High School Hack and Slash Chapter 126 Part 1
Wandering Monsters
「Hmm, they’re obviously targeting us as they challenge us to duels, I suppose.」
「Well, I guess so.」
The former meeting room of Asagi-sou, the current club room (provisional) of the Adept Orders.
Today, they had green tea in a teapot, and senbei for tea snacks, arranged.
「You Senpais winning all of the matches, though, honestly speaking, it was beyond my expectation.」
Rinko, who was sitting at the counter and looking at the academy newspaper, smiled wryly.
The article on the front page was a news flash pertaining to the interclub tournament.
The extra, which had been distributed on the morning of the second day of the qualifying round, was a flyer that looked like a kawaraban.
The rule this time was, in a sense, a round-robin competition among students.
In addition to the combat classes that participated as regular members, the non-combat class members had come to be dragged into the battlefields as well.
If one called it a strategy, then that was all there was to it, but if a top-ranked club were to try something unscrupulous for the sake of points, they would be met with thunderous condemnation.
Unless they were a villain club that was good at being booed at, they would normally avoid it.
「Though, it wasn’t like we were training specifically for anti-personnel battles or anything, you see… We were just doing some training to defend ourselves together, I suppose.」
「Color me surprised.」
Seiichi, filling the teapot with hot water from an insulated pot, poured the used up tea into a teacup.
「To break through to the『New World』, you see… In order to at least avoid instant death, we honed the emergency boarding-summoning (Emergency Install) skills of our『Armed Golem』, I suppose.」
If you summoned your golem with yourself serving as the center and immediately went into the state of boarding it, it would serve as a strong armor to protect yourself.
Even if they had no means of combat, having sufficiently increased their levels, their『Armed Golems』 were hard.
More specifically, they were comparable to New World-class, heavily armored monsters.
「Well~, our opponents were totally looking down on us right from the start, and there was no one who could penetrate our armor, either, I suppose.」
SP sharing through the Craftsman skill『Guild』 was, strictly speaking, an external foul play act (buff).
「The Craftsman class is even less suited to battles than the Debauchee class, after all. On top of that, most of its skills seem to be not that well known, either, right?」
「I suppose. But in this qualifying round, it seems that the Craftsman classes are putting up unexpected struggles and are becoming the talk of the academy, you know?」
On the academy newspaper’s extra issue, a number of black-and-white pictures were inserted.
What placed in the most prominent position was the snapshot of an『Armed Golem』 standing imposingly in front of a fallen Knight.
The technique of installing ability organs (skill organs), a monster’s bio-organs (drop items), into a golem had spread from the craftsman’s thread on the academy’s bulletin board.
For the Craftsman class, which was considered a burden when it came to combat in the dungeon, this was truly a revolutionary means of reinforcement.
「This one, unfortunately, isn’t one of our members, though.」
「That way works better for us. Nothing good comes from standing out, after all.」
Rinko also nodded to Seiichi, who was munching on a piece of zarame and ebi senbei.
「Even without that, there’s a club we’ve got karma with, after all… Rather, this ebisen sure is tasty.」
「The A-ranked club called Overrun Brigade (Conquest), right? When they challenged us to duels, they had a pretty low-life look on their face, so I suppose we could see what they had in mind. By the way, it was fried not with a mixture of shrimp (ebi), but crab… -like legs.」
「I’ve gotten used to that sort of thing, so it’s too late for that.」
Them ending up accumulating enough points to pass the qualifying round on the first day was thanks to the C-ranked Adept Orders thoroughly beating the A-ranked Overrun Brigade at their own game.
「If they don’t tread well, won’t those guys be in for the qualifying round failing course? It’s funny thinking that they must be turning blue right about now, though.」
「Them harboring unjustified resentment would be a pain, I suppose. I don’t think they will go all the way to attacking our dormitory, though.」
Even though it was a non-discriminatory match, the areas inside the student dormitories were regarded as a neutral zone.
The groups that were not interested in the festivities of the tournament as well as the dormitory students who had completed their quota of matches were holed up in their dormitories, slacking off in a laid back manner.
「I have no interest in the likes of club rank, but I suppose that kind of title is also necessary to keep the bugs away.」
「It’s a pain, but, as expected, such a thing is necessary. There are always lowlifes who eye, wanting to prey on those who are weaker than they are, after all. They’ll also pick on you if you stand out too much, so overdoing it is not good either, really, it’s such a pain in the ass.」
「Oh, my. Do you not have much interest in doing Ore TUEEEE, I wonder? You don’t dislike having girls going kyakya at you, do you?」
Rinko, removing the tea leaves from the teapot and putting fresh green tea into it, poured some into teacups for two.
「I have enough time for it, after all. Right now, rather than the tournament, I’m more in the mood for going to the dungeon to level up.」
「I see… If, there’s anything we can help with, there’s no need to be reserved about it. Be sure not to forget that, okay?」
「I don’t know what you’re talking about, but… I’ll be in your care.」
It was still far from dinner time, and the atmosphere in the dormitory was also a little different from usual.
