Chapter 22: Another Tiger?
Haru was not entirely sure about the victory, the experience points were high and it had not been easy to defeat the tiger, but he felt that there was something.
"You noticed it too, didn’t you?" Mio asked.
"Explain it to me like I’m five years old."
"Even with you using the ability to deal more damage, the damage was much higher and it was easier to defeat the monster. Something happened, maybe someone came before us, but that doesn’t make much sense either. Since this monster can regenerate. What I noticed is that it is much weaker."
She was right, Haru realized that. Even if he was much stronger, the damage still would not have increased so much that he could inflict such clear wounds on the monster.
Hina started screaming, she pointed upward, another tiger was flying, the monster seemed to be sleeping in midair. Haru looked at the monster and then started thinking about what the monster they had just fought was like.
"That tiger didn’t have a spot on its tail, right?"
"I don’t know, actually, I don’t even know if the first tiger had the spot, and neither do I know if the one we killed had it. The one up there does, and what if the one up there is the one we fought first?" Hina asked. She was very confused.
Mio did not know how to answer. She remembered fighting a giant tiger, both tigers were similar, the only difference was the color of the tail, or maybe not.
"It’s better not to think about it, let’s retreat and come back another time, we’re tired and continuing to fight would only make things worse."
They left and, in the cafeteria, they kept thinking and debating about the tiger’s tail. Nobody had the time or opportunity to observe every detail of the monster’s body, nobody does that during a fight.
In a fight where one is fighting for one’s own life, many details are ignored.
Masaru was wearing armor that only protected his chest and fists. He entered the dungeon and, after a few minutes, returned. He handed a large crystal to the receptionist. Haru watched from a distance, he asked Mio for the tiger’s crystal. He observed the crystal, this crystal was much smaller than the one Masaru had given the receptionist.
"Your father just killed that tiger."
"How did you know?"
"I saw him entering the dungeon and he just came out and handed a large crystal to the receptionist."
"Then let’s go back and try to reach the eighth floor," Mio said as she stood up from her chair.
[System warning!]
[Bet!]
Haru ignored it and entered the dungeon, he took the opportunity to kill a few slimes, Mio collected the crystals and handed them to him.
"How many crystals are needed to keep the entire city running?" Hina asked.
"Thousands per day. One slime crystal can keep a house with up to four people running for a day, but if there are too many things turned on, one crystal isn’t enough, so the house of a video game addict who lives alone can easily consume two to three crystals per day. Each crystal has a certain amount of energy, stronger monsters have more energy. That’s why there’s no way to have an idea without being inside the power company."
"The dungeons aren’t connected to the normal electrical grid. A dungeon releases a fixed amount of energy, the entire guild takes advantage of this energy to keep everything running, in some cases consumption can exceed what is being generated, which is why guilds have their own system that uses monster crystals to generate electricity, but it’s inefficient for powering houses."
"I understand, that’s very specific."
"There is more, monsters from the regions outside the city have more energy, but those are harder to kill and the army tends to keep most of it. So, in a major crisis, the Empire would be able to solve the problem, that is if..." Mio paused. "Let this stay here, but the four great families are the true rulers of the Empire, this is something many people know, but few have the courage to say, so I believe that in a crisis this city would be left aside and this would be used to maintain power and even cause a war."
"How could this result in a war?" Hina asked.
"The city’s guilds belong to families connected to the Kazehara family, one could say that my family is a vassal family of theirs. However, there are the Himura, they are not connected to this family, they are with the Tsukishiro family, which is extremely bad, since Tsukishiro has much more money to waste, so the whole plan of buying more expensive crystals could be the beginning of a war. Except these two families could come out unharmed while the families below them could be hurt and even cease to exist."
"And why do you think the Emperor no longer has any governing power?"
"He is very old and none of his children have the same ability, it’s a matter of influence and strength, only if he can get more money and soldiers will he be able to fight the families."
"That makes sense," Haru said as he shot a goblin.
They continued and reached the seventh floor, the floor had only a few tigers.
"These tigers travel in packs, the others are hidden, so let’s be careful."
"What monsters are on the eighth floor?"
"You’ll see, but I’ll only say one thing, be very careful with them, because you could end up seriously injured," Mio said with a serious look.
The environment of the eighth floor was different, vast fields of grass, no bushes or trees existed in that place. The ground had a few small holes, Haru kept observing the environment, the cold wind blew and the hairs on his arm stood on end. And no monster was observed.
Everything was going very well, Haru lowered his guard, a small and very cute rabbit appeared, the rabbit had red eyes and a horn that reminded him of a unicorn’s horn, he had already seen an animal similar to that monster. ’Could it just be an animal?’ he thought.
Mio turned around and saw Haru crouching down to pet the rabbit. She screamed desperately for him to get away from the rabbit, Haru ignored her. The rabbit turned around and looked at Mio, the monster seemed curious about her reaction. Haru tried to touch it, the rabbit jumped and kicked him, Haru flew very far away.