Chapter 3: At the Dungeon Entrance, or So It Was Told

When Renya had first heard of dungeons, he’d imagined a structure with a conspicuous entrance in the form of a gate, complete with unnecessarily elaborate doors. Upon asking Shion, he learned that some dungeons did indeed have entrances like that, but they were rare and tended to be ruins of old buildings. As for naturally-occurring dungeons…

“…This?” he asked, pointing at the entrance before them.

The two girls nodded. The ground in front of them rose up into a small hill. At the top of the hill, there was a hole. No gates, no elaborate designs. It was, literally, just a hole. The opening was barely big enough for one person to fit through. They were in the middle of a grass field slightly off the beaten path. A few groves of trees could be seen nearby. Nothing else.

Still reeling from the sheer discrepancy between expectation and reality, Renya stared blankly at what amounted to a glorified pit. Its only dungeon-like feature was the stairs inside that could be seen leading down into its depths.

“This is supposed to be… a naturally-occurring dungeon?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are there stairs?”

“How are we supposed to get down otherwise?”

Shion looked at him as if he’d just asked a very stupid question. He scratched his head. Was he missing something? Something wasn’t right. This seemed almost like they were being invited to go down. Or, perhaps, being lured.

“Allow me to explain,” said Rona, stepping in to clear up his confusion. “In order for naturally-occurring dungeons to grow, they need to have living creatures enter them, then absorb their mana and vital energies. Sometimes, they even swallow dead bodies whole. Supposedly, that’s why they amass things such as rare metals and place them here and there as treasures.”

“So they’re putting out some bait and hoping to catch humans?”

“More or less.”

“They can generate monsters, yet they need external resources?”

“According to one theory, after a monster is generated, once some time passes, the dungeon can recycle it for its resources… but few people have looked into the matter, so we don’t know much,” Rona said.

“How come?”

“Younger dungeons are cleared almost immediately,” explained Shion, “which results in their core being destroyed. Mature dungeons tend to be far too dangerous to stroll through for research.”

Once their core was destroyed, dungeons slowly faded away. The destroyed core itself could be used as a high quality manastone and was worth a good sum of money. As a result, recently-formed dungeons, owing to their relatively sparse monster density and limited depth, were quickly conquered by profit-seeking adventurers. Those few dungeons that either eluded the hungry eyes of adventurers or, by some stroke of fortune, managed to repel their offenses would gradually mature. As they aged, they would deepen, gaining more levels, and begin to generate upper-class monsters, making them an extremely dangerous presence.

For adventurers, as long as they made money, they couldn’t care less about the how and why. This was problematic for researchers, because it made it excruciatingly difficult for them to acquire specimens — either they were already gone, or they were teeming with dangerous monsters.

“And that’s the gist of naturally-occurring dungeons,” concluded Shion.

“So to sum it up, they’re just one big question mark.”

“Well… yeah, I guess.”

Renya noted that the question mark was a very convenient tool for summarizing complicated phenomena.

“Tough luck for this dungeon, though,” said Shion as she scanned their surroundings. They were standing on a low hill, but the sheer flatness of the open land around them allowed for an expansive view into the distance. “Popping up here is like asking to be discovered.”

“Did the dungeon make this hill, too?”

“Yeah, probably. It probably propped up the land for the entrance and the stairs.”

If what Shion said was true, then this was a rather daft dungeon. With nothing to obstruct the view in the vicinity, even the slightest bulge in the terrain was bound to stand out. Its location didn’t help, either. While it was some distance from the road, it was no more than a few hundred meters away. Were it in a forest or someplace with uneven terrain, it might have gotten away, but in its current state it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Renya found himself feeling a tinge of pity. Living creature or not, there was something tragic about a mere babe of a dungeon being destroyed for money so soon after its birth.

“Then again, you can’t throw a rock without hitting a couple of tragedies these days. I guess this is just another example,” he said as he gazed at the foot of the hill. “The camp is so close. Are you sure that’s safe?”

Being a rather puny hill, its foot was not very far away. Ten meters or so from the dungeon entrance, the other parties had parked their wagons and began setting up camp. Renya’s wagon was also stopped nearby, fastened to a stake they hammered into the ground.

“This place is so open. Monsters won’t come here. Animals will probably avoid us, too. We’re probably okay,” said Shion.

“What are the chances they’ll pop out of the dungeon?”

“Nah. Monsters generated by a dungeon usually stay inside it. Sometimes a big enough dungeon will undergo a phenomenon called Bursting and spit out its monsters, but we’re talking about decades of growth before that happens.”

“By the way,” Rona said, wading into their conversation, “if the two of you have finished chatting, I propose we start setting up our camp as well.”

As the evening hours approached, their surroundings grew steadily dimmer. At Rona’s urging, they descended the hill to ready their camp before the light of day faded for good. Once they reached their parked wagon, Renya reached into his inventory and began taking out the various items Rona had prepared for them.

The process deepened his appreciation for the inventory, or rather, voidbox. Having access to the skill meant they never needed to load any luggage onto their wagon. All the other parties had to suffer the fate of sharing their limited cart space with their numerous belongings, but the three of them, luxuriating in their excess of space, went so far as to lie down and take naps during the trip. In the end, however, the rocking of their vehicle proved too disruptive for any real sleep.

The first objects to appear from his inventory were a shovel and a wooden hammer, followed by a few dozen boards with triangular tips, each measuring 30 centimeters by 1 meter. Then, in the shadow of their wagon, Renya found a place that was shielded from the view of the other parties and dug a hole in the ground. Finally, he planted the boards in the ground around the hole to form a booth. DIY toilet, check.

A few steps away, he dug a second, shallower hole. By surrounding it with rocks, he turned it into a makeshift stove. Used in conjunction with a Y-shaped metal frame with a rod through the middle, he could hang a pot over it and do some cooking.

Renya had picked up the rocks around the outskirts of the city before they left. During the process, he discovered that each rock consumed one space in his inventory when he put it in, but throwing them all into a bag turned the whole thing into a “bag of rocks.” In this case, the “bag of rocks” consumed only one space no matter how many rocks it contained, defying all notions of weight and mass. That said something: the ability was so broken, it broke physics.

Next came the tent. Renya put up the posts, draped a sheet over them, anchored the stakes, and fastened the cords. If was actually a simple process for anyone who got the hang of it. Before long, he had the tent up and ready for use. As he looked it up and down, admiring his own handiwork, he realized something.

The tent.

“Hey, you think we should put up another—”

“Nah, waste of time.” Shion shot him down mid-sentence.

When a party camped out, one person was always on patrol duty. Having two gender-specific tents would mean that one was guaranteed to be empty for some portion of the night, and Shion regarded that as a waste of time. He protested this opinion, raising various concerns about having men and women under the same canopy. Sadly his efforts were in vain, ruthlessly cast aside by Shion, who declared that it didn’t matter because they were all going to be in sleeping bags anyway, and that she was perfectly fine sleeping in the same tent as him, so that was what she was going to do.

“Is there a problem?”

