Chapter 90
Chapter 36 - (Chapter 90): TrainingYear 7442, Month 9, Day 2
The next morning, after gathering at the restaurant we started to summarize all of the information we had gathered individually last night. However, it seems that no one was able to gather any information on that strange pitfall. Come to think of it, everyone is making slightly undecided expressions. I am as well though.
In any case, putting aside that pitfall the information we were able to gather on the 2nd floor is as follows.
1. According to legend it seems that there"s a pond where fairies live on the 2nd floor but the only one who has confirmed this is the founder Rombert the First so it"s believed to be a story for drunks.
There"s no point thinking about that for now.
2. There"s something like a fountain which spits out snakes.
Come to think of it, there was a snake. Well, I thought, if I stand near the fountain and burn the snakes to death with {Flamethrower} wouldn"t I be able to earn all the experience points and magic stones I want!? but it seems that after a fixed number they stop coming out. What the, how boring.
3. The teleport location map for the 2nd is sold. The price is 9,000,000 Z.
As expected it did exist. Though I predicted that sort of price. Then, in that case, I guess the place we went to yesterday was still an unexplored region? I wonder if it"s related to the pond of fairies which comes out in the legends of Rombert the Firsts adventures?
4. The monsters that normally appear on the 2nd floor at Orks, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, Kobolds, and snakes. However the rooms are different.
I see. Then, putting aside the poison of the snake, you could say that"s a relief.
5. The types of traps are the same as the 1st floor the pitfalls and device which makes noise, it seems that other than that, while only a small number have been confirmed, but there"s a crossbow like device as well.
I guess if you step on a switch or something on the floor then a bolt from a crossbow comes flying from somewhere?
How frightening.
The information was around there. After that it"s fundamentally not all that different from the 1st floor it seems.
Also, it"s not information about the 2nd floor but it seems that there"s point of view or rather common sense that applies to all floors, it seems that the monsters that act like bosses of the rooms have a pre-decided range they can move within. Fundamentally if you move more than 100 m away from the room then they give up on chasing you and return. For the time being we"re killing them mercilessly on the spot so it"s not a problem but thinking about from here on out this is an important piece of information I"m sure. Also, it seems that on the 1st floor Propeller Tail and Black Gargantua Leech (I still haven"t seen it) are considered the representatives for easy bosses. Both of them are not only alone quite often for some reason, but their movement speed isn"t fast, so if you throw a rock in and grab their attention, then after they"ve moved a bit away it"s easy to just run past them all at once.
Even though I gained close to 8,000 experience points for killing that Propeller Tail yesterday. Well, if we a.s.sume that it"s a party of 8 and they all do about the same amount of damage then they would only get about 350 experience a piece, so it"s limited to just me. It"s completely different whether or not you have the Gift of Natural Talent.
Then, shall we head out?
Just like yesterday, after we confirmed out current location I used magic to pa.s.s pa.s.s through all at once. We weren"t able to get our hands on the belongings of any decea
sed adventurers today. However, as expected the experience points from the boss room monsters is amazing. Tomorrow is Wednesday but if I give it my best on my own then won"t I level up by Sat.u.r.day? I guess I"ll try doing some close combat against goblins tomorrow.
We teleport to the 2nd floor. After that we tried confirming the pedestal of the teleport crystal for an arrow symbol and investigated the wall. We found a number. It"s 124. It can"t be helped, since we made some decent earnings yesterday, I guess I"ll go and buy a map later...Starting today thinking about the experience points of my subordinates we"re moving slowly without me as the lead. Since we found a room, I was wondering what would be in it and tried using Identify. It was an {Owlbear}, which I can"t tell whether it"s an owl or a bear or whatever. It doesn"t seem to have any special skills, so I guess I"ll let them try it out.
Zenom and Zulu stand at the front center, on the outside of Zenom there"s Angela, and outside of Zulu there"s Ralpha, and from behind Bel and I a.s.sist is the formation we"re going with. After I gave instructions to everyone and Zenom charged in with his axe while Zulu charged in with his two-handed sword. Angela and Ralpha who were following behind them ran in as well and immediately spread out. Bel is preparing an arrow at the entrance of the room. I"m standing by in a position where I"m not in Bel"s way while looking over the entirety and concentrating on the other caves.
There was only one Owlbear. Zulu charged in without lowering his pace and with that momentum he dodged the attack by the Owlbear"s armor while stepping in and stabbing it"s body with his two-handed sword. Almost at the same time Zenom who had been running on Zulu"s left rolled under the arm attack as well and slammed his axe into the back right leg of the Owlbear then just like that went around to behind the Owlbear.
