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Year 7442, Month 8, Day 16
Today when we were about to enter the dungeon, I was called out by Church-san who was guarding the tax official at the entrance. It seems that on Friday of next week the knight group of Baldukk is going to enforce the punishments of criminals they're holding including Dereonola. Bel and I were told to be there as witnesses. It can't be helped so we'll have to make that into a day off from entering the dungeon.
Furthermore, when I tried asking the reason why there was over two months between the arrest and the judgments and it seems it was for the convenience of the lord. Since Baldukk is the King's direct territory then the lord is the King but obviously there's no way the King would go out of his way to come to Baldukk for this stingy job so normally it's the governor who manages the government of the town. However, as a matter of fact that governor isn't a representative with full authority like in Japan. They're limited to just the administrative authorities. In the first place it's not even an official governor. Since Baldukk is lined up with Rombertia as the King's direct territory in the true meaning of the expression so there's no official governor.
The only one who can administrate justice is someone that has been officially appointed as governor by the lord. Since that's the case the administrative secretary (they're treated as and actually called governor out of custom) that's appointed to take care of only practical work in Baldukk can't perform the judgments of criminals. For that sake, around 4-5 times in a year, when he has some leeway the official lord that is His Highness Count Baludukk Thomas Rombert the Third goes out of his way to come to Baldukk just to perform the judgments. It seems that reason this time was that it wasn't convenient for the official lord, His Highness to make it.
In any case, so it's Friday of next week huh? I need to make sure I don't forget. Thinking that I thanked Church-san and was about to return to everyone else when I was called out again. This time it was some advice. Bel is a foreigner. She's a noble but since her family isn't in the Kingdom of Rombert her treatment is the same as a commoner. Obviously that means it's the same for taxes and she's going to the government office every month to pay taxes. It seems that just in case it would be best for her to have the documents proving that she's paying taxes at that time. I'm sure it won't be necessary but it's nothing more than a just in case so I guess I should be grateful for the advice.
Bel and I exchanged glances as we returned to where everyone else was and explained to them that in order to stand witness to the judgement and enforcement of Dereonola's punishment we would have a day off from entering the dungeon Friday of next week, then we entered the dungeon.
..............
Year 7442, Month 8, Day 20
The combat potential of our party went up a bit since Angela joined but what was more useful than that was her special skill as a Dog-people race "Super Sense of Smell". Almost all of the monsters that live in the dungeon give off indescribable sour and raw smell that will make you feel like throwing up. She can accurately differentiate the smells of these monsters.
At least until the end of my experiment I'm grateful that we won't end up charging into a place where a dangerous enemy could be. Even with just that it was worth buying Angela. Thinking that, I was grinning on my own over how I profited, but it was quickly proven that something like that was just a bonus. Her true value was something much more important. Just as you could expect from Angela who has been entering the dungeon longer than we have, compared to us she had a wealth of knowledge about the dungeon.
For example, the location that you teleport to in the dungeon, it seems that there's some restrictions on this place you teleport to. It seems that currently there's over 400 locations confirmed that you can teleport to but in most cases there's a mark left in the area of where you teleport. Was there something like that? thinking that and since I was interested I tried asking and it was simple. The pedestal for the teleport crystal where you end up teleporting to has a variety of symbols like numbers carved into it but among those it seems that there's always at least one symbol that points to the direction. On the wall where that points to there's a small number written. The number is obviously something was carved out by the adventurers that visited until now. Also, even if you teleport to the same place it seems that the symbols carved into the pedestal aren't fixed so while we obviously noticed the symbols carved into the pedestal, until now we just ignored them not properly investigating.
What the, there was something this simple? With this we should be able to almost pinpoint the location we teleport at the start but I don't get it. Even if there's a number of inaccuracies written on the map I purchased there's a considerable portion of the 1st floor and information about the traps written on it. There's no information included in there about the teleport locations. Was it a partial map I guess? However, Angela quickly answered that question as well.
Normally, the maps that are sold are divided into four types. The first is obviously the one that has the terrain drawn. The next one is that with the information about the traps added. That's the map I purchased. And one more is the one that has teleport information listed. It seems that there's numbers written all over the map. Since this one and the map with traps from just now both have a lot of information on them it's normal that the map isn't just one page. Even the map I'm holding is made up of 9 pieces of parchment about the size of A3 and along with the terrain the information about traps is written but since there's no way it could fit with just one page it's split up. Even on this map the terrain is drawn extremely small. I think in terms of scaling it would be roughly 1/3000 - 1/5000 or so? The roughly is just going off our feeling but even what is it drawn on just one piece of parchment I can't help but think that the scaling differs depending on the location. That's why even if we say it's a picture of the terrain there's some inaccurate parts to it as well.
If you were to list the teleport information on this as well then obviously the amount of room you can fit for the map on one piece of parchment will get smaller. In other words it becomes a map with larger scaling so you suddenly need several times the amount of paper. Since it's parchment if it comes to tens of pieces it's heavy and bulky so it seems you split it up. I didn't even know that sort of information existed. I've never heard about it from anyone. As if it was only obvious, according to the story I heard from Angela this information and the way to obtain the map itself is special. The normal dungeon map dealers who come to the entrance plaza in the early morning don't deal in it and in order to obtain it you have to go to the edge of the town of Baldukk where they're stealthily doing business almost as if to avoid being seen.
