“How is it, master?”
Layla asked so with her ever-present smile.
Something was different with her today though. To cut to the chase, she was currently wearing a bunny girl costume. A white bunny girl costume, to be exact.
Her silver hair, which was usually in a braid, was now untied. On her small neck, peeking out of her beautiful hair, was a blue bow tie complementing her collarbone. Her white, slender shoulders were exposed. So were her arms; only her wrists were covered by cuffs that looked like sleeves.
And then, there were her breasts. They were so bountiful that they were threatening to spill out at any moment. The bunny girl costume not only showcased her cleavage, it also highlighted the contours of her body. The part that covered her crotch was considerably high-cut too. Yet, her skin after that wasn’t exposed and instead was covered by white leggings.
A girl who would put even professional models to shame was wearing such an outfit here in my room. Her eye-catching soft breasts and her nice waist were compelling me to wrap my arms around her. Meanwhile, her plump behind and her slender legs were so wonderful I just wanted to rub my face against them.
“Ahh, the spring of my life is already here…!”
Could anyone really blame me for shedding tears and raising my arm up to the sky?
* * *
I had obtained the clarity of a sage like that while my parents were out shopping.
The day after our group got our first item drop, a normal Skeleton dropped its spear. We couldn’t believe our luck either.
And needless to say, I used the money I got from that to buy the costume for Layla just like I planned. I was still torn between the nurse and the cheerleader outfits to be honest, but when I tried to order online, I found out that the one which would arrive well before anything else was the bunny costume. Which kinda begs the question of how many costumes did the bunny girl industry had in stock.
But I then had a new dilemma: should I go for a white bunny girl costume or a black one? After about an hour of back and forth, I decided that a white one would match Layla best given that she was a beauty with silver hair. I was so glad I went with that.
At any rate, a day had passed since then and today was a school day. Reminiscing about it while walking toward school was great and all but not if it caused a certain physiological phenomenon to happen to my lower half. As such, I tried my hardest to think about other things.
It was presently near the end of April, meaning that golden week was soon upon us. At this time, there was a problem looming over me and my friends: should we stay in a party or go our separate ways?
My friends and I had completed the required 3 days of exploring an E rank dungeon. From now on, we could explore D rank dungeons in a party or solo. Exploring D rank dungeons in itself was not going to be an issue, but…
While I was thinking about such things, I reached my classroom. I whispered a greeting, mostly to myself for the sake of it, and entered the room. I noticed right away that the room was a bit noisier than usual.
“I’m going to train during golden week. How about you guys?”
“I’ll train too, up in the mountains. I’m for sure going to be an Awakened One during vacation!”
“Aihara-kun~. You see, I have a favor to ask you…”
The boys and girls of my class were talking about their plans for golden week, that was normal enough…but what is up with all this talk about training to become an Awakened One?
While I pondered on that question, I dropped my bag off at my desk and went toward Kumai-kun.
“Good morning. Any idea why the class is abuzz?”
“’sup. Did you not see the news yesterday?”
“…I was busy cleaning my room.”
“Ohh. Keep it in moderation, ok?”
“Yeah.”
Embarrassed, I averted my eyes.
Please don’t look at me like I’m some kind of monkey in heat. I’m a perfectly civilized person!
“Look up Low-tier Knight, bikini armor, and Alraune.”
“Is that some lewd game?”
“Nope. Just look it up.”
If not a lewd game, then a lewd anime…or maybe not.
Like I was told, I looked up those keywords with my phone. A series of videos were displayed in a row for me.
“’A low-tier lady knight’s dungeon exploration’…?”
“That adventurer is uploading their dungeon exploration online. In one, they got crazy lucky in what they found in a treasure chest.”
“Ohh…”
While listening to Kumai-kun’s explanation, I visited that adventurer’s video page.
Starting April this year, the data we submit for our remuneration calculations was being returned to us. Moreover, we were free to do whatever we wanted with that. Thanks to those changes, adventurer content creators were now seemingly becoming a thing.
Being inside a dungeon, fighting with monsters, and other things which were only found in fiction were now part of our reality. And videos about those apparently were getting mad views.
