Whew~ that 8 hours took 13 whole hours to be over. Next chapter sometime today.
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 24
After leaving the dungeon we went straight into the magic tool shop. We handed our spoils that is the magic stones still in the sack to the owner and requested him to a.s.sess them. The magic stones from the 1st to 6th floors we merged into a total of three magic stones but the ogre magic stones from the 7th floor as still in their original form. Including the merged magic stones we have a total of 98 of them. I"m sure it"ll take quite a bit of time to measure the weights. It might be best to prepare ourselves for it taking over an hour.
It"s troublesome and I"d like to just leave it to someone else and return to "Boil Manor" but unless there"s some kind of special circ.u.mstances I prefer that everyone is here when confirming the sales of magic stones. Since it directly relates to the payment of bonuses. The exception is magic stones like the {Larva Purple Worm} the other day or magic items. And then this time the newcomer Basutoral is here as well.
Zenom and I sit down at the chairs next to the counter and the rest of the members are standing but this can"t be helped.
"I"m sure this time will be a new record.."
When Zenom whispered to himself and after hearing that everyone else started chatting.
"That"s~ only obvious right. After all it was 95 ogres! It was worth staying on the 7th floor for six whole days. Right, Bel."
"I guess so. As expected I"m a bit tired..Rub my shoulders later."
"Ku...Bel-san..Stiff shoulders..Is that sarcasm.."
"Gwine, you really..you pay too much care to things like that. Rather than that I"m hungry, I want to go drinking already."
"Ral..like a human like you could understand my worries but..I"ll drink. I"ll drink everything.."
..Let"s just ignore these guys.
"I wonder how much it will be? If each one is about 800,000 and there"s 95 of those. Then there were three of them between 300,000 and 800,000 right?"
Miduchi asked me.
"Won"t it be around 80,000,000? I"m sure it"s a new record."
The total identify value was 11,628,258. If you roughly multiple that seven times it"s around 81,400,000. In just a bit more it would have been 81,500,000 but that can"t be helped. If you cut off the fractions then 2% of 81,000,000, 1,620,000 Z (162 silver coins) is the normal bonus and Basutoral"s bonus is 810,000 Z. Furthermore, there"s almost no need to worry about the value being a.s.sessed incorrectly. The identify value of a gnoll"s magic stone which is about 2,000 and is a mother stone is roughly 11 grams. Since the weight of a 0 mana mother stone is 10 grams so the comes out to 1 gram = 2,000 value. Since the scale magic tool that the magic tool shop uses for a.s.sessments is extremely precise it should be able to weigh down to 0.001 gram. I"m sure there"s some margin of error but you could say it"s within a permissible range. Really Toris"s Unique Ability somehow..doesn"t have much chance to shine.
"8...81,000,000..in other words, 810,000 Z..In just..9 days..Without taking 10 days 810,000 Z..This is..So this is an adventurer.."
"Don"t misunderstand, Bastuoral. This is only possible because of master. It wouldn"t go this way with other adventurers."
"It"s just as Zulu-sama says. In the first place you haven"t properly worked this time. It"s no good if you forget that."
"Ye..Yeah.. of course. Zulu-san, Angela-san. I already know that...Just, that is..I was just a bit surprised."
"If you know that much then there"s no problem. Maruso don"t bully him so much."
"But, Larry, since he said it like a normal adventurer.."
"No, Giberuti-san. Thank you very much. That"s right isn"t it. It wouldn"t go this way for normal adventurers right..I had intended to understand it from hearing everyone"s story but I"m surprised once again."
When the a.s.sessment of the magic tool owner finished, and it came to purchasing, as expected he wanted to have some cash on hand for the new year so he proposed only buying half of it. The remaining magic stones he"ll buy once again after the start of the new year so we ended up receiving the payment for half of, 50 of them, and then I paid the bonuses to everyone other than the slaves. Since Basutoral gets his as a deduction from his loan I just gave him1 silver coin. Tomorrow I"m paying the wages of 200,000 Z so it"s plenty to live on.
