「It seems like there aren’t a lot of people entering the dungeon today.」


  「Mm. It’s probably……no, definitely because of the attack on the Silva family.」


  While walking towards the dungeon, Rei commented about how the number of adventurers heading there were much fewer than usual.

  Set was next to him while Yellow, Elena’s familiar, was back at the inn again because it couldn’t stand the desert heat.

  「Aside from that……we’re also late to the dungeon today because we stopped by the Silva family residence.」


  「Yeah, I guess that’s true. 」


  Rei nodded at Elena’s words.

  It was natural to use as much time as possible to earn money, so the more time that passed, the fewer adventurers there would be heading for the guild.

  That was probably why there were fewer adventurers heading for Exil’s dungeon at this time.

  Rei had made it a sort of routine to head for the dungeon early in the morning. That said, when he had been back in Gilm, he would usually head for the guild after the number of people started to decrease.

  Walking along while conversing, they stopped at the usual skewer stall.

  「Oh, are you going to enter the dungeon today? There’s a lot going on in the city.」


  Rei nodded at the owner, who offered them Lizardmen skewers as soon as he saw them without even needing to take an order.

  「Yeah, Elena and I came here for the dungeon. ……But, there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of adventurers heading for the dungeon today?」


  「That’s right. I don’t know the exact number as I haven’t bothered to count, but there are definitely fewer adventurers heading for the dungeon. It’s probably because of yesterday’s incident.」


  The shopkeeper replied with a sigh.

  The owner probably knew about last night’s incident and also knew that the Silva family was searching for clues and the criminals throughout the city.

  (No……)

  Thinking up to that point, Rei shook his head.

  At the end of his line of sight were several adventurers who seemed to be from the Silva family.

  (It might be important to find the criminals, but isn’t this a little overkill?)

  With those thoughts in mind, Rei, Elena, and Set finished their skewers, paid for them, and left the stall.

  「There might be a lot going on……but it’s dangerous in many ways for us to be involved in Exil’s power struggle.」


  Murmuring, Elena gave a sigh as she turned a melancholy gaze to the buzz around her.

  「I hope the power struggle doesn’t hurt the general public.」


  「That will probably be fine. At the very least, Vosk wouldn’t do anything that would cause unnecessary chaos in Exil, since he governs it. If he does do anything, it will be very quick.」


  「I hope so……」


  Hearing Rei’s words didn’t lessen her anxiety.

  (Am I just over concerned?)

  Certainly, as Rei had said, Vosk wouldn’t do anything that would cause unnecessary confusion. But that was only Vosk. They didn’t know if the rest of the Silva family’s forces thought the same way, and above all, considering Schaffner’s character, Rei and Elena could predict he would cause some kind of commotion. ……No, rather, in some ways, it would be more accurate to say they couldn’t predict what he would do.

  「Any how, it’s not up to us to do anything about Exil, that’s for the people of Exil to decide. All we need to do is to keep entering the dungeon like our original plan.」


  「……That’s right. I’m sorry Rei for worrying you.」


  「Gurururu~?」


  Are you feeling okay? Set seemed to ask as he rubbed his face against Elena. She gave a smile as she gently stretched out her hand to stroke Set’s head.

  「Guru~」


  Set gave a happy cry as his head was stroked.

  Nearly half the people around him were astonished to see that expression on Set while the other half had a smile on their faces.

  It hadn’t been long since they had come to Exil. But even so, Set’s friendliness had become well known to those who knew Rei.

  That said, this might also be because Rei and Elena only passed through certain places.

  Because they always went past the same places, they met the same people many times. After seeing exchanges between Rei, Elena, and Set several times, they finally got used to it.

  Showing their dungeon cards to the gatekeeper, they entered the plaza at the dungeon entrance.

  There were adventurers there, but not a lot.

  「……I guess they’re still the same, despite everything going on.」


  Rei muttered and frowned slihgtly as he turned to look towards a group of believers from the Church of Holy Light gathered in a part of the plaza.

