Otherworld Company Chapter 85: When You Set A Goal, There Are Things You Suddenly Can See

Jiro Tanaka: 28 years old – Has Girlfriends

Girlfriend(s): Suela Handelberg & Memoria Tris

Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Regular Employee)

Magical Aptitude: Eight (General Class)

Yesterday’s mock battle with Suela gave me an idea of the direction I should aim for.

I saw that I had no choice but to do it.

I set off on what I should do right away.

“Senior.” (Kaido)

“Huh? What?” (Jiro)

“Senior, you’re usually so grounded, but sometimes you turn out to be an idiot, don’t you?” (Kaido)

I was called an idiot by a kouhai I brought along because he said he was free.

“OK, if you want a fight, I’ll bite.” (Jiro)

“Wait! I’m sure anyone would think so if they saw you looking like that! I wonder what you’re doing. Ugh… In the first place, it’s not strange to think you’re training while holding a massive thing. What else will I think?” (Kaido)

“It’s not a weight, it’s an anchor. I tried it and I found that I could do it, that’s all.” (Jiro)

“Wow, it really is a fantasy with fantasy tropes, huh?” (Kaido)

Instead of lowering the anchor to the ground and taking a break, I swung it sideways generating a strong wind, and placed it on my shoulder to carry.

Well, as Kaido said, I wonder how many people on this earth would think of training with such a thing.

If I were to say what I lack, I would have to say that I lack everything.

Starting with strength, there is no shortage of skills and knowledge that I lack.

I have been thinking about how I can make up for what I lack.

However, I realized that the idea of making up for what I lacked was passive.

I switched my mindset to mastering rather than adding more.

Next, what should I master?

Master everything.

If I were so talented that I could speak out such big words, I wouldn’t have had any worries in the first place.

I can’t shake what I don’t have.

That is why I am specialized.

In the Jigen Ryu school of martial arts, there is a school of thought called “Unyou no Tachi”. [T/N: Un’you no Tachi/雲耀の太刀 a typical training method is where swordsmen slash at a yuzu trunk left and right over and over until they do it so fast the trunk starts smoking. This is according to Japanese Wiki-sensei.]

It teaches that even if the difference as small as a hair, I must swing first.

Following this teaching, I followed their example.

Just a moment ago, I was swinging the anchor of a ship that weighed more than a ton and something that humans originally couldn’t even carry. I do this in order to master the ability to swing down and make every slash fatal.

Then, when my breathing was settled, I muttered in my mind that the break was over and resumed my practice swing. [T/N: Jiro is walking along the path of a muscle brain.]

“I mean, Senior, you’ve been doing this for about two hours now, but do you think you’ll have enough energy to enter the dungeon in the afternoon?” (Kaido)

“No problem.” (Jiro) [T/N: Spoken like a true muscle brain.]

Of course, it’s not something that I can master overnight, and I also have to learn how to use my feet and how to make my swordsmanship more efficient.

However, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and if I don’t try, nothing will ever begin.

If I can see the path to perfection, there is no reason why you should not aim for it.

In addition to this, if I can make a contract with a spirit that can strengthen my body, I believe that this combination would be quite dangerous.

I will step from outside of a gap at an imperceptible speed and use a well-honed blow to split a bamboo stick.

This is my ultimate goal.

“Why don’t you train for a while too?” (Jiro)

Wielding more weight than the Mineral Tree means I have to pay attention to the balance of my whole body.

It’s easy to say that it’s easy to swing down and follow a straight line and swing back up following the same path, but it was harder than I imagined.

I could take on the afternoon dungeon without any problem due to physical strength distribution.

I don’t know if I can call it proof of this, but I can afford to have a conversation even while swinging around something weighing more than a ton.

Well, to put it another way, I can’t do much more than that.

“No, you can’t ask me to do that.” (Kaido)

“I heard that succubus like people with well-trained bodies.” (Jiro)

“Senior, I’ll do it, too. Can you get me something a little lighter?” (Kaido)

“You’ve turned into a cash cow.” (Jiro)

However, it is also difficult to concentrate on monotonous training like this, just repeatedly swinging.

If someone tells you to do it seriously, you can understand that is all there is to it, but even if you become better than before you will still be bored.

If this were being done by me alone, I would just do it in silence, but fortunately, I am not alone, so I will ask Kaido to keep me company to pass the boredom.

So, I told him what I had heard from Memoria, and he took off his jacket and started swinging with me, just as I had hoped.

