As the results of the fifth battle were announced, the members of Amamiya Tower’s control room broke into smiles.
They hadn’t expected to lose, but battles are unpredictable.
Ultimately, they won by an overwhelming margin, so their worries had been unnecessary.
Kousuke, confirming the surrounding situation, immediately gave Kouhi another instruction.
“Kouhi, sorry to bother you, but could you go to each floor and tell them to check the damage situation?”
Nana couldn’t speak, but she could understand.
It was possible to understand to some extent when the results were compiled, as Shurein would be there.
“Understood.”
Kouhi immediately left the control room at Kousuke’s instruction, and the surrounding members’ cheerful expressions turned serious, as if to rein in their excitement.
The suppression battle itself would continue for a while longer.
The Sarita Tower side had also made a hand strike this time, so it would continue for at least three more battles.
Looking at this battle, they probably wouldn’t lose, but they couldn’t let their guard down.
The opponent had lost easily, but it wasn’t safe to assume they had no more tricks up their sleeves.
They had even stopped summoning towards the end of the battle.
It was reasonable to assume they still had the stamina to place summoning circles.
The spoils of the fifth battle victory were the floors of Amamiya Tower that had been taken by the opponent in the first four battles, and the entire floors that the opponent had offered for the suppression battle.
In total, they had regained what they had lost over four battles and gained the opponent’s floors all at once.
Considering the size, it would be a losing calculation for the opponent, but that was the rule of a suppression battle, so it couldn’t be helped.
Even if the opponent’s floors were smaller compared to Amamiya Tower’s floors, they couldn’t simply offer floors of the same size.
“One floor’s worth” strictly meant one floor of that Tower.
More importantly, by taking the opponent’s floors, something interesting had happened.
“Oh? More new summoning circles are appearing?”
Kousuke, who was checking the system on the control panel, noticed that the monster summoning circles had increased.
It had been quite a while since the monster summoning circles had increased in Amamiya Tower, where the Tower’s LV up had already stopped.
“But it seems like they can’t be summoned~?”
Peach, who was checking the same thing next to Kousuke, tilted her head.
“Hmm. I’m guessing it’s probably because they can’t be summoned until the battle is properly finished?”
“It’s because we don’t know if we’ll be able to obtain the opponent’s floors until the battle is completely over, right?”
Mia, looking at the same screen as Kousuke, nodded as she looked at the grayed-out text.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“But~, if that’s the case, shouldn’t it be displayed properly after the battle is finished?”
“That’s true. But maybe the system can’t do that?”
At Kousuke’s words, Peach tilted her head again.
“What do you mean~?”
“It means that, from the Tower’s system perspective, new things, including floors, are displayed immediately when they are obtained. But since the suppression battle is still ongoing, they’ve probably made it so that summoning is impossible. Well, that’s just my imagination.”
At Kousuke’s explanation, Peach gave a subtle expression that seemed to be neither fully convinced nor unconvinced.
“Hmm. I think it would be better if they just didn’t display it from the beginning…”
“That’s true. There might be some other reason? Anyway, we just have to accept it as it is.”
“That’s also true~”
Even if the Tower’s level had been maxed out, it didn’t mean they would become knowledgeable about the Tower’s system.
In that sense, there were still many mysteries surrounding the Tower.
Moreover, Kousuke himself didn’t intend to delve too deeply into it.
He believed it was better to leave the mysteries as they were.
While dealing with post-battle matters, Nana and the others returned to Kousuke.
The companions who had participated in this battle had already returned to their original floors using the Teleport Gate.
Nana, Sol, Kon Kita, and Gin Kita had been called together to report the damage situation, as Kouhi had instructed.
“Thank you for coming all this way. So, could you tell me about your respective situations…?”
As Kousuke said that, they each began to talk about the damage they had sustained.
As a result, they hadn’t escaped completely unscathed, as expected.
The Sol-centered goblins had suffered the most damage.
This was, of course, for a reason: they had formed a battle unit centered around the goblins who had not yet evolved.
Conversely, those who had evolved, such as Oni and above, had suffered almost no casualties.
“…I see.”
Seeing Kousuke slightly dejected after hearing the report, Sol frantically waved his hands.
“Please don’t worry about the casualties. They went into battle knowing what to expect.”
For Sol, casualties were a matter of course, but seeing Kousuke’s attitude, he decided to change his perspective.
Kousuke understood that, above all, he disliked losing even a single one of his familiars, even if they were goblins.
It wasn’t just Sol’s group who had gone into battle; so had the foxes and wolves.
However, they had not suffered as much damage as the goblins.
The fact that they were composed solely of evolved species likely played a significant role.
The wolves who had stormed the opponent’s floors had only suffered ten casualties.
Kousuke was surprised by this.
It wouldn’t have been strange if the casualties had been much higher.
Nana, who approached him wagging her tail, wanting to be praised, was heartily petted by Kousuke.
Her attitude showed that she completely understood how to make Kousuke happy.
By the way, Kousuke hadn’t noticed that Kon Kita and Gin Kita, watching Nana being petted, had looked on with envious expressions.
After Sol and the others returned, they had a late dinner and discussed future plans with the other members.
“Are we going to aim for a win from now on?”
Mia looked at Kousuke with expectant eyes.
Kousuke gave a bitter smile and nodded.
“There’s no reason to lose anymore. At most, there are three more battles.”
If they wanted to stop the fighting, they could end it at any time by agreeing to the opponent’s hand strike.
However, now that they knew they could obtain the opponent’s floors and that new summoned monsters would appear, they wanted to obtain as many new floors as possible.
Of course, if the opponent offered floors similar to the current ones, new monsters wouldn’t increase, but since they couldn’t choose which floors to fight on, there was nothing they could do about it.
“The problem is what to do with the floors we’ve acquired.”
While getting new monster summoning circles was good, the acquired floors also needed management.
Of course, there was no problem if they were left neglected, but it was natural to want to use the floors they had obtained with effort.
However, since they weren’t even able to fully utilize the floors they currently had in Amamiya Tower, it seemed likely that they would just end up investigating how the acquired floors could be used.
“If that’s the case, I can manage them!”
As Mia said “I can manage them” with a face that clearly conveyed “I really want to manage them,” Kousuke shook his head.
“No. I’ve thought of something I’d like you to do, Mia. I think you’ll be swamped with that work eventually.”
“Something I’d like me to do?”
To Mia, who tilted her head, Kousuke nodded.
“Yes, that’s right… Well, we’ll talk about that later. For now, let’s just concentrate on finishing this suppression battle.”
“Understood.”
Although her face showed curiosity, Mia honestly nodded.
This was the situation at Amamiya Tower after the fifth battle.
Of course, it wasn’t over without any sacrifices, but the damage was incredibly minor compared to the opponent’s.
By the way, Sol deploying the goblins was her own decision.
She deliberately did so because she knew it would facilitate their evolution after intense battles.
—
*Regarding the battleable floors in the suppression battle (supplementary information)
Tower floors come in large, medium, and small sizes. If they clash directly, a small tower is at a disadvantage due to the size of the field and the number of monsters.
Therefore, in the first battle, a small tower is designed to compensate for this disadvantage.
For example, this time, Amamiya Tower could field an area equivalent to one-fourth of a floor per battle.
However, since Amamiya Tower lost four times, Sarita Tower gained a field equivalent to one floor of Amamiya Tower.
Therefore, from this point onward, battles can be fought with one floor of Amamiya Tower as the standard.
Amamiya Tower, which achieved its first victory in the fifth battle, was able to gain a field equivalent to one floor of Amamiya Tower at once under these rules.
