Shujinkou Janai! - CH 66

We were almost at the town of Frelia, when I looked back and squinted.

(Radd should have made it to the pedestal at the far end of the room by now.)

In the end, I regretted a little that I didn’t give Radd more advice.

I was originally planning to give him a little more advice, but when I tried looking at his direction even a bit……

[Nii-san, stop having your gaze loiter around.]

———My scary little sister would throw out her complaints, so it can’t be helped.

Well, Resilia herself knew that there was that guy who teaches well, and more than anything else, with Radd’s eagerness to improve, he would get stronger on his own.

Heck, it’s me who has to work even harder so that he doesn’t overtake me too soon.

[……Even so, that was a little surprising.]

As I was walking while thinking about such things, Resilia, who was walking next to me, calmly spoke.

[Surprising? What is?]

[That Nii-san would round up and leave the trial halfway through. If it’s Nii-san, I thought that even if you have to rush full speed on the way back, you would force yourself to make time to try the trial again.]

“”

I was wondering what kind of image she had of me to think like that, but well, I couldn’t exactly deny her words.

But for just this one time, her guess is quite off.

[I don’t have to do that. Errr……]

Looking around, I happened to catch sight of a group of alchemical materials, commonly called “Magic Flowers”, growing on a nearby hill.

It’s a good place to earn me some coins.

[Let’s take a small detour.]

Saying this, I ran toward the field of Magic Flowers.

If it had been the me in the past, I would have used <Rogue’s Eyes> to look for a harvesting point in advance, but I don’t even need to do that now.

As I step into the middle of the flower garden, I raise my left hand high in the air and declared.

[———-Harvest!]

Thereupon, white light floated up from various flowers and was absorbed into my left hand.

[Wha……]

The light that flew towards my left hand from all the harvesting points within a few meters radius around me, and in just a few seconds, was all the flowers that could be collected, absorbed into my inventory.

Ahh, incidentally, even if I were to uproot them, I wouldn’t have to worry, since they will grow back with the magical power of fantasy.

[W- What is that?]

[You can already guess what it is, right? It’s the effect of the <Treasure Hunter>’s Skill, <Expert Gatherer>.]

I said with a grin.

……Yes.

My current Class isn’t <Sword Saint> anymore.

I had Class Changed to <Treasure Hunter>.

[Don’t tell me……]

It seems that Resilia had also realized it.

[In that case, Nii-san! You already went to that temple and completed the trial beforehand!]

[Eh……?]

Receiving an answer that I didn’t expect, I hurriedly explained it to Resilia, who had been awkwardly looking at me.

[No, that isn’t it! I became a <Treasure Hunter> during that challenge before we left.]

[But at that time, you fell in the middle of the <Final Trial>, didn’t you?]

[No. At that time, I did go to the far end…… No, I had touched the end goal of the trial.]

As it seemed like Resilia still doesn’t have a clear idea of what I’m talking about, I asked her a question.

[Do you remember the text that was written in front of the door of the <Final Trial>, Resilia?]

[As I recall, it reads “Show your Courage, Offer to me the Perfect Key”.]

[Correct. Then, what was our purpose for going there in the first place?]

[That is, to get the <Treasure Hunter> Class, right?]

She was looking at me with a gaze that seemed to ask if I’m making a fool of her or not, but I didn’t get discouraged and asked her just one more question.

[Then, how do you usually get a new Class?]

[If you find the “Heroic Statue” of the Class you want to become, you touch the statue, and when you meet the requirements, your body will light up…… Ahh, I see.]

Resilia’s voice changed from doubt to understanding halfway through her words.

[—————The stone statue that appeared in the <Final Trial>, the only statue in that place holding a spear and a sword, has the likeness of a Hero. In other words, that was the <Treasure Hunter Statue>.]

I nodded in agreement with Resilia’s words of understanding.

The sword-spear dual wielding is a characteristic of the <Treasure Hunter> before his death.

If you had some information about the <Treasure Hunter> Hero, seeing that statue would have given you a big clue.

[Even if you don’t know anything about him, you would find out about the statue’s name when you try to use <Inspect> on it. Ah, by the way, that’s also the reason why the last statue is the only one that doesn’t have 1 STR.]

The Status of a Class Change Statue has the “ability values required to change to that Class”.

And so, while the statues that appeared in the previous trials were extreme opponents with 1 ATK and 999 DEF, while only the last statue has a Status within common sense.

And once you know about that, there’s nothing difficult about it then.

[Then, the words “Show your Courage, Offer to me the Perfect Key” is……]

[Yeah. The last thing you need to do is to approach the <Treasure Hunter Statue> that falls in the middle of the trial and touch it with your hand holding the magatama.]

The last time I used the <Thunderclap Palm Strike> against the statue, I wasn’t trying to knock it back and send it down the abyss.

I was just thinking it would be best to use that skill to get my right hand holding the magatama to touch the stone statue the quickest.

……Well, I haven’t really thought about what would happen after I touched it, which is why I fell right after I accomplished my goal in the trial.

But there, Resilia furrowed her brow, seemingly having thought of something.

[However, please wait. If that’s the case, then what about that pedestal at the far end of the room? Wasn’t there a pedestal at the end of the Dragon’s Path?]

That is certainly the most tricky point of that trial.

However, that too can be understood if you observed the pedestal properly.

[That pedestal is different in design from the pedestals placed at the goal of the previous trials. It’s just, that isn’t the only thing that is unlike the other trials.]

[What do you mean?]

[There’s that, you know? Dozens of designs were in place in both the <First Trial> and <Second Trial>. There are those pedestals where the stone statue is placed on both sides of the passage of the trials.]

And since there’s no way to be sure, this would just be my guess, but I’m sure that when the door to the <Final Trial> is closed, that <Treasure Hunter Statue> would just be standing properly at the “end of the Dragon’s Path”…… That is, on the pedestal at the far end of the room, waiting for the challenger.

Then, when it sees that the <Second Trial> has been cleared, it would hastily hide behind the ceiling with magic and wait in standby, which makes me think of the statue as some sort of moe character waiting for that person to clear its trial.

[……Well, there are other minor hints here and there, but that’s about it with the trials’ tricks.]

After hearing all my explanations, Resilia loudly sighed.

[That is…… is quite nasty.]

She said with a frown.

[It’s a trial created by a <Treasure Hunter>. That’s just the way it is.]

Upon my words, Resilia shook her head.

[The trial certainly is, but I’m also referring to Nii-san. Did you think it’s alright not to tell Radd about this?]

[Well, I was on the fence about whether I should tell him about this or not.]

When Radd pressed me to see if I wasn’t frustrated, for a moment, I thought of answering honestly that “I’ve already completed the trial”.

But in the end, I decided not to say it.

[I’ve already given him enough clues, and it’s better for him if he were to solve something like that himself. Besides———]

[Besides?]

At the quizzical look Resilia has on her face, I put on a 100% pure smile……

“”

[————-I spent two hours trying to solve that riddle when I saw it for the first time. I would be frustrated if he were to solve it that easily!]

I blurted out my true thoughts.

Incidentally, after that……

Radd, whose linguistic capabilities lagged because of anger, stormed into my room, shouting “You b*stard! You b*stard!!!”, twelve hours after we left him at that temple.