Chapter 10 – First Dungeons (1)
5. First dungeon (1)
‘By the way, we don’t have anything right now, right?’
Enticed by the reward, I picked up the paper, but there was neither money nor goods in hand. All he has is his body and basic weapons and armor.
Kaya must have realized that fact soon, and her expression was not good. At first glance, there is even a warning about battle, but going without any preparation is stupid.
It was the moment when I was about to put down the paper, swallowing my regret.
“Ah, the brave men who will beat heresy are here!”
Seeing the paper in my hand, a man with a full beard came over with a thud. He smiled broadly and patted my back, then grabbed my wrist and pulled me to one side. I tried to give him strength, but there was a huge difference in strength that was useless, and I stopped Kaya from putting her hand on the mace with a nod of my head.
The place I was dragged to was a small bar. The man with a thick beard, whose chin and neck were invisible, went to a table in the corner and sat down, pointing across from him with his beard, no, with his chin.
“Three beers here!”
“No, the sudden alcohol…”
“Don’t worry, I live here!”
Kaya was still looking around, putting her hand on and off his handle, and Uncle Poongchung was laughing at what was so good about it.
“Who are you. And what is your intention to do this to us?”
“A hot-tempered hero. Okay. I haven’t had a drink yet, but this one should come out hot too.”
He drank straight from the beer glass that came out immediately after and emptied half of it in an instant.
“Ouch. Since you’ve been drinking, let’s talk hotter. It’s simple. I am the person who ordered the request.”
“The client?”
“Then. To be exact, no one has been trying to take over for more than three days, so my stomach is burning in real time. Even though I posted a reward, there was no response whatsoever. Was it wrong to put in a warning?”
In order to survive in Salem, which boasts murderous and abnormal prices, there were few ephemera who were reluctant to take a good reward unless it was a fucking job that paid money.
Instant dungeon lobby, that is to say, if you were a person who went in and out of the place like the request agency earlier, it was obvious that you were half-penny warriors or ephemera who couldn’t go to the dungeon right away because you ran out of money like us.
It was our first visit, so even so, countless ephemera skipped a request for three days?
It’s hard
I felt a different kind of discomfort than the one I felt from the words of a nun named Rivera a moment ago.
‘I haven’t had beer yet, so I haven’t gotten anything. Let’s step out.’
I’m not in a position to cover up work because I don’t have a penny, but it was over to go looking for a job.
I was thinking about how to make a smooth refusal, but the man shouted, emptying the remaining beer at once.
“You seem to be hesitating, but I will support you.”
“You mean support?”
“Okay! You’re the first to respond to a request in three days, so I got excited without knowing it! I apologize for forcing you.”
One more beer!
The old man suddenly clenched his fists. When his hand, the size of a pot lid, trembled, I became nervous without knowing it. Fortunately, the table was not split or the beer glasses were not burst.
“If I have to tell my story in detail, it will be nasty and I won’t be able to sympathize with you, so I’ll just tell you the main points. Once you’re sure you’ll take it, I’ll give you 3 gold coins as an advance payment. We also provide basic necessities there. However, you must bring at least traces or information that you have been there. How is it?”
3 gold coins plus additional support for basic necessities.
In total, it was at least 5 gold.
“We don’t know anything about it. I’d like to hear all the information I can come across and make a decision…”
“Haha, isn’t that a matter of course!”
He militantly emptied his beer mug and began to unravel information about the [Collection of Evidence of Heretical Worship and Forbidden Magic] Quest one by one.
What evidence is there, how to find out, how big is the place, how strong and how many heretical worshipers and taboo magicians are, and so on.
“The last piece of information is just an estimate, but I think I’ve told you everything I know. How is it?”
“I’ll discuss it with a colleague first.”
“It’s good! I waited for three days, but I can’t wait that long.”
I headed to the opposite corner with Kaya and whispered close to her face. Kaya seemed to flinch, but she couldn’t help it.
“Kaya. What do you think.”
“… I will follow the captain’s opinion.”
“No, even if I were the captain, I don’t want to act arbitrarily. Unless it’s an urgent moment. Because I want to refrain from ramming ourselves into dangerous places with my hasty judgment.”
In a good way, he is a leader who knows how to accept the opinions of his colleagues, but in a bad way, he has a timid mindset that does not want to use poison. It was up to Kaya how to take it, but Kaya seemed to see me as the former.
Kaya gave her a slight nod.
“There was no saying that we had to collect everything by ourselves, and there was no condition that we had to get rid of all heresy, so I think it was worth it. But.”
“But?”
“Anyway, the place isn’t too wide for just the two of us…”
As a sign of agreement, I nodded her head too.
‘It’s fortunate that I didn’t say that all magicians who broke heretics and taboos had to be turned into mace.’
The moment Kaya pointed out this request, I wondered what would happen if the momentary madness I saw in 1-1 overlapped and I became more aggressive than I could handle.
‘Sorry Kaya. I guess I saw you as a crazy bitch without even realizing it.’
Anyone would think that when they saw him praising God with a bright smile while holding a bloody and fleshy mace at the point they had just met.
