CH 185

“…I’m sorry for pushing this onto you all of a sudden. It affects their morale too, so it’s difficult for me to say no. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it. If I know what to do, I don’t have to think about it. But there are some ingredients I couldn’t get, so I’m not going to be able to make everything.”

“No, that’s fine. I’ll tell the others.”

Murok leaves, and Fred walks over here.

“What were you talking about?”

“Ah… Food. He came all the way to my rented house to tell me the miners’ requests.”

“I see. I should’ve told you what I want too.”

“Why do I have to listen to you?”

“Eh? Didn’t you say it was easier when you know what to do?”

So you were listening after all?

But I don’t think you’re in the same position. On one side we have adventurers who accepted an escorting quest with us, and on the other miners working under the person who put out the quest.

“…If you paid for the ingredients at least…”

“All right, we’re ready. Today we’re setting off from the sixth floor to the tenth. Our positions as we walk are going to be the same as last time, but we’re going to be attacked by more monsters than before. Don’t get scared, and follow our instructions.”

He’s clearly changing the subject, probably because he had expensive ingredients in mind. It’s fine though.

We enter the dungeon through the sixth floor, take up the same formation as before, and start walking.

It’s the miners’ second time in the dungeon, so they’re surprisingly calm. But that only lasts until the eighth floor.

The number of monsters jumps up here. It gets worse when we’re attacked from all four sides in an intersection, and I see their faces twitch with fear.

They’re wearing defensive equipment, but that doesn’t mean they can deal with monsters like adventurers that are used to facing them.

I can’t hear them whispering to each other anymore, probably because now they’re seeing us restlessly hunting monsters.

“I know it’s a little early, but should we take a break? Little lady, if you see a nice spot, let’s rest there.”

“All right… This way?”

We keep walking, not really sure of where we’re going, and reach a dead end. That’s where we’ll spend the night.

“Are you sure? We have nowhere to run…”

Asks Murok while looking at the dead end.

“Yes. This way we only have to be careful about one direction.”

“But can’t monsters appear near us all of a sudden?”

I’ve never heard of monsters suddenly popping up near someone. The reference materials I’ve read didn’t warn about that sort of thing either.

Then again, if monsters popped up right next to a group of people while they were sleeping and killed them, there would be no one left to report it.

“That’s all right, I think. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening, and it never happened to me either. But I guess we should still watch out for that. And it’d be hard to walk any more today, right?”

Murok doesn’t say any more. I think he understands.

“The eighth and ninth floors really are tough for people that aren’t used to this. It was tough for me too until I got used to it, and some people never come here a second time.”

Says Fred while keeping watch.

I don’t really feel like listening to grumbling, you know?

“Don’t make that face. I thought it was crazy when I heard that the chivalric order comes to the ninth floor to practice fighting humanoids. Now I know that experiencing that and feeling familiar with it is important.”

Says Fred while looking at Geitz, who is standing silently with his shield in hand.

“I thought Siphon and the others would be scared when they got to this floor, but instead they dealt with all the wolves that attacked us without any problems. Then I asked how they fight like that, and you know what they said?”

I tilt my head, and Fred responds.

“Because it happens a lot in hunting grounds. They have a totally different frame of mind. I feel like I kind of get what you meant when you said we’re naive.

That’s why I’ve been teaching Siphon about the dungeon, and we’ve been learning all sorts of things from them too.”

“Are you going to leave the dungeon and go somewhere else?”

“Maybe. I guess eventually.”

Fred turns away, seemingly embarrassed.

“But what about you, Sora? Lately you’ve just been carrying things and cooking. You haven’t been fighting at all, have you? Don’t you feel like hunting monsters sometimes?”

I don’t really fight because I like it.

“No, I’m fine. And if I got unlucky and something happened to me, you’d all be stuck without equipment, right?”

We’ve distributed the bare essentials among everyone, but that doesn’t change the fact that if I’m gone, life in the dungeon is going to get tougher.

“You have a point. When it’s time for the miners to get to work on the fifteenth floor, they’re really going to feel the difference between this and how it’s usually like in the dungeon.”

“Can’t we just tell Murok to recruit adventurers that can cook?”

“That might be a good idea.”

We reach the tenth floor two days later.

It takes us less time than we expected because Will sent the chivalric order to train here like they always do, around the time when we reached the ninth floor.

Apparently they’ve been camping by the entrance for the past two days, but I don’t know when they got here exactly.

The two girls on Fred’s side let out shrill voices and cheer the knights when they see them fight. The knights look pretty motivated because of that.

Those two are scary. They really know how to use people.

What I don’t get is why they don’t seem to like Siphon.

Also, Hikari seems pretty popular. Someone always talks to her when we eat… Popular?