I placed the money and magic stones in my locker in the temple and after catching up with everyone, we went to eat dinner like normal before returning to the inn.
I"m sure Ralpha and Gwine were tired as expected so they returned together with us.
..................
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 25
Even then we still don"t wake up at a time that"s all that different from usual, together with everyone excluding Zenom and Giberuti we go running. After that, in the morning I started making an alphabet text of Orth"s letters for teaching Basutoral letters. It"s something like the notes of an elementary schooler. I"ll at least treat him the cost of the paper this time. During that time, it seems that Ralpha and Gwine are trying to teach Basutoral magic. Those two, they"re surprisingly good at caring over others. Ah, obviously they"re trying to use the commonly known method for teaching the {Cantrip} {Magical.Detection}.
If I"m correct, they"re using Gwine"s magic spear. It"s only obvious but if you can properly use the {Cantrip} {Magical.Detection} then you"ll be able to detect the fact that an item is a magic item. Since it doesn"t consume any magic stones I guess magic weapons and things like that are useful for acquiring a magic skill...Though about the only one making use of such a luxurious method is probably only about you in all of Orth, Basutoral.
We all gathered together in the vacant s.p.a.ce at the edge of town and had lunch using the remaining food we had leftover from what Giberuti prepared for the dungeon before starting our training. It"s our last job of the year, once this over we have plans for all of Greed Company, the adventurer department to go merrymaking at a restaurant. It turned into training with more fighting spirit behind it than usual. It would be boring to get injured before our last meeting so I got some chills while commanding over the training. Only Basutoral was in the corner practicing defense with a spear. It"s just the forms but right now his abilities are too low that he just ends up slowing everyone else down while training with the other members.
"Ya~ Greed-san. You all seem quite lively."
Before I noticed Faruergaz and Hirosukol had come to see our training. They looked out for the timing we were on break and called out to me. I returned the greeting.
"We"ve decided to challenge the dungeon of Baldukk as well. We came to offer our greetings on that end."
Eh...what did he say? All of the members of the {Slaughterers} couldn"t hide their surprise hearing that.
They"ve started noisily talking away.
"As a matter of fact to check things out we tried entering once the other day."
Yeah I see, and then? What happened? Ah, me? this time is 80..I"ll shut up.
"We were able to get a feel that we can somehow manage it on the 1st floor. Of course, I"m sure it"s nowhere near you all but the two of us were able to earn 260,000 Z."
Ho~ that"s quite amazing. By the way, did you enter with just the two of you? Do you not have any other allies?
"Eh? It was just the two of us. If the opponent is low in numbers then something can be done about it."
Hey now, didn"t you just have good luck? If it"s on the 1st floor then it"s not strange for goblins or gnolls to come in groups of 20 at a time. If it"s just the two of you then taking on a group of at most 4-5 orks or hobgoblins is easier I"m sure.
"Ah..is that so? We only caught sight of orks and hobgoblins.."
That"s what they call being lucky. Unless you"re considerably skilled you should at least gather four people or more.
Depending on the case hiring a guide is good as well, if you go to the entrance plaza in the early morning there"s a lot of people recruiting allies.
"Or, rather, if you"re entering the dungeon I suggest you gather some information. While the maps are incomplete, for the time being you can buy them for the 1st to 3rd floors, even when it comes to an experienced guide, it costs a bit to hire them but there"s a that can be learned from them. Unless you pick a serious failure of one I don"t think you"ll lose out."
"I see, a guide huh? Rodrick, we were able to hear something good right."
"Yeah, that"s right. Fio, shall we get right to hiring one? Around how much do guides usually cost?"
"If it"s just the 1st floor then around 100,000 Z for one day. Other than that there"s also the entrance tax and including the guide in for a share of the items obtained within the dungeon is pretty common."
""..They cost quite a bit..""
