No Need For A Core?
280: A Messy Situation

When Hajime rejoined his group to delve the river zone, he discovered that Betty had been recognized and that the rumor mill had been doing its job. The rest of the party amused themselves by ribbing him, especially their goblin alchemist and healer. She thought it was hilarious.

After their second encounter on the river, the humor had died down. "Are you sure you showed her a good time?" The healer asked dryly. "That was a pretty large group for creatures that tough."

Hajime sighed and said, "That's not it. Or at least, not the way you're thinking. The Nexus's attention has swung our way, which means that they can fine-tune the encounters to be closer to our strength, rather than just using a standard setup. As for why, I think it's the opposite problem; harder fights mean more effort and struggle, and thus more rewards. These are just hard enough to be favoritism from the dungeon."

Which was not what he wanted right now. At least it seemed to be Kazue focusing on them; if it were Mordecai, Hajime suspected the encounter would have been more finely tuned. It also made more sense socially as the sort of conspiracy two women would enact to be beneficent while simultaneously giving a guy a hard time.

The rest of the trip down the river was just as hard, and the boss fight even harder, but compared to the mushroom forest it was also mercifully short. Another seal cracked during that fight too, which concerned Hajime. With two having cracked when he was reaching for more endurance and stamina, he should have had enough strength to not need to crack another seal in the river zone.

He was worried that there could be a bit of a feedback cycle, with the spiritual nexus pushing harder as he grew effectively stronger at a much faster rate than his companions could. However, there were only two more zones to go, so hopefully it wouldn't be an issue.

Hajime's worries were set aside when Betty arrived soon after he'd gotten a room. This time, she wasn't here for the same sort of play as last night, given that she had a baby with her. He found himself happily entranced by little Boril as the baby usagisune grasped at his fingers. It had been a while since he'd spent much time around a baby.

"So," he said to Betty while he played with Boril, "I take it you asked for some special treatment to be aimed my way?" Hajime shot her a brief grin before turning his attention back to the baby boy. "That's right, your mama decided to mess with me as a game, yes she did."

Betty chuckled and said, "Yes, I thought it might be interesting to see you pushed a little more, and yes, I know that means you get more rewards. Kazue was happy to indulge me in this." She watched him for a few moments before saying, "As I understand it, there are many men who would be asking certain questions by now."

"Hmm?" Hajime said as he worked out what she meant. "Oh, no, if you wanted to talk about his father, you'd let me know one way or another. As for us, I am aware of our situation. Your future is bound here, my future is elsewhere. Which, well, I am hoping we can spend some of the time until I leave getting to know each other better, despite knowing that it might make things more bittersweet when I do leave."

She smiled and nodded. "Good, that was the sort of response I was hoping for. I needed to be sure we were clear on that before I made my offer." Betty's tone was teasing as she said, "You have two more zones to go; if you clear the ocean zone, I might just be willing to see about getting some time freed up to be your very personal attendant for all things at the onsen, with some bonus services not usually offered."

Now wasn't that an intriguing offer, but before he could respond, she raised a finger. "I cannot promise what will be happening with delvers at that time, given how many are here for the competition, so I may not be available, or not available for long. If I am not able to join you at the onsen, I will see if another is willing to take my place. If not, at the least I will have a message sent so that you know to take advantage of the normal services of the onsen. If you do not mind."

Hajime took a moment to respond; that was rather generous even given their circumstances. When he'd gathered his thoughts, he said, "I would prefer your company, but if it comes to it, I think deferring to your judgment would be best." He smiled and shrugged. "Curiosity certainly has an influence here, but finding a bed partner is not my priority at the moment, and I won't hold you to that alternative if you change your mind. Though I have to say, this isn't the sort of offer I would expect from most, even in such casual circumstances."

Betty laughed softly and said, "I have gotten the impression that we are more open than many of the cultures of the outside world. Well, we may have some particular influences there, with Lady Kazue and Lady Moriko. While Lord Mordecai is certainly open-minded, my understanding of the Azeria clan's culture is that they are particularly generous with sharing, and Lady Moriko is very passionate and uninhibited. Plus we have had many visitors from the clan as examples. But I do need to go and get Boril settled in with a friend before I take care of my duties for the evening."

She left him with a kiss that certainly had him wishing she could stay the night, and it made the prospect of a lonely bed less appealing. However, seeking out other company felt different than the idea of company Betty might send his way, and a bit rude. Possibly rude to any company he might find as well, given that Betty would still be on his mind. So a lonely bed it was.

