CH 164

Episode 164 – Contents of the Newspaper and Books

After finishing the meal, I immediately decided to start reading the newspapers and the book that I had bought. Each newspaper issue cost me 5 copper coins. The book that I bought cost me 5 silver coins, which was pretty pricey, so I had high hopes for it.

The information from the reporter was pretty amazing, so I was thinking the book should be good, too. I picked up the newspaper first and started flipping through it. The contents of the newspaper articles included things like information about the results of a famous adventurer party’s Dungeon attacks in the last week and an interview with an adventurer from that party. There were also introductions of adventurer parties highlighted by the newspaper company as well as a section for weekly noteworthy news related to the Dungeon. One corner of the newspaper contained some tidbits about the Dungeon in small headings, which was mostly geared towards the Dungeon spectators.

After reading the various newspapers from different publishers, I found that they all covered fairly similar content, with the only difference being the adventurer parties that they featured. The newspapers were probably mainly for the people who considered Dungeon-spectating as a form of entertainment. In one newspaper, I spotted a provocative sentence or two about another adventurer party that was being covered by a different newspaper company. Perhaps each newspaper company had a contract with a different famous adventurer party and they were all competing to be the first to fully clear the Dungeon. In which case, the newspaper stalls were probably selling their product mainly to promote famous adventurer parties, while each Dungeon spectator probably had a favorite adventurer party that they were rooting for.

After reading the newspapers and reaching this conclusion, I gathered up the newspapers and put them aside and then picked up the book published by the Laudungeon Company. This book was titled, “The Dungeon of Landaust in One Book”, and it was most likely directed towards Dungeon-goers, so I was expecting great things from it.

Just like with the newspapers earlier, I began to thumb through the pages as I read. Soon enough, I found that the book’s contents consisted of a thorough rundown of information related to the Dungeon. It included a simple map of the Dungeon’s layout, information about the monsters that appeared on each layer, and even went over the special monsters that appeared on certain floors, which were called ‘Bosses’.

There was also some information about the minerals and plants that could be collected in the Dungeon, how to determine the rarity of treasure chests and how to tell whether they were Mimics or not, an explanation of the Safe Areas, and a beginner’s crash course on the Dungeon. Just as the reporter guy said, it was all in all a very useful book.

Thanks to this book, I gained a much better understanding of the Dungeon. But the more I learned, the less I could comprehend about it. In some ways, it felt more accurate to describe the Dungeon as being in a completely separate world from this one.

Sighing heavily, I set the book aside on top of the newspaper. My eyes hurt and my head was throbbing painfully partly because I had been so immersed in the book, but mainly because I had read through the entire thing without taking a single break.

Now that I had reached some level of understanding about the Dungeon, I wanted to try reading through the newspapers again, but… it was probably better to call it a day for now. I had been meaning to get rid of the fatigue from the trip, but I had been binge-reading nonstop, and it was already getting late.

It felt like a bit of a waste, but I decided to go to sleep without synthesizing plants.

★　　　★　　　★

The next day, I awoke to the sound of knocking on my room door. Maybe it was because I had stayed up late last night, but I didn’t feel very awake at all.

Pushing down the urge to sleep in, I crawled out of bed and opened the door.

“Good morning! I brought you breakfast!”

When I opened the door, there stood a smiling beast race girl standing there, holding a breakfast platter. Seeing the girl’s beaming face, my blurry, half-opened eyes widened.

“I see you’re delivering breakfast as well. Thank you for going out of your way this morning.” (Lewin)

“Not at all! Breakfast is always delivered at this designated time! If you don’t need breakfast, you can let us know the day before!” (Beast Race Girl)

“Got it. I’ll probably be needing breakfast every day, so thank you for that…errr…” (Lewin)

“Ah, my name is Ruth! You can just call me that!” (Ruth)

As I was thinking of what to call the beast race girl, she immediately noticed and properly introduced herself to me. Perhaps it was because she was helping out at the inn that this girl was so perceptive, as if she could read other people’s feelings.

“I’ll call you Ruth then. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow too, Ruth.” (Lewin)

“Yes, likewise!” (Ruth)

After that morning greeting, I ate the breakfast I had received from Ruth and got ready for the day. Today, after checking on the [Azure Alliance] in the projections, I was planning to descend into the Dungeon myself.

The book I had read yesterday said that going solo in the Dungeon was strictly forbidden because it was dangerous, but I felt that the shallow layers wouldn’t be a problem with my current abilities.

The book thoroughly recorded the information about the monsters that appeared in the Dungeon. With my current strength, I shouldn’t have any problems getting to the 7th layer where the ‘Boss’ monster would appear. Well, there was the possibility of a monster that was supposed to only show up on a deeper layer appearing on a shallower layer, just like how the Angry Wolves had descended to the foot of Mount Cornello, but it would be fine as long as I just fled from that kind of situation using items and plants. Plus, there were always a lot of adventurer parties attempting to clear the first 30 layers, and apparently they would often run into one another often down in the Dungeon. The book recommended asking them for help in case anything unfortunate were to happen. It wasn’t good to completely rely on others, but, when down in the Dungeon, it was best to keep in mind the option of asking others for help in the case of an emergency.