To be honest I"m not too sure on the t.i.tle this time... 長期潜行 I was thinking it was something like Long Term Investment but the second part seems like the wrong characters, or maybe Extended Investigation/Exploration. Regardless it"s something along those lines. Next chapter 4-8 hours.
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 14
Once I returned to my inn I got to producing Basutoral"s contract right away. It"s fundamentally the same as everyone else but I also included the following clauses.
.Settings for a trial period (of course, as long as I don"t accept it the trial period continues forever)
.Specifying the conditions for providing of bonuses (During the trial period it"s 1% of the "magic stones" we obtain and sell to a dealer)
.Regulations for quitting (Requires agreement from both sides. In reality it"s no different from before)
.Regulations for days off (Only days I recognize in advance)
.Retention of secrets (He has an obligation to hide any secrets he finds out on the job)
.Regulations for penalties (Putting it simply if there"s any inconveniences caused to me over something)
.Good faith clause (just as it sounds)
.Adding money to the debt (Though this is a clause just for Basutral)
Ah, days off? The paid days off are only for women. If I use healing magic when symptoms of an illness start to appear then they recover easily so there"s no sick days. Of course in urgent situations it"s possible to withdraw from them at any time. Yesterday was a good example. Also, in regards to the penalties but obviously if there"s a delay in wages for the employees then I"ll pay an interest that both parties agree on. Furthermore, the payment date is the same as usual up until now the 1st day of each month but if I notify them advance I can change that to a later date. Since we might be in the dungeon.
Well, it"s like a small version of a real employment contract. Honestly speaking, there"s still plenty of things missing but for now this should be fine. Adding to that in regards to the compensation with the trial period concludes but I"ve decided it"s the same as everyone else 2% of the "magic stones" sold to the dealers. Eh? Even then it"s unequal and dirty? I wonder about that? Since it"s not written that I won"t pay anymore than that, if his work is good then I"ll pay additionally.
Even with this I"m compromising quite a bit. For example last months bonus was 1,720,000 Z (172 silver coins) but since we didn"t find any magic items, ores, or special treasures so even if he was just sticking with us like a parasite it comes out to him receiving 860,000 Z. No matter how you think about it, it"s paying too much.
However, to be honest as I was writing it up I started feel discontent with the other conditions than that as well. In the first place, why do I have to bother writing a contract every time. I"m probably the only one doing something like this in all of Orth. In the end we have to use our blood and magic stones to make the seal as well so it just adds pointless expenses as well..it"s all that stink bug Ralpha"s fault.
While I"m doing that, Miduchi is leisurely laying on my bed filing her nails, Toris and Bel are probably flirting like crazy in their room. Ralpha and Gwine should be out accompanying Basutoral on his shopping. Since I let the two slaves return to their inn together with Giberuti I have no clue. I wonder if Zulu is lowering his head to his girlfriend?
The two knights who followed along tried to take a room at the same inn "Boil Manor" it seems but since there was only one room open they ended up staying at a different inn nearby. Of course I had Basutoral stay in the opening room. After hearing it was 5,000 Z (50 copper coins) per night Basutoral"s eyes seemed like they would spin and he tried to refuse it but I said that even though he needs to save money I won"t accept a seedy lifestyle and forced him to stay here. With this he"ll be even more desperate I"m sure.
Zenom? Since Zenom came to apologize honestly to me for causing us to worry I accepted his apology. Around now he"s probably getting tipsy on the s.h.i.tty expensive vodka and dried neisun (herring like fish) he bought on the way back. When I finish writing this I plan to train with magic for just a bit and then drink some good alcohol as well.
When Basutoral returned from shopping, the two knights said they would act as witnesses to the contract, so surrounded by the {Slaughterer}s and some onlookers we read out the details of the contract and it was safely signed by Basutoral. No one touched on the compensation portion but several members of the {Slaughterers} grinned like they realized it. That"s right, since you all are the so-called successive generation. Your treatment is different. You don"t have any complaints right?
.............
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 15
When I appeared in front of the inn while yawning and yesterday I mentioned it so just like a former slave Basutoral woke up before us and he was waiting together with Zulu and the others. Ah, this is bad~ come to think of it I forgot to prepare this guys shoes... It"s troublesome, for the time being I guess I"ll just let him use my spare sandals. Along with Basutoral who"s wearing my sandals and enjoying the comfort of them, we went for our morning running at 5:30 am while it was still dark and chilly out.
After running for about two hours, we had some breakfast, and it"s finally time to start training using wooden swords and spears. Since I made sure to tell Ralpha and Gwine yesterday, I made sure we had a weapon prepared for Basutoral. It"s a spear. Since it will take a bit of time for his armor to be made. The same as usual we went to the vacant s.p.a.ce at the edge of the town and there were already several pairs of adventurers training. After choosing an appropriate, place where no one will interfere with us we started our training as well.
