Clowns' Grave (2)

We came down the stairs and took a moment to get ourselves organized in front of Clowns' Grave. The people Kanisia had brought along were porters in the service of the Bloodfather King. They threw up a makeshift camp and drove back the dark with heavy floodlights.

"Mmm..."

Light poured from the lamps and shoved the dungeon's darkness aside. The space that had been pitch-black flared so bright it stung my eyes, though I adjusted soon enough.

"So... you don't have much dungeon-clearing experience, student?"

"What?"

While the porters prepped for the run, Kanisia sidled up with a face full of mischief.

"Then this Professor Kanisia will kindly explain dungeons for her undereducated student!"

"....."

I stared at her, dumbfounded, as she planted her hands on her hips and preened. But if she was volunteering information I didn't have, there was no reason to stop her.

"Yes, please do, Professor."

"Ahem!"

I played along and listened.

"Ordinarily, you enter a dungeon with no more than the listed maximum party size — same as you already know. That's the safer way, obviously. But if you do it that way, you can't squeeze every last drop of profit out of a single clear."

"Every last drop?"

"Mm-hmm. If your strength can handle it, it's more efficient to wring as much as possible out of each run, right? That's why some Masters deliberately jack up a dungeon's difficulty — so they can ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠walk out with more Growth Stones."

"Ah..."

I nodded along. When the difficulty-increase notice had popped earlier, it had said the number of monsters inside would go up. More monsters meant better odds of Growth Stones dropping. Obvious, once you thought about it.

So why hadn't I known something that obvious?

Because Fairy Masters never had a mechanic like that.

That was it. In Fairy Masters, you couldn't clear a dungeon by sending in more people than the cap. Dump six bodies into a five-person dungeon and the system just locked you out — party size exceeded, run denied.

I'd assumed this place worked the same way.

...I need to stop treating this world like a game.

I'd told myself I would accept this as my reality, then turned around and assumed the game systems had carried over wholesale just because the setting had been lifted from one.

I still haven't shaken the last life off me.

The realization sent a crawl of gooseflesh down my arms.

What if someone snuck extra people into a dungeon just to kneecap a rival? The difficulty would spike mid-clear. You'd be in the middle of a fight when the mob count swelled and the monsters got stronger — and you'd take ugly losses.

The thought had hit me the instant I learned you could artificially raise a dungeon's difficulty. There was no chance I was the only one who'd come up with it. For all I knew, someone was using that exact method to erase a competitor in some other dungeon right this second.

Power isn't what I need most right now.

In chaotic times like these, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠power was essential. With enough of it, no evil deed counted as a crime. Powerlessness itself was the sin.

Information. What I need most right now is information about this world.

And whether I deserved the luck or not, I currently had someone who could give it to me.

"I'll be counting on you from here on, Professor Kanisia!"

"Huh? What's with you all of a sudden?"

Kanisia, who'd been mid-lecture, startled as I suddenly bent at the waist and raised my voice.

"There's still so much I don't know! Please give me plenty of guidance!"

"Uh. Uhh... s-sure."

She nodded, looking faintly unsettled.

Thank god.

I'd learned something vital without spilling a drop of blood. I couldn't have asked for a better break.

Once the temporary camp was up, we began our assault on Clowns' Grave in earnest.

Back in Indigo, Aquaril and I had to clear dungeons with a flashlight in one hand. The dark was so thick that fighting without one was next to impossible.

Not this time. The soldiers and porters who'd come in with us threw light from behind, so neither of us needed to carry a lamp.

"Kikikiki!"

A figure in full clown makeup let out a grotesque cackle and charged me, a short dagger clutched in its fist. It looked completely human — but it wasn't. It was a dungeon monster.

Whoosh—!

The Thief Clown that had been charging head-on vanished without warning.

"Kikikiki!"

It reappeared at my back.

"Hup—!"

I already knew the pattern. I spun and cut in the same motion.

Slash—!

"Kikikiki!"

Apparently that hideous laugh was the only sound it knew how to make — it was still cackling even as its body came apart in two pieces. Thief Clowns were ambush specialists; their physical durability was so poor that even a swing from a mere two-star like me was enough to carve them open.

"Kikikiki!"

Another laugh from behind. I threw myself into a forward roll. There was never just one.

I came up fast and shoved the shield in my left hand out in front of me. Crunch—! The Thief Clown's dagger punched into the wood.

"Nngh..."

"Kikikiki!"

The blade was buried deep. Fragile body or not, it hit like a three-star — the attack power was no joke.

"Don't you dare split on me, you piece of shit."

Slash—!

I swung and took the head off the clown that had tried to bushwhack me. The masked skull hit the floor.