Renya was pretty sure there was a problem, but he found no way to argue his case. An attempt to appeal to Rona for help was met with a helpless shrug.

“We’re friends, right? You’re just sleeping next to us. It’s not like we’re torturing you or anything.”

“In a way, you could say it’s torture.”

He doubted she understood what he meant. Nevertheless, he gave up trying to argue and reached into his inventory, producing a pot and a ceramic container filled with liquid. Before they left the inn, he had asked the owner to part with some of the inn’s broth, which he kept stored in the ceramic container. It was made by thoroughly boiling a number of vegetables with animal bones and tasted something like consommé.

Renya had also brought firewood, which he placed under the pot and promptly lit with a piece of flint, which earned him a string of grievances from Shion that he steadfastly ignored. Sure, he could have requested the assistance of her Ignite spell, but it was just faster to strike up a spark.

The ingredients were next, which he started preparing using his newly-purchased knife. Vegetables were peeled, cut into appropriate pieces, and thrown into the pot. During his grocery shopping, Renya had mostly picked things that looked like root vegetables, though he recognized none of them. He simply asked for stuff that tasted good when boiled and left it up to the store owner’s judgment. The choice of meats came as a surprise to him; in addition to livestock and game, there were also plenty of monster meats for sale. At the store’s recommendation, he bought some horned rabbit meat. Supposedly it made a great stew, but he would only know for sure after he tasted it.

Once he cut up the meat into bite-sized pieces, he added them to the pot and proceeded to do a bit of stir-frying. Then, he dumped in the broth and added some water. When it came to a boil, he scooped out a bit of soup in a small dish and had a taste. He added a bit of salt and pepper, the latter of which was surprisingly prevalent in this world, and voila! A simple meat and veggie soup was complete. Add in the hard-as-rock bread they’d brought, and they had all the elements of a simple dinner. The bread was a bummer, but there was little he could do.

Renya also took out some fruits, because why not? A meal wasn’t a meal without dessert. The fruit he chose was called a necta. It was round and pale pink, and under its soft, hand-peelable skin lay juicy white flesh. Its appearance reminded him of peaches, but a bite revealed a tartish sweetness. While not what he had expected, the tanginess was refreshing, and he took a liking to the fruit.

For tableware, he brought spoons, along with plates that resembled flat bowls. Their deeper base made it harder to spill, which was convenient when eating outside. It felt uncomfortable to eat on the ground, so he reached into his inventory once again and took out a small, waist-high table.

Once he finished arranging all the food and utensils on the table, Renya noticed that people were giving him weird looks. Shion’s and Rona’s expressions were a mix of shock and awe. The others glared awkwardly at him, amazement, anger, and envy all vying for space on their faces.

Renya glanced at the other parties. The cause of their displeasure was immediately apparent. All the other raid members were sitting directly on the ground. In one hand, they held something brownish — jerky, probably — and with the other, they lightly grilled the same stiff bread as his over their campfire. They stared at him bitterly as they crunched on their warmer but solid-as-ever bread, washing each bite down with a generous gulp of water, ale, or wine.

“What?” he asked the stunned girls in his party.

“Um, I mean,” Shion said, still looking shocked, “I’m glad we have such a tasty-looking meal, but…”

“You know your way around the kitchen, don’t you, Renya?” Rona added.

“I didn’t have much time to prepare. Not my best work.”

He was lucky to have gotten the broth from the inn, but the lack of condiments left him rather dismayed. Had he the time, he would have preferred to look around and stock up on some vinegar and spices, along with sauces and herbs.

“I’ll be better prepared next time. Sorry, but you’ll have to make do with this for now. As for drinks… Damn, it’s only water or wine. I’ll have to fix that next time, too.”

“What do you mean, ‘make do?’” said a bewildered Shion. “This is practically a feast.”

Renya was aware that adventurers generally packed light when traveling. Carrying cookware was definitely out of the question. He, however, had the wonderful convenience of an inventory, and he would have been a fool to not make use of it. In fact, he’d even brought water to do the dishwashing afterwards, and it took no extra inventory space to boot. After all, “barrel” and “water-filled barrel” both occupied but a single space in the inventory.

“We’ve got chairs too, by the way. Let me know if you don’t want to stand and eat. I have three of them.”

At this point, the battle of emotions on the faces of the other raid members finally came to an end — jealousy won. Renya, meanwhile, simply began eating and paid no attention to his green-eyed compatriots. A short moment later, Shion and Rona sat down at the table, as well. They were not quite as candid in their demeanor, with the envious gazes of the other parties weighing on their conscience, but their reservations soon melted before the tantalizing aroma of their evening meal.

Renya chose to take the second patrol shift that night. Shion would go before him and Rona after. There was, in fact, a reason for this order. By the time they finished cleaning up after dinner and had a short break, there were about eight hours left before they had to get up the next morning. Assuming they went to bed soon, one person would be on patrol for two hours, and the remaining two would do three hours each. In order for Shion to do the two hours first, he had to take the second shift. By doing so, he allowed both Shion and Rona to have a relatively long period of undisturbed sleep. This was obviously because the second shift had the rather unenviable schedule of sleeping for two hours, waking up for three, then sleeping for three again. It was, in all honesty, pretty rough, and that was exactly why he couldn’t leave it to the girls.

There was, however, a problem: this world had no clocks.

Despite having no clocks, the people here did keep proper track of time, and they did so using hourglasses. He had no idea why they had hourglasses but not clocks. That was simply the way of the world here. Most adventurers carried one that measured an hour. By keeping track of how many times they flipped it, they could figure out when to switch shifts. Flip by flip, the night slowly passed, and the faintest hint of light began to appear on the horizon.

That was when they had a situation.

After finishing his patrol shift and switching with Rona, Renya crawled into his sleeping bag. He covered his eyes and ears and tried to sleep. Just as he was on the verge of falling into a light slumber, a tightness in his chest caused him to wake.

Renya opened his eyes, and the first thing he noticed was that he couldn’t move. It wasn’t the sleeping bag; he knew being bundled up reduced his movement options to squirming around. The problem was that he could barely even squirm. On top of that, or rather, on top of him, he felt some sort of weight.

The thought of someone attacking him crossed his mind, but Renya quickly dismissed it. Were it Shion on patrol, that might have been possible, but the one outside right now was Rona. While her usual airiness did little to convince him, so long as she claimed to be a knight, she was likely a practiced warrior. It seemed exceedingly unlikely that she would allow someone to sneak in unnoticed, which left only one possibility: this was the doing of someone who was in the tent to begin with.

“Okay, no way. I refuse to believe I’m living through a real-life cliche…”

The sleeping bag was effectively a human-sized drawstring purse. Its sides were padded with cotton for insulation, and cords sealed the bag near the neck to prevent the escape of air. What it lacked in comfort, it made up for in warmth. One might think that its function would make it a favorite among travelers, but on the contrary, it was extremely disliked by adventurers due to the fact that its enclosing design greatly hampered their ability to react to sudden danger.

