We reached the dungeon entrance while Hati and I talked about skills.
"Okay then, I'll go register at the branch office."
Once that was done, it was finally time for the dungeon.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Once I'd finished registering, we lined up behind a bunch of other adventurers, and then it was finally our turn to go in. I showed my guild card to the two knights posted on either side of the entrance, and we entered the dungeon.
"I told them that I didn't need a map, but are you sure that was all right?" I had tried to buy a map of the dungeon before we lined up, but Hati stopped me, saying that we didn't need such a thing. He did at least assure me that he could tell where things were through a combination of smell and presence sensing, though.
"Of course it is fine. Who do you think I am?"
'Ahh, I see. Well as long as you're sure we're fine, then all is good.'
"Looks like it is nothing but small fry at the beginning."
"Yeah, you're right. It looks like most adventurers go down to around the 10th to the 15th floor. From there, treasure chests start to appear, and relatively nice things start to drop, apparently."
"I see. Well then, let us head down there at once. You, get on."
'Fine, fine.'
I did as Hati said and got on his back.
"I know how timid you are. I will leave a barrier around you just in case."
'Gnnrrrnn... Don't call me timid. I'm just careful, you should be positive about this. Well, either way, I'm grateful you'll put a barrier around me, though.'
"I will put one around you too, Razsegath."
[Sure. Thanks, Hati.]
"Razsegath, will you be able to keep up with me?" Hati said, looking over at the flying Razsegath.
[Hati, it's rude to ask me that. I'm a Proto-dragon, our names are synonymous with speed!] Razsegath replied, trying to look cool.
'What do you mean, rude? Haha..'. Razsegath just looked cute, so trying to act all cool didn't suit him at all.
"Well then, let us be off." With just Hati's voice as the signal, we rushed off through the dungeon.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
We steadily advanced along the passages of the dungeon, surrounded by rock walls. All the monsters we encountered that obstructed us were finished off by Hati and Razsegath. Thinking that, at this rate, things would be over quickly, I let down my guard.
*Whoosh*
"Woah!"
There was an arrow. 'A-A trap?! This dungeon has traps?!'
[So, this dungeon's got traps... I got saved thanks to your barrier, Hati,] I told the running Hati through telepathy.
Hati gave me a lot of information about the dungeons.
[Dungeons use drop items gained from defeating monsters and the promise of treasure chests as bait to lure humans in, and then use the monsters or traps they birth to take their lives. Then, those that die are absorbed by the dungeon, and used as nutrition for its growth."]
'I see. It's true that it sounds like a living thing from the way Hati explains it.'
When I asked Hati for even more info on dungeons, I was told that dungeons had something called a "dungeon core," and as long as it wasn't destroyed or carried outside of the dungeon itself, the dungeon would continue to slowly grow.
[So what happens if you break the dungeon core or bring it outside?]
[That would mean the dungeon's death. The whole space would become a mundane hole that does not birth anything. Of course, the dungeon core is constantly on the move within the dungeon, so it is practically impossible for a person to find it.]
'Hmm so that's how it is. Wait, by people, does Hati mean that he can find it?'
When I asked, it seemed that Hati could do it with a little time. But he also said, [As if I would do something so foolish as to destroy as fun a place as a dungeon.]
After that, there were no more incidents, though we did run across a couple traps. No matter if they were arrows or spears or anything else, Hati's barrier stopped them all, and even if there was a sudden pitfall Hati would just jump over it. Even the floor bosses were defeated in a single blow as if we were just passing by, and we would quickly proceed down the stairs to the next floor. Our party, or rather, Hati and Razsegath, didn't even bother to stop.
By the way, though, Groot was in its usual spot, sleeping in my leather bag.
Once we had gotten to around the 10th floor, we finally started to see some other adventurers.
[What now? We're at the 10th floor.]
[Hrrmm... from these presences, there are not any decent enemies around here. It seems like the floor boss here is a venom tarantula.] Hati said unhappily.
It sounded like venom tarantulas might as well have been dirt to Hati.
[Then should we just go straight down?]
[Indeed, let us do just that.]
Without exploring the floor, we headed straight for the boss room.
In front of the boss room were four absolutely jacked guys with scary faces that looked the very picture of adventurers. They readied their weapons when they saw Hati and Razsegath, but when they saw me, they said, "Oh, they're familiars," and lowered their weapons.
"Uhm, this is the boss room, right?"
