And so it begins...Next chapter in 3-6 hours.
Year 7445, Month 8, Day 15
Again, we teleported into the 8th floor from the morning.
The first monster we ended up luring on the 8th floor this morning was a {Giant Mantis}. It died from one hit of Ralpha"s {Flame Arbalest}. Bugs sure are weak to fire. Gwine ended up burning it to death with {Flame Thrower} as well. After their wings catch fire they go up in flames in an interesting way, stop moving right away and die. The smell of burning proteins spreads around the surroundings but I guess the reason it isn"t even the slightest bit appetizing is because it"s from bugs.
Since we"ve already found out that burning them to death makes it easier when we go to disa.s.semble them and collect the magic stones, it might be good to center on using fire magic from here on out. Thinking like that since Toris can"t use fire magic he have bad affinity with the 8th floor.
And then once again today we repeated teleporting into the 8th floor countless times until close to noon, since there was no change in the types of monsters that come out it was just as we were getting sick of them already.
In terms of time it was probably just as were finishing our last monster calling before lunch, it was that sort of time when the fourth type of monster appeared.
When I saw it from the distance using Identify vision I doubted my eyes.
That is~ isn"t it a {Scavenger Crawler}!?
Furthermore there"s even 5 of them!
Even if I try identifying if it"s the same thing I"ve seen countless times in the boss room on the 1st floor. However, it seems these {Scavenger Crawlers} have lived quite a while, both their age and level were a bit high. On average they were level 15. The height is 3 meters and their girth has a diameter of around 80 cm, things like that are running over here at about the speed of an adult. Zurorororo!!! and you can hear the sound from them dragging their bodies along.
The pa.s.sage this time turns to the right about 300 meters ahead but during the time I was looking at the identify window they"ve approached by about 50 meters.
"Somehow I hear an unpleasant sound.."
"This sound..{Scavenger Crawler}?"
"After all it seems they were in other places..This scent is that of {Scavenger Crawler}!"
"s.h.i.t..They"re too far so I can"t see them.."
"..Be quiet..It"s not just one! There"s a lot of them! Al, we"re depending on you!"
I guess the electricity I used like in the past is good. Since it seems like there"s multiple targets I used the spell {Chain Lightning}. Only the two in the rear were remaining. However, it seems they"ve weakened quite a bit from taking the electricity. Just like that when I tried using Identify on them their HP had cut 70 remaining.
"Hmn, it seems they"ve been weakened considerably. Basutoral, finish them off."
As they approached us Basutoral stabbed them with his spear just as I ordered and the two remaining died. They have high levels and there"s their special skills as well so as usual the experience points they give is a lot but it feels like the value of the magic stones were higher than usual? or at least a little bit since they were 7,000 or so each. However, for 5 {Scavenger Crawlers} to appear at once..If it was a party with no flexibility in their mana they"d be on the route to getting wiped out. It was the same for the ogres on the 7th floor but it seems it would be best to think there"s no room to relax on the 8th floor either.
Since the smell was terrible I left the dissection up to Angela but since she was wincing from the bad odor the {Scavenger Crawlers} give off as well there were tears welling in her eyes. When she handed the five magic stones over to me with a pale face I thanked her for her work and put them into my rubber pouch along with the feelers we collected from all of them.
We returned to the 7th floor and when I gave her the right to the first shower she seemed a bit happy.
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Year 7445, Month 8, Day 16
We returned to the surface in the evening. Starting this time we cleared out the ogre mage room on the 7th floor once a day so our earnings are huge. We had a total of 71 magic stones from ogres. Adding to that the magic stones from the 8th floor have a decent value as well so including it with the earnings up until the 6th floor and it largely exceeded 65,000,000 Z. Additionally we"ll sell the feelers of the 5 {Scavenger Crawlers} to the drug shop as well. That isn"t even 100,000 Z in total.
However, everyone is quite pleased.
I pay out the bonuses to the members of the {Slaughterers} and take the reports from Toris and Bel about the {Butchers} and {Sooner}.
"I"m sorry..That is.."
"Umm..I"m very sorry.."
