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Year 7444, Month 8, Day 25
After we teleported to the 6th floor we started exploring the same as usual. We poke the ground with a long stick while remaining cautious of all directions, if there"s a teleport trap we follow along the walls of the pa.s.sage to avoid it as we proceed. And then, after entering the 5th monster room we"ve found for today, we froze the lower bodies of a group of {Quad-Hand Apes} that appeared before killing them and after unfreezing them it was just as we were gathering the magic stones.
The time was just past 3 in the afternoon or so.
"Al-san! Someone is coming!"
Gwine who was being cautious of the pa.s.sage shouted a warning.
There"s three other pa.s.sages than the one we used to enter the room but Toris is watching the pa.s.sage we entered and one other, and then Gwine was watching the remaining two. One person came staggering into the room from one of the pa.s.sages Gwine was being cautious of. After the intruder saw us surprised yet prepare for combat they threw down their spear and held up both of their arms,
"Thank G.o.d! I"m not a monster! I"m Ginger from {Sun Ray}! What in the world is going on with this floor!? Please save me!"
and cried while screaming. Fumu. She has the dyed golden cloth on her right arm.
【Virginia.Newman/15/8/7418】
【Female/24/6/7417 ・ Human ・ Newman Family Eldest Daughter】
【Status： Normal】
【Age： 27 Years Old】
【Level： 14】
【HP： 92(123) MP： 6(6)】
【Strength： 17】
【Speed： 20】
【Dexterity： 18】
【Endurance： 18】
【Special Ability： Small Magic】
【Experience： 393156(450000)】
At the very least her name doesn"t seem to be a lie. And it"s true that I saw her face this morning as well.
I watched as Angela carefully approached her and picked up her spear before opening my mouth.
"Certainly, you seem to be a member of {Sun Ray} but..are you alone?"
Zenom stands on my left. Zulu is still gathering the magic stones and while Bel casually went to the corner of the room, Ralpha moved around her surrounding her on both sides. Toris and Gwine are each continuing to remain cautious of and observe the pa.s.sages.
"I got separated from my part..everyone, I wonder what they"re doing, I don"t know what"s going on. We suddenly were attack bed a wild boar monster and when everyone was fighting suddenly the wild boars increased. I moved away a bit to avoid the charge of the wild boar and suddenly I was alone! What"s going on? When I realized it after that I was in a strange place.."
Ginger said that while facing the side and after unfastening her helmet and holding it in her left hand, she bit the nail of her right hand. It seems like she"s considerably reached her mental limits from that expression and facial color.
"Well, calm down a bit. I"m sure it"s difficult though. Right now we"re being cautious so it"s alright. Ah, if you"re fine with water then please have some."
After I said that and Ginger stopped biting her name and took the flask I gave her before taking two large sips.
"Thank you. I"ve already calmed down.."
I signal to Angela to return her spear and then started thinking, what should we do. It doesn"t particularly matter if we just bring her along like this as well. Even if we lost along the way I think we should be able to arrive at the teleport room on the 6th floor in about an hour. And after that just like that she can return to the 5th floor or surface.
"What should we do?"
Zenom started talking to me. There"s no question about it, there"s no option other than to bring her along right. We could just abandon her, or steal all of her equipment and leave her unconscious here and no one would ever know but I"m not a robber or a yakuza adventurer like {Bright Blade}.
"It can"t be helped right."
After I said that and Gwine remained cautious while saying.
"Is it fine?"
She might be able to figure out the methods to find teleport traps, how to avoid them, and a small portion of the path to the teleport room on the 6th floor. Furthermore, in the worst case there"s a monster room ahead of here we would end up having to fight without freezing the monsters. Well, unless it"s a considerably powerful opponent it doesn"t particularly matter though. In the past, I remember the adventurer we saved on the 1st floor from the slimes.
The common sense of Baldukk is normally to just split up a bit of water and food and say "Then, be careful now" before splitting up. Otherwise have her pay a reasonable compensation. It"s said that a reasonable compensation is roughly five times the the compensation paid to a guide. The market price of a guide for one day is 100,000 Z (10 silver coins) on the 1st floor. 200,000 Z on the 2nd floor. Though there"s no people willing to act as guides past that. Well, you could consider it the premium compensation of a limited express guide. If you were to go off that standard then since this is the 6th floor it would be 600,000 Z and then five times that amount for 3,000,000 Z. It"s quite a large sum.