After spending the morning and eating lunch as planned, we entered the dungeon for the first time in I don’t know how many times.

“M-my sword is too light. It feels strange.” (Kaido)

“You’ll get used to it.” (Jiro)

This kind of honesty is hard to hate.

As the saying goes, “Even a pig climbs a tree when it is coaxed.” Kaido, who was humming and skipping happily, felt uncomfortable as he pulled his sword out of its scabbard.

It couldn’t be helped.

After all, he had been wielding a sword more than five times as heavy as the one he was holding just now.

It was inevitable that he would feel a little discomfort or two.

And I wonder if he has noticed the other feeling of discomfort as well.

“Kaido, have you noticed?” (Jiro)

“… it’s not here.” (Kaido)

“Yeah, it’s too quiet.” (Jiro)

Normally, we would be at a point where it wouldn’t be strange to make contact with monsters and fight two or three times, but we haven’t been able to find a single insect for quite some time.

The overgrown forest just creates an eerie silence.

““…”” (Jiro & Kaido)

“Hey, Kaido.” (Jiro)

“What is it, Senior?” (Kaido)

“…I have a bad feeling about this.” (Jiro)

“Me too.” (Kaido)

The unusual atmosphere gave me a strange sense of déjà vu, and I looked around to secure a way out.

If you listen carefully, you can also hear the sound of fighting in the distance.

“…is there a fight?” (Kaido)

“Is it another tester?” (Jiro)

It is no surprise that there are other testers in the dungeon beside us.

It’s just that it’s our job and our schedules happen to overlap.

The quietness of the dungeon is not surprising when you consider that these testers attracted the entire enemy.

But my intuition tells me otherwise.

“Senior, isn’t the sound getting closer and closer?” (Kaido)

“Maybe so, but with such poor visibility, it’s hard to see what’s going on.” (Jiro)

I wanted to climb up to the top of the tree to see what was going on, but all the trees were of similar height, so I couldn’t do that either.

We had no choice but to check the direction of the sound while keeping an eye on our surroundings.

After a few hundred meters, we arrived at a high point from where we could look down from here.

““……”” (Jiro & Kaido)

We had to be silent.

A black shadow.

It was preying on the monsters in the dungeon.

It swallows Army Ants whole from the head devouring them.

Of course, the other dungeon monsters are also attacking the shadow, but it seems that the physical damage doesn’t affect it, and it pushes forward receiving the attack, and this time a mantis, which should be the predator, was being devoured instead.

And the shadow increases in volume.

I wondered if such a thing existed in the dungeon, but the only conclusion I could come to was that an abnormal situation had arisen.

It is nothing but an anomaly that demons in a dungeon that is meant to be defended begin to cannibalize each other.

“…!” (Jiro)

I tapped Kaido on the shoulder and urged him to retreat.

Kaido was so shocked by the scene that he almost screamed in surprise, but I was able to keep him from screaming by covering his mouth.

I showed my intention to withdraw with a glance and a hand sign, and Kaido silently nodded his head.

Before withdrawing, I took out my camera to take a picture for my report.

But as if reacting to my gesture, the shadow stopped moving for a moment, and then turned to face me, as if it knew where I was.

Perhaps it has preyed on various creatures.

The shadow, which is disastrous and without a definite shape, is made up of such predators and forms its body.

I understood this the moment I faced it.

And I also knew what this shadow’s staple food was.

It has no eyes, but its eyes meet mine.

No, this guy is sensing me.

“Run Kaido!” (Jiro)

“!?” (Kaido)

Perhaps my voice was a signal, or perhaps the other party had originally planned to jump on us, but as we turned and began to run, the shadow sprouted multiple legs and began to run as well.

“What is that!?” (Kaido)

“I don’t know! All I know is that is not an official monster in this dungeon. And if we get caught, it’ll be able to get away!” (Jiro)

“Hii!” (Kaido)

I made a quick decision to avoid the battle, and it was the right one.

The opponent’s ability was unknown and we are in a geographically disadvantageous place to fight.

Just by playing tag like this, I was able to gain a little bit of information.

It was fortunate that we were in a forest that we were used to, as we had been trying to conquer it for some time now.

By running through the trees and flying around, we could gain speed, so we did not have to worry about being caught immediately.

However, it is also true that it is difficult to escape because of the high ability of the opponent.

A quick glance behind us showed that the distance between us and the enemy remained the same, and it was still running behind us.