"Well it"s a business for them as well. It"s not like they always have jobs after all. When it comes to the top cla.s.s guides it"s said they can heard 1,000,000 Z in a month off of just guide fees. The unpopular guides can"t take customers at all so if you try negotiating with them you might be able to get them cheaper but it would be best if you don"t place your hopes too high. Even among them it seems that they can"t do {dumping} in order to prevent the price from collapsing."
"Is that so? We were able to hear various valuable things. Thanks."
Fio lowered his head while thanking me.
"No, you"re welcome. Well then we still have training left."
I said that and returned to training.
"Alright, then let"s go..First of Zenom, Angela, and Gwine. Let"s go with hobgob for everyone else I guess?"
Be careful. Don"t die.
..............
After training, we washed away the sweat and then went to have a party at the usual high cla.s.s restaurant "Dorureon". Since there"s 10 days off starting tomorrow, the expensive food and alcohol are being consumed in ma.s.s. Hey, it"s already easily exceeded 300,000...Isn"t this going to reach 500,000? Though I was prepared for it.
Before the alcohol starts circulating around I paid the reincarnated people 200,000 Z for their wages, Zulu was 80,000 z including his 10,000 Z wages, Angela was 70,000 Z, and finally was Giberuti"s 40,000 Z wages. Furthermore, as a Christmas present I gave everyone a towel as usual. No matter how many towels you have they"re nothing to be troubled over. The new members from this year Miduchi and Basutoral thought it was a part of the bonus but once they realized the other reincarnated people had prepared shirts, hats, and gloves they started to panic but since everyone wanted to see that they remained quiet it seems.
I did too though.
"Really, wouldn"t it have been fine if you had told me.."
Miduchi expanded her cheeks while complaining to me and Bel,
"Ah, I see. "Christmas" huh..I completely forgot about it..But, I, still don"t have that kind of money.."
Basutoral is saying that while depressed but his expression seems quite happy so he"s probably enjoying himself.
Around the time one hour had pa.s.sed since the start of the party, our stomachs were getting full, after this we just finish off the remaining food while drinking.
"Bastuoral. How was your first time in the dungeon?"
"Eh? Yeah, since that was my first time..In any case I was just frantic..However, everyone is quite amazing. Though Al-san feels extraordinary but everyone else seems extremely strong as well..Even though there"s quite a few women, it"s really quite something."
"Well I"m sure that"s about the case for the first time. Make sure you properly train on your own during this holiday. I"ll test you on it after the holiday is over. If you remain the stay forever then you"ll never escape the trial period."
"Of.. Of course! I"ll, do it! I"ve already promised with Gwine-san for her to teach me the spear tomorrow morning after all!"
"I see. It"s good that you"re enthusiastic. Then I have one more present for you. Study the words with this. I wrote down the "j.a.panese" next to it as well so you should be able to do it even alone. If you don"t know something then just grab someone and ask."
I said that while handing him the awesome me"s handmade "Alphabet Practice Book ~ Ragudarios Language Basics Version ~".
"Eh? This..is it all handwritten..I guess that"s only obvious. Al-san. Thank you very much. For you to go this far for me, I"m really happy."
It"s just that I can"t stand for my subordinates to remain illiterate so don"t mind it. Though it was troublesome, since I thought there might be cases like this from here on out as well so it"s good to have a copybook and then I thought to have this guy do it.
"By the way, what does everyone plan to do during their days off? Around the day after tomorrow someone should be coming from my home town to the company so after that I think I"ll be in the capital for the rest of it though."
"N..I"ll be rolling around in the inn. Also, if you"re going to the capital say something and I"ll join you. I want to greet sub-Baron Rogflat and do some shopping as well. Recently I"ve been hooked on smoked fish.."
When Zenom said that Ralpha opened her mouth as well.
"Then I will as well. I"m sure father"s clothes are already done as well... Gwine, let"s go shopping for clothes or something."
"Yeah. That"s fine. Since it"s the occasion I was thinking of going to a liquor store. It would be nice if they have some rye vodka."
