"Can I come with you? Please?"
Though there was no problem for me to decline the puppy-eyed Arthur, Sophie looked like she was struggling a bit. Unfortunately for her, I had made it very clear prior to our visit at the bar in the city that I would not accept her bringing anyone else.
*Tak*
Putting down my glass of whiskey on the table, I looked at him with serious eyes.
"I'm sorry, Arthur. I didn't even want to bring Sophie at first, but when she threa..."
"Stop! Anyway, I'm sorry but he is telling the truth. I'm already intruding by coming with him, so I completely understand that he doesn't want to bring another one. You and I can go next weekend if you want!"
Having stopped me from telling Arthur the truth, she carried a pained expression as she refused him.
Somehow, I had once again gotten dragged to follow the group of friends out to the city, now sitting in a very modern bar, illuminated by colorful neon lights.
Unfortunately, the newcomer to the group was also present, wearing an uncannily relaxed expression, "Oh! I knew you were strong, but to challenge a dungeon by yourselves before we even had our first academy-directed dive? That's pretty impressive!"
The façade that the girl was putting up was impressive. She was so naturally blending in, one might think she had known everyone for years. Her smiles looked so genuine that I actually doubted that I was the sole reason she hung out with Sophie's group.
Not minding the pouting Arthur at our side, Sarah also had something she needed to say, "But are you really going to dive the Monastery? Even if it's the weakest among them, it's still an [E]-rank..."
Clearly worried about us, she didn't want us to go. However, I had already decided that it would be my next target. There was, after all, an item I wanted to get from there, hoping that just like the Kobold Cave, the boss would drop it.
Dungeons were truly mysterious. If the body of a dead monster was left untouched, it would in time degrade into a very pure form of mana and restart its circle of life. Bosses would suffer from this phenomenon a lot faster, but instead of just disappearing, they would leave behind an artifact.
It turns out that every single dungeon was an enclosed ecosystem, acting on a similar basis, yet completely different, as the cycle of carbon.
The dungeon itself would create monsters in order to rid itself of mana to not risk becoming unstable. When these monsters die, they would then get re-absorbed back to their origin in the form of less mana than the dungeon used to create it, and then it would repeat.
As a dungeon would always accumulate mana on its own, it was possible to control the population inside it, as long as one didn't overhunt it.
One could see dungeons as enormous Venus Flytraps, but instead of eating insects, it lured in hunters to help it contain its population so there wouldn't be a dungeon break.
This was the reason I was interested in dungeons. After all, who wouldn't want to find a use for a huge cluster of mana?
****
I had gone on before Sophie, using the excuse of having to smuggle out Bobby from my apartment.
It wasn't unusual for hunters to have some sort of Manual like [Beast Tamer], making me not get all too many looks when both my bodies, sub-me in the shape of Bobby, walked into the church that had the portal to the Monastery.
This was one of the dungeons that the students of Ainu could use however they wanted, located on the outskirts of The Great City of Mensch.
'...'
I truly hated that long and arduous name, that no one seemed to have thought needed a proper abbreviation. 'TGCM? GCM? They are all bad...'
Giving up finding a more comfortable way of referring to the capital, my eyes soaked in the sights.
On the outside, the church looked like a very normal house of Theia, but the insides looked a lot more like a modern office space.
Walking up to the reception, I had a very smooth conversation with the man responsible for the registrations, showing him the student ID on my smartwatch.
"Hi, I'm James Jackson. I had a reservation for the weekend."
"Hmm... A first year? Hoo! That's impressive, already going out so early on your first semester at the academy. Hmm? There is a Sophie Red also registered, is that correct?"
"That is correct Sir. She should be here any moment now. Do I have to redo this, or can I sit down and wait?"
Pointing to myself in wolf form, I added, "I don't know how long Bobby here would want to stand here."
The man looked down at me with a smile, "An ice wolf? You must be pretty lucky to have found one, or maybe your family had some pretty good connections? No matter, you may take a seat."
I made my way to one of the couch areas, taking a seat on one of the couches while at the same time lying down on the floor.
After a couple of minutes of waiting a familiar face turned up, although it wasn't the face I expected.
An energetic girl with vibrant yellow hair and a katana attached to her hip ran to the counter, huffing, and puffing.
"Huff...Huff... Sir! Is there no way for me to get to dive into the Monastery today?! I looked at the schedule, but please!"
The receptionist took her abrupt approach like a champ, keeping up his incredibly professional appearance as he pointed at me, "Sorry. But that young man has already booked it for the rest of the weekend. My apologies."
Turning her head, she started walking toward us as soon as she noticed me, "James! Why would you book the dungeon for the whole weekend? Isn't a day enough for you?"
(As today was Saturday, still pretty early in the morning, I had made sure to get as much time as I wanted to dive into the Monastery. Therefore I had made the decision to book it for two whole days.)
'How can she be so casual?'
It was weird. Suzan didn't seem to inhabit any sort of hesitation to just walk up and talk to me, even though we had never had a conversation before.
"I'm sorry, but I need time to explore the dungeon. My apologies."
Imitating the receptionist, I, to her dismay, quickly made it clear that I wouldn't change my reservation.
"Aah! Sebastian will kill me! I assured him that I would reserve the dungeon in time... "Woah! A wolf! That's so cute!"
Another session of playtime immediately began as she noticed Bobby lying on the floor, making her completely forget about her problems.
Not wanting to break the character of Bobby, in case Sophie would suddenly barge in, I acted in the same way as I did with the huge girl and played along with Suzan petting and hugging me.
Sadly, Suzan didn't have the same amount of softness that Sophie did, but it wouldn't deter me from getting a bit of a feel, at least. As I was looking up and down at her, my partner in crime finally arrived. Noticing her, I just pointed to the reception she had to go to register her attendance in the dungeon.
It didn't take long until she sat down on the couch in front of me, while Suzan still playing with Bobby, "You brought another student to join us? Didn't you say you didn't want anyone else to come with us?"
Before I could respond, Suzan was already on the ball, "Oh! No, James didn't invite me at all! I just came here because I forgot to make a reservation for myself and... Oh shit... I'll see you guys later!"
*Tap, tap, tap*
With Suzan running away, and finally able to remember her mistake, we could finally start our discussion about the dungeon, having not found the time for it during the week. Although Sophie blamed it on the fact that I kept myself holed up in my apartment...
Casually patting the couch to signal Bobby to get up, which I complied with and put my head in her soft and splendid lap, she initiated our conversation, "So, what's the plan? I know that you want some kind of artifact from the boss, but what about the rest of the loot?"
Sophie still hadn't quite gotten her head around just how abysmally small the chances were for normal monsters to drop an item, but it was a legit question anyway, "I think we should divide it depending on the need. If none of us have a need for it, we can sell it to the academy and split the money."
Nodding her head energetically, the big girl agreed with me, "And what about combat? Should we cooperate or right independently? Heck, I still don't even know what you can do!"
It was true, at this point only the gods and I, myself, knew what I was capable of. However, this was about to change. "Let's fight independently. Oh, that means Bobby fights with me by the way."
"NO! Bobby should fight with me! He loves me more!"
It was strange just how attached the girl got to my wolf mode in just a couple of days, having only seen him two times before this. Still, I couldn't let her win this time. So, sub-me just casually rose and jumped over to my couch, now putting his head in the lap of my main body.
"Bobby! Noooooo!"