  「I don’t think it’s worth worrying about. The fact is their hiring cost is high, but there is no reason to blame them if there are still people willing to hire them. It would be a different matter if people were forced to hire them, but they are just individually hired by adventurers.」


  At the corner of Elena’s sight, two adventurers were talking with the group from the Church of Holy Light.

  Their faces were familiar to Rei. They were the ones who had formed temporary parties with various other adventurers in the plaza before.

  Because of yesterday’s attack, there were much fewer adventurers around and they had no choice but to hire adventurers fromm the Church of Holy Light.

  「Well, they’re them. We are us. In our case, we’re not lacking in strength. If there’s anything we’re missing, it’s a thief, but even then, there aren’t many traps on the 12th floor, so we don’t have to worry about it.」


  They couldn’t say there weren’t any traps, as they had been told there were some, but they were few in number.

  「That’s true, the fact that there are so few people is also something I like to see. Especially because……」


  Rei glanced over at Set.

  Elena understood what he meant and gave a small nod as she lightly patted Rei’s shoulder through the Dragon Robe as they immediately went over to the transfer device.

  「The rocky desert is the same as always.」


  Those were Rei’s first words after arriving on the 12th floor and walking out the room with the magic circle.

  Maybe due to the rain that had fallen the previous night, the temperature had felt hot and uncomfortable in Exil, but on the 12th floor, the air was dry.

  It was hotter than Exil in terms of pure heat, but it was stil much more comfortable.

  That said, it was probably because they were wearing magic items such as the Dragon Robe and desert cloak, that could regulate their temperature to a certain extent.

  「Now then, the first thing we need to do is to absorb magic stones.」


  Before Rei could say anything, Elena spoke first.

  She had expected it after their brief exchange outside the dungeon.

  「Yeah, there’s the Spear Frog magic stones I got yesterday.」


  Aside from two Spear Frog magic stones, the guild had bought all the other materials after they handed over the corpse of the abnormal species.

  Because the Silva family had discussed it with them prior, the guild purchased the materials at a premium compared to the usual price, as promised in advance.

  Moving to the location they had previously used to absorb magic stones, Rei immediately took out a Spear Frog’s magic stone.

  「Now then……I hope we can learn some new skills. ……Set!」


  「Gururu~!」


  When Rei called out and tossed out the magic stone, Set caught it in his beak before swallowing it.

  【Set has acquired the skill 『Water Ball　Lv.3』】


  An announcement flowed through his mind.

  「Gurururu~!」


  Set gave a joyful cry at the skill upgrade.

  Smiling happily at Set, Rei patted him on the head while thinking in his mind.

  (Water Ball? Why Water Ball? It’s true that the Spear Frogs are frog like monsters, but they live in the desert and didn’t use any water based attacks or magic. ……I guess that’s not really a problem considering we’ve absorbed other magic stones and ended up learning skills different to what we expected.)

  「Rei, what skill did Set learn?」


  As Rei was thinking to himself, Elena spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

  「Water Ball levelled up.」


  「Hmm, levelled up? That’s interesting, but I would have liked to see Set learn a whole new skill.」


  Elena looked disappointed while Rei shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile.

  「If he learned a new skill from the Spear Frog, maybe it would be an offensive skill that would stretch his tongue? In that case, the tip of Set’s tongue might become sharped, pointed and able to stretch out further like rubber before piercing into the enemy……would you like to see something like that?」


  At Rei’s words, Elena closed her eyes for a few seconds to imagine it before shaking her head.

  「That wouldn’t look good on Set.」


  「Guru~?」


  Her words came out with a sigh, but Set himself didn’t seem to understand. He just tilted his head as he gave a cry.

  「……Set……no, anyway, Water Ball has been upgraded. Let’s see it right away.」


  Rei also imagined Set’s tongue stretching out to pierce an enemy like a Spear Frog and immediately spoke to Set to shift the topic.

