Episode 5.1 (2/2)
The disjointed back and forth continued for a while before Lecan learned about the outline of this world's dungeons.
First of all, dungeons have floors. Golbul Dungeon has 30 floors.
You can go down a floor through a stairway. If a floor has a small field, there will be only one stairway, but in case of Golbul Dungeon, the largest floor has five stairways while the smallest has two.
There are no prerequisites to use those stairways. Anyone can pass through it at anytime.
The lower the floor the tougher the enemies. What magic beasts spawn at which floors are mostly set. However, rare magic beasts do occasionally appear on dungeon floors, and sometimes you'd encounter tough ones.
There is no way to skip floors. You have to traverse through 29 floors to reach Floor 30, and then traverse back up through all the 29 floors again when you want to return to surface from Floor 30.
There are no floor bosses. Neither do boss rooms. There however exists a powerful magic beast on each floor, as if representing those floors, defeating them yield a relatively high chance of spawning treasure chests.
Defeating magic beasts net you materials and magic gems. They turn into sand if you take their magic gems out.
Sometimes a treasure chest will spawn if the body of a defeated magic beast disappears the moment it dies. Treasure chests contain rare items. Which are mostly medicines, protection stones, weapons, armor, accessories, jewels and other stuff. Medicines gotten from treasure chests are of superb quality and will never deteriorate. The highest peak of such medicine is <God Cure>, capable of healing any kind of injury and illness, dispelling curses, and even restoring lost limbs. One of it appeared in Golbul Dungeon around three years ago. However, that is one that appeared publicly, it is said that there's a not an insignificant number of <God Cures> circulating behind the public awareness.
A Dungeon Master exists in the lowest floor of every dungeon. The moment the Dungeon Master of a dungeon is defeated, all other monsters in the dungeon will instantly vanish, and won't spawn back until the Dungeon Master is respawned in a matter of days or weeks. As such, nobles that manage dungeons dislike having dungeon masters beaten. However, killing a dungeon master is an act of prestige, they cannot publicly forbid people from doing it.
When a new dungeon is found, the king will send out a noble tasked to manage it. In this country, towns are built around dungeons besides the royal capital one, the dungeon's name will follow after that town's name.
Some dungeons require entry fee, but Golbul Dungeon has none.
There is no qualification to enter a dungeon. This country has established that anyone can freely enter any dungeon. However, town lords are able to prohibit someone from entering a dungeon as long as they have a reason, and there are some dungeons that give advisories to those attempting it. In case of Golbul Dungeon, guards are stationed around its entrance, and they issue an advisory that discourage those who are too young or lacking equipment to enter the dungeon.
Murders and thefts are not counted as crimes if done inside a dungeon, however adventurers do not like to go after each other and tend to avoid each other as much as possible. However, adventurers that specialize in assaulting other adventurers do exist.
There are no advisories about groups, but most adventurers go in a group of five to ten as too many people will only complicate traversal and loot distribution. Since going alone or in a pair is too dangerous, if someone doesn't have a companion, they usually form a temporary group in the open space before the dungeon entrance.
”Most people do not attempt to enter a dungeon alone, but I'm guessing that Lecan-san will.”
”Yeah.”
”I suppose no magic beast nor adventurer could frighten you. But please be aware of the knights serving Earl Golbul.”
”Hou. They're tough huh.”
”Please don't look so happy. Rather than tough, they're more bothersome.”
”So they gonna pick a fight.”
”Oh they will. They will follow adventurers who've obtained themselves nice items everywhere and extort those items out at a cheap price after making up some faults about those adventurers. If you don't comply, they will spread rumors about you getting those items through unjust means.”
”Killing or pilfering inside a dungeon isn't counted as a crime though?”
”It is not. However, if a really bad rumor spread, it will make it hard to do anything.”
”Makes sense.”
”Also, this happened last year. A nobleman who was related to Earl Golbul attempted to explore the dungeon with his subordinates. But then, they met a crushing defeat by the hands of floor magic beasts. That nobleman possessed a famed sword with Grace, and a certain adventurer picked up that sword. Everything found in a dungeon belong to those who picked it up.”
”Grace?”
”Sometimes weapons, armor and accessories found inside treasure chests have special effects that increase your ability. Those effects are called Graces. Even if the weapon itself is mediocre, just having Graces alone will raise its value very high.”
”What about that sword.”
”The adventurer was going to use the sword as his own. However, after persistently being pestered by the earl subordinates who vehemently argued that stuff obtained in the dungeon should be put up on auction, he caved in to the pressure and put the sword on auction.”
”Fumu. Must have sold for cheap.”
”Yes. It was one silver coin.”
”That's terrible. Was it the earl strong-arming?”
”Only the earl's reps could participate in that auction. The earl subordinates who were guarding the auction's entrance restrained everyone who tried to go in under suspicion of acting suspiciously.”
”I see. I got a general understanding about the kind of person this earl is. I owe you one.”
”Are you sure you don't need information about magic beasts?”
”No need. Less thing to look forward to then. But I'd like to reach deep enough floor without taking too much time, so can you get me a map with stairway locations.”
”I understand. I shall have it delivered to your inn. And, if you don't mind me asking.”
”What is it?”
”The earl considers items acquired in Golbul Dungeon, be it materials, goods, or magic gems, should be sold in Golbul Town. As such, you're required to sell a number of items at Golbul Town. However, please sell the really good ones to me.”
”I'll keep that in mind.”
”Well then, I shall lend you this bag.”
While Chaney was talking, he called his subordinate and instructed him something. Must have been to get this.
”This is... A <Box (Ruuf)> huh?”
”Yes. Please put a lot inside before returning it.”
”Got it.”
Lecan enjoyed his first relaxing sleep in a long time that night.
The journey with Shira was worthwhile yet also stifling.
No matter how kind and jovial a feral beast is, it's still hard to feel safe sleeping in the same cage as such beast.
Shira is far more terrifying than any feral beast. There was no way he could truly relax right next to such a being.