CH 33

There were adventurers walking through the city of Rondalm.

Klein with the Class of Swordsman and Reese with the Class of Thief.

It was the two from Luce’s former party.

“….we really can’t do it by ourselves, shit. With just the two of us the efficiency goes way down. If we subtract our expenses we will end up in the red for today.”

Klein kept walking on the main road while scratching his head.

With Luce leaving the party, they intended to recruit a third person.

However, there were not many adventurers that were working alone and not for problematic reasons.

And with those that did exist, they weren’t able to find anyone that had a Class, level, and reward share requirements they approved of.

As someone on the recruiting side, Klein wanted somebody that was useful for the least possible share of rewards, but even the recruits had to worry about making a living.

With each looking only to better their own situations, they were almost never able to come to a compromise.

Even if they did, they would argue about the level or quality of equipment difference within the party.

Not being able to compromise again, Klein could not tolerate any disadvantage to himself.

So the two of them kept working by themselves, yet even when hunting a bit lower level monsters to avoid needless risk the monsters turned out to be quite dangerous to fight.

The worth of magic stones from monsters go up exponentially based on their level, therefore by hunting lower level monsters their reward money also went down by that much.

“With how things are we won’t be able to go into Dungeons until we can recruit a third member. Traveling there takes too much time and our expenses are too much for what we can get by delving into a Dungeon.”

Reese let out a sigh.

“We were unlucky. We used to get something after taking down two monsters; I didn’t think we would get nothing instead. Even the Heal Mushroom I thought was a certain drop was nowhere to be seen, even though we took down four Matangos.”

Klein clicked his tongue.

The Heal Mushroom was a really useful HP recovery item that was worth twenty thousand gold if you sold it, but you could also simply use it yourself if you needed to.

With the Matango itself being quite weak, Klein frequently used it as a convenient and efficient income source when things were tight.

Even today they hunted for them to get out of the red, but nothing dropped at all.

“….maybe Luce’s [Great Fortune] was working before? No other adventurers seemed to be going out of their way to hunt Matangos either. You said they kept their mouths shut about it to prevent it from being over hunted, but wasn’t it because even if they did they wouldn’t normally get much out of it because of the low drop rate….?”

“Tsk, shut up. It might’ve made a small difference, but I won’t believe it was that much.”

Even as he said that, it was obvious from his face that he was regretting his previous decision.

It was not easy to find a competent adventurer that would conveniently accept unfavourable terms to them.

From that point of view, Luce, who did the odd jobs and could even take part in the fight for cheap, was welcome.

Even though Luce had a low level, she had quite a high Agility, so she was able to contribute somewhat by disrupting the enemy and even attracting their attention for some time.

If they had just given her share from the last drop item, then she would’ve been able to overcome her lack of attack power by getting a better weapon too.

Klein could not help but recognize during this last Dungeon trip that Luce’s [Great Fortune] had some kind of effect on drop rates.

“If only she didn’t bring up wanting a cut of that Bloodstained Sword, I would’ve let her stay in the party.”

The rare drop called the Bloodstained Sword, with a Market Value of 2 million gold.

He didn’t want the lower leveled Luce to take away from that at all.

“Should we call her back? With how Luce is, she would come running if we said something. We should even be able to gloss over the topic of that rare drop.”

“Listen here, Reese. Even I have my pride here. There is no way I could just call her back after all that was said. I would rather just die than lower my head to her, you know? Fortunately, we have some money in reserve thanks to that sword. No need to panic that much. If people on a similar level to us won’t bend on their terms, then we will just need to slowly look for someone lower level who is sensible enough.”

Klein said this while heading for the adventurer’s guild.

Noticing that there was some kind of hubbub within the adventurer’s guild, Reese frowned.

“Perhaps someone managed to take down a high level monster or something.”

The two of them looked closer at the center of the commotion.

“An E rank adventurer and an F rank adventurer alone managed to conquer the Angel’s Toybox that had a Recommended Level of 50!? We indeed received a report of the disappearance of the Dungeon, but….”

The receptionist lady said in a surprised tone.

In front of her stood the two people they walked away from the other day…. Luce and Elma.

“Th-those two!?”

Klein could simply not believe it.

Elma should’ve been around 【Lv：20】, the same as himself.

