Vol. 13 - Chapter 722 - Marie-senpai’s terrific improvement

After the conquest of «Mellow Apple Dungeon» on Friday, Saturday knocked on our door, marking the beginning of Dungeon Week!

With the excitement brewing inside me, I headed to Marie-senpai's shop.

"Are you here, Marie-senpai~?"

"............"

I echoed my usual greeting but, there was no reply.

"Hmm?"

Now, that's odd. Marie-senpai wasn't there. Just what happened? Instead, the shop was attended by another familiar face. I spotted her at the centre of stop, evidently departed into the dreamland as a drool dripped from the corner of her lips all while standing.

...What should be the correct option, eh? Perhaps, I could try waking her up?

"Senpai, wake up."

"Zzz-zgah?! Mumble, mumble... huh? Good morning?"

"Good morning, Merry-senpai."

My voice did the trick.

This senior with a peculiar character was also a member of «Weapon Seal Sticker», Merry-senpai, or otherwise known as Sleepy Senior. Albeit, judging by her reaction—she surveyed her surroundings with a blank face, blinking, confirming she was in the shop, and then turned to me with a bright smile—it seemed like she didn't walk in, but brought in.

"Welcome! What can I get for you today?"

"That's some serious adaptation skill?!"

Talk about a swift change of pace! It must be an everyday occurrence for her. Whenever I borrowed Marie-senpai for a while, Merry-senpai was usually left to the shop... often still fast asleep.

"Merry, got a second? Oh? You're here, Mister."

"Good morning, Marie-senpai."

"Hm, morning."

"Good morning, Marie~."

"...It's strange I can tell your 'good morning' isn't a greeting~."

"I say you're right about that feeling. After all, I just woke her up. Speaking of that, can I call you Merry-senpai?"

"Hm? You never addressed her all this time?"

"Well, I always stumble on her in her sleep."

"Hehe, you overpraise me~."

"There's nothing to act humble though?!"

As expected of Marie-senpai's fellow salesperson, she had a knock for witty remarks. Maybe I should revise her alias from Sleep Senior to Quite Awake Senior.

"Merry-senpai, nice to meet you, again?"

"Yep! Nice to meet you too, Mister."

"Why are you calling him that, too?! Just Zephyr is fine!"

"Zzz~."

"She fell asleep?! Standing up, in the middle of a conversation?!"

Urgent! How do you handle someone when they fall asleep suddenly amidst conversation!

"Nice jab, Mister. Anyway, what brought you today?"

Seemingly unbothered by Merry-senpai pace shifting, Marie-senpai turned her attention to me, inquiring me of today's purpose to visit.

Honestly, I felt slightly better at the praise of my witty remark, though I kept it from surfacing to my face.

"Oh, I just came to check on you, Marie-senpai. Now that you've got

advanced job, I wanted to hear your thoughts and see how things are going."

"You came to ask about that, Mister?!"

Marie-senpai's sharp eyes widened. Did I say something strange? I really didn't mean anything, though.

She was just genuinely excited. And, Marie-senpai, did anyone remind you that you looked even more like a cute little girl with that smile?

"Let's go inside! We can talk all day out here and get nowhere. I want to show you the real deal and then we can chat."

"Oh, uh, okay."

Marie-senpai, with her usual forcefulness, led me inside to a room that looked like a

workshop in the guild house. This was the production workshop of the guild, the

very heart of the production guild. It was supposed to be the most important

room, filled with highly confidential items. Of course, this was my first time

ever stepping foot in it.

"Whoa, Marie-senpai, isn't this the production workshop? Are you sure you should

be letting an outsider in here?" I asked.

"No problem with you, Mister. You're not exactly a business rival, are you? If anything, you're almost our sponsor now."

"Ah, I guess that's one way to look."

It must be due to the advanced job ticket I had given her that Senpai invited me to the inner area, something forbidden for non-guild personnel to enter.

Since there were no strings attached, she must've seen I had no intention of poaching her from her guild, and that I was content with outsourcing our needs. So notions like I might attempt stealing their techniques were redundant thoughts.

That truly was Marie-senpai I know, the nerves of steel. Though I'm not always caught off guard, this time was a pleasant surprise.

"And this is what I want you to see!"

"Woah! So many advanced pieces of equipment! And is that the «Silver Sancity

Equipment Set»?"

The moment Marie-senpai revealed the equipment displayed in the corner of the workshop, my interest shot up. Not only were there prototypes of the advanced recipe I had given her, but there were also several other advanced pieces of equipment for which I didn't even have the recipes.

"And these were made from the advanced recipes that «Wappen Seal Sticker» had in

its possession. We're a C-rank guild that regularly ranks high, so we do have a few advanced recipes. Ta-da!"

"Wow, that's magnificent! You have all the right to be smug for sure."

It seemed she had really thrown herself into her work, didn't she?

It had only been five days since Marie-senpai's job rank-up. The vast number of finished works made me wonder if she'd even attended any classes at all. In particular, I was astounded by the complete set of «Silver Sancity», the same set Tabase-senpai owns.

I received «Understanding-kun», with its analysis level being raised to 7, and appraised the details.

Although it still hadn't reached the quality I was looking for, she seemed to have used several advanced materials in its crafting. The stats and abilities it had was incomparable to the set currently in Tabase-senpai's possession.

"Marie-senpai, you're amazing! But where did you get the advanced materials? You

didn't have enough, did you?"

"That was outsourced. We had the A-rank guild «Sun Hunters,» who specialize in material procurement, gather advanced materials for us. As far as it is concerned, upper floors of advanced dungeons are no problem for them."

"Seriously?"

So, it wasn't just «King Absolute» who'd been venturing into advanced dungeons, huh. In particular, «King Absolute» only aims to conquer it beyond anything. They're in the news because of their laser-focus on advancing through dungeon floors.

The others were venturing into them as well, except their focus was on gathering materials. So Marie-senpai seemed to have commissioned one of those A-rank guilds.

She then used an abundance of those advanced materials and rare boss materials

from the intermediate-high tiers to finish them up. Unlike the standard job crafters, advanced job crafters could just mix in a few more advanced-grade materials for a drastic leap in stats of equipment.

"Hehehe, Mister, I've got more surprises in store for you."

Marie said with an audacious smile.