“This skorr and mushroom, uhhhh, what did you call it again?”
“Curry,” I answered the mercenary’s question as he put another spoon full of curry rice in his mouth.
“Yes, yes! Good stuff you got there. So, this skorr and mushroom curry reminded me of an adventurer I met three years ago. A great skorr slayer. Some would even call him the skorr slayer, a legend around Cedaraille,” the adventurer began recalling a story after I served him his curry. “Vali the Skorr Slayer, was his name. Not the largest guy, but you don’t need to be big to kill skorrs. Just fast enough to dodge those nasty tusks. You’re like a good example, m’lady.”
“Mhmm,” I nodded before grabbing another dish from Saori’s kitchen and serving it to another table.
“So, his reputation was pretty great, to the point somebody personally requested him to take on a Quest to kill a giant skorr. A rank C threat! Vali, never frightened to fight skorrs, accepted it immediately. He prepared for the hunt with so many tools that the weight of his backpack forced him to bend forward to stay balanced,” the man continued. “Alone and in the dark, Vali entered the skorr’s territory while it was sleeping. Smeared in its shit to hide his smell, Vali took three nights to place all his traps before giving the beast a rude awakening on the fourth night! Undaunted by the giant skorr’s rage, Vali led it through all the traps like a fool. Spikes, stones, poison, pitfalls, you name it. In the end, Vali was once again victorious! Hahahahaha!”
His laugh was pretty infectious, causing our other patrons to join in on the fun. Instead of tankards full of mead or cider, they banged their cups of water together and downed them in one go. Considering we were inside a dungeon right now, they were quite merry.
After having his fun, the storyteller’s mood suddenly turned sour, looking saddened. “Still, every legend has to end sometime and even Vali couldn’t escape this fate. Those three days of living in the shit of the skorr, unable to eat or drink much to avoid creating noise, and being so focused on the task that he forgot how long it took him to execute his plan. Poor guy ate the wrong mushrooms and, with how dehydrated and exhausted he was from the hunt, he didn’t last long. Made it to our city’s gates but, before he could enter, he just fell over. Dead.”
I honestly thought he was spouting some mostly fictitious tavern story, so I barely paid him any attention. However, hearing what this Vali guy did to fulfill the Quest and then die, almost making it back home in one piece, was kinda heartbreaking. I knew the adventurer lifestyle was dangerous, but I didn’t think someone would go out like this. Really goes to show that anything can kill you, regardless of how prepared you are.
“Sorry, about your loss. He must have been a good friend,” I tried to comfort him.
But that was when one of the storyteller’s eyebrows rose and he gave me a look of confusion. “Huh? Ahh, sorry, m’lady Shrine Maiden. He wasn’t my friend; in fact, I only saw him once or twice at the tavern. I only ever spoke to him once, when he was on his way back from that last Quest!”
WHAT?
“Yeah, damn, I only heard his story after the guild read his journal and I asked Cleo about it. Vali the Skorr Slayer could read and write, did you know that? Honestly, he gave me a pretty bad first impression since he was covered in shit when I ran into him on the way back to town. Damn, I had to rush to the bathhouse the moment I got into town to get rid of that horrendous smell. Phew!”
What the hell was the punchline then! Hey, give me back my life lesson moment!
I shook my head at what actually happened, but it seemed like the adventurers didn’t care about how the storyteller knew this Vali, only that the story was good. I rejoined Saori in her kitchen with a frown. “Did we really have to open our restaurant in the middle of the dungeon?”
“Why not?” Saori said with a shrug while continuing to stir the stew pot. “They brought their Davi with them and we had enough to sell. There weren’t a lot of them—some even declined. With the four of us, the preparations went by quickly, wouldn’t you say?”
Saori then pointed at Ellaine who looked exhausted as she ate her dinner, struggling to keep up with etiquette with her sore body. The cuts she made were uneven and too large, as she’d never had to cook before, but the extra hands meant the rest of us had to do less.
“Sure, but doesn’t this feel weird? Look at them eating so peacefully while right around the corner is a cave full of deadly monsters, like that land-bat thing. Even for Peolyncian standards, this seems so strange.”
Saori gave me a quizzical face as she replied, “Oh, really? I thought this should have been something you would have read before in one of your light novels or seen in a video game. Well, since it is so easy to take our restaurant anywhere we go using your storage, we can open for business anywhere we are allowed to, so why not even a dungeon? Uno and the others are guarding the entrance, while we four are enough to serve everybody. You could also play some music if you wanted to.”
I sighed, accepting her reasoning. “Sorry, I’m not in the mood to sing. I was prepared for a meal with some chill music before going to bed.”
I loved singing, but that didn’t mean I wanted to sing everywhere and anytime. If I wasn’t in the mood, then I was not in the mood.
After we earned some money with the restaurant, the adventurers thanked us for sharing a warm meal with them before going back to their respective camps, meaning our party could finally have our own dinner. We reviewed what happened today and then went to sleep.
Once we were all awake, we reentered the third floor’s cave and hunted down the remaining targets for our Quests, fulfilling all 20 Quests in two days. With our primary task done, going back to the surface to hand in the Quest and switch our Jobs out would be the more efficient choice. Since our Job levels were maxed out, Saori, Tasianna, and I couldn’t benefit much from the experience gain.
Nevertheless, all of us decided to move onto the next floor. It wasn’t about efficiency, it was about satisfying our curiosity and experiencing the dungeon our way. Plus, Ellaine mentioned that the deeper we went, the more likely we were to find loot boxes.