I glanced at Gwine from the side and then returned my gaze to Ginger before opening my mouth.
"If it"s food and water we can split up some with you. We"re about to head towards the teleport room on the 6th floor but if you wish then we"re fine if you come along with us. However.."
I checked Ginger"s state after saying that far. She"s probably already no good alone. It seems her mentality was pretty close it"s limit alone so sooner or later she"ll die.
"If you"ll bring me together with you to the teleport room then I"ll give an expression of my grat.i.tude..how about 500,000 Z?"
Hearing that I was about to burst into laughter but I somehow manage to remain expressionless and cover it up.
However, Zenom who was next to me broke into laughter.
"Bufu..Hey you. What kind of joke is that? This is the 6th floor. Since you"re in {Sun Ray} I think you know common sense though. Or did no one in {Sun Ray} teach you any common sense?"
"..I know it"s not enough. But, 500,000 Z is my entire fortune that I can pay right now."
Ginger said while biting her lip. Ah, come to think of it there was the rumor that the members from {Sun Ray} donate most of their income to the temple. I guess that was true?
"Ginger-san, do you know the market price?"
Toris said in a flat voice.
"I believe I know it. Since this is the 6th floor...I guess around 4,000,000?"
Ho~ She estimated it even higher than I did. Well, it is a floor that almost no one has stepped on until now so I guess she thought a bonus would be required as well. I,
"It seems that you"re 3,500,000 Z short but...What do you intend to do?"
said that and crossed my arms.
"..That is..I"ll sell my spear and armor.."
Ginger said that while biting her lip. Yeah, as far as I can tell it does seem to be of a decent quality but even if she sells her leather armor and spear it shouldn"t reach 3,500,000 Z. Even a brand new high-quality spear is only about 800,000 Z (if it comes to the level of being considered a special grade then it"s not strange for them to be 5,000,000 - 6,000,000 but no matter how I look at it that spear isn"t one) and even brand new leather armor is at most 700,000 Z. When it comes to used goods even if they"ve been properly maintained, putting aside the spear, since leather armor has to be matched to individual size they"re dirt cheap. Even at best it"d be a matter of whether you can get 100,000 Z for it.
I look at Ginger who is lost on words while thinking. There is one more method that technically exists. Selling yourself. You end up becoming a slave but it"s possible to earn a decently large sum of money. Particularly in her case, since she was a member of one of the top teams it wouldn"t be strange at all for a slave trader to buy her for 10,000,000 Z.
Eh? Why don"t I buy and use her? If she could use the shield then I would have done that but the spear is~ We only have room for one more person and won"t we be full once we include a shield user? It"s not like we can exclude the reincarnated people and Zenom is out of the question. Zulu and Angela have become quite useful and including their personalities and the fact that they know we"re reincarnated people I can"t exclude them either. Giberuti? Don"t be an idiot. If we don"t have a {porter} then what are we going to do about supplies?
Furthermore, you never know when Miduchi will come back as well. It might still take another couple of months though. Since we"ll have Miduchi"s Unit Organization at that time, I think we"ll be fine even if it increases for Giberuti"s spot. It"s fine as long as we can group back up in the teleport rooms on the 5th and 6th floors after all and even if acted independently from the {Slaughterers} party I would probably be fine. And in regards to the {Slaughterers} party even without me as long as they have Miduchi they should be fine as well.
"I understand. Even then that amount is fine. However, it"s the price of your life. The portion you"re lacking..how about we have you pay it with something different.."
After I said that and Ginger,
"Something different?"
and said as if repeating me. And then Ralpha,
"For example, like your body?"
and said before bursting into laughter. Would you please remain quiet already. I glare at Ralpha and intentionally acted in admiration,
"..That isn"t half bad either. Since she seems to have trained properly and her muscles seem quite flexible."
and whispered in a loud voice. Ginger flinched.
"Al!"
"Al-san!"