The next day it was time to fight their way across the wetlands, which was something of a pain. The mix of hard hitters, flying skirmishers, curse-inflicting wolf-like creatures, and swarms of tiny ranged ambushers made it impossible to predict what was going to happen in the next few moments.

When someone mentioned that the little black squirrels were called shade tails, Hajime choked on a laugh. He was pretty certain he knew whom to blame for that play on words and their origins. As for the strange crabbit creatures with their eerie but musical screams, he mostly wondered how Mordecai's wives put up with him. Hajime had never seen anything quite like them, yet found their existence somehow not surprising.

It was clear that their measure had been taken when the dragon they faced at the end was supported by several feathered serpents and swamp drakes. A glance at the dragon confirmed that it was a true dragon, if a young one; he recognized it as being a brine dragon, though there was something a little off about it.

Mordecai's special addition became apparent the first time the dragon launched an electric spell that caught Hajime and one of his companions in an arc. The bastard had added electricity to a saltwater dragon. It was the sort of inspired creativity that made Hajime want to strangle him, and the burn trails on his skin and clothes didn't help.

But the dragon wasn't Hajime's first concern for his part of the fight. His fighting style was much more suitable for dealing with the swamp drakes while their mage and an archer took on the feathered serpents. The other four focused on battling the dragon while the support was dealt with.

When Hajime was done dancing with the swamp drakes, he was limping a little and had used up most of his powders. His modified fighting style wasn't very suitable for fighting a dragon either, and he wasn't ready to make a reveal yet, leaving him in a difficult position in figuring out how to contribute to the fight. But he had been making good use of the rewards collected so far, and had done some trading back at the town.

Enhanced jumps weren't as good as flight, but once he'd tossed down a healing potion to take care of his limp, it was time to use some one-shot tokens to get himself airborne.

The first jump let him barely clip a horn, startling the dragon, but when he used a second token Hajime managed to land on the dragon's back and grab onto the edge of a wing. Shaking him off would have been easy if the dragon didn't have other attacks to contend with and it didn't take long for it to decide it didn't like having Hajime working his rapier under a scale.

So the dragon dove back down into the water, and Hajime leapt free to hit the muddy ground in a roll. After that, it became a skirmishing fight between the party and the dragon, which mostly favored the dragon given its ability to dive in and out of the pools, but they also had access to various healing resources.

Hajime hadn't intended to use so many healing potions, and one more seal cracked open during the fight when he pushed enough power into a thrust to pierce one of the dragon's scales. His blade didn't bite very deep, but it wasn't long after that the dragon disappeared under the water one final time, surfacing at the far end of the combat area in his human form.

Let's see, according to what Hajime had learned, being male meant that this dragon was Nezha; Ysi would be his mate.

The slightly ragged-looking figure bowed to them with a tired smile. "Well fought, the battle is yours. Oh look, all the loot that I have been hoarding, as dragons do, is ever so conveniently collected in that chest over yonder."

Having the boss concede instead of fighting to the end technically earned them very slightly lowered rewards, but Hajime was fine with that. It felt more civil this way and was a change from normal dungeon interactions that he rather approved of.

The little touches of story telling and dramatic acting he was less certain of. It was a little weird, and from what he'd heard it was much more pronounced on the alternative path.

When they had gathered themselves together and sorted through the chest that had appeared when Nezha had conceded his defeat, Hajime said "I vote that we take a few days at the next town, I want to prepare for the final zone and it's going to take me some time to resupply fully."

The others were of similar thoughts and they still had plenty of time before the preliminaries began. Which was good, because Hajime hadn't really taken in that this was going to be a fully underwater trip; there had been only a few people who had gotten this far when he had started this delve, and information had been scarce.

It took a few trips into the start of the path to ensure that he had his mixture right for the best performance in an airy water environment. He was also adjusting their power by adding a little touch from his real version that these powders mimicked.

The cloak was going to simply take experience in fighting with it underwater to adjust to its different behaviors.

Hajime also took the time to learn the stories that were being told around the town. It was obvious that most of them were seeded tales meant to create excitement and adventure, and he had to admit that it was a little tempting to indulge in pursuing one of them, but for the purpose of reaching the tournament their group needed to stay focused on the simpler story that led them straight across to the seemingly volcanic isle.

There was an additional benefit to taking a few days to prepare; late into the second evening he had a visitor, and did not get much sleep that night. But his mood and morale were much better after that.