Now, I wasn’t a gambler but the chance of gaining an awesome weapon or catalyst from these boxes quickened my heartbeat. How often has it happened to me while playing an RPG game where I would buy gear from an NPC’s shop but then acquire a far stronger weapon or armor as loot later on? It was infuriating and exciting at the same time.
“According to the adventurers, floor four and lower are where the difficulty starts to spike. Fewer rank Gs and Fs while rank Es are more common. Dungeon breaks might happen, so we should be careful of rank D monsters since Ellaine can’t handle them yet,” I informed everybody before we went down the stairs. “Let’s stay on floor four for a bit and then retreat. All right?”
“Agreed.” It was unanimous.
Rumors and general gossip were already a great benefit that our restaurant gave us, something taverns and inns enjoy quite a lot. It made us similar to a bartender in a video game, who was able to give information to the player. In this case, we learned that this dungeon had 20 floors and that the floors were divided into difficulties.
Floor one to four were the beginner stages for newbies. Five to nine would spawn only rank Es and Ds, ten upwards to 14 would only spawn Ds, while floor 15 and beyond was where Cs were the norm with the occasional Bs as area bosses, making it incredibly inhospitable. Lastly, floor 20 was the home of the dungeon boss and core.
Bs is where the experience is. Wonder if Saori and Tasianna are ready for an uninjured rank B.
Hearing this made me question how a dungeon master was supposed to reach the core, but then I figured there had to be a safe way to do that. No dungeon master would be stupid enough to not have a hidden staircase or a teleport device built for these instances, especially with the aid of the adventurer guilds and a duke.
Regardless, another thing the adventurers informed us about was a “dungeon break,” an event where a monster from a lower floor entered the ones above it. Monsters had a set floor they spawned on but the dungeon itself could become a bit aggressive sometimes, creating entirely new entrances meant for monsters or adventurers to skip floors with, leading to some very dangerous monsters entering areas where the average adventurers there couldn’t handle them.
That was why the garms caused such a ruckus on the first floor since everybody believed they were part of a dungeon break. If an event like this were to happen, the only correct answer was to run away and inform adventurers suited for the task to come to the rescue. With how dangerous a dungeon could be, as the guilds expect you to be able to handle yourselves if you hadn’t hired a mercenary bodyguard, an anomaly like a dungeon break could be the difference between life and death.
With our newly acquired knowledge, we delved into the fourth floor, which looked more like a labyrinth than a random cave. To Saori, Tasianna, and me, there wasn’t much of a difference even if there were more rank Es, but for Ellaine it was the perfect training spot.
“I beg for the Earth’s protection! Earth Wall!” Ellaine cast while her brown gemstone ring shone brightly, blocking the bite of a [Blood-Gnawing Land-Bat].
She then turned around the corner and shot a [Wind Slash] at the baffled monster, causing it to flinch back in pain. Instead of charging into the beast, getting in range of the bat’s long fangs, Ellaine cast [Earth Strike], boring a sharp rock through the bat’s feet, pinning it down. Using another [Wind Slash] to scar its face, Ellaine lunged in and dug her sword’s tip into the creature’s throat before decapitating it.
“Nice!” I exclaimed with a thumbs up. “Seems like [Chant Recovation Lv. 5] is helping out. Now you just need 1350 more SP and you can upgrade it up to level 10.”
“It feels awesome,” Ellaine replied with an elated smile as she wiped the blood away from her sword. “[Chant Revocation Lv. 1] barely did anything, but with level 5, it reduces the length of the chant by half. The instructors in the academy told us about this, but leveling [Chant Revocation] up was always a tall order, and none of the instructors had leveled it all the way to 10.”
Ellaine’s enthusiasm for the skill point System was almost at the level of a theory crafter. She had a chance to look through her whole skill list before we went to sleep and decided to finish leveling up her [Chant Revocation] before buying or upgrading other skills, explaining that being able to cast fast was essential to complement her sword fighting.
She came to the same conclusion Saori and I had. I mean, it was not the most complicated idea ever. Casting took a lot of time and focus, so speeding it up meant you didn’t have to deal with one of the usual issues of a spellcaster. Plus, it increased your overall damage dealt.
I changed the experience share to only include Ellaine, meaning she was receiving 100% of the kill experience, except in a situation where the garms killed something. They weren’t included in our party, they were in a separate “party” with Saori, at least according to the System, so they could still earn experience by hunting independently.
We continued onwards with this setup where Saori, Tasianna, and I would isolate targets and lead them towards Ellaine for her to fight against, honing her skills and battle senses in a controlled environment. The [Taunt] skill was especially useful for this method.
As we were traveling through floor four’s cavern, Saori and Tasianna went ahead of us to find new targets for Ellaine. While Ellaine and I were waiting for them to return, I suddenly noticed something in the corner of my eye.
“Is that a chest?” I mumbled, drawing Ellaine’s attention. As we didn’t have much to do, we shrugged and decided to open the chest, already giggling in anticipation for what was inside.
Second time’s the charm, righ—
“Griguk.”
Eh?
A sound similar to a hiccup. I turned around, eyes widened when I saw what it was.
“Griguk.”
Eh!
“Ah! Hestia, a monster is guarding it. Could you identify what type of toad monster that thing is?” Ellaine said to my horror.
Toad? Toad? … Toad! EEEHHHHH!
“EIIIIIIIEEEEEEKKKKHHHHHH!”
“Hestia?”
“DIEEEEEEEEEEE!”
