Year 7444, Month 8, Day 25
The time was just past 3 in the afternoon or so.
"Al-san! Someone is coming!"
Gwine who was being cautious of the passage shouted a warning.
There's three other passages than the one we used to enter the room but Toris is watching the passage we entered and one other, and then Gwine was watching the remaining two. One person came staggering into the room from one of the passages Gwine was being cautious of. After the intruder saw us surprised yet prepare for combat they threw down their spear and held up both of their arms,
"Thank god! I'm not a monster! I'm Ginger from {Sun Ray}! What in the world is going on with this floor!? Please save me!"
and cried while screaming. Fumu. She has the dyed golden cloth on her right arm.
【Female/24/6/7417 ・ Human ・ Newman Family Eldest Daughter】
【Age： 27 Years Old】
【HP： 92(123) MP： 6(6)】
【Speed： 20】
【Endurance： 18】
【Experience： 393156(450000)】
At the very least her name doesn't seem to be a lie. And it's true that I saw her face this morning as well.
I watched as Angela carefully approached her and picked up her spear before opening my mouth.
"Certainly, you seem to be a member of {Sun Ray} but..are you alone?"
Zenom stands on my left. Zulu is still gathering the magic stones and while Bel casually went to the corner of the room, Ralpha moved around her surrounding her on both sides. Toris and Gwine are each continuing to remain cautious of and observe the passages.
"I got separated from my part..everyone, I wonder what they're doing, I don't know what's going on. We suddenly were attack bed a wild boar monster and when everyone was fighting suddenly the wild boars increased. I moved away a bit to avoid the charge of the wild boar and suddenly I was alone! What's going on? When I realized it after that I was in a strange place.."
Ginger said that while facing the side and after unfastening her helmet and holding it in her left hand, she bit the nail of her right hand. It seems like she's considerably reached her mental limits from that expression and facial color.
"Well, calm down a bit. I'm sure it's difficult though. Right now we're being cautious so it's alright. Ah, if you're fine with water then please have some."
After I said that and Ginger stopped biting her name and took the flask I gave her before taking two large sips.
"Thank you. I've already calmed down.."
I signal to Angela to return her spear and then started thinking, what should we do. It doesn't particularly matter if we just bring her along like this as well. Even if we lost along the way I think we should be able to arrive at the teleport room on the 6th floor in about an hour. And after that just like that she can return to the 5th floor or surface.
"What should we do?"
Zenom started talking to me. There's no question about it, there's no option other than to bring her along right. We could just abandon her, or steal all of her equipment and leave her unconscious here and no one would ever know but I'm not a robber or a yakuza adventurer like {Bright Blade}.
"It can't be helped right."
After I said that and Gwine remained cautious while saying.
"Is it fine?"
She might be able to figure out the methods to find teleport traps, how to avoid them, and a small portion of the path to the teleport room on the 6th floor. Furthermore, in the worst case there's a monster room ahead of here we would end up having to fight without freezing the monsters. Well, unless it's a considerably powerful opponent it doesn't particularly matter though. In the past, I remember the adventurer we saved on the 1st floor from the slimes.
The common sense of Baldukk is normally to just split up a bit of water and food and say "Then, be careful now" before splitting up. Otherwise have her pay a reasonable compensation. It's said that a reasonable compensation is roughly five times the the compensation paid to a guide. The market price of a guide for one day is 100,000 Z (10 silver coins) on the 1st floor. 200,000 Z on the 2nd floor. Though there's no people willing to act as guides past that. Well, you could consider it the premium compensation of a limited express guide. If you were to go off that standard then since this is the 6th floor it would be 600,000 Z and then five times that amount for 3,000,000 Z. It's quite a large sum.
I glanced at Gwine from the side and then returned my gaze to Ginger before opening my mouth.
"If it's food and water we can split up some with you. We're about to head towards the teleport room on the 6th floor but if you wish then we're fine if you come along with us. However.."
I checked Ginger's state after saying that far. She's probably already no good alone. It seems her mentality was pretty close it's limit alone so sooner or later she'll die.
"If you'll bring me together with you to the teleport room then I'll give an expression of my gratitude..how about 500,000 Z?"
Hearing that I was about to burst into laughter but I somehow manage to remain expressionless and cover it up.
"Al-san!"
Ralpha and Gwine shouted. Ah, you two are seriously loud~
"Shut up~ you idiots. Stop talking about such pointless crap and remain quiet. Now then, Ginger-san. {Sun Ray} is making a map right? It's famous that you all bring back quite good ores. Obviously, you've filled in the places where you're gathering them right? Then there's no problem~ I won't say to give us your map. It's fine if you just let us secretly transcribe it when we return."
and I said that while smiling. After hearing my remarks Ginger,
"So you were aiming for the mining location..I'm sorry. The floor maps are managed by the leaders. A normal member like me can't even look at them normally let alone borrowing them is even more impossible. And I can't betray my allies..But, if you're really fine with my body, then after we return you can embrace me as much as you like."
and said that after facing downwards. Hmph, it seems their party has a reasonable amount of unity.
"Ah, there's no need to worry about what that idiot was saying. I don't have even the slightest bit of that sort of intention. However, in that case we're quite troubled."
As a matter of fact I'm really troubled.
Ginger is getting depressed repeating, "..not even the slightest bit..", but when I already have Miduchi it's not like I could do something like that right. Even if it was before I met Miduchi, I wouldn't say something like that.
It's not particularly that I want chump change like 4,000,000 Z. It seems she's got a decent amount of skill but I wouldn't really want her as a combat slave either. I also wouldn't want to do what I please with her body to make up for the remainder either. In the first place, how many times would that even add up to being her partner...Calculating from 3,500,000 Z and if it was going to the average cheap brothel in town that would add up to several hundred times, maybe even a thousand times. If we could at least get our hands on the information about the vein of ores then it would be plenty in return but judging from this it looks impossible. Ah, I guess I could just have her create a debt. But, it's not like something like a bank exists and she probably would only be able to borrow from other members of {Sun Ray}. If they refuse then that's the end of it.
How troubling...It can't be helped~ since this is an unusual case, here I'll...
Bel properly left an impression on her. They say there's nothing more expensive than free. Ah, I guess it still wasn't free huh?