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Chapter 384

A space just outside the dungeon entrance that could be called a plaza of sorts where groups of adventurers attempted to recruit others into temporary parties. After Rei asked a question regarding a group of 20 or so people who were wearing equipment of similar design, it wasn’t Elena who responded to him but a voice he didn’t recognise.

Turning to face the voice, Rei saw a human male in his late teens, a bit older than Rei. He was dressed like an ordinary warrior, wearing leather armour that focused on ease of movement with a scabbard at his waist.

「Church of Holy Light?」

Rei’s question was less about the identity of the man who had answered him and more about the group of 20 people that had been called the Church of Holy Light. With so many people, he didn’t know if they actually planned to enter the dungeon or not……

(A Church, huh? I haven’t seen anything like that in this world so far. ……If possible though, I don’t want to get involved with them in any way.)

Rei thought that in his mind.

Having lived most of his life in Japan, Rei had gone to shrines for new years and parties for Christmas, accompanied with by hubbub each time, as well as temples for funerals. ……He didn’t recall being bothered by religion as a typical Japanese person. However, it wasn’t uncommon to see wars, conflicts and terrorist attacks related to religion on the news, or even incidents caused by suspicious new cults in Japan. In Rei’s mind, religion and troublemakers were the same thing.

But, of course, the man was not aware of Rei’s thoughts as he continued to explain.

「They’re a religion that isn’t well known within the Mireana Kingdom. It’s only recently that they’ve become known in Exil as mercenaries. It seems their main temple is quite far away from the Mireana Kingdom. As for what they do……they’re basically working as mercenaries.」

「Mercenaries?」

Rei involuntarily asked at the man’s unexpected words.

「Yeah. It seems they charge 30% of what a party earns in a day as their fee. Even if you hire 5, 10 or 15 people, there’s no difference. As long as you hire at least one person from the Church of Holy Light, they will charge 30% of your total income. They’re just ripping people off.」

「……I see. So that’s why there are adventurers who still look for other random adventurers despite the Church of Holy Light being here.」

「That’s right. Having to give up 30% of your income is painful, so unless they have no other choice, few people would hire them.」

The man seemed to disdain the people from the Church of Holy Light. Glancing over at the group of 20 people, he gave a snort before looking away.

「So, I’m grateful for your explanation about the Church of Holy Light, but that’s not what you came here for, right?」

「Yeah. I was wondering if you would like to form a temporary party with me. How about it? You’ve never been into a dungeon before, right? In that case……」

Rei shook his head to stop the man from continuing his words.

「I’m sorry, we’re not from Exil but we’ve entered a dungeon before. We’re also more than enough to act as a vanguard.」

Rei could use his Death Scythe and fire magic to deal with both enemies at both close and long distances. Elena could use her sword whip and wind magic to do the same. Even for Set, his main strength as a Griffon might be his melee attacks, but he could still attack from range using wind arrows and water balls. Yellow had no combat skills, but as a familiar, he had the useful ability to scout out tight spaces.

As far as party balance was concerned, Rei’s group was made up of people who could play an active part in all roles.

That said, their most significant drawback was that they didn’t have a thief who could find and disarm traps in the dungeon, but they were going to deal with that later.

「……I see. I had thought that the dungeon would have been easier to clear with you guys. Well, it can’t be helped that it didn’t work out. If you’re feeling up for it though, give me a shout.」

The man shrugged his shoulders lightly before leaving.

Rei was a bit surprised at the unexpected development.

He had thought for sure the the man would have persistently pestered them to get something out of it. However, he simply left after he was refused without being unreasonable at all.

「Rei, wasn’t that a bit uncalled for?」

「……I had thought he was just trying to take advantage of us. I’m sorry about that. I’ll apologise the next time we see him.」

「Well, in that case, that’s fine. Rather, if we’re looking for a thief, the Church of Holy Light……doesn’t seem like a good place to look」

「Yeah. I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to get involved with religious affairs. And, although I don’t care much for how much we earn, taking 30% is a bit much.」

Replying to Elena, Rei looked away from the group of people from the Church of Holy Light as he searched elsewhere.

Although Rei had refused the man who had asked to form a temporary party with them, he hadn’t been particularly violent about it. Because of that, several people who were also looking to join a temporary party started looking over at Rei.

They had nothing to lose by calling out to Rei. Just as the situation started to move in that direction……

「Elena, why don’t we just enter the dungeon? We’re just going down to take a look around first, so we should be okay.」

Rei spoke to Elena in a voice that was loud enough on purpose for the people around them to hear.

Elena nodded with a smile smile, restraining those who had been planning to try to openly recruit them.

「You’re right. That’s definitely the better option. We’ll only find out by actually fighting inside the dungeon.」

For Elena, this dungeon trip was meant to be a private outing with Rei. That was why she didn’t want any extras in the party if at all possible.

Hearing the two of them converse, those who had been watching them dropped their shoulders and gave up before starting to look for other people

Some people had been reckless enough to still think of forcing Rei and Elena into a party with them, but seeing a Griffon with their own eyes, they realised the difference in strength and backed down.

Leaving those people behind, Rei and Elena descended the stairs to the first floor of the dungeon.