An immense heat surged from my chest into my right arm as purple flames flared up with a snap of my fingers. Without cooling down, the heat got to the point where the purple color changed to yellowish-purple and the fire grew larger and larger. Without looking at the target of my rage, fear, and anxiety, I shot the super-heated [Corrosive Fire] at the creature of my nightmares without worrying about the destructiveness of the attack.
With a loud kaboom that could deafen anybody, the area exploded like a bomb, engulfing both the monster and the treasure chest with it. Unlike the last time my trauma resurfaced, I was still able to think properly; the moment I shot out that attack, I shielded Ellaine with my body while casting [Sanctuary]. As it exploded, I ran away carrying Ellaine in a princess carry.
As the flames and dust settled down, I let go of Ellaine and we both inspected the damage I caused. The flames left small corrosive obsidian chunks behind in a huge crater where the chest and beast used to stand. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a huge chunk of the wall, floor, and ceiling were missing.
“L-Lady H-Hestia, what was that?!” Ellaine asked with a trembling voice, while her eyes gave me a clear sign of the terror she was feeling from me.
I couldn’t help but hit myself in shame, clearing my head up as I explained to her what happened, “Sorry, I have a phobia of amphibians; frogs and toads specifically, due to an event in my childhood. Looking at them scares me, seeing them jump around with their ugly mugs frightens me, and their gross tongues just terrifies me. I’m sorry … for putting you in danger like that.”
Ellaine frowned as she heard this and turned her head back to the result of my carnage. She patted my shoulder timidly before saying, “It’s all right. I am fine. Thank you for sharing about yourself … although, if I had known prior, I would have been able to help you—Wait, why is the thing still alive!”
Ellaine’s calming words were interrupted by her stepping back, pointing my eyes to the fact that the damn, freakish, terrible toad somehow survived my attack! And it was floating?
“Griguk.”
There are flying toads in this hellish place? Why! Why!
As I was frozen in place by this fact, a group of people suddenly appeared on the other side of the crater. “What the fuck was that? Oi, Talon, what the hell did you do! You only needed to distract them and we’d swoop in for the chest!”
“Shut it, I just cast a spell to frighten them. Whatever happened, it wasn’t my fault that those girls …” A robed man came into view, carrying a long black staff with him. His entire body was covered up, showing no skin except for the left side of his face as a half-mask was covering his right.
“Fire…” He shivered as he saw the result of my work and gave me a look of fear and anger.
His staff suddenly lit up and a black magic circle appeared on it. “My mind is my power, my imagination, my creation. Hide in images, the light is the illusion! Mirror Image!”
Like the sound of cracking glass, the sight of the man and the group behind him cracked into pieces like a mirror before it re-assembled into an image without them in sight. Coincidentally, the toad also vanished into thin air.
“What?” The both of us exclaimed.
Our eyes were fooling us, making it seem like nobody was there, but my sensory skills told me exactly that wasn’t the case. I cast and threw a [Rock Blast] in the area, causing another shattering glass sound before the image of an empty labyrinth path shattered in light particles.
They ran away. I wasn’t entirely sure that the robed man was the cause of the toad, but if my gut was correct, then he had to be it. An illusionist. A mage who could create illusions to disorientate people and monsters, causing them to drop their guard or allowing him to sneak past. I didn’t expect to find one around this area.
That means there is a skill that allows you to cast illusions. Is it a System or empty vessel magic? Maybe it’s a compound? I wondered, prompting me to ask Ellaine who confirmed there was an empty vessel skill called [Illusion Magic].
As I was considering chasing after them, Saori and Tasianna came running over to us. I quickly explained to them what happened to calm them down, making them understand why I did something that excessive.
“Traumas shouldn’t be joked about,” Saori shook her head, slightly mortified at my handiwork.
“A human causing my lady trouble, what else is new,” Tasianna said sarcastically.
However, my “feel pity for me” moment was interrupted by a horde of monsters congregating around us, attracted by the explosion sound. Luring them away wasn’t possible, so we had to clean them up. With the four of us and the garms, taking care of some rank Es was child’s play.
Especially with Saori’s new ability.
[Stygian Lightning]—the roar of black lightning echoed through the tunnel, electrocuting anything in its way. Compared to my racial skill in my scale-dust, Saori’s stygian voltage was less destructive, but still possessed massive attack power. She streamed through the battlefield with daggers clad in her lightning, shocking anything she touched in a flash. Ever behind her were her garms, following their master and mowing down anything she left behind. Scary.
After killing all the monsters that appeared, we finally finished up the day after dismantling them and decided to return to the surface. Sadly, we couldn’t find any more loot boxes, but that was whatever. With how many monster materials we harvested we made quite a lot of money.
And that showed once we handed everything over to the hunter’s guild. The Quests paid decently and Ellaine made it to rank E, while our party profited from our long stay. The sun was shining brightly in the sky when we exited the dungeon, meaning we earned enough money to feed us for a week. Well, most of it would go into our equipment funds and restaurant costs so it would disappear soon.
“Astounding. being able to transport this many monster parts from the dungeon is quite rare, even with professional carriers,” Cleo, one of the receptionists of the guild, said with amazement.
A loot carrier was exactly what the name implied, a person who followed a party with the job to dismantle monsters and carry them for everyone else. Since adventurers couldn’t afford to be weighed down during a fight with heavy materials, the carriers were there to harvest stuff in their stead to help adventurers fight as optimally as possible. Since it didn’t require a person to know how to fight, being a carrier was a very popular side work for the poor or weak, despite the risks of entering a dungeon in the first place.
As I expected, [Taunter] gave the same ability as [Aggravator] since they were from the same Job line. Once again, I tried to buy the ability with SP but it didn’t work, sadly.
