127-Chapter 8-3 Gold and Silver

It's pretty easy around here.

Yeah!

Blanca muttered as she smashed the goblins that jumped at her. It's the same with Amur, wielding a short spear and blasting the goblins together. I put a stop to the goblins they had defeated and bagged them one by one. Grandpa was behind us, alert for a back attack. Slarin and the others are not on the scene at all and are resting in their dimension bags.

'With this, can we not go further?

Yes.

Currently, we are warriors at the tenth level, but since Blanca and Amur say this is their first dungeon, they are hunting in a shallow area to get used to it and prepare for it.

However, the way things are going, there is no problem in fighting in the dungeon, so there is no problem in moving on to the lower floors.

Then, shall we have dinner soon? As I recall, there was a good place over here to take a break.

I proceeded to the nearest dead end. My actions caused Blanca to ask, "Isn't there a way out? He said, but when he saw that Grandpa didn't say anything, he followed him quizzically.

'It's okay,' he said. First we'll use earth magic to build a wall, then we'll make an air hole and voila, a simple resting place.

Oh!

Well, that's certainly a safe bet. And on this floor, only goblins would be able to come out of it.

This is what I used to do when I dove into dungeons.

Blanca and Amour let out an exclamation and Grandpa looked nostalgic.

'But Blanca, nothing in the dungeon is against demons alone.

'Well, in a way, the person you have to be most careful about is your peers (...) who are hiding in the dungeon.

That's not what I meant.

The bandits are back! I'm going to wrap you up in the opposite direction!

The most common cause of death in the lower levels of the hierarchy is looting by peers and thieves. Incidentally, the second most common cause is illness and infection (poison) due to injury, and the third most common cause is demons. That's how dangerous it is to run into a competitor in a dungeon.　

So like Amur said, if you repel an attacker, if you properly report it to the guild and it's acknowledged, you can take all the possessions of the person you defeated as your own. Well, it can be said that there are some people who attack others with a plan to cheat by making a false report to the guild, so there won't be no more idiots forever.

''There's Slarin, Shiroumaru, and me, though, so we won't be attacked by surprise so often. Well, better to be cautious, I suppose.

Wow?　

Out of the bag, Shilomar, covered in a hunk of meat, said, "What did you say? But he nodded his head as if to say. That made me feel a little uneasy, but Slarin seemed to have heard me correctly, so he would remind Shiroumaru later.

'Temma, I'm hungry!

Amur tugged at my sleeve, holding his own stomach. I heard a small noise, let's keep it quiet.

I made two simple hearths in the center of the room, filled them with coals, lit them and put a net on them. All that was left to do was to grill the meat and vegetables.

In addition to the meat and vegetables, I have some rice balls and bread to grill and eat as you wish.

Four people and two animals sat around the two hearths. I had to laugh at the sight of Shiroumaru and Solomon sitting there with drooling, expectant eyes.

'When we're done with the break, let's dive further down. You've gotten pretty good at fighting in the dungeon, haven't you?

Yeah. It's not easy to compete with all the goblins. But Temma, it seems like there aren't enough goblins, is this always the case?

The number of goblins I've killed after diving to this point is roughly around thirty. This is a smaller number than usual, just as Blanca felt. But there's a bit of a reason for this.

''Ah, it seems that the guild has been buying goblins as materials recently. That's probably why there are so few goblins.''

According to the information I acquired before diving into the dungeon, the guild has recently bought the corpse of a goblin in the guild. Moreover, the client is the government office in Seigen. It seems that this is an effort to buy goblins that they normally wouldn't buy as part of the countermeasure against the overflow of adventurers in Seigen, and give them some wages in an effort to suppress the riots as much as possible. The aim is that if they have a little money, they can eat and drink, and they might save up their money and flow to other cities. However, the purchase price is only fifty G per unit, and if you sell ten more units at once, fifty G is only added to the price, so even if you buy the demon nucleus together, it won't even reach a thousand G. Even so, if you have a lot of experience there, you can safely hunt them with your bare hands, so it's said that they bring in quite a lot of them.

''By the way, I heard that the goblins you bought said that you were going to experiment to see if you could use them as fertilizer.

If they can be used as fertilizer, then goblins will be in reasonable demand in the future. Maybe in a few hundred years, goblins will be listed as an endangered species.

After that, we took a break for about an hour, and we started moving downward. We avoided the battle as much as possible until we reached the fifteenth level, but we were still blocked by some demons. Well, we took care of them with a touch of armor sleeve.

On the way, we passed a few peers, but they were all decent adventurers, so we didn't have any trouble.

We've arrived at the fifteenth level, right? I'm sure you'll be surrounded by insect demons on this floor as well, so if you're not careful, you might end up being surrounded by them before you know it.

Sure, that's the scary part about bugs.

Best to ignore the bugs!

The two of them said that their hometown has a lot of forest and they are used to dealing with insects.

For now, they decided to hunt in this area (although Amur seemed to be bothered by it) and continued to hunt while each of them paid attention to their surroundings.

