Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Year 7442, Month 6, Day 2

The next day, after waking up before I went to do my daily running I decided to go to the entrance of the dungeon. Just like when I visited yesterday there were

already a lot of people there. I eat some simple dishes I bought from stalls as breakfast as I observe things. Among the jumble of noisy voices I can hear

"Is there one more person who can use magic out there!?"

"I'm selling maps~ I have up to the 3rd floor! 500,000 Z per floor!"

"I have a map with the locations of traps written down. Interested in buying it? It's only for the 1st floor but how about 800,000 Z?"

"Dried meat, roasted nuts, bread! Does anyone want to bring the delicious preserved food of Dori's shop along as their ally in the dungeon!"

"Recruiting a shield user! We need one more! Regardless of what we find I'll pay 30,000 for just today!"

and I hear those sorts of voices, different from yesterday it seems there's more voices trying to do business.

It seems that there's more people seriously trying to challenge the dungeon at this time. I guess they're meeting up with party members as well but there's a lot of

properly equipped adventurer looking people as well. They're holding swords, spears, and shields, equipped with light leather armor, and holding a bag which probably

has preserved food and small tools in it so they stand out.

In the next moment there were shouts from the entrance. It doesn't seem like loud yelling but rather, wonder and scorn, admiration and booing, voices that have a lot

of different emotions mixed in them. What is it? thinking that I started to move through the crowd towards the entrance of the building. There I saw a tall elf male

with a smile filled with pride and behind him there were three large human males, one female human, a female dwarf, a female elf, and one tiger-man male. In

comparison to the proud looking elf who has a smile the seven behind him all seem tired and are hanging their heads down.

After listening in on the voices around me and I quickly understood why.

"That bastard Rozwela he wasted slaves again. This time it was two of them huh?"

"Really, he's the only one making that disgusting face. How many has he wasted up until now?"

"Like I know! In the first place it's unbelievable that he's still making a profit like that."

"But you know, those guys sure have survived long. The only newcomer that's still alive is that guy."

"Don't say that. If you have the money then you can even do stuff like that. Stop acting like women you poor people."

"Shit..It's true though...I'm envious."

"If I had the money even I could earn like him~"

"When did he enter the dungeon?"

"I think it was three days ago..they might have gone to the 3rd or 4th floor."

Hohou~ So that middle-aged elf guy's name is Rozwela. It seems he's quite hated but I guess he's buying a lot of slaves and using them to charge in. Well, no matter

how good of earnings it might make it's not a hobby of mine to waste slaves like that but it's not a hobby I can criticize him over. Ah, I'm sure it's not all that

profitable as well so it's not that it's just not a hobby of mine. I'm sure that not just me, but if anyone had enough money they'd do something like using slaves as

living shields. However, slaves you can use in combat should be considerably expensive. Does it mean he earns even more than that? The cost of a combat slave is at

least 6-7 or gold coins or more per head. Particularly if they were at a level where they could enter the dungeon wouldn't they cost even more? It's far too much of

a waste so I don't think I could just use them as shields.

Since I still have the money I received from father if I want to I can buy two or so of them but the composure in my feelings will disappear. If I end up losing my

composure and get too greedy on earning I could end up making a critical mistake in decision. For now it's a method of clearing the dungeon which is unrelated to me.

I can't even use it as a reference. However, I wonder how much he can earn from just entering the dungeon to explore once? I want to know things like that. I tried

listening in on people for a bit but no one talked about things like that. Well, it's fine.

Since it had returned to the jumble of noises again I was about to turn around and head off to do my running when there were more shouts for a second time. This time

they're actually cheers. I hear whistling as well. Since it interested me I turned around again and looked at the people coming out of the entrance building.

It seems that the party that came out this time is several times more popular than Rozwela. They are a group of 8 as well and they're all equipped with banded-mail

and splint-mail wielding swords and spears that you can tell are pretty high grade just from a glance. Since I can't see anything but the scabbard I don't know for

sure if they're actually high quality or not though. They look quite well-made though. Their group is composed of one male and female human, two elf males, one male

and female dwarf, a bunny-man male, and one female who appears to be a Wolf-person race.

