Volume 3 Chapter 7 (1/2)

After arriving at Flaregard yesterday, we prepared our equipment and inventory for our adventure in the desert. In order to survive the desert, several preparations had to be prepared.

In the morning, I showed my face at the guild and searched for any quests available. In the end, we were lucky to accept a quest set in the Sand Canal. It was a quest requesting for Spirit Herbs, an expensive herb used for medicines which can only be collected in the Sand Canal. The reward was high too.

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We finally arrived at the Sand Canal with sand as far as the eye can see. The wind was strong as dust was being blown everywhere.

[Ughh. Theres sand in my ears. The sand is everywhere.] (Luna)

Luna eyes began tearing up as she tried desperately to hold down her fox ears. Her large cute fox ears were in pain as the dust was being blown everywhere in the desert.

[Phil, use that to cover Luna’s ears.] (Youya)

[Okay, Youya.] (Phil)

Phil took out a hood from her magic bag and handed it over to Luna, snugly covering her eyes with a hood made for a fox-girl. As one would expected, such a hood wasn’t commercially available in stores so I asked Phil if she could make one yesterday for Luna.

[Aaa. Luna, that looks cute.] (Til)

[Uhn. I like it.  Now I can hear properly. Thank you Phil.] (Luna)

[It’s more important that you like it.] (Phil)

Phil had a pretty high wife-power level as she was an expert at sewing, washing, and cooking.

[Everyone, put on the hood that I passed to you yesterday. You’ll be done in pretty quickly if you expose yourself to the heat. The longer you are exposed to the sunlight, the faster you’ll dry up.] (Youya)

Even though it was extremely warm, you’ll come to regret wearing thin clothes and risk exposing your skin towards the searing sun rays as the possibility of sunburn is extremely high. Therefore, it’ll be much more important to wear clothes that cover your body as much as possible.

[Ahh, this cloak feels so refreshing.] (Til)

[Uhn. It’s cooling.] (Luna)

[This.. Is a magic tool isn’t it. Even though we’re walking in the desert it feels refreshingly cold.] (Selene)

The cloaks that everyone had was a mantle which had the magical engraving, Cooling into it made by dwarfs. Dwarven magic tools were necessary for certain dungeons despite their high prices. For example, it would be considered suicidal to challenge the Sand Canal without this mantle.

[Seems like our compass is working properly.] (Youya)

I took out a magic compass from my magic bag as we continued to transverse the desert. In the desert, there was another element that made the dungeon even more difficult than the heat, your sense of direction. There isn’t a single landmark present in the desert and above all, sand was constantly being blown by the wind, causing the visibility even in the day to become worse. If you were to continue travelling blindly in this dungeon, eventually you’ll lose your sense of direction and be unable to progress nor return to the entrance. Furthermore, normal compasses weren’t functioning within the dungeon as the dungeon wasn’t a natural occurrence, but a magical one. The dungeon existed within a different world, causing the normal compasses to become dysfunctional as their principles weren’t functional in this different world. However, truth is that wasn’t the reason why the mortality rate in this dungeon was so high. So long as one kept a levelled mind, it would be possible to survive the dungeon. Thus, the number one reason was distress.

Some adventurers could had entered without a compass whereas some could had accidentally destroyed their compass during a battle. As the case with magical items, a magic compass is expensive and very few parties actually have a spare compass in reserve. Thus the moment it is destroyed, adventurers would fall into despair and panic, causing their entire party to be annihilated. I myself didn’t have a spare compass, however we were safe as Phil had her own magic compass.

[Now then, everyone, be sure to secure your Return Stone.] (Youya)

The girls nodded in response. In these sorts of situation where chaos is equivalent to death, we can truly be thankful for the Return Stones we have in possession. We had also filled our magic bags with as much water as possible due to the tremendous amount of hydration we could lose in the desert. Normally, a person would need about 2 litres of water a day to survive, however, in the desert that amount could easily be doubled. For our adventure this time, it should take about three days to reach our destination. Per person, that would amount to 12 litres for three days, and 60 litres for the entire party. Furthermore, we had to account for a buffer time of 2 days due to any unforeseen circumstances, making it necessary for us to carry 100 litres of water.