That, don"t they call it {Rye.Whiskey}?
I think it was last year. I caught a glimpse of it in the capital but it had an insane price of 200,000 Z for one bottle so I hesitated on it.
"We"re going to the capital on New Year"s day as well."
"What time was it again?"
"It"s on the edge of the second road at 10 am."
It seems that Toris and Bel applied for a carriage tour around various spots in the capital. Is it a heart bus? I want to try riding one of those types of things once as well.
"We"re remaining on standby at the inn."
Zulu said that.
"Don"t worry about things during the days off. Go out and play."
I"m sure you"ll just be hanging around "Murowa" right? This is a conversation that"s like the usual ceremony. This guy, if I were to say, "I see, then so I can call you out at anytime don"t move" I wonder what kind of face he"d make? But I like how Zulu always says something like this.
"Umm, I am.."
"Yeah, I"ll give you some tomorrow so come over."
Angela is requesting for some condoms. That"s quite the degeneration. Though that"s fine. I would be troubled if you get pregnant after all. Stretch out your wings are much as you like.
"I want to go to the capital as well. Please let me stock up on some new seasonings."
"Got it. I"ll call you when the carriage comes."
Giberuti seems to have nothing in his mind other than developing new menus. If I thank about it carefully this guy is probably using more money than Zulu"s wages. Though this doesn"t particularly matter either.
I confirmed everyone"s plans and we returned to the party again. Miduchi? She"s together with me. There"s no way she"d have a day off.
.............
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 26
We put in a reservation an appropriate cheap inn from 12/30 until 1/2. It"s necessary to go to the fairy village again to learn spells during the holidays this time as well. It might not be too bad to bring along everyone else as well but there"s not much meaning to it unless they can use all elemental magics, and have them beyond a certain level as well. That idiot Ralpha might bring along some alcohol and end up harming a fairy as well. I guess that"s saying too much huh?
I made a reservation with the dried foods dealer and paid in advance.
Furthermore, when I sent Miduchi out to scout things before going running, it seems that Faruergaz and Hirosukol have hit it off with some weird two person group of men and the four of them are entering the dungeon together. Since the two of them received invest.i.ture as knights and they have more skill than the average adventurer around there. And they"re reincarnated people so even if their levels are a bit low I"m sure they can somehow manage.
Miduchi and I spent the morning going over our education plan for everyone from here on out, then after that we had lunch and we found Angela wandering around town seeming bored so the three of us entered the dungeon and I had Angela and Miduchi earn some experience.
Other than Miduchi, the three slaves and I had dinner at "Murowa" while we roused things up over the topic of Zulu"s woman.
"Hey Dazu, grab the salt for me."
With his face red Zulu is embarra.s.sed as he says "Please just forgive me already." His woman is working again today as well but since the store is pretty packed she"s moving around busily.
"Come to think of it, it seems the judgement day is in the middle of next month."
Angela said while biting into a boiled pig leg. Come to think of it, there"s been no negotiations or contact at all on that.
"Ah, that"s right. Once the date has been confirmed I"ll make it into a day off so don"t worry about it."
The judgement days are one of the few amus.e.m.e.nt days for the people of Orth that only happen a couple times in a year. Though it"s the ideal time of business for restaurants but other than they usually close for business and a bunch of stalls appear like a festival. It"s only obvious when it comes to the punishment of criminal offenses but since judgements are also made on civil cases that are highly talked about there"s a lot for people to enjoy with it.
In any case, for the average person who doesn"t have much to look forward to the days of judgement feel like a festival. Since it"s cruel to steal this from them I make sure to match our days off up with them. This morning a messenger came from the government office saying we might need to appear as witnesses so I already knew about the judgement day next month. Normally they give notice of them in the entrance plaza and government office around 10 day ahead.
"Once again this time master and Kalstalan-sama will need to appear as witnesses right. We can"t miss this."