After listening to the words of praise being directed to them it seems that they're called "Green Party {Verdure Brotherhood}". Come to think of it they all have

something green somewhere on their equipment. Among them there's even a guy with something like a blue-green cloth wrapped around his arm. I thought they were

starting to rust. It seems that they're a group composed of commoners and Free People. There's voices of admiration for them. They've been in the dungeon for a week

straight and they arrived at the 5th floor. Isn't that top-class? Since I was interested I decided to try using Identify and wow, starting from the guy at the front

who's level 19, the lowest level among them was 16. It seems they're super veterans and excluding one of them they're all around 30 years old. The remaining one is

an elf that's closer to 40. He might be the leader. His level is 19 after all. His experience points have exceeded 900,000 and are close to 1,000,000.

Hya~ There's some amazing people in the world. I definitely want to try listening to their stories but I'm sure they wouldn't take a brat like me that's never even

entered the dungeon once seriously. It's not as if I have any proof that they're the top but I don't think it's mistaken that they're one of the top parties. Since

it seems they've gone to the 5th floor after all.

Since I spontaneously wanted to share in their good luck I was about to clap my hands together in prayer but I realized a moment before and stopped myself. I should

do some running and form training and cultivate my abilities first.

.............

Just before noon I returned to the entrance plaza (it's just the name I've given it though) and started looking for the guard Johnston.Church. I thought he would be

standing at the entrance the same as yesterday but it seems he's patrolling around the plaza. It seems that two people stand guard at the entrance and two people

patrol the plaza. Although the two of them aren't guarding the entrance but rather protecting the tax collector who collects the entrance tax for the dungeon. It's

only been two days but according to what I've seen there's about 400-500 people who challenge the dungeon a day so they should be collecting 4-5 gold coins per day

in taxes.

I called out to Johnston.Church.

"Hello, Church-san. Thank you for your kindness yesterday."

"Hey, so it was you? It seems that you used my name at the knight group yesterday so, umm, thank you very much."

Yeah, since it's free just to say it, and I wanted to make your impression better. Don't worry about it. And since it's you I'm sure you just said something like "I

just interacted with him naturally though.." right? Then I'm sure you were praised even more for normally acting so courteously right? It's a good thing.

"Yeah, and then. When do your work hours until? I would definitely like to discuss some things with you, if it's alright with you, how about a light one later?"

I say that while gesturing as if I'm drinking alcohol. It's only obvious but I'm guessing that his work hours are prior to noon. Since I couldn't find him yesterday

when I came here after eating lunch.

"Yeah, it's fine until just noon. After that I have to return to the knight group and report and then train...It isn't a problem having lunch with your for about an

hour though."

Just as I imagined. They're probably in three or four shifts for the bodyguard jobs. If they're working in rotation then I'm sure they also have regulated time off

as well.

"Is that so, then I'll take a look around this area while waiting until it's time."

After saying that I walk off without waiting for his response. Now he has no option to refuse me. Zenom and Ralpha might be surprised when I suddenly show up at the

restaurant with a guard but he's most likely a useful source of information. I'm sure they wouldn't treat him badly as well. After randomly wandering around looking

at the stalls time passed quickly to noon and Johnston.Church came to my side.

"Then, let's go shall we?"

After saying that I brought him to the restaurant we were meeting up at.

Though Zenom and Ralpha were certainly a bit surprised but after I introduced him they were more relieved that some sort of crime hadn't occurred in the store or I

hadn't been arrested. So you guys we're worried about that direction.

Along the way here I told Church-san about how I'm an adventurer and I came here aiming for the dungeon and the fact that I have two allies so he didn't worry about

things too much and we had a peaceful meal. Obviously during that time the three of us were asking him quests but the new information we were able to gain from him

was just as follows:

-The number of people in each party that challenges the dungeon is about 4-8. When they start aiming for the floors below the 3rd then it's not uncommon for them to

do a full party of 10 people.

-Of course, there's also some people who enter the dungeon alone as well. The majority of them either come out soon after or never come back though.