And Luce with her low level shouldn’t have been any help with conquering the Angel’s Toybox at all.

“We didn’t really conquer it per se. We were just attacked by a Wandering Lord. We have its magic stone too, but if you doubt us anyway, then you should ask the adventurers that got caught up in it too. There were two people that we managed to save.”

“I understand. Since the city offered a reward for conquering the Angel’s Toybox, we will need to confirm things first.”

There are sometimes rewards offered for conquering Dungeons near villages or cities.

Dungeons that are left alone for a longer time would more frequently release monsters into the world, and sometimes even cause other monster related disasters.

The difficulty of a Dungeon, or its Recommended Level, is greatly dependent on its location.

There is a clear separation between territories where high level Dungeons tend to spawn and territories where lower Dungeons do.

There are many theories as to the reason for it. Some say it’s because the mana flows are denser in certain regions, others say it’s somehow because of a bias of the Sleeping God Alzaros, but nobody knows for sure in the end.

High level adventurers operate around cities where more dangerous Dungeons spawn.

It leads to a higher income and it’s good for the kingdom too.

Because of that there was no adventurer in Rondalm who could take down the Dream Lord of the Angel’s Toybox, therefore the leader of the city put up a reward for clearing it out, fearing that it would be left alone too long.

“Huh, so there was even a reward for it. I didn’t think we would have anything to do with it, so I didn’t even look it up. How much will that be?”

“It’s 10 million gold.”

Hearing that number from the back, Klein could not help but exclaim.

“10 million!?”

It was five times the Market Value of the Blood-stained Sword that caused him to chase away Luce before.

“10 million gold, huh. It will come in handy at this point.”

“I think I should be happy about it, but…. because of all those drop items my money sense has already gone numb, so I don’t really know how to react to it.”

Luce absent-mindedly murmured.

Klein managed to overhear it.

Those two don’t even seem to care too much about 10 million gold.

“W-was it the [Great Fortune]….? D-did they get a rare drop from a Recommended Level of 50 Dream Lord….?”

That Elma guy tried to scout out Luce as soon as he noticed her having [Great Fortune].

And then they went for a big game right away.

In addition to that, they show no sign of being awed by that 10 million gold at the least.

They most likely managed to get a drop item even more valuable than that.

Klein didn’t want to admit to the effect Luce had, but he couldn’t help but do so now.

If they went exploring deep in the Angel’s Toybox with its Recommended Level of 50 with aim of getting drop items, all with the same drop rates they had while hunting lower level Matangos, then it wouldn’t be strange if they managed to gather a few million or maybe even a few dozen million gold worth of drop items.

“The investigation shouldn’t take that long, so we will be able to pay out the 10 million gold very soon. After that, in accordance with the Guild rules, we will be promoting the two of you to D rank adventurers. Luce-san will be skipping a rank it seems. Um, well, promotion thanks to defeating a high level Dream Lord is a rare case and I’ve never come across one before, so I will make sure that I have every detail right first.”

The receptionist lady started shuffling her papers.

“Luce, a D rank….”

Klein was only recently recognized as an E rank adventurer after great pains.

Reese was only an F rank adventurer still.

They say that it’s especially difficult to reach D rank and in Rondalm there were at most ten of them present.

It’s what separates well accomplished adventurers from the rest.

“S-somehow Luce managed to become a cut above the rest in a blink of an eye. I thought she might be doing fine, but I didn’t think she would go that far. Haah….it seems the fish that got away was the biggest one.”

Just as Reese finished saying that, Klein dashed forward to the duo.

“…..Klein? Is there something you want….?”

“Luce…. I was in the wrong! I realized my mistake and I will change, so won’t you come back!? Let’s divide the money from the Bloodstained Sword three-ways after all!”

Klein almost ended up smashing his face into the floor; he bowed his head so fast as he begged at Luce.

Luce and Elma were looking at Klein’s lowered head with cold eyes.

“Let’s go, Luce. It seems the investigation will take a bit.”

“….yes.”

Luce and Elma simply passed by the bowing form of Klein.

“H-hey, wait a moment please! Please just hear me out at least!?”

Klein hurried after Luce.

“Ugh….”

Reese involuntarily recoiled in disgust.

It seems what he said before about how he would rather die than lower his head was being ignored right now.