Still, that didn’t dissuade me from leveling more Jobs as the four of us agreed to re-enter the dungeon in two days. While leveling was important, it was also imperative for our growth to fit ourselves up with armor, meaning we would use tomorrow to find a blacksmith for Ellaine. A capable one if we could. Saori and I had shed a little bit, meaning it was time to outfit Ellaine up in some cool new armor.
Naturally, the blacksmith we were looking for should be able to smelt my scales, obsidian, or weave Saori’s fur into armor. Asking the blacksmith guild was the best choice, but first, let us see what our fellow customers felt—the adventurers inside the hunter’s guild.
“There is a dungeon next to the city, so it’s obvious that blacksmiths capable of creating better stuff than the dungeon produces should be around. Hmm, try the ‘Black Spear,’ they can make some good weapons,” an adventurer informed me.
It made sense. If the dungeon could produce lower-tier weapons and armor through loot boxes on the early floors, then the blacksmiths of Cedaraille should be better than those in Firwood.
“An armorer? Well, the ‘Tunging Hammer’ has a blacksmith trained up north in the Groushia duchy, you know, the duchy closest to the dwarves. Try them, I got some armor from them and it saved me quite a few times already,” another told us.
We then decided to go to the second floor since that was available. As we were about to ask another hunter for information, I suddenly noticed a person sitting in the corner of the room. A robed man with a half-mask eating some meat slices with a knife and fork, being conspicuous among the crowd since he was the only one eating slowly and with style.
The illusionist? Well, duh, he should have been an adventurer or something.
I didn’t want to cause a ruckus, but I still wanted to know about that floating toad. Moving over to him, I greeted him, “Hi. Could we talk about what happened before? Uhm, no hard feelings or anything, really.”
He looked at me, both his uncovered eye and the one peeking through his mask showed a hint of hesitation as he thought over my question. Similar to his robe, his mask covered up his whole face, hiding everything behind it.
“I’ll be blunt. I don’t have much to say about before. I’m also not fond of Aurena’s priestesses and I hate pyromaniacs like you. Don’t come here and preach to me, Danterno follower.”
… Damn, this guy is rude!
SpoilerName: Ellaine Fiero Helvas Level: 30 Race: Human
Age: 15 Years Job: Swordswoman Level: 0/5
Status: Health: 1035/1035 Mana: 1214/1214
Strength: 401 Intelligence: 686
Vitality: 346 Wisdom: 489
Agility: 436 Stamina: 941/941
Effects: None
Skill Points: 800
Skill: Magic skills and related:
[Mana Efficiency Lv. 8] (+2) [Mana Control Lv. 7] (+2)
[Arcane Mind Lv. 5] (+1)
[Earth Magic Lv. 8] (+3) [Earth Amp] (New) [Earth Magic Efficiency] (New)
[Wind Magic Lv. 8] (+3) [Wind Amp] (New) [Wind Magic Efficiency] (New)
[Synergist’s Oath Lv. 2] (+1) [Silent Casting Lv. 3] (+1)
[Chant Revocation Lv. 5] (+4) [Mental Warfare Lv. 2] (+1)
[Fluid Cast Lv. 1] [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] [Continuous Cast Lv. 1] (New)
Physical skills and related:
[Sword Technique Lv. 3] (+2) [Sword Mastery Lv. 1]
[Sundering Enhancement Lv. 1] (New) [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 1] (New)
Senses and movement skills:
[Stealth Lv. 2] (+1) [Accuracy Correction Lv. 4] (+2)
[Concentration Lv. 5] (+1) [Prediction Lv. 3] (+2)
[Danger Perception Lv. 4] (+1) [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 5] (+3)
[Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 2] (+1) [Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 7] (+1)
[Enhanced Vision Lv. 2] (+1) [Night Vision Lv. 2] (New)
[Presence Killer Lv. 1] (New) [Evasion Lv. 3] (+1) [Acrobatic Lv. 3] (+1)
[Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 1] (New)
Resistances:
[Physical Resistance Lv. 5] (+3) [Pain Resistance Lv. 4] (+3)
[Holy Resistance Lv. 3] (+1)
[Fire Resistance Lv. 6] [Water Resistance Lv. 6]
[Earth Resistance Lv. 5] [Wind Resistance Lv. 5]
[Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 7] (+3)
Stat growth and related:
[Health Recovery Lv.1 ] (New) [Mana Recovery Lv. 3]
[Stamina Recovery Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 1]
[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv.´4]
[Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 1]
[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 1]
Others:
[Singing Lv. 5] (+1) [Dancing Lv. 5] [Musician Lv. 6] [Merchant Lv. 1] (New)
[Handicraft Lv. 1] [Enchanting Lv. 4] [Artificer Lv. 1]
[Identify Lv. 1] [Identity Blocker Lv. 3] [Noble Aura Lv. 3]
[Royal Etiquette Lv. 7] (+1) [Riding Lv. 3] (+1) [Scholar Lv. 2]
[Calligraphy Lv. 6] [Mathematician Lv. 6] [Telepathy] (New)
Magic List: Custom Spells:
[Create Crack] [Wind Gust]
Earth Magic:
[Earth Wall] [Rock Blast] [Earth Strike] [Rock Bullet] [Sturdy Earth]
[Earthen Spears]
Wind Magic:
[Wind Bullet] [Wind Cutter] [Air Shield] [Wind Slash] [Swift Winds]
[Wind Blast]
Title: [Hestia’s Retainer]
[collapse]AbyssRaven Toads evil.
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“This skorr and mushroom, uhhhh, what did you call it again?”