It seems that normally unless you have the introduction of an influential adventurer party they won't sell it to you. I used the large amount of 7,000,000 Z to forcefully purchase that map. With this my fortune has decreased quite a bit. I need to earn...Though impatience is forbidden.
Furthermore, there's one more type of map with even more detailed information listed on it and it seems that it's the map created by adventurers who sell it when they retire or who's party collapse and they intend to leave Baldukk. Since it seems those almost ever appear on the market it's best to think we won't be able to easily get our hands on one.
Even with just that portion of information Angela was useful but even more importantly is that she remembered several locations where there were strong enemies. Though even if I say that she could only remember four places but even then it's a big piece of information knowing the information about strong enemies before-hand. Scavenger Crawler, Blue Slime, Propeller Tail, Gargantuan Spider. All of them are dangerous opponents if you enter without knowing them.
It's necessary to test various ways on how to insert Angela into the party for a short while after this. Until things stabilize I'm sure we should slowly train without overdoing it. However, even with being in possession of this much information Angela's skill with the sword is the lowest in our party. Though even if I say that it just falls a bit behind Bel who was born a noble and officially learned how to use the sword so I have no real complaints. The young squires in Bakuddo were like this.
The biggest question I had was how all of her parties until now almost completely collapsed. They weren't literally wiped out but they took enough damage that they can't continue entering the dungeon anymore. I think it's impossible to clear the 1st floor with just her level of skill. Even if you could clear it then I'm sure you'd take damage on the 2nd floor. I wonder why they didn't proceed more slow and safely? Could it be Angela is receiving money or something from a different party to take on the role of luring her party into destruction?
I can't tell how much of her origins and how she met her masters until now is true so I can't help but worrying about something dangerous like that. If I think about it calmly then it's clear that possibility is so minuscule that it can be ignored but I couldn't help but ask Angela.
"Angela, why did your previous masters try to head to deeper floors? It's weird saying this and don't take it the wrong way. Your skill with the sword isn't all that bad but most likely you've realized it yourself, you probably can't win one-on-one against any of us. I don't understand the thinking of someone trying to head to deeper floors with a member with only that level of skill."
After I said that during a short break in the dungeon and Angela gave me a surprised response.
"Eh? I don't understand why master would say something like that. Slaves like myself are usually made to stand at the front and while I'm enduring it or being killed the other members kill the enemy right? On the contrary in masters party I'm grateful because I don't have very many chances to stand at the front of but.."
And replied like that. Well, it's something that I had somewhat predicted.
"It's not that I don't understand that. But, if by doing that you end up collapsing won't the combat potential of the entire party drop? Since I'm not rich I can't do something as wasteful as using you until you collapse. Were all of your previous masters rich people?"
After I tried asking that and she replied a bit troubled.
"Umm? It's weird for me to say it but slaves are shields. I've heard that it's normal to use us to get through combat that can't be avoided. Of course, we avoid combat as much as possible until that point, but even then, before you can get to lower floors there's always combat that you can't avoid so slaves are something like insurance for those times. If you can just make it to the 2nd floor then after that if you put some effort into it you can find enough treasure to buy one or two slaves.."
"It's not as if I don't understand that logic but I've never heard that you'll definitely find some treasure. You say one or two slaves lightly but there's close to 8,000,000 Z on just you and your equipment. Alright? It's 8,000,000 Z? If you add up two peoples worth that's 16,000,000 Z. Even if you find treasure worth 20,000,000 Z it's not worth it right?"
"Eh.."
"Eh.."
"Umm, why isn't it worth it? With the calculation from just now won't you profit 4,000,000 Z?"
"Eh.. What are you saying? Like that's the case. As proof of that, while there's slaves in the parties that are said to be the top teams, but don't they say that the members haven't changed much at all over the last few years? That sort of wasteful spending...I'm sure no would do such wasteful investing right?"
I don't get what she's saying. It seems that Angela still has something to say.
"That is.. isn't it meaningless to use the top teams as a comparison? The majority of parties use slaves as shields. During that time they aim to clear through to the next floor."
This is, not going anywhere. I was about to stick my lower lip out and say something in anger like Chousuke*. I couldn't help but look at the faces of the other members and Zenom and Zulu were just quietly listening but Bel and Ralpha had the same opinion as me. Bel says.
"Angela, why are you saying something like that? Do you want use to use you as a shield? I've never used a slave myself so I can't say anything much but I think that what you're saying is strange. Even if you're a slave, you're a living person. I don't intend to say something emotional like you're pitiful. However, listen carefully. You're a living person. Do you know what this means? Putting it more simply and...I guess so, I think I can explain it better based on the financial results. Al-san bought you for 8,000,000 Z. In order to recover this money and make enough to profit from it you can't say it was profitable unless he makes back several times that amount."
Did Bel major in business? No, it's unrelated though.
"The amount you're worth isn't just the amount of money spent to buy you. After that there's invisible money that's used up through our time spent training together like Saturday morning of last week, or time spent checking our coordination. For example, let suppose you died today. In that case and it's not just the amount of time we spent confirming our coordination last Saturday. All of the time we've spent entering the dungeon together will become pointless. Because our party has been training and fighting under the premise that you're with us. If you die then everything will become pointless. If we changed you out with a new slave then we'd have to start out from the beginning. That's why we can't do anything that would cause us to lose you so easily."
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