Thus, the bare minimum required to survive the desert would be to have a mantle with a cooling effect, a magic compass, a large amount of water plus a magic bag to hold that amount of water and a Return Stone should things become dangerous. Any adventurers attempting to challenge the desert without any of those 5 requirements should be prepared for the possibility of death. This strict condition was the main reason why I had requested the girls not to challenge the dungeons without reuniting with me. There are many dungeons similar to this once we were level 30 and above, with the high possibility of losing your life even after making preparations in advance. I was one of those frequent offenders who entered dungeons without making any preparations in advance. In a sense, this was a way of baptism for adventurers who think that they could survive anything just by being able to defeat monsters and neglecting any other preparations other than their own ability.

[Now then, we’re all ready to depart. Let’s form into 2 separate parties since we have five people. Accounting for the worst-case scenarios, let’s divide ourselves.] (Youya)

Although we could just act together as a single party, the benefits gained by forming an official part was too good to pass up. In the case of a battle, the adventurer who landed the deciding blow would be granted the total experience value, however in a party that experience value would be divided among the members. Furthermore, each time the number of members in the party increases by one, the experience is multiplied by 1.1 times. A party of two would get a total of 1.1 times the original experience, and a party of three would get 1.21, so on and so forth. Aside from that, we were able to roughly sense the location of each party member plus the effective range of the party’s spells and recovery magic. Hence we were going though the trouble to obtain the items required to increase our party limit to five, even if it was extremely difficult.

[It’ll be better for me and Selene to separate, as well as Phil and Til who are in the backguard.] (Youya)

This was the best outcome.

[The low-levelled Phil is currently inferior to everyone else in combat effectiveness, making it important for Luna to protect Phil. Thus, Til and I will be in one party while Selene, Luna and Phil will be in another. I’ll also leave the command of the 2nd party to Phil.] (Youya)

We’ll be safe even if our parties somehow managed to get separated from each other since Phil had years of experience as well as a magic compass in her possession.

Everyone nodded to my decision with no opposition. Frankly it was a little surprising.

[Honestly, I thought that Luna would had voiced out against the idea.] (Youya)

[Muu. Luna wants to be with Youya, but everyone’s life is at risk. Luna can’t be so selfish.] (Luna)

[I see. Good girl.] (Youya)

Luna narrowed her eyes as I gently stroked her head. It seems that she has begun to mature even without me knowing it.

[Youya-niisan, shall we go? It’s time for you protect your cute little sister.] (Til)

(Note: I have been translating Youya-ojiisan as Uncle Youya for Selene, however I am completely unsure on how to translate Youya-niisan since there isn’t a term that fits the meaning.. I may be changing entirely on how their names are said in the future for clarity.)

[I’m a little uneasy about having Til in the two-man party..] (Phil)

[Ahh. That’s mean! I’ll cry you know!] (Til)

Let’s stop the jokes here and be serious. Just by standing here, our strength will be robbed by the heat.

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About two hours has passed since we started walking from the entrance. Despite the time, we hadn’t gained that much distance as our feet were becoming heavier and getting caught in the sand. Although we were wearing a magic cloak, it was still painful to walk under the merciless sun rays.

[Youya-niisan, I’m tired.. Piggyback mee.] (Til)

[I’ll think about it. Maybe when you collapse I’ll do it.] (Youya)

Although Til seems to have built up a lot of physical strength and stamina from hunting in the forest, it seems that transversing the desert is difficult as it was completely different from the forest. Although Luna wasn’t complaining as much, her eyes looked completely dead while Selene was dead quiet, silently enduring the elements. Phil on the other hand was on a completely different level as she appeared somewhat normal in the hot weather.

[Youya, there aren’t any adventurers here at all.] (Luna)

[That isn’t surprising since it’s such a harsh dungeon. If you had a choice you would avoid it at all cost.] (Youya)

That included me as I would never had come to this dungeon except for the fact that we needed that item. Luna’s ears which were covered by the hood began twitching quickly, it looks like she has found enemies nearby.