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It was two weeks later when a new party appeared in my dungeon entrance. Like the previous group, this consisted of all young women in their teens. Misty explained that age was also a good reflection of a group’s level. The most skilled teenager in history still only reached the C rank by the time she turned twenty. Traditionally, you’d expect teenagers to be in F or D, twenty-year-olds to be in C or B, and thirty-year-olds to be in higher ranks.
As for those older than that, it was impossible to tell, since they all looked to be thirty or younger thanks to the various magical beauty refinements of this world. That said, there weren’t likely to be many women over forty in the business anyway, simply because dungeons hadn’t been around that long, and the few who survived to that age were already wealthy enough to retire to comfort for the remainder of their lives.
Mind you, this wasn’t a perfect scale. Some women started when they were older for various reasons and others who never could improve passed C-rank, which was rather common. However, when it came to rambunctious teenage youth, their slim, perky immature bodies couldn’t be easily faked with beauty products, so it was easy to determine their rank at a glance. There were four women in all, but they were dressed far more extravagantly than the last group I had met.
Passion’s Summit had all been dressed in armor, and while their weapons were different, there was unity in the way they dressed. At least, it was clear the armor had seen some use. This group had one woman with a sword, one in a white robe, one in a black robe, and the third had a bow and arrow. While their dress was more diverse, there was a cheap feel to it, almost like they were cosplaying being an adventuring party.
“Do you recognize this party?” I asked.
Misty shook her head. “They probably aren’t a serious party.”
“We made it, just where my source said.” A woman with her sword on her hip spoke excitedly.
“Are we sure it’s an F-rank dungeon?”
“It’s labeled as a D rank, but she assured us it’s only an F and its registration will change soon. Thus, my information is real insider info right here. Soon, all the F-rankers will be all over this place. We get to loot it first!” The woman with the sword put her hands on her hips and raised her chest proudly.
“Yes, yes… boss is wise.” The one with the bow spoke. “Can we trust her though?”
“Why couldn’t we? Is she a C-rank? Why would a C-rank heroine lead us on?” She asked.
“I don’t know… she gave me a creepy feeling.” The one in white shivered before approaching the dungeon.
As the others began to unpack after their short day-long trip from Brail, the young girl in a white robe kneeled in front of the cave and began to pray.
“Blessed Goddess Alura, please watch over our group, The Unbroken Bond, as we tackle this new dungeon. This is our first official dungeon, but a skilled C-rank woman told us it was suitable for F-ranks and even contains magical equipment as long as we give our maximum effort. Please, give us a profitable journey.”
“What is with the praying anyway?” I asked Misty after watching them for a bit.
Misty was much more polite and compliant compared to Diamond. She didn’t make me feel dumb for asking questions, so I was much more prone to asking. Like that, I had found out many things I had only been guessing at before. When it came to the mechanics of the dungeon though, Misty had no more knowledge than me. Becoming my demon didn’t fill her head with arcane knowledge or anything like that, so we were still trying to figure things out.
“The seven goddesses,” Misty spoke up. “They are what grant heroines some of our power. In reality, it is the goddesses, not the dungeon guild, that assign our ranks. We pray to the goddesses, and thus we form a bond with one of them. Which goddess you select will determine what power she gives you. Every goddess has her specialty.”
“Seven goddesses, you say?” I asked, mildly interested.
“There is Arcana, the goddess of the Arcane, Shiba, the goddess of warriors, Alura, the goddess of auras, Kula, the goddess of nature, Ryra, the goddess of traps, Noona, the goddess of blacksmithing, and Anera, goddess of treasure.”
“Oh, so that’s how you guys select a job?”
“Well, technically, every heroine can specialize in whatever they want. You don’t need a goddess to cast magic. There is no need to select a goddess at all. Diamond, for example, is godless.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Even Diamond has to speak to a goddess to increase her rank. You can still speak to a god and one of their temples and get your rank whether you follow a specific goddess or not. I originally followed Anera, but when I couldn’t get my rank increased, I tried Shiba. She… wouldn’t increase my rank either.” Misty looked down, feeling a bit ashamed.
“I see…”
“The longer and more loyal you are to a particular goddess, the more you will be able to borrow her power. You can also worship two gods and multiclass, but it doubles the difficulty.”
“How is praying difficult?” I asked, feeling a bit confused.
“Ah, praying is only a small party of having a goddess. You can also make sacrifices to your goddess. Specifically, you donate items, items found in dungeons. The goddess takes such items, and then transfers them into something called holy points, which we can use to cast powerful spells or, if we collect enough, buy holy items from the goddesses. Naturally, your rank, which goddess you have, and how close you are to her contribute to what you can buy.”
“Okay, I think I get it now. So, I absorb mana and get DP which I spend in my dungeon store to make my dungeon and tempt heroines. Then, the heroines can take the treasures, and give them to their goddess, who then converts them to HP to spend in their holy store. It’s like two sides of the same coin.”
