Volume 3 - CH 13
SIDE : Selene
One week had passed since Okaa-san went out to clear the dungeon.
On the second day as I was continuing to do my best in treating injured people in the temporary treatment camp, apparently the top rank party adventurer party that had gone to challenge the dungeon returned back.
According to them, there was a sudden drastic environmental change from floor 15 to floor 16 and so, the exploration time was taking awfully longer without the effective equipment.
They still bravely continued to advance but they couldn't overcome the adversity and ultimately collapsed down in the 19th floor.
Teto onee-chan seemed to have saved them from their dire straits and helped them in returning back.
They expressed their gratitude when I came to check for any slight abnormality.
"I should have gone with them too”, were my thoughts.
But Okaa-san knew a fantastical magic that could bring out items out of nowhere. With such spells, she could also conjure any supply she would need during exploration, so they seemed to be continuing their dungeon challenge.
As I patiently await Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan return, believing in them, the injured person continues to be carried today too.
I couldn't tell if it was because the information about dunegon's interior was gradually becoming common or what, adventurers had begun to take measures and as such, the number of fatally injured were dwindling down slowly.
Another thing, it seemed adventurers gave up on dungeon capture and instead had begun to focus on keeping the surrounding area safe, prioritising thinning down the monster inside so that they wouldn't overflow outside.
Gradually, the second day too came to pass, and it was two weeks after Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan had left for dungeon 一一 that the dungeon disappeared and they finally came back.
SIDE : Witch
In all honesty, the floors from floor 20th and onwards were plain annoying.
If you have to ask what part was annoying, it was the fact that the stairs leading to the next underground floor were buried somewhere in the vast sandy floor.
As if that wasn't enough, when Teto tried to lookout for them with her magic, the monsters roaming inside the sand released sound waves that interfered with Teto's searching, thus leading to inefficient exploration.
As such, we obviously had no choice but to search and get rid of all those sound producing monsters one by one.
On this note, as we continued with the tedious process, we also seldomly chanced upon magic tools treasure chest but this process had continued for 10 floors.
As a result of the tiresome process, our pace has dropped to one floor per day.
But the ill-luck continued to hover around us it seemed as the 30th floor boss keeper was another pain in ass.
Our opponent presumably was an A-rank long worm (pseudonym) that had the ability to split up from the spot it had been hit.
It would split its body whenever we tried to attack or when we followed with another attack hurriedly to take them down, and with each splitting, it was getting shorter to aim at properly. Slippery bastard they were, they would immediately make for an escape sensing us chasing after them.
We had no choice but to re-enter the floor and this time, we instead focused on exterminating it from its head completely and defeating it.
The tiresome journey was then finally over after we arrived at the 31st floor and retrieved the dungeon core from the dungeon pedestal. However this had once again reinforced my opinion on how irregular the dungeon core was to integrate itself with the stone golem of the dungeon I had first cleared away.
After the retrieval of the dungeon core was completed, adventurers that were in the shallow floors were forcefully repatriated back to the dungeon entrance one by one and not long after that, Teto and mine dungeon capture was over.
Once we were also teleported back outside, I heard someone calling out our names as I was checking out if the rocky mountain-like dungeon had vanished or not.
"Okaa-san! Teto onee-chan!"
"We're back, Selene."
It was Selene, with the female adventurer escorts tagging behind her, rushing towards me, so I stopped the investigation and accepted her blitzering hug from the front.
A hug from my daughter was the best panacea to soothe my rigid mindset due to the irksome gimmicks inside the dungeon that had caused us to delay.
"We're back-nanodesu!"
"Loosen up a bit, Big-sis~"
So protested Selene beamingly when Teto scooped us in the bear hug all together.
Two weeks, we had never been apart for so long and it was respecting Selene's intention that I had left her to take care of adventurer's treatment but I felt like she had grown-up to one size larger in this short span.
“Children's growth spurt sure is amazing”, I slightly teared up at this realization.
"Okaa-san?"
"一iff!, Great work for holding on so far, Selene. Let's have a leisure vacation back at home once we settle everything here."
After rounding up the family reunion, this time, I turned to the female adventurers who were working as her escort.
"Thank you for looking after Selene. Did anything happen in our absence?"
"Well...... how should I say, can you lean a bit closer?"
