"Grandpa, over here."
After discussing things over yakiniku, we decided to push as far as we could within a month, rested for about three days, and then ventured back into the dungeon.
"My, my... Even so, we've found an impressively good route that avoids encountering Monsters."
To save time, I was using "Appraisal" to pick paths with fewer Monsters, but since explaining that would be a hassle, I just told him we were retracing the route that had been safe the last time we came through.
"Hold on. There are three goblins up ahead."
"They haven't noticed us yet, it seems. Jeanne, Aura — why don't you two give it a try?"
"Yes!"
Jeanne and Aura hid alongside Grandpa behind a nearby rock, waiting for the goblins to draw closer. Amour, Slarin, and I took cover behind a separate rock a short distance away, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.
"Now!"
"Haah!"
"Yaah!"
Grandpa hurled a stone to lure the goblins in, and once they were within range, he gave the signal and the two girls charged.
"Gyee! Ggyaah, ah...—"
"Sorry, Tenma!"
However, it seemed the two of them couldn't handle all three at once. The third goblin, noticing the ambush, let out a cry to call for reinforcements. I figured it was better not to get involved if possible, but there was no way either of them would take down that third goblin before it screamed, so I threw my knife straight into its mouth to buy time. In that opening, Jeanne cut the goblin's head off.
"You two are going to need to learn to dispatch them a bit faster. Well, it was two against three, and neither of you got hurt, so I suppose that counts as a decent result."
"Hmm... Grandpa, you're too easy on them."
"Well, Jeanne and Aura are fundamentally non-combatants. For them, the goal is just to be able to protect themselves to a basic degree — nothing more than that, unlike Amour."
Against goblins alone, they'd be fine even in a one-versus-three fight, but finishing them quickly in a two-versus-three scenario was still beyond them. Grandpa took note of this while still giving a rather lenient evaluation, and Amour seemed bothered by that.
"Then it can't be helped. Tenma, next time a monster appears, I'll handle it. I'll show them an example."
Saying that, Amour switched weapons from his usual spear or Bardiche to a sword he didn't normally use. He probably thought that would be easier for the two to understand.
I told the grandfather who returned about that, and he agreed with showing an example, telling the two as well. But...
"Monsters aren't appearing..."
It's precisely at times like this that monsters *don't* show up. Well, the reason for that was because I was choosing a route that avoided monsters, but even if I tried to deliberately head in the direction of monsters, I couldn't find a conveniently small goblin pack like before. Even if there were some nearby, there were either large packs close by, or packs composed of higher-ranked species – the only options seemed to be packs that would waste more time if I messed up, so there was nothing to be done.
"Grandpa, once we clear this floor, let's take a break. There's a place right nearby where we descended that's good for resting."
The next would be the seventy-fifth floor, which would mark the second day since descending again. I thought it would take longer than when I was alone since I was training Jeanne and Aura, but thanks to our increased combat strength, so far there wasn't much difference from when I was solo.
"Let's rest here for today. It's spacious enough that we should be able to bring out the carriage without issue."
Being able to bring out the carriage meant being able to take a bath, which made Jeanne and Aura extremely happy.
"I'll leave a Golem on watch outside, so we shouldn't get instantly killed by the monsters around here at least."
We would rest using the usual method of making walls to form a simple room, but if a monster like a Minotaur noticed us inside, there was a possibility the wall would be destroyed in a single hit. So, I had Golems camouflaged as rocks on standby outside, with orders to either stop or stall monsters trying to break the wall. While the Golems held out, Grandpa or I would head outside to deal with it.
"I bought some food for meals, so eat whatever you like. When you take a bath, close the carriage door and lock the bathroom door."
I generally avoided entering the carriage while the women were bathing, but since unexpected situations could happen, I told them to at least keep the bathroom locked.
"Come to think of it, Tenma, just how strong has the Knight-Type Golem gotten? I saw it overwhelming Orcs, but that's something even a normal Golem could do."
Orcs are weaker than normal Golems, so that wouldn't be sufficient to measure the Knight-Type Golem's strength. So, to make it clear,
"It's strong enough to clash head-on with a Minotaur, push it back, and split its head open in one strike."
"Even an A-rank Monster can't stop it..."
When I was exploring alone, I found a Minotaur near the lowest levels, so I had them fight as a test. The Knight-Type Golem stopped the charging Minotaur head-on, pushed it back, and when it flinched from the body slam, used a returning slash to cleave open its skull. Well, during the fight, its left wrist and shoulder joint had developed abnormalities, so it wasn't completely unscathed... but those were abnormalities that could be repaired on the spot, so in terms of strength, it might rival an S-rank Monster.