One more down. I swept the area. Nothing else was still moving, thank god.

"Are you all right, Master?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You? You didn't get scratched or anything, did you?"

"I am quite all right as well."

While I'd been putting down two Thief Clowns, Aquaril had killed the other three.

"Whew~ Not bad at all!"

Kanisia, who'd been watching from the rear, clapped and let out a whistle. She and her Fairy, Abraham, hadn't lifted a finger. She was tagging along on this run in the capacity of a "guardian," supposedly.

"Growth Stones... okay. Got two."

I rummaged through the corpses, scooped up the Lower Growth Stones (Agility) they'd dropped, and allowed myself a smile. Five kills, two stones. Not a bad haul.

Let's see... Status.

Killing three Thief Clowns had bumped Aquaril up a level. Stronger monsters, fatter experience — that tracked.

Three points of Agility left, huh?

Her Agility sat at 37, three short of the 40-point cap. And those last three could be covered easily enough by class level-up rewards.

Which means these are mine.

I checked her window, then tossed the Lower Growth Stones I'd just picked up into my mouth and swallowed.

Status.

Ugh... still a long way to go.

I checked the window after swallowing the stones and sighed inwardly. I'd poured everything into raising Aquaril, and my own stats were painfully low. Strip out the trait bonuses and they were downright pathetic. If this had been a game and I were looking at these numbers on someone else's character, I'd have stopped feeding them Growth Stones a long time ago. Why waste resources on a unit like that?

Except that "unit like that" was me. So I couldn't stop investing.

"All right, gentlemen? Time to get to work."

The fight over, the porters who'd been trailing us like ducklings stepped forward and started picking through the Thief Clown corpses.

"Why are they rummaging through those?"

"Why else? Gotta grab anything useful."

"Useful? Is there anything useful besides Growth Stones?"

"Wow... you really don't know a single thing, do you?"

"....."

Kanisia stared at me like I'd grown a second head. I bumped her shoulder with mine and grinned.

"Please explain, Professor Kanisia!"

"Ahem! Well, I suppose I have no choice. I'll only say this once, so listen carefully, Student Alan!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

True to her playful nature, she flashed a grin and launched in.

"The most useful thing you can pull off a monster is still a Growth Stone, obviously. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Those are how we get stronger."

"That much I know."

"But Growth Stones aren't the only useful thing on a corpse. Hide, claws, fangs, bones, fur — there's a lot worth taking."

"Wait. That stuff is actually useful?"

"Of course it is. Hide usually goes into armor. Bones go into weapons. Claws, fangs, fur — alchemists and mages use those as research materials."

Ah. Crafting materials, then?

In Fairy Masters, clearing a dungeon got you Growth Stones plus a pile of miscellaneous material items. The byproducts Kanisia was talking about were probably the same thing.

"...Are they expensive?"

Her explanation dragged up a memory of all the snake corpses I'd left behind in the Relay Dungeon. If those things were worth money, how much gold had I just walked away from? If they'd been valuable, I was going to lose sleep over it.

"Not really? High-rank monster byproducts fetch a price, sure, but trash like this isn't worth much. Easy to come by, too."

"Oh. Yeah?"

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Most of the snakes I'd killed had been one-stars and two-stars. I'd sleep just fine tonight.

"And the most valuable thing you can pull off the clowns in this place is... this."

"The clown mask?"

Kanisia peeled the mask off a dead Thief Clown's head as she spoke.

"Mm-hmm. I don't know the details, but apparently Cursemancers use these to craft cursed items, or as a catalyst to amplify curse magic. Demand's quietly high."

"What's one of those go for?"

"About 5,000 Gold a mask? Somewhere in that neighborhood."

"Five thousand Gold..."

A pretty decent price. The masks alone wouldn't make anyone rich even if you fully cleared the dungeon — but the whole reason I was down here was Growth Stone farming and levels. As side income, it added up nicely.

"So that's why you brought those people."

"Exactly."

I finally understood why she'd hauled porters along on a dungeon run.

While we'd been talking, one of the porters finished stripping the corpses and came over.

"Princess Lora. We've finished collecting the byproducts."

"Yeah? Then let's keep moving."

Kanisia nodded and turned her eyes on me.

"We can take down the boss before the day's out, right? I want to drink at home tonight."

"Alcohol again..."

I clicked my tongue. She'd put away an unholy amount yesterday and she already wanted more. The woman really did love her liquor.

"Don't worry. It won't take that long."

I answered her with full confidence.

I might have been short on knowledge about this world — but when it came to clearing dungeons, I would put my experience up against anyone's.

A mere D-rank dungeon wasn't going to give me any real trouble.