Red Giant Set Panties Got Enhanced

Elise stared at me in disbelief when I mentioned that my Red Giant Set panties had been enhanced, but what could she do? It wasn't like I'd chosen which gear got the upgrade.

"...What the hell? Why of all things did it have to be the panties...."

"......Yeah, tell me about it."

Maybe because the clothes I was wearing were relatively new... but of all things, the panties got enhanced.

Anyway, they did feel a bit softer and squishier now.

Not like they'd turned into full-on jelly panties or anything... it was just that the somewhat rough texture of this world's standard undies had smoothed out into something plush.

Everyone else's gear had turned red... and since my original boxers were black, mine had probably evolved into red personal panties too. Talk about motivation.

At any rate, looking around, not everyone had gotten enhanced gear.

For starters, the Iron explorers and priests at the very back hadn't gotten any upgrades, and even among the warriors and archers, some hadn't.

Naturally, complaints arose from those folks...

"This is unfair!!! Why didn't I get enhanced?!"

Judging by his outfit, he was a warrior.

As the warrior said, none of his gear had turned red. Unless his undies had gone red like mine, he hadn't gotten any jelly.

"Even up front, the enhancement jelly missed me...."

"Hmm... Is there some kind of rule to it?"

"Come to think of it, no one in the far back got enhanced."

As someone pointed out, the Iron explorers and priests at the rear hadn't gotten any upgrades.

...I was at the back too, but since panties aren't visible, they probably thought I hadn't gotten enhanced either.

"Then maybe it's based on combat contribution? Low contribution means no enhancement?"

"Ho, that makes sense. Come to think of it, you... you were just running around during the fight?"

"N-no, you must've seen wrong! I... I participated in the strategy fully...."

The warrior, who had been venting furiously, suddenly went quiet.

Seeing that, an archer who hadn't gotten jelly confessed that he barely caught any slimes either.

"Whoa... so in subspecies raids, low combat contribution means no jelly reward!"

"The gallery's gonna blow up over this."

With that, we distributed the remaining Golden Tickets as rewards, and now we just waited for dungeon exit time. That's when Denver, who'd been waiting with me at the back earlier, approached.

He checked that no one was around and thanked me.

"Young man, thanks for earlier. Thanks to you, I can return to my family's arms. I had to say that before leaving."

"Glad it worked out. Did you get your share of tickets?"

"Honestly, I barely did anything, so I thought I might get zero, but since it was a subspecies, there were plenty of tickets. I got one—gonna give it to my daughter as a birthday gift. Her birthday's soon. At least this year I can do something for her."

This uncle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been shaking like a leaf at the back earlier, but now he was beaming like a clown in heaven.

With about five minutes left on the ticket timer, I killed time chatting with Denver.

He had an 8-year-old daughter who was especially attached to her grandma. Sadly, due to taxes, the grandma she'd loved so much had been sent to the surface....

Originally, it would've been his or his wife's turn this year, but the Dungeon Master's emergence had stabilized the shelter so dramatically that the tax issue resolved itself.

"...Anyway, after losing Grandma, my daughter got really depressed. I hope this Golden Ticket makes her happy. I've only seen the park on broadcasts, but it's amazing. Even when we lived on the surface, I'd never seen a place like that. I'm sure she'll forget her sadness there."

It was a heartbreaking story, even if he was downplaying it. But stories like this probably weren't rare in this world.

"Yeah, but an 8-year-old alone won't have much fun."

"...You're right. But getting extra tickets for her birthday is tough...."

"Here, take these. My birthday gift to your daughter. Might as well go as a family."

I held out two Golden Tickets.

"...I-I can't accept that!!"

"Just take 'em. I don't need 'em anyway...."

"Then at least take some money!!! I don't have much, but coins at least...."

Denver fumbled to pull out his money, but I stopped him.

He was already a bottom-tier explorer—where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was he gonna pull cash from? Even if he gave it, it wouldn't make a dent in my wealth.

I had coins overflowing to the point I didn't know what to do with them... and Golden Tickets? I could whip those up at home in a snap.

These things were too easy for me to obtain now—they held no value anymore.

'We met here by fate. Better to make good memories for the kid.'

What I'd gained in this dungeon—my red personal panties—was plenty.

After some back-and-forth, Denver finally accepted the tickets...

"Thank you... thank you... I'll repay this kindness someday...."

Denver kept thanking me through tears until the ticket duration ended.

*

Time passed, and we returned from the raid.

Right in front of me stood Elise.

This was the hallway in front of our apartments. We'd entered together, so we exited at the same spot.

For reference, after getting her rewards, she'd said she had something to investigate and headed to where I'd mass-exploded the slimes.

"Hmmm... I checked out the so-called Dungeon Disaster site, but all I saw were traces of something massive smashing into them and blowing them apart...."

"...You were still analyzing that?"

"Of course. It's suspicious no matter how you look at it... Didn't you see anything there?"

"...I closed my eyes in fear, then there was a huge boom and the slimes exploded...."

"That's exactly it!! Why is there no one who actually witnessed that moment?! Doesn't that seem weird? Plus, over half the variants clearly vanished due to someone, but no one in the raid party finds it strange!!!"

"......"

"It's fishy... No matter how I think about it, something was up with that raid party...."

If I end up raiding with her again, I might actually get caught next time....

*

A few days later.

The gallery was on fire over the Giant Slime subspecies stories.

Mostly analysis on Giant subspecies and minimum specs to handle them.

And the one thing you couldn't miss: the reward you only got from catching a subspecies in a raid dungeon.

Jelly gear enhancement.

Your armor turns red, and at the moment of impact, jelly sprays out to absorb shock automatically. Plus auto-repair.

Options you rarely saw outside top-tier gear for elites.

All explorers were going wild over this insane reward that turned their gear into treasures.

Even plain gear outperformed mithril or orichalcum specials in defense, and it even came with auto-repair?

Explorers obsessed with gear couldn't resist.

And this jelly-enhanced gear even got an official name...

From the red comet's Giant version—the subspecies—so it was called the Red Giant Set.

Maybe because the reward was gear upgrades? Even upper and top-layer explorers were signing up for raids like crazy lately.

Red Giant Sets were bound items, unlike Golden Tickets, so no trading.

As a result, top combatants joining made slime raids a breeze.

And then one of the Iron explorers from that raid spilled my story...

...No big issue.

Anyway, the Giant subspecies reward boosting explorers' combat power was probably...

"Because I wanted recent explorers to get stronger...."

I'd been thinking a lot lately about powering up explorers.

Especially after sensing the surface reclamation army's rough state.

Thorough dungeon reward systems to give them goals to grow stronger, ultimately to reclaim the surface.

That was my goal now.

It'd turn into a merit-based explorer society... but once we reclaim the surface, things would normalize eventually.

"What to open next...."

A bunch of new dungeons had been prepped in the meantime.