Chapter 209. The Qualification of an Explorer (6)
As I had just taken off my shirt to go take a shower, I looked back at Hwaya in an awkward state.
"What!? Why did they suddenly die?"
"They were contracted to me."
"Contract? You mean…"
I asked her, dumbfounded.
"You mean they died because they went against the contract?"
"Yeah. I put my familiars on the rankers we took in. As you see…"
"You can put familiars on them without being discovered?"
"I got some help from dungeon items. It"s not like the dungeon only has battle-related items."
"Sorry, I only got battle-related items…" While I murmured inwardly, Hwaya"s finger danced in the air, and took out a small ball from her inventory. It was then that I suddenly remembered something.
"Why are you in my room?"
"Your mom let me in. By the way, you"re not really engaged to Ludia, right? She was cooking in the kitchen."
"Don"t ask that while you"re making fireb.a.l.l.s. The answer is no. Also, stop staring at me like it"s normal."
"What? Didn"t you build your body to show off to girls? It"s not like you"re losing anything by showing me some muscles."
"I naturally became like this while training!"
I hurriedly summoned Ruyue and cleaned myself of sweat and dust. While I was at it, I put on fresh clothes as well. Although I didn"t like cleaning myself like this, as taking a shower was more refreshing, I couldn"t stay topless with Hwaya staring at me.
Hwaya smacked her lips seeing me put on my clothes. She then fiddled with the ball she took out, making it enlarge to the size of a soccer ball. In it, we could see a video. It was like a magical crystal ball.
"It"s just a device that links to familiars" eyes. I can just link my eyes to theirs, but I don"t like it because it makes me dizzy."
"And I won"t be able to see it either."
In the crystal ball, one of the new explorers we chose appeared. He was talking with another person.
"That"s another ranker from his country."
"So the part of the contract he violated is…"
Everything happened incredibly fast. When the explorer reached out to put his hand on the ranker, strength left his body and he collapsed. The frightened ranker screamed. The view then changed to the other explorer. It was the same with him. They had both met the same death in the same way.
"Because of them, all I got were two items called Soul Crystals. It"s gross, really."
"I feel you…"
I was dumbfounded. They didn"t believe us even after all that? Did they think the contract was just a piece of paper? I thought we took the necessary care to prevent such a thing from happening so that we could steadily increase the number of explorers… It seemed I didn"t put enough faith in people"s ability to be stupid.
"Huu… If this happens a few more times, Earth"s forces will… Maybe, we should just give up on the Soul Contract."
"No, Shin."
Hwaya shook her head.
"We only asked one thing from them. To not make explorers without permission. What do you think they were trying to do by going against us? It"s simple. They were trying to create their own group of dungeon explorers to decrease our power. If we give up on Soul Contracts now, it"s going to become a total mess. Think of how troublesome it"s going to be when hundreds or even thousands of dungeon explorers are going against us. Then, the problem won"t just be saving Earth. Be firm. They simply paid the price."
Hwaya was right. If they couldn"t keep such a simple condition, it meant they didn"t care about dungeon explorers" duty in the first place. Even though we explained to them so thoroughly, they were still more concerned with playing Monopoly. To be frank, I was disgusted.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes for a moment before opening them back up. Then, I asked Hwaya who was staring at me fixedly.
"Where were they from?"
"Germany and… Britain."
"From now on, we won"t… Britain?"
I paused for a moment and fell into silence. Hwaya then continued where I left off.
"We won"t choose explorers from Germany or Britain from now on."
"Wait, Hwaya!"
"I decided within my authority as the vice-guild master."
"Hey!"
When I burst out, Hwaya pushed her face into mine and said threateningly.
"It"s fine! As long as we take care of the world"s enemies, there won"t be any problem! Or what, are you not satisfied with just this? Are you going to attack Britain?"
"No, that"s not it, but Britain is still the country you were born in. I know you want to protect…"
"I already fulfilled my duty by including them in the first wave of appointments. It"s them who betrayed me. Just do as I say."
She took the crystal ball again and stuffed it in her inventory. Then, she snorted.
"Let"s go eat now! When you"re angry, you have to fill your belly!"
"Yeah, sure."
That day, we revealed the video to the world and announced that we wouldn"t take explorers from Germany and Britain. That also meant that explorers we appointed couldn"t appoint new explorers from those countries. With this, people of Germany and Britain couldn"t become dungeon explorers unless they were chosen by the dungeon itself.