When he had first seen them, he wished he could have made them easier to use. However, being pressed for time, he had no choice but to pack them as is, swearing to modify them on some later date. For now, he compromised by holding a knife with him as he slept so that he could carve his way out in an emergency. As a side note, the reason they were even using sleeping bags in the first place was because Renya vehemently objected to the standard adventurer sleeping protocol of simply throwing a light blanket over himself. He needed some weight on him to sleep well.

But not too much weight, which was definitely what he felt right now. Renya craned his neck forward to get a better look. There, on his chest, a head-shaped object was currently in the process of trying to dig through his rib cage, its black hair swaying to its motion. The hair, long and smooth, flowed gently down a pair of shoulders and fanned out across the back. It exuded a palpable femininity, further accentuated by the fact that it was normally tied high behind the head. Presumably, it was let down to allow for comfort during sleep. The contrast proved powerful, and Renya was shocked to discover its effeminate allure.

As for the offender’s face, the usual sharpness to its expression was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a sloppy grin. He could only wonder what kind of dreams were driving it to press itself against him and rub against his chest.

The rising wave of heat threatened to melt him from the inside out. Through sheer force of will, he held onto the last vestiges of reason that remained in him and tried to make sense of the situation.

Somehow, Shion had managed to crawl out of her sleeping bag. To her credit, she was at least wearing a shirt and pants, which would have allowed her to respond immediately if there was trouble. Their thin fabric, however, likely provided little defense against the chill of night. The correct course of action for her, then, would have been to make her way back into her sleeping bag, but he supposed he couldn’t expect that much of her when she was asleep. The action she took instead was to cling firmly to the bundle of warmth beside her.

Were said bundle Rona, everything would have been fine. Said bundle, of course, was not Rona; it was Renya. And he was in immediate danger of being seen. Things would get very thorny if Rona walked in on them right now, so he tried to get out of Shion’s clutch. Unfortunately, she had all four limbs wrapped tightly around him while he could only employ the squirming motions of a bagworm. He couldn’t even get his arms out, which made it impossible to pull her off.

To top it all off, he was getting all of the detriments of the cliche but none of the boons. Shion’s head was at his chest, which meant none of that sweet fragrance of girlhood reached his nose. His sleeping bag was also stiff and thick, robbing him of the chance to feel that tender sensation of bodies entwined. All he experienced was the decidedly unenjoyable sensation of being under an anvil. It was not just any anvil, either. It was a cursed anvil that brought with it the risk of much misunderstanding and personal harm were he ever discovered with it. He looked at Shion, then his surroundings.

Yep, definitely an anvil. And definitely cursed.

“Hey, wake up… Shion?”

“Nuuu…?”

Her odd response caused him to fall silent. For a second, it looked as if she might wake up, but she soon returned to her sleep-digging.

“Mmmneh…”

“Stop it with those weird moans already. Come on, I’m serious! Get up! If Rona sees us like this, I’m going to be in some deep sh—”

“Did… someone call me?” mumbled a slow, sleepy voice.

Renya’s head snapped toward the tent entrance, where Rona had poked her head in. Her eyelids drooped heavily. Fearing that she was moments away from channeling the shock of misunderstanding into an ear-piercing scream, he broke into a vigorous frenzy, struggling desperately to either wake Shion or escape from her embrace.

After much squirming, however, he noticed that Rona showed no reaction. She still had only her head poked in, and she still seemed sleepy. There was something unsettling about the way she stared at them, her eyes unmoving. Sensing something was wrong, he cautiously spoke up.

“H-Hey, Rona?”

“…Yeaas?”

Something was definitely wrong. Despite having gotten at least five hours of sleep, her eyelids wavered constantly, as if they were on the verge of shutting completely at any second.

“…What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong, indeed… For some reason, I feel very sleepy…”

“What? What’re you ta—”

“Mmmm… so sleepy. Shion, you look like you’re holding something nice.”

Rona looked straight at him. He felt panic beginning to set in again.

“Wait. It was like this when I woke up… I didn’t get any funny ideas or—”

“Yes… Shion’s old habit of hugging things kicked in again, didn’t it? I thought she grew out of it recently… Besides, even if you got any funny ideas… I doubt you can even pull your arm out, can you?”

He certainly could not. It was hard enough to move in the sleeping bag, and right now, Shion’s arms were like a vise on his own. The option of cutting himself out with the knife remained, but this situation seemed to lack the direness that necessitated destroying a good sleeping bag. Those things weren’t cheap.

“Rona, I can’t move. Can you get Shion off—”

“Ahhh, I want a hug pillow, too…”

“Huh?”

Renya stared at her, unable to process what she just said. Smiling her usual smile, Rona got down onto her knees and slowly made her way into the tent. The way she moved was feline and feral. He tried to back away, only to remember that he couldn’t.

“I’m… so very sleepy.”

“Hold on a damn second. What happened to patrol duty?”

“It’s so safe here… No monsters, no bandits… No one will attack us.”

Rona stretched out on the ground beside him and, mirroring Shion, wrapped herself around him from the opposite direction.

“Good night, then…”

“No! Not a good night! Damn it, wait! None of this makes any sense!”

Clamped down from both sides, Renya lost the ability to even struggle. He watched helplessly as Rona rubbed her cheek against him and mumbled.

“Don’t mine feel so much better? Shion’s are so flat. Mine are so much fuller…”

She pressed herself against him, and even through the thick wall of the sleeping bag, he could feel their softness. As it turned out, size did matter. Gradually, it started seeming a little silly to resist. He could almost convince himself to just go with the flow.

Almost.

“Wait… Flat? Full? What are you even talking about? That’s not the problem here!”

One of the two pairs of arms tightened around him. He looked in their direction to see a disgruntled Shion. The pressure on his arms and chest increased, and they started making sounds that he was pretty sure they shouldn’t be making. Meanwhile Rona, her expression smug with victory, reached over and wrapped her arms around Shion’s. Then, she pulled.

Renya’s bones began to screech.

One of them was a swordsman. The other was a knight. The former was still an apprentice, and the latter was technically self-proclaimed, but both were in the business of swinging heavy things to hit other things. Their upper body strength was not to be underestimated. With two pairs of muscular arms clutching him harder and harder, pain flared up all over his body and he yelped.

“Ow! Ow! Quit it! You’re going to break me! Let go, damn it!”

“Mmm… nah…”

“I told you already… I’m sleepy…”

As Renya grappled with the wild storm of thoughts and emotions swirling in his mind, he suddenly noticed another signal that his gut was trying to send him. It was an alert unrelated to his immediate discomfort. Something about this situation was very wrong. It was, of course, wrong enough to be stuck in the arms of two girls, but that wasn’t the problem. Something else was going on here.

Rona was supposed to be on patrol duty. Instead, she seemed to be unable to stop herself from falling asleep. For someone who at least claimed to be a knight, she must have been subject to a reasonable amount of training. She was also supposed to be guarding Shion, who apparently was some sort of highborn. There was no way a bit of sleepiness would cause someone like her to abandon her post. And yet, there she lay, hugging his sleeping bag and drifting carelessly into slumber.

