Chapter 61: Save on Gas

From the corpses of the giant monsters, loot began to appear. Not just a little, either—plenty, as if each giant had been a dungeon boss in its own right.

Though with Raive’s body battered beyond reason, he couldn’t even move to pick them up.

So as soon as he finished healing himself, he wasted no time gathering it all, chucking it into his storage bag without checking.

The only things he paused to look at were the skill books.

Each of the five giants had dropped one.

Given how powerful they were, he expected the skills to be quite powerful too.

But he couldn’t make sense of them, though. The information filling his head came out garbled, as if the books couldn’t be deciphered yet.

"This... could it be these only work after the second trial ends?" Raive wondered.

Either way, he didn’t want to risk learning an unknown skill—and he doubted if he could even learn it now—so he tossed them in with the rest. He spent about ten minutes hunting for the exit before finally leaving that cursed red dungeon behind.

Once outside, Raive didn’t head straight home.

He detoured to the nearest dungeon he wanted to farm skills from and overwrote his save there just to be safe.

If he somehow had to reload, losing the section where those giant monsters were already dead, he had no confidence he could beat those monsters alone again.

Making the mysterious being’s techniques truly his own would take a long time and plenty of practice. He wouldn’t be able to master it in just a few loops.

With that done, he headed straight back to base without any more detours.

It was close to 1 a.m. by the time he arrived, but to his surprise, the kitchen lights were still on. Stepping inside, he found Hazel sitting there with a mug of hot water, staring blankly into it as if in a trance.

Noticing Raive’s presence, her eyes moved up.

"You look battered. How’d it go? Should I wake Hershey?" Hazel asked, fixing her gaze.

Raive smiled, touched by her genuine concern. He’d told her earlier not to wait for his return, and she did anyway.

"I’m fine, all healed up." Raive explained. "And it turned out to be a pretty fruitful run."

Of the sixty dungeons he’d marked, he’d cleared fifty-four. Six were left for skill book farming. After he explained, Hazel nodded and stood.

"You’d better wash up before bed." She warned, before disappearing up the stairs.

"Wash up...?"

Raive muttered, puzzled.

Then he looked himself over. He truly looked like a mess. His military-style clothes were now in various patches of colors, turning it artful in a way. Then, he took a light sniff inside of his collar and—

"UUURP!"

—it almost made him hurl.

Blood of various monsters, dirt, sweat, and everything else, mixed into a stench sharp enough to make his nose scrunch on its own.

No wonder Hazel hadn’t budged from her seat, keeping her distance!

After setting his loot down in the corner of the kitchen, he walked to the bathroom at a steady pace. To his surprise, the water heater was just finishing up as he arrived, chiming loudly.

"Did Hazel set this up for me? She really didn’t have to..." Raive sighed, smiling faintly.

He peeled off his clothes and, instead of tossing them in the hamper, sealed them into plastic bags—that kind of stench wasn’t coming out of fabric easily.

He’d have to dump a full bag of detergent just to mask it off, for sure.

Then he showered, removing grime from his body as best as he could, before entering the warm bathtub.

"Ahh..."

Raive let out a satisfied sigh, sinking in up to his shoulders. He closed his eyes, savoring every second of this fleeting rest.

Looking back, he realized how long it had been since he’d taken a proper bath. As a modern person, hygiene mattered—and a real bath was part of that. Even if the world was no longer the same, this was definitely not something to be forgotten.

Click!

"Huh?"

Just as he was settling in, the sound of the door opening—along with silenced footsteps—rang out clearly within the silence.

Someone had sneakily entered the bathroom.

Raive’s eyes narrowed, brows furrowing as he shot out of the tub. He crouched low, legs braced wide, hands ready to swing. He was ready to dash in and attack at any given moment.

’A burglar? But why the bath?’ Raive thought.

Slowly, he inched forward. He could hear the sound of clothes rustling from the other side.

But before he could move close enough, the sliding frosted glass partition between the changing room and the bathroom slid open.

A figure stepped in, carrying a towel and a handful of toiletries—shampoo, body soap, a few other unidentifiable tubes of purpose alien to him.

"..."

"..."

Raive and the figure stared at each other for a long moment. Both frozen, both lost.

"A—"

Then, as her brain caught up with reality.

"AHHHHH!"

The other party let out a shrill cry, bolting out of the bathroom and slamming the door shut.

Raive didn’t miss the sight of her clapping cakes as she fled, everything she brought over scattering across the floor.

"...S-Sorry!"

And then Raive finally snapped back to himself.

"Shymine, sorry! I should’ve said something before you walked in!" He shouted.

Right, the one who entered wasn’t a burglar but the blue-haired ice beauty, Shymine! He had no idea why "burglar" had been his first thought, instead of the far more obvious "someone wanting a warm bath."

The one who definitely set up the timer for the bath instead of Hazel.

Still, he couldn’t unsee what he already saw—the sight of Shymine, everything that was supposed to stay hidden, burned straight into memory.

He both cursed and thanked his photographic memory for that.

"N-No, I should be the one apologizing!" Shymine said, recovering from the shock.

"Hazel told me you’d just gotten back right as I headed out to shower. I didn’t think you’d already be in here..."

Right then, Raive understood it for what it was—just an unfortunate accident.

Still, if there was one thing he had zero experience with, it was smoothing things over after a moment this awkward. Figuring action beat words, he grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist.

"Uh, if you’re taking a bath, go ahead. I’m already done anyway." Raive said, about to slip out.

But then Shymine’s voice stopped him.

"W-Wait..."

Her voice shook slightly. "I’d feel bad cutting your bath short... so how about we take it together? We’d even save on gas that way."

Silence came between them, lasting a few seconds.

"...Seriously?" Raive asked, his brain grinding to a halt.

He’d never expected something like this to happen between them.