Because the shells of insect demons are often light and strong, depending on their condition, they can fetch quite a high price, so they all dealt with the demons they defeated in a serious manner. Well, in my case, all I had to do was throw them into the magic bag from the edge of the defeated, but Blanca and Amur seemed to be bad at the detailed work, and they were having a hard time. At the end of the day, it seems to have become a hassle to deal with, and he asked me to keep it in the bag in the form of a request. However, the act of entrusting your prey to others often causes unnecessary trouble, so it was decided to lend me a spare magic bag that I had. I don't think the two of us would ever complain about it, but the line needs to be drawn.

However, it's not that common to encounter high-value demons around here. As for me, I'd rather have the white caterpillars that are often caught one floor below this one. However, I had decided to stay on this floor for today, so I decided to concentrate on getting rid of the bugs in silence.

''I don't have a good one... hmm?

The moment I used my search, I noticed a few of them reacting to the ceiling a little further away. I sneaked closer and looked at that ceiling and saw that there were golden and silver spiders sticking around.

Species ... the Golden Silk Spider.

Species.........Silver Silk Spider

These spiders have names that seem to be golden. In addition, there was one gold-colored one and four silver-colored ones.

I've never seen them before, so I'd like to catch them alive as much as possible...

They are each about 50 centimeters in size and look like a larger version of the flytrap spider. They have a vaguely charming face.

'As I recall, there's one that I could use.

When I was looking around yesterday, I remembered that I bought a tool that emits smoke that bugs hate. It was a ball about 5 cm in size and smelled like mosquito coils. It is harmless, but when you use it in a camping trip, it repels insects, and when insects are hit by the smoke, they can't move as if they were numb. I decided to give it a try for now.

Slarin, stay on the other side of those spiders. If this doesn't work and the spiders escape, grow up and catch them.

As I instructed, I saw Slarin move to the other side of the spiders, and I set the ball on fire and threw it right below the spiders. The lit ball immediately emitted a large amount of smoke and covered the spiders. The spiders were swallowed by the smoke and moved to get away at first, but soon ran out of steam and fell to the ground.

'Okay, it worked!'

I quickly ran over to the spiders and put them one by one in an insect cage I had made with earth magic. None of the spiders showed any signs of moving when I approached, so I wasn't sure if it would work, but I tried Heal (recovery) and Resist (increased resistance).

'What smoke is this!'

The smoke seemed to have spread to the other corridors, and my grandfathers came over to help. If there is a fire in the dungeon, if you don't take measures immediately, the damage may spread to the next two or three.

I just used smoke bombs to keep the insects away, it's not a fire!

Oh, my God, I thought the place was on fire and I panicked.

It startled me, it made a big mess...

I'm glad you didn't start a fire, but you could have told me if you were going to use a fire.

Sorry.

It seems that the fact that he silently used a smoke ball in the dungeon was a bit of a lack of consideration for everyone. He wasn't that angry, but as Amur said, he even ignored the state of the materials of the monster he was dealing with in order to check on us.

I was remorseful that I was rash and apologized to everyone and asked for their forgiveness.

I'm sure you've been wondering why you needed to use that thing. Tenma wouldn't have any enemies to use around here, would he?

'I found a demon I hadn't seen before, and I wanted to capture it alive as unharmed as possible, so I used a smoke ball... partly because I wanted to use it to see what a smoke ball felt like.

I put the spider I caught in front of everyone and showed it to them. Two of the spiders were dead at that point, but the rest seemed to be on the way to recovery.

Hmm, a very unusual spider, I've never seen one before.　

'It's covered in a harder shell than I thought. It's too small to be a full body, but it could be used for partial armor.

Tenma, are you making your debut as a freak?

Sure, it's a beautiful color, and it's hard enough to be used for armor, but I'm not going to use such fancy armor, and as it stands, my armor is sturdier than poor metal armor, and I think it's the highest quality leather armor available. In other words, like Amur said, there is no need for me to debut as a Leaner.

''What's a Leaner?''

'I've never heard that word before, what does it mean?'

Grandpa didn't seem to understand the meaning of what Amur said about the 'inclined person'. It was the first time for me to hear it in this world, so I followed his words and asked him.

"Old man Kay says it means a 'show-off' who likes to show off.

It also says something like, 'A person who is not influenced by the surroundings, but follows his or her own path. It may be a word from another country, since it was first used locally by that man (old man Kay), but the details are unknown.

Hearing Blanca's words, I knew that there was a high possibility that this old man Kay was the same kind (...) as me. I don't even know if he is a foreigner or a countryman, a person from the same period or a person from the Warring States period, but somehow I felt a sense of affinity with Grandpa Kay and his great-grandson, Amur.

'Well, I'd like to see Temma in gold and silver, but as an adventurer, I'm not sure I'd be able to use the color.　

Shame.

Amur doesn't know what's disappointing about it, but if you wear something of a prominent color when you hunt in the first place, it's easier for your target to find you out, so I've never seen an adventurer wearing gold and silver armor, as far as quicksilver is concerned... most of all, nobles, knights, etc. are the opposite. They often use flashy colored armor to show off themselves.

