12 11 Its quite common to run out of hands when working.txt (1/2)

Tanaka Jiro, twenty-eight years old, single, no girlfriend, occupation: Dungeon Tester (full-time employee)

Magic Aptitude 8 (General Class)

Officer of the Year: Warrior

It's been a few days since the welcome party.

f*ck!

I was running through the dungeon.

I wanted to cluck my tongue, but I didn't have time for that right now.

I stepped through the stone pavement and felt a slight push, a feeling I've had often since I entered the third level of the KIOH dungeon.

As I jumped away from the enemy in front of me, kicking the stone puppet away, I saw the arrowhead that had flown toward my chest fly away.

After breaking through the first layer, I fumbled a bit before breaking through the second layer, but this time I tried the third layer for the fourth time, and I haven't been able to make any progress in mapping beyond a certain range.

This is because if you step on the ground carelessly, the traps will be triggered like before.

The traps they triggered were still rudimentary, such as switching arrows, spears, pits and nets, but they were still enough to stop me from falling into these physical traps in my lifetime.

Who needs to be pierced by arrows, spears and falling into holes?

Thanks to the status I'd developed to get here, I managed to react and avoid them at a moment's notice, but my nerves were shattered and my concentration was disrupted.

As a result, even if you can beat them, you have to pay more attention to your surroundings and use extra energy to take them down.

In addition, if things go wrong, you will end up accumulating stress, after all.

It's like being frustrated by a job that isn't moving forward, but when you're frustrated, the enemy is right in front of you and you're dead in an instant.

Individuals versus groups, traps, and bad conditions tend to make solos vulnerable in these situations.

In addition, the traps were marked on the map, just in case, but the traps were shifted around so that they didn't work or didn't work, and you were caught off guard.

You want to swear at it, but instead you cut off the head of the stone kid who jumped at you with a mineral tree.

With the returning blade, you slash the Stone Golem's body.

The impact on my hand makes it slightly numb.

The fact that the blade doesn't spill over is as if I'm saying I'm soft myself.

''It's over ......, but there's more to come.

The enemies in the vicinity are now the last, but their ears, sharpened by vigilance, are catching the sound of multiple footsteps.

They were not human-like footsteps, of course, but inorganic and regular, plus they were definitely heading this way.

The sweat on your forehead, the number of battles you've fought, and the loss of concentration caused by the trap are advising you to retreat.

”Retreat?

It's not wise to get all worked up at this point.

We'll grab what we can and head back to the transporter area as quickly as we can.

And so... My fourth dungeon attack ended in failure.

After retreating from the dungeon, I was headed to...

We're in the red again today.

I told you. A one-man attack is the province of a madman in his own head and body.

That's what a headstrong vampire with more teeth than a human would say.

Correction. This is the work of beings weirder than us.

No, it's getting worse.

The conversation with the memoria has already begun to become a promise, and although the price of the collected items (drops) increases as you advance through the levels, the third level is still at the beginning of the game, and the purchase price has improved by about 10 or so yen, you have to earn quantity rather than quality.

If you think about buying consumables such as medicines, it's not worth it.

Thanks to this, we have to alternate between the second and third tiers without traps.

How do brave men get through the dungeon traps in the first place?

There are many parts of the story that make me somewhat dubious as to whether we can categorize it as human, but let's leave it at that.

I want to complain about the existence of a brave man who makes vampires say that much, but that doesn't get us anywhere, so I silently urge you to continue.

It's mostly a magical barrier. It's a barrier built thickly with ridiculous magical power that makes it useless to hit, and it repels arrows, spears, poison gas or even wide area magic. There are a few brave men who have knowledge of traps, but they are few and far between. To begin with, they are simply too high in status to be able to use a trap-level attack, but they are brave.

Is it human?

But there's a limit to what I can do to keep quiet and listen.

I couldn't help but wonder if the being Memoria is talking about is a human being like me, and I couldn't help but wonder aloud.

I know that's a natural question for you, a human being, but I've heard it's human at least. Believe it or not, that's how demon kings were defeated or even killed in the past. If you have a headache, it's a little better to think of a brave man as such.

She didn't even look at me, and her response while proceeding with the purchase was so unrealistic that I was beginning to get a headache, just like she said.

'I'll do that. I've learned to ignore some of the laws of physics myself, but it's made me realize that I'm not quite there yet.

They can defend themselves without being blown off without mass, and recently they can run up vertical walls, albeit for a few meters.

But that's probably not enough.

”In your case, you could reach the same level with effort, but honestly, for now, it would be wiser and faster to increase the number of hands, no, in this case, it would be three thousand four hundred yen.

''I don't feel like I'm being implied to stop people in the future, but I'll pretend I didn't hear it. In the meantime, the former is impossible right now unless there's an existence that can rapidly increase your status like some metal slime, and then the latter becomes more realistic. Well, we'll discuss this issue later, can't it be a little higher?

