CH 264

"Yes, it's about the request Phyllis-sensei passed to us, I wanted to hear about it in detail."

I replied to Dean's question and put forth the request's document on the table.

However there wasn't a slight change in his expression when I quietly took a look at him.

"Is this the direct quest from the Dean to our guild Eden?"

"No. It's a quest requested by another guild through the academy. The situation demands a quick resolution so I thought Eden would be able to clear it."

I see, request made through the academy.

I had fleetingly talked about the usage of QP and a guild could issue a request for another guild.

However when a request's scale is too large or that it has been issued to several guilds, it would no longer be in the range a guild alone could manage it.

In situations where the guild didn't know what's better to do, guilds could instead use the academy's system to smoothly issue out a quest. Academy, on the other day, would pick the guild that's more suitable according to their information and passed it to them.

It seems a high-ranking guild happened to be using the system this time due to the large scale quest.

What's more, it's through the Dean quest.

Was it that important, or maybe they just need to have it completed quickly? Or... Is it both?

"I see. It certainly is a request with only five days left in the deadline. But sure enough, isn't it hard to gather all that amount in just 5 days? Wouldn't it have been better to issue the quest to several guilds?"

The biggest Issue about these quests was just the short deadline to complete it.

Its possible if we use ‹Official Hidden Tactic - Boss's Farming› but conversely speaking, it's impossible otherwise.

Well, it's a guild based problem.

In that case, wouldn't it have been much faster to issue the request to several guilds. Just like the large-scale quest Phyllis-sensei mentioned in the morning assembly.

I don't see any reason why it had to be left to a guild that's only composed of freshmen, what's more, that guild happened to be something recently created.

Why didn't they issue it on a large quest basis was something I must make clear before anything else else Our discussion wouldn't proceed anywhere.

"I see. Actually, I have issued the request to other guilds who have flutes. Though, their dungeon is different from the dungeon Zephyr-kun is requested to."

Oh, this is my first time hearing that.

"So that much amount is left even after passing it to others?"

"That way, it must be easier for Zephyr to do, too, no?"

"!"

I understood everything from just this simple request.

They got me there for once.

I could infer Dean knew we, Eden, have some sort of method to defeat bosses multiple times and even increase the drops.

On the basis of that, he's implying he will not meddle with whatever we're doing and acknowledging ‹Official Hidden Tactic›.

They haven't issued this demanding request because they wanted to probe us but because they have admitted its existence and want our cooperation on this request.

In short, it could be summed up that they were at their wit's end about the request and thus decided to request Eden for it.

Even in the large-scale quest, the number of flute might have become a bottleneck too.

They must have another guild who had flute in their possession already on the run for request so they could only ask us.

I see. I'm quite thankful for that.

Honestly speaking, having ‹Official Hidden Tactic - Boss Farming› was almost the prerequisite if I want to aim for the top. It was something indispensable.

Accordingly, it would be a game over if there began the contest for boss on the deepest part by spreading this method.

Though, I couldn't confirm what Dean thought of the ‹Official Hidden Tactic - Boss Farming›.

Is this what they called wisdom of age?

However, it could be seen that the harvest was quite plentiful.

On the other hand, I had more or less considered what I'm going to do should Dean ask me to pass the information but I didn't want to use that method if possible.

I'm glad my preparation was for naught.

"For now, I understand why you asked us. Also, thank you very much for considering our situation."

"Ho-Ho. Even the academy is a bit packed because of all sorts of discovery and other reasons at present. There are some who want to collaborate with Eden too."

Was he implicitly implying not to throw anymore explosive information in the dark?

Well, I understand the reason. The ruckus recently was just because the manifestation condition for a high-ranking job was discovered.

Academy's management side was also quite chaotic it seems.

However, ‹Labyrinth Academy • Main School› was garnering fame from all sides thanks to that. The chasm between them and branch school was now evident, or rather, main school was now overwhelmingly in lead.

The number of applicants for the next year were bound to increase for sure, and I imagine the competition would be quite fierce.

Wait, I have helped them increase their fame so could it also be the reason he was keeping it a secret? Hmm, it could be taken like this too.

And if the information of ‹Official Hidden Tactic - Boss Farming› was to be publicized, chaos is bound to occur.

Rather, it was a greater relief to know that it was on the level that warns them not to take any such actions.

However I was a bit curious about the ‘at present’ part in his speech. Maybe he's asking me to pass more information once the situation calms down?

Hmm, I guess I will throw out some explosive information which doesn't affect us even if made public in that situation.

Then I just have to make sure the information is systematic rather than wondering about how to deal with information, which of course wasn't a problem for me.

I just hope they're ready for a tumultuous situation again when I pick up another small amount of information to pass out.

Don't look down at the knowledge of ‹Dungeon Activity› players. They're not only limited to just the ‹Official Hidden Tactic›.

Anyway, I received the answer to what I wanted to hear the most.

Now would be the negotiation for price.

"Also, the reward is ‹20,000QP› but that's a bit low given the the work we have to do. It at least have to be ‹30,000QP›.."

If I were to be honest, I wanted to increase the reward amount by a bit even though I was internally content. I just wanted to try this.

This would have been an incredible bargain in the game time of ‹Dungeon Activity›.

Magnitude of these points was such that I wasn't sure how many days and how many quests we would have to take to earn that much. Especially so at E-rank.

That's why, I gave a bit overboard price and was hoping it would be nice if I could at least make it to 25,000QP by negotiating. I was seriously considering that.

However this was real ‹Dungeon Activity›.

There were people who objected to my wild idea too.

It was Rina who was silently looking at the situation sitting next to me.

"Zephyr-san, forgive me but you're still too kind on such matters."

"Wha一, Rina?"

