"......Huh?"
Rei stopped mid-bite, his sandwich hovering before his mouth, and fixed Worker with a questioning look — as if he had no idea what the man was talking about.
A dungeon had formed in the mountains near a town called Golts.
That much Rei could wrap his head around. It was unusual, certainly, but not extraordinarily rare. After all, there were already two dungeons near Gilm.
But a dungeon forming on a cliff face? That was something Rei couldn't quite grasp.
"Umm, did I mishear you?"
"If you're saying that a dungeon — or more accurately, something resembling a dungeon — formed on a cliff wall, then no, you didn't mishear anything."
"......First of all, how did anyone even figure out a dungeon formed in a place like that? Couldn't it just be a hole that happens to look like one for some reason?"
It was a reasonable doubt. If it were simply a cave-like opening in a cliff, the possibility was low but by no means impossible.
Worker smiled as if he'd been waiting for exactly that question.
"You're right. If it were simply a hole in the cliff face, it wouldn't necessarily mean it's a dungeon. But......at the very least, the opening that appeared in the wall — let's call it a cave for now — does in fact contain Goblins, Cobolts, Orcs......and a variety of other monsters."
"How can you state that so definitively? Did someone see monsters poking their heads out? Or did someone actually climb down there to check?"
A cave on a cliff face would make investigating whether monsters — or even animals — were inside extremely difficult. The best method, as Rei himself had suggested, would be to descend the cliff and confirm it directly.
But Worker shook his head.
"No. I'm told that cliff contains some kind of special ore mixed into the rock, making it quite slippery. On top of that, the surface is sharp and jagged, so descending from above is......simply not feasible."
"You could probably manage by rigging a lifeline and lowering an adventurer down. With sharp rocks, you could use armor or shields to handle it well enough. ......Does the rope get cut?"
"That's highly likely, I'm told."
"......So then how did they determine there were monsters inside the cave?"
"That part is simple. Below the cave — or rather, below the cliff in this case — there are several corpses of the very monsters I just mentioned. Goblins, Cobolts, Orcs. All appear to have fallen to their deaths."
"Huh?"
Once again, Rei stared at Worker, thoroughly bewildered.
But Worker simply kept eating Lenora's homemade sandwiches, showing no sign of laughing it off as a joke.
Which meant the words Worker had just spoken were undeniable truth.
"Umm......so what you're saying is that monsters keep coming out of what looks like a dungeon in the cliff face, and then plummet to their deaths from that height on their own. Is that what's happening?"
"Yes. Exactly as you say, Rei-san. Thanks to that — though I'm not entirely sure 'thanks to that' is the right phrase — it's apparently become a trend lately among Golts's adventurers. No, not just adventurers, to gather monster materials and Magic Stones at the base of the cliff. By the way, the most popular ones are apparently Orcs."
"Ah......well, that figures."
Orcs themselves possessed moderate strength, and for women in particular, they were every bit as dreadful an opponent as Goblins. But Orc meat had a flavor that far belied their rank — easily several tiers above ordinary meat sold anywhere else.
"On top of that, considering monster corpses have been mass-produced day after day for the past few months, it's a bit hard to swallow that monsters just happened to be inside a cave that formed by coincidence."
"Wouldn't it be more likely that the cave connects to somewhere else in the mountain? Monsters don't just appear in places for no reason."
"Of course, that possibility exists as well. In fact, Golts was so worried about exactly that that they conducted a fairly large-scale search of the mountain."
Golts was a rural town, but not on the frontier. In other words, while monsters like Orcs appearing wasn't impossible, it was exceedingly rare.
That was precisely why the daily — or in some cases, hourly — production of Orc corpses from falls must have struck them as deeply abnormal.
If there was an Orc settlement nearby — or even a Goblin or Cobolt one — it would put Golts and the surrounding villages and towns in danger.
With that in mind, Golts had gathered adventurers and hunters from surrounding villages and towns alike and launched a major investigation of the mountain.
"......But in the end, they couldn't find any passage connecting to that cave. The mountain where the dungeon formed is quite large and expansive, so it's possible they missed something......but monster-related incidents in that area have been virtually nonexistent."
In other words, Worker's statement meant that either there were no other monsters in the vicinity, or if there were, their numbers were negligible.
"In that case, the remaining possibility is that wherever the cave leads isn't near Golts at all, but somewhere much farther away......"
"A dungeon, then."
Worker concluded as if picking up right where Rei left off.
Of course, there were other suspicious possibilities, but when it came to the most likely explanation, a dungeon was the prime suspect at present.
"Probably. But if the dungeon is on a cliff wall, and that wall is too slippery and jagged to climb up or down, plus the dungeon only just formed......is there really any need to rush a conquest?"
"You're right. I think so as well. Particularly given Gilm's current situation, having you and your party away would be quite difficult in various ways."
"And yet, the fact that you brought this to me means there's something more."
"Yes. I'm told that recently the number of monsters dying at the base of the cliff has suddenly spiked. What's more, there are reportedly monsters there that no one has ever seen before."
