Day 50: Under the Town of Ruffa
Holy Era 6102, Month of the Water Serpent, 2nd day.
Weather: Sunny

The weather was unusually fine for the season as I went to the Adventurers Guild with a feeling of excitement. Ms. Noa and I had already discussed what quest to accept last night at the inn!!

And so we went straight to the quest board and looked at the jobs related to dungeons.
With dungeons, you could make decent money just off of materials, even if you don’t accept a quest…
But Ms. Noa insisted that we must accept quests so that I can hurry up and raise my rank…

…Rank… Would any good even come out of raising it further?
Yesterday, I discovered that you paid higher taxes when your rank was raised, and so I am feeling very cautious about that.
But when I asked Ms. Noa, she would not tell me, and said that I could look forward to finding out when it happened…

Well, I’ll just assume the worst and do my best.
This time, the quest we chose was for gathering scrap mana crystals and Deredoro liquid.
Scrap mana crystals were easy. They could be found almost anywhere within dungeons.
The problem was Derodoro liquid… I just hoped we could gather it successfully.

Now, I suppose I should explain a little about Ruffa’s dungeon.
There are three dungeons around the town.
The first is the Rufaldo Abandoned Mine Dungeon, which was found while mining iron ore.
The third is the Ritos Underground Mausoleum, which was found when digging up an underground graveyard.
And then there was the last one, which we were headed to. The Herow Underground Waterway… The ruins of an ancient city that lies under Ruffa.

Apparently, this underground waterway was discovered when this kingdom started to build the town of Ruffa here.
It’s unknown how old the waterway is, but it was still functional enough for the kingdom to plan to use it.
But after further investigation, it was discovered it had become a dungeon, but by then, more than half of the town was complete.
Because of this, they could not seal off the dungeon, and had no choice but to leave it…
…It truly is a negative legacy for the kingdom’s negligence… Ah, my pen slipped… I’ll erase this later.

Well, that’s enough about boring history. It’s time to head to the dungeon.
Surprisingly, the entrance was next to the fountain in the middle of the city. It was within a small, stone building.
There are usually about seven to eight guards watching it, but…it’s still in the city…
Apparently, this was also Ms. Noa’s first time seeing it, and she was quite surprised as well.

The guards saw how surprised we were, but gave us permission to go through. And so we took some torches and made our way down the stairs to the underground. …As it is the rainy season, there are not many people who come down here now.
However, thanks to that, the reward was a little higher than usual.

Once we were at the bottom of the stairs, the damp stench of the air hit us.
And it was so dark… Even though I was holding a torch, I could barely see anything, and so it was difficult to walk.
I don’t think we’ll be able to finish it today. Camping out in a dungeon…I hate it.

I spread out a map and checked our current location… Yes, We’ll be dead if we get lost in a place like this.
Don’t go that way, Ms. Noa… The entrance to the second layer is farther ahead.

…And like this, my first dungeon exploration with Ms. Noa began.

Today’s earnings and expenses:
Bronze: -5 (Torch set x2)
-50 (Map of underground waterway)
-30 (Food supplies)
-15 (Oil x3)
-20 (Gathering bottles x5)
————————–
Balance: 46 silver, 35 bronze

(ﾉ_-;) Ha… This quest might have been a mistake…

Next Chapter

Senpai boukenshasan ga tasukete kureru no de kitto daijoubu nano desu! Shinmai boukensha no nikki-chou