The next day, Billy started teaching everyone how to read and write. Once they learned the skills, Billy made them level up with his mana. Once they realized that they were making a lot of progress pretty fast, they felt even more motivated to study, so that was enough for the time being. The only problem was their handwriting… Kate and Lily were fine, but Natalie and Alexander were rather messy and rough. They liked to write as fast as possible, after all. Still, that was something that could be fixed over time.
While he was a bit slow, Billy already could read the list of things that Gerald prepared for them. The things that they would need were some torches, knives to cut and pull out some parts of the monsters, a bag to carry the materials and loot they find inside the dungeon, bandages to treat wounds, and water to clean them. Putting aside the last two, which was kind of obvious, the other three made Billy realize that clearing dungeons was a bit too simple… or perhaps Gerald was taking the dungeon lightly since he was so strong. Also, he put some notes aside from the things that they would need. He explained that the monsters were giant beetles that had two antennae. Those had two gems in them that they used to track their enemies. Those gems couldn't be used for much, but they were pretty and somewhat gave special effects to accessories… Billy recalled those. The accessory peddlers were selling that type of thing in his town.
"Giant beetles, huh…" Billy said.
"Insects? I was hoping to face something more… impressive?" Lily said.
"You didn't even fight one and are already complaining," Billy frowned. "Anyway, I could handle this alone."
"Shopping is kind of fun and it will also give us more chances to walk around the town," Lily said.
Billy didn't get the appeal of shopping. Spending money to buy new things… mostly things that were unnecessary was something beyond him. In any case, he visited some shops where he could buy those things, but he only asked the price and then left. When he was far away enough, he wrote the location of the shop and their prices.
"What and why are you writing?" Kate asked.
"To practice and not to be fooled by merchants that might be overpricing their goods," Billy replied.
"I see, while we use the same currency, we essentially use less money than the people of Hiloh state," Kate nodded.
Billy thought that someone would ask why they need knives when they had their weapons, but they knew the importance of using their weapons only to fight. Forcing their weapons to get drenched in the monster's blood all the time wasn't the best of ideas… even if they clean those, they would quickly deteriorate.
Although Edward gave them money to help with the mission, Billy wanted to return with more than he received. A lot more, that was why he already saved five silver coins on the shopping. While they walked around the town, they even got close to the entrance of the dungeon… as expected, it was an underground one. Hence the torches… Billy wasn't a fan of dark and tight places, but he had to deal with that, for the sake of money… and to make Kate think twice about her crazy ideas. He didn't forget his original goal. Once the shopping was done, they had dinner together in the first floor of the inn and Billy also decided to have a meeting with his friends.
"I overheard some things while we were shopping, it seems that the dungeon only has a single floor, but down there is like a maze," Billy said. "If we are lucky we will find the last part in ten hours, but I also hard that there was a group that took two weeks to map the entire maze."
"Since it is like that, we will have to make our own map, right?" Kate asked. "We will waste too much time trying to clear without making one, we might even get lost."
"Indeed," Billy nodded.
"I heard that the other two dungeons have five floors and the new ones apparently have more than that," Lily said.
"That seems pretty interesting… five floors of continuous encounters with those scorpions," Natalie said.
"Let's focus on the dungeon ahead of us… please," Billy said and then sighed. "The interior of the dungeon is tight, so we will have to be careful and assume a formation where we won't become a burden to each other. I was thinking of letting Alexander and Natalie in the vanguard and they will be supported by my and Kate long-ranged skills. Lily has a limited amount of arrowheads, so she will only use it in rare moments."
"Not fair, I want to participate as much as everyone," Lily said.
"You can do that if you solve your problem with ammunition," Billy shrugged.
"Can't you create them with Earth Manipulation? I saw you creating fire arrows with magic," Lily said.
"I probably can, but…" Billy said and then rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
If Billy just focuses on making them without firing those, he probably can save one-third of the usual mana. Still, even on the best of scenarios, they will break after every use and he won't be able to produce more than five each hour.
"Please, I will do anything," Lily said.
"Anything, you say… they will be heavy, are you fine with that?" Billy asked while noticing that Alexander was really jealous.
"It won't be a problem," Lily said.
"In that case, you should help Alexander practice his archery for a while," Billy said. "His skill still can be improved and we might need it since we don't know if we will end up facing the guardian of the dungeon."
"All right, leave it to me," Lily said while smiling in excitement.
Now Billy made Alexander owe him one, he looked pretty thankful.. Still, Billy was thinking of asking for money as payment since he couldn't imagine Alexander helping him with anything.
