SIDE: Selene
One week had passed since Okaa-san went out to clear the dungeon.
On the second day as I was continuing to do my best in treating injured people in the temporary treatment camp, apparently, the top-rank adventurer party that had gone to challenge the dungeon came back.
According to them, there was a sudden drastic environmental change when transitioning from floor 15 to floor 16 and onwards and so the exploration was taking an awfully long time without effective equipment.
They still bravely continued to advance but they couldn't overcome the adversity and they ultimately collapsed on the 19th floor.
Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan seemed to have saved them from their dire straits and helped them in coming back.
They expressed their gratitude when I came to check them for any slight abnormality.
"I should have gone with them too", were my thoughts.
But Okaa-san knew fantastical magic that could bring out items from nowhere. With such spells, she could also conjure any supply she would need during exploration, so they seemed to be continuing their dungeon challenge.
As I patiently await Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan's return while believing in them, injured people continue to be taken in today too.
I couldn't tell if it was because the information about the dungeon's interior was gradually becoming common or what, adventurers had begun to take measures and, as such, the number of fatally injured people was dwindling down slowly.
Another thing, it seemed adventurers had given up on clearing the dungeon and instead began to focus on keeping the surrounding area safe, prioritizing thinning down the monsters inside so that they won't overflow to the outside world.
Gradually, the second day too came to pass, and it was two weeks after Okaa-san and Teto onee-chan had left for the dungeon that 一一 the dungeon disappeared and they finally came back.
SIDE: Witch
In all honesty, the floors from floor 20th and onwards were plain annoying.
If you asked me what part was annoying, it was the fact that the stairs leading to the next underground floor were buried somewhere in the vast sandy floor.
As if that wasn't enough when Teto tried to look out for them with her magic, monsters roaming inside the sand released sound waves that interfered with Teto's searching, thus leading to inefficient exploration.
As such, we obviously had no choice but to search and get rid of all those sound-producing monsters one by one.
On this note, we also sometimes chanced upon treasure chests as we continued with the tedious process but even so, this continued on for 10 floors.
As a result, our pace had dropped to clearing one floor per day.
But it seemed that ill luck continued to hover around us as the 30th-floor boss keeper was another pain in the ass.
Our opponent presumably was an A-rank long worm (pseudonym) that had the ability to split up from the spot it had been hit.
It would split its body whenever we tried to attack or when we followed up with another attack hurriedly to take them down, and with each splitting, it got harder to aim at them properly. Slippery bastards that they were, they would immediately make for an escape sensing us chasing after them.
We had no choice but to re-enter the floor and this time, we instead focused on exterminating it from its head completely and we were finally able to defeat it.
The tiresome journey was then finally over after we arrived at the 31st floor and retrieved the dungeon core from the dungeon pedestal. However, this once again reinforced my opinion on how irregular the dungeon core of the first dungeon I cleared was to integrate itself with a stone golem.
After the retrieval of the dungeon core was completed, adventurers that were on the shallow floors were forcefully sent back to the dungeon entrance one by one, and, not long after that, our dungeon capture was over.
Once we were also teleported back outside, I heard someone calling out our names as I was checking out if the rocky mountain-like dungeon had vanished or not.
"Okaa-san! Teto onee-chan!"
"We're back, Selene."
It was Selene, with the female adventurer escorts tagging behind her, rushing towards me, so I stopped the investigation and accepted her running hug from the front.
A hug from my daughter was the best panacea to soothe my rigid mindset due to the irksome gimmicks of the dungeon that had caused us so much delay.
"We're back-nanodesu!"
"Loosen up a bit, Big-sis~"
So protested Selene while beaming when Teto scooped us in the bear hug altogether.
Two weeks, we had never been apart for so long and it was respecting Selene's intention that I had left her to take care of the adventurers' treatment and I felt like she had grown up to one size larger in this short span.
"Children's growth spurt sure is amazing", I slightly teared up at this realization.
"Okaa-san?"
"一iff! Great work for holding on so far, Selene. Let's have a leisure vacation back at home once we settle everything here."
After finishing up the family reunion, this time I turned to the female adventurers who were working as her escort.
"Thank you for looking after Selene. Did anything happen in our absence?"
"Well...... how should I say, can you lean a bit closer?"
Hmm, a lot sure happened according to details that the other party quietly passed on to me.
-Many adventurers who saw her healing magic proficiency when they were saved by her tried to solicit her.
-Someone misunderstood Selene's care as her affection (?) towards himself and proposed to her. (the said person was a 27-year-old Wolfkin, bachelor).
-Some malicious fellows noticed her talent in healing and tried to abduct her but Selene thwarted them by herself.
-An escort corp formed started by the people saved by Selene (Sort of like a fan club-like model).
-Because of her excellent healing ability to recover even those who had one foot in death's door and her resolute determination to see things through 'til the end without letting anyone die, she was even extolled as the little Saint, apparently.
"...... I see, it's commendable you have worked so hard."
"Ehehe, I had just done what was within my capability."
As we parents and child were forming a rapport, the surroundings were... Huh, why is everyone around giving us a "what in the world are these young girls?" type of inquisitive gaze?
"Are they really the same amazing person who had cleared a dungeon or saved adventures from death's jaw? How come they're so young?", we were at the receiving end of such gazes.
Finally showing himself after weaving his way through the crowd of curious adventurers was the guild master.
"I guess the dungeon has been wiped clean."
"Yes, completely. Also, thank you for looking after Selene."
"I should be the one to say that, I never expected the little supporter would bring us surprising results. To be truthful with ya, I had almost given up on any hope of clearing out this dungeon in the short term when I heard about the situation of the floors after the 15th floor."