“Most treasures aren’t worth converting to holy points, and unless you wish to become a goddess’s apostle, there is little reason to collect so many points. Most people would rather just sell the items they get in dungeons for money, or use them if they are worth it. Only the top heroines worry about holy points.”
“Since you’re a demoness minion, is there a goddess equivalent then?” I asked.
“You mean… a champion?” Misty asked. “Yes, every goddess has a champion. These are top figures though. A dungeon like yours is likely to never encounter someone like that.”
“I see, I guess I’m getting ahead of myself. I should be focusing on the threat at hand.” I returned my focus to the front of the dungeon, making a display so Misty could see as well.
The priestess had finished praying and the group was getting ready to enter the dungeon. Although my brain told me that if push came to shove, this group of four was nothing compared to my cyclops, let alone Misty who could fight at a C-rank level. However, I couldn’t help but be worried either. This was because I hadn’t done anything to my dungeon in the intervening two weeks. I didn’t have that many DP points, and the gains were slow without a human inside.
I had taken Diamond’s advice and spent the last two weeks making treasures. I now had a treasure on every floor and had started what was known as a treasure horde. The treasure horde was a surplus treasure to respawn should someone take what I had, but it also served a second purpose. It was, to put it simply, a bribe to keep my dungeon from being destroyed. Should someone succeed in getting passed Misty and the Cyclops, the last defense I would have would be my horde. It was all the treasure I had left, and hopefully, if they took it, they would feel good enough to not destroy me.
It was a bit better than that. The treasure was left in a precarious position, in my case, under a rock landslide trap, the only non-treasure I had purchased in the last two weeks. It was set up so that in the event I died, the treasure would be buried under a ton of rock. The treasure room was immediately before my room, so it functioned like a tradeoff. Kill me, and they not only lost the treasure but they were trapped in my room. Of course, taking the treasure also triggered the trap, which would block the entrance to my room so that they couldn’t change their mind.
If they were strong enough or determined enough, they could dig through all of the rock, but the hope was that such trouble would discourage them from trying to kill me and take my corpse, which wasn’t just worth a lot of money as a spell reagent, but could be exchanged to goddesses for a lot of holy points too.
That said, the treasure was only 3 pieces. I had managed to create 7 pieces in all, not even one complete set of armor. Each one I had painstakingly used inscriptions with. As for the reason they were slow, it was because I had been attempting to do them with the tentacle monster. I felt like if I could master controlling a dozen tentacles, I’d be able to speed up my inscriptions exponentially. That said, tentacles were not fingers and it was a learning process.
I had ended up irreparably damaging nearly half of the ones I attempted, which was also DP down the drain. If I had done this stuff around Diamond, she would have assuredly started cursing me as a fool. Misty was far nicer though, and only smiled encouragingly without asking questions. My speed had nearly been twice as fast just using the goblin, but he wasn’t dexterous enough for my needs and his hands started cramping too easily. Maybe I needed to find another creature that had the dexterity, stamina, and flexibility I needed.
That said, seven pieces of equipment in two weeks was a pretty impressive amount. Six of them were pieces of armor, and the seventh was a bag with a weight reduction inscription on it. I also practiced every inscription in the book. Diamond told me that only the two were particularly valuable, but I had a hunch that F-rankers didn’t care and that even a small boost would be meaningful to them. Plus, I wanted to practice doing different inscriptions, which was part of the reason I made more mistakes too. Previously, Diamond had only allowed me to make weight-reduction and durability inscriptions. Misty told me that any inscriptions would do well too though. Even if they were considered low-level inscriptions, they were all undoubtedly magic items.
“Our source was right! Paying her for info was worth the money!” A girl with a sword at her hip called out, lifting a device in her hand. “The dungeon scanner says the dungeon’s treasure to difficulty is considered highly profitable! This place is loaded with treasure! Not too many mobs either.”
I couldn’t help but tense slightly at her declaration. I had painfully made all of that treasure they were interested in taking. Ignoring the time and energy it took me to inscribe them, just the items themselves, although all leather, were probably worth 4000 DP. If I couldn’t make that up, I’d be at a net loss. As for who encouraged them, I had my suspensions it was Diamond. She’d be the type to charge money for information. However, I trusted she wouldn’t send any teams she thought were a danger either, so this team should be fine.
“Let’s go!” The leader called out.
All of the girls cheered and then raced into the dungeon. A few minutes later…”
“Owwww…. My ankle, it’s broken.” A groan came from the first pitfall of my dungeon.
I was a bit speechless. Even among F-rank, it appeared like there was a big difference between teams. I supposed Passion’s Summit was on the verge of being promoted to D-rank, if I remember correctly. They moved slowly and carefully, taking their time and using tons of dungeon devices. These girls weren’t like Passion Summit. They charged in kind of like Misty. Although, where Misty had the skill to back up her clumsiness, these people were just amateurs.