''The Stone Puppet's magic stone is thirty-six yen against eight yen for the Bob Goblin's fangs, do you complain?''

...... No, so don't give me that look. You don't usually laugh, but if you show your fangs, it's a reminder that you're afraid to laugh.

I do that on purpose. If it's a call, it's outside the store, it'll interrupt your reading.

'No, tout it, ...... is not the time to say that, I'll be back.'

I can still feel it in my head calling me.

Anyway, let's go outside.

...... Scared, huh?

She didn't look at me, and I thought she said something as she waved her hand, looking down at her book, but that's not enough right now .

Her telepathic voice, which had been calm, calls my head so loudly that it sounds like a gunshot.

'Yes, this is Tanaka.'

”You're late.

Are you Kaylee?

”I'm sorry I'm not Suella.

Although it made me feel slightly uncomfortable, I felt unreasonable when I was complaining about it just as it came out .

Hence, the words that came out, but they have no deep meaning.

Well, it's not that I don't have a sense of regret.

”Sorry, I was in the middle of a buy.

”If there's an emergency, you have to leave early. I have work to do.

Urgent?

''Yes, the party leaders will all meet in the third conference room at 6pm, you are solo, but Evia-sama has instructed you to attend this meeting, so don't make the mistake of hiding in the dungeon afterwards or anything. I'll be the one who will be pissed off.''

It's almost 6 p.m., isn't it?

'Don't complain, this is just an office call in the middle of catching up to avoid fixing overtime.

Did you get the idea all of a sudden?

'I guess so, oh, goblin, take these papers over there ...... and be careful with them because Master Evia looked very grim.

I appreciate that, but it's ominous information.

”Just give up the fact that it's true, and, uh, well, you know, next time you're free, come help out at work.

I don't have much time, so if you'll excuse me.

I heard some disturbing words and broke off the telepathic conversation without hesitation.

”Huh.

Who likes to work overtime that doesn't pay for itself, we testers don't get paid for our off-duty hours .

I once helped Kaylee with a cheap contract because I had a little extra time on my hands, but it was miserable.

There was a pile of paperwork with no end in sight, and the demon king's army used body strengthening magic to strengthen their eyes and process the paperwork three times faster than normal.

At least not to the extent that I was willing to help them.

But even so, they still finish on time... they're all very good members of the Demon King's Army.

Well, we don't have time to go get changed...

The clock reads exactly 5:30 on the clock.

You have a little less time to change and move.

Since I'm coming back for this hour, it can't be helped, but I'll at least leave my weapons behind.

But I guess I didn't make a good decision.

You're late.

I walked into the conference room so fast that I thought it was a sharp blade or something.

It was five minutes before the meeting was to start, but I seemed to be the last one in line, so there was only one empty seat.

Superintendent Evvia, who sits at the top of the table, is a blizzard, if you can call her cool.

I'm not daredevil enough to argue with that.

I'm going to say a simple excuse and take my seat.

It's not a good time, but it's urgent. We'll be quick about it.

Superintendent Evvia, on the other hand, stood up quietly and pulled out a document from the empty space.

It probably contains the same information, and with a quick glance a document appears in front of us.

”Listen, as you read through the document, that's exactly what it says you're all here for. There are currently no testers outside of your party.

As a soloist, I didn't have much to do with it, but the other five parties seemed to be different. The air is a little buzzy.

Except for me, the other members are on a team.

Four men and one woman listen to the conversation with different expressions on their faces.

Eighteen, that's the current number of testers. At this rate, we'll be in trouble when testing dungeons. More importantly, it's inefficient.

I suppose, the point is, it's like being asked to report on the comfort of the entire Tokyo metropolis with only 18 people.

There is no way it will end and it will cost too much money to maintain.

But as you know best, we've only just started. But as you know best, we haven't even started yet. Of course, that doesn't mean we haven't done something about it. We're currently recruiting for the second phase of testers. But it's going to take time to recruit new people. That's where you guys come in.

It was as if we were waiting for the supervisor's words, and now, with a thud, a stack of papers appeared in front of us.

There were no more than five hundred of them.

”Flyers?

The tester sitting next to me mentioned a familiar wad of paper.

Yes, this is the flyer that brought me to this company.

Well, there are an order of magnitude more of them, but the design is not so different as to be mistaken for something else. You'll know it at a glance.

”Gladly, I give you guys here an assignment. As you can see, we have prepared a flyer that you've seen before. Do I need to tell you the rest?

The supervisor let me know the answer to that question before I could even think about it.

”You want us to go hand out fliers?

I just wanted to help the cat, and that was a good thing for me, but the rest of you, not so much.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking you guys to hand out scraps of paper. Some parties are undermanned at the moment. I was trying to make up for it, but do you disagree?

”Our job is to test the dungeon. At least it's not a problem for my party. I don't see the need to go to the trouble of wasting time handing out flyers.

The last time he had clearly complained to a supervisor was probably just after graduating from college, a magic swordsman from his rookie and intermediate joint training.

