Chapter 11 – Clista’s Return

“…Eh?”

After we left the arena and returned to the main floor, Ornest immediately noticed that there was a strange air about the place, and his brows narrowed with suspicion.

I had only just stepped foot into the Fezel guild for the first time about half an hour ago.
And so I did not recognize this quietness as being ‘strange,’ but according to him, it was.

“I wonder what happened?”

Misha agreed.

I looked around, but I could not see any other guild workers in the same uniform as her. Perhaps they had left on some duty.

On top of that, all of the Adventurers who were standing around had awkward expressions on their faces.

“Um, what is happening…”
“…Ah, it’s you, Misha.”

In order to solve the mystery as soon as possible, Misha quickly approached a middle-aged Adventurer who was nearby.
Eventually, he realized that she had no idea what was going on, and said,

“Clista has returned.”

He scratched his head and looked very uncomfortable.

“…Who is Clista?”
“An Adventurer from a certain S-Rank party. She was supposed to have gone into some dungeon three days ago. A real gorilla of a woman, if you ask me.”

Was Ornest’s reply when I asked him.
Apparently, Clista was someone from an S-Rank party.
I ignored the last bit of unnecessary information as I began to think.

“So Ms. Clista has returned…! Huh? But why is everything so quiet?”
“Because she came back alone.”
“…That… Oh.”

Misha became silent at that. Her face was pale and she bit down on her bottom lip.

A party had gone into a dungeon, and only one person returned. There were only two possible reasons to explain it.

One was that the rest of the party members had died.
Or that person had to escape alone for a reason beyond their control.

In that scenario, one member might realize that they had no hope against a boss they had challenged, and that they could not escape. And so they would return to the surface in order to ask for help.

However, the problem with this was the rules every dungeon had.
The rule of party size.

“…Clista came back, riddled in wounds. It was just a moment ago, and she rushed to see the Guild Master. Who knows what will happen now.”

Reviel the Guild Master was originally an Adventurer in an S-Rank party.
You could not ask for someone better in your fighting force.

And so if this man was to be believed, then the second scenario seemed more likely.

However, to be blunt, it was not very realistic to go and help people who had been left in a dungeon where there were party member restrictions.

“…Considering it’s a floor where that gorilla woman would go, it would be sixty or lower. In that case, it’s not very realistic to go and help them. I doubt the old man will agree to it.”

Each floor of the dungeon was so large that you could explore it for a whole week and still not completely grasp its layout.

On top of that, the structure even changed at irregular intervals, so mapping it out was essentially impossible.
Additionally, every time you moved to a different floor, each party was transferred through teleportation magic, so even if you met someone on one floor, there was no guarantee that you would find them on the next one.

Because of this, while it wasn’t impossible for many people to enter a dungeon with restrictions on party members, the deeper you went, the less likely and realistic it would become.

This was something that all of the Adventurers were aware of.

“Furthermore, there is only one ‘Core’ that is absolutely necessary when going to help them. But even though there is only one party that can be sent out, all of the S-Rank parties in Fezel are gone. There is really nothing to be done.”

In general, in order to descend to a lower floor in a dungeon, you had to defeat a monster known as a floor boss.

However, there was one other way to descend to a lower floor. And that was by having this ‘Core’ that Ornest spoke of.

In cases where you had this item that was dropped by bosses, you could advance safely through floors as long as they were above the floor that the boss Core was from.

But each party could only carry a single Core.
If you carried any more than that, then all of them would shatter as soon as you left the dungeon.

Because of this, even if you were to go and help someone, there was only one Core that you could take with you.
In other words, only one party could go and help them.

Additionally, even if you managed to reach the same floor, the chances of finding the other Adventurers was slim.

As Ornest said, it was just not realistic to send a rescue party.

“…However…”

For some reason, Ornest was smiling broadly.
I could see it deep in his eyes. He was plotting something.

“Depending on the way you look at it, this is not such a terrible situation. And so, Yorha. Go and call Clashia.”
“…”

That must have been enough for her to understand what Ornest was trying to do.
After being called, Yorha had a look of obvious exasperation on her face.

“Without a doubt, the gorilla woman’s party has passed the 60th floor. In that case, we could use this chaos to go to their aid. And if everything goes well, we can acquire a Core to that floor. They have also been working through the ‘Tank Killer,’ so it will be a big short cut for us.”

Ornest insisted that with a different mindset, this was not a bad development at all.

However, it seemed terribly risky to me. I did not agree with him, and Yorha made no moves to do as he said.

Indeed, it might sound more efficient, but the chances of death would be considerably higher.

Besides, he wanted us to head to a floor where an S-Rank party was presumably on the verge of death.
It was much too dangerous to be summed up as a good opportunity.

As we talked about it, the doors in the back suddenly burst open.
And then I heard a familiar voice.
It was Reviel.

“…Ah. Sorry. Uh, can everyone in the guild who is A-Rank and above come here for a minute? Give me a moment of your time. I have something I need to tell you.”

Next Chapter

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