Hmm, a lot sure happened according to details the other party quietly passed on to me.
•Many Adventurers who saw her healing magic proficiency when they're saved by her tried to solicit her.
"...... I see, it's commendable of you to work so hard."
"Ehehe, I had just done what was in my capability."
As us parents and children were forming a rapport, the surroundings were... Huh, why is everyone around giving us “what in the world are these young girls?” type of inquisitive gaze.
“Are they really the same amazing person who had cleared a dungeon or saved adventures from death's jaw? How come they're so young?”, we were at the receiving end of such gazes.
Finally showing himself after weaving his way through the crowd of curious adventurers was the guild master.
"I guess the dungeon has been wiped clean."
"Yes, completely. Also, thank you for looking after Selene."
"I should be the one to say that, I never expected the little supporter would bring us surprising results. To be truthful with ya, I had almost given up on any hope of clearing out this dungeon in the short term when I heard the details about floors after 15th."
I joined in the crowd of adventurers who had begun to retreat from the breadbasket region while engaging in such trifling chit-chat and headed towards the guild.
In the guild, I verbally passed down the information about the items I had gotten from the dungeon this time and the information of each floor.
Amidst that, the Guild master was especially listening with a ludicrous expression when I began narrating about the annoying stairs part in the sand.
"Looking out for the stairs buried somewhere in the sand blowing in the wind while enduring the harsh temperature difference between day and night and to top it off, dealing with the monsters that came swooping from the sand below or above in the empty sky and the monsters that interfered with the detection spell...... how in the name of holy goddess did ya even clear this nightmare?"
"That's a... Secret~"
However I guess guild shouldn't be too hung up on it since we also retrieved the treasure chests buried in the sand in those annoying sandy floors.
Also一一
"It should be possible to promote Chise, your and Teto's adventure rank to A with this time achievement. The promotion exam is held at the capital city of each nation once a year, what will you do?"
It seemed B-rank adventurers who had achieved the promotion condition gathered at each nation's capital city during the winter season, the season with less work to worry about.
"Hmm, I think it wouldn't be bad to take the exam while we're travelling around when Selene becomes someone's bride. Maybe after 10 years, no, I think 20 years......"
"That's quite a long term planning ya have there. Ye wouldn't happen to have the blood of long living species like elf flowing in yerself, do ya?"
On this note, the guild card doesn't cease functioning in case adventurers didn't take quests for several years.
In this world also dwells long lifespan species like elf, dwarves or even dragonewt and their golden age lasted for far long. So it would be a great loss and lots of trouble to lose a promising long living, high-ranking adventurer because they forgot to receive quests for many years and then have them restart from ground below.
"Returning to our final main topic 一一 It's about the handling of dungeon core..."
"Yeah. I wonder who is the one to purchase it?"
"That, of course, would be this nation. Following this time of difficulty that accompanied the dungeon, the beastkin royal family was keen on buying at the price of 50 true silver coins (Mithril coin)."
It would be around 500 million yen if converted to Japanese yen and in this world where commodities are dirt cheap, the three generations of an ordinary family could eat and sleep without any care and there would still be some leftover even so.
I'm not even counting the price of items from treasure chests but that's sure to increase it by a large margin.
But一一
"I don't need the money. There's something I seek from the beastkin royal family."
"Huh? Something ya seek from the royal family? Just asking curiously, what is it that you want?"
He seemed to be thinking about the treasures in royal family possession or something along the line of it. I replied,
"I want the ownership of the land of «Empty Wilderness»."
The only thing I sought from the beastkin royal family in exchange for the dungeon core was just a magic contract.
• «Empty Wilderness» will become my possession and I be its owner.
•Inside region would be counted as extraterrestrial as the owner is me.
•It will be counted as a region unrelated to this nation from this point onwards and will be an independent territory.
I sought a magic contract with these sorts of clauses.
The land cultivated by this nation's people may surely belong to them but they're still levied tax.
"What do ya need this incomprehensible contract for..."
"Well, just sort of a hobby you can say."
It was a place with a giant inviolable barrier erected around by none other than the goddesses themselves which keeps anyone from entering ever since 2000 years ago.
For others, it was a request as senseless as pointing out at the moon and forming a contract acknowledging that the moon would be their possession.
