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“No, I have been on the magic ship from Amitia for an escort request. Because the requirement this time was ‘Those who can swim’. There aren’t that many guys in Alra who know how to swim so I was chosen since I was born in a seaside village and quite apt at swimming. 一This girl’s presence is reassuring since she’s a magician so she came along with me.”

Hmm, that’s quite an unexpected but reliable skill he had.

“…Wait, then what are you going to do about your return trip then? Is escorting that magic ship a round trip?”
“No, it’s just a one-way trip.”

Joey easily shook his head.

“Then are you going to fork out the money for the return trip from your pocket? I don’t know the market price for a ship that travels so far, but I assume it should be quite expensive.”
“Well, I will be paying from my own pocket in the worst-case scenario, but I do have a hint for a return trip without that.”
“A hint?”
“It’s a dungeon. Recently, rumors are that a teleportation circle has been found on the underground 10th floor of the Dungeon. My magic pattern is registered in the Alra’s teleportation circle, so if things go well, I will be able to move and forth between them.”
“Ah, I see.”

I normally set my save point to the hanging garden, so I can return from anywhere relatively quickly with the ‘Return’ skill, and I also always carried a multitude of ‘Teleportation Stones’ for personal use that have the simple function of saving & return with myself as the standard equipment, hence I can use teleportation magic on a whim but this world has some out-of-place artifact, I heard they occasionally unearthed some teleportation magic circle from the ruins.

Incidentally, moving the teleportation magic circle would cause its coordinates to be disoriented, making it unusable, so basically, a town would then be built around any found magic circle.

The teleportation magic circle, naturally, is strictly controlled by the authorities of all the respective countries and if one person, for example, wants to teleport from location A to location B, it’s necessary for that person first to register their magic pattern on the location B and get their permission.

So, those people who have registered their magic pattern can transfer to location B by offering a hefty sum at location A, but of course, those who have not registered or who have their permission revoked can’t use it. There was also some unfortunate scenario like being unable to return back to the present world after getting lost in the space-time gap, so this is quite a high-risk way but Joey seemed to have registered his magic pattern beforehand at Alra and devised a plan to return back instantly by using an unmanned teleportation circle in the Dungeon.

It seemed to be a good plan at a glance, except…

“Joey, do you have experience in dungeon exploration?”

I was absolutely curious about this point so I asked him to confirm.

“Of course. There’s that old ruin near Alra, I have reached up to the 18th floor there. Though I was in a temporary team at that time.”

“Ah, sure enough”, I mentally cradled my head in my arms.

The dungeon there was destroyed by me and four heavenly evil kings and as a result of performing a large scale 一and I mean literally extreme一 modification, even an amateur wouldn’t die up to floor 20th. And every subsequent ten floors afterward have their difficulty level raised aiming at experts, veterans, and top-grade adventurers respectively. By the way, even the S-rank adventurer Maroudo couldn’t clear it in the solo challenge and retreated on the 58th floor (the deepest floor is the 70th).

The fact that Joey could only reach up to the 18th floor and that too, when he was in a party, meant that he was an amateur among amateurs as far as Dungeon exploration was concerned.

Although I don’t know the level of difficulty that the discovered dungeon had, I know it would be nigh impossible for those two to clear it.

“But I’m not shortsighted enough to challenge an unfamiliar dungeon by myself with just the two of us, so I came here to search for members that are interested in forming a party.”

That’s a relief, so he wasn’t being a complete idiot.

“We didn’t meet the condition so I was thinking of checking out how far we can go with the two of us first though.”

On another note, he definitely had to be an incurable imbecile.

“But I’m also surprised you know, I didn’t expect to meet you here too, Hiyuki. What’re you doing here?”
“I came here for a business meeting.”
“Hmm…… A business so far. You’re having a hard time too.”
“Well, it’s about my country after all.”

Fiore made a doubtful expression at my words.

She pulled on Joey’s sleeve and tried to ask him in a tiny voice. Though, everything was audible for me who’s a vampire.

“…… Well, Master. She called herself Hiyuki, so is she that girlfriend you often talked about……? She doesn’t seem to be from a Beastkin tribe, what did she mean by her country…?”

She could have just asked me directly if she had a question, but well, that’s how much of a withdrawal personality she had apparently. And girlfriend? She simply meant as a normal female friend, right?

“一N, No! Don’t jump the gun so hastily. Also, the country she was referring to is even more amazing than Mr. Collard’s country, and she said ‘my country’ because she’s their emperor or empress.”
“…… Hmm? Is that so???”

Yeah, I don’t think this explained anything to her at all, but it would also leave a bad taste if I pull a secret agent troupe like flashing some sort of a medal here and showing my true identity, so I decided to ignore it.

Nevertheless, Joey seemed to have made up his mind to enter the dungeon and give it a try, but I kind of feel bad to overlook the possibility of that boob一… I mean, that girl to become a sacrificial lamb in his stupidity. The main thing is it will destroy that boy’s reputation 一 I mean he lost it long ago, it’s just a psychological thing you know.

It would be a cakewalk if we had to just traverse 10 floors only, and it’s not a bad idea to give a bit of a helping hand.