Kousuke and his party, now joined by Arisa and her two companions, immediately headed for the 41st Floor.
Up until the point of aiming for the 42nd Floor, things proceeded as before.
This consisted of investigating the route to the teleportation gate and the surrounding monsters.
It was a happy, albeit unexpected, development that having Arisa and her group present led to more investigations from different viewpoints compared to their progress up to the 41st Floor.
At the very least, the results were more realistic than those based solely on Kousuke’s party’s perspectives.
Kousuke’s viewpoint, with the combat capabilities of two “cheat” individuals as the benchmark, inevitably had its shortcomings.
While engaged in such activities, Kousuke’s party arrived at the teleportation gate leading to the 42nd Floor.
The first thing to check was whether the attained floor displayed on Arisa and her companions’ cards would update.
Incidentally, upon arriving at the 41st Floor, their cards were in their initial state, meaning only the 1st Floor was displayed.
They needed to confirm if this would be reflected on their cards when they proceeded to the 42nd Floor.
To conclude, after passing through the teleportation gate leading to the 42nd Floor, the cards’ attained floor counts were indeed updated.
It was confirmed that the cards would update as soon as they passed through a teleportation gate to an upper floor, which advanced their progress by one floor.
The next thing to check would be what happens if they proceed from the 45th Floor to the 46th Floor, with their cards currently displaying the 42nd Floor.
If the cards were simply updated only when passing through teleportation gates within the tower, then they should be updated to the 46th Floor.
However, this would be different if there were shortcuts for every five floors.
It had already been confirmed that with those shortcuts, the cards would not be updated.
“With this, I suppose the confirmations involving Cecil and Arisa are finished for now?” Kousuke said, checking Cecil and Arisa’s cards.
“Understood. Then, the next thing we will confirm is at the 45th Floor?” Cecil asked for confirmation from Kousuke.
“That’s right. Could you two wait a bit and refrain from clearing floors above the 43rd?”
“Certainly. We will conduct investigations on the lower floors until Kousuke-sama and the others clear them.”
“Ah, that’s right. That might be good too. Well, I don’t think it will take too long to reach the 45th Floor.”
Upon hearing Kousuke’s words, the three individuals, excluding Mitsuki, gave a wry smile.
Kousuke’s sense of casually saying such things here was, as always, somewhat detached from reality.
Normally, clearing a floor in the tower would take over a week.
Of course, depending on the adventurers’ levels, lower floors might be cleared quickly, but for Kousuke, this was his usual pace on any floor.
The current floor was in the middle to upper section of the tower, and adventurers clearing this section at such a speed were virtually nonexistent.
Although Kousuke was ostensibly clearing floors at a pace suited for general adventurers, it was merely a pretense.
Even so, with the justification of belonging to a guild now in hand, this self-restraint was likely to be abandoned.
However, all of this depended on the efforts of others.
A guild with only one outstanding party would attract attention but would not be very effective in terms of having significant influence.
***
After parting ways with Kousuke’s party, Cecil and Arisa returned to the 40th Floor alone.
From there, they teleported to the entrance to check on the guild’s status.
With their combat abilities, returning to the 40th Floor posed no problem.
However, since their mode of transport was on foot, it took about three days.
While this might seem fast compared to Kousuke’s party’s clearing speed, it was effectively only one floor’s worth of travel, so it wasn’t surprisingly fast.
When Cecil and Arisa arrived at the 1st Floor via the teleportation gate, they had not visited the Tower Conquest Guild, so no one had yet noticed that the newly registered pair had already cleared up to the 41st Floor.
They also had no intention of publicizing their achievements at this point, so they returned to their own guild without saying anything.
Upon returning to the “Fang of the Divine Wolf” guild, Cecil and Arisa happened to run into Roman and his group.
Even in a large building, living in the same place meant they would often cross paths unless they were on an expedition.
Roman, spotting Arisa as well, subtly tensed his expression and approached her.
Seeing his expression, Arisa sensed that Roman wanted to ask something.
It was an expression she had seen many times when he was a trainee.
Coincidentally, she could also infer what he wanted to ask at this timing to some extent.
In fact, it was undoubtedly about Kousuke’s party.
As Arisa was contemplating this, Roman, who had approached her, spoke.
“Teacher Arisa, what kind of adventurer is that person named Kou?”
At the welcome party, Kousuke had introduced himself using the name “Kou.”
In response to Roman’s question, Arisa paused for a moment before answering.
“I taught you to cultivate an eye for judging an opponent’s strength to continue as an adventurer, didn’t I?”
Whether facing a person or a monster, if one could not immediately discern the power of an approaching opponent, it could lead to instant death.
Therefore, they were constantly taught at the training academy to develop the ability to judge an opponent’s strength.
Of course, this was not something that could be done easily.
However, Roman was one of the students who had faithfully tried to follow that teaching.
Roman’s face showed a flicker of frustration for a moment, after which he let out a sigh.
“…I apologize. I couldn’t see any particular strength in him. …However.”
“What?”
Roman hesitated, and Arisa prompted him to continue.
“Judging by how Teacher Arisa and the others have responded, he has considerable power, doesn’t he?”
At Roman’s response, Arisa inwardly thought “合格” (passed).
There was no need to rely solely on one’s own abilities to judge an opponent’s strength.
Especially when one had just become an adventurer, it was impossible to discern an opponent’s power.
This was because the opponent was almost certainly superior.
In such situations, as Roman had just answered, it was important to observe the reactions of the strong individuals around you and decide your actions accordingly.
Arisa’s “passed” was in this sense.
However, she did not explicitly teach him that it was the correct answer.
This was because she believed he would realize it on his own as time went on.
Thinking such things, Arisa looked intently at Roman, and instead of giving the answer he desired, she deliberately said something slightly off-topic.
“How can I say? However, Kousuke-sama is also being watched by three Division Heads, including Division Head Gazeran.”
By deliberately mentioning the names of the Division Heads, she aimed to deter any unnecessary interference.
It wasn’t that she thought Roman and his group would do anything foolish.
Rather, she hoped that it would spread as a rumor through Roman’s words.
As expected, Roman’s face showed surprise.
“Even the Division Heads…”
After a moment, for reasons unknown, Roman’s expression became somewhat more composed.
“I understand. Thank you for answering.”
“It’s nothing. I can always teach you things like this.”
“The basic of adventurers is information gathering, after all.”
Arisa smiled at Roman, who reiterated one of the most fundamental principles from the training academy.
“Yes. That’s exactly right. For now, let’s both do our best in Seichun.”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
In response to Arisa’s words, Roman bowed his head before returning to his companions.
This was Roman’s question regarding Kousuke.
Of course, Arisa had no intention of giving the real answer.
