The next day, as Guilford said, there’s an announcement from the guild.
I guess making an announcement before this mess is over shows how dangerous they think this all is.
Several guild employees, starting with the vice guildmaster, are let go, and I hear the ones that have it worst fall into slavery.
They proudly announce that Golden Sword captured the adventurers that fled, and that the dungeon can be used again.
Apparently they were pressured by the military in the capital because they want the supply of ore and weapons to restart.
There are also rumors that they see an opportunity to inspect the feudal lord.
The town of Avid is wrapped in a disquieting air.
“What are you guys going to do, Herc?”
After hearing the announcement, we came here to see Ale and Ironhammer.
“Wait and see for a bit. At least until the group that went out searching comes back.”
That’s their decision. I feel like the guild’s announcement didn’t change their minds about leaving.
So they’re going to wait for the army to return, and watch out for attackers in the meantime.
“Is that why you came to visit today?”
“I think we’re going to have to stick around for a bit. We were thinking about helping Sora and the others conquer the dungeon, so I wanted to ask if you have the materials to get through the first two floors.”
“Well, we do, but… Yes, we do. You helped us too.”
Still, Argo’s party pays because that includes precious ore and magic stones.
But they also talk about Argo’s party being their guards if Herc and the others leave town.
“Where are you going?”
“To the capital first. Then we’re thinking about splitting into a group that goes to Elesya and one that goes to Eldo.”
Herc says there are other clans thinking about leaving Avid.
“Well, it depends on how things are then.”
Argo’s party is holding off on answering about being guards.
There’s the dungeon, and also Transfer to consider. But I think they’re going to end up accepting that guard duty because they’re nice people.
The issue is, can we finish the dungeon before then? Unlike the first two floors, the third is a large field type.
Also, to open the third floor’s door, we need to present ore, but also fight aquatic monsters, like sahuagin, because we’ll need their magic stones.
We don’t need to collect them all, but the grades of magic stones are indicated by dots, and we need to hit a quota of those dots.
Also, while we know the grades of magic stones like the ones from sahuagin, the records about how many we need have been lost. And we can’t use magic stones from the same monster multiple times. For example, no matter how many we collect from sahuagin, only the first counts.
But there are a couple of exceptions, variants and superior species count as different monsters.
“I think your two parties could conquer the third floor.”
After the third floor there’s the last room, where the dungeon boss awaits.
It’s possible to leave that room, but once we do, the door closes and we have to collect magic stones again.
And apparently the quota goes up after the first time. Herc says there are documents that say it doubles.
“I heard that’s why people don’t conquer this dungeon.”
Because people can’t challenge it over and over.
There’s a limit to the variety of monsters, so if we need more points than there are monsters, the door won’t open for us again.
“Are there documents about the boss?”
Apparently records about the necessary points have been lost, so whoever’s managing them was careless, I think as I ask Herc.
“I’m pretty sure there used to be records about what kind of boss appears.”
He says while tilting his neck.
Something there catches my attention.
“Herc, could it be that there are multiple bosses?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s written that it changes depending on the challengers. Like, if a kraken appears the first time, if you leave and come back, it’s going to be a kraken again. There’s records of different parties challenging the boss and getting different monsters.”
Leviathan, sea serpent, multiple aquatic monsters… There really is a big variety.
“Sounds like it’s easier if it’s multiple aquatic monsters.”
“Not necessarily. I read it turns into an endurance battle…”
We’re going to have to look into this.
We need to look into the third floor monsters anyway, so let’s check out the boss room too.
“So when are you going, Sora?”
“We’re going to open the second floor’s door tomorrow. Then we’ll come back and read about the third floor… So I guess we’ll actually start exploring it three days from now, if all goes well.”
I look back, and no one objects.
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