Party Member Recruitment
After running away from home, it took two whole weeks before I finally arrived at my destination. The place I'd decided to stay for a while was the westernmost region of Minoris, right on the border with the Savior Empire. I'd chosen it so that if I managed to scrape together enough money or if something unexpected happened, I could cross into the Empire right away. By "unexpected," I meant either the Eliaque forces or the assassins catching up to me here. Since I had no idea when that might happen, I needed to make a quick score and get out of here as fast as possible. So instead of worrying about lodging, the first order of business was registering as an adventurer and diving into a dungeon.
To register as an adventurer or enter a dungeon, you had to go through the local adventurer guild that managed each area. I pushed open the door to the Trevor Adventurer's Guild, the one in charge of this region.
The moment I stepped inside, I saw adventurers armed to the teeth with all kinds of weapons. Every single pair of eyes turned toward me. Must be because I was a fresh face...
"Whoa... look at that face. Is she some noble's kid?"
"Probably. Maybe she's here to hire bodyguards?"
"With looks like that... she's even prettier than that adventurer everyone's been talking about lately, isn't she?"
Well, well. So my appearance was the reason for all the attention. I'd only managed to dye my hair silver with a magic tool because I was short on cash, and now this. What a pain. I guess I had no choice but to show off my looks, huh? Next time, I really should cover my face when I go out. No wonder I kept feeling stares the whole way here.
I did my best to ignore the looks and headed straight for the reception desk. The receptionist just stared at me blankly, completely failing to respond. This girl had zero professionalism. She looked so clueless she might as well have been a newbie herself.
"Excuse me?"
"Uh..."
"Hello?"
"Ah! Y-yes! How can I help you?"
"I'd like to register as an adventurer."
"Pardon? You're not here to hire mercenaries?"
"No."
"Oh... What's your name?"
Using my real name would be idiotic. "Lea." I just shortened it and left out the surname.
"Registration complete. Your class... judging by your outfit, you're a priestess, correct?"
"Yes. I'm on a pilgrimage, but I'm a bit short on funds."
"Would you like to be positioned as a backline supporter?"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"All-rounder."
"I'm... not sure what you mean..."
Huh? She didn't know what an all-rounder was? Was she really that new?
"It means I can handle both the front line and the back line."
"Th-that's not possible!"
Huh? What was she talking about, lying? Ah, I got it. She thought I looked too delicate to handle the front line. Hmm. This development wasn't bad at all. So she needed proof, huh? Then I'd just show her!
"Just a moment."
I told the receptionist to wait and scanned the room for something that could prove my strength. Then I spotted the perfect guy. The kind who looked like he'd say, "I'm the tank in the front line!" A man in full plate armor holding a thick tower shield.
I called out to him. "Hey, mister with the thick shield! Come here for a sec!"
"Oi, Dorand, I think she's talking to you."
"Huh... me?"
So his name was Dorand.
"That shield of yours looks pretty sturdy and thick. How much was it?"
"This shield? One gold..."
More expensive than I'd expected. Oh well.
"Lend it to me for a bit. I'll show you something fun."
"Uh... uh?"
Dorand reluctantly handed over the shield he'd had strapped to his back. I caught it with one hand.
"It's really heavy, so be careful—huh?"
Heavy, my ass. It was light as a feather. He shouldn't have been surprised just by me catching it one-handed. The real show was coming next.
"Everyone, watch closely... Hah!"
I grabbed both ends of the tower shield and crushed it with raw strength.
—Crack!
The metal tower shield crumpled exactly where I'd pressed it and clattered to the floor.
"M-my shield!"
I tossed one gold coin from my dimensional pouch at the screaming Dorand. Judging by how devastated he looked, he'd really cared about that shield.
"Here. For the shield."
—Clink!
Whoa! He caught the coin without even looking, his eyes still glued to the ruined shield. So this was what an adventurer who did it for the money looked like. I should take notes.
"Wh-what the..."
"She can put out that kind of power with such a small body?"
"Better not mess with her..."
Hmm, good reaction! One gold was a bit of a waste, but whatever. It was faster to just show my strength than to argue about whether I could tank the front line or not. Time was more valuable than money.
I turned back to the receptionist.
"With this much strength, the front line shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Y-yes!! I-it should be fine! I'll update your registration right away!"
You should've done that from the start. Listen up, newbie receptionist—judging people by appearances is a bad habit. Same goes for the other adventurers.
