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Chapter 407

「Ohh, you’re back!」

After Rei and the others used the magic circle on the seventh floor to get back to the surface, they were greeted by a voice as they entered the guild to settle their loot.

Looking over to see who it was, they saw a man with a hammer and a man with a bow. It was Energeia and Menos, members of the party that Rei and the others had helped out in the dungeon.

The two of them had smiles on their faces. ……However, they weren’t smiles that said ‘you’ve returned safely’ but smiles of happiness that Rei’s group could finally provide more information to the guild.

「……I see.」

「Mm.」

Vihera and Byune, who had lived in Exil for a long time, immediately realised what Energeia and Menos meant as they both gave a small sigh.

「You look tired.」

「So you understand! No, I admit that it is important to provide information, but after telling the same story over and over again……it’s as expected.」

「It can’t be helped. By asking you to repeat the story, they’re just making sure it is consistent. But……considering you’re still here.」

Energeia nodded at Vihera, who had spoken somewhat reluctantly.

「Yeah. Of course, we’re done talking, so now it’s your turn. I’ve been waiting here to let you know.」

「……That goes for the rest of us as well?」

Rei, who was listening in to Energeia and Vihera’s conversation, asked with a similarly reluctant expression.

「Are you planning to make me the sacrificial lamb? Rest assured. I’m the one who fought the Stone Golem, so I’ll be the one doing most of the talking. Rei and Elena will supplement what I say at most.」

「Can’t Byume provide more information as well?」

At Elena’s question, Vihera stroked Byune’s head, who looked back at her with a small smile.

「Do you think this kid would be able to provide an explanation?」

「……I don’t think that would be possible.」

Elena had no choice but to agree with Vihera.

Byune had once spoken normally. However, that had been when she was younger. After entering the dungeon alone for so long, living a life silently earning money, the number of words she spoke each day gradually shrank, becoming less and less. Eventually, she got by with just a single sound, like right now.

Even if they didn’t know as much as Byune, they could still explain more than a single sound.

「Mm.」

Seeing Byune nod her head in agreement, Rei gave up and went over to a counter where a receptionist had been looking at them.

「So, if you saw our previous exchange, then you know, you want to here more from the rest of us.」

「Yes. Please head to the meeting room on the second floor. It’s the room at the back where you met with Vosk-sama previously.」

At those words, Rei remembered that the receptionist was the one who had previously been at the counter when Vosk had called them up.

(It seems she keeps getting caught up in our matters……well, she might just be unlucky.)

Though Rei thought that in his mind, he judged that she probably couldn’t show that in her attitude. Thanking her briefly, Rei made his way upstairs.

He was followed by Elena, Vihera, and, of course, Byune, who had no intention of doing any explaining but decided not to head back home by herself.

Arriving at the meeting room where he and Vosk had met previously, Rei knocked on the door, ignoring the noise and loud voices coming from inside.

『Come in.』

After knocking, a voice came from inside, as if waiting for them, so Rei opened the door.

In fact, it seemed that the people inside the meeting room had been waiting for Rei and the others to come. The five people in the room all turned to look at Rei, who was the first to enter.

If it had been an ordinary person, they would probably have been frightened. All five people in the meeting room held certain levels of position within the guild.

However, Rei didn’t seem to care that they were looking at him as he walked inside the room.

There were different reactions to that with some nodding in admiration while others frowned unpleasantly. THere were also those who just observed without any changes in expression.

That said, when Elena appeared from behind Rei, most of them gently averted their gazes. After all, she was the daughter of Duke Kerebel, the leader of the second largest faction in the Mireana Kingdom.

Next was Vihera, the Mad Beast, and Byune, the bereaved child of the Fraut family. They made up an extraordinary party of four. But all of them were in many ways untouchable.

Considering that, Rei looked to be the easiest one to talk with, which would have sounded like a joke to the people living in Gilm.

「Hm, ahem. I’m glad you’ve come. Please take a seat. I would like you to tell us the details.」

At the prompting of a man in his forties, who seemed to lead the five, Rei and the others took a seat.

After seeing that, the man immediately spoke up.

「So, do you know why you were called here?」

They all looked towards Rei.

He probably felt that Rei was the easiest to talk to, even as the leader of the five.

(I didn’t think that this role would fall to me. ……Well, even though this is only a temporary party, we have a lot of big names so it seems they feel like I’m the safest to talk with. I can’t be helped.)

Hearing the question, Rei thought about it before speaking, although Elena would probably have immediately object to his thoughts.

「I heard from Energeia after entering the guild. Is it about the Stone Golem we fought?」

「That is right. I’ve heard the story from them, but I can’t really make a judgement from the words of just one party. ……Let’s get straight to the point. What did you think of that Stone Golem.」

When the man asked, the eyes of the other four people also gathered on Rei.

However, Rei just shook his head in response.

「I think you probably know, since we’re here, but Elena and I have only just arrived in Exil. It’s been less than a week and we just got to the sixth floor. Since it was our first time on the floor, it was also the first time we’ve fought a Stone Golem. ……However, we did fight an ordinary Stone Golem after and it certainly seemed different from the one that Vihera had fought. But, well, I’ll leave the details to the person herself.」

Rei turned to Vihera, who was sitting next to him.