Such an atmosphere was, as expected, a match to the word: festival-like.
「By the way, I don’t seem to see our other regular members, but… Where did they go, I wonder?
「Beats me… Maybe they’re off doing some wandering monster play or something somewhere.」
The ebisen, bitten with a crunch, was savory with a hint of bitterness as a hidden flavor.
◇ ◇ ◇
「Hey, this is bad, dude! The heck were you bastards doing, losing to mere craftsmen?!」
「Shut it. What the hell was that? I’ve never heard of such a thing!」
The second day of the qualifying period of the interclub tournament.
The reason why the club information sharing, the battle result reports, was late was because they were embarrassed to have suffered an unexpected defeat.
It was true that they had underestimated the other side as mere a Craftsman class, but they could vividly see that they would be mocked to death by their peers.
However, they would have never thought that it was not only he himself, but the other members had also suffered defeat unsightly.
As a result, the A-ranked club Overrun Brigade (Conquest) had lost their badges so badly that they were in danger of failing the qualifying round.
「… Isn’t it really bad? Someone try calculate the points.」
「Like I give it a shit, you do it yourself.」
「Such a pain, what a real shitty rule it is. This time.」
To begin with, the Overrun Brigade was not a club of close friends, but a group of people who had come together to suck up the benefits.
Although their individual abilities were high and there were even fourth step class changers registered with the club, they were the outcasts who had been exiled from the other clubs.
The top of B rank and the bottom of A rank, they could be said to be a club that was on such a borderline.
At the very least, they were not a puny club that would fail the qualifying round, supposedly.
「Well, calm down. Winning against a C-ranked opponent won’t earn us much points. Win or lose, it’s not included in the calculation from the beginning. The strategy is to earn points by hunting high-ranked non-combatants, after all.」
「… No, it’s quite bad. Barely, or rather, complete defeat was way too out of expectation, no? You shitheads.」
The Vice-president, holding the tournament guidebook distributed to each club in his hand, clicked his tongue.
It was troublesome to manage a group that lacked cohesion, but the position came with a certain amount of privileges.
If they were to end up falling in rank, or in the worst case scenario failing the qualifying round, it was obvious that the club would easily disintegrate into thin air.
「Forget about the Adept Orders for now. We can simply crush them once the tournament is over, after all. Right now, our first priority is to earn points from an opponent we can definitely beat.」
Fortunately, among the members who were not interested in sanctioning them, there were also those who had not participated in matches yet.
They were to pick up wins in the matches for points, and it was by no means too late to do so.
Even if they did not target the strong opponents of the same rank, as long as they could pick up a complete victory against B or even C rank opponents, they could at least avoid failing the qualifying round.
「Haa~. It’s a real pain in the ass.」
「Maybe it’s high time for this club, too.」
The ones who had slipped out of the club room and were walking side by side were a pair of boys.
For them, the club was nothing more than a title to put prestige on themselves.
They had no attachment to it, and in fact, they had wandered from one club to another.
They were aware that they were scum, but there were kindred spirits just about anywhere, and as long as they boasted considerable prowess, they would be welcomed to a certain degree.
「What a pain. Let’s casually go hunt some C rankers, casually turn them into female dumps, and kill some time.」
A boy, a former member of Wild Bunch, which had already been disbanded, suggested to the other boy, a former member of Wolfsritter, which had also been disbanded.
「Yeah, let’s do that. I mean, I’m already in the mood for a leisurely orgy. Let’s line up some women and use them a flesh futon.」
「Sounds like an idea. But isn’t it too much trouble to collect them?」
「There’s this pen for the females kept by my old club, you see.」
「Female pen, so they’re zombie girls, huh.」
「Yup, those girls. They were left in such a neglected state that their very existences were even forgotten, so I used to go and use them from time to time, you see. Their reactions were dull, so sure enough, I got tired of them, though.」
「Well, why not? Sometimes I also want to mate like an insect, after all.」
The so-called abandoned club was the girls-only club『Echigoya』, which was formed by the late Wolfsritter for the purpose of keeping sex personnel.
Naturally, the rank of the club had remained『F』, the lowest of all.
The ones who on paper belonged to the club were ten girls from the third to fourth year whose loss had been deteriorating.
Students like them had tuned into the backdrop of the academy, just aimlessly repeating their daily routine, without ever voluntarily heading for the dungeon.
Even without knowing what significance it had, they became convenient seniors for the underclassmen who were quick on the uptake.
The overflowing green sexual desire and the flesh that had been neglected, mature and fully trained, could be said to be a win-win relationship.
The upperclassmen plucked the fresh top crops of the underclassmen, and the underclassmen learned the taste of the wholesale fruits.
This was also part of the academy system.
「Even if we leave them alone, they should’ve still come to the club room. And maybe some of them are already there, I think.」
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
High School Hack and Slash
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
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Tftc