Of course it was that state of things last time. I"m sure the losses will continue for a while. Most likely, won"t it start to show some profit around the time they get to the 4th and 5th floors? But you know, on {Sooner}s end Rodrick and the combat slave he owns Karimu both leveled up this time and reached 9.
You all had that sort of period as well and if you were to ask me even right now is something like an extension of that...Though that"s same for me as well.
"Don"t worry about being in the red. What"s important is gaining the experience and learning things from leading them after all. It"s a weird way of putting it but you could say they"re all teachers of you all I"ve sent in as leaders. It"s only obvious that the fee for the course is somewhat expensive right?"
Right, they"re teachers that it"s possible they"ll teach you through example. I"m sure you"ll experience scary and painful things as well. You might even suffer serious injuries, depending on the case you might lose your lives. More or less everyone who enters the dungeon has that sort of resolve. If were to say some extreme logic then in the case a powerful opponent appears and even if they suffer damage then...
Since everyone can earn experience that connects to the future that amount is chump change and not a waste at all.
Of course, I don"t want anyone to die though. Whether it be the {Butchers} or {Sooner} they"re all people that have relationship with me. I"m sure they want to take every chance they can get for promotion and I want more members who can get promoted to come out as well. Obviously, right now I want to put priority on the members of the {Slaughterers} gaining experience, but it"s no big deal, I don"t mind if they"re overtaken.
"Now, everyone let"s go and eat. But for tonight just avoid any heavy drinking. Tonight, when everyone returns I want to talk about things from here on out including the 8th floor."
After I said that the seven of us excluding those on leave went to eat.
After 8 pm all of the {Slaughterers} gathered in my room in Boil Manor and we reported things about the 8th floor. Since we don"t have any proper information on the monsters, I declared that for the time being we"ll take the safe route and focus on luring monsters into the halls of the 8th floor as we grasp their characteristics and types. We"ll continue this until at least the {Butchers} can reach a level where they"re fine without anyone being dispatched from the {Slaughterers}.
Also, around the end of this month I"ll be able to buy a number of combat slaves so in that case I should be reduce the number of members dispatched to both the {Butchers} and {Sooner} by two. Nothing can be helped by hurrying, I told them that right now rather than hurrying ahead we"ll properly gain some experience and strengthen our combat forces so we can take on any opponent that appears. After all even Rombert the First gave up on this 8th floor of the dungeon. Though I say that, it"s probably not because he was blocked by a powerful enemy he couldn"t win against but because he got his hands on a large treasure I"m sure.
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Year 7445, Month 8, Day 17
Starting from this three day break I"m eating breakfast and dinner together with {Sooner} on the first day and then eating breakfast and dinner together with the {Butchers} on the second day. The third day is with the {Slaughterers}. Since I"ll be dispatching to their parties as well. I need to properly maintain contact with them.
Since today is the first time I"m together with everyone in {Sooner}. This time Bel was the leader and Zulu was the a.s.sistant but I wonder how everyone in {Sooner} felt about her leadership. Since we ended up returning late I wasn"t able to sell the feelers from the {Scavenger Crawlers} at the drug store so after doing my running I told Bel that I would stop by the drug store to sell the feelers on my way to the restaurant.
When I arrived at the restaurant Bel and Zulu were sitting next to each other while saying something to everyone around them. Since I arrived at the place a bit late, I quietly sat down at the end while thinking. It might be good to ask Zulu who was acting as a.s.sistant and it"s something I obviously need to do. However, I wonder how everyone else thinks about it? I guess I"ll try asking Rodrick who"s sitting next to me huh? No, I should stop with that. I should only make decisions based on the results from the reports of the person them self and the a.s.sistant. It"s practice for myself as well.
"Ya~ good morning, it"s my first time in this restaurant but what"s good in the morning?"
I asked Rodrick who was sitting next to me in a quiet voice.
"Ah, Gree..Al-san! Good morning. Though it was on the 1st floor, we defeated 18 room bosses this time! I guess even we can manage things when we try them."
No, I already know the result. Rather than that what"s delicious? The bacon and eggs you"re eating? It seems be half-done and that looks pretty good as well.