Even if your ownership of the moon is recognised, the moon would still remain an uncontactable and worthless place that couldn't exert its influence over others.
Basically, it will become one of those silly contracts.
That's for those who don't know but for me who can go in and out and was living there for 10 such years, it holds its value.
"Haa, it's really hard to grasp yer thinking, missy but I will try to talk it out. As for whether they will agree to it or not, isn't something I can confirm."
"In case the request is denied, I wouldn't have any choice but to look for another place to sell the dungeon core."
"Hey-Hey, hold on! I would be in trouble ya know! Fine Missy, I will work my old bones hard to talk about it."
So had cradled his head in his hand the Guild Master, though I wasn't a bit happy to see the head of a middle-aged man facing me so I hurriedly ended our discussion.
"Alright then, I'm leaving the negotiation to you. We, including Selene, will be returning after getting the remuneration for the treatment Selene did with her healing magic and the materials I have submitted."
"Going back... You mean back to the town Yir you had come from?"
"Yeah, to be precise, the forest near Yir town. It's also near the «Empty Wilderness». I'm also worried about our fields there so we would be going back in a short while."
"I understand, I will pass my words to the nearby guild that will send a messenger to you once the negotiation is concluded. That's why, don't think about selling the dungeon core until then for god's sake."
Guild Master, who thus pleaded, sighed and saw us off going back.
We received Selene's reward for her healing treatment and our sale value of materials and treasure chest items, minus mana stones, from the guild.
Selene's one person treatment cost was 1 silver coin but she even healed those Adventurers other healers overlooked and even more so, helped them regain their lost limbs with regeneration magic when she had enough mana to spare.
Apparently, she had used the mana of «Large size Magic stone» to refill her mana reserve instead of amulet when her own mana reserve was falling short and ultimately, her rewards for this time was 10 large gold coins.
"Nice, now let's deposit them to Selene card."
"Okay."
Selene also possesses her own identification guild card. That being said, she's treated as the guild's trainee apprentice instead of basing on the rank, though it could also store or withdraw money.
We got on the magic carpet and aimed for the frontier town Yir, our base, while internally rejoicing at the fact that Selene wasn't blindsided by the large amount of money and had still retained her economic sense properly.
One week had passed since Okaa-san went out to clear the dungeon.
On the second day as I was continuing to do my best in treating injured people in the temporary treatment camp, apparently the top rank party adventurer party that had gone to challenge the dungeon returned back.
According to them, there was a sudden drastic environmental change from floor 15 to floor 16 and so, the exploration time was taking awfully longer without the effective equipment.
They still bravely continued to advance but they couldn't overcome the adversity and ultimately collapsed down in the 19th floor.
Teto onee-chan seemed to have saved them from their dire straits and helped them in returning back.
They expressed their gratitude when I came to check for any slight abnormality.
"I should have gone with them too”, were my thoughts.
But Okaa-san knew a fantastical magic that could bring out items out of nowhere. With such spells, she could also conjure any supply she would need during exploration, so they seemed to be continuing their dungeon challenge.
As I patiently await Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan return, believing in them, the injured person continues to be carried today too.
I couldn't tell if it was because the information about dunegon's interior was gradually becoming common or what, adventurers had begun to take measures and as such, the number of fatally injured were dwindling down slowly.
Another thing, it seemed adventurers gave up on dungeon capture and instead had begun to focus on keeping the surrounding area safe, prioritising thinning down the monster inside so that they wouldn't overflow outside.
Gradually, the second day too came to pass, and it was two weeks after Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan had left for dungeon 一一 that the dungeon disappeared and they finally came back.
SIDE : Witch
In all honesty, the floors from floor 20th and onwards were plain annoying.
If you have to ask what part was annoying, it was the fact that the stairs leading to the next underground floor were buried somewhere in the vast sandy floor.
As if that wasn't enough, when Teto tried to lookout for them with her magic, the monsters roaming inside the sand released sound waves that interfered with Teto's searching, thus leading to inefficient exploration.
As such, we obviously had no choice but to search and get rid of all those sound producing monsters one by one.
On this note, as we continued with the tedious process, we also seldomly chanced upon magic tools treasure chest but this process had continued for 10 floors.
As a result of the tiresome process, our pace has dropped to one floor per day.
But the ill-luck continued to hover around us it seemed as the 30th floor boss keeper was another pain in ass.
