## Chapter 46 – Dungeon
ㅡGyaaaagh!!!
Not long after, we found the fourth skeleton mage. The skeleton mage, about to get its ass kicked by us, tried to scream, but without vocal cords, it could only mourn.
We combined our fourfold friendship and shattered the skeleton mage. We were happy to get four staves, but more than that, we were getting bored of dealing with four of them, so we were just blowing off steam.
You could say it was a slightly violent celebration.
“I guess we can go back now? Heh heh… I wonder how much all this is worth?”
“Pewter cups, staves, ancient trinkets… We’re gonna make some serious money, alright.”
Most of the ancient trinkets seemed like mere junk, but even selling the pewter cups and staves alone would net us a total of 10 silver. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from the trinkets.
“Plus, there’s two daggers and the mimic’s teeth. And the imp’s horns are a bonus.”
I took the daggers from another adventurer’s corpse, and I cut off the imp’s horns earlier. My body was heavy, but this would all become the weight of my wallet. I suppressed the urge to roar while grabbing my balls. That’s how happy I was.
Elise slung the staves over Meria’s back. Looking at them like this, it really felt like a four-person mage bandit gang. My shoulders straightened on their own.
“Alright, let’s head back. Sister Elise, do we have enough of the map saved?”
“Huh? Saved? What are you talking about?”
“Nah, just kidding. Now that we’re going back, it seems like the time has come for Elise’s map to shine.”
“Leave it to me.”
Elise unfolded the map and strode forward. We smiled and followed behind her. Since we had annihilated all the monsters on the way in, there were no ambushes on the way back. All that greeted us were the bone piles of the already smashed skeletons.
And so, we returned to the third basement level. The same huge room like a church chapel, connected to the waterway.
“Damn, this bro is all bones now.”
The corpse of the adventurer we recovered was still there in its place. The only difference was that all the flesh was gone. I guess someone came and ate it all in the meantime.
“Isn’t he gonna suddenly get up?”
I was thinking the same thing.
“I purified him myself, so that won’t happen.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right.”
Anyway, unlike Elise’s messed-up map, the party safely escaped the third floor and ascended to the second. How the hell did she figure it out??? I couldn’t understand it, so I asked.
Of course, I didn’t ask, “Why the hell is the map so screwed up, but you figure it out so well?” I asked a little more indirectly and politely.
“I received training for it.”
“Training?”
“If I were to die, there might be a situation where heretics could seize the map and misuse it, so I make the map in a way that others can’t understand as much as possible.”
My jaw dropped. Seriously, a low-ranking sister?
What kind of religious group is the Holy Cross Society anyway? Judging by their actions and words alone, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them a sacred special forces unit.
“Th-That’s what it means! I’m so sorry for thinking you just couldn’t draw!”
“What… did you think? But it’s true that I’m not good at drawing. Still, it stings a little.”
“Damn it!! This mouth of mine!!”
Unable to bear it, I slapped my mouth three times with my palm. I hurt her!
“Hehe. Please stop.”
Elise chuckled at my antics.
“You’re crazy.”
“Ah, well.”
I was a little embarrassed by Kopson’s jab.
Walking with a relaxed atmosphere since no monsters appeared, we finally reached the longed-for first basement level. That big hall. For some reason, I felt like we had been in this dungeon for a very long time. I guess it’s actually been a while.
“Let’s hurry up and go up, ugh. I feel tired for some reason.”
“Of course you’re fucking tired after all that hard labor. I want to go wash up and sleep too.”
And so, we tried to head towards the sunlit surface. Then, we heard people’s voices from the stairs leading to the surface. Other adventurers? Maintaining a reasonable level of tension, we climbed the stairs.
“Huh?”
It was other adventurers. A middle-aged adventurer with a thick beard. We stopped halfway up the stairs for a moment. He looked at us and asked.
“Are you guys coming from inside?”
“Yes, we are. Why?”
Feeling a vague sense of unease, I answered.
The others didn’t seem to care, but I basically don’t trust adventurers very much. If it’s profitable after weighing the options, they’ll kill someone without batting an eye.
I know it well because I can do it.
“Staves? Four identical staves? Did you find those inside too?”
After examining our party, the middle-aged adventurer brought up the topic of the staves.
“That’s right. Well, it’s a dungeon, isn’t it? Various things are sleeping inside. Go down and make a fortune.”
I answered appropriately and passed him. Behind him were two more menacing-looking men. We have more people. This is reassuring. With a lightened heart, I called out to the others.
“Alright, let’s hurry up and go up. I want to wash up quickly.”
“Me too.”
And so, we passed each other and climbed up, and nothing untoward happened. Finally, the surface.
ㅡThe sun is shining brightly!
