Chapter 0173: Open the Door, Goliath
Because Hisako and Yunyun were present, Hayashi didn't do anything intimate with Erina—he just held her while sitting on the bed, reading a shoujo manga titled "Glass Slippers and the Glass Mask" together with her, and occasionally stroking her legs.
Very smooth, very soft, very elastic.
Absolutely wonderful.
"Phew—"
After finishing the volume, Erina let out a sigh, placed the manga back in her backpack, and said with some emotion, "I never knew Shuri-kun had such a past."
Shuri is the male lead of this manga. In front of others, he appears as an elegant, gentle, and omnipotent prince, but during his childhood, he was forced by his parents to study various subjects, continuing to play the piano even when his wrists were swollen.
"Haa—"
Hayashi let out a bored yawn, then rubbed his well-moisturized thighs and said, "Isn't this just a common trope in shoujo manga? First, create an omnipotent prince, then give him a tragic childhood to highlight his character through contrast."
"Crunch, crunch—"
Hisako swallowed the potato chips in her mouth, looked up, and said, "As expected of Young Master, you see right through it!"
Hayashi replied proudly, "Of course."
Hisako continued, "So, Young Master, when reading manga, you've definitely never been emotionally affected by the author using similar tactics, right?"
"…"
Hayashi fell silent for a few seconds, then buried his face in Erina's chest as she tried to hold back her laughter, wailing, "Wuwu, I have been affected!"
Hisako winked at Erina and feigned surprise, saying, "But Young Master, you clearly know this is just the author's usual method of character building! How could you still be affected?"
Hayashi nuzzled against the softness and grumbled, "Hisako, you're up to no good—so, so mean!"
Seeing that Hayashi understood her meaning, Hisako chuckled, then glanced at the clock and said, "Young Master, Miss, it's 2:30 PM now. Should we head to the dungeon for a try?"
"Ooh!"
Hayashi quickly lifted his head, his eyes sparkling as he said, "Yes, yes! This is a rare experience—how could we miss it?"
Erina also showed a hint of anticipation and said, "Then let's set off! To experience the dungeon environment?"
Yunyun quickly nodded, soft and adorable, saying, "I want to go too!"
"What are we waiting for?"
Hayashi jumped off the bed and said, "Let's go, let's go! We're heading out now! It's a good chance to earn some money to spend in Orario!"
After all, we can't keep spending Astraea's money forever, right? That would be way too much like freeloading!
...
...
Dungeon, First Floor.
"To be honest, I thought our assigned advisor would be Eina," Hayashi said disappointedly, stretching his shoulders. "But Misha is fine too—at least she's a girl."
All four of them were assigned Misha Flott as their advisor—Eina Tulle's best friend, the girl with short pink hair.
Erina adjusted the sheath at her waist and, without looking up, said, "It doesn't matter. All we need is the permit—barring any surprises, we probably won't have much to consult our advisor about."
"True," Hayashi nodded, bouncing in place. "I heard some news earlier—it seems the Floor Boss on the 17th Floor is respawning in the next couple of days. Should we go check it out?"
Hisako blinked and said, "So our goal today is to break through to the 18th Floor in one go and then come back?"
Yunyun timidly asked, "With only a little over two hours, will we have enough time?"
It was around 2:50 now, and they absolutely had to return to the Astrea Familia by about 5 o'clock—after all, dozens of mouths were waiting to be fed.
Hayashi chuckled and said, "Two hours should be more than enough, right? We can just plow through everything!"
Erina stretched lazily and said with a smile, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Let's go—" x4
The next moment, Hayashi and Erina dashed forward, while Hisako and Yunyun floated up from the ground, closely following behind them in the air.
"Yunyun, hold off on activating Elemental Surround for now—" Hayashi sensed Yunyun's movements through his Aura Power and spoke without turning his head. "Let us kill a few low-level monsters first and check the absorption status of Monster Hunter."
"Okay!"
Yunyun nodded, quickly hugging her staff back to her chest. She then ducked to avoid a nearby stone pillar and said, "I understand."
"Rua—"
The next moment, as the group turned a corner, a small goblin that had been waiting there for a long time let out a strange cry and lunged at Hayashi. But what greeted it was a fist rapidly enlarging before its eyes.
Before dying, the goblin glanced at the owner of the fist and sadly realized that he hadn't even bothered to look at it properly.