"That"s right. And, is that goo"Ah, Al-san! Everyone, listen well? The reason why we {Slaughterers} were able to earn so much every time we enter the dungeon, I"m sure you already know but there"s a reason to it. Previously we all were trained by Al-san just like you are right now."
It seems Bel couldn"t hear my talking from the edge of the table.
"Previously, I think Toris said it as well but the {Slaughterers} method of clearing the dungeon is fundamentally different form other parties. Just as the name of the {Slaughterers} represents we cut down everything that appears in front of us.
As a result we"ve gotten used to the combat and we can travel down the shortest route with no need to go to the trouble of taking detours. Please think that the first standard is clearing through the 3rd floor in half a day. For that sake the 1st floor is just a matter of around three hours. We defeat all of the opponents along the way, and no matter when and what appears, we can clear through the 1st floor in three hours. Until we reach that stage we won"t be going to the 2nd floor."
I"m sure everyone"s already heard this discussion a number of times right..No, they"re all listening pretty enthusiastically. Even Zulu is nodding. You sure are an actor~ I guess the same bacon and eggs as Rodrick is good. I called over the waiter and ordered bacon, eggs, bread, and some soup. There"s not a large difference in the breakfast menu of any restaurant. It seems that this place doesn"t have any white bread sitting around.
Bel is eating while explaining just how important not running from combat is to everyone. Since {Sooner} falls behind in abilities it"s particularly important to strongly burn it into their consciousness so it can"t be helped. Being urged on my Bel, Zulu occasionally adds in his own opinions. However, it"s a bit unpleasant how at the edges of everything he says he adds "we need to be grateful to master" to try and dress it up as a favor. Well, you could say that"s only obvious for a slave so I don"t think anyone is probably paying any mind to it.
..However, she sure is stiff, Bel. She"s giving off a different feel from how she normally acts. The things she"s saying are easy to understand and it seems she"s picking out simple words but the ambiance she"s wearing is stiff. It"s not like she won"t forgive objections or that sort of thing but..I guess her tone of speech and expression are stiff.
She sure is young~ How nice~ I had a time like this as well..When I was a newly a.s.signed platoon leader and had my own subordinates for the first time. Around half of my subordinates were younger self-defense official who were working on a term basis but among them there were some older ones as well and among the sergeant majors there were even people on the same age as father or so. Probably, Bel is frantic right now. If you look at the scale it"s on the level of a squad but even then almost all of them are older than her.
..There"s no need for me to say anything. I"ve left everything in regards to {Sooner} to her until the day after tomorrow. It"s fine if I can just get along with everyone in {Sooner}.
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Year 7445, Month 8, Day 27
After everyone in the {Slaughterers} finished their running, I had breakfast together with the {Butchers} where Zenom was acting as leader and Bel the a.s.sistant, then I started walking to "Slave Store, Ronslail" together with Miduchi, Ralpha, and Gwine. If things go as planned then they should have gotten stock of combat slaves from the war prisoners yesterday night or today. It might be a bit too impatient, or at least I felt that may be the case but I don"t think it"s a waste to properly show that I still intend to purchase and I"m looking for to them.
However, after all it was too soon. The madam still hasn"t returned from the bidding and according to the statement of the head clerk who I talked with they should arrive this afternoon. Additionally, they said there"s also confirming how well they"ve been disciplined and if the discipline is still lacking they need to do it even more thoroughly so it"s not guaranteed they would be able to hand them over just today or tomorrow, and he put emphasis on that. Ah, I guess that"s true.
"No~ when I was thinking that it would be an expansion to our forces I couldn"t restrain myself.."
I scratch my head while leaving.
"It"s alright, Greed-sama is of the greatest priority after all. We won"t show them to others so please take your time to inspect them in the afternoon."
The head clerk politely said that while lowering their head and saw us off to the doorway of the store.
We didn"t return to Boil Manor but entered the dungeon with the four of us and started training with spells until the afternoon to kill time. In order to earn the entry tax we tried luring some monsters just once but it was 5 hobgoblins so we deliciously hunted them.