“I thought something like this might happen.” Misty sighed. “These are first-timers. They had some training and thought they could handle it. Usually, you’d higher a higher rank to guide you through your first few runs, but these guys got ahead of themselves.”
“They probably did ask someone… Diamond…” I let out a sigh.
Misty wore a complicated face. It was clear she still had some unease about Diamond. She accepted that Diamond was working for me, but it was hard to forgive the woman who betrayed her. Seeing Diamon con other women probably left her feeling a bit awkward, although it gave us a good opportunity.
We watched as the three other women helped bring their companion, the one in the black robe, out of the pit. After a few minutes, the white-robed woman waved her hands, and a white light spread over the other woman’s ankle. Another minute, and she was walking on it.
“At least they have a good party mix,” Misty stated. “Healers are rare for parties. It’s probably why they are so confident.”
“My goddess has only granted me one heal spell a day.” The white-robed girl sighed.
“Should we go back?” The girl with the bow asked.
“Mm! We’ll camp out tonight and try tomorrow.”
I watched with wide eyes as the group left just like that. They set up a camp. Thankfully, the camp was still close enough I was getting some increase in DP production, although it was less than if they were inside the dungeon itself. I couldn’t believe they gave up just like that.
A day later, the girls made their next journey into the dungeon. This time, they had the first pitfall marked. They continued from that path.
“Ahhhh!”
Thud. This time, the sword girl fell down the pitfall. She didn’t break anything, so she climbed her way out.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah… I’m good. No need to heal.” She muttered as she got out. “It looks like there are more pitfalls. We need to be careful.”
I continued to feel speechless. If I had just put spikes down in those pitfalls, or even a goblin, wouldn’t they be dead just like that? No, they would have been dead twice. At first, I thought Misty had been exceptionally clumsy, but apparently, this was a fairly common thing in dungeons.
As if reading my mind, Misty spoke up. “Had those pitfalls been death traps, this dungeon would likely be considered a D-rank.”
“I-is that so?” I couldn’t help but ponder the small differences between F and D.
That likely meant that most dungeons that could be called F needed to go out of their way to be called F. Just like Misty had told me before, it was all about image.
“Ahhhh… Another pitfall.” They were finally moving slower, and the leader just managed to avoid falling down the third pitfall, needing someone to grab the back of her armor and pull her back onto stable ground.
“How do we get across this one?” The black-robed girl asked nervously, clearly having experienced some trauma from her broken ankle.
“We jump!” The leader declared.
“W-wait!” I cried out, even though I knew she couldn’t hear me.
The leader did a running jump. However, this final pitfall was the one where they were next to each other. Her jump cleared the first one, and then sent her right into the second one.”
“Ahhhhhh!”
Thud!
I stared helplessly. Even Misty didn’t hit all three pitfalls.
“Are you okay?” The other girls cried out.
“I-I’m alive…” She groaned.
“This dungeon is too hard!” The girl with the bow started crying, throwing her bow to the ground and stamping her foot like a child.
The black-robed girl collapsed to the ground like she couldn’t go on. Only the white mage girl tried to help her friend out of the hole, although it appeared she was hurt this time, and with some broken ribs, it took a few attempts to finally get her back into the hallway. I couldn’t help but glance at Misty, who looked slightly embarrassed for them, red creeping up her neck.
“That bitch was lying! This is an incompletable dungeon. Let’s just go home.” The red-eyed archer finally stopped crying as she whipped her cheeks pathetically. “This dungeon is worth nothing.”
“Is that so?” The leader smirked and then plopped something in front of the three other girls.
It was a simple pair of leather boots.
“What are those?” The archer asked curiously as the white mage used up her spell to heal the leader.
“I found it in the hole!” She declared happily.
“I-is that an inscription!” The healer gasped. “Those are magic boots!”
“M-m-magic treasure! On the first level?” The archer cried out.
“Didn’t I say the treasures were good?” The leader laughed. “You still want to quit?”
As they stared at the boots with sparkles in their eyes, they seemed to all be thinking the same thing. That item alone would sell enough to pay off their entire expedition and then some. It was enough to already make their trip worth it, but this was only the 1st level, where usually the cheapest treasures were left. If they managed to obtain another treasure, they’d return rich. That was at least a year’s salary doing hard labor. Split four ways, that was three months’ pay. How could they resist?
Of course, the group left the dungeon again and returned to their camp. The leader originally wanted to wear the boots, which would increase her speed slightly, but the others didn’t want the boots getting damaged before they could sell them. In the end, after a bit of fighting, they decided to leave the boots unused and just sell them for full price. In the meantime, what treasures would tomorrow bring?
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