"Zephyr-san, if possible, can you let me handle this negotiation? I'm sure to not incur any loss."

I was stunned. The price I thought was exceptional was easily dismissed as nothing more than a loss. She even said I'm being kind on this matter. Huh? Did I miscalculate something?

Let's go over it once again. The reward is 20,000QP. I would have accepted this request with no further question asked and at its base value if it was in the game time.

But according to Rina, it was a losing business.

I see, I didn't get it at all!

What? She wants to fish for more reward? You know I just quoted 30,000QP? Was it really fine to increase it?

I hurled such gaze at Rina but it seemed like she misunderstand the meaning and instead said,

"It's alright. I have been taught by my father on how to handle this sort of negotiation. Please leave it to me."

She said confidently. It seems she's going to ask for more.

Ohh, so that was fine.

"Hn, then I'm leaving it to you, please do so."

"Yes, just leave it to me! I will do my best."

And so, the seat for negotiation was transferred to Rina.

I think Rina should be able to negotiate since she had already asked me about the aforementioned gathering of ‹Electric Bear-cum-Squirrel› materials on our way to the Dean's office.

Rina then turns to face Dean.

"Dean, we can't accept this request unless the amount at least has to be 40,000QP and including ‹Flute›, all the cost for necessary items like recovery have to be shouldered by you."

I shuddered internally.

Really? Was she serious? All the cost for recovery items etc was paid by students from their own pocket in the game.

I had never heard of a case asking Dean to shoulder the expense.

However Rina's negotiation continued, regardless of how much I was shivering inside.

"Also, it would be a question for us to make it in time if there's not the support from engineers. Furthermore, the amount of flute we have might not be enough to achieve that much amount. We would like to request for advance payment from the reward to procure the necessary number of flutes."

She's even going to ask for payment for the flutes too?

I was now worried that my legs might expose how much I was shuddering internally.

"Hmm? The amount has increased by a margin even with this. It also concerns the reward for other guilds too. It would be hard to increase the reward just for Eden. Besides, the flute一..."

"But that's just proportional to the amount of material we have to gather. I think it wouldn't be a problem to give Eden a bit more preferential treatment given how Eden has much more responsibility than other guilds. Just ‹20,000QP› aren't enough for Eden to push themselves so hard."

Dean grimaced but Rina's momentum was unstoppable.

"To begin with, just the time limit of 5 days in itself is the biggest challenge. But of course, Eden can achieve that impossibility. Isn't it so, Zephyr-san?"

"Ohh! Of courze."

I spoke out in a strange speech when the baton of discussion suddenly passed to me.

I was worried if my voice was shaky.

"Dean, if you agree to this request, I promise we will absolutely be able to achieve it. What do you think?"

"...hmm. I understand, I will relent on this. However, we will reward you for one flute while two flutes will be loaned to you. That's the best the academy can do."

And finally, Dean caved in!

My mental state was at its peak from the trembling.

"Thank you very much. Also, how about you also take extra materials that would be left? I will consider delivering them to the academy depending on the QP or Mir."

It wasn't over with just that!?

Rina seemed to be in the mood to push the benefit to its max. She was even pitching for the excessive amount.

"Fufufu. Very well. Most likely, extra materials would be welcoming for that guild too. But just in case, you can sell them to the academy, we wouldn't mind having extra materials delivered to us. As for QP, how about this much?"

Dean quickly noted down the assessed value on the memopad and showed it to Rina but she shook her head.

"That's low. Dean should be well aware we have to fight the rare boss at least 30 times to gather the stipulated amount. Now if we add the short time on it and the hard-work we have to do, I believe it should be around that much."

Rina added a newly assessed part. All I could do was silently shiver. It was most likely another huge sum.

"I see. It would be a loss for the academy to give in too much QP even if you bring in too much. Don't forget this is at best the excess amount that crossed the limit of stipulated amount. This much..."

"Alright, that's acceptable. So we will accept it."

With the negotiation, there was a drastic but amazing change in the amount of QP reward.

Well this was quite motivating to march for the rare boss farming. But I wonder why I couldn't honestly rejoice at this fact?

They also decided on other minor things and the rewards for ‹Mechanical Carriage› too were changed to ‹78,000QP›. It was ‹30,000QP› in the beginning but now it is ›78,000QP›.

There was also a request for further support regarding carriage. My heartbeat was throbbing and shivering equally. What the hell is with this QP amount, I know it's expensive but......

Rina asked me various things about if it's alright to deliver the carriage or not but for me, just delivering a single carriage wasn't a problem.

After all, we have the recipe. There's no problem since it's not public.

Besides, it would be the Eden who will break through the stangated state of advanced dungeons first no matter what.

It doesn't matter how much other guild uses the carriage, they would still need to spend time leveling either way without the ‹Official Hidden Tactic - Boss Farming›. Well, it's not a problem for us. Rather, I was rooting for them to do their best.

We were told to redesign the carriage so that it would be fitting for someone like royalty to ride on, I will have to remind Gant-senpai about this. It would be Gant-senpai's original design to remodel it for royalty purposes, so it's necessary to request to Gant-senpai again.

Wait, did Gant-senpai gave our carriage original decoration in anticipation of that?

If that's true, Gant-senpai's scheme was fearsome.

After sorting out everything and whatever we had to confirm, our discussion with the Dean was thus over and so we excused ourselves from Dean's office.

"Dean, please pass our message, we're cheering them on for their advanced dungeon exploration."

"! Fufu. Thank you."

It was obvious in which case another guild would need such a huge amount of material, it must be to create the thunder attribute weapon and armour. That too, for a large group.

Their goals are limited if they're desperately gathering so many materials.

I intentionally said that to confirm my guess and it seemed I was spot on.