"So they came to you for advice?"
"Yes. The Guild Master over there and I have a history together from our younger days."
Worker said "younger days," though his appearance barely betrayed his age at all. Rei couldn't begin to guess what age Worker actually meant, but he could at least gather that the two were on friendly terms.
"So basically, there's a possibility the dungeon is expanding. Is that the gist?"
"Exactly. The rate at which a dungeon expands varies greatly depending on its individual nature, but it seems the Golts dungeon does so rather quickly."
That was likely why they had rushed to contact Worker.
"So you're telling me to go conquer that dungeon?"
"Well, yes. I won't force you, of course. But given that it's a dungeon with its entrance on a cliff wall, I thought the Crimson Lotus Wings — with Set as a means of mobility — might be well-suited for it......"
A dungeon in a place like that, huh.
A dungeon on a cliff face with slippery, sharp rock. In a place like that, simply getting inside would be a life-or-death gamble. And given the location, bringing Porters along as one normally would was out of the question.
Which meant what they needed was a way to fly — and in that sense, it was only natural for expectations to run high for Rei's group, who had Set.
"I see. So, what do you say?"
Will you challenge the dungeon? Worker's gaze asked the question plainly, and Rei wrestled with what to do.
No — when it came to whether or not to challenge the dungeon, he had already decided. One of Death Scythe's skills, Terrain Manipulation, was currently at Level 3. To raise it, he needed to destroy a dungeon core with Death Scythe.
Well, there might be other ways to raise Terrain Manipulation's level, but knowing that destroying a dungeon core with Death Scythe is the quickest method, passing up that opportunity isn't an option.
When it came to destroying a dungeon core, rather than a massive labyrinth like the one in Exil, something like what had come up in this conversation — a "newborn" dungeon, though Rei wasn't entirely sure that was the right word — was the best target. Being freshly born, the dungeon wouldn't be that large, and reaching the core shouldn't be all that difficult.
Even so, he still had concerns.
"It sounds worth considering, but......are the residents of Golts, especially the adventurers, on board with this?"
That was what Rei wanted to know.
From the perspective of Golts's residents, monsters emerged from the dungeon and fell to their deaths on the ground below — all without anyone lifting a finger. Exactly how frequently this happened, and how many died per day, Rei didn't know. But the fact remained that people could earn money doing nothing. Given that, it wouldn't be strange for someone to oppose the dungeon's conquest, thinking only of their immediate gains.
In theory, they likely understood that a dungeon would grow over time and that their town could eventually suffer significant damage as a result. But when money was dangled right in front of someone's face, there would always be those who leapt at it.
Adventurers in particular worked a dangerous profession. Depending on the job, it wouldn't be wrong to say they received compensation for risking their lives. For such adventurers, conquering the dungeon meant losing that stream of easy income.
Heading to Golts to conquer the dungeon was one thing, but if they faced interference both overt and covert, things would undoubtedly get extremely troublesome.
Well, worst case, we could just set up a base somewhere else like we did at the coast and camp out there.
That thought was only possible because he had the Misty Ring, which could store and carry vast quantities of food and other daily necessities. An ordinary adventurer could never pull off such a thing.
......Of course, it was precisely because Rei's group was far from ordinary that this request had been brought to them in the first place.
"I don't think everyone is completely on board. However, I did obtain verbal assurance that if they resort to force, we may counterattack — and that a reasonable degree of overreach would be tolerated. ......Just a reasonable degree, mind you."
From Rei's past actions, Worker likely worried he might go overboard. Rei smiled at the carefully measured words and spoke.
"I haven't actually agreed to conquer the dungeon yet, you know. Besides, if I go to the dungeon, I won't be able to participate in the Gamelion hunt either."
Missing the Gamelion hunt was fairly painful for Rei. It was an annual event, and he wanted to participate if at all possible. ......Though when it came down to which mattered more, the dungeon core or the hunt, the answer was obviously the latter.
Rei had brought up the Gamelion hunt purely as a negotiation tactic. If he was going to the dungeon anyway, it was only natural to want the best possible compensation.
But hearing Rei's words, Worker shook his head with a look of genuine disappointment.
"I see. Well, this isn't technically a Nomination Request, so I can't really offer compensation from our end. And you've already been a tremendous help with the Expansion Construction. Given that, I can't push you unreasonably. Understood. In that case, unfortunately, I'll have to turn to another adventurer and......"
"Wait."
Worker had been ready to end the conversation just like that, and Rei called out to him reflexively. He never expected Worker — the man who had sought him out with talk of a dungeon — to wrap things up so effortlessly.
"What is it?"
Worker fixed him with a puzzled look. It was no joke; he genuinely seemed prepared to cut the conversation short right then and there.
Reading that from Worker's expression, Rei eventually gave a reluctant nod.
"Fine. We'll take on the conquest of that dungeon. If Marina and the others can't make it, I'll go alone."
So he declared.