After quickly rationalizing myself, I went back to my original seat. The old man had just finished his fifth glass of beer. I was worried about my bladder.
“Oh, yes! What was the result of the award?”
“I don’t know anything else, but I think the number of people will be a stumbling block. I wonder if it would be difficult for the two of us to produce meaningful results…”
“Haha! What else am I saying!”
The old man banged on the table and laughed.
“Of course, I didn’t think it would end all at once. Didn’t I write that down in the reward in the first place? 1 gold coin per piece of hard evidence. If I wanted to solve everything at once, I wouldn’t have decided that way. 15 gold coins, 30 gold coins. Isn’t it?”
It made sense. But still doubts remain.
‘Even that old man is so fucking strong that I’ll just eat steamed rice. I must have felt that when that man brought me along. No matter how bad you are, you seem to be at least level 3, so why are you throwing money at a crap like me? Are there really no people? Or not… Because nobody cares?’
Besides, he doesn’t seem like someone related to the church at all, so why did you order such a request?
My mouth was itching to know why, but that crossed the line. Unless the client asked about our personal circumstances, we couldn’t ask about the uncle’s personal circumstances either. Unless it’s directly related to the request.
Considering the damn difficulty of this dungeon, I didn’t think it would be particularly easy as an indungeon (instant dungeon). So, I tried to tilt my balance slightly towards my partner…
Kaya, who was next to me, grabbed my hand and circled my palm with his fingers. When I turn her head in surprise, she pretends to be okay, but her ears and the back of her neck are slightly red.
‘Is it a nun’s intuition? Or, do you really want to catch heresy?’
The Libra, which leaned toward her partner, returned to neutral due to Kaya’s sudden expression of intention through skinship. No matter how weak I am in that area, I’m not such an idiot that I’ll pass right away just because I grabbed her hand once in this place where I don’t know when to search…
“Whoa… But. No matter how much you can find a part of it, there must be a burdensome side to go alone. I wasn’t going to do this, though.”
‘What? Words can’t do it, so they’re going to put it in by force!’
He grabbed Kaya’s hand and braced her legs so that she could run away at any moment. However, the words that came out of the uncle’s mouth were completely different from what I expected.
“If you keep it a secret, I can give you a new level of weaponry. I’m half way out, but I belong to the blacksmith’s guild.”
What? Weapon upgrades are free!?
Unknowingly, I held Kaya’s hand tightly. It wasn’t until after she wiggled her hand that she hurriedly loosened hers, but her excitement didn’t go away easily.
〈 The Long Terror 〉 raises the warriors, and if I had to pick what annoyed me the most, there were so many elements that would make me angry that ten fingers would not be enough.
Skill purchase cost. And the cost of upgrading weapons and armor.
The hero’s basic skills had to go all the way to 4 that were randomly determined when he first recruited, but if he wanted to change his skill, he had to obtain it with a low probability in the dungeon or purchase it at the warrior training center in Salem. But, well, it was best if all 4 skills were selected well, but even if only 2 were selected well, the dungeon was only stoned unless all the warriors were selected that way. It was rare to use all four skills at the same frequency.
But weapons and armor were not like that. Only the basic weapons and armor provided by the Blacksmith Guild in Salem could withstand the contamination of the dungeon. It was a technique similar to the way merchants talk. Because of this, the warriors had to entrust repairs and upgrades to them by crying and eating mustard.
I was able to upgrade a total of 9 times, but I had to spend at least half of the profits I earned from going around the dungeon rooms. It was also limited to prioritizing the main dealer and tanker. The upgrade cost was so unbalanced that it made me jealous, so I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve taken level 10 weapons or level 10 armor while playing.
That we, who had just been to a dungeon once, and had only been to 1-3, could receive such an upgrade for free.
The previous gold coin reward was huge enough to be seen as a bridesmaid.
“There are conditions.”
“Her. I did it this far, but an additional condition? Asking for more is a little…”
“No. I want to receive the weapon level increase first.”
“…”
The old man’s expression became serious.
Understood.
The possibility of eating and running must have come to mind. Anyway, that side is stronger than this side, and they belong to a guild, and this side is a level 1 low level warrior that is wide enough to be hit by a foot.
“I promised more than the reward I promised, and I promised to increase the level of my weapon at the risk of being stripped from the guild if it was discovered. Even so, I tried to hold you back, but what kind of trust did you guys give me?”
Uncle Poongchung is right.
After all, was this condition unreasonable?
After receiving the weapon upgrade, I feel much stronger, so I tried to be greedy one step further, but I stabbed it for no reason. Still, I wanted to get as much insurance as possible so I wouldn’t have to go through what I went through in this dungeon again.
Did it open
At that time when there was an awkward silence because there was nothing to say.
Widely-
Kaya set the necklace with a small goddess-shaped ornament on her table. She looked at me once with an incomprehensible expression and told the uncle.
“If the captain and I ever betray the trust of the client before carrying out the request, I will gladly deviate from the path of benevolence and serve as much as the trust I betrayed.”
“… Kaya?”
The silence that came back was heavy.
