193 and 194 are both partially done but so many blocks of text still~ either way done today/tomorrow morning sometime.
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 11
After that, we rested for about two hours in the monster room to recover mana and then I used the spell {Cure Critical} on Rokko again. Though his wound has completely closed I"m sure the pain is still remaining but since I can"t use healing magic consecutively right now it"s something that can"t be helped. It seems that Koritto is using {Cure Light} a number of times on Kevin who hurt his back.
Since we were able to hold back the pain to the level where we can start moving again, we decided to continue advancing just like that.
After advancing for a short while and we could see the first teleport trap since we teleported into this area on the 6th floor. The rock with the strange patterns carved into it are on both sides of the pa.s.sage. After glaring at their own map Koritto said "that"s it." and pointed his finger.
Everyone is gulping as they swallow. I"m sure they"re afraid. It seems that other than the two I previously saved, no one has tried pa.s.sing through the side of a teleport trap and the ones who remained that time still can"t forget the fear of their allies suddenly disappearing from in front of their eyes.
"..I"ll go ahead first."
I took the chance to say that and then walked ahead alone. There"s nothing to it at all. It"s not like you"ll get caught up in the trap just by pa.s.sing through the side of it. It"s fine to proceed carefully as well but if they"re that afraid of it then we wouldn"t be able to advance anymore.
I walk to the trap at a steady pace and then briskly just walked through the side of the teleport trap. Then I turned around and looked at everyone else who was watching me from about 30 meters behind.
I remained like that for a short while but they"re just looking at me and no one seems to intend to move.
Look, it"s not scary~
I let out a sigh and though about throwing a rock at it or something but it might end up teaching them the precise range the trap activates within so I stopped. I"m sure they"ll figure it out eventually but even we spent quite a bit of time investigating it. If you all want to know then put some work into it. What~ it"s not all that much trouble at all.
I made a blatantly obvious large yawn and started scratching my cheek and I guess he thought I was looking down on him, Koritto made a mortified expression before moving. But, rather than approaching the trap he remained against the wall. It"s fine even if you don"t go that far. After Koritto pa.s.sed through then one more, two more, and the rest of them pa.s.sed through in order with stiff expressions as well.
After everyone had finished pa.s.sing through to this side, we went back into formation again and started advancing forward.
....................
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 12
In the end we finally managed to clear through the 6th floor and arrive at the teleport room on the evening of the next day. Someone else ended up getting injured every time the {Cave Great Boar} and {Quad-handed Apes} appeared in the monster rooms so we took a bit of time for using healing spells and resting to recover mana.
The shower, simple kitchen, beds made of dirt, and foot bath of the {Slaughterers} were all still remaining in the teleport room in the same form. In addition I thought Giberuti might be there but no one was around.
The members of {Sun.Ray} were dumbfounded seeing how much more comfortable the room was than the one on the 5th floor but for the time being we took turns going to the bathroom and other things before gathering at the side of the teleport crystal in the center of the room. I just placed my bags on the ground and went out to go to the bathroom as well. In addition I also took the time to carve today"s date and time into the wall in Arabic numerals. I"m sure someone will notice it sooner or later. It should remain for about a month.
When everyone finished going to the bathroom and naturally our attention gathered on the Rindobel couple. They shook their heads horizontally and said, "As expected we won"t last any longer. Let"s return to the 5th floor." before grabbing the crystal rod. I guess that means they"d rather rest in the room we left our food and bags over here.
Everyone was making somewhat relieved expressions as they grabbed the crystal rod.
"Return us."
In an instant we teleported into the teleport room on the 5th floor and after everyone gathered at {Sun.Rays} camp we lowered our bags and started taking off our equipment before sitting down.
For the time being we took a simple meal and during that time it seems we"re going to make some food that takes a bit of work. I was leaning against the wall while slowly biting at the cuc.u.mber supplied to me but no one came to talk to me and they were just glancing over here occasionally while whispering about something.
After a short while, a voice was raised that meal preparations were finished. All the members who were resting including me gathered at the center of the camp. I received pork and vegetables cooked together, called kafu, which is like a badly made version of potof in my bowl and then some bread. And then we pray.
"All, Wind, Flame, Earth, Water, and then this dungeon. On the other side of the Toriwii, oh G.o.ds of the world of loud bells, oh Myooya, once again today we offer up our grat.i.tude for the blessings that give us life..Teson"
Well, the content itself changes a bit depending on the region it seems but it"s a common prayer towards the temples. Teson is something like Amen and connects words together kind of like G.o.d, "So be it". The members of {Sun.Ray} often like to add this to things they say as well.