This was definitely not normal. He had to free himself, even at the cost of his sleeping bag. As he tightened his grip around the knife in his hand, something hit him.

It was not something physical, but rather, a bout of drowsiness. Alarms went off in the yet-functional parts of his mind, warning him that this was absurd. His sleep schedule for the night was admittedly a bit off-kilter, but he still got in a good few hours. He should be wide awake, especially considering the situation at hand, and yet he somehow felt an almost irresistible urge to drift off.

“Is this an attack from someone? Or… something?”

If Renya fell asleep right now, he was pretty sure he would be out cold for a long while. That would leave all three of them completely defenseless, and in turn, in severe danger. As he fought desperately to stay awake, there was a voice.

“Wanna kill ’em all off before we go?”

His eyes snapped open upon hearing the word “kill.” It was as if a cold wind blew through his brain, sweeping away the haze of sleep.

“This is the only chance we’re gonna get to kill that little shit and his buddies.”

“Bad idea. It depends on how it hits, but the Sleep spell can be dispelled pretty easily by loud noises and pain. Against one person, maybe, but if they’re bunched up, I’d leave them alone.”

“Tsk. Fine. I’ll have to make do with enjoying the looks on their stupid faces later.”

People were moving around outside the tent. Their voices sounded familiar. The foul-mouthed one was Zest, and the girl who held him back was probably the party mage. Renya managed to piece together that they had cast a spell that forced nearby creatures to sleep. What he couldn’t figure out was why. In the meantime, there was a short burst of activity outside followed by a gradual return to silence.

Renya was left with nothing but questions.

Are they gone? What the heck is happening out there? Did I just hear a crack? Was that my ribs? Will I even make it out of this tent in one piece?

“They got us,” said Harz with a grimace.

Zest’s camp from last night had vanished and their whole party was gone without a trace. Unlike Harz, who looked significantly less cheerful than during their meeting at the Silver Stein Shelter, Azu wore the same stone-cold expression he always had.

As for Renya, he awkwardly scratched his left cheek, which still bore the reddened marks — fist or palm, it wasn’t clear — of percussive impact. Intrigued by the curious sight, Harz was about to inquire when he noticed one of Renya’s party members, Shion, staring at the ground while sitting stiffly with her legs under her. An intense blush made her whole face glow red. After a few moments, he took the hint: this was not the time to pry.

After Renya had shaken off that intense bout of drowsiness, he’d made a frantic and ultimately futile attempt to wake his two friends. Whether it was because of the spell, or they were simply terrible risers, they squirmed and writhed and tossed and turned but simply refused to open their eyes. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so as a last resort, he pressed his Shion-side hand against her body. Then he started groping around, trying to tickle her with his fingers. He wasn’t exactly sure where his hand was, and fear kept him from asking about it afterwards. Judging from how soft it felt, though, he had a feeling it might have been near her chest.

Renya’s session of impromptu body massage had managed to wake Shion. With eyes still half-glazed, she raised her head and looked around, grumbling under her breath. When her sleep-addled brain managed to process the implications of their relative positions and what probably felt like a rather disturbing sensation of someone’s hand on her body, a wave of color washed over her face, leaving everything red except for her now crystal-clear eyes.

Shion had raised her hand. As it curled into a fist, he remembered thinking, “It’s not my fault.”

It really wasn’t his fault, but under the circumstances, he was aware that it was necessary for him to take one to the face. As the fist hung over him like a guillotine, he had quietly hoped that all his teeth and bones were going to survive the ordeal intact. Then, it dropped. At the same time, a sudden pull from Rona’s side caused him to jerk away. He felt a light blow to his cheek before the momentum sent him rolling into the corner of the tent with Rona in tow.

The damage from a strike can be greatly lessened by propelling one’s body in the same direction as the impact. This principle was employed by Rona, who had seen Shion’s attack coming in the nick of time and pulled him away. While he owed her a good deal of thanks, he couldn’t help but think that if she had seen it coming, she could have just stopped Shion instead. Then again, thanks to their rolling embrace, various parts of their bodies came into intimate contact, and some of those parts were very soft. After some consideration, he decided that he definitely needed to thank her later.

Once their in-tent situation got under control, Renya had finally managed to crawl out of his sleeping bag. He geared up and rushed outside, only to be met with a scene of similar carnage. Some people were sprawled on the ground while others had fallen limp against their tents. Snores filled the air. A few stumbled out of their tents and shook their heads, trying to clear away the lingering drowsiness. All the other parties seemed to have been hit by the spell, as well. All except Zest’s. He, his party, and even his tent were nowhere to be seen.

“A little cutthroat, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah, their knives, our throats,” answered Harz, matching Renya’s terseness. “It’s true that young dungeons are limited in both size and depth. They also tend to generate weak monsters. Still, it’s almost always advisable to be careful and tackle them with multiple parties…”

“They probably figured they can do it themselves.”

“Probably. I doubt the treasure this dungeon has managed to accumulate is worth much, so the only prize is the dungeon core. The guardian is probably weak, as well. They must have figured this was going to be first come, first served and decided to slow the rest of the parties down.”

“Huh. Cool,” Renya said with profound indifference. They had just been beaten to the punch, yet he seemed utterly unperturbed.

One of Harz’s eyebrows shot up. “Not very upset, are you?” he inquired curiously. “Though it depends on the size, even the core of a young dungeon like this might be worth a couple dozen gold. You don’t think that’s a pretty big loss?”

“Not really.”

The brevity of Renya’s response reflected the truth in his words.

“If they’re going to clear out the dungeon by themselves,” he continued, “then by all means, go ahead. That’s great news for me. I mean, it hurts a little to lose the core, but in return, I earn the mission reward for doing absolutely nothing.”

“Truer words have not been said.”

The voice of agreement came from Azu. Harz stared at him. The look on Harz’s face suggested he was shocked. The look on Azu’s face suggested he hadn’t the slightest idea what Harz found so shocking.

“We’re getting paid to not work,” said Azu. “If anything, we should be writing thank you letters to that nice young man with the brown hair.”

“Good idea. We can read them to him when he comes back out.”

“Wow, you two…”

Their casual bantering left Harz dumbfounded. No matter how young, there was a certain degree of street cred to be gained for conquering an entire dungeon, not to mention a dungeon core was worth many times the mission reward. All of that had been ruthlessly snatched away from under their noses, and they responded with a shrug and a chuckle. The sheer disparity in their attitudes caused Harz to seriously start questioning if he was starting to fall on the other side of the generation gap. Further introspection, however, seemed like it would only baffle him more, so he put the issue out of his mind.

“What happens if they fail?” he asked, pushing his thoughts away from the lingering sense of self-doubt.

“We’ll just do it again ourselves,” answered both Renya and Azu in sync.

It seemed a fair response, but Harz was not prepared to hear what Renya had to say after that.

“Even if they fail, they’ll have cleared out a path for us. We won’t have to deal with any small fry. The only thing we’ll have to be careful of is whatever wrecked our volunteer scouting party.”

