Chapter 185 â Majolica dungeonâs survey team â Part three
ââŠIâm sorry for pushing this onto you all of a sudden. It affects their morale too, so itâs difficult for me to say no. Sorry about that.â
âDonât worry about it. If I know what to do, I donât have to think about it. But there are some ingredients I couldnât get, so Iâm not going to be able to make everything.â
âNo, thatâs fine. Iâll tell the others.â
Murok leaves, and Fred walks over here.
âWhat were you talking about?â
âAh⊠Food. He came all the way to my rented house to tell me the minersâ requests.â
âI see. I shouldâve told you what I want too.â
âWhy do I have to listen to you?â
âEh? Didnât you say it was easier when you know what to do?â
So you were listening after all?
But I donât think youâre in the same position. On one side we have adventurers who accepted an escorting quest with us, and on the other miners working under the person who put out the quest.
ââŠIf you paid for the ingredients at leastâŠâ
âAll right, weâre ready. Today weâre setting off from the sixth floor to the tenth. Our positions as we walk are going to be the same as last time, but weâre going to be attacked by more monsters than before. Donât get scared, and follow our instructions.â
Heâs clearly changing the subject, probably because he had expensive ingredients in mind. Itâs fine though.
We enter the dungeon through the sixth floor, take up the same formation as before, and start walking.
Itâs the minersâ second time in the dungeon, so theyâre surprisingly calm. But that only lasts until the eighth floor.
The number of monsters jumps up here. It gets worse when weâre attacked from all four sides in an intersection, and I see their faces twitch with fear.
Theyâre wearing defensive equipment, but that doesnât mean they can deal with monsters like adventurers that are used to facing them.
I canât hear them whispering to each other anymore, probably because now theyâre seeing us restlessly hunting monsters.
âI know itâs a little early, but should we take a break? Little lady, if you see a nice spot, letâs rest there.â
âAll right⊠This way?â
We keep walking, not really sure of where weâre going, and reach a dead end. Thatâs where weâll spend the night.
âAre you sure? We have nowhere to runâŠâ
Asks Murok while looking at the dead end.
âYes. This way we only have to be careful about one direction.â
âBut canât monsters appear near us all of a sudden?â
Iâve never heard of monsters suddenly popping up near someone. The reference materials Iâve read didnât warn about that sort of thing either.
Then again, if monsters popped up right next to a group of people while they were sleeping and killed them, there would be no one left to report it.
âThatâs all right, I think. Iâve never heard of anything like that happening, and it never happened to me either. But I guess we should still watch out for that. And itâd be hard to walk any more today, right?â
Murok doesnât say any more. I think he understands.
âThe eighth and ninth floors really are tough for people that arenât used to this. It was tough for me too until I got used to it, and some people never come here a second time.â
Says Fred while keeping watch.
I donât really feel like listening to grumbling, you know?
âDonât make that face. I thought it was crazy when I heard that the chivalric order comes to the ninth floor to practice fighting humanoids. Now I know that experiencing that and feeling familiar with it is important.â
Says Fred while looking at Geitz, who is standing silently with his shield in hand.
âI thought Siphon and the others would be scared when they got to this floor, but instead they dealt with all the wolves that attacked us without any problems. Then I asked how they fight like that, and you know what they said?â
I tilt my head, and Fred responds.
âBecause it happens a lot in hunting grounds. They have a totally different frame of mind. I feel like I kind of get what you meant when you said weâre naive.
Thatâs why Iâve been teaching Siphon about the dungeon, and weâve been learning all sorts of things from them too.â
âAre you going to leave the dungeon and go somewhere else?â
âMaybe. I guess eventually.â
Fred turns away, seemingly embarrassed.
âBut what about you, Sora? Lately youâve just been carrying things and cooking. You havenât been fighting at all, have you? Donât you feel like hunting monsters sometimes?â
I donât really fight because I like it.
âNo, Iâm fine. And if I got unlucky and something happened to me, youâd all be stuck without equipment, right?â
Weâve distributed the bare essentials among everyone, but that doesnât change the fact that if Iâm gone, life in the dungeon is going to get tougher.
âYou have a point. When itâs time for the miners to get to work on the fifteenth floor, theyâre really going to feel the difference between this and how itâs usually like in the dungeon.â
âCanât we just tell Murok to recruit adventurers that can cook?â
âThat might be a good idea.â
We reach the tenth floor two days later.
It takes us less time than we expected because Will sent the chivalric order to train here like they always do, around the time when we reached the ninth floor.
Apparently theyâve been camping by the entrance for the past two days, but I donât know when they got here exactly.
The two girls on Fredâs side let out shrill voices and cheer the knights when they see them fight. The knights look pretty motivated because of that.
Those two are scary. They really know how to use people.
What I donât get is why they donât seem to like Siphon.
Also, Hikari seems pretty popular. Someone always talks to her when we eat⊠Popular?