I tried talking to one of them, and they said, "Yeah, that's right," while nodding their heads.
"We can't go inside?" When I said that, the adventurer shook his head in exasperation.
"Could this be your first time in a dungeon?" I nodded in response to his question. "Thought so. There's a lot of rules to being inside a dungeon."
According to the adventurer:
The adventurer (and that adventurer's party) that gets first hit in on a monster in the dungeon gets dibs on said monster, and of course anything it drops.
Unless someone specifically asks for help during a fight, do not interfere.
For treasure chests, the one that opens it gets first dibs.
...Or so it went.
"So that means there's a party that's inside right now. We can't go in until they finish."
'I see.'
"Well, even if there's rules, there are also people who ignore them. There's even fucking assholes that steal drop items. As well as shitstains that kill dungeon newbies like you and take all their stuff. Since the dungeon doesn't leave any bodies, right? Well, all that means is that there's bad people everywhere. Watch out, you hear?"
'Woah, scary. Certainly, since the dungeon doesn't leave behind any bodies, there wouldn't be any evidence as long as there weren't any eyewitnesses. I guess every world has its good and bad people. Let's be careful.'
While all that was happening, the party that was inside finished their fight, and the party of four with the scary faces entered. It seemed like they were having a tough time, since it was taking so long.
"Hey, do we still have to wait?"
[I know, right? Let's just hurry up and go!]
"Don't be like that Hati, Razsegath. We have to follow the rules while we're in the dungeon."
And finally, the party of four scary dudes finished their fight. After picking up their dropped prize, the four of them came back towards us.
"It's your turn."
"Huh? You guys aren't going down?"
"Yeah. We're stopping on this floor. Everyone has wives and kids, you know? We can't just go risking our lives like that anymore." After the guy that looked like their leader said that, the four of them disappeared into the floor passage.
How the hell did people with faces like that get wives and kids? God goddamnit, you normals should just explode. Oh God, it's just my bad luck. And when I finally got rid of my virgin status, she ran off without telling me her name.'
"Hey, we are going."
The inside was already repopulated and teeming with a venom tarantula and other spider monsters. It was absolutely crawling with smaller spider monsters called poison spiders (though they were still around 30 cm in size), all lead by the venom tarantula.
Hati didn't even have to do anything. Razsegath just used Fire magic to blow the venom tarantula and all its flunkies away. It was over in an instant. I even threw in my own fireball in a fit of anger.
The venom tarantula dropped a poison sac, so I picked it up, and then we moved on.
The 11th floor was also full of nothings according to Hati, so we decided to pass through.
This floor's boss was an orc general leading a squad of other orcs, but with Hati, Razsegath, and this time even Groot in the mix, the battle didn't even last a minute. Let's just say that with everyone's efforts, the battle for the orcs went so badly that I almost pitied them.
Everyone who was watching us fight while they were in line had their faces stiffen. 'I'm so sorry. My friends here don't know the meaning of restraint.'
Several chunks of orc meat were dropped, so I picked them up, and off we went to the 12th floor.
The 12th floor was similarly devoid of anything Hati wanted to fight, so we decided to pass through this one too, but the alarm clocks in everyone's stomachs started ringing so first we went to a safe area to eat. I didn't know where the safe area was since I didn't have a map, but it looked like Hati could tell, so I left it up to him.
"Here."
We were in a room that branched off from the main path. The room was a relatively large one, about the size of a classroom, and there was some water flowing along the back wall. I had heard that there would be a lot of adventurers around, starting from the 10th floor to the 15th... but the safe area here was pretty heavily crowded.
'There's about five different parties in here, aren't there?'
We set ourselves down in an empty space near the entrance.
"Hajime?"
I turned around because I suddenly heard my name, and there I saw some familiar faces.
"Vincent?!"
"It really is you! It's been a long time!! Hey everyone, it's Hajime!!"
The rest of Vincent's party gathered at the sound of his voice, those being Werner, Ramon, Rita, and Franka. It was the C-ranked party that escorted me across the border, "Iron Will." I would never have expected to meet them here.
"Hello everyone, it's been a while."
"Hey, Hajime. To think we'd be meeting you again here."
I exchanged handshakes with the leader of the party, Werner.
According to him, they immediately left for this dungeon after parting with us. While continuously hopping on different carriages, they finally reached this place a couple days ago. And so, they had decided to be quick about things and enter the dungeon on the very next day.