“A remarkably efficient way of looking at things. Renya, was it? I both agree with and admire the way you think. It is most rational.”

“Wait, wait, are you two serious? Aren’t you going to try to help them?”

Seeing that the two of them were finding common ground in somewhat disturbing ways, Harz hastily tried to interrupt, but they simultaneously shot him a look that said, “What? Are you serious?” His next words died in his throat, and he fell silent, wondering if he was the one who had said something crazy.

“I am not,” said Renya with disgust in his voice, “going to clean up after them. If they run off by themselves and fail spectacularly, then they can wipe their own asses.”

Azu nodded along to every word, the contempt on his face every bit equal to Renya’s.

“Amen. They’d have some nerve to come back. If they’re going to run off by themselves, they should at least have the decency to get wiped out.”

“Preferably, they all get a good hit in before they bite the dust.”

“Indeed. That way, I might actually be inclined to put a flower or two on their graves.”

“Graves? …Are you going to lug their corpses back? Because I sure won’t.”

“Good point… When the dungeon is destroyed, it’d be best if it took their corpses with it. Less trouble that way.”

“Seriously, you two…”

Nothing but sighs found their way to Harz’s lips as he shook his head at the sheer ridiculousness of the conversation. Meanwhile, a wholly unsympathetic Azu and Renya went to their respective parties to instruct them to start preparing breakfast, since they had plenty of time on their hands.

“Are you sure about this?” whispered Rona. Shion was still busy sitting and blushing, so Rona asked in her place.

Renya nodded confidently and said, “The dungeon’s not that big. I’d guess that by the time noon rolls around, for better or for worse, we’ll have a pretty good idea what happened to them.”

More importantly, he had some breakfast to prepare. Renya skillfully chopped the firewood into thin pieces before setting them aflame. Then he took out something that resembled a fry pan from his inventory and held it atop the fire. Some oil was used to ready the pan’s surface before two thick slices of bacon fell and started sizzling. After a luscious aroma began to waft from the meat, he picked up an egg. He didn’t know what it came from, but it was definitely an egg, so he cracked it into his fry pan.

Renya was of the opinion that bacon tasted better crispy, so he made sure to heat the egg and bacon thoroughly before moving them to a plate. Though he preferred soy sauce on his fried eggs, he had yet to discover a suitable replacement for soy sauce in this world. In its place, he spread some salty fish paste he found over the egg to complete the dish.

With a side of salad and some bread, it would have been a nice breakfast had the latter not possessed the texture of granite. There was little he could do about the state of breadmaking in this world, though, so he added some milk and salt — both minor luxuries in this world — to the broth from the inn and heated it a little. Then, he broke apart the bread into small chunks and stirred them into the soup. As a final touch, he sprinkled in the kernels of some sort of corn-looking plant as well, hoping to recreate the effect of croutons in corn soup. He took a small sip. It proved to be sufficiently palatable. Breakfast was then served with a plate of his bootleg corn soup and some salad, which he seasoned with a simple dressing of salt, pepper, and vinegar.

“Wow, our breakfast is fit for a king,” remarked Shion, who had finally recovered and was regarding the contents on the table.

In Renya’s opinion, however, the meal hardly seemed extravagant. Were he more proficient, he could have whipped up something far more impressive with the ingredients he procured from the inn, but that was a problem only time could solve.

“Nothing wrong with good food, right? Come on, while it’s still hot, let’s…”

He was about to say “dig in” when he felt some eyes on him and turned to look. A few steps away, Azu’s party was staring at him, transfixed. More specifically, they were staring at his table which, after last night’s mouthwatering dinner, now held an equally tantalizing breakfast. Envy oozed from their eyes. Their hands, holding the same jerky and bread as the night before, hung awkwardly in the air, the task of bringing food to mouth ostensibly forgotten.

“Is it okay if I share some with our neighbors?” he asked.

“If you’re okay with it, sure,” answered Shion.

“Certainly. I don’t mind,” said Rona.

Once he obtained their consent, Renya turned to Azu.

“Okay, you can stop ogling my table like that. I’m fine with sharing. You want some?”

“Hm… Really? It smells delicious and looks delicious, so I’d love to have some, but will we all have a share?”

“I won’t leave anyone out. That’d just be cruel. Oh, and what about that guy… Huh, where’d the other party go?”

He scanned his surroundings, but Harz’s party was nowhere to be found.

“You mean Harz’s? They went into the dungeon saying they’ll try to catch up to Zest.”

Whether that was out of compassion or greed, Renya had no idea. Either way, Harz’s party had chosen not to watch Zest’s party from the sidelines.

“A real diligent bunch, huh. Oh, I can lend you some utensils, but give them back after, okay? Also, you can have my soup, but don’t expect seconds. As for bread, you’ll have to eat your own.”

“The soup alone is blessing enough. Thank you.”

Renya had made plenty of soup to allow for seconds, but it certainly was not enough to be split among another five mouths, all of which belonged to grown men. In the process of adding stuff in to make more soup, he ran out of the broth from the inn, which ended up making it taste a bit too milky. However, Azu and his party members, who added in pieces of their bread and jerky, had nothing but praise for his soup. Renya found himself reminded of a fact of life: simple or not, nothing beat a warm, tasty meal.

“Maybe I’ll make some pasta for lunch. I’ve got vegetables, meat, pepper, and cheese, plus there’s that tomato-looking thing I picked up… Perfect, this’ll work,” he said, confident in the flavor of his recipe.

The premature end to their Silver Stein Shelter meeting had afforded him some extra time. The upside was that it allowed him to sample his raw ingredients beforehand while shopping at the market. The downside was that he had to suffer through the intense displeasure of Rona, who later showed up with four days’ worth of bread and jerky.

“How are you going to find that much water?” asked Azu.

Water for cooking was a luxury on missions, and making pasta required a lot of it. Adventurers, as a rule of thumb, did not carry barrels of water with them.

“By carrying a barrel of water with me, of course. Did I mention I have a voidbox?”

Renya even had a deep cooking pot ready to go, purchased in advance for this very purpose.

“…I propose a deal. Hear me out?” asked Azu with a serious expression. Renya grinned.

“I love myself a good deal. Let’s hear it, then. What have you got to offer? Don’t worry, I play nice.”

Negotiations went quickly and smoothly. Azu offered to give Renya something in exchange for lunch.

“I’ll impart to you a spell. Some kind of basic offensive magecraft. How about it? It’s worth a good coin or two. You look like a swordsman, so I assume you haven’t learned any offensive magecraft.”

Azu seemed to have no intention of engaging in the usual back-and-forth in an attempt to wring every last bit of benefit out of the deal. Right off the bat, he put out his best offer. Even Renya found himself a little shocked at what was proposed. Assuming what he saw on Caryl’s price list accurately reflected market value, Azu effectively just dropped fifty silver coins on the table as his initial offer. That was the equivalent of 50,000 yen — an entirely unreasonable sum for five adults to eat lunch.

“That’s a generous offer.”

