The Lake Sunfish

Flat on my stomach, I watched a system window blink in front of my eyes, nagging me to register already.

I tapped No, obviously.

Ding-dong.

Ah. I was screwed.

It had come up private, sure — but with Summon written right beside it, the truth was plastered in plain sight. One summoner, one summon. A summoner had cleared the floor with a single summon in tow.

This was not the moment to bask in the fact that the summon was mine. I'd finished the thing so flashily I'd blanked for a second, startled when that tentacled sunfish suddenly charged us — and especially because it was blindingly obvious the thing meant to tear us apart.

"Ah!!"

Clara seemed to realize only then. She came shuffling up in front of me, hesitant.

"I-I'm sorry. It was so gross I lost my head."

"Mm... Clara, let's go home first and think it over."

"O-okay..."

Thump. Thud.

Clara and I transferred onto the folding mattress spread across my bedroom floor. After clearing Floor 0 I'd had to crawl over bare dirt, and the bed had come back so filthy that I'd gone out and bought a new one.

First things first — the new rewards.

I pulled up the stack of system windows waiting on me.

An Elixir of Youth. A one-second dose didn't look like much, but it was worth about a hundred and fifty dollars.

One second? Just swallowing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thing would take longer than that — or so you'd think.

You can combine them and stretch the time.

That was how it grew. One minute, one hour, one day. Even a mere one-second vial traded briskly because of it.

A lowest-grade magic stone fragment ran about ten dollars. They were used to repair gear that came out of the Tower.

And last, the Easily Broken Iron Sword. That one — well, it dropped on an unranked floor, so it was an item with hardly any value at all.

I could have sold the lot on the spot, but first I decided to step into the gallery on the system window. Anyone in the country would have seen that ding-dong.

Just as I'd expected, the board was refreshing without a pause. Most of it was about me.

I'd thought from the title that it wasn't about me. It was about me.

Hmm.

I checked the posts that were blatantly about me, too.

...Maybe this doesn't feel bad?

Did I have a hidden streak of attention-seeking? Watching the gallery roar over the private summoner was fun.

Just yesterday, fresh off awakening, I'd posted asking people to recommend a summon. Someone might suspect WheelchairHunter was the one on the rankings. The guy who shitposts every single day goes quiet at a moment like this? I needed to bait as hard as I could.

For a board that usually crawled with chronically twisted people, things had gone better than I'd expected. Today, I was even grateful to them.

I looked to the side. Clara was still sitting there, utterly deflated.

I didn't want to see her looking that crushed. And since it had already come to this, I decided to change how I thought about it.

"Clara, think we can seven-second the next floor too? How about we just keep updating the rankings as private from here on?"

"Y-you're not mad anymore?"

Mad?

Oh. So I had been angry. With Clara's stats, I'd expected she'd make the rankings. Even so, the reason I hadn't wanted first place was the attention.

And the reason I didn't want attention...

Because someone might covet my summon.

...Have I gotten this possessive in a single day?

I felt a little ashamed.

"Yeah. It's all right now, Clara. I'm sorry my attitude was bad earlier."

"No! I was the one who messed up!"

"I'm not angry anymore, so come on. Get up."

She sprang to her feet.

Clara, who had been sitting there all drooped, was upright in an instant. And the hand she held out toward me.

"H-hold my hand."

I must have worried her.

I took Clara's hand in both of mine.

"I should have said this first. Thank you for climbing Floor 1 with me today, Clara."

"It was nothing!"

She was someone who, looking straight at my crippled lower half, hadn't minded in the slightest. As if she couldn't see it at all.

"I'm glad I have you, Clara."

"I love you too!"

Her mood restored in a heartbeat, Clara threw herself into my arms.

The next day.

A soft rustle.

"Uh... Clara?"

"If that is all the difference between Floor 1 and Floor 2, then this time I won't even need to draw my sword!"

"Then lying face-down, the same as last time, is...?"

"I can't leave my husband on the floor like that!!"

Faced with eyes that burned like fire, I couldn't refuse any further. In truth her irises were red, so perhaps they had only looked like flame.

"Th-thank you, Clara..."

"I love you too!"

These days, the moment I said anything affirmative, Clara answered that she loved me. No exceptions. And so, locked in a princess carry, I called the system window.

"System window."

I tapped the newly appeared Floor 2, and we entered the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tower.

A field scaled to the floor: twenty meters across, twenty deep, twenty high.

Set in the spot farthest from the Preparation Room's wall was the same tentacle sunfish as on Floor 1.

The difference was a lake ten meters across, sitting dead center.

It could dive in to put out the fire clinging to its body for all I cared. With Clara's stats, even a lake-tentacle sunfish would be easy without Prayer. She had swordsmanship among her traits, besides.

"Well then. Shall we?"

"Anytime!"

Watching the window — twenty minutes now, stretched to match Floor 2 — I tapped Yes.

Clang—!

In that instant, just as on Floor 1, the lake sunfish came flying at us.

Fwoosh!!

In a heartbeat the lake sunfish's body roared up in flame. It charged straight through anyway.

Thud. Crash and tumble.

Normally a lake sunfish lands around the fifteen-meter mark, just past the lake. It can't cover twenty meters in a single bound. But this one, swallowed in fire mid-flight, drove its head into the dirt and slid the rest of the way, blacking out right in front of us.

Its tentacles were still twitching, but it showed no sign of moving again.

Ding—!

The chime I'd been waiting for rang out, and a system window rose before our eyes.

A system window declaring we'd entered the record ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠books on the same seven-second clear as yesterday.

The same seven seconds, no less.

Ding-dong.