In the houses with deep faith it"s used in place of "thank you for the meal" and said in prayer in the morning and at night as well. I prayed in the same way while biting into my bread and sipping the soup of my kafu which wasn"t very good, I wonder if they were stingy on the spices. We had planned to return to the surface tomorrow but I wonder what they plan to do?
After eating and taking showers in order everyone other than the lookouts fell asleep right away. I did as well though.
.................
Just past midnight, I was woken up to change shifts for lookout. Just the same as the {Slaughterers} they have lookouts shift in groups of two. Shifting every 2 hours is the same as well. There"s 10 of us but since the leader"s the Koritto couple don"t keep lookout we secure 6 hours of sleep time. Haruku and I were on lookout.
"Greed-kun. That I would be keeping lookout together with you in {Sun.Ray}.."
Come to think of it, previously this guy requested to join the {Slaughterers}. It was Greed-san at that time but since I entered {Sun.Ray} he started using -kun. It"s quite a well-mannered team in how they don"t just completely drop honorifics. Although, I"m sure it"s just that I still haven"t fit in because I just entered though. The other members are all calling each other by nicknames after all.
"You never know what will happen in the world right.."
"By the way, we were really saved by you today...Though I don"t think anyone would have died but if you weren"t around we would have had to retreat after the first room I"m sure."
Hn, I guess so. Though I doubt have some doubts about whether no one would have really died if I wasn"t there. As expected maybe it wouldn"t have made it to the point of death? I"m sure the number of injured would have increased even more and it would have taken a lot more time to clear through the 6th floor though.
"I"m glad above all else that I was able to be of use. However, if you were to ask my honest opinion continuing on the 6th floor is just a bit..that is~ a bit early I think?"
Since it was around the end of April I guess roughly two months ago..The guy named Santosu who was able to use magic decent died. It seems he was from the capital. According to Haruku, it seems thanks to that {Sun.Ray} lost a lot of their ability to go from one battle to the next in the dungeon. The Rindobel couple weren"t able to find someone they thought was suitable as a replacement magician.
Well that"s only obvious. When it comes to a magician who has multiple elemental magics at over level 3 then unless it"s one of the semi-first rate parties then it"s unlikely. And then, once they enter a party on that cla.s.s it"s not that easy to pull them out. All adventurer parties treasure their magicians. Particularly the ones with a high level of water magic that can use healing and produce drinking water, they"re popular everywhere and offered good conditions. Even if they are a top team it wouldn"t be so easy for them to recruit them from another party.
Also, {Sun.Ray} was originally one of the top teams that had a low ratio of magicians. If you mention numbers then in the past they had the same as other top teams five people but during that time they only have 16 members. Since they exchanged members who enter the dungeon in rotation, they would always end up with 10 members including at least four magicians to explore. After they heard rumors you could find large gold ores on the 5th floor they switched their team organization to two parties of 8 and stopped with the rotation.
Even then at first, it seems that things proceeded pretty smoothly. And then, the team that the Rindobel couple wasn"t a part of lost two members at the same time on their first time going to the 6th floor last summer. Furthermore one of those was a magician (it seems it was Gekudo"s littler sister Yuriel). After that they had no choice than to just kept exploring unable to replenish their magicians. It seems they temporarily switched back to rotations at this point as well. At the same time, they tried recruiting some new members not just limited to magicians but time just kept moving forward without them accepting anyone.
The reason this Haruku said he wanted to join the {Slaughterers} in February was because at that point he didn"t think there was a future for {Sun.Ray} so he contacted us all on his own but as expected I think this might be a lie. If you think about it normally, would a veteran member, furthermore a man who has a decent level of skill really try to run to a different party just because things got a bit difficult in terms of the members?
It seems pretty unlikely.
Excluding that portion I"m sure the details he just talked about are true but it"s only natural to think that it was either an instruction from the Rindobel couple or even if it was his own decision he probably had some other expectation when he made contact with us.
Well, putting that aside, it was such a time that they met and got acquainted with Faruergaz and the others. While {Sun.Ray} had been reduced down to 14 members at that point they came to know of Faruergaz and the others party of 6 that had 2 magicians and was still still wandering around the 1st floor. Furthermore both of them were said to be true knights.
