Now, it's the 2nd floor. Since we were able to take a 30 minute or so break in the teleport room in the end it was just right.
"Al. That ice monster is referring to you right?"
""Master, isn't master that ice monster?""
"He tried to cover it up."
"He tried to(abbreviated)"
"What is it, it's not like I've particularly caused any trouble to anyone so isn't it fine. Also Ralpha, stop abbreviating it as you please."
Really, this girl...
"Now, rather than that it's the 2nd floor. Let's remain cautious as we go."
And, before that maybe I'll try asking Angela.
No, if I remember correctly she shouldn't have only made it to the 2nd floor. There's probably a low possibility that she knew~
Even though we've gone to the 2nd floor countless times to far we've never met anyone camping in the teleport room of the 1st floor before.
We just haven't reached that level yet I'm sure.
"For the time being, let's confirm our current location."
We investigate what's beyond the symbol on the teleport crystal pedestal..62 huh? It's here.
We all put heads together and searched for number 62 on the map and found our current location.
It's necessary to pass through four rooms to get to the 3rd floor in the shortest distance.
First we need to confirm the appearance of the enemy.
After I told everyone not to move, I quietly put my head out from the wall peaking into the room.
It's there.
When I tried Identifying it and it seems it's called Roze.
There's..6 in all huh?
Their level isn't particularly amazing and they don't seem to have any sort of special skill either.
If there was even less of them then it would have been fine to let my subordinates fight.
And if they're just as they look like Muskox then you should be able to gather perfume from the males but the fur itself should be worth even more than that.
Or rather if you could make them into livestock wouldn't you make some insane profits?
..Impossible huh?
Or to be more exact the fur.
If it comes to that then you guys pay for the cost of spinning and sewing it.
What a waste~
I guess I'll go with freezing their lower bodies, or rather legs?
I made it so the Roze couldn't move after freezing 50 cm of the ground in the room and said to kill them by just hitting them in the head while showing an example.
Since it seems to be harmless I tried cooking it with fire magic.
This is bad, I shouldn't have cooked it so casually.
I guess it's better than the monsters learned by the smell?
Stop eating all of it!
However, even without any salt or seasonings, and even more so not letting it mature and it still is pretty good.
Zulu was just staring at the bowel like innards. Does he want to eat the internal organs as expected from the cat family? But there should be shit inside of that. You should stop.
When I thought that I far I realized..huh?
The corpses of other monsters?
Cannibalism?
What about reproduction?
There's countless areas in the 1st and 2nd floors which aren't connected to anywhere as well..
We should arrive at the teleport room to the 3rd floor soon.
Before long we heard them as well.
In the small room (just compared to the rooms which boss monsters are using as a nest) of about 30 m in every direction where the teleport crystal is there were a total of about 40 adventurers resting.
Since we came afterwards we put on a sociable smile while taking a seat along an open wall to rest for a moment. Angela and Zulu stood out because of the leathers they were carrying but it can't be helped.
I wonder if there's a different top team other than Black Topaz in here?
We all drank the soup while taking a break for about an hour.
Then, for the time being, let's take a look at the 3rd floor for today and then head back?
After I said that everyone stood up and approached the teleport crystal rod.
I can't see any large difference in the teleport crystal rod or the pedestal it's on but the floor, walls, and ceiling have all changed to what's clearly artificially made stone.
The surface of the stone has been smoothed out almost like the surface of stone walls on a Japanese castle.
Although it's a bit pitiful to criticize her.
After Angela heard the first thing I said her expression stiffened up a bit ut she relaxed after hearing my next line.
"Strangers are strangers, we are us. Just like you said time is more valuable than money. But, probably but, I think among the adventurers in Baldukk we arrived at the 3rd floor considerably fast. In other words, we're already shortening our time compared to other parties. It seems they normally say that you finally make it the 3rd floor around 2-3 years after you've started exploring right?
..Alright. I'll try asking your way of thinking from here on out as well. On those instances just honestly respond to me what you were thinking or feeling. Whenever my way of thinking and values are different I'll tell you. It's fine if you just match up with me on those occasions. I'm not saying you need to change all of your values and way of thinking from the start to match up with mine. It's fine with just the portion that I point out. You're my slave and not a puppet. Is that clear?"
After quietly listening to my long speech Angela remained quiet as she lowered her head to me.
It's pretty unrelated to why I have not much money.