“Curry,” I answered the mercenary’s question as he put another spoon full of curry rice in his mouth.
“Yes, yes! Good stuff you got there. So, this skorr and mushroom curry reminded me of an adventurer I met three years ago. A great skorr slayer. Some would even call him the skorr slayer, a legend around Cedaraille,” the adventurer began recalling a story after I served him his curry. “Vali the Skorr Slayer, was his name. Not the largest guy, but you don’t need to be big to kill skorrs. Just fast enough to dodge those nasty tusks. You’re like a good example, m’lady.”
“Mhmm,” I nodded before grabbing another dish from Saori’s kitchen and serving it to another table.
“So, his reputation was pretty great, to the point somebody personally requested him to take on a Quest to kill a giant skorr. A rank C threat! Vali, never frightened to fight skorrs, accepted it immediately. He prepared for the hunt with so many tools that the weight of his backpack forced him to bend forward to stay balanced,” the man continued. “Alone and in the dark, Vali entered the skorr’s territory while it was sleeping. Smeared in its shit to hide his smell, Vali took three nights to place all his traps before giving the beast a rude awakening on the fourth night! Undaunted by the giant skorr’s rage, Vali led it through all the traps like a fool. Spikes, stones, poison, pitfalls, you name it. In the end, Vali was once again victorious! Hahahahaha!”
His laugh was pretty infectious, causing our other patrons to join in on the fun. Instead of tankards full of mead or cider, they banged their cups of water together and downed them in one go. Considering we were inside a dungeon right now, they were quite merry.
After having his fun, the storyteller’s mood suddenly turned sour, looking saddened. “Still, every legend has to end sometime and even Vali couldn’t escape this fate. Those three days of living in the shit of the skorr, unable to eat or drink much to avoid creating noise, and being so focused on the task that he forgot how long it took him to execute his plan. Poor guy ate the wrong mushrooms and, with how dehydrated and exhausted he was from the hunt, he didn’t last long. Made it to our city’s gates but, before he could enter, he just fell over. Dead.”
I honestly thought he was spouting some mostly fictitious tavern story, so I barely paid him any attention. However, hearing what this Vali guy did to fulfill the Quest and then die, almost making it back home in one piece, was kinda heartbreaking. I knew the adventurer lifestyle was dangerous, but I didn’t think someone would go out like this. Really goes to show that anything can kill you, regardless of how prepared you are.
“Sorry, about your loss. He must have been a good friend,” I tried to comfort him.
But that was when one of the storyteller’s eyebrows rose and he gave me a look of confusion. “Huh? Ahh, sorry, m’lady Shrine Maiden. He wasn’t my friend; in fact, I only saw him once or twice at the tavern. I only ever spoke to him once, when he was on his way back from that last Quest!”
WHAT?
“Yeah, damn, I only heard his story after the guild read his journal and I asked Cleo about it. Vali the Skorr Slayer could read and write, did you know that? Honestly, he gave me a pretty bad first impression since he was covered in shit when I ran into him on the way back to town. Damn, I had to rush to the bathhouse the moment I got into town to get rid of that horrendous smell. Phew!”
What the hell was the punchline then! Hey, give me back my life lesson moment!
I shook my head at what actually happened, but it seemed like the adventurers didn’t care about how the storyteller knew this Vali, only that the story was good. I rejoined Saori in her kitchen with a frown. “Did we really have to open our restaurant in the middle of the dungeon?”
“Why not?” Saori said with a shrug while continuing to stir the stew pot. “They brought their Davi with them and we had enough to sell. There weren’t a lot of them—some even declined. With the four of us, the preparations went by quickly, wouldn’t you say?”
Saori then pointed at Ellaine who looked exhausted as she ate her dinner, struggling to keep up with etiquette with her sore body. The cuts she made were uneven and too large, as she’d never had to cook before, but the extra hands meant the rest of us had to do less.
“Sure, but doesn’t this feel weird? Look at them eating so peacefully while right around the corner is a cave full of deadly monsters, like that land-bat thing. Even for Peolyncian standards, this seems so strange.”
Saori gave me a quizzical face as she replied, “Oh, really? I thought this should have been something you would have read before in one of your light novels or seen in a video game. Well, since it is so easy to take our restaurant anywhere we go using your storage, we can open for business anywhere we are allowed to, so why not even a dungeon? Uno and the others are guarding the entrance, while we four are enough to serve everybody. You could also play some music if you wanted to.”
I sighed, accepting her reasoning. “Sorry, I’m not in the mood to sing. I was prepared for a meal with some chill music before going to bed.”
I loved singing, but that didn’t mean I wanted to sing everywhere and anytime. If I wasn’t in the mood, then I was not in the mood.
After we earned some money with the restaurant, the adventurers thanked us for sharing a warm meal with them before going back to their respective camps, meaning our party could finally have our own dinner. We reviewed what happened today and then went to sleep.
Once we were all awake, we reentered the third floor’s cave and hunted down the remaining targets for our Quests, fulfilling all 20 Quests in two days. With our primary task done, going back to the surface to hand in the Quest and switch our Jobs out would be the more efficient choice. Since our Job levels were maxed out, Saori, Tasianna, and I couldn’t benefit much from the experience gain.
Nevertheless, all of us decided to move onto the next floor. It wasn’t about efficiency, it was about satisfying our curiosity and experiencing the dungeon our way. Plus, Ellaine mentioned that the deeper we went, the more likely we were to find loot boxes.