Making it even more delicious the upper limit of two teams is 20 people. If these 6 people were to enter then they"d be able to organize two teams again. Not to mention both twos would reach full members and their total number of magicians would become six people. Adding to that it seems that they had purchased the detailed map of the 1st floor was the deciding factor but if you were to ask me, I think that one of the deciding factors was also that he was Count Faruergaz"s eldest son.
As a result of discussing things a number of times, their entire party ended up joining {Sun.Ray}. That"s why they split them up into a party centering around younger newer members and the clearing party with the veteran members at the core, while they intended to let the younger party slowly gain some experience as they raise them. It was such a time as that when one of the magicians in the veteran party ended up dying.
Even if they were to move one of the magicians from the newcomer party up, their skill at using spells wasn"t enough to be considered veteran. It might have been fine to move over the last magician they had but as expected in that case let alone the 4th floor the party of younger members might even struggle on the 3rd floor.
Shortly after that, I was kicked out of the {Slaughterers}. Since it seemed like the leader of the {Slaughterers} could use magic quite well and there was also the achievement of cooperating over the shower in the teleport room of the 5th floor as well. Since I saved there members in the past {Sun.Ray} didn"t hold a bad image of me. Fortunately there was nothing that ever occurred that would have put us on bad terms either(Trying to send Haruku in itself wouldn"t have directly connected to a breakdown in our relations. And we turned him down after all).
Thus they tried offering a reasonable amount of compensation but thanks to the negotiations with the leader couple going well I ended up joining.
"Well, thanks to that I personally think that we were saved from you joining us."
Well that"s true. The fact that one of the magicians from {Sun.Ray} died at the end of April was just as good of a chance for us as well. Though it"s not a good thing to be pleased over someones dead but it was really good timing. It"s not like I particularly had any sort of influence on the death of the magician named Santosu nor was I on friendly terms with him. Though thanks to him we have to change our plans a bit but as a result there"s no mistake things were a bit easier. I"m deeply grateful to him for being useful to us. Though if you were to ask, I think it"s more unfortunate for the other members of {Sun.Ray} who knew his face and talked with him when I think of their feelings.
"No, not at all. It was the perfect timing for me to join everyone at the bottom seat so I"m grateful for that. I have a reasonable amount of confidence in myself but after all it"s difficult alone."
"Nn, that"s only obvious I"m sure. I can"t really say it in a loud voice but even I have my own objective and dreams as well. But, after all I found it to be impossible alone the same as you. Particularly when it comes to this deep into the dungeon, there"s no way to make it here alone."
Come to think of it previously, Haruku mentioned something like he was thinking about going independent was it? That portion might have been true. I"m sure each and every person has their own expectations and even the way of thinking is different. Even when it comes to parents and siblings, the intentions of each of them could go in separate ways or clash at times. I don"t know the history of Orth very well but even on Earth there were countless instances in history where parents and siblings fought and killed each other. Much less when it comes to strangers, whether it be Orth or Earth, I"m sure there"s not a single day where people aren"t killing each other somewhere.
In my case, it could be said I have tremendously good luck that there"s not a single sign of something like that for now. Thinking that I should just show my grat.i.tude to someone.
..................
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 13
According to schedule we should return to the surface today. Judging from things yesterday it seems impossible to make it to the 7th floor in one day. Though if no one were to be injured and we didn"t have spend time waiting for mana to recover then we"d probably be alright but it"s not something that we can be so optimistic over. I wonder what they"ll decide to do?
"In any case let"s try teleporting into the 6th floor. If it"s an area with an altar room then we intend to challenge it. Regardless we still intend to pull out today just as planned."
Koritto declared that and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Greed-kun. If it"s alright with you but could you confirm our location on the 6th floor? If possible I"d like to go as efficiently as possible."
It"s nothing special to me and while we might struggle we won"t lose so it"s fine.
However, it might seem a bit unnatural if I just obediently accept it here as well.
"..Efficiently, is it...Well, if it"s just informing you whether or not we"ve teleported into an area with an altar room then.."
I naturally move my hand to the map container on my waist while acting as if I don"t completely agree with it and responding.
"Yeah, that"s plenty. It"s a big help, well then shall we go?"
