Chapter 20: Dungeon Attack!

The requests we’ve accepted is the collection of a fruit with medical properties, the Ria, and the collection of the similarly medicinal Mufla grass. Both of them can be harvested from the place called 『The Abyssal Forest』 that stretches out at Motsi City’s western side. Looking from outside, 『The Abyssal Forest』 looks just like a normal forest but going inside it’s a vast Dungeon that spreads out and seems to have turned into a separate dimension. Naturally, it’s filled with monsters, and if you don’t have the ability to beat them down, you can’t enter 『The Abyssal Forest』.

Every year, many adventurers have challenged 『The Abyssal Forest』 without ever coming back. The deeper you go, the stronger the monsters get. Furthermore, life-threatening traps and difficult to escape mazes await deeper inside. As its name implies, a vast forest spreads in 『The Abyssal Forest』, and of course, fruits, herbs, and other vegetation grow wildly inside.

Compared to other places, the Dungeon has far more of what’s called Mana inside, and compared to other harvesting spots, it seems like the plants here have stronger medical effects. For that reason, the collection requests are constantly available, so without the need to force themselves to fight, beginners like me can do requests in peace. Also, the Dungeon’s entrance and exit are controlled by the Guild, so only the D Rank adventurer’s and above are allowed to enter it. Since Urania and I are both D Rank, there’s really no problem at all.

「What do we need?」 「It’s a day trip, so we don’t need food. Just Potions maybe?」 「I can use Healing Magecraft, you know?」 「Just that, is dangerous. You’ll run out of Magic Power, and stuff.」

Ah, I see. While it is practically impossible, it’s true that if I ever run out of Magic Power, it’ll get pretty dangerous since I can’t use Healing Magic and such. And on top of that, it’s not like I’m always at a state where I can use Healing Magic immediately, so we’ll need to have some just in case, huh.

Thus, we bought a few bottles of Potions and, just in case, food. After that, we bought a simple map. The map was a rip-off, costing three silver coins with barely anything on it, but having this or not still makes a big difference. At least locations of the exit and the things that can be treated as landmarks are drawn on it, so even if we get lost, we can probably still find the exit.

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「Hey? Aren’t we being watched?」 「It’s always, like this. But, there’s, probably more?」

To enter 『The Abyssal Forest』, we were waiting for admission at the Guild’s established entrance, but it feels like we’re attracting attention. I can’t be sure if it’s just that two girls really attract a lot of attention, or that maybe the rumors about me ended up causing us a lot of attention, but as expected, it feels like there’s quite a lot of vulgar gazes from the crowd.

Well, if they’re just looking then even if it’s a bit unpleasant, it’s not like they’re doing me any harm, so it’s probably fine to just leave it be. If they do plan on doing something, then that time it’ll be fine to just handle them with no mercy. Just like earlier in the guild.

Having a D Rank Adventurer Card, we entered the 『Abyssal Forest』 with no particular problems. Still, the guild staff holding out their hand, asking 「Can I shake your hands?」 really surprised me. Do rumors really spread that fast in just one day? Well if it’s just a handshake, then I don’t have any reason to refuse them, so it’s fine.

「It’s really wide. Also, a lot brighter than I expected.」 「It’s still the outer layer. The deeper you progress, the darker it gets.」

On the Dungeon’s entrance is a five-meter wall made by joining logs together, and the whole area beyond the gate is the Dungeon, 『The Abyssal Forest』. At the place that we entered, sunlight can be seen here and there, making it much brighter than I imagined. Our targets, the Ria fruit and Mufla herb, seem to be located in the outer layer, so it looks like we don’t need to worry about visibility while the sun’s still up.

Still, we went out before noon, and since it took us about two hours of walking to arrive, it’s already well past noon. There’s not that much time before sunset, so there is a need to hurry, but it looks like Urania has some kind of plan.

「Well then, Urania. What should I do?」 「Nn, just wait a bit. I’ll just, find its scent.」 「Find its scent?」

Saying so, Urania closed her eyes and started concentrating. So I don’t get in her way, I took vigilance and watched the surrounding area. While inside the Dungeon, monsters usually just wander about, it looks like there are times where monsters just suddenly appear. The Dungeon’s situation hasn’t been really clarified, so I don’t know the details, but it seems that when the dense Mana inside the Dungeon gathers and gets condensed, it becomes a monster’s core, a Magic Core. And then the Magic Core once again converges the surrounding Mana and takes the form of a monster, it seems.

Since a Magic Core is just a lump of Mana, it’s possible to convert it into high-quality Magic Power, the Guild buys it up for a high price. The small ones are used even by the common household since there are Magic Items run on Magic Power. It’s something like a battery in my past life.

「Found it.」 「Oh? That’s pretty fast.」 「Nn, I have confidence in my nose. It’s here.」

It still hasn’t been three minutes since Urania started concentrating. It seems like she really found it in that short amount of time, Urania steps deeper into the forest without any hesitation. Thereafter I see a tree with a yellow fruit growing on it. Urania nimbly climbed the tree, eventually plucking a fruit, and throwing it towards me.

「Whoops, got it. So this is a Ria, huh?」 「Yeah, take a bite. A high-quality Ria has a strong sweet taste.」 「Heh~……… Mmmm, you’re right. The first bite’s really sweet.」

As Urania told me, I took a big bite at the Ria in my hand. Still, even if I call it big, my mouth’s pretty small so I just ended up looking like a hamster. I can only describe it’s flavor as sweet. If it’s just a mouthful then it’s fine, but eating a whole fruit feels like it’s going to give me heartburn.

「Nn, we got more than I expected.」 「We were lucky. It’s usually just about a third of this.」 「We really were lucky, huh. Do you already know where the Mufla grass is?」 「Leave it to me.」

While I cram a few dozen Ria into the 【Dream Storage】, Urania started concentrating once again. This time it took a bit longer, but it seems like she found it. However, it seems like there’s a little bit of trouble.

「Found it, but…」 「But?」 「There’s a monster nearby. What do we do?」

It seems like there’s a monster near the Mufla grass. We discussed for a while, but since it’s a good chance, we’re going to take look at the enemy’s condition and try taking them out. I don’t know much about the Dungeon’s monsters, but since we have my Magic, we probably won’t fall into some life-threatening danger. This way, I can also measure Urania’s fighting strength, so we’ve decided to fight this one time.