Angela who was running even further behind Zenom on the left aimed to cut the left front leg of the Owlbear with her broad sword as Zenom rolled through then quickly pulled back. Ralpha who was standing outside of Zulu was moving in a way to hide herself from the Owlbear using Zulu"s large build but after Zulu stabbed with his two-handed sword she jumped out from Zulu"s shadow and smashed her hand-axe into the left body of the Owlbear then quickly moved around behind Zenom.
Shortly after I heard the sound of a bowstring from my side. It seems that Bel fired an arrow. While the Owlbear was screaming in pain from the swords and axes the arrow flew in through the beak-like mouth of the Owlbear and stabbed into it"s mouth. Uwa, that looks like it hurt. However, for her to shoot an arrow into that curved beak, what kind of G.o.d-like skill is that? Isn"t it just a coincidence?
I guess Bel"s arrow was the fatal blow, the movements of the Owlbear clearly got weaker. The arrow"s already been bitten in half but I"m sure the arrowhead is still stuck in it"s mouth. Bel lowers her bow to the ground and after drawing her sword it seems she"s going to join in owl-beating* it as well. Just because it"s an owl. After that I"m sure as long as they don"t completely let their guard down it"s already over.
We weren"t able to find any items in this room either. After collecting the magic stone from the Owlbear I tried identifying it. It"s value was about 8,000. About 56,000 Z sale price huh? Not half bad.
It would probably be best to keep moving forward before any monsters that might have been nearby come hearing the screams of the Owlbear. Honestly speaking, I want to avoid combat in the rooms as much as possible. If it"s one where there"s exits in only one or two places then it"s not a big problem but since it"s often for them to be connected to a number of caves, you never know from where or how many monsters might appear. If we were to get surrounded it would be a bit dangerous.
After re-inspecting everyone"s equipment we stepped foot down the cave in front of us.
We advanced carefully until 4 in the afternoon today but after that while we entered combat with monsters wandering the caves we didn"t find anymore rooms. Around the time we used teleport and returned to the entrance there was a long falling shadow across the town of Baldukk from the setting sun.
........
Year 7442, Month 9, Day 6
Since today is Sat.u.r.day we have the day off. After eating breakfast and running for about two hours to help the digestion, I wiped the sweat off, and entered the dungeon alone again. Today I"ll practice some close combat against the small fried and try something out that I"ve planning for a while after my level goes up. If I ignore gathering the magic stones and just repeat combat then I should be able to level up around noon.
I buy a sandwich for 150 Z to use as a bento and after putting my flask inside I hung them from the D ring on my waist.
After putting the sling-belt of my bayonet on my shoulder and confirming that my knife is hanging from the opposite side of my flask my preparations are {OK}.
I start using {Audible Clamor} to create a large consecutive rupture sound and then wait for monsters to approach. After repeating it a number of times my level increased.
【Alan.Greed/5/3/7429 】
【Male/14/2/7428 ・ Human ・ Greed Family Second Son】
【Status：Normal】
【Age：14 Years Old】
【Level：13】
【HP：122(122) MP：7345(7427)】
【Strength：19】
【Speed：23】
【Dexterity：18】
【Endurance：20】
【Unique Ability：Identify(MAX)】
【Unique Ability：Gift of Natural Talent(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability：Earth Magic(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability：Water Magic(Lv.7)】
【Special Ability：Fire Magic(Lv.7)】
【Special Ability：Wind Magic(Lv.8)】
【Special Ability: Void Magic(Lv.8)】
【Experience：270022(350000)】
Alright, just like like week, my Speed increased not my HP. Hn? Last week? Oh~ so I leveled up in a mere week huh? In addition to the Gift of Natural Talent we"re not avoiding combat with the bosses in the rooms and beating them to death all over the place after all. The bosses of the rooms which we had avoided for several months until now in just this week I"ve killed close to 10 of myself. I"ve been working~ I"ve been working quite a bit~
No wait, this sort of self-satisfaction is completely pointless. Now then...I guess I"ll test it out.
{Fire Ball}
{Kill Cloud}
{Sleep Cloud}
{Acid Cloud}
{Stun Cloud}
{Disintegrate}
{Web}
{Grow Spike}
{Quagmire}
{Collapse}
I"m practicing all of the combat-use spells that were my weak point until now. I want to be able to make use of the attack spells that mother taught me in the 13 years of magic training until I left the house. For the time being it"s pretty pointless to use them just the amount of mana they normally use so I"ll practice them while increasing the power and range of them. There"s several others beyond these but along with {Gravel}, {Arrow}, and {Javelin} the various projectile types and the various electric-type spells starting from {Shocking Grasp} I"m already using, well, it shouldn"t be problem. For the time being I"ll start intensely practicing these types of magics that are my weak point while I"m in the dungeon my days off.
