Year 7442, Month 10, Day 26
Since they didn't seem any different than usual as well I was relieved.
We ate the soup made with hot water from magic along with some sandwiches we brought along and took a break for about an hour.
It's the same as usual.
We've already walked through both of them countless times and we have a map where the traps are listed including several we added ourselves so the tension should have been considerably reduced.
I'm sure her Endurance will increase from here on out with level up and age but why did Ralpha get tired before Bel this time?
Or maybe Ralpha is just weak to tension and easier to exhaust herself?
Thinking about things from here on out so I think it would be best to clarify as many things as possible that I've put off around here.
"I see, don't push yourself. If it's painful then you can say so anytime."
Alright, it's a shame even though we've made it this far for today but let's just take a look in the 3rd floor and then return.
I'll provide you with the perfect role for a terrible farting bug.
It's made of stone and dim, the width of the passages are narrower than the 1st and 2nd floors, there's not even 10 m.
Of course, there's various places where it gets more than 10 m or becomes about 2 m as well. The air is stale, and you can't feel that it's flowing but it doesn't seem that it's not blowing at all since you occasionally feel it brush your cheek.
Angela is whispering something to Ralpha.
I'll let it off because it's not a loud voice but whispering though.
We steadily walk down that passage but hitting the floor with a 3 m pole doesn't help much at all anymore.
On the 1st and 2nd floors the pitfalls have a board covering them and that surface is camouflaged, so if you hit that surface the sound changes and you can easily see through them.
It seems like there's several poles inside of the pitfall and above that there's something like a thin stone wall or stone board placed on that to look like the normal passage.
Since Bel's skill is something that makes it easier for her to pick up on sounds, it's not like she can tell the vague differences in the sound itself. The best she can do is tell the number of legs something has from footsteps or how many sources are making sounds, and tell if they're moving.
The only way to see through the pitfalls is to move forward slowly and try stepping on them or try hitting the floor with the end of Zenom or Ralpha's hand-axe.
If it came to that then it would even be difficult for me to be considered useful in combat.
Taking into consideration the speed we're moving forward it feels too inefficient to move while hitting with the axe every time so it's about time we have no choice other than to proceed carefully. The person at the front will have to take one step forward and without putting their weight on that step as much as possible they poke the stone floor with their foot. If there's a pitfall there you can tell because it moves slightly. Then if you move to the side and do the same thing and it seems fine you can move forward from there.
If you pay close attention it's not to the point where you can't see the gaps between the stone lid and the real thing but since it's dimly lit, so if we're being careful of them we end up with a speed of advance that is slower than a tired so I gave up on it right away.
Of course, we can'y deny the possibility of them overlooking something but it's a big help to have various marks.
In those cases, we just proceed forward a bit carefully and if we can't find any landmarks along that path we turn back and go down a different path.
I found out the reason why the entrance to the 3rd floor that is the teleport room of the 2nd floor always has someone camping in it.
When you go to step foot into the 3rd floor if there's no clear proof that someone has passed through there (First off is the number carved out near the teleport crystal. If that's there then someone has definitely passed through. Next is the marks near pitfalls and such. Since there's no other choice to remain careful until you find something like that it wears away at the nerves quite a bit at the start though) then you once again return to the 2nd floor, and teleport to the 3rd floor again.
The speed of advancing forward dulls even more than up until now and the mental exhaustion accumulates.
However, even then there's a lot of gain at on the 3rd floor.
Although, it seems that it's already after anything of notice has been taken out so the number is limited and it seems there's more adventurers who have never seen them before.
The problem is the ones where the dirt floor is exposed.
In short it's just that you're inside of a mine of gems but putting aside the reason, just that there's a possibility that you can gather the raw ores of gems is the reason adventurers come to this floor, no, it's one of the appeals to entering the dungeon of Baldukk itself.
Hearing this, I first thought, I see now, and at the same time several doubts came up in my mind.
However, if the raw ores of gems that are discovered aren't normally cut then there's not much meaning. The cutting of gems is an artisans technique and there's various methods of cutting to make the gem look beautiful, I'm sure it's the same as Earth that there's various methods to change the value based on that.
It's not like you can't do the polishing with magic. IF you just keep repeating the {Cantrip} {Polish} it will take time but you can somehow polish it I'm sure.
However, if they even make a single mistake then the long-awaited precious and expensive gem would come to nothing.
It's not like there's something like a machine so I wonder if that's where the technique of the artisan comes in?
Most likely the limit is facet, step, or mix cut and something like a brilliant would be impossible, it's possible to think they're might try to smooth it over with cabochon as well.
In that case, I wonder if a diamond with a brilliant cut would have an insanely high price?