"The Scorpion-Type Golem is also a monster, but the Knight-Type Golem is a monster of a different caliber than the Scorpion-Type."
The Scorpion-Type's strength depends more on its body size and weight than on the performance of its Golem Core, so...
— so it had more of a
'strong' kind of feel, but the Knight-Type was different — its Golem Core's high performance really stood out, giving it more of a 'big and
strong'
impression.
To give them at least some idea of what it was really like, I showed Grandpa the Minotaur whose skull I'd split open, and he was quite surprised. Behind him, Shiromaru and Solomon were looking at me with eyes that said they might get something out of this.
"Hey, Tenma. How far down do you think you'll be able to go in this one month?"
"I'm hoping to make it to the 90th floor — that'd be a great result."
Up to this point, it wouldn't be much different from when I was on my own, but beyond here, things would get pretty tough for Jeanne and Aura, and even Amour might struggle. That would slow our progression speed, so reaching the 90th floor would count as a great result.
"I'm hoping to make it to the 85th floor, but who knows how that'll go... By the way, how fast were you moving when you went alone, Tenma?"
"Well... basically, I'd avoid Monsters or hide and slip past them, and when I was spotted, I'd run. Every now and then I'd fight them for Golem training, but once I took them down, I'd immediately retrieve the Golem and the Monster, shake off any that came chasing, and avoid consecutive battles."
Fighting inevitably attracted more Monsters with the noise, so it always ended up being a retreat after grabbing the Golem and the defeated Monster.
If I fought the second group right away, the third and fourth groups would close in while I was still busy, so when time was a factor, running was always the best option. Besides, the fact that they were drawn toward me by sound meant the area behind them was clear of Monsters — so once I slipped past the nearest group, the rest of the way became much easier to navigate.
"I took rest breaks two to three times a day, but other than that, I was basically always on the move."
"If you were resting two to three times a day on your own, then with us, we'd better plan for four to five. In that case, it really does come down to whether we can reach the 85th floor or not."
According to Grandpa, while things were fine for now, Jeanne, Aura, and especially Amour would only grow more fatigued as we went deeper, so our progression speed would naturally drop. Even setting that aside, moving as a group of five and three made us easier for Monsters to spot, which meant more encounters. More encounters meant more fatigue for the three of them and Grandpa, which would slow us down further. He made it sound like I didn't know what tiredness was, but fighting was many times more exhausting than running around, so my sense of pacing from going solo couldn't really be relied upon.
"Then I guess there's no helping it... Worst case, I could say that as Orasion's representative, I descended to the lowest floor, and if I brought you all along, nobody would complain. So let's play it safe and take it slow."
Having spent a month on my own and pushing forward with speed as the priority, my sense of how party-based exploration worked had gotten pretty skewed.
"Well, it's only natural for your instincts to get a little off, and I understand wanting to hurry when you think about the schedule ahead. But if something happened to Jeanne or Aura because of that, none of us could wholeheartedly celebrate your success. Besides, you're the leader of Orasion, Tenma — you always need to keep your party members in mind."
I was listening to Grandpa's advice with a respectful expression when, for some reason, Shiromaru and Solomon moved over to his side and started staring at me. So I thought about it for a moment...
"...Are you guys hungry?"
When I asked, both of them immediately started wagging their tails vigorously.
"I'll grill some orc meat."
Orc meat was what we had the most of in stock, so I used that to make a meal for Shiromaru and Solomon. It was nothing special — just grilled meat mixed with a few vegetables and some rice.
"Shiromaru, Solomon, if you spit out the vegetables, the meat-to-vegetable ratio is going to flip starting tomorrow."
When I warned the two of them, who were about to discreetly spit out their vegetables, they made faces but swallowed the vegetables in their mouths.
"Tenma, give me some meat too!"
While I was making another batch for Shiromaru and Solomon, Amur came over, drawn by the smell after getting out of the bath. Looking toward the carriage, I could see Aura peeking out from behind the door, so Jeanne would probably show up before long too.
"It's nothing special."
I had originally planned to keep things simple with what we'd bought, and I couldn't help wondering how I'd ended up being the one doing the cooking, but since we were at it anyway, I decided to make a vegetable stir-fry for everyone.
"Listen while you eat — it's about our plans going forward. According to the schedule, we'll be departing for the Royal Capital in twenty-five days. So factoring in taking a break before leaving Seigen, that leaves us about twenty more days to explore the dungeon. With that in mind, our goal for this run will be the eighty-fifth floor."
That meant ten more floors to reach our target of eighty-five, so we'd be spending two days clearing each floor.
"Tenma, higher goals are better! You made it to the bottom floor in a month, so I think we can go even further!"