"I see. As for us, we're planning on heading for sea, but Hati said he wanted to stop by here when he heard of the dungeon, so here we are."
The members of Iron Will were nodding their heads and going, "I see." Since they also spent some time with Hati, they should understand that Hati would do just that.
'I hope you all can understand my hardship.'
"Oh yeah, Hajime, you've got some more familiars other than Hati now, don't you? Isn't that a dragon? A dragon child?" Vincent asked, his line of sight squarely on Razsegath.
'Right? Just looking at him you'd assume he's a child, I know.'
Razsegath and Groot were familiars I'd picked up after parting ways with Iron Will, so this should be their first time meeting. I introduced the two of them.
"He's a rare type of dragon called a Proto-dragon. It's my familiar, and he's named Razsegath."
"P-..."
"Pft!"
'Hey Vincent! I saw you over there doing a spit take! You too, Werner!'
Both Rita and Franka just said, "Nice to meet you, Razsegath."
Ramon persisted in being silent. He was quivering a little, though.
"Oh also, this is my tree seedling, Groot. It's a tree seedling, but apparently it's a special individual it's really strong." I held up Groot and introduced it, as it had crawled out of my bag to see what was going on.
"Even though you were plenty amazing with just Hati over here, you went and got even more familiars, huh? I'm in awe."
'Werner, that kind of awe will only bring me trouble.
Everyone's after my food, aren't they? It's just like why Hati and the others became my familiars.'
"Hey, what about food?"
[I'm hungry...]
[Master, Groot is hungry!]
'Ohh, sorry, sorry.'
"Excuse me, I have to go feed Hati and the others."
'Uhhh, what should I do? Beef stew should be fine. I want to try eating it with the bread I bought in town, anyway. That bread's pretty hard, but it should go great with the beef stew.'
After putting out some beef stew with plenty of meat in it onto some dishes, I served them to my familiars.
"We have eaten this before, no? The meat is so soft and well cooked, it melts in the mouth. Indeed, this is great."
'Thanks, Hati.'
[Oohhhh, this is delicious, too. Really, everything you make is just great.]
'Looks like Razsegath likes it too. Woah, his mouth's just covered in the stuff.'
[This is so good, the meat is soft and the flavor is soaked in everywhere!]
'Yep, with Groot's seal of approval this is confirmed tasty. Thank goodness.'
*****Gulp*****
When I turned around, I saw the members of Iron Will with their eyes glued to the beef stew. Vincent and Rita were even drooling.
'Rita, you're a girl, stop that.
...Oh well, let's just chalk this up to them being old friends.'
"Uhm, would you all like to eat too?"
When I asked them, all of the members of Iron Will nodded their heads off. I handed them the beef stew in some deep dishes along with some black bread.
"*Sigh* I'd never have thought I'd be able to eat Hajime's cooking in a place like this. This is just awesome."
"Ever since Vincent stopped being able to eat Hajime's cooking, he wouldn't shut up about how good it was, right?"
"What the hell, Rita? You were the same, too!"
"Well, sure. It really was amazing, after all."
And while Vincent and Rita were arguing...
"Hahh, so delicious. The vegetables are so soft because they've been boiled, and the greatness of this meat that just melts in your mouth is unassailable."
"Yeah, it really is amazing. This stew is great when soaked up in this bread, you know?"
"This deep, strong taste... I'd never expected to be able to eat something this good in a dungeon. As expected of you, Hajime."
...Franka, Werner, and Ramon started eating before the other two.
"Ah! Shit, that's unfair! I'll eat too."
"Me too!"
Vincent and Rita started on their share after their friends.
"So gooooood!!"
"Amazing!"
said Vincent and Rita, their mouths full with beef stew.
'Good, good. It's great that everyone liked it.'
I also started eating my beef stew.
'First, a bite...
...Yep, it's great.'
The bloody horn-bull meat was well stewed, and soft enough that it could be cut with a spoon. The soft stewed meat gradually melted in my mouth.
'Soak a piece of black bread in the beef stew aaanndd...' *Chomp*
The taste of the black bread that had soaked up the deep flavor of the demiglace sauce was just pure bliss.
'Ahhh so good.'
"More!" [More!] [More!]
All three of my familiars demanded more.
'Razsegath too, huh?' Apparently, he was hungry since he used some magic.
I served each of them more beef stew.
"Still though, this meat is great. What is it?"
