“Those lunatics?! What on earth did you do…?!”
Bang bang! Aru pounded the table at the counter quietly, making a fuss.
In the midst of it all, trying to avoid drawing the guard’s attention while tapping so quietly was quite cute.
“Lunatics?”
“Totally crazy bastards. They’re famous for stealing ghosts that lower-ranked sorcerers and beastmen hunt.”
“That’s true.”
“Yeah, but there’s no evidence, just rumors… Plus, lower-ranked sorcerers don’t get treated well, so they can’t really say anything.”
“Good thing we disciplined them then.”
“Huh? Now that you mention it…”
Aru sat down, deep in thought.
To summarize what I said…
“I thought they looked like they had bad habits, so I taught them a lesson. I even got a reward.”
“…Three of them at rank 4?”
“I’ve gotten stronger.”
I can’t keep thinking about Level 6 Sorcerer Lily anymore.
Yena, sitting right across, nodded while meowing.
“That’s right! I can vouch for Lily’s strength!”
“And who are you?”
“I’m Yena, who will become the strongest sorcerer!”
“…Sigh. Anyway, the conclusion is simple. There’s a lack of justification.”
“Nyaa.”
“First, I’ll dispose of one rank 4 gemstone, ten rank 5 gemstones, and forty rank 6 gemstones. The rest… Let’s see. It should take about a month and six more days.”
“That’s too long.”
“Way too long!”
Both Yena and I said at the same time.
I can’t spend a month here, and it seems Yena doesn’t want to drag it out longer either.
“Isn’t there another way? Like going to a side counter?”
“…Duplicate handling isn’t allowed?! If time is pressing, you’ll have to take on another mission. You literally lack justification. You should either do more missions to earn more gemstone disposal rights.”
“Hmm….”
“Or.”
“Or?”
Whee!
Aru reached out to me.
As if asking to hold hands, I took her hand, and blue spiritual power connected us.
Bzzzz.
‘Maybe we could go to the underground market.’
‘The underground market?’
‘It’s dangerous, but the profit from disposal is actually better there. It’s risky, but you’ve gotten stronger. Just keep it in mind. Yena will know the location and method.’
Thud.
[?]
[???]
[Lily, what’s up?]
[Just making noise.]
[Held hands.]
“Anyway, go on. It’ll take about three days to dispose of everything and report back.”
“Thank you.”
“What? What were you two talking about?”
“I’ll explain outside.”
“I’ll go out and explain.”
Yena and I stepped out of the Sorcerers’ Association branch building.
Because of the earlier commotion, one of the guards stared at us intently as we left, but they didn’t interfere, just watched.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to check out the upper floors? You can’t go too high because of your rank, but you can reach the 4th floor.”
“I was going to do that… but it seems it’s unnecessary now.”
“?”
I spread my sensing ability and casually checked above. There were a few powerful sorcerers, but nothing particularly special. Above all, I felt I should check out the Underground Market first.
In the end, the final goal of this dungeon was the Iron Devourer.
If I wanted to find something related to the Iron Devourer, I might have a better chance looking for traces in the Underground Market than at the top of the Sorcerers’ Association.
‘Based on the cutscene, it seems likely to be at the headquarters…’
But I couldn’t do anything about the headquarters right now. I needed to find a backup plan.
“For now, let’s rest a bit and head out later. To the Underground Market.”
“The Underground Market?”
“Yes. They said you need to go to the Underground Market to dispose of gemstones. I heard Miss Yena knows the location?”
“Hmm… I do know, but it could be a bit dangerous. Are you alright with that?”
“Of course.”
If danger comes, it would be more of a surprise.
■
Yena and I headed towards the Underground Market after taking a half-day rest in a small house, a bit away from the Sorcerers’ Association branch.
This was a house where Yena, I, and a few Level 6 Sorcerers, as well as some Beastmen, lived together, but currently, most had gone out, leaving just the three of us, including Aru.
Aru rarely got home because of work.
Thud! Thud!
Yena, who was running quickly between the tall trees, glanced back at me.
She was worried about whether I was keeping up, but honestly, it wasn’t that difficult for me.
“You’ve gotten really fast. I used to struggle to keep up with this pace.”
“I took down three Level 4s, you know.”
“That’s true.”
“But why are we rushing so much?”
“Oh. I didn’t know we were going to the Underground Market, but I just remembered it’s been open for a while, and we need to get there before it closes.”
“When does it close?”
“No idea. The timing and location change each time. It probably won’t open again for at least two months.”
“We need to hurry then.”
Two months? Who’s got time for that?
At this rate, it’d be more efficient to storm the top of the Sorcerers’ Association headquarters.
I might still be lacking in power, but if I gather as many Spirit Stones as possible…
“Should we just go straight instead of resting? Isn’t it getting late?”