Now, I wasn’t a gambler but the chance of gaining an awesome weapon or catalyst from these boxes quickened my heartbeat. How often has it happened to me while playing an RPG game where I would buy gear from an NPC’s shop but then acquire a far stronger weapon or armor as loot later on? It was infuriating and exciting at the same time.
“According to the adventurers, floor four and lower are where the difficulty starts to spike. Fewer rank Gs and Fs while rank Es are more common. Dungeon breaks might happen, so we should be careful of rank D monsters since Ellaine can’t handle them yet,” I informed everybody before we went down the stairs. “Let’s stay on floor four for a bit and then retreat. All right?”
“Agreed.” It was unanimous.
Rumors and general gossip were already a great benefit that our restaurant gave us, something taverns and inns enjoy quite a lot. It made us similar to a bartender in a video game, who was able to give information to the player. In this case, we learned that this dungeon had 20 floors and that the floors were divided into difficulties.
Floor one to four were the beginner stages for newbies. Five to nine would spawn only rank Es and Ds, ten upwards to 14 would only spawn Ds, while floor 15 and beyond was where Cs were the norm with the occasional Bs as area bosses, making it incredibly inhospitable. Lastly, floor 20 was the home of the dungeon boss and core.
Bs is where the experience is. Wonder if Saori and Tasianna are ready for an uninjured rank B.
Hearing this made me question how a dungeon master was supposed to reach the core, but then I figured there had to be a safe way to do that. No dungeon master would be stupid enough to not have a hidden staircase or a teleport device built for these instances, especially with the aid of the adventurer guilds and a duke.
Regardless, another thing the adventurers informed us about was a “dungeon break,” an event where a monster from a lower floor entered the ones above it. Monsters had a set floor they spawned on but the dungeon itself could become a bit aggressive sometimes, creating entirely new entrances meant for monsters or adventurers to skip floors with, leading to some very dangerous monsters entering areas where the average adventurers there couldn’t handle them.
That was why the garms caused such a ruckus on the first floor since everybody believed they were part of a dungeon break. If an event like this were to happen, the only correct answer was to run away and inform adventurers suited for the task to come to the rescue. With how dangerous a dungeon could be, as the guilds expect you to be able to handle yourselves if you hadn’t hired a mercenary bodyguard, an anomaly like a dungeon break could be the difference between life and death.
With our newly acquired knowledge, we delved into the fourth floor, which looked more like a labyrinth than a random cave. To Saori, Tasianna, and me, there wasn’t much of a difference even if there were more rank Es, but for Ellaine it was the perfect training spot.
“I beg for the Earth’s protection! Earth Wall!” Ellaine cast while her brown gemstone ring shone brightly, blocking the bite of a [Blood-Gnawing Land-Bat].
She then turned around the corner and shot a [Wind Slash] at the baffled monster, causing it to flinch back in pain. Instead of charging into the beast, getting in range of the bat’s long fangs, Ellaine cast [Earth Strike], boring a sharp rock through the bat’s feet, pinning it down. Using another [Wind Slash] to scar its face, Ellaine lunged in and dug her sword’s tip into the creature’s throat before decapitating it.
“Nice!” I exclaimed with a thumbs up. “Seems like [Chant Recovation Lv. 5] is helping out. Now you just need 1350 more SP and you can upgrade it up to level 10.”
“It feels awesome,” Ellaine replied with an elated smile as she wiped the blood away from her sword. “[Chant Revocation Lv. 1] barely did anything, but with level 5, it reduces the length of the chant by half. The instructors in the academy told us about this, but leveling [Chant Revocation] up was always a tall order, and none of the instructors had leveled it all the way to 10.”
Ellaine’s enthusiasm for the skill point System was almost at the level of a theory crafter. She had a chance to look through her whole skill list before we went to sleep and decided to finish leveling up her [Chant Revocation] before buying or upgrading other skills, explaining that being able to cast fast was essential to complement her sword fighting.
She came to the same conclusion Saori and I had. I mean, it was not the most complicated idea ever. Casting took a lot of time and focus, so speeding it up meant you didn’t have to deal with one of the usual issues of a spellcaster. Plus, it increased your overall damage dealt.
I changed the experience share to only include Ellaine, meaning she was receiving 100% of the kill experience, except in a situation where the garms killed something. They weren’t included in our party, they were in a separate “party” with Saori, at least according to the System, so they could still earn experience by hunting independently.
We continued onwards with this setup where Saori, Tasianna, and I would isolate targets and lead them towards Ellaine for her to fight against, honing her skills and battle senses in a controlled environment. The [Taunt] skill was especially useful for this method.
As we were traveling through floor four’s cavern, Saori and Tasianna went ahead of us to find new targets for Ellaine. While Ellaine and I were waiting for them to return, I suddenly noticed something in the corner of my eye.
“Is that a chest?” I mumbled, drawing Ellaine’s attention. As we didn’t have much to do, we shrugged and decided to open the chest, already giggling in anticipation for what was inside.
Second time’s the charm, righ—
“Griguk.”
Eh?
A sound similar to a hiccup. I turned around, eyes widened when I saw what it was.
“Griguk.”
Eh!
“Ah! Hestia, a monster is guarding it. Could you identify what type of toad monster that thing is?” Ellaine said to my horror.
Toad? Toad? … Toad! EEEHHHHH!
“EIIIIIIIEEEEEEKKKKHHHHHH!”
“Hestia?”
“DIEEEEEEEEEEE!”
An immense heat surged from my chest into my right arm as purple flames flared up with a snap of my fingers. Without cooling down, the heat got to the point where the purple color changed to yellowish-purple and the fire grew larger and larger. Without looking at the target of my rage, fear, and anxiety, I shot the super-heated [Corrosive Fire] at the creature of my nightmares without worrying about the destructiveness of the attack.