It's a good idea to get out of here for now. I'm also curious about the identity of the spider Temma caught.

With a word from Grandpa, we started to prepare to leave. We've already confirmed the location of the warp zone on this floor beforehand, so we all went back to the ground.

Then let's finish the purchase at the guild and then go home for a meal. It's going to be dark soon.

That's all well and good, but what about that spider Temma caught?

'I'm going to ask someone I know about it, since a guild would see numerous people and I don't have time. Besides, if I put it out in the guild badly, I might get spotted by some idiots.

But I'm sure Tenma would turn the tables on such an idiot to line his pockets... for sure!

Although Amur was quite rude, he couldn't argue with it, since he had earned his allowance that way many times before. However, it seems that it was the same for Grandpa and Blanca as well, and the moment Amur said it, they looked away a bit.......because it's a pretty efficient way to earn money, so it can't be helped.

''I understand what Temma is trying to say, but who are you going to ask?

'First of all, Aguri and the others, the Tamer's Guild, I guess? Or the djinns, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to ask the kings in a letter.

I said acquaintances, but I'm not a people person, so the only people I could think of who knew Seigen were Aguri and his friends, Jin and his friends, Amy's family and Master Ganz. It's not like I'm the one who talked to them and got to know them.

'Temma I feel sorry for you.

Maybe it was because of the small number of people I mentioned by name, but Amour gently put his hand on my shoulder and said in a heartfelt, sympathetic voice. For some reason, Grandpa and Blanca were also looking at me with kind eyes, which was very rude.

'Can you tell me who you know who has spoken to you from Temma?

"...Jeanne, Aura, Tida, Luna, Kelly, Albert, Leon, Cain and.............oh! Later, kings who came to the village of Kukri!　

I don't know a lot of people, but I'm talking to a lot of people! I was just wondering....

'Jeanne and Aura were just protecting the two of them from being injured, right? The same goes for Tida and Luna, and also for Alex and the others. I heard that the three idiots were following her, so it was probably her who approached them. Kelly ... isn't it normal to talk to the shopkeeper when you go shopping?

Tenma I'm sorry for your loss.

Temma, I don't think that's a good idea.

The people I mentioned were dismissed by Grandpa. Moreover, Amur had even more sympathy for me, and Blanca was quite serious about it.

''That's enough. I'll take 'narrow and deep' over 'broad and shallow' as my motto.

'Broad and deep' is fine, Temma, isn't it?

'Hmm, since Temma seems to know more women than she does, does 'narrow and deep' include 'male and female'?

'Temma, I'm a Temma first.

These three want to mess with me no matter what. At a time like this, if you argue poorly, you'll get hurt. So I decided to ignore the three of them and head to the guild on my own first.

"Temma, wait!

I've never seen Temma sulk like that.

It's a bit much.

I could see the three of them coming after me from behind, but I continued to ignore them until I walked through the guild door.

'So that's why Temma was in such a foul mood.

I've always been a bit of a mature person, so it was unusual to see Temma like that.

'You were so grumpy when you walked into the guild that I wondered what happened... pfft!

I know what you're thinking, but that's not...................

Menace, Leena, Jin, and Garratt, in that order, are talking about the time I came into the guild... As for the last two, I'll have them come along to relieve their gloom eventually.

Right now we're at a tavern near the guild. When we went to the guild, Djinn and the others had just finished their purchases at the guild and were about to go out to eat. They were talking about where to go to eat when we arrived, so they waited a bit and came to the tavern with us. Even though the number of people had just doubled, our table was lined with an amount of food that was clearly more than thirty servings.

'It's cheap and there's a lot of food here. If you're looking for a full meal, this is the best place in town.''

When I was surprised at some of the food in front of me, Jin said that as he reached for his food, but that's not what I'm talking about. If it's only a quantity, this is as much as you can get with Shiroumaru and Solomon. By the way, you can't send Slarin and the others out to the tavern, so the three of them are eating together in the bag. At first, Shiroumaru and Solomon were desperate to eat outside, but they became more docile when they ate only meat. I've been feeding them only meat lately, so it's time to get them to get some vegetables. And since my meat stock is getting low, I need to go hunting orcs in the dungeon.

''No, what I'm trying to say is that if we ask for it all at once, the food will get cold and not taste as good.

'No, that will be fine. Here.

Jin said, "What is this guy talking about? I made a face like that and pointed to Amur beside me and Blanca beside him. There were two tigers there, emptying their plates at an amazing rate.

''Hmm?''

It's nothing.

I couldn't say anything to the two of them as they looked at me together. Indeed, Jin was probably right, it might have been an unnecessary worry. On the contrary, I'm not going to be able to eat to my satisfaction at this rate.

I decided to go ahead and save some for myself before the two of them ate it all up, and then eat slowly.

In addition, as I had feared, because of Amur and Blanca, the meal was not enough for even thirty people.