CH 43

Felicy taught me where to buy tools, but the tools were more versatile than I expected. Still, because of my item bag, they didn’t weigh that much.

The load capacity of my tool bag is a whopping forty kilos, and it’s custom-made to weigh about forty-three kilos when filled to the max. I need to add more belts to wrap around my waist and thighs depending on the weight or my pants would fall down, but it’s very convenient because I can pack a lot of things without thinking too much about it.

I asked Sasuka-san if I could fill it with stuff, no matter how heavy it would be, and he said yes, this 《 Treasure Hunter Gear No. 1 》 was the one that reproduced the maximum amount of load that could be produced with current technology, and there were indeed prototypes with a higher amount of load, but Helvetia told me 『 It’s distorting your Magic Power 』 so I put them aside.

It seems to be difficult to fix the distorted magic power, and it weighs three kilos even without anything inside it, but I’m not bothered by the weight, so it’s not a problem at all.

After leaving the royal capital, the four of us were walking through the plains when Kana complained.

「 Hey, isn’t it troublesome to walk? Why don’t we just wait for a carriage to pass by? 」

She was immediately rebutted by Lettie though.

The three of them quickly gathered information, and easily enough we learnt that normally when a dungeon has been found, a carriage would always be sent out to take people to it and back. At the moment though, we are traveling on foot because there are no carriages heading towards that dungeon yet.

It’s fortunate that it was close and walking is possible, but it would still normally take just short of two days to walk there from the Capital.

「 You don’t need a carriage if it’s this close, so there won’t be many people riding in it after all. Worst of all, there won’t normally be a carriage provided, right? 」

I don’t know if there are carriages that don’t go out based on distance, but I guess that’s to be expected since driving carriages is not charity work.

「 That’s right I guess, so do you have any suggestions? 」

「 Well, there’s nothing we can do about that but stay together. On another note, the place we are heading to is a 《Cave Type 》 Dungeon and because there are many passages inside, we should expect a lot of pincer attacks, but I could at least leave behind one side to you, right? 」

「 Off course! 」

I nodded proudly as I replied, I don’t like doing nothing because it makes me feel guilty when I get paid later. All three of them are well coordinated, so they generally don’t make any mistakes during the battles, and if there is someone who can keep wiping out the enemy coming from behind, it would be so much the better.

「 Are there other types beside caves? 」

「 Yup, though in general, there are mostly cave types, but I also heard about 《 Building Types 》 that sometimes resemble passages, castle interiors, or halls 」

「 Also the cave type monsters are by far the easiest to fight!」

「 Many cave monsters are based on insects and animals, while many building type monsters are based on undead, ghosts, and humans. 」

「 I see 」

As I walked along, asking questions and getting answers from the three of them, I felt like I was beginning to understand 《 What a Dungeon is like 》.

・ A dungeon is a general term for an exploitable cave or building created by a natural phenomenon.

・ In rare cases, rare items can be found in dungeons, and adventurers search for them.

・ At the far end, there is a 《 Core 》 that can be destroyed into small pieces and used as gems, which can be sold for a considerable amount of money.

・ If you don’t take away the core from the dungeon, the dungeon will continue to grow forever, so you have to remove the core while it’s as small as possible to destroy its function as a dungeon. (But apparently there’s no known problem when it gets too big).

・ It’s unclear where the inside of the dungeon is connected to, and it seems that even if the first layer is a cave, it’s not uncommon to go down the stairs and suddenly find yourself in a place that looks like the inside of a building.

・Monsters can 《 Spawn 》 inside a dungeon, and traps exist as well.

This is what it’s like according to what I have heard from the three.

I guess you could look at it as if entering a monster’s lair, which I’ve done a few times, so I don’t see a problem with that.

We continued walking while having small talks and camped out after it started becoming dark, and the next day we walked a bit more and finally arrived at the entrance to the dungeon.

There was a big hole in the middle of the steep cliff, and it seemed to be quite large because I could see the hole even from quite a distance away from the place.

There seemed to be several parties already in front of the entrance of the dungeon, and I could see tents piled up just a bit away from the entrance, like a campground.

「 Okay, let’s take a break and have some snacks before we go. 」

We didn’t take out a tent or anything, and there was no need to pitch one, so we just sat directly on the grass and had an early meal.

I took out some dried meat and refried beans that I had stuck in my tool bag and ate them while looking at the cave.

「 The entrance sure is big 」

「 Right, and I’m glad that I would be able to use my spear just fine since it’s not that narrow 」

「 How strong are the monsters in the cave?」

「 It would be good if they are not that strong, though if they are weak then the Core would be easily conquered, right? 」

As we were laughing and chatting, I saw a party coming out of the cave.