With a loud kaboom that could deafen anybody, the area exploded like a bomb, engulfing both the monster and the treasure chest with it. Unlike the last time my trauma resurfaced, I was still able to think properly; the moment I shot out that attack, I shielded Ellaine with my body while casting [Sanctuary]. As it exploded, I ran away carrying Ellaine in a princess carry.
As the flames and dust settled down, I let go of Ellaine and we both inspected the damage I caused. The flames left small corrosive obsidian chunks behind in a huge crater where the chest and beast used to stand. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a huge chunk of the wall, floor, and ceiling were missing.
“L-Lady H-Hestia, what was that?!” Ellaine asked with a trembling voice, while her eyes gave me a clear sign of the terror she was feeling from me.
I couldn’t help but hit myself in shame, clearing my head up as I explained to her what happened, “Sorry, I have a phobia of amphibians; frogs and toads specifically, due to an event in my childhood. Looking at them scares me, seeing them jump around with their ugly mugs frightens me, and their gross tongues just terrifies me. I’m sorry … for putting you in danger like that.”
Ellaine frowned as she heard this and turned her head back to the result of my carnage. She patted my shoulder timidly before saying, “It’s all right. I am fine. Thank you for sharing about yourself … although, if I had known prior, I would have been able to help you—Wait, why is the thing still alive!”
Ellaine’s calming words were interrupted by her stepping back, pointing my eyes to the fact that the damn, freakish, terrible toad somehow survived my attack! And it was floating?
“Griguk.”
There are flying toads in this hellish place? Why! Why!
As I was frozen in place by this fact, a group of people suddenly appeared on the other side of the crater. “What the fuck was that? Oi, Talon, what the hell did you do! You only needed to distract them and we’d swoop in for the chest!”
“Shut it, I just cast a spell to frighten them. Whatever happened, it wasn’t my fault that those girls …” A robed man came into view, carrying a long black staff with him. His entire body was covered up, showing no skin except for the left side of his face as a half-mask was covering his right.
“Fire…” He shivered as he saw the result of my work and gave me a look of fear and anger.
His staff suddenly lit up and a black magic circle appeared on it. “My mind is my power, my imagination, my creation. Hide in images, the light is the illusion! Mirror Image!”
Like the sound of cracking glass, the sight of the man and the group behind him cracked into pieces like a mirror before it re-assembled into an image without them in sight. Coincidentally, the toad also vanished into thin air.
“What?” The both of us exclaimed.
Our eyes were fooling us, making it seem like nobody was there, but my sensory skills told me exactly that wasn’t the case. I cast and threw a [Rock Blast] in the area, causing another shattering glass sound before the image of an empty labyrinth path shattered in light particles.
They ran away. I wasn’t entirely sure that the robed man was the cause of the toad, but if my gut was correct, then he had to be it. An illusionist. A mage who could create illusions to disorientate people and monsters, causing them to drop their guard or allowing him to sneak past. I didn’t expect to find one around this area.
That means there is a skill that allows you to cast illusions. Is it a System or empty vessel magic? Maybe it’s a compound? I wondered, prompting me to ask Ellaine who confirmed there was an empty vessel skill called [Illusion Magic].
As I was considering chasing after them, Saori and Tasianna came running over to us. I quickly explained to them what happened to calm them down, making them understand why I did something that excessive.
“Traumas shouldn’t be joked about,” Saori shook her head, slightly mortified at my handiwork.
“A human causing my lady trouble, what else is new,” Tasianna said sarcastically.
However, my “feel pity for me” moment was interrupted by a horde of monsters congregating around us, attracted by the explosion sound. Luring them away wasn’t possible, so we had to clean them up. With the four of us and the garms, taking care of some rank Es was child’s play.
Especially with Saori’s new ability.
[Stygian Lightning]—the roar of black lightning echoed through the tunnel, electrocuting anything in its way. Compared to my racial skill in my scale-dust, Saori’s stygian voltage was less destructive, but still possessed massive attack power. She streamed through the battlefield with daggers clad in her lightning, shocking anything she touched in a flash. Ever behind her were her garms, following their master and mowing down anything she left behind. Scary.
After killing all the monsters that appeared, we finally finished up the day after dismantling them and decided to return to the surface. Sadly, we couldn’t find any more loot boxes, but that was whatever. With how many monster materials we harvested we made quite a lot of money.
And that showed once we handed everything over to the hunter’s guild. The Quests paid decently and Ellaine made it to rank E, while our party profited from our long stay. The sun was shining brightly in the sky when we exited the dungeon, meaning we earned enough money to feed us for a week. Well, most of it would go into our equipment funds and restaurant costs so it would disappear soon.
“Astounding. being able to transport this many monster parts from the dungeon is quite rare, even with professional carriers,” Cleo, one of the receptionists of the guild, said with amazement.
A loot carrier was exactly what the name implied, a person who followed a party with the job to dismantle monsters and carry them for everyone else. Since adventurers couldn’t afford to be weighed down during a fight with heavy materials, the carriers were there to harvest stuff in their stead to help adventurers fight as optimally as possible. Since it didn’t require a person to know how to fight, being a carrier was a very popular side work for the poor or weak, despite the risks of entering a dungeon in the first place.
As I expected, [Taunter] gave the same ability as [Aggravator] since they were from the same Job line. Once again, I tried to buy the ability with SP but it didn’t work, sadly.