The shadow was using its irregular shape to avoid obstacles and its soft body to chase us.

Worst of all, it was perceiving us with something other than the five senses.

As proof of this, even when we thought we had been completely obscured by the trees for a moment, the shadow followed us without hesitating.

At first, we thought it was our sense of smell, but we were downwind and our foothold was never on the ground.

We were moving through the trees as well, so the scent would be dispersed. It would not be easy for it to follow us by scent.

Above all, there are no eyes to see, no ears to hear, and no nose to smell.

I wonder what kind of sensation there is in the shifting, wriggling, coal tar-like mass of shadows.

“…Is it chasing us through magic?” (Jiro)

The answer comes easily to me.

If that’s the case, it could be pretty bad.

If I’m right, this body of magical power may be rendered utterly useless.

Predation means that there is something to feed on.

And that shadow preyed on Soul, which is a mass of magical power.

If they are defeated, they become mere magic power.

They may be full of magic power, but their bellies will not swell.

This fact leads us to believe that their goal is not to fill their bellies but to gain magical power.

And this body is currently being supplemented with a considerable density of magical power.

“Oh man, that means we’re pretty tasty prey.” (Jiro)

“What do you mean!?” (Kaido)

A thought came to me, even if it was unintentional, I was hit with thought that it is similar to dangling a well-fed, high-quality meat in front of a beast that had only been eating cheap gross meat.

No matter how many emergency escape functions are equipped in this body, there would be no escape if everything is devoured.

Once I entered its mouth and chewed up, I will be eaten and digested as it is.

And the digested contents include the data of my soul.

It’s the worst opponent I’ve ever had to deal with.

“It has a staple food that is most likely magic. It will go for high-purity magic. I mean, who has the most magic power among all the monsters around here?” (Jiro)

“You mean us!?” (Kaido)

“That’s right.” (Jiro)

We probably didn’t see any monsters because they preyed on the monsters all over the area.

Thanks to that, we ran into a nasty one that jumped out of the bushes before we could get back to the bushes.

But we couldn’t just keep running away.

“Kaido, can you try to hold it back with magic?” (Jiro)

“I’ll give it a try, but I don’t think we can count on it if you’re right Senior.” (Kaido)

“If it doesn’t work, it’s back to the original plan.” (Jiro)

“Roger.” (Kaido)

Saying that Kaido used the quick air time to fire a fireball at the shadow, but as expected, the fireball was swallowed by the shadow.

“Woah, I knew it.” (Kaido)

“Was it eaten?” (Jiro)

It seems that spells, which are a mass of magical power, are nothing more than a meal to it.

Then, physical damage would be a good idea.

The anchor that I used in the morning was something I wished half-jokingly to be on hand, but unfortunately, it was not at hand.

In that case…

“Huh! Ha!!” (Jiro)

I sliced one of the trees in front of me with the Mineral Tree and then sent it flying in front of it with a kick.

I quickly put the Mineral Tree behind my back, grabbed a tree as big as my waist with my free hand, and threw it at my opponent.

“Taaaaaake thissss!!!” (Jiro)

My body, which had just been wielding a massively heavy object, took full advantage of its performance and gave the thrown tree a velocity equivalent to a professional baseball player’s straight pass.

I will never say a catchphrase even as I did this.

After I finished throwing, I started to run away without losing my momentum.

“How’s it looking!?” (Jiro)

“It’s eating everything! It just seems to take a while for it to swallow and absorb.” (Kaido)

“It’s better than magic, I guess?” (Jiro)

According to Kaido’s observation, who was watching the progress, a certain amount of damage would go through if it was a physical attack especially if it wasn’t a mass of magic power.

If that is the case, there is a chance.

“Fine, do you want to try killing it?” (Jiro)

“Are you serious!?” (Kaido)

I don’t have all the information, but I have the bare minimum.

As for our escape, we can try to stand and face it.

Kaido, teary-eyed at my actions, is also ready to take a stand.

Now, let us challenge it.

Jiro Tanaka: 28 years old – Has Girlfriends

Girlfriend(s): Suela Handelberg (Dark Elf) & Memoria Tris (Vampire)

Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Regular Employee)

Magical Aptitude: Eight (General Class)

Job Title: Warrior

Note for the Day

There is a difference in efficiency between setting a goal and not setting a goal.

A/N: That is all for this time.

For now, let’s strengthen the physical-type warrior by tossing them something like a variant of a slime that they seem to have a disadvantage!

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