Ralpha and Gwine shouted. Ah, you two are seriously loud~
"Shut up~ you idiots. Stop talking about such pointless c.r.a.p and remain quiet. Now then, Ginger-san. {Sun Ray} is making a map right? It"s famous that you all bring back quite good ores. Obviously, you"ve filled in the places where you"re gathering them right? Then there"s no problem~ I won"t say to give us your map. It"s fine if you just let us secretly transcribe it when we return."
and I said that while smiling. After hearing my remarks Ginger,
"So you were aiming for the mining location..I"m sorry. The floor maps are managed by the leaders. A normal member like me can"t even look at them normally let alone borrowing them is even more impossible. And I can"t betray my allies..But, if you"re really fine with my body, then after we return you can embrace me as much as you like."
and said that after facing downwards. Hmph, it seems their party has a reasonable amount of unity.
"Ah, there"s no need to worry about what that idiot was saying. I don"t have even the slightest bit of that sort of intention. However, in that case we"re quite troubled."
As a matter of fact I"m really troubled.
Ginger is getting depressed repeating, "..not even the slightest bit..", but when I already have Miduchi it"s not like I could do something like that right. Even if it was before I met Miduchi, I wouldn"t say something like that.
It"s not particularly that I want chump change like 4,000,000 Z. It seems she"s got a decent amount of skill but I wouldn"t really want her as a combat slave either. I also wouldn"t want to do what I please with her body to make up for the remainder either. In the first place, how many times would that even add up to being her partner...Calculating from 3,500,000 Z and if it was going to the average cheap brothel in town that would add up to several hundred times, maybe even a thousand times. If we could at least get our hands on the information about the vein of ores then it would be plenty in return but judging from this it looks impossible. Ah, I guess I could just have her create a debt. But, it"s not like something like a bank exists and she probably would only be able to borrow from other members of {Sun Ray}. If they refuse then that"s the end of it.
How troubling...It can"t be helped~ since this is an unusual case, here I"ll...
and, Bel who hadn"t spoken a word in the corner up until now approached our side.
"There"s no end to it..Al-san, please leave this to me."
Bel said that and without waiting for my response walked out front.
"..Ginger-san. If you don"t want to become a slave then please pay with your heart. Right here and now the price of your life is 4,000,000 Z. Pay the 500,000 Z and the remaining 3,500,000 Z you should return to us someday in your actions. Right her and now please swear your loyalty to our leader, Greed-san."
Just when I thought she came out from the side Bel started casually saying something outrageous. However, what is she saying..."swear your loyalty" what does that even mean?
While everyone is dumbfounded, Bel continues her words.
"If you can do that then there"s no need to pay the money you can"t afford. It"s fine if you sell your heart here. As compensation for your loyalty, we"ll save your life...Ah, of course we don"t need something like a contract. It"s possible for you to betray us and it"s also possible for you to obey here and then pretend not to know later. But, once we realize that or are left with that sort of impression, what happens next I"ll leave up to your imagination."
No, you, what are you deciding all on your own...It"s fine though you know. While we"ve frozen up hearing Bel"s statement, including Ginger no one could say a single word. While we were all like that Bel continued even more.
"Please decide on your own if you think this is cheap or expensive. We won"t force it on you. It"s fine if you want to sell yourself as a slave and pay the remaining 3,500,000 Z as well and if you can"t pay that large amount, it"s also fine for us to split up here as well. In that case, if you try to follow after us you"ll become an attack target though. Of course, if you have some method of obtaining the money soon after we return then that"s not a problem either. Please decide right now, whether you"ll pay, or won"t pay, if you will pay will it be with money, or something different."
After saying that Bel shut her mouth and stared at Ginger. When a beauty makes a cold face and says cold things it really makes you shudder. However..even if you don"t take that sort of method..Well I guess it"s fine. Sorry about that, Bel.
"Bel, don"t drive her so far into the corner. Ginger-san, for today we"ll give you the special bargain of 500,000 Z. Since we would have originally gotten the income of 4,000,000 Z I"ll have to pay the members a bonus. As expected we can"t do it for free. And it will end up teaching you some of the tricks to getting through the 6th floor after all. Ah, I won"t particularly stop you from telling {Sun Ray} about that when you return. If you want to talk about it feel free. There"s nothing special I"ll do about that. That"s why, please relax. We"ll definitely return you to the teleport room on the 6th floor."