As could be surmised from the keywords Kumai-kun gave me, the one this time was a female adventurer who showed a lot of skin. And her video views were—
“Wh…!?”
“What, did you see the price? Crazy, right?”
“She has the same character as me…!”
“What are you on about? Do you guys have the same attack or something?”
I covered my mouth with my hand and shivered in panic. I just couldn’t believe such a thing was possible…!
“Don’t you see, Kumai-kun…!? Our helmets!”
“Huh? …wait, are you for real right now?”
“But our helmets…!”
“Oh shut up”
On a thumbnail on her front page was a girl scantily clad with a deep red bikini armor. More importantly though was the bucket-like helmet that completely covered her head.
“I can’t believe this…this is unforgivable…!”
“More forgivable than your brain right now.”
“I mean, that’s my identity, you know. Bucket helm.”
“…sorry, I was about to deny that, but when I looked at your face, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
“You should still say it, hey.”
I said so as I glared at Kumai-kun. This was supposed to be the part in the bit where he said something like that’s not your whole identity.
“It’s just that you look better with your helmet on. Heck, I’d even say you look cool when wearing that.”
“I’m gonna hit you, old-face.”
“Listen, Kyotarou…the only people who hide their faces and get praised for revealing it later are good-looking men and women, you know.”
“And I have a background character’s face, I get it, damn it.”
There were 2 types of people in world: those who make others pleased by removing their full-face headwear and those who make other disappointed by doing the same thing.
I was in the latter group. But then again, if I had a good face, I wouldn’t even need to hide it, would I? Defensive purposes aside, of course.
“So, what is this incredibly crazy thing this person got?”
It must be said though, this woman had quite a sexy body…I didn’t really know how to put it. Maybe she was sexy in a realistic way?
Layla had a body that was pretty much what most men would consider ideal. It was too good it almost was from a manga to be honest. Whereas this Low-tier Knight person seemed to be a tad chubby. Like, she was a step or two away from being called fat. In that sense, realistic sexiness was indeed a good way of describing her. And an unkind one was a bikini model who was losing her charms.
“She got a high potion.”
“…what?”
“It’s not yet known exactly how much more potent it is than a regular potion, but it’s definitely an amazing potion.”
“Ohh…”
I didn’t even know such a thing existed.
Potions were not drinks made by any beverage makers but rather the kind that could previously only be found in games and manga. Drinking or sprinkling it on the injury would heal it right then and there. Provided that the wound in question were just grazes or bruises. It was also said to be able to make one recover from mild cases of the cold. Exactly like a magical medicine.
And this high potion was supposed to be the better version of it. Then, how much would one of those go for? A million yen?
“It’s worth 10 million.”
“Oh, it’s that much, huh?”
“That’s in US dollars, just so you know. An American pharmaceutical company bought it.”
“WHAT?”
My jaw just dropped. It was unbelievable.
Potions were certainly known to fetch high prices, but for that much…how much is 10 million dollars though? The show I watched this morning happened to mention that a single dollar was worth 130 yen, didn’t it?
“W-w-w-w-w-w-w-wait. How much is it in yen?”
“About 1.3 billion yen.”
“What! That’s incredible! I want that too!”
“Right?”
“Ah, sorry, I got carried away for a moment there…but it really is amazing, isn’t it?”
“Now you know why the class is like this.”
Yeah, more or less.
“Everyone’s wish to become adventurers, which died out due to our entrance exams, is lit up again, is it?”
“Something like that, I guess.”
The adventurer dream. It was hard to believe, but such a thing was part of our society now.
I moved to the images tab of my search results and saw images of the bucket-helm-wearing bikini-armor woman holding up a small bottle with a purple liquid in it. I could practically hear her screaming in celebration even though it was a still image.
“I wish I can get something as nice as that.”
“Seriously, yeah…”
1.3 billion yen was an unbelievably large amount of money. I had only heard of a person earning 100 million yen and that was on a TV show. How lucky did I need to be to have that kind of thing drop for me?
“But I guess it’s true that dungeons with a higher rank give better drops.”