I want to practice the {Remove Paralysis} and {Detoxify} magics as well. But you know~ Putting aside the recovery of a wound, I don"t want to drink poison. Maybe I"ll practice using the fish that Mary mentioned. For Paralysis...I guess it would be fine to buy some paralysis drugs. Everything is an experience. As long as I don"t die then it"s not a bad idea to experience it at least one..probably. In particular I should be able to do that in the room of my inn as well.
After that is..especially leveling up Ralpha and my subordinates. I"ve already told them about the body level, and putting aside the slaves, even if it"s just Zenom, Ralpha, and Bel..No, even Zulu and Angela as well...Mwu..In the end isn"t it the same as now? For the time being I"ll start practicing from {Web} which is for restraining purposes. Since it"s fine if I used an extra amount of mana, it should be more efficient to use it on a large monster or to bind a group of 2-3 Hobgoblins or Orks. However, if it was just about restraining them then I could freeze around 50 cm - 1 m above the floor as well. I guess for the time being freezing them as a method of restraint is best. Let"s start with {Fire Ball} after all. I"ve always wanted to try using it with as much power as I can.
Just like this we continued repeating combat on the 2nd floor for about a month and I used the days off for training my magic. It was my first time using my mana to it"s limits and after returning to the inn in the morning I used the remainder before sleeping in until noon the next day, and after my mana recovers I woke up and went back to the dungeon to practice some more. My MP didn"t increase.
...........
Year 7442, Month 10, Day 1
When I returned from the dungeon to my inn some luggage had arrived for me. There was a letter together with the luggage. They were delighted that I made some subordinates. The fact that I properly employed them and that"s continuing is proof that I"m not using them crudely, is what it said. Though I had only just started employing them when I wrote that letter so they"re praising me a bit too much. They also sent me a large amount of extra latex, sulfur, charcoal, and wood acid because they thought it would be difficult to repair my armor when exploring the dungeon in Baldukk. There"s not even a single scratch on my armor though I"m grateful for father and the others sentiments.
The luggage is the boots I requested for Zenom, Ralpha, Bel, and Zulu before. Sorry, Angela. I don"t have any for you. There were some sandals included as an extra but if the size doesn"t fit you then I"ll at least modify them with the repair kit for you. Ah, by the way, I wonder what I should do about the money for these boots. Well, I guess it"s fine. Since I can earn a ton of money from the armor for the first knight group, I"ll at least treat them this much. If I include the sandals then the sale price would reach 800,000 Z (80 silver coins) though.
I"ll take the boots along with me when I go to have dinner with them. Thinking that it was when I was about to pack the boots into my bag. I noticed that several of the boots were heavy. They had some straw packed into them so they don"t lose their shape but the heavy ones had some rubber bags on the soles. There"s 20 bags. If I were to include it with the boots then it"s 1,000,000 Z (1 gold coin). However, they"re inside of Ralpha and Bel"s boots. If I had handed them over without realizing it would have been a disaster. There was a letter from brother along with the boots.
"Al, it seems that you promoted us to a brothel in Keel. The store I told you about was good right? Thanks to you we received a lot of orders. Thanks. Since I think it"s about time you run out so I included some Saya. Since you"re a member of a Viscount family as well don"t impregnate a strange girl. Since it"s you I"m sure you"re taking proper care on that end so I can relax though. Don"t worry about the village. Due to the unexpected orders of the Saya we were able to buy more cows again. It"s been a big help. Take care of your health and give it your best. Farnestan."
I couldn"t help but feel the tears go down my cheeks from the letter filled with brother"s love.
Around today the orders and lots of advance payment from the armor of the first knight group should be arriving, as well as my letter requesting for more Saya. Since the first knight group should have been delivering it up to Viscount Penlaid"s territory which is right before Marquis Webdos territory, and after that they should tell the caravan they give it to take good care of it, it should have shortened the time it takes by quite a bit. I"m sure they already know about the fact that I made a company as well.
.............
When it was dinner time and she saw me enter the restaurant carrying boots and sandals Bel raised a cheer with how happy she was. I gave the apologetic Zulu and Angela their boots and sandals and had them put them on right away. There was no problem with Angela"s size.