When I came outside, the sun was already high in the sky. The sun, high in the sky, brightly illuminated the world evenly. After relying only on the light of the lantern while inside the dungeon, receiving the sunlight made me feel like my vitamin D levels were soaring.
But it’s midday?
“What, it’s midday? Didn’t we come in this morning?”
“Looks like we spent a whole day and another half inside.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
It seemed that we had been so engrossed in slaughtering skeletons due to our greed that we had spent the night.
I guess we were inside for about 30 hours. It felt like a little over ten days to me, but I guess I was mistaken. Being in a dark place for a long time can mess with your sense of time.
“No wonder I’m so fucking tired.”
Is it a big deal to miss one day of sleep? I’m used to staying up all night. Still, looking at them in the bright light, Meria, Kopson, and Elise all had dark circles under their eyes. They all looked really fucking tired.
I want to go sleep soon.
“Hmm… the scenery outside is the same.”
“Because it’s only been a day.”
The area around the dungeon entrance was the same as when we came in. Abandoned campsites scattered here and there. Did they abandon all this and leave? Or maybe they’re still exploring inside the dungeon.
Or maybe they all died inside.
Still, surely they didn’t all die inside. It was hard to imagine there would be idiots who would die to skeletons. Come to think of it, I did see one corpse.
“Tents are worth money though. Should we take one of those?”
“What are you saying? That’s someone else’s property.”
“No, I’m just kidding.”
Elise snapped at me when I tried to dismantle a tent. I wasn’t kidding at all and I was serious, but she snapped so sharply that I was taken aback.
“But how do we get back?”
Then, Meria, who was looking around, said.
“Huh? Wait, now that I think about it, the carriage…”
Wasn’t the carriage one-way? Does that mean we have to walk all the way to the city…? I looked at Elise with a terrified expression. Elise opened her mouth calmly.
“Now that you mention it, I didn’t think about the return trip. It seems we’ll have to walk.”
“I’m gonna go crazy.”
And so, we set out again through the jungle area in the middle of the day. We took a carriage to the jungle area when we came here, so to get out, we had to cross the jungle again.
“Ugh, it’s fucking hot.”
“At least it was cool inside the dungeon.”
“Ugh~. I’m sweating too much.”
As I cut through the densely grown plants with my knife, I felt like my whole body was filling with sweat. It was hot and humid. Inside the dungeon, even if I sweated from intense activity, it was so cool that I felt good every time a cold breeze blew, but now it was just fucking hot.
Finally, when we emerged from the jungle area, the carriage was not there.
I was visibly devastated.
“The carriage is really gone.”
“Did you think the carriage would wait for us?”
“No, but would it have killed them to do that?”
“It probably would have. I can’t understand the barbarian’s way of thinking.”
It took several hours to come here by carriage, so even if we walked diligently from now on, we would probably only arrive at the city after the sun had completely set. I’m really gonna lose a lot of weight. I’m going crazy, really.
“Let’s get going.”
Elise said in an emotionless tone. She didn’t seem to feel any hatred at all for walking from now on.
Our faces turned ashen, and we walked across the plains. Thinking about walking from here to Isvant made me want to cry. No, I was already crying.
I was shedding tears from behind. Meria looked back at me.
“Katt, are you crying?”
“Yeah. Suddenly, tears are just flowing. It makes me think of home.”
“Heh… you were a nomad, so seeing the plains makes you think that way? I get a similar feeling whenever I see a place similar to my hometown.”
“No, you’re missing the point.”
I just cry when I’m tired and exhausted.
We walked for a really long time. As the sun gradually set, I became more and more exhausted, but at least the temperature dropped as the sun set, so it was somewhat bearable. Eventually, when it was completely dark and the night had fallen, the city walls began to appear in the distance.
“I never thought I’d be using the lantern again.”
This is a world without streetlights. When the sun goes down, the world is completely plunged into darkness. Since it was so dark around us, Kopson lit the lantern again. Still, having a lantern is really convenient.
“It’s very late.”
“It is. The city gates are tightly closed.”
When we arrived at the city gates, the tall gate was firmly closed and would not open. The city gates do not open again after the sun sets until the sun rises again the next day. Since we couldn’t enter the city, we had no choice but to sleep outside tonight.
“Well, they say the trip isn’t over until you get home.”
“What does that mean? Is that a barbarian saying?”
“Something like that. Let’s get ready to camp out.”
We each flattened out a spot in front of the city walls and spread leaves on top. Then, we gathered wood and made a bonfire.
“Ah, I’m so hungry.”
After finishing the preparations, we each took out our food. I grilled some dried rations over the bonfire to warm them up and ate them. Then, I fell asleep as if collapsing. Since we were in front of the city walls, there was no need to stand guard.