I said that and looked at Zulu who"s still gathering the magic stones. One more huh? I returned my gaze back to Ginger and she"s making an openly relieved expression. I don"t know whether this goes far enough to be considered a favor to her. Well, even if we just abandoned her to her death it would be the source of some bad dreams as well.
While waiting for Zulu to finish gathering the magic stone, we started down the pa.s.sage which seems most likely to lead to the center of the 6th floor that Toris was watching over. Along the way we were attacked just once by a group of 5 {Vampire Bats} but just as would be expected from one of the weakest monsters on the 6th floor we wiped them out in no time just by stabbing them to death with no magic.
The reason the ceilings of the 6th floor is so high is probably because these {Vampire Bats} are here. When they suddenly come swooping down at you if you calm down and use {Light} in front of their faces you can cause them to flinch and you can tell where they"re flying for the next five minutes as well. After that you just need to wait until they come down aiming at someone and stab them with a spear or sword, or Bel can shoot them with her bow.
We ran into several teleport traps along the way but we were able to get past them easily by going through the sides and soon after we arrived at the teleport room on the 6th floor.
"Now then, let"s return shall we?"
I said that and grabbed on to the crystal rod. Once I confirmed that everyone had grabbed it including Ginger, we returned to the teleport room on the 5th floor.
...............
After returning to the teleport room on the 5th floor there were only four people excluding Giberuti. Excluding Ginger that means three people weren"t able to return. The leader Zenmyunel is among one of the four that returned. Ginger returned along with us and the members of {Sun Ray} including the leader Zemyunel let out a shout of joy after being surprised but the leader Zemyunel immediately came over to me and lowered his head.
"It seems you protected Ginger. I offer you my thanks. Thank you very much."
"Ah, please don"t worry about it. We"ve already properly received her thanks. There"s no problem."
"Eh? I see."
Zemyunel said with a slightly confused face. I,
"By the way, I"ve heard the circ.u.mstances from Ginger-san. It seems that three people still haven"t returned.."
said that and changed the topic.
"We took quite a bit of damage..It seems that the 6th floor was still too soon for us."
I don"t know if it was too soon but if the situation I heard about from Ginger is correct then it"s not surprising. I"m sure you were surprised over all the firsts right? It seems like you have bad lucj as well. However, you brought us quite the useful information. I"m greatly thankful for that. After all it seems that the destinations of the teleport traps on the 6th floor are random. Though if you hold hands while jumping in at the same time you might end up together, we really don"t feel up for testing it out.
"I really can"t say anything...It would be good if your allies can safely return."
I couldn"t do anything more than say that with an unfortunate face.
"Come to think of it, you just said you"ve already received thanks from Ginger but I can"t imagine she was in possession of that much money though.."
Zemyunel made an expression as if inquiring from us as he said it.
"Yeah, we haven"t actually received it yet but we received a promise to accept 500,000 Z from her over the incident this time."
After hearing me say casually Zemyunel,
"500,000!? For just that much..."
and shouted that. Hearing that the other members of {Sun Ray} were wondering what was going on and looking over here. Ginger explained that "The {Slaughterers} brought me to the teleport room on the 6th floor for just 500,000 Z". They raised equally surprised voices.
"If she says she can"t pay anymore than that then it can"t be helped. It doesn"t feel very good to just leave someone to die after all."
and I shrugged my shoulders while replying.
"Umm..As a matter of fact, I know this is very rude, but today when I talked with everyone about going to the 6th floor.."
Zemyunel started to talk hesitantly. About what?
"If one of you were to seek our help on the 6th floor how much would we require to save one person and.."
Hmph. Well anyone talks about things on that level lightly.
"And, as expected since there"s a lot of danger to the 6th floor, we thought it wouldn"t be cheap, and.."
That"s only obvious. Even I thought about 3,000,000 Z at first.
"We came to the conclusion that 4,000,000 Z per person still wouldn"t be worth it.."
So that"s why Ginger said 4,000,000 Z. I get it.
"But, it seems I just heard you saved Ginger for 500,000 Z and.."
It"s about the cost of saving someone on the 1st floor. But it"s fine.
"Really..Thank you very much."
I waved my hand while turning around as if saying not to worry about it and returned to everyone else.
Bel properly left an impression on her. They say there"s nothing more expensive than free. Ah, I guess it still wasn"t free huh?