Chapter 4 First Dungeon

The day of the raid on the hobgoblins.

We went to Old Man Garth’s forge.

Because the scabbard we wanted was ready.

“Yo, sorry for the wait. Here it is.”

『Whoa, so this is my scabbard!』

Old Man Garth handed us a chic scabbard made of dyed black leather.

It was plain, but the st.i.tching was excellently done so it didn’t look shabby.

“Here, Master.”

『Yeah. Then here I go…』

I quickly flew into the scabbard that Fran was holding at eye level.

Shwoop.

『Whoa…』

It really calmed me down.

It was the same feeling as when I went into the pedestal.

Though I may have felt comfortable in the pedestal because it was similar to a scabbard.

『Ahh…』

I let out an entirely pleased sound as if I had just entered a warm bath.

But it really did feel good.

I never imagined a sword would have the desire to be inside a scabbard.

And maybe it was because of Old Man Garth’s excellent craftsmans.h.i.+p, but my body fit perfectly inside. It was like being wrapped in blankets and added to my sense of tranquility.

I wanted to stay inside the scabbard. That was how much it calmed me.

『Old Man Garth. This is the best. Absolutely amazing.』

“Kuhaha. I’m glad to hear you like it.”

“Master, you look happy.”

『Yeah. It’s a good scabbard.』

Garth laughed like a mischievous kid and put his hand on the scabbard.

“Since I would’ve gotten bored of making just a normal scabbard, I installed a small function to it.”

『What? Are you serious, Lon Berk?!』 (tn: Intensely obscure reference to Dragon Quest: Dai’s Great Adventure)

“Lon Berk? Who’s that?”

『Sorry, I was too excited.』

He installed something on the scabbard? It didn’t seem like the scabbard had anything like that.

“You see the metal fixture right there?”

“I do.”

“If you take it off, then——.”

Click.

“The scabbard split open.”

“That’s right. That way it’s easy to get out of the scabbard using Telekinesis even without the little lady’s help.”

『Oho, this is nice. And it’s easy to put the scabbard back to normal.』

By pressing the sides together with Telekinesis and putting the metal fixture back to normal, the scabbard could immediately turn back to its original form.

“It’s convenient.”

“Right?! It was tough to make it strong as well.”

Even though he’s a blacksmith, he was able to make the highest quality leather goods as well. He really is a master blacksmith.

『I thank you very much and kindly accept it.』

“Yeah. Do your best. If you find any good materials, bring them here! Well, the dungeon only popped up a bit ago so I don’t expect much.”

“Dungeons can form all of a sudden?”

“Yeah, that’s right. You didn’t know?”

Fran tilted her head to the side. I also had no idea how dungeons formed.

“The G.o.d of Chaos creates them sometimes as a trial for humanity.”

『I didn’t know.』

“G.o.d of Chaos? Different from a death G.o.d?”

“So you don’t know that, either. Here, I’ll explain.”

After saying that, Old Man Garth started by telling us a myth.

“Simply put, this world was created by 88 G.o.ds. Among them, there were 10 particularly powerful ones.”

First, the G.o.d of the Sun, the G.o.d of the Moon, the G.o.d of the Sea, the G.o.d of the Earth, the G.o.d of Fire, the G.o.d of Weather, the G.o.d of Forests, and the G.o.d of Beasts created the world.

Then, the G.o.d of the Netherworld established the cycle of birth and rebirth, the natural order of the world.

The 78 children G.o.ds expanded the world their parent G.o.ds created by bringing a large variety of beings.

“Children G.o.ds?”

“Yeah. The more well known among them are the G.o.d of the Forge, the G.o.d of the Sword, the G.o.d of Darkness, the G.o.d of Cooking, and more.”

And last of all, as its name suggests, the G.o.d of Chaos spread chaos about the world.

But according to Old Man Garth, that chaos was a trial necessary to keep the world from stagnating.

We understood that very well. That it’s only by overcoming adversity that we can experience the greatest growth.

Just like how Fran grew after fighting the goblins.

Could the G.o.d of Chaos be one of the Buddhist G.o.ds? Well, I couldn’t imagine that being the case based on its name.

“And the Death G.o.d?”

“The Death G.o.d was originally the G.o.d of War. But drunk off its strength, it tried to take over the rest of the world until the other G.o.ds waged war against it and defeated it. They say that its grudge was so powerful that the scattered pieces of its corpse acc.u.mulated curses, and that the Death G.o.d was born from there.”