First I had Gwine instruct him on the way to properly hold the spear. Today he"ll just learn the thrust and in addition it would be good if he gets used to the weight of the spear. When the rest of our members were training Faruergaz and Hirosukol came along to take a look. Just in case I invited them yesterday at dinner but they refused while a bit embarra.s.sed so I"m just leaving them alone.
They"re looking at our training from a bit of distance away. Since we"re in the middle of training we just nodded to them and are ignoring them. Two hours after we started training. Around 10:30 when we decided to take a break for a short while, Faruergaz started talking to me.
"Greed-san, is this sort of training sufficient for adventurers?"
"Eh? Yeah, fundamentally we just continue with this sort of training."
When I said that he made a slightly surprised face. Ah, that sort of thing. Older brother said the training of the knight group was quite a bit different from our training as squires in Bakuddo as well. Since we"re more adventurers, or rather, we"re completely adventurers after all. I"m sure if you don"t know it would be surprising.
Ah, that"s right, the main school of swordsmanship in Rombert Kingdom is Fogen Style which the founder is said to be George.Rombert the First. It"s not much different from most styles of swordsmanship I know and shows it"s true value in one on one combat. I"m sure the original source for it is Kiichi Hogen right? However, right now this is the so-called western swordsmanship that incorporates a combination of the shield and the sword, so I really can"t imagine that the source makes use of a j.a.panese katana. This is close to just being my imagination but since George Rombert the First shouldn"t have had something like a j.a.panese sword, I think he probably completely abandoned his sword style that made use of the katana once. Isn"t it just that he left behind the name?
"Since we"re not fighting against "people" as the opponents in accordance with the path of a knight. I think it"s completely different from the training of the knight group. Of course, we include a portion of that but things like swinging and some level of the forms are training that each individual can do in their spare time."
Things like training against people or armies are just a waste of time right now. Rather than that it wouldn"t be too late to do it after earning some money, buying a territory, and then starting it. It"s more frightening to be killed by monsters before then. Everything you"ve built up until now will become useless. Ah, I guess it"s just like this that swordsmanship styles change?
After hearing my words they nodded with expressions like they understood, while watching over the two of them started doing something.
The two knights were quite surprised at how even when we take bruises or cuts all over our bodies we just repeated healing magic and kept going with the training while enduring the pain. After all more than half our members can use magic. I"m sure they saw our status when we were doing introductions yesterday but since Toris, Bel, and I are n.o.bles they didn"t say anything but they were considerably surprised when they were introduced themselves to Gwine and Ralpha it seems. Also, while they said that we have quite a few members who can use magic, it seems they remained quiet on the fact that all of our magic skill levels are pretty high level.
When it comes to healing magic that can"t be used unless you have over level 2 of elemental magic then it seen as "somewhat advanced", they were shocked that all of us who can use magic could use it. Idiots~ it"s too soon for you to be surprised~ What Bel is using isn"t {Cure}, it"s {Cure Serious}. Furthermore, what Miduchi just used was {Cure All}. Ralpha and Gwine can"t use them but Toris, Bel, and Miduchi use {Water Arrow} while training after all. Even if it hits there"s no damage so it"s just a matter of enduring the cold.
"Hobgob!"
When I give out the command the ones who take the roles of the villain attack with some level of formation. This side has to try and have their front line go on the defensive. If you were to say the opponents endurance level is 2 for convenience sake, then you need to hit each one of them with one attack, and then you can"t go in to finish them off until all of the targets have taken the first hit, before timing it up as you finish them off all at once. Of course there"s rear support as well, when Miduchi, Bel, or I act as the rear support for hobgob it"s troublesome. Of course we end up being the first ones targeted though.
"Goblin!"
Everyone only focuses on the opponent right in front of their eyes. In terms of tactics it"s the easiest one but when I take on the role of goblin it"s h.e.l.l for the opponent. The estimated endurance level is 1. Eh? When I"m the goblin then of course I go easy with my attacks but I evade like crazy with my full abilities. In the end it comes down to one vs many and I lose though.
"Ork!"
It"s not to the level of hobgoblin but we take on some level of formations and cooperate. However, all of our attacks end up large blows with all of our strength. I think I"m better off since hardened rubber has more defensive capability than leather armor but it still seriously hurts to get hit. If I were to swing with all of my power then I might seriously break something so obviously I go easy on them. Everyone is already stronger than real orks after all.
"Ghoul!"
If you take an attack from the villain role then you have to stop moving. They can"t move again until Miduchi or I touch them. Since Miduchi and I are always in different groups or both take on the roles of monsters, whenever Miduchi or I are in the role of the adventurer side then the ghoul role has to move to aim for Miduchi or I who are in the rear as much as possible. It"s cheating though.
"Gnoll!"
The gnoll role is where everyone uses a spear. Since their physiques are a lot better than real gnolls, it"s pretty difficult to approach a 2.5 meter spear. While the front line is holding out the rear has to quickly land some attacks. Obviously, the gnoll role members can evade better than actual gnolls so while their estimated endurance level is only 1 when more than half are killed they retreat so it"s difficult to finish them off.