“Yeah, I suppose so…”
I regretted answering like that without thinking. It would likely lead to that conversation we were dreading of having, after all. Kumai-kun wanted to say something and I could tell what it was.
“Say—”
“Morning…”
““Ahh!?””
Both Kumai-kun and I let out a scream. Uoyama-kun had appeared almost out of nowhere. Well, he probably walked toward us like normal, but we didn’t sense him do so at all…his presence was so faint. It felt like he could disappear on us at any moment.
With a face that made me want to ask if he pulled 3 all-nighters, he stood beside me.
“W-what’s wrong? You look terrible, man.”
“Are you sick?”
“…did you watch that video uploaded by Low-tier Knight?”
“I did.”
“Haven’t yet, but I know about it.”
“In that video, you see…tentacles appeared.”
“Tell me more.”
“Dude.”
Kumai-kun poked me in the ribs. Talk about excessive.
“That’s right…you’re into that too, aren’t you, Kyotaro…”
“Nah, dude. Just wanna hear about the girl in bikini armor getting entangled by tentacles.”
“Wow, you’re the worst.”
This kind of thing is normal for any high school boy! Besides, the girl was able to post the video so she must have gotten away safely enough.
“That’s the problem though…”
“Huh? What is?”
“I mean, isn’t it like being cuckolded…!?”
“Uhh, sorry but you’ve lost me.”
“It, it should have been me…! But instead, it’s another person who gets to be entangled by those tentacles…worse, after the experience they’ve shared, this person look every bit like they have cast aside those beloved tentacles…!”
“Oh no, Kumai-kun, my mind is zapping away memories I don’t want to remember!”
“What a coincidence, mine too.”
“Yet I’m turned on by it. I have to release all this pent-up…!”
“Hey, quit it, we’re in our classroom. Seriously, don’t you dare.”
I covered Uoyama-kun’s mouth to quiet him down. Fortunately, no one in class looked our way. Seriously though, that was dangerous. I mean, the school was a place that should be considered a sacred place of learning, not a place to be doing that kind of thing.
Show some restraint, man.
* * *
During lunch break, I sat in the corner of our classroom and watched the aforementioned video.
<<Hello, hello to the ladies and lords on the other side of the screen! It’s me, the Low-tier Knight who’s NOT a useless knight!!>>
<<And I’m the Guardian Spirit Noel!>>
A girl wearing a bucket helm plus bikini armor and a girl with drill hair were waving their hands on the screen.
Guardian Spirit? This person has one too, huh…
Noel introduced herself as a Guardian Spirit. She had blonde hair that curled like they were drills. Her eyes were of different colors: red and green. She had well-defined facial features. She was wearing a thin white fabric from the neck down and had a golden bikini armor over that. She had a body that wouldn’t lose against Layla’s and she was flaunting it as much as she could.
<<The one handling camera camera work is my Yuki Onna familiar, Chifuyu-chan!!>>
<<Peace.>>
The camera was turned around and showed a woman, or rather, a little girl clad in a distinct kimono staring almost coldly.
Her hair was a very light blue, but the rest of her—like her skin and her kimono—they were as white as snow. Did she just say Yuki Onna just now?
I had heard that some monsters could be turned into familiars through a “contract” of some kind. Also, Uoyama-kun’s superpowers apparently had the effect of enhancing the breadth and binding power of the contracts he could make.
While I was thinking about such things, the screen turned again and this time focused on the Low-tier Knight who now had her sword and shield ready.
<<Today, we’ll be exploring this C rank dungeon!>>
<<Clap clap clap yoohoo>>
<<Yehey>>
The girls celebrated somewhat artificially, but that was better than me whose face twitched upon hearing the rank of the dungeon.
C rank dungeons were presently the highest dungeon rank open to the public. Dungeons were broadly divided into 5 ranks. Each rank was assigned a letter from A to E, with A being the most difficult. However, only members of the JSDF were currently allowed to challenge dungeons of A and B rank. The reason was simple: monsters there were far too strong. Apparently, adventurers could also enter those dungeons as long as the state had given them permission, but those were the exceptions rather than the rule.