“I don’t hold back. Especially considering we get to enjoy a good meal in a place like this. I owe my party members a lot. They work hard for this party,” said Azu as he glanced at his faithful meat shields. As tanks, it was their job to buy time for Azu to cast his spells. Nevertheless, Azu seemed to honestly appreciate their efforts to protect him. While his expression was aloof as always, there was a sincerity to his voice. It was the kind of thing that struck a chord with Renya, and he would have just given them the lunch for free right then and there. However, it was them who proposed the deal in the first place. It felt inappropriate to call the whole thing off.

“With that said, there are people in town who do this for a living. It wouldn’t be fair to them if I gave you too much. I ask that you keep it to one spell.”

“Understood. We have ourselves a deal,” Renya concluded. He decided that he would, perhaps, put a little extra effort into lunch.

“Let’s get this done, then. What do you want imparted?”

“Something with a lot of power in one shot… or something that’ll decrease the opponent’s mobility when I hit them with it…” he said contemplatively, recalling his exchange with Caryl. After being told that his mana pool was hopelessly small, he had undergone extensive training in an attempt to increase his total mana by repeatedly casting Illuminate. He did not, however, feel any discernible difference, and he doubted there was any meaningful improvement. While he preferred attack speed over damage, a severe restriction on the number of attacks he could perform forced him to either bet it all on one powerful hit or to ensure he could follow up with damage of a decidedly more physical nature.

When Renya explained his reasoning, Azu fell silent and thought about it for a minute.

“For power, Firebolt is probably best. To disable an opponent, there’s Iceshard, but if you’re not looking for damage, Windbind might work, too. There’s also the issue of your aptitude.”

“I had my aptitude checked by a mage called Caryl. I’m told it’s wind.”

“She checked you, huh. In that case, we can trust the result. Wind… That means it’s either Windblade or Windbind.”

Azu proceeded to explain that Windblade harnessed the power of wind to rend a target, whereas Windbind sent it swirling around an opponent to slow their movements. He also mentioned that Windbind seemed a better fit for Renya, and that he did not recommend Windblade.

“It’s far weaker than Firebolt. Our frontline shielders can shrug it off even without any defensive magecraft.”

Renya nodded. They were, after all, basic spells. Even the more powerful Firebolt could do little more than scald in the face of heavy armor.

“My recommendation remains Firebolt. It’s easy to use and works on most things.”

“I’ll defer to your expert advice, then. Let’s go with that.”

Once Renya decided, Azu dug through his belongings and took out a piece of paper. It was the same kind as the one Caryl used, and he promptly stuck it on Renya’s forehead.

“Impart Firebolt.”

The paper on Renya’s forehead disappeared, and a familiar message appeared in view. He accepted the request.

“The incantation is ‘By my power, I command thee. Bolts of fire, fly.’”

“Will I slowly gain more mana by using this over and over, as well?”

“I see you’ve been told about that method. Yes, you will. Total mana will naturally increase as you continue to cast spells. However, it’s generally understood that you won’t gain much more than what you were born with…”

Azu grimaced a little as he spoke. It was presumably out of consideration for Caryl’s declaration that Renya’s mana pool was tiny.

“Well, it is what it is. As long as I can fire off a shot, it’ll give me more options. I’ll have to be satisfied with that.”

“By the way,” asked Azu curiously, “what’s the max number of Illuminates you’ve managed to cast?”

“Let me think about that…” Having never counted, Renya did some mental math. His last incantation macro was a sixteen-fold simultaneous casting, but he never paid any attention to how many times it activated before stopping. “The Simulcast was sixteen times per cast, and it activated sixty times in an hour without draining all my mana, so…”

“…What?”

“Probably at least 960 times?”

As soon as Azu heard the number, his expression froze. The effect was compounded by his already-stiff countenance, making it seem as if he’d turned into a statue. Taken aback by the sudden petrification, Renya wondered if he had said something strange. Moments later, the answer came to him. He had been told that his mana pool was hopelessly small, so Azu must have been left speechless by his sheer ineptitude, managing a mere 960 times even after training.

“What can I say? I guess I have no talent…” Renya said with a sigh. He figured that it was a waste, considering he had a strong aptitude for wind. Before he could speak again, however, he was cut off by Azu, who seized on his words with the intensity of a hungry predator.

“No talent? Do you even understand the words that are coming out of your mouth?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just not cut out for this kind of thing, I guess.”

“Quit your yapping. Now, listen to me. What I’m about to tell you, you keep to yourself. Understand?”

Azu lowered his voice and leaned in, bringing his face close to Renya, who found the distance very unpleasant but nodded. The gravity of Azu’s look compelled him to do so.

“First, you mentioned Simulcast, right?”

“Uh, right. Yeah.”

“Simulcasting spells is something that I also happen to be able to do… except my limit is twice.”

“Hm?”

The professional mage just said he could only cast two spells at once. If that was true, what was the meaning of his sixteen-fold simultaneous activation?

“Then, there’s the number of activations. If I were to use Illuminate continuously without rest, I’d mostly run out of mana after a hundred casts.”

Renya gave Azu a good, hard look. Nothing suggested the mage was lying. At the same time, he found Azu’s words difficult to believe. It made no sense that he, whose lack of mana was Caryl-certified, would have almost ten times as much as Azu, who was a professional. And that ten-times figure was with plenty of leeway. However, he knew his own words to be true, as well.

“…What the heck is going on?” murmured Renya.

“Damned if I know,” said Azu with a shake of his head. “Normally I’d assume the assessment was wrong, but Caryl wouldn’t make a mistake.”

It was also not the fruits of his training, seeing as Azu just said that the returns from training were minimal. The only explanation that came to mind was the package of skills he got when he first came to this world. He did ask the girl to make it such that training would pay off for him. Upon remembering that, the pieces fell into place. Azu, of course, had no way of following his train of thought and remained puzzled.

“I can’t tell you how this happened,” said Azu as he retreated from Renya’s personal space, “but let’s assume it’s true. In that case, there’s going to be no end to your troubles if people find out about it.”

“Well, you know about it already. Aren’t you included in ‘people?’”

“I… have no interest in spreading gossip.”

There was a hint of movement at the corner of his stony profile, right where the lips met. It occurred to Renya that the mage had just smiled.

“That’s good to know. Thanks for the word of caution.”

“No need for thanks… though I wouldn’t mind a more generous portion of pasta at lunch.”

“Consider it done.”

While his inventory was not overflowing with pasta, Renya had calculated the portions based on his own appetite. Now that he knew Shion and Rona to be fairly small eaters, he figured it would be okay to give Azu’s party a little more.

“I’m so bored…” mumbled Shion.

After concluding their deal and exchanging some information, the two parties found that they had nothing in particular to do. Neither Renya nor Azu showed the slightest interest in exploring the dungeon before having lunch, so a mandatory downtime befell the other members.

Azu, having informed his party of the outcome of their deal, had produced a mat from his belongings, along with a number of books. Currently, he was sitting on the mat and reading his books in silence. This was apparently standard fare for him, as his party members showed no particular surprise and went about their own activities, some basking in the sun while others napped.