And so Amur asked for the goal to be raised, but...
"If you can run all day long without stopping, twenty days would be more than enough to reach the bottom floor and then some."
"No way! We're aiming for the eighty-fifth floor!"
He immediately retracted his statement. Well, it wasn't like I'd been running all day long either, but I had repeated the feat of running for nearly half a day on multiple occasions. Without that, I couldn't have cleared close to forty floors in a little over a month.
"So make sure you rest properly during breaks. I won't be asking you to run nonstop, but there will definitely be mentally taxing situations, and when that time comes, I need you in peak condition."
Having just received this same advice from Grandpa, I tried sounding a little more leader-like. Amur and the others were listening seriously, but Grandpa was smirking where the three of them couldn't see, so it was pretty obvious I'd been self-consciously playing the leader role.
"Hmm,
Le
"Well, now that we're done talking about the Dada, I think I'll go take a bath."
"Oh! Lord Merlin, the bath water I just drew is still clean, but it's probably cooled down, so let me go reheat it for you!"
Jeanne moved toward the carriage after saying this, but Grandpa told her he could handle that much himself and went to the carriage on his own.
Incidentally, changing the bathwater during a dungeon crawl is far too extravagant to be normal practice—you can't even take a bath in the first place—but in our case, with so many magic users among us and the ability to set up a safe rest area like this, such impossible things become possible.
"Don't worry too much about cleaning up—just rest your bodies as much as you can while we're in the dungeon. Especially you two, Jeanne and Aura."
After repeating myself once more before they headed to the carriage, the two named individuals stopped their preparations to wash the dishes and obediently sat back down.
"I'll leave a knight-type Golem on watch, so if you're sleepy, don't hold back—just go to sleep. I won't mind, and neither will Grandpa."
I set up a bed at the edge of the area and said this, and as expected, the two of them were clearly worn out—they were already lying on their beds before I even climbed into the carriage. With Slarin underneath the beds, we should be fine even if any Monsters managed to break in. And the one still awake was...
"Don't overdo the eating, alright? And eat some vegetables too."
"Mm! I shall see to it!"
It seemed my cooking alone wasn't enough—he'd been grilling his own meat and eating it, with the usual pair of critters sitting beside him...
I told him to eat some vegetables too for the sake of nutritional balance, but looking at the way he was shoveling food into his mouth, he probably wouldn't.
After that, I waited for Grandpa and then took my turn in the bath. And when I got out, what I saw was...
"Shiromaru, Solomon... aren't your bellies way too full?"
The two of them were lying there with their mouths dirty, their bellies swollen out enormously, sleeping belly-up. I looked around for the third one and found it sleeping on the same bed as Jeanne and the others—using Aura as a pillow.
"...I think I'll sleep too."
Watching Shiromaru and Solomon's dopey, blissed-out expressions was making me sleepy too, so I decided to set up a bed away from Jeanne and the others and get some rest.
Several hours later,
"Bwahh!"
I was woken by someone's squished-sounding voice. I bolted upright and looked toward the source of the sound.
"My... my nose..."
Aura, who appeared to have tumbled off the bed, was crouching with her hand clamped over her nose. Red peeked through the gaps between her fingers, so she had a nosebleed.
"Aura, what are you doing... Come here, I'll treat it."
Jeanne, who had also been roused by Aura's voice, rubbed her eyes and pulled a medicine kit from her Magic Bag.
"N-No, I'll wash it—"
"I can't treat you if you keep talking, so hold still."
Aura had been trying to say something, but Jeanne snapped at her for being a hindrance during treatment. Between Aura's squished-sounding voice and Jeanne's treatment, Grandpa had once lifted his head to check what was going on and then gone back to sleep, while Amur had only turned over and showed no sign of waking up whatsoever.
"There, all done. Don't remove the nose plug for a while, okay?"
"O...kay..."
The treatment was over, but the area around her nose was still red, so Aura's face had turned into quite the comical sight.
"Aura, try not to fall off the bed next time."
I warned her, half-teasing, and—
"That's not what happened! I didn't fall — Amur knocked me off!"
Those words came flying back at me. According to her story, while she was sleeping, she felt a weight pressing on her midsection. When she woke up, Amur was lying on top of her. For the record, "lying on top of her" didn't mean she was being used as a pillow — quite literally, Amur's prone torso had landed right on her stomach.
Since it didn't look like she'd be able to sleep like that, she placed her hand on Amur to push him aside — but he apparently grabbed her hand and flung her off the bed.
"I'll set up another bed, so... Aura, sleep over there."
"Thank you so much!"
