CH 115

I’m shown four places in total. Three are built pretty much the same, with the exception that they have two, three, and four bedrooms, and their proximity to the center of the city varies. The bedrooms are all pretty much the same in terms of size too.

The other has rooms for everyone, and they’re all relatively big too, but that comes with a steeper price.

Every place I’m shown comes with a bath, which in a way is pretty important.

“That is all of them. What do you think?”

I can rent them for twenty days. The longer I rent them, the cheaper it gets, but just renting for twenty days seems cheaper than staying in an inn. But is it still a good deal when we take into consideration food and water supply? It depends on how good the inn is I guess.

“I want to think about this if I can. Or do I have to give an answer right away?”

“No problem. However, they are rather popular, so please remember that they might be rented out to other people.”

Apparently a lot of adventurers come here to challenge the dungeon, and they need to rent houses too. If what the guild employee says is true, I mean.

I say thank you, and go check out a slaver. I come out empty-handed, but it looks like demand is pretty high around here because of all the people looking to explore the dungeon, so there are a few more slavers. They’re all pretty high level too.

But I don’t find any information about Eris. I’ve been keeping my eyes open to see if I can find an elf, but so far I haven’t had any luck.

Next comes the adventurer guild. At first I’m not sure if I should bring Hikari and Mia along, but I want to register everyone for the dungeon, so we all come together. But this time I’m careful not to leave them alone.

Sera presents her guild card, and is told she has a message. It’s from Rurika, saying they are heading to Majolica. Apparently the message came from the Beast Kingdom of Lath, and was sent ten days ago.

We ask to convey a message to Rurika and Chris if they stop by this guild, telling them we’re here and the name of the inn we’re staying in.

I also check out the quests, and see a lot requesting materials from monsters found in the dungeon. There are a lot about teaming up to take down monsters or challenging the dungeon together. Some mention wanting to team up to take down variant species that appeared in this and that floor.

If they appear in the upper floors, they might end up killing beginners and newbies, who aren’t strong enough to stand up to these monsters, so the guild wants them taken care of as soon as possible. These also serve as warnings.

I see we can register for the dungeon in a corner of the adventurer guild. It makes sense, the entrance to the dungeon is here too. Are those soldiers I see there? I guess they have a station here.

There have been reported cases of monsters creeping out of other dungeons, so they’re keeping watch just in case.

I pay for four cards and ask to have them made. Then we hear about a few precautions we need to keep in mind when entering the dungeon.

First. Any quarrels that happen in the dungeon are our responsibility. However, malicious acts like attracting the attention of monsters and then setting them on other people carry severe punishments if it’s proven someone did them. That goes for a lot of actions deemed unfair.

Second. This dungeon is based around having different floors. There is a boss every ten floors, and only those in the same party can enter at the same time. Parties are registered in the same card used when entering. Also, party members on the same floor can communicate through their cards.

Third. Once a party enters a boss room, there is a five day waiting period before they can enter it again. This is just how the dungeon is, and it rejects people trying to enter before that cooldown period.

Fourth. People can register what floors they’ve been through, and they can move to floors they’ve been in the next time they explore the dungeon. However, this can only be done at the entrance.

Fifth. By using a device near the staircase of floors that are multiples of five, it’s possible to be transported to the surface. There is a similar device near all staircases, but those only register when you’ve reached that floor, and can’t transport people.

But for example, if one starts on the fifth floor, they can’t use that device right away to come back. Investigations have concluded that it takes at least three days for the device to be used in that case.

Those are the most important rules.

Also, there is a special field every five floors that’s not a cave. It could be a forest, mountain, grassy field, among other things.

Floors have different sizes too, and routes and location of staircases changes periodically, so even though maps are sold, no one knows how long they’ll be valid.

Monsters, on the other hand, tend to always be the same. It’s possible to consult the reference room or check out quests in the guild if you want to know what monsters are where.

“I don’t think we can casually go in and return on the same day.”

“It really looks like we need to be prepared.”

“Yes, we need plenty of food too. Can’t fight on an empty stomach.”

“How do others carry and retrieve things?”

“Maybe they hire someone just for that. Maybe that’s why slaves are in high demand.”

I say, thinking about how slavers seem to thrive here. Now that I think about it, I remember hearing that having an Item Box means people will want to have me in their parties. Is this part of the reason?

“But once we go in, we won’t have contact with the outside. We might miss Rurika and Chris if they happen to come here while we’re in the dungeon.”

“How about we fight on the upper floors and walk back every day?”

“Yes, that might work, depending on the monsters. But the rewards are probably not very good in the upper floors.”

If we’re going to come back every time we update the floor we reached, we’re going to gradually have more floors we can go back to, not counting every fifth floor. But it would be nice if there was a simpler way.

I’m going to need to look up what monsters appear on what floors too. And since there’s a different environment in every multiple of five, I might be able to pick medicinal herbs too, depending on what environment we get.

We visit the reference room, and find that upper floors are caves with either goblins or wolves. But the fifth floor is a grassland or a forest, so it’s possible to pick medicinal herbs and rare fruits. However, that floor also has snakes and bees.

After that, the dungeon is back to being a cave, with monsters known as killer bees, blood snakes, wolves, and goblins. After the eighth floor, monsters start showing up in packs.

“We might be able to go down to the fifth floor, pick rare things, and come back.

I say, and two of the girls nod. Hikari got bored of this halfway through and is in her own world. She’s still a kid, so I guess it’s normal that quietly investigating things gets boring fast.