Giberuti said while carrying a spoon of porridge with bacon and spices into his mouth. Among the slaves this guy is the one who learned how to use tableware the fastest. It can"t be helped that Zulu and Angela still can"t use the chopsticks but they don"t even use spoons very often. Since Zulu was originally a commoner I thought he could properly use tableware but it seems that a poor squire family in Devas doesn"t use anymore tableware than plates and bowls.
"It"s my first time seeing a judgement day so I"m looking forward to it a bit."
I"m sure Miduchi is just looking forward to it since there"s all sorts of stalls lined up like a festival. It was then that a voice b.u.t.ted into our conversation.
"Oh~ isn"t it the {Slaughterers}? Is it fine next to you?"
I was surprised when I saw the one who was speaking. It was the {Verdure Brotherhoods} Virhaima and {Black Topaz}s Anderson, the two of them came in together. Tension ran through the members of the {Slaughterers}. The only one who didn"t get tense and is the same as usual is Miduchi who has had almost no contact with them but she seems to have figured it out from the way everyone"s expressions changed.
"Of course. Please take a seat."
I said that while wondering why these two are? and was suspicious of it. Could it be they hear the rumors that the {Slaughterers} and {Sun Ray} were cooperating together and they plan to team up as well?
"It seems that business is booming for you quite a bit recently."
Old man Virhaima started talking to me.
"Yeah, thanks to you, we"ve been able to smoothly increase our earnings."
I reply while not showing any openings. I said it with a sociable smile on my face.
"You"re going to the 7th floor right? It"s quite something. Even though everyone was much cuter when we first met..In no time at all we were overtaken."
Anderson laughed while saying as she pulled out the seat and sat down.
"Stop with the cute, Anderson. We were suddenly overtaken as well and now these guys are the top earners in Baldukk."
"N..Well, I guess that"s true."
"Yeah, just look at this impudent face. He"s already long past the edges of adventurers. And even one that we"re no match for."
"Certainly..recently my party members have been saying we should earn the same way the {Slaughterers} do through magic stones as well. It"s quite troubling.."
You two are first rate because you"re properly holding them back and still earning steadily. If we were to end up clashing in the dungeon I can"t imagine us losing but if we were to get ambushed there"s few opponents where I"d have to prepare myself for some sacrifices. Particularly {Verdure Brotherhood} and {Black Topaz} are the strongest contenders for that.
"Beer and a bacon fry. Make it crispy and include some eggs as well."
"I want some beer as well. After that do you have suggestions?"
"We"ve got some good keirui today."
"Then that. Please deep-fry it."
"I understand."
The two of them gave their orders to Zulu"s woman who came over before facing me again.
"..By the way Greed-san. I"ve heard some rumors but.."
Look here it comes.
"Rumors? What is it about?"
"Don"t put yourself on guard so much. Did you all start cooperating with {Sun Ray}?"
I thought it was something like that.
"We didn"t start cooperating with them. We just made a promise to jointly manage the facilities in the teleport room on the 5th floor."
I said that while drinking some beer.
"..Is that it?"
"Yeah, that"s it. Is there anything?"
"It"s different from what I heard..Hisu was saying they had teamed up with you all."
Hisu? Hisu..Hisurura.Haruirein huh?
"He~"
Well, in regards to taking showers on the 5th floor and things like that you could say we have teamed up maybe.
"Well, a warning, or maybe not quite that far. Since this is something that is related to us as well but I thought we would tell you just in case. Probably, but I think that eventually they"ll try invite you to enter the dungeon with them. The leaders the Rindobel"s made use of that in order to take in members from other parties and made {Sun Ray} bigger like that."
He~ is that so? But I wonder how that connects with them getting bigger?
"They start off by just giving a larger share when you go together with them. Just like that let them relax and get a good grasp on the people who seem useful before trying to headhunt them. I had one person stolen away in the past as well."
"There was one from my place as well. Although, the guy who was pulled out is already dead."
I see now.
"I see, thank you very much for the valuable information. I"m grateful. However, I don"t understand why you would give me such a warning. Wouldn"t it be more convenient for you all if we were to be weakened?"