As for Renya, he had run out of the broth from the inn and was currently in the process of replacing it. With his big pot of water set atop the campfire, he threw in some vegetables and meat and began the time-consuming process of simmering. He was going to prepare two sauces for lunch: one with the tomato-like vegetable, and the other with cheese and milk. Neither, however, was possible without a soup base. He didn’t need much, so he employed a slow boil with only a handful of ingredients, taking care to add more water from time to time so the soup would not boil down. While boiling down made for a thicker soup, it would also lose the finer points of its flavor. What was important, he told himself, was how well it drew out the taste of the meat and vegetables. Convinced by his own words, he continued his vigil of the soup.

Rona seemed intent on simply going with the flow. Currently, she was inside the tent, having announced that she would be asleep until further notice.

Shion had been watching Renya work, but she soon lost interest.

“What do you want me to do? They already paid to have me cook lunch, and preparations are the most important part of cooking.”

“We… did come here to clear a dungeon, right?” asked Shion, who was growing increasingly suspicious of the picnic-like atmosphere.

“Relax. There’s no point getting all tense when you don’t need to,” said Renya as he skimmed the broth.

“There has to be some tension, hasn’t there?”

“Maybe.”

Maybe they were indeed a little too relaxed. That did not, however, mean he was going to divert any attention away from making lunch. After a good boil, the tomato substitute was peeled and pressed into a paste to be added to the soup, joining a vegetable paste that was already in the pot. Next came the herbs for seasoning, followed by some extra boiling down for a nice, thick texture. Thin strips of meat and a dab of salt were the final touch to bring his soup to completion.

The cheese sauce was made with a combination of milk and the soup. Once he tweaked the taste with salt and pepper, he threw in a big wad of cheese and warmed it until it was a molten pile of cheesy delight. Then, he diced up some vegetables to add in.

Renya had acquired noodle-shaped pasta for the trip, so he put those into his big pasta pot after the water inside had come to a boil. It was widely said that pasta should retain the firmness of a strand of hair, but he didn’t like it that way. Instead, he let it sit in the pot until it was soft and thoroughly boiled.

He took two deeper plates and put one sauce in each. A third, larger plate was used to hold the pasta. Then, he laid out the plates for the diners, and setup was finally done. All that remained was for each person to take a serving of pasta and apply their sauce of choice.

Of course, eight people’s worth of pasta could not be cooked in one go. He had barely set the plate down and took a breath before finding it empty again. Resigning himself to being perpetual stirrer of the pasta pot, he glanced at the rapidly disappearing pile and decided that the thought of his cooking being enjoyed was reward enough.

Renya’s stock of pasta quickly dwindled to less than half. That was to be expected, though. The amount of food he brought was meant for him, Shion, and Rona — a party of one guy and two girls. He had meant to account for unforeseen circumstances by bringing some extra, but feeding five extra men still proved difficult. If anything, as the person who purchased everything in the first place, he was surprised to find that he still had a little less than half remaining. Past-Renya definitely deserved a medal for foresight.

He kept himself busy washing all the utensils. Not only did the dishes need to be cleaned and dried, so did the pots and knives. Otherwise, with the general lack of hygiene in this world, they were practically asking for a bout of diarrhea. Nothing tasted good when one had diarrhea. Everything had to be washed, wiped, and fully dried. For Renya, such considerations were the commonest of common sense for someone who worked with food. Using a pristine cloth, he ran it up and down the length of each utensil as he idly gazed at his surroundings.

It was a satisfying sight.

Content diners lay strewn on the ground. Some were stretched out on a mat, while others slept on bare earth. All of them, however, were basking in the warm glow of the afternoon sun with rounded bellies. The scene was the very definition of peace.

Unfortunately, other matters kept him from joining in. Beside him, Azu seemed be thinking of the same thing as he helped Renya wipe the dishes dry.

“They… don’t seem to be coming back,” he whispered, his volume inaudible to the others. There was no hint of concern in his voice. He was merely stating a fact.

“They sure don’t.” Renya nodded. He kept washing.

He was told that young dungeons were limited in size, but he had no reference with which to comprehend that fact. Was it normal, then, for parties of reasonable rank to spend a couple of hours in what was supposedly a small dungeon and still not come out? There was no way for him to tell. How could he? Dungeons, after all, did not even exist in his previous world. A lack of knowledge left him with a lack of options. How could he go about fixing that? Simple. He would need to borrow knowledge from someone who had it.

“O Azu of the sagely mind, could you, dear master, perhaps lend me some of your wisdom?”

While he made it sound easy, Renya was essentially asking someone to provide information for free. To soften the blow, he tried his best to sugarcoat his approach. To his surprise, Azu did not bite.

“Cut that out. It’s creepy and you’re going to make me drop a plate. Not that I care, though, since it’s your plate,” protested Azu as he took a small step away. His mask of indifference was shattered, revealing an expression of pure disgust.

Technically, Renya meant to ask a serious question, but he decided that seeing such displeasure on Azu’s face was, while unexpected, actually slightly satisfying. He didn’t want to lose a plate, though.

“What do you want to know? And ask like a normal person.”

“Is it normal for two parties to spend several hours in a small dungeon?”

Renya couldn’t tell how long Harz’s party had been inside, since he didn’t know when they entered, but Zest’s party had definitely been gone for at least five hours. Azu, who seemed to have been pondering the same thing, responded swiftly.

“It’s not exactly normal, but not too strange either.”

As he spoke, Azu handed Renya a spotless plate and began wiping another one. The deftness with which he handled them attested to the fact that he was normally in charge of cooking and cleaning for his four armored protectors.

“It’s not uncommon for even a small dungeon to be time-consuming. You might, for example, run into a Guardian that’s not particularly powerful, but surprisingly resilient.”

“I see.”

“However, in that case, given that we have extra manpower here, they should be sending someone to call for reinforcements while the others hold the line. That’s not a difficult plan to come up with.”

No matter how tough an enemy is, it would fall more quickly with a large number of people all pummeling it together. Were they alone, they would have to deal with it themselves, but it would be absurd not to call for help when reinforcements were waiting right outside.

“Hm, I see.”

“It hurts me a little when I consider that the moron with the brown hair might actually be too stupid to figure that out, but there’s no way Harz would be that obtuse.”

“I see, I se— Wait, is it just me or did I just hear some venom in your words?”

Catching himself before the opportunity passed, Renya inserted a well-timed quip. It failed to garner a reaction from Azu, who ignored it without the slightest change in expression.

“In conclusion, I suspect that something might have happened,” he said, finishing both his train of thought and the wiping of a plate. He handed it to Renya, who inspected it to ensure it was fully dry before putting it away in his inventory.

“I have yet to figure out what our plan of action should be,” Azu continued.

“The two early bird parties are both higher-ranked than us, too.”

“I doubt we’ll be of much use even if we showed up, but the only other alternative is to continue our picnic here.”

“I’ve still got some food left.”

