“We’ve arrived at the fourth floor.”

“Yes… Aren’t you tired?”

“It’s okay.”

『Junkie-niki, you seriously ran to the fourth floor……!!』

“There’s no stat value for stamina, right? So that means it’s Junkie-Niki’s real stamina!”

“No, it’s the effect of HP. HP is not equal to stamina, but it is known that as HP increases, stamina also increases in tandem.”

“Oh, I see. Thanks for the explanation!”

　After about an hour and a half from the second floor, we finally arrived at the fourth floor.

　Along the way, I had been running away from monsters to save time, but as I reached the third floor, I was carrying Hinata on my back, and my base agility was not enough to get away, so I had to activate my 《Fighting Spirit》 several times.

　Besides, carrying another person on your back slows you down. It’s still morning, though.

“Takeo-kun, are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself? I don’t have any offensive magic skills yet, so I don’t think I’ll be much help in the battle on the fourth floor…”

“It’s fine. Hinata, you just need to heal my HP when it gets low.”

“…That’s complicated in itself, but it’s like being called useless.”

“No, no! I’m grateful that I can recover HP!”

　Hinata-san and I went deeper into the fourth floor.

　Soon after, I encountered four goblins: one swordsman, one warrior, one archer, and one mage.

“Then, Hinata-san, please follow me at least 10 meters away.”

　I said as I drew my sword and began fighting as usual.

　It would be troublesome if a stray bullet from a long-range attack were to fly towards Hinata. So, as always, she kicked the wall and jumped, slipping behind the leading warriors.

　And he quickly took out the mage and archer, but–

“Junkie bro!!! A warrior is coming towards Hinata-chan!!”

“What?!”

　When I turned around, for some reason, I saw a warrior running towards Hinata.

　I deflected the attack of the attacking swordsman, kicked him away, and then quickly turned towards the warrior.

　It looks like they won’t be able to catch up with the Warriors in time.

　I raised my sword on the spot and swung it back.

　–《Sword Spirit》

　The long sword was enveloped in a pale blue aura, and when he swung the sword in that state, a crescent-shaped aura slash flew out, as if the slash line drawn in the void had become a blade, slicing the warrior in half from behind.

The damage multiplier for the flying slash from “Sword Spirit” is written as 1x in the description, but that’s only if you use “Sword Spirit”. The multipliers for other skills are applied normally. In other words, with “Increased Damage When Equipped with Swords” and “Goblin Killer”, the damage is 4x.

　So, I guess I should say it was impressive that the Warrior was hit in one hit.

　Then I took care of the last remaining Swordsman and breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry, Hinata-san. I never thought you’d head that way…”

“No, if I’d been further away…”

“No, that was because Janki-niki didn’t gain the Warrior’s hate. If he had attacked just once, even if it was blocked, it wouldn’t have gone towards Hinata-chan.”

　As I was reflecting on my actions, a commentator in the comments section gave me some advice.

　I see, I nodded. Modern dungeons are not games, but they still have many game-like elements. One of them is the concept of “hate.”

　Monsters that appear in the dungeon choose who to attack based on the amount of hate they have accumulated, just like in a game.

　Since I’d been solo up until that point, it was completely out of my consciousness.

　Come to think of it, when I fought the Goblin Knight, he didn’t even look at Hinata-san and just attacked me. That might have been because I was earning hate.

“I see, I understand. Next time I’ll try to consider that.”

　So, on to the next monster.

　Next we encountered a group of five. I had Hinata stay away and had warriors and swordsmen attack the front line to gain hate, then we wiped them out like usual.

　This time, the monster did not head towards Hinata.

　However, because the front line held them back, the enemy’s attacks became more intense, and as a result, their attacks weakened. This prolonged the battle and increased the HP consumed by 《Fighting Spirit》.

　Well, even so, Hinata-san will heal me, so it’s not a problem, but… It’s not very efficient.

　There is a way to remedy this.

　It was a skill I hadn’t originally intended to take, but considering I was taking Hinata-san “there”, it would likely be a necessary skill.

　If Hinata-san won’t be joining in the attack, level 1 should be effective enough… I guess I’ll take it.

　With this secret resolve in mind, we continued fighting on the fourth floor.

　Although the battle took a little longer, it was still amazing to have a way to recover HP. There was no need to take a break to recover HP, and I could just keep fighting any enemies I encountered.

　I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can fight about 10 times in an hour.

　At this rate, Hinata’s MP won’t run out. For now, she only needs to recover two or three times an hour, and that amount of consumption can be covered by her natural MP recovery.

　We wandered around the fourth floor for about two hours, fighting a total of more than twenty times.

　Even though the experience points gained by forming a party are halved, you still get about 500 experience points per battle. So it was inevitable–

　–Your level has increased.

“Ngh, it’s sooo bad!!!!!!”

“Huh?!”

　I screamed.

　Hinata-san, beside me was shocked and gave me a look of genuine fear, but I continued shouting regardless.

　Because it feels good, I can’t help it.

　Jump jump!!

“Damn LOL that’s right LOL Junkie-Niki was seriously crazy LOL”

“Your voice is so loud!!”

“My eardrums are gone.”

“After seeing him as such a good-looking guy up until this point, I can’t comprehend his sudden ahegao face lol”

“Even when I look at it again, it’s still too crazy lol”

『Huh? I’m suddenly worried about Hinata-chan forming a party with Junkie-niki.』

　After a while.

“Phew… Hinata-san, it’s time we went back to the stairs and had lunch.”

“…………”

　For some reason, Hinata-san was frozen with a look of fear on her face, as if she had encountered a ghost.

“Don’t suddenly enter wise mode lol”

“He has a clean-cut face lol”

“His attitude has changed so much lol I’m starting to suspect he has multiple personalities lol”

“Hinata-san? What’s wrong?”

“……Yeah.”

“You’re the one who did something wrong!”

“Poor Hinata lol”

“This is a terrifying experience.”

　After a while, Hinata also began to relax as if releasing the tension from her body. Then she placed her hand on her chest and took a deep breath.

“Um, why did you scream…?”

　I asked fearfully.

“No, I just leveled up.”

“…………”

“Leveling up feels good, doesn’t it?”

“…………”

“Well, I guess I’m more sensitive than most people… but it feels good to you too, Hinata? When you level up.”

“…………That’s right.”

“Hinata-chan?!”

“Get a grip, Hinata-chan!”

　Hinata-san seemed to understand, so I called up the status screen and allocated points, then quickly acquired the skill I had decided on – 《Provoke》.

　Incidentally, this was originally in the “List of Acquirable Skills”. To be honest, I don’t know why it was there.

　I’ve rarely done anything to provoke someone, though…

　Judging from the order in which they’re listed, it seems that the conditions for obtaining it would be met around the time of the third year of high school entrance exams… Hmm, this is a mystery.

　Since I had planned to become an explorer from the beginning, the entrance exams didn’t matter to me, but I was sure I was cheering on my classmates, telling them “Do your best♡ Do your best♡” but…

　Anyway.

　I picked up the magic stones lying in the passage and urged Hinata-san along.

“Now, let’s go back to the stairs and rest.”

“…Yes, I understand, Samejima-san.”

“–Huh?”

　For some reason, I felt like the distance between me and Hinata seemed greater than when we first met.