CH 244

Brushing aside everyone's protests to tell them the story of my previous life, I summoned B-rank Birds and left.

"Hey, you have to tell us more about being a Holy knight later! Don't even think of escaping! Allen!"

"..."

I silently accepted Cecile's words as she flew in from behind in a strong tone.

(I have to wait for the storm to pass. Well, I finally found it. But we were really lucky to find it on the first day after hearing about it.)

I had told my friends that we were going to stay in the dungeon for 4 days and 3 nights starting that day.

The square where we were transferred to was not infested with magical beasts, and other adventurers' parties were all lodged in that place as they wished.

Some parties used Golems who had a special plate to transform into a house and slept inside.

If night were to fall, I had no way of escape, but I had postponed the problem.

I had heard last night that there was a "hidden cube" somewhere on the 3rd floor.

The place where I heard that news was the Imperial Capital of the Giamut Empire, the residence of Hero King Helmios near the Royal Castle.

I had stationed 1 B-rank Spirit there.

Through that B-rank Spirit, I asked him about Beebe and other additional information that I was missing at the start.

Since Helmios was working mainly on the 4th floor, he had information about the 2nd and 3rd floors, although he told me he didn't know much.

In addition to the Helmios' mansion, I had spread my summons all over the world.

While the Capital of Rosenheim, Fortenia, was under reconstruction, so my summon was in Tiamo with the Queen and the Elders.

In a mansion near the Royal Capital of the Latash Kingdom where an elf diplomat was living

Viscount Granvelle's mansion in Grandver City

Rodan Development Village.

I had placed them in various parts of the world to gather information, as my friends and I were going to stay in the S-class dungeon for a long period of time.

I had done so in case the Demon King's army invaded and I didn't know about it.

I had placed 1 summon in the development village where my family lived, both to help with the construction work and to protect them from magical beasts.

To me, the most valuable thing in the world was a thriving family.

In addition, I had left 1 B-rank Dragon in Viscount Granvelle and Baron Carnell's territory to defeat magical beasts there. It was also incharge of raising Haku, the White Dragon, so it was quite busy.

Haku's food would be the most abundant food among the magical beasts the Dragon would defeat, but Haku continued to eat with an unbelievable appetite and was growing larger every day.

My friends and I entered a large hole in the rocky mountain.

"Thank goodness. It hasn't disappeared yet. Everyone, I'm going to talk to you, so brace yourselves."

Behind the large hole in the rocky mountain there was a cube-shaped object identical to the one in the square.

"Hm. Ok."

As he said so, Formar removed the bow from his back and held it over his chest.

"I'm going, then. Excuse me."

I, too, was wary, but spoke to the cube-shaped object nonetheless.

"Hello, Abandoned Gamers. This is the Dungeon Reward Exchange System S302. Would you like to exchange your Medals for stone tablets?"

(Not the Trap, but the Exchange system?)

"An exchange? Excuse me, may I ask you a few questions?"

"Please."

I decided to check out the details of what the cube-shaped object could do.

Only Iron class stone slabs and Medals could be exchanged

Medal could be exchanged for a stone slab or vice-versa

The exchange rate was 1 stone slab = 3 Medals

You can only exchange once.

If you want to exchange Medals for stone slabs, you will get one randomly selected Basic Stone Slab.

Special Stone Slabs require different number of Medals on piece by piece basis

Helmios told me that there were more than 1 cube-shaped object on the floor.

He said that they appeared somewhere in the floor, and after a period of time, they would respawn at another location like the Floor Bosses.

They could often, but not exclusively, be found in the large trees on the 2nd floor and in large holes in rocky mountains on the 3rd floor.

The exchange rate was fixed for the Basic Stone Slabs, but we could also get a wide range of Special Stone Slabs, such as those for gigantism, reinforcement, mobility for more Medals.

The number of Medals required depended on the type of stone slab being exchanged.

Some exchanges required more than 10 Medals.

Furthermore, the cube-shaped objects didn't just exchange Medals and stone slabs.

Sometimes they gave out Medals or stone slabs for free.