Back when Renya was preparing for the mission, he had spent most of his time acquiring food. His purchases of food and tools had cost him almost all of his money, including the proceeds from the sale of manastones. He was left with but three gold coins. A portion of that cost went to paying Rona back for buying things such as rope, a tinderbox, and a lantern.

“We do too, though it’s nothing but stiff bread and jerky.”

They tasted as bad as they sounded, but that was how the adventuring life usually was. With much more emphasis placed on equipment and tools, logic dictated that adventurers would choose foods that were light and compact. Meanwhile, Renya defied logic by prioritizing taste and bringing things like raw vegetables and milk, which were not only bulky, they also went bad very quickly.

“Not exactly optimal picnic food. I mean, you can keep using ours, but I’ve only got so much.”

“I’d love to, but I’d start running out of things to pay with, as well. Which means…”

“It’s time to get this over with,” said the two of them at the same time.

They stared at each other. Then, they looked away at the same time again.

“Hm, hm, I see. I think I can get used to this.”

“I was under the impression that you and that moron with the brown hair were the same sort, but I’m happy to be proven wrong. Indeed, it’s nice to be with someone who knows what’s going on.”

“What made you think I had anything in common with that?”

“The fact that you have nothing but women in your party?” said Azu, looking as if he just answered a very obvious question.

Renya gave a wry smile. It seemed that not all of the problems associated with an all-female party were solved by introducing a male member. However, an attempt to recruit another guy into their party would probably meet with fierce resistance from Rona. That was unlikely to succeed.

“We need to decide on objectives. I’m not a fan of barging in thoughtlessly.”

“We’ll be investigating the dungeon and confirming the status of the parties that preceded us. Conditions for retreat should be…”

“When we discover evidence that suggests survival of the preceding parties is exceedingly unlikely, or when we run into the cause of said unlikeliness.”

At the end of his sentence, Azu handed him the last plate. Renya looked it over. Not a drop of water remained; the man did good work.

“All right. Let’s do some work. I assume ‘We found the higher-ranked parties and they were all dead’ is a good enough reason to abandon the mission?” he asked, implicitly suggesting that he quite liked the thought of such a development.

“Definitely.” Azu nodded. “Asking us to do otherwise would be the same as ordering us to die.”

“It’s decided, then. Shion! Rona!”

Upon hearing their names called, the two of them quickly got up. Considering they were napping soundly moments before, the speed at which they reacted was impressive. It reminded him of the way a cat’s ears shot up when it heard its name.

“Start packing up. We’re heading into the dungeon.”

“You guys start preparing, too. We’re going in with Renya’s party.”

At Azu’s command, his fellow members began arming themselves. As tanks, their equipment consisted of metallic plate mail and massive shields. Despite all their heavy gear, what drew Renya’s eye was their weapons. They all carried small swords that were short and easy to wield.

“Surprised?” asked Azu, noticing the object of his fascination.

For a while Renya said nothing, his eyes fixated on the swords. Afterwards, he slowly shook his head.

“You put some thought into those.”

For obvious reasons, trying to kill someone in a suit of plate mail by beating on their armor with a sword would be an exercise in frustration. Only in the world of novels and manga did one see those devastating strikes that ripped through both man and armor alike. Normally, the only effective methods for fighting an opponent in plate mail were attacking the gaps in their armor or knocking them out with a strong impact. Knowing this, these four probably employed a battle formation in which each of them could use their defensive capabilities to stave off enemy attacks while counting on the others to stab the enemy with their nimble shortswords. If all four of them were forced to defend, Azu would provide the offensive power with his magecraft.

“We’re not knights. We don’t care about how we fight. Some of us slow them down while the others finish them off. As long as we can do this properly, we’ll be fine.”

Rona showed a brief scowl at the mention of knights, but Azu did not notice.

“Renya, we’re done,” said Shion.

She wore her usual shirt and bloomy pant-dress with a steel chestplate and headguard. Her boots and leather arm guards were reinforced with iron plates. On the whole, the way she dressed had a very Japanese feel — so much so that he started wondering who was actually more Japanese. Beside her stood Rona, donning the same battle-ready attire he’d seen on the horse wagon.

Both of them carried small backpacks that held medicine, bandages, water bottles, and light rations. Though Renya felt his own presence negated the need to carry such items, he conceded that unforeseen circumstances might cause them to become separated. If they put all their eggs in one void-basket and he wasn’t with them when trouble struck, they’d be sitting ducks.

After seeing that the two girls were ready, Renya took his own equipment out of his inventory. The copper-lined armor and arm guards, both made of leather, were simple ones from a store. He eschewed a helmet, finding that it obstructed his view. He wore boots like Shion and Rona, but unlike those of the girls’, his were plain and not fortified with plates. Metal was only used to protect the soles from being penetrated. His weapon was the katana obtained from the trade with Kirie. As soon as he pulled it from his inventory, it became the center of everyone’s attention.

“That’s… a curious shape for a weapon. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything like it before,” said Azu.

“The blade’s so slender… It’s got a beautiful form, but…” added Shion.

Renya wasn’t entirely sure what made the weapon so fascinating. Scratching his head at their comments, he wrapped the sword belt he picked up in town around his waist and hung the katana on it.

A metal fixture on the belt held the scabbard in place, and he could flick a clasp with his finger to quickly detach the scabbard in times of need. Based on the kinds of weapons that were prevalent in this world, he wasn’t expecting to see anything with this kind of intricate gimmick, but to his surprise, it took him little time to find one in a store. When he inquired, he was told that sword belts with such mechanisms were fairly prevalent due to the need to quickly remove weapons in situations such as when one fell into a large body of water. While it seemed to have been designed with a different reason in mind, it was more than sufficient for his purposes, so he bought it. With Rona’s money. Because he was all but broke after his grocery spree. No one else needed to know about that, though.

“What are we going to do with the wagons?”

“The horses should be safe from monsters around here. As long as the wagons are tied down, we can leave them here. It should be fine if we’re only gone for two or three hours.”

“I see. All right, then. Is everyone ready?”

The two girls nodded. Renya noticed Azu’s party members nodding, as well. He turned to look at Azu, only to find that even the mage was nodding at him.

“Uh… What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what?’ You’re a swordsman. I’m a mage. It goes without saying that you’re better suited to be the leader in this case.”

“Why?”

“It goes without saying, so I’m not saying it,” declared Azu with a look that dared Renya to challenge him.

Renya wasn’t quite sure whether to take this as Azu expressing trust or evading responsibilities. He sighed. Might as well assume the glass was half full. Everyone was probably better off that way.

“Fine. I’ll make the calls, then. Tell me if it ever becomes a problem.”

“Sure. Are you guys okay with that, too?” asked Azu, turning to his party members for confirmation. Four full-faced helmets of steel tilted up and down in unison. None of them showed any signs of reservation.

“Good. We’ll head off once we get the torches ready.”

For the first time in his two lives, Renya was going on a dungeon raid. That seemed like not the best time to be put in charge of a whole operation. Nevertheless, it would not do to let that show. With a look of supreme confidence that belied the butterflies in his stomach, Renya ordered his seven raid members into action.