-Since we only have three people if we have the flexibility with money then we should expand our combat potential by buying some slaves. There's three slave dealers

in this town and it seems that all of them deal in combat slaves. It seems that it's fine to buy them at any place but when I buy them I should always make sure to

show the plate.

-Obviously it would be good to have a guide as well but the compensation for a skilled guide is expensive. Putting aside if it was only for a few days or a few weeks

but the guide counts as an extra head in your party when you split up the treasures you obtain in the dungeon so in the end you profit more by having slaves instead

if you plan to remain for a long time. (He told me about several trustworthy guides)

-If you think it's dangerous then you should immediately return back to the starting teleport crystal. Since you can quickly get back to the surface it's a bad idea

to push yourself too far.

-While there are exceptions, there's no decent people among the parasites who call out to you in the surroundings of the entrance of the dungeon. The worst of them

aim to kill their employers in the dungeon and loot their corpses for money and equipment they can sell.

-Obviously, there are cases where conflicts occur between parties that encounter each other in the dungeon as well. It wouldn't be strange if there was a group who

specializes in it but even if they end up being wiped out no one know will know.

-Even if you only intend to enter the 1st floor and return you should bring along at least three days worth of food.

-It would be best to buy a map of the 1st floor but even if you don't buy one it probably wouldn't change much. Starting from the 2nd floor the danger of the traps

jumps up so it seems it's best to buy one. (If you were in a hurry then it would be different but there's no need to buy a map with information on the traps since

you're just going to take your time in moving forward either way)

-The top parties right now are these five "Green Party {Verdure Brotherhood}", "Shining Blade {Bright Blade}", "Flames of Purgatory {Gehenna Flare}", "Black Topaz

{Black Topaz}", and "Sun Light {Sun.Ray}". They're all veteran parties that are composed of first-rate members.

-Rozwela is famous but his reputation is mostly built around envy. The person himself isn't particularly bullying slaves. Still it is unusual that everyone other he

is a slave but it's not like there's no other parties like that and if you have the money then in some ways you could say it's ideal. If you were to find a piece of

magic equipment it's normal for conflicts to occur over who it belongs to and even how they split up the shares of money earned from selling it can be a factor to

worry about. Since there's no absolutely no need to worry about that it could be said it leaves that much more room for them to become a party with good team work.

-The average income of just exploring the 1st floor and returning once is around 150,000-200,000Z. If you get lucky, find someones corpse, and take the equipment

they used then it can easily exceed 1,000,000 Z as well. However, this number is when you're being careful so as to avoid fighting monsters as much as possible. If

you make loud noises and try to lure monsters you can earn more but the number of parties that did that and lured a ton of monsters then were wiped out is as many as

there are stars.

-The treasure you can obtain in the dungeon is, 1. Magic stones obtained from defeating monsters. 2. The equipment the monsters you defeated were using. 3. The money

and equipment adventurers that were killed had on them. 4. Getting lucky and finding some raw gems or crystals. 5. Anything other than that. It seems that they're

separated into those five types. It seems roughly as they get closer to the end the value gets higher. Supposedly the most valuable thing anyone has found since

Church started as a guard was a short wand that made it so anyone can use the magic {Fire Ball}. It was over 20 years ago but according to rumors it was judged to be

worth several 100,000,000,000 Z, but the one who found it didn't sell and instead presented it to the royal family and they were made into a Viscount and given the

position of governor of some town somewhere. He heard that the wand was placed in the treasury of the Rombert royal family. (When I heard this I thought, idiot, you

should sell it and take the money, but since everyone's eyes were sparkling like the stars I remained silent. When I think carefully about it, the fact that it can

make it so anyone can use {Fire Ball} then it's a considerably outrageous thing)

-Other than that it seems that there's a few magic items that come out every year. There's also cases where they've been found on the 1st floor as well. Of course,

the values vary a lot but they're usually at least several 100,000,000 Z. Also, if you decide to hold on to it then after that information has passed through several

countries there's the option of putting up for auction at some place and then leaking that information to sell it for a high price. It seems that the auction usually

takes place in some countries capital.

We ran out of time around here. After we saw off Church as he returned to the quarters of the knight group we returned to our table in the restaurant and started

sipping some bean tea while discussing what our plans are from here on out. The first one to open their mouth was of course, me.