After hearing Aura's story, I briefly considered moving Amur to the new bed instead, but with only me and Aura present, the task of moving him would fall to Aura. That meant there was a chance she'd get thrown across the room again, so I decided to let Aura use the new bed. As it turned out, Aura had apparently predicted what I was about to suggest, and her voice grew noticeably louder once she realized she was in the clear.
The next day, when I scolded Amur after he woke up,
"I do remember throwing something. It's just that I recall the aura feeling really unpleasant."
So while making a statement that was essentially a partial confession, he also insisted he wasn't the sole perpetrator. This claim opened up the possibility that Amur wasn't entirely at fault, and Jeanne—one of the jurors—began defending him. It seemed she was now fully convinced that Aura had been the one trying to pull a prank on Amur.
"From now on, I'll provide three separate beds to prevent any more problems. That's all! Jeanne, Aura, start getting breakfast ready. Amur, you're helping the two of them."
Since doubts had started to surface about Aura as well and things were about to devolve into a pointless back-and-forth, I forcefully wrapped things up and decided to clear the air over breakfast.
"Alright, nobody's forgotten anything, right? Let's give it our all today too!"
"Yeaaaaah!"
"O-oh..."
Amur was pumped up and shouting with enthusiasm—or maybe he was just excited—while Jeanne and Aura sounded more dejected than motivated, their voices closer to groans than battle cries.
"You two are hopeless! Take a page from my book!"
Amur seemed bothered by their lack of spirit too, and whether he meant it as encouragement or not, he said that anyway. But given their current abilities, aiming for the bottom level was bound to feel daunting, so their gloom was understandable. Well, if things got truly dire, I could evacuate them into Slarin, but so far the old man and I had been able to provide enough support. I wanted them to treat this as valuable experience and keep pushing a little longer.
For about a week after that, we maintained our target pace of clearing one floor every two days. But gradually, Jeanne and Aura's fatigue began to outpace their recovery, and after two weeks we had managed to reach the eightieth floor when it was decided to call off this particular run.
The two who had caused the interruption looked apologetic, but it was clear to anyone that they were nearing their limits. Even Amur didn't tease them like usual and simply accepted my decision to pull back.
"Alright then, Jeanne and Aura are on complete rest until the day after tomorrow. You don't have to do any maid work during your recovery... actually, don't do any. Prioritize getting your bodies back in shape. Our departure date hasn't changed, so until then you're free to do as you please. However, if you go dungeon-diving or take on any quests, you must report it! That's all!"
I ordered Jeanne and Aura on complete rest until the day after tomorrow, but with only a few hours left until midnight, it was effectively just two days. Honestly, I thought they could use more rest, but they'd said one day was enough and I'd extended it by fiat. Well, if two days wasn't enough to recover, I could always order an extension. So the deal was,'Rest is
f
o
r
n
o
w'until the day after tomorrow. That's what it meant. I just didn't tell them that.
"Well then, starting tomorrow, I suppose I'll just wander around at my leisure. I won't be diving into dungeons or taking on quests, so don't worry if I don't come back."
Grandpa was probably trying to lighten the load on the two of them in his own way, but not coming back at all would be a problem, so I made him promise to return to the carriage at least once, even if he was running late.
"As for me... I'll be checking out weapons and browsing the stalls, and I might end up diving into the dungeon, so I'll let you know when I feel like it."
Amour also basically planned to wander around town. And as for me—
"Tomorrow I'm going shopping in town, and the day after tomorrow I'm planning to dive into the dungeon. Not near the lowest floors—around the middle levels, looking for materials."
I basically said I'd wander around the dungeon at random and be happy if I happened to find some mithril or something. Since I planned to use Appraisal to avoid combat as much as possible, it was more like a slightly dangerous stroll.
I would have liked to bring Shiromaru and the others along on that stroll, but I decided to leave them behind in case something happened to Jeanne and Aura—they could provide support and protection.
"You can use the bath whenever you want, but don't forget to lock the carriage while it's in use. Slarin, I think you'll be fine, but be careful anyway. Also, if some fool approaches with malicious intent, I'm leaving their disposal to you. Ideally I'd prefer them taken alive, but killing them as a last resort is fine too. Just make sure no one else finds out."
Jeanne and Aura looked exasperated at my instructions, but Slarin nodded as if he found the task reassuring. This way, I could let Jeanne and Aura rest easy while also ensuring everyone's safety.
"I'll also leave behind the food we were going to eat in the dungeon, so feel free to eat however much you want."
That way, they wouldn't have to worry about preparing meals either, and the two of them could rest as much as they pleased.
I spent the remaining days before departure like this... and when Aina learned what had happened during those few days, she sighed at how overprotectively I had been treating Jeanne and Aura.