Chapter 179: From Negotiation to Departure (1/2)

“I see. I more or less understand the situation now.”

Having listened to their story, Ritz said and looked between his party and Loren’s.

“In addition, I’d like to propose that we do something about the thing nesting inside that Great Tunnel.”

The dwarves looked happy hearing Ritz’s words, while Loren and Lapis looked troubled. The difficulty level between attacking only whatever attacked them first and looking for the cause of Great Tunnel’s blockage and eliminating was different. The latter was much more difficult, of course.

Carefully choosing words so that it didn’t sound offensive, Lapis asked:

“May I ask why you would deliberately pick a more troublesome path?”

Ritz nodded solemnly and announced his reason to everyone:

“We use that tunnel very often.”

“…Please pay, Ritz.”

Lapis immediately cut in with a cold, sharp glance directed at Ritz. He was at a loss for words and couldn’t say anything.

So, Ritz party used that tunnel quite often, and they would be in trouble if whatever blocked it wasn’t removed. With Loren party here, they had an unlikely ally, and seemed to think that even if it might be a bit troublesome, now was the perfect time to pin down the blockage and remove it. And as they shared the same purpose of going through the tunnel, they wanted to make Loren party work for free. Lapis immediately realized their intention, and it couldn’t be helped that her eyes turned cold.

“Oh, come one. Don’t you guys also need to go through this tunnel? We should work together to find the cause of this blockage and…”

“Please pay.”

“If we work together, the fee…”

“Whatever, please pay.”

Ritz tried to persuade, but Lapis resolutely refused to yield. Loren watched them attentively: it seemed like this would drag out for quite some time. Close to him, Gula and Nim secretly started a conversation for some reason.

“One copper rank, and two iron ranks, right? Our party shouldn’t cost that much.”

Gula counted with her fingers and said, but Nim shook her head:

“We’re buying Loren’s and Lapis’ actual capabilities. Being their companion, your capability must also be worth considering. However, the amount you demand is quite expensive. We would like a sum that is kinder to our wallet.”

“Well, we’ll give you a discount then… How about this much?”

“A higher discount, please. At least this much.”

“Hm, that’s tight.”

The two of them somehow had completely immersed themselves in the negotiation, and all eyes were on them. Nim noticed the attention and said with a composed face:

“We’ll have to pay them anyway, so it’s faster to decide the rate quickly.”

“As expected, negotiating with elf-oneechan here is really fast.”

Gula said with a smile. Only Loren and Lapis knew that she probably was older than Nim. It wasn’t something to share around to begin with, but if they told the others that Gula, who had just called Nim ‘oneechan’, was actually an Evil God, no one would ever believe.

“Err, Nim…”

“Ritz, what Nim said is true, I think.”

“Yeah. It’ll give us a bad impression if we drag this out. We should just pay them happily.”

Loren watched Jack and Quartz went back-and-forth with Ritz. It seemed like they would get something extra somehow or other, so he just left the negotiation to Lapis and Gula. Instead, he turned towards Dig, who was watching over the whole thing:

“Four silver ranks, two iron ranks, and one copper rank. That means seven adventurers in total. Will you guide us?”

He would have two adventurer parties to escort him through the tunnels now. Normally, this would be overpowered, but considering the blockage in the tunnel, it was a luxury to have multiple parties, one of them silver ranked no less. Of course, Dig had no complaints this time.

“Well, yeah. It’s also a problem for us if the tunnel is closed forever. If you guys can remove the blockage, we’ll guide you. We’ll even pay you.”

“Can’t you just not charge us?”

As Lapis would pay for their party’s guidance fee herself, Loren thought it would be better to not charge her instead of paying the whole party. Dig immediately nodded at his proposal:

“It’s fine for us too. We’ll guide you.”