Dungeons were still so new to us. The only way so far that we had in determining the rank of a dungeon was by considering the strength of monsters that appeared in that dungeon. And the recommended dungeon rank for adventurers was simply the rank below the average of their stats.
This way, even if an adventurer went solo, they could still deal and even make short work of the monsters they encounter. A safety measure of sorts.
My point in saying all this was that it meant this Low-tier Knight had a stat average of at least B.
<<What kind of monsters show up here~?>>
<<Alraunes, Trolls, and Slimes>>
<<Khh, like I’m gonna lose to a Slime!!>>
She might have said that in a joking tone, but Slimes were a real threat.
Slimes were weak. In fact, they were assigned only a rank of E. Most Awakened Ones could make a Slime pop as long as they hit it seriously, and mages could do pretty much the same with a spell that was pretty much their jab. It was also slow, and the acid it had was pathetically weak.
Yet, despite how weak it was, Slimes also held the record for most adventurers slain. Over half of the confirmed cases of deaths and disappearances of adventurers from the last year were linked to them.
This monster was nearly transparent. That made it hard to notice when the monster had fallen into people’s heads. And once it had latched on tight to your face, holding on and removing them was hard, if not impossible. That put you at risk of suffocating to death, even if you had great stats. Worse, there was always the chance of being attacked by another monster while you were unable to make calm decisions like that.
As for how to deal with a Slime once it was on your head, you could smack it real hard that you could also hit your face. Magic targeting your face could work too. Either way, it wasn’t an easy thing to execute.
<<Anyway, our knight order’s exploration will start now! Go!>>
<<Yes, ma’am!>>
<<Ye-hey>>
The Low-tier Knight spearheaded their group as they ventured into a forest. The Guardian Spirit smiled, raised her fist, and followed along. The seemingly unenthusiastic Yuki Onna followed suit too.
It was like the start to a lewd anime. That said, this group was definitely strong.
They encountered Alraunes which were monsters that had the upper half of human women and had the rest of the body resemble that of a man-eating plant’s. With eyes like they were made of glass marbles, it was hard to tell where the monster was looking. Add in the smile it had on its face and it was enough to evoke visceral terror on almost everybody.
The party also ran into Trolls. Trolls being monsters that were easily more than 3 meters tall, their bodies shook and made the ground tremble as it approached the group. It had a fiendish face that suggested it traded brutality for intelligence. As for its weapon, it wielded logs as though they were clubs.
As for Slimes, slow-moving monsters that were like a bucket’s worth of water that had a will, it hanged on the branches of the trees. The Slimes only dropped down on the party when they were busy fighting other monsters, as though that was what the Slimes were waiting for all along.
But the party defeated them all. The Low-tier Knight’s sword easily cut down the Alraunes; the Guardian Spirit’s spear made of flames made the Trolls’ faces explode; and the Yuki Onna froze each Slime as they dropped down.
<<Ki-yaah>>
…but then, with an immensely monotonous squeal, the Low-tier Knight was captured by an Alraune’s tentacles. As the tentacles or rather the vines bound her limbs and head, it also pass through the gaps of her bikini armor. While she was suspended in mid-air with her legs spread and her arms stretched like she was being crucified, she let out yet another forced scream.
The vines seemed to be excreting paralytic toxins, which soon suggestively covered her body with stains.
<<Nnn, ahh, nooo! Don’t look~!>>
<<Alright, we’re gonna save you now.>>
<<Huh? Wait, a little more,>>
<<Any more than this and it’ll be unusable anyway>>
<<Alright, do itt!! Noeeeel! Shoot at me!!>>
And then, the Low-tier Knight so easily ripped off the vines around her. Almost at the same time, the Guardian Spirit mowed down the Alraune.
…she was really strong, the Low-tier Knight. Really made me wonder how much Strength and Endurance she had.
And it might be unrelated but I also wondered how this video wasn’t yet taken down. Like, didn’t it cross the line already? Were the platform management unsure due to the video’s views and whatnot?
But those thoughts aside, the scene I was waiting for was unfolding.