Their current seating order was Elena, Rei, Vihera, then Byune.

Elena hadn’t wanted Rei to sit next to Vihera, but considering the room’s atmosphere, it was clear that she couldn’t say that out loud, so she had to reluctantly accept it.

Vihera nodded at Rei’s words before speaking.

「Then, let me explain. I was the one who actually fought the Stone Golem. ……Bluntly speaking, it was completely different from the Stone Golems I’ve fought before. First of all, it was overwhelmingly larger than usual, it was a head taller than Elena, about 2m in height.」

The five senior guild staff started buzzing at Vihera’s words.

After receiving a report about the incident with the Stone Golem, the five of them had already looked into what Stone Golems normally were in advance. However, none of them were taller than 2m. In other words, this was a clear abnormality.

Of course, they had heard that from Energeia and Menos, but the persuasive power of Rei and Elena, who had just arrived at Exil, was different. It could be said that they were finally looking at it seriously.

「Aside from that, Stone Golems are usually just made of stone. Swords, axes, hammers, and other weapons should be able to damage them. However, it only dropped some shards from its body even after eating strikes from a hammer, barely taking any damage. In other words, its body wasn’t made up of ordinary stone. ……Rei.」

「Sure.」

At Vihera’s words, Rei took out fragments from the body of the Stone Golem in question from the Misty Ring.

What was placed on the table seemed to be ordinary stone at first glance. However, one of the senior guild staff soon noticed something unusual.

He involuntarily stood up and went over to the seats where Rei and the others were sitting, picked up the piece of stone from the Golem and spoke while looking at it seriously.

「Is this……magic metal? No, there is still stone in it. Then……is it close to turning into a magic metal?」

「Correct.」

Vihera nodded with a smile.

However, when she saw the other senior guild staff give a sigh of relief after hearing that, she frowned slightly.

「Well, that’s not too big of a problem then. Isn’t it fine to just recognise it as a rare species of Stone Golem that just happened to appear this time?」

Several of them seemed to agree with those words as they also sighed in relief.

「Isn’t that too premature? Magic metals are created over long periods of time. As you can see from this fragment, this has only happened recently. There’s a high possibility that some kind of anomaly has occured.」

The senior guild staff holding the stone spoke.

(Does it take time for magic metals to form? ……Speaking of which, that was the same with the Flame Crystals.)

Rei thought to himself as he listened in.

He recalled the Flame Crystal, which had been created due to a series of miracle like coincidences, after a Harpies nest had been wiped out by Rei’s powerful magic. Even if he wanted to repeat that, it would be quite difficult to reproduce Flame Crystal.

「Then, the Stone Golem they fought wasn’t a rare species?」

「It probably was. Of course, you could also consider that the body of the Stone Golem started to turn into magic metal for some other reason.」

「So you’re saying there’s something wrong with the labyrinth itself?」

「Have you heard of any similar cases? At the very least, I have not.」

「Me neither. I can’t find out any more without looking through past records, but this is probably the first case.」

「……Wait a moment. Could it be because adventurers have reached a certain floor level?」

「What’s the deepest floor now?」

「About two months ago, the B rank party Canopies’ Edge reached the 33rd floor.」

「The 33rd floor? That’s a meaningful level.」

「However, wouldn’t it be strange for anomalies to appear on the sixth floor after reaching the 33rd floor? I don’t think it makes any sense.」

「That is……」

As the five of them were discussing, Rei spoke up.

「Regarding that matter, we encountered a similar incident on a higher floor.」

Hearing Rei’s words, the discussion between the guild staff stopped.

They seemed to want Rei to tell them it was a lie or to say that he had just misspoke. Seeing them look at him with varying emotions, Rei continued.

「Monsters known as Sword Bees usually appear on the third floor, but there was a monster there that was clearly different from the other Sword Bees. To be exact, it was nearly three times as large as the others and seemed to be sending tactical orders to the other Sword Bees.」

「Impossible-!」

Hearing Rei’s words, one of the senior staff couldn’t help but shout out.

However, that wasn’t without reason. Sword Bees were insectoid monsters that had barely any intelligence outside of instinct. At the very least, the staff had never seen or heard of a Sword Bee that could order around other Sword Bees.

「It’s a fact. Unfortunately, its body was badly damaged in battle and only its torso was left. I was told that I couldn’t sell it so I’ve already disposed of it and don’t have it any more.」

「……Could it be an unknown higher ranking or rare species?」

At the words of another senior guild staff member, the man who shouted out earlier shook his head.

「The third floor is a place for many beginners in the dungeon. In other words, there are a lot of people there. It would be hard to think that a completely unknown higher ranking or rare species would show up there. Of course, that’s just a matter of probability, so it’s undeniable that it could really be just an unknown higher ranking or rare species.」

After that, the senior guild staff continued discussing for a while. After hearing about what seemed to be a queen bee from Rei, the interview was concluded for the day.

In addition, the guild negotiated with Vihera for the purchase of the Stone Golem she had killed.

Of course, as the Stone Golem had been taken out by Vihera alone, Rei didn’t play any part in negotiation of her loot.

As for his true thoughts, Rei really wanted the magic stone……but, he couldn’t really say that in this situation.