In this Second Chance at Life, where I can see skills as clear as day, everything feels like a breeze. And to make it even better, I’m spending my days joyfully with my First Love. - Chapter 44

One day, about a month after the start of the third term, Koumei approached me while I was sitting in my usual spot in the corner of the classroom, reading a book while using a magically enhanced chair to add resistance.

“Sashima-kun, the teacher is asking if you could attend the next exploration class,” he said.

“Oh, me too! I was told to pass the message from the big sister!” Saotome chimed in.

By “big sister,” she meant Ichika. For some reason, ever since that first day when Saotome tried to mess with me, she had become one of Ichika’s underlings—or little sisters, depending on how you looked at it.

Well, it was a good thing that Ichika was admired.

Still…

“Why is it that they’re asking you to tell me instead of coming directly to me?”

“True. In the second term, all communication for me came through Ichika anyway,” I added.

Saotome and Koumei exchanged awkward glances and laughed nervously.

“Well, Kobayashi-san does have a tendency to, you know, freeze the entire schoolyard now and then…”

“Not to mention, um… she’s kinda scary… uh, never mind.”

To be fair, Ichika is level 999. She doesn’t have an intimidation skill, but her sheer strength might naturally exude that kind of presence. Maybe the teacher found it easier to pass messages through Saotome instead of approaching Ichika directly.

“Why do they want me to attend this time?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s because they’re organizing a ‘Dungeon Exploration Training’ session, focusing on students with combat-oriented professions,” Koumei explained.

“Dungeon Exploration Training? You mean we’re actually going into a dungeon?” Ichika asked.

“…We’re still middle schoolers, right?”

“Well, the dungeon we’ll be exploring has been pre-checked and deemed safe by the JSDF, so it should be fine,” Koumei said.

I see. So that’s why they’re asking us.

Not that I have any particular issues with entering a dungeon.

To be honest, I’m much stronger now than when I fought the gecko-sized dragon, and I’m confident I could handle even lower-tier gods.

Frankly, enemies with levels below 300 couldn’t even scratch me or Ichika, no matter what they did. And if things got serious, I could probably wipe out any enemy with intimidation alone.

“What’s the team lineup?” I asked.

“Well, there will be other students from our class participating, but if you and Kobayashi-san join, it’ll be the four of us—you, Kobayashi-san, Saotome, and me. A JSDF officer will accompany us as well, for safety reasons,” Koumei explained.

A JSDF officer, huh? Well, that makes sense from a safety perspective.

“Y-yes, please! Big sister, I’m begging you! To be honest, I can’t trust the others in our class—they’re so unreliable!” Saotome wailed, clinging to Ichika dramatically.

“‘Unreliable,’ you say? That’s rich, coming from you,” I muttered.

“B-but… if I can’t team up with the two of you here, I…”

Saotome, on the verge of tears, clung to Ichika, pleading, “I’ll lick your shoes or whatever it takes, just please let me join you!”

I had no idea what had driven her to such a pitiful state, but it was a bit pathetic.

“I’d appreciate it too,” Koumei said with a curious gleam in his eyes. “I’ve never actually seen your abilities as a summoner, aside from intimidation. I’d love to see what you can really do.”

Ichika glanced at me, silently asking with her eyes, What do you want to do?

Honestly, I didn’t mind going into the dungeon. There wasn’t much benefit for me personally, but it was technically part of class. Plus, after the whole incident with the gecko-dragon, I’ve been curious about the dungeons that have been appearing worldwide.

It’s not a bad idea to think of it as volunteer work and just go along. I nodded at Ichika to signal my agreement.

“Well, if Yasushi-kun wants to go, I’ll go too,” Ichika said.

Then, leaning closer, she whispered, “But let’s be careful not to stand out too much. If we accidentally clear the dungeon, it’ll probably draw a lot of attention.”

Good point. Overdoing it might lead to us being roped into other dungeon investigations.

…Wait, would that actually be a bad thing?

I mean, I worked pretty hard in my past life to get through college, so I doubt I’d fall behind academically. Plus, I don’t dislike dungeon exploration.

Actually, if we got paid for it and had the chance to travel the country, that doesn’t sound bad at all. Exploring dungeons and traveling with Ichika? That sounds pretty fun, doesn’t it?

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but even if we don’t clear the dungeon, nothing changes—I still get to live with Ichika, and that’s perfectly fine too.

And so, our dungeon exploration training began.

My profession is Summoner, but honestly, when it comes to dealing with weak monsters, no creature can withstand my intimidation or magical pressure. Even my current summon, the gecko-sized Kanhebi, is a subspecies of a divine dragon.

If I wanted to, Kanhebi could reduce the entire Japanese archipelago to ashes with a single breath. Bringing it into a dungeon exploration like this would be complete overkill.

As for my other summons, like the Hermes Pigeon, which can handle barriers, healing, and communication—they’re useful but also designated as my personal guards. I don’t like showing their abilities to others unnecessarily.

For these reasons, I decided to capture a summon on-site.

Species: Hobbit Rabbit
Name: None
HP: 22/22
Strength: 37
Magic: 17
Agility: 54 ▲
Level: 2
Profession: Thief
Skills: Strength Boost Lv. 2, Agility Boost Lv. 4
Profession Skill: Steal

Hmm… It’s incredibly weak.

It’s a slightly oversized, bipedal rabbit, but its stats are unimpressive. Its strength and endurance are slightly below my dad’s, while its agility is about double.

It’s armed with a knife, which might make it dangerous for a regular person to fight, but compared to the goblins I’ve encountered before, this creature is much weaker.

Still, its weakness might actually work in my favor.

Because it’s so weak, I can better demonstrate my abilities as a summoner. Most of my current summons are so overwhelmingly strong that their mere presence could collapse the dungeon.

If this Hobbit Rabbit becomes my summon, its stats will benefit from my titles and skills, increasing all of them tenfold. It would even become stronger than Koumei.

This level of strength is just right. It’s useful enough without causing collateral damage.

With that, I put the newly summoned Hobbit Rabbit at the front line, assigning it to support Koumei, who was acting as our main attacker.

Since Saotome’s profession is supposedly “Ninja,” she stayed at mid-range, throwing shuriken. Ichika cast sustained healing magic on Koumei and Saotome before leisurely walking beside me.

To be fair, Ichika’s sheer amount of magical energy means that even with restraint, she could obliterate an entire floor of Kanhebi’s dungeon. Buffs cast by her tend to over-enhance, debuffs often outright kill enemies, and her regular healing magic risks causing over-healing, which might make someone’s body literally explode.

Compared to that, my efforts seemed minimal—I let the Hobbit Rabbit take the front while I essentially did nothing. The most I could justify doing was casting a weakened, sustained healing spell that consumed a significant portion of my magical energy.

Even with that, the magic’s effects would likely last for two weeks, instantly healing fractures or similar injuries.

Impressing the JSDF members accompanying us, we slowly made our way through three floors of the dungeon. By the time we finished, the training session was over.

For someone like me, whose previous dungeon explorations involved defeating the boss and even the extra boss in less than an hour while significantly boosting my stats, this felt like an utter waste of time.

I spent most of the time walking around, bored out of my mind.

Honestly, I don’t ever want to do this again.