"Well then, we've obtained quite a bit of information. About the plan I can think of here but for starters there's two options. The first is to try and enter the

dungeon with just us three and see how things go. The other option is to either buy a slave or hire a guide in order to expand our combat potential. Which do you

think would be better?"

And then, unexpectedly Ralpha gave an immediate reply.

"If you have the money then a slave. I think the same way as Church-san as well but in the end having the slave is more efficient I'm sure. Well, since it's

difficult to tell what the level of ability of a slave is if you were sold a weird one then it's also possible to suffer a heavy loss but, that plate? was it? if you

show them that then it should be fine right? Then, if you have the money I'd buy a slave."

This, ex-high school girl has suddenly come out with buying a slave. It's surprising because in reverse I thought she would be the one most against it.

"A slave huh...It seems like it will cost some money but I think I can manage to buy one though...Other than just the cost of the slave I would also have to prepare

it's equipment as well so another 1,000,000 Z or so will probably be blown away. With that."

I was grumbling that but suddenly I wanted to hear Zenom's opinion. The one who has the most experience as an adventurer among us is him.

"What do you think Zenom?"

"Since our compensation has already been decided, it won't change anything worrying about Al's wallet at this point. That's why it's limited to supposing, if I was

Al then"

"Yeah."

"After all if it was me then I would buy a slave. If it's a merchant that can be trusted and furthermore you can gain their trust then you should be able to buy a good

slave. I'm sure there's skilled people among guides as well but the compensation is expensive. In the end I think you'll still just lose out. It might be fine for

the first time but thinking about Al's magic I can't imagine we'd fall into any danger so easily. In the first place, we can immediately retreat, so even if we don't

do anything and run away then the damage is only 10,000 Z per person. It's true that 10,000 Z hurts for us but if we can gain the first experience then it's still

cheap. I think it wouldn't be too late to think about a guide after that."

I was able to understand that they're not against employing the use of slaves. In that meaning they're both veteran adventurers who have over 10 years in their

career. Zenom says he's been at it for 20 years even. I'm sure he's accompanied adventurers who use slaves before and he might even have experience using slaves

himself. In comparison I was a young master raised leisurely in a remote village. There were a lot of serfs but just because they were slaves there was never

anything that bothered me over social standing with them.

Or rather, I don't know if I can even use slaves in the same way that people normally employ them. I can't grasp the sense of distance. Even this sort of place

stimulates my complex that I haven't been able to become a person of Orth. But, I'm sure it's true that it's more efficient to use slaves. If they're the market

price then I can buy two and equipment for them but with that my wallet would get too light. I said it before but it might make get too impatient. However, if it's

just one then I should still have some flexibility so I think it might be fine. Alright, I'll buy a slave.

"I understand. I've decided to buy one slave. After this conversation finishes I'll go and buy one so come along with me. Then, next is"

I take a sip of the tea and continue my words after wetting my mouth.

"Since even if we include the slave we still only have four people we won't overdo things at the start. It's fine if we go as far as we can think we can go but once

we start to struggle we'll turn back. Since it's the first time let's also decide on a time limit. I think we should depart tomorrow morning but no matter how good

of a pace we have going we should come back by noon. That's why, I'm sure it'll add to the luggage a bit but we should take along a clock magic tool."

After confirming that the two of them nodded I continue even more.

"Also if there's anything you think we might need tell me now. I need to buy some stuff after all."

After I said that and Zenom says.

"Some string. One that's as long as possible. It seems you use it coiled around a spool. Supposedly you tie it to a rock or something in the area of where you first

teleport then release the string as you move forward. If you return while winding that back up then you can return to your original location without getting lost.

Since it seems that they sell them by the bobbin I'll prepare one after this. It's fine if you pay me for it later."

I see, that's a good idea. If it's cotton then I'm sure it's not that expensive, depending on the length of the string there's also the option of returning once you

run out of string as well.

"Alright, let's go with that. Then for starters let's go and buy a slave."

After saying that I drank the last of my tea and stood up from my seat. The two of them came along with me.