Our opponent presumably was an A-rank long worm (pseudonym) that had the ability to split up from the spot it had been hit.
It would split its body whenever we tried to attack or when we followed with another attack hurriedly to take them down, and with each splitting, it was getting shorter to aim at properly. Slippery bastard they were, they would immediately make for an escape sensing us chasing after them.
We had no choice but to re-enter the floor and this time, we instead focused on exterminating it from its head completely and defeating it.
The tiresome journey was then finally over after we arrived at the 31st floor and retrieved the dungeon core from the dungeon pedestal. However this had once again reinforced my opinion on how irregular the dungeon core was to integrate itself with the stone golem of the dungeon I had first cleared away.
After the retrieval of the dungeon core was completed, adventurers that were in the shallow floors were forcefully repatriated back to the dungeon entrance one by one and not long after that, Teto and mine dungeon capture was over.
Once we were also teleported back outside, I heard someone calling out our names as I was checking out if the rocky mountain-like dungeon had vanished or not.
"Okaa-san! Teto onee-chan!"
"We're back, Selene."
It was Selene, with the female adventurer escorts tagging behind her, rushing towards me, so I stopped the investigation and accepted her blitzering hug from the front.
A hug from my daughter was the best panacea to soothe my rigid mindset due to the irksome gimmicks inside the dungeon that had caused us to delay.
"We're back-nanodesu!"
"Loosen up a bit, Big-sis~"
So protested Selene beamingly when Teto scooped us in the bear hug all together.
Two weeks, we had never been apart for so long and it was respecting Selene's intention that I had left her to take care of adventurer's treatment but I felt like she had grown-up to one size larger in this short span.
“Children's growth spurt sure is amazing”, I slightly teared up at this realization.
"Okaa-san?"
"一iff!, Great work for holding on so far, Selene. Let's have a leisure vacation back at home once we settle everything here."
After rounding up the family reunion, this time, I turned to the female adventurers who were working as her escort.
"Thank you for looking after Selene. Did anything happen in our absence?"
"Well...... how should I say, can you lean a bit closer?"
Hmm, a lot sure happened according to details the other party quietly passed on to me.
•Many Adventurers who saw her healing magic proficiency when they're saved by her tried to solicit her.
"...... I see, it's commendable of you to work so hard."
"Ehehe, I had just done what was in my capability."
As us parents and children were forming a rapport, the surroundings were... Huh, why is everyone around giving us “what in the world are these young girls?” type of inquisitive gaze.
“Are they really the same amazing person who had cleared a dungeon or saved adventures from death's jaw? How come they're so young?”, we were at the receiving end of such gazes.
Finally showing himself after weaving his way through the crowd of curious adventurers was the guild master.
"I guess the dungeon has been wiped clean."
"Yes, completely. Also, thank you for looking after Selene."
"I should be the one to say that, I never expected the little supporter would bring us surprising results. To be truthful with ya, I had almost given up on any hope of clearing out this dungeon in the short term when I heard the details about floors after 15th."
I joined in the crowd of adventurers who had begun to retreat from the breadbasket region while engaging in such trifling chit-chat and headed towards the guild.
In the guild, I verbally passed down the information about the items I had gotten from the dungeon this time and the information of each floor.
Amidst that, the Guild master was especially listening with a ludicrous expression when I began narrating about the annoying stairs part in the sand.
"Looking out for the stairs buried somewhere in the sand blowing in the wind while enduring the harsh temperature difference between day and night and to top it off, dealing with the monsters that came swooping from the sand below or above in the empty sky and the monsters that interfered with the detection spell...... how in the name of holy goddess did ya even clear this nightmare?"
"That's a... Secret~"
However I guess guild shouldn't be too hung up on it since we also retrieved the treasure chests buried in the sand in those annoying sandy floors.
Also一一
"It should be possible to promote Chise, your and Teto's adventure rank to A with this time achievement. The promotion exam is held at the capital city of each nation once a year, what will you do?"
It seemed B-rank adventurers who had achieved the promotion condition gathered at each nation's capital city during the winter season, the season with less work to worry about.
"Hmm, I think it wouldn't be bad to take the exam while we're travelling around when Selene becomes someone's bride. Maybe after 10 years, no, I think 20 years......"
