
I left the group and pulled a ticket from the machine.
"Number 53, huh..."
Between the time of day and it being a weekday, the number of dungeon users was low.
Just as I was about to head back to the group with the ticket in hand, someone called out to me from behind.
"U-Um, excuse me. Do you have a moment?"
I turned toward the voice. Standing there were two girls, roughly the same age as Mika, and about a head shorter than me. They were looking at me with anxious eyes while clutching a smartphone.
...Who are you guys?