There were two men and two women, and the fact that they didn’t look too happy suggested that the dungeon search had not gone well.

They were heading towards a tent, but when they noticed our presence on the way, one of the men talked to the other members and came towards us, leaving behind his party members.

A tall man in his twenties with short hair and stubble, I honestly don’t remember him at all, I wonder if he knew Lettie and the others?

The tense air gets stronger as the man approaches, it seems like he doesn’t know Lettie and the others, I wonder what it is.

「 Yo, the three ladies and red-eyed were close, huh? 」

「 Nn, and do you have any business with us? 」

I reacted spitefully to the sudden familiarity of the greeting, but the man waved his hands in apology with an impatient look on his face.

「 I’m sorry, I’m just here to give you some information, don’t get too worked up all of a sudden 」

「 Information? 」

「 How much are you planning to sell it for? 」

Kana and Lettie were also listening with a quizzical look on their faces, and I could understand why they would be a bit defensive.

「 How about 50,000 Gris? 」

「 It’s too expensive, rejected. 」

「 …… Sorry, I overcharged you a bit too much. Then how about five thousand? 」

「 On the contrary, no, it’s a little too cheap that it’s suspicious 」

「 Well, I’m sure you guys will have no problem moving on without asking, and frankly, it’s pretty much a free bargain already, so would you like to have a little chat 」

I see, he called us by two names, and he’s someone who knows exactly what we’re capable of when it comes to fighting.

But I also understand Felicy’s standpoint that it is too cheap making it suspicious, because we don’t know who we are dealing with, and it could be someone who is trying to trap us in some way.

「 Then just tell your story, and we’ll decide how much the price for the information after hearing about it 」

Lettie told the man, and he nodded in response then started speaking.

「 Our party decided to abandon the dungeon search, there was no damage, but there was a rather nasty opponent guarding the second level 」

「 What is it? 」

「 I don’t know the rank of the ore, but it’s stronger than iron, and none of our attacks are getting through, so we’ve just given up 」

「 And, how do we get to the second level? 」

「 I’ve put a red line up until the entrance, so if you get lost, just look for it and follow. 」

「 How does the Golem attack? 」

「 There were two types, physical attacks using swords and magical attacks. The magic spells it used were 《 Piercing Icicle 》 and 《 Stone Fall 》. It moves fast, but it doesn’t want to leave the front of the gate that leads to the second level, as if it was guarding it. 」

「 What is the Golem’s attack pattern? 」

「 Mostly Physical. Though if we reached a distance far enough from it while fighting, we heard a voice saying 『 Warning, Cease all combat operations and return to the area 』 that’s why we thought about the reason and concluded that we were only being threatened 」

「 What other parties might possibly be able to take it down? 」

「 At the moment, that would be zero, there’s also no one famous around that may be able to handle that golem. One normally won’t be able to beat that Golem, and even if you could ignore it and move on, it would still be too dangerous to explore the second level, especially with that thing guarding the entrance. And then there are around 5 parties probing the place, so please don’t expect there to be any treasures in place 」

「 Is layer 1 really wide? 」

「 Well it’s not that big, but there are a lot of forks in the road. We found our way to the second level almost in a straight line, so I don’t know how big it is, but I don’t think it took us more than two hours to fight the monsters and reach there, even fighting every monster along the way 」

Lettie listened to the story of the man, and after a few moments thinking about it, Lettie muttered, “I see,” then pulled out a large gold coin.

「 It would be worth it, if it’s true. Ten thousand, okay? 」

「 Yeah, that’s a lot of money 」

「 With that, we have a deal. Well then, see you around. 」

After we handed the payment to the man we have around 10,000 Gris left, we finished our break and moved on to the final inspection of our tools.

「 Now, as you heard earlier, we’ll ignore the first layer. Let’s quickly defeat Golem on the second layer, get the items and then return 」

Lettie steps away from us as if in a strategy meeting and instructs us, and I, a little curious, raised my hand to ask a question.

「 If, if we just leave Golem alone, won’t all the adventurers just give up? 」

「 To, Toto-chan, that’s one scary idea you got there…….! 」

Covering her mouth with both hands, Felicy face united blue. I thought I wouldn’t like it if the other adventurers who came after dragged me out, but I guess that won’t happen.

「 The fact of the matter is, as long as there is even the slightest chance that there is a party in the mix that can beat Golem, I don’t think you should do that. The dungeon gets deeper the more time goes by, And it wouldn’t be fun to have strong adventurers come here after hearing a such rumor 」

「 Indeed 」

「 You have no objections now, do you? So, let’s go to the second level immediately and kill Golem quickly 」

Ooh! The three of us shouted, and we headed for the entrance of the cave.