Still, that didn’t dissuade me from leveling more Jobs as the four of us agreed to re-enter the dungeon in two days. While leveling was important, it was also imperative for our growth to fit ourselves up with armor, meaning we would use tomorrow to find a blacksmith for Ellaine. A capable one if we could. Saori and I had shed a little bit, meaning it was time to outfit Ellaine up in some cool new armor.
Naturally, the blacksmith we were looking for should be able to smelt my scales, obsidian, or weave Saori’s fur into armor. Asking the blacksmith guild was the best choice, but first, let us see what our fellow customers felt—the adventurers inside the hunter’s guild.
“There is a dungeon next to the city, so it’s obvious that blacksmiths capable of creating better stuff than the dungeon produces should be around. Hmm, try the ‘Black Spear,’ they can make some good weapons,” an adventurer informed me.
It made sense. If the dungeon could produce lower-tier weapons and armor through loot boxes on the early floors, then the blacksmiths of Cedaraille should be better than those in Firwood.
“An armorer? Well, the ‘Tunging Hammer’ has a blacksmith trained up north in the Groushia duchy, you know, the duchy closest to the dwarves. Try them, I got some armor from them and it saved me quite a few times already,” another told us.
We then decided to go to the second floor since that was available. As we were about to ask another hunter for information, I suddenly noticed a person sitting in the corner of the room. A robed man with a half-mask eating some meat slices with a knife and fork, being conspicuous among the crowd since he was the only one eating slowly and with style.
The illusionist? Well, duh, he should have been an adventurer or something.
I didn’t want to cause a ruckus, but I still wanted to know about that floating toad. Moving over to him, I greeted him, “Hi. Could we talk about what happened before? Uhm, no hard feelings or anything, really.”
He looked at me, both his uncovered eye and the one peeking through his mask showed a hint of hesitation as he thought over my question. Similar to his robe, his mask covered up his whole face, hiding everything behind it.
“I’ll be blunt. I don’t have much to say about before. I’m also not fond of Aurena’s priestesses and I hate pyromaniacs like you. Don’t come here and preach to me, Danterno follower.”
… Damn, this guy is rude!
SpoilerName: Ellaine Fiero Helvas Level: 30 Race: Human
Age: 15 Years Job: Swordswoman Level: 0/5
Status: Health: 1035/1035 Mana: 1214/1214
Strength: 401 Intelligence: 686
Vitality: 346 Wisdom: 489
Agility: 436 Stamina: 941/941
Effects: None
Skill Points: 800
Skill: Magic skills and related:
[Mana Efficiency Lv. 8] (+2) [Mana Control Lv. 7] (+2)
[Arcane Mind Lv. 5] (+1)
[Earth Magic Lv. 8] (+3) [Earth Amp] (New) [Earth Magic Efficiency] (New)
[Wind Magic Lv. 8] (+3) [Wind Amp] (New) [Wind Magic Efficiency] (New)
[Synergist’s Oath Lv. 2] (+1) [Silent Casting Lv. 3] (+1)
[Chant Revocation Lv. 5] (+4) [Mental Warfare Lv. 2] (+1)
[Fluid Cast Lv. 1] [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] [Continuous Cast Lv. 1] (New)
Physical skills and related:
[Sword Technique Lv. 3] (+2) [Sword Mastery Lv. 1]
[Sundering Enhancement Lv. 1] (New) [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 1] (New)
Senses and movement skills:
[Stealth Lv. 2] (+1) [Accuracy Correction Lv. 4] (+2)
[Concentration Lv. 5] (+1) [Prediction Lv. 3] (+2)
[Danger Perception Lv. 4] (+1) [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 5] (+3)
[Enhanced Auditory Sense Lv. 2] (+1) [Enhanced Olfactory Sense Lv. 7] (+1)
[Enhanced Vision Lv. 2] (+1) [Night Vision Lv. 2] (New)
[Presence Killer Lv. 1] (New) [Evasion Lv. 3] (+1) [Acrobatic Lv. 3] (+1)
[Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 1] (New)
Resistances:
[Physical Resistance Lv. 5] (+3) [Pain Resistance Lv. 4] (+3)
[Holy Resistance Lv. 3] (+1)
[Fire Resistance Lv. 6] [Water Resistance Lv. 6]
[Earth Resistance Lv. 5] [Wind Resistance Lv. 5]
[Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 7] (+3)
Stat growth and related:
[Health Recovery Lv.1 ] (New) [Mana Recovery Lv. 3]
[Stamina Recovery Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 1]
[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv.´4]
[Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 3]
[Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 1]
[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 1]
Others:
[Singing Lv. 5] (+1) [Dancing Lv. 5] [Musician Lv. 6] [Merchant Lv. 1] (New)
[Handicraft Lv. 1] [Enchanting Lv. 4] [Artificer Lv. 1]
[Identify Lv. 1] [Identity Blocker Lv. 3] [Noble Aura Lv. 3]
[Royal Etiquette Lv. 7] (+1) [Riding Lv. 3] (+1) [Scholar Lv. 2]
[Calligraphy Lv. 6] [Mathematician Lv. 6] [Telepathy] (New)
Magic List: Custom Spells:
[Create Crack] [Wind Gust]
Earth Magic:
[Earth Wall] [Rock Blast] [Earth Strike] [Rock Bullet] [Sturdy Earth]
[Earthen Spears]
Wind Magic:
[Wind Bullet] [Wind Cutter] [Air Shield] [Wind Slash] [Swift Winds]
[Wind Blast]
Title: [Hestia’s Retainer]
[collapse]AbyssRaven Toads evil.
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