Even the raw ores of gems, if it's my identify then I'm sure I can tell what type of gem they are.
Umu.
I can smell the scent of money from the 3rd floor.
Ralpha expression looks quite exhausted. I wonder if no one has realized because it's dark?
..Ah, I see!
I'm happy that she has some guts but as expected I didn't intend to pull her to her limits from the start.
The rest of us sit in a circle and drink some tea.
I think that Angela probably realized when we first came down to the 3rd floor for today.
Of course it's different if that day is a Wednesday or Saturday.
I'm sure it'll be fine if we just earn some experience points in an adequate place around the 1st floor with the rest of us.
Ah~, that's why it's better to have less women.
It's a bit late to sell her at this point and it's pitiful so it can't be helped though.
We'll restrict the number of them in our party when we enter the dungeon and I definitely won't buy anymore female combat slaves.
Tody we just luckily didn't encounter any monsters but it wouldn't be a joke if monsters started to appear on the second or third days being lured by the scent of blood.
.............
Year 7442, Month 11, Day 29
Even if I say knack it's nothing too special.
I'm sure she'll be able to make quite a bit of experience in her magic and unique ability from here on out. This is something to be honestly happy about. I think it would be best to increase her MP as much as possible from here on out so after aiming to somewhat level up her magic special skills, when her MP gets to about double digits it would be best to have her start leveling up her unique ability "Spatial Understanding".
I've become acquainted with several other parties that we often come across inside of the dungeon.
However, I still don't have the guts to do something like camp in the teleport room of the 2nd floor.
After all more than half our party is made up of 14 year old brats.
It seems that it's reasonably known to everyone that we're always holding a considerable number of magic stones when we go to the teleport room of the 2nd floor and the people who start talking intimately ask how we're killing all of the monsters and I can't help but get the impression they're trying to sound out our secrets.
And I've figured out that it's not that simple to gather gems on the 3rd floor.
Even though it's the 3rd floor it's been reasonably explored.
In the first place, it seems that the value of the gems you can gather are even more valuable and easier to find on the lower floors.
I don't know much about the 5th floor since only the top teams can get that far but even then the information that I did obtain was that you can gain even more rare metals and valuable gems.
I'm sure it's just being able to find one about once in a month or so but it's only obvious that the possibility of finding them would be higher in a place where there's almost no people. After all, we should quickly pass through the 3rd floor and seek out the possibilities of the lower floors. If we don't get too particular about gathering the magic stones then we can get through the 1st floor in roughly three hours and the 2nd floor in about the same amount of time.
Simultaneously I started saying that it'll definitely be necessary to take some rest in the teleport room on the 3rd floor before the 4th floor and in order to do that we'll need to prepare the tools needed for camping and since the map for floors beyond the 4th isn't sold so we have to start producing our own map, therefore, it'll be even more difficult than the quick clearing we've done until now while looking at everyone.
It seems that they're going to leave the house at a time where they'll arrive in Baldukk around December the 28th.
During the morning, we performed our using coordination training and after taking some lunch we went shopping.
Putting aside food we can make water with my magic.
As far as I can tell from looking at other parties they're splitting up heavy looking buckets or water bags between them.
Even then they at least want to drink some delicious tea to rest themselves when they're exhausted so they each take a few liters as well.
It's true that the tea I was treated to that time was delicious.
I guess we should take along some proper water and use that for tea when camping rather than using the water made with water magic. I'm sure it'll be a bit heavy but it might be good to just say to put water in the flasks that we normally keep empty.
The remaining members went to obtain some bedding and blankets.
There was no tent as well.
Since I fundamentally stayed at inns on my way to Baldukk, I've only camped out a handful of times but in my case I slept in a hammock.
It can't be helped there's no other choice than endure with a blanket here.
I ordered blankets for everyone made of the threads from the Roze we gathered previously.
It seems it'll take about a month for them to finish being made.
I haven't caught sight of them at all since then but if we encounter Roze on the 2nd floor again we need to secure them no matter what.
Since we can't afford to rest until the qiviut blankets are completed, it couldn't be helped so I purchased some appropriately thin blankets. I purchased a bag to put those blankets in separately as well.
Since we're throwing our bags down every time there's combat I thought they would be damaged quicker but it seems that leather-made bags are more durable than I thought and they weren't all that damaged so it shouldn't be necessary to replace them.
In regards to a tent putting aside Zenom and I, I thought that the women would want one but after all they did.
I can understand those feelings but it's large and since it'll add to the baggage I wanted them to restrain themselves on that.
Whether it be adventurer's tents, two-person tents, or even the simple shelter three-person tents it's impossible to stand up inside.
I couldn't say anything other than that I would block them off with a blanket so to make do with that.