Other than taking on the roles of monsters we team up in groups of two or three and increase our cooperation levels like this, and also train in dealing with attacks from multiple enemies at the same time. It"s a bit painful that we can"t train against idiotically huge wild boars, ice monsters, and ogres. But, that can"t really be helped. Ah, if the opponent is alone then there"s no need for anything like formations or that c.r.a.p. You just surround them and beat them from every side and it"s over.
In the first place when it comes to a single absurdly strong monster (like the {Larva Purple Worm} that came out the other day) they don"t appear a second time so there"s no method of training for them. The closest thing to them would be me but in that case it would just be using spells to make water something or other and a lot of running around so there"s not much meaning in it, and while we"re doing something like estimate endurance levels while cutting in with wooden swords, if Bel, Miduchi, and the other 8 in total are behind them there"s no way I could deal with them all alone. A while back we tried doing it just once, while playing around I tried taking them on seriously but by the point I had defeated five of them my estimated endurance levels were already below 2 and I lost.
Just like this another two hours had pa.s.sed by in no time at all and since it was 1 pm we finished up our training and went to eat some lunch and rest in preparation for tomorrow.
..............
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 16
After eating breakfast we head straight to challenge the dungeon. As expected Faruergaz and Hriosukol can"t accompany us into the dungeon. I didn"t invite them and in the first place I doubt they have the right equipment for entering the dungeon.
While it was still dim out we arrived at the entrance plaza and the same as usual it was crowded with parasite adventurers, merchants, and guides.
"Hey, it"s the {Slaughterers}."
"That female slave, the other day I saw her at "Kisshu". She was bringing around a good looking guy..I"m envio..how impudent of her.."
"s.h.i.t, why is it just those brats.."
"Ah, Bel-chan, Kaweeeiii~ I want to stick it in between..ha~ha~"
"Huh? There"s 11 of them!"
"Wha? What are you saying..It"s true!"
"Kalstalan-sama..the second, it"s fine if I"m the second so I wonder if he won"t be my partner..He seems so strong.."
"Yo~ Ral, next time you return let"s go drinking again!"
"Ah, Greed-sama! Please don"t forget us Boton siblings! We"re useful, we are~!"
"Hey, what does this mean? Gwine-chan"s hands, are they small?"
"So it was true that a Dyurou had entered their party.."
"Dazu! Give it your best!"
"Greed-sama, me, please include me in the {Slaughterers}!"
"No, please put me in! I can be more useful than that brat!"
"The brats have increased in number again."
"After all it"s Firefreed-san, he"s so cool, I look up to him.."
"That armor, it"s the same kind the first knight group is using, I wonder where you can buy it?"
"Yeah, isn"t it something that leader"s older sister gave him under the table, they"re really dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."
"Oh? Gwine-chan, did she change her spear.."
"Are they going to split their party up? Are you serious..Amazing~"
"Your information is behind~ They"ve been splitting it up since a while back. Since I saw them when I was camping on the 2nd floor the other day."
They sure are loud~ However, Zulu, you know, what ever happened to holding pride in your family name...In the end I guess you didn"t get into a fight with that Laios waitress. Well it"s fine. I"ll raise your wages a bit next year.
Since it"s the first time I thought of letting Basutoral get used to the dungeon on the lower floors first but after all the same as usual, I decided to do things normally. I"m sure Basutoral wants to earn money quickly as well so even if he has to overdo it a bit to get to the lower floors, I think it would be best to let him finish off some ogres who"s HP has dropped below 100. Just in case I said that to let Basutoral have priority over killing the monsters Miduchi freezes.
Just the same as usual I cleared through each floor in a group of two shifting between Zulu and Angela, and had the remaining 9 of them proceed forward. It was a bit slower but we reached the teleport room on the 3rd floor the same as usual today and then got some good rest. Basutoral was a bit excited from his first day in the dungeon.
................
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 18
The problem is the 6th floor. As expected it"s a bit scary starting here. Since it couldn"t be helped I had Basutoral remain on standby in the teleport room on the 5th floor, the 10 of us cleared through the 6th floor, we left Giberuti in the teleport room there, and then we returned to the 5th floor. Since by chance there was no one from {Sun Ray} I"m sure he was quite lonely.
After we picked up Basutoral who was left all alone deep in the depths of the dungeon on his first and was on the verge of crying from the anxiety, we were finally able to reach the teleport room on the 6th floor again around 10 pm. Since Basutoral still doesn"t seem to be used to the dungeon our speed of advance is a bit slower. It can"t be helped though.
We all sat around eating the dinner Giberuti prepared for us and then went to sleep.
For the next seven days starting tomorrow (Since we plan to take a long and proper break for the end of the year holidays and we have Basutoral this time as well, we brought along quite a bit of extra food. After all we weren"t slower just because of Basutoral.), we need to make sure we earn quite a bit from the ogres on the 7th floor!