I"m glad they were happy. When each of them was about to pay I interrupted, "It"s a gift from my family so the money is fine." and understood with that. I told the boots group to buy some socks at least but socks are considerably expensive after all. Since boots themselves are a luxury product. Well, I guess that much can"t be helped. Even if I say expensive it"s about 1,000 Z per foot for socks. I"m sure even Zulu could buy some.
Incidentally, it seems that Bel and Ralpha re changing inns starting tonight. It seems that staying in an inn with no shower is difficult after all. I"m amazed they made it through this summer with no shower. I was even going to the point of buying several large barrels and making ice in those in my room. I used wind magic and the void magic Continuation in combination to make a cool wind circle the room. Even if I didn"t have the air circling around it felt 5-6 degrees lower.
Even if it"s an expensive shower at 100 Z but it"s still much better having it than not having it. And it"s got quite a few services other than just laundry, cleaning the room, and taking care of horses. It"s big that you can relax leaving your wallet in the room as well. I"m sure it"s learning about life for them to regret their past foolishness after understanding the pleasures of an expensive inn. Oh Young"ens, give it your best.
Furthermore, since it"s only obvious that Zenom is in the same room as Ralpha, Zenom is moving as well. Well, when they"re getting a base pay of 200,000 Z each and it costs 150,000 Z per month for the high-quality inn at 5,000 Z per night, it"s understandable that it"s difficult to justify so that"s why I ignored it. However, I"m sure they"re confident now that they"ll gain quite a bit in bonuses beyond just their base pay now.
Last night, when I was calculating the income and expenses I had kept record of until now and the average amount of bonus I was giving per person was 17,870 Z every day we enter the dungeon. For the period from the start of June until near the end of September, roughly though, I"ve been giving them close to 350,000 Z - 360,000 Z in bonuses every month for those four months. I don"t know if they were waiting to see for a bit and realized that with this things will work out, but I"m glad as well that the level of lifestyle for my subordinates is going up as well.
If I think about the expenses then it might be better to think of buying a house but in that case we would get dragged around by the miscellaneous matters of living. Like cleaning, laundry, meals, it"s fine if I just buy another slave but I don"t feel like I can buy the peace of mind of leaving my a.s.sets and the care of my horse at home when I"m gone. In the first place, if the amount of money I had set as my goal was a small amount like 100,000,000 Z then it wouldn"t be a bad idea to think like that in terms of reducing expenses but unfortunately the amount of money I"m hoping to earn is more than 100 times higher than that. And I"m sure that I won"t be able to fulfill my dream if I can"t at least make that amount by my 20s or at latest by the time I reach my 30s.
There"s no point in being stingy on small expenses. In any case we need to quickly aim for the lower floors, and set the objective on obtaining a rare magic item then selling that for a lot of money. I need to make preparations for that sake.
After eating, when they had finished moving over the little bit of belongings they had I told Zenom and the others about our goal for this month.
"During the last week of this month we"ll clear through the 2nd floor and aim for the 3rd floor. In the four weeks until then, I"ve said it a bit before but we"ll focus on raising the body levels of everyone. Since I"m sure we"ve already gained quite a bit of combat experience from fighting on the 1st and 2nd floors, in order to raise everyone"s combat potential we need to focus on earning experience points and raising the body level individually."
After I said that and Zenom opened his mouth.
"Yeah, that"s a good idea. In our case, since your combat potential is heads above us, honestly speaking, it"s difficult because we"re just holding you down. However, I"ve heard that the largest number of adventurers die on the 2nd and 3rd floors. I"m sure it"s no good to let our guards down."
After hearing that I,
"That"s certainly true. It"s just as Zenom said. Unless it"s a considerably dangerous boss of a room, I think fundamentally everyone can fight plenty on the 2nd floor without me. The level of Ralpha"s voice magic finally went up and Bel hasn"t learned just void magic but two types of elemental magic as well so even if one of us gets injured it should be a bit easier. However, I"m sure what I just said is the type of thing that leads to letting your guard down like Zenom mentioned. I"m sure other adventurers let their guards down after finally pa.s.sing through the 1st floor the moment they enter the depths of the 2nd floor. We need to make sure we"re just as careful as always."
Ralpha and Bel were listening quietly but it seems that based on their expressions they"ve gotten motivated.
Starting tomorrow we"ll aim to level up everyone. It"s necessary to create a plan on how to earn experience points in the most efficient way possible. I had been investigating the rules on how experience points are earned for the sake of today.
In order to convince Angela, either way we would have needed to clear the 2nd floor and aim for an even lower floor some day. It"s not really all that related to Angela though. Isn"t it fine, it adds to increasing my motivation after all.