As long as they were adventurers of a certain level of ability, it would take a few days at most to get past the first floor no matter how slow they were as it was just for beginners. Because of that, although Rei had spoke aloud to the people outside that they would wait and see how things went, his expectation was that they would be able to clear the first floor as early as the end of today.

「……The inside is almost the same as that dungeon.」

Rei muttered after spending about 10 minutes on the first dungeon floor.

Passages were wide enough for Set to fight and the walls glowed dimly. The enemies that appeared were low ranked monsters like Poison Toads and Goblins while slimes cleaned up the corpses, not much different from the dungeon they had previously entered to look for the Altar of Inheritance.

「Gurururu~」

Rei took the leg of a Poison Toad from Set, who had bitten it off and brought it over in his beak. He stored it into the Misty Ring alongside its tongue, poison sac, magic stone and proof of subjugation, which he had stripped away with a knife.

「Since we’re still on the first floor, there’s not much to compared. Perhaps the shallower floors are all the same in different dungeons? ……That said, I only know of the dungeon here in Exil and the one where the Altar of Inheritance had been.」

Elena said that as she swung her sword whip, flicking away the Goblin blood before sheathing it.

「Kyikyi!」

「Hey, Yellow. It’s dirty, so don’t touch that.」

Elena called out to Yellow after noticing it flying through the air, curiously approaching a Goblin who’s belly had been torn open, spilling its guts everywhere.

Rei looked on with a smile before stripping the remaining materials from the Goblins and Poison Toads and proceeding down the dungeon with Death Scythe in hand.

「We definitely won’t need a thief on this floor if these are the only enemies we’ll encounter. In fact, I haven’t seen anyone else aside from ourselves.」

「That’s true. You’d think that there would be at least one adventurer who would be new to the dungeon.」

Walking down the dungeon passageway, they eventually reached a fork in the path.

「Which way do we go?」

「……Give me a moment.」

Saying that, Elena took out a piece of paper from a pouch at her waist. It was a map of the dungeon they had bought in the guild the day before.

Maps were sold of single floors separately and he had bought maps for the first 5 floors.

All things considered, they didn’t really have a need for a map, but the two of them had experienced their fair share of troubles in the dungeon with the Altar of Inheritance where they didn’t have a map, so they decided to buy them just in case.

Rei and Set kept a wary eye on the surroundings as Elena looked at the map. Yellow, who was perched on Elena’s shoulder, peered down at the map similarly to its master.

「If you go to the right, there are several rooms, after continuing down the passageway a fair way, there will be a staircase. The left side is a dead end, but it leads to a sizeable room. It seems that monsters often spawn there.」

「I see, so it’s like a combat training ground for beginners to let them get used to the dungeon.」

「Possibly. ……What would you like to do? At this rate, the only enemies that will show up will be small fry, which isn’t much for us. In that case, should we go to the next floor?」

Rei made up his mind after thinking about Elena’s words for a few seconds.

「It’s probably a good idea to go down to the second floor. Let’s go to the right.」

For some reason, Rei was making the final decisions rather than Elena. However, Elena just listened to what Rei said without any complaints.

That might have been because she had worked with Rei enough to know his ability and because Rei was also an adventurer with a good sense of judgement.

That said, she wasn’t entirely relying on Rei. If she found something wrong, Elen would definitely speak up about it.

「Mm, right it is then. If we go straight, it seems there are a number of small rooms regularly lined up on both sides of the passageway. Monsters might be found in the smaller rooms, so if you’re looking for materials, be careful not to get swarmed. ……We’re not concerned about that, so we’ll head straight for the stairs, is that fine?」

「Yeah. Even if we strip any materials, there are only small fry monsters like Goblins and Poison Toads on the first floor. Naturally, their materials and magic stones aren’t worth much either.」

Elena nodded at Rei’s reasoning in agreement. On her shoulder, Yellow nodded as well, regardless of whether it understood what they were talking about or not.

Like that, the two of the cut down and low ranked monsters that showed up as they made their way through the dungeon.

At first, they stripped the materials, magic stones and proofs of subjugation from the monsters they killed. But, in the case of Goblins, even if they took out their magic stones, they were barely worth anything considering their time and effort.

Except for the right ears, which were proofs of subjugation that could be collected easily, they left the corpses behind in the passageway. Maybe a beginner to the dungeon would find it later and be lucky enough to strip some materials from it. Otherwise, eventually, a slime, the dungeon cleaners, would clean them up.

After continuing along the passage for about an hour, Rei’s group finally arrived at the stairs. The stairs were easy to find as they had a map and didn’t need to stop to search any unnecessary rooms.

「It’s so easy?」

「Well, this is the first floor, meaning it’s for beginners, so it can’t be helped, can it?」

Rei looked at Elena with a somewhat surprised expression before immediately turning to the stairs.

「Well, shall we go then?」

「Yeah, let’s go.」

With that brief exchange of words, they went down the stairs……and the first thing they saw was a magic circle right next to the stairs.

From the information they had collected in advance, they knew what the magic circle was for. It was used by the transfer device that was located near the entrance of the dungeon.

As they looked at it in interest, the magic circle started to glow faintly as a girl appeared there.