I joined in the crowd of adventurers who had begun to retreat from the breadbasket region while engaging in such trifling chit-chat and headed towards the guild.
In the guild, I verbally passed down the information about the items I had gotten from the dungeon this time and the information on each floor.
Amidst that, the guild master was especially listening with a ludicrous expression when I began narrating about the annoying stairs in the sand part of the dungeon.
"Looking out for the stairs buried somewhere in the sand blowing in the wind while enduring the harsh temperature difference in the day and night and to top it off, dealing with the monsters that rush out from the sand below or from above in the sky and the monsters that interfered with detection spells...... how in the name of the holy goddess did ya even clear this nightmare?"
"That's a... Secret~"
Though I think the guild shouldn't have any complaints about the dungeon subjugation since we also retrieved treasure chests buried in the sand in those annoying sandy layers.
Also一一
"It should be possible to promote Chise and Teto's adventure rank to A with this achievement. The promotion exam is held at the capital city of each nation once a year, what will you do?"
It seemed B-rank adventurers who had achieved the promotion condition gathered at each nation's capital city during the winter season, the season with less work to worry about.
"Hmm, I think it wouldn't be bad to take the exam while we're traveling around when Selene becomes someone's bride. 10 years, or maybe after 20 years......"
"That's quite a long-term plan ya have there. Ye wouldn't happen to have the blood of long-lived species like an elf flowing in yerself, do ya?"
On this note, the guild card doesn't cease functioning in case adventurers didn't take quests for several years.
This world also has long-lived species like elves, dwarves, and even dragonewts, and their golden age lasts for a long time. So it would be a great loss and lots of trouble to lose a promising long-lived, high-ranking adventurer because they forgot to receive quests for many years and then have them restart from the ground up.
"Returning to our final main topic 一一 It's about the handling of dungeon core..."
"Yeah. I wonder who is the one to purchase it?"
"That, of course, would be this nation. Following the complicated situation that accompanied the dungeon this time, the beastkin royal family is keen on buying it at the price of 50 true silver coins (Mithril coin)."
It would be around 500 million yen if converted to Japanese yen and in this world where commodities are dirt cheap, the three generations of an ordinary family could eat and sleep without any care and there would still be some leftovers even so.
I'm not even counting the price of the items from the treasure chests but that's sure to increase it by a large margin.
But一一
"I don't need the money. There's something I seek from the beastkin royal family."
"Huh? Something ya seek from the royal family? Just curious, what is it that you want?"
He seemed to be thinking about the treasures in royal family possession or something along those lines. I replied,
"I want the ownership of the land of the «Empty Wilderness»."
The only thing I sought from the beastkin royal family in exchange for the dungeon core was just a magic contract.
- I will be the owner of «Empty Wilderness».
- Inside region would be counted as extraterritorial as the owner of the land is me.
- It will be a region unaffiliated with the royal family.
I sought a magic contract with these sorts of clauses.
The land cultivated by this nation's people may surely belong to them but they're still levied tax.
"What do ya need this incomprehensible contract for..."
"Well, just sort of a hobby you can say."
It was a place with a giant inviolable barrier erected around it by none other than the goddesses themselves which keeps anyone from entering ever since 2000 years ago.
For others, it was a request as senseless as pointing out at the moon and forming a contract acknowledging that the moon would be their possession.
Even if your ownership of the moon is recognized, the moon would still remain an uncontactable and worthless place that couldn't exert its influence over others.
Basically, it will become one of those silly contracts.
That's for those who don't know but for me who can go in and out and had been living there for 10 such years, it holds its value.
"Haa, it's really hard to grasp yer thinking, missy but I will try to talk to them about it. As for whether they will agree to it or not, it isn't something I can confirm."
"In case my request is denied, I wouldn't have any choice but to look for another place to sell the dungeon core."
"Hey-hey, hold on! I would be in trouble ya know! Fine missy, I will work my old bones hard to talk to them about it."
The guild master cradled his head in his hand, though I wasn't a bit happy to see the head of a middle-aged man facing me so I hurriedly ended our discussion.
"Alright then, I'm leaving the negotiation to you. We, including Selene, will be returning after getting the remuneration for the treatment Selene did with her healing magic and the materials I have submitted."
"Going back... You mean back to the town Yir you came from?"
"Yeah, to be precise, the forest near Yir town. It's also near the «Empty Wilderness». I'm also worried about our fields there so we will be going back in a short while."
"I understand, I will give word to the nearby guild that will send a messenger to you once the negotiation is concluded. That's why don't think about selling the dungeon core until then for god's sake."
The guild master, who thus pleaded, sighed and saw us off.
We received Selene's reward for her healing treatment and the sales value of our materials and treasure chest items, minus the mana stones we hadn't submitted, from the guild.
Selene's one-person treatment cost was 1 silver coin but she even healed those Adventurers other healers overlooked and, even more so, helped them regain their lost limbs with regeneration magic when she had enough mana to spare.
Apparently, she had used the mana of a «Large-size Magic stone» to refill her mana reserve when her own mana reserve was falling short, and ultimately, her reward for this was 10 large gold coins.
"Nice, now let's deposit them to Selene's card."
"Okay."
Selene also possesses her own identification guild card. That being said, she's treated as the guild's trainee apprentice instead of being an adventurer, so the card isn't exactly like the other adventurer cards but it could also store or withdraw money.
We got on the magic carpet and aimed for the frontier town Yir, our base, while internally rejoicing at the fact that Selene wasn't blinded by the large sum of money she just earned and had still retained her economic sense properly.