"That's quite a long term planning ya have there. Ye wouldn't happen to have the blood of long living species like elf flowing in yerself, do ya?"
On this note, the guild card doesn't cease functioning in case adventurers didn't take quests for several years.
In this world also dwells long lifespan species like elf, dwarves or even dragonewt and their golden age lasted for far long. So it would be a great loss and lots of trouble to lose a promising long living, high-ranking adventurer because they forgot to receive quests for many years and then have them restart from ground below.
"Returning to our final main topic 一一 It's about the handling of dungeon core..."
"Yeah. I wonder who is the one to purchase it?"
"That, of course, would be this nation. Following this time of difficulty that accompanied the dungeon, the beastkin royal family was keen on buying at the price of 50 true silver coins (Mithril coin)."
It would be around 500 million yen if converted to Japanese yen and in this world where commodities are dirt cheap, the three generations of an ordinary family could eat and sleep without any care and there would still be some leftover even so.
I'm not even counting the price of items from treasure chests but that's sure to increase it by a large margin.
But一一
"I don't need the money. There's something I seek from the beastkin royal family."
"Huh? Something ya seek from the royal family? Just asking curiously, what is it that you want?"
He seemed to be thinking about the treasures in royal family possession or something along the line of it. I replied,
"I want the ownership of the land of «Empty Wilderness»."
The only thing I sought from the beastkin royal family in exchange for the dungeon core was just a magic contract.
• «Empty Wilderness» will become my possession and I be its owner.
•Inside region would be counted as extraterrestrial as the owner is me.
•It will be counted as a region unrelated to this nation from this point onwards and will be an independent territory.
I sought a magic contract with these sorts of clauses.
The land cultivated by this nation's people may surely belong to them but they're still levied tax.
"What do ya need this incomprehensible contract for..."
"Well, just sort of a hobby you can say."
It was a place with a giant inviolable barrier erected around by none other than the goddesses themselves which keeps anyone from entering ever since 2000 years ago.
For others, it was a request as senseless as pointing out at the moon and forming a contract acknowledging that the moon would be their possession.
Even if your ownership of the moon is recognised, the moon would still remain an uncontactable and worthless place that couldn't exert its influence over others.
Basically, it will become one of those silly contracts.
That's for those who don't know but for me who can go in and out and was living there for 10 such years, it holds its value.
"Haa, it's really hard to grasp yer thinking, missy but I will try to talk it out. As for whether they will agree to it or not, isn't something I can confirm."
"In case the request is denied, I wouldn't have any choice but to look for another place to sell the dungeon core."
"Hey-Hey, hold on! I would be in trouble ya know! Fine Missy, I will work my old bones hard to talk about it."
So had cradled his head in his hand the Guild Master, though I wasn't a bit happy to see the head of a middle-aged man facing me so I hurriedly ended our discussion.
"Alright then, I'm leaving the negotiation to you. We, including Selene, will be returning after getting the remuneration for the treatment Selene did with her healing magic and the materials I have submitted."
"Going back... You mean back to the town Yir you had come from?"
"Yeah, to be precise, the forest near Yir town. It's also near the «Empty Wilderness». I'm also worried about our fields there so we would be going back in a short while."
"I understand, I will pass my words to the nearby guild that will send a messenger to you once the negotiation is concluded. That's why, don't think about selling the dungeon core until then for god's sake."
Guild Master, who thus pleaded, sighed and saw us off going back.
We received Selene's reward for her healing treatment and our sale value of materials and treasure chest items, minus mana stones, from the guild.
Selene's one person treatment cost was 1 silver coin but she even healed those Adventurers other healers overlooked and even more so, helped them regain their lost limbs with regeneration magic when she had enough mana to spare.
Apparently, she had used the mana of «Large size Magic stone» to refill her mana reserve instead of amulet when her own mana reserve was falling short and ultimately, her rewards for this time was 10 large gold coins.
"Nice, now let's deposit them to Selene card."
"Okay."
Selene also possesses her own identification guild card. That being said, she's treated as the guild's trainee apprentice instead of basing on the rank, though it could also store or withdraw money.
We got on the magic carpet and aimed for the frontier town Yir, our base, while internally rejoicing at the fact that Selene wasn't blindsided by the large amount of money and had still retained her economic sense properly.
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