As I recall, his name was Hikasumi Toru, or maybe it was Strain Toru, and he had a face that looked like he was a model somewhere, and he complained about it.

I think he's trying to say that his job is to be a tester.

He glanced at me for a moment, thinking that this meeting was held for me.

The others, perhaps because of what he said, look at me bitterly.

That may be part of it, but I can assure you that's not the case with Superintendent Evier.

The link to me is there, but the supervisors keep their work and personal lives very separate.

The reality of the situation is that he would have called this meeting to gain leverage before the number of testers dwindled and the shortage of personnel began to affect future schedules.

When you think of it that way, his behavior is young, or in this case, blue, as it should be.

In a case like this, it's not a good idea to respond blithely and defiantly.

He may think he will be forced to clean up the company's deficiencies, but if he complains because he can't get his way, he will eventually strangle himself.

The supervisor may not be explaining things well, but the supervisor is giving you the opportunity to solve the human resource shortage, in this case, the manpower shortage on the ground.

It hands over to us the authority that should normally belong to the HR department and management.

It's an unusual step to take.

'Well, I don't have to ask them if they're unhappy with ......, it's on their face. Then this is unnecessary.

Throwing away that kindness was unthinkable, at least to me .

Quickly, I reached for the bundle of flyers and pulled it toward me.

Without a moment's pause, the rest of the stack of flyers disappeared.

Hm, then the conversation is over. Thank you for your time, and except for Jiro Tanaka, get back to work.

He said it was taking up a lot of his time, but the supervisor seemed to think he was wasting his time.

I feel uncomfortable smelling that atmosphere.

All the other members, except me, leave the conference room after saying goodbye in that atmosphere, but they look at me with a depressed look.

I remain in the middle of it all.

”......

The supervisor spoke up after what seemed like a few minutes, when the departing members showed no sign of coming back.

”Well, on with the story. Unfortunately, we won't be able to fill in for the next batch of employees any time soon, if you include the training period, you could say that the new recruits are not yet in place.

Letting out a sigh, the supervisor wrinkled his brow, saying it wouldn't be so hard to find the right man.

As I thought, there was a conspiracy.

If I had turned down the offer at that moment because it would have meant more work for me, I would have continued as a solo tester until next year.

From my point of view, the supervisor could easily set me up on a higher level, and that's without even giving me time to get a sense of what was going on behind the scenes.

There's no way to know if it was intentional or not, but I think I've got the right answer now.

As you know, there will be no relief for you in the meantime. Therefore, you are free to hire up to a hundred men of your own talent for a limited time, at your discretion.

Hundreds of people?

Yeah, if I can.

A hundred people is the same as I was hired for.

In my mind, I was confident that at most one or two people would be hired, no matter how much it was estimated to be no more than ten, but I was stunned to hear the unexpectedly large number of recruits.

I was surprised, and then he smiled provocatively, probably because he thought that he couldn't possibly recruit a hundred people on his own.

I think so too.

But .

Of course, we'll take care of the paperwork. You'll interview and bring in someone with the right magical aptitude.

You're a devil, that's a hell of a thing to do.

He didn't lie, and he choked me.

While listening to Superintendent Evvia's words as she calmly passed on the paperwork to me, I looked over the document again, this time carefully.

When I looked at the document carefully, I found a brief description of future personnel policies at the end of it.

It's unlikely that the other members read it all the way through.

As a result, though, a situation has been created where it's the fault of the person who didn't listen until the end.

Sometimes, by taking on a job, you can improve your position, your job. I'm convinced that this is a prime example of that.

”Doesn't this flyer only measure one aptitude value?

That's it, that's it, and now let's listen to the supervisor .

”That's a special version, a blank piece of paper if you're not a candidate, but a number that rises to the right depending on your opponent's aptitude. It's only a quick diagnosis, but it's a good guide.

What's the process after a successful scouting trip?

I can handle the paperwork, but I can't give you training, I don't have enough people to do it. I don't have the manpower.

I think the supervisor might add that he'll provide the space and resources.

So there are roughly three jobs I'll be getting.

Scouting, classroom training, and combat skills training.

Scouting will require you to work around your days off or rearrange your schedule, but it's not that hard to do.

I can teach you what you need to know about dungeons. They'll give you materials, you can give them to them as a presentation and then they'll do the rest on the job.

But there was a problem with the last one.

Unfortunately, I'm only trained as a warrior, so I can't teach you any other skills.

Superintendent, may I approach the instructors for guidance?

If someone's not available, that's fine, but as far as they're concerned, they're completely on their own. You could never bring them in through Suela.

As a countermeasure question, if the supervisor says so, then the last combat technique instruction should be fine.

What I want is someone who can handle something other than warriors.

Ideally, I'd like someone to be in charge of recovery, or someone who can disarm traps and scout for searchers and the like, but I'm hoping that our positions will be the same.

Even if we do, we'll be happy to have someone to watch our backs.