In the end we arrived at an altar room this day and while we struggled a bit against the summoned boss of the room we still properly defeated it but after all the result was an empty shrine. When we returned to the surface it seems that the team of younger members lead by Zemyunel dug up a chunk of {Amethyst} on the 3rd floor. It"s a large find that will reach 4,000,000 Z in sale price. The young members boasting was annoying. But, we were unable to find any items other than the magic stones. It can"t be helped right.
....................
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 14
Starting from today until the 19th we have a full week off. During the time we were in the dungeon this time we the first part of {Sun.Ray} earned 2,240,000 Z in magic stones. Since I get an even cut that"s 10% or 224,000 Z. The magic stones were sold in the morning and after lunch I went to "Mogorito Manor" to receive my wages from the Rindobel couple.
"Greed-kun, as expected of someone who was the leader of the top team. You worked quite splendidly. I really think it was great that we recruited you. We"re counting on you next time as well."
Koritto said that and praised me. They really have such good manners.
I thanked them for my wages and when I excused myself to the entrance of "Mogorito Manor" Meiria followed after me.
"If you have time, how about dinner tonight?"
"Eh? Ah, I understand. Where should I go?"
"I guess so..You can pa.s.s through under the name {Sun.Ray} at "Mikkusu". Come at 6:00."
"I understand. 6:00 indeed. By the way, do we always eat together with everyone like this after leaving the dungeon?"
Since they"re using the name {Sun.Ray} to pa.s.s through to a private room then it should be a gathering of members. It"s not unusual for parties to have things like this after making a profit. Thinking that I tried asking but it seems that"s no the case. Then, while it"s not at the level of "Dorureon", since it"s a restaurant {Sun.Ray} is treating me at, I wonder if it"s a meeting of leaders?
...............
When I returned to "Kairugu"s Inn" Faruergaz and the others were waiting for me. This morning, when we were cashing in the magic stones, they told me they wanted to discuss the rules of {Sun.Ray} this afternoon. They received their wages from this time this morning. When they announced the times they"d be giving out wages this morning mine was the last one so I ate lunch separately.
"I"m sorry about that, making you wait."
"No, we just arrived now as well. Well shall we go?"
Faruergaz said that before taking the lead as he walked down the street. However, we pa.s.sed by several restaurants (an alternative to cafes) and came out to the outskirts of town. When I asked, "How far do you intend to go?" they just avoided my question. And then, we all stepped foot on the hills leading to the outer crater. Well then? I wonder what this means? As expected I have no idea what"s going on. For starters I think it"s unlikely but if they were trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate me it"s too unnatural that they"d let me remain at the very rear like this...
After we climbed up the hill a bit we all ended up taking seats on appropriate rocks.
"I"m sorry about calling you out to a place like this. But, we didn"t want anyone to hear the details of what we"re talking about. This place has a pretty good view as well, if anyone were to approach we would be able to tell right away."
Faruergaz said while making a slightly apologetic face.
"Also, just in case we"ll also talk in j.a.panese. So it would be fine even in the case that it"s overheard."
Hirosukol said following that.
"..It seems to be an important conversation right. Neither k.u.miru-san and Samyueruga-san are around nor are your slaves after all.."
When I replied like that the two of them gravely nodded.
"Yeah, we discussed it with them as well but putting aside Sanno and Ruttsu, but fundamentally my two slaves are just {Yes-men} so they"re not very good for consultation with. Even when it comes to Sanno and Ruttsu they"re still pretty young as well. We can"t lightly talk about the fact that we were reincarnated either and in the first place those two have some parts that are too softhearted.."
Hirosukol started talking while looking at me.
"I want to ask frankly but Greed-san. What is your real objective for getting so close to everyone? Honestly speaking, if you were a pure Orth person then we probably wouldn"t have held any doubts about you at all either. And then, you would have been very welcome."
".."
"We think that it"s unbelievable you could split up so easily from j.a.panese people you met at long last. It"s a confession but I don"t like you. However, even then you"re j.a.panese people. It"s difficult to separate. That"s why we started challenging the dungeon, we didn"t want to go separate ways from the side of you all, is our true feelings."
Oh, he said it quite honestly.
"And also, if possible we also wanted to join together with you all, is a part of it as well. Unlike Nomu-san, I don"t particularly dislike you though...Ahaha, excuse me. But, even I, thought was strange. I thought there"s definitely some sort of objective behind it."
Faruergaz said a joke while still making a serious expression.
"I see.."