When I replied, "Bloody horn-bull," to Vincent's question, he reacted with a spit-take. The other members were all surprised, with mouths agape as well.
'Huh? What? Did I do something bad?'
"It's bloody horn-bull?! In this stew..."
I replied in the affirmative to Werner's question, and...
"Sorry!! We accidentally ate such an expensive ingredient!"
'They apologized to me for some reason. ...Ah, this is exactly the same reaction as last time. This is the exact same reaction that Lars and the other adventurers had back in Karelina, wasn't it? The one where they found out that they ate expensive ingredients without knowing about it.'
'Still though, for us this is just normal. Or rather, we even got some dragon meat recently, yup. Somehow, aren't our eating habits on the level of nobles since Hati's around? And there's no end to the meat I get since Razsegath and Groot are around, too. Though our food expenses are that much higher for it. Well whatever, eating good food is better than eating bad stuff any day.'
"No, please stop apologizing like that. I still have a lot of bloody horn-bull meat." When I said that, Werner put on a surprised face. "Hati and Groot hunted a huge amount of them."
It looked like Werner got what I was saying, as he replied with an, "Ah, I see."
"Hati is so awesome!"
"As expected of one such as the great Hati."
Vincent and Rita looked at Hati with sparkling eyes.
Even Franka and Ramon were looking at Hati, impressed.
"That's how it is, so don't worry about it. More importantly, want seconds?"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course."
When I said that, Hati looked displeased. "Mnn, but that will lessen my share."
"Werner took care of us before so it's fine, right? I'll grill you some meat Hati, so just calm down."
"Ohh, then in that case, how about some drag-... Mmmmf... What are you doing?!" That idiot Hati was just about to talk about dragon meat, so I reflexively covered his mouth.
[You were about to say dragon meat, weren't you, Hati? They're already plenty shocked at the bloody horn-bull. You just try mentioning dragon meat, they'll all faint,] I said to Hati through telepathy.
[Mnn... Then wyvern meat is fine.]
[That's also denied. They'll get surprised over wyvern meat too. Just make do with the orc meat we got from a drop earlier.]
[Mm... fine. Then make it with that flavoring.]
[Fine, fine.] 'Goddamn, learn to read the room a little...'
"Ah, how about some seconds, everyone?"
"Is it really okay?"
"Yes, you took good care of us that last time, so I'm happy to." After all, I wouldn't have been able to figure out anything back when I first contracted with Hati if I was on my own. Not to mention, I felt like it was all thanks to Iron Will that we managed to cross the border at all.
"Then, I'd like some?"
"Hey, Vincent!"
"What, leader? Hajime said it was fine, so it's fine, right?"
While serving Vincent's extra helping, I also asked Werner, "Would you like one too?"
In response, Werner uttered an apologetic "Please," and slid over his dish. Then, Rita, Franka, and Ramon all asked for more in succession.
'Compliments are one of the reasons why it's worth cooking.'
The rest of the beef stew disappeared cleanly down into Hati and Groot's stomachs; and then, the rest of Hati and Groot's appetites were appeased by cooking some orc steaks with the portable stoves. Vincent and Rita were looking like hungry puppies over there when they smelled the meat cooking, so I handed some of it over to them too.
The other adventurers in the safe area were staring at us longingly as well, but there was no way I could share food with people I didn't know, so I just ignored them. There was a limit to how much food I had stocked, after all.
After a small post-meal break, we headed to the boss room since Hati was starting to get antsy and was pestering me to hurry up.
"Well then, take care everyone."
"You too, Hajime. Well, you're probably fine since Hati is there."
"Hajime, are you guys going down lower?"
"Yes. Hati is totally intending to crush this dungeon, so..."
"It seems like there is a behemoth down there, you see. It should be at least a little fun to fight."
"...Is how it is, apparently."
The members of Iron Will all laughed. They said that it was just like Hati. Even though personally I never wanted to lay eyes on anything with the name "behemoth."
"Well then."
We left the safe area and headed for the boss room. It seemed like the members of Iron Will would stay and explore this floor a while longer. From what I'd heard while we were taking a break, the boss of the 12th floor was a lizardman...
Since the boss room happened to be empty when we arrived, we just strolled right in. And just as I had heard, the room was occupied by a lizardman. As its name implied, it was a large bipedal lizard. There were quite a few of them, but between my three familiars they weren't really a challenge.
Picking up the hides that were dropped, we moved to the 13th floor.