Other Times they transferred the founder to a bonus stage, death stage, and other locations outside of the normal floor.

The transfer to the death stage is said to be a forced transfer to another space with a large number of magical beasts.

As a result, the founding parties are sometimes surrounded by hordes of A-rank magical beasts and wiped out, which was apparently one of the reasons why there were so many wipeouts in the dungeon.

It seemed to be common knowledge among adventurers that "you should never talk to a hidden cube when you're not competent."

"I want to trade 3 Iron Medals for a Basic Stone Slab."

Without hesitation, I pulled out 3 Iron Medals from .

(Merle's Golem is a playful little thing.)

None of my friends stopped me as I generously exchanged the 3 Iron Medals we had obtained after running through the 3rd floor all morning.

They knew from our time in the Academy that I always sought the best strength for my friends, after all.

"Confirmed. Here is your item."

3 Iron Medals disappeared from my hand.

And the stone slab for an Iron Golem appeared and started floating softly as if it had lost gravity.

"Is this for the head? This is the first one. Just four more to go. I hope we don't get the head one again."

(Well, we will suffer repeats when we will only have one left.)

"Thanks..."

We had spent our entire morning's hard work to exchange for a stone slab. Merle was probably upset by our lack of hesitation as she tried to thank us.

"Here, try fitting this in the Magic Board."

"Uh-huh. Oh ...."

Merle inserted the head stone slab in one of the dents that I assumed to be for the Golem's head.

Merle was sorry, but she was able to take a step forward and her expression changed from anxiety to joy.

"Allen is so generous. He really was a Holy Knight. He must have a big heart. Yes, because he was a Holy Knight at that time too..."

"I see. So that's why he is used to dealing with Royalty and Nobility."

Cecile seemed to be concerned about the whole Holy Knight thing.

She said there was something about my actions and statements in the past that convinced her.

Kiel made a statement that added further conviction to Cecile's words, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

(Something about this just keeps getting more and more wrong.)

I, who was no longer able to say that I chose it just because I thought it was cool when I was in school, endeavored to be unresponsive.

But if I had said that the Holy Knight looked cool, Kurena and Dogora would have reacted even more strongly.

It was easy to imagine the two of them wanting to be Holy Knights.

The cube-shaped object slowly disappeared as if losing its outline.

(Oh, it disappears when it finishes its role? Well, next time...)

"Let's move towards the next rocky mountain. There's a Treasure Chest over there, so let's get it before it disappears."

"As expected of Master Allen."

Sophie, who played the role of the praiser, clasped her hands on her chest and said that she was impressed.

I sincerely hoped that the misunderstanding that Cecile and others were having could be cleared up.

It was the second day after we entered the S-class dungeon that I began to see so many clues about the strategy.

I was constantly using summons to have them check the rocky mountains.

The other adventuring parties had to move in a corresponding formation as the magical beasts could attack from the sand while they were moving.

Then they again had to change their formation in case there were magical beasts in the rocky mountains.

Thanks to that, they had to waste so much time.

But my friends and I didn't have to do that.

I had more than 1o summons to search the rocky mountains without loss of time and without rest.

(What? My vision changed all at once.)

While traveling with my friends on the B-rank Bird, the view of the B-rank Fish I was using  on changed.

"Mm? I mean, are we in the air? Gembu is flying through the air."

"What's wrong? Allen."

Merle noticed something unusual about me.

"Why are you stopping again?"

Cecile protested from behind as I had stopped in mid-air.

"No, I think I saw 'Scarlett'. I saw a long vermilion torso for a moment, but Gembu was going to get hit. Let's go over there for a minute."

"What? Scarlett is the S-rank Floor Boss of this floor, right? Why are we going there?"

"If I can't defeat it, we can just run away again. I just want to see what kind of magical beast it is. It is close to here!"

(S-ranks are not invincible. I want to defeat them.)

It was only the day before that we had to flee from Beebe, an S-rank magical beast, the 2nd Floor Boss.

Allen's friends had tensed expressions on their faces as Allen decided to change their destination to an S-rank magical beast.