After we took a slightly slow lunch with the four of us, we started towards "Slave Store, Ronslail" one again. Along the way we caught sight of Basutoral talking about something at an ironware store that deals in pots and pans while accompanied by Cathy and Giberuti but since he seemed busy talking enthusiastically we didn"t call out to him.
"Welcome, Greed-sama."
It was just as Madam.Ronslail was departing her carriage.
"Ronslail-san, how did things go? Were there any good ones?"
I wonder if there was any skilled knights?
"I was able to purchase 6 combat slaves and 3 normal slaves this time. However, I still haven"t finished confirming the discipline of all of them so I"m very sorry but could you wait until the evening to come again?"
I was told that but for the time being I just had her show them to me. Since it seems the load of the carriage had the normal slaves on it, I had her show me the combat slaves tied up behind the carriage. It seems the reason why there"s not many is because she had to spend quite a bit of money to land the bids on the ones from knight families. Sorry about that. However, I"ll let you profit for that portion. Probably.
It seems they"ve already finished the naming ceremony to the slave standing in the capital. During the stage of being war prisoners it"s still possible they could have their ransom paid so they don"t do the naming ceremony to change them to the slave standing. They supposedly don"t do the naming ceremony until they"ve been dragged to the capital and are put up for bid by the largest slave dealer in the Kingdom Benisshu company. After the bidding they undergo the naming ceremony for the first time. The reason for that is because they might have a n.o.ble social standing or be knights so during the bidding process they show their status to the slave traders as proof.
I decided to look at the ones that the madam was suggesting.
Of the five that were former knights who didn"t have their ransoms paid and ended up being up for auction this time, it seems she manged to win the bid on two of them. Since I said that younger ones are better it seems she didn"t even glance at the combat slaves beyond their late 20s. In most cases among the adventurers in Baldukk, the ideal age for combat slaves is said to be in the early 30s and that"s preferred. In comparison it seems that the younger ones are preferred for the army.
Meisun.Garuhashu, Male, 22 years old, Laios, Level 9, Former Knight (5 years experience), from a Viscount family, earth magic level 2, water magic level 2, void magic level 2.
Umu. He"s appropriate for the number one candidate. It"s plenty for her to boast about him being expensive.
Henry.Okonneru, Male, 24 years old, Hyumu, Level 8, Former Knight (5 years experience), from a commoner family.
This fellow is splendid as well. AS expected of Madam.Rosnlail. There"s no loss even if I guarantee that I"ll buy these two. The rest weren"t knights but seem to be soldiers huh?
Rubano.Firenoto, Male, 21 years old, Dwarf, Level 6, from a commoner family.
Emerentsia.Osubaruto, Female, 20 years old, Tiger-people, Level 5, Free Person.
Ottirie.Masorotarun, Female, 18 years old, Elf, Level 5, Free Person.
Jesutasu.Manzokki, Male, 16 years old, Wolf-Person, Level 5, from a commoner family.
Umu, I don"t need the two women. I"ll buy the four men.
Garuhashu was 30,000,000 Z. I had predicted it to some extent but he"s expensive!
Okonneru was 20,000,000 Z. Just as expected from him being a knight as well but the price was high.
Firenoto was 7,500,000 Z. That"s normal.
Manzokki was 7,200,000 Z. A bit cheaper than the average I guess.
~and that totaled up to 64,700,000 Z huh? Personally this sort of expensive shopping, even among my past life, I think it"s since I bought my condo..Ah, that was on a loan, and I hadn"t finished paying it off.
They"ll confirm their discipline and depending on the state they could be handed over even tomorrow but if that isn"t the case it could take up to a month. That can"t be helped either. I said I would pay a deposit of 2,000,000 Z per person once I withdraw it from the temple. After that I need to properly check their abilities.
Right now they only just arrived after being dragged along from the capital so after saying I"d come by to check their abilities in the evening when I bring along the deposit, we left the store.
I went again that evening and confirmed their abilities. Yeah. If it"s this then there"s no problem. It seems the two former knights can skillfully use the shield and the two soldiers were able to use the bow a bit along with the shield.
Furthermore, it seems that the disciplining wasn"t at a level that Madam.Ronslails was satisfied with so she said she couldn"t hand them over right away. Oh my...