Toris and the others also predicted that these two would be suspicious of it. And they also thought it would be a poor plan to keep pretending to be white as well. In my own personal opinion I think it doesn"t really matter even if I were to continuing insisting on white here. I thought I would talk about it based on how they come out with it the next time we talk. But, there"s no meaning inserting my thinking in here. I might offer advice but it"s not my role to be making the decisions this time.
"Well, it"s only obvious I do have an objective. Just as you say, there"s no way I would split up with other j.a.panese people that easily right?"
"..I thought that was the case...And, what"s the objective?"
Hirosukol said somewhat disappointed. I wonder if after all he really does just hate me and thought it would serve me right if I was actually thrown out? or is it still just my own self-centered delusion?
"That, do I really~ need to say it?"
"Certainly, we don"t think we have any right to force an answer of you. No, or do we? In any case we"d prefer if you do answer. It"s not just us but Sanno, Ruttsu, Denda, and Karimu, there"s no guarantee their lives couldn"t depend on it as well. I"d like for you to give us an answer here with no objections so we can relax. Otherwise do you intend to harm us in some way?"
Faruergaz looked at me with a bit of a glare while saying it. Hmn, I guess he was able to change a bit?
"I guess so..at the very least we aren"t thinking of anything that would progressively endanger you all at all. It"s strange saying this but I was able to imagine from the start that I would end up exploring the dungeon in a different group from you all. And also, it bothers me just a bit but if you thought that way then why do you try to invite me like that at that time? If you thought I was plotting something, then wouldn"t it have been better to just ignore me?"
It"s not as if I don"t feel like I"m answering a question with another question but for the time being I already replied so it should be fine.
"I was originally against it..The one who invited you was Ko..It was Rodrick"s own decision."
Ho? So they weren"t a single rock?
"Just now, I might have said it like that but I thought that you don"t have any intentions of harming us either. In that case I thought you might have some other objective. No matter how I think about it this situation is a minus to you after all.."
"That"s right, since we don"t know what that is that"s why I thought we should ignore you. I thought it would be best to keep an eye on things."
Well, that"s only natural. It should be something that any j.a.panese person thinks of normally. It"s only obvious different from the other people of {Sun.Ray} and the Rindobel couple.
"The result of our consideration..we were suspicious of whether or not you were planning to make a huge profit off of the hidden fortune of {Sun.Ray}. Ah, I don"t know if there"s really something like a hidden fortune. Please don"t misunderstand. Also, I think that this is the most likely possibility but..are you investigating the method they obtain the temple notes? Since we"re strictly sworn to secrecy even among {Sun.Ray} I don"t know how you found out about it but depending on how you do it you could make a huge profit from it I"m sure. Although, I only found out about the temple notes recently myself as well but..when I found out I was strangely able to understand. Ah, so the aim was this huh? is what I thought."
"Yeah, that"s right. If you can do business then even if there"s a bit of dishonor to it you can quickly knock it away. I"m sure you could make a huge profit. But, that"s something that the Rindobel-san"s came up with after great pains. They"re people that are quite intelligent compared to most on Orth."
Oh~ they"ve gotten closer.
"I see..if you"re speaking about the temple notes, then I guess you mean the ones where if you collect a lot of them then they"ll use healing magic on you, those notes was it.."
"That"s only obvious. What else is there? Since they take so much trouble they"re often overlooked but for adventurers they could be a great foundation to rely on in times of need. Even you think so too right?"
"I wonder about that..In any case I have no intention of harming you all and my objective is nothing that would endanger your safety. I don"t know if you would be willing to believe me but if you don"t then there"s nothing more to talk about."
"Well, if it won"t do any harm to us then I have no intention of saying too much. We"re pleased with our allies in {Sun.Ray}. According to what we heard about the dungeon this time you partic.i.p.ated quite actively and even saved them in a dangerous place. I think it"s fine to trust in those words. As expected it seems to have abilities suitable for someone who was one of the top adventurers. However, if you intend to cause trouble for Rindobel-san then.."
Hirosukol said in a threatening way.
"Thanks to Rindobel-san we were able to make it to the lower floors all at once. If were were to say it truthfully then you could say Rindobel-san is our benefactor. Greed-san, don"t forget that we"re watching."
"..I"ll take it carefully into consideration."
After that we talked about some normal adventurer stuff that was unrelated to {Sun.Ray} before returning to the town. However, you two, while you were saying things like that you"re still listening to everything I say. When I tried saying that sarcastically they looked a bit embarra.s.sed.