<<Ohh! A treasure chest! It’s a treasure chest, ladies and lords on the other side of the screen!>>
<<Is it not a Mimic?>>
<<I think it is.>>
<<Why would it be!?>>
<<With the Knight’s luck, yes…>>
<<You know, as I was on my way to the dungeon today, a crow dropped its poop on me, so I was startled and fell into a river…>>
<<So you’re saying your luck has been balanced! Then that really is a treasure chest! Let’s gooo!>>
With her guard totally down, the Low-tier Knight approached the chest and used her strength to smash the lock.
Well, given her Strength and Endurance, even a Mimic’s stinger can’t prick her.
<<Oh? Ohhhh?>>
<<What’s wrong, Low-tier Knight? Is it your hemorrhoids?>>
<<How many times have I told you not to put icicles into your butt>>
<<I didn’t! At least not yet! More importantly, look! Look at this!>>
The Low-tier Knight said so and raised something up. It was a small bottle that had a purple liquid inside.
<<There’s no doubt about it! It’s my first ever potion! I’ve been getting nothing but cheap stuff, but this one, I can sell for a decent amount! Yoohoo!>>
With her legs spread so apart it was unbecoming of a lady, the Low-tier Knight held the small bottle up.
<<This luck….an impostor is posing as the Knight!>>
<<I can’t believe there are others who dresses so foolishly like her…!>>
<<You girls are really rude, you know! But whatever! Let’s call it a day here! Thanks for watching, everyone. I hope you watch more of me, the Low-tier Knight! Well then, adios!>>
<<Sayonara>>
<<Bye>>
There was a text-only screen at the end that explained about the potion, but yeah, that was it for the video. After watching it, I sighed in my seat.
“That got me turned on.”
“Are you an idiot? This is a sacred place of learning, you know.”
Shut up, muscle girl fetishist. I just watched two women in bikini armor do things as their breasts, butts, and thighs jiggled on the screen, plus they got put into a risque position by those vines. Any healthy young man will find that arousing. I’m just really, really glad I’m sitting down right now…
“I see…like we suspected, you really were a tentacle lover too…”
“It’s not as you suspected because I am perfectly normal. Normal.”
“That’s right. Kyotarou’s a muscle girl lover like me.”
“I’m not that either.”
Don’t arbitrarily decide that I’m one of you. Please. Just please don’t. I probably won’t be into what you’re into, but in the off chance that I ended up like that, it would be a disaster for me.
“Anyway…magic items sure make a lot of money, huh…”
“Yeah…”
“Tentacles…”
The three of us altogether looked up at our classroom’s ceiling.
Even at this moment, talks about becoming an adventurer and hitting the jackpot was still the hot topic in our class.
* * *
We were given a large amount of math homework for the nonsensical reason that Golden Week was coming up. As I was going through it that night, the group chat with my friends showed a notification.
<<Should we break up our party?>>
The message was pretty much what I expected.
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
Also, please consider leaving some your thoughts, a review, and bookmark the title over at the narou site (https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7336ie/)
Your support is appreciated and I hope you continue doing so.
Q: Who is the Low-tier Knight?
A: She is a true Mob Bucket. Where Kyotarou’s helm is a flat top though, her bucket helm is the more modern kind in that its top is slightly conical.
Q: If a Guardian Spirit is what a person thinks to be their ideal partner, does that mean the Low-tier Knight is into girls?
A: There are cases where homosexuality is a factor, but in her case, it has more to do with a wish for a friend of the same sex who would accept her.
Q: How strong is the Low-tier Knight?
A: She is fairly strong. But she doesn’t have a stat average of A rank.
Q: If you could have familiars without Uoyama-kun’s superpower, doesn’t that make that aspect of his superpower worthless?
A: No. There are very few monsters that could be made into a familiar without those specific superpowers, meaning he could form a contract with monsters that other Awakened Ones aren’t able to.
TL note: Yuki Onna literally means Snow Woman. A very dumb way to describe them is “snowmen but as beautiful women”
As for “Low-tier Knight”, honestly, I’m not sure about her username especially her greeting. It’s a youtube-like greeting, so it’s supposed to be catchy. But I don’t know if I’m missing some kind of pun. As always, I’ll correct it once more context comes to light.
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