"Ha!! Don"t misunderstand. We greatly welcome you {Slaughterers} getting weaker but more than that we want to prevent {Sun Ray} from growing."
"Well, if you were to say it then that"s true. It seems like {Sun Ray} is showing their face on the 6th floor as well but they"re struggling quite a bit. The 5th floor is still splendidly one of their hunting grounds. If you all who have gone off to the 7th floor were to fall back down to the 6th or 5th floors then it would be a bother as well."
Yeah. If it"s that sort of reason then well I guess I can understand it.
"However, something like headhunting members for a top team, I feel like it would be impossible with an average share though.."
"That"s where they get dirty. First off they pull them in with money but the guys who are swayed by that they slowly pull them in and then at one point they propose going together with them to the temple. Since it seems they have some kind of special route, they say that you can give offerings faster."
Hohou. A special route indeed. Incidentally there"s conditions to giving offerings to the temple. When it comes to the naming ceremony, marriages, sales of slaves, or release and things like that they request offerings unconditionally. Though it"s a fixed amount. Well, that"s something like a handling charge and to be more correct you can"t call it a offering I"m sure. Other than that there"s something like a offering box and it"s possible to give an offering there but once again they only allow small amounts there and even at greatest it seems you can"t offer more than 1 silver coin. It"s free for you to wish for something or pray for something there.
This offering is important. The times when you can give offers are roughly once in a month, only the days when the master moon {Karutari} reaches it"s full moon, otherwise the night of the 17th when the sub-moon {Neitari} is in full moon just those sorts of 77 day cycles. Though as an exception New Year"s day is different but there"s almost no people who give offering then. Since it"s not like there"s anything good that comes from it. Only the first 100 visitors who come to the temple on the days of full moon can give offerings and their status is checked.
It"s not allowed to line up several days ahead in order to aim to be one of the first arrivals. It"s necessary to line up the moment the sun starts to set on the day itself. It"s said that if you break this then you"ll be hit by lightning but this is just a rumor. After all it seems no one has ever been hit by it before.
And then, it seems that you"re given a wooden tag. Similar to how currency is made this wooden tag is made so it can"t be counterfeited. If you can collect 10,000 Z worth of them then you can exchange for it a slightly larger wooden tag that has some magic cast on it. At this point the status of the person who received the wooden tag is branded into it with some magic process. If you collect 100 of these then you can exchange for an even larger wooden tag.
If you"re in possession of this large wooden tag and it seems just once you can have healing magic used on you unconditionally. It doesn"t seem like a priest, or minister, or bishop or whatever uses it on you, but rather only those who have the wooden tag are allowed into the main temple building and there G.o.d directly uses a healing spell on them supposedly. According to what I"ve heard this healing spell is believed to be {Cure All}. In other words it doesn"t matter how heavy of an injury it is in just one spot you can have it almost completely healed.
There"s no adventurers who wouldn"t want this. Since there"s not many people who can use healing spells at this high of a level after all. In the first place if you were to search for someone who has all elemental magics then it"s not like you can"t find them but after they have all of them it"s also necessary for all of them be above level 5 as well. Even if you were seriously injured and one breath from dying if you can brought to the temple right away at the very least there"s a possibility you could be saved.
The moon of Orth, {Karutari} reaches a new moon right matching up perfectly with 60 days. In other words, for it to match up with the primary moon {Karutari}"s full moon you only have six chances in the year. The sub-moon {Neitari} is even less with 4-5 times in the year. Even if you pour 10,000 Z into each one of those chances in order to earn the 1,000,000 Z worth wooden tag it would take 10 years.
Since the person them self has to be the one to do it, it"s a precious item that even among n.o.bles it"s said not many people have them.
Normal people just think that"s idiotic and can"t be bothered to do something like that. Something like heavy injuries don"t happen all that often after all.
Ha~han~ That {Sun Ray}, that Rindobel couple, so they were those sort of people...