Thanks for that.
"Yeah, it was pretty good."
Ralpha grabbed the crystal rod while responding to that. I'm still reducing your portion for how much you ate.
"I haven't eaten beef before. I'm looking forward to it."
Zulu joined the conversation while grabbing the crystal rod. Eat a lot.
"Since you can't normally eat beef. I haven't eaten any either."
Bel says that as well while grabbing the crystal rod. I've never eaten it on Orth either. The cattle we bought at my house still haven't died after all. One of the horses my father owned was about to die right when it was time for me to leave the house, so as a matter of fact it was a regret of mine that I couldn't eat that.
"..Umm, I'm sorry about that..Because of m.."It's fine, you already understand right. Don't worry about it, now, let's go "Henruichi.""
We returned to the teleport room of the 2nd floor were were just in.
If you end up teleporting to an unexplored region that's not on the map, if there's far too many boss rooms to the teleport room, or in the first place if it's not even connected to the teleport room, then it's pretty common to go back to the last floor like this. Well, we're returning though.
After everyone grabbed the teleport crystal rod on the 2nd floor again and I used the exclusive chant in the center of it.
"Return us."
We were teleported again to the teleport crystal on the 1st floor.
When you return across floors your posture is the same as when you were holding the crystal rod and you're teleported to somewhere in the central room of the next floor up.
Since the direction of our bodies changed we confirm our surroundings and need to grab on the toe crystal rod in the center of the room once again.
I don't know if that's true or not though.
..I guess Black Topaz is already gone.
And once more.
"Return us."
Even though were just on the 3rd floor a moment ago, we're in one of the small rooms on the side of the teleport room at the entrance in no time at all.
I wonder if it would be better not to sell the qivuit~
Since the leather from the Roze is a hindrance and it stinks we need to do something about the leather, rather fur before dinner.
Since it can't be helped I had just Zulu and Angela return ahead to their inn to leave the luggage.
They're still staying at Shuni.
It's not like there's no worries about ti being stolen but I feel like with fleas and all that no one would want to steal some dirty fur.
Since it's my long awaited fillet it would be best rare but since I don't know for sure if that'll be good for the time being I ordered it around medium.
It would have cost a bit but maybe it would have been better to go to Doruleon?
I guess it's fine if we go to Doruleon after tomorrow.
I still had some complains about the way it was cooked but the Roze fillet was delicious.
I remember the Horned Bear.
"After all it's more delicious with salt and seasonings."
"This is..It's good isn't it.."
If it was going to be like this then maybe we should have brought as much of the meat as we could hold.
The one who ate the most was Zulu though.
Since our stomachs are all full we split up.
It's because I thought it would be best to let it mature at a high-end restaurant.
After paying at Doruleon (it cost 20,000 Z even), and leaving the meat with them I returned to the inn, as expected I was tired so after taking a quick shower I quickly laid down.
Ah..since we were in the dungeon from morning until night, I didn't do my running...
It's from the window of Bel's room, she and Ralpha were looking outside at me.
What is it, since we're going to be up early tomorrow, go to sleep already.
The two of them beckoned me.
It~can't~be helped, really.
After I went to Bel's room and Ralpha was sitting on one of the two chairs while Bel was sitting on the bed. After I pulled out the remaining chair and sat down Bel opened her mouth.
"Al-san. I want to talk for a bit but.."
Hn? Japanese?
Even though I look like this I'm pretty busy.
It's true that the circumstances I mentioned to Anderson were about Angela.
While I'm remaining silent and this time Ralpha started talking.
"Honestly speaking, even without us I think that Al can make it pretty far into the dungeon...That's true right? That's why, I've been thinking about it for a long time now. Then, why are you paying us money to come along with you? And why did you pay so much money to buy Zulu and Maruso as well?"
".."
"And, you told us quite a bit of information as well right? Recently you've even been training us. You've taught us magic as well. I'm truly grateful because I decided to wait for him in this town. If I'm together with Al-san then there's almost no danger of dying and I can earn a lot of money. But, what does Al-san gain from this?"
I guess so~ It's been about five months since I started teaming up with them, I guess it's already close to half a year huh?
"..I don't have any particular intention of hiding it. Probably if I say it and after you two hear that even if you were to tell someone about it they shouldn't be of any harm to me..Probably at least...I did intend to talk about it eventually."