  「Gururu~, Gurururururu~!」


  The next moment after his cry, two water balls appeared in front of Set.

  The water balls, which had originally been 30cm in diameter, were now 40cm in diameter. At the same time, the speed at which they moved in front of Set was much faster than before.

  「Has the size and speed increased? Then, all that remains is its power……Set.」


  「Gururu~!」


  With a sharp cry, the water balls shot out, crisscrossing each other as they sped forward, eventually hitting a nearby large rock, shattering its surface.

  「Not only has the size of the water balls increased, their power and speed have also increased. It’s also able to move more freely now.」


  「When I heard you say water balls, I hadn’t expected it to be so powerful. I didn’t expect it to be able to shatter rocks.」


  「Guru~?」


  Rei was impressed and Elena surprised by the power of the water balls. As for Set, who had a proud expression on his face? He just tilted his head with a cry.

  Elena patted Set and Rei gave him some dried meat from the Misty Ring.

  A few minutes as Rei and Elena patted Set before Rei stood up and and moved away from Set before taking out the Death Scythe and another magic stone from the Misty Ring.

  「Since Set’s water ball was upgraded……I guess I can learn something too……!」


  Throwing the magic stone into the air, he struck it with the Death Scythe. The magic stone was instantly cut apart by the attack that seemed to cut through space itself before disappearing like mist.

  Perhaps remembering the moment he had absorbed the magic stone of the abnormal species, Rei braced his body in case anything happened.

  But……


  「……Nothing, I guess?」


  Muttering in a voice that sounded both relieved and disappointed, Rei lowered the Death Scythe.

  「Guru~?」


  Are you okay? Set seemed to ask. While stroking Set, who asked with a cry, Rei nodded his head to show there was no problem.

  In the first place, the possibility of acquiring a skill from absorbing a magic stone using the Magic Beast Art was heavily reliant on luck, even if there seemed to be some rules of sorts.

  He couldn’t help but be slightly sad every time he couldn’t learn a new skill. With the hand that wasn’t stroking Set, he stored the Death Scythe back into the Misty Ring.

  「It’s a pity that I couldn’t learn any new skills, but it can’t be helped now it’s done. In that case, we should explore the 12th floor……」


  Just as he said that, the sound of Rei’s stomach rumbling echoed out.

  It seemed to say ‘I’m hungry, bring me food’.

  「Fu-fufufu-……Rei, you’ll only have a hard time exploring the dungeon while hungry. Considering the time, it’s a little early, but it’s still close to noon. Why don’t we eat here?」


  「……All aright.」


  Let’s challenge the dungeon now! As soon as he said that, his stomach started to rumble. While sighing with a pitiful expression, Rei took out a lunch basket he had gotten from the in out from the Misty Ring.

  It was mostly sandwiches, but there was also a large number of other foods inside the basket.

  As one would expect from the Golden Wind inn, a high class inn, the quality of the food and effort that went into making the lunch basket that held enough food for both Rei and Elena to eat was unquestionable.

  (I think……it will be fine without the magic tent?)

  Looking at the surroundings, Rei decided there was no need to take out the magic tent as they were already located in the shade of a large rock, where it would be difficult for any enemies to find them. Washing their hands with water from the Dagger of Flowing Water, they quenched their thirst before eating the lunch basket.

  ************************************************

  【Set】


  『Water Ball Lv.3』 new 『Fire Breath Lv.3』 『Wind Arrow Lv.1』 『King’s Awe Lv.1』 『Poison Claw Lv.4』 『Size Transformation Lv.1』 『Tornado Lv.1』 『Ice Arrow Lv.1』 『Optical Camouflage Lv.1』


  Water Ball: Shoots two water balls with a diameter of 40cm. They can fly freely through the air to a certain extent and, if they hit a rock, can shatter its surface.