“I see.”

“Dungeons are seen as one of the trials created by the G.o.d of Chaos. Within them are Dungeon Masters, the descendants of the G.o.d of Chaos, and apparently they strive to spread chaos.”

Dungeon Masters, huh. So beings like them exist as well. I wonder if they have magic crystals.

There’s a high possibility that they have all kinds of skills as well.

“This is still being researched, but apparently when a Dungeon first shows up, a Core forms as well. And that when that Core forms, the living being closest to it is devoured and then turned into the Dungeon Master.”

“It seems like some of them will be weak and some will be strong.”

“That’s right. A Dungeon’s level of difficulty varies widely depending on the Dungeon Master. If an unintelligent animal becomes the Dungeon Master, then the Dungeon’ll be easy to take care of.”

“Are there any super strong Dungeon Masters?”

“Like dragons, orcs, or c.o.c.katrices. As long as there’s some kind of living being, it can possibly become a Dungeon Master.”

“Even people?”

“Of course. In the past, several human-race Dungeon Masters were confirmed.”

So people can become masters of a Dungeon. That sounds like a pain.

“In truth, even if people call them a G.o.d’s trial, it’s more an annoyance than anything.”

People could die, so that was no surprise. There were probably few people like us who wanted to fight.

“Mind, Dungeons also have some rare demonic beasts, so they’ve become sources of livelihood for adventurers.”

Is he saying that Dungeons aren’t only bad? There must be some people who struck it rich in those Dungeons, so the Dungeons must be no different than islands with buried treasure for adventurers.

“There’re also treasure chests that have strong weapons or magical items inside them.”

There must be unimaginably amazing magical tools in them. I’m starting to get pumped for some reason!

“But there’re cases when wars have been fought over incredibly powerful Dungeon items, and cases when those items steal customers from blacksmiths.”

So you’re just complaining!

“But still, there’s not too much to worry about on the item front for this Dungeon. Because the items’ abilities correlate with how long a Dungeon’s existed.”

“Un.”

But we really spent a lot of time here.

We quickly headed to the Adventurer’s Guild. Because after we received explanations on several points of the raid, we decided to go to the goblins’ den.

“Hi, Nel.”

“Oh my, Fran. Hi!”

Fran spoke to the receptionist, and Nel-san smiled happily and responded in kind.

Hey, when’d you two get so close? I asked Fran, and she said that we all stayed in the same inn. It seems they entered the baths together and hit it off together. I could easily see Nel-san chattering away and Fran wordlessly agreeing with her. Well, since Fran isn’t much of a people person, I was glad to see her get to know others.

“Fran, good luck.”

“Un. Leave it to me.”

“Be careful to not get hurt. Dunadrond-san may be there, but there are no other high rank adventurers so there are many low rank adventurers that would normally not go.”

“High rank adventurers?”

“Yes. The majority of adventurers from ranks C to rank A are investigating the Demon Wolf’s Plain. Normally, leaving this to them would be no issue…especially the A rank adventurers. They’re on a wholly different level. If need be, she alone could have taken care of this.”

“Her? a woman?”

“That’s right. Amanda, an A rank adventurer. She’s the Alessa Guild’s ace.”

That was interesting. It was impressive enough to just be an A rank adventurer, but she’s even a woman. I wanted to meet her.

“Also, we asked the knights order for reinforcements, but they ignored us.”

“Ignored?”

“That’s right. Ignored!”

“Even though they’re the knights order?”

“I can’t understand what they even exist for!”

It seemed my image of great moral integrity I had of the knights order was wrong.

“And their vice-captain is the worst. He’s a perfectly amazing oni jerk. He’s violent and petty and a complete a.s.s so it’s like he only inherited the worst bits of his race. I’m pretty sure he hates adventurers. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t even tell the Grand Master of what’s happening here.”

It seemed like Nel-san had a lot of pent-up anger because of him. With an angry expression on her face, she continued to lay down resentful remarks about him. But maybe she realized Fran was in front of her, because Nel-san smiled drily.

“Oh, ohohohoho. Oh dear, I was rambling. Could you please forget what I said?”

“Un. Okay.”

“Thanks. But Fran, be cautious of him as well. You won’t have to deal with him during today’s raid, but that might not stay the same for later events.”

“Un.”