Chapter 96.4 (1/2)

The final Goblin Barbarian fell with an ear-piercing shriek.

“… We won,” whispered Kasim, after making sure that the enemy was no longer moving and that there were no more enemies.

“Yeah, we won. With just us,” said Fester.

“Against four of them at once, too,” Zeno added.

The three adventurers inhaled, full of emotion. And then they screamed.

“WEEEEEE DID IIIIIIIT!”

“WE DID IIIIIT! WE DID IT WITH JUST THE THREE OF UUUUS!”

“Alright… but let's be quiet. We're still in a Dungeon, after all.”

“That's right…”

“Zeno, you're always calm, huh.”

“What would you do with a Scout that isn't calm?”

The three of them calmed down and quickly checked whether the Goblin Barbarian corpses had any Magic Stones or not before proceeding.

After returning from Garan's Valley to the surface, Kasim and his friends looked at their thin metal plates that resembled Guild Cards while carrying the Magic Stones and materials back.

“These Dungeon Cards are pretty handy, huh.”

Vandalieu had inspected the Magic Item in the cultivation village's branch of the Adventurers' Guild that inputted information into Guild Cards, and reconstructed the machine left in Talosheim's Adventurers' Guild to issue these.

These cards, which were made of Dark Copper, Vandalieu's blood and the blood of the owners, had the function of allowing their owners to teleport within Dungeons, with some conditions.

“Apparently Vandalieu wanted to make it so that we can teleport between Dungeons, but this is convenient enough.”

“The cards only allow teleportation to the entrance of floors that the card's owner has reached before, but I suppose that's normal.”

“That's not normal. Using either the devices that were created by first-rate Alchemists that are installed in certain Dungeons or climbing all of the stairs, is the normal way to move around.”

Dungeons were nests for dangerous monsters, but at the same time, they were treasure-houses of resources. However, in order to use those resources, most Dungeons required adventurers to carry them out on their backs. Unless one had an Item Box or one of its inferior counterparts (which were still rare and valuable), had a companion capable of using s.p.a.ce-attribute magic or the Dungeon's layout allowed carriages or wagons to be brought inside, only what could be carried out by hand could be taken out of the Dungeon.

And considering that monsters could attack on the way, one could not carry as much as physically possible.

But these Dungeon Cards made things quite a lot easier. If one reached the target floor once, they would be able to teleport, not needing to spend any stamina getting there next time.

In addition, by reaching the stairs, one could return to the surface in an instant. Of course, at no time or stamina cost.

Depending on what needed to be done, it was even possible to simply hunt monsters near the stairs, return to the stairs when enough materials were gathered, return to the surface, leave the materials there and go back into the Dungeon.

“Dungeons are on another level after all. Strong monsters come out endlessly, so we can earn tons of Experience Points.”

“Yeah. The most we had around the cultivation village was Rank 2 monsters.”

This was the reason that the existence of Dungeons was important to amateur adventurers like Kasim and his friends. They could encounter monsters more frequently than in ordinary Devil's Nests; the Dungeons were treasure troves of Experience Points as long as they had the ability to defeat the monsters.

“We would have found it difficult to reach the bottom floor of Garan's Valley if we were just as we'd been when we lived in the cultivation village, though,” said Zeno.

They had defeated a group of Goblin Barbarians without suffering any injuries. Though their abilities had indeed grown, the main reasons were because their Attribute Values had increased explosively under the effects of Vandalieu's Strengthen Followers skill and because their equipment had improved significantly.

Because they were Vandalieu's friends, Kasim and his party had… not received any special, high-power equipment. Their weapons and armor had started showing their age in the battle against the Red Wolves Knights' Order, so they had simply borrowed the cheapest of the commonly-used beginner's equipment in Talosheim.

… That cheap beginner's equipment was still far more powerful than the poor-quality items they had equipped themselves with before, however.

“That's true,” Kasim agreed, looking at the Adamant.i.te s.h.i.+eld and armor he was equipped with now. “I might have been injured if I was using my old s.h.i.+eld and armor.”

His new equipment was far superior in defensive ability to the cast-bronze s.h.i.+eld and armor that had been made by pouring molten metal into molds, and even slightly lighter

“Yeah, that jii-san would have been really mad if we told him we wanted cast-metal items,” said Fester. “He'd say, 'I only make forged arms!'”

Fester's sword was another item forged by Datara. It was a cheap item, so it was far less sharp and solid than the products that Datara put all of his effort into.

However, if Fester were to call it a “cheap item” in the Adventurers' Guild in the city of Niarki, the adventurers of the same age would disagree, simply a.s.suming that Fester was a rich person.

“Ah, Taresan and the others… They're good people, but everyone's sense is a little off,” said Zeno.

His equipment had been plainly upgraded as well. He had been handed down “leftover” items that intermediate-level adventurers would use habitually.

Talosheim was isolated from the outside world, so external economics and information had no influence here. One step outside the city would expose one to Rank 3 monsters… Ferocious Raptors with sharp fangs and claws, and monsters more powerful than them. Being able to survive in such an environment was considered a minimum requirement.

Thus, there was no point in creating the kind of cheap items that were commonly used in normal cities.

“Well, it's not all good things.”

“That's true.”

The three adventurers entered the former ruins of the Adventurers' Guild, which had been completely renovated into a trading post with a sign hanging down.