“We really need to rest, though.”
[True that]
[Rest is important]
[For real lol]
[6 hours of full rest is a bit dizzying lol]
[Yena, please read the sponsorships a bit more]
“Please read the original.”
“Hahaha!”
“I’m excited!”
Hiss…!
Yena stopped in the middle of the forest.
It was a sparse forest, but Yena seemed familiar as she quickly scanned her surroundings before bending down to move the devices hidden under the dirt and leaves.
Kuh-kung!
The ground trembled for a moment, and a small passage revealed itself as a tall tree opened up in the distance.
A pitch-black passage where nothing could be seen inside.
“Hurry up! If you can’t pass through this at once, it won’t open again!”
Yena darted into the passage, and I followed closely behind her.
Had it been about 5 seconds since I entered? With a rustle… the wooden passage closed behind me.
The material I touched didn’t feel like wood; it seemed to lead to a different space magically.
[It’s dark.]
[Fire! Fire!]
[The screen is black.]
[I can’t see, Lily!]
[I can’t see anything.]
“It’s dark.”
“Ah, it’s usually like that. It gets brighter as we go down, so bear with it.”
“Yes.”
Yena motioned for me to follow as she led me down the stairs that connected below.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The stairs stretched quite a bit; it was a deep space.
“Make sure to follow closely. If you go off the designated route in the underground market, you might get lost in a weird path.”
“You’ve been here often, huh?”
“Well, occasionally through the back way a bit? It’s a place everyone secretly uses, even if it’s against the rules.”
“Oh? Isn’t there a chance the Sorcerers’ Association might crash in?”
“Well, they say it’s not completely impossible, but there’s a rumor that either a Level 2 or Level 1 Sorcerer has connections here…”
“Who is it?”
Bewooom!
‘A dagger?’
The chilling blade suddenly targeted Yena’s neck.
The one wielding the dagger was a man wearing a black snake mask.
He was dressed in a black robe, staring intently at us, and the spiritual power in his dagger was considerable.
‘This level should be 4th… or maybe 3rd?’
Yena raised her hands and spoke.
“An intruder!”
“Purpose?”
“They’re going to flood this place.”
“How many?”
“About twenty? Half of them are armed, so be prepared!”
“What item are they looking for?”
“Um… a piece of wood and a 9th-grade spirit stone? I think?”
As Yena scratched her head and answered, the man sheathed the dagger back at his waist.
Then he snapped his fingers, and two masks appeared in the air.
A cat mask mixed with pink and black, and a white fox mask.
The man handed out the two masks without hesitation and turned his back.
“The usage time is six hours. If you exceed that, the masks will expel you, so don’t take them off.”
“Don’t take it off.”
“I got it, meow!”
“Understood.”
“Then.”
Huff.
The man vanished into the darkness.
[Oh]
[Is it a passphrase?]
[So cool]
[Passphrase d-d-d-d]
[? Hahaha]
[Wow]
“Was it a passphrase?”
“That’s right, meow. It was a while ago, so I was a bit fuzzy on it, but thankfully nothing went wrong, meow. Ah, put on your mask, meow. Without it, you can’t use the underground market.”
“Okay.”
Yena donned her cat mask. I put on a white fox mask.
This mask also seemed to have some kind of spell cast on it, but it felt completely comfortable, as if I wasn’t wearing anything at all.
As I continued down the stairs with the mask on, light started to seep in.
The interior of the underground market was filled with floating blue fire.
Seeing various jewels and books of spells, it looked like some kind of night market.
“First, let’s exchange currency, meow. It’s essential to do that to use the underground market.”
“Okay. Where do we go?”
“Follow me, meow. There’s a better place than Aru’s for that, meow.”
“Yeah… huh?”
“What’s wrong, meow?”
Everyone here was wearing masks.
For personal protection, but since their body shapes couldn’t be hidden, if one had any familiarity, they could tell who was who.
And those ‘three’ were people we knew well.
A giant, a man with glasses, and a woman covered in jewels.
“Looks like they still have money.”
“? What? They’re here too, meow.”
Those were the trio we had dealt with before.
In an instant, Yena sharpened her nails in anger, but fighting here was quite dangerous.
Neither I nor Yena had regained our strength yet.
Most importantly, we had already received our rewards, so there wasn’t really a reason to care.
‘If they decided to attack, however, that would be a different story.’
“Ugh… I’m so mad, meow…”
“Calm down.”
“Hmph! But why are they here? They’re the ones who lost all their gemstones and spirit stones.”
“That’s true?”
Watching their reactions, it seemed like they had given away everything they owned. Was there something left?
Curiosity piqued, I stared at them as they entered a shop.
Yena and I followed behind and spotted a familiar figure.
“Hey. That person is…?”
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