Of course, we faced ma.s.sive protest, as the ma.s.s media criticized Revival for "killing" people. Although there were those that supported us, the amount of criticism we received from most countries was almost as if they had already prepared to do so. I was even beginning to suspect that they sacrificed the two explorers to push the narrative that we were criminals.
Regardless, we knew we were in the right. I made an announcement. As it was annoying to hold a press conference every time, I just sent a recording to a broadcast agency.
"We emphasized twice or even thrice that those who violate the contract will die. Now that you see that they actually died, you think we killed them? So you"re saying you planned on violating the contract from the beginning, right? From this point on, whoever talks bulls.h.i.t and blames us will receive the same treatment as Germany and Britain. If you"re okay with that, keep talking. You won"t even see an explorer in your country. Also, Event Dungeons and Event Raids that you won"t be able to handle, what do you think we"ll do when the so-called giant monsters and gates appear in your countries? We don"t have any intention of helping countries that treat us like murderers."
Once the announcement made its round, all talks to criticism thoroughly disappeared from the ma.s.s media. It was a refreshing feeling. Really, we should have threatened them from the beginning.
That said, I couldn"t feel good about how things went. Threatening them with Event Dungeons and Event Raids was the worst. I murmured with frustration.
"I don"t like it."
"But they weren"t listening to us when we were being nice. Don"t worry, I"m sure there are people who think like us. Right now, the people that support us and the people that doesn"t like us should be fighting each other."
"When the Demon Lord is in front of us, do you think they"ll realize that what they"re doing is useless?"
"The other two S+ rank explorers are doing well, so don"t be too sad. It"s not like we didn"t expect this to happen."
"Cheer up Daddy!"
Ina jumped into my embrace and buried her head in my chest. Was she trying to comfort me!? It"s super-effective! I hugged Ina back.
"Thanks, Ina. I"m fine, I was just feeling a bit annoyed."
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah, thanks to Ina."
"… You might be feeling better, but I"m feeling a bit strange."
Hwaya was looking and Ina and me doubtfully. I looked at Ina and tilted my head.
"No, nevermind… I can"t be jealous. She"s a kid. I"m an easy-going woman…"
"Mommy is weird."
"Yeah, Mommy is weird."
Seeing Hwaya murmuring to herself, Ina and I laughed.
Thanks to Ina, I was able to cheer up. With this incident, I realized how foolish people could be. If I couldn"t resolve things peacefully, I just had to use my strength. After all, I wouldn"t have revealed my ident.i.ty if I didn"t have the power to suppress anyone who opposed me.
In the end, we were the ones holding the right to appoint explorers, and it was other countries that needed it. At the same time, Revival had Earth"s most powerful people in it. As long as this remained true, others couldn"t meddle with our will. We would continually increase the number of explorers for the benefit of our world.
Germany and Britain had also turned their tails, and other countries used this opportunity to push their own ability users to become dungeon explorers. Though I found it disgusting, if they would defeat monsters, we had no choice but to use them.
We then appointed five more explorers. There was no real reason other than that they needed to grow and acquire dungeon explorer appointment rights as soon as possible. I emphasized the danger our world was facing and made sure they saw how the two explorers that went against the contract died.
"I hope that you won"t do something so foolish and that you"ll do your best for our future."
"Yes, sir!"
"I won"t forget it!"
"For Earth!"
"I"ll only believe in you, Revival"s Master."
After that, I returned to the dungeon. Although the 65th floor"s succubi attempted to seduce me, I easily turned them to stone and shattered them. There were no succubi that could escape my gaze and with Elemental Blade"s reach, my spear plowed through everything in my path.
[Master! Master"s going too fast!]
[Shin is angry.]
[You guys are noisy! You just have to follow Master!]
I tore apart the succubi without a shred of hesitation. In just 30 minutes, I began to see the door to the Floor Master room. At that moment, the door undulated as if it was an illusion, and a strange fanfare rang out in my ear.
[Amazing! You met the condition for opening the Floor Master Event Dungeon that no one has done since the creation of the dungeon!]
[Floor Master Battle Room transforms into an Event Dungeon!]
[SSS rank 1-man Event Dungeon, "Succubus" Castle", opened! You cannot refuse to enter, so please be careful! This Event Dungeon is in a dimension partly outside of the dungeon"s system"s jurisdiction. Death in this dimension means real death. If you feel lacking in strength, it is recommended that you immediately use Return to escape!]
Message noona, you"re too kind! Wait, before that, what did you say?
"Even the Floor Master room had a next level!?"
I only realized that on the 65th floor? What a waste!