“Alright, break time is over! Let’s measure again.”
At Aisha’s instruction, Yuma redid all the measurements, including his muscle strength. The measurements were completed in less than thirty minutes, and it seemed the necessary data was obtained.
“How was it?”
When the president asked, Aisha grinned with satisfaction.
“Muscle strength is up by 8%, agility by 6%, and endurance by about 5%.”
“What? That’s lower than I thought. The Silver Magic Ore you brought back before increased it by nearly 10%, right?”
“No, this is fine, Kotaro. This might prove my theory.”
“What theory?”
The president frowned.
“It’s known that Demon Ore enhances the body, but how it enhances it isn’t well understood. The main debate is whether it’s ‘multiplicative’ or ‘additive’.”
“Multiplicative and additive?”
Yuma couldn’t help but ask. Aisha cheerfully replied, “Yes.”
“As I said before, this Physical Enhancement Ability is a type of ‘magic.’ It’s constantly active inside the Dungeon. Oh, that’s right, Yuma-kun, yours is active even on the surface.”
Aisha chuckled and continued.
“It’s about how the enhancement ability is calculated. Whether the ability increases by a percentage or by a fixed amount has been debated among researchers for years. There’s still no answer.”
“Is that so?”
“But Yuma-kun! Thanks to you, we might find the answer!!”
“Eh? Me?”
Yuma was confused by the sudden turn of events.
“What we found in this measurement is that the same Demon Ore might have a lower effect the second time it’s used. Do you know why, Yuma-kun?”
“Eh? Why, you ask…”
Yuma racked his brain, but of course, he couldn’t come up with an answer.
“It means the same type of Demon Ore is being added. In other words, if you have a base physical strength of 100 and it increases by 10%, your base physical strength becomes 110. If it increases by 10% again, it becomes 121, but that’s if you calculate it multiplicatively. If the initial 10% is added to another 10%, it becomes 20%, which, when applied to the base physical strength, becomes 120. So, there’s a difference of 121 and 120 here. That’s the theory I’m proposing. If the types of Demon Ore are the same, they’re added together and then multiplied by the base physical strength, but if the types of Demon Ore are different, they’re multiplied separately. Does that make sense?”
“…………No, not at all.”
Yuma answered with a distant look, and the president, for that matter, shifted his gaze outside the window, not even listening.
“Well, in short, thanks to you, my theory might be proven, and I might be able to publish a paper.”
“Ah… that’s good.”
Yuma didn’t understand at all, but he didn’t feel like asking any further.
“Well, that’s beside the point. Yuma-kun, there’s something I’ve been curious about for a while now.”
“What is it?”
“Just wait a moment.”
Leaving the bewildered Yuma aside, Aisha brought a scale from the back of the room. She placed it at Yuma’s feet, smiled brightly, and stood up.
“Could you weigh yourself?”
“Ah, sure, I guess.”
As Aisha told him, Yuma stepped onto the scale. The digital display showed a number.
“61.2 kilograms, huh…”
Aisha wrote the weight down in a notebook.
“Next, turn into your Metal Armor state.”
“O-Okay.”
Without understanding what Aisha wanted to do, Yuma used Metallization and then Liquid Metallization to cover his body in Metal Armor.
At the sight of the black, intimidating, monster-like figure, Aisha let out a voice of admiration.
“It’s really impressive when you see it up close. Now, could you weigh yourself again in that form?”
“Yes…”
Yuma stepped onto the scale in his Metal Armor state.
“Hmm, I see… 83 kilograms, huh.”
“Eh!?”
The president couldn’t believe his ears at Aisha’s words.
“83 kilograms? Does that mean it increased? Your weight?”
“That’s right. When Yuma-kun is in his Metal Armor form, it looks like his body gets about one size bigger. I was curious about what was happening with his weight.”
“What’s going on? Can the Demon Ore ability do something like that?”
The president asked Aisha while staring intently at Yuma’s body.
“No, normally it’s impossible. Yes, normally.”
After speaking ambiguously, Aisha muttered “I see, I see” while nodding repeatedly.
“Now then—”
Aisha turned to the president, sending a sharp gaze.
“Today is the promised week. Kotaro, let me hear your opinion. Do you think Yuma-kun can go to the 56th Stratum and bring back twenty Demon Ores?”
The president extinguished his cigarette in the portable ashtray, letting the exhaled smoke escape out the window.
“Well, I was going to refuse, thinking that there’s no way a Seeker’s combat ability could improve in just about a week…”
“But it was different?”
Aisha smiled slyly.
“With Yuma’s current strength, he should be able to clear the request. I guarantee it.”
“It’s decided then!”
Aisha looked at Yuma’s face.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to the 56th Stratum! We’ll collect twenty Bloodstained Ores. If we have time, we’ll aim for even lower strata. Is that okay?”
“Yes, I understand!”
“Guess I have no choice, let’s just do it!”
Aisha nodded in satisfaction at Yuma and the president’s answers.
And the next day—
Yuma, the president, and Aisha were in the 56th Stratum of the Black Dungeon.