"Bam—"
The next moment, the goblin was turned into black ash by Hayashi, and the magic stone it dropped was grabbed by Yunyun using Mage Hand. She examined it curiously for a while and said, "This is so tiny—"
Erina said with a laugh, "Well, it's just a magic stone dropped by a first-floor monster! When we go deeper, the magic stones should be bigger."
"Oh!"
Yunyun nodded happily, storing the small magic stone in the backpack behind her. She hummed a light tune while collecting the magic stone dropped by the second goblin, which Hayashi had punched into oblivion.
"Looking at it this way, little Yunyun makes a pretty good supporter." Hayashi chuckled amusedly. While running in the direction indicated by the map, he teased, "No need to waste time picking up drops! Hmm, auto-loot is such a great feature!"
"Haha—"
Erina laughed too. She glanced at Yunyun, who was exclaiming "Wah wah wah" behind them, and said, "Be careful not to make Yunyun angry, or she might just hit you with a Sky Fall!"
"How could that be? Yunyun is a good girl!" Hayashi said seriously. "She wouldn't attack her own people, right?"
"Wuwu—"
Realizing she was being teased, Yunyun let out a pitiful whine and said indignantly, "Hayashi-nisan is a big meanie!"
Hisako quickly nodded and said, "On this point, I completely agree with Yunyun."
"Huh? How am I a meanie?"
Hayashi jumped down to the entrance of the second floor and replied innocently, "I'm a perfectly upstanding citizen, okay? I often drop coins when watching videos on Bilibili, and on websites, I often reply with 'OP, may you have a blessed life!'"
Erina, her face flushed red, said to Yunyun, "Yunyun, hit him with a Dragon Thunder! Teach him to spout nonsense again—"
Hayashi cried out in grievance, "When did I ever talk nonsense! I've always been an honest and reliable young gentleman, never lying—Hayashi Qiongqiong, okay?"
Hisako said with a hint of disdain, "Young master, you're a twenty-eight-year-old man using reduplicated words—it's disgusting!"
Hayashi: "???"
Seeing his expression full of question marks, the three girls immediately burst into laughter. "Hahahaha—"
You bastard!
...
...
Underground Floor, Seventeenth Level.
The only trouble the seventeenth level brought Hayashi's party was that there was no trouble at all.
Hayashi stood before the floor master's room, hands on his hips, and said with a relaxed expression, "To be honest, I think the dungeon could add a new feature."
Erina looked at her boyfriend and couldn't help asking, "What feature?"
Hayashi crossed his arms and said, "For example, if you can defeat the floor master of the 17th level within thirty seconds, you can choose to go directly to the entrance of the 18th level. Wouldn't that be much more convenient? Then we wouldn't need to run for over half an hour next time we come, right?"
Erina fell silent for a few seconds, then looked at Hisako and said, "Hisako, what should I do? I actually think what he said makes sense—have I broken?"
Hisako covered her face and said, "Miss Erina, to be honest, I also feel like what the young master said is quite reasonable. Maybe I've broken too."
Yunyun: "Actually, me too..."
Hayashi turned around with a face full of exasperation and said, "Hey, hey, hey! That's enough from you all! Hurry up and have Hisako give me a buff!"
"Luck Boost—"
After Hisako buffed Hayashi, she cheered him on: "Go, Young Master! Make sure not to bring your bad gacha luck in here!"
"!"
Hayashi, who had just been about to charge in, stumbled. He turned his head to glare at the three of them, who were now laughing uncontrollably, then grumbled as he walked toward the boss room.
"Damn it, is it my fault I don't get good pulls? Isn't it the gacha pool that's rigged?"
"Did I want to go 300 pulls without a five-star? That's what YLS wanted!"
"Did I aim to hit pity every time? That's Mihoyo's doing!"
"Failing a +12 Jade upgrade—was that my fault?"
"Ugh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!"
Hayashi's expression grew increasingly twisted. He cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone and shouted, "Goliath, open the door! If you dare be a Floor Boss, open the damn door! Open up, open up, open up! Goliath!!!"
Whether it was Hisako's buff taking effect or Hayashi's taunt working, the moment his voice faded, the ground trembled violently. A towering giant, dozens of meters tall, tore itself free from the wall and immediately locked its gaze onto Hayashi.
Staring at the imposing Goliath, Hayashi couldn't help but adopt the same expression as Kizaru. "Ooooh~ The Labyrinth's Solitary King~ How scary~"
"ROAR!!!"
Perhaps the Kizaru-style taunt was just too effective—the moment Hayashi finished speaking, Goliath charged toward him with thunderous footsteps, raising its massive fist high.