"Will you be registering as part of a guild, or as an independent?"
"Independent, please."
"Understood! Registration complete. Would you like to enter a dungeon right away?"
"The one that makes the most money, please."
"W-well, there's a rank restriction..."
Of course there was some annoying rule holding me back. I understood it, though. If you were someone who could handle things alone like me, it was different, but most people wanted to party with someone whose skills had already been proven. As much as I wanted to just barge into the highest-paying dungeon, I had no information, and getting caught sneaking in would restrict my adventurer license and make selling materials a nightmare. So I couldn't do that.
No choice, then. I'd just grind the hardest, highest-paying dungeons available at my current rank to raise it. Surely the requirement wasn't something ridiculous like clearing a hundred dungeons, right?
"Then what's the hardest, most avoided, and highest-paying dungeon I can enter right now?"
"Just a moment... let me check. Since you just registered, you're E-rank, so the highest you can enter is C-rank dungeons... Um... do you have a party member, or are you willing to find one?"
"Do I absolutely need a party member?"
I wanted to go alone if possible. If the party member I teamed up with turned out to be an assassin in disguise, that would be a hassle. Even though I'd already subdued Skadi, the so-called Assassin Master, and turned her into an ally, regular assassins wouldn't be a problem for me. The real issue was the aftermath. If people found out that my party member had turned into a corpse without any witnesses after trying to kill me, I'd become a suspect.
"First, please take this guidebook. It lists all the rules you need to follow in Minoris. You must read it!"
As I accepted the guidebook, the receptionist began explaining.
"Every dungeon has entry conditions. Some allow solo entry, while others require at least two people. The dungeon that matches your conditions has a two-person minimum."
Who the hell came up with that annoying setting?! Purification device! No, the Alchemy Hero! Calm down. What mattered was how much money I could make.
"How much can you earn in that dungeon?"
"Well, nobody wants to go in. The materials you can get inside are in high demand, but the supply can't keep up."
So how much could I actually make?
"If you do well, at least one gold..."
"Let's go right now. One party member is enough, right?"
"Yes. The entry fee is thirty silver per person."
"I'll pay for my party member's share too. Which dungeon is it?"
"The Tentacle Dungeon."
"Oh! Tentacle Dun—wa-wait, tentacles?"
Tentacles... wasn't that the thing? The wriggling, suction-cup-covered perverted monsters that grabbed women's bodies and did this and that and that and this? Even though I was a guy on the inside, I had zero desire to deal with groping tentacle monsters. My instincts were screaming in disgust! If I went in there, my inner monologue might turn into something straight out of an adult novel!! Somewhere else! I wanted to go somewhere else! Change it!
"Ah...! I know what you're worried about! But don't worry! The official name of this Tentacle Dungeon is the 'Reversed World Tentacle Dungeon'!"
"...?"
What the hell kind of name was that? Tentacles were tentacles, what was with the "reversed world" part... Oh, crap. Don't tell me...
"You figured it out. That's right. The monsters in this dungeon—the tentacles—only target men!"
Oh, Goddess of Light Lumentis. This was the first time I'd prayed since reincarnating into this world. What kind of insane world had I been reborn into? A dungeon like this actually existed?
At the receptionist's words, all the stares that had been focused on me instantly vanished. I'd seen this exact scene before. Back in college, when a professor asked if anyone wanted to solve a problem on the board, everyone would suddenly avoid eye contact. Now I understood why this dungeon had high demand but low supply. I still didn't know what the materials were used for, though.
Even if the tentacles only targeted men and wouldn't go after my female body, I still wasn't going into that dungeon. No way.
"The materials from this dungeon are used to make hair loss treatments! And what's more...!"
...Now that made sense for why demand was so high. So this world had people suffering from hair loss too, huh. At least they'd developed a treatment. Sorry to all the balding folks across the continent, but I still wasn't going into that dungeon.
"If you defeat the boss, there's a chance a gem will drop. And that gem is worth up to fifty gold...!"
"Give me the permit. Two of them."
Fifty gold was way too much money to turn down. Rejoice! This Levia Leviathan shall grant you all the hair loss cure you desire! The destination was decided. A place where I could potentially hit the jackpot of fifty gold! I just needed to recruit one party member.
"Recruiting party members~ Anyone will do~"
Surprisingly, not a single person showed any interest.