The inside was exactly the same as a real Adventurers' Guild.

“A purchase, is it? That's five thousand Lunas.”

“An exchange for a mayonnaise, ketchup and Ent syrup set?”

“Excuse me, we're sold out of cream.”

The only difference was, perhaps, that rewards could be paid in products other than money.

“They're sold out of cream?” said Kasim.

“The wasabi mayonnaise hasn't come in yet?” asked Fester.

The two of them seemed sad.

“You guys… We decided that we'd be paid in money today, didn't we?” said Zeno, lightly poking them in the back of their heads.

The currency known as the Luna circulated in Talosheim, but there were still not many different kinds of stores. Thus, there were still many who traded in goods rather than money.

“Oh yeah,” said Fester, cheering up again. He gave a bright smile as he got in line and called out to the girl at the counter. “Lina, we're back!”

“Welcome to the trading post,” said Lina. “Are you here to be paid? Or for a trade?”

“Oi, Lina, it's me,” said Fester.

“Are you here to be paid? Or for a trade?” Lina repeated.

“Oi, Lina?”

The receptionist at the counter, Lina, who had been an irregular employee at the Seventh Cultivation Village's Adventurers' Guild, gave a businesslike smile to her lover, Fester. But her smile was gradually growing stiffer and stiffer.

“Lina?”

“I'm trying to tell you, I'm working now!” she shouted. “I'm glad you're not injured, I was worried, I love you! If you're satisfied with that, hurry and hand over your materials and choose whether you want money or goods in payment!”

“O-okay!” Fester hastily put the materials he was carrying onto the counter. Kasim and Zeno gestured to Lina in apology behind him.

Incidentally, this was how things normally went for Fester and Lina. She already had a firm control over him, but that was probably perfectly fine for Fester.

“Only Magic Stones other than the proof of extermination, huh? Ah, you did it, didn't you? You achieved your goal of defeating Goblin Barbarians with just the three of you,” said Lina. “Okay, this comes out to five hundred Lunas in total.”

“Five hundred Lunas, huh…” Fester murmured.

“Eh, it's not like I appraised it for lower because I'm angry, but… Those are the market prices,” said Lina.

The extermination rewards and Magic Stones of the monsters that Kasim's party had hunted would have been worth over two thousand Baums at an Adventurers' Guild in the Hartner Duchy.

However, they were only worth five hundred Lunas in Talosheim.

This was because there were quality Undead t.i.tan and Ghoul explorers (They were not registered at the Adventurers' Guild but were doing essentially the same thing, so this term suddenly started to be used), and because the frequency of encountering monsters in Talosheim's surroundings and Dungeons was high. And Vandalieu's existence was the reason for those.

Rank 4 monsters appeared frequently, and over two thousand explorers hunted them habitually. Thus, it was only inevitable that the reward for exterminating monsters was lower than the outside world.

In addition, the entire city's Magic Items were powered by Vandalieu's strange Mana, so the demand for Magic Stones was lower than in the outside world as well.

Until the people of the cultivation villages came, most of Talosheim's citizens had possessed fighting abilities on the level of C-cla.s.s adventurers, but this meant that if one wanted to make a living as an explorer, they needed to be able to fight at least as well as a C-cla.s.s adventurer.

“It's quite harsh here, huh,” said Kasim.

“Well, we just need to endure until we grow stronger,” said Fester. “Let's do our best.”

“You're right. Our levels have actually increased, too,” said Zeno.

“Please do your best,” said Lina. “I don't mind being a working couple, but I don't intend to support Fester on my own.”

After receiving their payment, Kasim and his party arranged plans to eat together with Lina once her working hours were over and then left the trading post.

Having a light snack of food from the carts, they headed for a bathhouse in order to wash away the sweat they had worked up in the Dungeon.

“… A little while ago, I said it was harsh, but if you asked me to go back outside of this place, I'd refuse,” said Kasim.

“Me too,” Fester agreed immediately.

“I'd definitely refuse as well,” said Zeno.

Their half-eaten food from the cart was still in their hands.

Kasim had a hot dog, while Fester and Zeno had hamburgers.

With a single bite, their mouths would be filled with meat juice and sauce, they would feel the pleasant texture of lettuce and chopped onions against their teeth and the soft, fluffy bread absorbed all of it perfectly, not remaining inside their mouths for very long. Once all of that was swallowed, they would want a second mouthful.

These were being sold for five Lunas each. And they were not being sold by a well-known chef running a hidden food stall, but a normal stall that attracted explorers going in and out of the trading post. The one making them was a former villager of the cultivation villages, just like Kasim and his friends.

“How much would you have to pay to eat something this delicious in the city of Niarki, I wonder?” said Kasim.

“Hmm… White bread, meat, fresh vegetables and sauce… about ten Baums?”

“There was that time our instructor treated us to fried Orc meat, remember? That was about ten Baums, apparently.”

“And this bread is clearly softer than the bread they sell in the city, too.”

“So about twenty Baums?”

The three of them looked down at the snacks in their hands again.

Hot dogs, lengths of meat called sausages that had been created through unknown technology, sandwiched in fluffy bread. Hamburgers that were so full of meat juice that it was difficult to imagine they were simply made of minced meat shaped into patties, along with the onions, lettuce and ketchup to give it an incredible texture.